Dead Streets by Tim Waggoner Read Free Book Online Page A

three members of the Midnight Watch didn't step forward. Instead they exchanged uneasy glances and remained standing where they were.
      Devona frowned. "What's wrong?"
      Bogdan spoke for the trio. "Scorch, Tavi and I are reluctant to take a full share of tonight's profits. We don't feel as if we earned it."
      "We were hired to protect Scream Queen," Devona said, "and we stopped Overkill from stealing her voice. She was pleased with the service we provided and she paid us. All of us." She looked at Bogdan. "And you were able to cast a spell that returned her voice to her."
      Bogdan shrugged. "It was a simple matter. An Arcane child could've done it."
      My scowl deepened. You're a modest son of a bitch, aren't you? I thought.
      "And all of you–" Devona took in Scorch and Tavi with her gaze now – "participated in the fight against Overkill."
      "For all the good we did," Scorch said in a pouty voice, sounding like the preteen she appeared to be. "The three of us got our butts kicked."
      "We were up against Overkill," Tavi pointed out. "We're lucky to still be alive." He turned to glance at me. "Uh, sorry, Matt. I didn't mean–"
      "Don't worry about it," I said. "Living or dead, I'm still ambulatory and that's all that matters."
      "Look, everyone," Devona said in what I'd come to think of as her boss voice. "We all shared the risk, so we all share in the profit."
      Bogdan, Scorch and Tavi all glanced at me then as if to see whether I had anything to say about the issue. While none of them seemed to have bought into any of that 'savior of the city' crap that folks like Acantha wanted to saddle me with they did seek my opinion every now and again – though I felt Bogdan did so more to keep up appearances with his fellow employees than because he really cared what I thought about anything.
      When I didn't answer right away Devona said, "Well, Matt? What do you think?"
      When you're part of a couple there are times when you know your significant other is asking you a question to which there is only One Right Answer. I recognized this as one of those times. Unfortunately I had no idea what the correct response was. So I did what I usually do in situations like that. I gambled.
      I shrugged and tried to sound as casual as I could as I replied: "It's your business, so it's your call."
      I knew my gamble had been a spectacular failure when Devona gave me a scowl that said We'll talk about this later . Then she returned her attention to her employees.
      "So it's settled then."
      The three exchanged glances one last time before finally stepping forward and collecting their share of the night's earnings.
      "So…" Bogdan said. "When are we going to discuss what happened tonight? I have some ideas on ways we might improve our performance next time."
      I'll just bet you do, I thought. And from the way the warlock looked at Devona as he spoke I had the feeling that when he said we he wasn't talking about all five of us sitting down for a chat.
      Scorch groaned. "Really, Bogdan, why do you always have to be such a worker bee? It's getting late and I have a pile of newly acquired darkgems burning a hole in my pocket. I say we head on back to Sinsation and see what other kinds of trouble we can get into tonight."
      Bogdan frowned at the demon, but Devona cut him off before he could reply. "Was there anything we could've done differently to deal with Overkill? Of course. There's always room for improvement, but that's not important right now. What matters is we got the job done and that's enough for one night. Let's save the post mortem for another time, shall we?"
      She gave Bogdan a smile to take the sting out of her words and the warlock responded with a courtly half bow that, if I still had a gag reflex, would've made me want to vomit on the spot.
      "Of course, Devona," he said. "It's probably a good idea that you don't work anymore tonight anyway. After the injury you