“Because you’re lost.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe I can help—point you in the right direction if you tell me where you need to get to.”
I didn’t even know where I needed to get to. I needed to get to wherever Ben and Cormac were. And where was that? If all else failed, maybe it was time to start over.
I asked, “Do you know someone named Grace Chen? She works at the Great Wall Video Store on—” I didn’t know what street the shop was on.
Wonder of wonders, the guy nodded. “Yeah, I know her.”
The relief was a warm wash of sunshine in my blood.
“The video store,” I said. “I need to get there.”
Chapter 11
“ARE YOU SURE you don’t need any help?” Sun asked for the third time.
I was hobbling, but I was sure I was hobbling faster than I had been when I first pulled myself out of the hole in the floor. The monster trap. Who the hell puts a pit in a room specifically to trap monsters? This guy, obviously—so who was he again?
Before we left his—apartment? shop?—I limped to the edge and looked down, hoping for some clue about where I’d come from and how I’d gotten turned around. The stairs I’d pulled myself up looked like a normal, rickety set of cellar stairs, and they descended through what seemed to be a trapdoor cut in the floor, leading to a musty basement room. The whole thing, from the doorway to the stairs to the room itself, looked a lot smaller than it had before.
I wasn’t sure I could trust any of my perceptions from the moment I stumbled over the edge and fell.
Sun led me out the door of his kitchen onto a narrow alley. The building we’d left was brick, eighty or so years old, decorated with fire escapes and signage with Chinese characters. The alley had a canyonlike quality. A set of trash cans had been put out, and a nondescript car was parked a block away. It was full night, dark and chilly—midnight, according to the phone. The sky above seemed hazy. The air still smelled like San Francisco’s air.
We walked down the street, turned a corner, then another. I looked for street signs and tried to keep track of where I was. We were still in Chinatown—a lamppost across the street had a dragon sculpture climbing up it. Everything was locked up, steel doors and grilles pulled over the fronts. We were the only ones out.
I walked as fast as I could, even when Sun tried to slow down for my benefit. “I can keep up,” I said.
“I thought it’d be a little easier on you if we took it slow.”
“Time’s an issue here. I’m fine.”
“What’s really going on? How’s Grace wrapped up in this?”
“How well do you know her?” I said.
“It’s not like we’re best friends or anything. I just know her. Is she in trouble?” He sounded curious rather than concerned.
I couldn’t explain it all. It was too complicated, and I didn’t understand much of it myself. “It’s nothing, never mind.”
“You seem pretty worried.”
I almost snapped at him, a wolfish gesture. Maybe I’d feel better if I Changed. Maybe it would help my leg. Yeah, Change and do what? Go where? Track Ben by scent? Run down and maul Sun while I was at it? He didn’t deserve that.
&n
bsp; “I’m fine,” I muttered yet again.
When we arrived on the street with the video store, I didn’t recognize it—I’d only seen the place from the back. A big yellow sign over the front said Video, along with some Chinese characters; faded posters hung in the windows.
“Here we are,” Sun said. “Is Grace supposed to be here?”
“There’s a back door in an alley,” I said. “Do you know how to get around to the back?” I could probably find it. We had to be near where we met Anastasia in the first place.
“If you told me what was wrong, I might be able to help you.”