Bitten in Two

malamute.

Sometime during our drive he’d dropped his arm behind my back. Now he touched my neck with his fingertips, sending shivers up and down my spine as he slid closer to me. Though he couldn’t hypnotize me, I felt captivated by the facets in his glittering emerald eyes as they caught mine and said exactly what my heart needed to hear.

“We wil take it with us everywhere,” he said. “No more shabby rentals.” He smirked. “No more mopeds.”

“I liked those mopeds,” Cole objected from the backseat. He sat next to Raoul, who rubbed elbows with Sterling, who’d slid down so he could let his head fal back and stare up into the star-studded sky.

Sterling rol ed his head to gaze on Cole. “Somehow I saw you more as a Camaro kind of guy. But whatever pops your clutch. I guess you liked your runaway demon too?” Raoul huffed, like he found that impossible to believe.

Cole drummed his fingers on the armrest. At least he remembered not to drop Kyphas’s name—and therefore give her a clue as to our whereabouts—when he said, “She had her good points. Somewhere deep… deep at her core.

Anyway, I’m stil wil ing to give her the benefit of the doubt.”

“Oh. So that’s why she fel for Vayl’s trap like a catfish jonesing for chicken liver?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It was pretty juicily baited.” When we al made sounds of doubt he added, “Come on. What demon isn’t going to try for the Enkyklios map on her own when you dangle the exact location in front of her like that?”

“We didn’t, the Luureken did,” I reminded him. “She was just conceited enough to think we were dumb enough to believe nobody but us good guys would act on it.”

“She did steal the cat,” Raoul reminded him, like that should be his last straw.

“You’re real y fixated on the robokitty, you know that?” Cole told him.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Raoul straightened even more as he said, “Astral sang to me after Nia left. The perfect song, in fact. I don’t think she’s ful y mechanical. She seems to have… insight.”

Since I knew the guys wanted to know but would never ask, I did. “What tune did she pick out for you?”

“She sang ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,’

from the musical Spamalot,” Raoul said.

Cole immediately launched into song, with the rest of us providing the whistling where appropriate. “Always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the right side of life.”

“It’s not funny,” said Raoul.

“I believe it is supposed to be,” Vayl informed him helpful y.

He sat back and crossed his arms.

Cole scooted forward. “Our demon’s taking her sweet time in there. Do you think she’s onto us? Maybe she snuck out the back.”

“Nope.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Astral’s sending me pictures.” I turned in my seat, fluttering the fake lashes that received Astral’s signals. On top of Cole’s slumped form I could see the superimposed image of Kyphas as viewed from the ground up, sneaking through the museum. Just watching her face hover over Cole’s made me want to swear. Instead I said, “I can’t believe you even flirted with her, much less… She’s such a skank!”

He never took his eyes off the museum’s entrance.

“Absolutely. A skank with evil intentions and a shiny gold nugget at the center of her pitch-black heart.” I made gagging sounds while Raoul said, “Share with the other children, Jaz. What’s Astral showing you?” I rol ed my eyes at Sterling, who said, “You might as wel give us some narration. Otherwise we’re just going to start punching each other back here. And you know what that wil lead to.”

Gawd. With a warlock, an Eldhayr, and an assassin squished into the backseat, everything I imagined went from bad to nuclear. I started talking.

“It’s just what you’d expect. Boring little trek through the touristy part of the museum. Human-formed Weres in front, demon fol owing. They’re passing priceless paintings and cases ful of old crap.” I glanced at Vayl. “No offense. I know that stuff must be more meaningful to you than it is to me—” He shrugged. “Considering where I have been living the past few days, I find I much prefer the present.”

“How do you figure she got the Weres to cooperate?” Cole wondered.

Raoul raised an eyebrow. “She’s a demon. Just because you people are immune to her powers doesn’t mean they’re not vast.”

Vayl shifted in his seat. Like he was uncomfortable.

Which he never is.

I said, “What is it?”

“If Roldan has truly given himself to a Gorgon, and I believe that he has, Kyphas could easily have wormed her way into the deal using that connection. Spawn stick together. That is their first rule.”

“But she has a deal with us. What about that?”

“She is a demon. They are masters at playing both sides to their advantage.”