Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(28)

“Demons also have a secret safe house to shelter renegade demons, among others,” Ian went on. “I know the proprietor of such an establishment. He’s powerful enough to do our spell, but while I don’t know where he is, I know a demon who should.”

“What would push the demon culture’s boundaries enough to make some go into hiding?” Then again, I probably didn’t want to know. I had enough horrors to fill my nightmares as it was.

“Usually, it’s as simple as being different,” Ian replied, adding in a jaded tone. “You of all people should know how most species are prone to criminalizing that.”

I did. Vampires usually slaughtered cross-species people like me as soon as our existence became known. Fearmongering had also led to magic being outlawed when long ago, enough vampires claimed that those with magic were plotting to enslave their non-magic brethren. They’d had no proof, but it didn’t matter. Magic was declared illegal and all vampires caught practicing it were executed. From that brutal purge, the council, Law Guardians, and Enforcers had been born. I only joined their ranks to use the access my job gave me to secretly help the people abused by these laws. Did Ian remember that?

Even if he didn’t, I’d agreed to let fate decide what he remembered, so all I said was, “Do you trust the demon you’re coming here to see?”

“I trust that he’ll regret it if he betrays me,” he replied with casual lethalness. “He doesn’t know the extent of my abilities. You can’t reveal your abilities to him, either. That’s why you’re staying with the car while I go into town.”

“Oh, sure,” I said. “I was just thinking I needed to get my nails done.”

My sarcasm only made him grin. “Sometimes, my personal business will cause me to leave at a moment’s notice, and you can’t expect to be chained to my hip every moment, can you?”

Ohhh, the vindictive shit! I’d make him pay for throwing up my own words to me. But first . . . “Enjoy all the personal time you want, after I go with you to meet this demon.”

“Not going to happen, luv. One of this demon’s abilities is seeing the source of people’s magic. If you come, he’ll spot your half-demigod nature before you can say hallo.”

And word was already circulating about me. Tenoch warned me this would happen if anyone saw what I was and lived to talk about it. Dagon’s survival was coming back to bite me in yet another way. But I still wasn’t going to let Ian walk alone into a town full of demons just to stop one more person from learning my secret.

“I’ll stay out of sight, then.”

“Yes, by staying here,” he replied in a steely tone. “If there’s trouble I can’t handle, I’ll send up a magic flare. You’ll be more than close enough to see it and come running.”

He wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Fine. I’d stop arguing. “Very well, then.”

He gave me a jaunty smile as he got out of the car. “Should only take a few hours.”

I watched him walk down a road with cracks big enough to allow brownish overgrowth to infiltrate the asphalt. Then he turned right at what had probably once been the main street of town. When he was out of sight, I continued to remain in the car . . . for another five minutes.

Then I got out and streaked after him. He must have lost his mind along with most of his memory if he thought I’d stay back the whole time.



Even with the sulfur stench and the fainter smell of burning coal, Ian’s scent was easy to follow. I stayed downwind so he didn’t catch my scent, and I flew so my feet didn’t make any of the crunching noises his did as he walked on the winter-dry foliage. After several minutes, Ian ducked into a cavelike structure. Must be the entrance to the mine.

I paused at my perch behind the roof of a former gas station. I needed camouflage before I proceeded. Good thing I knew exactly how to hide myself. I just needed a little help.

I cut my finger, using my blood to draw several symbols on the roof. Then, I filled them with the barest amount of power. I didn’t want my magic sensed by the town’s demons.

“I summon the spirit of Leah, daughter of Siobhan,” I whispered at the symbols. “Leah, hear my call.”

Moments later, the outline of a severely cut black-and-white dress appeared, then Leah herself bloomed into focus.

“I cannot fathom why he believed you’d stay in the car,” were her first words. “Does he remember nothing about you?”

I stifled a laugh. “Ian’s memory might be erratic, but his stubbornness is the same, which is why I need another favor.”

She smiled with anticipation. “Concealment?”

“Please.”

Leah held out her arms. I went into her embrace, feeling the chill of power instead of the corporeal form of a woman. But Leah’s power was greater than flesh and bone. It was also ironic. Leah hadn’t become a witch until after she’d been executed as one back when the American colonies were new.

Leah’s power continued to cover me until I felt like I’d been plunged into icy water. Then I watched as my body turned filmy like hers before it vanished altogether. Once it did, Leah’s form vanished, too. Thus drenched in her power, she was able to pick me up and whisk both of us into the mine.

At first, it looked the way I expected an abandoned mine to look, with crumbling support columns and pieces of equipment half buried in the stony ground. But the coal track running into the darkness was in pristine shape. Leah followed it, and minutes later, lights cast a golden glow in the distance and I heard laughter and music, of all things. At a sharp bend after a right-hand turn, the fa?ade of a derelict mine vanished.