“You can take a seat you know.”
“As you wish, Nexi.” Quinney and Tyde sat opposite us in the loveseat.
Immediately, I took notice of the way they sat close together and angled their legs together. There was a closeness between them that couldn’t be missed. “Are you two a couple?” I asked them.
Quinney smiled. “Yes, Nexi.”
Okay that was just annoying. Now that I told her not to call me My Lady she was just replacing it with Nexi. It still felt ridiculous. “Well that’s nice. How long have you been together?” I wanted to get to know them a little. If we were going to be around them a lot, it only felt right to do so.
“We have been together for well over…” Tyde hesitated. “Ummm…”
Quinney laughed softly and smacked his leg. “Two thousand years.”
“You’re fucking kidding?” I gasped.
Kyden laughed.
“We are quite old.” Tyde responded.
We sat quiet for a moment. I think they allowed me time to process that. Truthfully, I couldn’t. That’s damn old. Too old. Resigned that the thought was going to continue to shock me, I move on. “So, the reason we are here is because a demon killed a human.”
Quinney did a double take. “What was that you said?”
I sighed deep and threw my hands up in frustration. “It’s like I’m a friggin’ broken record.”
“It is an unusual situation.” Kyden rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. “This is to be expected.”
He was right and all, but criminy, this was entirely frustrating. I took in a deep breath, an attempt not to smack my head against the wall and gave them the information they needed to help us here. “Yes, you heard me right. A demon was doing some bizarre ritual. You know with black ash and blood thing, then poof, they both disappeared.”
Quinney and Tyde exchanged a curious look. I didn’t miss the implication. “You’ve never heard of this either?”
“Never,” Quinney replied. “You say a demon was doing the ritual? Like an offering?”
“How in the hell should I know.” I shrugged.
“It looked like that,” Kyden offered.
“Hmmm,” Tyde pondered. “Best we look to the Diabolus Somes for an answer.”
“The what of the what?” I burst out.
Amusement flickered through me. Obviously, Kyden was getting a rise out of my stupidity. I shot him the look at that one. The amusement grew.
“It’s our history,” Quinney explained. “After you destroyed Magnus, Misa brought it here. Our status of superiors in the Underworld leaves us the best choice to watch over it—to keep it safe. It could be detrimental to the worlds if someone who wanted power obtained it.”
Well, what in the hell were we waiting for? “All right, well go get the damn thing.”
Tyde was off in a jiffy, back seconds later with a book that definitely looked like it dated back to the beginning of time.
“Good lord, what is that thing made of.” I leaned forward to examine the thick book.
Tyde handed it to Quinney and she ran her hand over the cover. “The cover is ultrathin sheepskin, but the inside is plain old paper.”
She opened the book, and paper wasn’t quite the appropriate word. Maybe once it was paper. Now, it looked like newspaper—all crumply and worn.
I glanced at the writing, annoyed to say the least when I couldn’t read a word of it. “What language is that?” It looked like scribble.
“Latin,” Kyden answered.
My gaze fell to his. I’d actually wondered this long ago, but with all the other shit going on, it just never came up. “Speaking of that, why do you know how to speak Latin?”
“Immortals are old, Álainn. Latin was once the language spoken. Many vampires still to this day use it. You have heard them, have you not?”
I thought back. The memory of the vampires that wanted to off me for killing Lazarus was a memory I chose to lock away in the vault. But they did use a language that night that I hadn’t recognized. “The Vampires at the lodge.”
Kyden nodded. “You see why it would be important.”
“I guess I do, but why haven’t I learned it?”
Laughter came around.
My irritation hit the roof. A bunch of demons, laugh at me? Oh, hell no! “What’s so damn funny?”
“Nexi,” Tyde amused. “Do you honestly think if a vampire saw you he would care to even use words against you?”
Misa snickered. “He’d probably just book it.”
I waved away the compliment. I didn’t like being put in the spotlight, so I quickly moved along. “So, read it. What does it say?”
“A thousand years ago, we