“Usually, it’s as simple as being different,” Ian replied, adding in a jaded tone. “You of all people should know how most species are prone to criminalizing that.”

I did. Vampires usually slaughtered cross-species people like me as soon as our existence became known. Fearmongering had also led to magic being outlawed when long ago, enough vampires claimed that those with magic were plotting to enslave their non-magic brethren. They’d had no proof, but it didn’t matter. Magic was declared illegal and all vampires caught practicing it were executed. From that brutal purge, the council, Law Guardians, and Enforcers had been born. I only joined their ranks to use the access my job gave me to secretly help the people abused by these laws. Did Ian remember that?

Even if he didn’t, I’d agreed to let fate decide what he remembered, so all I said was, “Do you trust the demon you’re coming here to see?”

“I trust that he’ll regret it if he betrays me,” he replied with casual lethalness. “He doesn’t know the extent of my abilities. You can’t reveal your abilities to him, either. That’s why you’re staying with the car while I go into town.”

“Oh, sure,” I said. “I was just thinking I needed to get my nails done.”

My sarcasm only made him grin. “Sometimes, my personal business will cause me to leave at a moment’s notice, and you can’t expect to be chained to my hip every moment, can you?”

Ohhh, the vindictive shit! I’d make him pay for throwing up my own words to me. But first . . . “Enjoy all the personal time you want, after I go with you to meet this demon.”

“Not going to happen, luv. One of this demon’s abilities is seeing the source of people’s magic. If you come, he’ll spot your half-demigod nature before you can say hallo.”

And word was already circulating about me. Tenoch warned me this would happen if anyone saw what I was and lived to talk about it. Dagon’s survival was coming back to bite me in yet another way. But I still wasn’t going to let Ian walk alone into a town full of demons just to stop one more person from learning my secret.

“I’ll stay out of sight, then.”

“Yes, by staying here,” he replied in a steely tone. “If there’s trouble I can’t handle, I’ll send up a magic flare. You’ll be more than close enough to see it and come running.”

He wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Fine. I’d stop arguing. “Very well, then.”

He gave me a jaunty smile as he got out of the car. “Should only take a few hours.”

I watched him walk down a road with cracks big enough to allow brownish overgrowth to infiltrate the asphalt. Then he turned right at what had probably once been the main street of town. When he was out of sight, I continued to remain in the car . . . for another five minutes.

Then I got out and streaked after him. He must have lost his mind along with most of his memory if he thought I’d stay back the whole time.

Even with the sulfur stench and the fainter smell of burning coal, Ian’s scent was easy to follow. I stayed downwind so he didn’t catch my scent, and I flew so my feet didn’t make any of the crunching noises his did as he walked on the winter-dry foliage. After several minutes, Ian ducked into a cavelike structure. Must be the entrance to the mine.

I paused at my perch behind the roof of a former gas station. I needed camouflage before I proceeded. Good thing I knew exactly how to hide myself. I just needed a little help.

I cut my finger, using my blood to draw several symbols on the roof. Then, I filled them with the barest amount of power. I didn’t want my magic sensed by the town’s demons.

“I summon the spirit of Leah, daughter of Siobhan,” I whispered at the symbols. “Leah, hear my call.”

Moments later, the outline of a severely cut black-and-white dress appeared, then Leah herself bloomed into focus.

“I cannot fathom why he believed you’d stay in the car,” were her first words. “Does he remember nothing about you?”

I stifled a laugh. “Ian’s memory might be erratic, but his stubbornness is the same, which is why I need another favor.”

She smiled with anticipation. “Concealment?”

“Please.”

Leah held out her arms. I went into her embrace, feeling the chill of power instead of the corporeal form of a woman. But Leah’s power was greater than flesh and bone. It was also ironic. Leah hadn’t become a witch until after she’d been executed as one back when the American colonies were new.

Leah’s power continued to cover me until I felt like I’d been plunged into icy water. Then I watched as my body turned filmy like hers before it vanished altogether. Once it did, Leah’s form vanished, too. Thus drenched in her power, she was able to pick me up and whisk both of us into the mine.

At first, it looked the way I expected an abandoned mine to look, with crumbling support columns and pieces of equipment half buried in the stony ground. But the coal track running into the darkness was in pristine shape. Leah followed it, and minutes later, lights cast a golden glow in the distance and I heard laughter and music, of all things. At a sharp bend after a right-hand turn, the façade of a derelict mine vanished.

What I saw could have doubled as a jazz club. Cigar smoke hung in the air while a skilled quartet on a nearby stage played soulful music. Couches, chairs, and tables were spread out from a stone-carved bar in the main room, with two smaller wood-and-steel bars visible beyond the dance floor of a separate room. Floating orbs cast a cozy glow while allowing its darker corners to host danger or romance, depending on the occupant’s mood. With its privacy, lack of humans, and stellar music, I might have become a regular if it wasn’t also filled with demons.

At least a dozen of them were draped over the couches in the main room. Others shuffled together on the dance floor, and another baker’s dozen sat on stools in front of the three bars. “A few” demons in town, my ass!

And Ian was sprawled on one of the couches as if he were just another demon enjoying the music instead of a vampire surrounded by enemies who could turn on him at any moment.

Chapter 15

A red-haired demon with a bad spray-tan, leather pants, and a leather bra went up to Ian. I tensed, but all she said was, “What’s your pleasure, gorgeous?”

A waitress. No surprise that nothing was free among demons, even in a secret underground jazz club. Then the smile Ian gave the waitress made me glad I was still invisible. Otherwise, he’d see the holes I was glaring into him for the way he looked at the cleavage the curvy demon made sure was at eye-level for him.

“Depends on my mood,” he responded in a luxuriant tone. “Some nights, I’m smooth brandy. Other nights, I’m single-malt bourbon. On occasion, I’m even fine wine, but tonight, I’m hard whisky, straight up.”

Her gaze swept over him, taking in the muscled planes of his chest, as he’d unhooked a few buttons in his shirt since I’d last seen him. She even reached out to trace his chest as if seeing whether he felt as luscious as he looked. I knew he did, and from the seductive way she bit her lip, she thought so, too.

Slap her hand and tell her to fuck off! I seethed. Ian did neither. He only smiled wider.