He took a closer look at the picture. “What are these symbols in the base?”
Vayl said, “It is not Vampere.”
“Cassandra’s really good at ancient languages,” I hinted. “And if she can’t translate, maybe the Enkyklios has a clue.” It often gave her a leg up in the research department when her own knowledge came up short.
Dave looked at his watch. “It’s just after twelve thirty p.m. here, which means it’s, what, eight or nine thirty where she’s at?”
“Something like that,” I agreed.
“Okay, I’ll give her a call. Maybe she can come up with something.” He dug out his phone.
I looked around the room, finally noticing the blood had been cleaned up, though Tarasios was still passed out on the floor. “Where’s the dog?” I asked.
“In the bedroom,” said Dave as he waited for his call to go through. “He’s sprawled out on that dress of yours like it’s made of ermine or something. Which reminds me. He snores.”
“Thanks for the warning. I’ll grab my earplugs before I try to get some shut-eye,” I said. “Anybody have any objections?”
Dave shook his head and walked away as Cassandra answered her phone and he began to talk, hesitantly at first, but more eagerly as the conversation went on. I glanced at Vayl. “You okay with me catching a nap?” I asked.
“Of course.” He smiled. “With Disa clear of the library, perhaps I can spend some time in there. Among all those old tomes there must be one recommendation as to how a Maker can force his nestling to fly.”
I realized I’d clasped my hands together like a little girl who’s just been promised a dolly for her birthday. “You think there might be some info in there about breaking the binding?”
“Absolutely.” For a couple of seconds I believed it. Because I wanted to. But I could tell he didn’t hold out much hope for rescue. Which was when I finally got fed up. I’m killing that bitch. Not just for Vayl. But for Aine. And Niall and Admes. For the werebears and my honorary pack. And that bloody face that makes me go ewww.
Suddenly the question was no longer how to break the bond between my sverhamin and the woman he’d ripped, but how to keep him alive once I’d smoked her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
As soon as I hit the bedroom I sent the word out through Pete, Albert, and Cole. Contact your experts. Let me know if there’s a way to kill a bound vampire without also destroying its Maker.
The answers came back depressingly soon. There is no way. When they’re magically entwined, the vultures die with the nestlings. Always have. Always will.
“Goddammit!” The cursing woke up Ziel, who came over to check on me. “Go away. I’m pissed off,” I grumbled.
He laid his head on the bed. When I refused to pet him, he jumped up, clearing me and landing on the other side, where he turned around three times before settling in beside me. “Okay, you can stay, but don’t get used to this. I’m only allowing it because I’m so bummed and for some reason you don’t smell like dog.”
I turned my back to him and instantly fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes they landed on Vayl, standing at the end of the bed, a shadowy figure in the dimness of the room.
I sat up. Slowly. Why is it that you never really feel the effects of a fight until after you stop moving? I groaned, silently cursing Samos’s men as I glanced at the dog they’d tried to retrieve. Ziel lay at my side, gnawing on a bone I hoped hadn’t once been some guy’s leg.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked.
“Hours. Dusk has fallen.”
“Time to call Samos?”
“Nearly so.” Vayl cocked his head to one side. “Pete called while you were asleep. He wanted to know why you were trying to spare vampires. When I did not know what he was talking about, he had to explain.”
I crossed my legs in front of me and swallowed a gasp as I reached for the poker chips that stood like a tower of happy thoughts on the bedside table. When I still didn’t say anything, Vayl went on. “You cannot kill Disa.”
“So I’ve been told.” Click. Clack. Click.
“Even if her death were to have no effect on me, you should still not be pondering this course of action.”
“Okay.”
“That does not sound convincing.”
Clack, click, clackety, clack. “I could swear on my mother’s grave if you want.”
“What good would that do when she is in hell?”
I shrugged. Ow, dammit! He came and sat down in front of me. “Do not cross the line, Jasmine. Not for me. Do the mission, do it well, and go home.”
I met his eyes. “The mission’s changed.”
“According to whom?”
“Me. And you, if you’re thinking straight. Look, Pete can’t call this one. Neither can any of the candidates vying for a seat on the department’s oversight committee. They’re not here. They don’t know.”
“But if they were, their feelings for me would not cloud their decisions.”
“You forget what a valuable asset they see you as. If Disa ties you up for the next fifty years, they’re pretty much screwed, aren’t they?”
His brows arched. “What are you saying?”
“I have a good case, if it comes to that. But I don’t think it will. I think Pete will back me a hundred percent. So the second I figure out how to keep you alive—I’m taking Disa down.”
Actually my biggest concern was Cassandra’s warning about what would happen to Vayl and me if I pulled this off. But I’d detoured her prophecies before. I glanced up from the poker chips. Gave myself just a second to imagine what it would be like to spend the rest of my life with him.
“You cannot look at me that way,” Vayl said.
“Why?”
“Because suddenly it becomes impossible to keep my hands off you.” He reached up and cupped my face in his palms, his fingertips sending spirals of excitement down my neck into my heaving chest. Suddenly nothing hurt at all. Anywhere. As Vayl said, “And then I find I must kiss you,” his lips lowered to mine. Just a brush, a touch of flesh and then the alarm went off again.
I jumped, banging my nose against Vayl’s cheek. “Ow!”
Dave ran into the room, yelling, “Jaz, can’t you control your temper for one—oh.”
Tarasios came stumbling in behind him, holding his hands to his head, mumbling, “Stop the sirens. Please, stop the sirens.” He kept moving straight toward the bathroom, tripping over the doggy-dress-bed by the door. He landed on all fours and crawled toward his target, making it just in time to leave his mess where at least nobody would have to mop it up.
“I’m going to go find out what’s going on,” Dave said. “You two—get your own damn room. God knows what I’m going to walk in on next,” he muttered as he left.
“So, Tarasios,” I called. “Did Dave get a chance to ask you any questions?”
No answer but the sounds of his misery. Ziel took great interest in the entire process. He’d jumped off the bed when the alarm sounded and, after running around tracking everyone’s movements, followed Tarasios into the bathroom. He kept looking from the puking man to us, as if trying to solve a mystery. By the end we were trying not to laugh. It was the sound, I think. Like a bullfrog that’s just coming off a bad cold. Or maybe it was the mutt who decided it was a game, and began poking his nose in Tarasios’s butt every time he ralfed, which made him jump and squeak a little too.
“Dogs are disgusting,” I finally told Vayl.
“Yes, but high in entertainment value.”
We heard the hall door open.
“It’s not Dave,” I whispered.
“Disa’s lot?”
I nodded. “More than one, for sure.” As we moved into the sitting room I said, “Nobody knocks anymore, Vayl. Have you noticed that?”