Read Online Bitten in Two by Jennifer Rardin - Free Book Online Page A

time in your life. He’s mine, Kyphas. I’m not leaving him. And I’m going to bring him back. He deserves that from me.”
    I didn’t react when I caught the movement of her hand out of the corner of my eye. She’d banged the tahruyt against her thigh hard enough to transform it into a sword whose shape I recognized immediately. Straight at the top, curved and tapered at its razor-sharp bottom, the flyssa was a local creation, especial y beautiful because of the brass design inlaid along its spine. The pommel of Kyphas’s blade, shaped like a bird of prey, flashed its ruby eye at me as she raised her hand.
    “I can alter your prediction,” she said. “See what I know?” she drawled as I watched the blade approach my throat. “You can die now, even if you are Eldhayr. One short stroke and I can send you straight to hel .”
    “Yeah, I’ve only got one life left. But neither of us believes you could Pit me. Besides, I’ve already escaped once. Don’t think you could keep me there, even if you tricked me into dropping in temporarily.” My smile widened as I saw her eyes flash toward my white curl, winding among its red neighbors along the right side of my face, providing evidence that I hadn’t just fil ed her ful of crap. Not that hel gets much in-and-out traffic, but those of us who do go in and then receive the touch of a family member come back with a memento that no brand of hair dye can disguise.
    She dropped the sword. Her smile gave her face a beauty-queen shine. She said, “I had to try. No offense?” I shrugged. “It’s who you are.”
    “You weren’t afraid I would cut you?”
    “You’ve already signed a contract agreeing not to hurt anyone in Vayl’s Trust. I know how demons are bound.”
    “You understand us, do you?”
    “It’s part of my job.”
    She smiled again, sisterly, like her next move might be to hug me. I shoved my other hand into my pocket in case she decided to fol ow through. Instead she jerked her head toward the chandelier and the light sputtered out, leaving us in almost total darkness. I yanked out my bolo, but it wasn’t necessary. Al she did was lean forward and whisper, “Then you’l appreciate why I set you up for this next bit.” She kissed me, peck, on the cheek, and ran up the stairs.
    I stood with my back against the stairway wal, its tiles so cool I could feel them through the thin material of my dress.
    That’s why I’m chilled , I told myself as Cole and Vayl walked out of the lounge and came to stand at the bottom of the stairs.
    “Berggia,” Vayl said, his smooth baritone more hesitant than I’d heard it the nearly ten months we’d worked together. “I did have a favor to ask of you now that your wife has gone up for the night.”
    “Yes, sir?”
    “Do you remember the first evening we arrived here?” Drol humor in Cole’s voice as he replied, “That’l be tough to forget.”
    “Yes, you and Madame Berggia seemed quite confused at first. Of course, long periods of travel wil do that to anyone. But then you insisted we play that game with the smal portraits. Remember? You showed me several and asked me to respond if I recognized any of them.” I remembered. The panic. Near desperation.
    Bergman’s idea to show Vayl familiar photos, every face we could find online, from vampires he’d lived with in the Grecian Trust, to mass murderers he’d disposed of in the thirties, to members of our present crew.
    Cole said, “Yeah. Did you want to play the game again? Do you think—”
    “No.” Impatient. Almost like, Get with the program, dammit. In fact, I’d be ecstatic if you could read my mind so I wouldn’t have to say this out loud. Vayl rubbed the back of his neck. Stretched his shoulders. Final y blurted it out. “I am interested in meeting a woman.” I stopped breathing.
    Cole said, “Madame Berggia is making your appointment with the Seer in the morning—”
    “No!” Deep breath. “I want an entirely different sort of