by Angie Fox
Dimitri frowned at her back. At least they weren’t fighting.
“Mmm,” Pirate scampered up on his hind legs to see inside the tub. “Smells like strawberries and leafy bits.”
Dimitri removed Pirate gently, while aiming a hard stare at Grandma. “You’d better not be brewing up any Mind Bender spells in here. Even if you could generate enough firepower to bend a demon, you don’t have the equipment or the proper ventilation.”
“I know that.” Grandma shot back. “We almost blew up Scarlet’s cabin trying. That there’s an invisibility spell, so the demons can’t get an aura-lock on the coven.”
She checked the medicine cabinet on the wall. “Well, I don’t see any dry barriers. Bob must’ve used ‘em. Wanted one for every spoke on his wheelchair.” Grandma let the fox curl up on a bed of towels and motioned for us to clear out of the bathroom. “Now hurry up or I might as well paint a big target on your foreheads.”
I touched her arm. The stress of the trip had gotten to her. She had dark circles under her eyes and a fatigue about her that wasn’t there before. “I’m sorry for what happened at the hotel.”
She shrugged. “Past is past,” she said, shoving me out the door. “Truth be told, I didn’t mind you showing a little backbone.”
She led us into the drippy room. “Grab some barriers,” Grandma plucked a handful of sodden quilt strips from a line above her head and shoved them at Dimitri. “The demons won’t be able to detect you until they see you. Tie them at your pulse points, where your blood flows the hottest. Grab extras, as many as you can carry.”
I hoped these things had cooled off a bit. I grabbed the end of a strip and felt like I’d dunked my fingers in a pot of liquid nitrogen. “Son of a daisy eater!” I yanked my hand back. There went my Wicked in Westchester fingernail polish, along with the first layer of skin. Holy hoo-doo. “What did you put in these things?”
Grandma’s lack of reaction betrayed her as much as the flush that crept up her neck. “I used an antidemonic spell.”
“Oh hell.” Fighting not to cringe, I turned my palms up.
Grandma ignored the angry red burns on my fingertips as she gripped my wrist and studied my marked palm. The swirling 6-6-6 had eaten its way deep into my skin, like a heavy scar, the edges still wrinkled and pink.
“You knew about this?” she shot at Dimitri.
The muscles in his jaw worked. “Of course I knew,” he said, his voice clipped. “I stayed with Lizzie.”
“Tell me about the mark,” I said, before this turned into a boxing match. “I’m counting on you to be straight.”
Her fingers bit into mine. “You want straight?” Her blue eyes burned hot and angry. “Here’s straight. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I snatched my hand away. “I didn’t do this.”
Grandma searched my face. “You sure?”
I held my palm over her, daring her to push me. “I think I would know if I chose to absorb demon powers or a devil’s mark or whatever the frick is happening to me.”
She shoved her chin forward, glaring at my upturned palm.
Grandma pursed her lips, blowing a long breath out of her nose. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to my grandbaby.” She shook her head, her anger draining. “I don’t know how or why you did it, but facts are facts. You opened a pathway.”
“There’s no way to prove that,” Dimitri countered. “We don’t know they’ve tagged her.”
Grandma raised a brow. “She reacted to my spell.”
“I’m also invisible to demons now,” I said, remembering the way they couldn’t detect me when they hadn’t seen me in the theater.
Grandma backed off like a doctor after a physical. She reached for a handful of Kool-Aid red quilt strips and scrubbed her hands. “When were you going to tell me about this?”
Like my favorite learn-on-the-job witch was going to tell me anything. Besides, I’d been trying to get her away from me, not involved more.
“Look, we aren’t here for protection.” At least I wasn’t. I glanced over at Dimitri, tying strips of fabric to each of Pirate’s legs. Something inside me fractured a little. I couldn’t even help my dog. “We need to channel Phil.”
“Ha! Is that all?” She tossed the strips onto the bed. “Can’t do it. Not after what happened when we called up Bloody Mary. They can see us,” she snorted, “me, anyway. It’d be suicide.”
Maybe she could teach me. I wouldn’t normally risk it, but we were running out of options here. “The demons are gathering because they have a portal open. They’re planning a power surge tomorrow night.”
Surprise brushed across her features. “You don’t know that,” she said, sinking onto the edge of the bed.
“Lizzie heard it herself,” Dimitri said, tying a strip to Pirate’s tail for extra protection. “Once they have six hundred sixty-six demons here, they’ll be able to open the portal wide. All hell’s going to break loose.”
Dimitri shoved a handful of strips into his pocket and sat next to Grandma on the drippy bed. “Phil is the key to stopping the demons tomorrow night. We need to find him.”
Her eyes widened. “And Pop said he’d never amount to anything,” she said, almost to herself. “ ‘Course that was the day he took apart Dad’s barbecue pit to make me a suit of armor. Kids can be cruel, ‘cept for your Uncle Phil.” Grandma gave an uncharacteristic sniff, buried in a cough.
We’d get him back. “I have the focus object,” I said pulling out the bow tie we’d used in our disaster of a ceremony at the Paradise hotel.
Grandma took it, careful not to touch me. “Don’t I wish we could make use of this again,” she said, twirling it around her finger. “Still, you know what happened when I tried to channel Phil the last time. Serena spotted me faster than green grass through a goose.”
Sure, we failed before, but that was before I had my mark. What good would my extra power be if I didn’t use it? “I can do it.”
“What?” Grandma and Dimitri said in unison. Oh good. They finally agreed.
It made perfect sense. “The demons can’t see me.” Grandma could tell me what to do. I was the only one who could do it.
Dimitri looked like he wanted to clamp his hand over my mouth. “It’s too dangerous,” he told Grandma. “We don’t even understand the mark.”
She nodded. “And Lizzie’s not a witch.”
Hello? Over here. “You let me in the coven.”
Grandma looked me up and down. “You’re too young,” she said.
“I’m thirty.”
“You don’t know how,” Dimitri added.
“Grandma can teach me.”
“Lizzie—” Dimitri began.
Enough. “Will you two stop agreeing? We know we have to act soon or we’re fried. Now is the time. Phil needs us. Dimitri, you need this.”
He shot off the bed. “Don’t you even think about sacrificing yourself for me.”
Mistake. “Okay, what about Vegas? The West Coast? The entire planet is screwed if they get that portal all the way open. This isn’t going away on its own and I—me—I have the power to stop it.”
Grandma raked the quilt strips through her hands.
“You know I’m right,” I said.
“Six hundred sixty-six. All coming tomorrow night.” Grandma had gone completely still. “Damned if I ever thought I’d see the day.” She swiped at the corners of her eyes. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. But you have to do exactly what I say.”
Chapter Twenty-three
With a grunt, Grandma launched herself off the bed and yanked open the outside door. “Frieda!” she hollered. The blonde witch rushed up in a jangle of plastic jewelry. “Get Scarlet.” She glanced back at me. “Prep the Cave of Visions. Have Sidecar Bob fetch up those armadillos from last night. We’re doing a channeling.”
Relief surged through me, mixed with acute paralyzing fear.
How was a demon slayer on a permit supposed to stop Armageddon?
Dimitri lo
oked as though he’d been punched in the stomach.
Grandma turned to us. “I wish I knew how to find some help for you, sport, but you’re it.” She checked her watch. “Ceremony starts at nine o’clock.”
That gave us an hour and a half to get ready. “Is that a magic time?” I asked.
“No. That’s about how long it’ll take Frieda to get to Wal-Mart and back.”
“Lizzie.” Dimitri touched me and I pulled back. Something bad was happening to me. Back on the bike, he hadn’t been able to drain me, but what if I could do it to him now?
The hurt registered in his eyes.
Grandma watched our exchange with an inscrutable expression.
Ant Eater ducked her head in the door. “Scarlet needs the skull for the cave, Frieda wants to know how many guppies you need, and—wait,” she leaned her head out the door, “and if you want fancy or plain guppies, and Sidecar Bob needs Pirate to help him unwrap eighteen dozen Twinkies.”
My dog hopped up like the place was on fire. “Twinkies? I can help with the Twinkies! I know all about snack cakes.”
“Fine. I’ll be there in a second,” Grandma said. “Now you two get.”
“Come on.” Dimitri took my hand and led me outside.
The warm desert air felt wonderful, especially after the antidemonic stench in Grandma’s cabin. I could still smell the acid of the protection strips Dimitri carried in his front pocket.
He tugged me onto a rocky trail that ran alongside the stables. Horses whinnied beyond the age-stained walls and the odor of fresh manure ran strong. Gargoyles circled in the moonlit sky, their staccato calls piercing the night.
“You need to be as powerful as you can for the channeling,” Dimitri stated, as if he was telling me to eat my vegetables.
I nodded. I knew I’d need everything I had.
“If I can take from you, I can give to you.”
“What?” I stammered. No way was I going to be like the succubi draining him, even if we could find a way for it to work.
“I’m a griffin. We are protectors. What good am I if I can’t protect what’s mine?”
I wasn’t going to debate the “mine” part, just the obvious point. “I’m not taking anything from you,” I said, running a hand along the rough-hewn boards as we walked.
“Regardless of what you think of me now,” Dimitri said, “I came here to help you. You need to learn how to accept it.” Dimitri scanned the horizon. “And me.”
“I don’t know, Dimitri.” He’d already risked too much.
“You created the connection when you gave me part of your essence. Now that I know it’s there, I can feel it. Trust me, Lizzie. Let me redeem myself.” I felt for the raw spot between us as he tugged me into his arms. “Let me save us.” His voice rumbled with promise.
What do you say to a man who is willing to give everything to you?
“Yes.”
The corners of his mouth tugged up, and he drew me in for a long, burning kiss. He smelled like sweat and work and rock-solid man.
I rubbed up against him and felt him stiffen.
Closing my eyes, I fought the urge to pull back.
I hated the demons for draining him, and now I was supposed to do the same? I felt my dark mark pulse. It wanted him. I did too, but not at the expense of who he was.
His lips brushed the tender spot at the back of my ear, my throat, my mouth. To think, if I failed, we might not have any of this. My kiss faded and he felt it. He drew back, a questioning look on his face.
“How will we know when to stop?” I asked.
He squeezed my hand. “I’ll know,” he said, his voice rough around the edges.
Hand in hand, we walked the trail, pebbles crunching under our boots.
“You don’t need to do this.”
Dimitri slid his arm around me as we wound down into a rocky canyon.
The dark mark pulsed with anticipation. I hoped he could trust me with his power. “You don’t know what could happen if we try this.” I slid my marked palm away from his. “I’m evil. Or at least I’m turning evil. I don’t know.” None of this made any sense.
He tipped my chin up. “Is that what you really think?”
I didn’t know anymore. It certainly hadn’t been good for Max’s last slayer.
Dimitri regarded me with a mix of amusement and chagrin. “I’m not going to lie to you. The devil’s mark is usually a bad sign.”
“Thanks,” I said, breaking his gaze. What kind of person was I to need a little support here?
“Hey,” he said, forcing my eyes back up. “Answer me this: Have you done anything evil since the mark? Anything the old Lizzie would regret?”
Things had certainly been different, but not anything Satan would get excited about.
And the way he looked at me… let’s just say I never thought it would be possible, before I met Dimitri. He simmered with all of the things he’d like to do to me and that I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed… but I would.
His mouth quirked. “I think the mark is your way of drawing closer to the danger than any of us would dare. It’s in your nature to give, Lizzie. Even when you don’t realize it. It can be your great weakness, or your strength. We’ll see.”
“And you think?” I asked, hoping there was a glimmer of the old Dimitri left, the man who believed in me more than I could have ever hoped.
“I know,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose, “you’re stronger than this.”
I caught his mouth and kissed him long and deep, this man who knew I was good. I knew there was good left in him too. “Are you ready?” I whispered.
“Always,” he said, slipping his hand into my marked palm.
“Evil is a choice. Drawing yourself close to the darkness, well, that’s what you do, Lizzie. True, you’re a demon slayer. But I’ve never heard of any other slayer looking at things quite the way you do.”
“Great, I’m unique.” My whole life I’d been training to fit in, and the one place I might actually belong, I learn I’m different from them too.
Dimitri smiled at that. I tried to return it. I scarcely deserved the man.
I leaned up against a flat rock, sheltered by a red rock overhang. The night was silent except for the sound of our footsteps. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“About what?” he asked, arms tense as he leaned next to me, facing the expanse of the canyon.
“After hell. I didn’t want you to know I saved you because I didn’t know what I felt about my life, about you, about anything. I couldn’t commit.”
He kept his eyes on the canyon ahead. “And now?”
Well, of course it would be different now. If he’d still have me.
“What? You’re not mad? I infused you with enough of my essence to save your life and screw up your griffin heritage and that’s it?” He had to be angry, because frankly, I was angry. It was stupid and wrong and even though I’d save his life all over again I’d at least give him the courtesy of telling him what I did. I’d trust him enough to level with him. “I left you open for a succubi attack. I should have been honest sooner, and that’s my mistake. But don’t sit here and pretend you’re not upset at all about this. At least respect me enough to tell me what you’re thinking.”
“So now I’m the one who screwed up?”
“I don’t want to pussyfoot around this.” Not if he was going to risk everything for me.
I’d lived my whole life being nice, doing the right things, saying the right things—even if they weren’t true. Well, not anymore. Sometimes, you gotta love somebody enough to tell them the ugly bald truth.
“You really want to get into this right now?” he asked.
Oh, I knew I’d be in the Cave of Visions in the next hour or so. I’d be in the crosshairs with all of my strength, and now, all of his. I knew I should probably spend my last moments with him making red-hot griffin love instead of poking him with a verbal fork, but this was more important.
He was more important.<
br />
He let out a jagged laugh, heavy with regret. “You want to know the truth? I’m actually okay with the fact that you didn’t tell me right away. I know I was pressuring you to leave things behind and head to Greece with me.” He dug a hand through his dark hair, making it spike awkwardly. “That’s why I didn’t tell you I loved you. I knew it would scare the hell out of you.” He braced his hands on his knees, as if he wasn’t quite ready to say what came next. “I know you hate what I do to protect you, Lizzie.” His face was unreadable in the moonlight, the set of his jaw intense. “And you’re not sure what I’m about to give you. But at some point, you have to relax a little, let go enough to accept the gift.”
The truth of it hit me hard. I couldn’t accept him or the Red Skulls or anybody. I’d wanted to do this on my own from the very start. Look where it had gotten me.
A little lizard scurried over a large rock to our left, noticed us and took off in the other direction.
“What did you see when I fought with Max?” he asked.
“I saw what happened when he died.” I told him about Sid the fairy and how he’d reversed time. “Like him or not, Max’s power is the only thing slowing them down. For now. If the demons reach six hundred sixty-six, or succeed in whatever they have planned tomorrow night, I’m afraid Max won’t matter anymore.”
“Neither will we.”
The cool desert air settled around my bare arms as I tried to remain stoic, resolved. I had one more question and it was worse than the fifth layer of hell.
“Those things I asked you before,” I said, throat dry. “I needed to know you’d be honest, because I need the truth about one more thing.” I willed myself to say what I’d feared since the minute we set foot in Vegas. “When are you going to decide it’s too much?”
His brows knitted. “I don’t understand.”
“This,” I said, holding up my marked palm. “When are you going to figure out that it’s too hard? Face it. I’m a pain in the butt. I mean, you love me, but you also get my crazy grandmother, a bunch of loudmouthed biker witches, demons that want to have you for lunch and a channeling that might not be too different from the last ceremony that sent us straight to hell.”
