You know, for a brainiac, you’re not half bad. Just don’t let Brude know what you’re up to.
Robert, that.
Um, it’s Roger.
Oh. Sorry.
Well, it looks as if you are marshaling your forces. Brude strode to the forefront of my mind, grabbing me so firmly by the intellect that I froze in place. It will not work, my Jasmine. You must understand, I am here for you. And also for what you can do for me.
What do you mean?
I already told you I never do anything for a single reason. So I slipped into your mind, which is
—he looked around and licked his lips— nearly as delectable as your body. Because I promised to make you my queen, did I not? But you never asked why. Why you?
He wants to transform the Thin into a chaotic realm and destroy hell, my librarian reminded me.
Granny May rose from her front porch rocker. But he’ll never do that without a massive army to fight Lucifer’s hordes.
Where’s he gonna get that many lost souls? wondered Teen Me as she sat on the ledge, dangling one leg over while she leafed through one of Granny May’s comic books.
“From me,” I whispered.
Bergman had leaned across the table, his hands inches from mine like he thought I might need to be pulled from the brink of something anytime now. “What are you saying?” he asked.
I couldn’t look at him. My eyes, glued to the covered barbecue, only saw my inner visions. Vayl stirred in his seat, gently lifting Pajo from his lap. “May I suggest that you take your parents inside?” he told the little boy. “Perhaps Jack will accompany you as well. Then you and Laal can play with him while Mum and Dad decide what to do next.”
Murmurs of agreement from the parents. The shoosh-snick of sliding-glass doors opening and closing. I forced the words through a throat so suddenly parched it felt like it was lined with sand-paper. “Brude knows who I am. He believes if he can subvert my missions, he can cause just the kind of death toll he needs to build up his forces. And what better way to do that than from inside my head?” I felt my lips cracking. Next would come the blood. I turned to Vayl. “I have to withdraw from this assignment. I need to take a leave of absence.”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “You and I are a formidable team. If they separate us—they win.”
“But… Vayl… the son of a bitch is in my mind. He can make me—do things. What if—” Vayl leaned forward. Not much. Just the fraction it took to capture my attention. Something about the intensity in his bright blue eyes demanded that I listen, not just to his words, but to the things he couldn’t say. Because Brude would overhear. “We will beat him. That is what you and I do, my pretera. We win.
Together.”
His touch, just a whisper of fingertips grazing my thigh, spelled out a sign we used for face-to-face attacks. I was so distracted by the zap of awareness his fingers raised, followed by an unbearable need to scratch, that I nearly missed the message. You go in loud and annoying. I will slide in under the radar to make the kill.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
He caught me in his gaze, stared at me hard like I should be able to read his mind. Geez, Cassandra, I wish you were here right this second so I could slap your hand on his and get a freaking clue!
He whispered, “Trust me.”
Aw, shit.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
We joined Ruvin in the living room. He shook everyone’s hand with a grip so firm I know my fingers tingled afterward. “We just can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us. You Hollywood types are so gifted! I wish I had half the talent!” He nodded toward the bedroom. “Tabitha thought it would be better for the boys if we talked privately.”
We’d all had enough of sitting. We wanted to run off in twelve different directions. Find the Rocenz.
Continue discrediting the shaman. Destroy the larvae carriers. Demon-proof the house. But it seemed rude to tower over the little man, so we all sat. Vayl and I took the couch. Bergman sank into a chair.
Jack lay at my feet, watching Miles tinker with Astral. He’d gotten her head reconnected, which Jack must’ve deduced was a good thing, because he kept flopping his tail against the floor hopefully.
Ruvin stood beside Miles, his eyes occasionally cutting to the intricate operation-in-progress as he spoke. “Again, I can’t thank you enough for getting my family out of the shit. And, um, sorry about the quick exit before. To be honest, we’re on something of a schedule. We are seinji, and it’s just our luck that this is the week of the year when she’s most likely to conceive…” His ears went bright red as he grinned down at his feet.
Collective “Ahhh” of understanding from our group as we realized why Tabitha had chosen an oooh-baby dress for a Wednesday evening when her hubby wasn’t even supposed to get home until the pubs had long been closed. It also explained why she’d kept checking her watch and pacing. Seinji find it tough to bear children, which is why their physicians are among the top experts in the field of infertility.
They combine cutting-edge science with some of the most off-the-wall rites in the world. Common practices included hanging upside down from a tree limb for three hours after sex and writing suggestive fan letters to the cast members of Willow . And if anyone questioned their approach, all they had to do was pull out the studies that proved their birthrate had risen by thirty percent in the past twenty years.
“So, ah, we need to get rolling,” said Ruvin. “If Tabitha doesn’t have a bowl of Yabbie Chowder within the next two hours we’re doomed.”
“You know the gnomes are going to try to get her back,” I said.
He bit his lip and nodded. “We’re going to her aunt’s house in Christchurch, New Zealand. The gnomes don’t live on the South Island, you know.”
I did. They’d been driven out by bigger, badder beasts called attry-os nearly a century before and had never returned. But if I knew, so did Brude. I flashed a warning glance at Vayl. Which he smoothly ignored.
He said, “That is a wise choice. May we offer you our car for the journey? You can just leave it at the airport and we will pick it up later.”
Ruvin grinned, leaping forward to grasp Vayl’s hand and pump it up and down. “You’re ripper, you are!
I’m sure I can never thank you enough! But if there’s anything I can do now…” Bergman was the one who said, “I’m pretty sure we’ll think of something.” Ruvin kept smiling. But at the same time his bottom lip had started quivering.
Uh-oh. I tried to back up, but the couch didn’t have an emergency exit. So I had to watch helplessly along with Bergman and Vayl while Ruvin sobbed into his handkerchief.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just all finally crashed down on me. Do you have any idea how hard it was to pretend I wasn’t shit-a-brick when that gorilla shoved me against the Patriot? And the worry was just eating my guts out.” He wiped his eyes and blew his nose with a honking blast that made some night bird outside return the call.
Bergman nodded sympathetically. “We know exactly what you mean. Well, most of us,” he qualified.
“Probably not Jeremy.”
We all looked at the vampire, who’d been the only one smart enough to get out of the line of fire during Ruvin’s breakdown. He’d parked himself by the fireplace, leaning one arm against the mantel, obviously ignorant as to what a fantastic picture he made. He shrugged. “Every living thing feels fear at one time or another.”