The Deadliest Bite

kil you if that’s what it takes to smoke him.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’l die if you do that anyway.”

The remark confused him. Upset him. This isn’t a bad man, but damn, something has pushed him way past his limit. I watched his finger tighten on the trigger. I said, “Don’t. Dude, you’l be kil ing a federal agent. They put you in jail forever for that kind of shit.”

“Jail?” He laughed, his voice rising into girl-land as he said, “I’m already in hel .” Which was when I knew there was nothing I could say to divert him. I looked down at Jack, touched the soft fur on the top of his head in farewel . Glanced over my shoulder at Vayl, only long enough for the pain to lance through my heart.

I could pul on him, make my final moments an epic shootout. But Jack could get hurt in the crossfire, and I’d never forgive myself if that happened. “Get it over with then.”

“NOT SO FAST!!”

I slammed my hands over my ears, though I was pretty sure the voice came from inside my head until I saw that the intruder was wincing and wiping blood from his earlobes as wel .

The floor started to shake. Jack yelped and tried to hide between my legs as the polished pine floorboards between me and the intruder began to splinter and the fiery outline of an arched doorway pushed itself up from the basement below.

“Wel ,” I whispered to my dog. “This is new.”

I was pretty sure the intruder couldn’t see the plane portal rising to stand between us. Most humans never did. But he did get a load of the five-by-six-foot gap developing in the floor. And when Raoul seemed to step out of thin air, I didn’t blame him for needing to sit down. Which he did. On a plush, round-cushioned chair that was currently covered with wood chips.

My Spirit Guide recovered Vayl’s attacker’s weapon so easily I felt a little stupid that I’d ever been paralyzed by it. Maybe I was getting soft in my old age. Maybe seeing Vayl halfway dead had freaked me out more than I should’ve let it.

Raoul reversed the gun and lightly tapped the intruder on the forehead with it. “Wrong choice, Aaron. And I thought you knew better.” He lifted the back of his jungle camouflage jacket and stuck the .38 in the waistband of his matching pants as Aaron tried to get his face to stop twitching. Raoul regarded him quietly for a while and then turned to face me. “Stop trying to get yourself kil ed. Even the Eminent agreed with me on this one. It isn’t your time yet.” the Eminent agreed with me on this one. It isn’t your time yet.”

“I wasn’t trying—it’s not? Cool!” Nice to think that the folks who cal ed the shots upstairs had actual y approved of Raoul’s helping me for once. Especial y since it had involved saving my neck again.

“So what do you and the other Eldhayr think about this dude? What did you cal him, Aaron?” I asked, pointing my chin toward the failed assassin.

Raoul pul ed me aside. “I’m not al owed to interfere there.” He looked hard into my eyes, trying to communicate information I hadn’t known him long enough to decipher. He said, “Al I can say is that it’s good, real y good, that you didn’t kil him. Keep doing that.”

“What about Vayl?” I asked. “What can you say about him?”

“Do you real y need to hear that he’s going to be okay? You already know that, Jaz. A bul et to the head can’t kil a vampire as powerful as him.”

I shrugged. It’s one thing to understand something intel ectual y. It’s something completely different to see your lover looking ful y dead from a head wound. So I reminded myself again, He’s just been knocked out. If you lifted his head you’d see the back of his skull has probably already re-formed. You shouldn’t be trying to figure out how your stomach can manage to clench itself that tight. You should be patting yourself on the back for hooking up with a guy who’s that tough to kill.

“Jasmine? Jaz? Is it over? What happened?”

The voice, smal and tinny, could’ve been mistaken for one of my inner girls, the various parts of my personality that I chat with when I’m uberstressed or strapped for choices. But it was real. And hysterical y worried. I suddenly realized I’d dropped my phone during the fight and now Jack was trying to dial China with his nose.

“Cut it out,” I murmured as I picked it up. “You don’t even like rice.” I laid the receiver against my ear. “Cassandra? I can’t believe you’re stil there.”

“He’s important!”

“Of course he is. But he’l be fine. Vampires are—”

“No! I mean, yes, of course. But I’m talking about the young man.”

“WHAT? You can’t be on Raoul’s side in this. This guy Aaron nearly kil ed us both!” I glared at the would-be murderer. He stared straight at me. Raised his chin slightly. But his lower lip was sending out an SOS I figured his mom could hear from inside her local beauty shop’s hair dryer.

Cassandra yel ed, “Jasmine Elaine Parks, you listen to your future sister-in-law, dammit!

Something is making me tingle like I’m electrified. Let me talk to Aaron!” I held the phone out to him. “You have a cal .”

He looked away. “I’m busy.”

“Either you talk to the nice lady or I punch your lights out.” His eyes, suddenly round and uncertain, went to Raoul, so I added, “Oh, don’t look to him for help. He’s like the UN. He’l bitch and whine about my behavior, but he’l sit back and let me do the dirty work because, in the end, he knows I’m the one who’s gonna save the world.”

Raoul growled, “That was a low blow.”

I shrugged. “I’m sorry. I know the Eminent is always tying your hands. I just tend to get pissy when people try