I didn’t know why I wasn’t doing the same. Ashael had promised we’d be safe here, but his word had hardly proven to be infallible. I was tired, but I’d remained on high alert while practically dead on my feet from exhaustion before. So why wasn’t I scoping the place out while coiled and ready to fight the way Ian was?

You don’t have to.

The truth of that hit me, as unexpected as a sniper’s bullet. Tenoch had taught me to rely only on myself, but I wasn’t fighting to be at my best now as I knew that Ian would alert me if things took a dangerous turn. Until then, I could take a moment to relax, knowing I was safe because he wouldn’t let anything hurt me while I was vulnerable.

Was this . . . was this what trust felt like?

If so, it was like sinking into a warm bath after an achingly brutal day. I wanted to wrap myself in the glorious, unfamiliar feeling, but it was also an indictment on everything I’d done since Ian had come back from the dead. I thought Ian couldn’t survive the threats I still had to face, yet he’d proven more than able to meet every challenge I’d feared plus several I hadn’t even thought of. Now, I was the one leaning on him, not the other way around.

I’d ripped my heart apart these past several weeks for nothing, hadn’t I? For nothing! If it wouldn’t look severely psychotic, I’d start punching myself in the face.

Footsteps jerked my attention to the far corner in the room. Our three guards reappeared when one of the book shelves suddenly slanted open, revealing a door. A hidden passageway: how very old-school. A new, bald vampire of medium height also came from the secret bookshelf entrance. He had sand-colored skin, a Roman nose, pleasant features, and a swimmer’s build. Ian leapt to his feet when he saw him. I followed suit, smiling to indicate friendly intentions, because I recognized him from Ashael’s blood-soaked conference call yesterday.

“Yonah,” I said. “Pleased to finally meet you.”

Ian’s hands flashed with rapid movements. For a shocked moment, I thought he was conjuring a spell. Then a smile wreathed Yonah’s face and his hands moved with similar speed.

Sign language. Not ASL or any of the other sign languages I was versed in. I didn’t know this one. No surprise, Ian did.

“Imperative that this remains between us,” Ian finished out loud while still signing. The verbal part must have been for my benefit, then.

Yonah’s gaze raked me, lingering over my hair. Recognition sparked in his eyes before he hooded his expression. Still, it was enough. He’d either seen my father in his true form, or someone had told him about me. Which was better? I had no idea.

“You’ve clearly encountered difficulties in your travels,” Yonah noted, also out loud this time.

Right, Ian’s clothes and hair were still a bloody mess. At least that made it harder to see the horn between his ripped shirt and the drying brownish blood staining Ian’s pale skin.

“We also had a disagreement with our escort and parted ways with Ashael shortly after arriving,” I said, still smiling as if nothing of importance had occurred. “But we’re glad to be here.”

“I am pleased to have you,” Yonah replied, which made the three guards who’d been lurking by the room’s exits relax. Guess that was Yonah’s way of telling them to stand down. “You’ll want to refresh yourselves before our festivities this evening, so I’ll have Katsana show you to your rooms. Our ball in honor of our island’s new member begins at dusk.”

Ian signed what I hoped was a polite decline. Now that we were finally face-to-face with Yonah, I wanted to see if he could isolate Dagon’s power so we could formulate a tracking spell. Not attend a ball—

“Truly?” Yonah interrupted out loud.

More signing from Ian. Yonah’s expression creased into a frown as he signed back. Then, he shrugged, a gesture that required no interpretation.

“See you at dusk, then,” Yonah said, giving me a little nod.

I nodded back. Katsana, the brown-haired Russian vampire, hooked her thumb in the universal gesture for “follow me.”

We did. Katsana led us to a staircase at the back of the manor. Instead of going up, we went down. Once below, the unusual decorations vanished, replaced with maintenance corridors, utility rooms and other things you’d expect in the basement of a large manor/small hotel. We continued until even those vestiges of comfort disappeared, leaving nothing except a dark hallway that was starting to smell of mold and the sea. Silver pressed close enough for me to feel his feathers against my legs. He didn’t like this new setting any more than I did.

Where was a great place to murder unwanted guests? Beneath the manor where no one would see and where body disposal was very convenient, considering the large furnace we just passed.

If I was reluctant, Ian’s strides were long and swift, until Katsana had to quicken her pace to a near trot to keep Ian from barreling into her. I gave a mental shrug. I’d trust Ian in this, too, then. Besides, only one vampire against me and Ian? That was no threat, Katsana’s formidable aura or no.

“Here you are,” Katsana said, stopping at a metal door.

Ian pushed it open, revealing a small, poorly lit room with a concrete floor, an empty desk, a half-made bed and a shower that would incite panic attacks in anyone with claustrophobia.

“This will do,” Ian said, stunning me. This wasn’t close to his usual high standards. It looked like the place where maintenance workers caught a nap while on break.

“Take our pet to the kitchens; he’ll be hungry,” Ian continued. “He’s on a special diet, so vegetables only.”

I stepped between Katsana and Silver when she bent to pick him up. “He stays here.” No way was I letting some unknown vampire take Silver when the vampire version of a narcotic ran through his veins.

Ian grunted. “This is the last place someone would harm him, but very well. Bring him a plate of vegetables here, then.”

Katsana’s nose wrinkled. “I’ll send someone else to do it.”

“Good enough.” I was stunned when Ian all but pushed me into the room, saying “Stay” to Silver before shutting the door with him still in the hallway.

“What the hell?” I demanded.

Ian turned, a wild kind of darkness glittering in his eyes. “Hell is what you’ve put me through, but it stops now.”

Chapter 24

I made no effort to hide my confusion. “What happened to make you angry at me all of a sudden?”

His laughter sounded like knives sharpening against each other. “What happened? You left me naked in a whorehouse.”

That was hardly recent. “And?”

Emerald blazed from Ian’s gaze as he grabbed the horn and ripped it from his upper arm. It landed on the floor and instantly straightened into an upright position, like a sword on an invisible stand. I backed away from it, not wanting to touch the deadly magic relic even by accident.

Ian stalked toward me. With the small size of the room, he quickly closed the space between us. “Know what else this little beastie did, aside from ‘choosing’ me as its new owner? It gave me all my memories back.”

Shock made me sputter. “What? How?”

He grabbed my shoulders. Green blazed from his eyes and his aura sparked with so much angry energy, being near it felt like standing beside a swarm of stinging bees. “Whatever else it is, the horn’s also a power amplifier. Felt it making me stronger the moment I woke up with it. Then it bashed down the walls in my mind. Thought my head would explode again when all the memories came rushing back, but it didn’t. Maybe the horn protected me, but either way, for the past several hours, I’ve remembered every secret we shared, each moment in each other’s arms, all the promises we made and the last words I said, all while knowing that you left me naked in a bloody whorehouse!”