rich again simply by selling a few personal effects from her time as a human during the Western Jin dynasty. She still had the sword she’d wielded at thirteen against Du Zeng’s armies, and that item alone was priceless.
“Something’s wrong,” I said as we drove past the building to avoid attracting notice. “That building has to be a front.”
“Hope so,” Ian replied, parking out of sight of it down the street. “Otherwise, your getting married and revealing yourself to be a demigod must have sent Xun Guan into such a downward spiral that she’s now useless to us.”
My look told him what I thought of the callous comment. “She’s too tough for that, so she must have a good reason for staying here the past two days. Be on guard, but stay out of her sight. I don’t need to remind you that she hates you.”
He smiled coldly. “The feeling’s mutual.”
I shook my head as I got out of the car. “It’s almost admirable that you can be jealous at a time like this.”
“She had you for centuries.” His tone was light, but his turquoise eyes glinted with emerald as he exited the car, too. “If you think I don’t envy her to the point of hatred for that, you vastly underestimate your worth to me.”
I paused. This wasn’t the normal territoriality that all vampires felt over what was theirs. It was something else.
“She had my flesh,” I said very softly, coming around to his side of the car. “She never had me. Only you have.”
He stroked my face while the barest of smiles creased his.
“I used to believe there was no difference between the two. Now, I know there is.” His voice deepened. “That’s why, despite my very extensive past, I can honestly say that you and you alone have touched me, Veritas, and those are words I never expected would cross these sin-stained, sordid lips.”
I kissed him, feeling more from the simple brush of his mouth than I’d felt from every relationship before him. Oh, I never thought I’d have this! In all the years of my life, I hadn’t even dared to wish for it. No wonder I lost my mind on a regular basis when it came to Ian. Everything else could be replaced. He couldn’t.
“Unless you want to continue this in the backseat, we need to stop,” Ian said, breaking the kiss. Then, he opened the backseat car door with a grin. “You already know my preference.”
“Later,” I said with a laugh.
His eyes flashed a brighter shade of green. “I’ll hold you to that.”
I was still smiling as I walked down the street toward the building. Silver and other metal objects in my coat pockets slapped against my legs with my brisk movements. Denise and Spade had loaned us clothes and, more important, weapons.
I didn’t want to use any of them against Xun Guan, but I didn’t underestimate her, either. She’d been a warrior for the past two thousand years. She wouldn’t stop being one despite her feelings for me . . . if she even still had feelings beyond anger.
Right before I reached the building, I used a quick glamour spell to change my appearance back to my blond Law Guardian disguise. This was the appearance Xun Guan knew. She’d only ever seen my real one twice, and I didn’t want to remind her of the last time, when I’d ripped Dagon’s soul out right in front of her.
Then again, she probably didn’t need my real appearance to remind her of that. It was doubtless seared on her memory.
Several windows in the three-story building were broken. It looked abandoned, and I didn’t hear any heartbeats, but her cell was here, so it couldn’t be empty. I sent my senses out, searching for the aura of energy all vampires emanated.
There. On the third floor.
I felt only one vampire, but I had my energy tamped down to where it was undetectable, too, and I was far from the only vampire who knew that trick. After a quick glance confirmed that no one on the street was watching me, I jumped up to the second floor, entering through one of the smashed-out windows.
I felt the snap of magic as soon as I did. I tried to leap back out the same window, but it was suddenly a wall. So were all the other windows that, moments before, had been empty square spaces that let in the cool night air.
Nice, I thought even as I jumped up because