"I don't know," she demurred. "I don't want to go back in there."
"No sane person wants to fight," Justin murmured, and brushed the bangs out of her eyes. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "Trust me. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to put a block on your sense of smell. No tricks, no hidden suggestions, nothing, I swear it."
She pulled in a deep breath of clean air. "You swear it?"
"I swear," he said, and held out his right pinky finger. "I pinky swear it."
"Oh, well then, that makes it okay," she said, confused, and linked pinky fingers with him.
Justin smiled. "Just look into my eyes," he murmured. "I don't have a lot of time, and I'll need your cooperation. Keep yourself open and look into my eyes." Justin sent into her mind the suggestion that she not smell anything and that every breath she took felt like clean, pure air, giving her energy. He also gave her the suggestion that her sense of smell would return to normal at the rising of the sun.
When the pain in her eyes eased, he smiled. "There. All done. Now, let's go in there and kick some vampire ass."
She jumped up, looking refreshed. "Ready when you are."
The two went back into the building.
Vampires were everywhere. "Can you conjure fire?" Justin shouted to Maggie. She smiled.
"First lesson I ever learned."
"Then get to it, woman. Vamp on your left." He watched as she turned, pulled a fireball out of nowhere, and threw it at the middle of the strike zone as if she were pitching for the Dodgers.
The vamp brushed at the fire with a comical look of disgust just before it went up in smoke. Young, and not too bright, mused Justin as he pulled his blades from the holster on his back. He moved to Maggie's back and swiftly dealt with the two young girls approaching him, blood in their eyes.
Soon Justin was too busy with vampires of his own to destroy to keep more than an occasional eye on her.
Rose pulled herself together after her foray through the rubble. Her hand brushed over her head, reminding herself that she was in demon form, complete with tiny horns on either side of her forehead.
How bizarre. She craned a look over her shoulder and saw the tiny wings that Gabriel had told her about. He was right, useless for flying, but yeah - cute. Even as she was cataloguing all the changes her body had gone through - yep, spots and fur - ugh, hooves? - another part of her mind checked out where she'd appeared.
It was colder down here, the scent of fire more distant, as if it hadn't had time to penetrate this far before it had been put out. The space was tiny, too—not much room to even turn about at the end of a stairwell. But there, at her right hand, huddled Satine, her head on her knees, pale arms wrapped around her bare legs.
Her mouth flooded with fiery satisfaction. "Satine."
But the vampire didn't move. Rose frowned. Bent to touch her shoulder. "Satine." Rose shook her, tilted her head back. Her eyes were open, but blank.
Puzzled, Rose took a step back. "Well, hell. Are you dead? No, I can't believe that. A dead vampire doesn't have a head, I think. Hmm." She could feel Mephisto in her head, chuckling at her thoughts.
"Oh, shut up. I'm doing the best I can," she growled. "I can't just burn her up while she's—whatever is wrong with her," complained Rose. "That just isn't fair."
Since when is killing a vampire based on fairness?
"She is my cousin," Rose pointed out.
She stole your soul. Don’t ever forget what she put you through.
Trust me, it’s something I’ll never forget.
Mephisto chuckled.
Plus, she’d love to drink your blood. Why give her any chance? Family blood is the closest to their own and so provides them with their greatest strength.
"Now you tell me." Rose pulled her thoughts together. "I’d better grab Gabriel’s soul while I have the chance." Rose shed her fire demon and knelt in front of Satine. Her stomach roiled with the change. Stubbornly, she swallowed and ignored the nausea. "Here goes nothing." Rose closed her eyes, reached out and touched Satine's chest.
"Gabriel Caine," she whispered. "Where are you?"
A howling filled her mind. Faces of people she'd never met flipped by like an old-fashioned movie even as their souls streamed into her easily, quietly. She waded through them, a salmon swimming upstream, anxious to reach Gabriel's soul.
Individual stories battered her mind, pushed against her, desperate for her attention. Stubbornly, she kept only one name in her mind. One face in front of her.
As she drew nearer to Gabriel's soul, it glowed golden. Rose could feel a smile break out on her face as she beckoned it. The glow came toward her, flowed into her as so many others had in the past few seconds. This time was different. Her chest tightened and her heart labored as the pieces of Gabriel's soul rejoined.
Another soul, blindingly white and tasting of cool water, slipped into her and Rose gasped. What had been a waiting, even when she had Gabriel’s soul in her, became whole again. She had her soul back, and all of her memories.
Before Rose could pull away, even more souls flooded into her, eager to escape Satine. They rushed inside her, to the place made for them, and their stories were told in disjointed pictures as they came. Her vision blurred as she tried to keep track of them all.
The flood slowed, had almost stopped when she felt still another, partial, soul slide into her. This one had a silvery glow with dead spots and a metallic aftertaste. Rose gasped, arched at the pain as she absorbed the battered and damaged soul.
Rose stumbled away from her cousin, her pulse beating frantically. Her limbs felt filled with lead. How in the world was she supposed to handle such agony? She could feel her white soul surrounding the silvery one, burnishing up the dead spots. Her blood pounded in her ears and she dropped to her knees.
Rose.
The demon's voice snapped her back to her surroundings.
You'd better change back now. You'll be stronger when you do.
I am tired
,
she admitted. Staring at Satine, she sighed and called the demon. As fire filled her, his borrowed strength returned, flooding her limbs with energy.
You're getting good at that,
said Mephisto.
Let’s make a bargain. I like being with you. So how about I leave part of my powers with you, as long as I can always have a home on you when I need one?
If you leave a part of yourself within me, I'll be yours to command. Right?
Rose shook her head.
No.
She'd had enough of other people pulling her strings.
It's not that big a deal. Have I been demanding? Do you really want to be normal?
Rose made a face. Being normal wasn't on her top ten ideas of a good time, not when she was surrounded by tribred demons and witches and Weres. "I’m not normal, though. I’m a Soul Chalice.” Satisfaction rang through her voice.
Satine's eyes sharpened and her face snapped to Rose. "Who the hell are you talking to?" Satine looked the fire demon up and down. She frowned. "Who the hell are you?"
Rose grinned. "Hey, cousin Sara. I'm here to kill you." Her body flamed. She sent a couple scout flames down her arm and they jumped from her hand to Satine's arm.
Satine screamed, patted it out. Her eyes whirled red. "You make my mouth water. It has been years since I've drunk," she added piteously. In a flash she went from huddled on the stairs to wrapping her arms around Rose, sinking her teeth into her shoulder. Fire flared, danced along the slick coldness of the vampire.
Rose gasped with pain. Poured everything she had into the flame, shimmered with it. She tried to turn into pure flame but Satine's mouth held her to her demon shape.
Satine pulled away. "You want to play, cousin? I do." Giddy with Rose's blood, she spun Rose away from her and into a wall, head first.
Rose burst into flame again. She shook her head, groggy, and came toward Satine, who merely grinned. Rose's blood darkened her lips.
"Come on. Come to me. I'm not finished with you yet. I want to feel your heart thunder under my hand, feel it fail. I want to drink all your memories and give you some of mine."
Rose, dizzy from heat and blood loss, couldn't keep her eyes on Satine and before she knew it, Satine had caught her again, her teeth sinking into the same place.
This time, Satine took her deep. The pain, the scent of smoke all fell away and Rose was there, her boss David in front of her, his eyes like fire as he gazed hungrily at her. The small convenience store was just as it had been, smelling of hotdogs and coffee. But it wasn't her, she realized. It was Satine who had dressed like her. Rose recognized Sara's shorts and the tattered Hendrix concert tee shirt.
It was Satine who begged her boss to kiss her before pulling away with a promising pout when they were interrupted. It was Satine who had set up her rape later that evening. As Rose relived that event, saw again her virginity stolen from her and her subsequent fall from grace, saw Satine steal her soul, a rage built inside. The fire on her outside grew even as Satine drew hard on her blood.
Rose shook herself out of the past and screamed. The vampire's bite burned, more like acid in her veins than fire. Rose felt her vision fade.
She's getting stronger. Help me! Mephisto, help, give me more oh please God!
If I don't make it back to Gabriel, all is lost…
I'll help you...
"Hurry!" she shrieked.
As you so desir
e. And the demon Mephisto chuckled.
Rose's internal body temperature shot up, her blood almost boiling inside her. Satine pulled her mouth away from the suddenly hot blood, fascinated. Thinner than water, it flowed down Rose's arm.
Satine stroked the orange and yellow spotted fur in amazement. "You are magnificent," she murmured.
A pain caught Rose in the belly and she sagged in Satine's arms, her eyes wide and her mouth open, unable to get any sound out. All the air was just gone from her lungs and her heart labored, struggled to beat in the silence between them.
A ripping sound caught them by surprise. Rose screamed once, finally, her lungs moving fast as her heart raced to catch up.
Mephisto looked at her over Satine's shoulder, his handsome face smiling at her. "Rose, my love. Let's get the job done, shall we? Though I will spare you as much as I can."
"What will I owe you?" she gasped.
Mischief broke through the sadness in his eyes. "I don't know. A soul like yours – even if just returned - would be quite a coup."
Mephisto stepped up right behind Satine, wrapped his arms around them both. With his touch, the blood flowing down Rose's arm stopped. His curious eyes seemed to dismiss the vampire struggling between them, as though she were already ash. Satine's screams went higher than normal human hearing but Rose didn't notice.
Rose was caught in Mephisto's heat. His touch reignited her flame. "Look into my eyes, Rose. Just focus on my eyes." The orange flame she saw there fascinated her. She pressed closer, feeling the cold body of the vampire between them as only a barrier to something she needed. Between the two of them, flame engulfed Satine, her struggles and screams unnoticed.
The two fire demons, their eyes only on each other, burned the vampire between them almost without realizing it. Once the barrier of her body fell to the ground as ash, Rose sagged in Mephisto's arms. The wound in her shoulder reopened and blood poured down over the soft fur that covered her tawny skin.