Make Me (29 page)

“I’ll take care of that with a vest that will stop any darts,” Dan said. “But Lilith is in control of Gwen’s body. How do we take her without hurting Gwen?” He looked at Micah. “Can you do that?”

“Not while Asmodeus is still in control of Lilith as the demon who brought her here. No incubus can.”

That left David out, too.

“I can help with that,” Austin said.

“How?” Dan asked doubtfully.

“Superior strength. She won’t be used to her new abilities yet, and I still outweigh her, even if she has figured out how to use them. I’ll hold onto her until Val forces Asmodeus to change Gwen back.”

I nodded slowly. “Thanks for offering to help, Austin. This could actually work.”

He tipped his hat at me. “Consider this a favor returned. Besides, once we deal with the mage demon, you can finish helping the Movement find the person creating chupacabras.”

“What?” Dan asked. “How is that pertinent?”

We explained to everyone what we’d learned about the chupacabra
menace. I finished with, “The only problem is, we don’t know where they’re coming from or how they’re being made.”

“I think we just learned the second part tonight,” Austin drawled. When we all looked at him questioningly, he added, “Someone is forcing vampires to turn demons. Mixing their blood makes victims of them both.”

Now that he said it, it was obvious. “They’re crazed so they’re attacking anything that moves.” And it explained the random piles of ash we’d found—a demon-turned-vampire would be too crazed to realize sunlight was dangerous.

“Everyone in the New Blood Movement was warned,” Austin added. “Lisette’s people wouldn’t deliberately drink blood from a demon or turn one. They knew what would happen.”

“And a demon wouldn’t willingly be turned into a vampire,” Micah added.

The light dawned. “They’d do it if they were forced to.”

“Yes, but who could force—” Austin broke off and stared at me.

“I could,” I confirmed. “The missing vamps were all male, right? And if I could—”

“—Dina could,” everyone else finished in unison.

And Dina’s house was very near the park.
Didn’t you read that in her mind?
I asked Fang.

NOPE. I CAN ONLY READ SURFACE THOUGHTS. AND WHEN I WAS WITH YOU, SHE WAS ONLY THINKING ABOUT KIDNAPPING, SHADE AND THE BOOKS.

That’s right. Fang wasn’t with us when I asked her about the chupacabras
.
So it probably was her. But she could only control men. Why would she toss away her own people like used tissues?” Then again, it would explain why I’d found Adam Bukowski’s wallet under that rock, and maybe what had happened to Blaine Williamson. Not to mention the ash piles.

“But why?” Ludwig asked.

“To cement her power base,” Micah said with a grim look. “She’s power hungry. She wants to control the women too, so she’s trying to make her
own
Memory Eater from a man she can control. If she can, she’ll be able to rule with an iron fist.”

“Yesss,” came confirmation from the nightmare in the corner.

Micah looked pained. “There is a ritual to identify demons who have the potential to become Memory Eaters. The demon then has the choice whether to accept the role or not. But most soothsayers, who have all control over the rituals, refuse to subject anyone to that.” He nodded toward the skeletal woman. “This one has been on the job for hundreds of years.”

The poor woman.

Suddenly, the Memory Eater was standing before me, grabbing my shoulders, staring into my eyes. “You seee nooow. Releassse meee,” she insisted.

Obviously, she wanted me to end her torment, kill her. “No. I—I can’t.” I didn’t kill the good guys. And no matter how monstrous she appeared, she was on our side.

She seemed to make an effort to bring her mind into focus. In a barely audible whisper, she said, “I can offer… much. Remove… your memories of… what your family… did to you, remove their memories… of you. Just… release me from… this nightmare.”

Shocked, I backed away from her. This woman was powerful. And very, very scary.

Micah stood and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Come,” he said gently, and I felt him use his incubus powers. “Rest in the corner until we’re done.”

Sudden realization made sheer panic stab through me. Ohmigod. Was Dina planning to turn
Shade
into a Memory Eater?

“I’ll tell Alejandro and Lisette what we’ve learned,” Austin said. “And they’ll round up some folks to send to Dina’s house as soon as it turns dark.”

But I wanted to
be
there, to ensure Shade stayed safe.

YOU CAN’T BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE, Fang said, sounding regretful.

“I know that,” I snapped at him. But how could I possibly choose between them? Save my roommate and my only real nondemon friend? Or Shade, my first and only lover, my very good friend?

My gut roiled with indecision.

YOU KNOW WHAT THE CHOICE HAS TO BE, Fang said, looking up at me with sad eyes.

I buried my fingers in his fur. Yes, I did, unfortunately. Gwen was an innocent in all this, and Dan was right when he said I was the best one, the only one, to stop Asmodeus. I blinked back tears and glared fiercely at Austin. “You swear they’ll be at her house at sundown?”

“As soon as they can make it,” he promised. “I’ll arrange it now.”

That would have to do. “Okay,” I said. But if anything happened to Shade, I’d never forgive myself.

As Austin and Micah excused themselves to make phone calls, Dan’s phone rang. He glanced at it. “It’s that same disposable cell number,” he said. “Why would Asmodeus call me?”

I was baffled for a moment, then realized. “It’s not him. It’s Gwen. I mean Lilith. She doesn’t know that you’re with us.”

“What would she want of me?” Dan asked.

“I don’t know,” I said impatiently. “Answer it.”

He frowned but went out into the hall to answer the phone. We all waited impatiently for him to come back. When he did, the expression on his face was grim, but satisfied.

“What did she want?” I asked.

“Lilith pretended to be Gwen and asked if I knew where you were. I didn’t let her know I was on to her. I told her you were in Austin and that I didn’t know where you were right now, but that you’d be at the ritual tonight.”

“Good,” Micah said. “So the trap is set.”

We finalized the plans as much as we could, made arrangements to meet back at Austin’s room later, then split up to eat, sleep and get whatever we needed for tonight. The ones who’d driven up from San Antonio went to the floor Jack and I had stayed on earlier. I didn’t care to go back there, and since I couldn’t get much higher in the city and away from the mage demon than Austin’s suite, I chose to stay with him. In one of the other bedrooms.

My sleep was restless, haunted by dreams of everything that could possibly go wrong. And in every one of them, I screwed up, ensuring Gwen and Shade both died horribly.

I woke in a cold sweat in midafternoon and decided that going back to sleep wasn’t an option. The vampires had excellent time-controlled black-out shades on the windows, so no light penetrated into the room. I turned the bedside lamp on low and saw that Fang and Princess were curled up together at the foot of the bed, snoring softly. Well, at least if nothing else had turned out right, this had. I was happy for them.

I used the time and the quiet to stare at the ceiling and think. I hadn’t had the luxury to do much of that lately and it felt strange, and good.

Heck, who was I kidding? I was more of a doer than a thinker. The problem was that lately it seemed like I was in constant react mode, always responding to other people’s agendas, other people’s wants and needs. When had that started? Oh yeah, when my parents kicked me out of the house a couple of months ago.

And
that
was why I didn’t like to do much thinking. That memory still hurt. No matter that I finally understood why they had done it, no matter that our relationship was getting back on an even keel. I still craved my old life. It seemed so simple, so uncomplicated compared to this existence. No responsibilities, no contracts with bloodsuckers, no touchy ex-boyfriends, no—

NO FAITHFUL HELLHOUNDS, Fang put in sleepily.

I chuckled. “You’re the best part of my new life,” I whispered. Fang and Shade. At least, Shade used to be. Plus having found the Demon Underground and learning there were other freaks like me didn’t suck either.

Fang moved over to snuggle against my side. YOU CAN’T GO BACK.

“I know,” I said regretfully, stroking his wispy ears. But I wished I could. Back to before Shade met Dina, before he had turned so cold. What had happened there? It seemed out of character, but I had to admit I really didn’t understand men. “I wish I could combine the best of the past and the present.”

Then again, maybe I could. The Memory Eater’s offer came back to me. She could make my parents forget they’d ever kicked me out, make my half sister forget she was ever stupid enough to want to be just like me, make me forget the pain of their rejection. Everything would be like it was. Almost.