Cole leaned over the abyss and yelled to Kyphas, “Looks like your prophets were wrong, demon. In fact, you can just tell them they can kiss my ass!”
Her smile, ghastly as it was, still seemed to approve. “Even they can be blind sometimes,” she said. “It all depends on how they look at things.” She emphasized the word so clearly that I knew she was trying to send him a message. And then she threw her head back and screamed. I looked to see if one of the hydras had taken a fresh bite out of her arm, but she’d covered herself up again. What I saw instead was that the fog was rising. Or maybe she was being swallowed within it.
“This door is closing,” Raoul said. “We need to leave the room in case something reaches through it at the last minute and manages to trap us inside it.”
“Could that really happen?” Aaron asked me nervously.
“Just the fact that you can ask that question shows what a rookie you are,” I said. “Now, see how Bergman has hustled his butt to the hallway? There’s a guy who knows how to take physical threats seriously. You should follow his lead.”
“Except when it comes to raiding old cemeteries, right, buddy?” said Cole, slapping Bergman on the back as he joined him outside the room.
“Huh,” was Bergman’s pale-faced response. Thank goodness Astral had witnessed that event or we might never have known the extent of his heroics. “What about the bed?” he asked Raoul as he, Vayl, and I joined him in the hall.
Raoul said, “By morning very little will be left to show that the room was once a gate to hell.”
We looked around at each other. Raoul seemed the worse off for injuries, having been cut deeply in a couple of places. Cole and I had each taken minor wounds to the arms that we hadn’t even felt until this moment. Vayl’s two chest wounds were already closing. Dave, Cassandra, and Bergman hadn’t been touched. We’d been lucky, we knew that. Hell wouldn’t be so kind the next time.
Vayl wondered aloud, “Will we be safe here or should we move on immediately?”
“I can make us safe for at least an hour,” Raoul replied. “It wasn’t like we were going to tackle that gate anyway. Our scouts will find us a much less well-traveled route.”
Cole snorted. “Which the prophets have already seen.”
Cassandra said, “Kyphas was trying to tell you something about that. I think there’s a way to cloud their vision.”
“I agree,” Raoul said.
“Then I need to consult my Enkyklios. And Astral,” she added. “If there’s a way, I’ll find it.”
Vayl nodded. “Do that. Everyone else must eat, and think. If you have any ideas of how to improve this mission, now is the time to come up with them. Because as soon as we find a way to rescue Hanzi, Jasmine, Raoul, and I must leave for hell.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Sunday, June 17, 5:00 a.m.
Raoul’s idea of protecting the hotel from further invasion was simply to bless it. He took my holy water, scattered it at the four corners, and prayed as he walked around the building. It seemed like such a simple solution. And yet, as I watched the part I could see from the room Vayl and I had temporarily claimed on the ground floor, it seemed to me like if I turned my head just right I could see Raoul, transformed by the ceremony and his place in it into his true self. The shining white beacon whose slightest whisper could blast my brain to jelly if he wasn’t careful.
It wasn’t that he shone with an inner light or that I could see his skeleton glowing through his skin. It was that I could glimpse, just for a second or two, the rare and beautiful creature he’d become moving just behind the physical form he’d taken in order to walk with us. And I had to wonder—was this what Granny May had become? When Matt had chosen paradise over me… had he known this perfect grace, this wisdom wrapped in white fire, was waiting for him?
I felt Vayl before I heard him, his fingers moving gently up and around my shoulders, his chest pressing against my back as I dropped the curtain. “Does it hurt you?” I asked. “Standing inside a blessed building?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But Raoul gave me this. It shields me from the worst of it.” He turned me around so I could see the amulet hanging from his neck. Made of gold, the pendant looked like a reverse question mark in which the circle had nearly been closed. Inside the circle, held there by fine golden lines that reminded me of Queen Marie’s favorite palace room, was a second nearly complete circle whose opening was at the exact same space as the first. Filling those spaces was a golden arrow so intricately made that I could see the fine lines of its feathers had been hammered in by some meticulous craftsman.
I wanted to touch it, but settled for laying my hand against the soft shirt below it. “So.” I looked into his eyes, trying to gauge his mood. They were brown. Leave it to him to be totally relaxed before the biggest mission of our lives. “Hanzi. And then hell,” I said.
“Yes.” He caught my other hand in his and brought it to his lips. “We have had so little time together of late. And now.” He pressed his lips into my skin and I closed my eyes, concentrating on the feel of him, his hips crowding closer to mine. His tongue tracing a path to my wrist. Had the air just thickened? As I took a deeper breath, I thought maybe so.
I raised my eyelids and smiled as I watched his eyes brighten to hazel and then to the emerald green that always felt like a celebration to me. “What do you say we leave them in the future where they belong?”
He glanced toward the window. “Dawn approaches. Already tomorrow is nearly here.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Perhaps an hour.”
“Then let’s make the most of it.”
Even now that our deadline loomed like a factory boss in our heads, yelling at us to get to work fast because every second counted, we undressed each other slowly. Savored each new bit of skin an unbuttoning revealed with lips and tongues and softly worded murmurs.
The bed creaked like its box springs had been sitting at the bottom of a river for the past twenty years, so we moved the bedding to the floor and lay in each other’s arms as comfortably as if we’d been testing out a Tempur-Pedic mattress.
Vayl wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, my breasts flattening against his chest as he whispered in my ear, “Tomorrow may be our last day together. I try to banish the thought, and yet it keeps tearing through my mind.”
I shuddered, holding him tight. “Listen, I’m not letting you go. No matter what happens to us, I’ll find you. Somehow, I’ll come for you. Okay?”
He buried his mouth in my hair, muttered something I didn’t understand, and then kissed me so fiercely that I couldn’t have formed a single coherent thought for fifteen minutes after that.
We made love with a desperation I’d never experienced before, a love so immense I realized my cheeks were wet, and then knew that I was weeping. But it was all right, somehow. Our rhythm was the rhythm of the universe, and it sang out that we were meant to be. That we would always find one another, because music like ours was timeless… eternal. Afterward we lay in each other’s arms until another rush of fear, of need, of desire pushed us forward again, to that place where only we could go together.
I must’ve dozed off, because my eyes felt heavy and my concentration dim when Vayl finally said, “Dawn is breaking. I need…” He trailed off. I’d never seen him go into the daysleep before. But now I’d looked into his face just in time to see his eyes flutter shut, his expression relax. I slapped my hand against my heart. He’s not dead. He didn’t just die. Chill, Jaz. He’ll be up again at dusk. If you can make sure no light hits him in the meantime.
I went to our luggage and dug out the sleeping tent. Since there was no way I’d be able to lug him onto the bed, I set it up right next to our spot. When it was done I levered Vayl into it, using angles and his weight, more than my muscles, to get the job done. Once I’d zipped the door closed I sat down beside him and cried. Because the past hour had been one of the best we’d ever spent together. And despite what I’d sai
d, I wasn’t sure we’d ever get the chance to repeat it. Then I jumped into the shower. Because everybody should face their fate with clean hair, a full stomach, and at least an hour’s worth of lovemaking behind them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Sunday, June 17, 6:20 a.m.
What is it about the shower? Water hitting your head in just the right pattern? I don’t know, but I get some of my best ideas while rubbing suds into my hair. This time it helped a lot that Jack chose that moment to poke his head in and give me that doleful look that meant he had digested every morsel in his massive gut and I had neglected him shamefully by not feeding him in the past two hours.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Seriously, dude. I have a feeling you wouldn’t be my buddy like you are today if I didn’t have the key to the chow cabinet.”
And that made me think of doorways. And my sense that the portals following me around the planet were somehow alive.
I finished showering in record time despite the fact that I had to fend off another nosebleed, dressed, fed the mutt, and ran for Raoul’s room.
“How long?” I asked as I burst inside without even knocking. With any other guy I’d have worried about interrupting something a little bent but, as expected, I found my Spirit Guide reading the latest issue of Model Railroader and chowing down on peanuts.
He sat up like he wasn’t that surprised to see me. “Until what?” he asked.
“What’s our window until it’s too late for Hanzi? Do I need to try to wake Vayl up somehow, or will it hold until sundown? Can you at least tell me that?”
He shook his head and looked toward the window. Whose curtains were closed. Which was when I realized he hadn’t been reading the magazine or eating the peanuts when I’d burst into the room. He’d been staring at those ugly beige window treatments.
“What?” I demanded.
“I was about to come see you,” he admitted. He stood so straight I felt like an officer about to begin inspection. “I just got word from our scout. He’s discovered a route to one of the most far-flung gates in Lucifer’s domain. We have a very narrow window until the fence guardians catch his scent and come to investigate. As soon as Vayl rises we’re leaving.” He’d muttered most of this information over my right shoulder, like a TV crew was maybe standing behind me. Now he dropped his eyes to mine. “I’m sorry, Jasmine. There’s no time to help Hanzi. It’s all about you now.”
I wrapped both my hands around the despair threatening to choke the breath out of me and said, “Look. We can do both. What if we grabbed Hanzi before the accident and took him into hell with us? What better way to show him his potential future than to sink him straight to the pit with a couple of pitiless assassins and an Eldhayr warrior who can show him the best way out?”
As Raoul hesitated I rushed on. “You know his chances of survival there are slim to none anyway; it’s not like we’d be vacationing in the Wine Country or something. At least this way there’s a better chance he’ll choose the good fight. Plus Vayl gets to save his kid. And I don’t have to spend the rest of my life walking under a thundercloud of guilt for denying him that chance. What do you say?”
I realized I was clasping my hands in front of me like a little kid begging for a double dip of chocolate/vanilla twist before the ice cream van passes her by.
Raoul nodded. “I need to check with a few people. But I believe that could work.”
“Yes! I would make you do cheerleader kicks with me, but I can tell you’d pull a hamstring or something.” So I hugged him which, as soon as I was done, I realized he’d dealt with about as suavely as a sixth grader. As I watched the blush fade from his cheeks I made a mental note, which my inner librarian dutifully filed away: Next time… do the kicks. I said, “Okay, do me a favor then. Tell the crew there’s been a change of plan. We’re camping out here until further notice.”
He sat up straighter. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ve figured out how to get me and Vayl to Hanzi without driving.”
His eyes gleamed. “I hoped you would. Do you want some company?”
I shook my head. “Your hands are pretty tied on this one, Raoul. I don’t want to take you to a place where you’ll be too tempted to break the Eminent’s edict. Especially when you’re already in hot water over us.” As his face fell I said, “You guard the troops, okay? No telling what kind of trouble they’ll manage to get themselves into if left to their own devices. As soon as Vayl and I get back with Hanzi, we’re jumping to hell. Then I’m gonna need you like crazy.”
He nodded resolutely. “This is true. I’ll see you when the kid is safe, then. Be careful. And remember, some surprises are nice ones.”
I tilted my head at him, but when he didn’t elaborate I said, “Okay,” as I backed out of his room.
With a whole day ahead of me and zero sleep behind, I skipped back to the room for some shut-eye. Jack had gobbled his breakfast and settled into one of the chairs for his morning nap.
“Seriously?” I asked him. When he nodded I said, “Okay, but wake me up if you need to take a dump. We don’t want another fiasco like we had in that Motel 6.”
I made a few more preparations for the night ahead. And when I was satisfied I’d done all I could I shed my clothes, curled up under the covers beside Vayl’s tent, and snoozed until his whoop of indrawn breath brought me to my feet. I might’ve been stark naked, but I held Grief in one hand and my bolo in the other, so I felt at least half dressed. I also could’ve kicked myself for reacting so violently to the sound of him waking to life for yet another evening. I should be used to it by now. I had been, back at his house. Which proved how much this mission had frayed my last nerve. Not a comforting way to start out what could be the most important night of your life.
Especially when I looked down. Shit! Another nosebleed had left my chin, my neck, and the front third of my torso caked in half-dried flakes of blood. I supposed I should be grateful that I hadn’t ruined one of my favorite T-shirts. But I just felt… tired. I touched my nostrils. Still damp from Brude’s latest onslaught. Go ahead, you fucker. Try me. I’m not going down without a fight.
I considered throwing my weapons on the bed while I cleaned up, but Jack had decided that if Vayl and I weren’t going to sleep there it was fair game for him. He’d spread out across the middle of the dingy mattress and was blinking up at me sleepily while Astral stared at both of us from the perch she’d found on the ancient TV set. So I set the lethals on the dresser and, before I hit the bathroom, took one more minute to set up supper for the bottomless pit.
“How hungry is the poopmeister?” I asked Jack as I dug into our luggage for his food supply. He bounced to his feet, making the bed creak so alarmingly I wondered if I was going to have to rescue him from the rubble of its collapse. But it held up at least long enough for him to leap to the floor and claim his food, which he chomped happily, pausing only to smile up at Vayl after he’d emerged from his tent and come to give me a good-evening hug. Which he delayed when he saw the state I’d risen in. He shook his head.
“I hope, more than anything, that tonight sees an end to your pain,” he said as he pulled me into his arms, dried blood and all. When I thought about it, that was really saying something.
“That was very cool of you to say, considering,” I replied. I shivered inside his arms. “You’re cold.”
“I have not yet eaten.”
“Mmmm.” I led him to the shower, underneath the spray, let him rub my skin to its usual pasty paleness. And all the while his lips brushed my neck, nipped at my skin. Eventually my shivers had nothing to do with temperature.
I said, “What you said earlier, about eating. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea for you to take from me once in a while after all. I mean, the last time we joined we didn’t even trade fluids. It was just—emotional.”
“I know.” He set the soap in the dispenser and pulled me in until it felt as if every inch of my skin was touching every bit of his. “I have a feeling our
journey toward a new otherness cannot be derailed, but only delayed. And even that may not continue for as long as we had hoped.”
“Then we might as well enjoy the ride,” I murmured as I stroked his broad, muscular back. “I was just wondering, though. If this all works out, I’m definitely going to want a shower after we get back. What do you think about three in twenty-four hours? Too much?”
He considered the question as his hands drew erotic circles down my sides to my hips and back up again. Finally he said, “Well, they do say that cleanliness is next to godliness. And, considering our vocations, that cannot hurt.”
“You’re just saying that because you like to get wet with me.”
His grin made my heart go pit-a-pat just like in romance novels. Or so I’ve heard. He said, “That, also, is quite true.”
I turned in his arms, waiting until he’d clasped his hands across my stomach before I said, “We’ve got to exploit every advantage. Especially since I’ve got a big night planned for you. So give me that soap and let’s get dirty, uh, I mean clean.”
We used up most of the soap. All of the hot water. And every bit of strength in our legs. By the time we left the shower our kneecaps were no firmer than spaghetti noodles. We helped each other dress in colors so dark we’d have lost each other inside a movie theater, and then collapsed on our homemade bed for five minutes of recovery time.
At which point I told him about our change in plans. He leaped off the bed. “What are we doing here, then? We should have left the moment I rose!”
“About that,” I said. “I figured out a way for us to get to Hanzi. I even tried it out to make sure it would all work earlier today. I’ll show you soon. The point is, your kid isn’t going to be at that location or on that motorcycle for another”—I checked my watch—“fortyfive minutes. We don’t have time, no. But we have to take it. Raoul told me that, for some reason, the only time it’s okay to grab the kid is right before the accident. He’s got to see something happen there before we take him to hell, or the deal is null and void. So ‘patience’ is the word of the day, okay?”
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