“Yep,” Ethan agreed. “What game is he playing?”
I wondered the same thing myself. “Do you think it’s a metaphor?”
“Come again?” he asked me, although his eyes were still on the crowd.
“The Sword. Is there an actual Sword or does it mean something else entirely?”
Ethan was quiet for a moment. “If it’s a metaphor I will kick his ass.”
“You won’t have to—that ass will be mine.”
As the room continued to fill with beautiful people I was relieved to notice that the dampening spell had been removed. My magic was alive and tingled with the need to come out. Satan arrived with his entourage. He was dressed in jeans and a Journey concert tee. I slapped my hand over my mouth and swallowed a laugh. No one was going to believe this. No one.
Amanda and the Sins, with the tagalong Dante, made their way to the front. I was surprised to see Cole. He hadn’t healed nearly as well as Ethan, but he was able to walk and function. He shot a glance of pure hatred our way and Ethan waved.
“Are you trying to turn the concert into a brawl?” I asked as I elbowed him in the ribs.
“Just being neighborly.”
That reminded me that Mister Rogers and Hemingway would be back for lunch with God tomorrow. Was it possible that one of them had taken the Sword? My brain hurt with all the possibilities.
“Let the concert begin,” Satan bellowed joyously and held a lighter over his head. The crowd pulled out their lighters and fired up. Crazy. This was crazy.
The band was actually great. Blondie in the front with the black stringy locks in the back and the big booty was the lead singer. While no Steven Perry, he was really close. If I closed my eyes and blocked out the heinous hair, it was truly enjoyable.
“Movement,” Ethan said. My eyes shot open and I stood.
Cole was moving toward an exit on the left side of the room. Greed and Dante were heading to exit the way they had entered. Shit, were they running off for more kinky icky? Their vibe was different and I didn’t like it.
“I’ll take Cole. You take Greed and the ass,” he said, already moving.
“Yep.” I slipped out behind them and quickly cloaked myself so I could stay close. They were headed to the library. I’d passed it several times, but had never been in.
“Cole was a dead end,” Ethan’s voice rang in my head. “I’m back in the Ballroom.”
“Roger that,” I said and giggled. If I was going to play a cop, I was going to use the lingo. I could feel Ethan’s eye roll. “Over and out.”
Greed and Dante were making out in the stacks. I was grossed out and out of here. I moved away slowly running my fingers along the spines of the books. The library was as massive as the rest of the Palace, but I felt more comfortable here. The magic was different, more creative, sillier, deadlier . . . Deadlier? WTF?
Still cloaked, I hightailed it back to Greed and Dante. Greed lay in a heap on the floor and Dante was nowhere to be found. I let my cloaking fall away and squatted by my cousin. She had a pulse, but there was a nasty gash on the back of her head and she was out like a light.
“Greed?” I shook her and her eyes opened slightly. She moaned and huge tears fell from her gorgeous eyes.
“I fucked . . . ,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to hear about your sex life,” I said, searching her body for other wounds.
“No,” she choked out. “I fucked up. He has the Sword.”
Dante of big nose and dick had the Sword? “How?” I ground out. I was pissed and waited impatiently for her reply.
“He didn’t believe it was real,” she panted and winced in pain as she tried to sit up. Why wasn’t she healing? “He told me to prove it and he would be mine.”
It was still a mystery why she wanted him, but there was no time to go into that right now.
“What is he going to do with it?” He was a human. An angry dead human with no magic . . . how bad could this be?
“I don’t know,” she gasped as her bleeding increased.
“What the hell is happening here?” I asked her as I pulled my T-shirt over my head and put pressure on her gushing head wound. Thank God I’d worn a bra . . .
“I gave him my power.” She cried even harder.
“What the fuck did you just say?” I yelled. So much for it not being bad.
“It’s only for a half an hour. He promised to use it to make me come so hard I saw stars,” she blubbered.
Greedy, stupid and sex staved was a bad combination. “Let me get this straight. You gave him your power to borrow, so you could have the mother of all orgasms . . . you showed him the Sword, he took it, beat you and left with it. He basically has the instrument to kill and the power to do it because you wanted to get off. Correct?”