Jack, deciding pit bulls had gotten way too much press, had dug in, refusing to release his grip despite desperate shaking on the demon’s part.
Raoul shook his head and raised his sword. I recognized it immediately as the glittering weapon he’d wielded in his fight against Brude, when we’d tried to escape the Domytr’s territory. Raoul hadn’t been so fortunate in that fight. Then again, Brude had stacked the deck. This time I had a feeling the odds were better balanced. Especially when Kyphas’s yellow eyes widened with alarm. She looked around the room and finally her expression said she felt outnumbered.
“Pax,” she said, dropping her dagger to her side as a sign of goodwill. “Get this slavering mongrel off of me.”
“I don’t care! Make him stop!”
“Those aren’t the magic words. But they’ll do.” I grabbed Jack’s collar. “Time to back off the ham bone, buddy.” When he resisted I pulled a little harder, saying, “No more demon for you. Trust me, it’ll give you major indigestion.” With a combination of coaxing and prying I pulled him off Kyphas and shoved him back inside the circle, where Cole made sure he stayed.
I went to Vayl, whose armor had completely melted and who was now quietly bleeding all over the sandy brown area rug. Grabbing a throw blanket off the couch I pressed it against his wound. “You going to be all right?” I murmured as I stared at our uninvited guest.
“As soon as I get out of this house,” he said.
“I’m leaving as well; I think my ass is melting,” said Kyphas as she backed toward the door, her eyes darting all over the room, but always coming back to Raoul. He followed her, stepping slowly, his sword held ready if she decided to make an offensive move.
Vayl didn’t want help rising, but I lent him a hand anyway as Cole asked Kyphas, “What about Cassandra?”
“We have a contract,” she said. “You can fight for her if you wish, but she’s mine. I will always come back for her.”
It was so similar to something Vayl might’ve said to me that I glanced at him. He was glaring at the demon, his teeth practically grinding, though part of that might’ve been from the pain of his wound. Funny how context changes everything. I could see her words made him want to bury her, deep and permanently.
His voice was cold as the icy shell that’d coated him as he said, “Kyphas, have you ever set yourself against a Vampere Trust before?” Her eyes widened as she shook her head, accidentally backing into one of the porch poles before her boot found the single step that took her onto the front lawn. He dropped his arm from my shoulder as he gestured back to the house. “This is
I’d been shopping with my sister, Evie, enough to recognize that weighing-her-options look on Kyphas’s face. Clearly she thought Vayl had offered her a bargain. Get out before further beatings could occur. On the other hand… She shook her head. “I will be back. With allies. And when we come for her, we will be taking the rest of you with us.” She grinned, the curves of her face so perfect that her image would’ve made sculptors weep. Then she turned and ran into the night, her demonic strength taking her out of our vision almost instantly.
CHAPTERNINE
Because the blessings still lingered inside the house, we sat in the backyard, which had been fenced for privacy. Not that anybody lived close enough to wonder about the havoc we’d just caused. We’d chosen Wirdilling’s Hermit Special for a reason. But still, the tall wooden fence. Either the owners like to sunbathe in the nude— doubtful considering how stinking hot it got in the summer—or they figured the fence was a good way to pen their kids in. Considering the wide array of rec equipment dotted around the lawn, including a swing set, a play place with more ladders than slides, and a plastic barn sheltering a trough full of sand, I was voting for use number two.
It seemed ironic to me that the six of us sat around a glass table on comfy woven lawn chairs gazing out onto a patch of grass that Jack was spending equal time sniffing and chewing, while Astral reigned quietly from her perch atop the clothesline pole. We might’ve been preparing to enjoy some shrimp on the barbie. Except the freshly grilled scent was coming off our vamp.
He sat at one end of the table, a towel stuffed against his wound, listening tiredly to Cole, who lounged at the other end bitching about being shanghaied. “You could’ve at least asked us if we wanted to be in your Trust before you made some big public announcement! Now we’re committed. My mom’s going to be so pissed.”
“Must you tell her?” Vayl inquired.
“I tell her everything.”
Bergman, stuck in the middle next to Cassandra and opposite Raoul and me, gaped at him. “She knows you’re a CIA assassin?”
“Well, I might’ve left that part out.”
Vayl checked the towel, decided it wasn’t necessary anymore, folded it neatly, and tucked it under his chair. “Then she need not know this small detail of your life either.”
“Small! Dude, Pete made us all read Jaz’s report on your mission to Greece. Trusts are freaking weird!”
“No, Disa’s Trust was strange.” Vayl paused to think. “All right, in all probability most Vampere Trusts are somewhat bizarre. They are populated by vampires and their human guardians after all. But ours need not be like that. In fact, it is more a technicality anyway. Something I arranged to protect you all within the world in which I walk.”
We stared. Okay, most of us gaped. Because we kept forgetting he wasn’t like us. He’d been around way before you could drive to the hospital to give birth in antiseptic surroundings, aided by a guy with more education than most of the people you knew. He’d been born in a time when women routinely died in childbirth, just like his mom had. And he’d lived to see a day when we’d be shocked to hear of anything close to that. But he’d had to give up the sun, and maybe his soul, to do it.
“Why do we need protection?” I asked. As his
