could finally get my revenge. In many ways, I needed to, not only for myself, but for all her other victims, too. But even as my hands shook with the urge to choke the life from her, I couldn’t. The Ereshki who’d betrayed me and all those other people wasn’t here. Only this one was, and she couldn’t remember her many crimes.
Murdering this Ereshki wouldn’t be justice. It wouldn’t even be vengeance. It would be cruelty for cruelty’s sake. That’s why I couldn’t do it. If I did, I wouldn’t be much better than the monster Ereshki had been back then, and I was better, dammit! She’d taken a lot from me, but she wouldn’t take that.
“I’m not killing her,” I said.
Ian shrugged. “If you’re too tired, then I’ll do it.”
“No.” Now my tone was steel. “We’re taking her with us.”
Chapter 32
I’d never argued with someone while teleporting before. I can’t say I recommend it. Whenever Ian didn’t want to hear what I was saying, he’d blink us another hundred kilometers or so over the expanse of the ocean. Between that, we flew. Or, more accurately, Ian flew while toting me, Silver, and Ereshki because I was still too weak to carry myself, let alone anyone else.
I’d never heard such a litany of curse words in different languages during the hours it took us to fly, teleport, rest, and repeat before we finally reached the mainland, which turned out to be the coastline of Santa Monica, California. Many times, I expected Ian to leave Ereshki behind to drown, but despite his clearly stated objections, he kept her with us. In the end, I wasn’t sure if that was out of respect for my wishes or because of my colder assertion that Ereshki was worth more to us alive.
That’s how the four of us stumbled into the first gorgeous beach house we saw after swimming the last couple hundred meters to shore. It wasn’t empty, but a few flashes from Ian’s gaze later, the rich middle-aged Caucasian couple was all too happy to host us as their unexpected guests. Demons couldn’t enter a private home unless invited and we were well into midday, so for the next several hours of daylight, we were safe.
I took a long, grateful sip from the husband’s wrist while his wife busied herself asking Ereshki if she wanted something to eat. Ian, to my surprise, went straight to the couple’s phone and started dialing.
“Crispin,” he said moments later. “Something urgent has come up. Need you to meet me at my favorite house tonight, and I know you like to keep her close, but whatever you do, do not bring the girl with you.”
I heard Bones’s snort through the phone. “You know Cat won’t agree to staying behind—”
“Not that girl,” Ian interrupted.
A tense silence followed, then Bones said, “See you tonight,” and hung up.
I was intrigued. Was Ian finally asking his friends for help to take Dagon down?
Ian put the phone down. Then he sprawled onto the nearest sofa without care that he was still soaking wet. Ereshki scrambled to get as far away from him as the stunning ocean-view room allowed. I caught her glancing at the side door that led to the deck and its stairway to the beach as if estimating her chances of reaching it in time.
“You’re safer with us than on your own. Dagon will rip you apart to get what he wants from you.” I couldn’t kill her in good conscience, but I wasn’t about to coddle her, either. “All we’ll do is be rude and keep you confined. Be wise, Ereshki. Take rudeness and confinement over death.”
“He still wants to kill me,” she said in a shaking voice.
The grin Ian flashed her said she wasn’t wrong.
“He won’t,” I replied, ignoring Ian’s challenging arch of the brow. “You’re the perfect bait. Dagon has clearly found a way to track you; Yonah’s destroyed island sanctuary is proof of that. We arrived less than twelve hours before the earthquake, and a spell that powerful would’ve taken much longer to implement, so Dagon followed you there. Not us. But Dagon’s not at full strength yet. Plus, he’ll be struck with crippling pain as soon as he’s near Ian, so we’re going to finally set a trap for him that he can’t escape from.”
We only had the element of surprise and the results of whatever my father had done to Ian to combat Dagon’s wild-card ability to burn through souls to increase his power, but