“Marcus Aurelius was Roman.”
“I know. Ain’t that a bitch?”
This time, when I blow smoke, I get him. He steps away, waving his hand at the cloud.
“This armor is why I don’t need you. I have all the power I had when we were together and even a few new tricks.”
“The armor hasn’t improved your thinking.”
“The only thing you have on me is the Thirteen Doors Key and I can live without that.”
“Really? How much longer can you ride that beast of a motorcycle before the police catch up to you? How many more cars can you steal? The police aren’t fools. Julie Sola told me they have a whole task force looking for the car-theft ring. You’re a whole criminal conspiracy.”
“A task force just for me? I’m flattered as hell. I’ve never been a gang before.”
“You realize that if you’re captured, they’ll take the armor. And since you don’t have the key, you’ll be stuck in jail. Just another mortal fool in a sea of monsters.”
I flick the cigarette butt at him and burn a small hole in his pullover before he flinches out of the way.
“You left me to the monsters when you blew Hell. Let me change what I said before. It’s not that I don’t need you. I don’t want you. Have fun in Blue Heaven.”
I get off the Volvo hood and start around to the driver’s side.
“You mean it, don’t you? This isn’t just the anger talking. You really intend to give up half of yourself forever.”
I pull up my shirtsleeve and show him the Kissi arm.
“Remember this? I lost part of me already and I learned to get along without it. I can do it again.”
“Can you honestly say you don’t miss the Room of Thirteen Doors? The quiet. The perfection. Knowing you’re at the still silent heart of the universe and that no one can touch you.”
“I miss it like a junkie misses the needle. But it’s like Herodotus said—and that guy I know is Greek: ‘Very few things happen at the right time and the rest do not happen at all.’ ”
“How does that even apply?”
“ ’Cause you’re a day late and a dollar short, so fuck off.”
He leans on the top of the Volvo.
“Without the Key you can’t get to Blue Heaven and you’ll never see me again.”
“You can travel with the Key but I have people who watch my back. What do you have besides frequent flier miles?”
“Everyone who watches your back gets shot, stabbed, or punched. How long will they put up with that?”
I get in the car. Talk to him through the open window.
“Good-bye. Say hi to Amelia Earhart for me.”
Saint James steps into a shadow and is gone.
“You know, I had to kill myself a little in Hell a few days back.”
“Maybe you’ll get it right this time,” says Kasabian.
When someone asked Willie Sutton, the safecracker, why he broke into so many banks, he said, “Because that’s where the money is.” When you want to find a ghost who tried to kill your girl (okay, not technically mine but I like her a lot), you go to the Tenebrae because that’s where the ghosts are.
I stick the tip of black blade into my arm until the blood flows.