"Lie still. You can have your wanton way as soon as I'm done here."

"Done what? What are you doing? What are you…oh, sweet mother of reason!"

Theo's tongue swirled over the spot on my neck that seemed to tingle in a not-unpleasant manner. His entire body froze. Mine went up in flames at his touch. He looked at me. I looked at him.

His fangs were back.

"Did it stop the bleeding?" I asked, clutching big handfuls of the bedding to keep from grabbing him.

"Yes." He seemed to have lost his breath again, his eyes ebony pools of desire, need, and passion.

"Do it again!" I demanded, pulling him down onto me.

He resisted for all of three seconds, then gave in to both our desires. I arched back against the bed as his teeth pierced my breast, his pleasure and satisfaction mingling with my own rapture as he drank.

Now I know why the ladies at work love those vampire books. Holy moly!

Chapter 11

"Here's another scone. And more coffee. Why did Theo tell me to tell you to be sure to put lots of jam on the scone?"

I accepted the plate of scones and cup of coffee, although I wasn't sure I could consume either. It was my fifth cup of coffee and fourth scone, and I was getting full. "He wants me to rebuild my strength."

"Uh-huh." Sarah sat down across from me, the tiny private dining room blissfully empty of everyone but the two of us. "OK, I've been the good friend. I didn't once smirk when Theo emerged from your room this morning. I didn't make any jokes about the fact that you obviously have the hickey to end all hickeys under that bandage on your neck. And I haven't even hinted that I'd like full details about what the two of you have been up to, even though, as your best friend, I believe I'm due some consideration in that area."

I sighed and pushed the half-eaten scone away.

"And just who is that man in the Indiana Jones hat who has been talking to Theo for the last hour?"

"His name is Christian Dante."

"Dante?" She looked thoughtful as she stirred a spoon of sugar in her tea. "There's an author named C. J. Dante, but he lives in the Czech Republic, not England. I wonder if he's related?"

"No idea. Christian is…" I took a deep breath and looked Sarah dead in the eye. "He's a vampire."

"A vampire?" Sarah's eyes grew huge. She dropped the spoon, chipping the edge of the saucer. "Oh my god, a Dark One? Then that has to be C. J. Dante! He writes about Dark Ones! Good god, I had no idea he was in England. We have the same publisher. I have to meet him!"

"Hang on a second," I said, stopping Sarah as she was about to rush out of the room. "There's something more."

"I have always wanted to meet a Dark One! Dante makes them sound so incredibly sexy! All dark and tormented, spending long centuries seeking their Beloved. This is wild! What is the something more?"

Dark and tormented. It didn't quite fit Theo, but who was I to quibble? "It's about Theo. He's…last night we…oh, I don't know where to start."

Sarah patted my hand in a comforting manner. "A simple, 'We had wild, sweaty bunny sex' would do."

"Well, we didn't. I mean, we did, but that's not all we did." I tried to sort out my unusually tangled thoughts. "We didn't start out the evening that way. I went to bed not long after you, and woke up in a crypt."

"A crypt? What crypt?"

"One in the ruined abbey we saw two days ago. I wasn't alone in the crypt—there was a woman named Noelle, who was some sort of demon wrangler or something. She said she was there to administer the third trial. She summoned a demon, and I was supposed to subdue it."

I thought Sarah's eyes were going to pop right out of her head. "Oh my god! A demon?" She scrabbled in her purse for the minirecorder she carried around to make notes on book ideas. "Start over again. I want to get all of this down."

I told her about the trial, how Theo had shown up, and how my experience with the demon had at last dropped the blinkers from my eyes.

"About time, too," Sarah said with no little satisfaction.

"I'm willing to concede you were right, and admit you won the bet, but any 'I told you sos' will be summarily ignored."

She grinned. "Fair enough. It's worth swallowing them to get you to admit you were wrong. Proceed."

By the time I had described our time spent with the demon lord, Sarah was taking frantic notes on a tiny notepad. "This is incredible material. I can't believe you had the balls to talk back to a demon lord! So, what was this curse he put on Theo? It can't be too serious—he looked fine a few minutes ago. And obviously, if you guys spent the night together, I take it that none of his various and sundry parts were harmed."

I looked past her, out the window. It was sunny and fairly warm. An hour earlier, Theo had stepped outside the pub to greet the Dark One who had come to see him, only to end up with a nasty burn on his arms and face. It seemed that about one thing, legend was correct—vampires and sunlight didn't mix. "No, nothing was harmed in the way you mean…unless you call having your soul ripped from your being and a curse damning you to eternal vampire-hood harm. Which, it need not be said, I do."

Sarah did her googly-eyed impression of a pug. "You're kidding!"

I lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Oh dear god, you're not kidding! Theo is a vampire?"

"Could you speak a little louder, Sarah? I don't think everyone in the village heard you."

"He's a vampire?" Her voice dropped until it was a husky whisper. "He can't be a vampire—he's an angel."

"No, he's the son of a fallen angel, and evidently there is no rule that says nephilims can't also be vampires. I am told the correct terminology is Dark One. That's why the Christian person is here—Theo's hoping to get some information from him about how to go about changing back to his normal self. Or as normal as an immortal person can be."

"This is absolutely astounding," Sarah said, her eyes distant as she poked a scone with her butter knife. "I can't believe this is really happening, but you're the last person on earth who would ever try to pull my leg about something like this. A vampire! You know, Portia…" She looked up at me. "There are some drawbacks to having a boyfriend who is a Dark One."

Theo found me five minutes later, wiping my eyes and hiccupping with the aftereffects of laughter that was only slightly tinged with hysteria.

"I'm delighted to see you're so amused about the situation," he said, handing me the napkin that had fallen from my lap.

"It's better to laugh than go outright insane. Did you get all the information you needed?"

Theo turned and gestured to the man in the doorway. "Yes, thanks to Christian."

"We did not have the opportunity to be introduced earlier," Christian said, coming forward and taking my hand. He made an old-fashioned bow over it that should have seemed hokey, but was quite the opposite. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance. It is not often I meet a Beloved who is also a member of the Court of Divine Blood."

"Beloved?" I sent Theo a quick, embarrassed glance. "We've only just…that is, we're not really…we're not…oh, crap." I glared at Theo. "Would you like to tell the man that we only just met, and have not yet established if there is a relationship waiting to happen?"

The two men exchanged looks. Sarah looked uncomfortable. The silence in the room was thick with some unspoken comment.

"What?" I asked them all.

"There are a few things I need to explain to you," Theo said, taking my hand and pulling me toward the hall.

"You have my mobile number if you have any other questions," Christian said as I reluctantly followed my personal champion.

Theo tossed a thank you over his shoulder. As I closed the door, Sarah was pouncing on Christian with an explanation of who she was, and how they were related by publisher.