“Why will being near Ian harm him?” Ereshki asked at the same time Ian said, “Do go on,” in a dangerously silky tone.
I stiffened. Had I not mentioned that to him before? From Ian’s darkening expression, I hadn’t. I sighed.
“My father put a spell on you that only activates when Dagon is near. You saw what it did when Dagon crashed our date at the amusement park. He dropped to his knees screaming.”
The memory warmed my heart, but Ian’s fingers began to drum against the armrest of the sofa hard enough to send bits of fluff from its inner stuffing into the air.
“Once, I thought the most awful thing I’d heard was Vlad’s witchy wife cursing me to fall for someone who insisted on monogamy.” Ian’s tone was deceptively jovial. “I must not have heard the part where she added that the object of my affection would also have an enraging set of scruples combined with insane protective instincts that led to repeated suicidal tendencies!”
I must not have drunk enough from the rich husband. If I had, I might have known what the hell Ian was talking about. “Is this your way of saying you don’t want to be monogamous?”
An end table went sailing through the window. Glass shattered and the wife let out a frightened squeak that Ereshki echoed. Ian was in front of me before I could speak, those strong fingers now digging into my shoulders.
“No.” His voice was harsher than a growl. “It’s my way of saying I can’t believe you avoided me for weeks for my supposed protection when all the while, doing so put you in more danger because I was spell-bound into being a bloody Dagon-repellant!”
“I wasn’t thinking about my danger,” I snapped, weariness turning to anger. “I wasn’t much thinking at all, as I’ve tried to explain to you over and over. Yes, I handled things badly, but after you hold my dead body in your arms, you can react with all the cool rationality you want. Until then, excuse me for not acting with my best cold logic right after holding yours!”
“We should leave,” the husband said, edging out of the room. Ereshki must have agreed. She started to follow him until Ian snarled, “Stay!” with his eyes lit up.
At that, all of them froze.
Was Ereshki susceptible to mind control like regular humans now? Or had she frozen in place because she was afraid to make Ian any angrier? I didn’t have time to find out which. Ian’s eyes closed, and he drew in a breath as if to steady himself.
“No,” he said in a grating tone. “I wouldn’t have reacted logically or rationally to you being dead in my arms, either. Now, is there anything else you neglected to mention to me?”
I stared into his eyes, my anger leaving as fast as it had come. There was too much raw feeling in them for it to remain. Or, as my brother had warned me, was I only seeing what I wanted to see? Was I drowning in the same quicksand many, many others had by assuming Ian felt more for me than he did?
“No,” I replied hoarsely. What Ian did or didn’t feel for me was a conversation for another time. Right now, survival came first. “That’s the last of my secrets, I think.”
A sardonic smile curled Ian’s mouth. “I hope so, but I won’t be surprised if it’s not. Now”—back to our silent audience—“Mr. and Mrs. Rich, invite over half a dozen of the wealthiest sods you’re mates with. Don’t take no for an answer, either. I don’t know about my lovely wife, but I’m famished.”
Chapter 33
Mr. and Mrs. Rich, as Ian had ironically titled them, had several wealthy—and tasty—friends. One of them even had a company jet. That saved us the trouble of trying to get Ereshki through security at a commercial airport. She might appear to be susceptible to vampire mind control at the moment, but that could change. Who knew which of Dagon’s powers she’d absorbed but hadn’t shown, or perhaps didn’t even know about yet?
We left the wealthy group with a lower red blood cell count and a memory of loaning the company jet to “friends.” That would buy us a day or two before the mogul snapped out of Ian’s compulsion and went after his plane. We made it easy to find by leaving it at the White Plains Airport in New York, then took an Uber to Manhasset.