Lockup

Beloved stage magician Christopher Valentine, AKA the Mysterious Mirabilus, had been famous for challenging “fake magicians” to perform a feat he couldn’t replicate with ordinary stage magic. In twenty-three years of issuing the Valentine Challenge, he’d never failed.

Until me.

The real reason for his perfect record? In secret, Valentine was a real magician, using his Challenge to flush out and kill other real magicians—like me. I decisively met his Challenge to ink a real magic tattoo; that ended me up on Valentine’s sacrificial altar, moments from death.

Karma is a bitch, though. The moment Valentine took me seriously as a threat, his flunky Transomnia realized I was powerful enough to destroy the tattoo that enslaved him—and literally stabbed Valentine in the back, distracting him long enough for me to release the Dragon tattoo.

Released from my body, my precious masterwork tore Valentine to pieces. So it was true: I killed Christopher Valentine with magic. In theory, a serious crime—but I thought there was enough evidence to demonstrate to anyone’s satisfaction that it was self defense.

Rand knew this. He’d been there, or at least had helped pick up the pieces. But he showed no sign of it now. He just Mirandized me, cuffed me and stuffed me in the back of the cruiser, where I had to wait alone for half an hour until another unit could arrive … for Calaphase.

Calaphase. I couldn’t believe he was really gone. Even though I’d seen him die, had confirmed it, some part of my brain refused to accept it. I just sat there in the car, hands cuffed behind my back, eyes tearing up, face hot and red. Fuck. This sucked.

Rand opened the door and sat down beside me. “Kotie, I—why are you crying?”

“What?” I said, unbelieving. “Rand, I just watched my … my friend
die—”

“Your friend?” Rand said, eyes bugging. He slammed the door. “Oh, hell, I knew it—you hooked up with that fang.

“His name,” I said, chest unexpectedly tight, “was Calaphase.

“God damn it,” he said, turning away in the seat. “Gibbs, drive. Just—drive.”

“Rand … what the hell is wrong?” I asked, as the car pulled out. “I know you don’t think I did it. You know what happened with Valentine—”

“I know, I know,” Rand snapped. “Boys … take a virtual walk.”

“Huh? We’re driving,” Horscht said, confused.

“How about them Braves,” Gibbs said, flipping off the video camera.

“I’m a Falcons fan, not a—oh, oh, yeah,” Horscht said. “Virtual. I get it.”

Rand turned to me, apology and anger fighting for control of his face. “This is a conflict of interest. I could get fired, understand?” Rand said. “Your 911 call was incoherent, but we were able to get your location—and your number was flagged with an outstanding warrant.”

“They send the cavalry to arrest me for a paperwork screw up of epic proportions?”

“There is no mistake. Fortunately there are a lot of people on the force who still owe your Dad and remember you. My friends in dispatch put Horscht and Gibbs on it, who pulled me in so we could make this easy on you. But when I find you? You’re crying over a dead vampire.

“Rand,” I began, a dozen quick, angry retorts on my breath. But then I realized Rand had just told me that he’d put his career on the line to keep me out of trouble, and had found me in a bigger stew than he’d ever expected. I drew a long, ragged breath, then let it out slowly.

“He is—was a good friend, and he’s just died. Can we let it … him … rest right now?” I said, closing my eyes and trying to refocus on my new problem. “Thanks for coming personally, but … tell me about the warrant. This is bullshit. They can’t prove murder, because it wasn’t.”

“All right,” Rand said. “You know you’re innocent, and I know, but … a couple of days after you killed Valentine there was an election. The turnover was an earthquake, and your file got dumped on the desk of Paulina Ross, a hot new prosecutor—an import from Birmingham—who decided her new job was to make an example of people who kill with magic.”

“Oh, crap,” I said. “Cops just love people who kill with magic.”

“Oh, crap, exactly,” Rand said. “With all the deaths and disappearances and suspicious fires we’ve had over the last month, everyone on the force is on edge. That’s why I decided to make sure I was the one who picked you up. I wanted you to arrive in one piece.”

“But,” I said, “Misuse of Magic? No one from the DEI said—Philip never said—”

“Your boyfriend can’t help you,” Rand said. His eyes were boring into me, staring at my neck. I reddened—he had to be looking at the bite marks. “Or is that your ex-boyfriend?”

“He is, in fact, my ex-boyfriend,” I said. “We split last week—”

“That’s a shame. You’re going to need all the help you can get,” Rand said. “The murder charge isn’t even the worst of your worries. Your use of magic is on the record.”

“So?” I said. “I was defending myself … ”

“But Misuse of Magic is still a crime—a Federal crime,” Rand said. “So the assistant DA is working with the U.S. Attorney to put you away for Felonious Misuse of Magic. The murder charge is just a way to get to her real agenda. If Ross can’t prove murder, she might go for felony manslaughter—and then the U.S. Attorney can still get you for Felonious Misuse.”

I found I was shivering on top of the churning. Misuse was a Federal charge. I’d spend a minimum of five years in Federal prison, become a felon, and lose the right to vote. Even if I ever did get out of jail, I’d never tattoo again. Not magic, not legally, not in the States.

Worst of all, I’d never get Cinnamon back.

“This sucks,” I said.

Rand opened his mouth, then closed it. “You’re telling me.”

I’m telling you?” I asked. “I was tied to that table, having to defend myself.”

“That wasn’t your fault, but why were you there in the first place?” Rand said, glaring at me. “What sequence of events led up with that? What crowd were you running with? What were you involved in? You may be in trouble, but I’m the one who has to tell my best friend that I can’t help his little girl, who regularly plays with fire and finally got burned. Speaking of which, stop showing up at magical fires. You’re a whisker away from being brought in for arson.”

I looked away. Only then did I notice the little details cropping up around us: billboards for lawyers, bail bondsman’s offices, and broken looking people. This was a part of downtown I avoided for good reason: we were pulling up in front of the Fulton County Jail. I swallowed.

“I-I don’t remember this,” I said. “I thought we were going to the Atlanta City Jail.”

“You haven’t been arrested in a while, have you?” Gibbs said. Apparently his virtual walk was over. “They’ve been sending state charges to Fulton for years.”

“I’ve never been up on a state charge before,” I countered. “Misdemeanors go to City—”

“Damn it, Kotie,” Rand exploded. “I bounced you on my knee! You had bows in your hair! It was bad enough that you became a tattooed freak with bite marks on your neck, but how did you fall so far that you know where they take you when you’re arrested?”

My mouth hung open. Rand was absolutely enraged. I didn’t want to set him off further—but he’d really stepped over the line there. No matter how much I didn’t want to piss him off, there was no way I could let that stand. Finally I spoke.

“Maybe I’ve done some bad things,” I said, “but defending myself is not one of them.”

Rand just sat there, steaming, until the car pulled to a stop. “I won’t be involved in the investigation,” he said tightly, stepping out as Gibbs opened his door. “Conflict of interest. But I’ll find a lawyer for you, save you a phone call—”

“I have a lawyer,” I said. “Helen Yao of Ellis and Lee.”

Rand froze at the door, eyes glaring back in at me.

“I had to,” I said. “They’re trying to take Cinnamon.”

Rand cursed, leaning his hands on his knees. “Helen Yao, of Ellis and Lee,” he said at last. “I’ll call her. You … you stay safe in there, Kotie.”

“I will,” I said, and then blurted, “Don’t tell my dad.”

Rand glared, then slammed the door.

Gibbs leaned in after Rand left. “Don’t take it too personal, girl,” he said. “He loves you like you were his own daughter.”

“I got that,” I said, shifting uncomfortably. It was nowhere near as fun to ride in handcuffs as I had first thought. “But it still hurts, because I didn’t do anything wrong.

“I know,” Gibbs said, rubbing his dark crewcut. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” I said.

And I let Gibbs help me out of the car—and put me in the pinball machine.

I really haven’t been arrested enough to feel comfortable with it, and all the procedures at Fulton County were different enough from Atlanta City to leave me completely disoriented. They shuffled me from room to room in a careful corral of one-way doors that left prisoners always at the mercy of a man behind a glass controlling the buzzer.

I was interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted, and then dumped in a massive waiting area with chairs that looked like they were from McDonald’s. After what seemed like forever my name was called, officers scooped me up again, and I was searched, examined, and even bandaged—a sharp-eyed cop had noticed wounds I’d gotten during the fight with Zipperface, perhaps when Calaphase threw me through the boards. After an officious nurse patched up my face, neck and hands, I returned to the pinball machine. Given what I was in for, at first I thought they might put me in some special cell designed to hold magicians, but I just ended up in a bland white holding cell with peeling paint, wedged in with a dozen other female prisoners.

I swallowed, trying not to show fear. There were druggies and drunks, clean-cut young women and well-worn older ladies. A small gaggle of tough-looking chicks were talking in one corner, glancing at me, but I actually found one rail-thin, ghost-pale woman more intimidating than any of the others, as she stared at me unblinking with cold black eyes. I found a seat, leaned against the outer bars, and stared out into the hallway of the jail, thinking just one thought.

Fuck.

“So, what you in for?”

I looked up. One of the tough chicks had detached from her klatch and come to tower over me. She was a fattie Bettie Paige, butch but not lesbian, with a devil-may-care, I’m-gonna-getcha grin in her eye—almost like she wanted to pick a fight. A big bruiser with a lot of muscle under the fat, she was maybe three hundred pounds, and a couple inches shy of six feet tall.

I slowly stood up.

I like being tall. I enjoyed watching her face as my eyes met hers—then rose four inches above them. I relished watching the confidence drain from her as she realized I wasn’t just tall, but muscular, tattooed, and edgy. And just when she realized she was showing weakness, bucked up and tried to screw in her courage, I dropped the bombshell.

“Murder,” I said.

“What?” she said, eyes flicking up to mine in fear. Then her smile quirked up, like she’d found another weakness. “But I betcha didn’t do it, right?”

“Wrong,” I said coolly. “I waxed that murderous son of a bitch before he had a chance to stick his diseased prick in me. Waxed him good.”

That threw her, but she gamely recovered her smile. “Oh, hey, you’re all right,” she said. “I-I mean, good for you. Was he your pimp?”

“No, he was a serial killer who skinned women alive, raped them, then killed them.” I mean, he was, really. I don’t need to dress that shit up. In fact it was easy to lather it on. “Murdered one of my friends right in front of my face. Any other fucking questions?”

“Holy fucking shit,” she said.

“And what are you in for?” I said.

“I, uh, led a ‘squat in’” she said, embarrassed, as if it was somehow better to be in for murder—but wait a minute. A squat in? I stared at her more closely—she looked familiar. “I got a whole crew sitting tight to protest their evictions, but I found out you can’t fight City Hall.”

“You with the Candlestick Twenty? The renters the city is trying to kick out? Now you’re all right,” I said brightly. “So how did you end up in Fulton?”

“They got me for fraud,” she said, now even more embarrassed.

Fraud?” I said.

“Look,” she said, “we were basically squatters. Our landlord burned half a mill in repairs trying to save his occupancy permit, but the city revoked it anyway. So genius here decides, let’s move people in and use critical mass to force the city to change. But all I did was get screwed.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “The yahoos you moved in didn’t want to pay rent.”

“Worse,” she said. “When I tried to get ’em to pay up, one of ’em ratted me for subletting the place without a permit, and some shmuck in the DA’s office used it to scoop me up.”

“Atlanta is just filled with schmucks in the DA’s office these days,” I said. Apparently werekin weren’t the only people chewed up by the gears once the machines started rolling.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think they would have tried it if we were still in the news, but the media got bored. They always want to have their new story,” she said bitterly. Then she shifted. “So, anyway … your tattoos are awesome. Who did them?”

I blinked. Then laughed. “Is that why you came to talk to me?” I said. “I did.”

You did?” she said, eyes widening.

“Except for this one, this one, and this little design right here,” I said, holding up my right hand and showing one of Kring/L’s designs. “These were by one of my colleagues at the Rogue Unicorn, but the rest were by yours truly, Dakota Frost, best magical tattooist in the Southeast.”

Her eyes lit up a little more, scanning my tattoos, now seeing the movement. “Wow,” she said. “I mean, wow. When you said magic—oh, wow.”

“You know, I’m relieved,” I said, flexing my wrist so the gems embedded in the vines sparkled a little. “I thought you were coming over to try and kick my ass.”

She shrugged, a little nervously. “Sorry I butched up. I was afraid to talk to you.”

You were afraid to talk to me?” I asked. Maybe Rand had a point about me being a tattooed freak—I loved them so much I forgot they could scare other people.

“I mean, I dunno, I’ve never been in Fulton, and you look like you gave as good as you got,” she said. At my puzzled look, she indicated the bandages on my cheeks, arm, and shoulder. “Looks like the cops beat the shit out of you when you were arrested.”

“What? No, the cops were princes. I got these bruises fighting magic graffiti, on a totally unrelated case,” I said, shaking my head and staring out at the bars. When had I started thinking of my life in terms of cases? And thinking of Cally as a case? God. The really sad thing was, it was a different case. My life was fucked up. “This is all some crazy misunderstanding. I reported the killing, when it happened, but somehow it got fucked up in the DA’s office … ”

I trailed off when I saw her face. She’d gone white.

“Fighting … magic … graffiti,” she said thickly.

“You know what I’m talking about?” I said, and she nodded. “You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah,” she said, swallowing. “At the Candlesticks. And these new tags are nasty.

“Can you show me?” I asked. “I mean, when we get out of here?”

“No way,” she said, backing off. “One of them fucked up a friend—”

“And killed four of mine,” I said, taking her arm to stop her. “Wait, please. I need to see a live tag. I’ve been fighting it for weeks,”

“Frost!” a voice snarled. “Let go of her and step up to the grate!”