Shades of Wicked

by Jeaniene Frost

  “Save your compliments for later,” I said, opening my eyes. “We’ve got too much work to do now.”

  Now Ian’s smile was also part smirk. “Love raising those shields back up, don’t you?”

  When they were the only things protecting me from an onslaught of emotions I alone was feeling? Yes. “I don’t know what you mean, but don’t you have a call to make?”

  “So I do.” He went to the person nearest us, gave him a few flashes from his gaze, then walked back holding his mobile phone. Once he punched in Mencheres’s number, it was answered on the second ring. “Mencheres,” Ian said in a bright, chipper voice. “Got your fifteen messages.”

  “Is it true?” I was standing so close to Ian, I could hear Mencheres clearly. The former pharaoh had never sounded more upset. “Did you actually get married?”

  Ian winced but said, “Seems good news travels fast,” in the lightest of tones. If I hadn’t known how much he hadn’t wanted news of this sham to reach Mencheres, I never would have guessed what it cost him to confirm that.

  Silence for a full, very uncomfortable minute. Then Mencheres said, “Are you still in New York City?” in a tone so flat, I was rattled. Mencheres being upset was one thing. His sounding this cold usually meant that people were going to die.

  “For the moment,” Ian replied. “But we’re leaving soon—”

  “I am already here,” Mencheres interrupted. “I flew in as soon as word of where you were and what you did reached me.”

  Ian rolled his eyes. “Of course you did.” Then he shook his head at me as if to say, parents, what are you going to do? “We’ll stop by. Staying at the Ritz? Or the Waldorf?”

  “The Ritz,” Mencheres replied crisply. “Penthouse suite. Come now, and do not bring her with you.”

  Her? I didn’t even merit being called by my name? Mencheres’s normally faultless manners pre-dated chivalry by so many thousands of years, I’d often wondered if he’d been the one to invent it. Now I was “her.” He must have been truly furious.

  “See you shortly,” Ian said, and hung up.

  I gave him a look after I double-checked that he’d truly disconnected the call. “You know I’m coming with you, right?”

  Ian’s laughter was as careless as the tone he’d used when confirming the marriage he’d never wanted. “As you reminded Xun Guan, where one vampire spouse is, the other is allowed regardless. But you do need to change.” His gaze took in my mismatched clothes and too-big shoes while letting out a tutting sound. “Can’t have you seeing your new father-in-law looking like a street sweeper.”

  “Unless I compel someone to switch their clothes with me, I don’t see how my outfit can improve. We left our wallets back in the hotel room those vampires trashed, remember?”

  “Don’t you know a troll that owes you a truckload of gold?” he countered.

  “He doesn’t owe me,” I corrected, but Ian was right. I’d never intended to pick up the gold Nechtan promised me, but it would be a lot easier to convert some of that into cash at a local pawn shop than it would be to get the new identification I’d need in order to access my accounts. Cash would also be harder to trace us with. Nechtan it was, then.

  “Let’s swing by Central Park.”

  Chapter 29

  It only took pawning one of Nechtan’s lake offerings for both Ian and me to look much nicer. I pawned a few more items for traveling money, then stored the rest at a warehouse I hastily rented. Driving around in a truck filled with gold left us primed for more trouble than we already had. But as soon as we stepped through the doorway of Mencheres’s penthouse suite, I knew this would be much worse than meeting a disapproving in-law. Ian saw it right away, too.

  “What is this, an intervention?” he demanded of the three men and the single woman who were lined up around the hotel’s doorway. “You look as if you’re poised to attack.”

  “We are if you try to leave,” Mencheres replied in a bitingly smooth tone. “And I told you not to bring her.”

  “‘Her’ is here anyway,” I said, irritation making me ignore the terrible grammar of the statement.

  I recognized all of them, though I didn’t remember meeting the tall, lanky vampire with the black, spiky hair before now. From Ian’s dossier, I knew he was Spade, real name Charles DeMortimer, married to a human, of all things. He might be dressed as if he was attending a fancy brunch, but he held himself with a fighter’s coiled poise. Dangerous, though not the biggest threat in the room. Mencheres was, and after him, his co-ruler, Bones.

  Bones and Cat had changed their appearance. Bones’s short, curly dark hair was now ash blond and so long it concealed parts of his handsome face. Likewise, Cat’s eye-catching crimson locks were now such a drab shade of brown, the box of color it came from must’ve been labeled “Eh, Who Cares?” She’d also styled it so that one side fell all the way forward, shielding almost half her face. Glamour would’ve been an easier, more effective disguise, but to each their own.

  The last time I’d seen them had been at their daughter’s supposed execution. When I met Cat’s wintry gray gaze, I immediately upgraded her dangerousness above Bones. He might be older, yet icy spikes didn’t dig into my spine when I looked into Bones’s eyes. Cat must still have access to the most dangerous magic of all—grave power. Only a few people in the world could wield it, and it was nearly unbeatable. With how Cat stared straight through me as if I were already slain on the ground, she was about to kill me with it.

  No wonder Mencheres had said not to bring me! If I’d have known Cat and Bones were here, I wouldn’t have come. I’d want to slaughter me, too, if I were them. Now, I had to do something drastic unless I wanted bodies to start hitting the floor.

  “I know your daughter’s still alive,” I said bluntly. “It was a shape-shifter that was decapitated, not her. You have nothing to fear. I will continue to keep her secret.”

  For some reason, the person who appeared most shocked was Spade. He gaped at me as if I’d just pulled a lightning bolt out of my ass. “But you’re a Law Guardian,” he sputtered.

  “Yes,” I said with all the pride I still felt in my job. “And the laws were originally made to protect people, not to oppress them. Some have been twisted over time, but none state that mixed-species children are illegal. Only fear and bigotry have made that claim, and I have no duty to uphold those.”

  Cat’s gaze flicked to Ian for an instant before lasering back on me. “Is this bullshit, or is she for real?”

  Ian grunted. “Reaper, you have no idea how real she is on this topic. Katie’s secret is safe with her. She gave you the sword coated in Denise’s blood to ensure that, remember?”

  “Shut it, Ian!” Spade snarled.

  Ah. Now Spade’s shock made sense. The human Spade had married was named Denise, but from Ian’s comment, Denise wasn’t merely human. She was also the demon-branded shape-shifter. “Your wife is safe from me, too,” I told Spade.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  The softly spoken words came from Mencheres. He hadn’t moved, but all at once, the air became charged with so much energy, it was painful. “I have seen firsthand how you helped imprison and kill many whose only crimes were being different. Why should I think you’ve changed?”

  Ian’s brows rose as he glanced at me, seeing if I’d deny Mencheres’s claims. “It sounds worse than it is,” I began.

  The air around me suddenly compressed as if it had turned into a massive fist. My bones broke and I felt a new, ominous pressure on my neck. Was he really threatening to decapitate me? If he did, as soon as I came back from the dead, I’d hit him with a spell that would make him regret it for the next hundred years!

  “Stop this at once,” Ian ordered in a furious tone.

  At the same time, I choked out, “Damn it, Mencheres, allow me to prove it! Or have you forgotten I gave you the benefit of the doubt when the council was screaming for your head?”

  Whether it was my reminder or Ian’s directive, the pu
nishing pressure ceased, allowing my bones to stop snapping like dry twigs. “Speak,” Mencheres said shortly.

  Ian put his arm around me, his glare telling Mencheres everything I was thinking about his treatment of me. But like many new members of a family, I had to suck up some insults for the greater good. Still, as I healed, I ground out a curse in Sumerian that Ian chuckled at because of course he was able to translate it. Then, with a muttered grumble, I dropped my glamour. What was revealing one more secret? I might as well start telling everyone I passed on the street the truth about me, too.

  Mencheres drew in a breath when he saw silver replace my ordinary blonde hair, with streaks of gold and blue woven through it. Then he made an incoherent sound when I grew several inches and my body filled out into curves and muscles that strained every button and seam on my elegant pantsuit. I knew the moment my face changed to its true visage. That’s when my real name slipped from his lips and he took a step backward, which seemed to shock Cat and Bones more than my new appearance.

  “Ariel,” Mencheres said in a stunned whisper.

  Ian looked intrigued. “You recognize her in her true form?”

  “Yes.” Mencheres still sounded slightly dazed. “Ariel is the most powerful witch I ever encountered. She also helped me funnel countless practicing vampires, witches, mages, and demon-kin to safety during the Great Purge.”

  “That’s what it was called when the council wrote new laws oppressing anyone who wasn’t a ‘normal’ vampire,” I clarified. “I was only an Enforcer back then, but it still gave me access to information on upcoming raids. I shared that information with Mencheres, only he believed it came from a trueborn vampire-witch named Ariel and not the new Enforcer known as Veritas.”

  Mencheres shook his head as if to clear it. “But you, as Veritas, still rounded up and arrested many.”

  I shrugged. “Only the ones who used their inborn power or skills to harm others. There are always bad apples, Mencheres. I gave those to the council. Then the council believed they’d succeeded in decimating the ‘dangerous’ parts of the population. If they hadn’t, the raids would have continued, plus I wouldn’t have been trusted with more high-level intelligence.”

  Ian began to laugh. “That’s how Nechtan knew you! This whole time, you’ve been working for the council while using their information against them. I am so hard for you right now.”

  I looked, and no, he wasn’t lying. I must not have been the only one who decided to get visual confirmation. Bones cleared his throat in a pointed way.

  “Now’s not the time for that, Ian. Despite these unexpected revelations, we all came here for a reason. That reason hasn’t changed, even if my intention to murder your wife has.”

  All humor—and erectness—left Ian. “You intended to do what, Crispin?”

  “Kill your new wife,” Cat repeated bluntly. Then she shot me a half-apologetic, half-defiant look. I returned it with a hard one of my own. New family or no, I didn’t take death threats lightly. “We thought she was using you to try to get to Katie,” Cat went on. “I always wondered if she knew more than she’d let on at the execution. I’ll never forget the look she gave me when she handed me that sword—”

  “You couldn’t translate ‘shut up and take it’?” I muttered.

  “—and unless there was an extreme ulterior motive, why would a Law Guardian marry you?” Cat continued, turning her attention to Ian. “You’re allergic to monogamy, following the law, and telling the truth! I mean, I love you and all—”

  “I can see that,” he interjected sarcastically.

  “—but you’re the last, and I mean last, person a stick-up-her-ass Law Guardian would want to marry.” I bristled at that, not that Cat cared. “And for the life of me, I can’t imagine why you’d marry her,” Cat went on. “We came here to figure out if she blackmailed you with one of your many crimes since the Ian I know would never willingly marry.”

  “I would have said the same about Crispin once,” Ian replied, pinpricks of emerald gleaming in his gaze. “Or Mencheres, or even Charles, yet here we are, married men all. In truth, I should blame you lot. You must have weaponized matrimony and made it airborne.”

  “You see?” Cat turned to Bones. “Who says that sort of thing if they’re happily married?”

  Ian rolled his eyes. “Did you think an exchange of blood and some vows would change who I am? Nothing will, and if Veritas accepts that, my oldest friends should, too.”

  Spade made an exasperated noise. “We are your oldest friends. That’s why we know you wouldn’t choose to bind yourself with unbreakable vows. You gleefully mock them instead.”

  I’d heard enough. “If you truly knew Ian, you’d know he has more honor than the rest of you would dare aspire to.”

  Cat’s eyes bugged. “We’re talking about this Ian, right?”

  They had no idea what Ian had sacrificed for them. “Yes, this Ian!” Then my voice thickened with everything he still wouldn’t tell them despite his silence possibly costing him his life and his soul. “The one any woman would be proud to call her husband, and the same one any smart person would be honored to call their friend.”

  “Did she just call us stupid?” Cat whispered to Bones.

  “I believe so,” Bones drawled.

  Spade stared at me as if I fascinated him. “I’ve never seen someone shagged into a state of witlessness before.”

  “Then I pity your wife,” Ian snapped before I could give my own rude rejoinder. “Up your bedroom game, Charles, before Denise finds someone who will. More importantly”—his fangs came out as he snarled the rest—“the next person who insults her will get their mouth shoved up their own arse.”

  A look of amazement crossed Bones’s features. “You’re genuinely offended . . . on someone else’s behalf.”

  He said it as if he couldn’t believe the words were crossing his lips. Then his dark brown gaze turned stony.

  “I can believe you indulging in a serious fling, but marrying? That’s falling off your promiscuity wagon so hard, you’ve shattered the earth’s crust. This is barely early days of dating. How long have you two been together? Weeks, at most?”

  Ian gave him an irritated glare. “Refresh my memory, Crispin. Did you fall in love with Cat the first night you met her? Or did you hold all the way out until the second?”

  Bones glanced away. “That’s not the same.”

  Ian snorted. “Yes, there’s the very marked difference of how our dear Reaper kept trying to kill you back then. That said, we’re all old enough to know straightaway when someone is merely more of the same, or truly special.” His look my way lasted only a second, but it felt as tangible as a caress. “As soon as I had my first real encounter with Veritas, I knew no one else could compare. More importantly, I knew she was mine.”

  I forced a smile while it felt like I was being mercilessly squeezed on the inside this time. He was only saying it to sell this sham, but gods help me, I wished it were true. It was for me. Dangerously so. I’d known in an hour how unique Ian was and he hadn’t stopped surprising me since. Worse, in a mere two weeks, I was possessive of him in ways I’d never experienced before, had shared nearly every secret I had with him, and had found him increasingly fascinating and irresistible. Could this be what people felt when they were falling in love? If so, it was more powerful than any magic I’d ever encountered.

  Spade leaned closer to Mencheres. “You said Ariel is a powerful witch?” he asked in a low whisper. “Maybe she used a spell to force him into thinking he wanted to marry her . . . ?”

  I was debating turning him into a proverbial toad when Ian flew at him. “Warned you, mate. Now, pucker up!”

  Then he froze in midair, his hands on Spade’s ankles as if he’d been about to grab them to flip Spade’s ass up and his head low. Cat raised a brow at Bones, but he shook his head.

  “Enough,” Mencheres said, revealing it was he who’d used his power to stop Ian. “Spade, you do not want to see what Ariel can d
o when she’s angry, and also, you were being very rude.”

  “Seemed to be a fair question,” Spade muttered.

  “Sure, why wouldn’t everyone assume I’d used witchcraft to force Ian into marrying me?” My voice was withering, probably because Spade had had the right idea, just the wrong persuasion method. If I didn’t know that they were acting out of genuine concern for Ian, I’d show them some real witchcraft right now. “It’s what every new bride wants to hear, isn’t it?”

  A strained pause, then Cat said, “Maybe we should all start over, hmm? This isn’t what we thought it was, obviously.”

  “Indeed,” Ian said in an icy tone. “Now, let me down.”

  Mencheres grunted. “Not until you renounce your threat.”

  “Charles needs to apologize first.” Ian’s voice was tight, either from continued anger at Spade, or from being frozen with his head at ankle level while the rest of him was at a slant.

  Spade let out an elegant scoff. “I was concerned enough to drop everything to make sure you weren’t being coerced into matrimony. If I was overzealous toward that end, I apologize.”

  “Not to me, you simpleton,” Ian ground out. “Her.”

  “Why bother having a name at all?” I said irritably. “I’ll just call myself Her from here on out.”

  “Speaking of, do you prefer Veritas or Ariel?” Cat asked.

  “Veritas,” I said, putting my glamour back on for emphasis.

  When both Mencheres’s brows rose, I realized I’d forgotten to mime using tactical magic or cover what I was doing with a verbal spell first. Thankfully, the rest of them didn’t seem to notice the significance.

  “Then, Veritas,” Spade said, emphasizing all three syllables of my name. “I apologize for the unintended slight.”

  “Apology accepted,” I said, which I meant as much as Spade meant his ground-out mea culpa. To Ian, I added, “Seriously, I have no desire to see what an ass sandwich looks like.”

  Ian looked at Mencheres. Mencheres released his telekinetic hold and Ian dropped to the floor. He got up with far more grace than he’d fallen, a casual swipe dusting off his shirt and pants. Then he looked at Spade, smiled with teeth, and said, “Hope you weren’t hungry.”