Wicked Bite

by Jeaniene Frost

  Ashael’s gaze slanted to Ian before it settled on me. One look, and I knew every word was true.

  “Understand,” Ashael said in a vehement tone. “I’ve known Ian for decades. He loves only himself. I will allow no one to take advantage of you, especially a man who will use and discard you the same way he’s used and discarded so many others—”

  Ian shoved the horn’s sharp tip into Ashael’s eye. Ashael shuddered and smoke poured from the blackening hole. My vision burned and my throat felt like it was trying to choke me. I wanted Ashael dead for what he’d done, but . . . I had always longed to have a sibling.

  For a while, Tenoch had been my family, then his loss devastated me and sent me further into my shell. Now, suddenly, I had a brother. A twisted, chauvinistic brother, but in his way, Ashael had believed he was protecting me. If Ian killed him, he also killed any hope I had at seeing if there could be a real family bond between me and Ashael that went deeper than our secret blood tie.

  “Ian.” My voice was strained. “Let him go.”

  Maybe Ashael realized how much he’d fucked up. That would explain why he hadn’t ripped the water out of Ian to stop him. No, Ashael was leaving what happened up to me, proving again that there was more to Ashael than his attempt to get Ian arrested and imprisoned so he’d stay away from me.

  Ian looked at me in amazement. “You want this sod to live? Don’t tell me you return his obvious interest.”

  “Asheal is interested in me, but not how you think.” I cleared my throat to ease its tightness. “I’m his, ah, sister.”

  “You’re what?” The horn’s tip froze.

  “His sister.” Saying it out loud somehow made Ashael’s betrayal hurt worse. I drew in a breath to get the rest of it out. “He realized that when he saw my father’s lineage in me with his ability earlier. He . . . my father is his father, too.”

  Ian lowered the ram’s horn and shoved Ashael away. The demon caught himself before he stumbled, a humorless smile curling his mouth. “Once again, you show more honor than I thought you capable of. She must bring out the best in you.”

  “Or you have no idea who Ian truly is,” I corrected at once. “You believed the mirage, which caused you to underestimate Ian so much, you failed to imprison him with your horn retrieval trick. Instead, he almost killed you twice today.”

  Ashael inclined his head. “Point taken.”

  “Glad that’s settled. This isn’t.” I landed a kick in Ashael’s groin that doubled him over. Then he snapped back at the uppercut I delivered to his jaw. Bone crunched and my hand burned, but blood flew from Ashael’s mouth. Worth it!

  “Try to get Ian arrested or imprisoned again, and you’re dead,” I snarled. “You’re only alive now because I always wanted a brother or sister, plus in your twisted demon mind, you thought you were protecting me. But you don’t get to choose who I’m with, so I will kill you if you so much as plot to give Ian a stubbed toe in the future—”

  Ian caught my next punch in mid-swing. “Think he gets it, luv.”

  I stared at him. “You were going to kill him two minutes ago! Why are you protecting him now?”

  A grim smile flitted across Ian’s mouth. “I’d still like to kill him, but if I had a sister, I wouldn’t want a bloke like me near her, either. Can’t murder my new brother-in-law for something I’d do myself, can I? Besides, he’s not even fighting back.”

  I’d noticed that, and it only made me angrier. “Come on, you sexist demon, fight me! You think I can’t take it?”

  “I know you can, but I, too, have always longed for a sibling,” Ashael replied, dark eyes now blazing red. “You are my only family this side of the veil. I’ve had twice your lifespan to feel abandoned, abnormal, and alone, so some blood and pain are nothing if they’re the cost of my sister’s forgiveness.”

  Damn him, damn him, damn him! How could I keep beating him after he said things like that? And how could I disown him when he was the only person who truly understood what I’d been through, since Ashael had lived it for twice as long as I had?

  But he’d set Ian up to be imprisoned or worse. I couldn’t overlook that, even if Ashael had acted out of a supernaturally demented sense of big-brother protectiveness.

  Ian’s arm slipped around my shoulders. “Family,” he said in a conversational tone. “Can’t live with ’em, can’t kill ’em unless you really, really mean it.”

  A choked laugh escaped me. Ian should know; he’d killed his biological father over a far more terrible betrayal.

  “I want you to leave, Ashael,” I said. Pain flashed in his eyes until I added, “I need some time before I can look at you without wanting to smash your face in.”

  “Time as in decades, or a century?” he asked warily.

  Now my laugh was even more ragged. To him, either probably didn’t seem long. Guess I was still too young to measure time that way. “I meant a year or two. We’ll see.”

  By then, I’d have tracked down the other resurrected souls and killed Dagon, or I’d be dead. Either way, my schedule would be clear.

  Ashael’s gaze flicked to Ian before he looked back at me. “Whenever you want to see me, raise a glass and call my name in any of the places I frequent. Ian knows where they are.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of your alcohol-based summoning ritual. Very millennial of you,” I noted.

  Ashael gave a brief smile at that. “Until that day, then,” he said, and walked away.

  I waited until I couldn’t see Ashael before I turned to Ian. “I was going to tell you that he was my brother, but . . .” My gesture tried to encompass everything that had happened.

  “The timing wasn’t right until I nearly murdered him in front of you?” he supplied, a sardonic smile curling his mouth.

  “Yes, that.”

  Ian’s smile faded. “We’ve had terrible timing, but we’re going to fix that.”

  I wanted to believe him. I just wasn’t very optimistic. But I smiled as if doubt wasn’t chewing at me like a school of ravenous piranhas.

  “Let’s find Yonah and get started, then.”

  Chapter 23

  I could start a joke with, “A vampire, a demon, and a ghoul walked into a pool area,” but the looks the approaching trio gave us didn’t lend to humor. After needing to open a temporal rift to see a glamour-concealed island you had to crash-land onto before traversing past Leviathan-filled seas, I rather thought that anyone who wandered onto the back patio of Yonah’s house had already passed the security test, but from the three guards’ expressions, they disagreed.

  “Names,” the ivory-skinned vampire said, a Russian accent coloring the word. I didn’t let her delicate build, sarong-style dress or the pretty seashell comb in her thick brown hair fool me. Her appearance said lovely and breakable, but the power vibrating from her aura said, Test me at your peril.

  “Ian,” he replied, his brow faintly arching at me.

  “Ariel.” I could hardly use my vampire Law Guardian name. I also wasn’t wearing any glamour, which caused the blue-eyed, blonde-haired demon’s gaze to linger over my appearance.

  “Body like Beyoncé, hair like Daenerys Targaryen,” he murmured with open lust.

  “Temper like the Punisher,” I countered. An appreciative look was one thing, but I felt like I needed a shower after that vigorous eye-fucking. “With a husband that’s imagining ten different ways to kill you before you even take your eyes off my ass,” I added, seeing the new, lethal flare in Ian’s gaze.

  “Twenty,” Ian corrected, tone as smooth as a well-thrust blade. “And so few only because she just admitted to something she’s been denying for weeks.”

  What? Oh, damn, I had called him the “h” word! Where was a Leviathan to endlessly drown me when I needed it?

  “We’re here to see Yonah,” I said, as if that could erase the new, crackling tension between me and Ian. “Ashael told Yonah to expect us, so point the way or move aside.”

  A smile quirked the Russian vampire’s mouth. “Fo
llow me.”

  Silver trotted behind us as we went into the room overlooking the pool. The only decoration or furniture it boasted was plants on various stands. The bareness highlighted the large stone fountain with a carved Medusa in the middle of the room. She didn’t look ugly or monstrous the way legend claimed. This Medusa was beautiful, the snakes gently haloing her head with devotion instead of their reputed mindless menace.

  Our guards led us past the fountain room into a library. Shelves covered the walls to the ceiling, while leather couches were arranged around the open stone hearth in the center of the room. First fountains, now fire pits. If we passed a mud shrine in the next room, all the elements would be represented.

  “Wait here,” the Russian vampire directed, indicating one of the generous-sized couches. “I will bring Yonah to you.”

  I sat, weariness urging me to stretch out until I was lying flat. I resisted the temptation even though dawn now bathed the windows with streaks of gold. If I were a new vampire, I’d have no choice but to sleep, but I was thousands of years past the anesthetizing effects of the rising sun.

  Silver sat on the floor near me, while Ian folded his long, lean frame into the opposite corner of my couch. He looked completely relaxed, arms resting on the back of the couch and legs stretched out in front of him, but his eyes told a different story. They moved over our surroundings with tactical thoroughness, gauging threats and assessing advantages.

  I didn’t know why I wasn’t doing the same. Ashael had promised we’d be safe here, but his word had hardly proven to be infallible. I was tired, but I’d remained on high alert while practically dead on my feet from exhaustion before. So why wasn’t I scoping the place out while coiled and ready to fight the way Ian was?

  You don’t have to.

  The truth of that hit me, as unexpected as a sniper’s bullet. Tenoch had taught me to rely only on myself, but I wasn’t fighting to be at my best now as I knew that Ian would alert me if things took a dangerous turn. Until then, I could take a moment to relax, knowing I was safe because he wouldn’t let anything hurt me while I was vulnerable.

  Was this . . . was this what trust felt like?

  If so, it was like sinking into a warm bath after an achingly brutal day. I wanted to wrap myself in the glorious, unfamiliar feeling, but it was also an indictment on everything I’d done since Ian had come back from the dead. I thought Ian couldn’t survive the threats I still had to face, yet he’d proven more than able to meet every challenge I’d feared plus several I hadn’t even thought of. Now, I was the one leaning on him, not the other way around.

  I’d ripped my heart apart these past several weeks for nothing, hadn’t I? For nothing! If it wouldn’t look severely psychotic, I’d start punching myself in the face.

  Footsteps jerked my attention to the far corner in the room. Our three guards reappeared when one of the book shelves suddenly slanted open, revealing a door. A hidden passageway: how very old-school. A new, bald vampire of medium height also came from the secret bookshelf entrance. He had sand-colored skin, a Roman nose, pleasant features, and a swimmer’s build. Ian leapt to his feet when he saw him. I followed suit, smiling to indicate friendly intentions, because I recognized him from Ashael’s blood-soaked conference call yesterday.

  “Yonah,” I said. “Pleased to finally meet you.”

  Ian’s hands flashed with rapid movements. For a shocked moment, I thought he was conjuring a spell. Then a smile wreathed Yonah’s face and his hands moved with similar speed.

  Sign language. Not ASL or any of the other sign languages I was versed in. I didn’t know this one. No surprise, Ian did.

  “Imperative that this remains between us,” Ian finished out loud while still signing. The verbal part must have been for my benefit, then.

  Yonah’s gaze raked me, lingering over my hair. Recognition sparked in his eyes before he hooded his expression. Still, it was enough. He’d either seen my father in his true form, or someone had told him about me. Which was better? I had no idea.

  “You’ve clearly encountered difficulties in your travels,” Yonah noted, also out loud this time.

  Right, Ian’s clothes and hair were still a bloody mess. At least that made it harder to see the horn between his ripped shirt and the drying brownish blood staining Ian’s pale skin.

  “We also had a disagreement with our escort and parted ways with Ashael shortly after arriving,” I said, still smiling as if nothing of importance had occurred. “But we’re glad to be here.”

  “I am pleased to have you,” Yonah replied, which made the three guards who’d been lurking by the room’s exits relax. Guess that was Yonah’s way of telling them to stand down. “You’ll want to refresh yourselves before our festivities this evening, so I’ll have Katsana show you to your rooms. Our ball in honor of our island’s new member begins at dusk.”

  Ian signed what I hoped was a polite decline. Now that we were finally face-to-face with Yonah, I wanted to see if he could isolate Dagon’s power so we could formulate a tracking spell. Not attend a ball—

  “Truly?” Yonah interrupted out loud.

  More signing from Ian. Yonah’s expression creased into a frown as he signed back. Then, he shrugged, a gesture that required no interpretation.

  “See you at dusk, then,” Yonah said, giving me a little nod.

  I nodded back. Katsana, the brown-haired Russian vampire, hooked her thumb in the universal gesture for “follow me.”

  We did. Katsana led us to a staircase at the back of the manor. Instead of going up, we went down. Once below, the unusual decorations vanished, replaced with maintenance corridors, utility rooms and other things you’d expect in the basement of a large manor/small hotel. We continued until even those vestiges of comfort disappeared, leaving nothing except a dark hallway that was starting to smell of mold and the sea. Silver pressed close enough for me to feel his feathers against my legs. He didn’t like this new setting any more than I did.

  Where was a great place to murder unwanted guests? Beneath the manor where no one would see and where body disposal was very convenient, considering the large furnace we just passed.

  If I was reluctant, Ian’s strides were long and swift, until Katsana had to quicken her pace to a near trot to keep Ian from barreling into her. I gave a mental shrug. I’d trust Ian in this, too, then. Besides, only one vampire against me and Ian? That was no threat, Katsana’s formidable aura or no.

  “Here you are,” Katsana said, stopping at a metal door.

  Ian pushed it open, revealing a small, poorly lit room with a concrete floor, an empty desk, a half-made bed and a shower that would incite panic attacks in anyone with claustrophobia.

  “This will do,” Ian said, stunning me. This wasn’t close to his usual high standards. It looked like the place where maintenance workers caught a nap while on break.

  “Take our pet to the kitchens; he’ll be hungry,” Ian continued. “He’s on a special diet, so vegetables only.”

  I stepped between Katsana and Silver when she bent to pick him up. “He stays here.” No way was I letting some unknown vampire take Silver when the vampire version of a narcotic ran through his veins.

  Ian grunted. “This is the last place someone would harm him, but very well. Bring him a plate of vegetables here, then.”

  Katsana’s nose wrinkled. “I’ll send someone else to do it.”

  “Good enough.” I was stunned when Ian all but pushed me into the room, saying “Stay” to Silver before shutting the door with him still in the hallway.

  “What the hell?” I demanded.

  Ian turned, a wild kind of darkness glittering in his eyes. “Hell is what you’ve put me through, but it stops now.”

  Chapter 24

  I made no effort to hide my confusion. “What happened to make you angry at me all of a sudden?”

  His laughter sounded like knives sharpening against each other. “What happened? You left me naked in a whorehouse.”

  That was hardl
y recent. “And?”

  Emerald blazed from Ian’s gaze as he grabbed the horn and ripped it from his upper arm. It landed on the floor and instantly straightened into an upright position, like a sword on an invisible stand. I backed away from it, not wanting to touch the deadly magic relic even by accident.

  Ian stalked toward me. With the small size of the room, he quickly closed the space between us. “Know what else this little beastie did, aside from ‘choosing’ me as its new owner? It gave me all my memories back.”

  Shock made me sputter. “What? How?”

  He grabbed my shoulders. Green blazed from his eyes and his aura sparked with so much angry energy, being near it felt like standing beside a swarm of stinging bees. “Whatever else it is, the horn’s also a power amplifier. Felt it making me stronger the moment I woke up with it. Then it bashed down the walls in my mind. Thought my head would explode again when all the memories came rushing back, but it didn’t. Maybe the horn protected me, but either way, for the past several hours, I’ve remembered every secret we shared, each moment in each other’s arms, all the promises we made and the last words I said, all while knowing that you left me naked in a bloody whorehouse!”

  Shame slapped me, but his anger made mine rise to the surface, too. “I didn’t want to leave you, but what was I supposed to do? Say ‘Hey, Ian, you don’t remember me, but we’re technically married, and guess what? I didn’t help the council execute your friend’s child! I helped save her because I’m a secret cross-species, double-agent Law Guardian! And sure, you already got killed once by being with me, but want to risk getting murdered again to see if the second time’s the charm?’”