Chaos Bites Part 40

I swallowed. My throat appeared to be working just fine. "What I had to."

I patted my neck. Sore, but I'd healed enough to move, though the blood was still slick and plentiful. Not only was I going to need a shower and new clothes, but if Summer hadn't been a fairy, she'd need a wet vac and new wallpaper.

"You sold your soul to raise him," Summer said. She had gla.s.s in her hair; her shorts were torn. Other than that-not a mark on her. b.i.t.c.h.

"I didn't sell anything." I sat up, holding on to my head with both hands when it pounded like a snare drum. "I took."

Understanding flickered in Summer's eyes. "You f.u.c.ked a Nephilim."

I didn't bother to answer. I didn't want to answer. I didn't really need to.

"You are crazy."

"We need him."

"Not like that we don't," Summer muttered.

I didn't answer because I feared she was right.

"I never would have figured you for a wh.o.r.e," she said.

"No? I pegged you as one right away."

Summer snarled, the "otherness" beneath her pretty face escaping. Luther stepped between us.

"Stop," he said, and the voice was Ruthie's.

"You have got to be kidding me." Summer shoved Luther's shoulder, but she was looking at me. "You and Jimmy do the horizontal bop, shove your demons beneath the moon, and you turn around and s.n.a.t.c.h another one? Why the h.e.l.l did you bother? Did you just have to do him to prove you still could?"

I began to understand her hostility. Not that she'd ever been exactly friendly, but she was really on a roll tonight. Sanducci must have told her that we'd confined our demons.

"Moron," I muttered.

"Watch it." Summer's hands clenched.

I was going to say not you then figured, why bother?

"When Jimmy and I performed the spell I had no idea how to get Sawyer back."

"You have the guts to condemn me over what I did for Jimmy, but you did a lot worse."

"Worse?" I lifted one hand, palm up near my face. "Sell my soul?" I put the other, palm up, near my hip. "Screw a Nephilim?" Then I changed their positions a few times. "Yeah, what I did was definitely worse than what you did."

I was being sarcastic, but Summer nodded as if satisfied.

"Enough," Ruthie snapped. "We all do what we think is best at the time."

Luther's gaze met mine, his no longer hazel but deep brown. I knew Ruthie was thinking of the things she'd done, things that had hurt me and others. I understood her so much better now. h.e.l.l, I even felt an annoying camaraderie with Summer. The things we do for love.

Though I sympathized with the fairy, I couldn't help but point out, "I can confine the new demon. You're always gonna owe Satan a favor."

Summer's eyes widened. Luther sighed, shook his head, and cast me a disappointed glance. "Lizbeth."

"Well, it's true," I said. "Isn't it?"

"Suspect so," Ruthie agreed.

"Except you're gonna need someone who loves you to confine it, and Jimmy's gone," Summer sneered.

I stilled. "What was that?"

Summer appeared to have swallowed a rotten egg. "Nothing," she said, but her voice was strangled.

"I thought the plenus luna malum spell was a s.e.x spell."

"No, child," Ruthie murmured. "It's all about love."

"Did Jimmy know it was a love spell?"

Summer's lips tightened. She wasn't going to tell me.

"Of course," Ruthie murmured.

I thought of that night, of the candles and the incense, how strange it had been for Jimmy to use them.

"Pink candles," I blurted.

Summer scowled; Luther's eyebrows shot up.

"Conjures memories," Ruthie said.

Jimmy had been trying to bring back our memories of love. Had he been unsure of my feelings or his?

"Love is stronger than hate," Ruthie said, something she believed utterly, but about which I still had many doubts. "And s.e.x with love," Ruthie continued, "is the most powerful kind of magic."

I swallowed against the sudden tightness in my throat. Jimmy still loved me.

No wonder Summer wanted me dead.

On the heels of that thought came another. Summer and Jimmy had done that spell. I guess he loved her, too.

I couldn't be too angry. The only reason any of us was alive right now was because I'd loved- "Sawyer."

"He isn't going to be much use for a love spell," Summer observed. "Considering he tried to kill you." She tilted her head as an exaggerated expression of deep thought spread over her face. "But did he ever love you? Or did you just love him?"

I'd never been certain about that myself. Right now, though, I had a more important question. "Where is he?"

"Turned into a wolf and-" Luther's huge hands flipped upward in a very Ruthie-like gesture. "Disappeared into the mountains."

"Frick," I muttered. We were never going to find him there.

"I tried to warn you," Ruthie said.

"Consequences." I took a deep breath. "He isn't the same."

"He's exactly what he's always been."

I glanced up sharply. "You saw him. He's-"

"He's a skinwalker, child. He's always walked the line. The only thing that kept him from the dark side was you."

"Now he's crossed over?"

Luther's long finger slid slickly down the side of my neck then appeared in front of my face covered in blood. "What do you think?"

"Just because he's annoyed with me doesn't mean he's gone to the dark side," I muttered.

"I'd say tearing out your throat and leaving you for dead goes beyond annoyance," Ruthie returned.

I'd have to agree.

"You get any word from above about this?" I asked.

Ruthie's wise old eyes narrowed in Luther's bright young face. "Why you think I whispered 'skinwalker' to the boy? Sawyer's more Nephilim than human now."

"Nice job, Ace," Summer muttered.

"Can I kick her?" I asked.

No one answered. It had been rhetorical anyway.

Luther's head swung toward the front window just as headlights flashed.

"What is it?" I asked.

Ruthie breathed in deeply, let the air stream out slowly. "No evil vibes." Her lips tightened. "But I still don't like it."

Neither did I. It was late. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Stones crunched beneath tires. First the lights died, then the motor.

"I'll go." Luther had returned.

"Like h.e.l.l." I reached for him, and his lion rumbled.

"We go together or not at all," he said.

"Fine," I snapped.

I followed him into the hall, Summer at my back, only to discover the front door had been blown off its hinges.

Sawyer. He always did like to make an exit.

I stood between them, shoulder-to-shoulder on the porch, as two men climbed out of a pickup truck. They were white, not Navajo.

Stranger and stranger. We were deep in Navajo country and as I'd said, it was late.

"Evening." The nearest one to me pushed back the brim of his hat. He was about thirty. Nothing special, unless you counted his total forgettableness. He was dark; the other was blond and just as forgettable.

The blond looked between me and Summer then settled on me. "You Liz Phoenix?"

"Who wants to know?"

"We're just delivery boys."

"It takes two?"

"We heard you might be . . ." The blond's voice trailed off.

"Unhappy," the dark man finished.

I liked this less and less by the minute.

"Who sent you?"

"Don't know. Instructions and package came US mail."

"And you just do what you're told?"

The blond appeared confused. "That's what we do."

I found no point in continuing this. They'd said they were delivery boys. Add to that the lack of a demon "buzz" on both mine and Luther's part, as well as Ruthie's dearth of info, and I found myself believing them.

"Better hand it over," I said.

The blond came forward with a brown-paper-wrapped box. When he reached the bottom of the steps, Luther moved in front of me. The guy took one glance at the kid's face and tossed it the rest of the way. I hoped whatever rested inside wasn't breakable.

By the time I bent and retrieved the package, the two men had climbed back in the truck.

"They were human." Luther watched them leave. "One hundred percent."

"That way we don't feel them coming."

"But they were only delivering"-he waved his hand in my direction-"whatever that is."

"If they'd been Nephilim, we'd have killed them." Luther nodded. "You think-" His gaze turned to the taillights of the pickup. "You think they sent people after Faith this time, too?"

"Maybe," I said.