"A logical question. One I'd expect, so tell your sister-or that d.a.m.ned sprite you share your house with-to go look on the front porch. I'll wait."

I motioned to Camille. She headed for the front door. When she returned, her face was ashen, and her hand shook as she held out a small, open box. In the box was the last knuckle of a pinkie finger and a ring. It looked like the fingertip had been bitten off. The ring was Chase's. I forced myself to swallow the bile that was rising.

"What the f.u.c.k did you do to him?"

"You like our little gift?" Karvanak laughed. "As a bonus, I'll even let you talk to him." There was a m.u.f.fled sound as the phone changed hands, and then a familiar voice came on the other end.

"Delilah-Delilah-" Chase sounded both frantic and in pain.

"Chase! Oh great G.o.ds, are you all right? Your finger-" I wanted to ask him where he was, but Karvanak was smart. He'd kill Chase if he even suspected I was trying to cadge information out of him.

"Never mind my finger," Chase said. "Listen. I'm sorry about everything. I love you."

"I love you, too-" I said, breaking into tears. "We'll save you. Just hang on. Do what they say. We'll rescue you."

"No! Don't deal with them," Chase said, his voice raspy and fearful. "You can't let them have the seal-"

"Enough." Karvanak was back on the line. "Use the tip of his finger for scrying if you want to know it's his for sure. And meanwhile, think about this: There are a lot of demons who like to play with humans down in the Subterranean Realms. There's always a great call for slaves there, and toys. And we've perfected the art of keeping our prisoners alive, even when they'd rather die."

I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn't help Chase at all if I showed how upset I was. "We need time-"

Karvanak laughed. "I thought you'd see it my way. I'm in a generous mood. You have thirty-six hours. Don't expect any extensions, and don't let the charge on your cell phone die. Both would be very, very bad ideas."

As the line went dead, I closed my phone and looked at the others.

"You talked to Chase?" Camille asked.

I nodded.

"I a.s.sume Karvanak wants the fourth spirit seal."

"He wants a little more than that. He also demanded that we hand over Vanzir. If we don't, he'll sell Chase to the Sub Realms, into slavery." All of my anger at Chase vanished in a sea of worry. I broke down, lowering my head to the table as the stinging salt of tears washed over my face. "I can't let anything happen to him. I . . . I . . ."

Camille rested her hand on my shoulder. "You love him, even if you are mad at him." As I nodded, she rubbed my back, and Iris hurried to fetch me more tea. How the h.e.l.l were we supposed to handle this? Unable to keep up pretenses any longer, I gave in to my fear and wept until there were no more tears to come.

CHAPTER 22.

As soon as dusk hit, we gathered around the table. We'd managed to clean up most of the mess, though the house looked a lot more empty than it had that morning when we left. Most of our knickknacks were gone, and some of the furniture had been destroyed.

We'd already sent Morio through Grandmother Coyote's portal to Elqaneve, to tell them we needed a new Whispering Mirror. He returned a couple of hours later with the promise that we'd have one before the week was out.

Now, Smoky and Morio sat on one side with Camille. Zach and I sat opposite them. Menolly parked herself at the head of the table, while Iris and Roz took the other end.

Menolly had instructed Luke-a werewolf who was her head bartender at the Wayfarer-to take over for the night. I'd asked Vanzir to join us a little later. We needed to discuss matters before telling the dream chaser he was technically part of Chase's ransom. No telling what he might do once he found out that Karvanak had plans for him, and they probably didn't involve a welcome-home party. Not that I intended to hand him over. He knew too much about us and our operations by now.

"What do we do? We can't give him the spirit seal. For one thing, we already handed it over to Queen Asteria. Even if we did still have it, we couldn't trade it. Not even to save Chase." Camille had a strained look on her face. We all did.

I stared at my gla.s.s of milk. "I know. If we start making deals with them, we might as well just throw open the portals and invite Shadow Wing to go all G.o.dzilla on us." Logic tasted bitter in my mouth, but there it was-the bottom line. Even if Karvanak had kidnapped Iris, we wouldn't trade the seals for her. And I wasn't about to hand over Vanzir, either. Terrorism thrived on positive results, and if we gave in now, we'd be admitting defeat.

"Collateral damage," Menolly said. "That's what it comes down to. It's easy to say no to striking a bargain when the victims are nameless. But when the bodies take on the faces of friends, that's when we're forced to make hard choices." She glanced over at Camille. "Like I had to with Erin."

"Erin . . ." I said. "You're right. She was targeted because of us, too."

Erin Mathews was the owner of the Scarlet Harlot, a lingerie shop Camille frequented. She was also president of the local Faerie Watchers Club, a nationwide group of Fae groupies. Members traded pictures, autographs, asked various Fae in to speak at their meetings, and generally were a harmless, enthusiastic bunch.

When Camille had befriended Erin, we had no idea it would turn out so badly. A few months back, when Menolly's sire had come to town to raise h.e.l.l, he targeted the human woman, solely because she was our friend, and he knew that hurting her would hurt us us.

He'd meant to turn Erin and use her against us, but we had gotten to her first. We couldn't save her life. But we found her in time for Menolly to offer Erin the chance to walk among the undead. Instead of a ma.s.s-murderer for a sire, Erin now called Menolly "Mother," and Menolly was now spending a lot of time helping her "daughter" adjust to life on the flip side.

"I fear we're going to see more of this as the battle for control over the portals continues. And with the new portals cropping up randomly as the grid breaks down . . . we're in for a rough time of it," Morio said. "We have to come to grips with the fact that we're walking in the fire now, and fire burns."

Camille let out a long sigh. "He's right. This isn't the worst of it. Having said that, what can we do about Chase? Obviously, we can't give them the seal. And we can't hand over Vanzir, either. So how do we save him?"

"Find Karvanak, and we find Chase. We have to kill the Rksasa this time. He'll be on us like white on rice if we don't, and he won't stop till we're dead." I slammed my hand on the table. "Why didn't we take him out after he stole the seal? We just skirted him, hoping he'd go away."

"We've been busy," Iris said. "And once he stole the third seal, he wasn't an immediate threat anymore. You know full well that before we even thought about getting near him again, we had to bind Vanzir with the Subjugation Ritual. And that took a lot of energy and time, if you remember."

I sucked back a retort. Iris had worn herself out performing the ritual. Even with Morio and Camille acting as her seconds, it had taken every ounce of energy the Talon-haltija had in order to control the collar of subjugation.

The symbiotic creatures that formed the collars came lumbering in from the astral realm, summoned by force and won over by bribery. They would only agree to act as an agent for subjugation after offerings of blood had been made from all who would wield the whip of the master whip of the master. Which meant the four of us-Iris, Menolly, Camille, and I-had spent two weeks siphoning off enough of our blood to fill a quart jar before we could even summon the creature. Iris had fasted during that time, which made it even more difficult on the sprite.

During the ritual, the creature, which looked like a translucent eel, swelled thick and fat on our blood, then slithered toward Vanzir's neck, ready to form the living chain of energy beneath his skin that would forever bind him to us.

As it bit into his flesh, he winced, but the manacles holding him down were strong, and he forced himself to relax. The ritual went against every bone in his body, but he seemed determined to go through with it. I was relieved. Our only other option would be to kill him. We couldn't let him go.

As the soul binder wriggled to enlarge the opening it had severed in Vanzir's neck, my stomach churned. And as the astral parasite began to burrow into muscle, I had to force myself to maintain control and not go running out of the room. But I managed to stand vigil with my sisters and Iris.

By the time the tip of its tail had almost disappeared, I could see the head had worked its way around his neck, a few layers beneath the skin. The soul binder's teeth broke through directly opposite the original bite, grabbed hold of its tail like an ouroboros, and then settled deep into the muscle as the skin quickly began to heal over the two narrow slits.

Iris began the chant to forever merge the soul binder and Vanzir. The chant would bind both of them to us. Once again, it felt like we were headed on a one-way trip, deeper into the rabbit hole.

There is no spoon, I thought as the grisly ritual played itself out. Everything was an illusion. It had to be, or I didn't want to be here. And yet . . . and yet . . . from where we stood, everything was terribly, horribly real. I thought as the grisly ritual played itself out. Everything was an illusion. It had to be, or I didn't want to be here. And yet . . . and yet . . . from where we stood, everything was terribly, horribly real.

And then it was over, and Vanzir was our slave. He would live or die by our whims. We were his masters. One more hat I didn't want to wear. One more t.i.tle I didn't want tacked onto my name. But there it was, and here we were, chained to a demon by a blood ritual as old as the demons themselves.

"We should be able to locate Karvanak," Rozurial said. "And quite possibly, we can rescue Chase from him. But won't the Rksasa be expecting us? You can't fault the dude on intelligence. I agree with Smoky. He was here, looking for more insurance. I'll bet you anything the demon figured there's no way in h.e.l.l you'd back out of the deal if he had Iris or Maggie. Or both."

"Cripes," Camille said. "I bet you're right."

"Of course he's right," Menolly said, backing her chair away from the table. She began to float, hovering up near the ceiling. She'd always preferred sitting in trees when we were children. Now that she was a vampire, she had transferred her love of heights to floating in midair without any visible means of support. It impressed the h.e.l.l out of the locals, that was for sure.

Iris jumped off her stool. "Well, he would have had me, too, if it weren't for my excellent hearing." She looked around at what was left of the mess, stuff the dustpan and broom couldn't pick up by themselves. "Delilah's right. If we don't dispatch this cretin, we'll never throw him off our back. And we must rescue Chase. He's part of the family," she added, looking pointedly at me. "Maggie adores him."

Silently thanking her with my eyes, I turned to Zach. He laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. "He's a good man, and he's given his all to your efforts. I'll do whatever I can to help."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. I slipped out to answer it. Vanzir had arrived. Silently, I led him to the kitchen and asked him to sit down.

"You look like you're going to a funeral," he said, glancing around nervously, then he licked his lips. "Something's happened. What's up? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you didn't." I took a deep breath, then let it out in a shaky stream. Even though I knew he was on our side, my heart flinched. Dealing with demons like Rozurial was one thing. Roz wasn't evil, just chaotic. But I had no doubt that Vanzir had paid his dues when he was a member of the Sub Realms.

"It's nothing you did," I said, after a moment. "But Karvanak is on the move. He's captured Chase, and he's holding him for ransom." I held out the box with Chase's fingertip and ring in it.

Vanzir turned a paler shade of white. "c.r.a.p." He let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair. "You're lucky it was Chase's finger he cut off, and not something more personal. Karvanak is a cold-hearted b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He's offering a trade for the spirit seal, am I right?"

"Yeah . . ." I wasn't sure quite how to tell him that he was on the menu, too.

"You won't get him back that way," Vanzir said, resting his elbows on the table and staring at the fingertip. "Even if you give Karvanak the seal, he'll carve Chase up in little bites and eat him. He talks a good game and specializes in the double cross."

"Do you think he'll kill Chase before we get there?"

"Not before he realizes you aren't going to hand over the seal. Let's put it this way: Karvanak keeps his options open till he's sewn up a deal. Then he gets rid of the evidence. Chase might not come back totally intact, but he'll be kept alive until the Rksasa realizes you either don't have the seal or aren't going to give it to him." Vanzir shrugged. "Don't ever underestimate him. He didn't get promoted to general for being stupid."

"There's something else," I said, not wanting to tell him. But sometimes, like with pulling a bad tooth, it's better to just get it over with. "Karvanak also wants you back."

That bought an immediate response. Vanzir jerked up, his eyes wide. "No! You can't-" He fell silent, then looked around at us, anxiously tapping his fingers on the table. "Are you going to hand me over to him?"

For the first time, his voice didn't grate on my nerves, and for the first time, I saw the raw fear on his face. He might be a demon, but he really was was terrified of his own kind. terrified of his own kind.

"No," I whispered. "No, we won't. For one thing, you know too much about our operations. For another, trading life for life? No. If you were our prisoner, if you were here under duress, we might. But you made the choice to switch sides, and we don't rat out our allies." The words stuck on my tongue like stray fur, but I had to rea.s.sure him. Maybe I didn't like him, but he'd fought by our side.

I looked over at Camille and Menolly. They both nodded. For once we were all on the same page. "But we have to find out where he is. Since Mordred burned down the rug shop, Karvanak's gone into hiding, and we need to know where."

Vanzir crossed to the kitchen window and stared out into the yard.

I followed him and tentatively reached out to put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry," I said. "We aren't going to turn you over to Karvanak."

"Of course you aren't. I know too much," he said gruffly, shrugging my hand away. "Your lover's being held by one of Shadow Wing's most ruthless generals. At least, one that he dares send Earthside. There are far worse back in the Subterranean Realms."

He whirled around, his gaze locking with mine. "Do you know know what it's like now, living in the Subterranean Realms? Life there was pretty good for a while, until Shadow Wing seized control. Now it's a desperate place. There are what it's like now, living in the Subterranean Realms? Life there was pretty good for a while, until Shadow Wing seized control. Now it's a desperate place. There are thousands thousands of demons down there who would love to come Earthside if only to get away from of demons down there who would love to come Earthside if only to get away from him him."

"Then why are they fighting for him? Why don't they band together and fight against him?" I couldn't understand the reasoning.

Vanzir snorted, leaning on the windowsill. He stared bleakly out into the yard. "Some do-and I know a few. But understand that Shadow Wing is a Soul Eater Soul Eater. He can control the ma.s.ses because he can swallow any soul standing in his way, be it demon, human, or Fae. He rules with fire and fear, and there are thousands who kneel to him only to keep their heads." He folded his arms across his chest, rubbing his shoulders as if he were freezing. "There's something else."

"What? Tell us now. If you hold out on us-" Menolly swooped down, landing on his other side.

"I'm not holding out on you. I wasn't sure if my imagination was running amok or if what I thought was real, was. Not until I did some scrying this morning. And I'm still still not sure I'm right. But if I am, then we have to do more than keep the spirit seals away from him. We have to hunt him down and destroy him." Vanzir was so pale I thought he was going to pa.s.s out. not sure I'm right. But if I am, then we have to do more than keep the spirit seals away from him. We have to hunt him down and destroy him." Vanzir was so pale I thought he was going to pa.s.s out.

"Tell us," I said. "Tell us what you think is going on."

He scuffed his boot on the Persian rug and turned around, sitting on the sill, looking for all the world like a young David Bowie. "The breakdown in the grid that's allowing new portals to open spontaneously? I think Shadow Wing's discovered a way to use what's happening. My gut tells me he's doing more than trying to rip open the seals. Shadow Wing is f.u.c.king crazy. He's not just power hungry. He's mad."

"How so?" The room was so quiet that I could hear every creak, every movement, every shift people made in their chairs.

Vanzir took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I think he means to unmake unmake the worlds. Shadow Wing the Unraveller, he calls himself now. I think he's out to do more than conquer. I think he's out to totally annihilate." the worlds. Shadow Wing the Unraveller, he calls himself now. I think he's out to do more than conquer. I think he's out to totally annihilate."

"Motherf.u.c.king son of a b.i.t.c.h," Menolly said. She seldom showed fear, but she was showing it now and but good. Her eyes were bloodred and her fangs had extended. "What makes you think so?" Menolly said. She seldom showed fear, but she was showing it now and but good. Her eyes were bloodred and her fangs had extended. "What makes you think so?"

"I know a few rogue demons who've managed to escape and cross over," he said. "For the most part they lie low, keep their noses clean, and try to fly under the radar. They don't want anything to do with Karvanak and his cronies. Or with Shadow Wing and this war. We talk a little. And no, they don't know about the Subjugation Ritual. They think I'm just hiding out from Karvanak."

"Why don't you get your b.u.t.t back over to the table? Delilah's tired and needs to sit down," Smoky said abruptly in that disobey-and-you're-toast tone that he had.

Vanzir gave him a withering look but promptly returned to the table.

I slumped in my chair, and even Menolly slowly floated down from the ceiling and sat beside me, scooting in next to Zach. She gave Vanzir a narrow look. "So what are your buddies saying? And I suggest you give us a list of their names. We'll want to keep them under surveillance."

"Bring me a paper," Vanzir said quietly. He couldn't refuse. "You won't kill them, will you?"

"Only if they turn out to be a problem. If they are, as you say, keeping their noses clean, we'll leave them alone. For now. But if they show any sign of being under Shadow Wing's control, then they can kiss their a.s.ses good-bye. And you will will keep your mouth shut about the fact that we know about them." keep your mouth shut about the fact that we know about them."

Her eyes were glowing as she planted her hands on the table and leaned toward him. "You hear me, demon boy? If I even think one of them is going to slip, he'll be staring down at the tip of my fangs."

Vanzir shivered. He might not have a good track record of saying the right thing at the right time, but he wasn't stupid. He knew all too well how powerful Menolly could be.

"Got it." He shoved the list across the table to her. "Here. I know where four of them live. There are others, but I have no idea where they hang out."

She took the list and nodded. "Good. Now, what are they saying?"

"I only heard the latest news this morning, on my way here. A demon named Trytian managed to sneak over a week ago. He was slated to be executed-and believe me, executions are big business down in the Sub Realms-on the summer solstice. His father is some bigwig daemon who is leading a rebellion against Shadow Wing over there. Shadow Wing managed to capture Trytian and was going to use him as a p.a.w.n, but Trytian's father refused to bargain."

Demons and daemons were both on the Big Bad list, but they had subtle differences and didn't tend to like each other. Just like devils and demons came from different branches on the h.e.l.lion family tree.

"So Trytian managed to do what our cousin Shamas did-pull a disappearing act before he hit the block," I said slowly. "Why didn't he go home to his father?" It seemed a little too coincidental for me, but then I'd been studying Suspicion 101 with Camille and Menolly.

"He did, but his father thought he might be more useful over here. You see," Vanzir said, growing quiet, "rumors are circulating around the Subterranean Realms about three half-Fae, half-human women who are thwarting Shadow Wing's plans, but your names are still undercover as far as the demons are concerned. I doubt if anybody over there knows who you are except Shadow Wing and his cronies."

Karvanak would have told him; it stood to reason. "Why would Shadow Wing keep our names secret? Seems more likely he'd slap a bounty on us."

Vanzir shook his head. "Think about it. Shadow Wing's power comes through fear. If he officially acknowledged you, it would be admitting he's vulnerable, and he cannot allow that to happen."

Menolly agreed. "Yes, that makes sense. There's much the same social structure among the Vampire Blood Clans, but we're not quite as paranoid. It's good to know that not every member of the Sub Realms is looking for a vacation getaway over Earthside."

"Well, whatever the reason, I think Trytian's father was hoping that his son would run into you and enlist you as an ally." Vanzir smiled. Wanly, but it was still a smile. "You have no idea how much I wanted to tell Trytian about you. But I didn't. His father commands a large force in the Sub Realms. They could be very useful to us."