The Deadliest Bite

by Jennifer Rardin

  I scrambled for safety as Vayl said, “I thought I had forgotten how to do that.”

  “Holy crapinator, Vayl, I never realized you knew how!”

  “I will have to tell you sometime.” He nodded over my shoulder to where Zell and Helena were battling. Helena had just crushed a snake’s head under her boot, which I found extra badass considering she’d been brought up to swoon at the sight of an earthworm, but then Zell managed to impress me even more when he punched Roldan in the face (although maybe that was just on principle because the Were was only baring his teeth), shoved his bolt-knife through the gorgon’s cheek, and caught the black mamba that was preparing to strike with his bare hand, snapping its neck and leaving it to dangle from Sthenno’s do like a greasy curl.

  Cole and Dave were racing toward the gorgon and the Were at full speed, their swords held tight and low for piercing. They’d each put on a pair of reflective sunglasses for the fight, which I didn’t quite see the point of until Cole whistled.

  “Oh, Gorgonzola! Give us a kiss, ya big, beautiful girl you!” She spun around. Dave and Cole had put their heads together and grinned, like they were posing for a picture one of them was taking at close range. That much charm packed into such a tight space? I couldn’t resist looking. And neither could Sthenno. She stared straight into those mirrored shades behind which, I guessed, two pairs of eyes were tightly shut. Because Cole’s skin remained its typical golden brown and Dave’s kept all its freckles. Hers, on the other hand, began to get that leathery look you see on old gals who’ve sacrificed softness for tanning. Even her snakes looked a little gray around the edges.

  “You think this will kill me?” she bellowed as she dragged forward a foot that had suddenly gone sand-tinted. “After generations of men, all of them more brilliant and virile than you, have tried to freeze me with my own stare?” Second foot forward. She looked like an elephant trying to reach its water bowl after a hard night of partying.

  “This only slows me down!” She looked over her shoulder at us, her gaze even more venomous than the snakes waving almost drunkenly around her skull. “And makes me harder to stop.”

  “That works for us,” Dave called. He swept his sword up one side of her head. The snakes regenerated much slower than before. That gave Cole time to carve a ravine in her chest that should’ve laid her flat. But she was one of the original three, and still connected to Roldan to boot. Which meant she still had the strength to bat his sword away as if it were no more irritating to her than a kid’s toy. Cole went flying, landing among a planting of hands that caught him and rolled him into the mud like he was a round of pizza dough.

  Muttering so low that I couldn’t catch the words, only that Vayl sounded like he was giving himself the lecture of a lifetime, my sverhamin rushed up behind Sthenno and shoved his hand around the front of her, into the gaping wound Cole had caused. She screamed, turning her head to sink her teeth into his shoulder. Her claws sank into his hips as he reached for her heartstone, but the snakes struggling to respawn couldn’t join in the fray. They yawned their baby mouths and reached out to him like chicks in a nest, begging for regurge, and he laughed as he yanked his hand free, the blood and gore dripping from his fist unable to disguise the treasure he’d found.

  “Jasmine! Here!” He tossed me the heartstone, which I caught despite the droplets of ick flying off it and the slick layer of goo that made it slippery as an ice cube. For a second, as I turned toward shore, I did lose my grip. In that nightmare moment I could see it falling through the gaps between the ulnas and skulls on the bridge into the river, where we’d never be able to recover it again. I leaped to land, ran about ten yards, and put it safely on the ground. Not even giving myself time for a sigh of relief, I steadied Sthenno’s heartstone between my boots, pulled the hammer and chisel from my belt, and began my second carving of the day while Astral sat so close it was a wonder I didn’t smack her on the upswing.

  Visualizing the symbol that Roldan had traced repeatedly in the air and my own Inner Bimbo had copied, I tapped the pattern into the stone. Sthenno screamed again. My peripheral vision told me she was coming for me, but everyone in my crew blocked the bridge, their blades forming a barrier her claws and slow-growing asps found impossible to breach.

  The rock was slippery. So was the mud underneath. This made the chiseling harder and slower than it had been with Brude. And, perversely, now that Roldan could feel his death drawing near, he’d decided to fight forevery last breath. When I heard the growls of a fully changed werewolf, my heart launched into triple time.

  Isn’t that just like a villain? said Granny May. Can’t even hold on to the little bit of honor he’s found for ten damn minutes. She and the rest of my inner girls had all brought their lawn chairs onto her front porch for the final showdown.

  Popcorn? You’ve decided to watch me battle for my life as if you were at a movie theater?

  Not completely, said Teen Me, holding up her snack. I have yogurt. She took a bite and then, with her mouth full of strawberry-banana lusciousness, added, Isn’t it interesting how demons react differently to having their heartstones carved by humans? When Kyphas did hers with Cole’s name he got all demony and she was all, “Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.” But now that you’re doing Sthenno’s, she’s acting like it’s the end of the world!

  Hopefully it is for her, said Granny May. Now, hurry up, Jazzy. Your people may be good, but the snakes are growing and Roldan is getting stronger. Finish that already!

  Luckillly I work well under pressure. I chinked in the last flourish of Sthenno’s glyph just as Roldan broke free of her chain and charged our line. He ran straight for Zell. And though Vayl, Cole, Dave, and Raoul all closed on him quicker than NOLA cops on a rowdy Mardi Gras tourist, he still had the head start and the speed. Zell went down under his snapping jaws and tearing claws.

  Helena’s scream tore at my heart as I ran to help, still holding the pieces of the Rocenz in my hands, the completed heartstone forgotten in the mud just like the slumping form of Sthenno behind us.

  When the men pulled back from their attack on Roldan, his white coat was stained a dark, bloody red. Vayl, alone, tore him off Zell, the sight of whom brought another jagged cry from Helena.

  He was also soaked in blood, his throat torn open so badly I thought I could see his spine shining at the back of it. But he’d given as good as he got, which we saw when we rolled the Were over to find his homemade dagger sticking out of Roldan’s chest.

  Helena leaned over Zell, weeping so desperately that her entire body shook. She clutched at his clothes and demanded for him to come back, to wake up. When I looked to Vayl to see if watching this scene was breaking his heart too, I saw two bloody tears tracking down his face.

  Helena wrapped her arms around her love and cried even harder, which I hadn’t thought possible. Vayl crouched down to lay a hand across her shoulder. The rest of us stood by, helpless. Behind us, a sigh. We turned. Sthenno had dropped to the ground, her snakes limp around her head, her entire chest such a bloody mess she looked like she’d just fallen off an autopsy table. But she wasn’t too far gone to whisper, “Cole. You’ve hovered over the edge of the pit before. Remember all the delectable temptations Kyphas dangled in front of you? She could have given you everything you ever dreamed of. But I can give you more. Not just eternity. You have that now, I can see it in your eyes. Not just women, your skills are so renowned that even I have heard of them.”

  Her dying eyes turned to me. “I can give you Jasmine. She considered you once. She’d be easy to turn. And then you’d have a lifetime. Redheaded daughters and towheaded sons. A house on the beach and a big-screen TV to cuddle in front of on rainy nights. What do you say, Cole? All you have to do is accept me. You’ll never even see me.”

  He looked at me, then at Vayl. “My girl is waiting for me out there. And I have a feeling she’d be überpissed if I dumped her before we even met. Plus—” He shook his head at Sthenno. “Girl, your sales pitch is just old. Kyphas tried it on
me weeks ago and it worked like a salvage-yard reject.”

  Sthenno sighed again, closed her eyes, and crumpled in on herself like a wilting flower. Which seemed kind of appropriate given her location.

  Helena had now begun the hiccup sobbing that let me know she was fast dropping into hysteria. I knelt beside her, opposite Vayl, suddenly acutely aware that this woman was probably my granny’s greatgreat-grandmother. That she’d died giving birth to twin girls, one of whom had continued a line that Vayl had watched over until he’d finally met and fallen for me. Had I been the only one? I couldn’t bear to look at him, much less ask just now. So I shook her, whispering, “Helena. Helena,” until she looked up and I was staring into the clear blue eyes of my ancestress. I asked, “What are the rules here? Can he die? I mean, considering the fact that he’s already dead?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Raoul spoke up. “He’s being given a choice. He can stay in this body and continue to work with Helena. Or he can find peace. If he chooses the latter, we’ll see his soul ascend within a few minutes. If he decides to stay, he’s going to be in real danger. The pain will be immense, and the chance for some sort of wicked infection setting in on a wound like that is excellent. As soon as we know, we should move him.”

  “Then I’d better get busy.”

  Cole had shoved his shades back, which swept his hair away from his face as well, giving him a much more serious look than usual. He held out his hands to me. “I need that tool.”

  Something about the way he said it made me decide that questioning his motives was so far out of order that I might lose his friendship if I went there. So I just raised the Rocenz to him. He took the hammer and chisel in his hands, holding them so comfortably I’d have thought he’d been born to work wood, except I’d never seen him craft anything more artistic than a ham-and-cheese sandwich. He took a stone from his pocket. The same one Kyphas had used to carve his name on in Marrakech.

  “Cole,” said Vayl, his voice firm, warning. “Do you know what you are doing?”

  Cole stared into his eyes. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” He glanced over at me solemnly. “I have to do this.” I nodded, only barely understanding. But I didn’t have to. He was my friend. He needed my support. That was all I really had to know.

  Steadying the rock between his feet just like I’d done with Sthenno’s heartstone, Cole began to chisel letters. K. Y. P. H. A. By the time he got to the first curve of the S, the sky above us had begun to darken. We tried to ignore it, but Helena began to look worried.

  “We need to get out of here,” she whispered to Dave, who was bending over Zell, providing the first-aid skills he’d learned in the military.

  He nodded. “I agree.” He looked up at Raoul. “Can you take him to your place? He’s dead so, you know, I can feel his state pretty clearly.” Dave cleared his throat uncomfortably as we tried, and failed, not to gape at him. “The good news is that he’s back.” Helena clapped her hands to her mouth to hold back a whole series of sobs that insisted on pouring out around the edges of her fingers anyway. Dave stared at her grimly. “The bad news is that he’s already infected with something, and he’s not fighting it off because he’s so badly hurt. It’s less like a disease than a way of thinking. He’s already considering giving up.”

  “That’s not my Zell,” said Helena.

  Dave shook his head. “No. I think it’s hell, getting into his spirit. And if we don’t evacuate him soon, it’ll sink into his core. I’m not saying he couldn’t beat this on his own. He’s got you, Helena, and that’s a lot. But if what Raoul said is true about hell’s atmosphere, and I’m right about this infection��”

  “Then we go,” said Raoul. He picked Zell up and threw him over his shoulder like he weighed only slightly more than a basket of dirty clothes. “You can handle this,” he told me.

  “Of course. I’ll be in touch.”

  He smirked. “That I know.” Then his lips stretched into a smile. “I’m proud of you, Jasmine.” That was all he said. And I didn’t know how to answer except to blink like a damn barn owl. Then Helena distracted us both, reaching out to Vayl, who took her hand, bowed over it like they were still living in eighteenth-century London, and kissed it. When he rose again, the sorrow in his eyes was so deep it threatened to swallow them both.

  “My girl. Had I known you were here—”

  “I know. You would’ve rescued me in an instant. And probably died, or worse, been captured and suffered endless tortures in the attempt.” She smiled up at him. “You showed me the way to survive.” She glanced at Zell. “Even to be happy. And then I found out how to continue on my own. Isn’t that what good parents do?”

  He shrugged. “I would not know.”

  She put her arms around him. “But you do. I love you, Papa. Zell and I will come visit as soon as he’s better.” She glanced over at me. “We have a lot of catching up to do, don’t we?”

  No shit, Sherlock! I glared at my Inner Bimbo, but she was belting out the wrong words to “Banana Fana Shoshana” along with her newfound backup singers between long sips from her third margarita, so I looked further. To my mental librarian, who was skidding around the stacks in her sensible pumps, pencils sticking out of her bun in five different directions as she searched wildly for something to write with. She found a crayon lying on top of a slightly dented study carrel and waved it at me as she yelled, Helena is family? And Vayl never told you? Shouldn’t we feel betrayed? Plus, what does that make him, your… guardian-in-law? Should we be grossed out? Or mad? How do I categorize this???

  I looked at Vayl, who was watching his adopted daughter help Raoul balance Zell on his shoulder. The love on his face, purely paternal, changed radically when he turned to me. You know what, Book Lady? We’re just going to let this one go.

  A sound, something between a scream and a cry of anguish, turned us both toward hell’s fence. As it had with Brude, the air had begun to shimmer and then to take shape. Kyphas appeared, still enveloped in her billowing black dress with its extra-long sleeves and face-masking hood. It was pulled back to reveal her expression, shocked out of its misery as soon as she realized what Cole was doing.

  She held up an arm. “No,” she croaked. “I haven’t paid my dues.

  They’ll come after you if you do this.” He paused to look up at her. “In the end, you showed me a moment of true love. How could I move on without doing the same for you?”

  “Cole—”

  Her head jerked back as he finished her name. She screamed. And a million black moths shot out of her mouth, flapping into the sky with the sound I had always secretly thought Death would make as it sneaked up to an old man’s bedside. When she dropped her chin, we gasped. Her face had re-formed, its beauty so breathtaking I found it hard to sit still beneath that brilliant golden gaze. The hood had completely fallen off, revealing her mane of blond hair. And when she raised her hands to stare at them wonderingly, they were complete, the skin back to the healthy tan that pale women like me had envied in her better days.

  Love and gratitude spilled from her eyes along with her tears as she said, “Thank you. Oh, Cole, thank you.” And then she closed her eyes as she began to glow, the color brightening first to bright orange, then to red. It didn’t seem to hurt. Her expression remained serene as she burst into so many pieces that she resembled the sparkling residue from a high-flying fountain whose droplets cross into the sun before they drop back into their pool. Hers had direction as well, pointing themselves directly to the rock Cole had carved: They poured themselves into it until it sparkled like a gemstone. When the light show had finished, Cole dug a hole with his fingers and gently buried Kyphas’s heartstone in the field. Raoul told me later that a red rosebush grew in that spot, and that occasionally Cole asked one of the hell scouts to bring him a flower from it.

  I wasn’t so sentimental as my old friend. But, then, I didn’t have to wait nearly as long as he did for the love of my life to
show. He walked beside me all the way back to the world while the rest of our crew followed at our backs. He was holding my hand as we stepped through the plane portal. And he was the one who hugged me first when Bergman rushed into the bathroom to say, “Jasmine! Jack’s going to be okay!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Monday, June 18, 3:15 a.m.

  Funny how seeing your dog attempt to wag his tail as you enter the room brightens your entire outlook on life. Even Aaron, who’d had to spend the entire mission holding a gun to the portal and hoping he didn’t have to shoot it, seemed cheered by the sight.

  After our battle-wind-down powwow, during which we all retold our stories, Bergman demanded to be repaid for the exorbitant vet fee, and Aaron apologized a thousand times for doubting us—because, damn, it’s a little mind-shattering having to guard the only escape for a whole group of innocent people when the pregnant woman’s husband informs you he’ll kill you if you fail—everybody scattered. Cassandra and Dave wandered back to the honeymoon suite. Cole and Bergman waved good night and went their separate ways. Astral curled up on the bed beside Jack, who instantly began to snore. Which left Aaron and Lotus sitting at the table with Vayl and me.

  He regarded his children, first his son, then his daughter, with adoring eyes. “You have turned into quite fascinating people over time,” he told them. “I cannot even begin to tell you how it fills my heart to know you are well. That your souls survived and continue their journey even into today.”

  Lotus nodded. “I’m telling you what. This girl?” She pointed to herself with both thumbs. “Not journeying back to hell. Ever. Even if that means wearing a bra every single day.”

  I turned my laugh into a cough as Vayl went into the absolute stillness that occasionally substituted itself for deep embarrassment. Finally he said, “I am overjoyed to hear that.” After a beat, he went on. “I shall not make a pest of myself. But if you would both allow me to check in on you from time to time, I would be grateful.”