Luckily my curiosity is a ravenous and unsleeping monster. So I had to know before I repeated my closet collapse, “How is it that you can talk to us?”
She’d never stopped playing. Now the melody changed. “I speak through the song. It was once my cantrantia to bend humans to my will through the quiver of a piano wire, or the pluck of a harp string. But once I lost the ability to speak with my own tongue, the music filled the empty spaces.”
I couldn’t look at her anymore. Any other injury, no problem. Take off her arm, her leg, rip a chunk out of her side, I could deal. But Jesus, this injury hit me like stories of the Holocaust. The horror I felt when I looked on her nonface was so overwhelming I was almost paralyzed by it.
“Listen,” I said, staring down at the hardwood floor. I’d made this offer to Blas, not realizing he probably deserved his fate. Well, maybe Aine was no different. I hadn’t heard Niall’s version of events to know for sure. Still. “We might be able to find you a plastic surgeon. I don’t know if there’s any chance to help. It’s probably never been tried on vamps. But—”
“No.”
“No?”
“I am simply waiting for the moment.”
“The . . . what?”
“I cannot just walk into the sun. Not after what she has done to me. I can’t leave my Trust under her heel.” The music had become harsh, dissonant even. Suddenly it softened. “Niall tells me you have come to vanquish our enemy, Edward Samos.”
“That’s our job.”
“You have witnessed what Disa is capable of.”
I nodded, realized she couldn’t see me, and said, “Yes, I have.”
“Surely it is enough to give you reason to kill her as well?”
I glanced up at Vayl. The wish in both our eyes was so strong I half expected it to leap into life between us, a wooden stake that would fly straight into the Deyrar’s heart. “Oh, I have plenty of reason. But she’s bound Vayl. So unless we can figure out how to release him, it’s not going to happen. I’m sorry, Aine,” I said, in response to the dirgelike turn of the music. “At this point, even if Vayl was free, I believe that if I killed her it would be outright murder.” And I’ve already tried that once. I felt chilled as I remembered that moment. How close I’d come to ending my career. Losing my freedom. Most probably my life. And how none of that would’ve meant anything if Vayl had turned to mist before my eyes.
We felt the door budge behind us and moved aside so Niall could come into the room.
“Rastus is wildly upset that the Weres have escaped. He is afraid Disa will take off his head if he doesn’t recover them before they can cause us terrible trouble. And this is the only reason he has not killed you outright.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Apparently someone freed the bear, which allowed him to escape in your vehicle. Of course, Rastus thinks that someone was you, since he encountered you outside around that time.”
“No kidding?” I said blandly.
“I reminded him that you were under the protection of the Deyrar’s contract, but that may not stop him if he catches you alone. So I suggest you avoid him at all costs.”
“Understood,” I said.
Niall crossed his arms. “Rastus also says he has detected a pack moving in the area. Knowing my affinity for them, he has asked me to help him track them. He is hoping if he can kill one or two, matters will go better for him when he finally tells Disa what happened. I have agreed to meet him beside the wagon house in ten minutes.”
I felt Trayton stiffen beside me. Putting my hand on his shoulder to keep him from blurting out something Niall didn’t need to hear, I said, “Be careful.”
Niall nodded sharply. “Lock up after yourselves,” he said. Moments later he was gone.
“My pack,” Trayton murmured.
“I’m worried about them too,” I said. “War between your people and the vampires would be more devastating than you can imagine right now.”
He nodded. “Especially with me forced to sit on the sidelines and watch.” He took my hand, held it up against his cheek. “You have to go to them. Tell them I’m fine. That you’re bringing me out in the morning and they shouldn’t make a move until then.”
“Will they listen to me?” He opened my hand and licked the inside of my wrist before grinning at me in that way that made me shake my head. “You do get how gross that is, don’t you?”
“It’s just like in kindergarten, Lucille. Or whatever you want to be called. We’re blood brothers. BFFs. I’ve made you an honorary wolf, so deal with it. I know my pack will.”
“I don’t like being friends with you.”
“You’ll change your mind after we go to a movie together.” He looked over my head at Vayl. “We always drink a six-pack of Heineken first and then have a competition to see who can hold their pee the longest.”
“Oh, you are a laugh a minute, I can see that already.”
“But you’re smiling!”
“That’s only because you’re too sick to punch. Now, it’s after four in the morning and you have to be up early. Go to bed.”
As Trayton moved back into the sleeping area, Vayl and I faced Aine. “We have to be leaving now,” Vayl said.
“Of course. You have your work to do,” the keys sang.
“I am sorry about Disa.”
But she’d risen from the piano and turned her back to both of us. We eased out of the room, locking the door behind us.
We lingered with Trayton just long enough to get the name of his alpha and his promise to catch a nap before locking him in as well.
“Have you noticed this place is like the poster child for dead bolts?” I asked as we followed Niall’s trail to the front entrance. Though our Monises confirmed nobody was even close, I still felt the need to whisper. “The masks. Do you feel it?”
“Only that the compulsion to walk in the Trust is stronger here.” Vayl’s jaw tightened. “Damn this place. I should not have brought you.”
“You’re worried about me?”
His glance showed the blue of a stormy ocean. Yup, he was vexed. “Humans do not tend to die of natural causes here.” His eyes had gone almost black now.
“What are you saying?”
He put his hand under my elbow. Began to lead me down the stairs. “I am thinking how fine it would be to turn you. To make you mine forever. To bring you into the Trust as if I were a full member.” His head jerked up, his gaze darting over the leering eyes and sneering mouths of hundreds of masks. “Can you hear the voices?”
“No.”
“Outside,” Vayl said, his voice strained.
As soon as we reached the door I wrenched it open, stepping back just in case the damn skeleton did jump off the handle. But all that flew in was a whoosh of cool spring air. When Vayl hesitated, I said, “Come on, let’s go.”
We both stepped onto the worn brick of the small entryway at the same time. I practically slammed the front door closed. But it was too late. Vayl pulled me into his arms, holding me so tight I could hardly breathe.
“You,” he said, his growl reverberating against my neck. “Just the scent of you drives me half mad. Do you realize that?”
“You’re into Ivory soap?”
He chuckled. Traced his lips up to my cheek. Gave me a soft, brief kiss. “What were we doing?”
“Going to talk to Trayton’s pack.”
The relief I felt when he dropped his arms wasn’t nearly as great as I’d anticipated. Okay, Jaz, admit at least to yourself that you really like the hugging. In fact, you’d sacrifice a couple of meals a day for more of the touchy-feely. And eternity with this wonder by your side doesn’t sound half bad. Could you be honest about that? Then at least the people in your head wouldn’t think you were such a damn hypocrite. Chorus of hell yeahs from the crowd.