insides becoming less crippling. Soon, I caught glimpses of Ian through the blood that took longer to block out my vision.
Ian had the horn wrapped around his hand like a pair of brass knuckles as he hammered at the wall with the determination of the damned. Fractures made the entire circle visible from floor to ceiling, resembling cracked glass. Dagon and Ereshki had switched to beating against my circle instead of Ian’s, and the fury on Dagon’s face was balm to my endless pain.
Dagon wouldn’t be so furious unless Ian was winning.
“Don’t stop!” I repeated before my vision and mouth flooded with blood again. I felt like I was drowning, but that was impossible. Vampires didn’t need to breathe to survive.
Then I felt the magic, foul and putrid, pulsing through the pain. Dagon and Ereshki had stopped using physical force on my circle. Now, they were casting the darkest of magic at it. The circle reacted with all the defensive violence in it. Soon, even the relentless hammering of Ian’s fist wasn’t enough to counter it. I wasn’t being drowned; I was being plunged toward death.
“Veritas!”
Ian’s voice cut through the currents pulling me under. I tried to lift my head, but it was too heavy.
“Answer me, Veritas!”
The sharpness in Ian’s voice was nothing compared to the detonations going off inside me. Dagon and Ereshki’s magic was too strong. My body was giving out. I didn’t know how much damage Ian had done to the circle, or if it would be enough, and I couldn’t open my eyes to look. I didn’t have the strength.
“If you don’t answer, I will stop beating this circle and let them kill me!”
Fucking hell. Was it really too much to ask that he not get killed for me again? I, at least, had a chance at coming back from the dead once I died. Ian didn’t, but was he letting that stop him from making his threat? Of course not.
“Veritas, I mean it!”
I still couldn’t speak or see, but I marshaled all my energy in order to move one finger. It was my middle one, and I stuck it straight up in the direction his voice came from.
A harsh laugh preceded his reply. “Good. I’m almost through this wall, but it’s taken quite a lot from me. When it goes down, I need you to be ready because Dagon will attack you. Do you hear? You can’t stay slumped in a pool of your own blood.”
Did he think I was lying in my own pureed guts because it was a hot new fashion trend? If I could’ve flipped him off with both hands, I would have.
“Whatever you did to terrify Tenoch all those years ago, I need you to do it again,” Ian went on, shocking me. “That part of you is buried too deep to be beaten down by this spell. It’s also been waiting a long time to come out. Now, you need to let it.”
Tenoch’s face flashed in my mind. Not one of the memories I cherished; the one I’d tried the hardest to forget. The horror on his face when he stared at the bodies lying beside pools of darkness around me, and worse, the revulsion in his eyes when he looked up from them to stare at me . . .
“No,” I croaked, so appalled I managed to speak.
“Yes,” he snapped. “I won’t let Tenoch’s fear cost you your life. And do you think Dagon will stop at you? Do you want me to break down these walls only to get slaughtered by that sod?”
With each word, he continued hammering at the circle. I felt it in every flash of relief in my broken body, but now I was worried, too. How much had it taken from Ian for him to keep beating on that magic-imbued barrier? Was it everything he had?
I reached down inside myself and felt around until I brushed the most forbidden aspects of my other half. Yes, that power was still there, but would it be enough? Worse, would it be too much? Ian was right; that part had been held back for so long that I had no idea what it would do if I let it out again.
“Can’t . . . control it,” I managed to say.
“You don’t need to.” A shout that coincided with a boom! that shook me to my core. “I trust you, all of you. You won’t hurt me, and nothing you can do will ever horrify me. Let yourself