I settled myself on the altar, waiting for Camille and Smoky to return. Roz joined me, sliding an arm around my waist. I leaned my head on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead, and I didn’t shake him off or pull away. For once, I actually welcomed the comforting gesture.
I was feeling much the same as Delilah, even though I wasn’t about to let her see it. I was her tough little sister, the one she relied on to remain ready to rock when she felt vulnerable. I wasn’t going to let her down by allowing her to see how shaken this whole mess had left me.
“I take it you’re going to hunt down Rialto once we’re out of here?” Roz leaned close to whisper in my ear, but he seemed to sense the general mood and refrained from nibbling.
I nodded. “You can count on it. I hope to the gods that the girl is still okay. If she is, I’ll get Nerissa in on this to help place her in a foster home, someplace far away from here. Either way, Rialto is toast.”
“Let me come with you. I’d like to pay the pervert a visit myself,” he said. “Vanzir promises he and his buddies can take care of this place, including the tunnels, without torching any homes nearby. I just thought you’d like to know.” Roz shook his head. “I hate this. I’m an incubus. Sex is my forte. But although I seduce, I’ve never once—ever—raped a woman. And I never will.”
“I know you haven’t,” I said. “And it’s more than that . . . it’s the whole sacrifice-the-woman-to-the-monster bullshit. Where do these horndogs get that? Bad late-night horror flicks?”
“Hey, it’s not just the movies,” Roz said. “What culture hasn’t had a deity require a living sacrifice? Monsters are only one step away from the gods.”
“And that’s why I hate the gods,” I said. “I can do quite nicely without their interference.”
“As can I,” Roz said. Knowing his background, I knew he wasn’t just mouthing platitudes. Zeus and Hera had left Rozurial and his ex-wife up shit creek without a paddle, ruining their lives and changing them for eternity.
Just then, Camille and Smoky stepped out of the Ionyc Sea. Camille looked sleepy, as did the man Smoky held in his other arm. It was Wilbur, all right, and he looked more confused than anything else.
After about ten minutes, both Camille and Wilbur were over their exhaustion brought on by the trip through the Ionyc currents. We explained to Wilbur what we needed him to do, showing him the Demon Gate. We didn’t mention Shadow Wing or anything that had gone on except for the fight with the Karsetii.
He examined the portal, grimacing as he watched the stars stream through the inky void. “Whoever opened the gate is the same one who created those ghouls, by the way. Sloppy work. There’s no fundamental direction keyed into the gate.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but he seemed sure of himself. “Can you dismantle it?”
Wilbur nodded. “It shouldn’t be hard. The whole magical signature is warped; whoever did this has been tooling around in some dark, dark areas.” He looked over his shoulder at me, his brow creased. “Whoever did this has one sick soul.”
“Doesn’t matter. He’s dead, and now we need his dark deeds to disappear with him.” I frowned. “You raise ghouls, you work death magic, and yet you find this repulsive? Isn’t that a little out of character?”
Wilbur laughed, sharp and short. “Death magic has its place. Don’t judge me until you find out everything I use it for. After all, you’re a vampire. Aren’t you supposed to be out sucking somebody’s blood?”
I snorted. “Touché. You’ve got me there. Okay, what do you need to fix this? And then forget you ever saw it?”
He stared at me for a moment, then arched one eyebrow. “It might be nice to get to know my neighbors a little bit better.” Leaning in, he whispered, “I’ve never done a vampire before; I hear you can make it hot as hell.”
I backed up a step. He wanted me to fuck him in exchange for closing the Demon Gate? “I’m no whore.” Camille had slept with Smoky to help us gain valuable information, but she’d wanted to sleep with him. That was different.
Diplomacy wasn’t one of my strong suits, and we weren’t here to play games. He’d do it our way or else.
“Listen,” I said, closing in on him. “Just seal the gate. You’ll seal the gate because you have pride in your profession. You’ll seal the gate because you don’t like sloppy work like this, and you know what havoc can happen. You’ll seal the gate because I’ll break your neck if you don’t do it. And you’ll seal the gate because I promise you, we will find the freak who taught the man who did this and take him out of commission.”
Wilbur rubbed his chin, then broke into a faint smile. “You girls aren’t the pieces of T & A I thought you were. Good enough. All right, I’ll do it. Looks like an interesting situation,” he added, glancing around.
I glanced at the Demon Gate, then back at Wilbur. We’d have to find a way to wipe his memory after he finished, but I wasn’t about to say aloud what I was thinking. “You ready?”
He nodded. “I need some privacy and—that one—the Jap.” He pointed at Morio.
I winced. “He’s Japanese, not a Jap, you moron. And he’s a youkai-kitsune who could gobble you whole for dinner if he changed into his true form. Be polite. You have no idea what caliber of people you’re standing among, except for the cretins snoozing it up on the floor.”
Wilbur shrugged. “Whatever. I need his help. He knows enough about necromancy to give me what aid I require.”
We carried the remaining members of Dante’s Hellions into the hallway, while Morio stayed behind.
When we were out of Wilbur’s earshot, Camille asked, “Just how are we going to make sure he keeps quiet about this?”
I frowned. “I hate to do this, but Vanzir, can you get into his dreams and eat his memory of this? He’s a wizard so—”
“Wizard, witch, mortal, it doesn’t matter. As long as he’s asleep and not sequestered in a warded area, I can slip into his dreams.” Vanzir looked pained. “I never thought I’d have to feed like this again, but I suppose my talents are useful in situations like this.”
A hungry look washed over his face, and I remembered what he’d told us. He’d tried to quit stealing life force and memories from people, but then Karvanak, the Raksasa, had forced him to feed. And now we were doing the same. I let out a little groan.
“I wouldn’t ask, except . . .”“Except a lot rides on him not remembering anything he hears or sees. All right. But you’ll have to knock him unconscious.” He gazed down at me, then lifted his hand and barely grazed my chin. “I’ll do it for you, and I’ll do it to thwart Shadow Wing.”
I nodded, lightly biting one of his fingers as it passed my lips. “Thank you. We’ve all been forced to do things we don’t like in this war.”
“Look,” Camille said, pointing toward the bay window overlooking the amphitheater. Wilbur and Morio were doing something, all right, because the inky black gate into space suddenly exploded in a white-hot flash that had us all dropping to the floor. As I slowly came up from my crouch and peeked through the window again, the room had cleared. Wilbur and Morio were standing there, and the Demon Gate was gone.
“A few more things, and we’re done,” I said softly. “I’ll go get Wilbur.”
Vanzir nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”
It didn’t take long then. A quick knock on the head, and Wilbur went out like a light. Vanzir spent fifteen minutes on the astral, and when he returned, he promised that Wilbur wouldn’t remember a thing from the moment before he opened the door to find Camille and Smoky standing there.
We found the keys to the van sitting outside the house and carted the men out to it under the cover of darkness. I ran back into the tunnels to retrieve Sabele’s remains and Claudette’s clothing. Dawn would break in a couple of hours, and by the time I returned, I was exhausted, as was everyone else.
When we lumbered into our driveway, Yssak and a group of Des’Estar Guards were waiting for us. They took the frat boys into custody and followed Camille and Morio to Grandmother Coyote’s portal, where they transported them back to Y’Elestrial. Camille and Morio went with them to visit Queen Asteria in Elqaneve and give her the fifth spirit seal for safe-keeping. They also took Sabele’s remains with them and the wounded elf.
Vanzir headed out, taking Roz and the van with him. “We’ll take care of the house in the next couple of hours,” he promised. “You have my word.”
I looked at the two of them and gave him a tired nod. “Thank you. Thank you both for all of your help.”
Smoky made sure everything was all right, then headed up to Camille’s room after dropping the still-slumbering Wilbur back at his house.
Delilah and I sat there, a bowl of chips on her lap, Maggie on mine, staring numbly at the television.
“I’m not sure what to tell Chase,” she said.
“We can’t tell him about taking those men back to Otherworld. He’s on our side, but what he doesn’t know, he doesn’t have to worry about.” I frowned. “Give him the videotapes. At least he’ll know that whatever happened, it was the right thing to do.”
Delilah thought about it for a moment, then let out a long sigh and shrugged. “Yeah. I guess. We have four spirit seals. Shadow Wing has one. If we can manage to keep the other four out of his hands, we might be able to push back the threat and win this war. But with a new demon general in town, things are going to be a whole lot harder.” She stuffed a potato chip in her mouth and rested her head against the back of the sofa.
“I know,” I said. “I know.” I glanced out the window. “First light’s coming. I’m heading to my lair. With a little luck, nothing horrible will happen today.”
Delilah shook her head. “No. Just a hell of a big house fire that’s going to burn all inhabitants to ashes.”
And then she took Maggie and cuddled her, watching the flickering images on the screen as I dragged myself to bed. I started to pray for a dreamless sleep but remembered I’d turned my back on the gods. They wouldn’t have listened, anyway.
CHAPTER 28
Three nights later, the night after the full Moon, we decked ourselves out in high gear and headed toward Woodbriar Park to witness Tim and Jason getting married.
The frat house was a memory. It had burned to the ground without so much as a timber left. Whatever portals to the underground bunkers there were had been cleanly sealed so that the fire department never even suspected they were there. And though there were questions—How had the fire raged so hot it consumed every speck of bone and flesh?—the answers were scarce, and the case would go down as unsolved.
Chase had viewed the tapes. He knew what we’d been up against. And he wasn’t asking any questions. Vanzir was good to his word. Whatever they’d done had left a very clean path leading directly down a dead-end road.
As we sauntered toward the chairs that lined the wide, neatly trimmed lawn, I looped my arm through Camille’s. She was wearing a plum-colored floral halter dress that barely contained her boobs, but she looked perfectly attired for a summer wedding where there would be a drag queen revue for entertainment—a gift from Tim’s old colleagues. She’d draped a silver and black lace shawl around her shoulders and was wearing stilettos with laces that wound up her ankles.
“How do I look?” I asked, nervous. This was the first time that I’d worn something that publicly showed my scars, and I felt mildly queasy.
“I’ve told you five times. You look gorgeous. What does Nerissa think?”
Nerissa had been pushing me to quit being so self-conscious, so I’d chosen a pretty green dress that skimmed my knees. While it had a bolero jacket, and I was wearing knee-high boots, the dress still showed more than I was used to.
“Nerissa thinks she looks lovely,” the werepuma said, sweeping in from behind me to plant a long, leisurely kiss on my lips. I settled into her embrace, welcoming the warmth and safety it offered. “Camille, Delilah, you both look gorgeous. Now, I’m going to steal Menolly for a moment, if I may.” She pulled me to one side. “I miss you,” she said.
“I miss you, too,” I said. After a moment, I added, “I slept with Roz.” We’d promised—no secrets.
“I know,” she said. “He told me. He wanted me to know he wasn’t trying to horn in on my territory. He any good?”
I grinned then. “Yeah. You should try him out sometime. He’s fun,” I said, but then hesitantly added, “but he’s not you.”
Nerissa’s eyes glowed. “Nah, he’s not my type. Too flashy. But baby, you are.” In a rush, she said, “I need you so much, Menolly. I want to make love to you all night long. Can I stay with you tonight? I brought some new toys I know you’ll like.”
“Of course you can.” A shiver of anticipation raced up my spine. “All night—just you and me.”
Thoughts of her golden skin under my fingers sent me reeling, and all I wanted to do was strip off her clothes and sink my tongue into that golden core of hers that I knew so well. I stared at her breasts as they swelled under the thin summer shift, and my fingers itched to reach out and caress her.
“I can hardly wait till this is over,” I muttered. “I’m happy for Jason and Tim, but you just don’t know the things you do to me, woman.”