Judas didn’t answer at first. His attention went to Rosa, and I’ll be honest, so did mine. She looked like a child’s doll. Her face was like pale china without the rosy cheeks. Her hair, though still pin-straight, was somehow lifeless.

  “‘Take her,’” Judas repeated.

  “You heard me,” I said. “Give her Tourmaline’s heart or whatever it is you do to make her one of you.”

  He took another moment to analyze her. “Impossible.”

  “Why?”

  “That much of Azrael’s power would overwhelm her. Even if she survived the transition, a mortal like her would be unable to resist the bloodlust. Perhaps if she were turned by one of my children, with the power diluted…”

  “I’ve seen what that looks like,” I said. “Young, feral vampires. She’d be a monster. No.” I shook my head. “She deserves better.”

  “It will not work.”

  “I may look like a dumbass cowboy, but I pay attention. A Necromancer fell for Rosa at first sight. Laveau saw something special in her. A goddamn demon lord tried to take her to Hell to serve him. I heard what he said. Chekoketh didn’t want me. He was after her.”

  I tilted her face toward me and stared at her soft features. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize.

  “I watched her calm a monstrous grunch with but a look. Freeze a werewolf with a word.” I looked up at Judas. “She may be mortal, but she ain’t normal and she ain’t weak. I was just too blind to see the truth of it.”

  Judas’s brow furrowed. I caught something there I hadn’t seen since we’d met. Curiosity.

  “Chekoketh was merely torturing you by hurting her,” Judas said. I didn’t buy it.

  “As a dumb cowboy, I can smell shit a mile away. And I smell shit. He said it plainly that they wanted her. I was collateral. Said she’d be their champion or something or other.”

  His features darkened. “You are certain of this?”

  Maybe it wasn’t curiosity in him. He began walking along the walls, studying the paintings, and muttering under his breath like a madman.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Could it be I was all wrong?” He was talking to himself.

  “Heaven forbid.”

  “How could I miss it?”

  “Miss what?”

  “Yes… perhaps I see it now.”

  “Dammit, man, what are you on about!”

  His eyes met mine, wide as barrels. That expression—this wasn’t curiosity at all. It was fear. But what could an immortal vampire king possibly fear down here in the darkness apart from the sun?

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  “He wants this,” Judas said.

  “Who wants what?”

  He grabbed the painting of the noose and smashed it on the floor. “Chekoketh. He played us all!”

  Zipping back to Rosa like lightning, he pushed me out of the way. I was too confused to react with anything but a slack jaw. His entire demeanor had changed like the flip of a lever.

  Pulling up Rosa’s sleeve, he ran his fingers along her snake and dagger tattoo. Then he put a palm over her chest and closed his eyes. When he’d touched her earlier, it seemed medical. This was something else.

  “We were both deceived,” he said.

  “Speak for yourself.”

  “This is not a game, Crowley! How did I not see it? They finally found her, after all this time.”

  I grabbed him by the arm. Whatever had him spooked, he twisted it and wrestled me to my knees out of pure reflex. Didn’t seem like he’d even realized he’d done it until after he let me go. And Damballah, she didn’t hiss, but cowered behind my head.

  “I will not turn her,” he said plainly.

  “Wait. You’re saying it would work?”

  He heaved me to my feet and held me by the shoulders. “You said you have seen her do things that should be impossible. Sway the minds of monsters, for instance?”

  “Maybe, I—”

  “When was the first time?” He was ravenous, rabid even. His face contorted from human to something else, back and forth like he’d lost control.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “It all happened fast. Could just be coincidental.”

  “Nothing is coincidental with Chekoketh involved. He is a trickster, a deceiver. A player of minds.”

  I shook, and he was so distracted by his thoughts, I got free. Probably could have even killed him then too… if I had a weapon left that could do the job.

  “What the hell would a demon want with her?” I asked.

  “You were right, Hamsa,” he said. “She is mortal, but she is far from normal. She would be a weapon to sway the war between Heaven and Hell. And with Azrael’s power… Oh, it would not be like us. Hell would already have their claws in her. His full power, reborn.”

  “Would you shut up and talk plain?”

  He paced frantically again. “Chekoketh wanted me to save her after you led her here to open the Hellmouth. Wanted us here. Wanted you to face this impossible choice because he knew what the solution would be. But how could he know your heart?”

  “Judas!”

  He stopped and gasped. “Shargrafein…” He whipped back around toward me. “James, you cannot trust her.”

  “Trust doesn’t play into our relationship,” I said.

  “I am no longer sure what side she is on.”

  “I thought you don’t care about sides.”

  “I care about balance! In a war, only this realm will suffer. They will not bat an eye. Crowley, you must take Rosa. Far from here.”

  “Not until you help her,” I said. I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about, but he wasn’t seeing things as they were. She was dying, and I couldn’t have that.

  “Are you listening?” he said. “It cannot be this way.”

  “Then—”

  Rosa vanished from the table, and next thing I knew, she was back in my arms, cradled like a baby. The speed at which Judas moved was staggering. Made me realize how vulnerable I was to his attacks, and I didn’t like it.

  “You have to take her somewhere safe. Somewhere far from the gaze of Heaven or Hell. Wait…” He reached into the folds of his clothes and pulled out a cross with a black gem in the center. With his other hand, he lifted Tourmaline’s heart, closed his eyes, and recited words in Aramaic.

  The blackness around the heart faded and it stopped glowing. At the same time, the gem on the cross acquired a red aura. He placed it in my hand supporting Rosa’s neck. “To shield you from your masters, I sacrifice raising a new child.”

  Now it was my time to furrow my brow. Chapelwaite had explained to me what the inverted crosses were. However, all of Tourmaline’s power in one would mean mine was what—extra strength?

  “Why not just turn me?” I asked.

  “There is no time,” he said. “We must go. Now.”

  He zipped up the stairs and out of the room, the speed of his motion extinguishing the torch. Few things are as perplexing as waking up after having died, but this took the cake. My expectations only a short while ago were that either I would leave this crypt a vampire or Rosa would. Either that, or one of us, me or Judas, would be dead for good. Now, none of that had happened.

  Damballah’s eyes shone in the darkness, and we exchanged a queer look before I hurried up the stairs.

  “What are you hiding, Rosa?” I asked her, clutching tight to her head so it didn’t jostle too much. “What are you?”