“You’d be surprised.”
“Can you—”
“You already got this for free. Don’t press your luck asking for more.” He straightens abruptly. “I’ll retrieve your vampires once it reaches full dark. Where do you want them?” He makes a show of looking around. “This place is hardly secure and your father will be searching for them.”
I finally sit up. He’s still too close, his shadows taking up too much space and making him seem larger than his human form. It’s disconcerting in the extreme. “You took seven years of Grace’s life and you can’t even guarantee that you won’t leave a trail for them to follow?”
He sighs. “You continue to press me. It’s irritating.”
A few weeks ago, having a ridiculously powerful and scary demon exasperated with me would be enough for common sense to take over and silence me. No longer. I lift my chin. “Then maybe you should make better deals. You’re supposed to be so powerful. My father is just a vampire. What’s that compared to a demon?”
Azazel sighs again, louder. “Fine.” He produces a card from somewhere and passes it over. It looks nearly identical to the one from earlier, except it has an address on it. “That’s a one-way ticket, so don’t use it until you’re ready to go.”
“Go,” I repeat.
He doesn’t roll his eyes, but it looks like he wants to. “Yes, go. When you’re prepared to leave, hold it to your chest and concentrate. Anything you’re carrying will be transported with you.”
A sliver of cold works its way through me. Teleportation. Obviously, I knew Azazel could do it since he seems to come and go as he pleases, but to allow someone else to do it independently of him? The thought makes me shudder. It seems risky. Surely there are a thousand things that could go wrong while I’m a disembodied version of myself, winging from one location to another. If that’s even how teleportation works. I honestly have no idea.
Riskier than trying to call a cab and leaving a trail for someone to follow if they know where to look?
No. Not riskier than that.
I finally nod. “It will be safe there?”
“Safe enough.” He shrugs. “What happens after that is up to the four of you. My help ends with the transfer.”
He looks like he’s about to leave, but I find myself speaking before he can pull a disappearing act. “Azazel.”
He waits, eyes dark and far too knowing. It would be so easy to let fear silence me, but I breathe through it and say, “If Grace is hurt because of the deal she made with you, I’ll find a way to kill you myself.” Maybe it’s an impossible task, but I’ll do what I can to repay that debt.
His lips curve, though his eyes remain cold. “As long as she follows the rules, she’ll be fine.”
If Grace finds out someone in that realm was the reason her mother never returned, she might murder them. Or at least try. I don’t know her well enough to know for sure. Maybe she’ll try to kill Azazel himself. The thought has me fighting back another shiver. “She made that deal because of me.”
“If you say so. Seems like she was intent on it for her own purposes.” He cocks his head to the side as if listening to something I can’t hear. “Don’t linger here. They’ll be searching the area shortly.” Then he’s gone, sinking into the shadows on the floor as if stepping into a deep pool of water. It’s more disconcerting than when he just disappears in a flood of darkness.
I test the floor, now clear of shadows, and it feels solid enough. “Creepy.”
I don’t know what to think of Azazel’s supplemental shield, but it’s a worry for another day. At this point, I have a lot of worries for later dates. There’s no help for it. I need to gather what few things I have and get out of here. The card feels strange against my palm, a faint pulse coming from it.
Teleportation.
I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s possible. In the last couple weeks, I’ve seen plenty of things that I’d previously thought impossible. With all that said, this feels particularly fantastical. I shake my head and make quick work of packing up anything that could link me to this room. There’s the blood on the floor, but I can’t do much about that without burning the place down, and I’m not willing to do that. My father isn’t able to track from some old blood.
Even he was, he wouldn’t have to tear up the carpet in this hotel room to have access to my blood. I left plenty of it behind in his compound over the years, originating with one punishment or another. I shake off the dark thoughts and throw the last few things in my bag.