Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(56)

Ereshki tried to cling to him. Yonah shoved her away. She sank to her knees, weeping with a hopelessness that caused a poignant stab of remembrance. I knew how hopelessness that deep felt. I wished it on no one, not even her.

“How are you getting your people out of here?” Ian asked, ignoring Ereshki’s tears. “As you might know, our plane is no longer functional, so we could use a ride.”

“Not with me,” Yonah replied curtly. “You can call for help, if you find a working mobile phone. Or start flying. Or swim; the Leviathan will be gone soon, too. I care not which. With the wards down, I can now teleport all my people out of here, even those still trapped beneath the ruins. But that also means this island is now completely unprotected.”

With that, Yonah unleashed a shockwave of power. It threw Ian backward and must have knocked me out, because when my eyes opened, only Ian, Ereshki, and I remained.

Ereshki’s sobs turned into wails as she realized Yonah had made good on his promise to leave her behind. Then she scrambled to her feet and ran, but soon tripped on a piece of sliding debris and fell.

“I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Ian muttered before raising his voice. “Silver! Get over here, mate, we’re leaving!”

I was relieved to see a streak of gray flying toward us. Then all I saw was Ereshki when Ian teleported her over and dropped her in front of me. “Need to make it quick—we have to leave before this island is overrun with Yonah’s enemies.”

For a second, I didn’t understand. Then I did. So did Ereshki. Her sobs became frenzied, and she looked at me with a bleakness that transcended despair.

She expected no mercy. I certainly owed her none. Dagon didn’t merely slit my throat before claiming he was the one to raise me from the dead when I came back to life later. No, Dagon had all the flair of a showman combined with the ruthlessness of his ambitions. The more prolonged the suffering, the more grotesque the method of execution . . . the godlier Dagon looked when I came back from the dead, thus the more power he derived from his worshippers.

And I’d loved Ereshki so much, I begged Dagon to make me the object of his cruelties instead of her. When he did, I was relieved for her sake because until the day Tenoch rescued me, I thought Ereshki loved me as a sister, too. But on that last day, I recovered from a beating faster than my captors anticipated and overheard Ereshki laughing with Fenkir and Rani over how easily she’d deceived me. She wasn’t a helpless captive. No, Ereshki was Dagon’s willing demon-branded acolyte, there only to keep me loyal to him through her deceit.

Finding that out had hurt worse than anything Dagon had done to me.

Now, I could finally get my revenge. In many ways, I needed to, not only for myself, but for all her other victims, too. But even as my hands shook with the urge to choke the life from her, I couldn’t. The Ereshki who’d betrayed me and all those other people wasn’t here. Only this one was, and she couldn’t remember her many crimes.

Murdering this Ereshki wouldn’t be justice. It wouldn’t even be vengeance. It would be cruelty for cruelty’s sake. That’s why I couldn’t do it. If I did, I wouldn’t be much better than the monster Ereshki had been back then, and I was better, dammit! She’d taken a lot from me, but she wouldn’t take that.

“I’m not killing her,” I said.

Ian shrugged. “If you’re too tired, then I’ll do it.”

“No.” Now my tone was steel. “We’re taking her with us.”





Chapter 32


I’d never argued with someone while teleporting before. I can’t say I recommend it. Whenever Ian didn’t want to hear what I was saying, he’d blink us another hundred kilometers or so over the expanse of the ocean. Between that, we flew. Or, more accurately, Ian flew while toting me, Silver, and Ereshki because I was still too weak to carry myself, let alone anyone else.

I’d never heard such a litany of curse words in different languages during the hours it took us to fly, teleport, rest, and repeat before we finally reached the mainland, which turned out to be the coastline of Santa Monica, California. Many times, I expected Ian to leave Ereshki behind to drown, but despite his clearly stated objections, he kept her with us. In the end, I wasn’t sure if that was out of respect for my wishes or because of my colder assertion that Ereshki was worth more to us alive.

That’s how the four of us stumbled into the first gorgeous beach house we saw after swimming the last couple hundred meters to shore. It wasn’t empty, but a few flashes from Ian’s gaze later, the rich middle-aged Caucasian couple was all too happy to host us as their unexpected guests. Demons couldn’t enter a private home unless invited and we were well into midday, so for the next several hours of daylight, we were safe.

I took a long, grateful sip from the husband’s wrist while his wife busied herself asking Ereshki if she wanted something to eat. Ian, to my surprise, went straight to the couple’s phone and started dialing.

“Crispin,” he said moments later. “Something urgent has come up. Need you to meet me at my favorite house tonight, and I know you like to keep her close, but whatever you do, do not bring the girl with you.”

I heard Bones’s snort through the phone. “You know Cat won’t agree to staying behind—”

“Not that girl,” Ian interrupted.