Wicked Fantasy (31 page)

 

 

Gerry hit the key that would send her message winging its way across cyberspace to Payton. A really short message. Yes, she still had Jinx. Yes, she had the alleged serial wife killer. And, no, she didn't know when she'd be leaving the Castle of Dark Dreams. Payton wouldn't be happy with her short report, but his happiness wasn't at the top of her priority list right now.

Shutting down her laptop, she looked at Kim, Fo, and Conalla. “Done. I appreciate you staying with me.”

“Always feel free. That's what friends are for. And thanks for filling me in on what happened at the beach. Brynn will want to know the whole story.” Kim tucked Fo and Conalla back in their pouches and stood to leave.

Gerry joined them. Friends. She leaned forward to give Kim a spontaneous hug. “Thanks. I'm at that in-between stage. Too weird for my old friends and too new for any vampire friends.”

Fo peered up at Gerry. “Conalla wants to tell you something.” Her tone suggested it wasn't a good something.

“Conalla?” Gerry would need an interpreter. She hadn't taken goo-goos and ga-gas as her second language. She stared into Conalla's rainbow eyes.

“You must tell Conall he will never be free of Morrigan's curse.”

There was something creepy about that very adult message of doom delivered in a little-girl voice.

“What happened to the baby talk?” Gerry looked at Fo. “And how does she know this?”

Conalla answered both questions. “Baby talk is the expected form of communication for newborn humans, so I conformed to what would make those around me feel comfortable. But when I receive a vision of what will be, I must abandon that form of speech so everyone will understand me.” She looked at Fo. “Did I do what was right, Mother?”

“Yes.” But Fo's purple eyes looked sad.

Kim sighed. “Conalla has a gift. It manifested right after she was born. She sees future events. So far, they've all centered around family or friends. We're so afraid what would happen if her ability became known. But Conall is special to her, so we gave permission for her to give Conall her message.” Kim tried to smile but failed. “He'll probably wish she'd kept her vision to herself.”

Gerry looked back at Conalla. “Why tell me? Why not go directly to Conall?” She didn't want to be the one to watch despair fill his eyes. No, that was a cowardly thought.

Conalla stared at her from unblinking rainbow eyes. “Because you are the most important person in his life. You must choose the right moment to tell him.”

Gerry could only nod while her heart bled for Conall. Her only hope was that Conalla's vision was the result of a malfunction that needed tech intervention.

But Kim wasn't finished. “One of the first things Conalla told us was that Fo mustn't be present at the final confrontation between Conall and the demon or she'll be destroyed.” Kim looked torn. “I know Fo's the logical one to destroy the demon, but we can't take a chance.”

“No problem.” Liar. It was a huge problem. “We'll come up with a plan.” On the positive side, they didn't
have
a plan yet, so it wasn't as if they'd depended on Fo and now everything would fall apart. It was just that a demon destroyer would've made things a lot easier.

“I'd better go up and see what Conall's doing.” Gerry tried to look cheery, but from Kim's expression she figured she wasn't fooling anyone.

“I'll go up with you.”

“Don't bother. Asima's outside the door. I'll be safe with her.”
Probably.
Gerry watched as Kim left. Should she tell Conall about Conalla's prediction? Could she justify depriving him of all hope? After all, it would happen whether she told him or not.

One good thing, the prediction suggested they'd spend a long time together. So that must mean Dell wouldn't destroy Conall or her.

Gerry gave herself a mental shake. The prediction could mean nothing, just the product of a child's imagination. Even if said child was a sentient machine.

Staring at the floor, Gerry worried over this new problem as she headed out the door to join Conall . . . and slammed into a cart pushed by Sparkle Stardust.

“Good. We caught you before you could run off.”

“Uh.” Gerry stared at the clothes and shoes piled high on the cart along with the ever-popular makeup case. Atop the pile, Ganymede lounged with one black paw hooked around a bag of gingersnaps.

“Hey, babe. Sparkle's here to work her magic on you. I'm the muscle. No one will interfere while I'm around.”

Sparkle translated. “What he means is that he tagged along because your TV has more channels.”

Gerry tried to look regretful. “Look, I'd love to stick around, because there's nothing I love more than trying on tons of clothes and stuffing my feet into dozens of shoes. But I promised I'd join Conall on the battlements.”

“I totally know where you're coming from, sister. After all, the more time you spend with your immortal hot bod, the more chance there is for sex and more sex. I mean, you can try on clothes anytime.” She smiled. “I noticed that Asima the Anal isn't outside your door. Must've taken a kitty-litter break.”

Sparkle seemed pretty cheerful, so the castle's sex diva mustn't know that Gerry had blabbed about the bet to Banan and Destiny. Good. She couldn't handle a ticked-off cosmic troublemaker right now. “Thanks for understanding.”

Sparkle shrugged. “Hey, we're flexible. Aren't we, sweetie?” She glanced at Ganymede, who'd already settled himself on the couch with the remote beside him.

“Sure.” He didn't glance their way.

“That's why we'll go up with you to meet Conall. Won't we, sweetie?” Sparkle cast Ganymede a pointed stare, which he completely missed because he was already channel surfing.

“Sure.” Pregnant pause. Ganymede turned his amber gaze on Sparkle. “We? Why do I have to go?” He was in full whiny-child mode.

Sparkle's sunny mood was picking up a cloud cover. “Because you're the big bad protector in this group,
sweetie
.”

“I don't want to.” He wouldn't meet Sparkle's gaze.

“Then I guess
I
don't want to cook that roast tonight. Oh, and I'll probably forget to bake that apple pie. Maybe I'll even accidentally throw out the ice cream I bought.”

“You're a cruel woman.” But he got his behind off the couch. “Besides, you don't cook. You'll just have some restaurant deliver it.”

Sparkle narrowed her eyes to angry slits.

“Okay, okay, I'll come with you.” He mumbled his way all the way up the stairs to the battlements.

Gerry followed in Sparkle's and Ganymede's wake wondering what she'd done in a previous life to deserve this. But all self-pity disappeared as she stepped onto the walkway atop the curtain wall. She froze and then blinked to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Yep, Conall was down to his briefs as he struggled with the demonic vestal virgins. The virgins didn't look too chaste and pure right now. Their hair stuck out in every direction. Their dresses were torn and dirty. And their eyes glowed with a bright red fervor. All of that fervor seemed focused on getting Conall's briefs off.

“Whoa, babe, I'm glad you dragged my ass up here. Looks like Conall's holding his own with those three hot demons.” Ganymede circled the combatants yelling encouragement to Conall.

Sparkle almost bounced with excitement. “We have to help Conall. I'll take the demon with the handmade Italian shoes.” She flung herself into the fray.

Gerry watched in disbelief as one the demons grabbed Conall's crotch. Who the hell did she think she was? Rage painted a red film across Gerry's vision. She welcomed the slide of her fangs, the surge of adrenaline as she raced to Conall's rescue.

“Mine!” Gerry grabbed Fulvia, or maybe it was Varinia, by her blond hair and dragged her off Conall.

Then she kicked Tullia, or maybe it was Fulvia, away from his leg. “Mine!” Good thing she'd gone for girly tonight because these sandals had a nice pointy toe. Great for kicking demon butt.

Talking of butt, Gerry threw herself on the bitch that was trying to dig her nails into Conall's luscious ass cheeks. “Mine!” Drawing back her fist, Gerry socked her. Damn, that felt good.

Gerry was just hitting her stride. She hissed her fury as she looked around for someone to sink her fangs into.

“Yo! Everyone stop now.” Ganymede's booming command startled Gerry. She paused to look at him. Everyone else did, too.

“This is great, and I hate to make you guys quit, but I hear sirens. Someone called the cops.” Ganymede had leaped onto the battlements and was peering into the darkness. “I don't like to step in when everything's even, three against three, but I've gotta come down on the side of my sweet tart.”

Then he turned to face them. Gerry gasped. The easy-going good-old-boy black cat was gone. What had taken his place was something else entirely. Oh, the cat form was still there, but his eyes . . .

Thousands of years of wicked power looked out of those eyes. Power that made Gerry gasp for the breath she no longer needed. He was way beyond scary. Her mind might reject that scariness ratio, but the echoes of primitive ancestors reaching back to the beginning of time recognized Ganymede, and feared him.

Ganymede's gaze slid over them until it focused on the three sisters. Then they were simply gone. No muss, no fuss, just gone.

“Where'd they go?” Conall pulled on his jeans as he kept track of the police cars entering the park now.

“Probably somewhere in a South American rain forest. Could be as far south as the Antarctic, though.” He leaped from the wall, and when he turned his gaze on Gerry, he was once again the entity she'd thought she knew.

“All that power. You never gave a hint. Why?” The germ of an idea was forming in Gerry's mind. “I mean, I know Edge said you were powerful, but you just didn't look the part.”

Sly amusement moved in Ganymede's eyes. “I don't have to advertise, babe. Anyone who sees me in action once remembers. And those who don't know about me?” He offered her a cat shrug. “Too bad for them.”

Conall pulled his torn T-shirt over his head. “The cops just went into the castle. We need to move it.” He waved them toward the stairs.

They clattered down the spiral steps and when Gerry peeked into the great hall on her way to the dungeon, she saw Holgarth waving his arms as police officers argued with him. The wizard had given them time to get out of Dodge. Gerry felt almost kindly toward him. Almost.

Once safe in the dungeon with the door closed, Gerry sank onto the couch. Conall sat beside her. Ganymede leaped onto the coffee table. Conall picked up the cookies and remote the cat had left on the couch and put them next to him.

Sparkle took her hand from behind her back and waved a pair of cool shoes in the air. “Got them. I ripped these handmade Italian cuties off that bitch Tullia's feet. The little old man who made them put his name inside.” She was almost dancing in place. “I wanted to tear one of Fulvia's fingernails off so I could match the color, but she was too slippery for me. Oh, well, the shoes were the most important.”

Everyone stared silently at her.

“What?”

Gerry sighed and looked at Conall. “What happened?”

His thick hair was tousled and he still had the gleam of battle in those gorgeous gray eyes. “They were waiting for me when I got there. First they tried to discourage me from making love to you.” For the first time humor crept into his voice. He looked at her and smiled. “They told me some scary things about you, lady. We'll have to talk about beer brands and who controls the remote. Oh, and I don't give a damn about your cellulite.”

Cellulite? She opened her mouth to remind him she was a vampire. Vampires didn't have cellulite. Did they? Maybe they did. See, this was the kind of vampire trivia she needed to know.

Gerry shook her head to clear it. Forget the cellulite. Right now something else was more important. “Ganymede, we need your help.”

Ganymede glanced away from the TV. “I don't come cheap, babe.”

Conall made an impatient noise. “Look, we need to stop this demon. We can't predict when he'll strike again, but we can make sure he fails. Then we need to send his ass back to hell.”

“Yeah, I'm listening.” Ganymede bit into a gingersnap.

“Holgarth activated the gargoyles, so Dell can't dematerialize while he's in the castle. That's a point for our side.” Conall couldn't read Ganymede's expression.

“You'll need a lot more than that.” Crunch, crunch. “The demon can off Gerry in lots of different ways.” Crunch, crunch.

“We have to work out a plan.” Gerry reached over and pulled the cookie bag away from Ganymede. “And the cookie crunching is driving me crazy.”

“No one takes away my cookies.” Ganymede's amber eyes narrowed to angry slits.

“Okay, kiddies, time to refocus.” Sparkle slipped off her own shoes and put on her spoils of war.

Conall rushed into speech before hostilities escalated. “We need a team. Ganymede, you just showed that you can handle demons. What could you do if you had a shot at Dell?”

Ganymede speared Gerry with a death stare. Sighing, she returned his cookies.

“Get someone who can open a portal to hell, and I can send the demon back through it. Can't destroy it, though. The Big Boss won't let me kill anything anymore. Bastard.” He eyed the cookies. “I don't know many beings with both the power and the knowledge to open a portal.” Giving in, Ganymede dragged another cookie from the package with his paw.