Shades of Wicked

by Jeaniene Frost

  “See?” I managed when I finished puking. “Vow sealed with a blood oath.”

  He looked down at himself in disgust. “This is everything I knew marriage would be.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” I muttered, and gratefully let the spell drop.

  Xun Guan appeared startled to suddenly find Ian behind her instead of in front of her. Then her eyes widened when she saw the bloody vomit coating him. “What? How?” she sputtered.

  “He saw me getting sick and rushed over to help,” I supplied. Then I let out a small, shaky laugh. “And got caught in your web for his trouble, as you can see.”

  Her deep brown eyes narrowed as she looked at where Ian had been standing before and where he was now. “No one can move that fast,” she said, almost to herself.

  “Except me,” he replied, an edge in his tone. “Now, if you’d be so good as to release us.”

  Her gaze met mine. “Not before you prove your claim.”

  Ian ripped his shirt open with the hand that wasn’t glued to Xun Guan’s magical trap. I wasn’t sure where he was going with that, or why he ripped his jacket off next. Then I saw him grab his three-pronged weapon, the falling fabric concealing what he did from Xun Guan’s gaze, and sucked in an appalled breath.

  He’d tricked me! He intended to fight her all along!

  Ian threw the trident head to the ground and the breath exploded out of me as if I’d been hit by a battering ram. “Not going to repeat my vows while covered in Red Dragon vomit,” he said, using his jacket to wipe the last of the smears from his bare chest. Then he used the clean side of it to wipe my face, too.

  “Beautiful as always,” he said with a hard little smile when he was finished. Then he gave a disparaging glance at Xun Guan. “She’ll need her hands free, or have you forgotten what a repetition of the ceremony entails?”

  Xun Guan looked at me as she said the necessary words to draw the power out of the web. When it faded, I dropped out of the air and landed in Ian’s arms. He held me for a second, glancing over at the nearby gates as if contemplating running for it with me slung over his shoulder. Then, with another twisting smile, he set me on my feet and picked up the weapon he’d so recently flung to the ground.

  I knew how much he didn’t want to do this, which is why I was surprised when he didn’t hesitate before slicing his palm open with the sharp silver prong of the trident tip.

  “By my blood, I declare that you are my wife,” he said, then held out his bloody hand and the weapon to me.

  I was the one who trembled when I accepted the weapon. I’d never in all the long years of my life expected to do this with anyone, let alone him. Even though it was farce, it still felt more momentous than I could handle.

  “By my blood,” I said as I sliced a line into my palm and then grasped his hand so the vow was made while our blood mingled together. “I declare that you are . . . my husband.”

  A soft sound escaped Xun Guan and she closed her eyes. The two Enforcers didn’t. They shifted and flicked their gaze around as if trying to alleviate their boredom. Their apathy didn’t matter. We’d made the vow in front of witnesses. That was all it took for a vampire marriage to be valid—and forever.

  “You were telling the truth,” Xun Guan whispered. “He really is your husband.”

  Ian grunted. “Took me by surprise, too, luv.”

  Her eyes snapped open. “Do not speak so familiar to me. I might no longer demand your life, but you are not my equal.”

  “Oh, on that we agree,” Ian said with a gleam in his eyes.

  After the price I’d paid to keep them from fighting, I wasn’t about to let them start because of this. I quickly changed the subject. “You never mentioned why you were here with a trap at the ready tonight, Xun Guan.”

  She finally took her gaze off Ian. “A friend at the police station told me several people had reported seeing a troll dragging piles of gold through Central Park.” Her mouth curled down. “That sounded unusual enough to investigate.”

  Inwardly, I groaned. Nechtan. His gift to me had turned out to cost far more than it was worth. Why hadn’t he dropped his glamour before trekking back and forth through the park? Didn’t he realize there would be onlookers even at this late hour?

  “What were you doing in New York to begin with?” I pressed. “I thought you were in Frankfurt.”

  She glanced away. “I was mentoring some Enforcers here—”

  “But it was your idea for us to leave Frankfurt and come here,” the female Enforcer interrupted before a laserlike look from Xun Guan shut her up.

  Ian began to laugh. “You were following Veritas, weren’t you? How very stalkerish. Were you being modern and tracking her through credit cards and cell-phone signals? Or did you go old school and use a locator spell?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I began, then stopped as a half-sheepish, half-angry expression crossed Xun Guan’s face. “You really were following me?” I breathed, shocked. “Why?”

  “I was worried about you,” she said in a defensive tone. “You have been behaving erratically for months. Then you took a leave from your role as Guardian. You have never done that before!”

  I hadn’t, but I hadn’t wanted anything to distract me from finding Ian and taking out Dagon, even a job I’d devoted most of my life to. “Everyone’s entitled to a vacation.”

  “This was no vacation.” Her angry swipe encompassed Ian. “You bound yourself in marriage! That is an act of lunacy—”

  “We agree again,” Ian muttered.

  “—and you know it!” Xun Guan continued, her eyes shooting angry darts at Ian before returning to me. “He is a law-scorning whore! How could you marry him?”

  I was about to respond but Ian got right up in Xun Guan’s face. “Did we shag at some point and I forgot about it? Is that why you detest me so? Or is because you’re realizing your unrequited love for my wife will now forever stay unrequited?”

  Her eyes went from cocoa to bright green. “How dare—”

  “Enough,” I said sharply. “He dares because you’ve insulted him several times. That insults me, too, and I will not have it. Your opinion is noted, Xun Guan. Now, keep it to yourself.”

  The glamoured demon dog began to scream louder, reminding me that we needed to get out of there. My blocking spell must be holding on the castle and the tunnel, but it would drop soon. I wouldn’t mind if the remaining Red Dragon dealers came across Xun Guan, but I didn’t want innocent vampires, witches, and mages to come face-to-face with a Law Guardian and two Enforcers tonight.

  “This child needs to be returned to the humans,” I said, picking up the swaddled bundle. “And as you can see, there is no troll and no gold, so the calls were a prank, the Red Dragon den has been dealt with, and I’m tired. If there’s nothing else?”

  “There is more,” Xun Guan said with another pointed glance at Ian. “But it will wait.”

  “Enchanting to meet you,” he drawled. “The four of us should have dinner soon.”

  “Four of us?” she repeated. “There are five here.”

  “Not them,” he said, dismissing the two Enforcers. “I meant you, me, Veritas, and your raging case of jealousy.”

  “Ian!” I snapped, seeing Xun Guan bristle. Gods, would this night not end without bloodshed between them?

  He patted my arm. “Don’t fret, I’m finished with her for the moment. Now, let’s get this child settled so we can start properly celebrating our most recent wedding night.”

  I felt Xun Guan’s eyes on me as we walked out of Central Park, but that wasn’t what unnerved me. It was the dangerous thrill I felt while I wondered if Ian had said that last part because he was still acting out his role . . . or if he was serious.

  Chapter 21

  My thrill only lasted until my nausea came back, which happened in less than one block. There, I retched what looked like a murder scene on the sidewalk. After that, Ian had to carry both me and the little demon as he flew us back to the hotel. Walkin
g would have been easier on my stomach than those aerial dips and whirls, but we didn’t want anyone seeing where we were staying. An astute vampire tailing us might have been able to hear us, however. Between the demon’s screaming and my retching, I could understand why Ian kept cursing under his breath. What was less clear was why he hadn’t just abandoned us both outside the park.

  By the time we finally made it back to our hotel suite, all three of us were splattered with vomit. Ian took us directly to the shower, turned it on, and set me and the tiny demon on the shower floor beneath the cleansing spray. I expected him to leave, but he unzipped my dress, helped me out of it, and hunkered down on the floor next to me.

  “What’re you doing?” I mumbled.

  “Cleaning myself up while making sure you don’t pass out and choke on your own vomit,” he replied, handing me several washcloths. “Tell me if you need help.”

  “No innuendo about what parts you’d prefer to wash?” I said in a weak attempt at humor.

  He gave me a sardonic smile. “Between a shotgun wedding, that thing’s constant squalling, and being repeatedly soaked by your vomit, I’m temporarily out of innuendo.”

  I shouldn’t have had anything left in me to still be drunk, but I must have been, because I did something I hadn’t done in almost six hundred years: I started to cry. “I’m sorry. I really am. I feel so bad about all this . . .”

  Surprise number ten thousand—Ian obviously couldn’t stand a woman’s tears. He was up in a flash, awkwardly dabbing at my face with a washcloth while patting my shoulder with his other hand. “Now, now, stop that. It’s not so bad, I suppose. I’ve been covered in blood and vomit countless times before, and I should probably get used to demon shrieks, considering the place I’ll end up at.”

  “We’ll free you from Dagon,” I said, “but if we don’t, I’ll put in a good word for you with one of the guys down below.” Then I blew my nose into the washcloth before handing it back to Ian. Too late, I realized how gross that was and snatched it back. “Uh, sorry. I wasn’t thinking . . .”

  “Clearly not,” he said with a snort. “Know someone in the bowels of the underworld, do you? Anything else you’d like to reveal before you sober up?”

  “Gods, no,” I moaned, dropping my head onto my knees. I should just pass out before I said something else I’d regret.

  A sharp poke on my ankle snapped my head back up again. The baby glared at me, tiny hand poised to poke me again if I kept ignoring it. Right, I had to drop its glamour and see what sort of demon we were dealing with.

  “Reveal,” I said, so exhausted I resorted to spoken magic.

  At once, its chubby pink skin turned into feathers so short, fluffy and soft, they resembled fur. Then its nose and mouth elongated into a snout. Its eyes also changed and its arms and legs stretched into something that resembled paws. It didn’t have a tail, but it had two wings that began to tentatively wiggle when I reached out and patted its head.

  “Oh, that’s what you are,” I said with relief. To Ian, I said, “Don’t worry, he’s harmless.”

  “Looks like a small Samoyed with a lion’s mane and wings,” he replied, eyeing the creature.

  “He’s a Simargl,” I said. “Simargls have all the loyalty of a dog combined with the best qualities of a demon—”

  “Would that be greed? Or narcissism?” he interjected.

  “—combined with the sweet innocence of a child,” I went on, glaring at him. “Receiving one is a great honor.”

  “Receiving?” he said, with a snort. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

  He was so crass. “Simargls are created, not reproduced.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t know you hadn’t had that talk yet. Well, little Guardian, when one dog demon really likes another dog demon, they give each other a special hug and—”

  “Enough!” I said, splashing him.

  He only grinned. “At least you’ve stopped crying.”

  He was right. Now I was irritated. It felt so much better than the exhaustion, worry, guilt, and nausea that had gripped me. Since I was mostly clean now, I picked up one of the cloths and began to wash all the various stains from the Simargl. He flinched under my touch, then relaxed when he saw I wasn’t going to hurt him. Poor thing. He hadn’t tried to run even when he expected pain. Now I wished I’d killed all the vampires who were helping to hold him prisoner. I hadn’t been exaggerating when I said that Simargls were treasured because of how rare they were. To see one so misused made me furious.

  The Simargl moved his head to allow me to better access his ears when I cleaned behind them. Sweet creature was trying to please me even though I’d given him no reason to trust me. He must consider me his new owner since Simargls normally only changed hands when they were given a new protector. I kept washing until the Simargl’s fur looked more silvery than ashlike, resisting the urge to turn the Simargl over so Ian could see how wrong his “special hug” comment had been. Simargls had no genitalia. The only reason I could tell that this one identified as male was because of his ears. He’d groomed them to be pointy instead of more rounded, something male-identifying Simargls tended to do.

  Ian cocked his head. “You treat it like it’s fragile, when it must be tough, else it wouldn’t have survived.”

  I gave him a level look. “Just because he can endure hardship doesn’t mean he shouldn’t experience mercy.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” he said, holding my gaze. “It’s also why I didn’t murder your friend tonight.”

  The whiplash change in subject left me feeling dizzy, or maybe that was the remaining intoxicants in my system. “What?”

  “You’re regretting what I’ve discovered about you, but you shouldn’t,” he said, stretching his legs out. “If you hadn’t been so blind drunk, you never would have revealed your role in Katie’s rescue.”

  “Is that her name?” The council hadn’t bothered telling me when they’d handed down her death sentence.

  “It is now.” Ian’s voice softened. “Those sods only gave her a number when they spliced her genes to add ghoul DNA to her half-vampire makeup, but one of the soldiers they captured changed ‘K80’ to ‘Katie’ so she’d have a real name. Cat and Bones kept it when they finally found her.”

  I had to look away because of the sudden stab through my heart. “Yes, names are important,” I whispered. “Especially after you’ve been treated like a thing instead of a person.” For a long time, I hadn’t been considered worthy of a name, either. That was another thing I owed Dagon for. Then, needing to stop those memories before they wrecked me in my weakened state, I added, “But what does this have to do with you and Xun Guan?”

  Something hard settled over his features. “There are few people I truly care about in this world. You already know Mencheres is one of them. Bones is another, and Katie is his wife’s child. If I’d believed you’d assisted in Katie’s execution, I would have murdered Xun Guan in front of you and considered it payback. Then I would have used my last command to ensure that you continued to help me.”

  The temperature of the water hadn’t changed, but I suddenly felt much, much colder. The Simargl felt the new, icy lethalness coming from Ian, too. He huddled behind me, making barely audible whimpering noises. Then, just like that, Ian’s expression cleared and that frigid tension shattered.

  “But you helped Katie. Could’ve cost you your job and even your life if you were caught, yet you did it, and you didn’t even know her. Weren’t friends with her parents, either. In truth, I can’t understand why you did it. Cat and Bones might not realize the debt they owe you, but I do, and I couldn’t repay that debt by murdering someone you care for.” He paused to let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Even if it meant becoming the living embodiment of my worst nightmares—a married man.”

  I was touched by the deep sense of honor behind his actions. Once again, he’d chosen to sacrifice himself rather than take the easy way out. Ian might be extremely selective
in whom he gave his loyalty to, but once he gave it, he upheld it with everything he had.

  “Mencheres and Bones are very lucky to have you as their friend,” I said with the utmost sincerity. Then, because I knew he’d hate to be continually praised for his good deed, I moved on. “And once again, let me state that I renounce all my rights as your wife. Seriously, you’ll celebrate our victory over Dagon with a new carnival orgy on my dime, promise.”

  “So you say,” he replied with the barest smile.

  “I promised with a blood vow. And when vampires make a blood vow, they don’t break it.”

  His scoff was instant. “Vampires break blood vows all the time.”

  “I don’t,” I said firmly.

  “No, you don’t.” His tone was soft, but the new intensity in it made me shiver. “Someone like you wouldn’t give your word unless you intended to keep it.”

  Then he reached out, tracing a finger over the curve of my jaw before catching a drop of water that clung to my lower lip. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before that he was half naked and I was clad only in my bra and panties. Yes, I was drunk, but I should’ve been aware of that. Especially with how the water clung to his bare upper body as if loathe to abandon the deeply rippled muscles.

  Maybe I hadn’t noticed before because I’d felt safe. I could hardly remember the last time someone had made me feel that way, and I couldn’t blame it on the Red Dragon I’d consumed. I’d been drunk before and had never spilled any of the secrets I’d told Ian tonight. No, for reasons that defied logic, I must trust Ian on a level that I hadn’t trusted anyone since Tenoch. It made no sense, yet I couldn’t deny it. Not with so many of my secrets laid bare before him. But now, that sense of safety changed, turning into something else. Something far stronger and not at all safe, considering the ferocity of what I was feeling.

  “You shouldn’t touch me like that,” I whispered.

  “Why?” His voice was as low as mine, but the look in his eyes wasn’t gentle. It was full of the same dark wildness that seethed inside me. “Afraid I’ll take advantage of you in your inebriated state?”