by Devon Monk
“He was dead,” I said, steadying my breathing and pushing away from the wall.
“Yes, well, let’s not have you go there just yet.” He pressed his palm between my shoulder blades and oh, gods, the heat that bloomed there was almost enough to buckle my knees.
Because with that heat came more. So much more.
I felt worry, real and full and centered around Ryder’s still retreating figure. I felt love, thick and heady and so big it stretched my skin and made me moan softly in wonder that I could carry something so totally consuming and still have room for my flesh and bones. Skating on top of those two mammoth surges of real, solid emotions was sorrow. Because I knew this wasn’t going to last. These emotions would be snatched away and I’d be hollowed out again. Empty.
“There,” the devil on my shoulder whispered. “All better now?”
My inhale hitched. I stifled the sob caught in my throat and pressed my lips together before I made any needy sounds.
Before I begged.
“We can be good together, Delaney. For a long, long time.”
The heat of his palm shifted as he stepped even closer to me.
I wanted to burrow into these emotions. Dive in and breathe, drowning on the feelings that had been just outside my reach for so long.
Less than twenty-four hours.
And already the craving for this, for being whole and filled with the decadent textures and flavors and sensations of real emotions was terrible.
This bright moment was a hook on the line of lies Bathin dangled through his clever, hot fingers.
Dad was right. We were made of sturdy stock.
Sturdier than the promises of demons. Sturdy enough to make the right choices.
I wordlessly took a step away from Bathin. It felt like my ribs were being ripped out of my chest.
I took another step.
Bathin’s hand slid away. The emotions—love, worry, sorrow—all tumbled down like leaves lost beneath the cold moonlight.
“Such a thing you are,” Bathin whispered.
He didn’t move to follow me.
Two steps turned into three, three into four until I was striding after Ryder, the dense air of the hospital cooling the tears on my cheeks I hadn’t felt fall.
~~~
Ben’s room was larger than I’d expected, but was made small by the six wolves, three vampires, one nurse, and one reserve officer who filled it.
Three of the wolves were sitting on rolling doctor-office stools and were plastered against one side of the bed, leaning arms, hands, heads against Jame’s feet, hip, shoulder. Covering him in a blanket of limbs, of family. Pack.
Jame lay on his side, his arm crooked over the top of Ben’s head, his other arm carefully lined along Ben’s side, fingers splayed on the patch of intact flesh on Ben’s hip bone.
Ben lay on his back, his eyes closed and every bone in his body looking too large and sharp for the skin that covered it. He had a variety of machines hooked up to him, blood on an I.V. drip, and the blanket pulled up in lopsided bunches across his chest.
Granny Wolfe sat on Ben’s side of the bed in the easy chair that seemed to come standard with the room.
To the right of the room was a built-in couch tucked against a wide window across which the blinds had been drawn. Two vampires lounged on the couch, and Rossi stood in those shadows, arms crossed, eyes on Ben, like he owned everything and everyone in the room.
It was an odd allegiance, especially since just a few hours ago, I was pretty sure the weres and the vamps were about to give the K.I.N.K.s and C.O.C.K.s a run for their money with who could throw down in this town.
Ryder was near the foot of the bed. He shifted so that his back was to the vamps and he could keep an eye on me instead.
What did that say about the level of trust he shared with me?
“Hey,” I said softly, because even with the whiplash sting of having felt my emotions and lost them again, I knew this was a sacred space, a healing space.
I knew the werewolves curled around Jame were giving him strength and calm. Strength and calm that would in turn be transferred to Ben.
Jame didn’t glance my way, his eyes steady on Ben as if he were his whole world.
There was an ease to Jame’s body language. He might still be in pain, but it was no longer agony. I didn’t think that had anything to do with his physical wounds. I think it was all different because of the bite mark, still red and a little ragged that showed so sharply on the side of his neck.
They were joined again, had claimed each other. I didn’t know if Ben had been conscious for that or if Jame had used Ben’s mouth to puncture Jame’s neck. But they were together. Tied tight.
Something in me unwound knowing that, and I let myself savor the relief that only lasted long enough to tantalize and torture, like saltwater on a thirsty tongue.
Ben’s eyes snapped open, wide and fever-glossed. “D’laney?”
I crossed quickly to the head of the bed, Ryder stepping out of my way like he didn’t even want to risk the chance of touching me.
It bothered me. Until it didn’t.
Ben didn’t quite track my movement. I stopped beside him, where he wouldn’t have to move his head to see me.
I was aware of Ryder stepping in closer, the tension of his body. But I didn’t hesitate to touch Ben’s hand. Ben was strangely hot, and since vampires usually ran cold it threw me for a minute.
“Hey, Ben. I thought I told you not to get into trouble on your little fact-finding mission.”
He tried to smile, half his mouth lifting. “Not my boss,” he whispered.
“Yeah, well, you’re going to be fine,” I said, even though I had no idea if that were true or not. “You just need to rest, and let Jame and the doctors and nurses take care of you, okay?”
“He knows.”
Chills ran over my body, terror bypassing emotional conduits and riding ancient lizard-brain instincts instead.
“Lavius?”
“Yes.”
“What does he know?”
“The moon. The book.”
“Full moon?”
“He will be there. You. You have.” Ben moved his mouth, the muscles at his neck straining, tendons popping.
Jame leaned in, placed his mouth over Ben’s shoulder, then neck and just breathed there, a soft growl that sounded almost like a purr rising up out of him.
Ben’s eyes were wild, frantic. I pet his hand gently. “Easy. Give it a minute. Just relax and feel that man of yours.”
Ben swallowed repeatedly, and Jame just kept on purring, or maybe he was talking in a low grumble. Whatever it was he was doing, it worked. Ben relaxed by degrees, his body, his face, and finally his eyes, which fluttered shut.
I waited. There had to be more Ben wanted to say. More than Lavius knows we had the book because that was old news.
After a full minute, I glanced over at Granny. “Does he need anything?”
But it was Rossi who answered me. “Wait. He’s gathering his strength.”
The vampires in the room all shifted, and it sounded like wings against silk. Only Rossi held perfectly still, a tower in the shifting wind.
I missed Rossi’s laidback hippie, free love vibe he usually strolled around with. But I couldn’t deny that the granddaddy badass vampire thing he was rocking was a not only a better fit right now, it was also totally hypnotizing.
So I waited.
The silence wasn’t uncomfortable. Jame kept making those low, growling sounds. Then finally lifted his head and pressed his forehead to Ben’s temple, his eyes closed.
Ben stirred again, opened his eyes.
I smiled encouragingly. “So far you’ve told me Lavius knows we were planning to meet him at the full moon tonight. You said book, and I know Lavius wants the book. He knows we have it. We’re not going to give it to him.”
Some of the panic drained out of his eyes. “Mansion. Portland. Power. But here…” The words locked up again, as Ben stif
fened to silence.
Jame stroked Ben’s arm, easy, steady contact. It seemed to help.
“Weak here. Demon. Possess.” Ben stuttered, then worked his mouth, no words coming out. I could see the pain it caused him. And the frustration, so close to panic.
“He has vampires working for him who are demon-possessed,” I said.
“Wanted me.”
“Wanted to possess you?”
“Marked.”
I looked over at Rossi. “Demon-marked?”
Rossi finally stepped out of the shadows and stood behind me where Ben could see him.
“Benoni, son of my sorrow, see me,” Rossi commanded gently.
Ben’s eyes stuttered upward and fixed on his maker.
“There is no demon who could take you. No mark I can’t break. You are mine.”
Was that true? I noticed that Bathin had settled into the corner of the room, silent enough he hadn’t disturbed the wolves.
I sent him a questioning look. He shrugged and flicked his eyebrows. A “yes” sort of look. Rossi was that powerful for the one vampire he’d turned.
On the one hand I was relieved that Ben couldn’t be possessed. On the other hand I was annoyed Bathin hadn’t told me that when I was arguing with Ryder earlier.
But then, Bathin wasn’t really on my side here. He had gotten what he wanted: a soul, a person to torture, and access to the forbidden lands of Ordinary.
I didn’t know why he wanted to be in Ordinary, but it wasn’t hard to guess the answer to that wouldn’t be anything good.
“He will kill you.” They were the strongest words I’d heard Ben say so far. I thought he meant Lavius would kill Rossi. But Ben wasn’t looking at Rossi, he was looking at me.
“I know he wants to. He already told me that.” I meant it to be comforting but it came off sort of dismissive. Not what I had intended.
Ben’s body seized with that panic again.
Jame leaned in, the wolves behind him moving with him, pouring out comfort. Rossi’s strong fingers wrapped around my arm. He pulled me away from the bed and into the shadows.
“It’s a compunction,” Rossi said.
“What is?”
“Ben is being forced to tell you Lavius’s message. It’s all he’s been trying to say since he’s been conscious. I had hoped that bringing you here and letting Ben deliver the message would break the spell.”
“Spell. As in real magic and real spell?”
“Death isn’t the only Ichor Techne spell Lavius knows how to cast.”
“Can we break it? Can we neutralize the spell? Wash it off or something?”
“I did. This is deeper than the surface.” His eyes flicked to the blood dripping down through thin tubes to feed Ben’s emaciated frame.
“He injected the blood spell into him? It’s inside Ben?”
Rossi’s eyes glittered in the shadows. “Yes.”
Oh, there was so much hatred in that one word, so much need to savage, to kill.
“Will the transfusion erase it?”
“No. It has eased it, diluted the strength, but the spell remains.”
“How do we break it?”
“There is a counter spell.”
“But?” There had to be a catch if he hadn’t just cast it yet.
“It is written in the Rauðskinna. If we cast it, Lavius will know. He is waiting with a counter spell. One that could bring the book of dark magic to him.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s what I would do.”
“To save Ben we have to use the book. If we use the book, Lavius will what? Zap it to him and use it on us?”
“Yes.”
“What’s our counter move?”
“Kill Lavius.”
“I’m all in on that plan, but we’d have to find him first.”
“Ben said he’s in Portland. A mansion.”
“He also said he’s locked away and powerful. I am not going to authorize a full scale attack with nothing but planted information to go on.”
“I’m not asking for your permission to kill him, Delaney. It’s time you remove yourself from this fight, and let me put you somewhere safe, where Lavius can’t use you against me.”
Oh, hell no.
“If you think locking me up is even a slight possibility, you have lost your mind, Travail. I’m the law here.”
“You are compromised. In more than one way.” His eyes drifted to the bite on my neck, then the demon over my shoulder. And maddeningly, to Ryder.
“Look, if you want to be the guy with your finger on the trigger, I’m all for that. This is your old history crawling all over my town and hurting my people. I know I’m no vampire slayer, but I have skin in this game, you understand?
“He killed Sven. He killed the vamp hunters who rolled through town. He beat the crap out of Ben and Jame, and attacked me. He ran my sister over with a car.
“Ran her over.”
I paused to take a breath and lower my tone. I was furious, I could feel it boiling up, hot and thick before cooling under that weird soulless wind that raged through me.
But it wasn’t just anger that was fueling my protest.
I had taken the responsibility to protect this town like so many Reeds before me. My father had died doing so. I wasn’t about to walk any other path than the one I chose, no matter what damage I’d taken along the way.
“This is my town. My people. My fight. We do this together, or I will use the authority that is rightly invested in me to tell everyone, every single creature, exactly what I expect them to do in this situation. Do you understand me?”
For a moment, more than a heartbeat, more than three, I thought I’d finally pushed Rossi past his fondness for me and my family.
Because for a moment, standing there in front of me wasn’t the easy-going live-and-let-live guy I’d known all my life.
I was staring down the badass granddaddy vampire who could break me, literally, in half with his bare hands.
When he didn’t say anything, I filled the silence. “We counter his moves. We out-think him, we out-plan him, we do this smart, and we do it together as a united front, me, you, the Wolfes, the gods, and demons and anyone and anything else we need to call on to hit hard and fast. I want this one and done. We draw Lavius to the battlefield of our choice. And we end him.”
Rossi looked past me to Granny Wolfe, and they seemed to have some kind of silent conversation I did not understand.
Ryder shifted behind me. I wondered if he would stand with Rossi, or if he was going to try to drag me out of the room. I hadn’t seen his rule-following compulsion under full power and wasn’t sure where it would land in this situation.
I wasn’t breaking any rule that I was aware of, but I was pretty sure I was forging new ones.
“Delaney’s right,” Ryder said. “We do this together and we wipe him out. Locking her away won’t keep her safe. He’s already marked her. He’ll know where she is.”
I was glad he’d taken my side, but not thrilled with his casual assessment of how compromised I really was.
“What’s the smart move?” I asked.
Rossi finally blinked, and my heartbeat stuttered. I didn’t realize I’d been standing there with my fists clenched, stiff, as if I were trying to stand up against a slow-motion bomb blast coming at me from point blank range.
I was sweating and all my muscles were fatigued, like I’d just run a short marathon.
Rossi was old. Ancient. He had a lot of power, a lot of sway. I’d just been treated to a taste of that power and he hadn’t lifted a finger against me.
Lavius was just as ancient and powerful as Rossi. We didn’t just need to hit him hard, we needed to kill him with one blow.
“We need a plan. Bulletproof,” I said. “I know you already have a plan in place and bringing me here to bully me to the sidelines was part of it. Tell me the rest.”
“You are risking more than your life, Delaney.” Rossi’s tone was flat,
without the warmth I usually detected beneath the surface. “You are risking Ryder’s. Your sisters’.”
“Yeah, because Lavius likes to make people pay by pounding their loved ones into submission. I understand that. My loved ones are tough as hell. We can take it. What’s the plan?”
There was no arguing with that truth, so he didn’t.
“I’ll use the book to break the spell on Ben. Then I’ll kill Lavius.”
“Want to fill in the blanks, or should I just handcuff you to my side and give you a commentary of surprise and awe as things unfold?”
“Delaney.” This, finally, said with the kind of exasperated tone I was used to. I knew right then, that he wasn’t going to do this without me.
Ryder reached over, his fingers brushing against the back of my wrists. Reminding me it wasn’t just me Rossi was siding with.
Us. Rossi wasn’t going to wage this war without us.
“I’ll buy you a cup of fancy hospital coffee,” I wheedled. “We’ll take over a conference room down the hall, call in the people we need and do this proper.”
“We’re not planning a battle in the hospital,” Rossi said.
“Why?”
Rossi gave me a look like I was stupid. “Their coffee is terrible.”
Right. That was a problem I could get on board with. “I hear the Perky Perch has a loft we can reserve.”
He looked back over at Ben. This was why I had suggested the hospital meeting room. I didn’t think Rossi was going to let Ben out of his sight.
“Go on now,” Granny spoke gently for the first time since I’d gotten there. “I’ll watch our boys.”
Jame made a little humming sound that was both kind of a protest and also absolute contentment. Like an adult being told he was a good child. Like someone who had thought the man he loved had been beaten and killed, and now he had his family, no, both their families keeping him safe.
Our boys. That was good. Better than good. It might even be good enough that I could hang up my referee stripes because the fight between the Rossis and Wolfes had been called off due to lovey-dovey weather.
Of course, Rossi could tell Granny to shove it and this could all turn into a fist fight in a blink.
But Rossi nodded. “Call who you want,” he said. “But the fewer we involve in this, the better.”