The Deadliest Bite

by Jennifer Rardin

  Vayl kissed me so thoroughly I almost forgot we had important items on our to-do list. When he lifted his head he said, “You are a wonder.”

  “I try.” My lopsided smile told him to cut out the silly compliments, they were just too far over the top.

  He touched the spot where I’d taped a piece of gauze underneath my right breast. I checked to make sure it didn’t show through the thick cotton of my front-pocket pullover as he asked, “Did I hurt you?”

  I brushed my palm against his cheek. “A little. It’s teeth in skin, babe. You know it’s got to. But the pleasure is so intense. I can still feel the tingle in my toes. And the bubbles are still popping in my brain. You get me high in a way that leaves me permanently powerful. Even after the crash. How does it feel for you?”

  He caressed my lips, studying them so closely I would’ve thought his next step was to re-create the image on canvas if he hadn’t started talking again. He said, “When I taste you, when I am inside of you, and you surround me, then I am no longer alone.” He stopped. Stared into my eyes. And I suddenly understood the significance behind the looks he’d been giving me since before I realized how he felt for me. He’d been trying to tell me how lonely he’d been. All those years, searching for his sons. It hadn’t mattered who he’d touched, whose blood he’d swallowed. He’d never truly connected with anyone in all that time. He’d been isolated, like a TB carrier stuck in quarantine, until he’d met me. And now he was about to risk losing that forever.

  I wrapped myself around him until my arms and legs ached. Only then did I say, “I know a little bit about these things, Vayl. People have choices, even after death. I promise, I will always choose you.”

  He pulled back so he could look into my face. “Not Matt? He may be waiting for you in paradise, you know. He may be standing behind the pearly gates holding a beach umbrella in one hand and a margarita in the other.”

  I jumped to my feet. “I was really going to do this later. Afterward? But no, now really seems…” I rushed to my suitcase. It didn’t take much digging. I knew right where I’d packed the box because I’d checked on it every day since to make sure it hadn’t disappeared.

  I came back to Vayl, who looked like a male model the way he sat in front of his sleeping tent, one leg stretched out in front of him, the other bent at the knee so it could prop up his arm. I said, “God, you’re gorgeous. Have I ever told you that? Don’t let it go to your head. Egotistical vampires are the worst. Here.” I shoved the box into his free hand. “This is for you.”

  Which was such a stupid thing to say, but I was suddenly, incredibly nervous.

  I sat on my knees in front of him, trying not to twirl my curls nervously as he unwrapped the classy blue paper and pulled out the black velvet box. When he opened it he went all Vampere on me and I couldn’t tell at all what he was thinking behind his still-as-death features. So I began to babble.

  “You said I could give you a ring. Remember? In Marrakech? So I asked Sterling to make me one for you, to sort of match Cirilai, which is why it’s gold. I went for a semi-plain band because you don’t seem the gemmy type to me. I mean, when I met you, you were wearing Cirilai around your neck, so… did I guess right?” When he didn’t answer I rushed on. “The runes on both sides are, well, he wouldn’t explain exactly how he did it. But my blood is in there. Not literally. That seemed a little too Angelina Jolie/Billy Bob Thornton–esque to me. But it was part of the spell that burned the runes into the band, inside and out, see? Which was how he said that some of my essence melded with the ring. When you wear it I’ll be literally wrapped around you. Does that make sense to you? Are you ever going to speak, or am I just going to keep yapping like one of those annoying diva dogs? Vayl?” By now my voice had risen about three octaves, Stewie Griffin style.

  When he finally looked up, Vayl’s eyes had gone the honey gold I associated with his deepest feelings for me. The amber flecks mixed with green sparks to steal my breath, so that for a second I felt that time had stopped, and nothing existed beyond the love showering me from those wide, wondering eyes. “I have never before held such a treasure,” he said, his voice so low I had to lean forward to make sure I didn’t miss a word.

  I sighed and felt the lurch as my world decided to keep spinning. “That was such the right thing to say.” I took the ring from his square-tipped fingers and slipped it onto his left hand, watching his face as he registered the fact that I’d mimicked the same moves a bride would’ve made. He watched the ring slide over his knuckle and snug into the space just above his palm, made a fist to assure himself it fit well, then looked up at me again.

  “You have made me a gloriously happy man today, my pretera.”

  I leaned forward and kissed him, tasting him fully, the way he’d taught me to, breathing in his scent, his maleness, his rising desire. I murmured, “That’s my job, you know. The assassin thing is just a sideline.”

  “But you do it so well.” He ran his lips down the side of my neck and I shivered. But I’d learned a few tricks since our first encounter, and when I slid the tip of my tongue down the edge of his ear he grabbed me with both hands, pulling me forward until I was straddling his lap.

  “I do other things well too,” I pointed out, just in case he hadn’t noticed, as I feathered a dozen kisses down the line of his jaw.

  “Ung.”

  Oh baby, what can be better for the ego than rendering your mega-experienced Vampere lover speechless? I felt like I’d just gained a bra size and learned how to walk in stilettos without appearing bowlegged all in one swoop! And then? Just because I wanted a little icing on the cake, I said, “We should go. I’m sure they’re waiting on us. Vayl!”

  He’d wrapped both arms around me and swung me to the floor, managing to land on top without bruising either of us. I kinda wanted to see the instant replay, but he already had his lips buried between my breasts, who I guess he thought should hear the news first. “Our crew can wait. You just gave me the best gift I have ever received in my extremely long life. I must thank you appropriately. Like this.”

  He did something with his lips that made me giggle uncontrollably. “Vayl! What did you—okay, you can totally do that again.”

  Which, thankfully, he did.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Sunday, June 17, 7:00 p.m.

  We met the rest of our crew in Raoul’s room an hour after sundown. I don’t know if it was kindness to us or reluctance to start the last leg of the mission that had kept them from pounding on our door, but they’d left us alone, allowing us to join them when we finally decided we were ready to go.

  We were pretty crowded in there, with Bergman and Cole sitting crosslegged on one bed while Raoul took up most of the other, though Astral had sprawled out beside him with her legs stretched in either direction as if she’d suddenly gone boneless. Aaron took up the single chair by the rickety old table. Each crew member held a double-edged blade that he was buffing to a shine that would send arcs of pain through your eyeballs similar to a camera flash if you looked at it just wrong.

  Astral peered at us from her perch for a moment, then she said, “The devil’s in the detailsssss,” drawing the S out so that she sounded like a hissing snake.

  Bergman looked up apologetically. “She’s stopped running random videos, but I can’t figure out yet where the funky audio links are coming from. The wiring’s pretty intricate, and my best diagnostics equipment is in my lab.”

  I nodded. “It’s okay. We should let her talk.” Especially since I suspected she was trying to help. I sat down beside her and patted my lap. She took my meaning and hopped on, putting her paws on my chest so she could whisper into my ear, “Hello.”

  “You’ve got the hell right,” I murmured back to her.

  Vayl had moved over to stand by Aaron. “What is this, a cleanser?” he asked, pointing to the goop that wetted his son’s rag.

  Aaron glanced up. “Raoul says it has powerful properties of its own. Here it just looks like albino
Turtle Wax. Down there it’ll make the weapon feel a little lighter so it’ll move through the air—and other things—cleaner. And then there’s the writing.” He pointed to an ancient script that had been carved into the blade. “Raoul says it’s Hebrew.”

  Cole said, “Raoul’s right. I’ve only been able to read a few words because I just started learning the language. But it seems to me like these swords are loaded for bear. I wouldn’t be surprised if they grew legs and a tail and carried you down to the gate on their pommels like some sort of sword/horse breed known only to Disney cartoonists and Eldhayr fanatics like Raoul over here.”

  “I am not a fanatic!” Raoul replied, pretty quickly and kinda loud for somebody who shouldn’t care what a bunch of Earth-dwellers thought.

  “Well, you are wearing a uniform,” Aaron said.

  Bergman piped up. “And a couple of hours ago you freely admitted to liking Kool-Aid.”

  I grinned at my little buddy, who was not only developing some pure brass cojones, but a stellar sense of humor to match. Raoul thundered, “I am not some sort of cultist!” just as Cassandra threw open the door.

  “Of course you are, Raoul,” she said cheerfully. “And we love you for it. Everyone should be so passionately committed to one thing that they have no other life whatsoever, at least for a while.” While Raoul tried to figure out exactly what she meant, she came over to me and scratched Astral under the chin. The cat’s eyes closed and she began her mechanical imitation of a purr. Geez, could Bergman pull off the robotics or what?

  I said, “I thought you were going to be closeted with the infomercial here all day long.” I nodded to the cat on my shoulder.

  Cassandra cocked her head at us. Something seemed different to me. I stepped back to try to figure it out. Was she actually dancing in place? Yeah, her ruffled yellow skirt was definitely swaying back and forth in time with some rhythm that also occasionally sent her shoulders bobbing and the beads on her freshly cleaned and patched purse clicking.

  “Cassandra? Are you all right?” I asked. Then I saw Dave grinning in the hall behind her and knew it couldn’t be all that bad.

  “More than that,” she said. “But really it’s no thanks to your cat. I think we need to upgrade her databases or something. She had no information about hell’s prophets anywhere in them.”

  “Well, of course not. I don’t think anybody on Earth has ever even seen one and lived to tell about it. The Great Taker seems to keep them even more secret than Apple does their next-generation gadgets.”

  “True,” Cassandra allowed. “But they have been felt. I’ve even had a glimpse or two.” Her mood quickly dropped off. “It’s like rubbing up against a wall of slime. But once you get past the ick factor, you can manipulate them.”

  Everybody in the room sat a little straighter as she explained. “These prophets who’ve been trailing Jaz and Vayl know they’re coming. They even think they know by which gate. See, they’re tapping the future, the same way a vintner taps a keg. Shoving their psyches into the fabric of time and forcing its juices to reveal pictures of what is to come. But they’re bound by the same laws as I am.”

  “Meaning what?” Dave asked.

  “Meaning they need something of Jaz’s or Vayl’s to drive that spigot in correctly. Preferably something they can touch. If we gave them something new, they’d be ecstatic. They’d feel like they had an even better feel for where you’ll be going and when you’ll get there, so they can set up an ambush and drive you right into it.” She paused, grinning at Vayl. “After you snatch Hanzi, of course.”

  He nodded at her, giving silent thanks for her optimism.

  Raoul was rubbing his forehead. “And how do we turn that to our favor?”

  “We feed the wrong story into the item. Well.” She looked at the floor bashfully. “Actually I would do that. It takes pretty immense psychic power to pull that off and, since most of you know how long I’ve been around by now, I think I should volunteer.”

  “Now, wait a minute,” said Dave. “I may not know a lot about what you do, but I know it takes energy, sometimes so much that you’re exhausted by the end of the day. How are you supposed to pull off something this big without hurting yourself and the baby?”

  She nodded. “I’ve already thought of that. I need your energy. All of you,” she added, looking around the room. “I need to feed off it so this transfer doesn’t kill me or…” She reached out to Dave, who grasped her hand in both of his, bowed over it, and pretended not to cry.

  “You are going to need a personal item of ours as well, correct?” asked Vayl.

  Cassandra said, “Yes, like a piece of jewelry.” She looked at me hopefully and I realized almost instantly what she wanted. Which is fine, I told myself. It’s not like I didn’t know this day would come. But it was hard, it hurt to pull the ring Matt had put so much thought into, the one he’d slipped on my finger the night he’d asked me to marry him and I’d said yes, it was so much tougher than I’d imagined to lay it in Cassandra’s hand and say, “Here. This has been with me through the best and worst times of my life. It should work.”

  She closed her fingers around it and smiled gently. “It’s for the good of the Trust,” she said.

  “Yes,” Vayl’s agreeable voice sounded booming next to my whisper. I stared around the room with its rotting bedspread, peeling wallpaper, and chipped dressers, feeling the loss, waiting for the moment when it would be okay again. Then Jack was there, shoving his nose into the backs of my calves, which was his way of saying he’d had enough snacks for one day, it was time for dinner. And oh, by the way? I love you, Jaz.

  I knelt down. I love you too, buddy. And we both love Vayl, who’s waiting as patiently as he can. But, look at him. He’s terrified that Hanzi will die in that wreck just like Dave foresaw. Isn’t it about time we shoved that monkey off his back?

  I looked around the room. “Thanks for making such great preparations, guys. It looks like you’ll be set when we get back.”

  Sudden silence as my friends faced the fact that we might not return. Even Aaron managed to look concerned. I took Vayl’s hand. “There’s no room in here,” I said. Then I smiled, my eyes twinkling up into his as I said, “We have a lot of luck with showers. Let’s try in there.”

  His lips quirking, he said, “I bow to your vast experience in this area,” and followed me into the room, which was covered with faded pink tile, its grout so dingy that it almost looked black. Since he hadn’t been told to stay, Jack followed us, watching with interest as I slid the ivory shower curtain to one side and then leaned against the sink. Vayl buried one hand in the scruff of Jack’s neck fur as I thought about summoning the door, just like I had in Brude’s dungeon. Only this time I considered it more like a phone call to a dear old friend. Come on, girl. Pick up the line.

  The portal shimmered into being inside the tub like it had always been there, but I’d only now gained the visual acuity to see it. Framed by blue-and-orange flames, it stood at ceiling height and took up the entire length of the tub. It was the biggest door I’d seen, discounting the one I’d called to transport Aaron Senior’s cell.

  I leaned over, placing one hand on the tub’s edge, keeping the other firmly on the comforting reality of Jack. “I know who you are,” I whispered.

  The flames danced merrily.

  “You and Raoul,” I went on. “You’re the only beings who’ve ever really seen my soul. The fact that neither of you ran screaming—I appreciate that.”

  Another leap and twirl of flame. I began to associate it with joyous laughter.

  “I understand now that you were helping me before, when you chose a familiar battleground where I could fight the Magistrate with sort of a home-field advantage. And when you appeared in Brude’s territory so we could escape—that couldn’t have been easy or safe for you. Now I’m ready for that favor I was telling you about before.”

  As I spoke the flames banked and rose, as if every thought and breath of the creature who appeared
to us all as a plane portal was communicated through that movement. When I felt she understood, I motioned for Vayl to come forward beside me.

  I whispered, “She’s willing to help.”

  “She?”

  “Um, yeah. I think you’d call her, like, a guardian angel. Only she’s more about movement than destination, so there’s probably a neutral word that works better. It’s just that I don’t know her language so I couldn’t tell you what it is. My Sensitivity is wide open since you took my blood, so I’m feeling her pretty strongly. I can tell you she was once a spectacular human being. But she hasn’t had a body like we know them for thousands of years.”

  “What is she going to do?” Vayl asked.

  “Jump us to Spain. Pull us back.”

  “Why?”

  I shrugged. “As near as I can tell? It’s who she is. All I had to do was stop limiting her, start seeing her possibilities, and now infinite travel destinations are open to us.”

  His eyes began to glow. “We could go anywhere. Safe from your people and mine.”

  I nodded. “But we could come back to visit. Because my family is still mine. And I won’t abandon them.”

  “Nor I.”

  “Speaking of which.” I motioned to the portal. “Let’s go get that crazy kid of yours.”

  Vayl’s smile lit up my entire heart. “Indeed.”

  He took my hand, I grabbed Jack’s collar, and together we stepped into the hotel tub, through my guardian’s doorway, into the loudest damn arena I’d crashed since Dave and I had sneaked into the monster truck rally during our junior year of high school and nearly gotten thrown out when we’d found one idling backstage and decided to take it for a spin. Literally. Lucky for us we’re really fast runners.