Ravenous

scene. Her human form was young and pretty. The long hair fell around her like a wreath of silk, glimmering in the torchlight. Tentatively he put his fingers against the skin of her neck.

She was cold, as cold as his own bloodless hands, and she smelled all wrong. Startled, he rolled her to her back. The corpse fell with the limpness of the recently dead. He stared.

Shock numbed his face. She is human!

She had been restored to her original living state. The powerful collision between the portal and Holly's earth magic had purified even Geneva.

For what good it had done her. A changeling's bite crimsoned her throat. She had probably been killed before she even had a chance to realize what had happened to her.

Blond and pretty, Geneva was the last of the Fairview murders, felled by the very creatures that had murdered to summon her. She even had an Orpheus token in one hand.

Chapter 31

Groping, Holly felt around the entranceway to the chamber. There was a door. She pushed it shut and, hoping for the best, tried her candle-lighting spell. Magic felt different here, awkward, as if she were trying to write with her other hand. It took a few tries, but finally it worked.

A dozen black pillar candles sprang to life, lighting the chamber. Holly gaped. Tapestries hung on the walls, abstract birds and animals glittering with silver thread. The room was huge, the ceilings high and draped with swaths of silk. There were couches and chairs and a canopied bed in the corner, piled high with cushions of black velvet and gold braid. A violin case rested on a bookcase decorated in gold leaf, and a waterfall ran down one corner of the stone wall, splashing into an enormous marble basin that drained somewhere in the floor.

The whole was covered with a thick layer of dust. Whoever had lived here was long gone. Holly had met Lore and the hellhounds, seen the brutality of the guardsmen and their wolf, and here was another face of the Castle—evidence of a luxurious melancholy, pungent as incense.

First she carefully warded the door. Next she invoked a cleaning spell. Partially she wanted the comfort of a clean room to rest in. Mostly she wanted to find her magical footing in the Castle, and domestic spells were fairly safe to practice with. She'd never used them before, but now that she could cast them pain free, they'd be at the top of her list of favorites.

After she cleaned up, she tried some defensive spells. She wasn't leaving her new haven before she could fire a decent shot. Not with that wolf out there.

The delay was a blessing. It was the first moment Holly had possessed to think—but what moment was it? Thursday? Friday? Night or day? So much for making my first week of classes. Her goals of boyfriend, business, and school had shrunk to one imperative—get home alive, with soul and will intact.

In the last few days she'd been infected with the Dark Larceny, was tricked by Omara, and learned the depths of Ben's paranoid betrayal. But I won. I reclaimed my memory and my magic, kicked Geneva's backside, and neutralized both Mac's kiss and Alessandro's bite. Go, me.

That wasn't all. I've fallen in love. Really, really in love.

Not so smart to pick a vampire. She had known that from the start. He had stolen her will. Marked her. Whatever his motivation, that made her angry. She hadn't realized how much until she had space to think about it. Tears ached at the back of Holly's throat.

He had no right. Worse, it's in his nature. He's pushy. Fangs or not, he's one of those I-know- best guys. On the other hand, Alessandro was a big reason she was around to get angry in the first place. He was honorable. He protected her. He had spared her that first night, giving her pleasure, denying himself. He had always loved her as best as he could.

She sat down on the end of the bed, her face in her hands. The last time she saw Alessandro, he was hurt. Please, Goddess, let him be all right.

Holly licked her lips, tasting the dust of the chamber on her skin. It tasted bitter, like ashes.

He is coming for me.

As if conjured by her thoughts, Holly could feel Alessandro seeking her, intent on gathering her back under his protection. He was close. He no longer possessed her will, but the connection between them still burned. Oh, thank the Goddess. If he's coming, that means he is fine.

Holly didn't like to think she needed rescuing, but she sure wasn't going to object if he arrived with a map showing the exits. She doused the candles, releasing the wards and opening the door a crack. The torches, apparently as eternal as the stones they lit, burned with the same smoky glow as before. Slipping out of the room, she crept toward a junction of three corridors. He was somewhere near there.

But Holly didn't see Alessandro when she paused where the three paths crossed. She heard no sound of footfalls drawing near. And yet he seemed so close. Holly hurried across the junction to the corridor straight ahead, anxious not to be seen. That wolf was still too fresh in her mind.

She found him in the shadows, The Book of Lies cradled in his lap. He was slumped at the foot of the wall, sword in hand, bone-pale. Panic thrummed through her.

'Alessandro!' she whispered, kneeling at his side. She picked up his hand. It was heavy and cold. He came for me. He is bleeding to his final death, and still he came.

His head turned a fraction, his eyes opening to slits. 'There you are,' he said, as if she were something he had simply mislaid.

'I found a place. A safe place,' she said, warming his hand in hers. 'Come on; get up.'

With painful slowness, Alessandro shifted the book and gathered himself to move, his boots scraping on the stone. Standing seemed to exhaust him, even with Holly's help. He leaned against the wall, a damp sheen glossing his skin.

Holly put an arm around him, helping him stand, and felt the sticky wetness on his side. Her heart hovered in her throat. 'What do you need? Blood?'

He closed his eyes again, leaning his head against the stone. 'No. I won't risk biting you. My mark on you is gone. The demon mark is gone. You're free. Leave it that way.'

'You think you can take my will again,' she said. 'It's not going to be that easy.'

'Holly, think. I'm not worth your freedom. No one is. Let me go.'

'Like hell, Caravelli.' Holly bit the inside of her lips, keeping them steady.

He said nothing, just gripped the wall as if that alone would keep him on his feet. His eyes were growing dark, the gold fading bit by bit.

How can I trust him? He used his power to save me, but he still made me his slave.

The answer surprised her. Because I have my magic. I can make doorways out of more than one kind of prison. I can take a myth and make it real in every way.

Holly turned in to him, rising on her toes. She pressed her lips against his, grabbing the energy from the stones around her and putting a rush of the Castle's power into the kiss, into the words she spoke. 'So I Choose you, Alessandro Caravelli. With free will and sound mind, I want you above all others to be mine.'

As she spoke, Holly felt a burst of energy between them, the very heat of her emotion. She was feeding him her love.

His cold lips suddenly flooded with warmth. He pushed away from the wall and folded his arms around her, deepening the kiss into a sensual act of devotion. 'You Choose me?'

Holly grinned, unable to contain herself. 'I wanted you long ago, but I didn't realize you were up for grabs. Otherwise I would have flung you over my shoulder and carted you off to my cave long ago.'

'I was afraid of hurting you, and with good reason.'

She stroked his face, her thumb tracing the arch of his mouth. 'If you're my Chosen one, you can't mark me again.'

'I don't need to. I don't need your blood. You'll feed me in other ways.' His amber eyes were hot and greedy. 'As I will feed you, cara.'

He was standing straight, but Holly could tell he was far from healed. In her happy estimation, it was going