Mad Lizard Mambo by Rhys Ford

ever feed me chocolate, and if I hadn’t already been willing to follow him into the fires of hell before that happened, I sure as shit was after I’d taken my first bite. I was easily bought when I was younger, and not much has changed since then.
    “I’m kind of stuck with him—Ryder, I mean,” I explained softly, nearly ducking in habit when we passed under a sheet of runoff coming from the upper level. “SoCalGov practically gift-wrapped me and handed me over. I can’t shake that damned diplomatic attachment off. Sarah at the Post said unless I had a case for force majeure , I was pretty much screwed.”
    “I don’t even know what that is, boy,” Jonas rumbled deep in his chest. The neon lights from the tight, busy street played teal dots over his dark skin, catching the white of his grin and tinting it with an aquamarine wash. His massive hands gripped the steering wheel, and he sighed. “But I’m guessing that means there’s no way out of it for you.”
    “None whatsoever.” I ignored my stomach’s growl as we passed a char siu bao cart. The promise of future food didn’t seem to calm it, especially when it was a handful of sweet, spicy Cantonese pork wrapped in a fluffy white dough. “Thanks for doing this with me. Seems kind of chickenshit on my part—”
    “They pulled one of those skin-job boys out of the sewer a couple of days back. All of his leg bones were missing, and his ears were cut off.” Jonas interrupted me. “I’d sooner not have to come identify you from that ink you’ve got crawling on your body. If it means I walk a bit behind you with a shotgun, then I consider it a pleasure.”
    “The humans-only assholes are ramping shit up, then.” I hadn’t heard about the kid they fished out of the sewer, and I’d have liked to say his death and whatever else some asshole’d done to him before he died surprised me. It didn’t. Cynical and jaded was part and parcel of being a Stalker. If I hadn’t already been well versed in what people could do to one another before Dempsey got a hold of me, I’d have learned that lesson soon enough. “Where exactly did they find the kid?”
    “Down over by the end of the Red Line. Routine maintenance crew found him. Don’t understand those kids who carve themselves up to look elfin. What’s wrong with being human, right?” Jonas glanced at me, catching the grumble from my stomach. “Something for you in the glove compartment. Why don’t you grab it and take care of that belly of yours? Only person I know who can get hungry over a dead body.”
    “Dempsey. Learned it from him,” I pointed out, opening the compartment latch. The sweet whiff of chocolate hit me in the face, and I drooled. Literally drooled. The bar was a small one but heavy, dark, luscious, and wrapped in the faux-silver foil of a company on the East Coast. “Shit, Jonas, this stuff’s expensive.”
    “Got it off a guy with a truck of ’em. Don’t get too weepy. Most of it went to the wives and family.” He jerked his head to the side, pointing in the general direction of the barrio he lived in. “Got six. Scored you one.”
    I nibbled, letting the candy smooth over my tongue. Swallowing slowly, I sighed, happier than if I’d been a part of a five-day orgy. “ Iesu , that’s nice. I could kiss you right now.”
    “Don’t. I have enough marriage troubles. Gods, it gets wetter and wetter down here. Glad I moved my clan upside,” Jonas growled, the Rover caught in a string of red lights. More water coursed down between the raised streets above us, a sure sign it was raining on the upper level. A young hapa girl dressed in a blue slicker danced across the street, barely keeping to the sidewalk. Her mother trudged behind her, arms laden with groceries, face worn and pale from living without the sun. Jonas wiggled his fingers at the girl, and her mother shot us a filthy look, scurrying them both across the walk. “Sad day when you can’t laugh when a baby