Free Dead Roses for a Blue Lady by Nancy Collins

deliberately skipped her waking meal.
    "You tangle with an ogre? One of those vargr punks?"
    "Leave it be, Mai."
    Malfeis shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly, that's all. Now, what kind of magick are you in the market for?"
    "Binding and containment."
    The demon grunted and fished out a pocket calculator, his exterior flickering for a moment to reveal a hulking creature that resembled an orangutan with a boar's snout.
    "What kind of demon are you looking to lock down?"
    "I wish to have myself bound and contained."
    "Sonja..."
    "Name your price, damn you."
    "Don't be redundant, girlchick."

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) Sonja sighed and hefted a knapsack onto the tabletop. "I brought some of my finest acquisitions. I've got hair shaved from Ted Bundy's head just before he went to the chair, dried blood scraped from the walls of the Labianco home, a spent rifle casing from the grassy knoll, and a cedar cigar box with what's left of Rasputin's penis in it. Quality shit. 1
    swear by its authenticity. And its all yours, if you do this for me."
    Malfeis fidgeted, drumming his talons against the table. Such close proximity to so much human suffering and evil was bringing on a Jones. "Okay, I'll do it. But I'm not going to take responsibility for anything that happens to you."
    "Did I ask you to?"

    "Are you sure you want to go through with this, Sonja?" "Your concern touches me, Mai.
    It really does." The demon shook his head in disbelief. "You really mean to go through with this, don't you?" "I've already said so, haven't I?"
    "Sonja, you realize once you're in there, there's no way you'll be able to get out, unless someone breaks the seal."
    "Maybe."
    "There's no maybe to it!" he retorted.
    "The spell you're using is for binding and containment of vampiric energies, right?"
    "Of course. You're a vampire."
    She shrugged. "Part of me is. And I'm not letting it out to hurt anyone ever again. I'm going to kill it or die trying."
    "You're going to starve in there!"
    "That's the whole point."
    "Whatever you say, girly-girl."
    Sonja hugged herself as she stared into the open doorway of the meat locker. It was cold and dark inside, just like her heart. "Let's get this show on the road."
    Malfeis nodded and produced a number of candles, bottles of oil, pieces of black chalk, and bags of white powder from the gladstone bag he carried. Sonja swallowed and stepped inside the meat locker, drawing the heavy door closed behind her with a muffled thump.
    Malfeis lit the candles and began to chant in a deep, sonorous voice, scrawling elaborate designs on the outer walls of the locker with the black chalk. As the chanting grew faster and more impassioned, he smeared oil on the hinges and handle of the door. There was an electric crackle and the door glowed with blue fire.
    Malfeis' incantation lost all semblance of human speech as it reached its climax. He carefully poured a line of white powder, made from equal parts salt, sand, and the crushed bones of human babies, across the threshold. Then he stepped back to assess his handiwork.
    To human eyes it looked like someone had scrawled graphitti all over the face of the stainless steel locker, nothing more. But to Pretender eyes, eyes adjusted to the Real World, the door to the locker was barred by a tangle of darkly pulsing veve, the semi-

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) sentient protective symbols of the voudou powers. As long as the tableau remained undisturbed, the entity known as Sonja Blue would remain trapped within the darkness of the meat locker.
    Malfeis replaced the tools of his trade in the gladstone bag. He paused as he left the warehouse, glancing over his shoulder.
    "Goodbye, girly-girl. It was nice knowing you."

    "I'm looking for Mai."
    The bartender looked up from his racing form and frowned at Judd. After taking in his unwashed hair and four days'