I am waiting for you to let me do something, it said.
Cassius fisted his hand around the Eye and hissed like a viper. “Do you take me for a fool!” he demanded, springing off and catwalk to land only half a dozen feet away from Sophie.
Mick bit back a snarl, his wolf pressing close to the surface at the threat to his woman. As she edged backward, he crept forward, muscles coiled for action, eyes on the vampire.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I brought you the Eye.”
“It is bound!” thundered the vampire.
“Not my problem,” said Sophie coolly. “You asked me to get the Eye from the catacombs. I did that. I didn’t open the case, didn’t touch it, just as we were ordered on the retrieval mission. If something isn’t right with it, that’s not on me. I kept my end of the bargain. Now let my sister go.”
“Who is bound to the Eye?” demanded Cassius, stalking forward.
Let me take care of this, begged the demon.
No, Mick thought. This is for me to do.
Mick leapt. He couldn’t make it all the way to Sophie, but he landed with enough deliberate noise that the vampire whirled to face him.
“That’d be me.”
~*~
No! Sophie wanted to scream it as Mick deliberately made himself Cassius’s target.
“Who the hell are you?” asked Cassius.
Mick circled, drawing the vampire away. “Let’s just say I’m a concerned employer. You’ve deprived me of a waitress on one of my busiest nights.”
Cassius stared at Mick. Sophie sensed that very little surprised the old vampire, but this threw him off kilter.
“You’re the bartender at Le Loup Garou.”
Mick made an imitation of Cassius’s mocking bow, never taking his eyes off the enemy.
“What use does a barkeep have for power such as that of the Devil’s Eye?”
“Seems to me it makes for mighty good leverage. Now, you’re going to turn off the saw and carefully let Liza down, or you’re going to get a firsthand look at exactly what the Eye can do.”
Sophie couldn’t tell if he was bluffing. His eyes flashed gold with predatory fury, and she didn’t know what his wolf side would do with the kind of power he now had at his disposal.
Cassius’s eyes narrowed. “I am an enemy. A threat. If you are truly bound to the Eye, then why not wield it to cut me down?”
Mick flashed a wicked grin. “Why send a demon when I’d rather save the fun part for myself?”
He sprang, body rocketing through the air, shifting from skin to fur and fangs so fast she could hardly track him. But Cassius was faster. Even as Mick’s forepaws hit him in the chest, he jerked back, saving his throat from the snap of Mick’s jaws. Then they were moving, a blur of black and white that she could only follow by the sound of their snarls.
Heart in her throat, Sophie ran for the nearest set of scaffolding, intent on getting to Liza. She couldn’t waste this opportunity. Up she climbed, then leapt for the next platform. Still not close enough! She looked up at the pulleys holding the chain and felt terror claw through her as she realized there was no way to reach them.
She looked to her sister. Liza’s eyes were wide and panicked.
“Can you move your legs?” Sophie shouted.
In response she twitched her feet a couple of inches.
“Please try, Liza. Get some momentum going and swing toward me. I should be able to catch you.”
Liza screwed up her face in concentration or pain, but she kicked out, wriggling like a fish on a line.