'It's a bit complicated,' Noelle said with genuine regret in her voice. 'I must go back to the Court and submit the results of the trial. That, at least, you passed.' She stopped at the doorway to what appeared to be the nave of a church, her gaze moving from me to Theo. 'Good luck. I wish I could help you, but it would be a violation of Guild law.'
'I understand.' Theo released me long enough to shake her hand, thanking her for her help.
She gave me a brief, bright smile. 'I hope the rest of the trials go well. I think you'll be a very nice addition to the Court.'
She hurried off before I could respond. Theo escorted me out of the (thankfully unoccupied) church and into his car before I got too chilled. I wrapped myself up in the car blanket he kept in his trunk, and shivered the entire fifteen-minute drive to the pub, wondering the whole way there what had happened to the nice, orderly, sensible life I had made for myself.
'I think I'm handling this very well,' I said after a few minutes of watching the night slide by the car window. We were approaching the town and the familiar humpbacked bridge. 'Mind you, the only other available option is to completely lose my mind, so I don't have much of a choice, but still, I believe I'm taking this all very, very well. I'm not screaming or laughing hysterically, or even crying, although somehow, I feel like doing all three.'
He patted my blanket-covered knee. 'I appreciate the fact that you are restraining your hysterical tendencies. This is a…' He hesitated for a moment. '…difficult situation.'
'This prince guy, you mean? I have to tell you, Theo, I don't believe in hell any more than I do in heaven.'
He drove in silence for a few minutes. 'Just as the Court of Divine Blood is not heaven, so Abaddon is not hell, although it is commonly referred to as such. The prince you refer to is the head of all the seven demon lords who rule Abaddon, and I'm sorry to say that they do very much exist.'
The skeptic in me wanted to argue the point, but I reminded myself that I was still in the process of coming to grips with the idea that there was more to life than I imagined, and thus such an argument could wait.
Not to mention the fact that I now had to admit to Sarah that she was right and I was wrong.
'So what is this demon lord guy likely to do? He can't hurt us, can he?'
Theo laughed a particularly mirthless laugh. It made a little chill skitter down my back. 'He's likely to demand reparation for the demon's form. Such things do not come cheap, or so the demon lords would have us believe.'
We turned into the pub's now-crowded parking lot. 'Wait a second…are you saying I just destroyed the demon's body, but not the demon itself?'
'Yes. Demons can't be destroyed as such…their power changes into a different form, but isn't actually obliterated, if you understand what I mean.'
'Of course I understand. It's the first law of thermodynamics.' I wrapped the blanket tightly around myself as I got out of the car, smiling at Theo's look of confusion. 'Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form of energy to another, but the sum total is always the same. What you're saying is that a demon is made up of some sort of energy, so it makes perfect sense to me that the energy of the demon is itself not able to be destroyed. I could go on to draw an analogy about what the physical form is like, but unless you're into physics, it would probably seem like overkill.'
Theo laughed, a warm, deep laugh that rolled around me, filling me with an incredible light feeling that I identified with some surprise as happiness. 'You have the most deliciously analytical mind.'
'Well, I guess it's better to have you admire my mind over my breasts, like the other men I've dated.'
A little flame of desire burst into being in his eyes. 'Oh, I admire your breasts greatly, have no fear. But I do appreciate the desire you have to understand how the world works, rather than just blindly accepting it.'
I shuddered despite the warmth of his gaze as I went through the door he opened for me. 'Blind faith was never my forte. So what do we do about this Bael?'
The pub was just about to close when we walked in the door. I won't say conversation came to an abrupt halt at the sight of me, but the few die-hard regulars who were still there did give me curious glances.
'I…er…fell in the river,' I explained to the pub owner, who walked past carrying a batch of dirty glasses.
He eyed the blanket I clutched around me, and nodded, saying nothing.
'Maybe we'd better discuss this in a more private area,' I said quietly to Theo.
'Whither you lead, so shall I follow,' he said with a little bow.
What a ham he was. A sexy, adorable, gorgeous ham. I led the way upstairs to my room, plopping down on the bed still clutching the blanket. My room wasn't huge to begin with, but with Theo in it, it suddenly seemed very small and intimate.
He went to the window and looked out into the night. I was very, very aware of him as a man, and no amount of reminding myself that just a few days ago he had tried to throttle me dissuaded my body from the idea of flinging itself on him right at that moment.
He kidnapped you a few days ago, I told my errant erogenous zones, all on full alert and tingling with anticipation. I touched my neck where his fingers had left it bruised and tender. He could easily have killed me.
'What's wrong?' Theo asked, turning back to me.
I felt my neck all over, then got up to look in the mirror on the inside of the wardrobe door. The blanket slid to the floor. 'Where are my bruises?'
'I have no idea. Do you normally have bruises on your neck?'
'I do when people try to strangle me. The day that you did that, and tried to kidnap us, I had bruises all over my neck, and it was tender to the touch. Now they're all gone. And for that matter…' I flexed my arm, swinging it in a wide circle. 'My sore shoulder isn't the least bit sore, and the doctor at the hospital said it would probably be a few days before the pain and stiffness wore off.'
He moved closer, his warm fingers gently touching my neck. It felt so much like a caress that my knees threatened to give in. 'I am sorry that I hurt you, Portia. I never meant to harm you.'
'I know,' I said, horrified by how breathy my voice was. With him standing so close to me, my brain was losing a battle against my emotions and bodily demands. 'Now, at least. I didn't know it then. But that doesn't explain why the bruises are gone.'
His thumb brushed the hollow in my throat. I swallowed convulsively.
'You are a virtue. They healed.'
'I thought I wasn't officially part of the immortal Court until I pass all the trials?' My breath caught in my throat as his hand slid down to my shoulder. He pulled me close to his chest, his eyes glittering blackly.
'You're not immortal yet. But you are a virtue, which means you're…enhanced.'
'Enhanced can be good.' My breasts tightened and sent little zings of pleasure down to my belly as they brushed against his shirt, the heat from his body warming me like the blanket couldn't.
His head dipped, his lips brushing mine. 'Enhanced can be wonderful. I want you, Portia.'
I leaned into him, rubbing my hips against his in a wanton fashion that was so totally alien for me that for a moment, I was shocked by my own desire. 'I kind of got that idea.'
'Are you…that is, do you understand what it is I want from you?' His voice, deep to begin with, roughened, the Irish lilt more pronounced. His hands were on my waist now, holding me, but not caressing. The look in his eyes was earnest, hot, filled with carnality that I knew should have shocked me to my toenails, but instead called forth a response within me.
'Are you asking if I'm OK with the thought of going to bed with you?'
His tongue flicked across my lower lip. I wrapped my arms around him and let him see my own desire.
'Yes, I'm OK with it. I know that only a few days ago I would have moved heaven and earth to get this most fabulous butt of yours into jail. I know you're virtually a stranger, and I'm not at all the type of person to jump into bed with someone I've just met, but somehow none of that really seems to matter anymore.'
'No, it doesn't,' he murmured, his hands moving, sliding down my silk-covered back to my behind, easing their way under the material to stroke my bare flesh. 'I've wanted you since the moment you tried to run me over.
