Bite Marks (21 page)

Teen Me launched herself at the chieftain, her first bitch released before she’d even screeched to a halt within millimeters of his rage-blotched face.
What is your major malfunction?
she demanded.
All this
yelling just makes you look like a big, fat bigot! Admit it! The real reason you’re half crazed is
because Jaz won’t kneel down and kiss your feet!

Hogwash! She is to be my queen. How much higher can a man raise a woman?

Gimme a fucking break! You’re not going to let her make any decisions when New Hell opens its
doors. She’s just supposed to keep her mouth shut and make you look good, right?

I already have a plan in place. I have no need for—

Yeah, I hear you. I also saw what you did the second she disagreed with you. Tried to hit her,
didn’t you?

I may have raised my hand. Even a dog must know who is master.

You son of a bitch! Guys like you are why women across the world are afraid to go home at night!

Once I was sure she really had him hooked, I moved my full attention to the playground and let the roaring and screaming become background noise.

Nothing moved at any of the exits. But Vayl and Cole had finished. Now was the key time. I saw the bodies that had piled up at the main door pulled back into the tunnel. No one else appeared. I needed to concentrate. Not wonder why Brude wanted to save gnomes when more dead should mean more soldiers for his army. I’d have to figure that out later.

“I think Ufranites are waiting to jump you as soon as you clear the building,” I whispered.

“We are nearly ready,” said Vayl.

Somebody stepped out of the basement door. Or seemed to. I trained my scope on the guy. He wasn’t moving right. And his head tilted at a strange angle. Which was when I realized he’d been dangled from a sturdy metal coat rack by the back of his jacket.

dade Barnes rolled his head up so he could blink at the light above the door. He smiled, mouthed the word, “Pretty,” then dropped his head to stare at the round, red object that had rolled out of the wall to his left. He frowned as spikes shot from the ball’s center. One of them emitted a plume of smoke, jumping the ball a foot into the air, where it spun in increasingly blurry circles until all I could see was a fiery sphere that began to spark like a metal-packed microwave. Moments later it exploded, tearing into dade’s body so viciously that huge chunks of him simply disappeared in the aftermath.

I kept my scope trained on the door as Vayl and Cole appeared through the smoke, running so fast I knew my boss must have a hold of Cole’s wrist. They sprinted for the Jeep as I took out the first curious guard to show his head. I heard the pop of Cole’s silenced Beretta as he helped clear their path. Another couple of shots from each of us and the Jeep’s engine roared to life. Seconds later it had pulled around to the side of the building, within feet of my tree.

Cole jumped out, covering me as I shimmied down, jumping the last few feet. Moments later we’d screeched away, leaving behind us the scent of Febreze and a pile of bodies it would take the rest of the night to bury.

We parked the Jeep behind the house and took Cole’s blood samples to Bergman, who’d set up his mobile lab on the kitchen table. So much for a family-style breakfast in the morning.

In fact
, I thought as I watched Bergman retrieve the vials, some of which probably held larvae,
forget
breakfast altogether.

The guys didn’t seem to have a problem with it though. Vayl leaned against the counter, sipping his favorite beverage from a coffee cup while Cole scoped out the contents of the fridge. “Does Cherry Coke count as fruit?” he asked me.

“Only if you’re in college.” I closed the drawer I was searching through and opened up another. Surely some food gadget inventor out there had created something that would double as a back scratcher!

Aha! Potato masher! Let’s see what Jack thinks.

I ran the rounded tines through his fur a couple of times. When his tail slapped against the floor I decided to call it a thumbs-up and tried it on myself.

Huh. Not bad. Wish it was a little more pointy, but overall—

Raoul stomped into the kitchen, pointed at Cole, and said, “You like women. Go deal with that wounded monster before I drag her into another plane and chop off her head!” Raising his eyebrows at me, Cole grabbed the Cherry Coke, a bowl of chocolate pudding, a large spoon from the wall rack mounted above the stove, and took off to see what all the fuss was about.

“It’s time I left. I have better things to do,” Raoul told me.

“Like what?”

He paused. Shook his head angrily. “All right, I don’t. But Cole gave me the location of his train set and this is the perfect time to retrieve it.”

“You should get Nia to help you set it up.” I hid a grin as he tried to laser burn me with his glare. “I’m serious! Chicks dig being included in hobby stuff.”

“That’s not what Cole said.”

“Do you want to charm her temporarily or wrap her up for good? Of all the humans in the house right now, I’m the only one who’s been engaged.” I gave a mental nod to the dull heartache that accompanied my words. Once it had been a pain so searing I would’ve had to run to the bathroom and shake until it passed. Maybe time had been kind after all.

After giving my comment some thought, Raoul said, “All right. I’ll invite her over. But I’m going to use some of Cole’s moves,” he warned me. “They’re really very good.”

“I have no doubt about that. I just don’t get how a handsome guy like you doesn’t have some of his own.”

Raoul glanced at Vayl, who’d abandoned his drink to help Bergman with a portion of his test that required three hands. Though he knew it wouldn’t make much difference where my
sverhamin
was concerned, Raoul lowered his voice.

“I’ve never been very comfortable around girls,” he admitted. “I think it’s the lipstick. It makes them look so… unattainable.”

“Ah. So you can talk to me because I don’t usually wear lipstick?” He shrugged. “Saving your life broke
that
ice.”

“Too bad you didn’t have any sisters. That would’ve…” I stopped. Raoul had gone still and white, his reaction so close to those of many of my former victims that I looked over my shoulder to see if Kyphas had miraculously recovered, slipped past our guard, and buried a knife in his side.

“My sister died when we were small,” he said.

I understood instantly. During our last mission, when I’d called Raoul out over his crappy attitude toward Vayl, his colleague, Colonel John, had let slip that my Spirit Guide’s history involved a nasty confrontation with vampires. This must be part of what he’d been hinting at.

“That must’ve been awful for you,” I said. And then, because I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, “You know how sorry I am, right? But just because you didn’t develop mad communication skills in your childhood doesn’t mean you can’t do some shaping now. Just take it slow at first. Maybe pretend Nia doesn’t wear lipstick.”

“She doesn’t.”

“No?”

“She wears gloss.”

“Oh. Shiny.”

“Like the sun on steel.”

“Okay, well, don’t look at her lips, or her eyes, which are probably just as devastating, am I right?” He nodded miserably. “Look at her nostrils.”

“What?”

“Have an entire conversation with the cilia inside her nose holes. If that doesn’t ground you, I don’t know what will.”

Raoul chuckled. “Between your advice and Cole’s, this may just work out.” I badly wanted to ask what “this” consisted of, since they only inhabited physical bodies a small percentage of the time. But I found Raoul and I hadn’t developed our relationship to the bump-ugly point yet. And, come to think of it, I hoped it never would.

Jack and I showed him to the front door. “You can keep the weapons we brought until your deal with Kyphas is done. I can’t tell you how she’ll try to turn on you, only that eventually she will.” I nodded, returning his somber look to let him know how seriously I took him. “Thanks. For everything.” He knelt, gave Jack a swift rub on the head, then leaned forward and whispered something in his ear.

After which Jack backed up a few steps, sat down, and nodded.
What the hell?

Raoul smiled up at me, and for a second I saw through the body he wore to the being he’d become. His beauty made me close my eyes.

When I opened them again he said, “You did right to keep this dog.” And then he left.

Jack and I stared at each other. “What are you two hatching?” I asked him. He just licked his nose.

Then he trotted to the kitchen to hover over his empty food bowl.

“What, have you got a tapeworm? You just ate like, an hour ago!” Pathetic eyes, blinking soulfully, followed by a sloppy drink that clearly didn’t satisfy. “Okay, I’ll get you a snack,” I said. “But I don’t see how you can eat at a time like this.”

I went to my room, followed by the hungry mutt, who seemed to think I needed an escort to remind me of the importance of my current mission. Deciding Jack needed some exercise, I detoured past Kyphas’s room on my way. Raoul had moved an adult-sized chair beside her bed, on which Cole currently lounged. He’d made himself comfortable by putting his feet up beside hers.

She was laughing.

We’d all removed our party lines, but I didn’t need cutting-edge technology to overhear the convo.

“Naw, none of my brothers are nearly as charming as me,” Cole was saying with his usual utter lack of humility. “I think the only reason Trig and Pait are married is because their wives have no judgment when it comes to character. They actually think I’m a solid citizen.” Kyphas giggled. I shoved my hand in my pocket. The hilt of my knife fit smoothly into my palm.

“Jasmine?” Vayl came up from behind me, hooked my elbow, and led me to our room, waiting until Jack had followed us in before closing the door. “Why am I sensing barely restrained violence from you?” he whispered.

I jerked my head back toward the demon. “She’s a menace. We should’ve taken care of her along with the rest of them.”

“You know we chose the wiser course.”

“She’s going to try to steal souls the whole time she’s with us!”

“She is a demon. We cannot prevent that because she cannot sign a contract that contradicts her nature.”

“But—”

Vayl stepped in closer, rubbing his fingertips from my shoulders to elbows as he spoke. “Enough, my
pretera.
Worry about matters you can influence.”

“Like?”

“Why you began scratching like a flea-infested mongrel in the first place. After all, it did not occur at the first bite.”

I dropped my fingernails from my rash-covered arms. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I know what the problem is.” Vayl’s eyebrows inched upward. “And?”

“He wasn’t calling the shots then. Now he’s making a play for all the control centers in my brain. And the rash shows you how successful he’s been so far. I do think I know how to put him in a place where he can’t reach me anymore. But…”

When he realized how hard it was becoming for me to explain, Vayl sat on the bed. He pulled a box of treats from my trunk and gave Jack a couple to crunch on while I pulled myself together.

Finally I sank down beside him. I ran a hand down his thigh, watching my fingers trace the hard outlines of his muscles. Ignoring an itch behind my knee, I reached toward him with my other hand, sliding it across the flatness of his belly. His breath caught as I swung my leg over his, sat on his lap facing him, and took his face between my hands. “Help me,” I whispered.

He clasped his hands around my back and pulled me so close it felt like we must be melding in some way. “I am here,” he murmured into my ear.

Are you ready?
I asked Teen Me.

She stood at a door so tall it seemed to touch the mountains of my mind. At least a dozen locks secured it. She looked fearfully over her shoulder, but Brude had retreated, as he always did when Vayl touched me. Her small nod allowed me to lean back, to look Vayl in the eyes.

“You’ve read my file.” His chin inched downward, the most extreme nod I’d ever seen him pull off. I looked away, feeling the locks give, remembering the terror you only get the first time death stares you in the face—and laughs. I sucked air and forced out the words. “My first kill wasn’t the vulture of that vamp nest in Atlanta.”

His hands tightened, helping my spine straighten. “No?”

“I was seventeen. Evie was sixteen. She was dating a senior named Bret Ridden. We all liked him at first. He was smart. On the Math Team. He’d built his own computer. He was seeded first on the school’s tennis team. And he had plans, you know? College. A solid career in finance. I think Evie saw all that potential stability after a lifetime of shifting roots and… she fell. Plus, he wasn’t bad looking.” Vayl rubbed my back gently enough that he didn’t even start an itch. “I take it the romance fizzled.” I began playing with the buttons of his shirt. “He turned out to be a control freak. And when Evie didn’t dress or act like he wanted, he pushed her around. Literally.” I stopped, dug my hands into Vayl’s chest as Teen Me began her work. Chills hit my soul as I heard the locks crack. Fast. Way too fast. I didn’t feel ready. But I had to be.

Vayl’s hands fell away. When I looked down, I saw they’d clenched into fists. His voice was almost a growl when he asked, “When did you first discover the abuse?” I shrugged, like the memory might slide off my shoulders, make the burden somehow easier to bear.

“She came home with a black eye. She made some lame excuse that Mom bought. Albert might have questioned her closer, but he was out of the country.” I swallowed. “Dave and I knew better. We forced her to admit that he’d hit her because she’d stopped to talk to a guy from Chemistry class about the lab experiment they had to do that afternoon. Bret said she was flirting. And, hell, maybe she was. But, knowing Evie, probably not. Anyway, he got irate, they argued, and he punched her.”

“But she stayed with him.” Vayl sounded tired. How many versions of this story had he heard during the long course of his life? I stared into his eyes, wondering what lay behind those troubled indigo depths.