Page 77 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
We searched first Bael’s house, then the other three, but found nothing.I examined the area around the buildings, finally returning to where Yrian now stood over Bael’s lifeless body, his head propped up next to his feet.
“I didn’t find anything out back, I’m afraid.How are you going to keep him from coming back?”I asked.
He glanced at me, obviously confused.
“This is the underworld.You can’t truly die here,” I pointed out.“One of the ladies on the boat said that if you die, you simply return here, whole again.”
“Ah,” he said, looking back at the body.To my complete surprise—and horror—he lifted the sword and sliced off Bael’s arm.“There is one way.If the body is chopped to bits and spread around the Duat, it will not be able to re-form.Go back into Kashi’s house, Becket.”
I weighed my options, decided I really didn’t want to see a dismemberment, and hurried into the empty house, my arms wrapped around myself as I danced out my twitchiness, mulling over the events of the last half hour.
We might have taken care of the biggest of the threats, but Xavier had escaped, and evidently now Yrian’s mom was going to be another problem.
“It’s like we can’t win,” I said to my shoes as I sat on a hard wooden chair, ignoring the sounds of a body being hacked to bits by a magical sword.My inner narrator pointed out that Yrian had fulfilled his goal.Bael was dead, so there was no reason to be glum.
“My brain is warring with the rest of me,” I told Yrian a few minutes later, when he appeared in the open doorway.
“Over the death of Kashi?”he asked, brushing a bit of black blood off his hand.
“No.Yes.It might be related.I’m happy you did what you wanted to do, and yet ...”I stopped and tried to pinpoint the sick feeing in my belly.“I guess I’m a bit down that we have more work to do.”
“Xavier, you mean?”He didn’t nod as I expected, just looked down at the hand holding the blade.Despite having been used to lop off bits of Bael, it wasn’t in the least bit stained black by demon blood.“There is good reason for your feeling such.Come.We must leave before Tenite finds Asfet.”
“You think your mom’s going to attack us?”I asked, following him outside.To my relief, he’d bundled the pieces of his brother into several bags used to hold grain.I averted my gaze from the black stains growing along the bags, instead watching as he doled out money to a handful of workers he’d evidently gathered, giving them instructions to spread Bael’s remains around the Duat.
“Yrian?”I asked when he pulled the motor scooter up from where Tenite had thrown it, dusting it off before swinging a leg over the seat.
“We must leave now,” he repeated, his legs braced on either side of the scooter, obviously waiting for me.
“Do you know how to ride that?”I asked, pointing at the machine.
“Yes.Before I was imprisoned, a mortal donated his motorcycle to me.”
“Donated?”I asked, slowly approaching.
He gave a one-shouldered shrug.“He decided it was better to give it to me than be set on fire.”
“I had a feeling it was something like that.I have at least twenty questions for you to answer, the first of which is where we’re going.The second is what we’re going to do with your mom and Xavier.”I climbed on behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist, my head tucked in behind his, relishing the scent and feel and heat of him despite the worry still fussing in my stomach.
“Xavier is not an issue,” Yrian shouted as we sped off down the road.I pulled out a silk scarf I’d bought from theWepwawet’sshop, and, without blinding him, managed to get it wrapped around his nose and mouth before tucking my head behind his again.
“I know you’re angsty that your mom was being an asshat and took Xavier with her, but I don’t see why you’re beating yourself up over the situation.You did what you wanted to do—you killed Bael, and assuming spreading him hither and yon does the job, then he’ll stay dead.”
“That wasn’t Kashi.”
The wind was whipping past us at such a rate that I wasn’t sure I heard him.I tipped my head so I was speaking close to his ear.“It wasn’t?Who was it?It was definitely someone with demonic power, Yrian.He bled black blood, but even without that proof, I could feel the dark power in him.”
“It was Xavier.Kashi must have switched bodies with him.”Yrian’s fire poured out of him, leaving a blazing trail on the dirt road behind us.“And now, thanks to Tenite and Asfet, he is about to return to the mortal world.”
I swore into his neck, my stomach giving up all hope of ever feeling normal again.
