"I don't like this."

"I know you don't, my little spaetzel. But I am too worn out to run from both the police and your murderous twin, and Damian's looking peaky, plus Christian did apologize for trying to kill us earlier."

"I wasn't talking about that. It's your lamentable habit of using completely unsuitable love names for me that gives me grief," Adrian groused. "I am not a lambypie, nor am I a spaetzel."

"I believe it is a habit common to Americans." Christian, who was escorting us down a hallway toward the bedrooms of his house in a classy section of London, cocked an eyebrow at Adrian. "Has she called you snugglebunny yet? It is a particularly loathsome appellation, and yet American women seem to find it strangely charming. My own Beloved uses it frequently."

"Snugglebunny!" Adrian shot an outraged glare over his shoulder at me, silencing my giggles. "She would not dare. I am the Betrayer!"

Christian paused before a door, sweeping it open with a grand gesture for me to enter. "To set matters correct, I would never have killed you, Charmer. It was only the Betrayer's death we sought. I trust you will be comfortable in here."

I looked around the large bedroom, too tired to care even if we were back at Belinda's back room with the narrow cot. I rallied a smile, poking Adrian in the side with my elbow. "Thank you, it looks wonderful. Doesn't it look wonderful, honey pants?"

Christian rolled his eyes. Adrian scowled. "The room is tolerable."

"Mister Gratitude," I said under my breath as I turned to Christian. "Please excuse Adrian. He really is a nice man beneath that harsh exterior."

"I am the Betrayer. I am not nice."

Christian looked as if he wanted to smile but didn't dare.

"He's just not used to having anyone do anything for him," I told him.

"Dark Ones fear my very name!"

"Nor is he used to accepting help," I explained, feeling it necessary that Christian understand just how isolated Adrian had been all these long centuries. "Being bound to a demon lord really did a number on his ability to trust, but he's getting better."

"Death and destruction follow in my wake!" Adrian yelled, indignation filling his eyes. I kissed the tip of his nose until his irises darkened to a clear sapphire.

Christian burst into laughter.

"You see what I must tolerate?" Adrian demanded of Christian. "This woman, this Beloved who is bound to me body and soul, she who is everything to me, does not admit to the power and terror I wield."

"Used to wield," I pointed out, wrapping my arms around him and kissing his chin. "Now that we've got the ring, we're going to take care of that curse, so it'll be bye-bye, Betrayer, hello, happy Adrian."

"She treats me as if I am a mortal man," Adrian continued. "Me! One who has seen darkness that would kill a mere mortal!"

Christian's laughter faded as his eyes narrowed on me. "It is like that also with my Beloved. She has no respect for what it is to be a Dark One. They do not understand, these Americans, just how dangerous we can be. When angry, Allegra refers to me as Fang Boy."

They both looked at me, Christian with speculation, Adrian with outrage, as if I were to blame for Allie's choice of words. "Hey," I said, holding up my hands. "I'm innocent."

"See that you stay that way," Adrian said softly as Allie, Damian, and the mummies came into the room.

"They can stay in Christian's study," Allie was saying. "It has a TV My ghosts love it, so I think your stepmother's mummies would like it, too."

"She's not my stepmother!"

"No?" Allie looked from me to Adrian. "I thought you two were Joined?"

"We are," I said, extracting myself from the group hug with which the mummies felt it necessary to greet me after a prolonged absence of roughly thirty seconds. "But neither Damian nor I were expecting each other, so we've got some issues to work out."

"She stinks," the annoying little snot said. I made mean eyes at him.

Allie, who had started moving toward her husband, stopped at the look he gave her. "What's wrong?"

"Snugglebunny" Christian answered.

"Do not forget Fang Boy," Adrian added helpfully, glaring at the nearest mummy as he wrapped his arm around me and hauled me to his side. "My Beloved would never be so discourteous as to refer to me in such a flippant manner."

"Not so long as you watch your step, my little love potato," I answered.

Allie rolled her mismatched eyes when her husband gave her a pointed look. "Oh, for God's sake... come on, Dracula. Let's leave the happy family to themselves."

"You are determined to drive me insane, are you not, woman?" Christian asked as he followed her to the door.

"Where is she going to sleep?" Damian demanded, hands on his hips as he stared pointedly at a big bed. "There's only one bed, and I can't sleep with that awful smell in the room."

"We have a very nice room across the hall," Allie said, limping back into the room to steer Damian out the door. "You will be close to your father, and Nell's... uh... odor won't bother you there."

Damian shot me a disbelieving look, but allowed himself to be escorted to the opposite room.

"What is it with that kid?" I asked Adrian as the door closed, trying not to look as if I cared what the little monster said about me. "I took a bath! I do not - Ginger, off! I can't talk with you humping my leg like that."

The mummy wasn't actually trying to get busy with my leg, but in his crouched, doubled-over position, his attempts to hug me ended up in a somewhat X-rated move on my leg. I pointed to the door and told him to leave, more than a little startled when he complied.

Adrian gave me a long-suffering look as he began to unpack his satchel.

I looked at the other mummies. "Leave!" I ordered in a dramatic voice.

They left, cooing a sad little lament about their banishment.

"I could so get used to this," I said, turning back to face Adrian. His frown said it all. I smiled and hurriedly added, "Not that we're going to keep them. I'll put them back to their original condition just as soon as I figure out how to recurse them."

"I fervently hope you do. The next few hours will be difficult enough without your mummies getting in the way." Damian stuffed a few articles of clothing into the top drawer of a dresser.

"Yeah, well, the same could be said for your son. Why didn't you tell me Damian was your son? And why is he going on about me stinking?"

"You said you had spoken to Melissande, so I assumed you knew he was my son. As for the other, you smell different to Damian. The blood of a Beloved is poison to all but the Dark One she is Joined with. That is what Damian is reacting to."

I stared in open-mouthed surprise as Adrian tucked his satchel behind a chair and peeled off his duster. "Are you saying that to every Dark One I smell funny?"

He nodded.

"Does Allie smell funny to you?"

"Yes."

"Like what?"

"Something rancid."

"She does? Are you sure? Oh! That means I smell the same way to Christian! I do not smell rancid!" I whapped Adrian across the arm. He just looked at me. "Rancid? Really? Like what? Old milk? Stale bread?"

"More like something dead that has lain in the street for several weeks."

I goggled at him as he pulled his sweater off. "I smell like road kill?"

He looked up at the rising note of hysteria that I was all to aware streaked my voice. "Only to others, Hasi. To me you smell..."

"What?" I asked as he struggled to find the right words. "Sludge? Bloated whale carcass? A sewage plant?"

Like the sun warming a field of wildflowers. Like the rarest and most exotic of spices, tantalizing and teasing my senses until you threaten to overwhelm me. Like a costly wine aged and mellowed such that it warms the blood and lifts the spirit. You smell of hope and love and life, Hasi, and I do not want to spend even a minute of my life without you.

Oh, Adrian! I sniffled as I threw myself into his open arms. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. You're going to make me... hey! I heard you before I was touching you! My mind is back to normal!

He scooped me up and carried me over to the bed, his eyes indigo with desire as he set me down in the center, pausing only long enough to strip off his remaining clothing before he lay next to me. I knew your powers would return, Hasi. But I am glad you are no longer worried about it. Now perhaps I will have your full attention as I prove to you that I am not to be taken lightly.

I squirmed out of my shoes, socks, and pants as his hands swept under my sweater, pushing it up, tugging it off with one hand while using the other to caress one of my breasts. I shivered with the feeling of his hot breath as it teased the other. "I never, ever doubted your skills at that. Where lovemaking is concerned, you're top of the heap. If I had the power, I'd formally crown you King of Hoocheewawa."

And you, my beloved Hasi, are the Queen of Seduction. He licked the underside of my breast with long, sweeping strokes of his tongue. I shivered again, the cold air on my wet breast mingling with the fire of need that he generated with the simplest of touches. I read with perfect clarity his dark, erotic intentions, and despite my body's instantaneous approval of said intentions, I felt obliged by the responsibilities thrust upon us to offer a token protest.

"Christian said he'd be waiting for us in his library so we could make plans about Saer and Sebastian," I said on a gasp as his mouth closed briefly over a taut nipple that wanted badly for him to do just that. My back arched as he paid his respects to the other breast before he kissed a hot, wet path southward. "Shouldn't we... shouldn't we... oh, good Lord, Adrian, that's got to be illegal!"

No, it is not illegal, he said, his mind filled with arousal and need and hunger that boiled into me until it swept me up as well. I accepted it and returned it with all the love I had, reveling in our joining. His tongue flicked over the tender flesh that protected my secrets, sending me spiraling toward heaven. He turned his head slightly so his lips caressed the pulse of my femoral artery, his stubbly cheek pressed against me in such a way that it provided a wonderful abrasion that picked up where his mouth had left off. But this is, Hasi.

His teeth pierced the flesh of my inner thigh, the momentary pain making me gasp as it melted into a profound pleasure that joined with the erotic feel of his whisker stubble brushing back and forth on my sensitive parts as he drank deeply of my blood.

It was too much for me. My sense of the satisfaction and pleasure he felt with the taking of my blood, his heightened arousal, and the stimulation of manly stubble to my womanly parts drove me over the edge. The orgasm swelled over me in a wave of elation that had every part of my body celebrating. It was a high, and I rode it joyously, giving myself up to it, aware that Adrian was with me even when I soared. Eventually, I slowly drifted back to conscious awareness of my body and immediate surroundings.

Adrian's head lay on my belly, his fingers spread over me in blatant possession, sadness and regret covering us like a soft blanket of melancholy.

You're not going to die, I said firmly into his head, gently sweeping his hair off his brow. I know you are rattled by the things that Christian told us on the ride here, but it's no longer just you against Saer and his army, Adrian. I'm here, and Christian is willing to help us, too. He's not nearly as bad as I thought he was, and I have to admit he's got a lot of strength. I doubt that many other vamps could have stood you throttling them and not had a permanent kink in their necks.

His lips pressed a sweet kiss to my belly. I would have liked to see our children, Hasi.

Tears snaked down the sides of my face as his sorrow filled me. I slid down, pushing him on his back, angrily brushing away the tears as I crawled off the bed. "I refuse to give up, and you know what? I'm damned tired of you giving in so easily. We are Joined. We're a family - you, Damian, and me. And I do not let my family sacrifice themselves, so you can just stop telling yourself that the only way to save Damian and me is to hand yourself over to Saer."

He looked startled for a moment. Clearly he had thought his intentions were hidden from me, but in that, he'd underestimated me. "Hasi - "

"No!" I said, grabbing his duster, slipping into it and buttoning it down to my knees. "There is no excuse. We're going to see this through, all of us. And when it's finished, you're going to be apologizing for doubting me for a very, very long time." I marched to the door.

Adrian propped himself up on an elbow, the air filled with his mingled outrage and confusion. "Where are you going?"

"To see if Allie will lend me something. Stay right there. I'll be back in a minute."

"What - " he started to say, but I closed the door on his question. He read me better than I read him; he could just trust me.

Ten minutes later I returned with a warm bowl, a small pastry brush, and a renewed sense of purpose. Adrian was still lying on the bed, naked, his arms behind his head as he glared up at the ceiling.

"That was more than a minute," he pointed out as I shucked his duster. "That was exactly eleven and three-quarter minutes. What were you doing?"

"Dancing the cancan with the mummies and Christian." I nudged his hip with my knee. He gave me a sour look, but scooted over to the middle of the bed. I couldn't help noticing that he was no longer aroused. I smiled to myself. That wasn't going to be a problem.

"What do you have?" he asked, suspicion lightening his eyes until they were the color of a rain-washed morning sky. He sniffed. "Chocolate?"

"Yes, chocolate," I answered, stirring the melted chocolate with the brush. "Milk chocolate, to be exact, since I don't like semisweet."

His brows pulled together. "I do not like chocolate."

I swirled the brush around the silky brown confection. "Have you ever tried it?"

"You know I do not eat." I fought to keep from smiling at his petulant tone.

"If you haven't tried it, you can't say you don't like it." I lifted the brush and allowed it to drizzle a few drops of melted chocolate onto his belly. His breath sucked in as I lowered my head to lick up the chocolate, my tongue chasing all the little chocolate splatters. His muscles contracted with each dab of my tongue until he was stiff as a board.

Everywhere.

"See? You do like chocolate," I purred, stirring the brush in the chocolate again.

His eyes widened as I painted a chocolate protection ward over his heart. The ward, despite being drawn with melted chocolate and a pastry brush, glowed gold for a moment before fading into a lovely swirl of chocolate. Adrian twitched.

"Something the matter?" I asked as I leaned over his chest, my tongue flicking at the beginning of the ward.

"It... burns."

I sat back, concerned for a second that I'd inadvertently harmed him. Using the cloth that had cradled the warm bowl, I wiped off the chocolate ward, worried that what I had intended as an erotic experience might have turned pleasure into pain. With the chocolate gone, I could see a faint red mark where the ward had lain on his skin. As I watched, the redness faded to nothing. "I'm so sorry, Adrian. The chocolate isn't that hot. I tested it on my wrist first. I didn't think it was anything but pleasantly warm - "

"Do it again," he said, his voice hoarse, his eyes almost black.

"But if it's burning you - "

It's a good burn. Do it again, Hasi. Feel what I feel.

My worry dissipated at his command. Obediently I merged into his mind, feeling his reaction as I stirred the chocolate, painting another ward on his sternum. His body clenched as the warm chocolate touched his flesh, but it was the act of tracing the ward that left a little tingle on his skin. He was right. It was a good burn. It was just hot enough that it left his skin sensitive, but not so hot that it hurt. I smiled my most wicked smile, and lolled across him to retrace the ward with my tongue.

He bucked beneath me, an erotic pleasure skittering between us as the protection ward sizzled to life. Hasi, if you knew what you do to me...

What makes you think I don't know? I asked, painting another ward on his hipbone, sucking it off as soon as it glowed gold. Next to my head, his arousal was standing at attention, all hard unabashed maleness. I sucked the last bit of chocolate from his hip, turning my head to consider it. I'm thinking I need to ward Vlad the Impaler here.

His eyebrows rose as I got to my knees, stirring the brush in the cooling chocolate. It has never been at risk before. What exactly do you intend that you must draw a protection ward on that part of me?

I leaned forward and dragged my tongue along the sensitive underside. Adrian almost rose off the bed. Who said anything about a protection ward? Allie showed me something while the chocolate was melting. I'm going to ward this puppy for stamina.

Adrian groaned as I painted the strength symbols on his penis, his hands clutching the bedspread convulsively as the soft brush swirled around his shaft, curling around the head before swooping back down to the base. Admittedly, it was an overly elaborate version of a strength ward, but the rapturous anticipation that Adrian felt with each stroke of the brush made it worth a little extra effort.

"Is it burning?" I asked as I set the bowl and brush down, glancing up to his face.

His eyes had rolled back in his head.

"Yes," he said in a half groan, half gasp.

"Good." I nudged his knees aside and crawled between his legs, looking with no little pride at his chocolate-covered arousal. Warded as it was, it could probably bring down a few trees should Adrian wish to put it to that use.

I, however, had other plans for him.

His hips shot up as my tongue began to trace the ward, his fingers tangling in my hair as I moved up and down, around and around, retracing the ward's elaborately detailed design. By the time I reached the end of the ward, his body was as tightly strung as I had been in the museum, his jaw clenched with strain. I dipped into his mind and felt the enormous restraint he'd clamped down on the surge of need and want and desire that filled him, just so that I'd be able to complete my love play. His body and mind told me what I'd suspected - the flicks of my tongue had fired him to the point of spontaneous combustion, but it hadn't satisfied his true need.

"Dessert was fun, but now I'm hungry for the main course," I whispered as I straddled his hips, guiding his now slick length to where my body was crying for him, mentally querying him as to whether he was ready.

"Christus, Hasi, yes! Take me inside you now!"

I sank down upon him, reveling in the sensation of him invading my body, his velvet-covered steel shaft stretching me anew, burrowing deeper until it seemed as if he had touched the very center of me. Adrian groaned as I sat still for a moment, cherishing the feeling of his heartbeat so deep within me.

As you are within me, Hasi. You are life itself. I could not exist without you. You are everything. He sat up, his hands on my hips to guide my movements as his lips nuzzled my collarbone, slipping down to where my breast ached for him. I arched back, my breasts thrust forward as I heeded his direction, setting a pace that left me breathless with elation as I rode him. His bliss folded into mine, sending us both spiraling. A warm touch on my breast had me jerking in surprise.

You are right, his voice rubbed inside my head with the sinuous grace of a cat. I should not say I dislike chocolate before I try it.

My breath caught in my throat as his mouth descended to my nipple, now covered with warm chocolate. My breast ached, positively ached for his touch, and when it came, first the soft wetness of his tongue, then the gentle tugging of his teeth, finally a hard suckling, I almost exploded with rapture.

My orgasm caught me by surprise, but even in the middle of it I realized that Adrian wanted more.

Take it, my love. Take what you need from me, I coaxed, pulling his head tighter to me as my body burst into a shower of euphoric sparks, lighting up us both. He didn't hesitate, his teeth piercing the soft flesh of my breast. I knew from the need within him that, after feeding earlier, he sought my blood not as a form of sustenance, but to satisfy the primal need in him to bind us together in all ways, body and soul, life to life. As my blood mingled with his, he poured life into me, his climax so elemental that it seemed to rock our world, ripping a scream of pleasure from me that flew straight to the heavens.

Minutes, hours, days later I pulled myself from where I was plastered against his chest, my body weak and shaking with the effects of our lovemaking.

"You think anyone heard that?" I summoned enough strength to ask.

Adrian lay exhausted, his eyes closed, his body still. The only sign I had that he was alive was the chest that heaved with ragged breathing beneath me. He spoke without opening his eyes, as if he were too tired to even manage that. I was strangely pleased by that. "Hasi, I believe everyone in greater London heard your scream of completion."

I propped an elbow on his slick chest, frowning down on him. His stubborn jaw and lower cheeks were shadowed with reddish brown whiskers, the black slash of his eyelashes suddenly parting, framing eyes of the purest indigo. I leaned forward until my lips teased him. "I love you, Adrian. I don't know how we're going to defeat Saer, but I promise you, I will never let you go."

His fingers tightened on my hips. We may have no choice.

There are always choices, I answered, sucking his lower lip into my mouth. We just need to find them.

A sudden burst of emotion swept over me, originating in Adrian as his arms wrapped like steel bands behind me, crushing me to his chest. His mouth moved on mine, ceasing my teasing touches, his tongue sweeping inside in a move of blatant possession. I will fight to the death for you, Hasi. You are light and love and life. You saw good in me when no one else did. Do not believe I would give you up so easily. I love you with all the passion I possess. I love you with every beat of my heart. I love you with every atom of my being.

My tears mingled with his as I lay clinging to him, seeking reassurance and offering everything I had. We were bound together by a love too strong to be destroyed.

Or so I prayed.