Page 109 of A Shade Too Far
Laurent padded behind him, once again in wolf form.
My fingers twitched; I wanted to bury them in his fur again, even as my heart plummeted into my feet. BatKian would never have given them up. Something was very, very wrong.
Juliette hung back, throwing me a small wave, which I absently returned.
Had the men stolen the Torquemada Gloves from Zev to trade? The vamp would kill them. They wouldn’t be that stupid, would they?
Tatiana paled, a trembling hand covering her mouth.
Oh fuck, they were.
Frances’s eyes gleamed greedily and she rubbed her hands together like a B-movie villain. “Put them on the stage.”
“No! You can’t!” I sent Delilah flying to grab Naveen, who was already making his way to the spot Frances had indicated, but the wolf leapt in front of me, growling, his teeth bared.
Naveen summoned his staff. “Shut your shadow down, Miriam, or you won’t like the consequences.”
Delilah landed on the ground, crouched and ready to attack on command.
“You know what will happen if the dybbuk goes into those gloves,” I said. My blood ran cold. “It’ll have form. It’s already unkillable. Why would you let it loose that way?”
Frances slow-clapped me. “Someone’s done her homework. Are you always this much of a know-it-all?”
Condescending and calculating with zero compassion for the consequences of her actions—Frances was a total cunt. It didn’t make the inevitable easier, it just made it time.
Heavy footsteps clattered over the ceiling in a rush, but any emergencies outside this room weren’t my problem.
I hoisted the scythe, my shoulders squared, braced to end this once and for all, but the wolf growled louder, blocking my path, his eyes cold and his lips bared back from his sharp canines. Had the animal who’d slept with his head in my lap been a dream? Was Laurent finally venting his rage toward me, ready to crush me if I got in his way?
Was that what we’d come to?
The dybbuk flew into one of the gloves, inflating the shriveled yellowed human skin like a balloon as it bumped around.
Laurent glanced at it, and I whacked the flat end of my scythe blade against his side like a hockey player going for the winning goal. He yowled and stumbled sideways, allowing me to slip past and run for Frances, crying “Mut!” to make the letter appear on the scythe.
To conserve energy, I dismissed Delilah.
The elevator doors in the foyer opened, and I cast a trepidatious look back since no one else was expected.
“Please,” Frances whispered and threw her head up to the ceiling, her eyes closed, a small smile dancing on her lips.
She was so clearly excited to be free of the dybbuk forever and I pitied her. But I ruthlessly squashed it, closing the distance between us as footsteps thundered into the speakeasy.
Naveen raised his weapon above his head, poised to strike both gloves.
There was a choked gasp behind me, where Zev, our new arrival, stumbled to a stop. His usually haughty and carefully schooled features were twisted into a look of pure devastation. Like a mother about to lose a child.
Naveen hesitated.
Frances’s eyes snapped open. “The gloves aren’t working!” Her face twisted in pain. “You betrayed me!”
The gloves hadn’t given the dybbuk form and Frances believed we’d double-crossed her, which put Tatiana in danger.
Zev wasn’t even supposed to be here. He’d made it clear he was keeping his distance, but given the look on his face, if Naveen destroyed the gloves, the vampire would rain Hell down on us all.
Save Tatiana or save everyone? It was both the easiest decision I’d ever made and the hardest.
The wolf caught the back of my outfit in his teeth and Naveen readjusted his grip.
