One More Bite

Already halfway to them, Grief in one hand, my bolo in the other, I kept one eye on Albert and the other on the girls. The one he’d felled was stirring, moaning. The other had begun to turn back to me. Thank God! Albert moved. But it was to clutch one hand to his chest. Shit!

Vayl swept past me, grabbing my hand on the way and holding our arms outstretched. We cëstr>

“No,” said Vayl. “Remember the mission.”

For a second I couldn’t. Not even the part about why we had to work it in Scotland. All I wanted was to shoot that black heart full of steel, guarantee that nobody else’s dad would ever suffer a heart attack because this twisted bit of snot couldn’t see the good in anything. Then Albert belched.

“Ahh, that’s better. Did you see that, Jaz? She knocked the breath right out of me!”

As I turned my head, my neck aching with the effort it took to hold up my unbelieving brain, Vayl said, “Albert, can you find some rope? We must not leave them free to roam while we chase after Cole.”

I watched Albert struggle to his feet, his knees seeming to be more of a problem than the blows he’d taken from the Scidairan. As soon as he disappeared into the barn I said, “I always suspected he was indestructible. Now I know it.”

However, when he didn’t immediately return I started to wonder if I’d spoken too soon. “You two might want to come in here,” Albert finally said.

Nodding to one another, we each grabbed a girl and shook them awake. I’d chosen the smaller one, who came to all at once. She sat up, grabbing her head and screeching like a pissed-off parrot.

“Be quiet,” I said as I grabbed her wrists and shoved them high enough on her back that she squawked again. “You’re just going to give yourself a bigger headache.”

Vayl’s old gal decided the whole situation was horribly humiliating and began to cry as we walked them into the barn. Or maybe she thought we’d sympathize and let them go. Ha!

Albert stood in the open space between two rows of empty stalls. In one hand he held a tarp. The other motioned to an enormous black-lidded barbecue, the kind you’d expect to see beside a food vendor’s tent at a street fair. “I lifted the lid,” he said. “People store all kinds of stuff in their grills. I thought, Why not rope?” He pointed.

Shoving my charge ahead of me, I moved toward the cooker. And stopped again just before my hip hit the side table.

“Vayl?”

“Yes, Jasmine,” he said gravely.

“Is that an eyeball lying in the cinders under the grate?”

“I believe so.”

“Jesus.” I spun my girl around, but before I could even begin to question her she threw up. The only reason she missed me was that I read the signs correctly and shoved her away before any damage was done. “Tie her up, Albert.” For once, he just nodded.

Turning to Vayl’s prisoner, I stalked toward her, noting with satisfaction that the closer I got the bigger her eyes grew. “I don’t know anything!” she squeaked.

“Sure you do,” I said. “Your boss is cooking people in her backyard. That’s not something she’s going to be ë’s >

I lifted my knife. Pressed the tip against her cheek. “We could add another trophy to the one in that grill real easy.” Change of angle, just enough to draw blood. Vayl held her tightly, not allowing her to jump and injure herself further. Giving me complete control. “What are they planning tonight?”

“Floraidh is bringing the Raptor back to the skies.”

Raising Samos, just like I thought. Okay, don’t panic. “How?”

“We’re eaters of the dead. It transforms us, and allows us to live beyond our mortal lives.” She sounded like she was reading from a textbook. The same one Tolly had stolen a peek from when she’d dipped her foot into Scidairan magic.

“What does that have to do with my friend?”

She gasped as I twisted the knife, letting her cheek feel its sharp edge. “When we eat the living we can make other transformations. With the right words, the right components, we can—” Her eyes widened in horror as they focused on a spot behind me. “She knows I’m talking to you! You must promise to protect me!”

“Of course. Where’s she headed?”

“Clava Cairns. She’s already buried the items she needs there. She just had to get the diamonds to pro—” The girl gasped. “Floraidh! I’m sorry. I had no—” Both girls began to choke. I pulled the knife away from the talker’s face as her body bucked and writhed, struggling for air.

Within a minute Vayl had laid her beside her partner. Though Albert had called an ambulance, it would serve only as a hearse.

I grabbed Vayl’s arm. “Let’s go. We can still catch up to them if we hurry, right?”

He looked off in the direction they’d gone, cast his eyes back down to me. “Possibly. But I would hate to be drained of my energy at the very point I might need it the most.”

“The van, then. I’ll drive,” I said, digging into my pocket for the keys. “Albert, you stay here with Jack.”

“And explain the dead girls how?” he asked. “The way my luck’s been running, they’ll have stood me in front of a firing squad for murder before you two get here to back up my story!”

The fact that Albert had managed to keep up with us as we hurried around to the front of the house explained better than anything how he felt about being left behind. And I sure as hell didn’t have time to argue. “Fine. But you keep your ass parked in the van until we tell you it’s okay to come out,” I said.

“I might be able to help you,” he told me. “I’m pretty handy with a golf club.” Which was when I finally got a good look at the weapon that had taken down girl number two. Hard to tell where he’d found the nine iron he was currently using as a walking stick, but at this point I wouldn’t have cared if it was a bazooka.

“You’re in the vehicle or you’re stuck here and I don’t give a crap if they dangle yoë thnt>u from Castle Hoppringhill’s tallest tower.”

“I knew you were gonna say that. Fine. But if you need me, yell.” Albert hefted himself into the backseat of the Alhambra as Vayl, Jack, and I jumped into the front.

The dog settled between the front seats until Albert said, “Yo, mutt. I’ve got a goody for you back here.” While it wasn’t advisable, I glanced behind me. My dad was just pulling a sausage out of his pocket, which Jack reacted to with a bouncing turn that slapped his tail against my jacket as he enjoyed his snack.

“Why are you carrying fresh meat around with you?” I asked as I turned my eyes back to the road.

“I never know when I’m going to want a snack.”

“What’s in your pants pocket?”

“A Fruit Roll-Up and half a ham sandwich.”

“You’re joshing.”

“I never joke about food.”

I wished he’d find something to kid about. My insides were wound up so tight a good guitarist could’ve played the opening riff to “Smoke on the Water” on my intestines.

“Cole is fine,” said Vayl.

“How do you know?” I snapped. “It’s not like we have any clue what her plan is. Hell, she might have already started snacking on his fingers. Which means even if we save him he’ll never be able to talk to Viv again!”

Albert laughed.

“You are such a dick,” I said under my breath.

“What did you say?” my father demanded.

“You’re a selfish dick!” I yelled.

“That’s better! I knew I taught you not to talk behind people’s backs!”

The turn to Clava Cairns appeared on my right a lot sooner than I’d anticipated. I slammed the brakes and spun the wheel, making my dad swear as I slid him into the window. Even Vayl had to clutch the door handle, and I wondered for a second if the vehicle was going to roll as the tires screeched like a pissed-off diva.

As soon as I had the vehicle straightened out again, I killed the lights.

“Is that such a good idea?” asked Albert.

“I can see fine,” I replied.

“What kind of approach were you considering?” asked Vayl as we rocketed past the sign that told us we had less than five kilometers to go before we reached one of Scotland’s most ancient landmarks.

“Quick and violent,” I said.

He considered. “That might be a problem if she has a shield in place like the one that felled us.”

“I’m driving a van toward them at seventy miles an hour. That gives you a little more than two minutes to thëo m>

His answer was to tighten his seat belt and reach back to get a good grip on Jack’s collar.

“Oohrah!” yelled my dad. “This takes me back! Anybody got a weapon I can use?”

“Goddammit, you’re staying in the van!”

“What if somebody sneaks in through the back? Or breaks a window? This glass isn’t bulletproof, you know.”

“I am driving an unfamiliar vehicle down a narrow road I’ve never seen before. Do you really want to be pissing me off right now?”

Vayl handed Albert his cane. “Just twist the blue crystal on the top,” he said. “The sheath shoots off, which many of my opponents have found detrimental to their health to begin with. Inside is a weapon made by an Indian sword smith known the world over for his secret forging techniques. The blade is over seven hundred years old and it has never lost its edge.”

I glanced in the rearview in time to see the respect squaring Albert’s jaw as he accepted Vayl’s sword. The fingers of one hand brushed lightly against the tigers stalking each other from one end of the sheath to the other. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll make sure it gets back to you in good shape.”

“Brownnoser,” I whispered to Vayl as he settled back into his seat.

“Whatever I have to do . . .” He let the sentence hang long enough that I shot a look his direction. His eyes, luminous in my Bergman-enhanced vision, made suggestions that sucked the breath right out of my lungs. I forced my attention back to the road, but didn’t try to hide my growing grin. Why was it that when we were about to pull something extreme he managed to wind up my nerves and spin them like a basketball on the tip of his finger? Hard to freak about the possible cannibalization of your friend, or your own imminent doom, with Mr. Right exuding confidence and desire in equal doses at your elbow.

I glanced at him one more time, let him see the smile that showed I understood his message: Relax. We’re going to kick ass like we always do. Because it’s us.

Cirilai sent a shot of warmth up my left arm. It linked Vayl and me in a way that suddenly became clear as we hurtled around another corner and found ourselves careening through the parking lot of Clava Cairns on our way to disaster.

For a second it was hard to see past the glitter, as if hundreds of reflectors had been set in the small cavities of the cairns and around the trunks of the nearest trees. Seriously? Could those all be diamonds? I wondered. Then I had no time left to ponder.

Eleven Scidairans, varying in age from eighteen to sixty, danced around a fire whose flames flared in vivid blues and purples. Did I mention most of the ladies were naked? My father, who had once gone for two weeks before realizing I’d gotten my hair cut short, noticed right away.

“Son of a bitch, look at the tits on that brunette!”

“Yeah, Dad, we’re all about boobs in the CIA,” I snapped. “We have whole courses in how to tell the difference between the real ones and the fake ones.”

“Who cares?” my father responded. “As long as they bounce I’m a happy camper. How about you, Vayl?”

Hard to interpret the sound that came from my sverhamin’s throat. Either he was dying of asphyxiation or he thought my dad was the funniest man on earth but didn’t want me to know it.

Rather than scattering as soon as the headlights of our Alhambra hit them, the coven members huddled together, their long, stringy hair and heavily lined eyes combined with their lily-white skin to make them resemble unearthed corpses. The two who’d retained their clothes hung back, somehow familiar but too hard to place at our current speed.

As one of the coven screamed a phrase I didn’t recognize, the rest smashed their hands together. Whatever they threw must’ve been potent. Because I could smell it before it crashed into the windshield. A spell of such combined ill will that as soon as it hit, it took color and form. A green, hollow-eyed Fury with serpentine hair and fangs the size of my fist.

I turned my head, raising my right arm to protect it against the flying glass. Something screamed, sounding like a tire squealing on pavement, though by now we were bumping over the grassy path that led to the cairns. I felt the bracelet on my wrist shiver, as if I’d grabbed the handle of a working chain saw. When cool air hit my face instead of glass, I dared a look.

The bracelet had released its own form. An image of Tolly, looking miffed. At me. “For this I’m missing Animal Planet?”

I shrugged, my hands still full of speeding van. I aimed it straight for the coven as Tolly frowned. She grabbed the Fury by the throat just as it lunged for Vayl. Opening her mouth as big as she could, which was pretty wide considering her relative size at the moment, she bit its head off.

“I thought you were a vegetarian,” I said.

“I am,” she replied. “Philosophically speaking.”

“Huh.” I spun the wheel, sending the Alhambra into a high-speed turn that raised dead leaves, new grass, and dirt as high as the windows. Best of all, the coven members ran like spooked squirrels as we circled around for another go at them.

“Don’t I get a thanks?” she demanded.

“We’re not through yet,” I said.

“Well, I am, doll. I’ve only got so much juice for one night. And it’s used up.”

“Well, then, thanks. I owe you one.”

“Yes, you do.” Still chewing, she disappeared into the leaves of the nearest beech tree.

“I do not see Floraidh or Dormal among the crowd,” Vayl reported.

“I think Jack’s about to puke,” Albert said.

“Why’d you feed him that sausage, then!” I demanded.

“Well, I didn’t know you were going to play bumper cars tonight!”

I stood on the brakes, yanking Grief out of its holster as I threw my dad the keys. “Get out!” I said.

“You mean if things start to go south—”

“No, I mean now! I just realized we’re in Clava Cairns after midnight, which is right where you shouldn’t be.” Because my mom’s a bitch who waits for no one. “So leave!”

I jumped out and rounded the front of the van to join my boss.

The coven had hidden behind trees and bushes. I’d spotted over half of them within the first ten seconds of my search. But they weren’t the threats. I was concerned about the ones I couldn’t place.

Something came flying at Vayl from the lower branches of a huge old fir tree. He dodged left to miss it, and it landed at my feet, a mutated pinecone that flamed first red, then black as it ate its way into the earth. I took aim, but Vayl beat me to her, leaping into the tree like a panther, his powers leaving a wake of frost behind him. She dropped first, a frozen corpse, touched by the cantrantia of a wraith. He followed, landing in a crouch, his fangs bared as he searched for his next victim.

Movement inside the cairn we’d toured earlier caught my enhanced vision. “Come out of there right now or I start shooting!”

“Don’t! We’re on our way!” A line of three women paraded down the narrow path. The GhostCon lanterns, already lit in anticipation of the tours that would begin in an hour or so, shone on their pale and unrepentant faces.

“Raise your hands!” I yelled. I counted palms, coming up with an uneven number just as the third woman jerked her hidden hand out and pointed at me, as if accusing me of some heinous crime. I hit my knees and rolled behind a standing stone, my hair rising off my scalp as one of the cairn rocks spun to the spot I’d just vacated and exploded. I covered my head until the hail of fragments slackened, then popped cover just long enough to bring her down. She’d probably been a grandmother.

A piercing scream from deeper in the woods brought me to my feet. “Cole,” I whispered, though my mind insisted no man could take his voice that high, not even under torture.

I ran in that direction, holding out my free hand for Vayl to grab. Together we raced into the forest, a couple of night creatures prepared to deal death to anyone who blocked our paths.

We stopped just outside a clearing made unnatural by the creatures inhabiting it. I was sure it was only the second time Inland Taipans had ever set foot, er, scale in Scotland.

Floraidh stood with her back to us, trying to get Cole to vacate the spot where Dormal had dumped him, probably during the wreck. She’d rammed the Big Red into a huge spruce, hitting it so hard that the headlights shone into one another. I couldn’t see her at all. Maybe she’d been thrown under the low-growing branches of another tree.

A ravine drew a line between us and them. The depth of a grave and just wide enough that even a world-class long jumper couldn’t make the leap, it divided the clearing on the diagonal without even a fallen tree to simplify the crossing. Moss covered the ground on both sides, and in places small patches of white wildfë ofarilowers reflected the moon’s light. The place probably made visitors gasp in delight during the day. Right now it made me want to puke. Mainly because Floraidh kept slapping Cole, and his only response was a groggy roll of the head.

Vayl touched my arm, calling my attention to Dormal. She’d just walked out of the trees on the opposite end of the glade, but still on Floraidh’s side of the land split. The collision hadn’t improved her hair, leaving it ratty and full of pine needles. Her dress, a dark brown sack that might’ve doubled as a grain tote, had ripped at the hem, but she’d left the shard of material to hang like a lifeless tail. She resembled a homeless woman who’s just gotten her fix for the day. Her mouth moved without emitting sounds. Her fingers rubbed together as if she was fantasizing about money. And she scented of burning pitch.

But none of that mattered.

For her it was all about the snakes, at least a hundred of them this time, slowly closing in on Floraidh and her captive. Now I understood why Cole thought he’d seen Dormal crying in the castle. Sweat ran down her cheeks like tears, and her shoulders shook from the effort it took to control the animals as they slithered over one another’s bodies, often rising three or four feet like cobras in an effort to intimidate each other. And when that didn’t work they struck, trading bites that left both reptiles twitching in the wake of their brethren.

We’d finally found Bea. Now it all clicked into place. Of course I hadn’t picked up on Bea’s otherness, because I was already sensing Dormal’s abilities and writing them off to Scidair.

Floraidh looked over her shoulder, the whites of her eyes practically glowing in the dim light of the glade. “Dormal, you have to understand!” Floraidh cried. “This is the only way to bring Edward back—”

“Fuck Samos!” Dormal cried, temporarily losing track of her spell and the snakes as a result. The mass stopped. Milled. Began to fight. Those on the outskirts glided off to find more reasonable-sized prey. “I told you we didn’t need him! But would you listen? No, you were smitten the moment he slithered into Tearlach. Just like one of these Damned Ones, he was. Lovely and smooth on the outside. But dripping with venom! I won’t lose you to him twice! Better you should die to one of his nature than fall prey to his intrigues again!”

Floraidh gave a mighty heave that ripped Cole’s sleeve, exposing most of a lean, tanned shoulder. But she still managed to pull him to his feet just in time to save his toes from a curious Taipan tongue. “Dormal, please! We’ll do anything you say! Just don’t let us die this way!”

Cole’s eyes finally focused. “Did somebody say die?” He looked down. “Shitsuckers! The ground’s moving!” He tried to back up, couldn’t because of the trees crowding him, and shook Floraidh until her head rocked. “Do something!” he yelled.

Floraidh’s response was to scamper up the nearest branch, leaving Cole to try to haul himself up after her. It didn’t work as well for him since his brain hadn’t quite reconnected with his extremities. But then she grabbed his outstretched hand. Moments later they were perched beside each other like a couple of enormous bats, Cole bitching at Floraidh like she hadn’t just thrown him in the back of an overgrown golf cart and hauled him into the woods to act as her lab rat.

“Why didn’t you throw some kind of counterspell down there?” he demanded. “You’re supposed to be the big bad coven leader. Kick some ass already!”

“I can’t!” Floraidh cried. “All my powers are tied up in the resurrection.”

“I told you not to waste yourself on that brute!” Dormal screamed. “What will you have left when he returns? You’ll be nothing but an empty husk!”

“You don’t know that!” Floraidh yelled back.

Great, the cats are fighting and the snakes can climb trees, I thought as Dormal began chanting again and the Inland Taipans responded in force. I elbowed Vayl, pointed to a spot where I thought I could get a clear shot without endangering Cole. He blinked, nodded, even smiled a little as if everything was just fine. But he’d bitten his bottom lip as we’d watched the snakes advance. And while blood trickled down his chin, everything below his neck seemed to have frozen in place. I despise snakes, his wide eyes told me.

I nodded my understanding. Wished he hadn’t lent his cane to Albert. Though his innate powers kept him well armed, he’d have felt better with his sword in hand.

Aha! I reached into my pocket, pulled out my bolo, and offered it to him. A nearly audible pop as he took it and relief loosened all his major muscles.

Using the new skills I’d developed in my funky joinage with Trayton, I slunk to the new location I’d picked. Dammit! She’d moved, pressing her left side against a thick-trunked oak as if she needed the extra support while she conducted the slitherage.

I could keep circling. But I’d seen a couple of snakes move in that direction and I didn’t love the idea of surprising one of them. I could retrace my steps and try coming around to the other side of her. But that would take time I didn’t have. So I stepped into the clearing.

“Back those snakes off or I splat your brains all over the forest,” I told Dormal.

Chapter Thirty-One

As soon as Dormal’s mouth began to move and my bracelet shook I realized we’d run out of time. I shot her just as she drew back behind the tree. Instead of burying my bullet in her ear and ending the nightmare of Bea and her wiggly pets forever, I only managed to destroy the lower half of her face. She couldn’t talk, but she could gesture. And the abrupt shove of her hands resulted in a wave of air spinning me off me feet, sending Grief bouncing into the ravine. Dammit, Tolly! Why couldn’t you have given me two bracelets! Well, at least the snakes had stopped their progress again. Except some of them had decided to reverse course. Climb down into the ravine and see what they could find on our side.

Vayl’s cantrantia filled the glade, edging the leaves and our clothes with frost. As in the castle, the snakes shifted into slow motion, their heads reaching left and right, as if scouting for ground that hadn’t suddenly frigidized.

Dormal searched for the culprit. Not finding him, she turned her attention back to me. I saw the plan in her raging eyes. Finishingî" w me off would even the odds and give her such sweet revenge.

What she didn’t know was that I’d never been the big hitter. As had happened countless times before in my work with Vayl, my job was to cause fear, kill if possible, but mainly distract the target from my boss. Who stepped up behind Dormal, silent as the ice that had begun to form on the tips of her eyelashes, my bolo tucked into his belt like he was some misplaced jungle explorer.

One of his arms slipped through and trapped her elbows, preventing the motion that would lead to my last breath. The other shoved into her hair and yanked her head sideways. His fangs sank into her blood-soaked throat, making her jump. Just a taste. That was all he took before he raised his head and spit, coating the Taipans closest to them in red.

“You are foul through and through, woman,” he growled. “Let us have an end to you now.”

Despite the fact that she must’ve weighed twice what he did, he lofted and tossed her like a caber at the Highland Games. She landed among her creations, her screams choked with blood as they swarmed her, the only warm spot in a sea of winter. Her panic did her in, the jerky attempts to slap them away, to roll to her knees and crawl free enraged the torpor right out of them. By twos and threes, and then in groups too large to count, they attacked, many of them striking multiple times before they were satisfied their prey was no longer a threat.

The venom acted almost instantly. One moment Dormal was writhing in panic and pain. The next she was dead. And the second after that, the snakes shriveled into long lines of dust.

“Aaaah!” Cole’s yell yanked my head around. Floraidh had sunk her teeth into his shoulder. He tried to punch her, but his angle sucked and his blows weren’t hard enough to knock her free.

“Vayl!” I cried as I leaped to my feet.

He’d reached them before I’d finished saying his name, leaping into the tree as if he had wings. His arm was a blur as he brought it around to strike Floraidh, sending her flying. The bed of the Big Red broke her fall and, from the sickening crack when she impacted, her spine.

Vayl helped Cole down and leaned him against the tree trunk. I crossed the ravine to join them, getting a good look at Cole’s wound as Vayl pulled him around for a better view. She’d torn a chunk of flesh away and left a gaping, bleeding hole.

“Jesus Christ!” Cole said as he felt the crater with his fingers. I checked him for shock. Yeah, coming on slow but sure.

“Vayl,” I said, “I think he’s going to need your coat.”

“Of course. Let me see if I can stop this bleeding first.”

A low laugh from the vicinity of the vehicle made me turn to look. Though Floraidh’s legs twisted eerily beneath her, she still managed to raise her head. “It’s done!” she said triumphantly. “The way is prepared for my Edward’s return now.”

“Bullshit,” I told her flatly. “We killed two of your women back at the Cairns.”

“Their part had already been played,” she said. “They haó saomed completed the resurrection ceremony before you arrived.”

I went on. “Plus, my dog dug up his harness earlier this evening. You didn’t have the right components to make your spell work in the first place.”

She didn’t even flinch. “I never needed that to bring my lover back. And to use it for its real purpose you’d need a spell caster. I happen to know your warlock is off chasing some renegade mattick from the Treasury Department who’s pissed off the Secretary of Education.”

Oh, no, not again. “Which member of our Oversight Committee is on your payroll? Come on, spill. That’s the only way you could’ve—”

Her trickle of delighted laughter cut me off. “As if I’d waste my hard-earned cash on those dolts. It will be such a pleasure watching them tear your—” Her words trailed into a gargle. She grabbed the bed of the Big Red, clutching it as her body, which should never have moved again, began to writhe.

Goddammit! As Vayl wrapped his coat around Cole’s shoulders I said, “Cole! Do you feel any different? Talk to me!”

“I’m . . . I think—”

Floraidh laughed again, her voice moving deeper down the scale. She threw her head back, her face contorted with pain.

Vayl and I moved toward her together, of one mind without even having to discuss our intentions. Kill Floraidh, kill the spell. Then Samos couldn’t take Cole’s body. Couldn’t return at all. Hey, it had worked with Dormal. It was certainly worth a shot, even if the suits back home raised hell. I pulled my knife from his belt as he called on his cantrantia.

A young woman’s voice said, “Stop right there!” We kept moving. Neither of us follows orders well. Plus, Cole was close to passing out and Floraidh had begun to seize. If we waited any longer—

“Stop or we kill the old man! And the dog!”

Fuck.

Chapter Thirty-Two

For some reason I looked at my watch. It was like a part of me wanted to mark this moment in my life’s history: 12:34 a.m. May fourteenth. My inner librarian spoke up. “In precisely thirteen days you will turn twenty-six.”

If I live that long.

Exhaustion dropped on me like a chronic disease as I turned to face our newest crisis.

“Drop your weapons!” My knife hit the dirt. Vayl pulled his power back and the air warmed by a couple of degrees.

I said, “Viv! Iona! What the hell?”

I realized they’d been the two dressed women among the coven that I’d seen back at Clava Cairns. Now they stood with the rest of Floraidh’s flunkies on the opposite side of the ravine. All of them wore clothes now, shapeless knee-length robes and sandals that brought out the vivid whiteness in their legs. Why, at thesösite moments, did my mind come up with thoughts like That chick should always wear pants? Most of them carried flashlights as well, which I found ironic. The scariest monsters out creeping around were afraid of tripping over a tree root in the dark.

I tried to meet Viv’s eyes, but she dropped her head, leaving Iona to answer my question. “When Floraidh heard about what happened to Viv all those years ago, she was appalled. She explained how her group has learned a form of self-defense that only ghosts can beat. She invited her out here tonight to learn more about them. Of course, I had to come to translate. And to show her how wonderful life in a coven could be. It’s actually pretty neat, Lucille. You should join too.”

She’d been signing the whole time, of course. Not easy to see from all the way across a dimly lit clearing, but then I wasn’t the intended audience. Her message was for Cole.

“Jaz!”

I turned back, rushing to put my hand into his. He pulled me close. “One last hug before I go,” he said. When he’d pressed his lips against my ear he said, “The girls are faking. Iona’s actually a witch. A Wiccan. She’s been sent by her circle to stop Floraidh.”

Ahh. So she was the source of the spell I’d sensed earlier. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t been able to pick her out as other to start with, but she’d probably found a way to guard herself from discovery just like I had. Maybe that funky belt of hers was for more than keeping her crack from showing.

“Iona, Viv, your move I understand,” I said, hoping they’d get my double meaning. “Albert, I hope this trip cost you every cent you had.” I stared at my dad, currently being held by a petite young blonde who carried a blade almost as long as her leg and a tall, spectacled woman with a professorial demeanor who carried a cleaver like she’d been raised by a butcher. I should’ve known he wouldn’t leave like I’d asked. He’d never listen to me, because in his mind I’d never outrank him.

He didn’t say anything, just squared his shoulders and looked straight ahead as the blonde brought her sword closer to his throat. I memorized her face, so that when the time came I could exact just the right amount of revenge on those sweet, even features. Nope, she didn’t look evil. You couldn’t tell by the appearance of any of the Scidairans what they did in their free time. They all seemed like pleasant women. The kind you’d expect to trade idle gossip with at the grocery store or the bank line. Nine faces at nearly every point on the circle of life. But all of them joined by their shared lust for eternity. The weapons they carried proved it. Blades mostly. Ancient and wicked sharp by the look of them. Strangely, each woman had tied a leather bag to the hilt of her sword, or axe, or dagger.

Maybe it’s their lucky charm, I thought.

A couple of the younger women had traded metal for plastic. Naw, not that toy gun crap. This was heavy-duty stuff, so new even Bergman had just mentioned it. The lancers they carried shot a steel bolt into the victim, which pulled electric current without the need for a connecting wire. Don’t ask me how, I’m no engineer. But the black marketers couldn’t get enough of these fourth-generation tasers, because they killed within the first fifteen seconds of contact. Yeah, talk about your cruel and unusual.

Vayl cûsiz fiame back to stand beside me. “Look at Floraidh,” he murmured. When froth started to bubble out of her mouth, and I realized the bits of tissue swimming in it must have come from Cole’s shoulder, I couldn’t watch anymore.

I turned to my friend, put my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. For everything. If we’d never met in Miami—”

“I wouldn’t have lost my business. Gotten the shit kicked out of me. Taken a job with the CIA.” He took a breath. Met my eyes. His began to sparkle. “I’d never have saved your life in Corpus Christi. Or fallen for you.”

I winced. He took my hand. “It’s okay. I know you’ve chosen Vayl. I love you enough that I just want you to be happy. I’ve never felt that way for anyone before, Jaz. It’s always been about me before this. What I wanted. What felt good. It hurts not to have you. But I’m glad to have felt this way about someone before—” His eyes cut to Floraidh. He took a deep breath. “Before Samos gets me.”

Vayl, staring down at him, snorted. “Now I know what they mean when they call people drama queens.”

“Vayl!”

“Oh, come now, he is just working on your sympathies so he can—how do you say?—get into your pants. The man is incorrigible!”

He’d used that word before. I was really going to have to look it up. If I survived. Vayl sure thought we were all going to skate through. But it seemed to me like our chances were fading even as Floraidh’s increased.

She stopped shaking. Sat straight up, as if she hadn’t practically been broken in half minutes before. She swiveled her head, making sure we were all paying attention as she said, “Now, Cole, say your goodbyes. There’s not going to be room in that fine young body for the both of us.” Her face had hardened, as if her seizures had sanded off all the soft edges while I was looking the other way. Her voice had deepened by a couple of octaves too, and taken on the slight accent I’d recognize even if I lived forever. Finally I couldn’t deny the change any longer. “She” had just made too much of a transformation.

“Samos?” I whispered. As in my earlier visions, his face had stretched itself across hers. But when her eyes turned brown and her teeth squared off like she’d just slid in a pair of dentures, I realized this time it was for real.

He said, “My real name is . . . But why should I tell you now? Such a shame you didn’t know it when I was still a vampire. You might have killed me for good then. It was certainly a weak point in my contract.”

Floraidh emerged again, her pink lips fighting for supremacy over his tanned ones. “Quickly, Edward. To the Cairns before the ghosts—!”

Samos banged the heel of his hand against his forehead. “In my time, woman! Do you know how long I have waited to gloat over this bitch’s failure?”

Vayl said, “You rush to judgment, Samos. After all, she has killed you once already. Just because you have raised the bar, who is to say she will not do it again?”

I caught his emphasis, along with the look he sent Albert. When he met my eyes again I asked him silently, Are you sure?<ûem>

Only someone who loved him like I did could’ve interpreted the minuscule move of his head as a nod.

“Do you know what I want to do, Jasmine?” Samos asked me.

“Invest in an underwire? I’m sorry, Eddie, but you’ve got a real case of the droops going on.”

Samos stood, stunned by his own intense rage while the younger women in the coven tried to swallow their giggles. He swung a shaking finger at Floraidh’s followers. “Kill them all!” he shouted.

One of the older members, a wiry old gal who wore her long gray hair in a braid over one shoulder, cleared her throat as she half raised the dagger in her hand. “Excuse me, Mr. Samos?”

“What is it?”

“I know you’re new to the territory, so you probably haven’t realized that we’re not in Clava Cairns. Where all the diamonds are? We’re standing about three minutes east of there. We should probably go back before we spill a lot of blood in Brude’s—that is—you know how the ghosts . . .”

Her eyes darted toward us as she trailed off, unwilling to say out loud what Vayl and I already knew. Killing us would attract the ghosts. In fact, completing the resurrection here would probably bring Brude and his nasties running. They needed to do it at Clava Cairns, surrounded by all those glittering diamonds and the power of Scidair.

Samos glared at the woman so fiercely that she put a hand to her throat, as if she could feel him strangling her from a distance. “In another time I would skin you alive for daring to gainsay me. And then I would feed you to my guests, who would’ve been invited to supper simply to be reminded that it would be in their best interests to continue to cooperate with me. Or they might end up just like you.” The soft sibilance in his voice reminded me so strongly of the snakes whose fangs had sunk into Dormal’s soft flesh that I shivered.

“You don’t have to kill us, you know,” said Cole. “In fact, it’s kind of a stupid idea.” He wasn’t talking to Samos, but to the women, who naturally responded to his I–know-you-wanna-hug-me smile. “We’re CIA. If you kill three of us, you’re going to bring the whole Agency down on your heads. They’ll wipe you out faster than you can say genocide.”

“That is not, technically, the right term for what they would be doing,” Vayl said.

Cole flashed him an irritated glance. “Would you please stop messing with my rhythm?”

“Sorry.”

The younger women weren’t impressed. I could read the thoughts on those expressive faces. So what? Big deal if the whole world turns against us. That’s what attracted us to this practice in the first place!

Their elders took more time to raise the rebel flag, but they knew they’d dug themselves in too deep to climb out now. Their eyes, showing lots of white as they darted toward Samos, confirmed that his venom had spread through them all. And with nobody shifting toward mutiny . . .

“Vayl?” I whispered, so softly only his enhanced senses could pick up my worû pi . ds.

“Yes.”

“Is it time?”

“Not yet. Albert is still too vulnerable. We must keep talking, seem to be conspiring until—”

“You two!” yelled Samos. “I want you walking on separate ends of the line! Vampire—to the front!”

Casting me a slow wink, Vayl jumped the ravine and strode to the forward edge of the column the Scidairans had begun to form. Not a smart move on our enemy’s part, because it put him within reach of Albert and Jack.

I helped Cole to his feet as Samos crowded us into the gully. He didn’t carry a weapon that I could see. But we both sensed waves of dark energy emanating from him, power he could focus on us anytime he pleased, and likely would as soon as he had the protection of Clava Cairns’s diamonds. For a second, standing at the bottom of that narrow gorge with muddy walls ahead of and behind me, I had a vision of a mass grave. This was just the kind of place soulless pricks like Samos shoved their enemies into before blowing their skulls to pieces. I felt the skin tighten on my scalp. Too easy to imagine an entire row of gunmen standing at the ravine’s lip, rifles at their shoulders, ready to make me into another statistic.

No. Not today. I scrambled out of that hole like I’d been goosed by the Midas Man, yanking Cole up after me. Leaving Grief lying there felt like desertion. But I was quickly distracted by the fact that I’d grabbed Cole’s mauled arm, and the moan that jerked out of him as he stumbled into the back of the Scidair at the rear of the line was totally my fault. She glared at him with that polite, contained rage he might inspire if he’d poked his finger into the middle of all the cupcakes she’d baked for the PTA meeting. Viv ran to him and put her shoulder under his arm.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully. He pulled back. “Wait a second. I don’t think I’m supposed to be nice to you.”

While she signed something that made him huff I stole a look at Vayl. To anyone else his expression would seem blank. I read his message clearly. Now is the time to strike, while they are still milling. Before Samos takes complete command of that temporary body of his.

I lowered my lashes, which he’d interpret as a nod. I slipped my left hand into my pocket. Wrapped my fingers around the ring that sat there like an omen.

“What are you doing?” Samos demanded.

“My head is killing me so I was getting a couple of Advil from my pocket,” I moaned. “Are you stirring up some sort of spell?”

“Not yet,” he chuckled. “But just wait until you see what I have in store for you, little imp. A headache will seem like bath bubbles compared to the tortures I have been planning these past decades.”

“You’ve only been dead a few weeks.”

“Hell runs on different clocks.”

“Oh.” I squeezed my fingers around the pear-shaped emerald Matt had given me. Cocking the side of my thumb against the setting I jammed it down as hard as I could as I drew it fast across theûfasthe spiked metal tips that held the jewel in place. Blood welled into the material of my pocket. Not much, but enough. I thought, Brude. I have a present for you.

A breeze wafted through the glade, lifting my curls off my shoulders, drying the sweat that had begun to bead on my forehead. When I felt it raise the hem of my shirt, I knew it wasn’t a natural phenomenon.

Keep your hands to yourself, you son of a bitch, I silently snarled.

How did you know about my mother?

I had a feeling.

I knew if I waited long enough you would call. His triumphant laugh was the first clue to anyone else that visitors had entered the clearing. It rang like a mallet off a gong, sending shivers up the spine. The Scidairans began to fling their lights back and forth like they needed to direct a plane to the runway. As in the castle, the rays glinted off human-shaped figures. A whole crowd of them, grouped on either side of Samos’s line, holding weapons that towered above their heads. Could a ghost spear kill a Scidairan? I sensed I was about to find out.

Dimly at first, as if they were still marching on us from a distance, we heard the stomp of booted feet steadily advancing. As the sound got louder, a white mist rose from the ravine and spread its fingers over the ground.

“Get them out of here!” shouted Samos.

The Scidairans prodded Vayl and Albert. But the women were so busy looking over their shoulders, they barely noticed when my guys took a single step and then stopped again. Because the mist had begun to rise. And as it did, like a slow theater curtain, it revealed the legs, torsos, weapons, faces of Brude and his phantom army.

They were dressed like they’d been when they died. A mishmash of costumes, ages, and sexes. They didn’t even line up in formation, but stood where they pleased, poised to move, their expressions fearless and eager. This was no ordinary army. Brude had raised a horde. They’d kill and enjoy it. Aim to maim and laugh when the screams made their ears pop.

Brude stood at the head of the group that had appeared on my left, holding his staff at his side.

“What is your deal?” I had to ask as he surveyed the Scidairans with a mocking smile on his face. “Watch too many hangings as a kid? I mean, Christ, where do you find these creeps? You’re like some kind of Dark Age gangsta. And that is seriously not a compliment,” I added as he started to pose.

His frown, as quick and unappealing as instant coffee, made the women closest to him back up a step. “Watch your tongue, woman. Or I may reconsider and leave you here to perish.”

“You will not.” When his eyebrows arched at me I explained, “Whatever Samos has in mind for me doesn’t include a trip to your world after I buy it. In fact, I’m pretty sure his contract calls for some eternal tortures only his new boss could arrange for me. You and I both know that, or you wouldn’t be here.” Light dawned in my overworked brain, making the menagerie that manned it cheer. “In fact, that’s why you led Jack to his old harness. Isn’t it?”

“I never do anything for a single reason. You should know that if you are to be my queen.” Brude turned to Samos. “I cannot allow you to harm my woman.”

Vayl’s reaction came ringing across the glade like a challenge from one stud bull to another. Brude spun. Raised one muscle-bound arm and pointed at my boss. “You are next, Vampire.”

“So glad you have your priorities straight,” I snapped. “You did notice these bitches have my dad and my dog at a steep disadvantage, didn’t you?”

I jerked my head in their direction. To be honest, they didn’t seem to be in much danger at the moment. The sword-wielding blonde looked like she was about to pass out. And the professor who’d been holding Jack’s leash dropped it the second Brude’s eyes fell on her. Plus Vayl stood ready to kick ass should anyone make a truly threatening move.

Brude raised his hand almost neglectfully. “Now,” he said.

Howling in glee, the ghosts attacked. But the Scidairans weren’t about to cave without a fight. And though their powers dwindled every time they tried to raise a spell, they still wielded power.

Against phantoms, this came in the form of a red powder that trickled down their blades when they sliced open the pouches tied to the hilts. As soon as it hit the metal it flared, as if they’d stuck the entire weapon into a forge. From that moment on, when they found a way to shove those blades into Brude’s army, the men fell as if physically gutted, after which they melted into the ground like ice on a sunny afternoon.

Still the shades fought like berserkers, the smell of blood sending them into a frenzy. And when one of them impaled a member of Floraidh’s coven, the entire horde shrieked in delight as the woman screamed, her flesh melting away from the blade like plastic put to the flame.

The blonde guarding Albert hesitated for a second, then decided she needed to off the old man before she defended the coven. But that was all the time he needed. He grabbed her wrist, working hard to keep her from moving her weapon anywhere near his vulnerable parts. As they struggled I saw Vayl speed to my dad’s side. The sword went flying as he broke the Scidairan’s arm and flung her into a tree, taking her out of the battle. Forever.

“Vayl, watch out!” I yelled as one of the lancer-toting women ran up behind him. Then I lost track of the action on his end of the line, because Cole had shoved me to the ground just in time for a blade-swinging Scidairan to graze my neck.

“Thanks,” I breathed, as a coven member dropped beside me, her eyes staring sightlessly into the night. I snatched her blade, which looked to be the bastard child of a scythe/ battle-axe affair.

“I need a weapon,” Cole whispered. Viv handed him her dagger just as another Scidairan fell near us. He grabbed her short sword with his free hand, then switched the weapons when his shoulder informed him it could only lift so much weight tonight and the sword wasn’t its choice.

“Jasmine!” Vayl caught my eye, directed me to Iona, who’d gone down under the lancer attack of a tall, skinny Scidairan with lank black hair. I tackled the woman from behind, throwing her down so hard I could hear the air shooting out of her luûg oackngs.

The lancer fell out of her hands and we both scrambled for it. She shoved me aside, surprisingly strong for a girl whose arms were no bigger around than string cheese. I responded with a punch that landed just under her chin, snapping her head back.

She rolled aside, giving me room to grab the lancer. Before I could deactivate it she jumped on my back, her bony fingers wrapping around my neck and squeezing until I began to see spots.

I threw an elbow once, twice, three times, but she just kept strangling. So I stood up and fell straight back. Into the ravine. She broke my fall nicely. And, in time, I was sure her ribs would heal. In fact, I hoped they would. Because she’d landed close enough to Grief for me to grab my baby before scrambling back to the bank and shutting the lancer down. “Iona?” I patted her cheeks. “You going to live?”

She shook her head.

“Wrong answer,” I said. “Try again.”

“All right, I’ll live. But don’t ever tell anyone that fucking zap gun made me pee myself.” I helped her sit upright. Handed her the lancer and took another battle survey.

Brude’s force had done a number on Floraidh’s coven. But they’d suffered heavy casualties as well. Still, I thought we’d win. Until I spied Samos at the edge of the clearing, holding Viv in front of him, his arm around her neck as if he meant to break it sooner rather than later. Cole stood maybe three yards out, his hands raised, talking so softly I couldn’t hear. Why couldn’t I hear? We hadn’t cut off his audio feed. I tapped at my ear. Realized my party line had fallen off.

“Vayl!” I yelled. “Samos is trying to escape!”

I began to run toward him, realized my sverhamin hadn’t replied, and peered over my shoulder. Brude’s army, having defeated Floraidh’s coven, had backed Vayl and Albert to the edge of the ravine. The fact that they’d hadn’t touched Vayl and had barely put a slice in my dad said more to me about the two of them than I’d ever understood before.

Albert stood straight as a flagpole, Vayl’s sword swinging sure and true in his strong right hand. This was the man who other men had told me they’d willingly die for. Not because he knew pretty speeches. But because he put himself out there first. He understood the cost of battle and the real reason men and women fought; I saw it there in the lines on his forehead and beside his eyes. And his little grin told me he was glad to be back at it. Even though he was grossly outnumbered, the action filled him with the purpose he’d lost when they’d forced him to retire.

Beside him, Vayl wielded another sort of power. It must rise from the same side of the grave as Brude’s army, because it was taking a heavy toll. When his blasts of ice and wind hit their shields, they shattered. The ancient warriors flinched and cried out as sleet began to fall from the sky just over their heads, cutting through their armor as effectively as a cleaver through steak.

Nobody could keep up that kind of attack indefinitely, but Vayl would last a lot longer than Albert, whose teeth had begun to chatter despite the fact that sweat ran down his forehead. They needed to win, and fast. Especially since Samos had disappeared into the woods, leavinûe wun g Viv panting on the ground. Since I couldn’t see Cole anywhere, I had to assume they’d made an exchange, Cole’s body for Viv’s. And now that eternal thorn in my side had what he wanted.

“Brude, call off your men!” I yelled.

He stood on the opposite side of the glade, having found a stump from which to survey his troops. He eyed me like I’d just been led to the sales block. What a nice piece of horseflesh she is, said his expression. So shiny and full of spunk. “This creature must die as well,” he said. “Unless you would like to enter into another agreement with me.”

“Jasmine!” Vayl didn’t even glance my way. How could he while working with Albert to fend off twelve of the most bulletproof fighters in the multiverse? But his tone made it clear I’d better damn well listen up. “If you make one deal with this scum, you and I are through!”

“What the hell kind of ultimatum is that?” I demanded. Tightening my grip on the hybrid blade I’d borrowed, I mowed into the back of the line, hacking heads and torsos like they were nothing more than jungle overgrowth, blocking my path to the real showdown.

In retrospect, it’s probably good that Iona borrowed a Scidairan blade and came along for the ride, because I was so furious I paid no attention to anything or anyone beside me. I did hear her panting, her weapon clanging on the misses and hissing on the hits, so I’m sure she saved my life numerous times. But my mind was on that goddamned vampire.

I swung the blade and beheaded a bald shade dressed like a Nazi, clearing my view so I could see Vayl’s pale, frost-rimmed face. I stuck the axe in the spine of my next victim, who went to his knees. When he didn’t move out of my way fast enough, I planted my foot in his back, finding myself mildly amazed when I met actual resistance, and pushed. He fell over and I moved forward again, yelling, “Since we hooked up, I’ve been a stellar girlfriend! Hell, I haven’t even had impure thoughts about my neighbor who looks just like Jason Statham. So where do you get off threatening to dump me? Especially when this whole deal was your idea!”

By now only a couple of fighters stood between Vayl and me. But the battleground had become no less dangerous, because I’d totally lost my temper and little fireballs had begun to fall from the sky. “Now look what you made me do!”

“To me!” Brude called. His remaining forces, some frostbitten, some burning, ran to his side. He glared at me. “This is not over!” he bellowed. “I am not conceding. I only leave the field because I am called by a master I cannot refuse. Do not forget—you owe me a boon!”

“Bullshit!” I yelled. “You killed, like, eight Scidairans. If I know anything about the rules of interplaner battle, and I do, that gives you leave to recruit them. Count that as your payment and get the fuck outta here!”

With a final cry of outrage he snapped out of sight, taking his entourage with him.

Vayl looked into my eyes. “Your language is quite shocking. But I love the way you fight.”

“I’m still pissed at you!”

“I know. And I find it incredibly titillating.”

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I snorted and laughed at the same time. “Vayl, really, you can’t say that word and believe people will take you seriously.”

Vayl shrugged his indifference to people’s opinions as he asked, “Any guesses as to where Brude has run off to?”

“I think he’s supposed to be Enforcing for Lucifer, whatever that entails. This other gig”—I gestured to the clearing, now littered with Scidairan corpses—“is just a part-time thing.”

“Jasmine?” Albert had dropped Vayl’s cane to his side. He was looking around the battlefield, his eyes skating past the bodies to the flaming balls of muck that had dropped in our general area. “Did you really do that?”

“I . . . uh . . .”

“And, Vayl? How is it that you can control the weather? Did Bergman make you some sort of portable snow machine?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s it. Snow. Sleet. Fire. It’s all right here.” I patted Vayl’s breast pocket, which remained agonizingly flat.

Iona stepped up, supporting a weeping Viv. “Samos is probably at Clava Cairns by now,” she reminded us. “I’ve been called by my circle to prevent Floraidh from resurrecting him. And it seems like you’re of the same mind. I suspected as much when you cleared our room yesterday, but of course I couldn’t reveal myself to you in case I was wrong. So what do you say? Shall we join forces?”

My reaction really pissed Viv off. She began signing like she’d much rather hit me. Iona said, “Viv wants to know how you could possibly smile at a time like this.”

“Because Floraidh all but told us we couldn’t beat her without a spell caster.” I nodded at her. “And now we have one.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

My guess is that when confronting your newly risen nemesis who is now trying to cement his remains into a stolen body, your best approach should probably involve some form of stealth. Unfortunately our crew included an untrained civilian, a distracted witch, a rickety old man, and an excited malamute.

Jack hardly ever barked. Strangers remarked on his polite behavior. In the park he refused to woof at bikers, other dogs, or even little kids chasing bright red balls. But now I couldn’t get the mutt to shut up!

He sounded a little like a sinus-infected bear as he vocalized. Along the lines of, “Roo-roo, we’re coming after you-poo!”

I wiggled his lead. “Jack! What the hell? Where were you when that wild-eyed Bible thumper came to the door trying to save my soul?” He threw a furry grin over his shoulder and launched into a second verse.

I said, “Swear to God, dog, if this doesn’t turn out well I’m buying you generic food for the next month!”

We stood at the edge of the woods, staring out at Clava Cairns. The Scidairans’ fire had sputtered out, but the GhostCon torches still glowed, making me wonder how soon we’d be running into their firþng st walking tour.

This could get awkward. Although those punishment-gluttons would probably embrace the whole experience. Right up to the point where Floraidh started munching on their juicy bits.

Yet another reason we needed to shut this operation down, like, yesterday.

At least we knew where the body snatchers had set up camp. And considering where we’d found Jack’s harness, it made sense that the flicker of their fire reflected off the walls of the inner circle of the northeast cairn.

“What’s the plan?” Albert asked.

“There is none,” I said.

“You should have a plan,” said Albert. He’d resheathed Vayl’s sword and was now leaning heavily on the cane.

I didn’t tell him I’d tried to put something together during our short trek through the pines. But since I had no idea how you kill a resurrected vampire, I figured winging it would probably work better than developing a play-by-play. Also it would leave me in a more hopeful frame of mind, since if I had to think about it any length of time I was ninety percent sure my conclusions would depress the hell out of me.

I had decided that if I was going to die tonight, I didn’t want to do it without making some sort of grand romantic gesture that Vayl would remember forever. Like in the movies. Unfortunately we’d been rushing pretty much headlong through thick undergrowth at the time. So kissing was out. He’d probably view a boob flash as accidental or whorish. Goddammit, why did I already tell him I loved him? This would’ve been the perfect moment!

I tried to calm myself. After all, I’d already dropped a load of flaming coals from the sky and probably ashed out a fraction of my soul in the process. Plus it might be nice if I could think clearly for once. Yup. Time to accept the fact that my mind wouldn’t produce a memorable kissy-face moment. It wanted to work. So I’d better damn well survive, because I’d be so pissed if we missed our chance.

I handed Jack’s leash to Albert. “You stay here,” I said, making it clear I meant both of them. “And this time it would be nice if you didn’t let yourself get kidnapped, all right?” I glanced at Iona. “Have you figured out why Jack’s harness would be so important to Floraidh yet?” She’d overheard my conversation with the Scidairan and had been trying to decide what it meant ever since we left the clearing.

She said, “I need to know why the dog is so significant that they wanted something that was a part of him for so long.”

I filled her in on Jack’s background without revealing exactly who I was. But you could tell she was sketching in the missing pieces pretty well all on her own.

She asked, “Would you say Jack was more important to Samos when he was alive than any other creature he knew?”

“Even though he had an avhar at one time, I’d say yeah. Without a doubt.”

“And now, this is quite important. When you killed Samos, thinking that was his real name, was the dog wearing his harness at the time?”

“Yeah. We didn’t get rid of it until we left Greece later that evening.”

Iona nodded. “Here’s what I believe. Vampires have very little to leave behind. But there is some. Bits and pieces of worldly material. Vapor. Shreds of essence. When Samos left this world, I believe the demon he bargained with caught a bit of his remains. But a portion naturally fell into his pet. This is what happens with those we love. Perhaps all that was left of him settled into the leather of the harness because, as an item formed from the skin of another animal, it still keeps its retentive properties.”

Vayl said, “But if Floraidh did not need it to call Samos from wherever he had stored his essence, why did she bury it in the cairn?”

Iona had crouched down to dig up a hunk of moss. “Because it can be used to destroy Samos for good. Having put all her energies into resurrecting him, she wouldn’t want him taken away from her again. So she found the one weapon that could be used against him and buried it where she could guard it. Except your dog found it.”

With Brude’s help. Why would Brude want Samos gone? He’d said he never had one reason. So if not just to help me . . . as revenge against his enemies, the Scidairans? Or in his role as the Devil’s Enforcer? At this moment, do I give a crap? Um, no.

Vayl and I shared a moment so intense it could’ve doubled as a hug, except we didn’t even touch.

“Do you know what to do with this information?” I asked her.

“Absolutely.” She took off her belt and laid it on the ground. Yup, now I could sense her. Witchy Woman, sang the silver-blue flare at the core of my brain. She nodded toward the cairn. “I just need you to distract them while I gather the remaining ingredients. I assume you still have the harness?”

A moment of panic as my mind went blank. Where the hell did I throw that dirty remnant of Jack’s old life after we got back to Floraidh’s place? Oh, yeah! “It’s in the van. I threw it in there before the tour group went into Tearlach for its final ghost viewing. I was afraid it was going to fall out of my jacket at the wrong time and then I’d have to come up with some lame explanation nobody would believe.”

“I’ll get it for you,” Albert said.

“You’ll stay here!” I ordered. It didn’t matter. Viv had already left the shelter of the woods. We watched her creep toward the van, which was standing about ten yards from the middle cairn, its right side toward us, its front tires hub deep in grass and mud. Broken glass glittered in the combined lantern and moonlight, both from the front window and the shattered headlights.

I thought, I wrecked another vehicle. Shit! Pete’s going to kick my ass from here to next Friday. Unless this mission comes out amazingly well. I crossed my fingers.

Viv froze as a heart-squeezing scream flew out of the cairn. Jack lunged forward, snapping the leash at its swivels. I started to run after him, but Vayl put a hand on my arm. “Not in,” he said as he nodded at the rim of the cairn. “Up.”

I glanced at Iona. “Go,” she whispered. “We can get the ƒ€e can gerest of what I need.” She nodded to Viv, who’d forced herself to move on. “When I’m ready, you’ll know.”

Leaving Albert holding the broken leash, Vayl and I ran the short distance to the cairn. When we reached the entry Vayl took my hand and together we jumped to the top of the wall that rimmed it. The stones were surprisingly firm underfoot as we followed them along the edge of the passage to where they formed a central pit. We’d started at a crouch, but by the time we reached the inner circle we were crawling, our heads barely clearing the stones before us as we peered into the burial chamber.

The fire Samos danced around didn’t look exceptional. Until you realized its source wasn’t a pile of kindling, but the contents of the bowl I’d found in Floraidh’s oven, with the container itself acting as the fire pit. Jack stood beside Cole, both of them almost underneath our noses. Our third had draped his arm around the malamute in a gesture of protection that went straight to my gut and twisted.

As Samos began to chant, Vayl tapped me on the shoulder and made a few gestures I couldn’t mistake. I sent him my Are you sure? look. When he nodded, I shrugged. I didn’t think it was going to work, but it was worth a try.

I stood. Drew Grief and aimed it at Samos’s head.

Boom!

He staggered sideways, the hole just above his ear trickling a line of blood down his jaw. The other side of his head should’ve blown all over the stones beside him. It didn’t. Something protected him, counteracting the force of the bullet, healing the wound almost as soon as it occurred.

I shot him again. Filled his head with steel, and when that was gone switched to bolts. Before I’d finished he’d flattened his chest against the far wall of the cairn, shuddering with every hit. But taking them. Not falling. Definitely not dying.

Vayl had been busy as well. He’d risen to his feet beside me, calling down such a vicious blizzard inside the cairn that Cole and Jack began to disappear under a drift of snow. Thank God Cole had some resistance to Vayl’s powers or he’d have been an icicle within minutes. And no way would Jack freeze to death under that pile of fur.

While Samos’s lips turned blue, I holstered Grief and moved to my next-best choice, the Scidairan weapon that had saved my hide during the previous battle. I weighed it in my hand, wound up and threw it, burying the axe head in his back. He reared up, screaming in pain as it hit.

Spinning, he pointed to me with fingers that had transformed into Floraidh’s pink-nailed claws. “Ildacante!” they screamed. The smell of Scidair’s rot filled my nostrils as the rocks beneath my feet began to shake. Vayl’s arms waved as he, too, fought for balance.

Earthquake? My eyes sought Cole and Jack, hoping they’d had enough sense to take cover. Yup, they were motoring toward the entrance, but Samos blocked their exit. Cole grabbed him. They began to struggle.

Then something imprisoned my ankle. I sucked in a breath. Looked down. A bony hand had reached out of its burial mound, wrapped around my living skin and begun to pull.

“Skeletons, Vƒ€>“Skeletayl!” I yelled. “Get out!”

I jerked my leg free, but Samos and Floraidh had animated an entire host of the dead, and at least five of them had clamped their icy fingers on to my other ankle now. It wasn’t just that they’d gotten a good grip. The rocks were still moving. Falling out from under my feet. The hands, more and more of them as the seconds ticked by, were pulling me down to join them.

“Vayl!” I looked over at him, horrified to see that he was also knee deep in the cairn. Oh my God, oh my God, they’re burying us alive!

“Jasmine, do not panic. Take my hand.”

“Are you kidding me? We’re going to be underneath soon! The rocks will be over our heads! We won’t be able to move, or breathe, or—”

“Jasmine.” So soothing, that voice. Such calm in the face of certain crushing suffocation. How did he do that? “Hold my hand.”

Vayl leaned forward. Reached out. I focused on his hand as if it were a lifeline. Which it wasn’t. He was going down, down, down too. Never mind that. Just wrap your fingers around his. It’ll be a good thing. Then maybe you won’t feel those other fingers, on your thighs now, pulling, bruising, ripping into your skin . . .

I couldn’t quite reach. Part of my mind saw the irony. Like it had always been with him, he remained just out of my grasp. On the edge of an embrace but never anyone I could grip on to.

“You fucker!” I raged, realizing I wasn’t yelling just at him. “I’m about to die for good here! Would you just reach out and grab on?”

A huge rumble, like the rocks themselves had split open and the support beneath my feet disappeared. I felt myself fall, the lights of Clava Cairns winking out as the stones rolled over my head. My hand, waving its last goodbye to open air, prepared to follow me down into the crushing weight of the abyss.

And then it was pinned in Vayl’s grasp. Cirilai, pressed between my fingers, sliced into them until they bled. And that ignited something within the ring. Some power his ancestors had imbued it with that shot into and through me, making me feel as if I could fly. And I knew Vayl felt the same, because he existed at the other end of Cirilai’s line, pulsing with its magic as if it had given him a second heart.

The dead, so eager for us to join them, gave an unearthly scream as they sensed our joining. And they scrabbled away, sliding between the stones, escaping our combined heat. We sent it out in a wave so violent the rocks burst into fragments mere inches from our faces, as if a rain of mortars had fallen on our exact location.

We weren’t injured, not even scratched. Cirilai had us covered. Cole and Jack had escaped the worst of the carnage. But Samos lay on the ground, broken, covered in blood. And I suddenly understood the terrible aftermath of a stoning.

Still holding hands, Vayl and I picked our way out of the rubble, all that remained of the wall we’d been buried in. Even Scidair’s fire had gone out. But Samos hung on, red bubbles popping out of his mouth as he labored to breathe. His face kept reshaping itself, a weird collage of features that was never quite himself or Floraidh.

“He’s like a cockroach,” I said.

Vayl nodded. “I understand fruit flies are difficult to kill as well.”

“All the creepy crawlies you expect to survive a nuking.”

Iona and Viv came in with Albert trudging behind. The Wiccan carried the harness along with the moss. Viv and Albert also toted loads of plants, mostly fungus as far as I could tell, though I might’ve spied some bark among the toadstools.

“Your timing is excellent,” Vayl said.

Iona smiled. “I do know when to step in, don’t I?”

She nodded for Albert and Viv to dump the vegetation in a pile and dropped the harness on top. As she knelt over her treasures and closed her eyes, Vayl pulled me aside. I watched Viv run to Cole, help him up while Jack ran around in circles and whumped them with the broad wags of his tail.

“Jasmine?” I pulled my attention back to my sverhamin.Oh goody, time for the big moment! Vayl leaned down until our eyes were at the same level. “Do you trust me?”

“Sure.”

“I need for you to be sure.”

Uh-oh. “Yeah, Vayl. I do.”

“Then will you help me gather up the diamonds the Scidairans scattered around this cairn?”

“Vayl—”

“It is the right thing to do.”

I hesitated. Sighed. Of course, I should’ve thought of it myself. “Yeah, okay.” We went outside to make like little kids on Easter Sunday. Albert helped, and within a surprisingly few minutes we’d picked the cairn clean. It helped immensely that the diamonds glittered in the lamplight, and they’d been set at even intervals around the perimeter.

Back inside, Iona’s spell had sprouted. Literally. An empty water bottle stood by her side, making me think she’d poured the contents on the stuff she’d piled at her knees. And while we’d been gone a lush green ivy had grown up through the mound of moss and herbs, twining around the harness so quickly that I could see the stem stretch and twirl, its leaves emerging and growing to full length before my eyes.

The fresh scent of Wiccan magic filled the cairn, blowing away the pollution of Scidair. Samos/Floraidh panted as Iona touched the vine to their foot and it clung, sending out feelers even more quickly now that it had a solid support to wrap around. Within a minute the vine had done a mummy wrap on the shared body. At which point it began to squeeze.

“It can’t suffocate him. Her. Can it?” I asked.

“No,” said Iona. “That’s not the point anyway. It’s not squeezing. It’s sucking.”

Floraidh/Samos bowed so radically I thought she/he might refracture her/his back. Then the vine broke.

Iona whispered words I couldƒ€ words I barely catch and decided I didn’t want to know. As the ivy retreated into the pile, she spat on it. Then she stomped it. Three times she repeated this process as it withdrew into the mound. In the end she scattered all the ingredients, handed me the harness, and pointed to a small brown nut sitting on the dirt floor of the cairn.

“That’s all that remains of Samos.”

I glanced at Vayl. “Your turn,” I said.

He gestured to Cole. “I cede the honor to you. He did mean to steal your body, after all.”

Cole nodded his thanks, strode forward, raised his foot, and stomped. The nut split under his heel, the crack surprisingly loud in the stillness of the night. He ground it around until he was sure it could never be reconstituted, then he held out his arms to Viv.

She stood still, signed something, to which he responded, “Of course you’re worth the sacrifice. I’d never have offered to trade places with you otherwise.”

She ran into his arms and he kissed her hair as Iona beamed at them and Jack did another one of his circle-the-couple runs.

When’s he going to do that for me? I wondered grumpily. Which was when Floraidh sat up. Nearly healed. Fully herself. Pissed as a wet cat. Screaming threats so foul I was surprised her teeth didn’t melt as the words rolled off her tongue.

Vayl held out his hand. “Albert, I have need of my sword now.”

Without a word, my dad passed it over. Vayl unsheathed the blade, causing the Scidairan to clamp her mouth shut tight. She tried to scrabble backward as he advanced on her, but the rocks gave her no escape.

“You wouldn’t kill me!” she screeched.

“You are right.” He flicked the blade, making a clean cut across her forehead. “But I know someone else who would.” He stood up. “Oengus?”

Floraidh laughed. “Do you know how long he’s tried to get to me? I’m so well shielded I could . . .” The words jumped off the precipice she suddenly realized she stood upon as Albert and I opened our hands, showing her the piles of diamonds glittering in our palms.

“Vayl’s got the rest,” I told her. I pocketed the gems. Picked up the bowl and dumped it in her lap. We backed away as an ill wind rose in the cairn. The first slash appeared on Floraidh’s neck. Her scream was echoed by an unearthly howl, like the ones we’d heard in Castle Hoppringhill.

“We’ll still have our revenge on you!” she cried as a wound appeared across her chest and blood spurted. He’d cut deep this time.

“I don’t see how,” I said. “Samos is as dead as a throwaway battery and you’re about to enter the Thin. Neither of you is coming back, Floraidh.”

She began to laugh as both her arms, then her legs, jumped and a score of cuts appeared on each one. Oengus was getting impatient now. He’d waited a long time, after all. Still Floraidh giggled.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“Me, for not recognizing you until Samos entered my body. And you,” she said. “For believing he wouldn’t have some sort of backup plan after having failed to beat you repeatedly in his last life.”

“What do you mean?” Vayl asked.

She kept her eyes on me as she said, “Your poor father has been through so much in the past few weeks. These visits from beyond the grave have disturbed him much more than he would ever let on to you. What have they meant? That question has plagued him from the first. So much so that he finally enlisted your help in discovering the true source of his haunting. Isn’t that right, Albert?”

“Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want with me?”

“You’re just a means to an end, old man. Just a way to let Jasmine know her mommy has escaped from hell with our help. Because she needs a little one-on-one with her baby girl. And Baby Girl is too well protected by”—her eyes rolled upward—“for the direct approach.”

“I had to see you, Jazzy.” I spun, my grip on Vayl’s hand breaking as I recognized my mother’s voice. It was coming out of Viv’s mouth. Impossible, of course, so I knew it had to be true. Especially when I saw her features settle over Viv’s, her honey-colored hair falling over Viv’s blond locks like a bad wig. “I knew you wouldn’t want to talk to me, so I tried to get to you through Albert. Of course, he’s harder to communicate with than a teenager with his iPod blasting.” She sent Albert a dirty look, which he returned times twelve.

As Viv stepped forward, tearing herself from Cole’s embrace, I backed up. “Why would you want to see me?” I asked. “I thought we’d summed up our relationship already.”

She nodded. “I understand why you might think I was the worst mother on earth. But, having spent the past few years in hell, I can tell you that I may be on the bottom of the barrel, but I’m not scraping it.” She glanced at Floraidh, who’d begun to list sideways, her blood turning her sweater a nasty shade of purple. “Not yet.”

The Scidairan managed a grin as she said, “Go ahead, Stella. Remember what awaits you if you kill her. No more torture. An end to the pain. Soft pillows and sheets. Daily showers and clean clothing. A chance to rise among the hierarchy and be with your true love again. It’s all in Edward’s contract. Signed in blood. If only you follow through.”

Viv gripped the sword she’d grabbed back at the clearing. I doubted she knew how to wield it. And Mom had no clue. Didn’t mean they couldn’t kill me out of pure dumb luck.

“Don’t hurt her!” Cole yelled to me. “It’s not her fault!”

No shit, Sherlock. But then again, I don’t want to die tonight. Because if I do—I glanced at Vayl—I will never forgive myself. I pulled the bolo out of my pocket.

“Jaz, please!” Cole called. Shit!

I backed up some more, hoping Vayl could get a clean shot at her. But she managed to keep clear of him while staying a life-threatening distance from me. She said, “Jasmine, you don’t know how it is. Loving someone so much it tears at your heart not to see him every day. Knowing he suffers torments that yƒ€orments ou could ease.”

Despite knowing that she was talking to push me into dropping my guard, I played her game. Too interesting not to. “What are you saying? Your first husband’s in hell?” She inclined her head. Feinted an attack. I jumped aside. We both moved back to neutral.

“He can’t be. Dad said he was a vampire.”

“That was what he told me when we were alive.” She shook her head. “He was afraid I wouldn’t love him if I knew he was a faorzig.”

Ah. Another blood-sucker. Hell spawn whose bite injected a parasite that drove their victims mad, the majority of whom ended up murdering their families before killing themselves. The police had suspected our neighbor had been bitten by one, though they could never prove it. Now I thought they might’ve been right.

I said, “He’s a demon. What’s he enduring tortures for?”

“Me.”

How romantic. “And if you kill me he doesn’t get tortured anymore?”

“Not as much. Neither do I. We’ll both be so much better off. And we’ll be together. And really, what does it matter to you? You’ve died twice already anyway.”

“What?” cried Albert.

“I have a lot of reasons to live!” I yelled, ignoring my dad’s outburst. “People need me!”

“Who, that vampire you think you’re in love with? Vayl is old, Jasmine. He’ll find someone else within a month. He always has.”

“What did she say?” demanded my dad.

“She’s in hell,” I told him without glancing over. “She’s programmed to lie.”

“Do this for me, Jazzy,” she said in her most persuasive tone. The one she’d used to get me to try out for the swing choir when I was a freshman. Me, the girl who could carry a tune in the shower. And nowhere else.

The sad part was, I actually considered it. This was how deep the woman had sunk her claws into my psyche.

I shook my head. “No.” The word, no more than a whisper, couldn’t have carried a single foot. But Albert heard it.

“You ungrateful little bitch!” she screamed as she came at me.

I knew right away I was going to get hurt. Impossible to just defend yourself in a fight with blades. Either you go for the win or you get slashed. And sometimes you still end up so bloody you wish you’d brought an endless supply of ammo. Or a less sentimental coworker.

I braced myself for the blow, gauging the angle, pitching my own blade to catch hers at the point where it would be least likely to hack off a major section of my arm. It never came close.

Albert roared, his outrage like a slap on the back of my head, making me sidestep as he let loose. “You’re never touching my little girl again, Stella!” He shot Vayl’s scabbard at Viv, nailing her in the abdomen. She doubledƒ€n. She d over with a grunt that provided a strange harmony to another statement. Iona’s this time, if my Spirit Eye still focused correctly after all it had Seen tonight. At the same time Brude walked out of the blasted rocks as if they led to a secret cavern only he knew the entrance to. Two enormous black mastiffs flanked him, their eyes flickering orange and yellow with the fires of their homeland. Jack began to growl.

“Grab him,” I ordered Cole. Though he badly wanted to stand with Viv, my third knelt beside the dog and took hold of his collar.

“Fool,” Brude spat at my mother.

Stella looked up, her face twisting with fear as she realized who had come for her. “Enforcer,” she whispered.

“You could have taken my deal. Lived in my lands with your faorzig forever.”

“Why would she want to do that?” asked Cole.

“I offer the dead what no other Domytr can. Escape from both paradise and hell.” He held his hand out and, like a magician calling his assistant from the disappearing closet, wiggled his fingers until Stella emerged from Viv, her skin pink and healthy, her hair waving in the after breeze of Vayl’s blizzard. “Look at what you denied yourself,” Brude whispered. “Beautiful, unending chaos.”

“The Great Taker will never allow you to continue once he knows your plan.” She nodded to me. “This was my best chance. My last chance.”

“Just remember what will happen to your lover if you reveal a word of my intentions to anyone.”

She nodded.

Vayl stepped forward, began to speak. But not in words I could understand. Soft, deadly syllables only the Vampere shared. As they rolled off his tongue my mother’s eyes widened, her mouth opening in a silent shriek. When he turned to me the black had just begun to bleed out of his eyes. Brude nodded. “So it shall be,” he said, as if passing judgment.

“What just happened?” I asked.

Vayl stared down at me, his expression so stern I knew he was damming big emotion. His hand came up my arm, fingers brushing scars only he and my dad knew about. “I love you.”

Brude jerked a hand toward Stella. “Go.” The dogs leaped, taking her to the ground. I looked away as she screamed, surprised to find myself in Albert’s arms a few moments later. When I looked back all I saw was her feet, dragging into the ruins as Satan’s hunters took her home.

Cole ran to Viv, helping her to sit up, holding her as she looked around in shock. Her eyes finally rested on Brude, who stared at me as if trying to solve a puzzle. He shook his head, his braids slipping off his broad shoulders to reveal matching scars in the shape of scythes. His eyes glittered as they moved to Floraidh. I glanced her way as well. Couldn’t believe her chest still rose and fell. Yup. Cockroaches and fruit flies.

“Oengus!” he snapped. “Leave her be!”

“You’re calling off all your dogs?” I asked.

“I have my reasonƒ€have my s,” he said. As he leaned toward me I held up my hand to stop him.

“You promised. Two weeks of safety in your lands.”

“You will return to me.”

“If I do, it’ll be to destroy you.”

His laughter lingered long after he’d disappeared, leaving the same way the hell-dogs had gone.

Viv kept making the same sign. “What’s she saying?” I asked Cole.

“She wants to know if the monsters are gone.”

I nodded. “All but one.” I tried to convince myself it was okay that Floraidh had survived. That had been the plan all along. Plus, with most of her coven gone and Samos dead as a dinosaur, she wouldn’t be much of a threat until—if—she got out of intensive care.

As I backed out of my dad’s arms, listening to him call an ambulance for the second time that night, I watched her struggle for each breath. Then her attention rolled toward the cairn wall behind me. As she looked over my shoulder, her eyes widened in terror. She let out a single, high-pitched scream and froze, her eyes darting back and forth as if unable to tear themselves away from a nightmare. I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck and turned to look.

Nothing. “What’s going on?” I murmured.

Iona said, “I’ve been casting charms to protect us against whatever has been attacking her.”

“It’s her first husband,” I said. “She murdered him in the 1800s.”

“Ah.” Iona raised an eyebrow at Floraidh, her pitiless glance taking in the crumpled form of a once-powerful Scidair. “Well, he’s taken too much blood from her now. Because she’s other, he can call her into the Thin anytime he likes. And whenever he does, that’s all she’ll be able to see. I have a feeling that’s all he’ll want her to see for a very long time.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

The days between Floraidh’s “breakdown,” Samos’s final demise, and my vacation passed with the speed of a fighter plane. So many loose ends to tie up. Cole and Viv had discovered a deep friendship whose brush with death wouldn’t allow it to turn into anything else. But he’d still stayed in Scotland to help her find a new interpreter after Iona went back to her circle. And to help her move to a new flat when she finally admitted she didn’t want to see ghosts at the bus stop anymore—but maybe her haunter should have to stand there for a couple of hundred more years anyway. And the best way for Rhona to heal was for them learn to live their own lives.

Albert had said his gruff—and brief—goodbyes, the morning after, promising never to mess with my missions again. The Haighs had practically done backflips upon the return of their diamonds and, as a token of their gratitude, had offered us anything in their store. Vayl had taken a look at my ring finger and raised his eyebrows. I’d shaken my head.

“Cirilai is all I need,” I’d said. So he’d dropped it.

Then Pete had called us back to Cleveland.

We sat in his bare little office, which looked much more cheerful painted primrose yellow, and waited for him to finish shuffling papers. While he figured out how to get around to the subject, I noticed he’d replaced the dead plant by his closed window blinds with one of those miniature electric fountains. Suddenly I had to pee.

“I see here you wrecked the rental vehicle,” Pete said.

“The Scidairans were responsible,” Vayl pointed out.

I reminded myself to breathe.

Pete shuffled his stack some more. Cleared his throat. “The Oversight Committee has reviewed this case.”

I felt my eyebrows go up. “Already?”

He nodded. Loosened his tie. “They, uh, are not happy that Floraidh has been admitted to a mental institution and her coven has dropped out of the picture.”

“Did you explain to them why?” Vayl asked.

Pete nodded. “They don’t seem to understand all the shadings and parameters of the situation.” He sighed. “They see this as a failed mission. And they’ve strongly suggested that I suspend Jaz, pending further review.”

Suddenly all I could hear was this high-pitched whine. Like the old class-is-over signal at my high school, only farther up the scale. “What?”

He nodded. Ran his fingers over the two hairs left on his shiny head. “I’m sorry, Jaz. I don’t see how I can deny them. They’re threatening to cut my funding if I don’t—”

I hadn’t realized I’d begun to reach for Grief until Vayl’s hand slid over mine. I looked at him, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from forming. I’d never seen him so forbidding. He turned back to Pete. “I smell ulterior motives. First they refused my request for a warlock. Then they sent Albert to spy on us. And now they want to fire their best assassin, despite the fact that she saved Floraidh from Bea? And do not give me that, ‘But she is practically a vegetable,’ excuse. That is not Jasmine’s fault. What message do all these actions convey to you?”

Pete’s entire forehead crinkled as he considered the options. “They could be looking to reshape the department.”

Vayl nodded sharply. “Or eliminate it completely. They put us in a situation most of your employees would not have survived. And you, slave that you are to the bottom line, allowed it.”

I flattened my hand against my chest because I honestly thought that was the only way I could prevent my heart from leaping out of it. Suddenly I understood Albert’s point of view. This wasn’t how I wanted to die. Flopping on the floor of my boss’s office, wishing to God I’d chosen a career where other people didn’t have so much control over my future. Then I nearly croaked again when Pete didn’t fire Vayl. Or even snap his head off. But sat back in his chair, folding his hands across his stomach thoughtfully.

Vayl said, “Jasmine is due some vacation time, is she not?”

“Uh—” Pete turned to his PC, clicked away at his keyboard for half a minute. “Yes. Looks to me like she’s got a month built up.”

“Then grant it to her, and mine to me. Do not call either of us in that time. Avoid the Oversight Committee members as well, no matter how often they try to contact you, all right? They cannot touch your budget for several weeks anyway, correct?”

“Right.”

“By then I will have everything taken care of.”

We both looked at him. Pete said, “Vayl? What are you planning?”

He gave Pete a look as grim as a funeral. “It is better that you do not know.”

Apparently Vayl intended to keep me in the dark as well. He’d whisked me off to my apartment, ordered me to pack for a long getaway, and left. When he returned I was sitting just where he’d left me, having done nothing.

“Jasmine.” He sat down on the bed beside me. “You have not even opened your trunk.”

I stared down at my hands, clasped between my knees, and swallowed the lump that had risen in my throat the minute Pete had dropped the hammer. “He’s going to fire me,” I said. “You’ve been around forever. You know how to do different things. But this is all I have, Vayl. This job means everything to me.”

He slid his hand over both of mine just in time to catch the tear that had escaped from my eye. “I know,” he said softly. “I promised you before that I would not let those cretins harm you. I have never broken a vow and I never will. You have not been fired, nor even suspended. You are on vacation. During which time the Oversight Committee will come to see the error of its ways.”

I glanced up in time to see a satisfied little smile play across his face. “What are you going to do?”

“What I should have done the moment I heard they had managed to get themselves appointed.” He met my eyes, his own softening to amber as he said, “You will let me do this thing for you?”

“I don’t even know what it is!”

“Are you sure you want to?”

I nodded. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, as if he thought my drab little bedroom might be bugged or something. I started to laugh. “Are you serious?”

“I rarely know how to be otherwise.”

“You know, that just might satisfy my undying need for revenge on Pete and his goddamn bosses for siccing Albert on us in the first place. Can I help?”

“It would be better if you did not.”

I thought about it. “Oh. Of course. Well, then, you have my blessing. And, you know what, this is it!”

“This is what?”

“That thing you said you’d try to find that would prove how much you love me. This is definitely the one.”