And I’ve had it.”
Vayl turned me toward him. Looked deep into my eyes. And kissed me, gently, as if we had al the time in the universe. He whispered, “I suppose, then, that is a sign that it is time?”
“I’m thinking so.”
“I love you, Jasmine.” He’d said it before. A lot. And maybe someday I’d get used to the words.
But, oh, how they sang off his tongue like a soul-felt melody, wrapping around my heart and pul ing it so close to his that I was sure they beat with the same rhythm.
I slid my hands around his waist, up his strong back, pul ing his chest to mine until my breasts heaved into his. “I love you too, Vayl.” I rose to my tiptoes and touched my lips to his, savoring the everlasting dance of soft skin and wet tongues as we sealed our own bargain. When I realized I’d gone breathless I dropped my heels back to earth. “What do you say we summon that cowboy?” I asked, managing a smile despite the pain behind my eyes and the fear in my gut.
“I like that plan.”
I nodded, recal ing the directions Kyphas had given me:
I looked up at my lover. Cleared the sudden blockage from my throat. I said, “Are we ready?” He glanced over his shoulder at Lotus, Raoul, and Astral, who’d turned their backs to us to guard against attack. I was beginning to think it wasn’t likely, this side of the river. Then a howl, so far off we’d probably only heard the echo, made them swing in that direction. Raoul looked over his shoulder. “Hurry,” he whispered, as if the creature could hear us, even from that distance.
I nodded, drew my bolo, and sliced into the soft skin above my wrist. I made sure I had a generous supply of blood on my fingers before I swung around to the gate, drew a double slash across the mastiff’s jaw, and then rubbed my offering into it. The metal trembled at my touch, soaking up the blood so quickly that within seconds I couldn’t tel where I’d left my mark. Which I thought was weird, considering the generous portions flooding its face. But, of course, that was probably coming from hel ’s citizens. As an outsider’s, mine probably tasted a whole lot better.
I knocked three times and yel ed out, “Zel Culver! This is your summons! Come out and be questioned!”
On the other side of the gate a man ran out of the mist. He was sprinting across the rock-strewn ground with that look of abject fear you often see on the faces of those who are at the front of a mob of Black Friday Walmart shoppers. He wore a tattered brown shirt that he stil kept tucked into the waistband of his darker brown trousers. Which were held up with an empty gun belt. Hmmm.
“Zel ? Zel !” I yel ed. He glanced my way. I peered into the fog behind him. I couldn’t see or hear anything huffing, spitting, or gal oping within half a mile of him. Good. That meant I’d only cal ed the cowboy, not whatever had been chasing him. “Dude! You’ve escaped! Get over here, wil you? I don’t have that much blood to spare!”
He shot a look over his shoulder. The expressions that crossed his face—confusion, then relief, then even deeper bewilderment—would’ve been comical in any other situation. But the howling on our side had been joined by a joyful sort of hooting. And they’d both gotten closer. I began wondering if their makers could swim.
I said, “You’re Zel Culver, right? The guy who destroyed the earthbane with the Rocenz?” He jogged over to us, careful y wrapped his hands around the bars of the fence next to the gate, and said, “Only for a day.” He grinned, showing a dimple on each cheek and another on his chin.
“Sometimes I stil think it was worth it, though.” He tipped his hat to me, a wide-brimmed ancestor to the Stetson with a tal black band and battered flat top that looked like it had been used to beat off mosquitoes the size of his fists. However, perched back on his wel shaped head, setting off eyes that managed to twinkle even in these circumstances, it looked as comfortable as his scuffed old boots. “I don’t believe I’ve had the honor to make your acquaintance.” I wil only admit this because if I didn’t Vayl would probably take out an ad in
“Mah name is Jayaz.”
Then I heard myself. Also Raoul snickering behind my back and Lotus muttering, “What the fuck?” while Vayl literal y bit his lip to keep from laughing. I dropped my hand, thumping my fist into my thigh as I added, “I cal ed you here for a reason. You’re the only one we know of, besides an unhelpful demon, who’s ever managed to separate the pieces of this tool.” I pul ed the Rocenz out of my belt. “It’s imperative that you teach us how to do that.” I jerked my head around as the sounds of hunting animals grew louder.
Zel shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember.” He slowly rol ed up his left shirtsleeve.
What I saw crawled my fingers right around my neck. The place where his captors had carved away his tattoo had never healed. His entire forearm from inner elbow to wrist was covered with oozing sores and stank of gangrene.
Schooling my expression into carelessness, I reached into my jacket pocket and pul ed out the piece of skin that had been cut from him. I unfolded it and showed it to him. “We recovered this recently,” I said. “If we give it back to you, do you think you’l remember how the separation spel works then?”
He nodded. “There could be no other reason for them skinning me. It should work. Yes. I’m sure of it.” He was stil nodding when he said, “But first you have to promise to get me out.”
“I promise,” I said quickly before anybody else in the party could think of any objections.
He nodded. “Give me that knife.”
Without question I handed him the hilt. He sliced into his bicep, grabbed the blood, smacked it into the back of the gate. Vayl and I barely had time to trade looks of dread before he’d knocked three times and yel ed a name we both knew. She appeared as he had, running for her life, her ragged white dress flying out behind her like last decade’s kite.
