Night Huntress - Devil to Pay Part 5

He held her, moving faster, knowing this would be the closest he ever came to heaven.

The whistle at the station sounded like a death knell to Elise. She gripped Blake's hand. If it were possible for vampires to throw up, she would have gotten sick as the train ground to a halt.

"Salt Lake City," the attendant cheerfully called out.

Blake squeezed her hand. "It's okay," he said, and squared his shoulders.

I won't cry, Elise promised herself. If he can be this brave, so can I.

She didn't feel brave, though. She felt like silver was spearing her through the heart. How she'd ever get through the day, she had no idea.

Last night, she'd cast about for any other option than Blake's death. Turning Blake into a vampire wouldn't work, Mencheres reminded her when she brought that up. Changing Blake into a vampire required that he be drained of blood until he was almost dead. Then, still clinging to life, Blake would drink Elise's blood, which would trigger his undeath. Since natural death didn't happen, becoming a vampire wouldn't force the demon out. No, it would mean Xaphan would have a back door into possessing a vampire instead. With Blake as a possessed vampire, who knew what new horrors Xaphan could wreak? They'd be handing the demon more power than he'd ever dreamed.

I won't let the demon free, he'd stated flatly. Mencheres had agreed that only human death, without any vampire blood in Blake, could force Xaphan out into the merciless trap of the salt flats.

But without any vampire blood in Blake, his death was irreversible.

They exited the train. Elise kept hold of Blake's hand because she couldn't stand not to touch him, but Mencheres's hand on Blake's shoulder was for a different reason-to restrain him in case the demon tried to make a run for it again. Xaphan had taken over Blake last night, going ballistic and tras.h.i.+ng the interior of the cabin before Mencheres stilled him. Elise had to green- eye the train workers so they didn't call the police at the disturbance. You'll all die tomorrow, Xaphan had spat before crawling back into whatever hole he'd burrowed inside Blake. No, they hadn't heard the last from Xaphan.

Elise didn't know what the demon had in store for them, but she knew he wouldn't go gently into that good night. Still, Xaphan wasn't scaring her with his threats. He was just solidifying her resolve to do anything to make sure Blake had his victory over the demon. If Blake was willing to die for that, so was she.

Mencheres had two vehicles waiting for them in the parking garage. One was a regular four-door sedan, but the other was a large van. Elise's heart clenched at the thought of loading Blake's body into the van afterward. At least he wouldn't be stuffed into a trunk. That indignity she couldn't stand.

"Wait a few days until you mail my letters," Blake said to her quietly. He'd written to his family, apologizing for what they thought he'd done and telling them he loved them.

"All right."

She didn't tell Blake that she had no intention of mailing those letters. She'd deliver them in person and make sure, with all her inhuman power, that they didn't think less of the amazing man walking next to her. Mencheres stopped by the van. "I'll drive this one," he stated. "You and Blake follow me in the car."

Elise didn't move. No, no, was running through her mind in a roar. Blake leaned down and, very gently, kissed her cheek.

"Don't come apart on me now," he breathed.

She nodded and forced her legs to move, one step after the other. Somehow, she made it into the car, Blake in the driver's seat next to her. Mencheres started up the van, and Blake followed him out of the parking lot into the bright morning suns.h.i.+ne.

Chapter Thirteen.

Blake glanced at the landscape zoom by along Interstate 80. This was the first he'd been to Utah. In fact, it was the first time he'd been out West. He'd stayed mostly on the East Coast during his thirty-seven years. Born in Ma.s.sachusetts, enlisted in the army after high school, graduated from Penn State, married in New Jersey, divorced in New York City, possessed in New York City, met a vampire in DC, died in Utah, Blake reflected. There was so much he'd wanted to do with his life, but somehow, he'd let most of that be swallowed up under promises of "later."

Now that there was no more "later," Blake couldn't help the sadness was.h.i.+ng over him. He wished he'd spent more time with his family. Gotten to know his friends better. Let go of jealousies and resentments a lot quicker. All that time, so much of it wasted, Blake thought. What I wouldn't give to live it all over again, especially with Elise by me.

Even as the regret filled him, Blake pushed it back. He'd chosen his life, such as it was, and he'd been allowed to meet the most amazing person before the end of it. Plus, what he was doing now was the equivalent of jumping on a grenade to save dozens of people, if not more. Blake harnessed the same mentality that had seen him through a two-year stint in Iraq during the First Gulf War. Complete your mission. Don't fail your unit. Right now , Elise was his unit. He'd make her proud of him.

"I don't want you going back to your home in the tunnels," Blake said.

She looked at him, her eyes wide. "What?"

"I don't want you going back to your home in the tunnels," he repeated, emphasizing each word. "I don't want you spending the next fifty years like the last fifty. I know this is going to be hard on you, but don't let it push you back to how you were, avoiding everyone so you don't have to care for anyone. I can stand dying, Elise, but I can't stand the thought of that."

Her jaw flexed, and she blinked a few times, but she didn't reply.

"Promise me," Blake said, hardening his voice.

"I promise."

Her words were choked. Blake looked back at the road, something tight inside him easing. Elise would go on. She'd live long enough for both of them, and one day, some lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d would come along and make her happy.

And whoever he was, Blake hated him. Guess he wasn't finished being jealous after all.

Blake started to whistle to distract himself from that line of thought. Oddly enough, he found himself whistling that same tune Elise had earlier in the week, "Beautiful Dreamer." After a few minutes, some of the stiffness left her frame.

"I love that song," she murmured. "It was my favorite as a child."

"It's been around that long?" Blake asked, teasing. She gave him a melancholy look. "Longer. My mother used to sing it to me before I'd fall asleep. Funny, I can't remember her face, but I remember her voice."

Blake swallowed hard. In time, she'd forget his face, too.

"How did you become a vampire?"

Elise fixed her gaze on Mencheres's van in front of them. "I was twenty-one when the Great Depression began. My husband, Richard, lost his job that first year, along with so many other people. After several months, we lost our house, too. My parents were dead, but his mother was alive, so we stayed with her for a while. I gave birth to my daughter, Evangeline, during that time. Two months after she was born, Richard's mother died. She'd been behind on her house payments, so the bank took it, and there was no life insurance, so we were turned out into the street. Some friends of Richard's lived in Hoovervilles in Central Park, so that's where we went."

"What's a Hooverville?" Blake asked.

"It's what everyone called the tent villages, after that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, President Hoover. Richard sc.r.a.ped together enough cardboard, wood, and trash-can sc.r.a.ps to make a shelter. Every day, he looked for work, but there wasn't any. Winter came, and my baby got sick. I took her to the hospital, but they sent us home. She died three days later. Two weeks after that, Richard jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge."

"Oh, G.o.d, I'm sorry," Blake said, imagining Elise as the young, grief-stricken woman she must have been.

She swiped at her eyes. "I try never to think about that time." Her voice was amazingly steady. "It hurts too much. It hurt too much then as well, which was why shortly after Richard's death, I jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, too."

Blake gasped. "What?"

Elise nodded, a faraway look on her face. "I don't remember hitting the water. I just remember the cold. There had been chunks of ice in the East River that day. I should have died; most people who jump off that bridge do, but Mencheres found me floating in the water and saved me..."

Her voice trailed off-and then she screamed, "Stop!"

Blake slammed on the brakes so hard, his head almost hit the steering wheel. He looked around, but there was nothing in the road or any other reason he could see for her reaction.

"Jesus," he exclaimed. "Don't do that again. If I hadn't been wearing a seat belt, I'd have gone straight through the winds.h.i.+eld and made Xaphan's day!"

Elise swung to look at him, her eyes blazing green and an expression he couldn't name on her face.

"The river," she muttered. "The ice. Of course."

Blake felt like she was speaking an unfamiliar language. "What are you talking about, Elise?"

In reply she kissed him. Then she shot out of the car, turning the ignition off and taking the keys with her.

Elise stood next to Mencheres. The two of them were outside by the car, close enough that they could quickly reach Blake if Xaphan took him over but far enough away that Blake couldn't hear what she was saying.

"You told me when you first found me in the river, I didn't have a heartbeat," Elise said in a rush. "For all intents and purposes, I was dead, but the river was so cold that day, it gave me hypothermia. My body slowed down to clinical death, but when you pulled me out of the river, you warmed me, gave me your blood, and brought me back. If we induce severe hypothermia with Blake, his heart will stop, as will his breathing. He'll be dead enough to force Xaphan out onto the salt flats.

Then, once the demon is gone, we'll bring Blake back. It's a long shot, but it could work."

Elise desperately wanted Mencheres to agree. But he'd had so much more experience with demons than she did; maybe there was something she was overlooking. What if it took too long from when Xaphan was expelled from Blake's body until his essence was destroyed? How many minutes could Blake be dead before there was no pulling him back from it?

"Come with me," Mencheres said.

He led her around to the side of the van. Elise's heart sank. Was Mencheres taking her out of Blake's eyesight to tell her that this couldn't be done? Did he want to give her privacy while she broke into tears when he delivered that hammer of a verdict?

Mencheres opened the back of the van. Inside it was an oblong container several feet long, with various medical devices she didn't recognize stacked around it. But the generators and portable defibrillator she knew at a glance, and there was only one reason they'd be there.

"You knew," she whispered. "You knew all long that there was a chance Blake could be saved this way. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you had to believe you would lose him in order to realize what he meant to you," Mencheres replied. "It's been so long since you cared for anyone. I wanted that for you again."

Elise looked once more at the items in the van. There were no guarantees that this would work, and she had a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but there was hope. At last, there was hope.

"All right," Elise said. "Let's get started."

Chapter Fourteen.

The Bonneville Salt Flats looked like a white, desolate ocean. They stretched for miles in a peninsula that was bordered on the west by the mountains and on the south by the interstate. Mencheres drove by the sign at the end of the access road that told visitors to park and venture on foot into the tourist section. Blake knew why they weren't stopping at the tourist section; they were heading for the middle of the flats, where two and a half miles was the closest distance between him and the end of the salt barrier.

It was blazing hot outside, but in this case, that was a bonus. In the spring, Mencheres said, the salt would be turned to mush in places, making driving on it impossible-and they needed the van with its cache of equipment. But in the middle of the summer, the salt was hard, like crystallized gravel, allowing the van to ride easily over its flat, sparkling surface.

Blake sat between them in the front. There were too many instruments in the back that could be used to kill him, if and when Xaphan appeared. Blake had no doubt the demon would come forth at any second. In fact, he wondered what Xaphan was waiting for.

At last, Mencheres stopped. Blake glanced around. There was nothing to see except miles of white and the mountains to their left. Steeling himself, Blake took in a deep breath.

"Okay. I'm ready."

Despite Elise's optimism about being able to bring him back, Blake didn't think it would work. Chances were, when he died, he'd stay dead. Successful resuscitation happened in less than half the cases, he knew that from his army days when they taught him field triage. Still, he didn't share his doubts with Elise. Let her think he died believing he'd be saved. Why make this harder on her?

Blake went into the back of the van. There wasn't much room with all the equipment around. Mencheres opened the doors and set up the generators outside. No need to ruin even his slim chance with carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Elise gestured to the large rectangular piece in the van, which looked to Blake like an elaborate, water-filled coffin.

"It'll be easier if you take your clothes off...most of them, at least."

She looked almost shy saying that, as if he'd take her suggestion as perverted voyeurism. Blake's heart squeezed. I'll miss you forever, he thought, staring into Elise's beautiful blue-green eyes.

He stripped to his boxers, then took her in his arms. She hugged him back tightly, her whole body shuddering like something inside her was trying to break out.

"I know this makes no sense, since we've only known each other less than a week, but Blake...if I could spend the rest of my life with just one person, it would be you," she whispered.

Blake pulled away. Looked at her face and saw the naked vulnerability, emotion, and need there. He smiled, brus.h.i.+ng back a strand of her blond hair.

"No, Elise. We've known each other forever, because that's how long I'll love you."

Then he kissed her, trying to imprint the feel of her on his mouth, hands, and body before death came to take him away.

Elise knelt next to the hydro chamber. Blake had been immersed in the glacial water for over fifty minutes. His initial, ma.s.sive s.h.i.+vering had slowed, as had his pulse and breathing. Confusion was starting to set in even as his eyes kept fluttering closed.

"Where am I?" he mumbled to Elise. "Too warm. Need to get out."

"He's entering the last stages of hypothermia," Mencheres said in a low voice. "His body is past feeling cold and is suffused with a false sense of heat instead. It won't be long now."

Elise touched his forehead, but Blake didn't seem to feel it. His face and neck were open to the air, but the rest of him was submerged in the freezing water. All the better to bring about hypothermic cardiac arrest.

If she could have traded places with Blake, she'd have done it a million times over. The past forty minutes had been h.e.l.l, watching him suffer in the container. Her only comfort was knowing that Xaphan would suffer, too. He'd taken Blake over as soon as Blake lay down in the chamber. Xaphan had thrashed around, trying to break everything he could touch. Mencheres restrained him with his power, holding Blake's body immobile even though the demon writhed and fought inside him. Xaphan had been gone for the past thirty minutes. Elise figured the demon was resting up for one last stand.

Blake's heart skipped several beats. Elise tensed, meeting Mencheres's eyes. Soon. Very soon.

Panic made Elise want to s.n.a.t.c.h Blake out of the water and start to warm him up now. What if this didn't work? What if this was the last time she'd ever see Blake? Dear G.o.d, how could she stand her heart being demolished yet again?

Blake said something she couldn't understand. Elise bent closer until his mouth was almost next to her ear.

"What is it, darling?" "Elise." Her name was garbled and breathy, like Blake had barely the strength to form it. "Sing me to sleep."

Blake's eyes were closed, so Elise didn't have to worry about him seeing her tears. She started to sing, dipping her hand into the freezing water so she could hold his.

Blake's breathing became shallower, the intervals between his breaths extending longer and longer. His pulse was erratic, too, at times speeding up in bursts, then growing more and more sluggish. By the time Elise reached the last line of the song, Blake's heart had stopped completely.

She stared at him, feeling more frozen inside than the icy water that brought about his death. Blake's eyes were dilated, no spark of life in them. Just gla.s.sy, like a doll's eyes.

Elise thought she'd been prepared to see him this way. That she was strong enough to handle it, but something inside her shattered. She ripped off the cover of the chamber and grabbed Blake up in the next instant.

Mencheres's hands shot out, stopping her. Keeping her from lifting Blake all the way out of that awful, killing water.

"Wait," he said.