I grabbed two handfuls of salt from my jacket pocket and scattered it in a wide circle around Dead Boy and myself, yelling to him to stay inside it. I wasn’t sure even his legendary invulnerability would stand up to being torn apart and digested in a hundred undead stomachs. The oozing biomass hesitated at the salt, then formed itself into high, living arches to cross over it. I glared about me, while Dead Boy slapped and punched at the nearest extensions of the biomass. He was shouting all kinds of spells, from elvish to corrupt Coptic, but none of them had any obvious effect. The reanimated tissues were charged with the energies of The Primal, forces old when the world was new, and even Dead Boy had never come across anything like this before.
I looked at The Primal. They were watching me, rather than Dead Boy, and I remembered my original insight, that they’d seemed almost afraid of me. Why me? What could I do to hurt them? I didn’t even have the few battle magics Dead Boy had. There was my gift of finding, but I didn’t see it being much use just then. Think, think! I looked hard at the five distorted bodies possessed by The Primal. They looked horrible, yes, but also … strained, stretched thin, unstable. Human bodies weren’t meant to hold Primal essences. Maybe all the pressure within needed was a little extra nudge…
I was off and running even while the thought was still forming in my mind, my feet slapping and sliding on the slippery rotting organs beneath me. I headed straight for the nearest shape, the speaking Primal, shouting, “YOU THINK YOU’RE SO HARD, POSSESS ME, YOU BASTARDS!” while at the same time thinking, I really hope I’m right about this. I hit the first Primal even as it tried to draw back, and I slammed right into the heart of it. The body sucked me in like a mud pool, and I clapped a hand over my mouth and nose to keep it out. I felt cold, impossibly cold, like the dark void between the stars, but even worse than that, I could feel a vast and unknowable mind in there with me, in the cold and the dark, pressing upon me from all sides. And then suddenly there was screaming, an awful sound of outrage and betrayal, as the possessed body exploded.
I’d been too much for The Primal to manage. My body was still tenanted, soul intact, and The Primal couldn’t cope. Something had to give, and it turned out to be the possessed body. It blew apart in a wet, sticky explosion, like a grenade inside a small furry creature, and the violence of the explosion ruptured the integrity of the four other bodies, setting them off like a row of firecrackers. It was all over in a moment, and Dead Boy and I stood looking around us, drenched in blood and gore, surrounded by a sea of unmoving body parts, already rotting and falling apart. Dead Boy looked at me.
“And people say I’m impulsive and hard to get along with. What did you just do to them?”
“I think I gave them indigestion. And, possibly, I am a bit special, after all.”
Dead Boy sniffed. “God, I’m a mess. So are you. I really hope they’ve got some showers here somewhere. And a really good laundry.”
Two long and very thorough showers later, Dead Boy and I climbed back into our very thoroughly laundered clothes. The Necropolis staff returned in dribs and drabs once it was clear the danger was over, and, with many a sigh and muttered oath, they began cleaning up the mess. A slow process that involved body bags, strong stomachs, not a little use of buckets and mops, and a really big bottle of Lysol. The Necropolis management made a brief appearance, to shake our hands and assure Dead Boy the cheque was in the post. They meant it. Absolutely no-one wanted Dead Boy mad at them. He tended to come round to where you lived and pull it down around you. As Dead Boy and I were leaving the Necropolis, two young men were staggering in, carrying a very large crate with the words Air Fresheners stencilled on the side.
We headed for Dead Boy’s car of the future, and the doors swung open without being asked. Dead Boy slipped in behind the wheel, and I sank carefully into the luxurious front seat. The doors closed by themselves. The dashboard had more controls and displays than the space shuttle. Dead Boy produced an Extralarge Mars bar from somewhere and ate it in quick, hungry mouthfuls. When he’d finished, he crumpled up the wrapper and dropped it on the floor, where it joined the rest of the junk. He stared moodily out the windscreen. He looked like he wanted to scowl, but couldn’t work up the energy.
“I’m tired,” he said abruptly. “I’m always tired. And I am so bloody tired of being tired. Everything’s such an effort, whether it’s fighting elder gods or just getting through another day. You have no idea what it’s like, being dead. I can’t feel the subtle things any more, like a breeze or a scent, or even hot and cold. I have no appetites or needs, and I never sleep. I can’t even remember what it was like, to be able to put aside the cares of the day and escape into oblivion, and dreams. Even my emotions are only shadows of what I remember them being like. It’s hard to care about anything, when the worst thing that can happen to you has already happened. I just go on, doing my good deeds because I have no choice, throwing myself into danger over and over again for the chance to feel something … You sure you still want me to partner you, John?”
“I could use your help,” I said. “And your insights. It’s not much of a case, but it is … interesting.”
“Ah well,” said Dead Boy. “I can make do with interesting. Where are we going?”
“That’s rather up to you. I’m looking for an ex-singer called Sylvia Sin. Used to be managed by the Cavendishes. Julien Advent thought you might know where she’s hidden herself.”
Dead Boy gave me a look I didn’t immediately recognise. “I’m surprised you’re interested in someone like her, John. Not really your scene, I would have thought. Still, far be it for me to pass judgement…”
“She’s part of the case I’m working,” I said. “Do you know where she is?”
“Yes. And I know what she’s doing these days. You’re wasting your time there, John. Sylvia Sin doesn’t care about anyone or anything except what she does.”
“I still have to talk to her,” I said patiently. “Will you take me to her?”
He shrugged. “Why not? If nothing else, it should be interesting to see your face when we get there.”
Dead Boy’s car of the future slid smoothly through the Nightside traffic, all of which gave it plenty of room. Probably afraid of phasers and photon torpedos. If the engine made a noise, I couldn’t hear it, and the car handled like a dream. I couldn’t feel the acceleration, even though we were moving faster than anything else on the road. All too soon we’d left the main flow of traffic behind and were cruising through the quiet back streets of a mostly residential area. We glided past rows of typically suburban houses and finally stopped in front of one that looked no different from any of the others. Even the Nightside has its quiet backwaters, and this was one of the quietest.
Dead Boy and I got out of the car, which locked itself behind us. I hunched inside my jacket against a slow sullen drizzle. The night had turned gloomy and overcast, with heavy clouds hiding the stars and the oversized moon. The yellow streetlights gave the scene a sick, sleazy look. There was no-one else around, and most of the houses had no lights showing. Dead Boy led the way through an overgrown garden and up to the front door, then stood aside and indicated for me to knock. Again, his expression was hard to read. There being no bell, I knocked, and the door opened immediately. As though someone had been watching, or waiting.
The man who opened the door might as well have had a neon sign hanging over his head saying Pimp. The way he looked, the way he stood, the way he smiled, all combined to make you feel welcome and dirty at the same time. He wore an oriental black silk wraparound, with a bright red Chinese dragon motif. He was short and slender, almost androgynous. There were heavy silver rings on all his fingers, and a silver ring pierced his left nostril. His jet-black hair was slicked back, and there was something subtly wrong about his face. Something in the angles, or perhaps in the way he held his head. He never stopped smiling, but the smile didn’t touch his dark, knowing eyes.
“Always happy to see new faces,” he said, in a light breath
y voice. “All are welcome here. And such famous faces. The legendary Dead Boy, and the newly returned John Taylor. Honoured to make your acquaintance, sirs. My name is Grey, entirely at your service.”
“We need to see Sylvia,” said Dead Boy. “Or at least, John does.”
“But of course,” said Grey. “No-one ever comes here to see me.” He turned his constant smile in my direction. “What’s your pleasure, sir? Whatever you want, whoever you want, I can promise you’ll find it here. Nothing is forbidden, and everything is encouraged. Dear Sylvia is always very accommodating.”
“Don’t I need an appointment?” I said. I shot Dead Boy a quick glare. He should have warned me.
“Oh, Sylvia always knows when someone is coming,” said Grey. “As it happens, she’s just finished with her last client. You can go straight up, once we’ve agreed on a suitable fee, of course. In an ideal world such vulgarity would be unnecessary, but alas…”
“I’m not interested in buying her services,” I said. “I just need to talk to her.”
Grey shrugged. “Whatever you choose to do with her, it all costs the same. Cash only, of course.”
“Go on up, John,” said Dead Boy. “I’ll have a nice little chat with Grey.”
He moved forward, and Grey fell back, because people do when Dead Boy comes walking right at them. Grey quickly recovered himself and put out a hand to stop Dead Boy. Magic sparkled briefly on the air between them, then sputtered and went out. Grey backed up against a wall, his eyes very large.
“Who … what are you?”
“I’m Dead Boy. And that’s all you need to know. Get a move on, John. I don’t want to be here all night.”
I pulled the door shut behind me, strode past Dead Boy and Grey, and started up the narrow stairs. Sylvia was on the next floor. I could feel it. The house was cold and grim, and the shadows were very dark and very deep. The stairs were bare wood, without carpeting, but still my feet made hardly any sound as I climbed. It was like moving through one of those houses we find in nightmares. Familiar and yet horribly alien, where every door and every window is a threat, every sight heavy with terrible significance. Distances seemed to stretch and contract, and it took forever to get to the top of the stairs.
There was a door right in front of me. A terrible door, holding awful secrets behind it. I stood there, breathing hard, but whether from fear or anticipation I couldn’t tell. It was Sylvia’s door. I didn’t need to be told that. I could feel her presence, like the pressure of a coming storm on the evening air. I pushed the door with the fingertips of one hand, and it swung smoothly open before me, inviting me in. I smelled something that made my nostrils flare, and I walked in.
In the room, in the red room, in the room of rose-petal light and shifting shadows, it was like walking into a woman’s body. It was warm and humid, and the still air was heavy with sweat and musk and perfumed hair. There was no obvious source for the light, but there were shadows everywhere, as though the delights the room offered were too subtle to be exposed by bright light. I felt welcomed and desired, and I never wanted to leave.
It was like walking into an antechamber of Hell. And I loved it.
The woman lying at her ease on the oversized bed, naked and smiling and unashamed, was entirely horrible and horribly attractive, like a taste for rotting meat or Russian roulette. She squirmed slowly on the crimson covers like a single maggot in a pool of blood. The details of her face and shape were always moving, changing, shifting subtly from one moment to the next, and even her height and weight were never constant. She could have been one woman or a hundred, or a hundred women in one. Her movements were slow and languorous, and her skin was as white as the white of an eye. Her face was a hundred kinds of beautiful, even when it was unbearably ugly. Her bone structures rose and fell like the turning of the tide, her mouth pursed and widened and changed colour, and her dark, dark eyes promised the kind of pleasures that would make a man cry out in self-disgust as much as passion. I wanted her like I’d never wanted anyone. Her presence filled the room, overpoweringly sexual, awfully female.
And I wanted her the way you always want things you know are bad for you.
“John Taylor,” said the woman on the bed. Her voice was soft and caressing, every woman’s voice in one. “They thought you might come here. The Cavendishes. I’ve been so looking forward to having you. They’re the ones who made me what I am, even if the result wasn’t exactly what they intended. I was just a singer in those days, and a good singer, too, but that wasn’t enough for the Cavendishes. They wanted a star who would appeal to absolutely everyone. And this is what they got, this is what their money bought. A woman transformed, a chimera of sex, everything anyone ever desired, and a joy forever.”
She laughed, but there was little humour and less humanity in the sound. Her flesh pulsed and shifted in slow rolling movements, never the same twice. My skin crawled, and I couldn’t look away to save my life. I had an erection so hard it hurt. Only sheer willpower held me where I was, just inside the doorway. I couldn’t go any closer. I didn’t dare. I wanted to do things to her, and I wanted her to do things to me.
And then she lazily brought one hand up to her ever-changing mouth. There was something red and sticky on her fingers, and she put it to her mouth and ate it, chewing slowly, savouring the taste. For the first time, as my eyes grew accustomed to the rose-petal light, I realised there was someone else in the room, lying on the floor beside the bed. A man, lying very still, mostly hidden in shadows. A dead man, with his skull caved in. There was a gaping hole in the side of his head, and, as I watched, Sylvia lowered her hand to the hole, dug around in it with her fingers, and pulled out some more brains.
Sylvia’s just finished with her last client, Grey had said.
She saw the expression on my face and laughed again. “A girl has to live. There’s a price that comes with being what I am, but luckily I’m not the one who has to pay it. They come to me, all the men and the women, drawn to me by desires they didn’t even know they had, and I let them sink themselves in my flesh. And while they’re busying themselves, I take my toll. I drain them of their desires, their enthusiasms, their faiths and their certainties, and eventually their lives. Though by that stage they usually don’t care. And afterwards, I eat them all up. Their vitalities keep me alive, and their flesh helps me maintain my shape. A balance must be struck, between stability and chaos. You wouldn’t like what I look like, when I can’t get what I need. Oh don’t look so shocked, John! The Cavendishes’ magic made me all the women you could ever desire, and I love it. Those who come to me know the risks, and they love it. This is sex the way it should be, free from all restraints and conscience. Total indulgence, in this best of all possible worlds.” She glanced down at the dead body on the floor. “Don’t mourn him. He was all used up. No good to himself, or anyone else, except me. And he did die with a smile on his face. See?”
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t answer her.
She stretched slowly, voluptuous beyond reason. “Don’t you want me, John? I can be anyone you ever wanted, and you can do things with me you wouldn’t dare do with them. I live for pleasure, and my flesh is very accommodating.”
“No.” I made myself say it, even though the effort brought beads of sweat out on my face. I learned self-discipline early, just to stay alive. And I was used to not getting what I wanted. But it still took everything I had to stay where I was. “I need … to talk to you, Sylvia. About the Cavendishes.”
“Oh, I don’t think about them any more. I don’t care about the outside world. I have made my own little world here, and it is perfect. I never leave it. I glory in it. Have you come here to tell me of the Nightside? Is it still full of sin? How long has it been, since I came here?”
“Just over a year,” I said, taking a step forward.
“Is that all? It feels like centuries to me. But then time passes so slowly, in Heaven and Hell.”
I took another step forward. Her body called to my body
, in a voice as old as the world. I knew it would cost me my life and my soul, and I didn’t care. Except some small part of me, screaming deep within me, still did care. So I did the only thing I could do, to save myself. I called up my gift, my power, and looked at Sylvia Sin with my third eye, my private eye. I used my gift to find the woman she used to be, before the Cavendishes changed her, and brought her back.
Sylvia screamed, convulsing on the bed, her white flesh boiling and seething, then one shape snapped into focus, one body rising suddenly out of all the others, and the changes stopped. Sylvia lay on the bed, curled up into a ball, breathing hard. One woman, with flesh-coloured flesh and a pretty, ordinary face. I was breathing hard, too, like a man who’d just stepped back from the very brink of a cliff. The overpowering sexual pressure was gone from the room, though faint vestiges of its presence still lingered on the air. Sylvia sat up slowly on the bed, naked and normal, and looked at me with merely human eyes.
“What did you do? What have you done to me?”
“I’ve given you back yourself,” I said. “You’re free now. Entirely normal.”
“I didn’t ask to be normal! I liked who I was! What I was! The pleasures and the hungers and the feeding … I was a goddess, you bastard! Give it back! Give it back to me!”
She threw herself at me, launching herself off the bed like a wildcat, going for my eyes with her hands, my throat with her teeth. I jumped to one side, and she missed me, betrayed by her unfamiliar, limited body. She crashed against the wall by the door, started to move away and found she couldn’t. The wall wouldn’t let her go. Her skin was stuck to the rose-petal surface. And that was when I realised at last where the rosy light came from, and why there was still that faint trace of a presence on the air. You do magical crazy things in a room long enough, and you get a magical crazy room. I’d brought Sylvia back, but the room still remained. She cried out and hit the wall with her fist, and the fist stuck to the wall. Already she was sinking into it, as though into a rosy pool, her body being absorbed the same way she’d engulfed so many others. She didn’t even have time to work up a proper scream before she was gone, and the sexual presence was suddenly that much stronger, like the eyes of a hungry predator suddenly turning in my direction.