“If I could do that, do you think I’d still be here, kept by two bloodsucking vermin? I’m too deeply buried inside this body to leave while he still has life, vampire. But I’ll make a bargain with you.”
Don’t listen. You can’t bargain with evil. It will always win if you do.
“What’s your offer?” Elise asked softly.
Those malevolent eyes glared into hers. “I’ll give you the rest of this mortal’s natural life span if you get us away from the other vampire. When the mortal eventually dies, then I’ll be free to find a better home.”
“Liar,” Elise bit off. “You’d try to kill Blake as soon as we got off this train.”
Xaphan sighed. The sulfur smell from his breath would have gagged Elise if she’d still been human.
“The years this mortal has left are no more than a tick of the clock to me, but they mean something to you, don’t they? This is a fair offer. If you refuse, try to force me onto the salt flats, all of you will die. You can’t hope to beat me; I am one of the first Fallen. I was around before Cain was even turned into a vampire.”
Icy fear slid up Elise’s spine as she stared into the demon’s eyes. There was nothing left of Blake in them. They were ageless, evil, and swirling with red embers. It was as if she’d been afforded a glimpse into hell. How could she and Mencheres think to kill something as old, as powerful, as Xaphan? What if all of them did die on the salt flats, their bodies left to rot under the harsh sun, because she didn’t take the only chance they had at surviving? Could she truly kill Blake anyway, after what he’d come to mean to her?
Elise thought of having Blake with her for forty, fifty, maybe even sixty years. That would be more happiness than she’d ever allowed herself to believe she’d find in all her undead lifetime. Xaphan might win anyway, if she persisted in taking Blake to the salt flats. Maybe if she took his deal now, in the future, they’d find another way to vanquish Xaphan without killing Blake or letting the demon possess someone else.
Really, wasn’t this the only possible solution, even if it meant bargaining with a devil?
“If you care at all for his life—or yours—you’ll see this is the only choice…” Xaphan drew out.
Blake’s face flashed in her mind, looking completely different than it did now with the demon piloting him. I can’t live like this, he’d said when they first met . Blake had proved countless times that he’d rather die than let the demon get away. In the end, this wasn’t her decision. It was Blake’s—and he’d already made it.
“No deal,” Elise said, hardening her resolve. “If we all die sending you back to hell, then so be it.”
The demon howled, becoming a mass of livid movement and flinging both of them up to the ceiling of the cabin in a blur. Elise didn’t let go, wrapping herself around him and letting their hate-filled gazes meet.
“I’ll kill you,” Xaphan hissed.
Elise didn’t blink. “You will try.”
All at once, the demon froze. Elise relaxed even though the new flood of oppressive power squeezed her. Mencheres came into the cabin.
“You did the right thing, my child,” he said to Elise.
She wasn’t surprised that her sire had overheard the entire exchange. “I had no choice.”
Mencheres came closer, forcing the demon back into the corner of the small room. “Yes, you did. And you made the right one.”
Elise wondered if she’d still think that later.
Chapter Twelve
Blake looked at the clock. Eight-thirty in the evening. He had less than twenty-four hours left to live.
Elise sat across from him, her tenseness palpable. Mencheres had forced her to leave this morning to get some sleep, but Elise had come back looking like she had spent the three hours in the other cabin wide-awake. Blake wanted to assure her once more that she’d done everything she could, but maybe talking about it would only make things worse.
Her blond hair was loose, falling just past her shoulders, and she wore another tank top with yoga-style pants. Blake had been studying her while she looked out the window, trying to memorize her features. Small, straight nose. The mouth that looked more sensual than pouty. Those high cheekbones and smooth forehead. Her beautiful, mesmerizing, blue-green eyes.
Yes, if there was an afterlife, Blake wanted to bring the memory of Elise with him.
“Chess?” he asked, gesturing to the board.
She glanced away from the window. “I don’t know how to play.”
“Hmm. You don’t know how to drive or to play chess. What have you been doing with all your time?”
His tone was teasing, but her face clouded. “I listen to music,” she said slowly. “Read a lot of books. When I get restless, I walk through the city. It’s been sufficient.”
It didn’t sound sufficient. It sounded lonely. Elise had said she’d been living like that since the fifties, but what had she been like before then? Blake knew she was much older than he, even though she looked to be in her early twenties. How much older? he wondered.
“How old are you?”
She appeared to think about it for a second. “Altogether, including the years before I became a vampire?”