“Bullshit,” I said with all the emotion I was denying.

Ian only smiled. “Keep pretending, then. I don’t need you to admit what you feel in order for you to help me recover what I’ve lost. You can show me.”

I regained enough control to ask, “How will I show you?”

“Being near you has already inspired one new memory. I expect more will come the longer we’re together.” His gaze turned knowing. “Did you realize that? Is that the other reason you’ve tried so hard to avoid me?”

“No.” But now that I did know, it would be.

If Ian remembered everything, he’d never let me pay the price for his resurrection alone. His sense of honor would demand that he hunt down the other souls along with me, danger be damned. I had to get away from him before that happened. But now that he could teleport, how could I escape?

Of course. Ian was formidable, but he did have one rather large weakness.

I came toward him and dropped my glamour. My skirt suit was already ripped from the ghoul fight and being buried alive, so my real curves almost overflowed the torn fabric, now too tight. His gaze raked me from the top of my streaked, silvery hair all the way to my feet, and his nostrils flared when he caught my real scent.

“There you are,” he said in a throaty voice.

“Here I am,” I agreed softly.

Then I put my arms around him, steeling myself not to get lost in the feel of him. He pulled me close, his body flush against mine. Every nerve ending I had caught fire. So much for me maintaining control. Still, I couldn’t stop now. I tilted my head back and parted my lips, an invitation for him to kiss me.

His eyes glowed emerald as he took me up on it.

Chapter 9

His mouth slanted over mine. My nails dug into his shoulders as his tongue invaded with sensual flicks that made me ache, burn, and then ache again. I wound my hands into his hair to pull him closer. He reached up and squeezed them as if daring me to grip him tighter. I needed him distracted, so with a moan, I yanked on his hair hard enough to crush his mouth into mine.

His response lifted me off my feet. I matched each deep, possessive stroke of his tongue while gripping his hair as if his arms weren’t the real things keeping me aloft. I should be focused on enacting my spell, but his taste, his touch, the feel of his body . . . oh, I’d needed this. I’d needed it more than blood.

He pulled my thigh up so the bulge in his pants sensually ground against my center. Sensations burst within me and I let out a choked gasp. His kiss swallowed it as he did it again. Inner nerve endings shredded with such sharp ecstasy, I almost came.

I could no longer remember why I’d started this. All I knew was his scent, his taste, how tightly he held me, and the sound he made when I rubbed against him. His hands tightened on my hips and a coppery tang suddenly flavored our kiss. One of us had scored our tongues against a fang. When Ian stiffened in surprise at the taste, I knew it had been me. Dammit! I couldn’t explain why my blood wasn’t normal without dragging him deeper into the mess I was trying to keep him away from. Guess I had to finish that spell after all—

He grabbed his head and his whole body sagged. Fear shot through me as I caught him before he hit the ground. What was happening? I hadn’t hit him a spell yet!

I understood when blood began trickling from his eyes. He’d been hit with a new memory. I’d wanted to knock him out with a spell so I could leave, but I hadn’t intended to incapacitate him this way. More blood came from his ears, and panic cleared away my desire. Would this new memory destroy his mind? My father had warned Ian that that could happen, and . . . why were my hands still stuck to his head?

I tried to pull them free and couldn’t. What? I tried harder. I couldn’t even yank any of his hair out. How could that be . . . ?

“You spelled me.” I groaned, remembering him squeezing my hands. Ian hadn’t been encouraging me to release my inhibitions. He’d been working tactile magic on me. I’d intended to distract him with desire in order to hit him with a spell, and the sly bastard had beaten me to it!

A feminine laugh jerked my head up. The filmy body of a ghost in Puritan dress floated over me, her impish grin at odds with the severity of her drab, overmodest garb.

“He played you like a flute,” Leah said, still laughing. “What spell do you think he used on you?”

“Sampson’s Strength, probably. It’s unbreakable.” Why hadn’t I paid attention to what he was doing with his hands? I knew tactile magic was his strong suit. Now, I couldn’t even help him while his mind might be shattering from a new memory!

Leah gave the blood trickling from Ian’s eyes and nose an unconcerned glance. “Don’t be alarmed—this has happened before. It doesn’t seem to have any lasting ill effects on him.”

I was relieved, but still stressed enough to be snappy. “You could have mentioned that before, and you could have mentioned that Ian remembered me.”

Leah gave me a jaded look. “You told me never to leave his side. How could I tell you anything without leaving his side? It’s been challenging enough following him after he teleports, and as you know, the dead don’t have cell phones.”

“Couldn’t you send another ghost to deliver the message?”

She shrugged. “One ghost he might dismiss as nothing, if he glimpsed me. But two ghosts, with one of those ghosts telling the other to pass along a message about him?”

“You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “I only asked you to protect Ian if need be. I didn’t ask you to spy for me.”

Leah had been the perfect guard. Ghosts were largely ignored by vampires since they tended to be mindless energy snippets that merely repeated the same activity. But Leah’s uniqueness didn’t end at her sentience. She had also weaponized her ability to induce terrifying hallucinations.

Ian was tough, smart, and skilled, but if he were jumped by a large-enough group of demons, he’d need an edge. Leah was that edge. Now, she’d done such a good job of shadowing him, she’d witnessed me getting trapped by him. No wonder she was laughing. I might laugh, too, if I wasn’t worried about Ian while also cursing myself for getting so caught up in his kiss, I hadn’t noticed the magical handcuffs he’d clapped on me.

Leah gave me a speculative look. “He’s not going to give up on his quest for answers, you know.”

I shook my magically bound hands at her. “Starting to get that impression, thanks.”

She laughed again. “I can see why you like him. He’s always doing the unexpected, isn’t he?”

“Tell me about it,” I said dryly. “I—”

I stopped speaking when Leah abruptly vanished. Moments later, Ian sat up, shook his head as if clearing it, and wiped the blood from his face. Then he grinned as he saw my hands still stuck to his head.

“Ah, that spell worked on you.”

“You tricked me.”

I tried to summon up my anger over it, but it had vanished. That’s how great my relief was that whatever memory he’d recovered hadn’t broken his mind.

He wagged a finger at me. “You tried to trick me first. Or am I supposed to believe you were struck with a sudden urge to kiss me that had nothing to do with an attempt to hit me with a knockout spell?”