"How are you feeling now, Nell?"
I pushed the cold washcloth aside and peered up at Belinda where she hovered over me. "A bit sick to my stomach at my carelessness. Not to mention the guilt over my stupidity in not recognizing that Saer wasn't Adrian, which means you will suffer for the rest of your now unnatural life. I'm furious that your son is caught up in this. And lastly, I want to throttle Adrian's and Saer's father, but he's dead, so all I can do is think really nasty thoughts about him."
Belinda looked a bit nonplussed at my exhaustive answer. "I meant how is your head? Is the headache gone?"
I sighed and sat up, folding the washcloth neatly and handing it to her before dredging up a smile. It was pitiful, but it was a smile, and I held on to it for all I was worth. "It's much better now. Thank you for the aspirin."
"My pleasure. Do you like your coffee white or black?"
"Black, thank you."
She nodded before heading to the kitchen, not even glancing at the man who stood with his hands clasped behind his back and looking out a window with carefully angled blinds. I felt no such reticence, and stared at Adrian until he felt the touch of my gaze and turned to face me.
"It is hopeless, Hasi. He is Joined, he has the ring, and he is raising an army to defeat both Asmodeus and me."
"Mmm. I'm reserving judgment on the 'hopeless' verdict, and you don't know that the army Saer is raising is meant for you."
"I do not have the luxury of your doubt. He will come for me just as surely as he will attempt to overthrow Asmodeus. Saer is absolutely correct - with the ring, he is all but invincible. I cannot withstand an attack by him, and with Belinda Joined to him, he will have the strength he needs to overthrow Asmodeus and destroy me."
I frowned as I glanced toward the entrance to the kitchen. Belinda was humming happily as she puttered around fixing breakfast, the cheerful sounds of the radio drifting out to us. "Now I really am confused. You said that Saer would use the ring to force her to forfeit her soul on his behalf. I can see why he Joined with her once he got his grubby mitts on the ring, but not how that gives him more power, not when you yourself said that being bound to her would hold him back."
Adrian looked out the window again, his face as hard as chiseled marble. "A Beloved's soul carries much value. By its very nature it is pure, one of the purest examples of selfless love ever to exist. To those who seek and use the dark powers, it offers an almost unlimited endowment."
"So he gains power just by virtue of being Joined with her, because her soul is so pure?"
"Something like that."
I rubbed my forehead. I was exhausted, and could feel both Adrian's hunger and fatigue. It seemed like we'd been up for days without sleep. "Where does Damian fit into all this? Surely Saer won't sacrifice him too?"
"No, he won't sacrifice him. At least... no. Not even Saer would seek power in that way." Adrian sounded as tired as I felt. His eyes were clouded with pain and defeat. It was an expression that left me wanting to simultaneously sob in despair and instigate a plan of attack. I decided the latter was the only way we were going to get out of the horrible situation.
"That's a relief, but even if Damian is safe, Saer is a monster to use Belinda as you described. We have to stop him. We can't let him sacrifice her too, not even for Damian."
Adrian ran a hand through his hair, dark smudges bruising the skin beneath his eyes. "It's too late, Hasi. Saer is invincible now."
"Maybe he can't be killed, but that was never my intention." I stood up and went to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and breathing in his wonderful scent a moment or two before pressing a little kiss to his adorable lips. "But I still have Gigli's charm book, and I'm more than happy to try a curse or two in order to give us an edge. I think a tail would look good on Saer, don't you?"
Adrian refused to be jollied out of his glum mood. "This is not a subject for levity, Nell."
"I'm in deadly earnest, loveykins." He flinched. I smiled. "Sorry, I'm still searching for the perfect love name."
"Keep trying."
I kissed his chin. "I won't give up if you won't."
A familiar frown settled on his brow. "Why do you insist on maintaining the deception that there is any way I can stop Saer? I have told you three times that so long as he holds Asmodeus's ring, it is impossible for me - or you - to gain control."
"Oh, Saer doesn't have the ring with him," Belinda said as she set down on a small round table a pot of coffee, two mugs, and a plate of toast. She fussed over setting the breakfast things out, evidently not in the least aware of the stunned silence that stretched between Adrian and me. Eventually we managed to gather our tired wits.
"He doesn't?" I asked at the same time as Adrian demanded to be told the ring's whereabouts.
Belinda looked up from the table, blinking in surprise at both of us. "No, he doesn't have it. He said it was too risky to use the ring to summon minions, so he left it with me."
I stared at her for five seconds, a sudden giddy happiness threatening to burst out of me as Adrian grabbed Belinda by both arms, shaking her in his impatience to get the answer. "Where is it? Where exactly is it?"
"I have it," she said, her teeth chattering a little as she reached up to her neck, pulling on a gold chain that was looped beneath her bathrobe. She tugged it up until a familiar horn-and-gold ring emerged.
"My ring!" I yelled, tears of relief pricking my eyes.
"Your ring?" she asked, the ring dangling before us.
Adrian's eyes glowed hot as he watched it, his fingers twitching as if he wanted to take it. "Saer said it was his."
"Yes, well, I'm the one who originally borrowed it," I said. "I gave it to Saer thinking he was Adrian. If you don't mind, I'd like it back."
Her fingers closed around the ring as I reached for it, a mulish, hard expression on her face. "As it is, I do mind. Saer said this ring will free Damian. I can't give it to you until my son is safe."
"Nell is a Charmer," Adrian said, his voice rough and harsh as if he were fighting for control of himself. "She stole the ring to save Damian."
"I did not steal it!" I glared at Adrian, mouthing that I was going to get him when we were alone. "I simply borrowed it. I have every intention of returning it to Christian just as soon as I'm done with it."
"Nell has sworn to help Damian," Adrian said. I nodded. "She is the only hope of freeing him without releasing a power greater than any of us can imagine. You know Saer. You know what he is capable of. You must trust us."
"Please, Belinda." I touched her arm. "Adrian is right. I've sworn to do everything within my abilities to release your son from his bondage, but I must have the ring to do so."
"Saer is a little... confused, I freely admit that. He's changed the last few years, become a stranger, but even so, I know he would never harm Damian - " she started to protest.
"It is not for Damian's sake he desires the ring," Adrian said softly.
I sent a puzzled frown his way, then remembered that Saer was evidently willing to sacrifice Belinda in order to gain power. Such a monster as I was coming to realize he was wouldn't even blink about leaving his son in the hands of a demon lord.
Belinda looked from me to Adrian, indecision clearly visible behind the tears that filled her eyes. "I don't know what to think. Saer said he would free Damian, and now you say Nell is the only hope. But I don't know her. I don't know that she will do what she says she will do, that she will save Damian. He is only a child!"
"She will save him. She is my Beloved - she cannot do otherwise," Adrian said, his voice smooth with persuasion.
Belinda looked back at me. I tried to look like someone who went up against demon lords every day of the week without batting an eyelash. Finally she nodded, and pulled the chain over her head, dropping it and the ring into my waiting hand. "If you truly are Adrian's Beloved, then I will trust you."
"You won't regret it," I promised, clutching the ring tightly in my hand. It was warm from being next to her skin, but it seemed to glow hot for a moment as I held it. I flashed Adrian a triumphant smile, slipping the chain over my head before I shoved my arms into my coat. "Come on, sweetcakes, we have a demon lord to crush!"
Adrian grabbed me by the back of my coat as I rushed past him. He nodded toward the window. "Loath as I am to waste any time, I cannot go out in that."
"Damn," I swore, glaring at the fading gray. Blue sky was showing before rapidly dispersing clouds. "Why is it that just when you want a nice overcast day, the sun insists on coming out?"
"I wouldn't allow you to go now even if it was midnight," Adrian said as he took my hand in his. "You are too tired. It would be the sheerest folly to charm when you are so tired you can hardly stand. We will rest until the sun goes down."
"But - " I started to protest.
"Damian - " Belinda said at the same time.
Adrian raised his free hand, silencing both of us. "Asmodeus will not harm Damian until he has the ring. Damian will be safe until tonight when Nell will free him. But she needs rest to do that. We had little sleep yesterday and none last night. I hate to impose on your goodwill - "
"You're welcome to stay here," Belinda interrupted quickly. I could tell she didn't like to wait any more than I did, but she saw the sense in what Adrian said. As did I, although I hated to admit that he was right about me being exhausted, and I noticed he didn't include himself in that statement despite the fact that I could feel him weakened by both hunger and lack of sleep.
He shook his head. "If Saer was to come back unexpectedly, he could harm Nell. Do you still have a cot in your office behind the pub?"
"Yes," she answered, eyeing him in a familiar way that sent my hackles up, hostess or no hostess. "But it is meant for one person, and you're rather large - "
I stepped closer to him and gave her a firm look. "A cot will be lovely, thank you. Adrian can sleep on the cot, and I'll sleep on him."
She had the grace to look away, her cheeks slightly rosy as she hurried off to the next room. "I will get the key to the pub."
"Nell," Adrian said. I watched in amazement as his eyes changed from deep sapphire to a light steel-blue. "I know what you're thinking."
I raised my eyebrows in faux horror. "You know I am planning on jumping your bones the second I get you alone?"
"I know you are planning to slip out once I'm asleep. I know you intend to free Damian without me."
My eyebrows dropped back to their normal position as I slipped into the most innocent look I could muster. "I never once thought that."
"No?"
I couldn't meet those knowing eyes. I glanced down, picking at a piece of invisible lint on my sleeve. "No. Not seriously. The idea might have flitted through my brain, but I didn't consider it. Not for long."
"Good. It is an idea that goes beyond foolish. To attempt to best Asmodeus without me to help you would be suicide, and that" - his fingers caressed my chin as they tilted my face upward - "I could never allow. You are too important to me."
"Face it," I said, rubbing the tip of my nose on his. "You're madly in love with me. You'd be lost without me. I'm your earth and sun and everything in between."
I held my breath as I waited for his response to my half-joking statement. I knew he desired me, knew he needed my blood, knew we were bound together in ways I couldn't begin to understand, but I had no idea whether or not his feelings for me were more than physiological.
His lips parted to speak.
"I found the key for you. It would probably be best if you two entered the pub via the back way, so no one will see you."
Adrian turned away as Belinda entered the room. I swore to myself, cursing her bad timing. What had he been about to say to me? His eyes were shuttered, giving me no clue, and now I wouldn't know.
I would just have to find out once we were alone. Adrian gave Belinda instructions to wake us a few hours before sunset, so we would have time to prepare for the ritual I'd be conducting - or trying to - that evening. I accepted the package of food she'd made up for me, and waited by the door attempting to hide my impatience, praying Adrian would finish talking so we could make our escape to the office below. Tired as I was, I had plans for him... plans which included not only a little therapeutic lovemaking, but the consumption of breakfast as well.
"You know, I have a very good feeling about this," I said over my shoulder to Adrian as I marched down the stairs from Belinda's apartment to the outside door. He was a shadow on the dark stairs, being clad in his coat and hat, with a black scarf that Belinda had dug out of a closet wrapped around the lower part of his face. "We've been dealt a few blows, but we're still on top. It's all going to be downhill from here, just you wait and see!"
I reached for the doorknob, jumping away as it suddenly swung open toward me.
A man in a black overcoat and hat loomed in the doorway. Behind him, a woman in sunglasses limped toward the door.
Christian stared at me in surprise - probably the same amount of surprise that was visible on my face.
Only I was quicker. I lunged forward, shoving him backward through the door, slamming it shut and twisting the deadbolt closed as I quickly traced the binding ward on the door.
"They found us!" I hissed over my shoulder to Adrian. He didn't need any further explanation. He grabbed my wrist and started dragging me back up the stairs to Belinda's apartment.
I grabbed the newel post to stop my ascent, my gaze riveted on the door. I watched with amazement as the ward I had drawn began to unravel, the green ward dissolving bit by bit. Right before my eyes!
"What the hell?" I pulled myself free from Adrian and ran the few steps to the door, touching the unraveled end of the ward, quickly redrawing it into the pattern of binding.
The ward glowed green for a second, started to fade, then glowed again as it once more began to unravel.
"Nell, leave it! There is a back way out of Belinda's flat!"
I touched the ward with the tip of my finger, gritting my teeth as it fought my touch. "You go," I said, focused on the recalcitrant ward. "I'll stay here and hold the door."
"I am not going to leave you," he snarled, jumping down the stairs to grab me.
"It's that Allie woman," I said, fighting with the ward to keep it from undrawing any more. "She's trying to unmake it on the other side of the door."
"Nell, leave it. We must escape now."
I twisted the unraveled edge of the ward back onto itself, tying it in a knot, watching it for a second to make sure Allie wasn't going to be able to undo it quickly. The ward quivered and strained, but held.
"I don't think so," I said, facing Adrian. "No, listen to me, I think we should split up. They don't want me, they want you. You go up to Belinda's and slip out the back. I'll keep Little Miss Wardypants busy here so they can't get in until you've gotten safely away."
"I will not leave you," he growled as he grabbed me. I allowed myself to droop against him for a moment, brushing my mouth against his.
I appreciate the macho he-man protective instincts, Adrian, but this time you're going to have to conquer them. You know as well as I do that Christian and Allie won't harm me. I'm in no danger, so you can stop bristling with indignation over the thought of us splitting up.
I will not leave you. I will not throw you to their mercies.
My lips drifted over to his jaw. It wasn't Christian who wanted to kill me, it was Sebastian. I swear to you, I will be safe. Now that I went to all the trouble of believing six impossible things before breakfast, White Rabbit, I don't intend on losing you.
Hasi -
Go. I will meet you later, at the British Museum.
Where will you go? He was weakening. His need to protect me warred with the realization that what I said was true, but it was touch and go there as to whether or not his heart or his head would win out.
The one place a vampire can't go - a church.
His sigh brushed my mind as he pulled away from me. "Dark Ones can enter churches, Hasi. We are damned, but not demons."
"Oh." I glanced at the ward. It was beginning to fray at the opposite end as Allie worked to unmake it. I had a few seconds, nothing more. "I'll go to the US Embassy, OK? That's got to be the most secure place in London. I'll meet you at the British Museum just after sunset."
"Nell, if we separate, we won't be able to merge."
That stopped me for a few seconds. I have never thought of myself as an overly clingy person, but since meeting Adrian, I felt any separation greatly. It was almost as if a part of my consciousness were missing. If I felt that way just by being in a different room from him, what would it be like with the entire city between us?
The door behind me shook with a blow. I had no choice.
"Go!" I shoved him up the first couple of stairs, leaping back to the door to wrestle with the ward. The knot I had tied slipped free. Reluctantly Adrian stared up the stairs. "Adrian?"
He paused at the top, swathed in so much black he almost faded into the shadows.
"I love you."
His head jerked, but whether in acknowledgement or disagreement I'll never know. The ward slipped through my hands and almost completely unraveled. I grabbed the end of it, holding tight as Adrian pounded on Belinda's door. It opened, and he disappeared at the same moment the door in front of me bucked with the force of a hard blow. The ward twisted and squirmed in my hand, the sound of a large, angry vampire attacking the other side clearly audible. I held on to the ward as long as I could, trying to knot it again, but Allie had much more experience with wards than I. The entire ward melted in my hands as wood splintered. I leaped back out of the way as Christian threw himself at the door again, the wood giving way completely without the ward to hold it shut. I leaned against the wall, my arms crossed, with what I hoped was an insouciant look on my face. "Fancy meeting you here."
Christian snarled something in a vaguely familiar language as he rushed past me.
"Get a little too much sun?" I called after him, waggling a finger toward one side of his face where the skin of his neck and cheek were red. "You'd better watch that. Skin cancer, you know."
He ignored me. I looked past Allie as she marched in. "What, no Sebastian?"
She paused at the bottom of the stairs, pulling off her dark glasses to glare at me. "He can't tolerate the light at all. And if you had made my husband stay out in that sun one second longer, I would have decked you!"
I lifted my chin, refusing to allow her to intimidate me. "You could try."
She snorted before limping up the stairs after Christian. "Don't tempt me."
I waited until Belinda answered the pounding knocks Christian was delivering to her door before turning and slowly walking out the now destroyed front door into the cheerful light of a rare sunny day.