“I’ve already made my decision. Marry me.”

I blinked, startled. “What?”

“Marry me. In fact, why not right here and now?” Rising to his feet, he took my hands in his.

“Because we’re in the dream realm. Nothing’s binding here, don’t be silly.” Frustrated, I tugged my hands away.

“‘Why should Titania cross her Oberon?’” he quoted, smiling slyly.

“Because I can’t trust you. You’ll just end up resenting me and then you’ll leave. Titania and Oberon aren’t exactly a healthy example to base a relationship on.”

“We’ll work it out.”

“Yeah, ’cause that worked so well before,” I snapped, scowling at him. “You’re not my Oberon. You never were. Just leave me alone.”

The wind picked up, whipping my hair behind me as another rumble of thunder sounded. Lex glanced around and then cursed viciously. Lightning flashed, splitting the sky, and my heart beat wildly. He stood ready to protect me from the danger invading our grove, and then he turned and gripped my arm.

“Don’t let him bite you again, Cat. It’s poison. He’s trying to control you-”

And just like that the dream was gone, and the rest of the night was quiet and empty.

In the morning my clothing order arrived, including a few items I knew I hadn’t requested but apparently Zach thought I needed. At least his fashion choices were more conservative than Laura’s, so I let it slide. True to his word, Zach showed up to take me out to dinner that evening. The vampire continued his attempt to convince me that he was Prince Charming instead of the Prince of Darkness, probably hoping that if he won my heart I’d continue speaking to him after I left. I learned that part of his master plan included escorting me to the opening of the new show in his art gallery the night before the full moon, where I’d get to do my best arm-candy impression in a dress that cost more than my last semester at college.

Harrison spent the majority of his free time trying to romance me. More dinners, more movies, a thrilling tour of Vampire Central and the many luxury amenities within it, all with magician political commentary and the things we could do together to change things for the better. It began to make sense-I could see myself working with him, using my influence to impact the future of magiciankind.

Though I was loathe to admit it, with all the time we spent together I started to tolerate him a bit more. I even let him kiss me good night at the end of our pseudo-dates-it seemed reasonable that if allowing the vampire kiss me kept him happy enough to keep his word and let me and Mac leave when the moon was full, then I should just endure it. And as much as I complained about Zach’s status of walking corpse, the kissing wasn’t a horrifying experience. For the most part, if I didn’t already know he was a vampire, it’d be hard to tell. Zach kept himself reasonably warm to the touch, the miracle of spray-on tan gave his skin a healthy glow, and his smile was harmless since real vampires don’t sport constant fangs like movie monsters. When he wasn’t attempting vamp magic he smelled only of cologne and a slight scent of soap. If I didn’t have such a scarred past and a turbulent present, I could have fallen for Zach’s act. He’d even worked his way into my subconscious, because now when I dreamed, I dreamed of Zach.

In his lair again (though in my opinion anything called a lair ought to have torches, cobwebs and a coffin), Zach sat next to me on the couch as we watched another movie. An action-packed thriller, it featured lots of explosions and car chases that took full advantage of the big-screen TV and surround-sound system. He slid his arm around my shoulders halfway through the film, and turning toward him, I raised an eyebrow, looking from the encroaching arm to those gorgeous green eyes.

“You’re invading my space. Go watch the movie on the other end of the couch.”

“No.”

“No? Okay, I’ll go watch the movie on the other end of the couch then.” Rising to my feet, I tried to walk past him and found myself suddenly tugged into his lap.

“There, much better.” Zach grinned.

“Oh no it isn’t, we’ve been over this before, now let me go.” I sighed, trying to escape, but Harrison shook his head and held me in place. Reaching up, he caressed my cheek, and then trailed his fingers down the side of my neck.

“Don’t,” I warned him.

“I’m not going to bite you.”

I started to argue but was cut off when he kissed me. By now I’d gotten used to Zach and his demanding, intense kisses-at the end of the night he kept expecting me to melt into a puddle of willing goo and invite him into my suite, and I kept rebuffing his efforts and closing the door in his face.

When it became apparent he wasn’t about to let me go I decided to give him a no-nonsense magical shove to get my point across. To my immediate surprise my shields didn’t snap into place as I expected. They formed around me, but they stretched to include Harrison. Just like they did with Lex.

Sensing the change, the vampire pulled away and looked deep into my eyes for a moment, and he smiled. The expression frightened me more than if he’d flashed fangs at me.

“How…how did you do that?”

“You can’t keep me out, Catherine. Not anymore.” Though his voice was still soft, his tone had a threatening edge to it, a hint of the predator that lurked beneath the benign smile.

“What did you do?”

Harrison continued to smile, ignoring my discomfort. “Would you like something to drink? A glass of wine, perhaps?”

“Sure, wine is good,” I lied. Anything to get away. He released me, and I squirmed away from him and retreated to a safe distance. I had no idea how he’d managed to get around my shields. Sure, he’d surrounded me with his shields in the limo when Portia tried to shoot him, but that was different. I followed him to the bar, and he poured a glass of deep red wine.

“There’s dessert here as well, chocolate-covered strawberries.” He waved at a covered plate next to where he stood. Though I certainly had no appetite at the moment I removed the cover, discovering an arrangement of fat, luscious-looking berries decorated with intricate designs in white and dark chocolate. The vampire held the glass out to me, reaching through my shields as though nothing was there at all. Glaring at him, I took the glass and backed away.

“How are you doing that?”

“It’s very simple, actually. We’re connected, you can’t keep me out.”

“How are we connected? We weren’t connected before. I could keep you out a few days ago, what changed?”

“You have,” Zach answered. “Is the wine not to your liking?” I glanced down and sniffed at the dark liquid, almost expecting to see an ominous skull and crossbones swirling within the glass. When I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with it I took a sip-raspberry wine, one of my favorites. “It hasn’t been tampered with.”

“The wine hasn’t, but I have?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way, no. It’s actually quite an honor among necromancers.”

“I’m not a necromancer.”

Shrugging, he surveyed the selection of strawberries, picked one up and bit into it. “Not bad, you should try one.”

“Just explain what you did.”

“We’re attuned to each other now. You can’t use harmful magic against me, but I can’t use it against you either. I can’t force you to do anything, but you can’t keep pushing me away.” With his usual calm, polite air about him he explained the situation while peering down at the tray of berries. “Together, however, we strengthen each other’s abilities. With enough practice one can even tell what the other is thinking or feeling.” Selecting one, he held it out to me and I glared at it, struggling to figure out exactly what he meant. I’d never heard of two people becoming attuned to each other in a magic-type sense.

“And how is that possible?”