Bitten in Two (26 page)

Final y Vayl stepped away from the wal and looked down at Ahmed. Only my position al owed me to see the colors changing in his irises. Like the storm clouds that tel you it’s time to run to the basement, now black framed them, and in the centers, a deep, bloody red.

“Vayl,” I whispered.

“I remember.” His voice, so low none of us should have heard it, permeated the room like the rumble of a tsunami.

He lifted Ahmed by the col ar of his jel aba, rising slowly so we could see the mage begin to choke inside his own clothing, observe Vayl grab him by the hair and turn him so he had no choice. He must face the vampire he’d cursed.

“I remember everything you did to me. What you made me relive.” He fastened his hand around Ahmed’s neck, lifted and shoved so that the mage moved on the tips of his toes, holding on to Vayl’s wrists to prevent a fal . His eyes were so wide I half expected them to pop out and rol down his cheeks as he stared into the blizzard of cold fury he’d unleashed. Though Cole and I were mostly immune to Vayl’s powers, we stil shivered as icicles began to form in Ahmed’s nose hairs and every exhalation pasted another layer of frost around the rim of his mouth.

“It wasn’t me!” he insisted. “Roldan—”

“I wil see to him in due course,” Vayl said. “But you had a choice. You took your pay. You wound your spel .” They’d moved into the shop now, and what could we do but fol ow?

We watched, silent witnesses as Vayl slammed Ahmed against a wal , sending brass instruments of al shapes and sizes crashing to the floor. The dissonant shriek of sound accompanied the mage’s moan.

Vayl said, “You shoved me back into a hel I thought I had escaped. You tore me from the woman I cannot survive without. This wil not stand.” His free hand went to Ahmed’s chest.

Holy Christ, is he gonna rip out his heart?
I stepped forward.

Ahmed blubbered, “Wait! Please! The redhead said you needed information on the bauble in my back room.

The Enkyklios bal ? It’s part of Roldan’s payment! I can tel you why he had it in the first—ulp!”

Vayl shook his head. “No. You are done.” He covered Ahmed’s open mouth, stil wagging with suggestions and excuses, with the hand that had threatened his heart. And suddenly al of the bel s in the shop began to clang. The breeze, focused by his
cantrantia
so that only the mage felt the ful effect of Vayl’s power as a Wraith, came cold as an Arctic storm, splintered into his eyebal s, iced his veins, turned his skin blue. Before Vayl had finished even Ahmed’s fingernails had frozen solid.

Vayl turned, looked at us silently.

I knew the moment required something immense from me. But before I could dredge up the right response the front door flew open, Cole’s cabinet barricade splintering like rotten wood under the onslaught of two massive werewolves. The platinum streaks in the larger wolf along with his big-eared rider proved that he and his Luureken would have to be put down the old-fashioned way. The second wolf’s dark brown fur marked him as the one we’d seen hip-deep in oranges with no partner in sight. Now we knew his rider was a dimpled blonde with hate burning like hel fire in her eyes.

The Luureken each brandished a raes in one hand and a fury so deep it seemed to paint the doorway black. We only hesitated a beat or two, but in that time Vayl had already moved to meet them. He left Ahmed to fal like a block of glacial ice behind him and sent the gale of his rage ahead of him, knowing we had our own ways of dealing with his fal out.

The Luureken didn’t. They froze in their seats, the spittle from their furious shrieks beading like pearls on their cheeks. Their Weres, whose wounds had taken on the pink of new tissue from the outside, evidently stil hadn’t ful y pul ed together on the inside. Because I could hear those torn and shattered tissues crackle and break like thin ice.

Their mouths opened, fearsome howls cut off instantly by the rime building inside their throats. And that was al the time we needed.

I hauled Grief out of its holster like a gunfighter in a ten-step standoff. Pumped every bit of ammo I had left into the bodies of those two wolves. And watched them fal with about as much satisfaction as I felt when I witnessed my towels spinning in the dryer.

Cole shot a single round into the leader’s Luureken, sending it tumbling out of the doorway in a shower of destroyed wood and blood splatter.

The female berserker just sat where she’d rol ed when her mount had gone down, stil paralyzed by Vayl’s attack.

We gathered around it. Kyphas nudged it with her toe. It blinked so slowly we could hear the frost on its eyelids crackle.

“Now what?” asked Cole.

We al jumped as the other Luureken came flying back through the door and slammed into a huge gong that Ahmed had erected, making such a racket that everybody with the exception of Vayl covered their ears. I wanted to assume the body-thrower was an al y, but the crouch I took reminded me not to hesitate too long because bad guys had ways of putting you off your guard too. Then Raoul fol owed the body through the door, his face such a dark shade of red I’d have suspected imminent heart attack if he hadn’t already, you know, gone over.

“Pick up your trash!” he thundered as he glared at the five of us, giving the rest of the dead only a brief glance. He slammed his fist against the doorframe and al the shattered door pieces pul ed back together, closing the shop behind him. “And while you’re at it, dump this in the garbage too!” He shoved Astral into my arms.

She looked up at me, her eyes crossing slightly as they met mine. “Hel o!”

met mine. “Hel o!”

“Hey, kittybot.” I gave her a brief inspection, did the same for Raoul, and took a wild guess at the problem.

“Astral, tel me you didn’t freak out Raoul’s girl.” Raoul waved me off. “Astral was fine,” he snapped, his accent thicker than I’d ever heard it. “Better than that. She was so charming I was surprised little birds didn’t appear and start singing as they flew tiny circles around her head.” I felt the knot in my chest loosen. If my cat had ruined Raoul’s chance at romance I wasn’t sure I could forgive her.

Cole decided to be daring and ask, “What happened?”

“Nia spent our entire date cooing over that dratted half animal.” He threw up his arms. “How was I supposed to know she was a cat lady?”

I holstered Grief and tried desperately to make the transition from Were-kil er to Spirit Guide confidant.

“
What?
”

“She told me she had twenty-four cats when she was human. Liked them better than people!” He nodded to assure me I hadn’t heard him wrong. “How can you like a cat better than a person? They don’t even talk!”

“Hel o.” Was it my imagination, or did Astral sound offended?

I looked at Cole and shrugged. “I got nothing.” Cole murmured, “I could tel him there are other fish in the sea, but he’s not going to want to hear that for at least a couple of weeks.”

Vayl stepped forward. “Raoul, I have just remembered that you and I barely get along. Would you agree?”

“I suppose so,” Raoul said careful y.

“I think, in this case, that is to your advantage. As is the fact that I am older and, therefore, a great deal more experienced in these matters than you.”

Raoul’s mouth dropped slightly, but he nodded like he was wil ing to hear Vayl out.

“You wil feel better if you kil something evil. And we seem to have happened on a generous supply.” He motioned to the wolves, al of which would recover to attack us again. Unless Raoul wanted to send them into the next world—which he could pretty much do with a word and a tap on the head.

I knew he was giving the idea serious consideration when he took a look around the place, his eyes resting on broken displays, the casualties, our diverse array of weaponry.

“You people need your own cleanup crew, you know that?”

I said, “Does that mean you’re staying?”

“What’s the upside for you?” my Spirit Guide asked.

I pointed at the surviving Luureken. “They seem to have some Rocenz-related information.”

Vayl asked, “Do you recognize this breed?” Raoul nodded, suddenly sober. “How do you intend to get them to talk? I’ve never seen a berserker articulate enough to get past a scream.”

We al looked at Sterling as Vayl said, “You have never seen the greatest warlock on earth in action either.”

“Then I’l dispatch these Weres for you, shal I?” Raoul asked.

We nodded, except for Sterling, who pointed to the frozen female and said, “Leave her to me.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN

Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Raoul. It was the third time he’d said it, confirming his unease with our plan, which was, I’l admit, one of our most grisly. My Spirit Guide leaned against the desk in Ahmed’s office with his arms crossed, the extra creases in his uniform reflecting his agitation as a framed picture of King Mohammed VI grinned over his shoulder.

I looked up from the corpse whose forearm skin I was carving off with my bolo and was glad for once that Vayl wasn’t there to see me despite the fact that Sterling’s spel , and this particular component of it, had al been his idea.

Which was, maybe, why he’d volunteered to keep watch over the one Were Raoul hadn’t sent to the netherworld—

the female Luureken who was stil mostly an ice pop with rage fil ing lying beside the front door.

She was alone at the front now, because at Sterling’s direction we’d dragged al the dead back to the office. Then Cole and Kyphas had gone out to find the bodies of the other Luureken. Their job was to bring back pieces of at least two of them, which were also necessary for his spel .

Impossible? Maybe for anyone else. I gave them even odds.

I glanced at Raoul, whose grimace told me he was less grossed out, but more offended, than me. I said, “What is it?”

“Mutilating corpses is a crime,” Raoul informed me.

“So is trying to kil us.” I finished slicing off a patch about three inches square and threw it in the middle of the floor. The slap of dead flesh against cold tile made my teeth ache. I hit the bathroom to clean up, and by the time I came out Cole and Kyphas had returned, pale but triumphant.

Predictably, the demon was the one who presented Sterling with their prizes.

“On the floor with the other one,” he told them, pointing to where he’d be working.

Cole sank onto the chair, not even protesting when Kyphas began to rub his shoulders. He just stared at the two flaps of skin they’d retrieved as Raoul asked, “What is the purpose of this ceremony?”

I stood in the doorway, unable to let Vayl out of my sight for long, and said, “We’re raising the ghosts of the Luureken we kil ed.”

Sterling knelt over the skins, adding his own mix of herbs and powders. He hummed under his breath, the lightning-trapped sphere of his amulet swinging in wide circles as he moved.

Raoul asked, “How is that possible? Sterling’s no medium.”

“Nope. But then, they won’t be real ghosts, so it’s a good balance.”

He nodded. “Ah, il usory spirits?”

“The best kind. Of course, our little berserker in there wil think they’re real ghosts. And that’s al we need.” He glanced up. Muttered something I couldn’t understand.

Cole asked, “Getting a text from the saint patrol, Raoul?”

“They’re out of their comfort zone again.” His eyes glittered as he glanced at me. “It should please you to know they’ve actual y come up with their own phrase for the danger you put me in, which doubles as their order for me to return to base.”

“What is it?” Cole demanded.

“DEFCON Parks.”

“DEFCON Parks.”

I moaned. “That’s just lame.”

Raoul chuckled. “And now you’ve described half the Eldhayr.”

I cocked my head, realizing suddenly the risk Raoul had taken saving my life. Vouching for me with the bigwigs upstairs. Showing when I cal ed despite the fact that my closest relationship was with a creature who’d al but trashed his soul. “How much trouble do you get into hanging out with me?”

A sudden, rare smile. “Only enough to make it worth my while.”

I walked over to stand beside him. He stiffened a little when my shoulder brushed his, but relaxed almost immediately. “I think they’l clear you for this deal. It looks nasty from the outside, but Sterling’s got tight control of the situation. We know whatever we can find out about the Weres and the Enkyklios bal could get us a lot closer to the Rocenz. Al we’re gonna do is some creative information gathering.”

Vayl said, “And if that does not work, you should leave.

Because I wil not relent until the Luureken has told me what I need to know in order to free Jasmine.” He’d come to the doorway, his fierce expression reminding me more of Lord Brâncoveanu than my
sverhamin
. I felt a heavy weight settle on my chest, but before it could sink in he said, “She has suffered long enough. I wil have an end to it.” I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed having Vayl in my corner until that moment, when it was al I could do not to run sobbing into his arms like some spineless airhead. I turned to Sterling. “How’s it going?”

“Give me some room,” he replied.

We shuffled into the open space behind the counter, each of us taking turns watching him work and gauging the mood of the thawing Luureken that stil sprawled in the blood of her comrades. Cole pul ed out his Beretta and stepped away from Kyphas’s ful -body lean, making her plant both feet wide to keep from stumbling. She nearly stepped on Astral, who sat quietly at Raoul’s feet like he’d found her off switch. He crouched down and ran a finger along her forehead and back between her ears, making them twitch to the side. The other hand reached down and pressed into the heel of his boot. When his thumb jerked back, the hilt of a knife came with it. He pul ed it free and stood, holding it comfortably at his side, a shining blade just long enough to pierce a Luureken’s heart.