It was like a collective exhale. Body language changed from angry, tense, tight, to. . well, to less of that.
“Who’s gonna pay for it?” a short, athletic man I’d never met asked.
“Me.”
“An’ what are we gonna owe you for it?”
“The courtesy of not burning the place down, or doing illegal crap while you’re there. If you can’t follow those two rules, the door will be locked next time you come calling.
“I’m also setting up a medical fund. Not just for disasters, but for regular doctor visits, pain-management counseling, legal drugs, rehab. That kind of stuff.”
I can say one thing for Hounds. When they have something to say, they are not shy about speaking up. I leaned back against the wall, letting them bitch and grumble until someone actually asked a question.
“You think you can throw money at us and we’ll follow you like dogs, Beckstrom?”
“Listen,” I said with more calm than I felt.“I promised Pike I’d try to do good for the Hounds in the city because
he
cared about you. You don’t want my help, then don’t show up.”
That went over well. There’s nothing like a couple dozen Hounds with stares set on hate.
Yeah, well, they could bite me for all I cared.
Bea, the bubbly Hound who worked the morgues, came bustling in the door, pulling the wide hood of her jacket away from her mop of curly hair.
“What did I miss?”she asked with a grin.
I swear, I had never seen that woman in a bad mood.
Jack, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, leaned toward her conspiratorially. “Beckstrom’s kicking the hive.”
“Really?” Bea looked around, spotted me. “I always knew you’d be trouble.” She sounded excited about it. “So, what’s the buzz?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Jack cut me off. “She’s aiming for health care, free bunks, that sort of shit.”
Bea’s eyebrows hitched up until they got lost in her bangs. “Really?”
I spoke before Jack could. “Yes. And now I want to know who’s working a job. And I want cell numbers so I can call you to let you know where the next meeting will be held.”
It took maybe an hour to record where and what everyone was working, and to get non-Hounding volunteers to buddy up and keep an eye on the job and be willing to call 911 if something went bad for the Hound.
Davy handed me the notepad he’d been using, and I worked on memorizing Hound names and gigs. Between schools, retailers, hospitals, personal hires, and nonprofits, the Hounds in this room covered all corners of the city, and even some of the other nearby towns.
Strange to think there were that many people who believed magic was being used illegally against them.
Maybe stranger to think that they were probably right.
The meeting broke up a lot like the last one I’d attended. People simply filed out the door when they were done talking. Soon the only people left were Bea, Jack, Davy, and me.
“Anyone have the time?” I asked.
Jack glanced at his watch. “It’s five after nine.”
Which meant Zayvion was probably on the corner of the street outside my apartment, waiting to take me to Maeve’s.
“I have an appointment.” I walked over to the door. “Who has the key to lock up?”
Jack held up his hand.
“Good. I’ll see you all next week. Davy, can I talk to you a minute?”
He had already started walking down the hallway, but stopped and waited while I caught up with him.
“Tomi called me this morning,” I said as we kept walking, a little more slowly. “She said you’ve been bothering her.”
“She’s really fucked up,” he said.
And what he didn’t say, but what was obvious on his face, was that he still cared for her, maybe even still loved her, but he was helpless to keep her from screwing up her life.
Love sucks.
“I told her if she’s in trouble we would help. She knows there are other options out there for her. But you need to give her some space.”
“Space?” He turned on me and I took a step back, wondering if I’d have to block a punch. Instead, he leaned against the wall and swallowed hard, his hands in fists at his side.
The light hit his face so I could see his bruised eyes were puffy and red. It looked like he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days. His sweat and breath smelled of beer and cheap whiskey.
Kid was in a world of hurt. His girlfriend dumped him; the man he looked up to, Pike, had been murdered. He was beat, inside and out.
“She’s not going to make it,” he said, so quietly I wondered if he was talking to me or himself. “She’s slipping away. And she won’t listen. . Won’t let me help. . You know how crazy that is?”
I felt a strange twinge in my chest, sorrow for him. I knew what it was like to lose everything. If we were somewhere alone, I might even talk to him about that, give him a sisterly pat on the shoulder or something. Instead I placed my hand on his upper arm.
He couldn’t have looked more shocked if I’d hit him with a Taser.
Have I mentioned Hounds don’t do contact?
“If she won’t take our help, then we’ll get her pointed in the right direction to help herself.”
“Like that’s going to work,” he muttered.
“Maybe not. Lots of Hounds fuck up and die. But Tomi’s pretty smart. And she’s strong. A survivor.”
He nodded, watching me, and not doing a very good job of hiding how miserable he was and how much he really wanted to believe there was some hope left for her.
“Do you know who she’s with?” I asked. “That guy you said she was working for, cutting for?”
“She calls him Jingo.”
“What?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Mr. Jingo. I looked. There isn’t anyone in Portland by that name. I figure it’s just what he’s told her.”
Bea and Jack came strolling down the corridor. “One side,” Jack said as they neared. Then, “After you, Beatrice.”
Bea smiled and walked past us. “See you later, Allie, Davy,” she said.
Jack just gave us a short nod, and then both of them were out the door into the building proper.
Jingo. Not nearly a common enough a name for it not to be Jingo Jingo. But what would a member of the Authority, a teacher of Death magic, want with a Hound? Maybe he wanted what anyone wanted from a Hound-someone to track magic. Or maybe he had taken her on as a student, like Maeve had taken me on.
“Have you ever met him?”
“No.”
“Okay. Let me look into it. I’ll see if I can track him down. You just stay away from her for a little while.”
He glared at me.
“She said she’ll get a restraining order on you if you don’t.”
“Like that matters,” he said.
“It does. I’ll pay medical bills, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to post bail for you, Silvers.” We glared at each other. I won.
He looked down at his shoes.
“She’ll come around,” I said. “Just give her some time.”
“You don’t know Tomi,” he said. “She never comes around.”
“Just promise you’ll stay away from her until she cools off,” I said again.
He blinked and gave me a disinterested look.
Fabulous.
“I have an appointment to keep.” I started walking to the door. “You going to be okay?”
“Sure.” He didn’t move away from the wall. He just leaned his head back, clenched his hands into fists, and closed his eyes.
“If you need anything, call,” I said.
He didn’t respond. I felt bad leaving him alone in the hall, but I really had to get home if I was going to make it to class on time. And I had some new questions I needed to ask Maeve.
I strolled back out into the building and took the stairs that exited to street level.