Copyright 2014

All rights reserved

Cover image used with permission

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

FREE GIFT:

To claim your FREE Jack Conner Starter Library, which includes four whole free novels, sign up for my newsletter here: http://jackconnerbooks.com/newsletter/

To read a free novella set in Lavorgna (the titular city), visit my website: http://jackconnerbooks.com/the-rubies-of-master-lo/

Chapter 1

Katya fled through the streets of Upper Lavorgna, her heart pounding wildly.

Faster, she told herself. Faster.

Shadows and fog swirled around her, and one of the three moons glared down from above. She was more terrified than she could ever remember being.

He was after her.

She’d lost sight of him some time back, but she knew he was there, somewhere. Hunting.

Lightning blasted overhead, startling her, and a deluge began to pound down. Great, just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.

She had no place to go, not even a damned umbrella. Rain plastered her hair against her scalp, but she pulled her black leather jacket tighter about her, feeling her jagged rings against her fingers, and pushed on, choosing alleys and main roads, never any one for very long. Sedic had an auto.

 “Got you, bitch.”

A hand reached from the shadows and grabbed Katya’s shoulder, spinning her around. A narrow, tattooed face peered out at her from the darkness, eyes bloodshot and lips hard, blue and fish-thin; he was infected, then. A victim of the Atomic Sea.

“Thought you could filch and flee, eh?” he said. “Sedic’ll pay good money to see you get yours, girl. Where’s the loot?”

“Had to ditch it.” Damnit.

His fishy lips stretched in a ghastly smile. “Guess I’ll have to search you to find out for sure. Thoroughly—”

Katya punched him in the throat. Her jagged silver rings bit into his flesh, and he gagged and reeled backward, eyes wide. Before he could recover, she turned and ran. Her heart nearly exploded out of her chest. Dear gods. Lucky that idiot had been high and stupid. He’d be after her soon enough, though.

Autos rattled past, then a horse-drawn carriage. A few homunculi stalked the shadows, blackened things in the shapes of men. A great steam-man stomped by, vapor squirting from his upper reaches, but those were relics from another age and there was only the one, dented and rusty though it was.

Bombs dropped during the war (still ongoing in other parts of the world) had cratered some of the roads and collapsed a few of the buildings, largely unrepaired. This was the Uppers, after all. Support the Brotherhood, one scuffed poster read. Good luck, she thought.

Wet and exhausted, she found Aggie at the corner of Navvers and Trilston.

“Thank Magnar!” Katya panted. “I was afraid you’d be out on a date.”

“Damn, look at you, hon.”

Aggie pulled her under the overhang, where several other prostitutes lounged, stinking of cheap perfume. One was blatantly infected, and she resembled a living anemone, orange tendrils waving in defiance of gravity.

The corner they’d picked was one of the busiest in the Fifth Ward, but at this time of day and in this weather only a trickle of traffic rumbled by. Two homunculi listed against the wall, seemingly lifeless. Only their eyes moved, rolling in their black sockets. Their eyes were the only things human on them, and they creeped Kat out. Still, she knew the creatures provided protection for the girls. And me, hopefully. They were one of the reasons she’d come here.

“H-have a cigarette?” she asked, teeth chattering.

Aggie unslung her tiny purse with the red frills and dug out a pack of smokes. Menthols, but Katya didn’t complain as Aggie put one to her lips and sparked it for her.

“What happened?” Aggie said. “Don’t tell me you got the law after you.”

“Worse. Sedic.”

“The loan shark? He’s bad news. Hear he crippled Cinda last week.”

“Paralyzed her. Thought I’d get him back. Use the loot to pay her bills. Didn’t work out so well, though. He got sick at dinner—bad clams or something—and doubled back. Caught me right in the act of finding his stash.”

“Rotten luck, girl.”

“Now I’ve got him and his pack on my trail.”

“He’s killed, like, nine people this year that I know of. And what he does to girls like me ...” Aggie shook her head. “How can I help?”

“Just give me cover till I can think my way out of this.”