'Humans are forbidden to us as mates for a reason. If you haven't gotten that through your thick skull before, then you certainly should now. The accident with the vampire's Bride is exactly why mortals and immortals should never mix.'
Cade narrowed his eyes. 'Are you sure Néomi's even dead?'
With a nod, Rydstrom said, 'I checked with Nïx.'
Why did mortals have to die so easily? The smallest sword thrust had ended the girl forever. She hadn't deserved to die like that.
'If she's dead, then that vampire is out searching for something of mine to destroy.' Cade glanced around them. A thousand times over, Wroth had vowed. Cade would be signing Holly's death warrant to approach her right now.
'So you have even more reason to resist her,' Rydstrom said. 'You have to forget her.'
'You think I haven't tried?' Cade ran his hand over a horn. 'You think I don't know how bad this looks? I'm stalking a girl, a human who's millennia younger than I am.'
'Then it's fortunate we're leaving this town for good. Nïx has given us one last means to destroy Omort—a job to complete. This is our final hope to reclaim my crown. She's adamant about that.'
'What's the op?' Cade asked, though he didn't give a damn. He'd agree to anything to take his mind from what he'd done—and from what he was tempted to do with Holly. Even Nïx hadn't foreseen his crazed plans for her.
'We'll receive instructions within the week. Just be ready to move quickly.'
Cade exhaled. 'I'm always ready.'
'Again, brother, this is it—our last chance. I have to know that your head is in the right place.'
'I said I'll be ready,' he snapped. 'Whatever it is, I'll get the job done.' Cade rose and gazed at Holly.
For a last time.
With a lingering glance at his female, Cade dropped from the roof.
No sooner had Cade disappeared into the night than Nïx emerged from the stairwell to join Rydstrom. 'And how did he react?'
Rydstrom glanced at her, evincing no surprise that she'd found them. 'You don't know?'
'I'm ever-knowing, not—'
'Yes, yes, not all-knowing.' Rydstrom sighed. 'Cade's vowed to do his duty.'
When Holly came back into their view, Nïx's golden eyes fixed on the girl and her pupils dilated. Tilting her head, she asked, 'And if he finds out Néomi still lives?'
'Lying to him sits ill with me,' Rydstrom said. 'You're certain I can't tell him?'
Nïx faced him. 'I've gone over and over the decision trees. Billions of outcomes all trace back to this decision fork—tell him or don't. It must be this way.'
'So you've seen my future?'
'Some of it,' she said. 'And it's a doozy.'
'Tell me,' he said, waving her on.
'Rydstrom, you really must learn to ask. In any case, I've got somewhere I need to be. A mystery will be revealed to me tonight, and I can hardly wait.'
'You can't leave me like this! And what if we need to get in touch with you?'
She grinned at him, but her eyes were growing vacant, her mind already somewhere else. 'Greedy demon, there's only so much Nïx to go around.'
45
If Néomi had died again, then that meant she had the power to save him.
She could move things with her mind once more. With a wave of her hand, she easily tore through the wreckage, following Conrad's trail of blood. Two waves of her hand had the roof section covering him hurled up and out into the yard. He lay unconscious, pinned by that jagged beam.
As delicately as she could, she began extracting it from his body. Even unconscious, he yelled in pain. She was hurting him, but she had no choice. Flames still advanced from all around them. The entire structure of the manor was quaking.
Inch by grisly inch...
At last! She freed him of it. Finally able to escape the blaze, she traced him outside under a great oak to shelter him from the raining embers.
She couldn't feel them.
Floating beside him, she assessed his wound, shocked at how swiftly he was still losing blood. 'Conrad! Please wake up... tell me what to do to help you!'
He'd said he couldn't die from an injury like this, but his paleness terrified her. He needed blood. Without thought, she put her wrist to his lips.
She gasped. Oh, mère de Dieu... She felt herself growing corporeal once more, gradually, from her arm out, like an accumulation of form. She perceived the dew on the grass and the bayou breeze.
How can this be?
Conrad's instinct took over, and before she could blink, his fangs had closed on her flesh like a brand. His sucking was as dizzyingly provocative as she'd remembered. When he groaned against her skin, she nearly swooned with pleasure.
Too soon, he released her with a last lick. In moments, he was able to open his eyes. With a husky murmur, he said, 'For that... I'm willing to be staked nightly.' When he opened his eyes, his gaze flickered over her body, over the familiar black dress they knew so well. 'You were a spirit again. But I just tasted... flesh and blood. What happened?'
Néomi could feel the bite mark on her wrist was already beginning to mend. I don't know what I am. She whispered, 'I just changed. I don't understand it.' They stared at each other for long moments. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw flames stretching high into the night sky. Smoke funneled out of the windows and chimneys. Heat reached all the way to them. 'I'd realized something was wrong with me, but—'
'Nothing's wrong with you!' he said vehemently, already able to sit up.
'Then what am I?'
'I don't give a damn. As long as you're with me.'
'I give a damn! What if I get stuck in that spirit form again?' She hated that weird ghostly half-world. She'd nearly forgotten how alone and echoing and faded it felt. 'I wouldn't be able to hold you when you're injured or sleep against your warm chest. Or have sex with you. And I want to—a lot! And I'm so sick of this damned dress!'
'So that's what you are,' a woman cried from the oak above them. 'It all becomes clear!'
They both glanced up. Nïx sat perched on a limb, with her sword strapped over her back.
'Up there all along!' Conrad bellowed, immediately grimacing and clamping a hand over his side. 'And you didn't think to help us?'
Nïx stood and alighted from the limb as though stepping from a curb, landing without so much as a sound.
'What became clear?' Néomi asked, her tone tinged with fear. 'What am I?'
She saw Conrad swallow and knew he wasn't sure he even wanted to know.
'You're one of those powerful Lore phantoms I was telling you about. Though your aging process was accelerated by a few centuries. Good timing, too.' She furtively pointed at the manor, saying in a stage whisper, 'Just between me and you—your spirit anchor is on fire.' An explosion sounded at that moment, and glass shattered out from all the remaining downstairs windows. 'And, yes, I did plan for that blast to punctuate my words.'
A fantôme?
'Phantom?' Conrad rubbed his forehead, smearing ash there. 'Spirit anchor... ?'
Néomi explained, 'Nïx told me weeks ago that I might become like a Lore phantom if I lived long
