The Deadliest Bite (29 page)

“But you do it so wel .” He ran his lips down the side of my neck and I shivered. But I’d learned a few tricks since our first encounter, and when I slid the tip of my tongue down the edge of his ear he grabbed me with both hands, pul ing me forward until I was straddling his lap.

“I do other things wel too,” I pointed out, just in case he hadn’t noticed, as I feathered a dozen kisses down the line of his jaw.

“Ung.”

Oh baby, what can be better for the ego than rendering your mega-experienced Vampere lover speechless? I felt like I’d just gained a bra size and learned how to walk in stilettos without appearing bowlegged al in one swoop! And then? Just because I wanted a little icing on the cake, I said, “We should go. I’m sure they’re waiting on us. Vayl!”

He’d wrapped both arms around me and swung me to the floor, managing to land on top without bruising either of us. I kinda wanted to see the instant replay, but he already had his lips buried between my breasts, who I guess he thought should hear the news first. “Our crew can wait. You just gave me the best gift I have ever received in my
extremely
long life. I must thank you appropriately.

Like this.”

He did something with his lips that made me giggle uncontrol ably. “Vayl! What did you—okay, you can total y do that again.”

Which, thankful y, he did.

Sunday, June 17, 7:00 p.m
.

We met the rest of our crew in Raoul’s room an hour after sundown. I don’t know if it was kindness to us or reluctance to start the last leg of the mission that had kept them from pounding on our door, but they’d left us alone, al owing us to join them when we final y decided we were ready to go.

We were pretty crowded in there, with Bergman and Cole sitting crosslegged on one bed while Raoul took up most of the other, though Astral had sprawled out beside him with her legs stretched in either direction as if she’d suddenly gone boneless. Aaron took up the single chair by the rickety old table. Each crew member held a double-edged blade that he was buffing to a shine that would send arcs of pain through your eyebal s similar to a camera flash if you looked at it just wrong.

Astral peered at us from her perch for a moment, then she said, “The devil’s in the detailsssss,” drawing the S out so that she sounded like a hissing snake.

Bergman looked up apologetical y. “She’s stopped running random videos, but I can’t figure out yet where the funky audio links are coming from. The wiring’s pretty intricate, and my best diagnostics equipment is in my lab.”

I nodded. “It’s okay. We should let her talk.” Especial y since I suspected she was trying to help. I sat down beside her and patted my lap. She took my meaning and hopped on, putting her paws on my chest so she could whisper into my ear, “Hel o.”

“You’ve got the hel right,” I murmured back to her.

Vayl had moved over to stand by Aaron. “What is this, a cleanser?” he asked, pointing to the goop that wetted his son’s rag.

Aaron glanced up. “Raoul says it has powerful properties of its own. Here it just looks like albino Turtle Wax. Down there it’l make the weapon feel a little lighter so it’l move through the air—and other things—cleaner. And then there’s the writing.” He pointed to an ancient script that had been carved into the blade. “Raoul says it’s Hebrew.”

Cole said, “Raoul’s right. I’ve only been able to read a few words because I just started learning the language. But it seems to me like these swords are loaded for bear. I wouldn’t be surprised if they grew legs and a tail and carried you down to the gate on their pommels like some sort of sword/horse breed known only to Disney cartoonists and Eldhayr fanatics like Raoul over here.”

“I am not a fanatic!” Raoul replied, pretty quickly and kinda loud for somebody who shouldn’t care what a bunch of Earth-dwel ers thought.

“Wel , you are wearing a uniform,” Aaron said.

Bergman piped up. “And a couple of hours ago you freely admitted to liking Kool-Aid.” I grinned at my little buddy, who was not only developing some pure brass cojones, but a stel ar sense of humor to match. Raoul thundered, “I am not some sort of cultist!” just as Cassandra threw open the door.

“Of course you are, Raoul,” she said cheerful y. “And we love you for it. Everyone should be so passionately committed to one thing that they have no other life whatsoever, at least for a while.” While Raoul tried to figure out exactly what she meant, she came over to me and scratched Astral under the chin. The cat’s eyes closed and she began her mechanical imitation of a purr. Geez, could Bergman pul off the robotics or what?

I said, “I thought you were going to be closeted with the infomercial here al day long.” I nodded to the cat on my shoulder.

Cassandra cocked her head at us. Something seemed different to me. I stepped back to try to figure it out. Was she actual y dancing in place? Yeah, her ruffled yel ow skirt was definitely swaying back and forth in time with some rhythm that also occasional y sent her shoulders bobbing and the beads on her freshly cleaned and patched purse clicking.

“Cassandra? Are you al right?” I asked. Then I saw Dave grinning in the hal behind her and knew it couldn’t be al that bad.

“More than that,” she said. “But real y it’s no thanks to your cat. I think we need to upgrade her databases or something. She had no information about hel ’s prophets anywhere in them.”

“Wel , of course not. I don’t think anybody on Earth has ever even seen one and lived to tel about it. The Great Taker seems to keep them even more secret than Apple does their next-generation gadgets.”

“True,” Cassandra al owed. “But they have been felt. I’ve even had a glimpse or two.” Her mood quickly dropped off. “It’s like rubbing up against a wal of slime. But once you get past the ick factor, you can manipulate them.”

Everybody in the room sat a little straighter as she explained. “These prophets who’ve been trailing Jaz and Vayl know they’re coming. They even think they know by which gate. See, they’re tapping the future, the same way a vintner taps a keg. Shoving their psyches into the fabric of time and forcing its juices to reveal pictures of what is to come. But they’re bound by the same laws as I am.”

“Meaning what?” Dave asked.

“Meaning they need something of Jaz’s or Vayl’s to drive that spigot in correctly. Preferably something they can touch. If we gave them something new, they’d be ecstatic. They’d feel like they had an even better feel for where you’l be going and when you’l get there, so they can set up an ambush and drive you right into it.” She paused, grinning at Vayl. “After you snatch Hanzi, of course.” He nodded at her, giving silent thanks for her optimism.

Raoul was rubbing his forehead. “And how do we turn that to our favor?”

“We feed the wrong story into the item. Wel .” She looked at the floor bashful y. “Actual y I would do that. It takes pretty immense psychic power to pul that off and, since most of you know how long I’ve been around by now, I think I should volunteer.”

“Now, wait a minute,” said Dave. “I may not know a lot about what you do, but I know it takes energy, sometimes so much that you’re exhausted by the end of the day. How are you supposed to pul off something this big without hurting yourself and the baby?” She nodded. “I’ve already thought of that. I need your energy. Al of you,” she added, looking around the room. “I need to feed off it so this transfer doesn’t kil me or…” She reached out to Dave, who grasped her hand in both of his, bowed over it, and pretended not to cry.

“You are going to need a personal item of ours as wel , correct?” asked Vayl.

Cassandra said, “Yes, like a piece of jewelry.” She looked at me hopeful y and I realized almost instantly what she wanted.
Which is fine
, I told myself.
It’s not like I didn’t know this day would come
.

But it was hard, it hurt to pul the ring Matt had put so much thought into, the one he’d slipped on my finger the night he’d asked me to marry him and I’d said yes, it was so much tougher than I’d imagined to lay it in Cassandra’s hand and say, “Here. This has been with me through the best and worst times of my life. It should work.”

She closed her fingers around it and smiled gently. “It’s for the good of the Trust,” she said.

“Yes,” Vayl’s agreeable voice sounded booming next to my whisper. I stared around the room with its rotting bedspread, peeling wal paper, and chipped dressers, feeling the loss, waiting for the moment when it would be okay again. Then Jack was there, shoving his nose into the backs of my calves, which was his way of saying he’d had enough snacks for one day, it was time for dinner.
And
oh, by the way? I love you, Jaz
.

I knelt down.
I love you too, buddy. And we both love Vayl, who’s waiting as patiently as he can.

But, look at him. He’s terrified that Hanzi will die in that wreck just like Dave foresaw. Isn’t it about
time we shoved that monkey off his back?

I looked around the room. “Thanks for making such great preparations, guys. It looks like you’l be set when we get back.”

Sudden silence as my friends faced the fact that we might not return. Even Aaron managed to look concerned. I took Vayl’s hand. “There’s no room in here,” I said. Then I smiled, my eyes twinkling up into his as I said, “We have a lot of luck with showers. Let’s try in there.” His lips quirking, he said, “I bow to your vast experience in this area,” and fol owed me into the room, which was covered with faded pink tile, its grout so dingy that it almost looked black. Since he hadn’t been told to stay, Jack fol owed us, watching with interest as I slid the ivory shower curtain to one side and then leaned against the sink. Vayl buried one hand in the scruff of Jack’s neck fur as I thought about summoning the door, just like I had in Brude’s dungeon. Only this time I considered it more like a phone cal to a dear old friend.
Come on, girl. Pick up the line
.

The portal shimmered into being inside the tub like it had always been there, but I’d only now gained the visual acuity to see it. Framed by blue-and-orange flames, it stood at ceiling height and took up the entire length of the tub. It was the biggest door I’d seen, discounting the one I’d cal ed to transport Aaron Senior’s cel .

I leaned over, placing one hand on the tub’s edge, keeping the other firmly on the comforting reality of Jack. “I know who you are,” I whispered.

The flames danced merrily.

“You and Raoul,” I went on. “You’re the only beings who’ve ever real y seen my soul. The fact that neither of you ran screaming—I appreciate that.”

Another leap and twirl of flame. I began to associate it with joyous laughter.

“I understand now that you were helping me before, when you chose a familiar battleground where I could fight the Magistrate with sort of a home-field advantage. And when you appeared in Brude’s territory so we could escape—that couldn’t have been easy or safe for you. Now I’m ready for that favor I was tel ing you about before.”

As I spoke the flames banked and rose, as if every thought and breath of the creature who appeared to us al as a plane portal was communicated through that movement. When I felt she understood, I motioned for Vayl to come forward beside me.

I whispered, “She’s wil ing to help.”

“She?”

“Um, yeah. I think you’d cal her, like, a guardian angel. Only she’s more about movement than destination, so there’s probably a neutral word that works better. It’s just that I don’t know her language so I couldn’t tel you what it is. My Sensitivity is wide open since you took my blood, so I’m feeling her pretty strongly. I can tel you she was once a spectacular human being. But she hasn’t had a body like we know them for thousands of years.”

“What is she going to do?” Vayl asked.

“Jump us to Spain. Pul us back.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “As near as I can tel ? It’s who she is. Al I had to do was stop limiting her, start seeing her possibilities, and now infinite travel destinations are open to us.” His eyes began to glow. “We could go anywhere. Safe from your people and mine.” I nodded. “But we could come back to visit. Because my family is stil mine. And I won’t abandon them.”

“Nor I.”

“Speaking of which.” I motioned to the portal. “Let’s go get that crazy kid of yours.” Vayl’s smile lit up my entire heart. “Indeed.”

He took my hand, I grabbed Jack’s col ar, and together we stepped into the hotel tub, through my guardian’s doorway, into the loudest damn arena I’d crashed since Dave and I had sneaked into the monster truck ral y during our junior year of high school and nearly gotten thrown out when we’d found one idling backstage and decided to take it for a spin. Literal y. Lucky for us we’re real y fast runners.

Sunday, June 17, 7:15 p.m
.

I’l give this to my portal, she had a sense of humor. She’d set us down at the back of a temporarily fenced-in tract of watereddown dirt that looked like it was normal y used as a range for long-distance target practice. Near the horizon I could see the hulks of bombed tanks and trucks. Closer to hand, set in a semicircle around the fence, mobile spectator stands had been erected. In them GIs and their families cheered on the stuntmen who were currently putting on an engine-revving, tire-spinning show for them in the cool of the Andalusian evening. At the moment three bright yel ow racing-striped cars were taking turns running up to a ramp and hitting it with their front and back wheels, which levered them up into the air. Then they competed to see how long they could run around the ring before fal ing back to their natural state.

“Your son is a nutbag,” I murmured to Vayl.

“Hanzi always was the adventurous one,” he replied.

“Uh-huh. So how do we find him before—Oh, I see.”

Lined up down the middle of the track were five semi trucks with their trailers attached. A ramp led up to the first one and another led down from the last. Hanzi must have intended to jump these, probably at the end of the show, since the hoops at the tops of the ramps looked flammable and it would, no doubt, promise to be the team’s most spectacular stunt.