Chapter 4

Off Valencia Street,in the Mission District, the San Francisco nightlife came out to play. And hunt. For those who preferred graffiti-riddled bathroom stalls, well-worn pool tables, and cheap beer, there was Runo (known colloquially as Demontown).

Runo was off-limits to the authorities, and most humans, unless they were looking for some spicy trouble. It was where I’d found Zee six months ago, and where he always returned to when something knocked him off his stride.

I kept my coat collar up, my head down, and wished I’d brought the shotgun. But it would be fine. I wasn’t staying long. Just long enough to find Zee, tell him I was sorry, and hopefully take him home again. Because the hotel was his home, as much as it was mine.

It was late on a Friday, which meant the streets were packed with an array of Lost Ones—mostly demons. They were obvious to spot here. Horns and wing tips poked up over the various crowds, and tails of all kinds—fluffy, forked, even multiple tails—flicked, looped and lashed. Nobody bothered to hide their true selves in Demontown. I spotted a few gargoyles among the masses—big, muscular, most of them standing outside club doorways, hired as security.

The deeper into Runo you go, the fewer streetlights work, and the thicker the shadows become. It hadn’t always been this way, but rumors told of how too many Lost Ones gathered in one place, sometimes changed the environment to better suit themselves. It hadn’t been proven, but there was definitely a vibe about Runo that felt... different. As though each step took you farther into an alternate reality, where human law held no sway.

I crossed the street to avoid a group of demons gathered under a flickering streetlight, stumbled into someone twice my size who smelled like sticky cinnamon, mumbled an apology, and hurried on.

And like sharks circling a minnow, it wasn’t long before I’d picked up a tail. Hopefully, they’d realize I wasn’t worth their time and leave me be. But as I crossed the street again, the two of them, both demons, both dressed in black with accents of silver chains, crossed after me.

I picked up my pace.

The Razorsedge Club was just a little ways ahead. That’s where Zee would be. Once inside, I’d be relatively safe.

Glancing over my shoulder, I scanned for the two demons. They’d vanished. Good.

I pushed through a line waiting to get inside a club, stepped off the curb, and slammed into a broad chest. “Oh?—”

Huge hands grabbed my upper arms, picked me up, hauled me around, and shoved me into a narrow alleyway between two red-brick, five-storey buildings.

My only way out was over the huge chain-link fence further down the alley, or through the two—scratch that—three demons. Another one stepped from the opposite curb, clearly part of the same gang, since they all wore the same black and silver, as though they were all from the same boy band. Demon band. Whatever. There was the good-looking one on the left, his horns riddled with bling, the interesting-looking one on the right, with a long, angular face, and the big one, whose wings were dwarfed by his huge, muscular bulk.

“Uh, okay, guys.” I raised my hands. “I’m just here looking for my friend. I don’t want any trouble.”

“Who says anything about trouble?” the interesting one said. Perhaps he was the trio’s leader. “Are you trouble?”

“No, I’m just... nothing really.” I shuffled backwards, through crushed cans and other trash.

“He looks like trouble,” the pretty one said, long forked tongue flickering.

“No, no, really. I’m trying to get to Razorsedge, where my friend is.” I started forward, and hoped to push by them, but got shoved in the chest again, and bounced farther down the alley.

“Your friend a whore?”

“Yes, actually. You might have heard of him? Zodiac?”

The leader snorted. “Little human like you thinks he knows a slut like Zodiac? What are you, demon bait?”

“It’s not like that.” My back hit the chain-link fence, rattling it.

“You wanna fuck him, is that it?”

“No, definitely not.” I laughed nervously. “We’re partners—business partners.”

“You stalking him?” the pretty one asked, hissing.

They were almost on me now, all three of them, their combined wings blotting out the streetlights and any witnesses. The main street seemed like a whole other world away, and the terrible sinking sensation in my gut suggested this was going to end badly.

The leader jolted me in the shoulder, then gripped the fence either side, bouncing me. “You smell like trouble.” His yellow eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. “You smell real interesting, Mr. Nothing Nobody who wants to fuck Zodiac. Why is that?”

“I d-don’t know.” Oh dear.

“You’re right,” the pretty one said, giving the air a taste with his snake-like tongue. “Tastessss different too.”

Occasionally, someone had the misfortune of meeting me who also had the ability to see beneath my secrets. It was rare, but not unheard of. The outcome of such a meeting was always... terminal.

“What is he?” the big one grumbled.

“I know what he’s not,” their leader purred. “He sure ain’t no human.”

I flicked off my bedroom light, hurried across the room in the dark in just my underwear, and tucked myself safely into bed. It was late, or early, but still dark out. I’d need to be up in a few hours.

I sighed, and gradually began to drift off to sleep.

Runo had been a bust. No Zee. At least, not anywhere I could find him. There were countless other places he could have been, places I didn’t know about. He’d be fine. He was always fine. Sometimes he just needed to blow off steam. He’d be back tomorrow, right as rain, like nothing had happened, and we’d talk about Reynard.

A knock sounded at the door.

I snapped open my eyes.

“Adam?” Zee called.

I rolled over and stared at the door. He’d never come to my room in the middle of the night before.

“Are you sleeping? I uh... I brought you a gift.”

“Oh. Not sleeping. Yet. Okay. Uh. Can it wait until morning?”

“I guess.”

Oh my stars, I couldn’t turn him away sounding like I’d crushed his hopes and dreams. “Wait a second.” I hopped from the bed, pulled on an old T-shirt, and hurried across the room in the dark.

“Zee, about earlier...” I opened the door and trailed off. The smell hit me first—blood, wet leather, and earthy grit. The lights were off, so I didn’t see him in any detail, just his purple eyes shining in the dark.

“Hey, so, this is for you.” He handed out a tiny cat figurine. A little porcelain Siamese to go with my collection.

“Oh.” I took it automatically. “That’s... kind. Thank you. Are you alri?—”

“Can I come in?”

“Uh, it’s late—” I reached out to flick on the light.

“Leave it,” he snapped, then softer, “Please.”

Something was definitely wrong. Regardless of the smell of violence clouded around him, we’d been standing in my doorway for a minute and he hadn’t said the f-word at all.

“I don’t...” he sighed. “I don’t want anything, I just... I don’t want to be alone.”

“Alright.” I stepped back and let him in. “If you don’t mind me falling asleep. I was out looking for you and?—”

“You were?” He turned, wings sweeping the air. With just the light spilling in through the window, I only saw him in silhouette, and although he was always impressive, his whole demeanor seemed smaller somehow. His wings were hunched some, and his horns bowed.

“Of course, I was worried. And look, about Reynard, it’s nothing like she wrote in that article. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

His wings drooped some more. “May I sleep with you?”

“What?”

“Not like that. I know you don’t want to fuck—unless you do? Never mind. Forget it. I’ll go.”

“Zee, wait.” I caught his arm as he tried to push by me and escape again. “Of course you can stay.” Something had happened, something bad. He was trying to hide by keeping the lights off, but I could smell it on him. Blood and violence, thunder and lightning. I wasn’t letting him walk away a second time when he clearly needed company. He’d even brought me the cat figurine, assuming he’d need to pay for comfort.

I huffed, trying to harden my own heart. “I’ll make up a bed on the couch.”

“Right. Yes. The couch.” He looked at the couch, and even in the dark, I sensed his disappointment. “Do you mind if I use your shower?”

“Sure.” I put the little cat figurine with the others, on their shelf, then fixed up a bed on the couch while he showered. Then with nothing left to busy myself doing, I climbed into my own bed, rested my head on the pillow, and listened to the sounds of water pouring over him.

How did he fit his wings in the shower? Was he squished inside the cubicle, or did he vanish his wings to wash up? I wasn’t quite sure how that worked—how his wings could be there, but not. Like, where did they go when he made them disappear? Did they detach? Were they floating somewhere between realms? That seemed unlikely. And painful.

I dozed, my head full of the mystery of Zee. He wasn’t nearly as bulletproof as he made himself out to be, or how everyone assumed him to be because he was supposed to be a big, scary demon.

Someone had hurt him again. That someone was going to get a severe talking to, if he ever told me their name.

The bathroom door opened. “I tossed your bloody clothes from the floor into the laundry hamper.”

I snapped open my eyes. I’d forgotten about the clothes. Would he ask what had happened in Runo? Would I have to... silence him?

The couch springs creaked. “Goodnight, Adam.”

“Night, Zee. And . . . I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.”

My pounding heart quietened, and after a little while Zee’s soft, puffing breaths suggested he’d fallen asleep. I sighed, and closed my eyes.

Day one at the SOS Hotel hadn’t been the smoothest of openings, but against the odds and the critics, we were all still alive, and the hotel wasn’t a pile of rubble. I smiled. Despite the little setbacks, it felt good doing a good thing—helping the Lost Ones. And above everything else, I was finally safe.

And so was my secret.