“It’s gone,” I said.
Jimmy flicked me a glance, and Mait slammed his elbow into his nose. The crunch echoed throughout the abandoned church. Blood spouted; Jimmy lost his grip. Mait leaped to his feet and ran.
Making a grab for him, I wound up on my face in the dirt. I slapped my palm to the phoenix tattoo. If I could shift, I’d heal, and then I’d catch him. Wouldn’t be any trouble at all.
Except the gris-gris still blocked my magic.
“Damn,” I muttered. I pulled the thing out of my pocket, then threw it as far as I could.
Jimmy cursed and bled. I crept over to him and felt his pockets until I found his gris-gris, then I tossed that away, too.
I began to lift my hand again, but Jimmy grabbed it before I got there. “Don’t bother,” he said, his voice thick with pain and blood.
“I can catch him.”
He shook his head then, cursing, winced. “The instant he got far enough from the gris-gris, his magic came back.” He pulled himself to his feet then helped me to mine. I managed not to fall back down. “He’s long gone.”
“I thought he was confined.”
“To protect the book.” Jimmy met my eyes.
“But you burned it, and released him.” I couldn’t help it, I slapped Jimmy across his bloody face. “What the hell were you thinking?”
The slap resounded in the sudden silence that followed. The imprint of my fingers appeared, dark splotches on his already dark and splotched skin. I hated the sight; nevertheless, I wanted to hit him again.
“I was thinking,” Jimmy said slowly, “that the book was trouble. Nothing good could come from it.” His gaze bored into mine. “Nothing, Lizzy.”
I wasn’t so sure about that.
“You insisted that we push our vampires beneath the moon so we wouldn’t be tempted to steal the Book of Samyaza. But we could have used those demons, or at least one of them, to end Mait.”
“I’ll end Mait. Don’t worry about that.”
“Yeah, you’ve been having great luck so far,” I muttered, earning an exasperated glare from Sanducci. “If you were going to burn the damn thing anyway, what was the point of the full moon evil spell?”
“We aren’t the only problem. Anyone who has that book is dangerous. Anyone could be tempted by the secrets inside it.” He took a deep breath and then finished, “You were.”
An icy breeze seemed to stir the wings of my phoenix tattoo. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not stupid, Lizzy.”
“So you say.”
His lips tightened. I couldn’t blame him. “Do you remember when your mother was raising revenants?”
I blinked at the seemingly random change in subject. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna forget Mommy or her army of the undead.”
“They were an Apocalyptic portent.”
“And now they’re dust.”
“Which leaves plenty of room for the next undead army.”
“There’s more than one?”
“Without a phoenix to raise revenants—”
“I’m a phoenix.”
“You plan on raising some?”
“Hell no!”
The dead my mother had raised, while looking completely human, had not acted human. They’d totally given me the creeps.
“Besides,” I admitted. “I don’t really know how.”
“I don’t think it’s brain surgery.”
“No,” I murmured. “I don’t think so, either.”
Jimmy’s eyes widened. “You tried it!”
I had. “Don’t get all bent out of shape, nothing happened.”
“Lizzy.” Jimmy let out a long breath and rubbed his eyes as if they ached. “What were you thinking?”
In the days following Sawyer’s death I hadn’t been thinking about much but getting him back. I’d tried everything I knew. But I hadn’t known how to raise a revenant, so I did a little research.
“The power isn’t active until I’ve been raised from the grave like she was,” I said. “And I’m not planning on dying anytime soon.”
Jimmy lowered his hand and his gaze met mine. He was disappointed in me, but that was nothing new.
“Without a phoenix to raise revenants,” he repeated, “the forces of darkness are going to have to find another way. According to the rumors, the way was written in that book.”
I stared at him for several seconds. “You knew all along why I wanted it?”
“You can’t raise the dead. You’ll be playing right into their hands. It’s better that the Book of Samyaza is ashes.”
“I wasn’t going to raise an army, Jimmy. Just—” My throat closed off; I couldn’t say Sawyer’s name.
“Did it ever occur to you that performing a spell in a book written by Beelzebub might not be the brightest idea for any reason?”
I forced myself to speak past the painful lump. “We need him, Jimmy.”
“No,” he said. “You do.”
“Sawyer’s one of the most powerful beings on this earth.”
“Now you are.”
“Two’s always better than one.” And according to my vision, two was what I would need.