This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(50)

Bones gave him a look that said Spade’s lack of warmth hadn’t gone unnoticed by him, either. He poured two whiskeys from the decanter on the credenza, handing one to Spade with less graciousness than normal.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, mate, but I seem to remember my wife risking her life on your behalf twice just this year. So you can’t be sore over her asking your wife for a favor that endangers her not at all, can you?”

“Of course it endangers her,” Spade replied at once. “If even a drop of Denise’s blood should spill in a place where other vampires might taste it—”

“Dammit, Spade, we talked about this,” she interrupted him, her hazel eyes narrowing in way that warned of repercussions. “I’m going to live a very, very long time, and I refuse to spend that life in fear like I did before. If this even works, which it might not, you’ll be with me the whole time, right? And stopping this crazy ghoul leader before he gets too many people riled up means more safety for everyone, right? So quit with the overprotectiveness. You wouldn’t want me to act that way with you.”

“This sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” I whispered to Bones, feeling like I was watching actors play the parts of me and him.

He grunted. “Too right.”

“If I thought Denise would be in danger, I wouldn’t ask her,” I said to Spade. Since she’d been branded, only demon bone through the eyes could kill Denise, and that was about as rare as a proverbial snowball in hell. “You want to keep her safe,” I continued. “So do I, which is why Apollyon’s got to be stopped. Even if I was staked with silver tomorrow, I don’t think Apollyon will all of a sudden go away. He’s waited six hundred years to try this power coup, and I’ll bet he won’t want to wait another six hundred or longer until another half-breed pops up again.”

Spade said nothing for several moments, his tiger-colored gaze traveling over Denise, Bones, and me in turn. At last, he spread out his hands.

“You’re all correct, of course. My apologies. It seems logic fails me when it comes to my wife’s welfare.”

Bones snorted. “I know how you feel. But don’t fret. I’m sure Denise will remind you of any flaws in your logic as often as my wife reminds me of mine.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the dryness in his tone. “Right back at you, honey. You’re pretty good about pointing it out when I’m acting with my fears and not my brain. So I guess we’ve all been guilty of it.”

The tension in the room drained away, resulting in a few moments of companionable silence. Then Denise cleared her throat.

“So . . . let’s get started. I haven’t eaten all day to try and gear up for this, and I’m starving. If this works, I’m rewarding myself with enough food to choke a horse.”

So saying, she got up and stood a little way off from the couch. I went over to her, not really sure if I should say anything or if that would break her concentration. Mencheres and Kira had left, so the house was empty aside from us. No ghosts lingered in the vicinity, thanks to the illegal stink remedy on me and around the house, and the drapes were drawn even though the closest neighbor was a good two blocks away. We weren’t taking any chances of being observed by anyone—unless you counted my cat, who groomed himself while throwing occasional glances our way.

Denise looked me over from top to bottom, her forehead creased with concentration. Then her scent changed, souring from her natural jasmine base to a harsher aroma of agitation. Her pulse sped up as well, breathing becoming shorter, sharper. The air around her thickened as her scent changed even more, now tinged with faint undertones of sulfur. Even though I’d seen this reaction in her before, I couldn’t stifle a twinge of unease as her hazel eyes slowly filled with deep crimson.

Then Denise cried out, harsh and loud. Her skin seemed to ripple over her features in a misshapen, melted way, like wax held too close to flame. More moans came from her, the sounds almost animalistic in their intensity. She bent over, shudders wracking her body so viciously it looked like her muscles were being torn out of place. Unbidden, my hand rose to my mouth, stifling a gasp. Spade was right. I shouldn’t have asked her to do this. What the hell had I been thinking?

Denise fell to her knees, her hair falling over her face as a horrible shout wrenched from her. Spade was at her side even before I was, taking her in his arms and whispering to her. I touched her shoulder, heaping recriminations on myself.

“Stop, Denise, it’s not worth it. We’ll find another way—”

My voice broke off as her head whipped up suddenly, her eyes now gunmetal gray instead of crimson or hazel, dark brown hair changed to red and framing the same face I saw looking back at me from the mirror.

“Bugger me dead, you did it,” Bones whistled.

A slow grin spread across Denise’s face—except it wasn’t her face anymore. It was mine.

“That was so much easier than the last time!” she said, giving Spade a quick kiss before jumping to her feet. Even her body now looked exactly like mine, I noted with amazement. She’d grown inches taller and filled out in the butt and breast area, all in the space of about three minutes.

“Darling, are you all right?” Spade asked, rising and looking her over with far more objectivity than I felt. Staring at a mirror image of myself on my best friend was just . . . odd, even though this was what we’d hoped would happen. The demon’s essence hadn’t just made her virtually unkillable. It had also turned Denise into a shapeshifter like he’d been.