The Deadliest Bite (5 page)

I savored the moment, knowing how quickly it was about to change. Dreading the possibilities ahead of me. Vayl’s two sons had been murdered when he was stil human. He had made it his quest to find their re-embodied souls ever since. And now that the reality was staring me in the face, I wanted to annihilate it. So typical.

I stepped back, shoving Aaron’s revolver into the waistband of my jeans to make sure it was wel out of the way when I told Vayl, “Cassandra cal ed to warn me about the shooting just before it happened. Obviously I was too late to stop it, and I sure as hel wanted to fol ow through with the retribution after I’d seen what this dude had done. But she wouldn’t let me.”

“Why not?” Vayl asked, his icy blue eyes tracking every stray hair, every bruise and hol ow of his attacker, cataloguing what he saw for future reference.

I cleared my throat. “She believes he’s your son.”

Vayl went stil . His eyes broke to mine, hope blooming in them like wild daffodils. “Is she sure?”

“Not without touching him, but she spoke to him. She ran the tarot. And the Enkyklios is confirming. She says this guy Aaron is the reincarnation of your boy Badu.” I glanced at Raoul. He was watching Vayl intently, his hands buried in Jack’s fur. I realized he was hoping Vayl wouldn’t be crushed when Aaron rejected him. That, despite his personal problems with vamps, he was quietly supporting the creature he’d tried to boot out of my life a few months ago.

After a minute I realized Vayl hadn’t responded. I looked back up at him and tried to decide if he’d changed in that moment, or if I’d suddenly been given leave to see him more clearly. His hair, stil glistening with droplets from the shower, curled riotously al over his head. His jet-black eyebrows slanted like wings over eyes that had softened to gold with brown flecks dancing in their depths. They contrasted startlingly with the hard lines of his cheekbones and jaw, although when I saw the dimple appear in his right cheek I knew his feelings ran deep to the hopeful side of the bank.

“I cannot believe it.”

“Okay.”
And yet, you want to, so damn desperately. Oh, Vayl. I won’t be able to stand it if this
little fuckhead breaks your heart
. I glared at Aaron, showing him with my eyes exactly what I would do to him if he hurt my
sverhamin
, in any way, ever again.

Vayl stepped closer to the young man, the intensity of his stare making the boy look nervously for an exit. Like he’d make it that far. Vayl grasped him by the shoulders and raised him to his feet, looking so deeply into his eyes that Aaron winced as he asked shakily, “What do you want?” Then, realizing he might not like the answer, added, “I’m a real y rare blood type. It’s probably al bitter and tangy.”

“Undoubtedly,” said Vayl. He glanced at me. “How sure is she?”

“I’d guess about eighty percent.”

His eyes went back to his would-be assassin. “It is more than any other Sister of the Second Sight has given me in al these decades.” He switched to a different language—Romanian, if I had my dialects right—speaking almost urgently as he pressed his hands into Aaron’s shoulders.

“I don’t know what you’re saying.” Aaron looked to me desperately. “I don’t
know
! But I swear, my dad is—was—Aaron Sul ivan, Sr. He worked for the power company until he died. And if I don’t kil this vampire”—he lifted his forearm so he could point at Vayl while he talked—“he’s never going to stop haunting me and I’m never going to pass the bar and I’m going to spend the rest of my life clerking for Schmidt, Glesser, and Roflower at a desk the size of a DVD player!”

“Look, kid.” I checked myself. I couldn’t be more than a year or two older than the guy. Even if I’d already survived more than his grandma, maybe I should avoid talking like her. I tried again: “Your ghost infestation is not our problem. Go bag yourself another vamp before we shred you like last year’s bil s.”

“Jasmine.” I turned my whole body toward Vayl as warning bel s clanged so loud in my head that for a second I felt like I’d been transported into a church steeple.

“What?”

Vayl patted Aaron on the arm and said, “Excuse us.” He came over to me. “May I speak with you at the end of the hal for a moment?”

“Sure.” I walked up to Aaron and began to frisk him.

“Jasmine,” Vayl protested. “You have done a remarkable job. Now that we al know he is my son I am sure that is not necessary. Especial y with Raoul right here—” I held up the vial I’d just retrieved from the inside of his calf. “Holy water, no doubt.” I stood.

Folded my right arm around Aaron’s neck, forcing him to stoop to my level. He gasped, al the blood rushing to his face, his eyes bulging in shock as he realized a girl half his size had taken complete physical control of him and he hadn’t even thought to resist.

I said, “Look at us closely, Vayl. One of us just inspired you to ram into the wal so hard the chandelier dropped half of its diamondy doodads on the floor. The other shot you in the head. You’d better make sure, right now, that you’re clear whose side you’re on.” The sides of his lips drooped. “This is not about loyalty.”

“It sure as shit is. Don’t you dare make the same mistakes you made with Badu three hundred years ago. This little fucker—” I looked at Aaron as I spoke, noted his size, and said, “Okay, this
big
fucker just tried to
kill
you. He may be the walking incarnation of your murdered boy, but that doesn’t change the facts. And you have to face those facts. Al of them.
Now!
” Vayl’s chin dropped a centimeter. Not an agreement. Just an acknowledgment that he’d think about it as he motioned to the end of the hal . I threw the holy water to Raoul and watched resentful y as Vayl moved away, the muscles bunching and releasing in his perfect ass. An hour ago I’d had my hands wrapped around that work of art, and my brain had been so deeply steeped in ecstasy it was practical y rose-colored. Now I wanted to take that same rear and pinch it until the annoyance forced him to realize he couldn’t just instantly forgive the guy who’d tried to kil him, never mind who he’d been two hundred and some years ago.

I took a deep breath. Vayl wasn’t the only one who had to work to contain his violent tendencies. I slipped my feet into a spare pair of shoes I’d left beside the front door yesterday and fol owed him to the end of the hal . We crunched through the glass of the cabinet he barely glanced at and ended up facing each other in front of his grandfather clock between two doorways, one leading left to the dining room, the opposite opening to the guest bathroom.

He said, “I have not lost my mind.”

I realized I’d crossed my arms when I dropped them in disbelief. “Oh?”

“Aaron needs to think that I trust him implicitly.”

“Why?”

“So that he wil believe just as deeply that you do not.”

His dimple made another appearance and I clasped my hands behind my back so I wouldn’t be tempted to grab him. I turned my back so Junior wouldn’t be able to read my lips as I whispered,

“Are you suggesting we pul a little good cop, bad cop scenario on him? And you’re even letting me be the bad cop?”

He bowed his head. “That, my
pretera
, is how much I love you.”

“You have never been sexier than at this very moment.”

“It is a shame we have so much company,” he agreed quietly.

I cleared my throat. “Okay. So you’re not buying the I’m-being-haunted story either?”

“Certainly not. Those issues are easily taken care of through mediums. The boy has been weaponized. And until we discover by whom, we cannot help ourselves, or him.” I lifted my chin. “So you stil wanna help him?”

“Jasmine, I cannot discount the fact that he may be my son. But my hopes have been lifted too many times for me to embrace him completely until I know for certain. Stil , I cannot let him flounder knowing the chance exists.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I rubbed my hands together. “Damn, I wish I had a doughnut to throw at him.” Vayl smirked. “You enjoy our games, yes?”

I smiled up at him. “You bet I do.”

“Then let us finish this one quickly, because I have just thought of another. And it is definitely limited to two players.”

I let him see the fire in my eyes before I pul ed myself together. When I turned around I’d adopted the expression I’d seen almost every morning at the breakfast table during my childhood. Pissedoff mom is only a half step away from bad cop. As soon as I started talking, I’d be there. A little tidbit for you future operatives. Write it down.

Wednesday, June 13, 1:45 a.m
.

Under Raoul’s direction Aaron had dumped his red-tinged bucket of water outside and dried the floor, and was sweeping up wood chips by the time we returned to the front entryway. I had to work to hide my relief, and it didn’t help to recal why. The last time I’d seen my lover’s blood spil beneath his body, it had been because my fiancé, Matt, had taken a knife meant for me. Though he’d been gone for over a year and a half now, I missed him every day. I never wanted to feel that way about my vampire.

Raoul stil sat on the stairs, scratching Jack under the chin just the way he liked it while Astral oversaw al the action from the top of a fourlegged humidor that bridged the gap between the front door and the entry to the bil iard room to its right. Vayl had once kept a large fern there, but after the cat had planted herself in the middle of it for the third time, he’d taken her hint and moved it. Since then she’d commandeered four other spots in the house. The fact that they gave her excel ent views of the entire floor was, we decided, no accident. Bergman took his security far past the bounds of paranoia, and we had no doubt he’d programmed safety measures into Astral that had yet to be tapped.

Vayl and I approached Aaron with the same purpose, but with polar-opposite attitudes. I reminded myself to keep al my fun on the inside.

“We need to ask you a few questions,” Vayl began. “Please join us in the conservatory.” He motioned to the music room, where several glittering bits of light fixture stil lay scattered on the Persian rug. As Aaron walked into the room he looked at them, glanced up at the chandelier, and back down at the mess Vayl and I had caused.

I pointed to the dropped glass and said, “
This
is what happens when we’re having fun. Just think what I’m gonna break if you piss me off again.”

He stopped just as he reached the sofa and turned to me, his eyes shuttling nervously between me and Astral, who’d provided the perfect soundtrack for me as she came into the room. Drowning Pool’s song “Bodies” pounded into Aaron’s ears—“Let the bodies hit the floor/Let the bodies hit the floor”—making him shiver as the robokitty sauntered past him, blinking sleepily as she went. She jumped onto the fireplace mantel, placing herself so close to the middle she could’ve been confused for a figurine if she hadn’t chosen that moment to do a test cycle, which made her click like the dial of a washing machine.

“Can’t you make her stop?” Aaron demanded.

I shrugged. “She’s programmed to respond to my mood,” I lied. “And right now…” I let myself trail away, smiling dreamily as the song howled through the room and Aaron hunched his shoulders like he thought somebody was about to jump him. Al the girls inside my head shrieked with laughter.

Raoul was having no problem keeping it serious. He’d stayed at the edge of the conservatory, leaning against the archway, while Jack sat at his feet, both of them content to observe first and judge later.

Aaron had noticed my attention wandering. He asked, “Is that your dog?”

“Why?”

“You don’t seem like the type who’d like dogs. Or… anything… real y.”

“You got that right. The mutt belongs to my boyfriend.” I patted Vayl on the back and said, “He’s such a softy,” as he crossed to Aaron’s side and motioned that they should sit on the couch beside each other. I stood behind the chair opposite them. At my height it’s tough to loom, but I did my best to seem as if I were the kind of person who, having already broken a light fixture and a display cabinet today, wouldn’t hesitate to toss an easy chair into his lap.

Vayl settled into the corner of the sofa, making himself comfortable with his arm across the back and one ankle propped on the other knee as he asked, “This haunting you spoke of. I do not understand why my death would end it. Most ghosts simply need closure. Some require a gifted person, such as a medium, to help them ful y cross over. I have never heard of one demanding a sacrifice in order to—” He stopped, grimacing at me as I pul ed Aaron’s .38 Special out and laid it on the top cushion of the chair. “Must you?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding grimly. “Because you and I both know that Junior here is lying through his teeth.” I waved him off as he started to protest that Aaron was probably under a lot of pressure. I stroked the gun lovingly. “Whoever sent him should’ve told him he’s got the lamest cover story since my brother told my parents he was going waterskiing with his buddies and not one of them owned a boat. Lucky for him our dad wasn’t able to track him down until he’d already enlisted.” Aaron stared, predictably thrown off by my detour into family history. He final y responded by saying, “I don’t have a brother.”

“Yes, you do,” Vayl said.

“No,” Aaron insisted. “My sister—” He stopped, gulping slightly when Vayl set both feet on the floor and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped between them. I felt the familiar cold caress of his power as it swirled away from him. He could’ve rammed it down Aaron’s throat, made him tel us every detail of his life right down to the brand of popcorn he preferred. But the possibility of Badu floated over al our heads, and he’d never mind-blast his own son. So he simply told the truth and backed it up with a press of magical assurance so that Aaron would know in his heart that Vayl’s words were genuine.