Erin grinned. "I'll bet you've got a collection of war stories to make a historian drool." Then she shook her head. "Too bad I don't have time to hear them if we're going to get out of here. So. The legends about the Round Table are true."
"No, actually, they're about ninety percent bullshit, but the court did exist. But Camelot was more than knights and ladies, and Merlin was a hell of a lot more than the Druid magician of legend. To begin with, he wasn't even human. He and Nimue—"
"Nimue. That was the Lady of the Lake, right?"
"Right. They were—well, I guess you'd call them aliens."
"Aliens." He watched her struggle with her instinct to scoff. "Like ET-phone-home aliens?"
"Not… exactly. For one thing, they weren't just from another planet, they were from another universe. This one, the Mageverse."
"Hold on. You're saying we're in another universe? Now?" She went to one of the windows. Their cell was surrounded by what appeared to be a garden gone jungle, complete with huge, softly glowing roses nodding in the pearlescent light of the Mageverse moon.
As Reece looked out over her shoulder, a tiny, glowing creature flitted up to land on one of the roses by the window. She—and it was definitely a she, with those delicate breasts—folded butterfly wings and parted the petals until she could reach into the flower's heart. She drew out minuscule fingers covered in glittering pollen.
"Please tell me that's not what it looks like."
"Sorry. It's a fairy."
"Jesus." Erin blinked as the tiny Sidhe began delicately licking the pollen from graceful fingertips. Her hair was as pink as cotton candy. "Hey, you think we could get her attention, ask her to get help?"
"Worth a try." He reached out and tapped on the window. The fairy looked up in alarm and stared into the window. Her big eyes narrowed, and she lifted one tiny fist to extend a finger before flying angrily off.
Erin blinked. "Did she just flip us the bird?"
Reece found himself swallowing a snort of laughter. "Looked like it. I don't think she could really see inside. The Magekind have good relationships with the Sidhe. I can't believe she wouldn't help, if she'd known we were locked up in here."
Heart pounding, Janieda beat her wings as fast as she could. She had to get to the palace and Llyr.
She had to warn her king that something new had been locked up in Geirolf's old cell.
Something dangerous.
She'd seen it the moment she'd stared into the magic-darkened glass: a vision.
The king, his beloved face blank and slack in a sleep that was more than sleep. And a woman—a human, her hands surrounded by a nimbus of magic. It was one of the Majae Llyr had been trying to court.
Janieda's heart contracted at the combination of jealousy and foreboding she felt Ceasing her frantic wingbeats, she landed on a tree limb and looked back the way she'd come.
No. Telling Llyr there was someone in that cell would be a mistake. Her lover would insist on investigating.
And he could well pay for his curiosity with his Me.
Erin frowned, craning her neck to peer outside. "So this is—what? A magical universe that mirrors our own? The landscape out there looks more or less like Earth."
"It is Earth. It's just the part of Earth that extends into the Mageverse. The laws of physics don't work the same way here. Will has a lot more influence than it does back home, for one thing."
She considered the idea thoughtfully. "Actually, that might explain a few things. There's been an experiment or two that suggests thought can influence quantum particles."
Reece nodded in agreement. "Yeah, when you get down to the subatomic level, the barriers between the two universes break down. But otherwise, it's tremendously difficult to get Mageverse energies to function back home." He gave her a searching look. "Unless you're a Maja."
Erin frowned, trying to put the pieces together. "So Merlin and the Lady of the Lake are from Mageverse Earth."
"No, actually they were from some other Mageverse world altogether. They were travelers—missionaries of a sort."
She rocked back on her heels. "Missionaries? Like saving souls and that kind of thing?"
"Not… exactly. For hundreds of years Merlin's people had been visiting other worlds, and they'd noticed a disturbing trend. Intelligent races have a bad tendency to kill themselves off in their adolescence, either through war or by causing ecological disasters."
Cop that she was, Erin didn't find that news particularly surprising. "Huh. Wonder if that explains why we haven't had much luck picking up radio signals from other intelligent races?"
He shrugged. "That, and most of 'em don't use radio. Eventually they discover Mageverse energies work a lot better. Anyway, Merlin's people—we call them the Fae—decided to do something about that. But they couldn't just show up and dump a bunch of technology and philosophy on less advanced people."
"Who'd probably just end up killing themselves even faster."
"Right. So what the Fae did was come up with a kind of bootstrapping concept. They'd visit planets and create a group of guardians to whom they'd entrust the powers of the Mageverse, along with a knowledge of the Fae's advanced technology and philosophy. Then the Fae would leave them to prevent their people from destroying themselves. But only from behind the scenes. The guardians were forbidden to reveal themselves."
"Why all the secrecy? Why not just come out of the closet and say, 'We're here. This is what you need to do.'"
Reece shook his head. "Think about it. Up until the last couple of hundred years, they still burned witches on Earth."
"Good point."
"Besides, the idea isn't just to plop an alien culture down on top of ours. The goal is to enable humans to survive long enough to develop their own advanced culture. The best way to do that is for us to remain as far under cover as possible."
"But you said you work for the government," Erin pointed out. "That doesn't sound like you're hiding to me."
"I haven't told the Feds about the rest of Magekind. As far as my contacts know, I'm just a lone vampire who happens to have a patriotic streak. And even so, there are damn few folks who know about me."
"I'm just amazed some senator hasn't held a press conference and outted your ass."
"Which is precisely why members of Congress have never been in the know. Besides, anybody I decide to tell usually gets a visit from a Maja fairly soon thereafter. One spell later, they acquire a deep inability to discuss me with anybody who isn't already in on the secret."
"Huh." Obviously deep in thought, Erin wandered over to the table to look over the plate of cold meat, bread, and cheeses. "Then how did Parker find out?"
"He's a magic user working with my FBI contact I suspect he read the information out of the guy's head."
Erin picked up a knife and sliced off a chunk of cheese. "Nice of the Demon Lord to provide munchies, huh?" She eyed the cheese narrowly. "Since he plans to sacrifice us, it's probably not poisoned." She took a healthy bite.
"Might be laced with aphrodisiacs, though."
She choked. "What? Why would he—?"
"I'm getting to that." Watching her eye her food dubiously, he added, "I don't really think he did anything to it He probably figures we're going to be here a while, so you'll need something to eat."
Erin shrugged and nibbled cautiously. "If you say so."
Walking over, Reece picked up a pitcher and poured them each a goblet. He was a little too close; when he inhaled, his senses filled with her lush, erotic scent
Cut that out, he told himself, and moved to a safer distance. "I got off the subject Where was I?"
"Merlin," she supplied, taking a sip. "Hey, wasn't this Dom a minute ago? Tastes like brandy now."
"Pitcher's enchanted." He took a sip of his own and grimaced. It still wasn't blood. "Anyway, Merlin and Nimue arrived on Earth around 500 a.d. to start setting up Earth's guardians. The first question they had to deal with was, who did they trust with the power?"
"Yeaaaah." She sliced off a chunk of meat and started making a sandwich. "I can think of a lot of people I wouldn't give it to. Parker, for example."
"Right. So they spent the next century testing people all over the planet. In Europe their first converts were Arthur and his half sister, Morgana Le Fay."
Erin plopped a piece of bread on top of the stack she'd made and took a healthy bite. "Did they really commit incest and have a kid?"
"Right Mordred." A waft of air current carried the scent of her hair to Recce's sensitive nose. His cock twitched behind the silk of his ridiculous pajamas as he tried to remember what they'd been talking about. "They were teenagers, didn't know they were related. That's another story. Didn't end well."
"So where did the vampire thing come in?"
An image flashed through his mind: the raw sensual pleasure of sinking his fangs into the thin skin over her pounding pulse. He cleared his throat. "Fae males and females have a kind of symbiotic relationship. The females absorb and manipulate Mageverse energies; that's basically what they eat. The males can't do that. The only way they can use that energy is after it's been processed in their partner's bodies."
She looked at him around her sandwich. "Okay, you lost me."
"It's like animals and plants. Plants can convert sunlight into what they need to survive. We can't, so we eat the plants. But if you actually eat your females, your race isn't going to survive very long, so the males evolved into…"
"Vampires." She took another bite.
"Right. By drinking a small amount of a female's blood, the vampire could obtain the Mageverse energy her body had processed and converted."
Erin sipped her wine thoughtfully. "I'm not sure that makes a hell of a lot of sense."
"Neither does disco. Some things just happen."
"Funny."
"I try. Anyway, when Merlin and Nimue began creating their race of guardians, they used a template they knew worked: their own. So you ended up with vampire Magi who were stronger than hell, and witch Majae who could work spells." As he took a deep breath, her scent teased him. Feeling his cock harden, he buried his nose in his goblet and took a deep breath, trying to drown his senses in the pungent smell of the brandy.
Where the hell was all this lust coming from? He'd been fine at first, but the longer he was with her, the more the Desire gnawed at him.
Oh, hell. His stomach sank. Was this Geirolf's spell, kicking in at last?
And if it was, how was he going to stay away from her? Especially knowing how she tasted, how her smooth, soft skin felt under his hands, how her tight, wet sex gripped him…
Spell or no spell, Reece thought, I've got to stay away from her.
CHAPTER SIX
« ^ »
Unaware of Reece's growing lust, Erin was still trying to understand the complex relationships between vampires and Majae. "But Merlin could do spells, right?"
He took a deep swallow of brandy and let it burn all the way down. Maybe his preoccupation with Erin was his imagination. But he doubted it. He tried to concentrate on the problem at band. "Early Fae males once enslaved the females. It was easy, because the males were both stronger and could work spells. So millennia later, when the Fae created us, they made sure our females could defend themselves by limiting our powers. The end result is that we're the muscle and they're the magic."
"Huh." She slid a hip onto the tabletop and absently picked up a strawberry from a tray. "So you're one of the Knights of the Round Table."
Reece blinked, her misinterpretation jolting him from his sensual preoccupation. "Uh, no. That was before my time. Look, you know the Grail legend?"
"Yeah." She bit into the strawberry. He fought to ignore the sensual movement of her lips. "King Arthur sent his knights to search for the cup Christ used at the Last Supper."
"Right, but it wasn't really Christ's cup. That part was tacked on later. The real Grail was Merlin's magical creation. The knights and ladies who proved themselves were allowed to drink from it, and when they did, it transformed them. They became Magi and Majae. From then on, they were able to pass on the potential to become Magekind to their descendants."
"So their children became little witches and vampires. Bet that made for an interesting home life." She angled her head, sending bright blond hair sliding over the globes of the pretty breasts swelling over the neckline of her Merry Widow.
He looked away. "It certainly would have, which is why it doesn't work that way."
"Why not?"
"Well, think about it. Even the best families have kids who don't turn out quite right."
"True." Erin started picking over the tray of fruit again. He focused his attention out the window. "And if one of those Mage kids went bad—"
"—you'd have a royal mess," Reece finished. "So the way Merlin set it up is, you could only become one of the Magekind if they chose to grant you the full power. And you only got the full power through… well, sex."
She looked up. "You're kidding me."
"I'm afraid not. Repeated contact with the Majae or Magi's bodily fluids—saliva, sperm, whatever—triggers a gene in the Latent that causes him to transform." Which, he told himself sternly, is what will happen to Erin if you don't keep your hands off.
She looked dubious. "You mean it's sexually transmitted, like HIV?"
"Basically. You need at least three encounters to trigger it, though. Sometimes more, but never less than three." He'd love to take her like that, over and over again… Stop that.
"So that whole thing about being bitten three times to become a vampire—"
"—is complete myth. I became a vampire by having sex with the Maja the Majae's Council sent to convert me."
"They sent her?" She was watching him curiously. He wondered if she'd picked up on his unease. "That sounds pretty cold."
He shrugged. "And it was, though I didn't realize it at the time. I fell wildly in love with her, but she dumped me as soon as I made the transformation." Now, that was a thought to cool his burning blood. Maybe if he remembered the way Sebille had laughed at his passionate proposal…
"Bitch." Her angry growl made him glance back at her. He instantly regretted it She'd pursed her lips into a deliciously erotic shape that made him imagine what it would feel like to slide his erection between them. Sweating, Reece focused on the nearest window and tried doing a calculus problem in his head.
Oh, this was not good.
"So what happened?" When he looked over at her blankly, she prompted, "With the Maja who turned you into a vampire. The one who dumped you."
Reece rubbed a thumb against his aching forehead. He was developing a tension headache. "Nothing. That was it. Look, love has nothing to do with Gifting somebody. It's all a very deliberate, very serious business, because you're giving them incredible power. In fact, the Majae have a council whose sole purpose is deciding who gets Merlin's Gift and who doesn't."
"What happens if somebody gets the Gift when they're not supposed to?"
He remembered Lizzie. Now, there was a thought to cool anybody's lust. "The Council hands down an order of execution."
"You mean—they just kill the Latent?"
Reece nodded. "Along with whoever turned him or her. The Council doesn't screw around." He took a deep breath, then regretted it when it got him a lungful of her maddening scent. "And that brings me to you."
She stared at him. "Me?"
"You're a Latent, Erin."
Avalon
Lance and Arthur sat at the Round Table in the High, Council Hall, a bottle of some Maja's donated blood between them. In contrast to the barbaric splendor of the chamber with its massive wooden timbers and stone floor, both were dressed like the twenty-first century men they'd become.
Lance had changed for the occasion into slacks and a black cable-knit sweater, while Arthur wore a pair of worn jeans and a T-shirt with the slogan, "Once a King, always a King—but once a Knight's enough."
Lance wondered absently what smartass had given him t
hat. It was an odd fashion choice for the Liege of the vampire's Magi's Council, the group that, with the Majae's Council, decided Magekind policy.
He sipped from his goblet, barely conscious of the fiery taste. His attention was focused on the next chamber. Through the massive wooden doors, he could hear the sound of rhythmic female voices. "Hear that?" he said to Arthur. "They're chanting."
His friend frowned. "They shouldn't have to work that hard, not on a simple locator spell. Unless—"
"—something's blocking them," Lance finished the thought. "Something with a lot of power. What are we dealing with here, Arthur?"
The Liege of the Magi's Council combed one hand restlessly through the short, neat beard he'd recently regrown. "The only thing I know about this situation is that I don't like it I despise waiting in the dark, not even knowing where the enemy is."
Lance smiled reluctantly. "It's a lot easier when they just point us somewhere and tell us who to kill."
Arthur dropped his hand from his beard to finger Excalibur's hilt. The big blade's enchanted jewels gleamed against the Table's dark wood. "I'll admit, I'd welcome a little action. I don't like knowing one of my men is in danger when there's nothing I can do to help him."
Massive doors creaked open. Both men looked up as Guinevere, Grace, and Morgana sailed through, none of them looking happy. "Somebody's doing a damn good job of blocking us from finding Reece," Grace said, dropping into a chair next to her husband.
Morgana curled a lip, her dark eyes flashing. "They don't know us very well if they think it's that simple to stymie us." She gestured, her long hands moving in a gesture as abrupt as it was graceful.
A massive book appeared on the table before her. Easily a foot thick, the tome's aged leather cover was inset with emeralds, sapphires, and rubies.
"Grim," Morgana said, crossing her arms in the pale cream suit she wore, "we need your help finding a demon." She looked at Grace and said, "Describe your vision for Grim. He should be able to—"
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