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Guild.
    All in all I’d done spectacularly well, I decided. I lost the client for at least two minutes, let him get his stomach ripped open, watched him stab his attacker in the eye, which was definitely something he shouldn’t have had to do, and cost him his special acorn and roughly five months of work. The fact that my client turned out to be a scumbag and a sexual deviant really had no bearing on the matter.
    Some bodyguard I made. Yay. Whoopee. I got to the Guild, surrendered Peggy, and filled out my paperwork. You win some, you lose some. At least Saiman survived. I wouldn’t get paid, but I didn’t end the job with a dead client on my hands.
    I grabbed my crap and headed for the doors.
    “Kate,” the clerk called from the counter.
    I turned. Nobody remembered the clerk’s name. He was just “the clerk.”
    He waved an envelope at me. “Money.”
    I turned on my foot. “Money?”
    “For the job. Client called. He says he’d like to work exclusively with you from now on. What did the two of you do all night?”
    “We argued philosophy.” I swiped the envelope and counted the bills. Three grand. What do you know?
    I stepped out the doors into an overcast morning. I had been awake for over thirty-six hours. I just wanted to find a quiet spot, curl up, and shut out the world.
    A tall, lean man strode to me, tossing waist-long black hair out of the way. He walked like a dancer, and his face would stop traffic. I looked into his blue eyes and saw a familiar smugness in their depths. “Hello, Saiman.”
    “How did you know?”
    I shrugged and headed on my way.
    “Perhaps we can work out a deal,” he said, matching my steps. “I have no intentions of losing that bet. I will find a form you can’t resist.”
    “Good luck.”
    “I’m guessing you’ll try to avoid me, which would make my victory a bit difficult.”
    “Bingo.”
    “That’s why I decided to give you an incentive you can’t refuse. I’m giving you a sixty percent discount on my services. It’s an unbelievable deal.”
    I laughed. If he thought I’d pay him twenty-six dollars a minute for his time, he was out of luck.
    “Laugh now.” Saiman smiled. “But sooner or later you’ll require my expertise.”
    He stopped. I kept on walking, into the dreary sunrise. I had three thousand dollars and some chocolate to buy.

 

COPYRIGHT
     
    This ebook is licensed to you for your personal enjoyment only.
    This ebook may not be sold, shared, or given away.
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
    Retribution Clause was originally published in the anthology, Hex Appeal.
    Copyright © 2012 by Ilona Andrews
     
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
     
    No part of this work may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

RETRIBUTION CLAUSE
     
    Adam Talford closed his eyes and wished he were somewhere else. Somewhere warm. Where cool waves lapped hot yellow sand, where strange flowers bloomed, and birdsong filled the air.
    “Take off the watch! Now!” a male voice barked into his ear. “You think I am fucking with you? You think I am playing? I’ll rip your flesh off your body and make myself a skin suit.”
    Adam opened his eyes. The three thugs who pinned him to the brick wall looked half-starved, like mongrel dogs who’d been prowling the alley, feeding on garbage.
    He should never have wandered into this side of Philadelphia, not in the evening, and especially not while the magic was up. This was Firefern Road, a place where the refuse of the city hid out among the ruins of the ravaged buildings, gnawed by magic to