The Laughing Corpse - Laurell K. Hamilton [119]
I stared past her at the slathering monster. She called this ordinary?
“What do you propose?” Gaynor asked.
“A spell of compulsion. She will do as I bid, but it takes time to do such a spell for one as powerful as she. If she knew any voodoo to speak of, it would not work at all. But for all her art, she is but a baby in voodoo.”
“How long will you need?”
“Two hours, no more.”
“This had better work,” Gaynor said.
“Do not threaten me,” Dominga said.
Oh, goody, maybe the bad guys would fight and kill each other.
“I am paying you enough money to set up your own small country. I should get results for that.”
Dominga nodded her head. “You pay well, that is true. I will not fail you. If I can compel Anita to kill another person, then I can compel her to help me in my zombie business. She will help me rebuild what she forced me to destroy. It has a certain irony, no?”
Gaynor smiled like a demented elf. “I like it.”
“Well, I don’t,” I said.
He frowned at me. “You will do as you are told. You have been very naughty.”
Naughty? Me?
Bruno had worked himself close to us. He was leaning heavily on the wall, but his gun was very steadily pointed at the center of my chest. “I’d like to kill you now,” he said. His voice sounded raw with pain.
“A dislocated knee hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” I smiled when I said it. Better dead than a willing servant of the voodoo queen.
I think he ground his teeth. The gun wavered just a little, but I think that was rage, not pain. “I will enjoy killing you.”
“You didn’t do so good last time. I think the judges would have given the match to me.”
“There are no fucking judges here. I am going to kill you.”
“Bruno,” Gaynor said, “we need her alive and whole.”
“After she raises the zombie?” Bruno asked.
“If she is a willing servant of the Señora, then you are not to hurt her. If the compulsion doesn’t work, then you may kill her.”
Bruno gave a fierce flash of teeth. It was more snarl than smile. “I hope the spell fails.”
Gaynor glanced at his bodyguard. “Don’t let personal feelings interfere with business, Bruno.”
Bruno swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.” It didn’t sound like a title that came easily to him.
Enzo came around the corner behind Dominga. He stayed near the wall as far from her “creation” as he could get.
Antonio had finally lost his job as bodyguard. It was just as well. He was much better suited to stool pigeon.
Tommy came limping down the hall, still sort of scrunched over himself. The big Magnum was in his hands. His face was nearly purple with rage, or maybe pain. “I’m gonna kill you,” he hissed.
“Take a number,” I said.
“Enzo, you help Bruno and Tommy tie this little girl to a chair in the room. She’s a lot more dangerous than she seems,” Gaynor said.
Enzo grabbed my arm. I didn’t fight him. I figured I was safer in his hands than either of the other two. Tommy and Bruno both looked as if they were looking forward to me trying something. I think they wanted to hurt me.
As Enzo led me past them, I said, “Is it because I’m a woman or are you always this bad at losing?”
“I’m gonna shoot her,” Tommy grunted.
“Later,” Gaynor said, “later.”
I wondered if he really meant that. If Dominga’s spell worked, I’d be like a living zombie, obeying her will. If the spell didn’t work, then Tommy and Bruno would kill me, a piece at a time. I hoped there was a third choice.
36
THE THIRD CHOICE was being tied to a chair in the room where I woke up. It was the best of the three choices, but that wasn’t saying much. I don’t like being tied up. It means your options have gone from few to none. Dominga had clipped some of my hair and the tips of my fingernails. Hair and nails for her compulsion spell. Shit.
The chair was old and straight-backed. My wrists were tied to the slats that made up the back of the chair. Ankles tied separately to a leg of the chair. The ropes were tight. I tugged at the ropes, hoping for some slack. There wasn’t any.
I had been tied up before, and I always have this Houdini fantasy that this time I’ll have enough slack