Jennifer Rardin - [Jaz Parks 1] - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Chinese dude had added a sawed-off shotgun to his arsenal, pulling it out from behind his long, black coat like a Matrix groupie. The tattooed wonder and his buds had their guns locked and loaded and trained on us as well.

'What is in that syringe?' Liliana demanded.

'Slow, painful death by way of holy water,' Vayl told her.

'My men can kill her before she depresses it.'

'Then I will finish what she has begun. But perhaps you would prefer to talk?'

Liliana responded with a pretty little pout I was sure she'd practiced in a mirror before she'd gone out for the evening. 'All right, then,' she said. 'You always did like to have things your way.' By mutual, unspoken agreement I withdrew the needle and Vayl pushed her away. The goons let their barrels drop.

'Is that really how you remember our lives together?' Vayl asked grimly. 'Because I have the scars to prove otherwise.' Good God, had Liliana inflicted those marks on Vayl's back?

'You earned every one of them,' she said viciously, looking as if she'd like to hit him again.

'Maybe.' For a fleeting moment Vayl's guard fell. His expression became bleak as a dying man's. Then it was gone, replaced by cold, hard hate. 'Who told you I was here?'

'Why Vayl, it's not like I've been looking for you for the last 200 years. I could have found you any time I wanted.'

He shook his head, his eyes so dark you could imagine walking right through them and emerging in a whole different universe. 'Not true. Someone tipped you off to my whereabouts.'

She tilted her head, her hair forming a little river of silver behind her. 'What makes you so sure I was looking for you? But I did get your attention, yes? You did enjoy my show?' She inclined her head towards the restaurant. 'I thought you would appreciate the irony of two sons losing their father.'

Vayl's power spiked and the temperature in the immediate area plummeted. But he didn't reply. If he'd tried, he probably would've spit sleet in her face.

'You must admit I have improved over the centuries,' Liliana went on. 'Once I would have had to sink my fangs into him to kill him. Now it only takes a scratch.' She slid her fingernail against her creamy white forearm to demonstrate and a thin line of blood rose from the wound she'd opened. Vayl stared at it, his hand convulsing on the head of his cane. She stepped closer.

'Do not let her touch you, Jasmine,' Vayl commanded. 'Just a drop of her blood mixed with yours will kill you.'

Liliana recycled the pout. 'Only if I want it to.' She gave me a look I recognized right away. It was Tammy Shobeson, the sequel. I half expected her to kick me in the shin and call me a sissy pants crybaby. Her psychic scent hit me again, and the stench of death and decay backed me up a step. 'My dear, there is no need to be afraid. I won't hurt you… too much.' She darted a flirty little smile at Vayl, but he'd lost his appreciation for cruel humor. And apparently she blamed me for that. When she met my eyes again I felt like that poor goat they'd set out to bait the Tyrannosaurus in Jurassic Park. And that's when I knew she really had come for me. That's also when she saw my bandage. Her eyes narrowed instantly. My hand flew upward, a protective gesture I couldn't seem to shake. Her gaze moved to Cirilai.

'Vayl,' she said, her voice sort of hollow-sounding, as if she was speaking from the bottom of a well, 'why is this—' she made an I've-just-seen-a-cockroach face, 'eichfin—wearing your ring? And her neck—have you marked her as well?'

I didn't like that word, 'marked.' It sounded too much like a dog raising his leg on its favorite hydrant.

'She is my avhar' said Vayl.

That hit her like a wrecking ball. I had a juvenile desire to get right in her face, put my thumbs in my ears, wiggle my fingers at her and sing, 'Nah, nah, nah-nah, nah.' She lapsed into steaming silence, made a dismissing motion with her hand, and the four stooges backed off. Though I was relieved Liliana had elected to delay the war, I suspected she still meant to wound us. And, like most homicidal maniacs, she followed the profile to the letter.

'Has Vayl fulfilled his end of the bargain?' Liliana asked me, her voice as sweet as powdered sugar. She took my silence for the answer she wanted and went on, 'An avhar carries a great burden and responsibility,' she told me. 'Therefore she also receives certain privileges, one of those being the right to know every detail of her Sverhamin's past.'

'Liliana,' Vayl growled. The panther prepared to pounce.

'So I just wondered if Vayl has told you about his sons—our sons—and how he killed them—'

'Enough!' Vayl's voice rang with power. Somewhere nearby a meteorologist had flipped out because the temperature had just plunged from 59 to oh-crap-cover-the-oranges. I shivered as frost coated my eyelashes and my lungs filled with winter. Liliana's gunmen, not being Sensitives, weren't fairing nearly as well. They blew into their hands and stomped their feet, and I heard the Tattooed Wonder say, 'I can't feel my nose.'

'You four,' Vayl barked, 'get into the car!' They snapped to attention, did a quick about-face and marched right into the limo.

'And you,' he regarded his former wife like a mongoose facing a cobra, 'get out of my sight, for good this time!'

She bared her fangs and hissed at him, a fairly hilarious reaction in any other circumstance. 'Do not believe this is over,' she warned, 'you cannot guard her every moment. You cannot see in every direction at once. I only have to wait until you blink.'

'Harm one hair on her head and I will burn that laughable wig of yours with your head still in it.'

I felt a sudden urge to applaud as Liliana muttered an insult I couldn't quite translate, my Romanian being limited to 'yes,' 'no,' and 'Where's the bathroom?' But, to my surprise, she did retreat to the limo. The door slammed shut and it pulled away.