"Janie—" Quinn's voice sounded strangled.
"I will kill her," Malcolm snapped. "Have no doubt. She's so fresh right now that a stake would slide right through her flesh and into her heart like butter."
He shook his head. "Let her go."
"Give me the stone."
"Don't give it to him, Quinn," Janie managed.
He frowned at her hard. "Why aren't you fighting him?"
She wasn't even clawing at his arm around her neck. Her limbs were currently useless. It was a rather odd sensation, and not one that filled her with a great sense of girl power.
"If I would, I could. Pressure points? Didn't you learn about them in training?"
She felt Malcolm's fangs graze her neck. "Or I could finish draining her," he said. "Right here. She did taste divine earlier. Thestone . Don't make me ask again."
Without another word, his eyes fixed on Janie's face, Quinn reached into his pocket and pulled out the red stone.
"Good," Malcolm breathed. "Very good."
"Quinn—" Janie noticed that his gaze left hers to move over her shoulder. She frowned. "What are you—"
Suddenly, Malcolm grunted and his grip on her throat loosened. As soon as the feeling rushed back in her body, she pushed away from him.
She turned to look at Malcolm, who was frozen in place, his arms dropped slackly to his sides. She frowned with confusion as the tip of a wooden stake protruded from his chest, but then it disappeared leaving behind a round blood stain on the front of his now-ruined white shirt.
Her gaze flicked to what stood behind him. It was the Boss, flanked by two helper drones, one who held a blood-covered stake that he'd just plunged through Malcolm's back and into his heart.
Malcolm's eyes glazed over and he fell to his knees, and then forward onto his face.
He was dead.
The Boss motioned down to him, and a drone dropped to the floor beside the old man and searched him, quickly finding the Eye. He stood up and, with eyes lowered obediently, handed it to the Boss.
"Parker," the Boss said, his tone even. "Did I not stress how important this is to me? And yet you failed me again."
Her mouth was as dry as the desert she and Quinn had spent the better part of the afternoon traveling through.
"I… I—" She felt a tug at her sleeve and turned to see Quinn behind her, concern and worry etched into his expression. His hand moved down protectively to her waist, and he drew her closer to him.
The Boss's gaze flicked to Quinn. "He's still alive."
She nodded.
"I told you to kill him, and you ignored my orders."
Quinn's hand tightened at her waist. "Janie?"
She turned and looked at him. "I couldn't do it."
The Boss nodded his wrinkled skull. "And now, to make things even worse, you are a vampire?" He shook his head. "Pathetic. Truly pathetic."
She reached to touch her throat, but the marks had disappeared almost completely thanks to the healing balm. "How did you know that?"
"I can smell it on you from here."
She looked at Quinn. He shrugged. "I think you smell great."
The Boss sneered at them. "My seers once told me that you were destined for greatness. Despite your previous shortcomings, I gave you this chance to prove your worth to me. You have failed." His gaze moved to Quinn. "How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am he who shall end your life tonight. Yours and Parker's."
"Oh, yeah?" Quinn growled. "And I am he who shall end yours first."
The Boss laughed, a dry cackle that, as per usual, sounded riddled with disease. "Perhaps earlier I would have found you more humorous, but now I am simply weary and ready for this all to be over." He looked at the Eye. "Finally. After a millennium it is mine again."
"A m-millennium?"
Janie hated that the man made her stutter with nervousness. This is not how she'd envisioned her final meeting with the Boss.
The casino, except for them, was completely vacant. No witnesses. She was living on borrowed time now.
"Yes, Parker. This—" He held up the Eye "—was my staff, you see. And it was taken from me by a tribe of humans who once worshipped me until they betrayed me, a cloak of magic placed over its location for all this time until very recently. They were very good at keeping it from me for so long, but I will have the last laugh."
"Your staff?"
"It is part of me. Part of what little power I still have left. It represents that which was taken away from me when I was banished."
"Banished?" Janie felt very confused, which wasn't really a big stretch from when she'd beensort of confused. "From where?"
"From Hell." His thin lips twisted into a humorless smile. "I was a high-ranking demon at one time. For many millennia. And then my power was taken from me by Lucifer himself. I was punished. Sent here to the earthly realm. They expected me to wither away into nothingness among insipid, vile humans. The only thing that has kept me alive for all of this time has been hate and my deep desire for revenge."
"You're a demon?" Janie repeated, feeling cold at the thought. Why that had never occurred to her, she had no idea. She'd always referred to her "boss from hell." She'd never known she'd been speaking literally.
"Not just a demon," the Boss said, raising his hairless eyebrow. "I answered only to Lucifer."
"And that's what your wish is?" A cold feeling of dread swept over her. "To be a demon again?"
"This fragile body that grows weaker by the day. All will soon be restored, and I will get my revenge on all who have betrayed or disappointed me." His eyes narrowed. "And that includes you, Parker."
"But I found the Eye. Doesn't that count for anything?"
"You intended on letting your lover use it. Even with my threats toward your sister. You didn't believe that I would follow through?"
She glanced at Quinn.Her lover .
The Boss knew everything, didn't he? The thought was not in the least bit comforting.