Page 23 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)

That didn’t make sense. “Here in the Null?”

“Felt.” He corrected himself. “When I picked you up at the morgue. Their wish hadn’t fully played out. You can’t break your bargain, and I know you couldn’t live with yourself if you fulfilled it. Astrid can try her spell.”

If it wasn’t for his tone, I might have felt relief.

“You think it will kill you.”

He shrugged. “Either that or do nothing. If it’s the latter, Canyon has to be killed. Or I do.”

“This isn’t going to end with you dead.”

“It will end with you alive, free, and safe. With you happy.”

“I’m fine,” I insisted.

His brows lifted.

I rolled my eyes. “I am.” I wasn’t going to change Garion’s mind though, so I took another sip of my drink and let that issue drop. “Why would Canyon take a chance on cursed magic? He’s king of the night court. He has power and money and magic. What else does he want?”

“I don’t know,” Garion said. “The things people think they need and can’t get don’t always make logical sense. Those who have everything never realize they do. They don’t understand until after they gain something frivolous and lose something irreplaceable.”

The next sip of my drink was much gloomier than the last. Canyon didn’t seem like someone who wouldn’t think this through.

He’d study all his options and dissect the consequences of each.

Did he think he could avoid the curse somehow?

Or was this unknown thing he wanted so crucial to have? What could it possibly be?

I wanted to talk to him. My instincts said it was the right course of action, that it was worth the risk of being in breach.

Yes, that meant I’d be trapped in the fey world for a time, but if Canyon really wanted a djinn so badly, I’d convince him to release me so that I could return to The Rain and get the token.

And that’s when I’d declare it last-resort time.

“We’ll figure this out,” I said.

“We,” he repeated, his voice firm. “Not you, Kennedy. Don’t do anything on your own.”

“This is too big to go it alone.” I finished off my drink, cringed a bit at the extra sweetness on the bottom, then handed the glass to Garion. “Don’t give up on me, okay?”

“I never have.”

I smiled. “I’m glad you’re still here. I don’t think I would have survived without you.”

“I know you would. Good night, Kennedy.”

I left the restaurant with zero intention of sleeping.

I did go up to the residence to get my phone though, which had no missed calls.

I also grabbed a flashlight and a battery-powdered lantern before heading back downstairs.

Fortunately, the batteries in both were good.

I hoped the lantern would last through the night.

I didn’t want Deagan to wake up in a dark, unfamiliar room.

I slipped out the lobby’s back door, trying not to attract the staff’s attention.

They’d set up multiple canopies to protect their makeshift outdoor kitchen from the rain, which had almost completely stopped now.

The wind carried the scent of their cooking to me despite the heavy humidity.

Whatever it was, it smelled better than what we served in The Rain’s restaurant.

Weird considering they were cooking the same food. Cooking all of it.

I grimaced. The electric bill screwup had been an expensive mistake.

If I didn’t take care of it soon, it might become even more expensive.

I already had to restock the kitchen. With the rain and summer humidity, we’d have to watch for mildew and mold.

Plus, I needed to keep my phone and laptop charged so I could reply to and book the vampires who’d emailed me.

If a phone call to the electric company and begging didn’t work, I’d have to leave The Rain to fix this mess.

I didn’t like that idea. Just because Canyon hadn’t ambushed me today didn’t mean he wouldn’t tomorrow.

Giving the staff a wide berth, I made my way to the Catalan. Its common room was empty, so I took the stairs up a level and knocked on Astrid’s door. I needed to talk to her about the null spell. See if she was on board. I was ninety-nine percent sure she would be.

She wasn’t home. Since the power was out, that wasn’t a surprise.

She was probably outside somewhere. Maybe with the rest of the staff on the terrace.

I moved on to Deagan’s room on the third floor.

Quietly, I cracked open his door and peered inside.

No movement. No sound. I entered and walked toward his bed, careful to keep the beam of my flashlight away from his face.

He still slept in the center of the mattress.

My mouth thinned. I tried to convince myself that maybe he just needed sleep to recover from Arcuro and the bloodlust, but it seemed like he should be awake now.

The small amount of blood Jared had given me had healed my injuries and left me with more energy than I’d had before I’d entered the compound.

Jared said Deagan had been too crazed to drink from him properly, but he’d likely ingested more blood than I had.

Aside from the disheveled hair and a bit of dirt, he looked like he was getting better.

Just a little bit gaunt still. So why wasn’t he awake yet?

Turning on the lantern, I placed it on the nightstand beside his bed.

“Deagan,” I said in a loud whisper. When he didn’t react, I repeated his name and gently nudged his shoulder.

Still no reaction.

Sighing, I walked to the bathroom, grabbed and dampened a cloth, then I sat on the edge of Deagan’s bed.

The sinking mattress didn’t wake him either, so I pressed the cloth against his forehead.

He needed to shower and eat. He definitely needed to drink.

His lips were beginning to crack. I wiped a smear of dirt off his cheek, then returned to the bathroom to rewet the cloth so I could dampen his lips.

They twitched! I watched, waited, and then squeezed the cloth so a few drops fell to his mouth. Nothing this time.

My phone rang loudly, startling me but not the sleeping vampire.

I pulled it out of my back pocket. It was Christian. I tapped to answer his call, then tapped again to put it on speaker because Deagan obviously slept like the dead.

“Hey, how did it go?” I asked.

“They’re not against the idea,” Christian replied.

“But?”

“They don’t think it will work. Or that it will work in time. Jared said he wouldn’t stop you from trying, but he still intends to track Canyon down and kill him.”

“That’s pretty much what I expected.”

“If he tracks Canyon as well as he’s been tracking Crusco, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

I spluttered out a laugh, then clapped my free hand over my mouth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. I know Melissa isn’t safe until Crusco is taken care of. It’s not funny. It’s just…”

“Funny,” Christian said. “It’s fine. I like hearing you laugh.”

I smiled at the phone and squeezed a few more drops from the cloth. “Are you still at the compound?”

“No, I’m at the gym. Nora told me to take her car. I’ll drop it off the next time I’m—”

“What the hell are you doing?” a voice bellowed from the hallway.