It was too much, too much to take in at once. I shook my head, not at what Theo was saying, but at the fact that my brain was trying to process all this new information so quickly.
I just couldn't believe it was real…and yet, finally, I admitted to myself that the evidence piled up indisputably pointed to one conclusion: everything I had believed impossible, everything I knew could simply not be, now suddenly was. It was as if a whole new part of life opened up before me, beckoning me to go forth and explore all the mysteries it had to share.
It was frightening as hell.
"And that teenager, that kid who was here tearing you apart…"
Theo gave me a slight smile, the corners of his mouth curling up in a manner that, despite my bemusement, made my stomach lurch uncomfortably. "…was no teenager, but a demon, which you handily defeated."
"I hate to interrupt, but I feel it necessary to correct that statement." Noelle got up from where she had been looking at the wall, and came over to us. "Portia didn't defeat the demon."
Theo's thumbs were rubbing softly over the tops of my hands. He frowned at Noelle. "What do you mean she didn't defeat it? I saw her do it."
"No," Noelle said with a sigh. "What you saw her do was completely annihilate its physical form. I didn't send the demon back to Abaddon. I didn't have to—she so completely destroyed its human form that it was sent back by necessity."
Theo's eyes widened as both he and Noelle looked at me.
"He was hurting Theo," I told them both. "I wasn't going to just stand there and let him beat Theo up. Not to mention which, you both were egging me on to do something."
"We're not chastising you for defeating the demon," Noelle said with a watery smile. "It's the fact that you destroyed its mortal form that has us in a situation."
"What sort of a situation?" I asked, pulling my hands from Theo's. It was too distracting being in physical contact with him. My brain didn't want to think about anything but him when he was touching me.
"Which demon was it?" Theo asked Noelle.
She ignored my question to answer his. "Nefere. It belonged to Bael."
"Salus invenitur," Theo swore, rubbing his forehead.
"Do I want to know who Bael is?" I asked, rubbing the goose bumps on my arms. I was starting to get cold standing in the crypt in nothing but my teddy and shoes.
"Bael is the premiere prince of Abaddon," Noelle answered, her eyes on Theo.
"Abaddon being hell?"
"Yes," Theo answered, his face grave. My stomach wadded itself up into a dense ball, and seemed to drop to my feet. "Bael does not tolerate abuse of his legions. He will summon us before him to answer for the damage we did to his demon's form. Come, you are cold. I will take you back to the pub."
He held out a hand for me, clearly intending me to follow him out of the room.
"Wait a sec," I said, rubbing my arms again. "Why can't you just zap me back the way I came?"
Noelle gave me a rueful smile. "Teleporting is a temporary power given to the trial proctors. It summons, but does not send, I'm afraid."
"Oh great," I grumbled as I took Theo's hand and allowed him to lead me out of the crypt. His hand was warm, his fingers strong and reassuring. "Now I'm gallivanting who knows where in my teddy. This is so the image I want to remember England by. I don't understand why killing a demon is bad. They're demonic, right? So why isn't a good thing that I blasted it to kingdom come?"
"It's a bit complicated," Noelle said with genuine regret in her voice. "I must go back to the Court and submit the results of the trial. That, at least, you passed." She stopped at the doorway to what appeared to be the nave of a church, her gaze moving from me to Theo. "Good luck. I wish I could help you, but it would be a violation of Guild law."
"I understand." Theo released me long enough to shake her hand, thanking her for her help.
She gave me a brief, bright smile. "I hope the rest of the trials go well. I think you'll be a very nice addition to the Court."
She hurried off before I could respond. Theo escorted me out of the (thankfully unoccupied) church and into his car before I got too chilled. I wrapped myself up in the car blanket he kept in his trunk, and shivered the entire fifteen-minute drive to the pub, wondering the whole way there what had happened to the nice, orderly, sensible life I had made for myself.
Chapter 9
"I think I'm handling this very well," I said after a few minutes of watching the night slide by the car window. We were approaching the town and the familiar humpbacked bridge. "Mind you, the only other available option is to completely lose my mind, so I don't have much of a choice, but still, I believe I'm taking this all very, very well. I'm not screaming or laughing hysterically, or even crying, although somehow, I feel like doing all three."
He patted my blanket-covered knee. "I appreciate the fact that you are restraining your hysterical tendencies. This is a…" He hesitated for a moment. "…difficult situation."
"This prince guy, you mean? I have to tell you, Theo, I don't believe in hell any more than I do in heaven."
He drove in silence for a few minutes. "Just as the Court of Divine Blood is not heaven, so Abaddon is not hell, although it is commonly referred to as such. The prince you refer to is the head of all the seven demon lords who rule Abaddon, and I'm sorry to say that they do very much exist."
The skeptic in me wanted to argue the point, but I reminded myself that I was still in the process of coming to grips with the idea that there was more to life than I imagined, and thus such an argument could wait.
Not to mention the fact that I now had to admit to Sarah that she was right and I was wrong.
"So what is this demon lord guy likely to do? He can't hurt us, can he?"
Theo laughed a particularly mirthless laugh. It made a little chill skitter down my back. "He's likely to demand reparation for the demon's form. Such things do not come cheap, or so the demon lords would have us believe."
We turned into the pub's now-crowded parking lot. "Wait a second…are you saying I just destroyed the demon's body, but not the demon itself?"
"Yes. Demons can't be destroyed as such…their power changes into a different form, but isn't actually obliterated, if you understand what I mean."
"Of course I understand. It's the first law of thermodynamics." I wrapped the blanket tightly around myself as I got out of the car, smiling at Theo's look of confusion. "Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form of energy to another, but the sum total is always the same. What you're saying is that a demon is made up of some sort of energy, so it makes perfect sense to me that the energy of the demon is itself not able to be destroyed. I could go on to draw an analogy about what the physical form is like, but unless you're into physics, it would probably seem like overkill."
Theo laughed, a warm, deep laugh that rolled around me, filling me with an incredible light feeling that I identified with some surprise as happiness. "You have the most deliciously analytical mind."
"Well, I guess it's better to have you admire my mind over my breasts, like the other men I've dated."
A little flame of desire burst into being in his eyes. "Oh, I admire your breasts greatly, have no fear. But I do appreciate the desire you have to understand how the world works, rather than just blindly accepting it."
I shuddered despite the warmth of his gaze as I went through the door he opened for me. "Blind faith was never my forte. So what do we do about this Bael?"
The pub was just about to close when we walked in the door. I won't say conversation came to an abrupt halt at the sight of me, but the few die-hard regulars who were still there did give me curious glances.
"I…er…fell in the river," I explained to the pub owner, who walked past carrying a batch of dirty glasses.
He eyed the blanket I clutched around me, and nodded, saying nothing.
"Maybe we'd better discuss this in a more private area," I said quietly to Theo.
"Whither you lead, s
o shall I follow," he said with a little bow.
What a ham he was. A sexy, adorable, gorgeous ham. I led the way upstairs to my room, plopping down on the bed still clutching the blanket. My room wasn't huge to begin with, but with Theo in it, it suddenly seemed very small and intimate.
He went to the window and looked out into the night. I was very, very aware of him as a man, and no amount of reminding myself that just a few days ago he had tried to throttle me dissuaded my body from the idea of flinging itself on him right at that moment.
He kidnapped you a few days ago, I told my errant erogenous zones, all on full alert and tingling with anticipation. I touched my neck where his fingers had left it bruised and tender. He could easily have killed me.
"What's wrong?" Theo asked, turning back to me.
I felt my neck all over, then got up to look in the mirror on the inside of the wardrobe door. The blanket slid to the floor. "Where are my bruises?"
"I have no idea. Do you normally have bruises on your neck?"
"I do when people try to strangle me. The day that you did that, and tried to kidnap us, I had bruises all over my neck, and it was tender to the touch. Now they're all gone. And for that matter…" I flexed my arm, swinging it in a wide circle. "My sore shoulder isn't the least bit sore, and the doctor at the hospital said it would probably be a few days before the pain and stiffness wore off."
He moved closer, his warm fingers gently touching my neck. It felt so much like a caress that my knees threatened to give in. "I am sorry that I hurt you, Portia. I never meant to harm you."
"I know," I said, horrified by how breathy my voice was. With him standing so close to me, my brain was losing a battle against my emotions and bodily demands. "Now, at least. I didn't know it then. But that doesn't explain why the bruises are gone."
His thumb brushed the hollow in my throat. I swallowed convulsively.
"You are a virtue. They healed."
"I thought I wasn't officially part of the immortal Court until I pass all the trials?" My breath caught in my throat as his hand slid down to my shoulder. He pulled me close to his chest, his eyes glittering blackly.
"You're not immortal yet. But you are a virtue, which means you're…enhanced."
"Enhanced can be good." My breasts tightened and sent little zings of pleasure down to my belly as they brushed against his shirt, the heat from his body warming me like the blanket couldn't.
His head dipped, his lips brushing mine. "Enhanced can be wonderful. I want you, Portia."
I leaned into him, rubbing my hips against his in a wanton fashion that was so totally alien for me that for a moment, I was shocked by my own desire. "I kind of got that idea."
"Are you…that is, do you understand what it is I want from you?" His voice, deep to begin with, roughened, the Irish lilt more pronounced. His hands were on my waist now, holding me, but not caressing. The look in his eyes was earnest, hot, filled with carnality that I knew should have shocked me to my toenails, but instead called forth a response within me.
"Are you asking if I'm OK with the thought of going to bed with you?"
His tongue flicked across my lower lip. I wrapped my arms around him and let him see my own desire.
"Yes, I'm OK with it. I know that only a few days ago I would have moved heaven and earth to get this most fabulous butt of yours into jail. I know you're virtually a stranger, and I'm not at all the type of person to jump into bed with someone I've just met, but somehow none of that really seems to matter anymore."
"No, it doesn't," he murmured, his hands moving, sliding down my silk-covered back to my behind, easing their way under the material to stroke my bare flesh. "I've wanted you since the moment you tried to run me over. You are unlike any woman I have met before. You are strong, and courageous, and you do not suffer fools. Not to mention the fact that your breasts drive me to distraction."
I sucked in an inordinate amount of air as one of his hands suddenly cupped my aching breast, gently teasing my nipple until I thought I would spontaneously combust. "You have way too many clothes on," I finally managed to say, my hands shaking with excitement as I struggled with the buttons on his shirt.
"Yes, yes I do. Feel free to remove them."
I all but ripped his shirt off, ignoring the sound of a couple of buttons as they pinged on the floor, my eyes feasting on his bare chest for a moment before he pulled me back into an embrace.
"I highly approve of your chest. It's masculine without being overly hairy," I said as his mouth descended upon mine, the last coherent words I spoke while he kissed the breath right out of my lungs. He tasted faintly of wine, and something that was wholly Theo, an elusive masculine taste that thrilled me. His hands were everywhere, touching, stroking, teasing me in so many different places that all I could think of was how much I wanted him.
"You look as if you're hot," he said a few minutes later, when we came up for air. The desire and admiration in his eyes bathed me in a glow that raised my temperature another notch.
"Sweltering," I said, panting slightly. "Teddies are notoriously hot."
His gaze slipped down to my chest. "In so many ways. But it would be ungentlemanly of me to allow you to be uncomfortable. Would you like me to remove the cause of your discomfort?"
"You may," I said, chafing a bit at the leisurely way he drew a finger along my collarbone to the thin strap of the teddy. He paused for a moment, passion flaring deep in his eyes.
"Would this be the sort of garment that closes at the crotch?"
Warmth burst out in the pit of my stomach, quickly spreading to surrounding areas. Deeply personal parts of my body were tingling in celebration. I swallowed hard again, trying to keep my voice steady. "How do you know about that sort of thing?"
He grinned. "Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I don't live in the here and now."
"That's a little more up to date than I imagined. But as you ask, yes, it is that sort of teddy. You're going to have to undo the snaps in order to get it off."
"I am only too happy to oblige," he murmured, his hands caressing my belly for a moment before they slid lower.
I clutched his shoulders, my eyes closed as I braced myself for the touch of his fingers on my most intimate parts.
That touch never came.
"I'm sorry if I'm a bit…anticipatory," I whispered, my eyes still closed. "I can't seem to help it."
Beneath my hands, his shoulders tightened. I opened my eyes to find him staring past me, his brows pulled down in a frown as he looked around the room.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, looking around as well. No one else was there.
"Don't you feel it?" He let go of me, taking a step forward, looking around us in a puzzled manner.
"I don't feel anything out of the ordinary, given the fact that I was about to jump your bones."
His back stiffened. He grabbed his shirt, pulling it on quickly. "Do you have a dressing gown?"
"Bathrobe? Yes, I do. It's on the chair behind you."
He tossed my robe to me. "Theo, is this some sort of odd English foreplay that I've never heard of?"
"Put it on. We're about to have a visitor." He stalked over to where I stood in the corner of the room, waiting for me to comply.
"All right, but this really will make me hot. It's crushed velvet and not the lightest thing in the world." He watched silently as I donned the bathrobe. Dressing gown was actually a more appropriate term—it was one of my private pleasures to have a tailor custom make the long, full-skirted robe that closely resembled a Victorian lady's dressing gown. It had a square-necked front, heavily embroidered with gold thread, which set off the crimson velvet nicely.
I had just done up the buttons in the front when Theo spun around and looked to the opposite corner of the room. To my astonishment, the wall next to the bed rippled, then tore, a horrible rending sound filling the air. A short, dark man stepped out and snarled something I didn't understand. The lightbulb in the bedside lamp exploded, followed by tin
y tinkling sounds as the glass rained down onto the floor.
"You are summoned," the short man growled, grabbing for me.
Theo wrapped his arm around me, pulling me protectively to his side, putting his body between us. "Not without me."
The man smirked. It was such an oily, evil smile; I felt soiled by exposure to it. I didn't have long to fret about that, though. The man simply grabbed Theo by the free arm, and yanked him—and me—through the tear in the wall.
Chapter 10
We were falling, sinking, spinning, our insides churning outward in a soul-rending process that sank us deep into a horrible miasma of pain and nausea. Just when I thought I was going to pass out or die (I wasn't sure which, and at that point, didn't really care), the horror ended and I dropped to a yielding, warm surface.
"Ow!" grunted the surface.
I pushed myself off, apologizing under my breath to Theo. "Sorry about that. Did I hurt you? What just happened? Who is that horrible man? How did he come through the wall? And just where the blistering inferno are we?"
"Ah. There you are. You may leave, Digan."
I was insanely glad that Theo made me put my bathrobe on. The man who had spoken strolled into view as we got to our feet. My jaw just about hit my feet at the sight of him—he was one of the most beautiful men who'd ever walked the earth. Theo was handsome—almost too handsome, with his dark, brooding looks that seemed to do odd things to my stomach—but this man was astoundingly, breathtakingly beautiful. Dark blond, curly hair framed a face that was almost feminine, with high cheekbones, sculpted honey blond eyebrows, startlingly blue eyes, and full lips that quirked as I gawked.
"You like this form?" the man asked, doing a little twirl for me. The rest of him was just as impressive as his face, but as he came closer, my skin crawled. His hair suddenly turned dark, straightened, and grew about a foot. His brow broadened, his eyes narrowed slightly, and his jaw became more pronounced as his entire face morphed into that of another equally beautiful man. "Or perhaps you like this one better?"
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