At last, I could tell I’d hit a nerve, but that stubbornness didn’t leave his expression. “Well?” I pressed.

He gave me a hostile look. “I’m thinking.”

“The spell’s going to drop,” I warned him.

Another glare. “And I said I’m still thinking.”

I was shaking all over trying to keep this area frozen. All the strain made nausea rocket up in my throat. “Even if we both survive, I won’t enforce my claim on you,” I said desperately. “In fact, the first thing I’ll do is drop you back at that bordello in Poland and order you a new carnival orgy, promise!” Then I threw up, spraying a stream of crimson all over him as I lost my fight against the nausea.

“See?” I managed when I finished puking. “Vow sealed with a blood oath.”

He looked down at himself in disgust. “This is everything I knew marriage would be.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I muttered, and gratefully let the spell drop.

Xun Guan appeared startled to suddenly find Ian behind her instead of in front of her. Then her eyes widened when she saw the bloody vomit coating him. “What? How?” she sputtered.

“He saw me getting sick and rushed over to help,” I supplied. Then I let out a small, shaky laugh. “And got caught in your web for his trouble, as you can see.”

Her deep brown eyes narrowed as she looked at where Ian had been standing before and where he was now. “No one can move that fast,” she said, almost to herself.

“Except me,” he replied, an edge in his tone. “Now, if you’d be so good as to release us.”

Her gaze met mine. “Not before you prove your claim.”

Ian ripped his shirt open with the hand that wasn’t glued to Xun Guan’s magical trap. I wasn’t sure where he was going with that, or why he ripped his jacket off next. Then I saw him grab his three-pronged weapon, the falling fabric concealing what he did from Xun Guan’s gaze, and sucked in an appalled breath.

He’d tricked me! He intended to fight her all along!

Ian threw the trident head to the ground and the breath exploded out of me as if I’d been hit by a battering ram. “Not going to repeat my vows while covered in Red Dragon vomit,” he said, using his jacket to wipe the last of the smears from his bare chest. Then he used the clean side of it to wipe my face, too.

“Beautiful as always,” he said with a hard little smile when he was finished. Then he gave a disparaging glance at Xun Guan. “She’ll need her hands free, or have you forgotten what a repetition of the ceremony entails?”

Xun Guan looked at me as she said the necessary words to draw the power out of the web. When it faded, I dropped out of the air and landed in Ian’s arms. He held me for a second, glancing over at the nearby gates as if contemplating running for it with me slung over his shoulder. Then, with another twisting smile, he set me on my feet and picked up the weapon he’d so recently flung to the ground.

I knew how much he didn’t want to do this, which is why I was surprised when he didn’t hesitate before slicing his palm open with the sharp silver prong of the trident tip.

“By my blood, I declare that you are my wife,” he said, then held out his bloody hand and the weapon to me.

I was the one who trembled when I accepted the weapon. I’d never in all the long years of my life expected to do this with anyone, let alone him. Even though it was farce, it still felt more momentous than I could handle.

“By my blood,” I said as I sliced a line into my palm and then grasped his hand so the vow was made while our blood mingled together. “I declare that you are . . . my husband.”

A soft sound escaped Xun Guan and she closed her eyes. The two Enforcers didn’t. They shifted and flicked their gaze around as if trying to alleviate their boredom. Their apathy didn’t matter. We’d made the vow in front of witnesses. That was all it took for a vampire marriage to be valid—and forever.

“You were telling the truth,” Xun Guan whispered. “He really is your husband.”

Ian grunted. “Took me by surprise, too, luv.”

Her eyes snapped open. “Do not speak so familiar to me. I might no longer demand your life, but you are not my equal.”

“Oh, on that we agree,” Ian said with a gleam in his eyes.

After the price I’d paid to keep them from fighting, I wasn’t about to let them start because of this. I quickly changed the subject. “You never mentioned why you were here with a trap at the ready tonight, Xun Guan.”

She finally took her gaze off Ian. “A friend at the police station told me several people had reported seeing a troll dragging piles of gold through Central Park.” Her mouth curled down. “That sounded unusual enough to investigate.”

Inwardly, I groaned. Nechtan. His gift to me had turned out to cost far more than it was worth. Why hadn’t he dropped his glamour before trekking back and forth through the park? Didn’t he realize there would be onlookers even at this late hour?

“What were you doing in New York to begin with?” I pressed. “I thought you were in Frankfurt.”

She glanced away. “I was mentoring some Enforcers here—”

“But it was your idea for us to leave Frankfurt and come here,” the female Enforcer interrupted before a laserlike look from Xun Guan shut her up.

Ian began to laugh. “You were following Veritas, weren’t you? How very stalkerish. Were you being modern and tracking her through credit cards and cell-phone signals? Or did you go old school and use a locator spell?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I began, then stopped as a half-sheepish, half-angry expression crossed Xun Guan’s face. “You really were following me?” I breathed, shocked. “Why?”

“I was worried about you,” she said in a defensive tone. “You have been behaving erratically for months. Then you took a leave from your role as Guardian. You have never done that before!”

I hadn’t, but I hadn’t wanted anything to distract me from finding Ian and taking out Dagon, even a job I’d devoted most of my life to. “Everyone’s entitled to a vacation.”

“This was no vacation.” Her angry swipe encompassed Ian. “You bound yourself in marriage! That is an act of lunacy—”

“We agree again,” Ian muttered.

“—and you know it!” Xun Guan continued, her eyes shooting angry darts at Ian before returning to me. “He is a law-scorning whore! How could you marry him?”

I was about to respond but Ian got right up in Xun Guan’s face. “Did we shag at some point and I forgot about it? Is that why you detest me so? Or is because you’re realizing your unrequited love for my wife will now forever stay unrequited?”

Her eyes went from cocoa to bright green. “How dare—”

“Enough,” I said sharply. “He dares because you’ve insulted him several times. That insults me, too, and I will not have it. Your opinion is noted, Xun Guan. Now, keep it to yourself.”

The glamoured demon dog began to scream louder, reminding me that we needed to get out of there. My blocking spell must be holding on the castle and the tunnel, but it would drop soon. I wouldn’t mind if the remaining Red Dragon dealers came across Xun Guan, but I didn’t want innocent vampires, witches, and mages to come face-to-face with a Law Guardian and two Enforcers tonight.