* * *
“I think I wet myself,” Casanova said faintly, hugging a wall.
It was soot-stained brick, crumbling and moldy and cold against his shoulder blades. Or at least it was for the moment. Part of the illusion they used to keep people from running and screaming at the sight of this place didn’t fool his vampire senses. But part of it did. The result was a mishmash of images that would have made his head ache if it wasn’t already threatening to take the top off his skull.
“We have to get out of here,” Rian told him. “We’ve lost them for the moment, but I can’t shield us for—”
“Then why did you bring us here?” he asked savagely.
“I didn’t know what else to do! The girl didn’t know she needed to shift and there was no time to explain and Rosier—”
“So you brought us to his doorstep?” The wall was stucco now, he couldn’t help but notice. Bright, buttery stucco, like on his home in beautiful Cordoba. Where he would really like to be right now instead of shivering in Hell.
It’s freezing over, he thought suddenly, and had to bite his lip on a hysterical giggle.
“I don’t have her power,” Rian said, looking at him strangely. “I can shift between worlds, but not between places in a world. And she couldn’t survive in most of our realms in any—”
“Survive? You mean I’m not dead?” Cassie suddenly piped up.
Casanova turned to stare at her, but there was no doubt about it, she was looking straight at Rian’s hazy outline.
“Well? Are we in Hell or not?” she demanded.
Rian looked at him, apparently nonplussed herself, and then back at Cassie. “You can see me?” she asked hesitantly.
“Clairvoyant,” Cassie snapped.
“But I’ve known clairvoyants before, and they couldn’t—”
“I’m Pythia. It comes with more power.”
“We know,” Casanova said, scowling. “That’s what’s drawing them. Demons feed off human energy and you’re lit up like a Vegas buffet.”
“I can’t help it!”
“You never saw me before,” Rian accused. “Did you?”
“You were in a body before. I see spirits. And will somebody please answer the damn ques—”
“Yes, you’re in hell,” Rian told her. “A hell, in any case, there are a number of them.”
“Hundreds,” Casanova interjected absently. He was watching the wall out of the corner of his eye, and he was pretty sure it was playing with him. Because now it was covered in the hideous wallpaper one of his mistresses had had in her bedroom in Seville. The one in which she’d entertained three other men, occasionally at the same time, whenever he chanced to be out of town…
“More than that,” Rian said. “But it doesn’t matter now. What matters is—”
“Then I am dead,” Cassie said hollowly.
Casanova reached over and pinched her, hard. “Do you feel dead?”
She jumped. “Cut it out!”
“Yes,” Rian agreed, shooting him a look. “We have to decide what to do.”
“Yes, I’m dead?” Cassie said sharply.
“I was talking to him,” Rian told her, starting to look confused.
“What to do is obvious,” Casanova said impatiently. “We need to find somewhere to hide. As soon as the mage kills Ealdris—”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He will. He’s good at killing things.”
“Most things. But you know as well as I do that Ealdris isn’t just any—”
“Will somebody please tell me if I’m dead or not?” Cassie yelled, before Casanova clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Do you want to be something’s dinner?” he hissed.
Rian shut her eyes for a moment, and then spoke very slowly and distinctly. “You are not dead. Humans come here from time to time. Powerful mages can transition to the upper hells and back--the ones which can support human life, at least--and occasionally someone is brought here—”
“As a snack,” Casanova finished for her, “which is what we are going to be if we don’t get out!”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Rian tossed her hair agitatedly. “But we can’t go back to the casino. If Rosier isn’t still there himself, he’ll have people--”
“Then take us somewhere else!”
“I just told you, if I transition back to your world, it will be where I left it. I would need a portal to go somewhere else, and the master knows that. He’ll have someone—”
“Another hell, then. Somewhere safer.”
Rian looked at him like he might have lost his mind. “A safer hell?”
“We won’t be there long! We only need to hide until Pritkin deals with this.”
“Deals with what?” Cassie asked.
“He’s supposed to kill Ealdris,” Casanova informed her shortly. “As soon as he does, Rosier can’t hurt you. He swore a binding—”
“Who’s Ealdris?”
“What difference does it make? All you need to understand is that Rosier blackmailed him into going after her, thinking that he’d kill you while Pritkin was on his little errand. But the mage anticipated that and sent me to watch you. And now all we have to do is stay out of the way until--”
“Who. Is. Ealdris?” Cassie was looking strangely red in the face.
“An ancient demon battle queen,” Casanova said, right before he was slammed against a wall for the second time that day.
“And you let him go?”
“¿Cómo?”
“You let Pritkin go after this thing, knowing the risk—”
“He’s doing it to protect you—”
“How many times do I have to say this?” Little fingers dug into his flesh, surprisingly hard. “I don’t want to be protected! Not if it costs someone else’s life! Don’t you get it?”
“Of course.”
“Of course? Then why—”
“I‘get it’,” Casanova told her nastily. “I just don’t care. I don’t work for you, chica, and for that matter, neither does the mage. It’s his life. If he wants to risk it, I don’t see where that’s any concern of—”
“It’s my concern because I’m the cause!” Cassie whispered furiously, her hands letting go of his arms only to bunch in the expensive fabric of his lapels. “And you do work for Mircea. And by vampire law, I’m his wife, so you work for me. And if you’d like to continue to work for me, you had damn well better learn to care!”
Casanova glared at her. “Why, you vicious, ungrateful little—”
“Will you two stop it?”
Casanova ceased prying Cassie’s hands off his jacket and looked at Rian. Because she never used that tone, much less with him. But then, she never glared at him like that, either.
“We have to decide what we’re going to do,” she said severely. “The master will be here any moment, and I cannot hide us from him!”
“How could he possibly know where you took us?” Cassie demanded.
“Because there aren’t that many options. Most of the hells require permission to enter—”
“And this one doesn’t?”
“It’s neutral ground, a meeting place, a market—” she waved an restless hand. “Anyone can come here. And as soon as he does, he’ll follow my trail right to you. All incubi can sense another’s presence. But if I leave, I can’t shield you from—”
“Can you do it?”
Rian looked confused again. “Can I do what?”
“Find another incubus.”
“Yes, but what does that—”
“Then I know what we’re going to do,” Cassie said, jerking Casanova’s face down to hers. “And I know who’s going to help me.”