“I want to try on my own,” I said quickly. “With Rans. I need to see if I can get him past the barrier without help.”
Nigellus tipped his head. “As you wish.”
He departed, leaving us with Edward and the two titheling elders. The demon-bound butler seemed to shake himself free of a reverie, clapping his hands and rubbing them together briskly.
“Well, now.” He turned to Li Wei and Fatima. “Personally, I’ve always found the wrist to be the most straightforward avenue for feeding a vampire. Sleeves up, both of you.”
* * *
Feeling considerably recovered after drinking Li Wei’s blood, I offered him and Fatima a somewhat awkward farewell before following Edward and Rans into the balmy evening air outside. The sun would be going down soon, leaving us little time before we’d need to depart for the cave housing the gate between Hell and the human realm.
I turned to Edward. “Will you be coming back to Earth as well?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Miss. There’s still quite a bit to be done here first.”
I nodded. “Okay. Then I guess this is goodbye for now.”
“Indeed,” Edward agreed. “I do wish both of you the very best, until our paths cross again.”
“You mean, until Nigellus needs to tap our blood again?” Rans asked, his light tone doing a fairly good job of hiding whatever bitterness might be lurking beneath.
Edward looked pained. “I hope you will believe me when I say, that was not a confidence I kept lightly... or one I enjoyed keeping, sir.”
“I do believe that, Edward,” Rans said, sounding as tired as I felt of all the secrets... the conspiracies... the constant jockeying for power behind the scenes. “You’re a good man, and a loyal one. Until next time, then.”
He held out his hand, and Edward shook it.
“Until next time, Ransley,” he agreed, before turning his attention to me. “Miss.”
I stepped forward and hugged him, being careful to contain my vampire strength as my arms closed around his deceptively frail and bony frame. “Edward. You’ve sacrificed yourself for the people I love, and been nothing but kind to me since we first met. You were a friend to my father... and you’ve been a friend to me. I can’t say I wasn’t upset to learn you were in on Nigellus’ secret, but... that doesn’t change any of the rest of it. Thank you. For everything.”
Edward rubbed my back a couple of times, and I let him go. “It’s been my pleasure, Zorah. And... I hope you understand that your father truly was proud of you. He loved you very much, and regretted immensely his inability to express that to you properly.”
I opened my mouth, but the words caught on a sob. Rans’ arm came around my shoulders, and I fought down the stab of fresh grief long enough to whisper, “Thank you,” again.
“You’re welcome. A fair journey to you both, Ransley Thorpe and Zorah Bright,” Edward said kindly. “May the wind be always at your backs.”
With that, he gave us a small, sad smile, and returned to the meeting hall, leaving the door open behind him. Rans turned me toward him enough to press a kiss against my forehead. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “More than ready.”
We flew as mist to the cave in the craggy highlands above the titheling village, arriving just as the bloated sun disappeared behind the cliffs. Nigellus was waiting for us, looking as polished and put-together as always in his debonair human guise. I nodded a silent greeting to the guards stationed at the cave entrance—a pair I’d never met before on my previous visits. They nodded back, all horns and wings and rippling muscle.
“After you,” Nigellus said, ushering us inside.
I led the way to the unremarkable stretch of wall, just at the edge of where the fading light from outside could reach. Tentatively, I stretched out a hand. The first time I’d been here, I’d had to feed over and over again from the tithelings’ sexual desire in order to force myself through the gate—my one-quarter demon heritage barely sufficient to allow me to slip past Hell’s barrier.
I hadn’t been feeding heavily this time. But since I’d last made the attempt, my succubus nature had grown exponentially stronger, stretched again and again by magical attacks and ever-larger ingestions of animus. My fingers slipped into the rock with less resistance than I’d ever felt before.
I glanced at Nigellus in the low light. “Right. I’ve got this. Goodbye, Nigellus. I’m still pissed about some things, but thank you for helping us against Myrial.”
“Goodbye, Zorah,” Nigellus said. “Ransley—I cannot offer you any sort of meaningful apology, since I would pursue an identical course under similar circumstances. I hope, in time, you will come to think with more fondness of our centuries of association, and with less anger of actions taken during the desperation of war.”
Rans was silent for a moment. “You kept Zorah alive,” he said eventually. “That weighs heavily in my ledger book, as I’m certain you’re aware. Goodbye, Nigellus... until we meet again.”
I took Rans’ hand. “Come on, lover. Let’s see about getting out of this Hell-hole, shall we?”
He squeezed my fingers. “Right. Though if I end up doing a Han Solo carbonite impression, I intend to tease you about it for a century, at least.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” I said, and tugged him into the gate. Hell’s barrier slid around us—hardly what you’d call effortless, but not nearly as fraught as my previous journeys. A moment later, we were on Earth, perched at the top of the pile of boulders leading down to a gallery inside the Moaning Caverns.
A faint sound reminiscent of lost souls echoed through the cave system—much quieter than it had once been, thanks to the larger entrance that had been dug out for the tourists.
“See?” I said. “Easy peasy.”
“How could I ever have doubted you?” Rans asked, affection warming his tone.
