I’m OK, she answered, her thoughts still a bit confused and somewhat scattered. I love you, Nikola.
He shot a startled glance over his shoulder.
Whoops. Did you hear that?
Yes.
Frak. Can you pretend you didn’t?
No.
An adorably indignant look crossed over her face. She made an effort to straighten up and glare at him. Well, I think you could if you put your mind to it.
We will talk about this later, Io. Right now I must ascertain just what Rolf meant by his statement.
What statement? Rolf is here? She squinted past him. Oh, yeah, he is here. Can I break his kneecaps?
He shook his head, turning back to Rolf. It is not seemly for me to stand by and do nothing while you mete out revenge. No, I must be the one to break his kneecaps. I am nothing if not generous, however, and for that reason, I will allow you to box his ears.
I have no idea what’s involved with ear boxing, and frankly, I don’t think I’m going to want to know, so you can just get off your he-man high horse, and let me have a shot at the kneecapping—Nikola!
Io screamed in his head just as Rolf lunged at him, the knife held high. Nikola, long a devotee of esoteric manuscripts from the Far East, lashed out with his foot and knocked the knife out of Rolf’s hand.
Rolf screamed in a perfect echo of the lisping man, who was now blocked from view by the large body of an extremely annoyed lion. “You’ve broken my hand! My own brother has broken my hand!”
“No,” Nikola said coolly, picking up the knife and gesturing with it. “But I will do so if you attempt to harm Io or me again. How did you know about the demon lord who cursed me? I never told you how it happened.”
“Who do you think arranged for him to kill you?” Rolf said sullenly, clutching his hand to his chest as he slumped into a chair, defeat visible in his posture.
“I knew it,” Io said, limping forward.
Did he harm your leg?
No, I whacked it on the chair trying to stand up. Did you hear him? He as much as admitted that he was the one responsible for hiring the demon lord to off you. Io snatched up a broom and continued on toward Rolf.
“Keep your whore away from me,” Rolf said with a curl to his lip, leaning to the side just as if she were polluting the very air with her presence.
Gee thanks.
Pardon?
For thinking that bit about me polluting the air.
I didn’t say you were, I was merely noting to myself what Rolf did, so that I might record it in my notes at a later time. No, my love, do not try to beat him with that broom. For one, you aren’t strong enough, and for another, he is not the one responsible for my curse.
He just said he was! Do you need to clean your ears or something?
Another scream from the man David was attacking diverted his attention for a moment. “David?”
With reluctance, the lion backed up a few steps, shimmered in that unique way he had, and resumed the shape of a man.
“Holy naked man!” Io’s eyes widened as she stared at David.
“Er…hello. You must be Io.”
“I am. And you’re…you were…were you just a lion a second ago?”
“Yes. I am a therion.” David made a little bow to her that had her jaw dropping a smidgen.
“Avert your eyes, sweetling,” Nikola told her. “I know how distressing it must be for you to view another man without his clothing on.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s terribly distressing,” Io said, continuing to stare as David picked up his clothing and once again began to don it. “I’m feeling traumatized. Wow, he really has a nice—”
Nikola scowled. Io bit off the sentence and gave him a weak smile. “Sorry, punkin. It just took me by surprise. Carry on.”
“Thank you.” He turned back to Rolf, who was now moodily watching the lisping man weakly flail around on the floor. “Rolf, tell me how you know about the demon lord.”
“Which one? The one who cursed you, or the one who helped me find Lemuel?”
“Who is Lemuel?”
“Him.” Rolf nodded toward the man writhing and moaning on the floor.
“Just so. You have met with a demon lord recently?”
“What business is it of yours?” Rolf snapped in reply.
“It most certainly is my business if you arrange for Io and me to be kidnapped and taken to a lichmaster who evidently has an interest in torturing Dark Ones.”
Rolf shrugged. “I don’t know about a lichmaster, but I did talk to Ashtaroth, a demon lord who put me in contact with Lemuel. He said his master would reward me greatly once he found out about the portal in Zauberwald.”
“Ashtaroth,” Nikola said slowly. David, now fully clothed, moved around to stand slightly behind them. Io gave him a long look before returning her attention to where it should be.
That’s the guy who Ben and Fran were looking for.
Yes. He has a lion form, as you saw. Later, we might make a study of how he shifts form.
We might make a study?
I thought that you might wish to assist me in my studies.
She smiled, and warmth flooded through his loins, spreading out to his limbs. You’d let me help?
Of course. You, too, have a scientific mind, and like to learn new things. You will be of a great help to me.
Nikola, I think that’s just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Is Ashtaroth the demon lord who made you a vamp?
No. That demon lord’s name was Magoth. “How did you know to contact a demon lord?”
Rolf’s expression was sulky and somewhat petulant. “I suppose you’re going to push and poke until you have all the answers, aren’t you? You always were like that. You just had to know the answers to everything. That trait has always irritated me, do you know that? You don’t care, do you? You never did. Well, brother mine, let me assuage that annoying curiosity of yours—I knew how to contact Ashtaroth because I read my father’s letters.”
“Your father was the one who summoned Magoth,” Nikola said, nodding. It fit with what he knew of his brothers—they might be aggravating, and whiny, and constantly demanding more money from him, but they were not the murderous whoresons that Benedikt had hinted.
Your stepdad had you made into a vampire? Io asked in disbelief. Why?
“Io wishes to know why your father summoned Magoth,” Nikola told Rolf. “She did not know him as we did. She does not realize that he hated me, and resented the fact that I was the firstborn.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” Rolf’s upper lip curled. “Well, you don’t. How’s that feel, brother? Don’t like it, do you? I can see by the look on your face that you’re not going to let it rest until you hear it all, and since my head hurts and I want to go to bed and get some sleep, I’ll tell you what my father did. Yes, he summoned Magoth, but he paid the demon lord to destroy you in the most heinous fashion he could manage. The stupid demon lord double-crossed my father, though, by making you a bloodsucker instead of tormenting you to death.”
“That is just about the most obscene thing I’ve ever heard,” Io said, clutching her broom tightly. Nikola put an arm around her to keep her from rushing his brother. “I’ve heard of some asshat stepparents before, but none of them were so jealous of their stepkids that they actually hunted down a demon lord! OK, so I didn’t know there were such things as demon lords until Nikola told me, but still, my point stands.”
“My father didn’t give a snap for Nikola being the firstborn,” Rolf said, his shoulders slumping. He looked, Nikola thought, every one of his more than three hundred years.
“Did he want Nikola’s castle, then?” Io asked, pressed close, her warmth seeping into all the dark places inside him. He wanted to scoop her up in his arms and locate the nearest bed, whereupon he would allow her to seduce him for several days. Nonstop.
“Pfft. Have you seen it? It’s a ruins,” Rolf said dismissively. “He didn’t want the castle. He wanted the money, money that should have gone to my mother rather than Nikola, and thus to us.”
“You were right,” Io said with a look of admiration that warmed him to his toenails. “They didn’t want your castle. This was all about money. But I don’t understand why this demon lord dude turned you into a vamp instead of torturing you to death.”
David laughed as Nikola gave her an outraged look.
“Sorry, punkin, that came out wrong. But you know what I mean.”
“The demon lord was deranged, that’s why,” Rolf said, reaching for the pitcher of ale. “Papa paid him to destroy you, but Magoth thought it would be funny to make you into a bloodsucker instead. Papa was furious, of course, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it because he had an apoplectic fit and died two days later.”
“Well,” Io said, setting aside her broom. “I can’t say that I’m sorry to hear that. What a poop.” She glanced toward Nikola. “So now what?”
“Now we get you out of this place, and contact Benedikt to let him and Imogen know where we are.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to do that,” David said with a sudden smile, strolling across the kitchen to open a door that allowed sunlight to flood the room. Voices that were barely audible from outside grew louder, and before Nikola could so much as pull out his notebook to record the pertinent events of the last half hour, a group of eight people rushed into the room, voices high with excitement.
Benedikt and his soon-to-be ghost-by-marriage were at the front, with several other men following, and Imogen and Francesca bringing up the rear.
“David!” Benedikt shouted upon sighting his friend. The two men embraced as Francesca pushed forward.
“Nikola! Io! Oh, I’m so glad you’re all right. Ben, look, your dad found David.”
Much confusion followed in the subsequent quarter hour, but it was Io who put an end to it by the method of standing on the long table, and placing her fingers in her mouth to perform an earsplitting whistle that froze everyone in their tracks.