“You may as well spill it,” I told him.
“Samael managed to reach out to my uncle. If it looks like he’s getting too close to dying and taking you with him… Ag is supposed to find a way to break the bond.”
“There is no way to break the bond.”
Vas shook his head. “Not usually. But while your bond with Samael is in place, it’s fragile, held together by sheer will. Samael thinks it can be broken, and he has no intention of taking you with him if he dies.”
Samael had kept that quiet. Oh, he’d talked about how he’d wait for me, but he hadn’t mentioned he’d actively reached out to Ag.
I couldn’t blame him. I would have done the same thing.
“Thanks for the pep talk, you guys.”
I got to my feet. I needed to talk to Samael, and I’d drug myself to sleep if I had to.
Vas slid off his stool and looked at Meredith. “I need to talk to you.”
Mere drew back, and I eyed her. She moved faster than I’d expected, in a way that told me she had some level of combat training. She sent me a pleading look, and I lifted my phone.
“Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”
“No one’s calling you at 3am, Danica!” Mere’s voice carried over the bar as I scampered toward the door.
Would you look at that? I suddenly wasn’t feeling as depressed as I had been when I walked in here.
I leaned against the brick wall and waited for Vas. I’d expected him to be in one of his dark moods, as he usually was whenever the subject of the sloe-eyed witch came up, but this time he looked more than a little satisfied.
“What happened?”
He held out his arms, and I was too curious to whine when he carried me like a child. One of the demons could grab Kyla’s car in the morning.
Vas’s expression was thoughtful as he shot into the sky.
“I told her how it’s gonna be.”
I blinked at that. Meredith had managed to keep the peace in that bar for years, through sheer willpower and stubbornness. She had a steel core.
“Ah, you did, did you? And how is it going to be?”
He smiled, his gaze on the stars.
“I’m not standing for her avoiding me anymore.”
I winced. “And Mere took that well, did she?”
He rubbed his jaw. “She punched me.”
I gaped at him, and he smiled. “She’s got a mean right hook. And I never saw it coming.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“It’s the first time she’s voluntarily touched me.” His smile widened. “I’m wearing her down.”
“There are so many things wrong with that, I don’t know where to begin.”
He ignored me, his dreamy gaze shifting to the forest below us.
Not my business. I had more than enough of my own problems. And if I was secretly looking forward to the fireworks…
