No vortex. No demons. There was just a beach filled with pirates, Jean in front of me, and Than standing at our side, staring pensively off to the north. His hand was closed, and tucked in his pocket. I’d never seen him stand like that before.
“The vortex?” I asked.
“Whoa, cowboy,” Jean pressed harder on my shoulder to stop me from getting up. Probably a good idea. I was a little dizzy from just trying. “You are going to sit here until we have the paramedics check you out.” She glanced up. “Look at that, they’re almost here.”
I did look, and saw Mykal and Steven trotting over with a stretcher and a medical case.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I have business to attend,” Than said. He turned abruptly and strode away down the sand toward the north, toward the hospital.
I watched him go. Even though there was a crowd of happy pirates who didn’t appear to think anything was amiss, he sort of blended right into the bunch of them and was gone.
“What part do you remember?” Jean asked.
“The vortex, the demon…Bathin. Holy shit. He stabbed himself.”
Jean shook her head slightly. “No, I’m pretty sure you did that.”
“Did you see it? Were you close enough to see whose hand was on the scissors?”
“No. You disappeared so fast, I couldn’t track anything.”
“Fast?”
“You were next to me, then popped up by Bathin. Before I could even yell, there was a flash of fire, and he was gone and you were here. Kneeling in the sand. ”
“The vortex?”
“It disappeared with Bathin. I’m pretty sure no one even remembers it.”
She tipped her chin toward the crowd. Families laughed and talked, hands wrapped around coffee, children bundled against the cool morning winds as they milled about waiting for the parade to start.
Everything was normal. Ordinary.
Except Bathin was gone.
He had used the scissors—his own hand, a demon hand—to free Delaney’s soul.
—Love you—
I felt my eyes fill with tears, was too tired to fight them.
“Mymy?” Jean said. “Are you okay?”
I dashed at my damp face and used the leverage of her shoulder to try my feet again.
“We usually tell our concussion patients to stay sitting while we examine them,” Mykal said as he and Steven finally reached us.
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, considering you were ground zero in the blast zone of a vortex to Hell exploding, you’re just going to have to let us make that decision.” Mykal gave me a stern look and Steven caught my elbow and helped me sit.
“You saw that?”
“Nope,” Steven said. “But he saw something.”
Mykal gave me a funny look. “I’m a vampire, so yes. I saw the supernatural portal to Hell disappear.”
