Tane silently debated. He hated specters. How did you kill something that was already technically dead?
Hell, you couldn’t even injure them.
Good news was, they rarely bothered vampires. Bad news was, he didn’t know a damned thing about them.
His gaze flicked from the circle to the shadow spinning above. Time to roll the dice.
“At the very least it should keep the creature distracted,” he said aloud.
“More likely it will just piss him off.”
Tane set the gargoyle on the ground. “We’re about to find out.”
Levet scrambled for the opening. “It is your baptism.” “Funeral,” Tane muttered, grabbing the twitching tale and tugging the coward back into the cave. “It’s my funeral.”
“Whatever.” Levet folded his arms over his chest. “I will wait here.”
“What you’re going to do is give me enough time to get Jaelyn free,” Tane corrected in frigid tones.
“Why do you not play decoy for the ghost and I will rescue the maiden?”
“Do I really have to state the obvious?” Tane asked, casting a meaningful gaze over the stunted three-foot form.
Levet called him jackass in several languages before conceding defeat.
“If I get eaten by a ravenous, flesh-eating specter I am going to haunt you for the rest of eternity.”
“Shit, don’t even joke about it.” Tane held up three fingers. “On the count of three.”
One by one he lowered his fingers, then trusting the gargoyle to keep up his end of the rescue mission, he rushed across the floor, tossing Jaelyn over his shoulder and heading back across the cave. Once at the entrance he lowered her to the ground and easily sliced through the leather straps. She took care of the gag herself, tossing it aside with a foul curse.
There was a flash of light and Tane turned his head to see Levet using his magic to destroy the symbols.
A loud shriek cut through the air, and Levet fell to the floor, his arms folded over his head and his tail between his legs as the dark shadow arrowed straight for him.
“Help,” the demon screamed. “Tane, get it away.”
Ignoring the urge to leave the annoying gargoyle to his fate, Tane shoved his dagger back into its sheath and stepped toward the center of the cave.
A blade, no matter how sharp, wasn’t going to help against a spirit.
The shadow continued downward, swooping over the shivering gargoyle’s wings before landing just outside the destroyed circle.
Tane growled in warning, but before he could charge to the rescue, the shadow was shifting and pulsing in an ominous manner.
He stilled, warily eyeballing the strange phenomenon.
Was the thing going to disappear? Or attack?
Turned out, it did neither.
Instead the darkness coalesced, changing from a formless blob into a tiny female barely four feet tall.
Fear jabbed through Tane’s heart at the familiar sight of the small, heart-shaped face with the almond eyes that were entirely filled with black and the childishly small body that was covered by a plain white robe.
She looked so similar to Siljar that Tane briefly thought the powerful Oracle was haunting him.
A hideous thought.
Then he realized that the delicate features were cut on softer lines and the long hair that floated eerily around her shoulders was a pale gold rather than gray.
The female was obviously the same species as Siljar, but a younger version.
Oh, and dead.
Or at least he assumed she was a ghost.
He didn’t know enough about the peculiar demons to know for sure.
Still cowering on the ground, Levet kicked his tiny feet, his head tucked beneath his arms.
“Get it away,” he cried. “Get it away.”
“For God’s sake, open your eyes,” Tane snapped.
“And have my soul sucked out? Do not be ridiculous.”
Tane heaved a sigh. “Levet, open your damned eyes.”
There was a long pause before the gargoyle at last re moved his arms so he could peek at the tiny woman standing at his side.
“Oh.” Almost as if he were embarrassed, Levet scrambled to his feet.
Tane felt a cold stir of air as Jaelyn stepped to his side. “Don’t hurt her,” she told Levet. “She was only doing as Ariyal commanded.”
Levet’s glance didn’t stray from the specter, his expression … dumbfounded.
“Oh.”
The female leaned toward the gargoyle, seeming to be as fascinated as Levet.
“Do I know you?” Her voice was sweetly musical, but filled with a surprising power considering she was a ghost.
“Levet, at your service.” The gargoyle performed a formal bow. “And you are?”
“Yannah.” With a tinkling laugh the female suddenly grabbed Levet’s face between her hands and kissed him with a shocking intimacy.
When she finished, Levet’s wings were flapping and his tail twitching.
“Yannah,” he breathed. “You are … I am …”
His stammering words were brought to an end as the ghost reared back her arm and before anyone could guess her intent she had cold-cocked the gargoyle, sending him flying through the air to hit against the far wall. Then, taking a moment to wave a tiny hand in Jaelyn’s direction, the ghost abruptly disappeared.
Tane’s brows lifted as Levet peeled himself off the wall and marched toward the opening with a grim expression.
Talk about bizarre encounters.
“Levet, where are you going?”
“I am French,” the demon muttered, his steps never slowing. “Your point?”
“No woman kisses me like that and then disappears.”
Tane didn’t halt the gargoyle’s grim exit. He was honest enough to admit that he owed the annoying demon a debt of honor.
But that didn’t mean he had to like it.
Besides, he didn’t have time to waste trailing after the fool. Every instinct he possessed screamed he had to get to Laylah.
Now.
Turning his head, he assessed his companion. “Are you hurt?”
Jaelyn shrugged, her gaze lowered to effectively hide her emotions.
“My pride has been brutalized and my manicure will never be the same, but otherwise I’m fine.”
Tane studied the female’s stark profile, sensing there was more than wounded pride churning beneath her don’t-press-the-issue attitude. Thankfully, it wasn’t his concern.
“How did you get here?” he instead asked.
She turned to meet his searching gaze. “I caught the trail of Ariyal as he followed the female vampire and mage to Chicago.”