Shades of Wicked

by Jeaniene Frost

  Ian leaned against the shower wall. “Salt, blood, and silver. If you had ink and the proper tools, I’d think you were about to attempt a demon-repelling warding tattoo.”

  “How do you know about those?” I asked without looking up. The spell I’d cast meant I didn’t need to keep a constant watch on him now.

  “I pissed Dagon off decades ago, yet he didn’t find me until I summoned him this past month. Think my avoiding him was nothing more than luck?”

  Now I did glance up. “You warded yourself against Dagon using a locator spell to find you?”

  An auburn brow arched. “Him and every other demon that might try that. Demons can be loyal sods. If you wrong one of them, many of the rest are all too happy to deliver you up to the offended party.”

  I thought I was done being surprised by him. Wrong again. “How do you know so much about demons? Vampires and demons are normally hostile toward each other, but only another demon could have taught you a warding symbol that powerful. Why would one?”

  His grin was instant. “I’m that good.”

  Oh, I could just imagine. I could even see it for myself, if I wanted to look up one of the many sex videos he’d posted online. Thankfully, I had more important things to do.

  “If that’s the case, why didn’t you ward yourself again after Dagon branded you?”

  “Tried.” Ian’s grin remained despite his tone turning flat. “Three times. One moment, the artist would be starting to ink the necessary wards over the brands. The next, I’d be covered in the artist’s butchered remains while Dagon danced around me. Didn’t matter that I’d started each attempt inside a private residence. Also didn’t matter that each time, it had been daylight. The salt walls I’d built around myself also did nothing. Each time, I suddenly found myself in a new place, covered in gore, with Dagon laughing his demonic arse off.”

  Against any other demon, his precautions would have been enough. Movies portrayed vampires as being unable to walk in the sun. That wasn’t true. Vampires also didn’t need to be invited in to enter a private residence. But those things were true for demons, and salt burned them like acid, so a salt wall should have been impenetrable to Dagon.

  Dagon’s ability to stop time meant that he had a way around all that. “Dagon probably felt the weakening in his tie to you after the first few lines of the warding tattoo,” I said. “It would only take him moments to use the link to teleport to your location, stop time around you and the tattooists, then retreat out of the sun. With all of you trapped, Dagon could summon a non-demon mercenary, send him inside the home to knock down the salt walls, bring you and the tattoo artists out, then have all of you brought to whatever dark, safe place he wanted.”

  “Where he killed the artists and decorated me with their corpses.” Ian gave a pointed look at the ingredients in the sink before looking back at me. “Still want to attempt that tattoo?”

  He was warning me about the danger. How unexpectedly sweet. But I had no intention of giving Dagon enough time to find Ian.

  “I have a way around that,” I said, then spoke a single word in Sumerian. The knife melted into a silvery puddle over the salts. Both Ian’s brows went up.

  “If you can do that, why didn’t you melt that knife when I had it in your heart?”

  I let out a soft scoff. “And get silver poisoning from it getting into my bloodstream?”

  “That’s better than instant death if I’d have twisted it.”

  I left that alone. “Hold very still,” I said, closing my eyes. “This will sting.”

  Three softly spoken words later, the melted silver, blood, salt, and magic had all fused together. Eight words after that, and I didn’t need to open my eyes to know that the entire mixture was now floating in the air. Thirteen more words, and Ian let out a shout that hurt my eardrums as that magic-infused mixture slammed into his groin, instantly covering the smoky-dark patterns of Dagon’s brand.

  When I opened my eyes, Ian was staring at his groin with disbelief. Dagon’s brands were now covered with an intricate pattern of red, black and silver. Those colors slowly faded as the silver, blood and salt settled in past the skin level. Within moments, the smoky brands faded, until there was no visible proof of the claim that Dagon still held on Ian’s soul.

  Ian looked around the bathroom as if expecting Dagon to suddenly appear. I was braced, too, but I’d cut the locator aspect of his tie in those brands too quickly. By the time Dagon would have felt it being altered, his connection to Ian would be gone. Without that, he had no way to find Ian, unless he’d already known where he was.

  But why would he? Ian had been moving around a lot and Dagon had no reason to keep tabs on him. Not when Ian had been marked with the demon’s own version of a supernatural GPS.

  Still, a few tense minutes passed in silence. When those minutes continued to trickle by without a sudden blast of power indicating that Dagon had arrived, Ian finally met my gaze. Before his features slid back into their usual devil-may-care expression, I caught something new that pierced me.

  Hope.

  A long time ago, someone else had given me hope after I’d thought myself incapable of feeling it. That’s why I knew how precious it was. It was also why I’d devoted my life to being a Law Guardian. I wanted to bring that same hope to all who suffered when the powerful took advantage of the vulnerable.

  Sometimes, however, the law wasn’t enough. Dagon was a demon, so our laws didn’t apply to him. That wasn’t going to stop me. Dagon thought he’d gotten away with wrecking my life and countless other people’s lives long ago. He hadn’t. He’d just delayed his reckoning. Bringing Dagon to the justice he so richly deserved could cost me my position and my life, but those were prices I was willing to pay. Too much blood had been unavenged for too long, mine included.

  That’s why I couldn’t allow myself to feel anything for Ian, even if I could relate to him on this. He’d only use my feelings against me. It had certainly happened before.

  Ian wasn’t just fighting for his life. He was also fighting for his soul. Our goals might be aligned now, but the moment they weren’t, Ian would turn on me and the spell I’d cast would only protect me up to a point. After that, we’d probably fight to the death, and I had no intention of letting that death be mine.

  Right now, we weren’t in a death match, so I smiled at him. As I did, I realized it was my first genuine smile in a long time. “See? Dagon can’t find you any longer.”

  Ian smiled back, emerald green lighting his turquoise gaze. “That means that somewhere out there, Dagon is going insane with rage.”

  Chapter 5

  Dagon might not be able to track Ian through his now invisible brands, but I was still in a hurry to get out of here. Ian was right—Dagon would be beyond furious. While I relished the thought, I also recognized the danger. This bordello wasn’t too far from where Ian had made his deal with Dagon, in Minsk, Belarus. Dagon could do what I had done: start searching the more prominent whorehouses in Belarus until he found one that Ian had been to, then follow his trail from there. It had taken me two weeks because I’d had to drive from Minsk to Poland. Dagon could teleport, so his search might only take him a day.

  That’s why I wanted to be away from here by nightfall. When I saw Dagon again, it would be on my terms, not his.

  “Come,” I told Ian. It was past time we left.

  He snorted. “Keep speaking to me as if I’m a dog and I’ll either hump your leg or bite you.”

  I suppressed my urge to tell him exactly what I’d do if he tried either. In all fairness, I had been acting highhanded. If we were going to work together, I needed to treat him with the same respect I was demanding for myself.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, stumbling over the word. When was the last time I’d apologized? I couldn’t remember, so obviously, it had been too long. “It’s, ah, habit. The only times I deal with vampires like you are when I arrest them or judge them. Law Guardians have to be unbending in those moments or it implies th
e law itself is vulnerable, which can’t happen.”

  “Of course not,” Ian agreed, though his eye roll showed how little he cared about the law. Then he gave me a surprisingly serious look. “You’ve probably had to be twice as hard because you’re a woman. Can’t let the council claim your gender makes you too soft for the job, can you?”

  How right he was. Sexism was alive and well in vampire society. I was older and more qualified than most of the council members, but my decisions were still challenged with far more regularity than similar ones made by male Guardians. Equally irritating was how perpetrators always attempted to run or fight when they saw me, yet many surrendered when confronted with weaker, younger male Guardians.

  I cleared my throat and attempted a more conciliatory tone. “Now that you’ve reminded me of my manners, you do agree that we’re not safe here and we have to leave, right?”

  He gave me a quick grin. “You’re the one blocking the door, little Guardian.”

  Twenty minutes later, we were on the road. We would have left sooner, except we had to mesmerize all the prostitutes into forgetting that either of us had been there. Dagon had a lot of abilities, but he couldn’t break through vampirically altered memories. Now, this bordello was one less trail the demon could follow.

  Ian had been quiet during our car ride to Warsaw, occupying himself with his mobile phone. I welcomed the silence. It gave me time to muse over the unexpected parts of today. Ian would be harder to manage than I’d anticipated. While that required adjustments, it shouldn’t require a new plan. His desire for self-preservation was strong, and that’s what I’d been counting on. With that foundation in place, I could work around the other issues—

  “What the bloody hell are we doing at an airport?”

  Ian’s sharp question cut through my musings. I pulled into the parking lot, which was more than half empty. This was a private airfield, so we didn’t have any of the inconveniences common with a bustling commercial airport.

  “Flying,” I replied, which should have been obvious. “I chartered a plane days ago in anticipation of finding you.”

  “You chartered a plane?” he repeated. “Tell me you’re joking.”

  What was his problem? “You’re not afraid to fly, are you?”

  “It’s boats I’m afraid of, but that’s off topic. What’s on topic is the fact that you chartered a plane with what I’ll assume is a reputable company out of an easily found private airport in a major city of the country I was last seen in. Why don’t you draw Dagon a map of where we’re going, too?”

  I tempered my tone so I didn’t snarl at him. “I’m using false names. Dagon won’t know it’s us.”

  Ian’s face showed all the aggravation I was smothering. “You might do a bang-up job of upholding the law, but you clearly have a lot to learn about being on the run. You don’t use regular airports or charter companies because aliases aren’t enough. Dagon might not have pictures of you, but he does of me. One glance will confirm I’m the John Doe on your flight manifest. You also can’t mesmerize everyone into forgetting we were here; there are too many people, plus there are security cameras.”

  I was still rankled by his tone, but he had valid points. It would be foolish to ignore them. “You suggest driving?”

  “No, that’s too slow and it won’t get us far enough away.”

  “Then what?” This time, I didn’t tamp down my irritation. “I don’t own a private plane and unless your dossier lacks another important detail, neither do you.”

  He gave me a jaded look. “I’m sure my dossier lacks quite a bit, but as it happens, I know someone with his own plane and he’s not far from here.”

  “Wouldn’t one of your friend’s planes coming here also be an obvious trail that Dagon could follow?”

  “It would, except this vampire is not my friend,” Ian said, and started dialing.

  I saw the country code before Ian tipped his mobile and the rest of the numbers moved out of view. Forty. Romania.

  Contrary to popular belief, Romania wasn’t a hotspot for vampires because it was home to one of the world’s most powerful. If that’s who Ian was calling, he was correct. No one would believe this particular vampire would come to Ian’s aid.

  “Ian,” I heard an accented voice say on the line. With that single word, my suspicions were confirmed. “I’m surprised to hear from you,” Vlad the Impaler continued.

  “Believe me, Tepesh, I’d rather shag myself with a sandpaper dildo than speak to you.”

  My eyes bulged. Ian saw it and waved as if unconcerned that he’d insulted someone who’d been feared for his mass slaughters even before he became a vampire.

  “But I have to travel under the radar in a hurry,” Ian went on. “I need to borrow your plane. Should only take a few days. How fast can you get it to Poland?”

  Silence on the other line. I tensed, half expecting Ian’s mobile to burst into flames. When Vlad got angry, things usually ended up on fire. Ian should be glad that he was nowhere near Vlad, who was only called by his other, more famous name of Dracula by those who wished to die.

  “Where in Poland?” Vlad finally replied.

  Each word sounded bitten off from anger, but I was shocked that he appeared to be agreeing. I’d expected Vlad to tell Ian exactly how he was going to kill him.

  “Look for the remains of a large movie theater complex inside of Klomino. Should be enough space in front of it for the plane to land and take off. Klomino’s mostly abandoned, but still, come after dark so there’s less chance of a bystander taking video showing the call numbers on the plane.”

  “I’ll have them painted over.” Vlad’s tone remained sharp. “The plane will be there by midnight.” Then he hung up.

  Ian began to whistle as he ripped the memory card out of his mobile. Then he got out of the car, dropped the memory card and his mobile on the ground, and stomped on them. When he lifted his foot, only crushed pieces remained.

  I got out, too, and went around to his side of the vehicle. “How did you do that?” I asked in disbelief.

  He glanced down. “Boot plus force.”

  “Not that.” I dismissed his shattered mobile with a swipe of my hand. “How did you get Vlad Dracul to do your bidding?”

  “Bidding?” Ian gave me a knowing smile. “Most times, you sound exactly like a modern woman, yet every once in a while, you slip and prove there’s nothing modern about you.”

  “You’re avoiding my question,” I said, although he was right about the slip.

  “Vlad owes me,” Ian replied in a tone that was now darker than obsidian.

  Once again, I felt icy tingles race up my spine. Who was the real Ian? The carefree rogue who amused me despite myself? Or the dangerous man who set off all my inner alarm bells?

  “Why would Vlad the Impaler owe you?”

  He gave me a slanted look. “Thought you’d know since you turned up with information that only Dagon, Vlad, and Vlad’s wife knew about.”

  Leila had indeed been the one to tell me that Dagon had tricked Ian into bartering his soul to the demon. That’s why I’d searched for Ian as soon as I’d finished my other business. I hadn’t cared enough to ask Leila how Dagon had tricked Ian. All I’d cared about was finding a vampire that Dagon had branded so I could use him to draw the demon out. Now, I wished I’d gotten the entire tale. Judging from Ian’s shuttered expression, I wouldn’t be hearing it from him.

  Ian took my silence as proof of my ignorance and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that while Vlad and I detest each other—and that’s describing my feelings for him in the mildest possible way—he doesn’t shirk from paying a debt. Now, we have a way out of here that can’t be traced.”

  “Excuse me.”

  We both turned. A young man with the name of the aviation facility emblazoned on his shirt had come out of the building and was walking toward us.

  “May I assist you with something?” the man continued.

  We’d been arguing in
the facility’s parking lot long enough to attract notice. Whether this young man was security or merely an attentive concierge, it was still time to go.

  Ian gave him a brilliant smile. “That your mobile?” he asked, nodding at the square-shaped bulge in the man’s pocket.

  The man’s demeanor changed from polite to wary. “Why?”

  “Give it to me,” Ian said, an emerald glow spilling out of his eyes.

  The man handed over his mobile, helpless to do otherwise under the power in Ian’s gaze. Ian took the phone and held it in his teeth while he used both hands to pull down his pants. He wasn’t wearing anything beneath them and my brows went up.

  “What are you doing?”

  Ian only winked at me. Then, pants around his ankles, he took the mobile from his teeth, held it behind him with one hand, and took a selfie of his bare ass.

  “Is this juvenile behavior necessary?” I asked stiffly.

  “Absolutely.” Ian held the phone with his teeth again while he readjusted his clothes. Once done, he checked the picture and smiled. “Perfection.” Then he handed his mobile back to the now openmouthed attendant. “When a big blond sod named Dagon comes looking for me, show him this and tell him I said to kiss it.”

  Chapter 6

  We waited near the remaining wall of the former movie theater in Klomino. Ian had been right; the entire town looked as if it had been abandoned decades ago. The last time I’d been in this area had been after World War II. Then, the Soviet army had turned it into a military base. Now, the only signs of life were the few faint heartbeats coming from the rubble around the former theater. They probably wouldn’t have mobile phones. Even if they did, they might not bother to come out in this weather. It was bitterly cold. Homeless humans seeking temporary refuge, no doubt.

  We’d left the car several miles away and walked to Klomino. We drew less notice this way, but I hadn’t dressed warmly since I hadn’t intended to be outside for long. My coat was more to give myself a place to put my weapons than to protect against the cold. Being a vampire meant I wouldn’t get hypothermia, but it did nothing to insulate me from the freezing temperatures.