It is over, Nell. You are bleeding. You must allow me to see to you.
His hand was warm, but insistent on my chin. I lifted it to allow him to see the small cut on my neck. He tsked over it, tearing off a bit of his shirt to tie a makeshift bandage around my neck. I waited until he was done before screaming, "Why the hell didn't you kill him centuries ago?"
He sat back, frowning that my question had been presented as a bellow. "I had no reason to kill him until he abducted Damian. And once you became involved, the matter was made more complicated. I knew he would use you against me as he had used Damian. Until I knew the two of you were safe, I could not strike him. Sebastian alone had returned—I had to make sure that Saer had not found Damian before I allowed you to enter the museum."
I pushed him back, kicking my legs until they were Saer-free, accepting the hand Adrian offered to get me to my feet. Adrian's explanation made sense, but still… "It's over. I can't believe it's over. I walk in here, you're playing Adrian-the-pincushion one minute, and whammo! the next you lop off Saer's head and it's over." I shook my head, reeled to the side, and decided as Adrian grabbed me and pulled me up against his chest that head-shaking was going to be off my list of approved activities for the next few days. "No. It can't be over. It can't end this easily."
Hasi, you seem to have some difficulty accepting the finality of Saer's death. Did you hurt your head when he struck you? Are you feeling sleepy or sick to your stomach ? Do you see two of me?
I disengaged myself from him so I could give him a really quality frown. "I am not witless, if that's what you're implying, and don't deny you are, because I can read you like a billboard! I cracked my head on the wall, but other than a bruise, I'm fine. I just can't believe that after all this buildup, it's over with one swoop of a sword. I've seen lots and lots of vampire movies, and none of them ever end this easily. No. Something is wrong. He's going to come back to life or something. Vampires always do. Look at Dracula—he was always reforming himself from scattered dust or a blob of blood or a cursed ring…"
I looked down to my hand as I spoke, shrieking when I discovered the ring was gone. "Where is it? Where's my ring? Help me find it!"
Nell, there is no need—
"Eeek!" I screamed, kicking aside Saer's lifeless legs to pluck the three pieces of shattered ring from under him. "It's broken! Oh, God, I broke the ring! Now what are we going to do?"
"We no longer need it, Nell. Saer is dead. Damian is safe. Sebastian is not a threat to us. We do not need the ring."
"Yes, we do," I whispered, looking up from where the shards lay in my hand. Tears formed and swelled over my lashes as I looked at him, looked at his blood-soaked shirt. Saer had carefully picked spots on Adrian's body that would cause maximum agony while guaranteeing that his natural restorative powers would keep him from dying. Already the bleeding had slowed to a sluggish dribble, his body beginning the healing process. I touched the cold wetness of his shirt, my fingertip on the apex of a curved red line. "We need the ring to charm your curse."
He looked at me, his eyes filled with sad acceptance. I have lived almost five centuries bearing the curse, Hasi. If I must live longer bound to Asmodeus, so be it.
I slipped into his arms, wrapping him in all the love and light and joy he brought me. Inside him, the darkness was still there. His soul was still missing, but at least I knew I could fill the emptiness. But for how long would that be enough? If you are still bound to him, will he not continue to make you do things? Bad things? To your own people?
He didn't answer for the longest time, just held me, our beings merged together so our strength was shared. Yes, I will still have to answer his call. But he cannot destroy you. He knows that your death will mean my own.
I'm not worried about him killing me, I answered, nuzzling the sweet spot behind his ear. I'm worried about what his demands will do to your soul.
It is almost mine, Hasi. You have reclaimed it for me. It is within my grasp.
"No, it's not," I said, pulling away from him, wiping the tears that wetted my cheeks. "We both know what I'm going to have to do, Adrian. I know you've avoided thinking about it, but there is no other way. We can't have a life together if you are still the Betrayer. I love you, but I will not stand for you spending the rest of our lives causing death and sadness to your own people. I have to do what I meant all along to do with the ring—I have to charm the curse."
"You will not put yourself at risk for me. You were right in that the ring protected you before, Hasi. To try to charm without it—"
"I know what it means," I said, moving around him to face the small ivory statue that sat on the purple and black altar cloth. "But there is no other choice. Either I lift the curse, or… well, I'm just not going to think about that."
Adrian grabbed my arm, pulling me back to him, his eyes lightening as his anger seeped out. "And what if you fail? What if you have another stroke, Nell? Am I so horrible that you would rather risk permanent injury or even death to spending your life with me? Am I that much of a monster to you?"
Monster? No, I answered, stroking a lock of hair off his brow. Look in my heart, my love. Do you see anything there but the most profound feelings of adoration for you? I love you with everything I am, Adrian. But you know as well as I that our life together will be tainted if you are not freed from your bondage. I don't want to do this. I'm frightened of what may happen if I try to charm without the ring protecting me. I don't want to have another stroke.
Then do not try it, he commanded, holding me so tight I could scarcely breathe. I cannot tolerate even the thought of you coming to harm on my behalf. We will find a way to avoid Asmodeus. We will seek help from those learned in demon lore. There is no need for you to fear the future.
I drank in his essence for one last moment before stepping back. "I'm more frightened of what will happen to us if I do not do this. No"—I put my palm on the cold wetness of his shirt, holding him back—"this is my decision. I have to do this. So rather than spending the next half hour arguing with me about it, why don't you just pretend we've already hashed it out and I won?"
He opened his mouth to protest, but instead acknowledged that I was determined to go forward with my plan. Grudgingly he gave me a gift—his support. "We will face this together, Hasi. Always together."
I faced Adrian, his hands on me as we stood before the statue, our hearts as tightly bound as our minds. The statue sat inanimate on the table, but from the corner of my eye I could see snakes of power emanating from it, flickering and twisting as if they were alive.
Ready? I asked Adrian, raising my hand to touch the starting point of the curse bound to his chest.
I love you, Hasi, he answered, his eyes so full of the proof of his declaration that I almost wavered in my determination to end his torment once and for all. Instead I pressed my finger to the beginning of the curse, jerking back as my arm immediately went numb from cold.
"Heed me, Asmodeus, lord of darkness, master of night." The cold crept up my arm to my shoulder, toward my head. A sudden warmth stopped the flow as Adrian's hand on my neck kept the cold from freezing my brain.
My finger swept around the first of six knots that made up the curse, untangling it as I spoke. "By my blood, I turn this hex placed upon the man before you. By my bones, your power does now take flight."
Pain and rage crackled along my skin as I moved through the second knot, my hand shaking so hard with cold and fear that I had a hard time keeping my finger on the curse. "By my heart, I disperse your will through and through."
Light, white-hot and filled with a scream of fury, burst into my head. The horrible sensation I'd felt ten years before gripped me, tearing me apart as the need to stop, to preserve myself, warred with the knowledge that I was the only one who could save Adrian.
You have already saved me, Hasi. You can never fail me, no matter what the outcome. You have given me love where I have known none. Beyond that, all else pales.
Adrian's words, s
oft and warm, insinuated themselves through the light and pain, lessening both until I could focus my mind again.
My finger traced through the fourth and fifth knots. "Where there was pain, now joy remains. Where there was darkness, light will reign."
With a cry that came close to shattering my eardrums, Asmodeus burst forth from the figure, his body mangled and twisted, a personification of evil so horrible I could not bear to look at him. I tried to turn away, but his eyes fixed on me, and as he raised his hand, my body exploded in sheer, unending agony. I arched against Adrian, his presence in my head drowning out in the light that began tearing my brain apart. My body was numb on the outside, the cold gripping it so I could not move, but on the inside, my soul wept blood as Asmodeus's voice echoed in my head.
You will die before I release my servant to you.
Then I will die, I screamed, fighting to make my arm move, to make my finger trace the pattern of the last knot. It wouldn't move. It was locked, frozen with cold.
Pain caused my legs to buckle, but I did not fall. I was blinded by the pain and light, but I knew it was Adrian who held me up. It was his hand that was the warmth I felt on my frozen arm, his love that bound us together and gave me the strength to fight on when I wanted to surrender to the pain. On the verge of unconsciousness, and sick with the knowledge that with each passing second more of my brain was being destroyed by my act of charming the curse, I moved my finger through the last intricate swirls and twists of the remaining knot. "Battered, beaten, torn, and harmed, by my love, this curse I charm."
Die, then! Asmodeus's vengeance swept over me, ripping me from Adrian's arms, swinging me up in a maelstrom of pain, fury, and eternal anguish. The light in my head grew until it spilled out of me, turning the world into one unending moment of agony. I sank into it sick with the knowledge that I had failed.
I can't move my legs.
Can you not?
I can't move my arms either.
Ah. Why is that, do you suppose?
Hmm. Let me think about it. Maybe the large, sweaty vampire draped over me has something to do with it.
Dark One, Hasi. I am a Dark One, not a vampire. I have explained this to you time and time again, and yet you insist on referring to me in the popular vernacular. Besides, it is honest sweat. You cannot scorn it.
I opened my eyes and smiled at Adrian, pulling my arm up from where it had been pinned when he collapsed on me after making the sweetest love possible. I trailed my fingers over the lovely contours of his bicep before skimming my hand down his side to pinch the very firm flesh of his behind. "Even wet with the honest sweat of a job well done—and it was a job very well done, not that you need me to praise your sexual prowess anymore—I adore you."
"As is right," he said smugly, his head dipping to nip the skin of my shoulder.
"Ow! The dining car is closed! You had three courses already, you can't still be hungry."
He growled into my neck. I am always hungry for you, Hasi.
I grinned and trailed my fingers across the back of his neck, one of his particularly ticklish spots. "You just like flaunting that soul around, that's what it is. I have nothing to do with it—you'd probably be just as happy making love to a hole in a tree so long as you could do it with your soul enhancing all the feelings."
"A hole in a tree!" he yelled in mock outrage, flashing his fangs at me. "You forget who you are speaking to! I am powerful! I am feared! I am—"
"—sexy as hell, and you know it."
His lips curled into a self-satisfied smile. "Woman, you will be punished for such abuse!"
He rolled over, pulling me with him as he prepared to render his version of punishment, which always ended up in wild bunny sex.
"Are you done yet? It's been three hours!" Came a peevish voice from the doorway.
I eeked and scooted down Adrian's body until the blankets hid most of me. Adrian glared over my head at the boy standing in the open doorway. "I have told you before—now that Nell is with us, you must knock before entering our bedroom."
I slithered off Adrian, shimmying over to the far side of the bed, reaching out from under the blankets to feel for the bathrobe Allie had lent me. I had been wearing it when Adrian ripped it from my body. Maybe it had slipped under the bed.
"I did knock. You didn't hear me. She was laughing."
"Nell has a name. She is my Beloved. You will treat her with respect, and not refer to her as she."
My hand, scrabbling around under the bed, closed around a dry, round object. I froze.
"You like her better than me!" Damian shouted. "She smells funny! How can you stand to be around her?"
Adrian rolled his eyes and sat up in bed. "We have had this discussion before. You are my son. I love you. I will always love you. But I also love Nell, and if you give her the chance and stop rejecting her advances, she will take you into her heart as well."
"Oh, yeah, like he's going to allow me to do that," I muttered as I pulled the object out from under the bed.
"Are we going to the museum or not?" Damian demanded, ignoring his father's request. "She said we could go. I want to see the mummies."
I stared down at Ginger's head. His jaw cracked open in a grin. I slapped a hand over his mummified lips to stop the coo of pleasure I knew he was about to make.
" Who said you could go to the museum?" Adrian asked.
Damian sighed a sigh of such martyrdom that only a ten-year-old could produce it. "Nell."
"Thank you. We'll be out in ten minutes. I suggest you comb your hair and change into clean clothing," Adrian said.
I carefully shoved Ginger's head back under the bed. Adrian's arm snaked around my waist, pulling me back until I rested on his chest. "I am not sad that you returned the mummies to their inanimate state, Hasi, but I must admit that it was more convenient when Damian could look at them without requiring us to escort him to the museum."
"Uh…" I said, gnawing on my lip, wondering how I was going to tell him that in the confused two days that followed the charming of his curse—my recovery from going one-on-one with Asmodeus taking most of that time—I might have given him the impression that I had actually performed a curse returning the mummies to their previous state, rather than just thinking about it, which was as far as I'd gone what with the whole joyous reunion with Adrian after finding out I hadn't really died.
Adrian's arms tightened around me. "Do not worry about Damian, Hasi. He will come to love you as much as I do. It will just take time for him to adapt to the change in our circumstances."
I smiled into his chest, kissing a pert little nipple that taunted me. "Yeah? Well, until then, I have four words for you."
His breath sucked in as my teeth grazed the tender morsel of nippleness, his hands sweeping down my back to wrap around my behind. "And those words are?"
"Dark One boarding school."
His laughter filled my heart, filled my soul, filled the night with more happiness than the world could contain.
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