Sex, Lies, and Vampires

'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, soft 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.