Nightside 08 - The Unnatural Inquirer

his lips and blew away imaginary smoke. The disembodied hand flipped him the finger, and then disappeared under the bar. The watching cowboys were all grinning broadly. Alex glared right back at them.
    “You needn’t be so smug. You only got the stuff I keep for tourists. The good stuff can look after itself.”
    The leader looked at him for a moment. He’d used his favourite trick, and no-one was looking the least bit intimidated. He stuck out his chin and tried again.
    “I’ve come for the Afterlife Recording.”
    “Don’t worry, dear,” said Bettie. “I’m sure you were just a bit over-excited.”
    I stepped forward, putting myself between her and the leader. I looked him square in the eye. “You don’t want to be here,” I said. “These aren’t the people you’re looking for.”
    I held his gaze with mine, and he stood very still. Behind him, the other combat sorcerers stirred restlessly. And then the leader smiled coldly right back at me.
    “I’ve heard about your evil eye, Taylor. Won’t work on any of us. We’re protected.”
    He was right. I couldn’t stare him down, couldn’t even reach him. While I was still working out what to do next, Bettie stepped past me and put herself between me and the leader.
    “Trevor!” she said. “I thought it was you, sweetie! Didn’t recognise you at first, all tricked out in the Village People outfit. You never told me you were a combat sorcerer.”
    The other cowboys looked at their leader, and I could practically see them mouthing the word Trevor? at each other. The leader glared at Bettie.
    “That is my old name,” he said harshly. “I don’t use it any more. My name is Ace now, Bettie, leader of Clan Buckaroo. I haven’t gone by…that other name in ages.”
    “You were Trevor when I knew you,” Bettie said briskly. “I did wonder why you insisted on wearing those black boots and spurs to bed, but I thought you were being kinky. Even though you went all bashful when I got out the fluffy handcuffs. What are you doing here, sweetie, dressed up as Black Bart and leading this bunch of overdressed thugs?”
    “The money’s good,” said Ace.
    “It would have to be,” said Bettie.
    “Don’t get in the way,” said Ace, giving her his best fierce glare. “We’re here to do a job, and we’re going to do it. I can’t cut you any slack just because we used to be an item.”
    “You and he were an item?” I said to Bettie.
    She shrugged. “He didn’t last long.”
    There was some quiet sniggering from the other combat sorcerers that died quickly away as Ace glared around him.
    “What exactly are you here for?” I said. “Maybe there’s room for negotiation.”
    “We want Donavon, and we want the Afterlife Recording,” said Ace, fixing me with his cold stare again. “No negotiations, no discussion. We work for Kid Cthulhu, and he wants sole ownership of the Recording.”
    “Now wait just a minute!” Bettie strode forward to glare right into Ace’s face, and he was so startled he actually fell back a pace. “The Unnatural Inquirer has already purchased exclusive rights to all the material on that DVD! We have a binding contract! We own it!”
    “Not any more you don’t,” said Ace. “Possession is everything, in the Nightside.”
    “Kid Cthulhu…” Alex said thoughtfully. “Thought I’d heard something about his having cash liquidity problems with his undersea-farming interests. And, of course, the bottom’s dropped right out of the calamari market. He must be thinking he can make enough money out of the Afterlife Recording to bail him out. So to speak.”
    “You can’t have the Afterlife Recording!” Bettie said firmly to Ace. “We got there first.”
    Ace looked at the cowboy next to him. “If she speaks again, kill her.”
    Bettie’s mouth opened wide, outraged, and I clapped a hand across it and hauled her back. Ace didn’t look like he was kidding to me. Thirteen combat sorcerers in one room can do pretty much whatever they feel like doing. But, on the other hand, I had a reputation to maintain…So I looked Alex in the eye and gave him my best disapproving stare.
    “Now that was just plain rude,” I said. “And if you threaten to kill me…I will smite the lot of you. Right here and now.”
    There was a pause, and the thirteen combat sorcerers looked at me uncertainly. With anyone else, they’d have dismissed it immediately as just talk. But I was John Taylor…
    “Bettie Divine is under my