Chaos Bites Part 14

Quickly I told him about the men in the motel room-what they'd known, what they hadn't, and what Sawyer-be he dream or vision-had said.

"They're after her because of who she will become," Jimmy repeated.

I spread my hands. "I promised to protect her."

"Then do it."

"I am!"

Summer, Luther, and Faith turned their heads toward us as my voice carried. Summer frowned and began to get up. Luther murmured something and pulled her back down. That she let him was quite a surprise. I wasn't sure what there was between the boy and the fairy, but they had connected the first time they'd met. Kind of like the baby and the fairy. I wondered if Summer was using magic.

I lowered my voice. "I have to find that skinwalker, Jimmy. Ruthie said Faith would be safe with you. You think I'd ask this of you if I had any other choice?"

His dark eyes stared into mine. He was so d.a.m.n beautiful. My gaze lowered to his mouth. He could do amazing things with that mouth. Once Sanducci and I had spent hours just kissing. I missed that.

Our breath became shallow. His gaze lowered as well. He took a step forward, and I stopped breathing altogether.

But he caught himself before we could touch, backed up, and lifted his face to the sun. "I wish things could be the way they were," he murmured. "I want to forget, Lizzy, but I can't. Every time I look at you I see what hides beneath that collar."

My demon. He hated it. And since that demon resided in me . . . well, you do the math.

"I don't know what you want from me, Sanducci. You're p.i.s.sed because I love Sawyer, but you don't want me to love you, either."

"I didn't say that." His lips twisted. "I want you to love me; I just don't know if I can love you back."

"Bite me," I muttered.

He turned away, but not before I saw the haunted expression on his face. "Already did."

There wasn't much I could say to that. He'd bitten me; I'd bitten him. We'd both become vampires, and there was no going back.

"Hold on." I reached out and grabbed his arm, got a jolt as soon as I did.

Images washed over me-of us as kids, teens, young adults, in bed, out of bed, under the bed. I caught a hint of our dreams-the home, the family-those things we'd never had and now, never would.

Those thoughts were replaced by the memory of me as a vampire-lying to Jimmy, seducing him, and worse. I yanked my hand free and rubbed it on my jeans.

He was right. I didn't know if we could ever get past that. Our love was all tangled up with the guilt, the l.u.s.t with the blood, the hope with the hatred, the dreams with the fear.

I stuck my hands in my pockets so I wouldn't be tempted to touch him again. "Will you keep Faith safe?"

"Sounds like the t.i.tle of a Sunday sermon."

"Jimmy." He was avoiding an answer as well as my gaze.

"I'm no good with kids, Lizzy."

"She's not a kid."

"I'm no good with baby shape-shifters, either."

"What's up with you?" I asked softly. "I've asked you for worse things, Jimmy, than watching over a kitten-kid."

"And I gave you every one."

Something in his voice made me swallow hard against a sudden thickness in my throat. When I had myself under control, I murmured, "What's one more?"

CHAPTER 13.

"Hasn't he done enough?"

Summer had left Luther and Faith behind and fluttered over to horn in on our conversation.

"Yes," I said.

She'd opened her mouth to argue, but when I agreed, she shut it again. Summer had no more idea how to handle me when I was being pleasant than I'd know how to handle her if she were.

"But I still need his help and I have to leave, preferably today."

"He wants to keep you from leaving"-she shot Jimmy a disgusted glare-"by giving you a hard time about babysitting. Try to keep up."

Well, duh. That made sense.

"So have a nice trip," Summer said. "Try not to die."

"I never knew you cared."

"I don't. Problem is, you die and we've got Doomsday-new leader of the darkness, death, destruction, crack in h.e.l.l's doorway, and so on. I'm bored."

"Yeah, it does get old. I'll try not to get killed and ruin your life. Getting back to the baby . . ."

"I'll watch her."

Actually, that worked. Summer might look like a pet.i.te, blond rodeo groupie, but she was dangerous. She also had a virtual fortress in New Mexico.

"You'll bring her to your cottage?" I asked.

"Of course."

"And Luther?"

"Wouldn't leave without him."

"What about-?"

We both turned to Jimmy. He stared back at us with no expression.

"I could knock him over the head and take him, too," Summer mused.

Yeah, that oughta work.

"Got any gold chains?" I asked.

"Not on me."

"I have some in the trunk of the car that you can borrow."

"Good ones?"

"Worked on me."

"That'll do."

Jimmy lifted his eyebrows. "You through?"

"You going back to New Mexico with Summer the easy way or the hard way?"

Now his eyebrows shot downward, and his fingers curled into his palms. "I'd like to see you try it."

"I'd like to see me try it, too." I took a step forward, spoiling for a fight. Sometimes that was the only way to feel human these days.

But Jimmy shook out the tension in his hands and held one up. "There are a lot of people-or un-people," he conceded when I took a breath to correct him, "that are after this child and we don't know why."

"Do we know who?" Summer cast a glance at Luther and the kitten, but they lay on a small patch of gra.s.s watching the clouds drift by and paying no attention to us, or at least pretending not to.

"Not really," Jimmy answered, then explained all that had happened at the motel.

"Why send humans?" Summer asked.

"That appears to be the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question," I murmured.

"No," Summer said slowly. "It's pretty clever. You didn't get a read on them. No whisper from Ruthie. No buzz. Because they're human." Her perfect pink lips tightened. "Brilliant."

"Except most humans would be hamburger if they tried it."

"If they were unprepared, as most humans are. But these weren't," Summer said. "We're going to have to stay on our toes. This could be the new norm."

"Hiring human hit men?"

"I bet they do it again."

"Frick," I muttered.

Summer laughed. "Frick? Since when do you watch your language?"

"Since-" I jerked a thumb at the kids.

"Oh."

"I-uh-better go." All of a sudden I didn't want to, and I wasn't sure why. Summer drove me insane; Jimmy wasn't much better. The baby, cute as she was, made me nervous. The only one I could stomach lately was Luther, and I had to leave him behind.

I headed for the Impala. Luther hailed me before I got there, and I made a detour over the crunchy August gra.s.s toward him and Faith.

Luther stood. "They gonna watch her?"

"Summer is." Luther nodded, as if he'd expected nothing else, then headed for the Impala.

"Whoa, big guy." I put a hand on his arm, got a flash of lions roaring, teeth and claws flailing, blood flying, before I yanked away.

I needed to do a better job of shielding myself or I was going to blow a blood vessel one of these days. I used to be much better at it, but my mind was so full of . . . everything else, sometimes I lost my focus.

"You can't go," I finished.

"Like h.e.l.l." Luther started for the car again.

"I'm serious."

He didn't stop. "Me too."

Faith began to bound after him, and I s.n.a.t.c.hed her right out of the air with both hands. She hissed, but when I snapped, "Knock that off," she did.

I tucked the kitten under my arm like a football and went after Luther. I caught him as he opened the pa.s.senger door and slapped my palm against it to keep it closed. "No," I said. "I have to go alone."

"Every Nephilim on earth is gunning for you."

"They have been for a while now."

"I can't let you leave without me." His kinky long hair fell over his face. "We're partners. How will you know what's coming at you and when?"

I took a breath, glanced up at the bright blue sky, then let it out. "I'll manage." Although I wasn't sure how. "Besides, the new SOP appears to be sending well-informed humans. You won't feel them coming, either."

"Two is always better than one," he insisted, then more quietly, "You wouldn't let me go off alone."

"I'm not sixteen."

That brought his head up. His hair flew back. His eyes flared amber. "Neither am I."

My head gave a low, painful thump. I was so not having this argument again. A distraction was in order.

I glanced over my shoulder conspiratorially. Jimmy was watching us, no expression on his face, but Summer was occupied digging through the rear end of the Hummer, probably searching for something that might kill me.