Page 56 of Kiss of Light

“I love your hair,” she said, for want of anything better to say.

“Thanks. I love your jacket. Is that your boyfriend you came in with? He’s lush.”

“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend. But he’s definitely cute.”

“Cool. Well, if he’s not with you, do you mind if I have a run at him?”

“Huh?” Startled, Tala looked at the other woman who calmly replaced the top on her eyeliner. “Um, we’re in kind of a hurry. Otherwise I’m sure he’d be…”

The woman grabbed Tala by the head and smashed her face into the mirror. Pain exploded as her nose broke. The mirror splintered and shards cut deep into her skin, just missing her eyes.

She staggered back, blood streaming from her nose, not understanding what had just happened.

“Thefuck? Who are you?”

“Don’t you recognise me,Tala-ji?” The woman grinned at Tala, an unnaturally wide grin that strained the corners of her mouth. Her eyes bled to black and Tala inhaled sharply.

“Ravij. How did you find me?”

“I didn’t. I just waited for you to show up.” The demon host gave a self-satisfied smirk. “As soon as I knew where you and the bloodsucker were headed, I contacted every bar, diner, gas station and two-bit pole dancing club en route offering a reward to the first person who called in a sighting. Social media is a wonderful thing.”

“You don’t have a clue where we’re headed,” Tala blustered.

“I’m afraid I do,Tala-ji.At first I thought it must be a mistake. No-one is desperate enough to go throughthatGate. But then I was flitting through the memories of people at that place you stopped after New Orleans. Remember? The one with the weak-minded bartender?”

Tala didn’t react but her heart sank. The first roadside bar where she’d demonstrated her possession trick to Lemar. She’d taken a call from Denny. And in that call she’d mentioned Colorado.

It wouldn’t have taken Ravij long to glean it from the memory of someone who’d overheard her.

She wanted to smash her own stupid face into the mirror again. She deserved it for her carelessness. Instead she grabbed her nose between finger and thumb and yanked it sharply back into place. She welcomed the pain.

“Thanks for telling me your dastardly plan, Ravij. Now that I know you’ve got lookouts, I’ll avoid pitstops along the way.”

Without warning she smashed a fist into the woman’s face, then hooked a foot around her ankle. As she went down, Tala grabbed the back of her head and bounced it off the sink.

The woman collapsed, unconscious.

Tala checked she was still breathing. It wasn’t her fault she’d been possessed. Then she washed the blood off her hands and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her nose was back in place and her accelerated healing was already taking care of her bruises. She picked out three daggers of glass sticking out from her cheeks and forehead. The cuts would close soon enough.

She strode back into the diner, intending to get Lemar and get the hell out of there. He was still sitting at the bar. But he had his hands in the air and the tattooed bartender was holding a rifle inches from his face.

Tala approached cautiously.

“Was it something you said?”

“I think we should take our custom elsewhere,” he replied laconically. “I was just waiting for you. Meet you outside?”

“You can’t escape me,Tala-ji,” grinned the bartender. “I have a roomful of people to help me contain you. Money is a very efficient motivator.”

As one, every person in the bar faced them and pulled a gun. Tala hadn’t seen this many firearms in one place since an NRA convention. She smiled coldly at the demon behind the bartender’s eyes.

“What you have, you despicable piece of shit, is a roomful of humans. Who aren’t fast enough to stop a vamp and a demon. So fuck you, Ravij.”

The bartender carefully laid his rifle on the counter.

“You’re absolutely right. Off you go then. Blur away. I won’t stop you. In this body, I couldn’t. He’s a heart attack waiting to happen.”

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