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.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
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.