Once Bitten, Twice Shy (18 page)

Considering the noise we'd made in the room before coming to the roof, I decided even my I.D. might not stand between me and a visit to the police station. Not a comfy thought with Vayl due any minute and dawn following him like a stray dog.

I ran down the stairs, gritting my teeth against the pounding my poor feet were taking. When I got to the room I went straight to my socks, pulled them on and wrapped my jacket around my feet before punching into my phone the special combination of numbers that would provide me with some semblance of privacy while I talked. Ignoring the blood spatters on the wall, I stared hard at the drawer pull on the end table next to my chair while I waited for an answer. I got one on the 12th ring.

"Hullo?"

"Pete? It's Jasmine."

"Don't tell me you wrecked another car."

"Okay."

Medium pause. I heard rustling, probably him checking out his bedside clock because the next thing he said was, "Do you know what time it is?"

"Not really."

Silence. I half expected him to start snoring.

"So why did you call at nearly four in the morning?"

"I didn't wreck the car."

"Spit it out, Jaz."

I winced. "Please don't yell at me."

"I'm not yelling."

"I know. But you might be. Soon."

"If you don't start passing on some real information soon I'm going to yell at my wife. Then you'll have guilt."

"Manipulator."

"Spill."

I ran a hand through my hair and got Cirilai caught in some tangles. As I tried to free myself I said, "I pushed a vamp off a roof tonight."

"Not part of the mission, but acceptable."

"Not really. The cops are coming up here soon, and they're not going to believe I'm innocent when they see the bloodstains."

"Bloodstains?"

"I shot her first, here in the room. And her goons came and took her away while I was still on the roof, so I have no proof she and I fought."

"Your badge—"

"—could be faked. I don't have the time to talk myself out of this situation, Pete. Dawn's coming."

"All right, let me talk to them."

"I heard sirens. They'll be here in a sec. In the meantime—"

"Don't you dare sing me a lullaby."

"I wouldn't dream of it. I just wanted you to know, we think one of the senators on our oversight committee might be dirty."

"They're politicians, Jaz. It kind of goes with the territory."

"You're tired, I get it." I told him about our suspicions, wondering how much really sunk in. The guy might actually still be asleep. Dave could do that, carry on a perfectly logical conversation with you in the middle of the night and then not remember anything about it the next day because he'd been mostly asleep the whole time. "Pete, are you awake?"

"Yes, Jasmine, I'm awake. It's your fault too, I want you to remember that."

"Believe me, I will. And, um, we've got the senator thing covered from here, okay? If you get nosy and get yourself killed I'm gonna have to put your kids through college or something, so do me a favor and steer clear."

"You know, last week Ashley was talking about getting her Ph.D. at Yale, so I have to say I'm a little tempted. But don't worry. There's a reason I hire the best."

Wow. If only I deserved that remark
. "Hang on, somebody's at the door."

I opened it mid-knock. The cop on the other side looked slightly stunned that I'd responded so quickly. Even more so when I handed him my badge and the phone and said, "It's for you."

He took it like it might be rigged to blow, and held it about six inches from his ear. "Hello?" he said while his partner hung back, his Glock out but pointing at the floor for the moment.

The first cop listened for awhile and when he gave me an amused look, I relaxed. When he chuckled I started to fume. No doubt Pete was telling him all about my tendency to leave a trail of wrecked cars and blood-spattered walls that a blind dog with a cold could follow.

"Did she really?" asked the cop. He laughed louder and motioned for his partner to listen in on the call. All told, Pete kept them entertained for another three minutes and 25 seconds while I leaned against the wall and timed them. At 3:26 the cop handed me the phone and my badge.

"He wants to talk to you," he said, then he nodded, headed out the door and down the stairs with his partner close behind.

"I take it I'm off the hook," I said as I shut the door.

"Yup."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

We hung up. Since my toes still felt like icicles, I went into the bathroom, shucked my socks, plugged the tub and ran in enough hot water to soak my feet. I could see the front door from where I sat, so I was aware of the chiseled marble look on Vayl's face when he entered the condo a few minutes later. That all changed when he saw the blood on the walls.

"Dear Christ!" He staggered sideways, caught his balance on the stove and pulled his phone from his pocket with shaking fingers. "Jasmine, be all right. Please be all right," he whispered as he dialed, his face suddenly very human, and extremely worried. He jumped about three inches off the floor when my phone rang. I answered it.

"Make it quick," I said, "there's somebody else in the condo with me and he looks alarmed."

He didn't say a word, just dropped his phone, came over and picked me up off the edge of the tub. It's a little disconcerting being dangled effortlessly. Plus, I generally equate bear hugs with lumberjacks and friendly purple dinosaurs, not with suave, sexy vampires who savor a daily dose of necking.

"I thought you were dead," he said.

Ah, that explained the momentous show of affection. "So you knew Liliana was coming after me?"

"I… had a feeling." I let his evasion stand for now. But in my mind I drew the line. One more and I would raise hell. Or, smarter but less satisfying, ask him to come clean. He let me slip through his arms until my feet touched the carpet. But he wasn't quite ready to let go. "I am sorry that I left you. I suspected she would come after you, only not so soon. She has always coveted Cirilai, first because she was my wife and thought she deserved it. Then because our sons were dead and she thought I did not."

"So… you've never… taken it off before?"

"No. Not for Liliana. Not for anyone. Until now."

I started to squirm and he let me pull away slightly.
Okay, don't panic. Every time you panic all hell breaks loose so do-not-panic
.

"You're right, she came for the ring," I told him. "She demanded it from me."

"What did you do?"

"I shot her. Then I pushed her off the roof."

He smiled. Not the twitchy twitch but a genuine, full-face smile. "You must have really wanted that ring."

I put my hands on his chest, because he still held me by the arms and, frankly, because I suspected there might be hyperventilating in my not too distant future and I needed a strong base to lean on. I looked into his remarkable eyes, just now a warm, honey-gold with flecks of amber, and I nodded.

"To be honest, I did want it. I do. I'm… I can't explain how honored I am to be wearing it. But, also to be honest, the whole deal terrifies me."

"Because…"

I took a long look at the stitching on his collar, the urge to cower my way out of this conversation damn near primal. He and I had been tiptoeing around the subject so long I suspected if I made us face it squarely, one of us would be required to cut and run. A perfectly acceptable reaction if you had a place to retreat to. Neither of us did.

"I've only been your assistant, your avhar, for awhile," I finally said, avoiding his gaze, "and I can't imagine any other kind of life. When you gave me this ring… when I gave you my blood… it's… we've gone beyond that. We're trusting the safety of our souls to each other."

He raised my chin with a gentle finger and I winced as our eyes met. The look we shared pained me in its naked honesty.

"You are my
avhar
. I am your
sverhamin
. The intensity of that relationship has taken us beyond the bonds between co-workers or teammates. Some would call that love."

I winced again.

"But you would not have it so." He squeezed my arms, put one of his arms around my back. "It is no secret. You have experienced the heaven and hell of love."

"But, see, the hell came last, so that's still the memory, the feeling, that lingers. For a long time I tried to come up with some way to explain how I felt because Evie kept pushing me to put it into words. She thought, somehow, that would make it all better. But I couldn't tell her I felt like I should be bleeding from every pore. I couldn't tell her I felt like I'd been flayed alive, that when I looked in the mirror every morning I couldn't believe my hair hadn't turned white overnight. It just wasn't close enough to the truth. So I didn't say anything at all."

"I understand." He whispered it into my hair. And I believed him.

"There's only so much a person can go through, Vayl."

He pulled me closer. "There is only so much a person can go through alone. But I am not asking you to do anything you cannot bear. I have eternity, Jasmine. I can wait until your feelings are no longer fractured."

"It may be awhile. My feelings for you… it's hard to be okay with them when my love for Matt is still fresh in my memory, still strong in my heart."

If my statement had hurt him, he didn't show it. He said, "My father used to say that true love never dies. It simply makes your heart big enough to hold even more love."

"So… I can keep the ring?"

"Yes."

I drove Vayl back to the Pink Palace, leaving the room cleaning chores to the experts. The Agency employs a whole fleet of them for obvious reasons. We made it inside with barely 20 minutes to spare before dawn.

"You look exhausted," Vayl said as he eased my jacket off my shoulders and hung it over a chair. I had something intelligent to say about that, but then he started rubbing the back of my neck and all I could say was, "Oh."

"I know I should let you sleep, but I am so relieved Liliana did not kill you, I cannot take my eyes off of you."

"
You're
relieved! When she caught me trying to make my getaway I thought I was toast."

"And that young man I took to the hospital. His blood smelled so wrong, I was afraid just being close to him had damaged you permanently."

"Yeah, what the hell do you think is up with him?"

"I have no—"

My phone began to ring. This close to dawn it couldn't be good news and I hated to answer it. But Vayl retrieved it from my jacket and tossed it to me.

"Yeah?" I barked.

"It's Bergman. I'm in Florida, but I've gotta sleep. Do you need me tonight or can I meet you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow's good."

"Where do I look for you?"

"Hang on." I covered the mouthpiece. "It's Bergman," I told Vayl. "Do you know of a good place he and I can meet tomorrow?"

He thought a moment, then his eyes lit. "Actually, I do." He gave me the address and I passed it on to Bergman, along with an agreeable time. When we hung up I said, "So where are we meeting?"

Vayl looked vaguely embarrassed, like I'd just caught him and his pals plotting to stroll on over to the Silver Saddle, where girls dance mostly naked and all the drinks taste like sour lemonade.

"Vayl?"

"The place is called Cassandra's Pure and Natural, after the woman who runs it. It is a small health food store."

"Nice front," I drawled, getting more and more annoyed at Vayl's hesitation. Hadn't we just had a major moment? What the hell was he hiding? "And if you pay Cassandra a little extra?" I asked.

"She will take you upstairs and give you a reading."

"A… what?"

"She is psychic. She will touch your hand or read your tea leaves or deal your tarot. Whatever you like."

I slumped onto a couch and started to mutter. "Unbelievable. After what just happened between us… no, I don't have any right. None at all. We're barely a couple. We're not even sleeping together. I have to—"

"What in God's name are you babbling about?"

I jumped to my feet. "You're cheating on me!"

Vayl's eyes went black. He looked like a drill sergeant about to demand pushups. "I—never—cheat," he said slowly and distinctly, so even we neurotic idiots could understand.

"Then what's with the attitude?"

"What about
your
attitude?"

I slapped myself in the forehead. "Okay, fine. We all know I am crappy at relationships. Whatever is happening between you and me makes me feel like I'm surfing in shark infested waters. So, yeah, I am overly sensitive at the moment, even paranoid. But you're acting
Shifty
!"

Vayl sat across from me. "All right," he murmured, "if you will know it all, then I will tell you." He looked at me balefully. "Though I think you ask too much, you are my
avhar
."

"There is a theory," he began, "one I hold dear, that says nothing can truly be destroyed. Everything that was ever present will always be present in some form. That is as true of souls as it is of water and wood." He cleared his throat. If he'd been wearing a tie he'd have loosened it. "I believe my sons exist somewhere today as they did in 1751. I believe they live, physically, somewhere in this world and so, wherever I go I find a Seer, in the hope that I will be directed closer to them. In the hope that I will see them again."

"You're saying… you think they've been reincarnated?"

He nodded. "I have been told we will be reunited in America. It is why I came here."

"What… what do you," I paused. How to ask this without causing more pain? "So you want to meet them? Make friends? Be… a father to them?"

"I
am
their father!" he snapped. "That is the one, incontrovertible truth of my existence."

I shut my mouth. Then I opened it again, but only to say, "Cassandra's is fine."

He stood up. "Ask her about the signs they found on Amanda Assan's brother's body. She studies ancient languages the way you shuffle cards." As in, obsessively. "It may take her some time, but she will not stop until she finds a translation."