A Demon's Drink {Book Three-Kat}

Chapter 43

Gotham's weather continued to be the definition of dreary. The rain came down in fits, occasionally drizzling for an hour between violent thunder crashes. The noontime sky must have fooled the people of the city that it was nighttime because the streets were empty of any lively body. This left only the homeless and ill-willing wandering the normally crowded sidewalks. Cars sped by, splashing them with the water left on the pavement. Horns blared as taxi swerved around a black sedan trying to turn right.

The black pavement took on the appearance of a light warzone. The bright white and yellow headlight reflections warred with the endless neon lights declaring all the empty stores' hours. There were small moments, when the intersections were empty, that the water stilled enough to mirror every image undistorted. This was one of those moments.

A motorcycle sped through the intersection I had been watching and effectively destroyed the moment of balance. Water dripped onto my shirt from my bangs, completely defeating the purpose of a rain jacket. I shook my hair in front of me and ran a hand through it in an attempt to expel the extra water before pulling up the hood. There was no helping the hair that spilled out the front of the jacket over my collarbones and chest. Long hair was a burden in any type of weather but the rain seemed to add a few more pounds to the waist-long locks.

The signal changed from a red hand to a white walking-man. Water sloshed around my rain boots in an attempt to enter and soak my socks. A few impatient cars honked their horns as I passed, earning nothing more than a grin from me. Lightning struck near one of the transformers for the traffic lights and thunder cracked across the sky as red lights started flashing at all four streets. My foot made contact with the sidewalk the moment the power went out. Horns chorused together, seeming to fight for dominance the way high school cheer teams try to out-yell one another. Thunder rumbled across the sky and gave a nice bass sound to the growing symphony of sound.

My jacket pocket began to vibrate when I crossed into the business district. I didn't need to look at the screen to know who was calling me. My thumb slid across the screen as I lifted it to my ear.

"How's the weather?" Ra's' smirk was almost tangible.

"Perfect."

"Don't let it be too perfect, traffic light outages draw attention when the surrounding buildings also lose power."

"I thought you wanted me to draw attention."

"Not yet." His tone returned to one of a teacher growing impatient with his student. "It will come, but not yet. You know what you are to do. Do it."

"As you command." It was habit to nod my head in a small bow even in his absence.

I kept the phone in my hand as I approached a building I had never seen before in Gotham. LexCorp was written in large metal letters, backlit in purple somewhere between the twenty second and thirtieth floor. The glass was tinted well, I had a hard time seeing the desks set up on the thirteenth floor. I made sure to stay on the sidewalk across the street from the building so that the cameras didn't pick me up quite yet. Ra's said it had to be this building.

Time passed by slowly. The rhythm of the rain steadily slowed to a drizzle and more people began emerging from the surrounding buildings. Umbrellas could be heard popping open down the street as people rushed to their cars or hailed cabs. Before long the street was lively with movement from both cars and people. Pointless chatter rose up as the sun finally peaked around the heavy clouds. Even within the LexCorp building people began to move around, leaving their desks and conversing with their coworkers.

I looked down at my watch and watched the second hand tick away. Tick, tick, tick, tick. Right on time the elevator bell in the building went off. Lex Luthor wore a navy blue suit with a shiny red tie. His eyes shone like emeralds under a white light with a perfect smile to match. He shook the hand of the man he was in the elevator with before stepping out alone to meet with a woman waiting nearby. She must have been a secretary because the words falling out of her mouth were about appointment times; all clearly lost on the man standing beside her. Raising a hand to stop her mid-sentence he looked at his watch and gave an excuse about personal business he needed to take care of and left her in the lobby.