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

'What? Vayl, this is not a basketball game! I can't go in there and eat the clock, because when that buzzer sounds the whole block explodes!'

'You have got to do this, Jasmine. We will be there as soon as I can convince these drivers to move.'

'How are you going to know where to find me?'

'Give me directions.' So I did, along with my last excuse.

'I don't want to go. What if the monster eats my soul?' I sounded like a three-year-old, cowering under the covers because we all know what sleeps under the bed. But I was scared, more even than I'd been that night in West Virginia, when I'd been young and dumb enough to believe I could survive anything.

Vayl stared into my eyes, willing me to believe him. 'It won't. And if it does, we will hang it by the ankles and thump it on the back until it coughs you up.'

I smiled, only because he meant for me to. 'Hurry, Vayl. I don't want to die again.' I swooped into the air and stalled almost immediately. Only four of the seven cords remained and I had to strain to see them. I picked mine out as the only one leading away from the van and sped along its length, strumming it like a single guitar string, forcing the music to send its faint melody into the cosmos. The cord disappeared entirely as I entered Club Undead, and the prickles at the back of my un-neck reminded me I could still feel enormous fear despite my current lack of adrenal glands.

I slipped into the attic, the scene inside my body's temporary abode striking me as both comical and desperate. There I sat, draped halfway off the chair, 'Unconscious and barely breathing!' according to Assan's hysterical assessment, while Aidyn crouched before me, his head and forearms under the chair, his back supporting my legs as he tinkered with the bomb. Apparently their remote shut-off wasn't 100% reliable. Not a comforting thought.

Assan pressed the shaking fingers of one hand to my carotid while he checked my pupils with the other. 'She's dying!' he yelled. 'How can she be dying?'

'Silence, you imbecile I am trying to disarm this bomb!' Aidyn's spirited reply jiggled my body so that my legs slipped off his back, my feet thumping to the floor to one side of him as my butt slid completely off the seat to land between his shoulders. Assan shrieked like a schoolgirl as my weight shifted.

'Got it!' shouted Aidyn. 'Now get her off me!'

It's time. I know it's time. Why am I so reluctant to reenter my body? I looked up, imagining the stars twinkling in the night sky, with my guide driving a black Jeep Cherokee between them, singing his own, special rendition of 'When You Wish Upon A Star.' A big part of me yearned for that sort of freedom. Someday, I promised myself, I'll have that. When the price isn't so high.

Letting go of my hesitation, I slid back into myself, trying to be gentle, unobtrusive even. Still, the rejoining hurt like a full-body charlie horse. I woke screaming, startling my captors so much that they screamed as well. Aidyn lurched to his feet, sending me tumbling into a pile of boxes. I laid there a second, stunned and sore, until Assan grabbed my arms and yanked me to my feet, the sword he wore banging into my shins. Sword? I thought. Weird. And then, Holy crap, he means to carve me with runes!

'Bitch!' he squealed, spraying my cheeks with a fine mist as his eyes blazed. 'What did you do? What did you do?!'

I wiped my face and straightened my clothing. 'I kept my word,' I said, feeling too depressed, too bereft to even consider belting him. I'd gotten my body back, for cripe's sake, why this sense of loss? It overrode everything, even the anger I should be feeling at being chastised by this rotten little man with his pruny little soul. And then there was Aidyn, who made me understand exactly how Vayl had felt when he found his sons dead. I wanted him to die, oh yeah, but slowly and oh-so-painfully. Didn't I? Even that rage could not seem to overcome this terrible grief. I hoped I hadn't left it behind. I'd wanted so badly to release it, and now I wondered if I'd be able to muster it in time to ensure our survival tonight. If I couldn't, I hoped it became a little black rain cloud that hovered over these two dirtbags the rest of their days, sending out hailstones and lightning bolts at inopportune moments.

Assan shoved me toward the door and I stumbled. Aidyn caught me, kept me from falling. 'Enough!' he snapped, glaring at his colleague, 'we do not need her to break her neck on the eve of our triumph.'

What did you say?

I jerked myself out of his grasp, my momentary grief burned away by the heat of a fury so sudden and searing I could barely breathe past it.

'Jasmine!' Vayl's voice buzzed distant in my ear, 'What is wrong? I have never sensed such anger in you!'

'How many people have you bled out, Aidyn?' I demanded, my self-control beginning to shear away beneath the force of my feelings. 'How many necks have you broken? Don't play gentleman with me. I know better.'

'What?'

'Jasmine, God Jasmine, get hold of yourself!' Vayl's advice held no more impact than a whisper. But I did hear him.

'Oh yeah, I'll get hold of something.' I grabbed Aidyn by the lapels of his Armani jacket. Whatever he saw on my face made his eyes go wide and scared. Assan grabbed my left arm, but I knew I could take them. A simple twist and push would put my hand at Assan's throat, leaving the other free to tear Aidyn's head off, after which I would punt it against the wall. Repeatedly.

Not yet. It wasn't a voice in my head, not really. Just a silvery bolt of reason that started at Cirilai and shot straight into my brain. I dropped my hands as the door flew open and a couple of Assan's goons trooped in.

'What are you doing here?' snapped Aidyn. 'You're supposed to be policing the exits. We'll be sealing them any minute now.'

One man, whose hair was the color and consistency of motor oil, spoke up. 'Liliana has been watching the monitors. She told us you needed help.'