Some Like It Brazen by Alexandra Ivy (22)

 

 

“Oh God, Abby. Don’t panic. Just . . . don’t . . . panic.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Abby Barlow pressed her hands to her heaving stomach and studied the shards of pottery that lay splintered across the floor.

Okay, so she broke a vase. Well, perhaps more than broke it. It was more like she shattered, decimated, and annihilated the vase, she grudgingly conceded. Big deal. It was not the end of the world.

A vase was a vase. Wasn’t it?

She abruptly grimaced. No, a vase was not just a vase. Not when it was a very rare vase. A priceless vase. One that should no doubt have been in a museum. One that was the dream of any collector and . . .

Freaking hell.

Panic once again reared its ugly head.

She had destroyed a priceless Ming vase.

What if she lost her job? Granted it wasn’t much of a job. Hell, she felt as if she were stepping into the Twilight Zone each time she entered the elegant mansion on the outskirts of Chicago. But her position as companion to Selena LaSalle was hardly demanding. And the pay was considerably better than slinging hash in some sleazy dive.

The last thing she needed was to be back in the long lines at the Unemployment Office.

Or worse . . . dear God, what if she were expected to pay for the blasted vase?

Even if there were such a thing as a half price sale at the local Ming outlet shop, she would have to work ten lifetimes to make such a sum. Always supposing that it was not one of a kind.

Panic was no longer merely rearing. It was thundering through her at full throttle.

There was only one thing to be done, she realized. The mature, responsible, adult thing to do.

Hide the evidence.

Covertly glancing about the vast foyer, Abby ensured that she was alone before lowering herself to her knees and gathering the numerous shards that littered the smooth marble.

It was not as if anyone would notice the vase was missing, she tried to reassure herself. Selena had always been a recluse, but in the past two weeks she had all but disappeared. If it weren’t for her occasional cameo appearances to demand that Abby prepare that disgusting herb concoction she guzzled with seeming pleasure, Abby might have thought that the woman had done a flit.

Certainly Selena didn’t roam the house taking inventory of her various knick-knacks.

All Abby needed to do was ensure that she didn’t leave any trace of her crime and surely all would be well.

No one would ever know.

No one.

“My, my, I never thought to see you on your hands and knees, lover. A most intriguing position that leads to all sorts of delicious possibilities,” a mocking voice drawled from the entrance to the drawing room.

Abby closed her eyes and heaved in a deep breath. She was cursed. That had to be it. What else could possibly explain her unending run of bad luck?

For a moment she kept her back turned, futilely hoping Selena’s houseguest, the utterly annoying Dante, would disappear. It could happen. There was always spontaneous combustion, or black holes, or earthquakes.

Unfortunately, the ground didn’t open up to swallow him, nor did the smoke detectors set off a warning. Even worse she could actually feel his dark, amused gaze leisurely meandering over her stiff form.

Gathering her battered pride, Abby forced herself to slowly turn and regard the current bane of her existence.

He didn’t look like a bane. God’s truth he looked like a delicious, dangerously wicked pirate.

Still kneeling upon the floor, Abby allowed her gaze to travel over the black biker boots and long, powerful legs encased in faded denims. Ever higher, she skimmed over the black silk shirt that hung loosely upon his torso. Loose, but not loose enough, she acknowledged with a renegade shiver. Much to her embarrassment, she had caught herself sneaking peeks at the play of rippling muscles beneath those silky shirts during the past three months.

All right, maybe she had indulged in more than mere peeks.

Maybe she had been staring. Gawking. Ogling. Occasionally drooling.

What woman wouldn’t?

Gritting her teeth, she forced her gaze up to the alabaster face with its perfectly chiseled features. A wide brow, a narrow aristocratic nose, sharply defined cheekbones and lushly carved lips. They all came together with a fierce elegance.

It was the face of a noble warrior. A chieftain.

Until one noticed those pale silver eyes.

There was nothing noble in those disturbing eyes. They were piercing, wicked, and shimmering with a mocking amusement toward the world. They were eyes that branded him a ‘bad ass’ as easily as the long raven hair that carelessly tumbled well past his shoulders and the golden hoops he wore in his ears.

He was sex on legs. A predator. The sort that chewed up and spat out women like her with pathetic ease.

That was, when they bothered to notice women like her in the first place. Which was not very damn often.

“Dante. Do you have to skulk about like that?” she demanded, desperately aware of the priceless clutter just behind her.

He made a show of considering her question before offering a faint shrug.

“No, I don’t suppose I have to skulk about,” he murmured in his husky midnight voice. “I simply enjoy doing so.”

“Well, it’s a very vulgar habit.”

His lips twitched with amusement as he prowled ever closer. “Oh, I possess far more vulgar habits, sweet Abby. Several that I don’t doubt you would enjoy fully if only you would allow me to demonstrate.”

God, she just bet he did. Those slender, devilish hands would no doubt make a woman scream in pleasure. And those lips . . .

Abruptly she was squashing the renegade fantasy and stirring up the annoyance she most certainly should be feeling.

“Ack. You’re revolting.”

“Vulgar and revolting?” His smile widened to reveal startling white teeth. “My sweet, you are in a very precarious position to be tossing about such insults.”

Precarious? She battled the urge to glance down and discover if any shards of her crime were visible.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

With a flowing elegance, Dante was on his knees before her, those disturbing fingers lifting to lightly stroke her cheek. His touch was cool, almost cold, but it sent a startling flare of heat searing through her.

“Oh, I think you do. I seem to recall a rather precious Ming vase that used to sit upon that table. Tell me, lover, did you hock it or break it?”

Damn. He knew. She desperately attempted to think of some feasible lie to explain the missing vase. Or for that matter, any lie, feasible or not. Unfortunately, she had never been particularly skilled at prevarication.

And it didn’t much help that his lingering touch was turning her brain to mush.

“Don’t call me that,” she at last lamely muttered.

“What?” His brows lifted.

“Lover.”

“Why?”

“For the obvious fact that I’m not your lover.”

“Not yet.”

“Not ever.”

“Tsk, tsk.” Dante clicked his tongue as his fingers moved to boldly outline her lips. “Has no one ever warned you that it is dangerous to dare fate? It has a tendency to come back and bite you.” His gaze drifted over her pale countenance and the soft curve of her neck. “Sometimes quite literally.”

“Not in a million years.”

“I can wait,” he husked.

She gritted her teeth as those skillful fingers traveled down the arch of her throat and along the neckline of her plain cotton shirt. He was merely toying with her. Hell, the man would flirt with any woman who possessed a pulse. And maybe a few who didn’t.

“That finger moves any lower and your stay in the world is going to be considerably shorter.”

He gave a soft chuckle as he reluctantly allowed his hand to drop. “Do you know, Abby, someday you’re going to forget to say no. And on that day I intend to make you scream with pleasure.”

“My God, how do you possibly carry that ego around?”

His smile was pure wicked. “Do you think I don’t notice? All those covert glances when you think I’m not looking? The way you shiver when I brush past you? The dreams that haunt your nights?”

Conceited, puffed up toad.

She should laugh. Or pooh, pooh. Or even slap his arrogant face. Instead, she stiffened as if he had hit a nerve that she didn’t even know she possessed.

“Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?” she gritted. “The kitchen? The sewers? The fires of hell?”

Surprisingly, the pirate features hardened as his lips twisted into a sardonic smile.

“Nice try, my sweet, but I don’t need you to condemn me to the fires of hell. That was accomplished a long time ago. Why else would I be here?”

Abby gave a lift of her brows, intrigued in spite of herself by his hint of bitterness. For God’s sake, what more could he want? He possessed the sort of cushy life that most oversexed playboys could only dream of. A glamorous home. Expensive clothes. A silver Porsche. And a sugar mommy, who was not only young, but beautiful enough to make any male hot and bothered. His life was hardly in the gutter.

Unlike her own.

“Oh yes, you must really suffer,” she retorted, her gaze flicking over the silk shirt that cost more than her entire wardrobe. “My heart simply breaks for you.”

The silver eyes flashed with a startling heat as the fierce power that always smoldered about him prickled through the air.

“Do not presume to speak of things you know nothing about, lover,” he warned.

Just let it be, Abby, she sternly warned herself. Whatever his easy charm, the man was dangerous. A genuine Bad Boy. Only fools deliberately toyed with fire.

Of course, when it came to men, she might as well have the word IDIOT tattooed on her forehead.

“If you dislike being here, then why don’t you leave?”

He regarded her in unnerving silence before his eyes slowly narrowed. “Why don’t you?”

“What?”

“I’m not the only one suffering here, am I? Every day you seem to fade a bit more. As if your frustration and sadness has taken another piece of your soul.”

Abby nearly tumbled backward at his sharp perception. She had never dreamed that anyone could possibly have noted her desperation at her tedious existence, nor the budding fear that she would soon be too old and tired to care that she was going nowhere.

Certainly not this man.

“You don’t know anything.”

“I know a prison when I see one,” he murmured. “Why do you remain behind the bars when you could so easily slip away?”

She gave a short, humorless laugh. Easily? Obviously he was not nearly so perceptive as she had given him credit for.

“Because I need this job. Unlike you, I don’t have a generous lover to pay my bills and keep me in style. Some of us have to earn our pay with actual work.”

If she thought to insult him, she was far off the mark. In fact, her sharp words merely returned that mocking humor she found so damn annoying.

“You believe me to be Selena’s whore?”

“Aren’t you?”

He lifted a broad shoulder. “Our . . . relationship is a bit more complex than that.”

“Oh yes, no doubt being a boy-toy to a rich, glamorous woman is astonishingly complex.”

“Is that why you try to keep me at a distance? Because you believe I share Selena’s bed?”

“I keep you at a distance because I don’t like you.”

He leaned forward, until his lips were nearly touching her own. “You may not like me, sweetness, but that doesn’t keep you from wanting me.”

Her heart forgot to beat as she struggled not to close that shallow distance and put herself out of her misery. A kiss. Just one kiss. The tingling need was nearly unbearable.

No, no, no. Did she really want to be a poor joke to relieve his boredom? Hadn’t she played that humiliating game before?

“Do you know, Dante, I’ve met my share of jackasses in my time, but you . . .”

The rather tidy insult was brought to a stunning halt. In the air there was a sudden, crackling heat. As electrifying as a strike of lightning.

Unnerved by the prickling sensation, she turned her head toward the stairs just as a thundering concussion ripped through the house. Caught off guard, she tumbled backward, her breath knocked from her body.

Just for a moment, she lay perfectly still. She half expected the ceiling to come crumbling down upon her. Or the ground to open up and swallow her.

What the blazes had happened? An earthquake? A gas explosion?

The end of the world?

Whatever it was, it had been enough to tumble the pictures from the walls and knock over tables. Suddenly, the Ming vase she had broken matched every other priceless object.

Giving a shake of her head to clear the ringing in her ears, Abby sucked in a deep breath. Well, at least she seemed to be alive, she told herself. And while she was certain to be sporting a few bruises, she didn’t think anything vital was actually missing or punctured.

Lying flat on her back, she barely heard the low feral growl, but it still managed to make the hair upon her nape stand upright. Dear lord, now what?

Struggling to push herself upright, she glanced about the littered foyer. Astonishingly it was empty. No wild animal. No approaching madman.

And no Dante.

With a frown, Abby ignored her wobbly knees and forced herself toward the nearby stairs. Where had Dante gone? Had he been hit by the explosion? Or thrown from the foyer?

Had he simply disappeared in a puff of smoke?

No, no of course not. She pressed a hand to her aching head. She was thinking crazy. She must have been knocked unconscious for a moment. That would explain it. No doubt he had gone to check on the damage. Or to call for assistance.

Her job was surely to ensure that Selena was not injured.

Concentrating upon placing one foot in front of the other, a startling difficult task, she managed to climb the sweeping marble stairs and awkwardly made her way down the hallway. At the end of the long east wing, the door to Selena’s chambers was already open and Abby stepped over the threshold.

She got no further.

A gasp was wrenched from her throat as her wide gaze swept over the demolished room. Like downstairs the pictures and various objects had been tumbled to the ground, most of them smashed beyond recognition. But here the general mayhem had left the walls blackened and in places crumbled to dust. Even the windows had been blasted from their frames.

Her gaze flew to the large bed that was tumbled onto its side and at last to the center of the room where Dante was kneeling beside a limp, battered form.

“Oh my God.” Holding her hands to her mouth, Abby stumbled forward, her heart firmly lodged in her throat. “Selena.”

Noticing her presence for the first time, Dante jerked his head up to regard her with a frown. Almost absently, Abby noted the even sharper pallor of his skin and the oddly hectic glitter in his silver eyes.

Obviously he was as shaken as she was.

“Get out of here,” he growled.

She ignored his warning as she fell to her knees beside the burned body. Whatever her secret dislike for the beautiful, coldhearted woman it was forgotten as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Is she . . . dead?” she croaked.

“Abby, I said to leave. Now. Get out of this room. Out of this house . . .”

The dark, furious words continued, but Abby was no longer listening. Instead, she watched in fascinated horror as one of the charred hands twitched upon the carpet. Holy freaking hell. Could the poor woman still be alive? Or was it some horrible trick of her imagination?

Frozen in shock, Abby stared at the fingers that continued to jerk and spasm ever closer. It was like something out of a nightmare. A sensation that only deepened when the hand snapped upward and grasped her wrist in a painful grasp.

Opening her mouth to scream, Abby discovered her breath wrenched from her body. A coldness was spreading from the fingers that dug into her flesh. A coldness that crawled through her blood with a searing, ruthless agony. With a groan, she desperately attempted to tug herself free of the brutal grip.

She was going to die, she realized in stunned disbelief. The pain was clawing at her heart, slowing its beat until it was doomed to halt. She was going to die and she hadn’t even bothered to start living yet.

What an idiot she was.

Raising her head, she met Dante’s shimmering metallic gaze. His beautiful, wicked features appeared grim in the dim light. Grim and edged with something that might have been fury, or regret, or . . . desperation.

She tried to speak, but a bright flare of light burst through her mind and with a strangled scream, she plunged head first into the welcoming darkness.

 

 

When Abby at last woke again the silver fog, and the sharpest edges of her pain, had disappeared.

Still, with uncommon caution, she forced herself to remain perfectly motionless. After the day she had already endured, now didn’t seem to be the best time to be charging and blundering about in her usual style. Instead, she attempted to take stock of her surroundings.

She was lying upon a bed, she at last decided. Not her own bed, however. This one was hard and lumpy and possessed a funky scent she didn’t even want to consider. In the distance she could hear the sounds of passing traffic and closer, the muffled sound of voices, or perhaps a television.

Well, she wasn’t in Selena’s charred house. She was no longer in a damp dungeon with screaming women and demons. And she wasn’t dead.

That was surely progress?

Screwing up her courage, Abby slowly lifted her head from the pillow and glanced about the shadowed room. There wasn’t much to see. The bed she was lying upon consumed most of the cramped space. About her were bare walls and the ugliest flowered curtains ever created. At the end of the bed was a broken dresser that held an ancient television and in the corner was a shabby chair.

A chair that was currently occupied by a large, raven-haired man.

Or was he a man?

Her heart squeezed with a building dread as her gaze swept over the slumbering Dante. God. She would have to be demented to think what she was thinking.

Vampires? Living and breathing . . . or whatever it was that vampires did . . . in Chicago? Nuts. Full out, engines roaring, madness.

But the dream. It had been so vivid. So real. Even now she could smell the foul, damp air and the acrid burning of the torch. She could hear the screams and chanting. She could hear the rattling of heavy chains. She could see Dante being pulled forward, and the fangs that marked him as a beast.

Real or not, it had unnerved her enough to desire a bit of space between her and Dante. And perhaps several crosses, a few wooden stakes, and a bottle of holy water.

Barely daring to breathe, Abby sat upright and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. Her head threatened to revolt but she gritted her teeth and pushed herself upward. She wanted out of here.

She wanted to be in her familiar home, surrounded by her familiar things.

She wanted out of this nightmare.

Taking one unsteady step followed by another and another, Abby moved across the room. She was just upon the point of reaching for the doorknob when there was the faintest whisper of sound behind her. The hair on the nape of her neck tingled before a pair of steely arms wrapped about her.

“Not so fast, lover,” a dark voice murmured directly in her ear.

For a moment her mind went blank and she was paralyzed with fear. Then sheer panic took control.

Arching her back, she frantically attempted to kick at his legs. “Let me go. Let go.”

“Go?” His arms merely tightened at her struggles. “Tell me, sweet, where do you plan to go?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Surprisingly, he gave a short, humorless laugh. “My God, you don’t know how I wish that were true. We were both released, do you realize that? We were free. The chains were broken.”

Abby stilled at his rough, accusing words. “What do you mean?”

He brushed his face over the top of her head in an oddly intimate manner before he was firmly turning her to meet his shimmering gaze.

“I mean that if you had kept that beautiful nose out of matters that are none of your business, we both could have gone upon our merry way. Now, because of your Florence Nightingale act, where you go, what you do, what you bloody well think, is now very much my business.”

What the hell was he talking about? Unconsciously, her wide gaze skimmed over the perfect alabaster features. The last thing she needed was more troubles.

“You’re insane. Let me go or . . .”

“Or what?” he demanded in silky tones.

Good question. A pity she didn’t have a brilliant answer.

“I . . . I’ll scream.”

The dark brows lifted in sardonic amusement. “And do you truly want to discover just what sort of hero is going to rush to your rescue in this place? Who do you think it will be? The local crackheads? The whores working the lobby? You know, I’d place my money on the drunk next door. There was a definite hint of rape in the air when I carried you past him in the hall.”

Suddenly, Abby understood the cramped room, the vile smells, and echoes of despair. Dante had taken her to one of the endless seedy hotels that catered to the poor and desperate.

She might have shivered in disgust if it hadn’t been the least of her worries.

“They couldn’t be any worse than you.”

He stiffened at her accusation, his expression guarded. “Rather harsh words for the man who might very well have saved your life.”

“Man? Is that what you are?”

“What did you say?”

His fingers dug into her shoulders and belatedly Abby realized that confronting Dante directly, might not have been the wisest decision.

Still she had to know. Ignorance might be bliss, but it was also freaking dangerous.

“You . . . I saw you. In the dream.” She shivered as the memories burned through her mind. “You were chained and they were chanting and your . . . your fangs . . .”

“Abby.” He gazed deep into her eyes. “Sit down and I’ll explain.”

“No.” She gave a frantic shake of her head. “What are you going to do to me?”

His lips twisted at her shrill tone. “Although several enticing ideas have passed through my mind upon various occasions, for the moment I plan nothing more than talking with you. Will you calm down long enough to listen?”

The very fact that he hadn’t laughed and told her that she had lost her mind, only deepened Abby’s terror. He knew of the dream. He recognized it.

Allowing instinct to take over, Abby forced herself to pretend a resignation she was far from feeling.

“Do I have a choice?”

He shrugged. “Not really.”

“Very well.”

Weakly following his lead toward the bed, Abby waited until Dante was convinced of his victory before reaching out to push him sharply away. Caught off guard he stumbled, and in the blink of an eye she was bolting toward the door.

She was fast. Growing up with five older brothers ensured she was well practiced in running from a potential massacre. But shockingly, she had taken only a few steps when Dante’s arms were wrapping about her and lifting her off her feet.

With a muffled scream, she reached her arms over her head and grasped two handfuls of his silky hair. He gave a low grunt as she gave a violent tug. Still keeping grasp of his hair with one hand, she shifted the other to dig her nails into the side of his face.

“Dammit, Abby,” he muttered, his grip loosening as he sought to ward off her attack.

Not pausing for a moment, Abby wriggled free and turning, she aimed a kick that over the years had proven to bring even the largest of men to a screeching halt. Dante gasped as he doubled over in pain, and not pausing to admire her handiwork, Abby lunged for the door.

On this occasion, she managed to actually touch the knob before she was roughly hauled up and over a broad shoulder and carried back to the bed. She screamed again as Dante easily tossed her onto the foul mattress, and then shockingly followed her downward to cover her struggling form with one much larger, and much harder.

More frightened than she had ever been in her life, Abby gazed into the pale face with its unearthly beauty. She was sharply, disturbingly aware of his lean muscles pressing against her. And the knowledge that he held her completely at his mercy.

Uncertain what was about to happen, she was startled when a slow smile curved his lips.

“You possess powerful weapons for such a tiny thing, lover,” he murmured. “Have you practiced those rather nasty tricks often?”

Somehow his teasing managed to ease a portion of her rabid terror. Surely, if he were going to suck her dry he wouldn’t be indulging in conversation?

Unless of course vampires preferred a bit of pre-dinner chat?

“I have five older brothers,” she gritted.

“Ah, that would explain it. Survival of the fittest, or in this case, survival of the one with the dirtiest arsenal.”

“Get off me.”

He gave a lift of his brows. “And risk becoming a eunuch? No thanks. We’ll finish our discussion without anymore scratching, hair pulling, or low blows.”

She glared into his mocking expression. “We have nothing to discuss.”

“Oh no,” he drawled, “nothing beyond the fact your employer was just barbequed to a crisp, the fact that I’m a vampire, and the fact that thanks to your stupidity you now have every demon in the vicinity after your head. Nothing at all to discuss.”

Barbequed employers, vampires, and now demons? It was too much. Way, way too much.

Abby closed her eyes as her heart squeezed with horror.

“This is a nightmare. Dear God, please let Freddy Krueger walk through the door.”

“This is no nightmare, Abby.”

“It’s not possible.” She reluctantly lifted her lids to meet the glittering silver gaze. “You’re a vampire?”

He grimaced. “My heritage is the least of your concern at the moment.”

Heritage? She swallowed a hysterical urge to laugh. “Did Selena know?”

“That I was a vampire? Oh yes, she knew.” His tone was dry. “In fact, you could say that it was a prerequisite to my employment.”

Abby frowned. “Then she was a vampire too?”

“No.” Dante paused as if carefully considering his words. Ridiculous, since he could have informed her that Selena was Beelzebub and she couldn’t have twitched a muscle as long as he held her in his relentless grip. “She was . . . a Chalice.”

“Chalice?” Her blood ran cold. The woman screaming in agony. The crimson flames. “The Phoenix,” she breathed.

His brows drew together in shock. “How did you know that?”

“The dream. I was in a dungeon and there was a woman lying on the floor. I think the other women were performing some ritual upon her.”

“Selena,” he muttered. “She must have passed a portion of her memories onto you. That’s the only explanation.”

“Passed on memories? But that’s . . .” Her words trailed away as a mocking smile curved his lips.

“Impossible? Don’t you think we’re beyond that by now?”

They were, of course. She had tumbled into some bizarro world where anything was possible. Like Alice in the Looking Glass.

Only instead of disappearing cats and white rabbits there were vampires and mysterious Chalices and who knew what else?

“What did they do to her?”

“They made her a Chalice. A human vessel for a powerful entity.”

“So those women were witches?”

“For lack of a better term.”

Great. Just great. “And they put a spell upon Selena?”

The silver eyes shimmered in the shadowed light. “It was rather more than a spell. They called forth the spirit of the Phoenix to live within her body.”

Abby could almost feel the crimson flames that had seared into the woman’s flesh. She shivered in horror. “No wonder she was screaming. What does this Phoenix do?”

“It is a . . . barrier.”

She eyed him warily. “A barrier against what?”

“Against the darkness.”

Well, that made everything as clear as mud. Impatiently, Abby wriggled beneath the man pinning her to the bed.

A bad, very bad move.

As if a lightning bolt had suddenly struck her, she was vibrantly aware of his hard body branding her own. A body that had haunted her dreams more than a few nights.

Dante’s jaw tightened at her unwittingly provocative movements, his hips instinctively shifting in response.

“Do you think you could possibly be a little more vague?” she managed to choke out.

“What would you have me say?” he demanded in rasping tones.

She struggled to keep her thoughts focused. Good God. Now was no time to be thinking of . . . of . . . that.

“Something a bit more clarifying than the darkness.”

There was a moment of silence, as if he were waging his own battle. Then at last he met her gaze squarely.

“Very well. The demon-world refers to the darkness as the Prince, but in truth it isn’t a real being. It is more a . . . spirit, just as the Phoenix is a spirit. An essence of power that demons call upon to enhance their dark skills.”

“And the Phoenix does something to this Prince?”

“Her presence among mortals has banished the Prince from this world. They are two opposites. Neither can be in the same plane at the same moment. Not without both being destroyed.”

Well, that seemed like a good thing. The first ray of hope in a very bleak day.

“So, no more demons?”

He gave a lift of his shoulder. “They remain but without the tangible presence of the Prince, they are weakened and chaotic. No longer do they band together to attack in strength and rarely do they hunt humans. They have been forced into the shadows.”

“That’s good, I suppose,” she said slowly. “And Selena was this barrier?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He blinked at the abrupt question. “Why?”

“Why was she chosen?” Abby clarified, not quite certain why she even cared. She only knew that at the moment it seemed important. “Was she a witch?”

Oddly Dante paused, almost as if he were considering not answering her question. Ridiculous after all he had already revealed. What could be worse than the fact she was being held captive by a vampire? Or that the one person who kept away all the scary, bad things in the night was now dead?

“She was not so much chosen as offered as a sacrifice by her father,” he at last grudgingly confessed.

“She was sacrificed by her father?” Abby gave a startled blink. Hell, she had always thought her father was a shoo-in for scumbag of the year. He had been a brutal jerk whose only redeeming act had been tossing aside his family for a bottle of whiskey. Still, he hadn’t offered her up as fodder to a band of crazed witches. “How could he do such a thing?”

The elegant features hardened with ancient anger. “Quite easily. He was powerful, rich, and accustomed to having his way in all things. Or he was, until he was struck down with the plague. In exchange for a cure, he gave the witches his only daughter.”

“Holy crap. That’s horrible.”

“I suppose he thought it a fair trade off. He was cured and his daughter made immortal.”

“Immortal?” Abby caught her breath with sudden hope.

“Then Selena is still alive?”

The beautiful features sharpened even further. “No, she is very much dead.”

“But . . . how?”

“I don’t know.” His tone was rough with coiled emotions.

“At least not yet.”

Abby bit her bottom lip, attempting to wrap her aching brain around the consequences of such a death.

“Then the Phoenix is gone?”

“No, it is not gone. It is . . .” Without warning, Dante flowed to his feet, his head turning toward the closed door. A tense silence filled the room before he at last returned his gaze to her startled face. “Abby, we must go. Now.”