"Ah. That must be challenging. I don't think I could deal with unhappy people for long."

"It's horrible. I've hopes to advance very soon, though, so it's an evil I'll bear a bit longer."

"Good for you. So how long did you say you and your wife have been ghost hunting?"

We passed the next hour chatting about minutiae, both of us watching with indulgent eyes as the ghost group moved from room to room. By the end of the second hour, with nothing to show for their work but some numbers written down from instrument readings, even Sarah's enthusiasm was beginning to drag. We drove back to the pub in relative silence—her in contemplation of the meager proceedings of the evening, and me in anticipation of seeing Theo again.

I went to bed alone, my errant vampire-cum-nephilim still out on his vessel hunt. When I found he wasn't back at the pub, I offered to help him hunt for the Court member, but Theo insisted he was almost done. Even separated by some thirty miles or so, he seemed to sense the exhaustion that was making it hard for me to think. I didn't argue when he ordered me to bed, just sent him an image of what I intended to do to him when he made his way back to me.

My dreams were confused, but much more vivid than I remembered in the past. I woke frequently at little noises in the pub, but, sadly, remained alone. I slipped into a nightmare where giant wasps stung me repeatedly. Slowly it melted into something much more pleasant, the stings of the wasps morphing into little fluttering brushes of wings as the wasps changed into brilliant blue hummingbirds. I writhed with pleasure on the ground, naked, warmed by the sun that shown down with such intensity that I could feel its heat deep inside me, in dark, hidden places that only came to life when Theo was around. The soft, gentle touches of the birds' wings didn't soothe me, however—they made me squirm even harder, leaving me wanting to both escape their oddly erotic touches and pull them tighter to me. One of the birds landed on my belly, giving me a long look with its dark eyes before dipping its head and stabbing at my hip with a long, sharp beak.

"Sweet mother of reason," I gasped, suddenly awake. Theo's head was bent over my hip, his dark curls brushing against my skin as the pain of his teeth piercing my skin was already melting into something so pleasurable I never wanted him to stop. His fingers fluttered for a moment against aroused, sensitive flesh, then plunged inside me in a move that had me arching back into the bed, my hips rising to meet the movement of his fingers.

Salus invenitur, Theo moaned into my mind as he drank deep from me. You taste sweeter than nectar, Portia. How can something so wonderful hurt so bad at the same time?

My body tightened around his fingers, blinding me to everything but the need I felt within him, and the answer that lay within me.

"It's too much," he said, lifting his head from my hip. His eyes were black as polished ebony, his face hard with hunger and passion and want.

"No," I said, feeling as if my guts had been strung tight. I pushed him onto his back, and climbed over him. "But this may be."

He tasted as I knew he would—hot, male, and incredibly wonderful, the firm flesh of his penis both silky soft and as hard as steel. He moaned aloud, his head thrown back against the mattress, both hands clutching the sheets beneath us as I took my time exploring him, reading his mind with ease, noting what drove him into a frenzy.

His rising passion and arousal fed mine. The knee I was straddling while I pleasured him jerked beneath me, pressing tight into my own sensitive flesh. The bolt of ecstasy that ripped through me as a result took me by surprise, but not as much as Theo suddenly grabbing my hips and hauling me up his body, thrusting upward into me as he pressed me down. Existence ceased to be, my world, the entire universe, narrowing to the man beneath me who urged me, with little cries of pleasure, to ride him faster.

How did I exist this long without you? Theo asked as his mouth closed over my breast, his teeth sinking deep into my soft flesh at the same time he exploded into a tremendous orgasm, the strength of it pushing me over into my own. His body pulsed and pumped into me while I quite simply ceased to be me, the Portia I'd known for thirty-eight years, and became instead the Portia who was part of Theo. I'd never believed that a woman needed a man to be complete, but this was different. This wasn't a matter of social mores or gender issues, or even the biological need for a mate. I knew to the depths of my soul that Theo enriched me in ways that no other human could, and that knowledge shook me.

It's strange, isn't it? Theo's hands stroked gently up my back as I lay on his chest, my heart thumping wildly in my chest, my breath ragged and jerky against his shoulder. One minute we're going about our business in life, and the next our beings are so tightly intertwined with someone else's, there's no way to separate them again.

I don't want them separated, I said without thinking, then realized that what I said sounded weak and cloying.

His hands stilled for a moment. I could never think you weak, love. You are the strongest woman I know.

I lifted my head to look into his eyes, half fearing there would be pity or something just as painful in them, but to my relief they were filled only with satiation and an unabashed love that made me want to sing with happiness. I'd say I was sorry this happened, but I'm not sorry. I regret that your soul has been lost through my ignorance, but even that can't dampen the joy you bring me.

Silly woman. He pulled me back down onto his chest, his body still buried deep inside me. His lips were sweet against mine, his words sweeter still as they brushed gently against my mind. What's a soul compared to this?

Chapter 18

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down with a smile that was shared between Theo and me.

"Plotting out a battle plan. Good morning, Darla. I'm not feeling myself, so I'll just have toast. I believe Theo wants a traditional breakfast, minus the tomato."

Theo nodded at the waitress. "Indeed I do. With lots of preserves, please."

"Since when do you not eat like a horse at breakfast?" Sarah asked when Darla had toddled off to bring us our breakfast orders.

"Since Theo prefers to appear perfectly normal, right down to eating food. Besides, I'm eating for two," I answered, pushing a piece of paper across the table at her. "This is our plan, so far. What do you think?"

I thought her eyes were going to pop out. "You're eating for two? You're not—"

"No, I meant I'm eating to keep my blood up, so Theo can eat as well."

"Oh. You scared me there for a minute." Sarah sipped at her tea while she read over the list. When she got to the good part, she choked. "You can't be serious!"

"Perfectly. It was Theo's idea, actually, but I think it makes a lot of sense."

"You're going to break into heaven?" She gawked at us, a good old-fashioned, mouth-hanging-open gawk. "You're going to break into heaven?"

"We're going to enter the Court through a different entrance," Theo corrected. "Everything I heard last night pointed to the vessel I sought deliberately covering his tracks. Presumably, he's running from the same thing that Hope hinted about to Portia. Since we don't know what that threat is, we're going to have to find the vessel first."

"But why should we go to the Court if he is in hiding from someone or something?" she asked. "He's hardly going to be there, is he?"

I smiled at her. I loved it when Sarah used the logic I knew she possessed. "No, he won't be there, but something else is—it's the only place we can access the Akashic Records outside of the Akasha itself, and there's no way I'm going back there, thank you very much."