She looked satisfied, like a cat who had just finished a bucket of cream. She also looked a little flushed, her eyes glittery. All I saw was that my sister was happy. And victorious. She had enjoyed pulling that little trick. She had enjoyed tossing that smug know-it-all out on his ear.
“How long will he be gone?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Long enough for us to finish our plans. Rossi, is there some way we can use Delaney’s tie to Lavius to our advantage? If not to kill Lavius to trap him? Trick him?”
“Nothing that wouldn’t kill her. And that,” Rossi said, giving me both barrels of his attention, “is what I promised your father. That I would protect you and not willingly allow your death by any hand.”
“Oh,” I said, because that was all I could come up with. If I could still feel emotions, I was pretty sure I’d be touched and overwhelmed. “Thank you.”
“So we stick with the original plan?” Ryder asked. He’d retrieved his gun from the table and secured it in his holster.
“The original plan is wholly uninspired,” Aaron grumbled.
“It is clean and concise,” Rossi said.
“Tonight at moonrise we summon Lavius by breaking the ward on the book and casting the spell on Ben?” I asked.
“At the Party Putt Putt,” Rossi said.
“The mini golf course?” It was such a weird request. That little indoor mini-golf course and party space was, well, well-used was the most polite term I could come up with. It had been in Ordinary for years, and hadn’t had an upgrade since opening day. “Why there?”
Old Rossi looked a little exasperated, but Myra was nodding.
“Because,” Rossi said, “The magic void which will hamper his ability to access the power stored in the Rauðskinna is deep beneath the sand trap.” Rossi said that like he was explaining that the sun rose, the moon set, and evil vampires always had a backup plan.
“Right,” I said. “Of course it is. Than, will you be there?”
Death had been silent through most of the conversation, watching us with that calm attentive manner. He didn’t get worked up over the dramatics of the living, which I supposed made sense. He did seem interested in this particular scuffle with Lavius, and had readily agreed to be a part of this meeting.
He sipped his hot cocoa, which I knew was so delicious, it could make angels trade their wings in for whips. The cup looked delicate in his long fingered hands.
Than looked, well, not at ease, but like he was getting the hang of both the being mortal and vacationing thing. He seemed well-rested and comfortable in his Hawaiian shirt that featured pink flamingos melted à la Salvador Dali surrounded by bubbles so numerous and small, the remaining shirt looked like it was covered in googly eyes.
His shirt was staring at me.
Creepy with a tropical flair.
“Do you want me to be at the Party Putt Putt?” he asked.
“Yes?”
“You understand better than any that my power is at rest, Reed Daughter. Vampires linger in the gray places outside of Death’s reach. It has always been so.”
“I don’t want you to kill anyone.” Well, I did, but I understood he wouldn’t. Not without having to leave Ordinary and stay away for a year.
“I just…when we kill Lavius, which is the only acceptable outcome of this plan, I don’t want any surprises. I want him to be dead-dead. Declared dead by Death. All the way dead and not to rise again like some kind of nightmare in a striped shirt and fedora.”
“Did you marathon Friday the 13th movies again?” Myra asked.
“No.”
Yes.
“But I want zero Freddy Krueger action going on. I’d like a promise from you. From your power. Anything that dies tonight stays dead.”
“I see.” Than stood. “You will have no such promise from me for my promises are already given.” And then he walked out of the room, without looking back, without a single additional word.
“That was…what just happened?” I asked.
“I think…” Myra frowned. “I think you hurt his feelings.”
“Me? How? I wasn’t saying he was bad at his job. I just wanted him there. Even on vacation, he’s got a better handle on death than any of us at this table. I don’t think him standing on the side and declaring the time of death breaks the rules. Does it?” I threw a look at Ryder.
“No. He wouldn’t have to access his stored power to know if someone was dead. He’s got good eyes for that.”
Aaron huffed. “Please. He told you he doesn’t want to be a part of your little fist fight, Delaney. This isn’t important to him. Vacation is important to him and you’re ruining it. Now you made death sulk before your big showdown. Smooth, Chief.”
“It’s fine,” Myra said. “Than doesn’t have to be there. It will be fine. We know how to kill Lavius, right?” She looked expectantly at Rossi.
“Oh, yes,” he said, low enough it made me shiver. “We do.”
Okay, even though I was worried (fleetingly) about disappointing Death, I knew the granddaddy badass vampire was on our side.
And that was good enough for me.
Chapter 16
Ryder and Rossi walked me out into the salty warmth of sunlight and calls of seagulls scrounging for early dinners. The wind was just enough to keep the heat from being too much, and the little parking area was filled with cars.
Myra was at her cruiser, having what looked like a very serious conversation on her phone. Aaron had stayed behind as soon as he spotted a couple people from the K.I.N.K.s and C.O.C.K.s sneaking into the joint.
For a god who insisted he was on vacation, he sure did get his kicks watching people get into fights.
“There is one thing I want you to carry.” Old Rossi reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and withdrew a slim silver dagger in a sheath. He held it out to me.
“I don’t do knives.” What I was really saying was I didn’t want to get close enough to Lavius for a knife to be necessary. If I was close enough to stab him, he was close enough to bite me.
Or break me.
Vampires were strong.
“Take the dagger, Delaney.”
Vampires were also stubborn.
“Don’t need it.”
“You very much do need it. The blade is poisoned. If you strike Lavius, it will slow him. It isn’t enough to kill him, but it should be enough so that you have a chance.”
“To kill him?”
“To survive long enough to get away from him.”
He didn’t sound all that sure about my chances. Fear fingered at the back of my throat, but didn’t stay long, dragged away by my missing soul.
Maybe having no fear, or at least not feeling it, would give me an advantage against Lavius.
Or maybe it’d just get me killed.
“What kind of poison?” Ryder asked as he came up behind us.
“It’s a spell. Nothing written in any book you would ever read.”
“Is it written in the Rauðskinna?”
“No.”
I groaned. “So we have more than one dark magic book we have to deal with?”
“Not every book of magic is dark, Delaney.”
“Is this one?”
Rossi looked like he didn’t want to answer that. Then: “Yes.”
Great. It was a dark magic dagger. Still, if I had to fight Lavius, I’d need more than a gun at my disposal.
“Does everyone get a magic dagger?” I accepted the knife, getting used to the weight in my hand. I didn’t take it out of the sheath.
“No. Only those who he is connected to.”
“Neat.” Since I wasn’t wearing a jacket, I stuck the dagger, sheath and all, in my back pocket.
“You’ll be there tonight?” It came out sounding a little small. Needy. I tried to feel ashamed about that, but couldn’t have managed it even if I still had full-access to all my emotions.
“Yes,” he said immediately.
Good.
“So now we w
ait?”
“I have a few matters to deal with. Preparation. For now, you rest. Go home, Delaney. Get some sleep. This will not be easy.”
“Is there anything else I should know? I don’t want to be surprised here, Rossi. If there’s something…uncomfortable you don’t want to tell me…whatever Bathin was hinting at, I’d rather hear it from you than be surprised.”
He paused, there in the sunlight, an anomaly in this world, but no less beautiful because of it. The weight of his years seemed to gather around him, stretching across the many things he had been, the many things he had done.
All the choices he had made, good and bad.
He nodded, just once, and I knew he had made another choice. Maybe even his final one.
“There is nothing more you need to know, Delaney.” His gentle voice. His kind voice. The one I’d known from childhood. “We’ll meet at the Putt Putt at eleven and then all this will finally be done.”
He reached out to me, his cool fingers brushing across my cheek so faintly, it could have just been the wind. “All things come to an end.” There was sorrow in his words, and forgiveness.
Then he turned and walked away, across the parking lot and down the narrow footpath toward the cliffside that would lead to the beach. He was pulling his shirt off over his head as he went, baring that impossibly pale skin that should not endure the sunlight to the wide judgmental sky.
I wondered if he was going to strip everything off, as he so often did. Wondered if I should follow him and either give him comfort, or write up another indecent exposure ticket for his collection.
Decided, instead, to give him his time.
It didn’t escape me that he was going to kill a man who had been a soldier beside him, a man who had been a brother. I didn’t care how old you were, or what that person had become as time tread through multiple lives. Killing someone who had once been at your side, at your back, had to be a hell of a thing to get right with.
“How about I drive?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t want to go home and just wait.”
“What do you want to do?”
Good question. “Patrol. Check in on Jean. Write some traffic tickets.”
Be normal.
“Hey,” Myra called out. “We have a situation.”
“What is it?” I crossed the parking lot to her.
“Brawl at the wayside off the Easy. Wedding party gone bad. Someone got thrown in the drink and came up punching. Hatter and Shoe need backup.”
The wayside was a large parking area with access to the beach and the smallest river in the state of Oregon. There were restaurants and hotels nearby and the parking was obvious from the main road through town. Locals really never hung out there, but it drew tourists like honey drew badgers.
“Go,” I said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Nope. You are off duty. You got that? Until tonight is over, that vamp bite is gone, and that demon gives you your soul back, you are done for now.”
“Are you telling me I can’t do my job? I’m your boss, Myra, not the other way around.”
“I am telling you that Ryder and Shoe and Hatter and I can handle a couple of people in a shoving match, and we’re not going to get bit by a vampire or possessed by a demon in the process.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Rude. I am not possessed.”
She squeezed my shoulder. “I’m not calling Jean in on this either.”
“Duh. Jean’s injured.”
“So are you.”
And okay, yes. I hadn’t stopped long enough to think of trading my soul away as an injury.
It had just seemed like taking actions, any actions, was a better use of my time. Especially if it meant staying one step ahead of, or gaining control of the chaos in my life.
“Going home is the best thing you can do right now,” she said a little softer now that she could see that the lightbulb had clicked on over my head. “I’m going to take care of this and get all the backup we need together for tonight.”
“Backup?”
“You know we’re not just going to rely on Rossi and a book of spells, right?”
No, I did not.
“Uh…”
“I’ve got this. You go home. I’ll send Ryder to pick you up tonight.”
“You want to jump in on my side here and tell my sister I know how to do my job?”
Ryder shook his head. “I know better than to get in between you two. But just so you know, I think Myra’s right on this one.”
I was torn between wanting to argue, and not actually caring enough about getting my way. If I wasted any more time fighting with them, they’d be too late to back up Shoe and Hatter.
“Fine. Go.” I waved them off.
Ryder caught my arm, tugged me to him. “It’s going to be okay. Everything. We’re going to make it all okay.”
I wanted to believe him, but I knew nothing was that simple. “You bet your ass we are.”
He grinned, shook his head, and reluctantly let go of my arm.
I stood there and watched as he hurried into the passenger side of the cruiser, was still standing and watching as my sister and my boyfriend drove away, red and blue lights flashing.
Chapter 17
“Drink, darling?” The demon in my kitchen smiled innocently and offered me a glass of red wine. “Or would you like me to fetch your slippers for you?”
“Go to hell, Bathin.”
He sucked in a breath and pressed a hand to his chest as if shocked at my language. “But I just got back. Didn’t you get my postcard? Wish You Were Here?”
I tossed the dagger down on the coffee table by the couch and stood there with my hands on my hips. He was still holding the wine. Two glasses in one hand.
“Is that where she sent you?”
He shrugged, and the innocent housewife thing he was pulling fell away. Leaving him tall, dark, and dangerous, in slacks and white shirt, and smiling at me like he knew where all my guilty pleasures lay beneath the layers of me.
“Does it matter? It won’t happen again.”
“You underestimate my sister.”
He gave me half a nod. “Yes, I did. I promise you I won’t repeat that little oversight.”
“She’s smart. If you challenge her, she’ll be the last Reed you’ll ever tangle with.”
“Is that so?” He looked even more interested in her now.
Dammit.
“Give me the wine.”
He handed it over. “Bad day, pet?”
“Go away.”
He chuckled and then walked around the furniture so he could sit.
“Tell me all about it.” He lifted his glass in a kind of salute and then took a spare sip of the liquid. He settled into the most comfortable chair in the room and tipped his head toward the couch. “No, I’m serious. Have a seat, and tell me about it.”
“Maybe I’m going to bed.”
“Doesn’t sound like you’re too sure about that.” He sipped, patient, implacable.
Not warm, but easy? Welcoming? And I found myself wanting to do just that: sit here and spew my troubles all over him.
Maybe it was because he wasn’t anyone who mattered to me. I didn’t care about his opinion on my messed up life. I could say anything I wanted and what was he going to do about it? Tattle on me?
No one would believe him. Because he was a demon. Two-faced, conniving, self-serving and everyone knew it.
I sighed and dropped down on the couch, careful not to spill the wine. “You know what bothers me about all this?”
He waited, sipped.
I turned the glass between my fingers, scowling at it and not really seeing it. “He hasn’t made a move.”
“Lavius?”
I nodded.
“He sent a demon-possessed vampire to run over your sister.”
It was my turn to be silent.
“He kidnapped Ben. Tortured him. Yes,” he said at my glance, “I know torture when I see it. Cast a bloo
d spell so dirty I wouldn’t touch it with a lead-coated pole. Used it to kill a vampire who was also one of Ordinary’s citizens.”
He sipped again. “Not enough? He broke the life-tie between the vampire and werewolf. That’s…difficult. He had those vampire hunter idiots drowned. Well, killed then dumped in the ocean.” He shrugged as if the details of their gory deaths didn’t matter.
“All that seems a bit pedestrian for an ancient vampire, doesn’t it?” I asked.
Bathin was quiet long enough I wondered if he had an opinion on that.
“It depends on how you measure his efforts. Getting the Rauðskinna from Rossi may have just been his most recent goal.”
He was calm, talking through it as if this were all supposition. But I was a cop. I knew when someone knew more than they were saying.
“You might as well share with the class,” I said. “Nobody here but me, and nobody out there is listening to me anyway.”
That got a small amused expression out of him. “Not like you to be so maudlin, Delaney. Where’s that Reed spine made of steel and tougher stuff?”
“What aren’t you telling me, Bathin?”
“Oh, so many things.” He pressed his lips against the rim of his glass, drank again, the thick red liquid leaving a shiny coating behind on the inside curve of the glass.
“What aren’t you telling me about Lavius that will help us kill him?”
“Better question,” he approved.
I waited. Thought about drinking the wine, but really, wasn’t thirsty. Still, I kept it in my hands, because that was normal and it gave me something else to focus on besides his wicked hungry eyes.
“Rossi will be angry if I tell you,” he said.
“I can deal with him.”
He pursed his lips, then set the glass down beside him and folded his hands together. “How much do you know about vampires?”
“More than most.”
“How much do you know about the ties they inflict?”
My hand went to the bite on my neck. “Like this one?”
“Exactly like that one. He bit you once. Just once. Did you stop and ask yourself why?”
“I didn’t have time to ask myself anything. He told me. He told me he did it to bring Rossi to his knees. To make Rossi give him the book.”