No matter what happened, I would never have to live in a world without Rans—because if Rans were dead, I would be dead, too. It was the first time I’d ever looked at the life-bond from a selfish perspective, rather than a guilt-ridden one.
But despite this mind-bending revelation, I knew we still needed to finish packing and leave before someone who wanted us dead showed up and broke down the door. Rans might be okay with saying goodbye to this life, but I wasn’t ready to let it go just yet. Not after last night.
Besides, I still had to tell Rans what I’d realized about the bond. Even though it felt like the well of tears lurking inside me was bottomless, I choked them under control and pulled back from Rans’ embrace far enough that I could wipe my eyes.
“Maybe I don’t have to die of old age in fifty or sixty years, though,” I managed.
He palmed my cheeks dry with the pad of his thumb, but a look of caution flitted over his features. “Zorah, I can’t—”
“Vampire blood extends the human lifespan,” I continued quickly, cutting him off. “If it works for the tithelings, shouldn’t it work for me, too? Unless my demon blood interferes somehow, anyway.”
His expression cleared with understanding. “Ah, I think I see where you’re going with this. But do you truly want that? Take it from a vampire—living forever isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
I shrugged, affecting nonchalance. “Hey, you know as well as I do that the chances are one or the other of us will get killed trying to keep things between the demons and the Fae from spiraling back into war. But... just in case we don’t...?”
He kissed my forehead. “If that’s what you truly desire, then bite me like you mean it the next time we’re having sex, love. I’ve no objection.”
I managed a watery smile, feeling better about this one small aspect of our situation, at least.
“It’s not nearly as much fun when the hickey heals within seconds, but you’re on,” I promised. Reluctantly, I stepped out of his arms, and he let me. “Now, next question. I know we can’t stay here, but where can we go? Nigellus already knows about Guthrie’s place, and it doesn’t seem fair to drag the poor guy any further into this mess than he already is.”
Rans drew breath as though to answer, but then his shoulders stiffened and he lunged for the sheathed sword lying on a table nearby. I would have blurted some variation of ‘What the fuck?’, but an instant later I felt a faint change in the room’s air pressure. When I whirled to look behind me, a third person stood in the room.
Nigellus caught himself against the doorframe as though to combat a moment of dizziness. He straightened almost instantly, though, pinning us with brown eyes that held a hint of hellfire kindling in their depths.
“Get what you can’t live without, and don’t dawdle,” said the demon. “We need to leave before the wrong people show up, and blood starts spilling.”
TWO
I TENSED, WONDERING if I was about to find myself in the middle of an all-out brawl between a vampire and a demon... and if so, whether Rans had a supply of salt in the kitchen downstairs. Rather than attack his former mentor, though, Rans gave me the briefest of looks, paired with an almost imperceptible shake of the head.
“We were just about to leave, as it happens,” he said. Though he affected a tone of mild surprise at the sudden appearance of an intruder in his bedroom, his voice gave no hint of the revelations I’d shared with him about Nigellus’ treachery. “I take it you have a specific destination in mind?”
Okay... so apparently we were playing it cool for now when it came to the powerful demon of fate. I could understand the logic, since we were already in trouble on multiple fronts. Nigellus, at least, didn’t want to kill either of us. Rather the opposite, in fact. He needed Rans alive, and by extension, that meant he needed me alive. Too bad none of that lessened my desire to verbally ream the backstabbing son of a bitch until his ears burned.
“I’ll take you to a location that should be warded well enough to protect you until more permanent steps can be taken.” His eyes raked me, and I knew without having to ask that news of my fight with Myrial at the gate between Hell and Earth had reached him.
“Hey. Don’t give me that look. Myrial attacked me first,” I said, making myself hold that piercing gaze. “She popped out of nowhere and tried to pull energy from me so I wouldn’t be able to make it through the gate.”
As a second-generation succubus hybrid, it was far more difficult for me to pass through the barrier that separated Hell and Earth than it was for a full-blooded demon or cambion. I’d had to gorge myself on sexual energy to manage it at all, and even then it had been a struggle. I tried not to shiver in reaction as I remembered the feeling of being stuck in a wall of Silly Putty as I pushed through the invisible gate.
Nigellus’ eyes continued to burn into me for long moments, but rather than reply directly, he only said, “Less talking. More leaving. No doubt we can discuss the details when you’re in safer surroundings.”
Rans looked grim as he strapped his matching pair of iron swords across his back and slid into his black leather coat. For lack of any better options, I zipped up my bag of belongings and slung it over
