door even though it was open. I turned. Mencheres was in the doorway, his expression strained.
“Let me come with you on this journey, Ian. I want to help you destroy the creature who took so much from you.”
Ian turned around with a sigh. “Thank you, but Dagon knows what you mean to me. He’ll come at you with everything he has because of it. You might be able to best any vampire alive, but you can’t win against a time-freezing demon.”
“I can if he’s headless,” Mencheres said darkly.
Ian grunted. “Think I haven’t tried that already? Dagon’s either immune to telekinetic spells, or he’s got something that deflects them. No. If you come, you will only endanger me because Dagon will kill you, then use my reaction to his advantage.”
“What about me?” Bones appeared behind Mencheres, his half smile belying the deadly look on his face. “I’ve faced a demon before and come out on top. Let me come.”
Ian let out an amused snort. “You needed my help to defeat that demon, or did you forget that part?”
“Did you forget I was an undead hit man for decades?” Bones countered. “Murdering rotten blokes is what I excel at.”
Ian zipped the bags shut. “Don’t want to be insulting, Crispin, but Veritas is an unkillable demigod and I’m juiced up with both magic and demon power. If we can’t do this without your help, then we won’t be able to do it with you, either.”
Ian still thought I could resurrect after I died? I opened my mouth to correct that, then shut it. Why burden him with information that would only cause him to lose focus? Worrying over my new mortality would distract him, so it was better for him to remain ignorant of it.
“Besides,” Ian went on. “If you die, Cat will go on a grief-driven revenge rampage, get killed in the process, and then your daughter will end up being raised by Justina and Tate.” Ian shuddered as if in horror. “You can’t do that to an innocent girl. It’s inhumane.”
“If you won’t accept my help because of my love for you, then accept it because I owe you.” Bones’s tone became flat. “For much more than your latest warning about my daughter. Without you turning me into a vampire over two centuries ago, I wouldn’t be here now, and I also owe you the greatest of debts for betraying you.”
“Eh, that.” Ian waved. “I’m over that now since karma, as my wife likes to say, is a vindictive bitch.”
Bones’s brows rose. “Come again?”
Ian hefted the two bags with one hand. “I mean, I understand why you did it. You went barmy when Cat left you, so when you finally found her and believed I was a danger to her, you did whatever it took to protect her. Brassed me off something awful at the time, but now”—Ian saluted him with the suitcases—“I say, well done! Can’t take any chances with those we love, can we?”
Bones stared at Ian, then very slowly looked at me. “Lucifer’s bouncing balls,” he breathed. “You’ve done the impossible with Ian. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would never have believed it.”
Would his friends never give Ian credit for who he was? “I’ve done nothing. Ian is this honorable all on his own.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Bones began, but Ian’s sharp whistle for Silver cut him off.
Silver flew over and landed on Ian’s arm. Then, Ian pulled me to him and said, “I appreciate your offers to help, my friends. Truly, I do. But I can’t accept, and we don’t have time to keep arguing. All of us have to leave before demons crash this party, so until again, mates!”
With that, everything slid into white noise and a blur as Ian teleported us away.
Chapter 36
When the blur from Ian’s teleporting stopped, we were in a new home. The white-framed windows revealed a wooden boardwalk, a beach and night-darkened waves outside. This room had a stone fireplace, exposed beams in the high ceiling, hardwood floors and comfy-looking suede couches.
“Mencheres’s cottage in the Hamptons,” Ian said by way of explanation, tossing the bags onto one of the couches. “He won’t mind, and this area’s almost deserted in the winter, so we won’t have to fret about any nosy neighbors.”
Aside from the protection of being inside a private residence, the continuous salt spray also acted as a natural demon repellant, plus that same sea offered me an endless supply of water-fueled energy. Ian clearly wasn’t taking any