“What do you want with Kafrit?” the biggest one asked. He was almost big enough to put Ulnyx’s Were form to shame.

  “Extraction,” I said.

  He looked at his two buddies, and charged me.

  I only had two seconds to react, so I focused and leaped, up and over the raging bull, coming down on the other side, between his friends. They reached out for me, and I planted an enhanced fist in each of their faces, sending them sprawling. The big one turned and came back at me, throwing a heavy fist towards my gut. I caught it, and tossed him to the ground too.

  “Kafrit?” I asked again. They all regained their feet, while the rest of the gang rushed over. When the three fiends noticed them, they put up their hands.

  “He doesn’t want to see anyone,” the big one said.

  “Does he want to continue walking the Earth? Gambling, whoring, all of that good stuff? Because it’s all going to end, if he doesn’t see us.”

  He tightened his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “One second,” he said, turning around. He whispered something to his boys, and turned back. “He’ll see you.”

  I was expecting the big guy to be Kafrit. I had been since they had shown up. It wasn’t, though. Kafrit was goon number two. He stepped forward and shifted into a small, thin man with olive skin and a slight goatee.

  “A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said, with a deep bow. “And you are?”

  “Landon,” I said, holding out my hand. He smiled and took it.

  “Not the Landon?”

  I hadn’t realized I’d earned a ‘the’. “The same.”

  “Well, what is the world coming to that has brought a boy like yourself to my doorstep, and I’ve shown such poor manners.” He motioned towards a building across the street. “Come,” he said. He turned to the rest of my entourage. “Come. Delight in the hospitality of Kafrit Al Niraj, Efreeti Especiale.” He started walking towards the building, his men close behind.

  “I like this guy,” I heard Alichino say as we followed.

  He walked right into a stark apartment building that had seen better days, leading us to the stairs down, where there was a casino in full swing. He brought us through, past the mortals that couldn’t see anyone but him, to a private room with a poker table and a bar.

  “A drink?” he asked, wiggling his fingers. It must have been a signal, because the big guy went up to the bar and started mixing a drink. He motioned for us to sit around the table.

  “Do you have blue curaçao?” Alichino asked. “I love that stuff.”

  I glared at the demon, who shrank to the back of the line. “I appreciate your hospitality, Kafrit,” I said. “We have about four hours to stop the end of the world.”

  “So, right down to business, eh? You hurt a humble djinn’s feelings.” He pouted, until the big guy handed him his drink. It was some kind of martini, and he sipped it gingerly.

  “I’d rather stay and play,” I lied, “but the end of the world won’t wait.”

  He sighed loudly. “No, I suppose it won’t. You want to know if I can extract the souls you have inside of you, right?”

  I nodded. “Can you?”

  “I can,” he said. “Only a djinn can, because it requires a very light touch, and an almost neutral power. I’ve done it twice before. You should know, there is a chance you’ll die.”

  “We’re as good as dead if we don’t. Two from me, one from Charis.”

  He looked over at Charis, focusing on her red eyes. “If you want the souls to survive, they’ll need another body. Did you bring any prisoners in that truck of yours?”

  I paused. It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered it, but we’d been in such a rush I hadn’t thought to bargain for replacement flesh from Darya. “No.”

  He laughed. “I can help you there, for a price,” he said. “And I can do the extraction, for a price.”

  Desperation was leading to a lot of bad debt. What was a little more? “Name it,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I need more time,” he said. “An opportunity like this only comes once in a lifetime.”

  “Kafrit.”

  He waved his hand. “I will do the extraction, but you owe me one boon. A price you will pay at the time I ask for it.”

  It wasn’t like I had a whole lot of choice. “Two conditions. One, no sexual favors. Two, nothing that will tip the balance.”

  He laughed. “You just ruined one of my ideas, but as you wish.” He held out his hand. As I reached for it, he drew it back. “Remember, diuscrucis. I am not an angel, or a demon. A deal with a djinn cannot be unbound. If you try to renege, you will be twisted in agony for the rest of eternity.”

  It sucked, I admit. I had to do it. “I know.”

  He put his hand back, and we shook. His smile was wide and white, and just a hint devilish.

  “Now, I need to find a few shells for you,” he said. “I assume they prefer to occupy the same sex?”

  “You’re damn right,” Ulnyx said. I could feel his excitement at the prospect of being free.

  “Yes,” Charis said for Vilya.

  Josette was silent.

  “Josette?” I asked.

  It took her a few seconds to respond.

  “I won’t take someone else’s soul,” she said. “I’m sorry, Landon.”

  Chapter 26

  I wish I could have said I was surprised. I wish I could have said that her decision wasn't something I should have expected. It was just that I had never considered that she would be so adamant about it.

  I had retired to a private room Kafrit had provided, to be alone, and yet not alone. He needed time to find some willing, or less than willing participants for Vilya and Ulnyx to overpower, and I needed time to try to convince Josette that she couldn't just let me let her die.

  "Landon, I'm sorry, but I will not do it," she said to me, for the hundredth time.

  I had put myself down in a bare corner of the room and pulled myself back to my Source, where we could talk face to face. Ulnyx had tried to pop in, but I had banished him with a thought. I couldn't imagine anything he had to say being helpful at the moment.

  "Josette, what about Sarah? She needs you. I need you to be there for her. She's been holding up pretty well, but you can imagine what losing the mother that she just found is going to do to her."

  She glared at me, an angry look in her eyes. "Don't you think I know that, Landon? This isn't an easy decision to make, or an easy thing to do, but I don't have a choice. I have lived seven hundred years believing in the true sanctity of life. All life. I never harmed a mortal soul. I never even considered not having my brother's child. You can't take me out of your body without letting me die, or giving me someone else's form, and I am not willing to do that, under any circumstances."

  "Even if it means the fate of everything?"

  She nodded. "Isn't that the truest test of one's beliefs? When everything is on the line? I still believe in Him, Landon, and in you. I believe you will triumph, with or without me."

  I took a deep breath and tried to stay somewhat reasonable. "What if we find someone with terminal cancer, or is brain dead, or something? Someone who is as good as dead anyway?"

  "No."

  "Josette, please. I understand your faith, but-"

  "If you understood my faith, you wouldn't say ‘but’. I've enjoyed our friendship, and I've enjoyed the time we've had to spend together, both before and since you took my soul. The fact is, I was supposed to die five years ago. What I've had since then has been a blessing, and the work of the Lord, for me to help guide you and bring you to this place. For me to meet my little girl. I want her to survive, Landon. It's what I've always wanted. You know how to make that happen. You have to do it."

  It sucked. It completely, and totally sucked. I loved Josette like the sister I never had, and a best friend at the same time. Even for all the years we couldn't communicate, she was there, and I was living her life and sharing in her joys and pains. Learning how to speak to her had been one the best things that had happened since I'd become a Divine, and now she was going to be gone. Not just out of touch, but gone, gone.

  "I can't," I said, the tears rolling from my eyes.

  "You have to," she replied, her own face just as moist. "It is His will."

  "I don't believe that."

  "I do."

  That was the crux of it. She believed in the Goodness of God, and that even the nastiest demon shared some kind of lineage with Him, and as such was one of His creations. She wouldn't destroy what He had created except when she had to. Even the first night we had met, when we had fought the vampires in the alley, she hadn't killed them. She had tried to scare them off, but she had a sword, and she didn't use it. She was pro-life, and nothing in the universe, not even it's end, would change that. I hated her choice, but I respected it.

  "You know I love you, right?" I asked her.

  She smiled. "I love you too."

  "I'd miss the hell out of you, but I don't think you have any in you. Nothing's going to be the same once you're gone."

  "You'll defeat the Beast. Everything will be better."

  I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. I don't think I could have held her any tighter. "Maybe for everyone else." I held her close for a minute, and then gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. "What's going to happen to you, anyway? I mean, what happens when a Divine dies?"

  "Nobody knows," she said. "I'm curious to find out."

  "Well then, maybe we'll meet again."

  "Perhaps we will."

  "I'm not saying goodbye yet. Not until the last second."

  She kissed my cheek. "You have an exceptional soul."

  The words were awesome, but they didn't help at all.

  "I'd like to say goodbye to Sarah," she said. "And Izak. He deserves that."

  I couldn't disagree. He had saved my ass more times than I could count. “Wake me up?” I asked. I always had trouble getting myself out of these weird dream states.

  She reached up, and slapped my face.

  A new face had been added to the group by the time I returned to Kafrit and the others. A female vampire. A young, and pretty one, with shoulder length hair that she had dyed a dark red, and strong but delicate features. She looked confused, and uncomfortable. In fact, the big guy was holding her arms behind her back.

  “Do you not see, Landon?” Josette asked.

  I did see, but I didn’t care. Maybe I should have thought it was wrong. Maybe I should have been at least a little bit unsure, but it didn’t change that I believed Josette was more important then one more gutter vampire.

  Izak and Sarah both looked at me, their nerves obvious.

  “Can I talk to both of you, in private?” I asked.

  “My friend,” Kafrit said. “It would be best to get this done soon.”

  “I know,” I said. “Just a few more minutes.” I walked out of the room, with Sarah and Izak behind me.

  “Are you ready for this?” I asked Josette, surrendering control to her one last time. I felt her spirit flood into me, her soul rising up to take hold of my body. She walked us into the room, and closed the door behind Sarah and Izak.

  “Sarah, I-“

  Sarah didn’t let her speak. She wrapped her arms around us, and buried her head in our shoulder.

  “Don’t do this, mom. Please don’t do this. I never got to know you, I barely got to spend any time with you.”

  I could feel the tears through my shirt.

  “Sarah,” Josette said. She pulled her back gently. “You know I have to do this. Everything I sacrificed was to keep you safe. How could I refuse now, when you need me the most?”

  “I need you here,” Sarah said. “I need my mother. Everything has been so much better since we talked. I feel so much better. Why can’t you just take another body? Vampires are scum.”

  “All life is sacred, and all life deserves respect. I had my time. It should have ended long ago, but the Lord saw fit to give me a gift in a beautiful child. I could not have asked for anything better, or a life more complete.”

  Sarah bowed her head. “It isn’t fair. If I hadn’t set the Beast free, you wouldn’t have to die. It’s all my fault.”

  We reached out, putting our hand to Sarah’s face and cupping it tenderly. “No, my love. This is His will. Think of all of the many things that had to happen to bring us to this day. Think of how many ways we might never have met, or you might never have been. Yet here you are, and here I am, and we have this chance to say goodbye. Only God can make such blessings so.”

  Sarah was crying harder, and she took us in her arms again. “I love you,” she said.

  “I love you too.”

  She backed away, and Izak stepped in front of us. For as tough as the demon was, even he couldn’t keep his eyes from running. He looked miserable.

  “Izak, of all of the beings I have ever had the honor of knowing, you have been the greatest.” We stepped forward, and she kissed him. Not a small peck, but a solid, loving, intimate kiss. The demon was surprised at first, but he didn’t resist. He wasn’t seeing me in that moment, he was seeing Josette, his forbidden love. This was his last chance, and he didn’t waste it.

  We backed away, and smiled at him. “You have made me so proud. Thank you.”

  He smiled, and put his hand to his heart. We did the same.

  “I’m ready,” she said to me then, letting go of her control, and allowing me to reassert myself.

  “Believe it or not,” Ulnyx said. “I’m going to miss you too, princess.”

  “And I, you, wolf,” she replied.

  I looked at Izak and Sarah, both red-eyed and stricken. I felt the same way they looked, and it was taking a lot of effort to keep myself together. “Come on guys,” I said, my own voice sullen. “It’s the way it has to be.”

  They both looked at me, but didn’t say anything.

  When I returned to Kafrit, Charis was unconscious in her chair, and the red-headed vampire was leaned over her, stroking her face.

  “Vilya?” I asked.

  She turned and looked at me. Her eyes were as red as her hair. “Landon,” she said. “I wish we could be meeting under different circumstances.” She held out her hand.

  I took it. “Me too.”

  “Well my friend,” Kafrit said. “Now you see the proof, I can do the extraction. She’ll be okay, but it is taxing on the body and soul. I expect you’ll have the same reaction, possibly worse because you have two in there.”

  “What does he do?” I asked Obi.

  He shrugged. “He just put his hand on her forehead, whispered some gibberish, and a black cloud came pouring out of her mouth and went to the vampire. She moaned a bit, but it didn’t sound too painful.”

  “Please, have a seat,” Kafrit said, pointing at the empty chair.

  I walked over to it and sat. The djinn stood over me, looking into my eyes. As he did, he brought his hand up to my forehead. I could swear I saw an eye appear on his palm, right before it touched my skin. He started mumbling under his breath, words I didn’t understand and could never repeat.

  I felt Ulnyx shifting within me. I focused, and saw the threads of him that bound us together, coming unraveled, spinning apart, and gathering into a single dense ball of him. It was an odd feeling, and it tickled and hurt at the same time. I also felt his power leaving me, and in the first seconds after it washed away I felt weaker and more naked than I could ever remember. Ulnyx had been my personal monster, my warrior armor, my key to winning so many fights. I felt his soul separate from mine.

  “See ya on the other side,” he said, his voice echoing in my mind. Then I felt like I was choking, and I let my head fall back. The black cloud that had shoved itself into me all of those years ago came pouring out of my mouth, pooling in front of me until it was completely external. I watched as it flowed towards the big guy, whose eyes grew wide with shock. Kafrit hadn’t told him he was the host. Ulnyx poured in, and a few moments later he smiled.

  “I never thought I would get the chance to do this,” he said. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe we weren’t on as good of terms as I had thought.

  Ulnyx walked towards me, his eyes menacing. I grabbed Kafrit’s hand, to pull him away, because he was still chanting and he hadn’t noticed the Were. Ulnyx reached me, a long, sharp smile extending across his face.

  “Boo,” he said, then he started laughing.

  “Shut up,” I whispered, finding my voice hoarse.

  I felt the process starting again, Josette’s soul being unwrapped from my own once more.

  “Goodbye, Josette,” I said. “I love you.”

  “Goodbye, brother. I love you too. Good luck.”

  Her spirit was torn away from me, gathering into one mass of white light that slipped more easily from my body. She floated for a second above the table and then shot towards Sarah, circling around her, enveloping her in one final hug, bringing more tears and a smile to her daughter’s face. Then she spun around Izak.

  In an instant of blinding white light, she was gone.

  Chapter 27

  I woke up an hour later, my head resting on the poker table, surrounded by my friends and family. Well, most of them. I had lost two today, and one that hurt more than all of the others combined. I tried not to think too much about it, because there was nothing good to come of it. She had made her choice, and we all had to live with it.

  I picked up my head.

  “Welcome back, meat,” Ulnyx said. His voice was strange to me, outside of my body and in the form of the large Russian.

  “You’re still here,” I said. I hadn’t been sure he would stick around once he was free.

  “I’m not missing this action,” he said.

  “Landon.” Charis’ voice. I looked at her, almost doing a double-take at the violet eyes that looked back at me. I wasn’t expecting that.

  “Your eyes,” I said. “They’re amazing.”

  She smiled. “Yours too.”

  I turned my head, looking for Sarah. She wasn’t there.

  “She’s out in the truck with Izak and Alichino,” Obi said. “She couldn’t stand being in here, once Josie was gone.”