I shoved the blade through his eye. It was that or let my other nature rocket back on top. Hearing how meticulously Dagon had plotted Ian’s death shredded my control.

“That was premature,” Ian remarked, yanking his blade from the now dead demon’s other eye. “He might have had more information.”

“Maybe you don’t realize it,” I said between clenched teeth. “But I’m having a problem at the moment.”

“Does that problem have eyes that shoot silver beams while darkness billows behind her like a cape?” He grinned. “Made me rock hard seeing it.”

He was aroused by my supernaturally sociopathic other half? “Fuck. You,” I bit out.

He nodded. “Solid plan.”

He snatched me close, murmuring, “Don’t,” when I tried to shove him away. “Your other half never fights for control when you’re in my arms, does she?”

Damn his selective memory! Yes, I felt too much when I was in Ian’s arms. Those feelings might lock the bars on her cage, but oh, how they ripped at my heart now.

One crisis at a time.

With that in mind—and yes, some personal motivation—I wrapped my arms around Ian and kissed him with everything I’d been holding back before.

His grunt of surprise turned into a groan of pure lust. When I pulled away, his lip was bleeding. He grabbed my hair, stared into my eyes, then kissed me with such savage passion, my whole body vibrated from desire.

“Veritas!” I faintly heard. I pushed past the erotic fog enough to hear Leah say again, louder, “Veritas!”

“Sod off, ghost,” Ian growled.

I dragged my mouth away to see Leah hovering over Ian’s shoulder. “You are getting carried away,” she said in a tone that reminded me she’d been a Puritan when she was alive. “I’ve already seen too much with the two of you.”

I glanced at Ian . . . and Leah hadn’t exaggerated. His umber shirt was in tatters from where I’d torn it in blind need to touch his skin. His jacket had fared better, but not by much, and one more rip at his waist would have his pants off. As it was, they appeared held up more by Ian’s erection than by their remaining fabric. Add that to the blood covering him from the red wave I’d hit him with, and I’d seen people mauled by mountain lions that looked in better shape.

“Oh,” I said, mildly embarrassed. On the plus side, I didn’t feel my other nature at all anymore.

“Quite,” Leah said in an acerbic tone. “I don’t dare leave to give you privacy, either. I left for that reason earlier, which is why I wasn’t there when the demons first attacked you. It’s also unwise to continue your tryst in the exact same spot the demons found you at, don’t you agree?”

I did, and if I’d been thinking with my brain instead of my lower parts, I would have realized that.

“She does have a point,” Ian said. “Hold on.”

I didn’t have a chance to say anything else. Ian’s arms tightened, then everything around us blurred again.

Chapter 12

When it stopped, we were back in our hotel room with Silver flying around in joy at our sudden appearance. I didn’t take time to pet him, though. I left the room and went straight to the adjacent hotel room door. Ian, no surprise, followed me.

“What are you doing?”

“Blocking Dagon’s blood trace on you.” After a few sharp raps, the door opened, revealing a rumpled man in his fifties.

“What?” he began in French, then stared in horror at Ian.

Before he could scream, I hit him with the power in my gaze. “You’re perfectly calm,” I told him in French, pushing him aside to enter his room. “You’re not concerned with anything we’re doing.”

Once inside, I grabbed one of the room’s complimentary coffee cups and took out my silver knife.

“You feel no pain,” I told him, making a small slice in his wrist while I held the coffee cup beneath it. When the cup was full, I sliced my finger on a fang and rubbed my blood over the slice in the man’s wrist. It healed in seconds.

“Once we leave, you won’t remember us or anything we did,” I told him. “Now, go back to sleep.”

He got back in bed. His eyes were already closed by the time Ian and I left.

“Dagon murdered that woman four nights ago, so he’s had the power to track you ever since,” I said once we were back in our room. “Your ability to teleport might have thrown him off initially, but why did he wait until tonight to attack you?”

Ian shrugged. “Likely because I spent half that time with the entire vampire council.”

I stared at him. “You’re right.”

Dagon wanted Ian dead, but the demon was no fool. Murdering Ian while he was under the protection of the highest court in vampire society would be seen as an act of war. Vampires and demons might detest each other, but neither side wanted war. Ian’s litigious stunt had probably saved his life.

He flashed a cheery grin. “More proof that married men live longer than single ones.”

“How’d you get so good at teleporting?” I asked, ignoring that. Then I ran water into the sink until it was full. “You’ve only had this ability for what, three weeks?”

“Four,” he replied, a brow arching when I looked back at him. “Had plenty of incentive to practice with Crispin and Cat hovering over me. How do you think I finally got rid of them? I’m finished with people telling me they know best about my own life.”

That was directed at me, and I was torn. If I were Ian, I wouldn’t put up with people withholding parts of my past, either. I grabbed his hand and held it over the sink. Then I dipped a finger into my hotel-neighbor’s blood and started filling the blocking spell with power.

When I used up the power from the water in the sink, I sent my senses out and used the power from the water in the rest of the hotel. My other half reacted, of course. I owed my affinity with water to that part of me, not my vampire side.

When the spell was ready, I flash-froze some of the water into a sliver of ice. Then I raked that shard across Ian’s palm. His blood darkened the water, and at the same time, the other man’s blood in the cup began to boil.

I took my finger out of the boiling cup and drew a blocking symbol across Ian’s forehead. As soon as I was done, the cup shattered, but no blood stained the tile. It had all flash-boiled away when the spell sealed itself into Ian’s skin.

“There,” I said in satisfaction. “Dagon can no longer use your blood to find you.”

A slow smile curved Ian’s mouth. “Have I ever told you you’re irresistibly attractive when you use forbidden magic?”

“Yes,” I said, then could have kicked myself. Now his gaze was filling up with green flame.

“Don’t,” I said when he reached for me.

The look in his eyes made me shiver. “You want me, and I want you more than anything I’ve wanted in my entire life.”

I had to look away. If I didn’t, I would take him up on every decadent promise in his gaze. “Yes, I want you. But desire is an emotion, not a decision, and I still say no.”

The green flame left his gaze and his eyes hardened into turquoise gems. “Very well, I respect your decision. Now, respect mine and tell me everything you’ve been hiding from me.”