Assuming she could survive the next five minutes.
Assuming she could find another spell.
Assuming a lot of things.
“Aww, what’s wrong, baby?” Viansa made an exaggerated pout. “Did my unexpected arrival throw a kink in your plans to ride off into the sunset with your vampire boy-toy? I mean, I get it.” She glanced at Gabriel, still struggling to get out of bed, and let out a low whistle. “I wouldabsolutelyhop on that cock if he were mine. Actually, what am I saying? He is mine!”
She stripped out of her dress and sauntered toward the bed, but Jaci was faster, hitting her with a blast of hellfire that sent her sprawling.
Bad idea.
Viansa was on her feet in a heartbeat, her own hellfire flickering black in her hands as she charged toward Jaci with a look of vengeance Jaci knew all too well.
But once again—impossible, beautiful, jaw-dropping—Gabriel was faster. He blurred between them, slamming Viansa into the wall so hard the plaster cracked.
“You won’t touch her again,demon.” Gabriel pinned her against the wall by the throat, her feet six inches off the ground, her naked flesh glimmering with a sheen of sweat.
“Mmm, you like it rough, vampire? I can teach you a thing or two.”
“Leave him alone,” Jaci said, ready to lay into her with another fireball, but Gabriel pushed her back, keeping her tucked behind him with one hand, the other still wrapped around Viansa’s throat.
“How the fuck did you get here, demon?” he demanded.
Still pinned to the wall, Viansa shrugged her shoulders and let out a high, false giggle. “Lab Rat didn’t tell you?”
Gabriel turned to look at Jaci over his shoulder, but she didn’t have the answers, only speculation. Was it the mages? Some other scheme her sister had been cooking up? Something to do with Meech?
“She summoned me, silly!” Viansa announced. “A splash of your blood, a few Tarot cards, demonology 101 really. Oh! I forgot the best part. I mean, there were some other steps after that—a few human sacrifices, a bunch of dark mages doing my bidding, a vampire who can’t say no—but it all started with your blood.”
Gabriel dropped her, letting her hit the ground. “Explain.”
Viansa laughed, sending shivers down Jaci’s spine. “Nah, I think I’ll let her do it.”
Gabriel turned to look at Jaci again. The moment he took his eyes of Viansa, the succubus charged at Jaci, knocking her to the floor.
Her vampire reacted fast, but this time, Viansa was faster. She hadn’t even moved, hadn’t even glanced in his direction, but suddenly Gabriel was immobilized, dropping to the floor in a graceless heap.
“Let him go, Viansa,” Jaci demanded, scrambling to her feet. “You’re here for me. So fucking end it. End it!” Her voice shook with rage, with all the things Viansa had put her through, with all the terrors she had yet to unleash. Jaci couldn’t beat her here, not without the right magic. Not without backup. “End it!”
Viansa glanced at her red-lacquered fingernails and shrugged, as if Jaci had just asked what she wanted for lunch.
After an endless sigh, she finally looked up and said, “You know, it’s the funniest thing, Jay. All this time, I had a plan. Get topside. Turn boy-toy’s mind to mush and fuck him until he turned to ash, then do the same to every one of his brothers, then drag you back to hell and spend the rest of eternity paying you back for leaving me.”
“Leavingyou? Viansa, you—”
“But now that I’m here,” she said, holding up a hand to shut Jaci up, “I think I might hang out a bit. Check out the sights, see what I’ve been missing out on all these millennia.” She picked up her dress, slithered back into it. Did a little shimmy. “Damn, it feels so good to stretch my legs.”
“Hang out?” Jaci asked, incredulous. Her half-sister was already headed for the door. “Hang out? Check out the sights? Viansa, where the fuck are you going?”
“Nowhere. Everywhere. I don’t know.” She turned to grace Jaci with one more cruel grin, dropping her voice to a menacing whisper. “But I’m sure we’ll catch up again,realsoon. Ta!”
The moment she was gone, the thrall broke, and Gabriel got to his feet.
Jaci ran to him, reached for him, but he held out a hand to stop her.
And in that one gesture, that one small movement, Jaci saw the end of it all.
“The demon said she’d let you explain,” Gabriel said, cold and detached. “I suggest, little moonflower, you make it compelling.”
