that. Everyone else must eat, and think. If you have any ideas of how to improve this mission, now is the time to come up with them. Because as soon as we find a way to rescue Hanzi, Jasmine, Raoul, and I must leave for hel .”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Raoul’s idea of protecting the hotel from further invasion was simply to bless it. He took my holy water, scattered it at the four corners, and prayed as he walked around the building. It seemed like such a simple solution. And yet, as I watched the part I could see from the room Vayl and I had temporarily claimed on the ground floor, it seemed to me like if I turned my head just right I could see Raoul, transformed by the ceremony and his place in it into his true self. The shining white beacon whose slightest whisper could blast my brain to jel y if he wasn’t careful.
It wasn’t that he shone with an inner light or that I could see his skeleton glowing through his skin.
It was that I could glimpse, just for a second or two, the rare and beautiful creature he’d become moving just behind the physical form he’d taken in order to walk with us. And I had to wonder—was this what Granny May had become? When Matt had chosen paradise over me… had he known this perfect grace, this wisdom wrapped in white fire, was waiting for him?
I felt Vayl before I heard him, his fingers moving gently up and around my shoulders, his chest pressing against my back as I dropped the curtain. “Does it hurt you?” I asked. “Standing inside a blessed building?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But Raoul gave me this. It shields me from the worst of it.” He turned me around so I could see the amulet hanging from his neck. Made of gold, the pendant looked like a reverse question mark in which the circle had nearly been closed. Inside the circle, held there by fine golden lines that reminded me of Queen Marie’s favorite palace room, was a second nearly complete circle whose opening was at the exact same space as the first. Fil ing those spaces was a golden arrow so intricately made that I could see the fine lines of its feathers had been hammered in by some meticulous craftsman.
I wanted to touch it, but settled for laying my hand against the soft shirt below it. “So.” I looked into his eyes, trying to gauge his mood. They were brown. Leave it to him to be total y relaxed before the biggest mission of our lives. “Hanzi. And then hel ,” I said.
“Yes.” He caught my other hand in his and brought it to his lips. “We have had so little time together of late. And now.” He pressed his lips into my skin and I closed my eyes, concentrating on the feel of him, his hips crowding closer to mine. His tongue tracing a path to my wrist. Had the air just thickened? As I took a deeper breath, I thought maybe so.
I raised my eyelids and smiled as I watched his eyes brighten to hazel and then to the emerald green that always felt like a celebration to me. “What do you say we leave them in the future where they belong?”
He glanced toward the window. “Dawn approaches. Already tomorrow is nearly here.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Perhaps an hour.”
“Then let’s make the most of it.”
Even now that our deadline loomed like a factory boss in our heads, yel ing at us to get to work fast because every second counted, we undressed each other slowly. Savored each new bit of skin an unbuttoning revealed with lips and tongues and softly worded murmurs.
The bed creaked like its box springs had been sitting at the bottom of a river for the past twenty years, so we moved the bedding to the floor and lay in each other’s arms as comfortably as if we’d been testing out a Tempur- Pedic mattress.
Vayl wrapped his arms around me and pul ed me close, my breasts flattening against his chest as he whispered in my ear, “Tomorrow may be our last day together. I try to banish the thought, and yet it keeps tearing through my mind.”
I shuddered, holding him tight. “Listen, I’m not letting you go. No matter what happens to us, I’l find you. Somehow, I’l come for you. Okay?”
He buried his mouth in my hair, muttered something I didn’t understand, and then kissed me so fiercely that I couldn’t have formed a single coherent thought for fifteen minutes after that.
We made love with a desperation I’d never experienced before, a love so immense I realized my cheeks were wet, and then knew that I was weeping. But it was al right, somehow. Our rhythm was the rhythm of the universe, and it sang out that we were meant to be. That we would always find one another, because music like ours was timeless… eternal. Afterward we lay in each other’s arms until another rush of fear, of need, of desire pushed us forward again, to that place where only we could go together.
I must’ve dozed off, because my eyes felt heavy and my concentration dim when Vayl final y said,
“Dawn is breaking. I need…” He trailed off. I’d never seen him go into the daysleep before. But now I’d looked into his face just in time to see his eyes flutter shut, his expression relax. I slapped my hand against my heart.
I went to our luggage and dug out the sleeping tent. Since there was no way I’d be able to lug him onto the bed, I set it up right next to our spot. When it was done I levered Vayl into it, using angles and his weight, more than my muscles, to get the job done. Once I’d zipped the door closed I sat down beside him and cried. Because the past hour had been one of the best we’d ever spent together. And despite what I’d said, I wasn’t sure we’d ever get the chance to repeat it. Then I jumped into the shower. Because everybody should face their fate with clean hair, a ful stomach, and at least an hour’s worth of lovemaking behind them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
What is it about the shower? Water hitting your head in just the right pattern? I don’t know, but I get some of my best ideas while rubbing suds into my hair. This time it helped a lot that Jack chose that moment to poke his head in and give me that doleful look that meant he had digested every morsel in his massive gut and I had neglected him shameful y by not feeding him in the past two hours.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Seriously, dude. I have a feeling you wouldn’t be my buddy like you are today if I didn’t have the key to the chow cabinet.”
