Cormel. Don’t mess with me on this. I mean it! I can’t save her soul yet. I need more time.”
I didn’t care if I sounded like a demon, using all three of his names like that. Managing the icy roads, I heard the undead vampire take a slow breath he didn’t need. “Take the I-75 bridge. We’ll find you.”
The phone clicked off, and I tossed it in the direction of Ivy’s purse. Blinking furiously, I clamped my hands on the wheel and pushed down on the accelerator. Horns blew as I tore through town, but the FIB guys wouldn’t stop me and the I.S. didn’t care anymore.
“Hold on,” I said through gritted teeth as I took a turn too fast, having to push on her shoulder to keep her from falling into me.
Ivy’s eyes opened as my hand touched her, and fear plinked through me. “Hurry,” she panted. “Rachel, I’d rather die than bite you now. Please hurry. I don’t know how long I can stop myself. It hurts. Oh God…She took everything.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I said as I saw a sign for bridge traffic. “He’s coming. We’re almost there.”
She was silent, and then a ragged “Are you okay?” came out of her.
Astonished, I looked across the car. She was worried about me? “I’m fine,” I said, beeping my horn to keep some guy from pulling out in front of me. He rocked to a halt, and after I swerved around him, I looked at her, brow furrowed. “Ivy, why did you do it? You should have let her go. She’s a freaking banshee!”
“This was my fault,” she panted, her eyes dropping to the coin, still clenched in her fist. “Mia, Remus, everything. It was my fault that Mia learned how to kill people with impunity. And she hurt you. I’ll take care of this. You can’t risk yourself anymore.”
“You’re going to take care of her alone?” I said, feeling distant and unreal inside. “This is as much my fault as yours. I gave you the wish in the first place. We’re going to get her, Ivy, but not apart. We have to do it together.” Who am I kidding? It would take a demon to take down a banshee. But then again…
She didn’t say anything, but her expression behind the hunger was determined. I flicked the heater on, and a blast of warm air billowed out. In the distance, I saw the lights of an oncoming car flashing. Relief so strong it hurt washed through me. I could tell it was a Hummer by the spacing of the lights. It was them. It had to be. “I see them!” I exclaimed, and Ivy tried to smile. Her teeth were clenched and her eyes were wild, and it twisted my heart to see her red-rimmed, pain-filled eyes as she struggled.
Fumbling, I put on my own flashers and pulled into a fast-food place. Two cars pulled in behind me, black in the streetlight. I came to a halt, not slamming on the brakes, but close. Before I could put the car in park, two men were at Ivy’s door. There was a crack of breaking metal, and the door swung open, the lock broken.
Vampire incense rolled into the car, and with a savage sound, Ivy lunged for the man stooping to pick her up. I turned away, tears falling. I heard a groan, and when I looked back, the second man with them was supporting the first as he carried Ivy back to the black Hummer. She was on his neck, blood slipping past her lips. The second man opened the door for them, and Ivy and the man she was clutching to her vanished inside. He turned to look at me, his expression unreadable, before he followed them in and closed the door.
The snow fell between us, and I sat there, my passenger-side door open, staring out my front window, hands on the wheel and crying. Ivy had to be all right. She had to be. This is so messed up.
A soft tap on my window jerked my attention away and I looked to see Rynn Cormel standing outside my closed door. His cashmere coat had the collar turned up against the snow and the hat on his head was just showing the first few flakes. He looked good standing there, but the memory of his callous treatment of me-me and Ivy, actually-was too new for me to be taken in. He was an animal, and now I understood what Ivy had meant when she’d said, “He’s just a vampire.”
Though wealthy, powerful, and attractive, he was nothing, not worth anyone’s love or affection. I wouldn’t allow Ivy to become like that.
Wiping my nose, I rolled down my window. I was numb inside.
Rynn Cormel bent over so our faces were closer. Seeing me in a state, he pulled a handkerchief from an inside pocket and handed it to me. “Why didn’t you let her bite you instead of all this drama?” he said, his gaze flicking to the unmoving Hummer. “All she needs is blood.”
Animal or no, I still needed to treat him with respect. “She doesn’t want that,” I said as I used his hanky and shoved it away. He might get it back after I washed it. Maybe. “She doesn’t want to lose her soul, and biting me brings her closer to that.”
He frowned and stood, dropping back a few steps so he could see me. “It’s what she is.”
“I know.” I took my hands from the wheel, placing them quietly in my lap. “She knows it, too.”
Eyebrows high, Rynn Cormel made a soft sound. Rocking on his feet, he made motions to leave. “Rynn,” I said, and he stopped. “She accepts what she is, and by God, I’m going to find a way to help her be who she wants to be.”
My heart was pounding, but his worried expression melted into one of his famous smiles, and I wondered if I had just saved my own life with my promise to find a way for her to keep her soul. If he thought I meant to find a way to keep it after she died, then that was his prerogative. I was thinking something a little more immediate. Something we could both benefit from.
“Good,” he said, hands in his pockets, looking harmless. “Enjoy your evening with your family, Rachel. Ivy will be fine.”
I sat straighter, hope making my eyes wide. “Are you sure?”
His gaze never moved from the Hummer. “Her aura will be replaced as she satiates herself, and her strength will return in time. It’s my people with her I’m worried about.”
I couldn’t help my smile at that, but it faded fast. She was out of control in that car, and she was going to hate herself when she came home. What she was pinning her sanity on now was that she hadn’t allowed her hunger to rule her and satisfy it by savaging me. Her vow to abstain from blood had lasted thirty seconds.
“Rynn, don’t push her,” I said. “Please? Just make her better and send her back to me. I’ll find a way for her to die with her soul. If it’s possible, I’ll find a way. I promise.” Damn it, I’m going to have to talk to Trent. He had a way to make the vampire virus dormant, but from there, he might find a way to remove it. I wasn’t sure if Ivy would agree to becoming human to lose her blood lust, but after tonight…she might.
The tall man inclined his head to acknowledge my words. Smiling, he jauntily returned to his second car. The driver emerged to open his door for him, and in a moment, both vehicles were gone.
I glanced at the clock, then noticed that Ivy’s purse was still with me. I picked it up off the floor and put it on the seat where she’d been, then reached across and closed my broken door. Ivy’s scent lingered, and I breathed it in, wondering how she was. My hands started to shake with the remaining adrenaline. I was late for my already postponed lunch. Robbie was going to have a field day.
Clearly I wasn’t ready to risk the road yet. I was deathly worried about Ivy, but that was probably fair play. Ivy had been worried about me when I was in the hospital. Rynn Cormel said she was going to be all right, and I had to believe it. A vampire was a banshee’s closest rival in terms of strength, having a fast way to rebound after an attack-blood to renew her aura, and Brimstone to revitalize her strength.
I slowly thunked the car into gear and crept up to the exit, turning my blinker on and sitting there, waiting for a break in traffic. As I sat there, it hit me that this was probably the turning point in our relationship. Ivy was a vampire who wanted to be more. Or maybe less. But she could never be who she wanted unless I could find a way to get the virus out of her. By magic or medicine, I was going to have to do that. I might not be able to be the person I wanted to be, but if I had to be a demon, I was, by God, going to make sure Ivy could be who she wanted to be.
Having to deal with stuff like this was just crappy.
Twenty-three
The scent of beef stew was heavy in my mom’s kitchen, but even that, combined with the homemade biscuits Mom had pulled out of the oven when I walked in the door, hadn’t blunted my worry for Ivy. Dinner might have been pleasant; I didn’t remember. I’d been there for over an hour, and still no one had called about Ivy. Just how long did it take to replenish an aura?
Adding to my state was the fact that somewhere in this house was an eight-hundred-level arcane textbook that
