I’d taken my boots off to dump the water out, so I left them on the grass as I went back to the waterline. My toes sank in the cold mud as I hooked the only bit of visible armor. The rest had sunk quicker than lead-weighted bait. Keeping my eyes on Vayl, I pulled the armor out hand over hand, feeling like a fisherman after a long day’s work.
“Bergman, come get your armor. Bring Cole with you for backup.” His joyous whoop nearly deafened me. But it brought a smile to my face too. We’d saved his baby. Speaking of which: “Did Lai calm down after you handed him to his parents?” I asked Cole as Vayl pulled himself upright and struggled onto land. I retrieved his cane from where he’d dropped it near the crossbow and tried to hand it to him.
He stared at me from transformed eyes, vertical pupils, silver irises, alien territory that still managed to look irritated with me. I thought it was because his hands, still encased in ice, couldn’t close over his cane. As I let it fall awkwardly to my side, he said, “I cannot believe that is the first thing you have to say to me!”
I took off the medallion, the better to anticipate his next move. If he decided to go all frosty on me (oh, great pun, Jaz, hardy har) we were going to have real problems. “I was actually speaking to our interpreter,” I informed him.
Cole said, “The baby was fine as soon as you took him from Lung. It was like he knew he was safe.” I nodded, satisfied now I knew we’d truly saved the kid.
I wished I could just shove my nose right up against Vayl’s and say, “As for you, what the hell crawled up your ass? We just won!” But I liked my job too well to piss off the guy who had the most influence on my continued employment. I could see his breath as he exhaled. He turned his head just before it could freeze my face.
Something about the way he held himself made me look over my shoulder. His shoulders, chest, legs were all still tensed, as if at any moment he’d have to leap back into combat.
I took a deep breath. These were the times when I missed working solo. Just a little. Just the part where you don’t have to worry about hurting anybody else’s feelings. Ever. “Vayl, I’m a girl.”
“I do not need to be reminded . . .” he began, pulling himself up to his full height.
“Yes, you do. Obviously you do. Because I’m a girl, a baby’s safety will always come before how cool it is that you can encase yourself in ice and that you kicked Lung’s ass.”
“You . . . you think it is cool?” Did I detect a slight thaw in the ice-man?
“Are you kidding me? Look at this!” I touched a scale and pulled back quick, showing him my burned finger. “You are such a badass!”
He took a look at the evidence of his struggle with Chien-Lung. “Yes, I suppose I am.”
“And yet, if I hadn’t liked your new outfit? Would it really have made that much difference to you in the long run?” I asked. I wanted him to say no. I didn’t want to have that much influence. But I knew better.
“When you did not immediately speak, I thought you were going to say, ‘How is it that you can summon from within yourself such coldness that you only find in the Arctic? Where nothing lives? Where nothing grows? Where there is only emptiness?’” His original accent had crept into his voice, a sure sign of inner distress.
“Dude, you’re all about the chill. We humans even have a name for vamps with your abilities. Do you know how much clout having a Wraith on staff gives the CIA?”
He waved me off with a that’s-not-the-point gesture. “Jasmine, you wear my ring. You guard all that is left in me that is good. With a second
I couldn’t help the cynicism that laced my next question. “You’d dump the armor? Just like that?”
Twitch of the lip. “Perhaps not. But you are a persistent and creative woman. I feel you will find a way to convince me.”
Cole and Bergman arrived then, Bergman to gather up his armor, Cole to envy Vayl’s new form. “So is this a permanent thing?” Cole asked hopefully.
“Probably not,” Bergman said, eyeing Vayl from a respectful distance. “My guess is that it will recede as soon as you sleep, just like it did with Lung. You may even be able to call it up and make it go at will. But”—he shook his head—“I don’t really know. This shouldn’t have happened. I mean, yes, as a biological tool the armor would have changed Lung in very basic ways. And by taking his blood, I guess Vayl could have conscripted that change for himself. But . . . I never anticipated . . . any of this.” His eyes darted from Vayl’s shining armor to the medallion dangling from my fingers.
“I have to go, Jaz,” he said, hugging Lung’s armor to him like some long-lost teddy bear. “I’m sorry. But I have a lot of work piling up at home.” He started to back up. “I can’t deal . . . I have to go.”
“I understand,” I said. “Really. It’s okay.”
He bobbed his head, turned, and walked away.
Beside me, the smell of grape gum accompanied by the pop of an exploding bubble distracted my attention from Bergman’s receding back.
“Well, that sucks,” said Cole. “He left before he could make me a cool gun. Like yours, only better.”
I sighed and gave him a look that I had a feeling was going to be especially reserved for him from now on. “First of all, tell me your mouth-mint is not covered with Hubba Bubba.”
“No, Bergman took it after you guys got Lung.”
“Okay, then I’ll tell you Bergman is not walking straight from here to the airport. He’s going back to the RV to pack. He may even sleep there if he can’t get a flight out tonight. So follow him back and ask him to make you a gun that you promise you will pay for. No. Wait.” I grabbed his arm before he could move away. Something had moved between my shoulder blades, a feeling between a tingle and a pain. “I don’t think you have that kind of time. Something’s coming and it’s not a vamp. It’s just a feeling, one I’ve never had before, but Vayl said I should open myself up to these things.”
