“Or you have no idea who Ian truly is,” I corrected at once. “You believed the mirage, which caused you to underestimate Ian so much, you failed to imprison him with your horn retrieval trick. Instead, he almost killed you twice today.”

Ashael inclined his head. “Point taken.”

“Glad that’s settled. This isn’t.” I landed a kick in Ashael’s groin that doubled him over. Then he snapped back at the uppercut I delivered to his jaw. Bone crunched and my hand burned, but blood flew from Ashael’s mouth. Worth it!

“Try to get Ian arrested or imprisoned again, and you’re dead,” I snarled. “You’re only alive now because I always wanted a brother or sister, plus in your twisted demon mind, you thought you were protecting me. But you don’t get to choose who I’m with, so I will kill you if you so much as plot to give Ian a stubbed toe in the future—”

Ian caught my next punch in mid-swing. “Think he gets it, luv.”

I stared at him. “You were going to kill him two minutes ago! Why are you protecting him now?”

A grim smile flitted across Ian’s mouth. “I’d still like to kill him, but if I had a sister, I wouldn’t want a bloke like me near her, either. Can’t murder my new brother-in-law for something I’d do myself, can I? Besides, he’s not even fighting back.”

I’d noticed that, and it only made me angrier. “Come on, you sexist demon, fight me! You think I can’t take it?”

“I know you can, but I, too, have always longed for a sibling,” Ashael replied, dark eyes now blazing red. “You are my only family this side of the veil. I’ve had twice your lifespan to feel abandoned, abnormal, and alone, so some blood and pain are nothing if they’re the cost of my sister’s forgiveness.”

Damn him, damn him, damn him! How could I keep beating him after he said things like that? And how could I disown him when he was the only person who truly understood what I’d been through, since Ashael had lived it for twice as long as I had?

But he’d set Ian up to be imprisoned or worse. I couldn’t overlook that, even if Ashael had acted out of a supernaturally demented sense of big-brother protectiveness.

Ian’s arm slipped around my shoulders. “Family,” he said in a conversational tone. “Can’t live with ’em, can’t kill ’em unless you really, really mean it.”

A choked laugh escaped me. Ian should know; he’d killed his biological father over a far more terrible betrayal.

“I want you to leave, Ashael,” I said. Pain flashed in his eyes until I added, “I need some time before I can look at you without wanting to smash your face in.”

“Time as in decades, or a century?” he asked warily.

Now my laugh was even more ragged. To him, either probably didn’t seem long. Guess I was still too young to measure time that way. “I meant a year or two. We’ll see.”

By then, I’d have tracked down the other resurrected souls and killed Dagon, or I’d be dead. Either way, my schedule would be clear.

Ashael’s gaze flicked to Ian before he looked back at me. “Whenever you want to see me, raise a glass and call my name in any of the places I frequent. Ian knows where they are.”

“Yes, I’m aware of your alcohol-based summoning ritual. Very millennial of you,” I noted.

Ashael gave a brief smile at that. “Until that day, then,” he said, and walked away.

I waited until I couldn’t see Ashael before I turned to Ian. “I was going to tell you that he was my brother, but . . .” My gesture tried to encompass everything that had happened.

“The timing wasn’t right until I nearly murdered him in front of you?” he supplied, a sardonic smile curling his mouth.

“Yes, that.”

Ian’s smile faded. “We’ve had terrible timing, but we’re going to fix that.”

I wanted to believe him. I just wasn’t very optimistic. But I smiled as if doubt wasn’t chewing at me like a school of ravenous piranhas.

“Let’s find Yonah and get started, then.”

Chapter 23

I could start a joke with, “A vampire, a demon, and a ghoul walked into a pool area,” but the looks the approaching trio gave us didn’t lend to humor. After needing to open a temporal rift to see a glamour-concealed island you had to crash-land onto before traversing past Leviathan-filled seas, I rather thought that anyone who wandered onto the back patio of Yonah’s house had already passed the security test, but from the three guards’ expressions, they disagreed.

“Names,” the ivory-skinned vampire said, a Russian accent coloring the word. I didn’t let her delicate build, sarong-style dress or the pretty seashell comb in her thick brown hair fool me. Her appearance said lovely and breakable, but the power vibrating from her aura said, Test me at your peril.

“Ian,” he replied, his brow faintly arching at me.

“Ariel.” I could hardly use my vampire Law Guardian name. I also wasn’t wearing any glamour, which caused the blue-eyed, blonde-haired demon’s gaze to linger over my appearance.

“Body like Beyoncé, hair like Daenerys Targaryen,” he murmured with open lust.

“Temper like the Punisher,” I countered. An appreciative look was one thing, but I felt like I needed a shower after that vigorous eye-fucking. “With a husband that’s imagining ten different ways to kill you before you even take your eyes off my ass,” I added, seeing the new, lethal flare in Ian’s gaze.

“Twenty,” Ian corrected, tone as smooth as a well-thrust blade. “And so few only because she just admitted to something she’s been denying for weeks.”

What? Oh, damn, I had called him the “h” word! Where was a Leviathan to endlessly drown me when I needed it?

“We’re here to see Yonah,” I said, as if that could erase the new, crackling tension between me and Ian. “Ashael told Yonah to expect us, so point the way or move aside.”

A smile quirked the Russian vampire’s mouth. “Follow me.”

Silver trotted behind us as we went into the room overlooking the pool. The only decoration or furniture it boasted was plants on various stands. The bareness highlighted the large stone fountain with a carved Medusa in the middle of the room. She didn’t look ugly or monstrous the way legend claimed. This Medusa was beautiful, the snakes gently haloing her head with devotion instead of their reputed mindless menace.

Our guards led us past the fountain room into a library. Shelves covered the walls to the ceiling, while leather couches were arranged around the open stone hearth in the center of the room. First fountains, now fire pits. If we passed a mud shrine in the next room, all the elements would be represented.

“Wait here,” the Russian vampire directed, indicating one of the generous-sized couches. “I will bring Yonah to you.”

I sat, weariness urging me to stretch out until I was lying flat. I resisted the temptation even though dawn now bathed the windows with streaks of gold. If I were a new vampire, I’d have no choice but to sleep, but I was thousands of years past the anesthetizing effects of the rising sun.

Silver sat on the floor near me, while Ian folded his long, lean frame into the opposite corner of my couch. He looked completely relaxed, arms resting on the back of the couch and legs stretched out in front of him, but his eyes told a different story. They moved over our surroundings with tactical thoroughness, gauging threats and assessing advantages.