Wicked Bite

by Jeaniene Frost

  “Yes.” His tone was more scalding than a splash of boiling water. “That’s exactly what you should have said. Then I would have told you I did remember you. Perhaps not all the specifics, but enough to chase you even after you threw me away as if I were yesterday’s rubbish.”

  My anger fled at the flash of pain in his gaze. I’d caused that. Me and no one else. My throat closed off and my chest tightened until it felt like it was being crushed. I was grateful for the sudden, blurring sheen of tears because I could no longer bear to meet Ian’s gaze. I hadn’t known that regret could manifest as physical pain until this moment.

  “Ian . . .” What could I say? Nothing could take back what I’d done, and worse, now I knew I hadn’t needed to do it at all. But I had to explain, this time without anger, sarcasm, or rationalizations. I owed him that.

  I met his eyes, hoping he could see the anguish in mine as I dropped all the defenses that had shielded me. “I thought I could never hurt as much as I did when I lost Tenoch. Then you died and . . . it broke me. Literally, as it turned out. I didn’t know I could do what I did after you shoved that bone knife through your eye. If I had, I would’ve done it sooner to save you.”

  I let out a bitter laugh as I dashed away the tears that started to run down my cheeks.

  “After you died, I would’ve let that half stay in control. She registers loss, but she doesn’t feel it. It’s all cold logic with her. Then Dagon said he could bring you back, and I had to see if he was right. So, I wrestled back control. For once, Dagon wasn’t lying. My father brought you back and I was so happy, I didn’t even care that it meant Dagon was going to live, too. But then I was told you wouldn’t remember me.”

  My breath shuddered past my lips. Ian’s hands flexed as if he’d been about to reach out to me, but then stopped himself.

  “I lost you again,” I summarized, voice cracking. “Only this time, my other half wasn’t in control to shield me from the pain. I really did think leaving you was the best way to keep you from getting killed again, but I—I did it to protect myself, too. Like someone on fire, I ran, even though that only made everything worse. I know every reason why I shouldn’t feel what I do for you,” I added more briskly, struggling for any semblance of control. “But I can’t help it. I love you—”

  He yanked me close and his mouth crushed mine. I kissed him back, clutching his head as if I’d never let him go. He tasted like salt from all my tears, but I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t stop anything. Everything I’d shoved down before was bursting out of me now.

  I only let go of his head to yank his shirt off. Then my nails scored a path down his back while my other hand stayed tangled in his blood-stiffened hair. He shuddered with lust, tongue lashing mine with sensual brutality.

  I groaned when a hard rip tore my sweater from neck to waist and his bare chest pressed against my skin. I wanted to feel all of him but my damn bra stopped me, and I hated my jeans more than anything in life except his pants, which I loathed. If I were pyrokinetic, all our clothes would’ve immediately burned to ash. I needed his naked body on mine, and I needed it now.

  I grabbed his waistband and ripped.

  The sound he made had me tearing at my own pants until he gripped my hands and held them at my sides. He dragged his mouth from my throat to my chest before one sharp bite severed my bra clasp.

  It split open, baring my breasts. I gasped when his mouth closed over my nipple, swirling the tip before sucking strongly. Pleasure rocketed to my core, growing until I was wet and aching. I strained to free my hands so I could tear the rest of our clothes off, but he didn’t let me go. He moved to my other breast, laving it before he sucked harder, longer, until my skin felt too tight, heat bathed me, and I couldn’t think about anything except having him inside me.

  “Forget foreplay, I need you now,” I gasped.

  Breath hit my hypersensitive nipple from his low laugh. “You call this need? You’re not even begging yet.”

  Begging? That would take too long!

  I tangled my legs in his and swept them out from under him. He fell and I landed on top of him, ripping his pants with a triumphant swipe. He rolled, trapping me beneath him with a wicked grin. At once, I held him with my thighs and arched, crying out when his hard flesh rubbed me where I ached the most.

  His eyes closed, a guttural sound escaping him. Then they opened, glowing so bright it hurt to stare into them.

  “You’ll beg later.” A threat that thrilled me as much as the hard yank that split my jeans from waist to ankle. “Right now, you’re mine.”

  Every nerve ending jumped when he moved between my legs. I arched upward, so desperate to have him, a whimper escaped me. His mouth captured it as a hard thrust blasted pleasure all through me. His silver piercing burned in the sweetest way, its friction heightening sensations that already had me thrashing beneath him for more. My nails raked his back at his next thrust, and when he ground against my clitoris while buried deep inside me, the double blast of ecstasy tore a shout from me.

  His kiss muffled that. His next thrust was just as hard, but slower, drawing the pleasure out until my skin felt too thin to contain it. I gripped his hips and cried out as another slow, deep thrust made inner bands convulsively tighten within me. The bunching of his muscles beneath my hands, each claiming kiss, his body against mine, and those hard, sinuous thrusts . . . I’d been dying of thirst, and now I was drowning.

  It only took one more thrust before I came with a shout his mouth couldn’t completely muffle. His hips twisted, prolonging the rapture that shook me while all my limbs suddenly felt languorous and heavy. He muttered something I couldn’t make out, then his mouth and the blissful weight of his body was gone.

  I didn’t have time to protest before he slid down between my legs. Then I gasped as his tongue seared over flesh that still pulsed and tingled from climax. I tried to sit up, but he pushed me back, grip tightening on my hips to hold me down.

  I could barely think with his tongue moving over me, proving his memory had indeed returned because he found my most sensitive spots with ferocious accuracy. My hips rocked beneath the erotic barrage and soon, I was gasping until I sounded like I was hyperventilating.

  “You are going to make me beg, aren’t you?” I moaned.

  A dark laugh teased my quivering flesh. “Told you I would. Besides, I missed your taste.”

  A breathless sound escaped me. “I missed everything.”

  Another firm swirl of his tongue had my back off the floor as if he’d yanked on it. “With how fast you came, I believe that,” I heard him mutter.

  Not even the explosive sensations his mouth elicited could stop me from telling him he’d misunderstood me. “As great as sex is with you”—my voice choked from emotion—“it’s the least of what I missed about you, Ian.”

  He stopped, barely leashed wildness lurking in his gaze. I sat up and he didn’t stop me this time. I grabbed his hair and slid down as I pulled him forward. His body covered mine and I opened my legs, welcoming the thrust that filled me with the sharpest kind of rapture. Then I kissed him until I could no longer taste the salted honey of my pleasure on his mouth.

  “I should never have left you.” The truth left me in a rush when I finally pulled away. “I am so, so sorry.”

  His grip had been tight before. At that, it became bruising. His new roughness only made the pleasure more intense. I gave myself to it, telling him with my raking nails and the fangs I sank into his shoulder that I wanted more.

  He gave me more, until I was lost in sensations that danced between incredible pleasure and quicksilver pain. His blood painted my nails and lips, while mine coated his mouth when I swore, “I’ll never leave you again,” with a drawn-out moan.

  He grasped my hair, stopping with a suddenness that made him feel like he’d been turned into a statue. “Swear that on more than what you’re feeling in this moment.”

  My body pulsed from an overload of sensations and I was slightly buzzed from d
rinking his demon-tainted blood, but at that, my mind cleared as if he’d thrown a bucket of icy water onto my brain. He wanted a promise I couldn’t later say I’d been forced to make, or try to brush off as a mere “technicality.” Whatever I said next, I’d better mean it.

  I stared into his eyes as I dragged my palm across a fang, letting the blood that dripped down fall onto both of us since I was still on his lap, straddling him.

  “By my blood, Ian, I swear I will never abandon you again.”

  Determination bordering on ruthlessness flashed in his gaze. “I’ll hold you to that. Now”—his immobility ceased with an arch that rolled heat though me like a fire wave—“let’s see if I can make you scream loud enough to find out if this reinforced room is as far away from everyone as Yonah promised.”

  Laughter bubbled out of me. Was that why we were in this ratty hole instead of the mansion’s much nicer accommodations?

  My arms tightened around him. “Let’s,” I said, adding huskily, “after all, you promised me a broken bed.”

  Chapter 25

  We were late for the ball. Not just because we were having sex, though the bed was in pieces and the walls now had several body-size dents in them. No, we were late because I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I drifted off in Ian’s arms and woke up a full eight hours later.

  Ian had let Silver inside at some point during my slumber. I would’ve felt horrible if he’d been stuck in the hallway this whole time. He was in the corner of the room farthest away from the horn and bed debris, sleeping as Ian and I got dressed.

  I’d brought many things for this trip, but I hadn’t thought to bring a ball gown. No matter, as it turned out. Katsana brought me four to choose from. I picked the strapless one with the tight square bodice and wide, swaying skirt that met in the middle with the elegance of a swan’s wings closing gently together. It was deepest indigo from the bodice to mid-thigh, then it had been dip-dyed into a shimmering silver. It reminded me of the sea when bathed by moonlight; dangerous in these parts, but lovely nonetheless.

  Ian had packed a tuxedo, so his foresight meant he had no need to borrow one. His was black with a white tie, leaving just his auburn hair and his ruby cufflinks as color accents. He looked unapproachably gorgeous in the elegant ensemble. Only I knew that his cufflinks matched his new silver-and-ruby cock piercing. Ian could never be tamed, even at his most refined.

  “I’d rather we spent the rest of the night here, but Yonah was emphatic about our attending the ball,” Ian remarked as I put the finishing touches on my appearance. “Said they’re celebrating the arrival of a newcomer to the island. Guess making a party out of it helps newcomers feel less like they’ve come to a prison for rejects and more like they’ve found a new home. We’ll make nice with everyone for a couple hours before we corner Yonah and convince him to do the spell.”

  I swept my hair into a knot that was formal enough for the occasion. It also allowed me to bring a thin, sharp silver stick to the ball. Few people noticed a woman’s hairpin even if it could double as a weapon. “You’re confident Yonah can do the spell, but you never told me why.”

  “Yonah’s a former demon prince.” Ian’s tone was so casual, he could’ve been discussing me wearing my hair up or down. “It’s why he’s got a staggering bounty on his head. Demons don’t fancy their own betraying them, and Yonah left his brethren in such a blaze of backstabbing glory, they killed everyone who knew him, trying to contain the humiliating fallout.”

  That explained why I hadn’t heard of Yonah before! And wow, how wrong I’d been, thinking that Yonah was a vampire. How had he managed to conceal it so that he felt like one species when he was another? That was a trick I needed to learn.

  “’Course, it’s impossible to completely erase someone when they’re still around,” Ian went on. “Despite the mass slaughter, rumors of Yonah still made the rounds. So did stories of him having a secret hideaway. One of my former lovers shared those stories with me. Shared them with other people, too, which is how she got her eyes stabbed out,” he added offhandedly. “Demons still don’t fancy hearing Yonah’s name bandied about.”

  No wonder Ashael had reacted in such a visceral way when Ian first mentioned Yonah. Anything less would’ve cast suspicion on him, if Ian had been sent by another demon to test Ashael. I know, you have to disown Yonah, Ian had said. Can’t have it getting out that you’re still friendly with the most wanted bloke in the demon world, can you?

  But my half brother had befriended his world’s most wanted fugitive. Moreover, Ashael must have ferried other people to Yonah’s island, judging from how easily Yonah had accepted Ashael bringing Ian and me here. Despite our very different upbringings and the thousands of years that separated us, we’d both ended up doing the same thing: sheltering people unfairly condemned by laws that governed the other half of our species.

  Maybe one day, Ashael and I might have a friendship in common, too. Oddly, I found myself hoping so. In the meantime . . .

  “What do you think? Sapphire, or the pearl earrings?” I asked, holding up one of each next to my ears.

  “Neither,” Ian replied, drawing a slim, rectangular box from his suitcase. “I recommend these.”

  He opened the box. Triple-tiered diamond chandelier earrings caught the light like they’d been chasing it until that very moment. Each flawless stone was set in platinum, the largest ones at the base before narrowing to a smattering of glittering drops at the tip. My mouth suddenly felt dry. The jewelry box looked and smelled new. This wasn’t something that Ian had just happened to have lying around.

  “When, ah, when did you get these?”

  “A few weeks ago,” he replied, a glint of something I couldn’t name in his eyes.

  Shame smacked me again. He’d gotten me the Faery Queen Crimsons and these earrings, all while I was refusing to even read his texts. How did I begin to make up for that?

  I’d find a way. I put my other earrings back in my travel case. “They’re stunning, Ian. Thank you.”

  He fastened the earrings onto my ears himself. When he was done, I looked in the mirror. My upswept hair displayed them to maximum effect and they were so gorgeous, I decided against a necklace. Anything competing with these earrings would lose.

  “If you don’t want to return that dress to Katsana in pieces,” Ian said in a casual tone, “take it off as soon as we’ve concluded our business. I swore when I bought these that I’d see you wearing them and nothing else. I intend to make good on that promise tonight.”

  I almost took the dress off to make that happen now, but it was already an hour past dusk. If we dallied any longer, we’d miss the “fashionably late” window and end up insulting the same host we needed a large favor from.

  I was still tempted to rip the dress off.

  Ian leaned down, taking in a deep breath before his lips brushed my throat. “Whatever you’re thinking, keep thinking it,” he murmured. “Desire sharpens your scent until it’s like standing in the middle of a storm, rain whipping me while lightning crashes all around . . .”

  “Stop,” I breathed, need making my voice breathy. “Or we’re going to miss the ball, piss off Yonah, and lose our chance to track Dagon and the other resurrected souls.”

  He backed away, but the heat in his eyes made it impossible for me to move. Ropes couldn’t have held me more securely.

  “One hour.” His voice was tight. “Then find the nearest loo. I’ll meet you there.”

  I merely nodded, then set a reminder on my mobile for sixty minutes. Heat still smoldered in his gaze, but he held open the door as if he were a perfect gentleman.

  “To the ball, then.”

  Chapter 26

  I quickly learned that “ball” was a flexible term. “Extravaganza” would more accurately describe the sight that greeted us when we ascended back to the main level of the mansion. The bonfires were still lit outside, but little else had stayed the same.

  All the cabanas and most of the slides we
re now gone, leaving ample space for the silk swaths that formed several open tents around the pool area. Champagne fountains and blood fountains floated off the ground, while stationary towers of roasted meat, pastas, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, and desserts made up the edible decorations. The towers never toppled over no matter how many people helped themselves to their bounty, either, and there were a lot of people. Hundreds.

  This was only one level of the party. We followed a line of formally dressed people to the second floor, where an orchestra played one of the most famous musical scores, from The Phantom of the Opera. That wouldn’t have been unusual, except the orchestra consisted of instruments playing themselves while floating near the ceiling. Vampires, ghouls, demons, and humans danced, laughed, and mingled below them, interacting with an ease I had never seen when so many different species were present.

  They weren’t the only supernatural beings here. I didn’t know what the blue-skinned people with the tiny white lights in their hair were. Or the tall, winged people who reminded me of carvings of Sumerian Anunnaki deities from my childhood, but they also chatted with the others as if there was nothing unusual about different supernatural species getting along.

  A burst of applause directed our attention to the end of the ballroom, where an immense balcony opened up to views of the sea. A crowd gathered there to watch something beyond our view. Ian and I went over to see what they were looking at.

  Once on the balcony, we saw Leviathan dancing above the waves. Their watery bodies moved in perfect unison to the music, illuminated by spotlights pointing at that section of the water. They leapt and whirled, while other Leviathan formed into different sea creatures that effortlessly glided between them. I had never seen anything so stunningly graceful. It was as if the soaring music manifested into the Leviathan’s beautiful, fluid forms. I watched, riveted, until the final crescendo from the song “The Music of the Night” faded into silence and the Leviathan melted back into the waves and disappeared.