Vincent glared at the other man. “What the hell?”
“The last three times,” Caleb clarified as he checked the wound on his brother’s head. “We don’t have the timing on these bastards down the way you do. At this point, the bastard always got her.”
“Vincent,” Bryna’s voice dragged him away from anything the other men had to say.
He crowded her in against the wall and lowered his head so that his full attention was on her. “You okay, sunshine? Nothing hurts?”
She moved into him the way she used to when she needed to be held.
He moved back the pace to get to the bed and pulled her into him and then onto his lap. She straddled over him and wrapped her arms around him. His closed around her, and then he rested his head on top of hers.
They were quiet for a few moments before she pulled back and looked up at him. “So should we be excited we thwarted them, or worried we pissed them off more than they were before?”
He ran his hands up her arms to hold the sides of her face as he thought about it. Then he had to go with the brutal truth. “I don’t know. If you’ve been taken at this point each time, I’d say someone knows they should have you. Everyone is going to be damn pissed they missed the chance to—” His eyes locked on hers before he looked away.
She rested both of her hands on his chest. “—use me to kill you.”
“I’m already dead,” he said automatically. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what she was saying; it was that he was beginning to understand Bryna had been as right as she’d been wrong. She was the reason he was dead, but it wasn’t because it was her fault, but because no matter what time or place they were in, he’d always come running when she needed him. Big difference. He wasn’t going to utter a damn word about it to her. She’d suffered enough.
Her fingers curled into his shirt. “What about Oblivion?”
He shrugged. “Felix will pull me back before that happens.”
“This isn’t funny, Vincent.” She gave him that look, the one that said she was irritated and about to cry all at the same time, and if he didn’t just understand right then, she would cry and it would be all his fault. “If they pulled me into Oblivion when they killed me, then it’s entirely possible they could do it to you, too.”
He curved his hands around the back of her head. His large hands completely covered either side of her face and her throat. He leaned in and gently tapped his forehead against hers. “I’m not sure it matters which one of us they pull into Oblivion. I’ll stay in this loop until I either figure it out, or we go into Oblivion together. They somehow figured that out. It might be why Felix didn’t send me sooner.”
“Okay, so what do we do with this? I get I can’t die. I don’t like it, but I understand it.” She pressed her hands against him before he could chide her for speaking of her own death.
His jaw tightened. “We grill the Argent brothers until one of them cracks. I propose I do the torture, and you do the questioning. I’m not sure they’d believe you would hurt them.”
It was Derrick who snorted. “Speak for yourself. She’s scarier than you, man, deal with it.”
“We’re not cracking,” Gregori said. “Judgment is slightly scarier than Bryna when she’s pissed off.”
“Do you hear them?” Vincent asked without expression or inflection. “I think they’re asking for pain.”
“Speak for yourselves,” Caleb said. “I’m willing to crack, as long as Bryna bakes me some cookies.”
Both Vincent and Bryna turned and stared at Caleb as if he’d sprouted two horns and a spiked tail.
“I don’t bake,” she said.
“And we don’t need to eat,” Vincent reminded him.
Caleb grinned. “Doesn’t mean we can’t still taste. And Bryna makes the most awesome oatmeal and raisin cookies. I’m telling you, Vincent, for that reason alone, it would be worth trying to defy Felix’s number one rule.”
Vincent snapped to attention. Felix’s number one rule was not saving yourself from death on penalty of Hell. But what if he should have lived? What if there was a future where he lived and Bryna learned to bake? No. He couldn’t let himself hope that much. Going to Hell wasn’t an option while Bryna needed him.
Caleb shrugged. “I’m just saying. Think about it. I’d do anything for a cookie.”
Bryna snorted, and then her expression went worried. “Did I bake for you?”
“When you died on me two years ago? No. I couldn’t get you to even think about making me a bowl of cereal.”
Vincent got a sharp pain behind his ears before he was able to process any of Caleb’s cryptic answers. Bryna whimpered, and the other men cringed.
Howlers.
They always produced that odd pain before they showed up, warning their victims, at least anyone who could feel it.
“Shit,” he said with a growl. “We need to move.”
“We should flash out,” Gregori said. “It will confuse them.”
“Yeah, but what about Bryna?” Vincent demanded.
“She can pulse,” he said with that you-should-know-it tone. “She can flash, just bring her with you.”
Vincent shook his head as he disconnected himself from Bryna so he could start getting together everything she would need. He really did need to pay more attention to what was going on when his teachers talked. Not just about the subjects he liked.
“What about the other occupants?” Derrick asked.
Vincent was on his feet gathering whatever he thought Bryna would need to survive just about anywhere in the world. “You and Gregori stay here and get people out if we don’t yank the howlers off track. I’ll take her hopping. In a couple of hours we’ll meet at the place you got in trouble that time.”
“Got it.”
*
Bryna was completely confused. But she did get the mad-dash packing. She did it often enough. She helped Vincent find every last thing they could need that they had with them. Her plan was simple. Let Vincent direct what they were doing now since he seemed to know what he was doing, and then she’d demand answers.
It didn’t take long. They didn’t have much. She met him in the middle of the room. They stood there staring at each other for a moment before he put his arm around her. “Just close your eyes and envision yourself with me.”
“I can do that,” she said in wobbling tones. Only she wasn’t sure she could. For so long she envisioned him one way, but he didn’t look like that anymore. She took so long looking at his face that he growled at her.
“Now, damn it!”
She winced and snapped her eyes shut, making sure to hold the image of his angry face as she clung to him. The world suddenly felt like a spinning carnival ride. Her insides sloshed, and she was sure she was going to be sick, but they hadn’t moved when Vincent let her go.
“Vincent!”
“Open your eyes,” he murmured in softer tones.
Bryna hesitated for a moment, and then opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and then turned in a circle, trying to get her bearings. They were in the center of an open stone structure in what appeared to be a tropical paradise. Sheer white fabric flowed in a light breeze, and a large bed sat in the middle. “Where are we?”
“Home,” Vincent said. “Or, at least where I stay when I’m not working.”
“Why are we here?” She turned to face him.
He rubbed at the back of his neck. He gave one of those cocky grins he always had when he was doing something that would get him in trouble. “I need time with you that isn’t about the end of the world.”
Bryna opened her mouth to object, and then closed it. He wanted to say goodbye. Not wanting to give it to him didn’t change the facts. He could not stay with her when her life was saved. She did need to do this with him, no matter how much it hurt, or how much she wanted him to go back and save him. Her lower jaw trembled. “What about the howlers?”
“They can’t follow us here.” He moved in front of her. The back of his knuckles skimmed down the side of her face. “Felix will have a fit if he knew I brought you here, but I need…time.”
Time was the one thing they could never have again. “How angry is this Felix going to be if he finds me here?”
Vincent let out a breath and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. The worst he’ll do is send me for a judgment. Then my ass will be sent right back here because I’m too good at my job for him to allow me to be sent to Hell.”
He was the Wraith. Bryna pulled up the lore she knew of him. He was the terror who hunted and slaughtered vampires—demons trapped in human flesh and bound to human souls. True, it wasn’t the same as being a demon hunter, but…how many times had he saved the world only to return to this beautiful and lonely place? “This can’t be good for either of us.”
Vincent linked his hands with hers and started backing toward the bed. “Maybe not, but we need a chance to end this right, or as right as we can. We might not get another opportunity.” He sat when the back of his legs hit the mattress. His dark gaze fixed on hers. “I’ve missed you so much.”