Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(42)

“Yes, I’m aware of your alcohol-based summoning ritual. Very millennial of you,” I noted.

Ashael gave a brief smile at that. “Until that day, then,” he said, and walked away.

I waited until I couldn’t see Ashael before I turned to Ian. “I was going to tell you that he was my brother, but . . .” My gesture tried to encompass everything that had happened.

“The timing wasn’t right until I nearly murdered him in front of you?” he supplied, a sardonic smile curling his mouth.

“Yes, that.”

Ian’s smile faded. “We’ve had terrible timing, but we’re going to fix that.”

I wanted to believe him. I just wasn’t very optimistic. But I smiled as if doubt wasn’t chewing at me like a school of ravenous piranhas.

“Let’s find Yonah and get started, then.”





Chapter 23


I could start a joke with, “A vampire, a demon, and a ghoul walked into a pool area,” but the looks the approaching trio gave us didn’t lend to humor. After needing to open a temporal rift to see a glamour-concealed island you had to crash-land onto before traversing past Leviathan-filled seas, I rather thought that anyone who wandered onto the back patio of Yonah’s house had already passed the security test, but from the three guards’ expressions, they disagreed.

“Names,” the ivory-skinned vampire said, a Russian accent coloring the word. I didn’t let her delicate build, sarong-style dress or the pretty seashell comb in her thick brown hair fool me. Her appearance said lovely and breakable, but the power vibrating from her aura said, Test me at your peril.

“Ian,” he replied, his brow faintly arching at me.

“Ariel.” I could hardly use my vampire Law Guardian name. I also wasn’t wearing any glamour, which caused the blue-eyed, blonde-haired demon’s gaze to linger over my appearance.

“Body like Beyoncé, hair like Daenerys Targaryen,” he murmured with open lust.

“Temper like the Punisher,” I countered. An appreciative look was one thing, but I felt like I needed a shower after that vigorous eye-fucking. “With a husband that’s imagining ten different ways to kill you before you even take your eyes off my ass,” I added, seeing the new, lethal flare in Ian’s gaze.

“Twenty,” Ian corrected, tone as smooth as a well-thrust blade. “And so few only because she just admitted to something she’s been denying for weeks.”

What? Oh, damn, I had called him the “h” word! Where was a Leviathan to endlessly drown me when I needed it?

“We’re here to see Yonah,” I said, as if that could erase the new, crackling tension between me and Ian. “Ashael told Yonah to expect us, so point the way or move aside.”

A smile quirked the Russian vampire’s mouth. “Follow me.”

Silver trotted behind us as we went into the room overlooking the pool. The only decoration or furniture it boasted was plants on various stands. The bareness highlighted the large stone fountain with a carved Medusa in the middle of the room. She didn’t look ugly or monstrous the way legend claimed. This Medusa was beautiful, the snakes gently haloing her head with devotion instead of their reputed mindless menace.

Our guards led us past the fountain room into a library. Shelves covered the walls to the ceiling, while leather couches were arranged around the open stone hearth in the center of the room. First fountains, now fire pits. If we passed a mud shrine in the next room, all the elements would be represented.

“Wait here,” the Russian vampire directed, indicating one of the generous-sized couches. “I will bring Yonah to you.”

I sat, weariness urging me to stretch out until I was lying flat. I resisted the temptation even though dawn now bathed the windows with streaks of gold. If I were a new vampire, I’d have no choice but to sleep, but I was thousands of years past the anesthetizing effects of the rising sun.

Silver sat on the floor near me, while Ian folded his long, lean frame into the opposite corner of my couch. He looked completely relaxed, arms resting on the back of the couch and legs stretched out in front of him, but his eyes told a different story. They moved over our surroundings with tactical thoroughness, gauging threats and assessing advantages.

I didn’t know why I wasn’t doing the same. Ashael had promised we’d be safe here, but his word had hardly proven to be infallible. I was tired, but I’d remained on high alert while practically dead on my feet from exhaustion before. So why wasn’t I scoping the place out while coiled and ready to fight the way Ian was?

You don’t have to.

The truth of that hit me, as unexpected as a sniper’s bullet. Tenoch had taught me to rely only on myself, but I wasn’t fighting to be at my best now as I knew that Ian would alert me if things took a dangerous turn. Until then, I could take a moment to relax, knowing I was safe because he wouldn’t let anything hurt me while I was vulnerable.

Was this . . . was this what trust felt like?

If so, it was like sinking into a warm bath after an achingly brutal day. I wanted to wrap myself in the glorious, unfamiliar feeling, but it was also an indictment on everything I’d done since Ian had come back from the dead. I thought Ian couldn’t survive the threats I still had to face, yet he’d proven more than able to meet every challenge I’d feared plus several I hadn’t even thought of. Now, I was the one leaning on him, not the other way around.