“So Azerius is truly dead?” he asked. “Not just banished or… I don’t know. Blasted through one of the veils into another realm?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” she replied, glancing at her glossy black fingernails, “but your trick with the blade essentially blasted him into his own asshole. So yes, Azerius—King of Blood and Ravens, He Whom Before All Mortals Weep, He Who Has Too May Damn Names to Remember—is truly dead.”
A wave of relief washed over Gabriel, a modicum of tension easing from his shoulders.
He wouldn’t fully relax until he had Jacinda back in his arms and they’d safely returned to Ravenswood, but if the mother was telling the truth about Azerius, that was certainly cause for celebration. A deep breath, at the very least.
“You don’t seem all that broken up about it,” he said.
“Azerius? Please. His ‘burn first, ask questions never’ policy is the reason we’ve been stuck here for untold millennia. If that demon had shown even a shred of diplomacy justonetime in his entire cursed existence…” She glanced up at Gabriel, her grin stretching wide once more. “Well. You and I would be having this conversation inyourbackyard rather than mine.”
“Doubtful.”
She shrugged and returned her attention to her fingernails. “Anyway, unless you’ve got another demonic nuke up your sleeve, I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait her out. She’ll be along eventually. Seems she can’t stay away fromyoufor very long, devil only knows why. Personally, I find your company quite dreadful.”
“The feeling is mutual, I assure you. And while I’m more than happy to wait her out, there’s no need for you to do the same. Jacinda and I are leaving the moment she gets back.”
“Leaving?” Her mouth rounded in shock, as if the idea of Jacinda wanting to escape this place was the craziest notion the bitch had ever heard. “Surely Jacinda will want to see her mother.”
“Sorry, mum. No time for teary family reunions. So feel free to fuck off back to whatever hole you slithered out of and leave us both in peace.”
She folded her arms across her chest, anger flickering in her eyes. “Iwillsee my daughter, vampire. We haven’t even exchanged a single word in seven years.”
“She’ll send you a postcard when she gets back home.”
“Home?” The demoness threw her head back and laughed again, but this one wasn’t flirtatious. This one slithered down his spine like a hundred serpents, the itch at the base of his skull turning into a burn. “Oh, you poor dear. Didn’t she tell you about the contract?”
The word sent Gabriel’s heart into overdrive. “Contract?”
“Even if I wanted to let her leave, I can’t.” The mother shrugged. “Rules are rules.”
“You just told me you haven’t exchanged so much as a word with her in years. How the bloody hell did she manage to sign a contract?”
“Shedidn’t sign it. Her father did.”
“You don’t mean…” His mind raced, trying to figure out what the hell she was on about. What was it Jacinda had said about her last day here? “The deal her father made to save her when she turned eighteen? His soul for her freedom?”
“Ah, so shedidtell you.”
“That deal was honored seven years ago.”
Her eyes shone with malice. Victory. “Was it?”
“Speak plainly, demon, for fuck’s sake.”
“You know what they say. The devil is in the details.” She looped an arm through his again and sighed, as if this news pained her as much as it was about to pain him. “The terms were clear. Jacinda would only earn her freedom if her father pledged his eternal soul to me in hell. Unfortunately, he’s no longer in hell, is he?”
“You have got to be fuckingkiddingme.”
“It’s a binding agreement, vampire. You know, as difficult as it is to watch your child leave the nest, I do realize Jacinda is a grown woman now. It’s not a mother’s place to interfere with her daughter’s choices at this stage of life. At the same time, the bond between a mother and child will always outlast any other. A mother sacrifices so much just to bring her child into this world. I don’t expect you to understand—vampires can’t produce offspring, of course. But being a parent… Well, it certainly gives you a whole new perspective on eternity…”
The woman went on waxing poetic about motherhood, but Gabriel was no longer listening, every word evaporating in the smoky air while the pain in his head intensified, leaking down into his heart.
More than anything, he wished he still had the Blade of Azerius. Wished he could bind her, smite her, exorcise her,anythingto render this so-called contract null and void and protect the woman he loved from so much as one more terriblesecondin this woman’s presence.
His fangs sliced through his gums, piercing his lower lip, drawing blood. His heart continued to pound its furious beat. His hands trembled and itched with the need to wrap around this woman’s throat and press the bloody life out of her…
But then, amid his dark and fiery rage, an image flickered into view in Gabriel’s mind, and all that red-hot anger evaporated.
