The Deadliest Bite (25 page)

“How does Mrs. Bemont like the view?” I asked.

“I don’t think she ever looks. She just complains about no running water and makes us haul buckets up to fil the tub we had to buy for her. She bathes quite often. ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness,’ she says, and then she cackles in that awful way she has, as if she’s got razor blades stuck in her throat.”

We al nodded sympathetical y until Vayl was final y satisfied that we were set to meet Cole’s fake wife. He’d made sure that I stil carried Grief and that I was armed both with the holy water I carried on my right wrist and the bolo sheathed in my pocket. He’d also checked to see that Raoul stil carried his holy blade, it was just hidden beneath the back of his jacket at the moment. Bergman, as usual, hadn’t thought to arm himself, and Aaron was without weaponry as wel .

Vayl handed Bergman his cane, saying, “I noticed you turned your ankle slightly while you were debarking the bus earlier this evening. Here, please feel free to use this to aid you for the rest of the evening.”

Bergman received the cane as if he were being given the care of a kingdom’s crown. His reverence nearly brought me out of the intense concentration I’d thrown myself into the moment the lights came on. Aaron’s whine, “What about me?” did the rest of the job.

“You’d manage to kil one of us with a butter knife,” I snapped. “Stay out of the way until further notice.”

He looked to Vayl for support, which amused me. Like some kid running to Daddy for permission after Mommy’s barred him from the cookie jar. The twinkle in Vayl’s eyes let me know his mind had fal en into the same track. He said, “Jasmine is right. If you would like to be trained so you know what to do in these situations in the future, I wil be happy to accommodate you. But for now your life, and ours, depend on your staying safely out of the way.” I smiled inwardly as Aaron bobbed his head. Final y a little respect from the would-be kil er. And al it had taken was major risk to his own hide. As soon as he fel to the back of the line I al owed myself to refocus. This deal, whatever it was, smacked of foul spel s and demoncraft. I’d need to be on my toes if I wanted to bring everybody back from this one. And oh God, did I ever want everybody to survive. One more second to recognize the crack in my shel , to realize nearly everyone I loved was in this place at this time. And then I shoved that sucker together, sealed it with superglue, and got on with my job.

Which, at the moment, was to fol ow Vayl and Sanji into a building I’d never scouted before, knowing ful wel it could be boobytrapped, packed with enemy forces, or just plain bad for the sinuses. I whispered down to Astral, “You go ahead of us. Let me know if you see hostiles.” She trotted ahead, slipping through the doorway as soon as Sanji opened it, and disappearing into the recesses of the building long before we reached its lobby.

I’d taken Jack’s lead from Vayl and wrapped it around my left wrist. But since I needed both hands to shoot straight, now I knotted it through my belt loop. “Be calm, boy,” I told my malamute, whose ears were perky enough to say he was enjoying this outing, but whose sleepy eyes thought I was way overreacting to a few surprise neons and what quite possibly was just a bitchy ex-girlfriend.

“Oh, I would be so pissed off if that was the case,” I whispered down to my dog. “Do you think he would actual y date somebody that crazy? Don’t answer that. I already know.” Fol owed closely by Bergman, Raoul, and Aaron, Vayl and I trailed Sanji into the lobby, which held several shelves ful of snack foods as wel as necessities like toothpaste and smal bottles of Tylenol. Across from these shelves stood the counter where, presumably, you could either pay for your gas, buy munchables, or rent a room. We walked past this area into a short hal way that turned sharply right, giving us the choice of taking the elevator or the stairs to the second floor. I told myself that I chose stairs because Jack needed the exercise. No, it wasn’t at al because I’d rather eat raw slugs than pile into an elevator with more than, say, one short, skinny, ideal y under-the-age-of-three person. That is, after al , the only time there’s enough room in an elevator. Strike that. Because, truthful y, there’s never enough room in an elevator. If there were, they’d cal it a mobile home.

Jack and I were halfway to the second floor, which Astral had already shown me consisted of a typical hal way lined with faded green carpeting and diarrhea-brown doors, when I realized everyone had fol owed my lead. When Vayl stood beside me once more at the top he said, “I presume you feel better.”

I nodded. So did Jack, because he’s just that supportive. “Aerobical y speaking, we are now completely warmed up and ready to rol .”

His dimple made a brief appearance. “Then I take it you are looking forward to our next confrontation?”

I took Grief’s safety off and made it ready to fire. “You could say that.”

“Would you do me a favor, then?”

His suddenly serious look caught me off guard. “Of course.”

He stepped into me until our thighs aligned. When his arm went around my waist and lifted, our hips locked like they’d been made in the same factory. “Make sure Raoul is not merely here to take you away from me forever.”

He let the words loose carelessly, but I heard the desperation behind them.
Don’t die tonight,
Jasmine, you’re all I’ve got
. That’s what his purple eyes told me. The message had been significant in earlier times, when that had been true. But now that he’d found Aaron, now that he was closing in on Hanzi, they stirred my heart like never before.

“I’l be careful,” I promised him.

He nodded. “Good.”

A kiss, the brush of lips that sent tingles racing straight to my toes, sealed the deal. And then we were leading Raoul, Bergman, and Aaron down the hal way toward an ugly brown door onto which a scratched brown plaque had been glued. I didn’t know Slovenian, but there was no mistaking the message. This was the honeymoon suite. Astral sat at the base of the door, as if she’d known right where I needed her to go. Fuh-reaky.

“Cole, are you in place?” asked Vayl.

“I’m in the attic above the suite’s bathroom. Luckily somebody here’s a big pervert, because there’s a camera system al set up, with predril ed holes for the naughty boy to peep into the shower anytime he can get away from the front desk. Jaz, when you get a chance, you may want to kick old Sanji there right in the gonadiphones.”

“Wil do,” I said.

Raoul tapped me on the shoulder. “It might not be him, you know.”

“I’m wil ing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But you’d better not be holding me back if we find him drooling over sex tapes after this is al said and done.”

“That’s a deal.”

We stopped outside the door. I handed Aaron Jack’s lead and scooped Astral into his free arm.

He nodded over what he understood was an enormous responsibility, especial y after I pointed to him, then to the animals, and made my if-anything-happens-tothem-I’l -kil -you face.

Bergman whispered, “Should we knock?”

I glanced at him. He was pale, but not nearly as shaky as the old Miles I’d known, who would’ve found five perfectly logical reasons to wait for us in the bus. I said, “She knew we were coming before we did. I imagine she’s got cookies and milk waiting on the table for us, don’t you?” He shrugged, then nodded, then shrugged again. “I’m new at this,” he final y said, in an effort to explain his indecision.

Vayl said, “You wil be fine, Bergman. Al you have to do is open the door and get out of the way.

I expect it to be unlocked. If it is not, just move out of my line of fire. Can you do that?” Bergman swal owed so hard that for a second it looked like he had a chicken bone stuck in his throat. Then he held up the cane and shook it a couple of times to express his certainty.

“Excel ent.” Vayl looked to one side, like he could see Dave and Cassandra through the wal s of the inn. To them as much as to our inside backup he said, “We are going in. Be on your toes, please. Our lives may be in your hands.”

“Yes sir,” Cole replied.

Dave maintained Party Line silence. The fact that he’d chosen to go into pure stealth mode, combined with Vayl’s refusal to mention him by name, gave me an odd sense of comfort. No tel ing how long ago “Mrs. Bemont” had predicted this meeting. But Dave and Cassandra had been last-minute additions to our crew. So if luck was on our side, and none of us blew their cover, my brother and his lovely, magical wife could turn out to be our secret weapons.

We lined up on the latch side of the door, just like we were in kindergarten and it was time for recess. Only this time we were required to keep contact, my hand on Vayl’s shoulder, Raoul’s on mine. Vayl and I knew our responsibilities once we were inside. I’d already told Raoul what part of the room to cover. Bergman would enter after we’d cleared the room, and Aaron had been instructed to stay in the hal unless he deemed it safer to slip into the room behind us.

Which left it to Vayl to begin. On his nod, I waited for Raoul to squeeze my shoulder. When I got his I’m-ready message I squeezed Vayl’s shoulder and he motioned to Bergman to open the door and step out of the way.

The door wasn’t heavy, like you’d expect in an American hotel. Miles could’ve swung it open with his pinky. Instead he jerked the latch down and shoved it wide, causing it to bang against the wal as we rushed into the room.

We stayed tight so we wouldn’t stray into each other’s line of fire. Vayl moved directly to his right, covering that corner of the room. I took the center and Raoul, stepping in directly behind me, covered the left corner. I could feel Bergman’s breath, hot against my neck, as he shadowed me, Vayl’s cane tapping nervously against the dingy wooden floor. I didn’t bother tracking Aaron. Some people are just born with a wel -defined sense of self-preservation. He, Jack, and Astral would be fine.

We al spoke at the same time.

“Clear,” Vayl said.

“Clear,” Raoul echoed.

“Don’t move or I’l shoot,” I snapped.

Sunday, June 17, 4:45 a.m
.

The creature lounging in the middle of the unmade bed looked, and smeled, like it hadn’t stirred from that spot in days. Covered in black from head to toe, it seemed more like a pile of funeral laundry than a living being. Until it turned its head.

“Holy shit!” I jerked back, immediately pul ing my finger off the trigger because I was afraid I’d twitch again and shoot it accidental y.

Sometime in the creature’s recent past it must’ve stood in the middle of a bonfire. Nothing else could’ve caused the scars I tried not to see as I winced at the massive damage that had made it cease to seem human. I assumed it had survived the burning because of the otherworldly power I felt seeping out of it like pus from an infected wound. And even then I could tel that it had only barely escaped. The skin of its face had a red, puckered texture as if it had been gone over with a cheese grater. Its nose had melted to half its normal size, and its lips had been incinerated, leaving only a line of thin white skin to mark the barrier between face and teeth. No eyebrows or lashes gave evidence of masculinity or femininity. Just misery. That was what oozed from the creature. Wave after wave of pain-laced despair.

It had covered itself with a chador, the black tent-dress we had seen women wear so often during our trip to Iran. Over its head it had draped a black shawl nearly as long as the dress, under which it huddled so successful y that I couldn’t see a hint of any other skin. No jewelry gave us a clue as to who the creature might be, so Vayl decided to go at it with a directness that surprised me.

“You cannot be Mrs. Bemont,” he said. “We have seen pictures of Cole’s mother, and she looks nothing like you.”

The creature’s awful pink tongue darted out and licked a bead of sweat off what now passed for its upper lip. “Is that how you greet an old friend, Vayl?” It nodded toward me. “You’ve been spending too much time with Little Miss Mannerless over there.”

I felt my brows come together. The voice, raspy as it was, stil sounded eerily familiar. Where had I heard it before?

Before I could think of a legit question that would force the creature to speak again, Raoul began to shift from one foot to another as he plucked at the buttons of his shirt like they’d been heated over a stove. When he backed off to where Aaron stood beside the door, holding the handle with the hand that also prevented Jack from leaping to my side while he clutched Astral to his chest with the other, Raoul visibly relaxed. The fact that he’d drawn his sword didn’t hurt his demeanor either.

“What is it?” I asked him.

He nodded toward the bed. “That is an abomination.”

My stomach fel , hard, like it had just slipped on a trail of bacon grease. Raoul had worked around unholy types before. He’d taken me on a field trip to hel , for Pete’s sake! And he’d never reacted like this. I slipped my finger back onto the trigger.

“Whatcha got going on under al that material, Mrs. Bemont?” I asked the creature as I stepped toward it.

“Oh, I’l show you soon enough,” it assured me. “But first, I made a promise to you not so long ago. Do you remember, Jasmine? Standing in the rubble you made when you blew the seal off the entrance to Satan’s canal, watching me steal the Rocenz from right under your nose? I told you then that if you got it back I would meet you at the gates of hel to help you defeat Brude.” The creature motioned with one black-draped arm to the gleaming silver tool at my belt. “You have it back. And I am sitting at one of the gates even as we speak.”

“How can that be?” whispered Bergman. He’d stayed so close to my shoulder that if someone had turned on a bright light he’d have blotted out my shadow.

“I don’t know,” I told him. “It’s not one of your physics problems you can work out with a little thought and a great calculator, Miles. Some things just don’t make sense.”