Jaz Parks 5 - One More Bite

cut deep this time.

“I don’t see how,” I said. “Samos is as dead as a throwaway battery and you’re about to enter the Thin. Neither of you is coming back, Floraidh.”

She began to laugh as both her arms, then her legs, jumped and a score of cuts appeared on each one. Oengus was getting impatient now. He’d waited a long time, after all. Still Floraidh giggled.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“Me, for not recognizing you until Samos entered my body. And you,” she said. “For believing he wouldn’t have some sort of backup plan after having failed to beat you repeatedly in his last life.”

“What do you mean?” Vayl asked.

She kept her eyes on me as she said, “Your poor father has been through so much in the past few weeks. These visits from beyond the grave have disturbed him much more than he would ever let on to you. What have they meant? That question has plagued him from the first. So much so that he finally enlisted your help in discovering the true source of his haunting. Isn’t that right, Albert?”

“Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want with me?”

“You’re just a means to an end, old man. Just a way to let Jasmine know her mommy has escaped from hell with our help. Because she needs a little one-on-one with her baby girl. And Baby Girl is too well protected by”—her eyes rolled upward—“for the direct approach.”

“I had to see you, Jazzy.” I spun, my grip on Vayl’s hand breaking as I recognized my mother’s voice. It was coming out of Viv’s mouth. Impossible, of course, so I knew it had to be true. Especially when I saw her features settle over Viv’s, her honey-colored hair falling over Viv’s blond locks like a bad wig. “I knew you wouldn’t want to talk to me, so I tried to get to you through Albert. Of course, he’s harder to communicate with than a teenager with his iPod blasting.” She sent Albert a dirty look, which he returned times twelve.

As Viv stepped forward, tearing herself from Cole’s embrace, I backed up. “Why would you want to see me?” I asked. “I thought we’d summed up our relationship already.”

She nodded. “I understand why you might think I was the worst mother on earth. But, having spent the past few years in hell, I can tell you that I may be on the bottom of the barrel, but I’m not scraping it.” She glanced at Floraidh, who’d begun to list sideways, her blood turning her sweater a nasty shade of purple. “Not yet.”

The Scidairan managed a grin as she said, “Go ahead, Stella. Remember what awaits you if you kill her. No more torture. An end to the pain. Soft pillows and sheets. Daily showers and clean clothing. A chance to rise among the hierarchy and be with your true love again. It’s all in Edward’s contract. Signed in blood. If only you follow through.”

Viv gripped the sword she’d grabbed back at the clearing. I doubted she knew how to wield it. And Mom had no clue. Didn’t mean they couldn’t kill me out of pure dumb luck.

“Don’t hurt her!” Cole yelled to me. “It’s not her fault!”

No shit, Sherlock. But then again, I don’t want to die tonight. Because if I do—I glanced at Vayl—I will never forgive myself. I pulled the bolo out of my pocket.

“Jaz, please!” Cole called. Shit!

I backed up some more, hoping Vayl could get a clean shot at her. But she managed to keep clear of him while staying a life-threatening distance from me. She said, “Jasmine, you don’t know how it is. Loving someone so much it tears at your heart not to see him every day. Knowing he suffers torments that y?€orments ou could ease.”

Despite knowing that she was talking to push me into dropping my guard, I played her game. Too interesting not to. “What are you saying? Your first husband’s in hell?” She inclined her head. Feinted an attack. I jumped aside. We both moved back to neutral.

“He can’t be. Dad said he was a vampire.”

“That was what he told me when we were alive.” She shook her head. “He was afraid I wouldn’t love him if I knew he was a faorzig.”

Ah. Another blood-sucker. Hell spawn whose bite injected a parasite that drove their victims mad, the majority of whom ended up murdering their families before killing themselves. The police had suspected our neighbor had been bitten by one, though they could never prove it. Now I thought they might’ve been right.

I said, “He’s a demon. What’s he enduring tortures for?”

“Me.”

How romantic. “And if you kill me he doesn’t get tortured anymore?”

“Not as much. Neither do I. We’ll both be so much better off. And we’ll be together. And really, what does it matter to you? You’ve died twice already anyway.”

“What?” cried Albert.

“I have a lot of reasons to live!” I yelled, ignoring my dad’s outburst. “People need me!”

“Who, that vampire you think you’re in love with? Vayl is old, Jasmine. He’ll find someone else within a month. He always has.”

“What did she say?” demanded my dad.

“She’s in hell,” I told him without glancing over. “She’s programmed to lie.”

“Do this for me, Jazzy,” she said in her most persuasive tone. The one she’d used to get me to try out for the swing choir when I was a freshman. Me, the girl who could carry a tune in the shower. And nowhere else.

The sad part was, I actually considered it. This was how deep the woman had sunk her claws into my psyche.

I shook my head. “No.” The word, no more than a whisper, couldn’t have carried a single foot. But Albert heard it.