He stares at me, leaning his forehead on the barrier like a bored kid.
“You’re embarrassing yourself again by thinking small. What’s happening here is a formal invitation, but not from me. Listen.”
Hunter’s body goes slack. Mason has released control. A second later Hunter snaps back up. His eyes brighten and he looks around, but is unsteady on his feet. His lips move as he looks for his voice.
“Jim?” says Hunter.
No. Not this.
“Are you there? What’s happening? Where am I?”
I can’t see anything for a minute. It’s like someone flipped a switch and my vision has gone out. This is what happens to people in deep shock or sudden anger. “Blind rage,” they call it. It’s a real thing.
“Don’t listen. It’s the demon,” says Traven.
“Shut up.”
Alice’s voice comes out of Hunter’s mouth again.
“Jim? I don’t know where I am. An angel took me away and locked me up here. She said it was your fault. That you made her do it. I don’t believe her, but I’m scared.”
Hunter’s body twitches.
“That’s all you get of Little Miss Falling-Down-the-Rabbit-Hole for now.”
“How did you find her?”
“Don’t worry, Jimbo. She hasn’t been here all along. Except for getting mixed up with you, Alice was a good girl and all good girls go to Heaven. But God isn’t what he used to be. You should know that. So while good girls might get to Heaven, they don’t always get to stay.”
“Alice is what Aelita brought you.”
“She dropped poor Alice here like a basket of muffins from the neighborhood welcome wagon.”
“Why?È ThC;Why?&D;
He doesn’t say anything for a long minute.
“Why? Because you made me do it,” he says. “You could have come down here and we could have settled this like men, but you stayed up there with your quilting bee, drinking beer and getting soft. Now you have to come down and face me. Or not. You can always leave poor Alice alone down here with me. I know Kasabian can see us through the Codex, so you can see what happens like watching the Super Bowl in that bar you like.” He smiles and takes a breath. “You thought Downtown was crazy when you were here? You ain’t seen nothing, pal.”
I start for the platform. Candy puts her hand on my shoulder. I shrug her off. She thinks I’m going to charge Hunter. I’m not. I just want to get close to see who I’m talking to.
Mason understands and kneels down so that we’re eye to eye.
He says, “Now you have it. Your invitation. You have exactly three days from when I leave this body to find Alice and take her . . . well, I really don’t care what you do with her. In the meantime, don’t worry. She’s in the safest place in town. The penthouse suite of the big asylum. Most of the inmates escaped weeks ago. The dangerous ones. Of course, the place is home to them, so they tend to wander back.”
I can see him looking back at me through Hunter’s eyes. No demon. It really is Mason.
“What’s it going to be? Are you going to play my game or are you going to stay safe in L.A. playing Gary Cooper and wasting your time saving people who don’t deserve it from things they’ll never understand?”
I lean in close to Hunter’s ear. Mason leans in to listen. I say a word in Hellion and he flies back, bouncing off the shield on the far side of the platform like he was hit with a sledgehammer. Vidocq and Candy get me from behind, throwing their full weight into me. Pulling me down. I let them. I don’t want to kill Hunter because of what’s inside him.
Mason staggers to his feet.
“You got me good, Jimbo. But that’s all right. I’ll take that as a yes. It’ll be good to see you again.”
He twitches.
“Jim? Are you still there? What’s happening? I . . .”