was an example of his giving into temptation, or simply a good decision.
Jaguar laughed a little, shaking off the question. “You don’t want to know the answer to that one.”
She frowned, wondering if he was laughing at her or at himself.
“We should go outside,” Jaguar said. “I need to find Jeshickah before she starts hurting my people, and the courtyard is the only area in this building that’s free from Daryl.”
He escorted her to the courtyard, his mood contemplative. Heavy clouds hid stars and moon from sight, and Turquoise welcomed the darkness that matched her mood.
She jumped as Jaguar caught her shoulders, pulling her forward in an impulsive embrace. He kissed the top of her head.
“I know,” he said, holding her loosely enough that she knew she could pull away if she tried, “that you are going to disappear as soon as I turn my back.”
Turquoise did not argue; there was no point to it.
“That being so, I have one favor to ask.” He nodded toward the alcove where he usually napped during the day, and Turquoise’s eyes reluctantly made out Eric’s form there. The boy was watching them warily, as if thinking he should leave but not wanting to. “Take him with you?”
“What?”
Eric would be a liability. If Turquoise had to protect him, that would make facing anyone she encountered on the way out more difficult. Eric would slow her down. Unless Jaguar was willing to help . . . no. Jaguar would give her the opportunity to leave, but he couldn’t afford to help her.
Jaguar all but echoed her thoughts. “In a couple weeks, Jeshickah will be . . . out of the way. Until then, she’s going to cause trouble. I doubt she’ll kill me.”
What on Earth would Turquoise do with a kid once she got out? Eric had no place in Bruja—he was a victim, not a fighter—but Bruja was all Turquoise knew. Bringing this boy along would play hell with her plans.
But leaving him behind would be leaving him to die.
She nodded sharply.
“After you get out, I recommend laying low until Jeshickah’s gone. She’ll be raising merry hell.”
Turquoise smiled wryly.
He hesitated, and Turquoise could read fear, desire, longing, and an oversized portion of regret on his face. “I doubt you’ll want to come back to my world, even after Jeshickah is gone. Would you mind if I came to visit yours?”
Turquoise swallowed, trying to shove down the lump of nervousness in her throat. Jaguar had disrupted her life enough as it was. Eric was going to mess it up even more. Continuing her association with the vampire any longer than necessary was a bad idea.
“I’m planning to disappear for a while,” she answered. “If I don’t want you to find me, you won’t.” That was honest, and it would give her a chance to think.
He accepted the answer. “Best of luck, Audra.”
And then the world shifted, and he was gone.
CHAPTER 16
THE AIR BARELY CLOSEDon the space Jaguar had occupied when Turquoise turned to examine the wall. The natural stones would be perfect for climbing, with plenty of handholds; scaling it would be easy.
Reluctantly, she turned toward Eric. He was fourteen, still a kid no matter what he had seen. He needed a family; instead, he had Midnight. He needed a father; instead, he had Jaguar, who was so tangled in webs of dominance he could hardly help himself.
She was getting sentimental, and that was dangerous. Time to get out of Midnight while she still could.
“Do you want to come with me?” she offered, while the sane part of her mind berated her with every possible insult it could consider.
Eric nodded.
“It’s going to be rough,” she warned. “I’m no good at taking care of other people.” A vision of Tommy assaulted her suddenly, a vision of Daryl striking him down. She tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t disappear.
“I’m okay at taking care of myself,” Eric assured her.
“We’re going over the back wall. Stay low at the top. Can you climb?” she asked belatedly.
Eric nodded.
Turquoise boosted the boy up, making sure he could find handholds in the rough stone before she followed. They stayed low on the roof to avoid making themselves into silhouettes, and crossed quickly to the back.
The wall here was smooth, and offered no purchase for climbing down. The guard was nowhere to be seen as Turquoise turned and gripped the edge, lowering herself as far as possible before letting go and falling. The impact was jarring, but she knew how to take a fall. She reached up to catch Eric, who mimicked her strategy.
Turquoise’s peripheral vision caught movement the instant Eric dropped, a faint blur of color—a cougar. She saw its muscles bunch to pounce.
She twisted awkwardly, pushing Eric behind herself and out of the cougar’s way. Off balance, she took the brunt of the creature’s initial rush; stars spattered her vision as her back struck the gravel, and she felt claws bite into her skin.
The guard’s hesitation was her salvation. Turquoise belonged to Midnight, and the cougar was reluctant to permanently damage her. Turquoise took the moment to get a knee between herself and the cat and shoved full force, sending the guard stumbling a couple feet.
Turquoise was now at a disadvantage. She wasn’t sure what the best way to fight a large feline was, but run and hide sounded like her best option. She thought she could make it over the gate before the cougar could follow, if she could delay it long enough for Eric to get out of the way first.
“Eric, over the fence,” she ordered.
The cougar moved to intercept the boy, and Turquoise pounced, throwing her entire weight against the cat’s side. It snarled, turning on her.
Luckily, the shape-shifter was just trying to contain Turquoise as it waited for its master to appear. Turquoise was grateful for the guard’s unwillingness to harm its employer’s property, and tumbled at the large cat recklessly, keeping it occupied as Eric scaled the fence.
The hair on the back of Turquoise’s neck rose as a familiar aura brushed her senses.
Daryl. She turned and struck in one movement. It’s just Daryl. Not Lord, not Master. Just Daryl.
This creature was only another leech, no matter what else he had been to her in the past. He was vulnerable, and she had spent the last two years of her life learning how to make use of that fact. Unfortunately, without a weapon, she still stood about as much chance as a Hawaiian snowman. Still, she would fight rather than submit to this beast.
Her first blow caught Daryl in the solar plexus; it was not as incapacitating a blow on a vampire as it would have been to a human, but it did hurt, and interrupted any attack he had been making. At the same time she knocked out his knee with a side kick, striking just below the joint in a move banned from martial arts competitions because it was crippling to a human.
Crippling for a vampire meant he stumbled. The joint dislocated, and Daryl tumbled with a curse. A dislocated knee, which on a human might never completely heal, would take a vampire two or three minutes to recover from.
