Bitten in Two (39 page)

He explained, his tone real gentlemanly as he said, “I knew you’d show. You always do. And Raoul told me that where you are, a portal eventual y appears. He doesn’t know why, but… see? There it is.”

He nodded, glancing over my shoulder as he did, so I looked. He was right, a plane portal stood in the middle of the tannery, just in front of a tank twice as large as the canal. It contained the swamp of chemicals necessary to begin the whole leather-making process. Balancing on the edge of the vat, Yousef stood holding a smal , leather-bound book in one hand.

“I make a perfect place to put her!” Yousef said proudly, motioning to the door, the center of which wasn’t its usual motioning to the door, the center of which wasn’t its usual velvety black. I’d underestimated my stalker again. When he’d told me his workplace was considered the doorway to the land of the dead, I didn’t realize that he could open those doors.

“So what’s next?” I asked, careful to keep my eyes on Bergman despite the fact that they wanted to dart to Sterling, who’d just dropped off the roof of the building opposite mine. His move reminded me of Mary Poppins.

Only instead of holding an umbrel a he had a rope that lowered him so gently you’d swear his best friend was standing on the anchored side. Al he had to do was stick a sandaled foot through the loop he’d tied to the end and hang on. I glanced at my broken fingernails, my bruised toes, and thought,
Wielders piss me off.

Which was probably why Bergman knew the warlock had joined us. He could read my expressions better than I could Vayl’s. Without turning his head he said, “Hey, Sterling, what’s up?”

“Not much. How they hanging, dude?”

“One’s a little lower than the other but my doctor says I can stil have kids. How about you?”

Sterling was struggling too hard against a sudden urge to laugh to be able to form a coherent reply.

“How about you, Vayl?” Bergman asked, so überaware that he’d detected the vampire’s presence even before I had, and I was wearing his ring! I turned to find my
sverhamin
standing just behind me holding Cole in his arms.

“We battled wel , Miles. But I am afraid Cole is not himself.”

I brushed a hand through our translator’s hair. Even it had lost its usual wild spring. “Cole,” I whispered. “Your eyes…”

“The world’s gone red, Jaz,” he said, sounding like a little kid who’s gotten lost and knows his mom and dad should’ve found him by now. “It’s like I’m looking at everything through a curtain of blood.” His voice sounded like it had crawled over sharpened stones to get to me.

“And I like it.”

I glared at Kyphas. “You’re doing this to him! Changing him into something he was never supposed to be!”

“He was always meant to be mine!” she said, with more spirit than she had a right to, considering her blood had left a pool the size of a dinner plate on the ground beneath her.

“Not in this state!” I said. “Look at him! This isn’t the Cole you fel for! This is a crimson-eyed half-man who
still
won’t love you once you’ve completely demonized him!” She stared at him, her expression so needy I felt embarrassed to witness it. Then her eyes rol ed up to Bergman. “Let me go and I’l release your friend,” she said.

“You and your deals,” Miles said sarcastical y. “Where have they gotten us so far? You’re stil holding the Rocenz.

Jasmine’s stil possessed. We’re stil not convinced Cassandra’s a free bird. And now Cole’s soul is halfway to perdition. You want to know what
I
think?” She shook her head, slowly at first, and then when she caught the look in Bergman’s eyes, a whole lot faster. He told her anyway.

“I think you need to die.”

“ I
can’t
let go of the Rocenz!” she cried. “The blood between my fingers and the handle burns like acid, but it won’t let go of me until it finishes the job it started! That’s how it was crafted! And Cassandra
is
free! I told you the contract was complete!”

He leaned down. “You know what I know about demons?” She shook her head. “Demons lie.” He yanked her upright. Whether it was the move or his intentions, I didn’t know, but they both began to bleed heavily as he dragged her toward the door.

I turned to my
sverhamin
. “Vayl,” I whispered.

He laid Cole down, gently propping his back against the corner I’d been using. “Our Trust, the stone, and the Rocenz,” he reminded me. “We care for nothing else.” I stared down at Cole, blinking hard to stop the stinging in my eyes. “What if—”

Vayl pul ed me away from the building, nodding for Sterling to join us as he said, “Cole may not be in the Trust.

But he is a friend of us al . We protect him as if he was one of our own.”

The three of us met at the head of the canal and walked, shoulder to shoulder, after Bergman and Kyphas as they stumbled toward Yousef and the door.

I said, “We’ve gotta get that stone out of her chest, Miles. Cole can’t be okay again while—”

“I know what I’m doing!” he yel ed, his eyes blazing as they caught mine.

“What about the Rocenz?” Vayl asked gently. “Jasmine cannot go on much longer without—”

“This demon’s gotta die! Look at what she does to people she loves!” he shouted, pointing at Cole, who’d begun to cough something thick and bloody onto the ground between his trembling hands. “What do you think she’s going to do to us the second she gets a chance? I’ve been reading up on spel s. It’s basic negation. She dies, her shit dies with her!”

“It’s not always that simple though,” Sterling said, his suggestion so gentle he might’ve been singing Miles a lul aby.

But our genius hadn’t climbed to the top of his field without a hearty helping of thick-skul ed stubbornness. He took a beat to stare into the hel Yousef had opened. I didn’t know what his eyes revealed, but mine showed an island so tiny you couldn’t have stretched out to sleep at night. The water around it was clear enough to reveal the fins and jagged teeth of the sea creatures that circled it as if they’d been cal ed for a feast. Some of them couldn’t wait, and those attacked each other, tearing huge hunks of meat from the backs and sides of weaker prey until the water ran red.

Bergman shoved Kyphas toward the door. “You’d better hope you fal on land, bitch. But it won’t matter for long. Some of those sharks can walk.”

I said, “Bergman! No!”

Vayl sprang forward like a panther leaping into the hunt.

Sterling swung his wand into play as the flames around the portal flared.

Every part of my mind screamed,
Bergman, no!

Bergman, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!
as I lunged after Vayl.

Sterling’s wand shot out a claw of electric-blue bolts that flew between us. Too late. Bergman had pushed Kyphas into the portal’s center. Then he stumbled and fel to his knees, pul ing Kyphas down with him. He didn’t stop there though. He was stil moving. Sliding toward the gateway as if he was being…
pulled
.

“Bergman!” I shouted as Sterling’s claw hit, raking down Kyphas’s body, making her writhe and scream.

Miles began to shake from the echo zapping him through their connection, which now he couldn’t seem to break even though he wanted to.

“Let me go!” he yel ed. He tried to jerk away, but his hands stayed tight to her wrist and the Rocenz despite the fact that she’d planted her feet in his stomach and was pul ing back just as hard as he was.

Astral leaped around their heads as they struggled, her urgency a reflection of the emotion she was recording. But nobody seemed to know what orders to give her.

Kyphas screamed, “Cole! Don’t let them take me back!”

Unrecognizable sounds from behind us. I couldn’t tel whether our sniper was puking or laughing, but the sound he made let me know he didn’t give a shit where she ended up.

Vayl grabbed Bergman around the waist. Dug in his heels and tried to wrench him free.

Bergman screamed, “My arms! Vayl, you’re breaking my arms! And my stitches! Ahhh!”

Now al three of them were inching toward the door, as if an invisible rope held them and was pul ing them slowly into the pit.

Pissed at myself that I hadn’t been able to respond faster, mad at Bergman for his sudden, unexplained bid for superhero status, infuriated with Yousef for helping him and Kyphas for just being herself, I joined the trio edging toward the gateway with the finesse of a tornado. In other words—I fel on them.

It had the effect of a wide receiver jumping onto the top of a pileup. Astral hopped on top of me, which resulted in some grunting, but no observable progress.

I took hold of Kyphas’s arms and jerked. Astral sank her teeth into the demon’s hand and pul ed. Her wrist began to bleed where Bergman’s hand would not slip. But even with the added grease and everyone playing tug-of-war, we couldn’t break their grips. Because Bergman and Kyphas were no longer in charge. Something from inside that doorway had grabbed them both.

“Sterling! Do something!” I yel ed as Vayl looked around for something we could brace ourselves against.

Sterling was emptying his pockets. “No, that won’t work,” he said and threw a pouch onto a growing pile on the ground. “That’l just burn holes in them,” he murmured, and a velvet bag joined the bunch.

“Come on, you good-for-nothing warlock!” I yel ed, nearly gagging on my own puke as I swal owed a wave of hel -stench that made my eyes rol back in my head. “Pul a rabbit out of your ass already!”

Bergman was only three feet from the door when I heard Sterling say, “A blessed shield be on you!” The spel literal y blew Vayl off Bergman, slamming him into the ground, leaving him dazed and steaming.

“Vayl!” I screamed as a second explosion of shield-shaped air ripped me off Kyphas. I rol ed down a narrow aisle until my thighs hit a vat. “Fuck!” The only advantage of being slammed into a concrete bowl was that it had temporarily taken my mind off the potential loss of the Rocenz, and my life. Oh, and my headache.

I gripped the side of the vat and struggled to my feet, staring as Bergman lunged backward, trying to free himself from the demon’s hold. When he got one hand off her wrist, I realized Sterling’s spel had worked for him too. Now it was just between him and Kyphas again.

“Bergman!” I yel ed. “We have to have that hammer!” Even though my knees tried to buckle under me with every step, I began walking toward them, moving my eyes between Vayl, Cole, and Bergman. My
sverhamin
looked as sick as I felt, and his clothes were so badly singed they’d be going straight to the dumpster. But he was already rising. Cole—God, I could hardly stand to see his face, drawn taut in a snarl that, along with the finger-length horns, made him look more beast than human. His red eyes flickered on mine but he didn’t recognize me.

Kyphas could see him too. But she seemed determined to ignore the devastation she’d brought on him.

Instead of giving him a smile, a nod of encouragement, she stared into hel ’s fishing hole. When she final y turned back toward Bergman the door had begun to swal ow her. She’d managed to wedge her heel into its base, but even her superior strength couldn’t hold it back for long.

superior strength couldn’t hold it back for long.

She looked up at him, both hands tight on the Rocenz now. “Save me,” she whispered.

He sat on stones so caked with dried droppings, animal hair, and fat that the smel would never come out of his jeans, holding the other end of the only tool that could save my life.

I dropped behind him, wrapped my arms and legs around him like we were about to take the bumpiest sled ride of our lives, and held on tight, his blood soaking into my clothes as I said, “Save yourself, Kyphas.” I jerked my head toward Cole. “And start by admitting there’s one soul here that means more to you than your own life.” Her eyes went back to Cole, whose groans were becoming harder to tel apart from his growls. I couldn’t read the expression on her perfectly formed face. I prayed it leaned toward pity. But before she could confirm or deny my hopes, she lost her grip on our world. Her legs slipped through the door. Water splashed. She jerked to one side.

Her knuckles went white as she clutched the Rocenz and screamed. “Cole!”

He screamed too. As if he could feel her pain.

Her torso was through. Bergman and I jolted forward like we’d come to the end of our rol er-coaster ride and it was nearly time to debark. But I had a feeling we were just strapping in.

Shadows towered over us. Sterling dumped al his pockets, hoping to find the one spel that would separate the Rocenz from its operator. Vayl, holding his sword high like he meant to decapitate her, staggered forward.

“Give him up, Kyphas!” Vayl commanded. And again, dropping the sword slightly as if he was wil ing to make a deal, “Let Cole go. He might even love you for it.” One of her hands released. Reached into her chest and came out, fouled with blood and black stringy gore. But she also held the rock she’d chiseled.

Bergman reached for it. As soon as he touched it, Kyphas was yanked into the air. Bergman and I must’ve peered into hel at the same time, because we both screamed. Later he described his monster like something off the Sci-Fi channel, skinless and oozing, its hands so perfectly formed into blades that they sliced into Kyphas’s muscles like meat hooks. My version wasn’t so clear. It was as if the muck of the tannery vat had transferred itself into that ocean, and what rose from it to drag Kyphas under could only be seen in bits. Algae-green tentacles that wrapped around her thighs, their slime eating into her skin like cure-resistant bacteria. A tuft of blond hair that fel like silk over huge hungry eyes gleaming with wicked humor.