"A fair concern," Mal said absently.
"That's impressive," Aaron marveled.
I glanced up at him. "Might not be a doctor ofphysics but I know a few things."
Aaron's eyebrows rose. "I did not intend to evenimply anything of the sort. Your knowledge base is just so different from minethat you're going to surprise me from time to time."
"Nice save." I nudged him to hopefully takeany sting out of the words.
He sighed. "Truly not what I meant."
"S'okay."
"This will work. Come here and let's see if wecan get a hold of Ezra," Mal interrupted. "It's more like a requestthan summons. He'll be able to ignore us if he wants. Assuming we get thisright."
Mal crossed the circle and put the book on myworkbench. "Let's clean this up first so we don't cross contaminate."
Aaron set about picking up all the stubs of thecandles. I got a couple of damp cloths and Mal and I cleaned up the sigils he'ddrawn. Mal also scraped the melted silver off the work bench and transferred itto the table outside the circle.
Then he picked up my heavy ass slate covered metalwork bench like it was nothing and moved it out of the circle as well.
"Damn dude," Aaron breathed.
"Yeah, make sure you put that back. Takes likefour of us puny humans to get that thing to move."
Mal glanced at me. "It's not that heavy."
"Yeah, it is," I objected.
"I'll be sure to put it back." He grabbedthe book and gestured for us to join him inside the circle. "Sitcross-legged so we're touching."
He winced when Aaron's knee brushed his as we sat andpositioned ourselves the way he directed.
"Sorry," Aaron apologized.
"It's fine. Join hands and repeat after me."
Aaron and I repeated the words that Mal spoke. Aaron abit hesitantly since he didn't understand the language, me with more confidence.I let myself sink down into the trance that the words encouraged, reaching outfor some sort of connection with the demon prince.
Nothing.
"Damn it," I snarled.
"Maybe the two of you should try without me?"Aaron suggested. "Could be that he's not interested in answering becauseof my angel blood?"
"I don't think that's it," I replied. "Butwe can try."
Aaron released Mal's hand and scooted out of thecircle.
Mal flexed his hand, shaking it for a moment, beforehe slid his cool hand into mine. We began the chant again, but it still feltlike we were coming up against a wall. Or maybe like we were looking in thewrong spot.
I was not about to cry over this, though my chest was tight,and I wanted to. We would figure something out. Mal rose gracefully and offeredme a hand. I accepted and he pulled me to my feet and into a quick hug.
"Well, back to the old research, right?"Aaron said, sounding nearly as disappointed as I felt. "I'd help, but Idon't read Latin."
Forcing a laugh, I let him give me a quick hug. "Yeah.We'll just have to try again."
"For something so esoteric, the process seemsfairly scientific," Aaron mused as we headed upstairs.
"It is," Mal agreed.
"I think I need some ice cream, and then I wantto go to bed," I declared when we got to the main level of the house. "I'mexhausted." I was, too. I hadn't felt it before, but the fruitless effortsweighed on my soul and my feet dragged with physical exhaustion.
"Sounds like a plan," Aaron agreed.
"Do you want me to stay tonight?" Mal stayedmost nights but every once in a while, he went home.
"Yeah, if you don't mind." I didn't want tobe alone, and Aaron and I weren't sharing a bed yet.
"I never mind."
Chapter 3
Price
Mal held me while I slept and was there, as he usuallywas, when I woke the next morning. Light filtered around the edges of theblackout curtains, throwing patterns across the vampire's stomach.
"What went wrong?" I whispered into his shoulder.
"Best guess? Ezra isn't in hell at the moment,though I have no idea what that means. Or he's somewhere we can't reach him. Itdidn't feel like we were being ignored."
"No, it didn't. Sabian?"
"He's in trouble, I'm guessing. This is amessage, but it's in demonic. Why wouldn't he send us something we could read?"Mal wondered, tightening his arms around me.
"Maybe he couldn't. Or maybe he thought I stillhad Ezra." I sighed.
Mal clutched me in his arms. "I'll look into atranslate spell while I'm at the shop today. I seem to recall something alongthose lines in one of the books I have in the back."
"Thanks, mate."
"Of course. I think I should bring a few of thebooks home for you to read, too."
I liked the way he called my house home. "Soundsgood."
"You in any particular hurry to get up?" hewhispered in my ear.
His breath tickled the short hairs on my neck, and Ishivered as a thrill ran through me. "Not really."
"I seem to recall you demanding that I deliver ona certain tease last night." He kissed my neck right behind my ear. "Interested?"
"Yeah," I breathed.
"Trust me?"
Taken aback by the question, I leaned back so I couldlook at him. "Of course, I do."
He grinned and shifted out of bed. His sleeping pantssagged around his hips and his muscles slid under his skin as he moved. Ilicked my lips.
Wondering what he was up to, and momentarilydistracted from my disappointment, I watched as Mal went over to his bag, whichhe'd stashed on the floor by my bookshelf last night, and pulled out a rope.
"You're going to tie me up?"
"If you're interested." He brushed some ofhis dark, wavy hair out of his face, his eyes glinting with mischief in the lowlight.
"Never let anyone tie me up before. Couple ofguys wanted to, didn't trust them."
"It's completely up to you, Chris." He cameback over to the bed and handed me the rope.
It was soft and intriguing. I trusted Mal.
"Yeah, I'm game." I grinned at him.
"Sit up."
I did what he instructed, heart speeding a little atthe extra note of command in his voice.
"You can tell
