He stopped, barely leashed wildness lurking in his gaze. I sat up and he didn’t stop me this time. I grabbed his hair and slid down as I pulled him forward. His body covered mine and I opened my legs, welcoming the thrust that filled me with the sharpest kind of rapture. Then I kissed him until I could no longer taste the salted honey of my pleasure on his mouth.

“I should never have left you.” The truth left me in a rush when I finally pulled away. “I am so, so sorry.”

His grip had been tight before. At that, it became bruising. His new roughness only made the pleasure more intense. I gave myself to it, telling him with my raking nails and the fangs I sank into his shoulder that I wanted more.

He gave me more, until I was lost in sensations that danced between incredible pleasure and quicksilver pain. His blood painted my nails and lips, while mine coated his mouth when I swore, “I’ll never leave you again,” with a drawn-out moan.

He grasped my hair, stopping with a suddenness that made him feel like he’d been turned into a statue. “Swear that on more than what you’re feeling in this moment.”

My body pulsed from an overload of sensations and I was slightly buzzed from drinking his demon-tainted blood, but at that, my mind cleared as if he’d thrown a bucket of icy water onto my brain. He wanted a promise I couldn’t later say I’d been forced to make, or try to brush off as a mere “technicality.” Whatever I said next, I’d better mean it.

I stared into his eyes as I dragged my palm across a fang, letting the blood that dripped down fall onto both of us since I was still on his lap, straddling him.

“By my blood, Ian, I swear I will never abandon you again.”

Determination bordering on ruthlessness flashed in his gaze. “I’ll hold you to that. Now”—his immobility ceased with an arch that rolled heat though me like a fire wave—“let’s see if I can make you scream loud enough to find out if this reinforced room is as far away from everyone as Yonah promised.”

Laughter bubbled out of me. Was that why we were in this ratty hole instead of the mansion’s much nicer accommodations?

My arms tightened around him. “Let’s,” I said, adding huskily, “after all, you promised me a broken bed.”

Chapter 25

We were late for the ball. Not just because we were having sex, though the bed was in pieces and the walls now had several body-size dents in them. No, we were late because I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I drifted off in Ian’s arms and woke up a full eight hours later.

Ian had let Silver inside at some point during my slumber. I would’ve felt horrible if he’d been stuck in the hallway this whole time. He was in the corner of the room farthest away from the horn and bed debris, sleeping as Ian and I got dressed.

I’d brought many things for this trip, but I hadn’t thought to bring a ball gown. No matter, as it turned out. Katsana brought me four to choose from. I picked the strapless one with the tight square bodice and wide, swaying skirt that met in the middle with the elegance of a swan’s wings closing gently together. It was deepest indigo from the bodice to mid-thigh, then it had been dip-dyed into a shimmering silver. It reminded me of the sea when bathed by moonlight; dangerous in these parts, but lovely nonetheless.

Ian had packed a tuxedo, so his foresight meant he had no need to borrow one. His was black with a white tie, leaving just his auburn hair and his ruby cufflinks as color accents. He looked unapproachably gorgeous in the elegant ensemble. Only I knew that his cufflinks matched his new silver-and-ruby cock piercing. Ian could never be tamed, even at his most refined.

“I’d rather we spent the rest of the night here, but Yonah was emphatic about our attending the ball,” Ian remarked as I put the finishing touches on my appearance. “Said they’re celebrating the arrival of a newcomer to the island. Guess making a party out of it helps newcomers feel less like they’ve come to a prison for rejects and more like they’ve found a new home. We’ll make nice with everyone for a couple hours before we corner Yonah and convince him to do the spell.”

I swept my hair into a knot that was formal enough for the occasion. It also allowed me to bring a thin, sharp silver stick to the ball. Few people noticed a woman’s hairpin even if it could double as a weapon. “You’re confident Yonah can do the spell, but you never told me why.”

“Yonah’s a former demon prince.” Ian’s tone was so casual, he could’ve been discussing me wearing my hair up or down. “It’s why he’s got a staggering bounty on his head. Demons don’t fancy their own betraying them, and Yonah left his brethren in such a blaze of backstabbing glory, they killed everyone who knew him, trying to contain the humiliating fallout.”

That explained why I hadn’t heard of Yonah before! And wow, how wrong I’d been, thinking that Yonah was a vampire. How had he managed to conceal it so that he felt like one species when he was another? That was a trick I needed to learn.

“’Course, it’s impossible to completely erase someone when they’re still around,” Ian went on. “Despite the mass slaughter, rumors of Yonah still made the rounds. So did stories of him having a secret hideaway. One of my former lovers shared those stories with me. Shared them with other people, too, which is how she got her eyes stabbed out,” he added offhandedly. “Demons still don’t fancy hearing Yonah’s name bandied about.”

No wonder Ashael had reacted in such a visceral way when Ian first mentioned Yonah. Anything less would’ve cast suspicion on him, if Ian had been sent by another demon to test Ashael. I know, you have to disown Yonah, Ian had said. Can’t have it getting out that you’re still friendly with the most wanted bloke in the demon world, can you?

But my half brother had befriended his world’s most wanted fugitive. Moreover, Ashael must have ferried other people to Yonah’s island, judging from how easily Yonah had accepted Ashael bringing Ian and me here. Despite our very different upbringings and the thousands of years that separated us, we’d both ended up doing the same thing: sheltering people unfairly condemned by laws that governed the other half of our species.

Maybe one day, Ashael and I might have a friendship in common, too. Oddly, I found myself hoping so. In the meantime . . .

“What do you think? Sapphire, or the pearl earrings?” I asked, holding up one of each next to my ears.

“Neither,” Ian replied, drawing a slim, rectangular box from his suitcase. “I recommend these.”

He opened the box. Triple-tiered diamond chandelier earrings caught the light like they’d been chasing it until that very moment. Each flawless stone was set in platinum, the largest ones at the base before narrowing to a smattering of glittering drops at the tip. My mouth suddenly felt dry. The jewelry box looked and smelled new. This wasn’t something that Ian had just happened to have lying around.

“When, ah, when did you get these?”

“A few weeks ago,” he replied, a glint of something I couldn’t name in his eyes.

Shame smacked me again. He’d gotten me the Faery Queen Crimsons and these earrings, all while I was refusing to even read his texts. How did I begin to make up for that?

I’d find a way. I put my other earrings back in my travel case. “They’re stunning, Ian. Thank you.”