Claimed by Shadow

Despite the common misconception, the Lovers rarely has anything to do with finding a soul mate or even having a good time. The Two of Cups normally indicates that romance is on the way, but the Lovers is more complex. It points to a looming choice, one that will involve temptation and pain. And, like the depiction of the card in my deck- Adam and Eve being thrown out of Eden -the final decision will have huge consequences for everything that follows. Needless to say, it has never been one of my favorites.

While I confiscated the remaining toothpicks and gave the girls their new toy, Casanova arranged for another bartender. Finally, we rendezvoused back at our table. 'It all depends on your point of view,' he said, picking up the conversation as if nothing had happened. I suppose he'd dealt with worse over the centuries than a few bored grandmas. 'Of itself, the geis is harmless. But then, so was Melusine's-as long as it wasn't broken. Your version merely causes devotion to one person. If nothing interferes with that relationship, both of you live happily ever after.”

The fact that I might not want to live, happily or otherwise, in a magically induced state of mind was obviously not important. 'What if something does interfere?”

Casanova looked faintly uncomfortable. 'Love is a many splendored thing, as I have cause to know. But it has its ugly side, too. If anyone or anything is perceived as posing a threat to the bond, it acts to remove that threat.' He saw my impatience and elaborated. 'Say a person, nonmagical obviously, was to take an interest in you. A norm would be unable to sense the geis, so the warning would go unheeded.”

'What would happen?”

'It would depend. If the bond was new and the two of you had not spent much time together-if the amplitude, in other words, was set on low-maybe nothing. But the higher the volume, the more the interference would be resented. Eventually, one or both of you would move to eliminate the threat.”

'Eliminate? You mean, as in kill?' My jaw dropped. Mircea must have been out of his mind.

'It probably wouldn't come to that,' Casanova assured me, and I felt my stomach unclench slightly. 'Most suitors would exit quickly enough when you started screaming abuse, or your lover began threatening them.”

Great, I thought as my stomach went back to its former knotted state. I could go cuckoo's nest at any moment, thanks to Mircea's idea of insurance. 'But what if the originator of the geis wanted someone to seduce me?”

It wasn't an idle question. Mircea had sent a vampire named Tomas to befriend me when the Pythia's health began to fail. Lady Phemonoe, the Pythia better known to me as Agnes, had realized she was dying and had begun the rites that would free the power to go to a successor. And that had started a whole new ball game. Agnes could initiate the ancient ritual, but only I could complete it-by losing the virginity Mircea had guarded so carefully. He had designated Tomas to take care of that little item for him to avoid getting caught in his own trap. Mircea had been born before the notion of a woman choosing her sexual partners was fashionable, and Tomas was the servant of another master vampire and expected to follow orders. So, of course, neither of us had been consulted about any of this.

Tomas was one of those rare vamps able to mimic the human condition so perfectly that we lived as roommates for six months without me guessing what he was. We became close, although not as close as Mircea would have liked. I was reluctant to involve anyone in my crazy life and thought I was protecting Tomas by keeping him at a distance. But all it had done was force Mircea himself to have to stand in for the ritual.

As it turned out, we had been interrupted before the main event, something I'd been grateful for once my head cleared a little. Completing the ritual meant that I would be stuck as Pythia for life-a no-doubt extremely abbreviated period of time considering how much of a target that made me. Not that my life expectancy at the moment seemed all that great, either.

'The originator of the geis can lift it for a particular person,' Casanova confirmed. 'I've heard of instances when the spell was used on heiresses by their guardians, to ensure that they remained chaste until appropriate suitors were selected. The devotion aspect of the spell was supposed to guarantee that they would happily accept whomever was chosen.”

I didn't like Casanova's expression. 'What happened?”

He fumbled getting another cigarette out of a slim gold case. Considering how graceful his movements usually were, I had a feeling I wasn't going to like the answer. 'The geis fell out of favor because it tends to backfire,' he explained, lighting up. 'Sometimes it worked, but there were cases when girls committed suicide rather than marry someone other than their guardians.”

At my appalled expression, he hurried to explain. 'It is a very difficult spell to cast properly, Cassie. Devotion can mean so many things. The geis is designed to ensure loyalty, but how many human emotions do you know that have only one facet? Loyalty easily transmutes to admiration-for why, do you think, would I be loyal to someone who is not, in some way, admirable? Admiration becomes attraction, attraction grows into love and love usually leads to the desire to possess that which is loved. You follow?”

'Yes.' Apparently, my body was a few steps ahead of my brain, because my arms had broken out in goose flesh.

'Possessiveness commonly develops an aspect of exclusivity-this person should belong to me and no other, we were meant to be together, that sort of thing.' He waved a hand, causing his cigarette smoke to weave drunkenly on its way towards the ceiling. I felt kind of like that, too. My brain was stumbling about, trying to make sense of this mess, and my emotions were all over the place.

'That leads to covetousness,' Casanova was saying, 'which can convert to despair or hatred if thwarted. Even when cast properly, the spell often causes problems, with how many and what kind depending on the personalities of those bonded. And because it's so complex, it can easily be screwed up. Most mages won't even attempt it anymore. Your admirer is either a powerful magic worker or he knows someone who is.”

'He can afford the best,' I said absently. It must have seemed the perfect solution: leave me with Tony, one of his supposedly loyal servants, and put me under the geis so I would remain untouched until he saw whether the power was going to come to me. It was a great plan, if my feelings were discounted. And, of course, they had been. Master vampires tend to treat their servants like pieces on a chessboard, moving them about with no concern over little things like what the piece itself might want.

'It can't be Antonio,' Casanova mused, regarding me speculatively. 'You were at his court for years before you ran away. The spell would never have allowed you to leave him, nor would you have wanted to try.”

I winced. Even the thought of being infatuated with Tony was enough to make me slightly sick. 'Can it be removed?”

'By the person who originated it, certainly.”

'No, without him.”

Casanova shook his head. 'I couldn't do it, and I'm very good, chica.' He gave me an arch look. 'Of course, if I knew more about who we're discussing, it might help. Perhaps one of my contacts…”

I didn't want to tell him. Tony was his immediate boss, but Mircea was Tony's master. He therefore had a claim to anything Tony had and to anyone who owed him loyalty. There was normally a certain amount of maneuvering that had to be done before a senior master could simply take one of his underling's possessions, at least if that subordinate had reached third-level master status, as Tony had. But since Tony was now in open defiance of both Mircea and the Senate, everything he owned had reverted to his master's control. Which was a roundabout way of saying that Mircea was Casanova's master. The incubus was unlikely to defy him, but he obviously wasn't going to give me any help without more information.

I sighed. I didn't like being backed into a corner, but who else was I going to ask? 'Mircea,' I said, after checking to make sure we weren't being overheard.

Casanova looked blank for a moment, then jumped up as if someone had given him a hotfoot. 'You might have mentioned that earlier, Cassie!' he hissed in an alarmed whisper. 'Getting this body skinned alive is not on my daily agenda!”

'Sit down,' I told him in irritation. 'Tell me how I get rid of this thing.”

'You don't. Take some advice, chica,' he said seriously. 'Go home to the nice master vampire, beg forgiveness for causing him any inconvenience and do whatever he tells you. You do not want this one angry with you.”

'I've seen Mircea pissed off,' I said. That was true, although so far it had never been at me. I nudged Casanova's chair with my foot. 'Sit down. People are starting to stare.”