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“Delilah, stop. Camil e and I had a long talk. She’s dealing with this—and there were extenuating circumstances that forced Vanzir’s hand. It was a bad situation, no matter how you looked at it, and neither one had much say in the matter. Vanzir’s feeding got away from him and Camil e made a choice.”
Delilah was shaking—I could see the tremors in her hand. She slowly took her seat, glowering at Vanzir. “What did Tril ian and Morio say?” Then a look of stark terror fil ed her face. “Oh Great Mother, what the hel do you think Smoky’s going to do? This isn’t something that you can keep from him.”
“We kind of figured that out, and hel . . . I don’t know. I’m thinking we should send Vanzir away for a little while until Camil e has a chance to talk to Smoky and smooth things over. We could send him to Otherworld for a little while, or to stay with Grandmother Coyote.”
Vanzir shook his head. “I can’t stay with her, she scares the crap out of me. I could stay with a friend in the Demon Underground.”
“Speaking of the Demon Underground, I’ve seen it.” Again, with Vanzir’s help, I outlined what we’d found below the surface. Once again, Delilah looked like she was seriously thinking of throttling Vanzir.
“You didn’t think to tell us about it? You didn’t tel them that the shadow men were guardians?
You put everybody at risk—” She hung her head, and when she raised it, I could see Panther staring through her eyes.
“Pul it in, babe. Pul it in—Vanzir has reasons. Maybe not the best, but he does have reasons.
Remember, we watch every thought about him. You don’t want to do something that cannot be undone.” The soul binder around Vanzir’s neck al owed us to kil him with a single directed and prolonged thought. I waited until her breathing softened.
Iris frowned. “You know . . . let me check something.” She stood and crossed to Vanzir, placing her hands on his shoulders and closing her eyes. After a few moments, she stood back, staring at him. “It’s gone. The soul binder is gone. ”
He hung his head again and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I know. It vanished when my powers vanished. I’m free of your Subjugation spel .”
“Why didn’t you tel me? I’ve been trying to defend you, to keep Delilah from kil ing you with her anger.” I pushed to my feet, staring at him from across the table. “Vanzir, what the fuck’s going on?”
“And what would you have done if I’d told you?” He stood and leaned across the table. A smug look clouded his face, but beneath it, I could see the hints of worry. “When your sister’s goddess stripped away my powers, the soul binder went with it. I’m free. But I’m stil here. After what happened with Camil e, I know it’s going to be hard to trust me again, but I’m stil here and I’m wil ing to stay and play by your rules.”
I gazed into his eyes. The whirling kaleidoscope flickered by, a never-ending parade of indescribable colors. “You’re stil wil ing to fight with us, even without your powers? Even though you aren’t bound to us?”
He nodded. “Even more so now. This is my choice. I owe it to Camil e for what I did to her. I owe it to you for the fact that you spared me. I may have kept the Demon Underground secret, but they’re al against Shadow Wing, so real y, did it harm you? Does it have anything to do with your war against the Unravel er?”
Delilah answered for me. “No. No, it doesn’t . . . but from now on, you be straight with us. We may not be able to put you under a death threat about it, but we can certainly kil you with our hands rather than our minds.”
Vanzir smiled then, dropping back into his chair and crossing one leg. “Puddy-tat, I would expect nothing less than that. I’m in, if the big lizard doesn’t tear me to shreds. Camil e . . .” A pained look crossed his face. “I’l always regret what I did, but some things cannot be undone. She and I knew that . . . at the end.”
The room was silent for a moment, then I slowly told them about everything that had happened with Morio and my blood, and how Wade and I had chased Charles through the tunnel and the explosion. By the time I was done, we were al exhausted.
“Camil e said she’l be home later today,” Iris said, clearing the teacups and saucers from the table. “Let’s hope things look up from here out.”
“Yeah,” I said, heading toward my lair. Delilah and Shade had retired to their rooms upstairs.
Vanzir was gone, out to the shed. “Iris, does it feel like things are fal ing apart to you?”
She shook her head, slowly. “No, dear, things are simply evolving. Rest. Let go of the day.
Tomorrow night things may seem brighter. Go now and sleep.”
And, taking her words as gospel, because I couldn’t afford not to, I obeyed.
CHAPTER 23
When I woke, I could hear the commotion al the way down in my lair. I threw back my covers, slipped into jeans and a blue turtleneck, pul ed on my boots, and headed upstairs. The noise didn’t sound like it was coming from the kitchen, so I took a chance and slipped through the hidden entrance to my nest. I was right. Whatever was going on was confined to the living room.
I raced in to find that Smoky had returned. For a moment I thought he was going after Vanzir, but the dream-chaser demon was nowhere in sight. Smoky was ranting, and Camil e and Tril ian were trying to calm him down.
“Hey, bro, good to see you. What the fuck’s al the commotion about? Where’s Roz?”
“Rozurial is resting.” The six-four dragon turned to me, and his eyes could have frozen my heart if it had been stil beating. “My father, that’s what the commotion is about.”
Camil e looked petrified. She gave me a slow shake of the head. “Hyto . . . he tried to kil Smoky’s mother and when the guards caught him and put a spel of banishment on him, the last thing he said was that he’s coming to punish the one responsible.”
