If I’d suddenly been stripped naked, I would have felt less exposed. Ian had caused me to feel this way many times, but I trusted him, while I barely knew the woman across from me. Once again, I threw up my Law Guardian front as if it were a shield.
“I don’t know what you’re speaking of.” My voice sounded cool and composed, to my relief.
She snorted. “Bullshit. You’re barely holding it together, and I don’t blame you. I thought I had it rough, hiding what I was for a couple decades. You’ve been hiding for thousands of years while masquerading as a stick-up-your-ass vamp cop. Falling in love and then nearly losing Ian was the last straw, wasn’t it?” Another too-knowing look. “Twice, I thought Bones had died, and I lost my shit to epic degrees both times. No matter how tough we think we are, loss like that cuts too deep to handle, doesn’t it?”
Each word smashed through my defenses faster than I could rebuild them. Worse, she wasn’t done.
“I don’t know how you brought Ian back from the dead, but I bet it took all the power from the part of yourself you’ve been hiding to do it. There’s no putting that genie back in the bottle once it’s out, either. I remember that from when I was fighting against my vamp side. The scariest part was how much I loved giving in to that power when I finally did let go . . . and let everything in me out for all to see.”
“What are you, the half-breed whisperer?” I snapped, too rattled to continue hiding behind my stick-up-the-ass vamp cop persona, as Cat had described it.
Her dark-gray gaze glinted with green. “I’m not, but after all this time, you should be. The fact that you aren’t means someone told you that your other half was bad when you were young enough to believe them. I don’t know who that was—”
“Stop,” I ordered, horrified to feel tears start to well. How had she reduced me to this so quickly? Or had I done it to myself? Was I still as out of control as she’d insinuated?
“But you must have trusted that person, to believe them this long,” she went on, her tone turning flintlike despite the new sympathy in her eyes. “Must have loved them, too. Only someone you love could mess you up this bad, this long. My mom sure did a number on me, but she was wrong, just like whoever worked you over emotionally was wrong, too—”
“You know nothing!”
Now I was shouting, and my vision turned ominously dark. I would tolerate her filleting me, but I would rip her blood out and bathe in it before I allowed her to disrespect my sire.
“Tenoch was not wrong. He never would have changed over the world’s most ruthless warlord right before he died unless he knew that part of me was so dangerous, there had to be someone equally dangerous to stop me if I ever truly let that half of myself free!”
Wetness hit my cheeks. I thought it was my tears until I saw the drops flying from Cat’s eyes before feeling more tiny splashes on my skin. I hadn’t meant to yank her tears from her, but I had, and from the flush filling her skin, her blood was also rising to the surface faster than she could’ve directed it.
I spun around, squeezing my eyes shut while trying to force my other nature down before I did bathe in her blood. Go away, go away, go away! I chanted at it.
It wasn’t enough.
Desperately, I sent my senses out to the fountain in front of Ian’s house. Then I blasted my rage into the water it contained instead of the woman who’d cut through centuries of scabs to effortlessly stab me in my deepest wound. I felt the water boil before it iced over so fast, the extreme temperature change shattered the stones. The sound of the fountain exploding was so loud, it masked the crash the library door made when Bones flung it open.
“What’s wrong?” Bones demanded. “Felt a burst of power coming from this room.”
I turned to see Ian right behind Bones. Cat was still staring at me, but at least she wasn’t covered in blood. Neither was anything else in the room. The only damage was what Bones had done to the wall with the door.
Good. I’d caught myself in time.
“Oh, that was just me, being totally not dangerous,” I said in a scathingly bright tone. “Now, I think I’ll go check on our prisoner by myself, thanks.”
I would’ve left, if one of Ian’s guards hadn’t run into the room in the next moment. He was covered in blood, making me think I hadn’t directed all my rage at the fountain outside. Then his panted words made me think again.
“She escaped!”
“How?” Ian demanded, already shoving past him.
The guard ran to catch up with Ian. I did, too, which meant I caught the guard’s reply.
“We don’t know! One minute, she was chained to the chair. The next, the three of us were bloody and she was gone!”
“Sound the alarm,” Ian ordered. “She needs to be found!”
“Don’t you feel where she is?” I asked him, surprised.
Ian’s mouth tightened. “No, I don’t.”
Yonah’s spell had given Ian a significant range. Even if Ereshki had somehow gotten free the moment after she’d left our sight, she couldn’t have run that far in such a short time.
Ian led us downstairs to a solid concrete room that looked like a new vampire holding cell. Its door was the length of my forearm in thickness, and it had no windows. It should have been more than enough to hold Ereshki, but the chair that was bolted into the floor was empty of everything except heavy chains.
Ian bent near the chair, then straightened so abruptly, he nearly ripped it free from its welds. “What is this?”
The room’s two bloody guards gave a guilty glance at each other before the black-haired one replied, “Pen and paper.”
The look Ian gave them should have sent them to their knees begging for mercy. “Why did you give her that?”
“She was crying about how she wanted to write a good-bye note,” the other guard said, hunching as if feeling the blows that were certain to come. “We only loosened one wrist. Her arms and legs were still chained. What could a human do with only one wrist, some paper and a pen?” he added defensively.
I closed my eyes. Ian heard my heartbeat, Cat had said about their first fight. And like all vampires, the sound lulled him into believing I was far more fragile than I appeared.
Ian had warned his guards about Ereshki. They still hadn’t listened, and she’d used that to her advantage. But how?
I took the piece of paper Ian had had clenched in his hand. Then my jaw tightened until I heard cartilage snap as I recognized the symbols. “She drew a knockout spell and a teleporting spell.”
That’s why Ian couldn’t feel her any longer. The teleporting spell might only work once, but it would be enough to take her far away from here.
Ian inhaled sharply. “She shouldn’t have known either, if her memories were limited to only what she knew thousands of years ago as a Mesopotamian peasant.”
He was right. Moreover, a teleporting spell normally required a high-level practitioner and potent spellbinders such as magic-infused gemstones to anchor it. Ereshki had only a pen and paper. Even if she somehow knew magic of that caliber, it should have been impossible for her to perform, unless . . .
Once again, Cat’s words rang in my mind. Being underestimated in a fight gives you the best advantage ever.
All at once, I knew how she did it, and my rage made every water pipe in the house instantly burst. “That fucking bitch!”
Ian looked more concerned over how I’d started to tremble than he did over the water that immediately began to stain the walls outside this cell. “What is it?”
“She was never one of the other resurrected souls.” I could barely get the words out past my fury over how completely Ereshki had deceived me, again. “She only appeared to have your spell confirm that because she does have some of Dagon’s power in her. She’s had it ever since Dagon branded her when she sold her soul to him, but unlike you, Dagon never collected on that debt. He didn’t have to. This whole time, Ereshki’s been on his side as his demon-branded servant!”
Chapter 35
Ian hustled me upstairs after ordering his friends and staff to evacuate. Private, demon-proof residence or no, we were no longer safe here. We’d seen what had happened to Yonah’s island. Now, we couldn’t be sure if that was Dagon’s doing or Ereshki’s. Dagon’s power had been growing in her for thousands of years, all while keeping her as youthful as the day I’d met her.
I should find it comforting that Ereshki’s resurrected-human-amnesiac-act hadn’t fooled only me; she’d also fooled an eons-old former demon prince. But I wasn’t comforted. Yonah hadn’t known what Ereshki was capable of. I had, yet I was the one who’d refused to kill her when Ian had given me the chance.
How many people would now die because of that?
I was so burdened by the thought that it took a moment to notice that Ian had hustled me into a bedroom. It was a huge space with dazzling white woodworking covering the walls and inlays that showed off paintings by Michelangelo and Edvard Munch that were supposed to be in a museum. Eighteenth-century Chippendale settees were stationed around a modern crushed-glass fireplace, and the skylight above was decorated in a stained-glass motif that looked ripped right from the Vatican.
But the room’s most impressive aspect was the bed. It looked hand-carved from one enormous tree, with a canopy that was easily three times my height. Naked nymphs adorned the domed top; then more gorgeous carvings curved down the elevated sides to end at gargoyles, where thick, turquoise silk draperies flowed from their extended wings. Mischievous-looking cherubs perched on either corner of the foot of the bed, holding the draperies’ tasseled ends off the floor. Not that those tassels were in danger of touching the floor. The bed’s base was almost a meter tall and was adorned with so many intricate carvings that it reminded me of wedding-cake decorations.
“My bedroom,” Ian said, a casual swipe indicating the magnificent space. Then his brow arched. “Not what you were expecting?”
“Unless you have a sex dungeon hidden behind one of these walls, no,” I replied bluntly.
He let out an amused grunt. “This room is for privacy and sleeping. I have other rooms for those activities.”
I bet he did. In another mood, I might have even wanted to explore those, too. But rage and a sickening sense of guilt made me want to beat these walls down while simultaneously throwing up. Even at Ian’s kinkiest, I didn’t think he’d be into that.
Besides, the items in this room were far too rare and valuable to destroy in a futile display of denied vengeance.
Silver flew into the room. Then, he dropped down to curl around my legs as if he were a house cat instead of a celestial creation. He always tried to comfort me when I was upset.
I spent a few moments petting him for his efforts before I said, “Why are we here instead of leaving?”
“We need supplies,” Ian replied, pressing a button beneath the crushed-glass fireplace. A hidden wall was revealed, but it didn’t contain a secret sex room. Instead, drawers slid out, revealing an assortment of weapons, two black bags, tactical apparel, and several brightly colored stones.
Not stones, I realized as a wave of power hit me like an invisible slap. Magic-infused gems. In the right hands, they’d be more deadly than the knives, swords, hatchets, mallets, and various guns Ian had in the other drawers.
“If you see anything you like, take it,” he said as he began tossing his selections into one of the black bags.
I went right to the set of knives that appeared to be made of ivory, if you didn’t know what demon bone looked like. The knives had steel glinting up their pale backs and handles made for gripping, not throwing. That was fine. When I killed Ereshki, I didn’t want to do it from a distance. I wanted to be up close. Ian sheathed one of the larger pairs of demon bone knives, then tossed those into his bag, too.
“Where did you get so much demon bone?”
He gave me a sardonic look. “You left a lot to choose from at that former amusement park.”
True. Cat had told me she’d get rid of the bones. Guess she’d given some to Ian first, which had been smart of her.
Ian finished his bag off with six pairs of handguns, two pairs of automatic weapons and lots of ammunition rounds. Then, he put two sets of tactical apparel and a closed briefcase into the second bag. Finally, he swiped a yellow and blue vase off the mantel and smashed it against the fireplace.
That was one way to decide you were sick of an eighteenth-century Peking vase. Then I saw a large, glittering gem amidst the glass shards. The stone was deepest blue at its center, but brightness flashed from its every finely cut facets.
Ian shook the glass from the gem. Then, mouth curling with an emotion I couldn’t name, he held it out to me. “Doesn’t look as if it’s worth being chased by a demon for decades, does it?”
Now I knew what stone this was. It was the catalyst that had started Dagon’s hatred toward Ian after Ian had led the demon on so he could get close enough to the gem to steal it. Considering the size of the diamond, I knew more people than Ian who’d chance a demon’s wrath to possess it.
“It looks like starlight formed around its favorite part of the ocean to keep it forever,” I murmured, taking the diamond.
As soon as it touched my hand, I gasped. My arm felt numb from the instant surge of power that kept climbing through me until my very teeth ached from the force of it.
“That’s why you stole this from Dagon back when he was trying to seduce you!”
It hadn’t been mere greed because the diamond would fetch millions on the human market. The gem’s real value went beyond its vast number of carats. It was so soaked in magic, I could barely stand to keep holding it, and the most impressive part was that I hadn’t felt anything at all until I touched it. I could wave this gem under the vampire council’s nose, and none of them would realize it was a magic object unless they held it.
“Yes.” Ian’s voice was a lethal caress. “Fitting to use it to help kill Dagon now, don’t you think?”
I didn’t know how he intended to do that, but considering the number of spells something with this kind of magical energy could power, he had a lot of options to choose from. And we’d need all the help we could get, now that I’d royally fucked things up by letting Ereshki live.
“Yes,” was all I said, handing the diamond back to him.
His brow rose at my abrupt tone, but he said nothing as he tossed the blue diamond into the second bag, then zipped it up.
A knock sounded at the door even though it was open. I turned. Mencheres was in the doorway, his expression strained.
“Let me come with you on this journey, Ian. I want to help you destroy the creature who took so much from you.”
Ian turned around with a sigh. “Thank you, but Dagon knows what you mean to me. He’ll come at you with everything he has because of it. You might be able to best any vampire alive, but you can’t win against a time-freezing demon.”
“I can if he’s headless,” Mencheres said darkly.
Ian grunted. “Think I haven’t tried that already? Dagon’s either immune to telekinetic spells, or he’s got something that deflects them. No. If you come, you will only endanger me because Dagon will kill you, then use my reaction to his advantage.”
“What about me?” Bones appeared behind Mencheres, his half smile belying the deadly look on his face. “I’ve faced a demon before and come out on top. Let me come.”
Ian let out an amused snort. “You needed my help to defeat that demon, or did you forget that part?”
“Did you forget I was an undead hit man for decades?” Bones countered. “Murdering rotten blokes is what I excel at.”
Ian zipped the bags shut. “Don’t want to be insulting, Crispin, but Veritas is an unkillable demigod and I’m juiced up with both magic and demon power. If we can’t do this without your help, then we won’t be able to do it with you, either.”
Ian still thought I could resurrect after I died? I opened my mouth to correct that, then shut it. Why burden him with information t
hat would only cause him to lose focus? Worrying over my new mortality would distract him, so it was better for him to remain ignorant of it.
“Besides,” Ian went on. “If you die, Cat will go on a grief-driven revenge rampage, get killed in the process, and then your daughter will end up being raised by Justina and Tate.” Ian shuddered as if in horror. “You can’t do that to an innocent girl. It’s inhumane.”
“If you won’t accept my help because of my love for you, then accept it because I owe you.” Bones’s tone became flat. “For much more than your latest warning about my daughter. Without you turning me into a vampire over two centuries ago, I wouldn’t be here now, and I also owe you the greatest of debts for betraying you.”
“Eh, that.” Ian waved. “I’m over that now since karma, as my wife likes to say, is a vindictive bitch.”
Bones’s brows rose. “Come again?”
Ian hefted the two bags with one hand. “I mean, I understand why you did it. You went barmy when Cat left you, so when you finally found her and believed I was a danger to her, you did whatever it took to protect her. Brassed me off something awful at the time, but now”—Ian saluted him with the suitcases—“I say, well done! Can’t take any chances with those we love, can we?”
Bones stared at Ian, then very slowly looked at me. “Lucifer’s bouncing balls,” he breathed. “You’ve done the impossible with Ian. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would never have believed it.”
Would his friends never give Ian credit for who he was? “I’ve done nothing. Ian is this honorable all on his own.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Bones began, but Ian’s sharp whistle for Silver cut him off.
Silver flew over and landed on Ian’s arm. Then, Ian pulled me to him and said, “I appreciate your offers to help, my friends. Truly, I do. But I can’t accept, and we don’t have time to keep arguing. All of us have to leave before demons crash this party, so until again, mates!”
With that, everything slid into white noise and a blur as Ian teleported us away.
Wicked Bite Page 19