“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 blood 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.”
“And Rossi told you what about that?”
“That we could use the tie to hunt Lavius down. Use it to kill him.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
“He said….” I frowned. “He said it wouldn’t work.”
“Either it works or it doesn’t. Which is it, Delaney?”
“He lied.” It wasn’t a question.
Bathin nodded. “He lied.”
“We can use the bite, the tie to find Lavius?”
“A vampire could.”
“But he didn’t want to because…is he on Lavius’s side?”
Bathin raised his eyebrows. “Do you think Rossi would betray you? That’s not really in his nature is it?”
Betrayal wasn’t something I’d ever seen from Rossi. He was about as straight a shooter as anyone in this town. Clear about his wants, needs, goals.
Clear about his laws, rules, and punishments too. He was a steady hand and presence who dealt with all the vampires in this town. If someone crossed him, if someone broke his laws, he just killed them. No betrayal necessary.
“He’s trying to protect me,” I said, putting it together. “He promised my dad he wouldn’t let anyone kill me, and he won’t use the bite to…deal with Lavius because it might harm me to do so.”
It felt right. Even if I didn’t know the exact details, it felt right.
“He made that promise. Your father told me as much. It’s the truth.”
“If I believe you.”
“If you believe me.”
“How can the bite harm Lavius? Could we use it to…lure him into a trap? Slow him down? Chain him up?”
“We can use it to kill him.”
I frowned. There had to be more to it than that. “How?”
“First, you have to die.”
I didn’t have a clock in my living room, so the silence that followed that statement wasn’t broken up by anything except the push of wind scattering a few fir needles across my roof.
“Theoretically?” I ventured.
“Literally. He has tied you to him with only a single bite. There is a reason vampires turn their victims quickly or kill them quickly. Turning is final. Killing is final. But a single bite? That is a transient state.”
“For him or for me?”
“For both of you. If you are killed, if you die while still being tied to him, he is vulnerable. For a very short time. Minutes. But just long enough to strike. He would be caught, tangled in your death, mortal, killable, no special spells required.”
Chills rolled down from my scalp to my knees. This wasn’t exactly good news. I understood why Rossi hadn’t wanted to tell me. For one thing, it was a vulnerability in vampires I hadn’t known existed. For another, I’d have to pay a pretty big price—the biggest price—for it to work.
“I’m not seeing this as our opening volley,” I said.
“Which is why it would be so unexpected. Rossi won’t know you have this information. Lavius won’t think you’d be stupid enough to act on it.”
“But you think I’m stupid enough?”
“Clever. Clever enough. Because you have me.”
I raised my eyebrows.
He sighed. “And I have your soul. You won’t die, well, not completely, as long as I hold your soul. I can keep death, or any other god, from taking you.”
“And I trust you to do this?”
“Do you want to trust me?”
“Are you saying all this time you were holding my father’s soul he wasn’t really dead?”
“He was dead. His body died, and then we came to an agreement, before his soul passed into death. And after a year of being dead, unless the body is very carefully preserved, there is no going back.
“But for you, with this. It would take seconds. You’d would be back in your body before brain damage could set in.”
“Way to sell it.”
He shrugged. I felt like the sucker reaching for a dollar bill on a fishing line.
“How?”
“Some of that could be up to you. You’ll need someone to kill you, and someone to bring you back from death. Since your pal Death seems fond of you, I’d start there.”
“He’s not fond of me,” I said distractedly while my brain ran through this option. Who did I know who would kill me because I asked them to?
“Have you looked at his face when you’re in the room?”
“Kind of hard not to,” I said. “It’s not me he’s fond of. It’s the very idea of humanity.”
“Hate to break it to you, Butter Brickle, but he’s been staring at humanity, at the very idea of it for a long, long time. And not fondly.”
“He won’t kill me while he’s on vacation.”
“You’re so sure of that?”
“After you left the meeting—”
“After I was rudely relocated by your heartless sister?”
I stopped and stared at him for a minute, taking in the details. Sure, I’d heard his words, but it was the tone that threw me.
He sounded…not angry. Anger, I’d expect. He sounded relaxed, content. The kind of tone someone would take after they’d had a great first date that ended with some front-step snogging.
“You liked it.”
He rubbed his tongue behind his top lip and gave me a droll expression. “You’re not listening to me. She attacked me. Jumped me. Impinged on my freedom of movement. I believe there are rules against that sort of thing in this town. I might want to file charges.”
“She’s a cop. The rules are different for her when she’s operating in the best intentions for all citizens in question.”
“Maybe I’ll ask your boyfriend if her attack against me is in the rule book.”
“She didn’t attack you, she removed you from the premises because you were about to cause a riot. And you don’t even hate her for it. You like it. Like that she figured out a way to out-smart you. How did she do that anyway?”
“It’s a common enough spell.” He took a sip of the wine. Even with all this sipping, he hadn’t managed to take even a half-inch off of the level of liquid he’d poured.
“No, I really don’t think it is common. Rossi said it wouldn’t work on all demons. Care to float a theory as to why he told us that?”
“Not at all.”
“Could it be because he mentioned the spell has to be counter-weighted by a demon’s desire? That the demon has to want something from the caster for there to be enough leverage for the spell to actually work?”
“Vampires are not experts in magic or demon kind.”
“What is it about her that you desire, Bathin?”
He sipped wine. Said nothing.
“If you’re falling in love with her—”
His sharp laugh cut my threat short. “Hardly. A mortal woman, any mortal woman would never be enough to…maintain my interest.”
“So you’ll keep your hands off.”
He nodded. “You’re the only Reed for me, Delaney. And I find you very satisfying.”
“Again with the not making me want to trust you.”
“I don’t need your trust. I’ve told you the truth. If you are killed, Lavius is vulnerable. The details of arranging your death and subsequent rebirth are up to you.”
“Rebirth?”
“Oh, I’m sure you don’t want my input on that. I might be lying. I am a demon, you know.”
I set the wine glass down with a thunk. “Shut up and tell me.”
He stared at me for a moment, his silence pointing out my stupidity louder than words. “Rebirth, as in coming back to life, resurrection, reanimation.”
“It would be a temporary end?”
“It would be an end. But if you had someone powerful enough on your side, it might be temporary.”
“And there are no side effects to…I’d still be…I wouldn’t come back as a zombie, right?”
His mouth curled in a smug smile. “Have you ever met a zombie?”
“Answer the question.”
“If you were brought back to life, you would still be you. Soulless, because, obviously.” He waved a hand down his body as if I’d forgotten he was currently in possession of my soul. “But still you. Your life force, your spirit,” he winced as if it pained him to say the words, “that could never be lost.”
My pulse was sort of erratic and my skin was damp and cool. If I’d had emotions at my disposal, I’d guess I was both terrified and kind of hopeful. If I could take out Lavius without risking that the book fell into his hands when we broke the spell on Ben, then this chance might be worth it.
But I knew Myra, Jean, Ryder, and probably a pile of other people would not agree with me on this. They also wouldn’t trust it would really work with nothing but a demon’s word to vouch for it.
I stared at Bathin, and he returned my gaze, easy, direct, clear. As if he was showing himself to me, letting me look past his nature, or maybe past the disguise he wore for everyone else, all the way down to the realness of him. The bits that made him tick. The stuff of him that was, maybe still not good exactly, but not cruel, not evil, not toxic.
“We do it fast,” I said. “We do it now. And we do it with people who will trust me, because no one will ever trust you.”
“Hurts so much,” he said airily. “And yet I go on.”
I closed my eyes and worked through what I’d need. Worked through who I’d need.
“Okay,” I said opening my eyes a few minutes later. “I have a plan. And you’re going to do everything I say.”
“At your service.” His words were smooth and calm, but his smile was wicked and dangerous.
Was I making the stupid choice? Maybe. But this plan had a lot going for it: surprise timing, hitting a vulnerability Lavius wouldn’t expect us to use, while protecting our own vulnerabilities: Ben and the book that could not fall into Lavius’s hands.
And if we could keep this fight out of Ordinary, or at least away from all the people and creatures Myra was currently corralling for backup, so none of them were risking their lives?
So my sisters weren’t risking their lives?
That was more than worth the choice, stupid or not.