“Sawyer?” I whispered.
His head cocked as if he recognized the name, or maybe my voice, and I took a good look at him. He had tattoos in all the right places, and I could see each one since, as usual, he was naked. But his skin was pale, his eyes dark—the gray irises vanished beneath the dilated ebony of his pupils—his hair, usually straight and sleek, was tangled with sweat. He appeared almost feral, even before the low, savage snarl rumbled free.
Quick as a snake he struck, snatching me by the throat and slamming me against the nearest wall. My head cracked; I saw stars. My feet dangled several inches off the ground as Sawyer held me aloft with just one hand. He’d always been freakishly strong.
“Put her down!” Summer ordered.
He flicked his other wrist and tossed her through the front window.
A movement caught my eye. Luther. Sneaking up from the rear, in his hand a silver knife that would do nothing but piss Sawyer off. He appeared pissed off enough already.
“No,” I croaked, only to have Sawyer tighten his fingers until I saw shiny black dots. Luther froze.
“Who—” Sawyer tapped my head against the wall for emphasis. “—are you?”
His voice was hoarse, as if he’d been screaming for days and only just gotten back the power of speech.
“Liz,” Luther answered. “She’s Liz Phoenix. Don’t you remember?”
Luther spoke as if he were talking to a wild, crazed animal, and the way Sawyer appeared right now, I thought that was a damn good idea.
Sawyer peered into my face, and recognition flickered in his eerie black eyes. I tried to smile, to speak, but both were impossible. What I really needed to do was breathe.
“I remember you,” he murmured.
Then he tore out my throat.
CHAPTER 35
I guess I deserved it. Tit for tat. I kill you; you kill me. Revenge. Payback. Whatever.
It wasn’t as if I could die. Not yet. I had too many things left to do.
The arterial blood spray hit Sawyer right between the eyes. I wondered if he would have let me go otherwise.
I crumpled to the floor, blacked out for a second or two. A boom like a cannon brought me back. I caught the scent of ozone, sensed movement, then the dead silence was broken by a lion’s roar. I tried to get up, to stop Luther from following. Sawyer wasn’t himself. He’d been dangerous before; he’d be lethal now.
And I’d brought him back to life.
My attempt to gain my feet only made my throat wound bleed worse, and I fainted this time for real.
I don’t know how long I was out. I’d figured I would go dreamwalking, where I’d find answers to my most desperate questions—and I had a lot of them. But in the darkness there was only more darkness, and when I awoke even more questions.
“What have you done, Liz?” Both Luther and Summer stood over me.
I was so glad to see the kid in one piece I reached for his hand. He put both behind his back.
I swallowed. My throat appeared to be working just fine. “What I had to.”
I patted my neck. Sore, but I’d healed enough to move, though the blood was still slick and plentiful. Not only was I going to need a shower and new clothes, but if Summer hadn’t been a fairy, she’d need a wet vac and new wallpaper.
“You sold your soul to raise him,” Summer said. She had glass in her hair; her shorts were torn. Other than that—not a mark on her. Bitch.
“I didn’t sell anything.” I sat up, holding on to my head with both hands when it pounded like a snare drum. “I took.”
Understanding flickered in Summer’s eyes. “You fucked a Nephilim.”
I didn’t bother to answer. I didn’t want to answer. I didn’t really need to.
“You are crazy.”
“We need him.”
“Not like that we don’t,” Summer muttered.
I didn’t answer because I feared she was right.
“I never would have figured you for a whore,” she said.
“No? I pegged you as one right away.”
Summer snarled, the “otherness” beneath her pretty face escaping. Luther stepped between us.
“Stop,” he said, and the voice was Ruthie’s.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Summer shoved Luther’s shoulder, but she was looking at me. “You and Jimmy do the horizontal bop, shove your demons beneath the moon, and you turn around and snatch another one? Why the hell did you bother? Did you just have to do him to prove you still could?”
I began to understand her hostility. Not that she’d ever been exactly friendly, but she was really on a roll tonight. Sanducci must have told her that we’d confined our demons.
“Moron,” I muttered.
“Watch it.” Summer’s hands clenched.
I was going to say not you then figured, why bother?
“When Jimmy and I performed the spell I had no idea how to get Sawyer back.”