Without dislodging his hold on my throat—nowhere near as debilitating as the first time he strangled me, but still inhibiting—he spun me around so I was pressed up against the wall, his body pinning me into submission. 'I do not have time to play ridiculous games with you. You will exculpate me now, before I lose my temper.'
'Fine,' I said, exhausted, sore, and heartily tired of the handsome man whose mouth was close enough to kiss…and bothered by the fact that I could even
'Stop playing with me!' he snarled, his fingers tightening. 'You have the Gift! I saw it! I demand my reward! I demand exculpation!'
'I forgive you!' I bellowed back at him, praying he would go away and be deranged with someone else.
He really was an incredibly handsome man…I firmly squelched that line of thought. Physical attractiveness had nothing to do with anything.
The man sighed, releasing me as he stepped back. I hadn't been aware that he had lifted me off the floor, but I slid down a few inches until my feet touched the floor, and kept on going when my legs gave out on me. I slumped against the wall, divided between the desire to cry and the urge to whack the man across the kneecaps with a blunt instrument.
'At last,' he said, opening his arms. He stood that way for a moment, as if he was waiting for something, his ebony eyebrows pulling together as he looked down at himself. 'It didn't work.'
'What didn't work?' Sarah asked, watching him closely. I shot an unhappy glance at her as I got to my knees, hauling myself up onto the edge of the bed, where I clutched both the book and the lamp.
He looked at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. 'When did you say you received the Gift?'
'What gift? No one has given me a gift.'
'How long have you known her?' he asked Sarah. She plopped down onto the bed next to me. I was delighted to see that the smitten look was gone from her face, although her calm acceptance of the kidnapper was at odds with her very vocal threats to the local police about the actions her husband would take if the man was not caught promptly.
'Since seventh grade,' she answered.
'Has she always been like this?'
'Obstinate, you mean?' Sarah smiled. 'Stubborn? Unyielding?'
'Hey!' I objected, poking her in the hip with the book.
'Rigid and unimaginative and one-track-minded? Oh yes, she's always been that way.'
The kidnapper looked at me, his lips pursing slightly. 'Pity.'
'I object to being talked about as if I'm not sitting right here!'
Sarah patted my hand. 'She's also smart, very curious, has a soft spot for underdogs, and is unswervingly loyal to anyone she calls friend.'
'I may have one less before the day is out,' I grumbled, mollified by her praise.
'I see,' the man said, frowning down at me. My fingers tightened around the base of the lamp.
Sarah laughed and put her arm around me. 'She's also my best friend, and someone I trust with my life. If you need her help with something, she'll do everything she can to make it happen.'
'Will you stop putting words in my mouth! I do not countenance criminals!'
'I am not a criminal,' the man said with a thoughtful look at us both. He snagged the chair from the end of the bed and set it before the door, sitting on it with a belligerent look at me.
'I could scream for help, you know,' I told him.
'No one would hear you over the noise,' he answered. 'I'm going to get at the truth if it takes me all night. When did you last see Hope?'
'Oh! The faery?' Sarah asked, clasping her hands together. 'I can't believe I forgot about her! Portia said she saw her while I had run to town to get my camera. That would be about two—'
'Sarah.' I cocked an eyebrow at her.
'I was just trying to be helpful.'
I ignored that and leveled a long, hard look at the man sitting across from us. My first impressions of strength had not diminished at all by exposure to him. His face was all hard angles, high cheekbones and a blunt, square jaw doing as much as his obsidian eyes in imparting a sense of ruthless purpose. His skin was darker than that of an Anglo-Saxon, a warm, rich color that hinted at an exotic heritage. Gleaming black hair swept back from a widow's peak that no doubt had women swooning to run their fingers through the silky black curls. For a moment my fingers itched to do just that, but the thought died just as quickly as it had been born.
'If I answer your questions, will you leave?' I asked with a resigned sigh.
'Portia! You don't have to be rude!'
I gave her a look that should have made it clear what I thought of such a ridiculous statement, but years of close acquaintance have made Sarah immune to such things.
'I begin to think that there might be more here than I anticipated,' the man answered. 'But I will swear to you that I mean you no harm.'
I hesitated a moment, weighing my options. It was true that the noise from the busy pub below would drown out any screams for help that we might make, but we weren't completely helpless. There was the fact that we were two against his one. If push came to shove, I could fling myself at the man while Sarah made her escape to bring help…except I wasn't so sure that in her present hypnotized state of mind she would run for help.
Clearly, the solution lay in a peaceful resolution of the situation. After we got the man out of my room, I'd call the police and they could deal with him. I'd give him a few minutes of twenty questions to lull him into a sense of control, then persuade him to exit the room.
'All right, I'll answer your questions…er…what is your name?'
'Theo North. When did you last see Hope?' he repeated.
'What a nice name,' Sarah said with perky cheerfulness. 'Theo. Warm and friendly. Short. A little different. I like it.'
I did too, as a matter of fact, but I wasn't going to let him know that. 'I saw Hope for the first and only time about two this afternoon, for approximately five minutes. At the time, I was under the impression—yet to be disproved to my satisfaction, given that lab tests can be mixed up, altered, or deliberately changed—that Hope was part of my hallucinations.'
'Hallucinations?' He subjected me to a searching look. 'Are you prone to them?'
'She thought the magic at the faery ring was due to mushrooms,' Sarah said quickly. 'She is an unbeliever, you see. You believe in the power behind faery rings, don't you?'
'Of course,' he answered, making me want to scream.
The look of triumph on Sarah's face was directed solely at me. 'There, you see? Even Theo believes in faery ring magic! And he's a…a…er…' She looked back at him. 'What exactly do you do, if you don't mind me asking?'
He cast her a quick glance, but for the most part kept his attention on me. 'I'm a nephilim. What did you do at the ring to summon Hope?'
This was torture, sheer and utter torture, so I figured I'd get it over with as quickly as possible. Although Sarah had heard most of it, I described how I had sat in the faery ring and muttered aloud some of the spells on her photocopy.
'Hmm,' Theo said when I was done. He stroked his chin, a perfectly normal gesture, but one which held some bizarre fascination for me. It drew my attention to the lines of his jaw, and the sweet curve of his lower lip… good gravy, what was I thinking? Just because he was a handsome devil didn't mean I had to think about his lips and his jaw and that hint of manly stubble that seemed to hold an unholy fascination for me.
I realized that both of them were looking expectantly at me.
'Sorry, I was thinking about…er…did you ask something?'
'I asked you why Hope said she responded when you summoned her.'
'I didn't summon her.' I frowned for a moment, remembering something the hallucination woman—not a hallucination if the man in front of me was to be believed—said when she popped through those funny lights in the air. The lights themselves gave me no trouble: they were clearly pollen in the air, which I in my half-sun-blinded state interpreted as sparkling. Hope was a bit less easily explained, but no doubt she had been hiding behind a tree, and took advantage of an inattentive moment to make her appearance. 'She said something about being glad I
