“Perhaps not in front of our driver?” he suggested.
I turned to Ruvin, who’d helped Vayl bring over the last of the luggage. “So what do you think of all this?” I asked him brightly. My smile was faked, but not my interest. I couldn’t wait to hear what kind of bullshit story Cole had fed him.
The little man grinned up at me, the gap between his front teeth so wide I could see what he’d eaten for lunch through it. “Aw, your boy Thor is brilliant, that’s all!” he said, his accent almost as thick as his ear hair. “How else’re you gonna get Gerard Butler into the country without tipping off the crazies, eh, mate?” He reached out and shook Vayl’s hand. “Loved you in 300. What a performance! You need anything at all, I’m your bloke. Don’t just drive the dead around all day, ya know. I’ve got my hand in lotsa kettles. Here, lemme give you my card.”
While Cassandra and I traded Vayl-looks-nothing-like- Gerard eye rolls, Ruvin and my boss were playing tug-of-war with the dog-eared ID. “You can reach my wife, Tabitha, at the same number,” Ruvin was saying as he banged his blunt finger against it. “You should call her when you’re hiring, mate. She’s a genius with hair and makeup. Got her own shop in back of our house. You wouldn’t believe what she can do with the old cows who come in there!”
Having been briefed on Ruvin’s connections to our target, Vayl dropped his arm to the man’s shoulder.
“We will put her name at the top of the list. In the meantime, we have a project with which you could be very helpful.” He started to talk. But with me opening the hood, slamming it, and doing the same to all the doors as my rage began to build, he decided the deal might be made more smoothly if they moved to the other side of the hearse.
“Hey, Lucille!” called Cole. “I think your dog needs to take a leak!” Since I’d failed to force any of the doors to fall off, I rounded the front of the car and snatched the keys from his hand on my way to the driver’s seat.
“What?” he asked, his eyes showing more white than usual when he caught my expression. He and Jack exchanged wary glances.
I said, “I’m driving. And I suggest you fasten your seat belt. Otherwise I’ll be tempted to roll this puppy just for the joy of seeing your head hit the ceiling.”
“Lucille—”
Cassandra pulled Bergman away from his attempt to stuff one last trunk into the back of the Clubman, and strode forward to yank Jack’s leash from Cole’s hand. “Miles and I will take him outside,” she said, giving us both her don’t-kill-each-other look.
Cole came over to stand beside me. “Damn, woman, what’s gotten your panties in a bunch?” I waited until they’d cleared the garage. Then I lowered my voice anyway. Nobody, not even my boss, needed to hear what I was about to say. “You fucked with Vayl, you fucked with me, okay, we get it.
You’re pissed that we’re a couple. This is your hilarious way of getting us back. Mission accomplished.
But you know what? Nothing’s changed. We’re still together and you’ve taken it so far that now you just look like an ass. I tried to be gentle with you, because you’re one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met. But I swear, if you screw with me again I will take you down. Permanently.” I stopped. Ground my teeth together. Because behind my words I could hear another voice. Feeding me lines. Goddammit, this is worse than I thought!
Cole shoved his hands in his pockets, his mouth twisted so oddly that it took me a second to realize he was frowning. “You and Vayl ended up with each other and didn’t even have the decency to buy me a stupid T-shirt. So I figured you’d at least see the humor—” He stopped. Shot his eyes to mine.
“What?”
He grabbed me by both shoulders. “Who’s in there with you?” Aargh! “I have no idea what you’re—”
Cole’s eyes hardened, the flint in them so unexpected I forgot what I meant to say. “Don’t try to con me, Lucille . You may be the DeWALT of Sensitives, but I can smell other just like anybody else who’s died once already. And there’s two scents coming from you when I should only be getting that adrenaline punch that lifts me up on my toes every time I get a whiff of you.” Kill him! Now! Before he ruins everything! I’d actually slid my hand into my right pocket, wrapped it around the hilt of the knife my seamstress had cleverly hidden along the length of my thigh, before I realized what I was considering. I shoved my left hand into the opposite pocket and squeezed my fingers around the ring I carried there. It had always brought me comfort before. Now I wanted more.
Matt, talk to me. Tell me what to do!
But my fiancé’s voice had never joined the chorus in my head. When he’d died, he’d gone silent for good.
The other voice knew exactly what to say. Tell him to back off! Your business is none of his! We’re doing fine all on our own. It felt like a fog, settling over my synapses, numbing them into immobility while it ate away at my independence.
I grabbed Cole’s wrist. The contact helped me think a little more clearly. I forced the words past a sudden blockage in my throat. “I’m pretty sure I’ve been possessed. I don’t know how it happened.
Maybe one of those Scidairan bitches hexed me during that big battle before we killed Samos last week.
Don’t tell Vayl.”
“You can’t seriously think you’re going to hide this from him?” I nodded, gritting my teeth at the thought of how mad he’d be if he ever found out. I said, “He wants a strong woman. Not some wimp who can’t even keep her own mind clear.” Do I really believe that? Vayl could be such a help in this—pain speared through the back of my right eyeball. Just as quickly it was gone, along with my train of thought.
Cole glanced over his shoulder to make sure Vayl and Ruvin were still talking. They’d opened the passenger door of his Jeep, and Ruvin was sitting in the seat, showing off the interior while they chatted.
Cole murmured, “I don’t think you have any idea what he wants from a woman or why he picked you.
You’re just making stuff up as you go instead of checking the source.”
“I don’t want to lose him!”
“And you think this is a deal breaker?”
My eye began to throb again. I rubbed at it. “Yes.” The ache vanished.
He shook his head and sighed. “How are you going to keep him from figuring it out? I mean, it helped that I’m a Sensitive. But what tipped me off to start with was the fact that you were acting weird.”
“Sex.”
“Seriously?”
I shrugged. “He can’t suspect much if every time we’re alone instead of talking I have my way with him.” Cole shook his head. “You don’t think it’ll work?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Vayl might be a vampire, but he’s also a guy. Who’s about to be deliriously happy.
Good God, if you work this right, he won’t even be mad if he finds out because of the way you decided to hide it from him.”
I nodded. And reached around to scratch my back.
It itched even more after I’d driven a glorified golf cart through the bewildering maze of roundabouts that makes Canberra almost as famous as its massive termite mounds (er, I mean public buildings) full of politicians. By the time we left the city’s shrubbery-choked streets and hit the hills, I was rubbing my back against the seat like a bear scratching against her favorite tree. And in Australia, that had to be eucalyptus.
In the distance they joined other species in covering the mountains like lush green hair. Up close, they towered among the rocks, their lower branches practically nonexistent. Which didn’t seem to be a problem for the koalas. Or the parrots. Still, what dominated the landscape was the closely grazed succession of hills. You could play golf on those suckers if you didn’t mind going vertical.