Chapter 20
“I was beginning to think I’d never see you alive again.” At dawn, Tim met Sophie at her desk, his gaze anxious as he met hers; then he dropped it to the dusty relics sitting on her desktop. “Are these the spear and shield? Did you find them?”
“Yes. I mean, I think they are. I guess I could be wrong.”
“Oh, wow!” he said, sounding like a kid who’d just been shown the latest video game system. He picked up the spearhead and studied it. “I can’t believe you found them.”
“Neither can I. But now I have a question. What do I do with them? I have maybe fifteen minutes to figure it out. Julian said Dao would last no more than thirty-six hours from the time he first became confused. He’s gotta be near death.”
“I don’t know,” Tim answered, not taking his eyes off the little piece of carved rock or flint or whatever it was. “I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with them.”
“But you told me I needed them. I figured you’d know what I’d need to do with them once I got them.”
“Nope. I just read about it on the Web. Some guy said lamiae can be destroyed only with these two artifacts. How, he didn’t say.”
“Can you e-mail him?”
“No. He posted it on a bulletin board. I don’t even know his e-mail address.”
“Damn it,” Sophie said, slumping into her chair. “I’m pretty sure Ric would know, but I don’t want to ask him.”
“Why not?”
“Long story.”
“How about sharing the highlights, like who Ric is?” Tim rested his rear end on Sophie’s desk and turned to inspect the shield.
“Ric is just a guy.”
“Just?” Tim lifted his head for a moment to deliver a single raised-eyebrow, “yeah, right” expression.
“Yeah. Just a guy who was helping me find these.”
“Sounds like a pretty good guy to me. Why wouldn’t you want him to help you fight the lamia?”
“Because…because this is my battle, not his.”
Tim set the shield back on her desk and drilled her with his paranormal ghost-hunter-on-the-hunt scrutinizing gaze. “You’re in love with him.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Does he love you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I mean, it does, but not when it comes to Dao and Lisse. I need to take care of this on my own.”
Tim stood and shook his head. “You’ve de-balled the poor guy.”
“Have not!”
“You’re not letting him be a man. Does he know you’re doing this on your own?”
“Probably by now he does.”
Tim shook his head even harder. “I’m guessing he’s going to be pissed.”
“Yeah. I know. But I couldn’t let him do this. There was too much at stake, too many things that could’ve gone wrong.”
“So you figured you’d protect him by doing it on your own.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“What do you think he’ll be feeling if something happens to you because you were too damn stubborn to accept his help?”
“Um…” She thought about that one for a few minutes, tried to put herself in his shoes. The resulting image wasn’t a pleasant one. “Bad.”
“Badder than bad. Call him.”
“But I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
“Yeah, I know. But sometimes you have to risk losing everything to gain everything. If that makes sense.”
“Yes. Yes it does.” Her mind still not made up, Sophie took up the relics and headed out of the office. She needed to think, maybe do some reading.
The library was open.
She hid the relics carefully in Ric’s car trunk, then drove to the library, not even bothering to go home yet. She half expected Ric to show up at her house any time now and she wasn’t ready to deal with him yet. She wasn’t sure if she was still going through with her plan to take on Lisse alone or wait for Ric.
The fear of losing him, of having something terrible happen, was definitely steering her toward the go-it-alone route.
She wandered the aisle where she’d first met him, her mind and body replaying the memory of how those first few moments had felt. Her body tingled all over as the memories played through her mind. Fragments of conversation. The quirk of his lips. The glitter in his eyes. The feel of his strong, hard body against hers.
She missed him. Something fierce. So bad, in fact, that she could swear she felt him near her right then, sensing him like when she entered a room and sensed someone staring at her. A buzzing, skittering, electric feeling that zipped up and down her spine.
“Sophie,” she heard him say. She spun around. Her heart stopped.
“Ric.” His eyes were filled with rage. His jaw clenched so tight a thin muscle there bulged. “I told myself I wouldn’t look for you, but dammit, I couldn’t help it. Why? Why’d you sneak out like that? After everything? After we made love and I promised not to keep any secrets?”
“I know, I know.” She held her hands in front of her chest, fending him off, back stepping into a shelf full of books.
“What were you thinking? Can you tell me that?” he asked, closing the distance between them until she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak.
“Eep.”
“Huh?”
Her mouth was dry again. He seemed to have that effect on her a lot. “I…” She sidled sideways, her spine dragging along the lumpy surface of book spines. “I was thinking about you.”
“How could you say that?”
“Because it’s the truth. I saw the hell you were going through when you’d thought about using the spear and shield to get your cure. I heard it all.”
The anger in his eyes cooled a tiny bit.
She continued, “If you use those things, you’ll die, or your brother’ll die, or someone’s going to die and I won’t be responsible for that if I can help it. Dao’s my friend. He needs my help, not yours. And if I can do this myself, I’m going to. Because I’m willing to lose my life for my friend. But I’m not willing to lose you for him.” Her nose burned. Her eyes too. She sniffed and ran the back of her hand over her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. Not now. Not here. “You were supposed to stay asleep for a while. Give me a head start.”
“I was up before you left the hotel.”
“Obviously.”
He closed his hands around her upper arms. “I love you. Don’t you understand that? I’d do anything for you. I’d die for you.”
“But I don’t want you to. I just want my friend to be okay. That’s all. And I don’t want anyone else to be hurt in the process.”
“Sometimes you have to risk everything to get everything.”
She froze. “You been talking to Tim?”
“Who’s Tim?”
She shook her head to clear it. Her thoughts were not on the topic at hand. They were wandering. “No one. My boss. He said the same thing today when I went to talk to him.”
“Smart guy.” His thumbs rubbed her inner arms. Who knew inner arms could be so sensitive? She was about ready to melt.
“Yeah,” she said on a sigh.
“Are we ready now?”
“Ready?”
“To go take care of that lamia. You aren’t still insisting on doing it alone, are you?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?” he repeated, looking confused.
“Yes, I’m ready. And no, I won’t insist on facing her on my own. If you make me one promise.”
“Tell me what you want and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Promise me nothing’ll happen to you. That you won’t break some law that’ll land you in vampire prison or get yourself killed or hurt.”
“Sweetheart, I can’t make a promise like that.”
Her heart sank.
“But I will promise you one thing.”
Her heavy-as-lead heart lightened a smidge. “Oh?”
“I promise to do everything in my power to keep those things from h
appening. Okay?”
It wasn’t good enough, but it was what it was. It was realistic. “Okay.”
“Now, let’s go get her before afternoon arrives. You don’t want to take on a lamia after dark. Have you talked to your friend recently?”
“Yes. Yesterday.”
“And?”
“He’s still alive but he didn’t remember me.”
“Then we’d better hurry. Some of the damage may not be reversible.”
“Okay.” Sophie put her hand in Ric’s and together they ran to the car. It felt so good to have him by her side again. She just hoped it wouldn’t be the last time.
She directed him to Dao’s house, too nervous to drive herself. When they parked outside of the house, she asked, “Do you know what we’re supposed to do with those things in the back?”
“I’m a Wissenschaft. We believe in science. I have no idea.”
“Great.”
“We’ll wing it. Between the two of us, we ought to be able to figure it out.”
“I hope so. She’s one scary snakewoman.”
“I can tell you this—all vampires, muses included, are susceptible to death if their hearts are pierced. So I’m thinking we should go for the heart.”
“With that little scrap of chiseled rock?” she asked, motioning to the spearhead. “Yikes. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to get that close to her. What if she spits venom or something?”
“I’m assuming that’s what the shield is for.” He handed the hunk of rock with the wood embedded in it to her. “Here. I want you to hold on to this.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“I hate this.” Her hands shook. Her legs were rubbery. She felt like a giant block of cement had been dropped on her shoulders. Yes, she wanted to save Dao. She loved him. She had vowed to help him. But the thought of losing Ric was killing her. What would she do if he was truly hurt or worse?
“We’ll be okay. Don’t worry. Just concentrate. That’s important right now.”
Sophie nodded and tipped her chin to look up at him. “If something happens, I want you to know, I love you. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. And this is killing me inside.”
Ric pressed his palms to her cheeks and slanted his mouth over hers in a soft, sweet kiss. His lips worked gently over hers, first on one corner of her mouth and then the other. “I love you too. More than I’ve ever loved anyone. So much that when I found out you’d left me, I thought I’d die. So much that the thought of you taking this risk by yourself made me want to move the heavens and the earth to get here to stop you. We will never again face danger alone. I will always be here by your side. No matter what happens today.”
She didn’t quite understand what he meant by that but she nodded her understanding anyway. Then, the shield clutched to her chest, her heart in her throat, and her stomach dragging down around her toes, she followed Ric up the walk to Dao’s front door.
This was it.
“What are you doing?!” Sophie yelled just before Ric hit the front door with his shoulder. Taken by surprise, he tried to stop, but the momentum pushed him forward into the door anyway. It didn’t give.
He grimaced. Now the inhabitants of the house would know they were coming. So much for the element of surprise. “I was trying to bust in the door so we could take them by surprise.”
“I have a key.” She held a key in her fingers to illustrate, then gently shoved him aside to use it. Sheesh, make a guy feel like a brainless lug. She turned the lock softly, like she was trying to be quiet. He didn’t bother telling her that it was too late, that her friend and his muse wife had to know they were on their way in by now.
The door swung silently open. Ric took the lead, stepping into the living room. He motioned for Sophie to leave the door open, in case a quick exit was necessary. His body was tense, ready for a battle with a pissed-off lamia. The spearhead was securely gripped in his fist. Sophie motioned toward the hallway at the end of the living room and he nodded and headed that way. The doors lining the corridor were all closed. She pointed at the first one and mouthed, “In here.”
“Ready?”
She nodded.
He tightened his grip on the spearhead, turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open.
The room inside was very dark, but he could make out the shapes of two bodies in the bed.
“I can’t see a thing,” Sophie whispered next to him. “Should I flip on the light?”
“Yes.”
The room was instantly awash in blinding white light. The two bodies in the bed shot to a sitting position like dummies fixed to springs in a haunted house. One lamia in her human form—which Ric had to admit was quite lovely—and a skinny, bedraggled-looking Asian man.
The lamia took one look at Ric and smiled. “We have company. How nice. Hello, Ric.”
“Hello.”
“Mmmm,” the lamia said, assessing him with cold eyes. “My sister was right. You are something.”
“I’d take that as a compliment if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re sitting next to your husband,” he said, feeling like a hunk of beef in a butcher’s window.
“What do you have there, lover?” the lamia cooed, pointing at his fist.
“Just a little something. I brought it just for you.”
“How thoughtful.” She stood. Nude. Lovely. Long legs, slim body with curves in all the right places. Full breasts. “Aren’t you going to show it to me?” she asked in open invitation. She was making this too easy. She had to know something he didn’t.
Ric tensed his shoulder and arm muscles and leapt forward, swinging with all his might, her left breast his target. The blade struck her skin, then bounced away, like it had hit hard rubber. His arm and shoulder muscles jerked painfully from the impact. The spearhead went flying through the air and Sophie screamed behind him.
He heard a thunk, scrambling. He spun on his heel, catching the two women wrestling for the dropped spearhead. The shield lay on the floor, forgotten. He grabbed the lamia by the shoulders and yanked, giving Sophie a chance to snatch the spear from the floor in the nick of time.
The lamia hissed and spit in his face. He reached for the shield to block the venom with one hand, but the lamia knocked it away. Instantly, his skin was on fire. He heard himself howling and released the lamia to frantically rub away the excruciating burn. “The shield!”
“Ric?” Sophie said beside him.
He couldn’t see her. Couldn’t see anything. The pain was almost unbearable. He staggered, his arms out in front of him, and walked back toward the exit. “Sophie! Run!”
“No.”
“I can’t see. I can’t…help you.” He tried to pry his eyes open but they wouldn’t budge.
“This is my battle,” Sophie said.
“What a brave, foolish girl,” the lamia hissed. “It’s a shame I’ll have to kill her.”
Ric howled in rage and threw himself in the direction of her voice.
Chapter 21
Ric was blind, swinging wildly at Lisse but doing absolutely no damage. In fact, he was doing nothing but wearing himself out. Dao staggered to his feet, gave Sophie a blank stare, and then lunged at Ric’s back, clawing at him like a ticked-off bear.
Ric howled and turned, swinging blindly at Dao.
Sophie screamed.
Ric stopped.
Dao stopped.
Lisse stopped.
They all stood and looked at her—well, all but Ric, whose eyes were still clamped tightly closed—like she was going to tell them all what to do.
“You. Men. Get out,” Sophie barked, hauling the shield to her chest.
“I won’t leave my wife here defenseless,” Dao said through gritted teeth. “A couple of crazed strangers come into my bedroom and I’m supposed to stand idly by and watch them attack my wife?”
“Yes.” Sophie nodded. “Don’t you remember me? I’m not a stranger. I’m Sophie. Your best friend.”
<
br /> “Don’t listen to her, my love,” Lisse said.
“I don’t know you.”
Ric swung, knocking Dao to the ground.
Lisse screeched and spit at Ric again.
Sophie saw red. No snakewoman spat venom at her man! She swung her arm in a wide arc aiming for the same area Ric had. But the stone blade didn’t even cut the skin. It bounced like a stone off a tire. “What the fuck?”
“You can’t kill me,” Lisse scoffed. “You’re a human.”
Sophie didn’t want to believe the lamia. She hadn’t come all this way to fail. What did she mean she couldn’t kill her? They had the magic spear. They had the magic shield. What more could they need?
“Liar.” She jumped forward again, spear aimed right for the heartless snake’s chest. Lisse didn’t even try to block it. Again, the blade bounced off her chest, wrenching Sophie’s shoulder. She huffed her frustration. Her fear, at the hunger she saw in the lamia’s eyes as it looked at Ric.
“I think next I’ll take that one. He’s delightful.”
“He’s taken, bitch.”
Lisse smiled, displaying two elongated canines. “Who’s going to stop me? You?”
“Yes.”
“I told you, you can’t. Only a newly born Immortal has the strength to kill me, even with the Romakh. Our friend here is too old.”
“Only a newly born…” Sophie repeated, turning to look at Ric.
He seemed to read her mind. He shook his head. “No. I won’t let you. I love you.”
“He’s my friend. I can’t save him if I don’t.”
“Isn’t this sweet. The little lady thinks she can become an Immortal and kill me? All for her dear friend who couldn’t give a shit whether she lives or dies.”
“Shut up!” Sophie said in a low growl, her mind whirling round and round.
Lisse knelt beside Ric. “He’s a Wissenschaft. My venom might kill him if I took a little taste.” She dodged a blind swing from Ric and caught his wrist, then dragged her flickering tongue up his arm from palm to elbow. “Oh, he’s sweet.” Smiling, she dragged a fingernail over his skin. A crimson trail followed the line she’d drawn.
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