But like last time, I’m covered in sweat and feel shaky.
I stagger to the bathroom and take a quick shower, feeling dizzy all the while. By the time I make it back into the bedroom to pull on the jeans and a T-shirt Grace sourced for me from the local thrift store, I’m almost feeling like myself again.
Well, like the new version of myself who’s weak and exhausted and vaguely nauseous at all times.
At least there are no bite marks on my neck, which seems to suggest that Malachi was right about the seraph bond trying to protect me in that dreamy place. I shouldn’t take it personally that my blood might be poisonous to my men, but I don’t like the thought at all. I enjoy their bites, and not simply for the orgasm that inevitably follows. Exchanging blood has become an intimacy that I don’t want to give up.
I glare down at my stomach. “You are a giant pain in the ass.”
“Talking to yourself is generally frowned upon.” Grace strides through the door and shuts it behind her. She looks as tired as I feel, circles beneath her eyes and her hair escaping its braid. She raises her eyebrows at me. “You look like shit.”
“I was just about to say the same thing about you.”
She shrugs. “Nothing more than the truth.” Grace drops onto the bed across from me. “I don’t suppose you have good news? Because all I have is bad.”
“Tell me.” I have a feeling she’s going to get sidetracked as soon as I tell her about Azazel. Beyond that, I’ve always been one who prefers the bite of bad news before the soothing of good news. My life has had little of the latter until recently, and certainly not enough to get used to it.
“He’s upped patrols from when you were last there. There are fewer gaps in his security than expected. There was also a large group of vampires who arrived today who seemed to be new, or at least not locals, based on how they were received.”
He’s pulling in his people. I should have expected as much, but it seems like such overkill, at least until I consider the value and strength of his captives. My father will be taking no risks with them. He wants them locked down and he’ll do whatever he has to in order to ensure it. “Well, shit.”
“Pretty much.” She pins me with a long look. “What happened while I was gone?” She keeps talking before I have a chance to respond. “Don’t bother to lie and say nothing happened because I know it did. There are blood stains on the floor and there’s still magic lingering in the air.”
I glance guiltily at the floor. “I thought I got it all.” Wait a damn minute. I whip around to look at her. “Since when can you see magic?” Now that I think about it, she mentioned something about it before, but I was too rattled from that first dream with Wolf to notice.
“Since always. Old family trick. Which is why I know you’re not anything as simple as a dhampir, though I’m not going to pry onthat. This?” She makes a circle with her finger to encompass the room. “Different story. You went into your dreams with those vampires again, didn’t you? But there’s something else.”
I drag in a breath. There’s no point in hiding the truth from her. If I can’t utilize Azazel, as least I can ensure she’s able to contact him. “I summoned the demon.”
37
Grace surprises me. Instead of practically tackling me to get more information, she pulls a sleeve of crackers out of her purse, hands them over, and waits until I tentatively nibble on one to start questioning me. “You summoned Azazel.”
“Yes. I tried the blood circle and it failed miserably, but he ended up showing up anyways.” I haven’t had a chance to think about that too closely, which was likely best. I can’t imagine Azazel noticed every time someone says his name. It isn’t common, but statisticallysomeonehad to use it occasionally in a way that had nothing to do with summoning the demon himself, which meant he was either close or he’s keeping an eye on me. Maybe he was hoping I’d change my mind about the original bargain and try to summon him without my men around.
The thought isn’t comforting in the least.
Another thing to add to the list of worries. I don’tthinkAzazel can force me to agree, but he seems overly invested in it. Maybe it’s just to mess with Wolf, but I can’t take anything for granted now. Maybe the demon simply has a quota of deals to meet. The thought is strangely hilarious.
“Mina.”
“Sorry. Right.” I shake my head, trying to focus. “He said he could help with getting Malachi, Rylan, and Wolf out, but he won’t budge on the terms of the bargain. It’s seven years’ service in another realm.” I sigh. “I can’t risk it. It’s not even about time moving differently. It’s about the bond. It might just flat out kill all four of us, which kind of defeats the purpose of rescuing them in the first place.”
It takes several long moments before I realize Grace hasn’t responded. I look over to find her staring off into the middle distance. “Grace?”
“Just thinking,” she says slowly. “Did you reject the bargain?”
“He’s coming tomorrow to collect his answer.” It speaks of long experience that he gives his marks time to consider the offer. It’s easy enough to reject something with such a high cost, but given enough time to realize how few options you have? Seven years begins to sound much more reasonable. “It’s not going to matter. I might be willing to pay the price of time, but I won’t pay with our lives.”
“We’ll think of something.” She still sounds strange, distant, as if her mind if jumping forward a thousand times faster than mine.
Considering how woozy I feel, that’s not saying much. I finish my cracker and set the package down, waiting for my stomach to decide if it will hold. I don’t have high hopes. Nothing stays down. I press my hand to my neck where Rylan bit me in the dream. It doesn’t feel any different, but I can’t get the memory out of my head. Even if my blood didn’t suddenly become poisonous, my vampires won’t agree to drink from me when they see how haggard I look. I hardly have blood to spare at this point.
“We keep saying that, but no solutions are magically appearing.” I look down at my stomach. If I had my magic under control… If I could even access it…
Then I think about how fierce Malachi was at the thought of my being pregnant. That was before it even happened. I press my hand to my stomach. If I lose them… My brain tries to shy away from the thought, but I force myself to power through. If I lose them, this baby might be my only connection to them.
Selfish thought. Horrible in so many ways. I still can’t shake it.