Bitten in Two (30 page)

“How do you figure she got the Weres to cooperate?” Cole wondered.

Raoul raised an eyebrow. “She’s a demon. Just because you people are immune to her powers doesn’t mean they’re not vast.”

Vayl shifted in his seat. Like he was uncomfortable.

Which he never is.

I said, “What is it?”

“If Roldan has truly given himself to a Gorgon, and I believe that he has, Kyphas could easily have wormed her way into the deal using that connection. Spawn stick together. That is their first rule.”

“But she has a deal with us. What about that?”

“She is a demon. They are masters at playing both sides to their advantage.”

“Wel , she’s got these guys believing they’re on her team.” I looked back at the scene Astral was beaming to me. “Now they’re in a storeroom on the first floor. It’s the size of a comfy office. There’s a vertical shelf, no, make that three shelves running down its center. I thought it was one because they were al pushed together, but it looks like they run on ceiling and floor tracks like the ones you find in col ege libraries. The lead Were, who looks a lot like Chris Rock, has separated the shelves. One other Were, who looks slick enough to sel cars for a living, and two stringy-haired Luureken are just standing by the edge of the shelves, waiting.”

“Does it seem like they have any idea where to look for the map?” asked Cole.

“Yup. The Chris Rock look-alike has gone straight to the middle shelf. He’s being careful not to disturb anything else while he shuffles through some leather scrol s. He’s not unwrapping them. Just shining a light on one corner.” I took a breath to acknowledge the doubling of my heartbeat and the sudden stinging behind one eye. “He’s found it.” The atmosphere inside the Galaxie went from restless The atmosphere inside the Galaxie went from restless and slightly bored to tense and electric. Game faces fel into place. I went on, feeling the anticipation build in the pit of my stomach as I watched the Were hold the map to my salvation over his head.

I said, “Our demon is snarling like she’s never heard of wrinkles. She’s crouching by the door. She’s transforming her
tahruyt
into the flyssa. But it’s different. It’s… The blade is glowing red. I think whoever’s on the receiving end of that swing is going to get cut
and
burned.”

“Have the Weres realized her plan yet?” asked Vayl.

I shook my head. “They’re partying. So psyched to have the treasure in their hands and be done with guard duty they’ve forgotten she’s there.” I turned my eyes to Cole. “I wish you could see her now. It’s her eyes. They’re so…

hungry. And happy.”

“Hungry people are never happy,” Cole told me.

“There’s your basic mistake,” Raoul pointed out.

“Because she’s not ‘people’ at al .”

I said, “She’s creeping up on the car salesman. Holy crap, that sword’s just as sharp as my bolo!”

“What has she done?” Vayl asked.

“Decapitation,” I said, trying to keep my voice level and dry. “One, two, just like that, and he’s dead. The second Were is morphing. The Luureken are shrieking. Pul ing out their weapons. Naw.”

“What?” Sterling demanded.

“The lead berserker is trying to use his raes. That’s just stupid. It’s a cavalry weapon, you know?”

“O-kay. And who’s side are you on?”

“I’m just saying, the demon’s gonna—yup, there she goes. She’s whipped that sword of hers around so fast he barely has time to block, much less pul off an aggressive move. But the Luureken behind him has a hand axe and she’s screaming like a trophy wife who’s just found hubby with her replacement. Oooh.”

“What?” Barbershop chorus from the four listening guys.

“Axe blade in the demon’s chest. She’s screaming even louder than her attacker. Damned if she doesn’t remind me of Blackbeard’s wives at the JayCees Haunted House in Granny May’s hometown.”

Cole leaned forward. “We gotta go there next Hal oween.”

“Sure.”

If we’re still around.

I said, “I’m thinking the Luureken shouldn’t have buried that axe so deep. Now she’s got no weapon and the demon is coming back at her with that flaming flyssa.”

“What exactly do you mean by flaming?” asked Raoul, the professional curiosity in his voice tel ing me he was trying to figure out if he had the right weapons to combat it should he ever need to.

“When we met her in Australia and she turned her hat into a boomerang, it burned bluish orange. Which I thought was a reaction to the prayers we’d protected al the entrances with. This is more like a cherry red that seems hot and…” I swal owed involuntarily as I watched the sword sing through the air, the flames leaping toward the Luureken’s throat. “Yeah, starving would be the word I’m looking for.” They licked into her neck just before the sword sliced into her skin. And then, as quickly as she cut the life out of the Luureken, Kyphas met the leader’s charge. Now ful y transformed, its lean form giving it fearsome speed, it stil couldn’t match the demon’s reflexes.

She stood, unblinking, in the face of its heart-stopping growls. Let it see how easily it could tear her throat out. And then, as it leaped, moved with eye-blurring speed. Shoved its head to one side. Chopped into the vulnerable opening she’d made, then stepped forward as his body and half-severed head went crashing into the floor. She grabbed the map before it—or she—could be drenched in arterial spray, turned back, and finished the job.

I told the guys, “I don’t think we’re going to be battling any more Weres this trip. And I hope whoever cleans the storeroom at the Musee de Marrakech skips breakfast tomorrow.”

Astral took one last look at the bodies lying sprawled and lifeless on the floor, their blood crawling toward Kyphas as if begging her to put it back, make the last moments please, please go away. And then, like she knew my wishes, the robokitty looked up into Kyphas’s face. Since I’d stopped talking, I could at least admit to myself that her beauty stil had the power to stun me, even from a distance.

But it seemed different now than it had the first time I’d seen her, stalking Cassandra down the streets of Wirdil ing, destroying everyone and everything in her path.

In Australia she’d had the perfection of an ice sculpture.

Nice to look at, but you knew you’d better keep your distance unless you wanted freezer burn. Now she seemed to have the ancient sadness of one of Lucifer’s groupies.

She never Fell
, my Inner Librarian corrected me, giving her bun a twitch to keep a stray curl from running amok.

Kyphas was born in hell. That makes her spawn, not
angel.

Now you’re just playing with semantics
, I told her.

Spawn are the children of fallen angels.

And other things!
noted the Librarian.

I’ll give you that. Sometimes.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Kyphas’s face, almost grieving as she absorbed the information on the map she’d unrol ed.
But maybe Cole
was right about her after all.
Now wasn’t the time for theorizing though. I whispered, “Astral. Copy that map.” The cat set her recorders to key to the Enkyklios map. I felt my chest tighten as I realized I was about to find out where the Rocenz was located. When my shoulders slumped Vayl said, “What is wrong?”

“The map. It’s just a bunch of colored circles surrounded by rectangles. There’s some writing I can’t see at the top and bottom of the map. But no X to mark the spot where the tool is hidden.”

He said, “Then we wil take the demoness and the map a s soon as she exits the building.” Vayl’s tone didn’t change, which, of course, it wouldn’t. He took shit like this in stride. I guess after overcoming a mil ion or so setbacks you learn how to keep on keeping on. But damn, you’ve gotta live a long time to get to that place.

We were waiting on the steps of the palace when Kyphas emerged, holding Astral in one hand and the map in the other. She looked only mildly surprised to see us. This, I was discovering, was the drawback of working with old souls. They’d seen so much they were tough to startle.

Vayl held out his hand. “Give me the map, Kyphas.” She hugged it closer to her chest. “I don’t think so.”

“Remember your contract? You vowed to help us find the Rocenz.”

She nodded exactly one time. “I did.” Her eyes never wavered from Vayl, but she seemed to tighten, as if some invisible machine had surrounded her with shrink-wrap. I’d already drawn Grief. Now I aimed the barrel right between her eyes.

“You also promised to fight with us,” he reminded her.

“The fighting’s over,” she said. She jerked her head back toward the museum. “I’ve kil ed the rest of your enemies.”

She may be right
, said Granny May, who’d put aside her sewing to set up another game of bridge.

Who’s side are you on anyway? And does Winston
Churchill really need that big a bowl of Doritos?

Cole had also drawn. But his Beretta remained pointed at the ground as he said, “Kyphas. I thought we were…

friends. What the hel ?”

“Exactly,” she replied. When she looked at him, the longing in her eyes actual y churned up some sympathy from somewhere deep inside me. She tore her gaze away from him and pinned it back on Vayl. “Here’s your map.” She launched Astral, not at him, but at me, fouling my shot as she threw herself behind a huge white pil ar.

I dropped my arm and stepped out of the way as robokitty came flying through the air like a claw-laced torpedo. She landed on her paws on the street beside me with the harsh clunk of granite hitting brick. I checked her out, relieved to find her in one piece, but pissed off as wel .

Now, by handing Astral back, Kyphas had kept her end of the deal. As far as she was concerned our contract was complete.

“Raoul!” I yel ed. “Tel me you brought your sword!” He couldn’t kil her with it here, of course. But if we could get her through one of the fire-framed plane portals, then the sword would destroy her. I knew one had to be close. They tended to fol ow me, though neither one of us had figured out why.

Raoul gave his cap a frustrated jerk. “I just came from the worst date of my life. Why would I bring a weapon along?”

Cole and I both said, “People do it al the time!” We looked at each other. Cole slapped his hand against his chest. “Not me, though. I’m just saying, there was this girl once who got real y pissed and—”

“I’d never suggest something like that about you,” I assured him. Then I realized al the guys were staring at me with that slightly stressed look that suggested they suddenly weren’t quite sure they were safe. “Aw, come on! Real y?” Stil keeping an eye on Kyphas, who’d emerged from hiding when we stopped trying to splat her, Cole slid over and patted me on the shoulder. “Forgive us, Jaz. You’re right, it’s sil y to think you’d ever
shoot
an ex when you already know twelve ways to kil him with your bare hands.”

“More like thirty, but that’s okay. I think.” Vayl stepped forward. “Kyphas, come with us. Whoever cal ed you to recover the map, whatever deal you have made with them cannot technical y supersede our contract.

You could stil be our al y. We would even offer you more if you cared to take it.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Bergman is starting a new business that could use people with exactly your sorts of skil s. Jasmine and I are considering becoming his partners. If, as time passed, we al seemed agreeable to the notion, you might even consider joining our Trust.”

Like hell!
I nearly squeezed the trigger just to prove how opposed I was to his last statement. But Vayl had given me the signal for play-along-with-me-on-this-one, two crossed fingers tapping the hip. So I dropped my gun arm, giving it the rest it needed while I waited for the demon’s reply. Her expression surprised me. Was she real y considering his offer? And that yearning glance toward Cole. I wasn’t imagining the wish in her eyes, was I? Hard to say when seconds later they were fil ed with yel ow fire.

“Our deal is finished, vampire. And as soon as I have the Rocenz,
your
people wil be joining
me
.” I wouldn’t have put it past her to belt out a cheesy cartoon-vil ain laugh because, real y, lines like that belonged in dinner theaters.

But she didn’t take the time. Instead she dove behind a second pil ar. This one was so big you could park an entire camel behind it.

I took off after her, Vayl already five steps ahead, Raoul right behind him, Cole at my heels, and Sterling loping easily at the back. If we’d been on wheels there would’ve been a lot of screeching and honking of horns as we came to abrupt halts at the top of the steps. Because she wasn’t there. I mean, not anywhere we could even chase her. What we did find hidden behind the pil ar was a plane portal, stil open to her destination.

We stared into the pit, each of us seeing our own version of hel ’s torturous landscape. Mine was pretty much the same as the last time I’d seen it, when Raoul and I had taken a trip there to get the goods on Edward “The Raptor” Samos. I saw a flaming sky covering an eternity of rock-strewn ground peopled by an endless crowd of shambling, self-abusing citizens. Even though I knew what to expect I stil wanted to puke. I peeked at Raoul from under my eyelashes, knowing his view was no better. It made me feel tons less wussified to see that the POW camp in his vision stil turned his skin slightly green. He said a few quiet words and the door went as blank as his eyes.