The Getaway God (Sandman Slim 6)

I put the Singularity and Mithras in my pocket and leave Samael in the Room. Any other time I’m not sure if I would leave him in there alone. He’d do something cute, even if it was to get under my skin. But I have to trust him now. And anyway, his skin is on the line too.

I go back to the squad car, then head up to Allegra and Vidocq’s apartment. It used to be my apartment when I lived with Alice. Before Mason killed her. Vidocq put a hex on the place when he moved in. Basically, only Sub Rosa and other hoodoo types can see it. It’s invisible to civilians. Everyone forgot about the place. Vidocq was never big on paying rent.

I knock on the door and he answers. I leave my package behind some garbage cans in the hall.

“Good to see you. Please come in,” he says.

I go in and look around for Allegra, but I don’t see her.

“How is she?”

He shrugs.

“Comme ci comme ça.”

“I’m fine.”

It’s Allegra’s voice, coming from the kitchen. She walks in with coffee for her and Vidocq. She offers me her cup. I shake my head.

“I’m okay,” she says. “It’s the clinic that’s ruined.”

“I’m really sorry.”

She sits on the sofa, clutching the cup in her hands.

“I don’t suppose it could have lasted forever. Sooner or later someone would find the place and shut it down. The cops. The Board of Health. Someone. I was just hoping it would last a little longer.”

Vidocq sits down and puts his arm around her. She rests her head on his shoulder. Lifts it off a moment later and looks at me.

“Are you hurt again?”

I pull my coat closed.

“I tripped on a chocolate bunny.”

“I have enough supplies to fix you, you know. And I could use the distraction,” she says.

I shake my head.

“Thanks. Tomorrow.”

“You look worried. Can we help with something?” says Vidocq.

I listen to the door for a minute in case someone walks down the hall. I don’t hear anything.

“I know you lost a lot of gear in the clinic, but remember when Brigitte got bit by the zombie that time and you put her in a kind of coma. What was that?”

“You mean the Winter Garden?” says Vidocq. “You want to put someone to sleep?”

“She’s already kind of asleep.”

“What does that mean?” says Allegra.

I get the chop-­shop woman from the hall and bring her inside.

Allegra raises a hand to her mouth when she gets a look at her.

“What happened to her?”