Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(21)

A knock sounded on my bedroom door promptly at seven. I opened it, hiding my smile as Ian’s gaze swept over me in surprise. Then I let my smile bloom until it wreathed my mouth in the coyly expectant way some women do when they are waiting to be complimented while also pretending to be shy.

“I know it’s not the latest trend, but I could barely find anything to wear,” I said with the same vapid intonation as a particularly annoying reality TV star.

A sound came from him that could have been a laugh. Then he said, “Nonsense, you’re ravishing,” with such smoothness, I thought I had to be mistaken about the laugh.

He came inside, revealing a bouquet he’d concealed behind his back. A dozen red roses, except their petals were too thick to be natural and they glittered like finely cut crystals.

I touched one of the brilliant blooms. It felt cool and hard the way crystal would, but its petals bent beneath my finger as if it were a real flower. “What are these?”

“They’re called Faerie Queen Crimsons.”

I gave him a look over the top of the dazzling bouquet. “You’re giving a Law Guardian illegal magic flowers?”

His smile reminded me of the crystalline roses: dangerously beautiful because once you saw it, nothing else could compare. “No, I’m giving my wife a gift I thought she’d enjoy.”

I thrust the flowers back as if they suddenly burned me. “I’m not your real wife.”

“A Law Guardian disagreeing with the highest court in vampire society?” He tsked. “What is the world coming to?”

“You could care less about the law,” I snapped, my simpering date fa?ade crumbling.

He grinned. “And you hate your hair, that dress, and those ridiculous tottering shoes, but here we are.”

He came in and set the flowers on an end table. The roses stood upright as if their long stems were contained by an invisible vase. When the overhead lights hit them, they glittered so brightly, a myriad of colors scattered across the room. They were beyond gorgeous, and so obviously magical that I’d never have gotten them for myself. I’d consider the risk too high and my happiness too . . . unimportant. As usual.

Did Ian remember that about me? I couldn’t tell, but it was obvious I couldn’t trick him with my vapid-date fa?ade. He’d either seen right through it or he remembered the truth.

“These shoes are ridiculous,” I agreed, kicking them off. Why did modern women torture themselves with such contraptions? “I also hate how stiff my hair is, the stench from this perfume, and this gods-awful dress I can barely move in. Fuck it, I’m showering and starting over.”

Ian’s laugh followed me as I went back into the bathroom. “I’ll wait here.”



A quick shower, blow dry, and normal amount of makeup later, I put on a black silk pantsuit. It was chic enough for a date while also giving me pockets to store my weapons. After my near-escape from the Mycenae ruins, I’d never be without them on me again, especially at night when demons were free to roam.

Ian had on black pants, a black jacket, and a deep umber-colored shirt that should have clashed with his hair but didn’t. Instead, his auburn hair and the shirt looked like different shades of an ever-deepening flame. I tried not to focus on that by wondering what he had planned. Paris’s many landmarks, clubs, opera houses, and restaurants certainly gave him no shortage of options. But after thirty minutes, Ian pulled up to the last place I expected: an amusement park.

I stiffened. “Why are we here?”

“Someone with your long life-span has already eaten at all the finest restaurants, drunk all the best wine, seen all the museums, attended countless operas, and been to so many clubs, they all look the same,” he replied. “But I wager you’ve never been to one of these simply for a fun evening out.”

A strangled laugh escaped me. “You’re right. The last theme park I went to was no fun at all.”

He turned the car off. “This one will be.”

I almost refused to go inside. Then I realized I couldn’t ask for a better reminder of why I had to get away from Ian. Dagon had murdered Ian at an amusement park. He must not remember that, but I did.

“Can’t wait,” I said stiffly.

I maintained that stiffness through the first hour. Then my iciness began to thaw. This park couldn’t be more different from the one we’d battled Dagon at. That had been a broken-down shell filled with the silence of long abandonment. This was an elaborate wonderland of rides, stores, and soaring attractions, like the fairy-tale castle that loomed over the main park.

Granted, at first all the excited squeals from the children reminded me of the demons’ death cries from that day, but by the second hour, I was smiling at the screeches. When was the last time I’d been surrounded by screams of joy?

By the third hour, Ian had cajoled me into riding some of the park’s many attractions. He enjoyed them with his usual abandon, but what surprised me was that I enjoyed them, too. For a few moments, acting like the children around me allowed me to let go of the constant stress, fear of failure, and sadness that had consumed me the past several weeks. How had Ian known that I needed this? I hadn’t even known it myself.

By the fourth hour, I was grinning as I let the rollercoaster whip me around with the kind of force I only felt when locked in a death match. I even raised my arms and let the wind play with my hands as the cars hurtled us toward the bottom. When the ride came to a stop, I said, “Again!” with the same greedy glee I’d heard from countless children this evening.