“If you tell us what the jeton is, perhaps we can find it without bothering to track down Johannes. Not that I’d mind bringing him to have a chat with you, because that would be something I’d likely enjoy greatly, but time is of the essence.”
“It is a valuable token of my power! It needs no description!”
“Valuable, hmm?” Noelle turned to Gray. “Could it be hidden in the priest’s hole?”
“What?” Miles suddenly sat up straight in his chair. “What… uh… priest hole?”
“There’s one here, behind the fireplace,” Noelle answered him, gesturing toward the far wall. “Could it be there, Gray?”
“There’s nothing there but a few things of little value to anyone but family,” Gray answered, shaking his head.
“Why don’t we go look? Maybe it’s there.” Noelle started to cross the hall but stopped short when Miles leaped from his chair, a shiny black gun in his hand.
“Right, I’ve had enough of this farce. I don’t know who he is or what he wants, but if he thinks he’s getting my treasure, he’s barking mad. You, you say you know where the priest hole is? Go open it.”
“Oh, Miles, now is not the time for this,” Noelle told him, exasperated that he had chosen this moment to continue his ridiculous treasure hunt.
“Do it,” Miles told Gray, leveling the gun at Noelle. “Or I shoot her.”
“That will serve no purpose,” Gray said in a calm, apparently unconcerned voice.
Noelle knew otherwise. She could feel the anger in him at Miles’s daring to turn a firearm upon her.
It’s all right. He can’t kill me, can he?
No. The Joining may not be wholly complete, but you are enough of my Beloved that a simple gunshot would do little to harm you.
Then stop thinking about stringing him up by his testicles and stay focused on the important matter at hand.
But I’m enjoying thinking about stringing him up by his nuts.
I know you are, and I admit, it is a tempting thought, but he’s really nothing more than greedy and irritating and thus not really deserving of testicle-hanging.
You have no sense of adventure, Gray told her sternly, which just made her giggle at him. He strode over to the fireplace, pressing on a few ornate wooden wolf’s heads that lined the mantel, gesturing when the panel alongside the fireplace slid back to reveal a darkened hole.
“Step back,” Miles ordered, gesturing toward Noelle with the gun. “All the way across the room.”
“You seem to forget who owns this house,” Gray answered. “This is my priest’s hole, and anything in it—not that there is anything—is mine.”
“Take one more step toward it, and I’ll shoot,” Miles warned, turning the gun on him.
He really is such a drama queen, Noelle told Gray. I hate to admit it, but he’s absolutely perfect for Teresa’s show.
“That would be unwise in the extreme,” Gray said, and stepped into the darkened hole.
Noelle knew the second before Miles pulled the trigger that he was going to shoot Gray, and despite the fact that she knew the shot would not kill him, despite all of her training, despite everything she’d ever learned while working with members of the Otherworld, a primitive part of her brain had her rushing forward to stop the attack.
“No!” she screamed, and flung herself on Miles, her eyes widening in shock when a burning pain seared through her side.
Gray roared her name as the world seemed to spin around her, her legs suddenly feeling as if they were made of tofu.
He shot me, she told Gray, even as she was whisked off her feet. He really shot me. Oh! You have your soul back! How nice. I think I’m going to faint. Do you mind?
Not at all, he answered, and, happy despite the burning sensation that seemed to sweep over her entire body, she smiled as she gave in to the swoon.
Chapter Eight
Are you sure you’re all right now?”
“Absolutely. It was just the shock of actually being shot. But I’m fine now. You can untie Miles. He doesn’t look very comfortable with that rope tied around his feet and neck. His face is bright red.”
“He’ll survive,” Gray said, his face filled with grim satisfaction when he glanced at the man who lay bound at her feet. He rose and helped Noelle from her chair.
“If this little comedy is concluded?” Amaymon asked politely, but it was politeness edged with razor sharpness. “Bring me the jeton.”
Gray met her gaze and then, with a little shrug, reentered the priest’s hole, emerging a few seconds later covered in cobwebs but empty-handed.
“It’s not there.” He turned to Amaymon. “What does the jeton look like?”
Amaymon’s jaw worked for a few seconds before he answered. “It is a small disc, about the size of a human fingernail, made of gold, and stamped on either side with my symbol of power.”
Noelle drew in a deep breath. The collar tag! He’s talking about Johannes’s collar tag.
I remember now. Shortly before he died, Johannes gloated that he had a token of immense promise, one that would have beings everywhere bowing down to him because of who it represented. He led me to believe it was a statue, though. That sly old— Gray bit back an obscenity.
“What will you give us for this jeton?” Noelle asked, ignoring Gray’s soft noise of irritation. “Will you exchange it for the removal of the vitiation on Gray?”
To her complete surprise, the demon lord waved a dismissive hand. “I care little for the squabble between a father and a son. The vitiation was useful only in finding the location of Johannes, since he was bound to you, Dark One. Give me the jeton, and I will remove the curse.”
He never really wanted you. Noelle gave a little laugh. It was your father he was after all along.
He could have told me that! Gray snapped before saying aloud, “We accept. It will take me some little time to locate Johannes.”
“I do not have any more time to waste on this. I have spent four hundred years waiting for my minions to recover the jeton. Bring it to me now, or I will simply take it and leave the vitiation as it is.”
Miles grunted and made a few choking noises.
I think you’re going to have to do something about him. Noelle nodded toward the bound man.
What would you like? I could sit on him, if he’s annoying you.
How about cutting the rope that’s choking him?
Why would I want to do that?
Because, my darling, he is the one responsible for your soul being returned. If he hadn’t shot you, I wouldn’t have reacted as I did, and that sacrifice is what completed the Joining and gave you back your soul. So, really, we owe him quite a bit.
Gray, with a tsk of irritation, flipped open a pocket knife and slit the hog-tie rope.
“Now, look here.” Noelle addressed Amaymon, prepared to argue as long as it took to get him to see reason, which, upon reflection, might be decades, if not centuries, but luckily, at that moment, Nosty strolled into the door with a big orange cat in his arms.
“Found him! He was trying to get through the wards that someone drew on the front gate—mother of God! Demon lord!”
Nosty turned white, dropped Johannes, and, with a quick apologetic look at Gray, vanished into nothing.
“You almost killed me!” Miles gasped after he had enough air in his lungs to speak again. He rolled over onto his back and glared at Gray. “You murdering bastard!”
“Johannes!”
Amaymon bellowed the name with such force that Noelle stumbled backward a few steps. Gray quickly wrapped an arm around her, holding her tight, as Johannes, his back arched and his mouth open in a silent hiss of fury, looked wildly around the room for an escape.
“Return to me the jeton which you stole!” Amaymon demanded, closing in on the cat. He raised his hand, power snapping and crackling around it.
Do something. Noelle prodded Gray.
What? Hold Johannes steady so Amaymon can smite him?
He’s your father! You can’t let him be destroyed right in front of us.
Why not? He destroyed my mother’s life, not to mention mine. He deserves everything that is coming to him.
I agree, but let fate punish him, not Amaymon.
Gray sighed even as he strode forward, snatching up Johannes and whisking the leather collar over the cat’s head. You’re not going to let me have any fun, are you?
On the contrary, you’re going to have so much fun you’ll—
Get down on my knees every morning and thank the gods that you found me? he finished, laughing in her head.
Every morning and every night.
I accept your terms. “I take it that you didn’t give this to Johannes to show he was high in your favor, as he claimed at the time?” Gray asked as he tossed the collar with its attached gold tag to the demon lord.
Amaymon looked with satisfaction at the disc, ripping it from the collar. “I did not. He has never held my favor, let alone earned this token. He stole it from one of my wrath demons.” He flung the collar to the ground, glaring at the cat for a few seconds before turning toward the door.
“Hold on just one second,” Noelle said quickly, coming forward to stand next to Gray, who was glaring down at the spitting, hissing ball of fur and claws in his hands. If the demon lord thought he could just walk out without fulfilling his part of the deal, he could just think again. “The vitiation?”
Amaymon paused, rolled his eyes, but turned back to draw an intricate symbol in the air that glowed black, then silver, before dissolving into nothing. “It is removed. Keep your father away from me, lest I regret my generosity in allowing you all to live.”
“Generosity.” Noelle snorted as Amaymon left the hall. “Without help from his minions, he doesn’t have that sort of power in the mortal world.”
“I’ll get you both. See if I don’t!” Miles snarled, spittle flying from his mouth as he scrabbled around helplessly on the floor. “You’ll never work in television again!”
