She joined me on the steps, sitting beside me while I tried to think what to do next. Thump from the lounge as the couch rammed back into the wal . That did it. My buddy, one of the most cheerful, hilarious dudes I’d ever met, was screwing an unrepentant demon. No good could come of it, especial y for him. As soon as Kyphas became expendable I was going to kil her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
So much for cake. I gripped Vayl’s cane tight and sped up to my room, Astral a rocketing shadow at my heels. The run did me good. By the time I col apsed on my gigantic bed with the cat curled up beside me I could think again. As I stroked her smooth head I decided to have a real face-to-face with Raoul. Fighting demons was his gig after al . If anybody could help me take Kyphas down, it would be him.
And in the meantime?
I had to think of some stel ar babe to fix Cole up with.
But I didn’t real y know any nice girls besides Evie. Hey!
That was it! She had a lot of friends who spent their whole lives in Normalvil e. She could easily find Cole a fabulous woman. Somebody who wouldn’t flip out if he traveled some. A woman who liked guys with sun-bleached hair and…
I didn’t realize I’d nodded off until I heard a tapping at my window. I sat up in bed, pul ing Grief from its holster before my feet hit the floor. Again the taps, four or five, hitting almost, but not quite, at the same time. The window was the one that faced the street.
“What is it, Astral?” I whispered.
The cat didn’t reply, just hopped off the bed and went to the curtains, where she waited patiently for me to pul them open. I stood by the wal . Peering between the material and the glass, I could see down to the street, where a man wearing a gray button-down shirt and white pants stood, his hand ful of pebbles, his upturned face clear in the streetlights.
“Oh, for chrissake!” I flipped the curtains aside and lifted the window. “Aren’t you the guy I kicked the crap out of before?”
He smiled and slapped himself on the chest. “Yousef!” he announced happily.
“How did you find me?”
He glanced over his shoulder and his young translator slunk guiltily out of the shadows. After a brief conference the teenager said, “Yousef says it is not difficult to place you, as you may be the only red-haired woman in Marrakech.”
Dammit! Why didn’t I dye my hair before we came here? “What do you want?” I demanded. I checked the watch Bergman had made me, wishing it shot lightning bolts or laser beams. Holy crap! “And why are you here at four thirty in the morning?”
“We are on our way to work, lady,” said the boy.
“Where do you work?” I asked.
“In the tannery.”
That explained the stench on the men and in the part of the medina where we’d been fol owing Vayl the night before. Transforming animal skins into supple leathers was a laborious and revolting job, but I wouldn’t look down my nose at these guys for the work they’d chosen. At least they were trying to make an honest buck.
I said, “Isn’t this out of your way?”
Another discussion between Yousef and the boy. What was his name? Oh yeah, Kamal. He wiped his hand across his lips, clearly wishing he didn’t have to say, “Yousef would like you to know that he is fal ing”—he made a diving motion with his hands—“into the love with you. And you would do wel to marry him before you leave the country.” I felt my jaw drop. “Are you insane?” I slashed my hand at Kamal before he could translate, stomped back to my weapons bag, grabbed my silencer, and screwed it onto Grief’s barrel. Just as I got back to the window a handful of pebbles flew through.
Shit!
I dodged aside, waited a beat to make sure Yousef wasn’t launching a second handful, then whipped my Walther PPK into position.
Kamal squealed as soon as he saw the gun clear the windowsil . He dove into the bushes that belonged to the two-story house across the street. Yousef, on the other hand, spread his arms like we were about to do big reunion hugs. He started speaking rapid Arabic, shaking his head back and forth to emphasize his words and closing his eyes blissful y as he talked.
“Kamal! Tel your buddy to go away!”
Kamal translated. When it was time for him to relay Yousef’s message to me he was nearly weeping. “Yousef says he must stay until al the birds of Morocco have sung your name. Please do not shoot him, lady. He is not a bad man. He is just a little crazy.”
I took aim. Squeezed the trigger. Ping! The cobblestones in front of Yousef’s feet flew apart as the bul et impacted them.
Kamal screamed and jumped out from behind the bushes. Yousef laughed and did a little soft-shoe.
What the hell?
Kamal grabbed his friend’s arm and tried to pul him away. They argued vehemently for about thirty seconds.
Final y the boy’s head dropped and he yel ed up to me,
“Yousef says he wil only leave if you give him your name. I apologize, but it was the only way I could secure his agreement.”
I shrugged. “It’s Madame Berggia.”
Kamal sighed as Yousef talked some more. Then he said, “Yousef wishes me to say these words: ‘Al right, I leave, my wondrous one. But while we are apart my heart wil beat with the sound of your name. Until we meet in our dreams!’” The tanners walked away, leaving me free to go back into my room, dropping the window and the curtain.
“Ow!” I picked up the pebble I’d stepped on. “You know what, Astral?” The cat looked up inquiringly. “No matter how I look at it lately, love hurts.”
“Love is a battlefield,” she sang softly, making me wonder how many of Pat Benatar’s hits Bergman had downloaded into her memory.
I flopped back down into bed, so tired that I didn’t have a single conscious thought before the dreams began. And they made no sense. It was like one of my inner girls had commandeered the remote and decided to channel flip her way through the night. I relived the poker game I’d played with Dave’s unit, after which Cam, his right-hand man, had given me my precious chips. Stel a screamed at me again as the dogs dragged her back into hel . And just as I turned away, the blizzard-swept cairn dissolved into a Hawaiian pier, and Matt stood before me, his hands outstretched.
“Dance with me, Jazzy.”
Every fear lifted. Al my worries dissolved as I felt his arms close around me. I laid my head against his shoulder and took a deep breath. The scent of cedar and freshly mown grass that was uniquely Matt fil ed my lungs, and for one moment I felt whole again. I smiled against the rough cloth of his jacket. And then realized.
“You should be wearing a cotton shirt. One of those ridiculous Hawaiian numbers with huge pink flowers.”
“Jasmine. It’s me.”
I shoved him away. My blue-eyed Navy Seal had been replaced by a uniformed Ranger with a soft Spanish accent. “Raoul? What the—I mean, real y? Here? Now?” When I was finally feeling good? I’d shove you again, but that’s probably a major sin and I am so stocked on those.
that’s probably a major sin and I am so stocked on those.
He ran his hand through his dark brown crew cut. “I am sorry, but jumping into your dreams is like parachuting into an active volcano. Do you realize how unpredictable they are? I’m lucky not to hit when you’re under a barrage of gunfire!”