Death's Excellent Vacation - By Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner Page 0,93
object to you being sent back to Abaddon, I trust.”
Anyen’s eyes opened up really wide when the Venediger picked up the dagger again.
“You know what?” I asked Anyen, taking a deep breath and thinking about Cecile’s warm, furry little ears.
“What?” she asked.
“We’re immortal.”
She blinked at me for a second, but that’s all I gave her. I grabbed her arm, lowered my head, and charged the Venediger. She sprang to the side, out of the way, just as I figured she would. Anyen and I kept going through, right past the Venediger, the two others staring at us in surprise, and on through the window that opened onto a small garden.
Anyen was fast on her feet, luckily, and although my chest and arms and legs were cut by the glass as I went through the window, we both landed on our feet and took off running.
The Venediger’s guards, however, were mortal, and they were less than thrilled about leaping into a mass of broken glass. They were slower getting through the window, and by the time they got to the garden, we were racing down the back alley to freedom.
We split up not long after, Anyen making a snarky remark about me slowing her down.
“You’re welcome,” I yelled after her as she disappeared into the Tuilleries. “Hope you don’t get a really nasty case of zombie rot while you’re raising the dead!”
It took me a couple more hours before I finally lost the guard who persisted in following me, so it wasn’t until afternoon that I staggered exhausted, bleeding, and dirty from a fall into the Seine through the door of a familiar shop. “Cecile! Baby! I’m here!”
The woman behind the counter at the shop stared at me in stark surprise. “Jim? Is that you?”
“Hiya, Amelie. Yeah, it’s me. Where’s Cecile?”
“She . . . she . . .” Amelie seemed to be struck speechless, because she simply pointed upstairs.
“Thanks. Mind if I use your shower? I had a run-in with the Venediger, and I’m all ooky with blood and stuff. See you later,” I called as I dashed through the back room, then up the stairs that led to the apartment in which Amelie and Cecile lived.
Cecile was also a bit taken aback by my appearance, her eyes going even more bug-eyed than they normally were when I scooped her up in my arms and kissed her all over her adorable pointy little snout. “My darling, my adorable one! We might only have one day left together, but I will make it a day you won’t forget. I promise I’ll get back to my normal form as soon as possible,” I told her when she tried to squirm out of my hold, her little stubby legs kicking wildly. “This one sucks big-time, huh? Don’t worry, my beloved. I’ll soon be your big, handsome Jim again. But first, a shower.”
The sound of voices drifted in to me when I stepped out of the shower, drying myself on one of Amelie’s soft towels. I looked at the codpiece and thong, but decided I just couldn’t wear them any longer. By the time I headed out of Amelie’s bedroom, I realized that I knew the voices.
“—came back early because Drake insisted on seeing the doctor. It turned out to be nothing, of course, just a case of the sniffles.”
“Any illness in infants can be serious,” Drake’s voice rumbled in response. “I was not easy in my mind until the children had been seen by a proper doctor.”
“Anyway, we decided it wasn’t worth hauling the babies back to the yacht, so we figured we’d just swing by and pick up Jim and head back to London. Is it here?”
“Aw, man!” I said, marching in to the room. “You’re early? Fine! Just ruin my plans!”
The silence that greeted my arrival in Amelie’s sunny living room was thick enough to cut with a butter knife.
“Er . . .” Amelie said, her expression kind of shocked.
“Jim! What on earth are you doing in that form!” Aisling demand, her hands on her hips. “And naked!”
Drake narrowed his green eyes at me and muttered something about knowing better than to leave me on my own.
“It’s not my fault,” I told them both. “You can ask that no-good, conniving Guardian why I’m like this.”
“I certainly will,” Aisling said, staring.
Drake slapped his hand over her eyes and glared at me. “Put some clothing on, or I’ll see to it you have nothing left with which to shock Aisling.”