“Well, for one, me and Rome will smell the Hell-rot on him. Two, his eyes will be weird.” I shook my head. “They never get that part right. They always look like lizard eyes or something.”
“Oh. Okay, then. Right. Let’s move on to the next stop in this scavenger hunt. Are we close enough to walk from here?”
“Ten blocks or so.” I shrugged. “No problem for me. You?”
“Nah.”
“Here. You can be its keeper.” I handed her the bracelet, and she shook her head. “No, really. I got a feeling about it.”
She tried to argue, but I simply took her wrist and put it on her.
“Shouldn’t we tell someone who has Parvenah?” she asked as we started walking. “The wardens would want to rescue her, right?”
“Yeah, but the wardens as a whole are worthless so long as there’s a traitor on the Council.”And I wanna settle up with Og myself. In a very final way.“Let’s keep it between us for right now until I can think about it some more.”
“You know the players better than me, so I’ll trust your judgment.” Then she asked a question I’d expected as soon as we left Mammoth’s. “What was in that package to make the vampire react like that?”
“His wife, Crina. And I prefer the term alukah.”
I was a step and a half ahead before I realized she’d stopped and had to back up.
“His wife.” She leveled her eyes at me.
“An urn of her ashes. She’s fine, Mira. A few drops of blood and she’ll be back to normal. I didn’t kill her permanently.”
“Youkilled her?” she shrieked and several people glanced at her before hurrying on their way. “You … what? Staked her?”
“No. That would be permanent.” I rolled my eyes, holding on to my patience. “And I just said Ididn’tdo that. I fireballed her.”
When she gasped, I realized she didn’t know squat about leeches.
“Trust me, Boots, she was happy. As soon as I understood who she was, I racked my brain for ideas to get her outta there while not getting myself killed. I didn’t have much to work with and I was running outta time. It was the best I could do.”
“And who’s Caturix?”
“Her twin brother.” I curled my lip. “Him, Ididkill permanently.”
She stared at me for a full minute, then shook her head.
“You have led a very interesting life, my friend.”
“Gemma said I need to write a book. Maybe I will when I’m an old, old man.” I rammed my hands in my jacket pockets. “If I live that long. My heart’s gonna give out any day now.”
Mira lifted one hand, like she wanted to touch me. I went still, but she only held her fingers near my elbow.
“May I?”
It took me a second to understand she wanted to slip her hand through my arm.
I shrugged and she did what she wanted, then asked if I was good.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
As I escorted her up the street, I pretended she was someone else. She didn’t smell right, she was the wrong height, and her hair wasn’t red, but if I tried hard enough, I could pretend she was Gemma.
And for a second, I was content.
I didn’t do it to disrespect Mira in any way, but I knew who belonged on my arm.
