Bitten in Two

“Al right, then,” said Kyphas. “For Vayl? What would you give to have your greatest love back? How much do you miss Vayl right this minute? Or Matt? I could give you either one, just like this.” She snapped her fingers. Was it just me, or did I see a spark light the air along with the sound? I felt something move inside my chest. Vayl. Matt.

The two best things that had ever happened to me. Both lost by the age of twenty-six. Boy, could I pick ’em, or what?

I peered toward the lounge, where Cole’s laughter, Bergman’s staccato comments, and Monique’s soft tones offset the rumble of Vayl’s voice. Even from here his presence made me feel a little less like feeding Kyphas a couple of bul ets. So what if I could have him back? Or Matt? What if I could close my eyes, turn around, and see him standing there, smiling, just like he’d been the morning before he died. Saying, “I love you, Jazzer. After we get married, let’s dump this gig, build a big house, and fil it with dogs and kids and bowls of fruit salad!” And I’d laugh and throw a pil ow at him, and maybe we wouldn’t leave the bedroom right away after al .

I slid my hand into my pocket, said, “So this is how you do it, huh?”

“Do what?”

“Corrupt decent people. You start talking to them about the gravel-road stuff they’re pondering. Because everybody has thoughts like that. It’s just part of the shit your brain churns up every day. Demons, though, they take that shit and make it seem like a newly sealed interstate.”

“It’s not?”

“Not when you factor in the price.”

“But you’re tempted.”

“ I am human.” I’m human. After all this time and all that’s happened, I’m still… I began to smile.

“You’ve got no reason to show your teeth,” Kyphas snapped. “You’re more miserable than you’ve been in nearly two years.”

“Nope. Maybe you have to strip the meat off a relationship to understand what its bindings are made of.

And that’s why Vayl could never tel me ful out what it meant to be the avhar to his sverhamin. He just had to slip his ring on my finger and hope someday I’d figure it out for myself.” I held Cirilai up to the light coming from the hal . The red facets reflecting on Kyphas’s face made her look diseased.

“Oh, right,” she scoffed. “Your lover thinks you’re a fat old lady and suddenly you understand why you can’t leave him?”

I shrugged. “Ten days. Ten years. Time stops counting when you’ve found somebody you can’t live without for the second time in your life. He’s mine, Kyphas. I’m not leaving him. And I’m going to bring him back. He deserves that from me.”

I didn’t react when I caught the movement of her hand out of the corner of my eye. She’d banged the tahruyt against her thigh hard enough to transform it into a sword whose shape I recognized immediately. Straight at the top, curved and tapered at its razor-sharp bottom, the flyssa was a local creation, especial y beautiful because of the brass design inlaid along its spine. The pommel of Kyphas’s blade, shaped like a bird of prey, flashed its ruby eye at me as she raised her hand.

“I can alter your prediction,” she said. “See what I know?” she drawled as I watched the blade approach my throat. “You can die now, even if you are Eldhayr. One short stroke and I can send you straight to hel .”

“Yeah, I’ve only got one life left. But neither of us believes you could Pit me. Besides, I’ve already escaped once. Don’t think you could keep me there, even if you tricked me into dropping in temporarily.” My smile widened as I saw her eyes flash toward my white curl, winding among its red neighbors along the right side of my face, providing evidence that I hadn’t just fil ed her ful of crap. Not that hel gets much in-and-out traffic, but those of us who do go in and then receive the touch of a family member come back with a memento that no brand of hair dye can disguise.

She dropped the sword. Her smile gave her face a beauty-queen shine. She said, “I had to try. No offense?” I shrugged. “It’s who you are.”

“You weren’t afraid I would cut you?”

“You’ve already signed a contract agreeing not to hurt anyone in Vayl’s Trust. I know how demons are bound.”

“You understand us, do you?”

“It’s part of my job.”

She smiled again, sisterly, like her next move might be to hug me. I shoved my other hand into my pocket in case she decided to fol ow through. Instead she jerked her head toward the chandelier and the light sputtered out, leaving us in almost total darkness. I yanked out my bolo, but it wasn’t necessary. Al she did was lean forward and whisper, “Then you’l appreciate why I set you up for this next bit.” She kissed me, peck, on the cheek, and ran up the stairs.

I stood with my back against the stairway wal, its tiles so cool I could feel them through the thin material of my dress.

That’s why I’m chilled, I told myself as Cole and Vayl walked out of the lounge and came to stand at the bottom of the stairs.

“Berggia,” Vayl said, his smooth baritone more hesitant than I’d heard it the nearly ten months we’d worked together. “I did have a favor to ask of you now that your wife has gone up for the night.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Do you remember the first evening we arrived here?” Drol humor in Cole’s voice as he replied, “That’l