Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(69)

“I love you, too.”





Chapter 38


I never wanted to leave Mencheres’s beach house. Not when I would forever associate this place with where I’d truly discovered happiness—all internal conflicts about Tenoch and the other half of myself aside. In fact, I was already formulating an offer to buy this place from Mencheres when the water I’d cupped in my hands suddenly shimmered and a familiar, feminine voice said “Ariel” from it.

I was so startled that I dropped the water and jumped back from the sink. I was alone in the bathroom since Ian had left after our long, very enjoyable shower. I’d stayed to comb the tangles out of my sex-tousled hair and brush my teeth. I’d been in the process of rinsing my mouth out when the water in my hands suddenly began talking in Ereshki’s voice.

Either I’d just experienced a complete psychotic break, or Ereshki really had been trying to communicate with me through the water. I gave both possibilities fifty-fifty odds.

No point wondering which. I cupped my hands beneath the sink’s still-running faucet, filled them, and waited.

No voices, no strange shimmering. Psychotic break, then. I sighed. Well, I’d lasted nearly five millenniums without one. Guess I was overdue. It could be worse. I heard that writers had psychotic breaks every decade or so—

“Ariel,” a voice said before Ereshki’s shimmering image formed in the water cupped in my hands. “Don’t drop me this time,” she added. “This spell is quite taxing.”

The only reason I didn’t hurl her watery image into the mirror was because I was curious why she’d dared to contact me.

“I’m sorry,” I said with heavy sarcasm. “Wouldn’t want to tax you. I want you hale and hearty when I rip you to pieces.”

She laughed. It hit me like a physical blow when I saw the corners of her eyes crinkle with her mirth. When I was human, that sight had been one of the only joys in my life. Now, it filled me with enough rage to make my hands quiver.

“You did surprise me with how vicious you’ve become,” she remarked. “I had no idea you’d go right for my throat when you first saw me. I thought you still had a sister’s love for me. If I’d known you learned of my duplicity back when you were Dagon’s, I never would have followed you into that bathroom.”

“I was never Dagon’s,” I spat. “But you have been since the moment we met, and every single moment after that.”

I saw a hint of her shoulder as she shrugged. “Famines were common when I was young. I didn’t want to die of starvation like the rest of my people. Dagon offered me an alternative.”

An “alternative”? That’s how she brushed off what she’d helped Dagon do to hundreds of men, women, and children who, unlike me, didn’t come back from the dead after they were sacrificed to him? I wished she were in my hands right now. I’d squeeze the life from her while smiling the entire time.

“Why are you contacting me? This spell is too complicated for you to use only because you want to gloat.”

She allowed herself another smile before it faded. “I didn’t realize the depth of your power until I saw you hold back part of the sea. Dagon told me you could tear blood and water from people, but that . . .”

“Is the least of what I’ll do to you,” I said pleasantly.

“That’s why I’m contacting you.” A hint of aggravation filled her voice. “I don’t want you to kill me. Do whatever you want to do to Dagon, but leave me alone.”

Laughter broke from me in harsh peals. “I had no idea you were so funny, Ereshki! Please, tell me another joke.”

Even through the unsteady sheen of the water, I saw ice fill her clear brown eyes. “Dagon long suspected that Ashael was hiding something. How amusing would you find it if I told Dagon that Ashael was the one who brought you to Yonah’s? Or that the two of you had ‘much in common,’ as you told Yonah?”

I stiffened. If she did that, Dagon would repeat it, and Ashael would be hunted by other demons for his allegiance to their most-wanted fugitive. Add in the speculation that Ashael wasn’t a “real” demon, and he would be marked for death by every species that feared mixed-race people, which was all of them.

Shit.

A knowing look crossed Ereshki’s face. “I thought you cared for the handsome demon. I was too far away to hear what was said, but you appeared to be pleading for Ashael’s life when your lover threatened him right after you arrived at Yonah’s.”

Dammit! That had happened within full view of Yonah’s house. With the mirrorlike quality of his windows, I couldn’t tell if anyone had been spying on us. Clearly, at least one person had.

“You must have been shocked to see me,” I noted.

Another shrug. “Not then. I didn’t recognize you until later. It had, after all, been a very long time.”

For some reason, that made me angrier than everything she’d said before it. When you helped torture and murder someone for a decade, the least thing you could do was recognize her!

Ian suddenly filled the doorway, but a sharp shake of my head kept him from entering. “So, you’re offering to keep quiet about Ashael if I don’t hunt you down like the filthy scrap of vermin you are,” I summarized in a hard tone. “And I’m supposed to believe in your sincerity about this why?”