Devil to Pay
Chapter Fourteen

The Bonneville Salt Flats looked like a white, desolate ocean. They stretched for miles in a peninsula that was bordered on the west by the mountains and on the south by the interstate. Mencheres drove by the sign at the end of the access road that told visitors to park and venture on foot into the tourist section. Blake knew why they weren't stopping at the tourist section; they were heading for the middle of the flats, where two and a half miles was the closest distance between him and the end of the salt barrier.
It was blazing hot outside, but in this case, that was a bonus. In the spring, Mencheres said, the salt would be turned to mush in places, making driving on it impossible - and they needed the van with its cache of equipment. But in the middle of the summer, the salt was hard, like crystallized gravel, allowing the van to ride easily over its flat, sparkling surface.
Blake sat between them in the front. There were too many instruments in the back that could be used to kill him, if and when Xaphan appeared. Blake had no doubt the demon would come forth at any second. In fact, he wondered what Xaphan was waiting for.
At last, Mencheres stopped. Blake glanced around. There was nothing to see except miles of white and the mountains to their left. Steeling himself, Blake took in a deep breath.
"Okay. I'm ready."
Despite Elise's optimism about being able to bring him back, Blake didn't think it would work.
Chances were, when he died, he'd stay dead. Successful resuscitation happened in less than half the cases, he knew that from his army days when they taught him field triage. Still, he didn't share his doubts with Elise. Let her think he died believing he'd be saved. Why make this harder on her?
Blake went into the back of the van. There wasn't much room with all the equipment around.
Mencheres opened the doors and set up the generators outside. No need to ruin even his slim chance with carbon-monoxide poisoning.
Elise gestured to the large rectangular piece in the van, which looked to Blake like an elaborate, water-filled coffin.
"It'll be easier if you take your clothes off...most of them, at least." She looked almost shy saying that, as if he'd take her suggestion as perverted voyeurism. Blake's heart squeezed. I'll miss you forever, he thought, staring into Elise's beautiful blue-green eyes.
He stripped to his boxers, then took her in his arms. She hugged him back tightly, her whole body shuddering like something inside her was trying to break out.
"I know this makes no sense, since we've only known each other less than a week, but Blake...if I could spend the rest of my life with just one person, it would be you," she whispered.
Blake pulled away. Looked at her face and saw the naked vulnerability, emotion, and need there. He smiled, brushing back a strand of her blond hair.
"No, Elise. We've known each other forever, because that's how long I'll love you." Then he kissed her, trying to imprint the feel of her on his mouth, hands, and body before death came to take him away.
Elise knelt next to the hydro chamber. Blake had been immersed in the glacial water for over fifty minutes. His initial, massive shivering had slowed, as had his pulse and breathing. Confusion was starting to set in even as his eyes kept fluttering closed.
"Where am I?" he mumbled to Elise. "Too warm. Need to get out."
"He's entering the last stages of hypothermia," Mencheres said in a low voice. "His body is past feeling cold and is suffused with a false sense of heat instead. It won't be long now." Elise touched his forehead, but Blake didn't seem to feel it. His face and neck were open to the air, but the rest of him was submerged in the freezing water. All the better to bring about hypothermic cardiac arrest.
If she could have traded places with Blake, she'd have done it a million times over. The past forty minutes had been hell, watching him suffer in the container. Her only comfort was knowing that Xaphan would suffer, too. He'd taken Blake over as soon as Blake lay down in the chamber. Xaphan had thrashed around, trying to break everything he could touch. Mencheres restrained him with his power, holding Blake's body immobile even though the demon writhed and fought inside him. Xaphan had been gone for the past thirty minutes. Elise figured the demon was resting up for one last stand.
Blake's heart skipped several beats. Elise tensed, meeting Mencheres's eyes. Soon. Very soon.
Panic made Elise want to snatch Blake out of the water and start to warm him up now. What if this didn't work? What if this was the last time she'd ever see Blake? Dear God, how could she stand her heart being demolished yet again?
Blake said something she couldn't understand. Elise bent closer until his mouth was almost next to her ear.
"What is it, darling?"
"Elise." Her name was garbled and breathy, like Blake had barely the strength to form it. "Sing me to sleep."
Blake's eyes were closed, so Elise didn't have to worry about him seeing her tears. She started to sing, dipping her hand into the freezing water so she could hold his.
Blake's breathing became shallower, the intervals between his breaths extending longer and longer. His pulse was erratic, too, at times speeding up in bursts, then growing more and more sluggish. By the time Elise reached the last line of the song, Blake's heart had stopped completely.
She stared at him, feeling more frozen inside than the icy water that brought about his death. Blake's eyes were dilated, no spark of life in them. Just glassy, like a doll's eyes.
Elise thought she'd been prepared to see him this way. That she was strong enough to handle it, but something inside her shattered. She ripped off the cover of the chamber and grabbed Blake up in the next instant.
Mencheres's hands shot out, stopping her. Keeping her from lifting Blake all the way out of that awful, killing water.
"Wait," he said.
"No," Elise snarled. "I have to bring him back!"
Mencheres didn't loosen his grip, and she felt his hold on more than just her arms.
"Not. Yet."
Elise would have fought him, her own sire, whom she trusted more than anyone in the world. But a blast of power in the air around them stopped her. Sulfur fumes seemed to crawl up her nose, and a howl of rage filled the van until it shook.
"You fool," Xaphan hissed.
The words didn't come from Blake's mouth. They came from behind her.