Wicked Bite

by Jeaniene Frost

  “Can’t do it, luv.”

  I had no doubt that he couldn’t teleport. I didn’t even know how he was still standing.

  “Don’t let your guard down,” Ian whispered, so low I could barely hear him even though he was right next to me. “Can’t be sure, but I think I feel Yonah’s spell activating.”

  I gave him a surprised look. One of the council members or Law Guardians had traces of Dagon’s power in them? No. None of them would consort with, let alone become branded by, a demon. It must be the spell in Ian short-circuiting because of the state he was in.

  Or . . . could Dagon have ordered his people to bring part of the council and several Law Guardians here for more than the hope of saving himself? Could one of them really be his secret acolyte?

  “The barrier is down,” Haldam said, with an impatient swipe toward the Law Guardians. “Arrest her.”

  The Law Guardians glanced at each other, at me, and hesitated. After everything they’d seen, none appeared eager to be the first to try.

  Xun Guan was the one who stepped over the spot that had been blocked by the pentagram’s encircling barrier moments before. Her expression reflected her pain, but her steps didn’t waver as she pulled out a pair of restraints and came toward me.

  “Faithless to the end,” Ian said with contempt, earning him a look that was so cutting, it should have made him bleed.

  “This is your doing,” Xun Guan snapped. “None of this would have happened if not for you.”

  “You’re wrong, Xun Guan,” I replied. “Ian didn’t make me who I am. I was that person long before I met him. He only helped me accept it.”

  Once again, pain etched her lovely features. “Then, all this time, you were lying to me.”

  Maybe it was my newly merged nature that prevented me from feeling the shame Xun Guan obviously wanted me to feel. The other half of me had seemed incapable of emotions like that. Or maybe, that merging now gave me the clarity I’d lacked before to realize that I wasn’t the one who should be ashamed.

  “It should upset you more that I lived in a world that forced me to hide what I was,” I replied. “I was born different, but that doesn’t mean I was born wrong. No one is. What’s wrong are the laws that make people like me hide what we are because others are too bigoted or too afraid to let us live in peace.”

  A slow, proud smile curled Ian’s mouth, but Xun Guan stared at me in disbelief. Hekima closed her eyes, shaking her head in what could have been regret. She was one of the few council members who’d voted against sentencing Cat’s daughter to death.

  But Haldam snapped, “That’s enough. You will have a chance to say your piece at your trial, unless you waive your demand for a full hearing and want your sentence carried out now?”

  The sound Ian made had me gripping his hand until I heard the snap of fractures. “No,” I said, dropping his hand to hold my wrists out to Xun Guan. “I demand a full, formal trial. I’ll speak to you later, Ian. Now, please, go.”

  He gave me a frustrated look, then gave another, even more frustrated one down at himself, as if silently cursing the state he was in that prevented him from teleporting us out of here.

  Then, for the second time in the past hour, Ian left when he didn’t want to.

  Chapter 44

  Ian didn’t head toward the lodge to retrieve the priceless diamond we’d left lying on the floor. He walked deeper into the woods. I watched him until the thickening line of evergreens blocked him from my view. Then, I turned back to the council.

  Haldam was staring in the direction Ian had gone while stroking his long beard. “Perhaps we shouldn’t let him leave so easily. He should stand trial, too.”

  I gave the highest official in the council a look that made him take a step backward. “You don’t want to do that.”

  “Veritas is the only one in violation of our laws,” Hekima said, stepping in front of Haldam so she blocked the lethal glare I gave him. “We have no need to question her husband,” she went on. “For all we know, he was here because he was trying to stop her.”

  I stifled my snort. I’d always liked Hekima, and she was helping as much as she could under the circumstances. I wouldn’t disrespect that by pointing out that Ian had zero respect for the law, and even less for people who zealously followed it.

  “Your wisdom is appreciated, Hekima,” I replied.

  “The prisoner will not speak again!” Haldam thundered at me. To everyone else, he said, “Does anyone have a mobile? We need to arrange transportation out of here, as well as contact the other council members and convene a full trial immediately.”

  He certainly seemed in a hurry to execute me. Could he be the person Ian sensed Dagon’s power coming from?

  Then again, Haldam and I had never been close. Now, he had all the reasons he needed to despise me. Out of all the council members, he’d been the most vocal opponent of mixed-species people and magic practitioners. It took a special kind of coldness to sentence a child to death, yet Haldam had done it to Cat’s daughter without even feigning the same hesitation that other council members voting for her death had.

  Maybe I’d let Haldam see what it was like to be on the receiving end of a summary execution decision. It would be so easy to reach inside him and yank out his soul . . .

  I gave myself a quick shake, as if trying to physically dislodge the thought. This was the danger of merging the half of myself I’d long denied with the rest of me. That half might not be evil, but it contained the same borderline-sociopathic logic that allowed my father to transport people to the pits of the Netherworld without a hint of remorse. Now, it was fully a part of me, so to say that it could affect my sense of right and wrong was an understatement.

  Haldam might indeed deserve to die because of his merciless actions, but that didn’t mean I should appoint myself as his executioner. If I meted out death to everyone I and I alone deemed worthy of it, I would soon become more monstrous than the council at their very worst.

  I’d also be proving the council’s fears about people like me, even though I hardly represented all mixed-species people, let alone all people who practiced magic. And inevitably, I’d end up harming those who didn’t deserve it. No one was above being wrong, least of all me.

  “Put the web spell on her, Xun Guan,” Haldam ordered, as if somehow sensing me struggle over my new desire to execute him. “She’s far too . . . unconfined as she is.”

  Xun Guan’s mouth turned down, but she pulled a magic-infused gem from her belt. Long ago, I’d told her never to be without one. She’d heeded the advice. Then, in the original language of the spell, she spoke the words that resulted in layer upon layer of sticky, unbreakable substance wrapping around me as if giant spiders were cocooning me in webs.

  Despite everything, I was proud. I’d taught her that spell several centuries ago, when I was training her, as all Law Guardians needed to know defensive magic. Most of the other Law Guardians had been unable to master such a complex spell, but Xun Guan did. Now, she executed it perfectly. It was also ironic that the last time I’d been caught in this spell, it had resulted in Ian and I being forced to marry.

  Had that only been two months ago? It felt so much longer.

  “Finished,” Xun Guan told Haldam.

  He gave a short nod, but stayed as far away from me as he could without being obvious about it. He needn’t worry. I wasn’t going to kill him, even if more than a small part of me was still convinced that he deserved it. Instead, I settled into the web spell as if it were a warm blanket.

  I had nothing to do now but wait, so I may as well be comfortable while I did.

  Vermont in winter wasn’t a hot spot for vampires, so it took over two hours for the first of the council’s reinforcements to arrive. They consisted of three Enforcers and two more Law Guardians, who took up positions around the exterior of the ski lodge. I had been carried inside the lodge over an hour ago, then dumped next to one of the broken circle traps. Only scorch marks on the floor revealed whe
re they’d been.

  Well, that and the two dead Anzus inside Ian’s former circle.

  The Anzus had gotten a lot of attention, not that I could blame the council members. It wasn’t every day you saw the remains of two creatures that had been thought to be only myth up close. The Anzus were poked, prodded, and examined, then ordered to be brought back to Athens for further study.

  I stayed where I’d been dropped, pretending to doze. If not for Ian’s suspicion that one of the people here had traces of Dagon’s power in them, I might have napped for real. But he’d told me to keep my guard up, so my dozing act was to see if anyone tried to take advantage. There was a lot going on, with council members arranging for transportation, scheduling an emergency trial, and arranging for even heavier security to transport me than the Law Guardians who were already here. All that on top of the Law Guardians chronicling the magic traces left over, gathering up the stones at pivotal points in the pentagrams, and making sure any nosy humans didn’t disturb us.

  With all that, someone could attempt to sneak up behind me and slip a silver knife into my heart, if Dagon did indeed have a secret acolyte among them. If that happened, they’d discover I had a bulletproof vest beneath my black shirt, and I’d discover that the power-seeking spell inside Ian wasn’t on the fritz.

  But thus far, I was ignored by all except Xun Guan, who kept casting looks at me that ranged from angry, to sad, to betrayed.

  I regretted hurting her, but my lies had been a matter of survival, not preference. Vampires often looked down upon humans for their many bigotries, but in reality, we were no better. We simply chose different reasons to oppress each other.

  “The helicopter will be here within the hour,” Hekima announced from the other side of the lodge. “It will take us to the airport, where a plane will be fueled and waiting.”

  “Good.” Haldam’s voice, disgust dripping from it. “This hovel stinks more than I can stand . . .”

  His voice trailed off. I opened my eyes from their mostly closed slits to see what had distracted him. Then my eyes widened and I pulled myself into a sitting position.

  The air had turned to gold. That’s the only way I could describe the thick shimmer that now filled every crevice of the blood-spattered, garbage-strewn lodge. If my hands had been free, I would’ve swept them through the golden haze to see if that glorious shimmer would coat my skin instead of merely hanging in the air, but I couldn’t move beyond stunted crawls.

  Hekima did it for me. No, the bright shimmer that looked as if a cloud of gold dust had gently exploded didn’t stick to her skin. It also didn’t coat her hair or her clothes. It might be so thick that it made the room hazy, but somehow, it wasn’t tangible enough to touch.

  Haldam turned toward me. “Stop that this instant!”

  “I’m not doing it,” I replied with the absolute truth.

  “Then who?” he demanded.

  Who indeed? Was this some sort of spell from Ian? He was the only one who knew we were here, except for the demons who’d fled. But Ian hadn’t been in any condition to do this kind of magic, and demons didn’t flood a place with a strange, non-corporeal version of gold dust before they ambushed. Demon attacks were violent. Not sparkly.

  Drops of light began falling into the thick golden haze. They hung in the air instead of dropping to the ground, looking like tiny stars against a golden sky.

  Hekima gasped.

  Xun Guan barked out an order for the remaining Law Guardians to protect the council. Soon, I couldn’t see the council members behind the rush of vampires that hurried to obey. All the while, more starlike drops filled the golden haze.

  If this was Ian’s doing, it was his most impressive spell yet—

  A beam shot down into the room, fast as a lightning bolt and twice as bright. I shut my eyes against the glare, then dipped my head when that still wasn’t enough. When the glow penetrating my closed lids dimmed enough for me to tell that it was no longer blinding, I opened my eyes, making out the darker silhouette of something tall and big against the golden-starred sky.

  Something that was moving directly toward me.

  I yanked my power to the forefront, ready to hurl it at the figure if it wasn’t Ian. I couldn’t tell yet. Then that disorienting light faded enough to reveal a shirtless muscular man with large golden wings that touched the floor when he folded them behind his back. His skin was a rich honey shade, his hair was the blue black of a raven’s wing, and his eyes were the color of newly minted gold coins.

  His features were also so stunning, I understood for the first time what the word blasphemous meant. Nothing short of the Most High god should be allowed to possess this much beauty.

  But he wasn’t Ian, so I sent my power at him to rip all the fluids from his body if he made a threatening move toward me . . . only my power skipped right over him and moved to the vampires huddled around the council members behind him.

  What?

  I tried it again to the same futile effect. After I tried and failed a third time, I realized what the problem was. My power kept skipping over him because the man didn’t have a drop of blood or water in his body.

  That wasn’t possible. All species except ghosts had either one or the other, and he was no ghost, as he proved when he reached out and plucked Xun Guan’s unbreakable web spell from me as easily as if he were removing a speck of lint. Then he removed my wrist restraints with only a look.

  “What are you?” I asked as I backed away from him.

  “Phanes,” he replied in an orchestra-worthy baritone.

  I kept backing away. “What’s a Phanes?”

  Surprise flashed over his features. “Not what. Who. Phanes is my name. How do you not know me?”

  “Easy,” I replied while searching my memory. No, I would have remembered that face, not to mention the huge golden wings. “We’ve never met.”

  “We have not,” he agreed. “The last time I felt your power, you were not at the spot it originated from by the time I arrived.”

  The last time . . .

  “How long ago was that?” I asked warily.

  His wave was dismissive. “Four or five thousand years.”

  Ice shot through my veins. He didn’t mean my fluid-ripping power. He meant my soul-snatching one. If he could feel that, and he didn’t have any blood or water in him, could he be . . . could he be like my father?

  He didn’t look like my father. My father didn’t have wings or gold-colored eyes, and the Warden to the Gateway to the Netherworld had certainly never had golden clouds precede his presence. Phanes also spoke Greek the way it had been spoken thousands of years ago versus the more modern dialect.

  Wasn’t there Greek mythology about a lesser deity named Phanes? If so, his name meant “to shine,” which would explain the star-studded, gold dust fog-machine effect that heralded his arrival. What it didn’t explain was why Phanes was here at all.

  “Why should I know you, if you admit that we’ve never met?”

  Phanes smiled. A flock of doves soaring into the sky on sunlit wings would’ve been less lovely. “Because your power proclaims you to be the child of the eternal river bridging this world and the next. Since long before you were born, you were promised to be my bride.”

  The. Fuck?

  I opened my mouth to tell him what I thought of that, but a tremendous inner yank claimed all my attention. In the next instant, the gold-shimmered room with the council members cowering behind visibly shaken Law Guardians vanished, and I was inescapably pulled toward somewhere else.

  Ian had placed his call.

  Chapter 45

  The next thing I saw was the large stone fireplace and white wood-framed windows of Mencheres’s Hamptons cottage. Ian was on the floor in front of that fireplace, the symbols that made up my name for the summoning ritual written in my blood in front of him.

  “Ian!”

  He leapt up in a lithe motion that belied his still frighteningly injured body. Then he pulled me to him. I gr
ipped him back as hard as I dared, once again hoping that rest, time, and lots of blood would repair the horrific damage he’d inflicted on himself to free us from Dagon’s trap.

  “Can I come out yet?” a familiar, impatient voice asked.

  “No,” Ian replied while I pulled away in surprise.

  “Ashael’s here?”

  Ian flashed a tight smile. “Couldn’t risk bringing you to me until I was far enough away for the council not to find us. Also couldn’t hijack a car and drive that distance since someone in that group might be associated with Dagon, and I didn’t trust leaving you in their care for long. So, I chanced walking to the nearest bar and toasting Ashael in it to see if he’d answer.”

  Despite his dislike of Ian, my brother had answered. Ashael must have teleported Ian here, which would have been risky for him with the bright sunlight and nearby ocean. It must hurt Ashael to even be inside this cottage. Being indoors might protect him from the sun, but I could taste the salt from the surf in the air. It must feel like knives grating his skin.

  “Thank you,” I said, a catch in my voice.

  I heard Ashael let out a soft, wry grunt. “Anything for my baby sister.”

  Ian let me go to dump several bottles of hydrogen peroxide onto the symbols he’d drawn. The liquid bubbled on contact, dissolving my blood more thoroughly than bleach. Trust a vampire to know how best to get rid of blood. Then, despite not a hint of the symbols remaining, Ian dragged the thick area rug over the spot to cover it.

  I was touched. I’d trusted Ian with the secret of how to summon me, and he was making damn sure he kept that secret.

  Finally, Ian drew the drapes, blocking the sunshine from streaming into the room. “If she permits it, you can come in now,” Ian said, arching a brow at me.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  What I had to ask took precedence over my lingering anger at Ashael for sending Ian after that horn. If not for Ashael’s doing that, we’d still be trapped inside Dagon’s circles. Or dead. Ashael’s duplicitous trick had helped save our lives.