Mykal nodded. “Keep doing that. If he’s going to make it, it will take both your blood.”
“Can we help?” Myra asked.
Mykal looked away from Ben like he’d forgotten we were in the room. He made a quick assessment of all of us, including the demon, who he lingered on the longest, and then he nodded. “I might need to draw blood. I have some in the back of the ambulance, but he’s critically low.”
Myra was already rolling up her sleeve and so was I. “Will we be enough?” I asked.
Ryder disappeared into the kitchen, which, yes, was odd. I didn’t think he usually ran from needles. Or vampires.
“If not, we have more at the bank. I can get someone to bring it over.”
“Fresher is better, is it not?” Bathin asked.
“Yes,” Mykal said tightly, like it pained him to agree with the demon. “But we have rules in Ordinary.”
“You taking it out via an I.V. line?” Ryder asked as he walked back into the room.
He was carrying two boxes of mint Girl Scout cookies and a jug of lemonade. I wondered if Ben or Jame liked Girl Scout cookies enough to keep them stocked.
“Needle and tube,” Mykal said. “We don’t put fang to flesh.”
“Mores the pity,” Bathin mumbled.
“Then let’s do it fresh,” Ryder said.
He set the lemonade on one of the side tables and opened the cookies, then went back into the kitchen for cups.
“Look who’s taking charge like a boss,” Myra said.
“I know,” I agreed. “It’s kind of hot.”
She frowned, but a smile quickly replaced it. “You like a man who’s going to push his way into making the rules around here instead of us? Seriously?”
“I’m not making them,” Ryder said, cups in hand. “Just enforcing them. Think of me as the muscle, not the brain. You Reeds are the brains.”
He winked at her, and she turned to me with wide eyes. “It’s like when he was captain of the baseball team in high school. Thought he owned the whole school.”
“That was my barn, don’t you deny it. And trust me, I can back it up.” Ryder rolled up his sleeve before pouring lemonade.
Yes, I was staring at him. Yes, I knew he was being insufferable and sexy as all hell. I knew I wanted to jump him, to kiss him hard until all that heat and arrogance was under my hands, just to see if he’d give in and give me the key to his barn.
Two things stopped me. One, there was a vampire possibly dying three feet away from us, and two, as soon as I thought those things: taking off his clothes and mauling him until he was sweaty and undone, the need for those things were washed away by a cool wave of numbing.
Dammit!
I glared at Bathin, who was watching all of us with a kind of grudging interest as we willingly got ready to bleed for our friend.
“You did not tell me it would ruin my sex drive. Ryder and I have barely had a chance to do the good and plenty with all the explosions and bites and power grabs going on.” I was talking about the troubles I’d had to deal with lately, but said that way, it came out kind of dirty. I didn’t care. I plowed onward. “No demon is going to get in the way of me getting laid.”
Everyone in the room stopped. Stared at me. Well, except Jame and Ben.
Apparently not having a soul also removed my filter.
I did not care.
Much.
Okay, it was getting kind of awkward.
Bathin’s eyes were wide and his grin matched. “So embarrassing for you,” he breathed. “If only I’d gotten it on video.”
I flipped him off and he laughed.
“Shove it, Bath.” Then, to Mykal, “Just get the gear. Whatever Ben needs, we’ll do it.”
Mykal was out the door before I had finished the last word.
Vampires.
He was back before I’d even had time to take a drink of lemonade or interpret that look Ryder was giving me. Exasperation? Fondness? Horror? Glee? All of the above?
He mouthed, good and plenty? And raised both eyebrows.
“You first, Myra,” Mykal said, setting things up on the table in front of the couch, and then pulling the comfortable recliner closer to the table.
“Why her? Why not me or Ryder?” I asked.
“You’re soulless, Ryder’s tied to a god. Myra’s the most pure mortal out of all of you here.” He didn’t even look up. “Rossi, can you get me a blanket?”
Rossi didn’t look like he heard Mykal.
“Rossi?” he said a little firmer. Then he said a fluid word in a language I didn’t understand.
Rossi finally ticked his gaze away from Ben. He answered in the same language, one low soft word.
“Blankets. They’re going open vein for him.”
That pulled Rossi into a straight line. He removed his finger from the edge of Ben’s mouth, which was still latched to Jame’s arm, though I couldn’t tell if Ben was actually swallowing or if all that blood was just pouring out of Jame to soak the couch cushion.
What I did know was that Jame still wasn’t well enough to offer unlimited refills.
Myra sat in the recliner and Mykal leaned it back, then prepped her arm. He was good at placing a needle. Vampires always were. Myra didn’t even flinch.
Mykal rolled out the tubing and got it all hooked up, finally inserting a thin shunt into Ben’s arm.
“How long for each of us?” I asked.
“Just a few minutes.” He sat back and fiddled with the tube to make sure everything was in place. “His body should take over and draw on the blood.”
Rossi reappeared with a fuzzy blanket in a disturbing electric orange, which he draped over Myra’s lap.
“I don’t—” she started.
Rossi tucked it in on either side of her. “You do.”
She leaned her head back and winced. “Is this supposed to hurt?”
“It might sting.” Mykal glanced up at Rossi, who placed his fingertips on Myra’s shoulder, his thumb touching the side of her bare neck.
She sighed and closed her eyes.
Bathin exhaled with a little growl.
I glanced at him. His eyes were narrow and he was glaring at Rossi’s hand on Myra like eye contact alone could make it catch on fire.
Rossi looked his way and gave him an unconcerned blink before looking back to Ben.
“Bathin,” I said, “could I speak to you in private?”
“Where you going, Delaney?” Ryder asked.
“Just out on the porch.”
“How about I come along?”
“Not necessary.”
“Not negotiable.”
Bathin folded his arms over his chest. “Not interested.”
“Out,” I said. “Both of you.”
I shoved at Bathin’s shoulder and it was like pushing a boulder. Holy heck, he was solid.
“You don’t want to stay here while your sister bleeds?” he asked me.
“She’s in good hands.” He moved, walking toward the door, his tread a little heavy against the hardwood floor, which made sense if he was as solid as he felt.
Ryder slipped his hand into mine and we followed.
Just before Bathin stepped out the door, Ryder dropped something over my shoulders. It was Ryder’s flannel jacket. The jacket was warm and smelled of him, and I wanted to burrow into it and leave everything behind.
Instead, I stepped out into the quiet night.
Bathin was leaning on the porch rail, smoking a cigarette. It suited him, the cherry fire of the cigarette, the thin waifs of cinnamon scented smoke coming off the tip curling around his wrist before snaking up his arms, the heavy stream of smoke he exhaled through the corner of his mouth.
He looked mysterious and dangerous and pretty much like a demon in man’s clothing. The subjective side of my brain could see he was rocking the whole bad-boy thing big time.
“You want my sister.”
He leaned back and lifted his chin, inhaling smoke again. “And?”
> “If you touch her, I will slice your soulless carcass from brain to balls and feed you piece by piece to the angels.”
Ryder’s hand tightened on mine. Maybe surprise, maybe approval.
I didn’t look away from Bathin because I wanted him to understand just how serious I was.
“Poetic,” Bathin noted. “Put it on my birthday cake.”
“You have my soul in your hands. You know I’m not lying. You touch her, you play with her, you make her want you, you hurt her, you make a deal with her, and the very short remaining minutes of your life will be agony.”
Bathin’s nostrils flared as he held in another lungful of smoke.
“You can’t tell me who I can and cannot touch, Delaney Reed,” he rumbled, that whiskey-rough voice of his low. “I am walking this land now, accepted inside of Ordinary, by you. I am the owner of your soul. What I do, is not yours to decide.”
“Like hell it isn’t,” Ryder said. He was a warmth behind me, a strength, and stood at my back, so close I would only have to lean an inch to touch him. His hand was still tightly in mine, making it very clear we were a united front.
“Don’t be so quick to encourage her, warden. You don’t know the steps to this dance.”
“I know exactly what song is playing,” Ryder said. “You took her soul, because without it you are nothing, powerless, weak. Without it, you can’t even gather enough power to walk across our border.”
Really? Was that right? Also, how had Ryder found the time to research into demons when he’d just found out about them this morning?
“You really don’t see what is right in front of you,” Bathin said. “The contract that you agreed to? Well, there is some fine print you might want to read.”
“No. There is no fine print.” I looked over at Ryder to see if he agreed with me.
He was frowning.
“A little awareness of this kind of exchange between our species. How it affects both of our lives.”
Bathin lifted the cigarette one last time and sucked it down until the cherry burned against his fingertips and then turned to ash. He flicked the ash to his feet.
“Got it yet, contract boy?”
Ryder stilled. “Shit.”
“There you go,” Bathin agreed.
“What?” I asked. Bathin just exhaled smoke and stared at Ryder so I turned to Ryder. A scowl carved shadows into his face before his features smoothed. He didn’t take his eyes off Bathin, didn’t make any move.
“If he dies, you die with him.”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Well, that sucks. What if I die first? Will it free me from our deal?”
“He has your soul, Delaney. He had your dead father’s soul before that. You’ll be dead, but your soul will still be in his hands.”
“Got it.” I speared Bathin with a smile that probably looked a little crazy. “If you touch my sister, I will kill you anyway.”
“You won’t.”
“I will. It would be worth dying to know she will not be hurt by you. And hey, it’s not like I’d feel any regret over it, right?”
He licked his bottom lip, then tipped his head. “And here I thought your father played hardball.” He grinned. “You are just so much more entertaining than him. I definitely traded up.”
I sort of hated him. A lot. Unfortunately, the emotion drifted on past leaving me with nothing but the faded awareness of it.
This was getting old fast.
“You should go in.” Bathin nodded at the door behind us. “Your sister’s tapped.”
I didn’t ask him how he knew that. Could be that about five minutes had passed. Could be that he was tuned into blood things. Or Myra things.
I didn’t want it to be Myra things.
“They’ll call us when they need us,” I said. “Tell me what happened tonight.”
“You are under the mistaken assumption that I will do what you tell me to do, Delaney. That’s not how this story plays.”
“You’re a part of this town now,” I said. “I’m the chief of police here. If I want you to give me evidence, you give me evidence. If you don’t, I can kick you out.”
“Still have your soul.”
“Don’t care. You won’t be here with it. And I can lock this town down so you can’t get back in.”
“Yes,” Ryder said, “she can.”
Bathin flashed a sharp grin. “Definitely traded up.”
The door opened. “Ryder, you’re next.” Rossi didn’t spare Bathin so much as a second of his time, ignoring him like he was nothing more than a dead gnat.
Bathin’s grin stiffened. More teeth, less smile.
Ryder squeezed my hand and didn’t let go. He wasn’t going to leave me out here on the porch alone with the demon.
“I’ll be right in,” I said.
He paused, and then he and Rossi exchanged a look.
Rossi stepped out on the porch and Ryder stepped in.
It was starting to feel like I was under constant surveillance. Like they didn’t trust me alone with the demon or something.
Of course last time I’d been alone with the demon, I’d lost my soul. I did not regret that choice. We had Ben back. And if he could survive this, if he could recover, it would be worth it.
“How’s Ben?” I asked.
Rossi’s glittery ice eyes did not soften or waver. “Critical.”
“Can we do more for him? Is there something or someone who could heal him?”
“No.”
Bathin grunted, and it sounded like a muffled laugh. “You are brutal.”
“What?” I said, but they were caught in a staring contest and I’d been on the sidelines of enough of those to know where that was going to end up.
“Nothing,” Rossi said, his nostrils flared like something close to him needed to be bitten, decapitated, killed.
“Afraid?” Bathin taunted.
“Where is your king, Bathin?” Rossi’s voice was cold and flat, like a slab of marble shoveled down into frozen soil. “Shall I guess? Shall I guess why you seek Ordinary’s refuge?”
For the first time, I saw something like fear cross Bathin’s face.
It scared the crap out of me. For a second. Then I was left with no fear. A shiver of cold slipped over my skin. I wrapped my arms around myself.
“That is not your concern,” Bathin growled.
“Just as those under my protection are none of yours,” Rossi replied.
“Her soul is no concern to you.”
“Test me.”
The air, cold with the wind coming down from the north, even though it was summer, suddenly heated up here on this porch like someone had lit a bonfire.
“No,” I said. “Enough. You’re done, both of you. This isn’t about my soul. This is about keeping Myra out of your grubby mitts, and you telling us where you found Ben and if you know where Lavius is holed up.”
“Is that what this is about?”
I hated that smug tone.
“Damn right it is.” I knew I was angry, but since I couldn’t feel it, my words weren’t delivered with the strength I usually mustered.
“What do you want to know?”
“Where is Lavius?”
“And what’s in it for me to tell you?”
“You live.” That, was a new voice. I jerked and scanned the shadows below the porch. At least a dozen werewolves stood there in the dark, most of them in their human form, a few in wolf, all of their eyes burning yellow.
Chapter 10
Granny Wolfe stood in front of them all. Smaller than the rest of werewolves, with wide swaths of silver hair, she did not give the impression of being weak in the slightest.
Rossi and Bathin didn’t even move, nor did they break their staring contest. I wondered if the demon and vamp had sensed the Wolfe family’s approach a while ago since they didn’t seem surprised at their arrival.
“Nobody’s killing tonight,” I said. “Not here. Ben’s inside. Let’s take a break from the bloodletting.”
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Bathin’s mouth curled up on one side.
“The non-voluntary bloodletting,” I added.
“You think I don’t know this thing that’s with you?” Granny said. “This demon dug a hole through you, child. You just letting that stand with you, strigoni?”
“He has no say over her,” Bathin said.
“Push me, demon,” Rossi suggested.
I stood between them, and turned my back on Rossi, because I knew him and trusted him.
“You aren’t my friend, Bathin,” I said. “You aren’t my boss, you aren’t my owner. You are an unfortunate circumstance that I have to live with. Nothing more. Like some kind of soul STD. Don’t assume you can call the shots here.”
He finally looked away from Rossi. “Maybe you need a history lesson, Delaney.”
“All I need is for you to tell me what you saw tonight.” I held up one finger. “Where was Ben?” Held up a second finger. “Where is Lavius?”
“Ben was bound and tied in a crate.”
“Where was the crate?”
“Sunk beside a trawler about a mile out.”
Well, that explained the water covering him. It also explained the cold and darkness that Yancy had seen around him. And that he was alone but also looked over and not near, but near.
I couldn’t imagine what kind of hell that had been for him.
“Who was on the boat?”
“Two mortals, and a vampire. They’re dead now. You’re welcome. I’ll put it on your tab.”
I blinked. I hadn’t told him to kill anyone, but it made sense he might have to in order to free Ben.
“She owes you nothing,” Rossi said. “Who was the vampire?”
“I don’t keep track of half-souls.”
“All demons keep track of us,” Rossi said. “Always have. Who was it?”
“Giorgio. Do you want to know how he died? Do you want me to explain how I tore him into strips?”
The weres growled.
“No,” I said. “What did you do with the boat?”
Bathin leaned back on the porch rail. “Uh…left it adrift? What was I supposed to do with the boat? Bring it into the bay? Tow it into an iceberg?”
“Shut up. We’ll deal with it later. Did they tell you where Lavius is?”