“But… ten minutes?”
How was that possible? It wasn’t even noon when she’d shuffled those cards. She glanced around now, noticing how dark everything had gotten. Music she hadn’t heard earlier drifted to her ears. Two other bartenders were already setting up behind the bar, chatting with one of the cocktail servers.
Gabriel rose to his feet, handing over her cards. She plastered on a smile, trying to ignore the sight of his tie, trying to calm the wild thing hammering in her chest. When she reached for the cards, their fingers brushed, the contact making her flinch.
The vampire took a step closer and grinned. “Don’t tell me my dark little witch is afraid of Death.”
She glanced down at the cards, Death’s white corpse staring up at her. The words whispered through her mind, a dry wind scraped across ancient ice.
Vita mutatur, non tollitur.
Life is changed, not taken away.
“Jacinda.”
She met the vampire’s eyes again, green and mysterious. His brows pinched together with something that looked like genuine concern, and he reached for her face, tucking a lock of loose hair behind her ear, the touch making her shiver.
Making her want.
She pulled back, tucking away her cards. “I’m not afraid of anything, Prince.”
Gabriel only nodded, his eyes as veiled as the answers she so desperately sought.
Chapter Sixteen
Vita mutatur, non tollitur.
Hours later, the whispers still haunted her. Still eluded her.
Life is changed, not taken away. The dead shall rise. The dead shall return.
Pouring three glasses of cabernet for one of her cocktail servers, Jaci thought again of the cards—Three of Knives, Death, Ten of Knives.
Blood and vengeance. A severed heart.
Death. Resurrection.
Blood on the sheets. Betrayal.
She slid the wine glasses across the bar, then turned to toss the empty bottle into the recycling bin.
The dead shall rise. The dead shall return.
Vita mutatur, non tollitur.
Blood on the roses. Blood on the sheets. Blood on the snow. Blood on the grave.
Blood… Was that it? No. It couldn’t be that simple.
Sure, the Redthorne blood was connected to Viansa’s power—that’s how the demon was able to momentarily slip into Gabriel’s body. His blood and Jaci’s spell had essentially summoned her, and Jaci was already thinking about how to work that knowledge into her spell. If she could summon Viansa here again, and somehow trap her in a different vessel long enough to do the binding, she wouldn’t have to travel to hell to hunt the bitch down. She could trap her here, force her to reveal the location of her dad’s soul, and send Meech to retrieve him.
But there was more to it than blood—there had to be. Blood could draw the demon here, but it wasn’t strong enough to hold her on its own, and it certainly wasn’t strong enough to totally bind her powers.
Jaci closed her eyes, conjuring the images of the cards in her mind, chasing them down the dark hallways of her memory.
Blood and vengeance. A severed heart. Death. Resurrection. Blood on the sheets. Betrayal.
The dead shall rise. The dead shall return.
