Bitten in Two

Leave him. I felt my heart stop under my hand. Or stay, and celebrate each moment you have with him. Taste the laughter and drink the kisses and inhale the caresses because that’s why you’re here.

Oh. So it’s not to make Albert yell until he’s hoarse?

Granny May chuckled. We’ll talk about your father another day. Now go on. I believe you have a job to do, you slacker.

I glared at Teen Me. Stop teaching the old woman slang. It’ll go straight to her head and the next thing you know she’ll want to go buy herself an iPod and a pair of Jimmy Choos.

We took a second to ponder Gran’s plain brown loafers, then we burst into laughter. It was like emptying a submarine’s bal ast tanks. I felt myself begin to lift, and my whole attitude toward the coming fight and the vampire who had no idea what part we meant to play in it began to transform.

Another quick look to set my bearings. The green umbrel as belonged to a parade of carts sel ing the same kind of tea out of copper pots and the same kind of cake in white flowered bowls that fil ed the wheeled wagon Vayl had chosen. Bergman and I stood at the edge of a crowd near number seven. Vayl’s cart had a line of eight patient snackers being waited on by a white-capped gent whose matching jacket made him look more like a hospital orderly than a food salesman. But what he did, he did wel and with a friendly attitude that al owed for Vayl’s uncamouflaged presence. Then I saw that my sverhamin held a glass of tea in his hand and the merchant’s patience made even more sense.

Before I could figure out who was commanding Vayl’s attention, Sterling sauntered up to me. “Chil , you are a long way gone for somebody who’s got work to do right here.” Kyphas’s laugh was meant to snap my last nerve. But I’d final y hit my groove, and nothing was going to fling me out now.

I said, “Don’t worry about me. I’m just thinking a few steps ahead like Vayl would want me to. Which, now that we’ve found him and marked the Weres, I don’t see any point in delaying, do you?”

He spread his hands. “I’m ready for the next step.” Bergman said, “So I guess you’re going to want the lights to go out pretty soon.”

I nodded. “Yeah. As soon as Cole gives the okay, we’re set.”

Cole’s voice came through our earpieces, calmer and more level than usual. “I’m in position. Ready to go when the lights fail.”

“I’ve been talking to Sterling,” Bergman told me.

I turned to him. “And?”

He said, “We have a plan. I could tel you, but I’d rather just show you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You’ve come a long way from the old magic-is-evil days, you know that, Miles?” I said quietly.

He shrugged. “What is it they say? If you’re not growing, you’re rotting? I don’t want to rot.”

“Good. I’d stil love you if you were a zombie, but it’s more fun not having to bury parts of you in the garden.” I gave him the go-ahead gesture and half watched him help Sterling set up. But the rest of my concentration centered on Vayl. You wouldn’t think there’d be much to see. Kinda like viewing one of the time-worn angels hovering over Michelangelo’s grave. But then most people didn’t know what to look for.

Though he stood as stil as one of those lamenting saints, he was so close to losing control I wished I could pul a fire alarm and clear the place before innocent people got burned. His eyes, dark as unforgiven souls, lit with occasional bursts of red like exploding stars. His fingers, resting on the cloth-covered counter, had dug in deep enough to leave permanent indentations the blue material couldn’t quite disguise. And, this was new—or maybe real y, real y old—he was biting the inside of his mouth, his lips, his cheeks, bleeding himself to keep the monster on its leash.

I looked in the direction he’d glued to and instantly picked up on a muscle-bound Were with a hiker’s tan and sun-bleached ponytail. He sat at the edge of one of the rooftop eateries that surrounded the Djemaa el Fna, a spot Monique had recommended for its exquisite food and excel ent views of the glittering, smoke- blanketed square.

As I sized up Vayl’s target I decided he had to be the one leading this pack. His size alone would’ve convinced me. But it was also the way his eyes moved across the crowds, measuring, considering, never stopping. No surprise, then, that his Luureken looked more like an imp than a child, with huge ears framing a pockmarked face and orangey-red tufts of hair sticking out from beneath his skul cap.

I jumped when Kyphas spoke. Why do I keep forgetting she’s here? I should ask Sterling if she’s toting some sort of I’m-no-threat sachet.

She said, “Are you real y just going to stand here and watch while the rest of your crew saves the day?” she asked. “Let Bergman and Sterling deal with the lights?

Al ow Cole to pick off the Weres? Watch Vayl make a fool of himself? I didn’t realize you were such a passive little slave.”

I stared into the demon’s eyes. When I smiled she pul ed away from me. “You’re sweating. Why is that when the evening is cool? Don’t you want us to break the curse?” She shrugged. “I don’t care when Vayl thinks he is. He’s nothing to me.”

“Sure. But the Rocenz does matter to you. And the fact that we’re about to restore the mind of the one guy who can not only find it, but keep it out of your hands permanently, must be making you nutso.”

“Not at al .”

Nobody can lie like hel spawn. They learn it in the cradle. But, then, so had I.

I started to say something, then I changed my mind.

Instead, “Kyphas, do you ever stop with the manipulating?”