"Take the last three, I'll take the first three," Karzac whispered. Joey Showalter, who'd once been vampire and Merrill's last turn, grinned at Karzac and headed toward the first of his three assignments.
* * *
"Little girl, it's time to go home." Griffin was there, appearing out of nowhere just like the rest of his kind could do. Dragon had gotten some clothing for me from somewhere—it wasn't the shapeless Refizani crap, either. I didn't want to insult Karzac's home planet by saying that out loud and Dragon just grinned as he handed over a pair of jeans and a pullover shirt.
"I owe you, little vampire," Dragon said, hugging me. Karzac had left earlier; he said he had work to do and I'd gotten my goodbye hug from him, then. I patted Dragon's back a little before I let him go and in a blink, Griffin had me inside Merrill's kitchen. Franklin and Greg were both there and hugging me, almost making me cry. I'd missed them and I told them that. They'd gone to Las Vegas while I'd been away; I discovered quickly.
"You went and didn't take me?" I pretended to be hurt.
"We'll take you next time, you'll love it," Greg promised. I wasn't sure there would be a next time for Greg; he was thinner and weaker, I could tell, and his scent was changing—the disease was taking over.
"We stayed at Caesar's," Franklin said. "And it was wonderful, even though it was crowded. We lost a ton of money; won a little of it back and ate ourselves sick."
"We flew over the Grand Canyon, went to Hoover Dam and saw all the tourist traps," Greg added. Well, they'd gone to the Liberace Museum, I just knew it.
"So, what did you do?" Franklin asked. He'd just finished making dessert and was serving some up for Greg and himself.
"Went to Refizan," I said.
"Where is that?" Greg asked, dipping into his dessert.
"No idea. Nowhere close, I know that," I said, smiling. "I met vampires there. And I learned some things. Really important things. Wlodek is going to flip when I tell him."
"What about the vampires?" Greg asked.
"The one who was in charge, his name was Gabron," I said. "And he's about three times as old as Wlodek."
"What's this?" Merrill came through the back door, taking off his trench coat as he came in; it was raining out, apparently.
"The Head of the Council on Refizan. He's about three times as old as Wlodek," I repeated. "And he gave me some great information. I know what Saxom was looking for when he was making misters and mindspeakers."
That had Merrill's attention right away. "What was it?" he demanded.
"Have you ever heard of a race called the Elemaiya?" Merrill went still. He had, I could see it in his face.
"Yes," the answer was guarded.
"Well, there are Bright Elemaiya and Dark Elemaiya. I got a good scent on both—all of Saxom's misters and mindspeakers had Dark Elemaiyan blood. Our misters and mindspeakers all have Bright Elemaiyan blood. Gabron says they're Travelers—the Elemaiya, that is. He says they can world-walk, through gates between the worlds, whatever those are."
Merrill stared at me for a few seconds. "There's a gate nearby; Griffin uses it at times," Merrill admitted. "He told me that he has sealed it off so only Saa Thalarr and a few others can use it now."
"You mean that if he hadn't, those guys could just come right in?" I asked.
"There may be other gates; he says that some worlds have more than one, but this one is on my property. That's why he sealed it off." Merrill came over, wrapped me in an embrace and rocked me a little. "We missed having you around, little girl," he said softly, kissing the top of my head.
"Well, too bad you weren't where I was," I said. "The vampires could have used your help, I think. There was this terrible religious cult that called themselves Solar Red. They practiced human sacrifice and turned themselves over to demons and the Ra'Ak," I babbled.
"And what were you doing in all of this?" Merrill was frowning as he held me away from him.
"Lopping off heads; both priests' and demons'," I replied. "You should have seen what I did to their temple, there at the end. And those Ra'Ak? There was only supposed to be one. There were five of those suckers. I thought Dragon was going to die so I blinded four of them, Dragon killed three of those, and then Kifirin came in and got the last two. Oh, and that doesn't count the one I killed while he was in humanoid form. I can smell them, if they're not shielded."
Merrill stared at me, hard. "I'm going to have a talk with Griffin," he muttered and stalked away.
"What did you do to their temple?" Greg whispered as soon as Merrill was out of hearing.
"I blew it up," I grinned and hugged him. He laughed.
* * *
"Lissa, dress nicely, sweetheart, Wlodek wants to see us," Merrill knocked on my bedroom door the following evening. I was brushing my teeth; I'd already had my dinner and dressed in jeans and a pullover. Now I was going to have to change. I'd tried to phone Gavin but the call had gone directly to voice mail. Just as well, I'm sure the guilt was going to be showing on my face the next time I saw him anyway. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Kifirin since I'd seen him on Refizan and he'd been a big, tall, winged something or other. Dragon said that the High Demons looked like that, only they were a bit shorter when they went to what he called Full Thifilathi. Kifirin had said that word to me once before, after he'd sunk his teeth into my neck. He'd said the Thifilathi must be satisfied, whatever that meant. Honestly, he looked more like a demon to me in that shape than the ones that Dragon had called demons. Those guys were ugly, all right, but if you wanted demons, well, Kifirin would come to mind every time.
"What does Wlodek want?" I asked, coming downstairs later, dressed in nice slacks and a pretty blouse with low heels and a little jewelry. Thankfully, my hair now covered Kifirin's marks, otherwise I'd be explaining those, I'm sure.
"He'll tell us when we arrive," Merrill replied stiffly. I just shrugged as Merrill led the way to the Range Rover—it was raining again.
The drive usually takes half an hour, if the weather is good. That night it took an extra ten minutes. The rain was heavy at times, drumming on the roof of the Range Rover and the wipers had a tough time keeping up. Merrill had an umbrella in the car and he held it over both of us as we dashed inside; Rolfe was there holding the door open. I gave him a smile as we raced through the door. He seemed a little more solemn than usual. Charles was also there and he offered a lop-sided grin as he led us up to Wlodek's study. What surprised me was finding Gavin waiting inside—the schmuck hadn't returned my phone call yet here he was, standing against the wall next to the Monet. Wlodek sat behind his desk, being his usual, unreadable self. His gold pen was in his hands and he was already playing with the thing.