Page 27 of Seph

“Oh, God. Hawaii.” Simeon hoped there was no limit on time zones or water crossings. He felt his body lift a few inches out of the seat despite the seat belt, and the night sky seemed to blur and sizzle.

Just for a second.

Then, everything was peaceful. Shady trees. Lapping water. Beautiful view of Mauna Loa, if he wasn’t mistaken. Nice place to vacation.

If not for the company.

Emily’s scream echoed in the car and wouldn’t stop. Then the rain of blows on his arm joined the screaming. “What did you do? What the fuck did you do, why did you—”

Vacation over. “Pinecrest Avenue, Pine Ridge, New York, the front of Emily Van Helsing’s apartment building!” Simeon hissed, dodging her hammer-like love taps.

The car left the sparkling white beach and reappeared in front of Emily’s apartment almost instantly. “There! See?”

Emily scrambled out of the car, hands out in front of herself, ribs heaving. “What? What the hell was that? Why? How?”

“It’s Hades’ car. We get it for the week. We have to go find his wife.”

Emily’s hands were suddenly on him, gripping the collar of his jacket. “We’rewhat?”

He sighed. “Let’s get you to a nice, solid seat, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

Well. He’d told her everything—or as much as Simeon ever divulged at once. She had been talking to him for months, and there were still things he was close-mouthed about.

Emily knew if she agreed to help, she’d be getting surprise after surprise, little “Oh, didn’t I mention that?” bits of news until the assignment was over.

She told Simeon she needed to think about it.

“We’ve got a week, Van Helsing. A week!”

“Yeah, well... You can get started without me.”

Thelookhe gave her for that little remark.

At least Van Helsing got all flustered and looked away.

“I prefer to wait with you. Still, I might go have a talk with Jakob. See if he’s got any bright ideas. I’ll be back in two hours. Gimme your answer when I get back, for or against, because honest to God—ha—I don’t think I can wait much longer. A week to save all of vampire kind—”

“Yeah, that’s one of the cons, for me. We can’t save a few to spare the many.”

Simeon crossed his arms and glared. “The rest we can bloody well hunt down, you an’ me, Van Helsing. You’ve never loved anyone properly, have you? Never had one person you would risk burning down the world for?”

“No! That’s not how love is. The greater good always matters more than the individual,” she countered. “A life of sacrifice and—”

Simeon turned suddenly, eyes the telltale vampiric red that made her fingers itch to grab her stakes.

“You tell me how I’m supposed to look Minegold in the eye and tell him I’m going to ‘sacrifice’ his little grandson, how I’m supposed to send that baby boy to Tartarus along with the murdering scum just because Lilith waited almost nine hundred years to start searching.” With that, Simeon slammed out of the front door, and in seconds, Emily heard the silver Mustang screech away.

Hades is going to kill him for treating his car like that, she thought.

Hades. Hades, the god of the dead, showed up and gave Simeon a sports car, a rescue mission, and a death threat. Ha.

It’s probably some kind of trick. He wants to get me out of town for some reason.

I can’t believe he’d use J.J. like that, though. That’s really low, even for him.

Emily shook her head and paced.No. Can’t believe that.

“Ahem.”

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