His duplicate vanished. I used the last of my strength to lie back and pull him fully on top of me. His gaze was almost a blindingly bright shade of green, but his expression was worth the effort to keep my eyes open.

If I could freeze any moment in time to live in forever, it would be this one. Not because of the rapture that had completely exhausted me from this unexpected astral threesome, but because of what I saw in Ian’s eyes now. Seeing it, a surge went through me that had nothing to do with the way he gripped me tighter and increased his pace.

Before Ian, I’d never wanted anyone to look at me this way. I had too many secrets, and being loved meant being pursued to degrees that would endanger me. But staring into Ian’s eyes, I wanted what I thought I saw in them more than anything I’d wanted before it.

At the same time, I was terrified that it might only be the reflection of what I felt for him, and not what he felt for me.

Another thrust brought a distracting clench of ecstasy. I gave myself to it, letting it chase away my fears. Right now, Ian was mine and I was his. Tomorrow was uncertain for many reasons, so right now, this was enough.

Chapter 37

Mencheres’s house had four bedrooms. We didn’t use any of them, though Ian did take the bedding from the nearest one to wrap us up where we lay. We’d gone back to the room with the beachfront view. The stone fireplace was gas, but despite its slightly acrid scent, it gave off a pleasant amount of heat.

Silver slept on the couch above us. Poor thing had barely bothered to pick up his head when we came back in. I’d rummage in the kitchen for vegetables for him later, but right now, I wanted a few more minutes curled up with Ian.

He’d brought pillows, but my head rested on his arm while his free hand traced the curve of my shoulder. I reached out to brush the spot on his arm that the horn normally wrapped itself around. At some point during our first encounter in the conservatory, he’d taken it off. I hadn’t even noticed.

“Glad the horn didn’t violently react to me touching it,” I mused. “Or I would’ve left brain bits all over the conservatory’s pretty driftwood floors.”

Ian snorted. “I had it on in the bathroom with you at Yonah’s the other night, or was that only yesterday?”

“With all the teleporting, time-zone changes, and everything else, I can’t remember,” I replied.

“Neither can I, but the horn either likes you or it knows you’re not trying to steal it from me. That must be why it doesn’t harm you when you touch it.”

“Probably the latter,” I said, adding dryly, “it’s obviously a possessive little relic, to blow the head off anyone who tries to take it from its current owner.”

Another chuckle, this time with a touch of grimness. “I’ll never forget the headache that gave me, and that’s when the horn decided it fancied me enough to keep me.”

I didn’t remind Ian that “fancying” him hadn’t been part of the horn’s decision. Only raw power and the potential for more drew it, Ashael had said. If so, I understood why it had been drawn to Ian. As a vampire, he’d already been far more powerful than normal, as his beating me in our first fight attested. As a vampire highly skilled in tactile magic and imbued with additional power after what Ian had consumed from Dagon? I had no idea the heights Ian could attain.

Lofty ones, the relic choosing him seemed to indicate.

“Wasn’t trying to eavesdrop earlier.” Ian’s tone turned serious, which warned me that I wouldn’t like what was coming. “But you were screaming, so it was hard to miss hearing why you believe Tenoch turned Vlad into a vampire right before he died.”

I stiffened, pulling away from him without realizing I’d moved until I felt cool air where his body had been. I would rather pull out all my teeth than talk about this. No—I would rather pull out all my teeth, swallow them, then fish them out of my stomach with a sharp hook than talk about this.

But Cat had nearly brought me to a full meltdown by merely mentioning it earlier. How much of that had Ereshki overheard? If she’d caught any of it, she’d share it with Dagon, and I couldn’t afford to give the demon such a powerful weapon against me. That meant I had to talk about this. Sometimes, the only way to clear the infection out of a wound was with a sharp knife.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard about Tenoch.” My voice was abrupt. If I was doing this, I had to be as cold as possible. “Many people talk about his powers, but more than anything, Tenoch was a good man deeply burdened by his concern for others. It’s partly what drove him into his grave. You can’t care like that without it taking a toll.”

“Mencheres always believed that Tenoch’s death was caused by more than an ambush by marauding ghouls.” Ian’s voice was neutral, as if he knew I couldn’t handle anything more.

I gave a brisk nod. “Mencheres was right. The ghouls who killed Tenoch were happy to believe they’d overwhelmed him by their greater numbers, but I knew, as Mencheres did, that Tenoch still could’ve escaped. Incredible strength aside, Tenoch was telekinetic and pyrokinetic. He could have alternated between ripping their heads off or exploding them off, if he wanted to . . .”

Ian finished what I couldn’t bring myself to say. “Instead, Tenoch let those ghouls kill him.”

“A mere two weeks after turning the fiercest human in the world into a vampire.” I let out a laugh that sounded as broken as the memories made me feel. “For the first several decades, I was too grief-stricken to wonder why turning Vlad was the last thing Tenoch did. Then Vlad began exhibiting powers he could have only if Tenoch had poured the remainder of Cain’s legacy into Vlad when he turned him. That’s when I knew that Tenoch had designated Vlad as my new murderer, if the need arose.”

“Perhaps Tenoch emptied his remaining portion of Cain’s legacy into Vlad because he knew that soon, he’d have no need of it?”

I gave Ian a look he didn’t deserve. “Then he could’ve given it to me, but he didn’t. Not then and not thousands of years earlier, either.”

Ian propped himself up on his elbow. “You’re referring to Tenoch giving Mencheres that power, after Tenoch turned Mencheres into a vampire.”

I gave a brisk nod. “Soon after Tenoch turned me into a vampire, there was . . . an incident involving my other abilities. What I did terrified him, but he loved me too much to kill me. So, he made me vow to always keep that part of myself locked away, then bequeathed Cain’s legacy of power to Mencheres.” I gave a humorless laugh. “Mencheres was my intended executioner, if I broke my vow and let the other half of me take over. Mencheres didn’t know it, but I always did.”

Rage blasted across Ian’s features before it vanished. In a carefully controlled tone, he said, “Tenoch told you that?”

A surge of defensiveness made me sit up. “You don’t understand. What you’ve seen of my powers is only a little slice of what I’m actually capable of. Tenoch didn’t make this decision lightly. He was thinking of the greater good—”

“The greater good.” Scorn dripped from Ian’s tone. “I’d have to think long and hard to find three words more widely twisted to excuse the infliction of needless pain and suffering than those.”