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  Blessed mother. Ruthless desire blazed through her, belatedly jerking her out of her self-delusion.

  Mere comfort didn’t make a woman’s heart race with a wild excitement or her stomach clench in anticipation.

  This was lust.

  Raw, desperate, savage lust.

  “Stop.” Her hands returned to his chest, but this time she didn’t allow herself to become distracted by the chiseled muscles and icy power. “Uriel, are you out of your mind?”

  With a low groan, he lifted his head, his eyes dark with a hunger that echoed deep inside her.

  “I must be,” he muttered thickly, dropping his hands with insulting promptness. “There can be no other excuse.”

  Refusing to acknowledge the pang of loss, Kata stepped backward, wincing at the sting of heat on the back of her legs. Damned lava.

  “You said something about getting us out of here,” she said stiffly.

  “I did.”

  She lifted her brows. “And?”

  He grimaced. “And it is something a man says to comfort a hysterical female.”

  “I was not hysterical.”

  “You were crying.”

  She hunched a shoulder, refusing to admit her brief moment of vulnerability. If Marika had taught her nothing else, it was that the least hint of weakness could be exploited.

  “So what you’re saying is that you don’t have any clue of how to get us out of here?”

  His jaw tightened, as if he was offended by her accusation. “Maybe if you’d warned your daughter that anyone who was sent to rescue you was going to be sucked into hell I might have been properly prepared.”

  “More likely you wouldn’t have come at all.”

  “It wasn’t as if I had a choice.”

  Kata flinched at the stark words.

  Well wasn’t that just the freaking cherry on top of the god awful day?

  She’d already sensed that Uriel hadn’t been first in line to play the role of her Knight in Shining Armor, but she hadn’t realized that he had been actually unwilling.

  “You were forced?”

  He ignored her question, pulling out the massive sword.

  “We can’t stand here hoping a gateway will open.” He began weaving his way through the puddles of lava and razor sharp rocks. “Let’s go.”

  She hesitated only a moment before following him along the narrow path.

  “You didn’t answer my question. Were you forced to rescue me or not?” she gritted.

  He kept walking. “Does it matter?”

  Did it?

  Hell yeah.

  Why?

  She didn’t have a clue.

  All she knew for certain was that it hurt to know she was nothing more than an unwanted duty for the aggravating vampire.

  “I . . .”

  “What?” he prompted.

  “I didn’t know my soul was bound to Marika’s until just before we met,” she said, for whatever reason needing him to know she hadn’t deliberately led him into a trap.

  He muttered something too low for her to catch, leading them through the gap at the back. He was forced to bend nearly double as they squeezed through the opening and entered . . .

  A cavern that exactly matched the cavern they had just left.

  Kata grimaced, not bothering to point out that there was every possibility that there was no escape from the ghastly place. Why bother?

  The same thought had to be going through Uriel’s mind.

  Not that he bothered to share what he was thinking. She might as well have been a stray dog for all the attention he was giving her.

  Annoying ass.

  In silence they crossed the cavern, nearly reaching the opening in the back when Uriel abruptly whirled around, his eyes searching the shadows.

  “ Damn.”

  She frowned. “What now?”

  “Something’s following us.” He tilted back his head, as if testing the air. “Several somethings.”

  “Demons?”

  “Phantoms,” he corrected her.

  “Perfect,” she muttered, instinctively ducking as he darted past her and swung his oversized sword at the translucent creature that formed out of the steam rising from the lava pits.

  There was a shriek of fury and Kata bit her lip as the phantom struck out, knocking Uriel into one of the stalagmites with shocking force. Grimly the vampire shrugged off his injuries, charging back at the enemy that had turned its attention to Kata.

  She saw the gleam of malevolent red eyes among the black mist that made up the phantom before Uriel was leaping in front of her, his sword dropped to his side as he instead held out his hand and released a burst of power.

  The phantom tried to halt its forward charge, but it was too late. Uriel’s icy power wrapped around the creature, crushing it before it could dissipate back into the lava.

  Watching the battle, Kata very nearly missed the second phantom that rose from the lava behind her. It wasn’t until she felt the stinging pain in the center of her back that she belatedly turned to face the danger.

  Without Uriel’s brute strength or his vampire powers, Kata was severely limited in her defensive skills. And why shouldn’t she be? Until Marika had become a vampire, the only defense she’d needed was the sharp edge of her tongue. She was a healer, not a fighter.

  A damned shame she wouldn’t be able to convince the hovering creature to settle matters with a smile and a handshake.

  Hell, she didn’t even know if it had hands in all that swirling mist.

  Taking a step backward, Kata held up a clenched fist and chanted soft words beneath her breath. They burnt across her brain as if they were being etched in fire, then, as she finished the spell she released the curse and let it fly toward her attacker.

  She didn’t have a clue if it would hurt a phantom.

  The thing didn’t have a corporeal body, but it did have an essence that could take physical form.

  All she could do was hope for the best.

  For a minute nothing happened.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The creature continued to float forward, while from behind she could hear the dying shrieks of Uriel’s opponent. But her curse seemed to be a complete bust.

  Desperately searching her mind for something, anything, that might hurt the phantom, Kata sucked in a startled breath as the air suddenly began to thicken with the force of her words. Her curse was not only working, but it was growing with an intensity she’d never been able to conjure before.

  Obviously a perk of being in hell, she wryly accepted, taking a hasty step backwards as the phantom began to pulse, almost as if it were being inflated from the inside. Then, with a scream that nearly deafened Kata, the creature exploded.

  There was just no other way to describe it.

  One minute it was a hovering mass of black mist, and the next, tiny shreds of an oily substance were dripping off the nearby stalagmites.

  She barely had time to admire the stunning results of her curse when Uriel was scooping her off her feet and tossing her over his shoulder.

  “Hey . . .” Her head bounced against the hard muscles of his back as he leaped over pools of boiling lava and hurried toward the side of the cavern. “Stop. Put me down.”

  He ignored her protests, ducking through a hidden opening into another cavern. This one similar to the previous one, but with enough differences to comfort her with the thought they weren’t going in endless circles.

  Not that she had much of a chance to admire the passing scenery.

  Uriel charged from one cavern to the next, not halting until she began to pummel his back with small fists. Swaying upside down was making her queasy.

  “Dammit, I told you to put me down,” she rasped.

  Muttering his opinion of women who didn’t have the sense of a Flandra demon, Uriel set her onto a path that ran between two sheer cliffs. Kata refused to peer over the edge. She didn’t want to know if there was a bottom far below. Or what might be lurking down there.r />
  Things were bad enough.

  Uriel seemed to agree.

  “Satisfied?” he demanded, his gaze never straying from her pale face.

  She licked her dry lips. “Maybe we should split up.”

  He blinked, studying her as if she’d grown a second head. “Split up?”

  “You know, you go one way and I go another.” She waved her hand. “It’s a fairly simple concept.”

  “I understand the concept,” he growled, “I just don’t understand why you would be so idiotic as to suggest it. You wouldn’t last five minutes without my protection.”

  It was true.

  Although her curse had worked against the phantom, she wouldn’t be able to conjure another one until she’d had a chance to rest. And she very much doubted that phantoms were the only nasties that were waiting to crawl out of the shadows.

  But she’d been stripped of her pride and dignity by Marika. She wasn’t going to let it happen again.

  She wasn’t this vampire’s charity case.

  “What does it matter to you?”

  “I think the better question is why you’re trying to get rid of me?” He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, his face bathed in the reddish glow that filled the cavern. He should have appeared . . . frightening, even sinister, standing there with his big sword and flashing fangs. Instead his male beauty was so ethereal it made her heart ache. “Do you and Yannah have a gateway hidden to escape through once you’ve managed to get rid of me?”

  She clenched her hands. Beautiful or not, she wanted to punch him in the nose.

  She was trying to do this for him, the jerk.

  “Yes, this is all some elaborate trap that I invented with Yannah just on the off chance an annoying vampire was forced to come to my rescue,” she mocked. “Ingenious, is it not?”

  “The trap wasn’t meant for me, it was meant for Laylah.”

  Kata sucked in a shocked breath, raw fury racing through her at the unjust accusation.

  She’d endured endless years of being held captive and unbearable torture to protect her daughter. And she would endure centuries more if necessary.

  “You bastard.” Without thought she launched herself toward the aggravating vampire, wildly pounding her fists on his solid chest. “I have sacrificed everything to keep my daughter safe. Everything.”

  Uriel hastily sheathed his sword, wrapping his arms around her trembling body and pulling her close.

  “Easy, Kata.”

  She tilted back her head to stab him with a warning glare. “Don’t ever say I would try to harm her again.”

  “Fine.” He lifted a hand to gently smooth her hair from her face, his expression guarded. “If this isn’t a trap, then why are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “Maybe I don’t like you,” she muttered.

  His eyes flared with a heat that could rival the lava that spilled over the cliff just a few feet away.

  “I could change that if I wanted to,” he husked.

  And he could.

  She might not want to acknowledge the poignant awareness that swirled between them. Or the peculiar sense that she’d been waiting for this particular man to crash into her life since she’d been a simple gypsy maiden. But ignoring the dangerous sensations didn’t make them go away.

  “Please, Uriel . . .” she whispered, acutely aware of the soft stroke of his thumb over her cheek.

  “Tell me why you’re trying to get rid of me.”

  She heaved a resigned sigh. Stubborn demon.

  “It was my demented sister who is responsible for sending us here and there’s no reason for both of us to suffer.”

  His lips twisted. “And you think splitting up will end my suffering?”

  “We both know you’re much more likely to escape without me slowing you down.” She shivered as his thumb shifted to stroke her lower lip. “So go.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  He frowned, as if annoyed he might be forced to actually consider his motives.

  “I always finish what I start,” he at last said.

  Always finish what he started?

  Lame. Truly lame.

  He better hope that he didn’t need a reference if he intended to make a career out of rescuing maidens in distress, because as far as she was concerned, he sucked at it.

  “I’m not your obligation,” she snapped.

  “You are for now.”

  “Because my daughter sent you?”

  “Because my clan chief sent me.”

  Kata rolled her eyes. She loved Laylah, but why on earth would the girl get involved with vampires?

  “Fine, you came, you saw, you conquered. Now go away.”

  “I’m not leaving without you.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Get over it.”

  Okay, that was it.

  She’d tried to be nice. To put his welfare above her own. Now she just wanted to kick him in the nuts.

  “Look here, you arrogant ass, I’ve . . .”

  “There’s no use in arguing with a vampire, my dear,” a soft, melodic voice interrupted her tirade.

  Whirling around in shock, Kata pressed a hand to her heart as she caught sight of the tiny demon she’d thought lost forever.

  “Yannah, thank goodness,” she breathed, barely noticing that the demon’s white robe was perfectly pristine and her hair smoothed into a tidy braid. Unlike Kata who looked like she’d been to hell and back. Literally. “I feared . . .”

  “I was dead?” Yannah helpfully supplied.

  “Yes.”

  “Silly girl.” Yannah waved a hand toward the far side of the cavern. “My house is just on the other side of the lava pit.”

  Kata shook her head in confusion. Over the years she’d accepted Yannah’s habit of popping in and out of her cell without giving any actual thought to where she came from.

  But even if she had, her first thought wouldn’t have been the underworld.

  “You live here?”

  Yannah sniffed, unexpectedly offended by Kata’s blatant disbelief.

  “I’m not sure I like your tone. My neighborhood happens to be quite nice, and for your information I have a very lovely flat in Mayfair for when I’m on the other side.”

  Kata parted her lips to apologize, only to be cut off as Uriel stepped directly between her and the female demon.

  “You can travel between worlds?” he growled.

  “No time for questions.” Yannah said as she turned to the side.

  Waving her hands over the edge of the cliff in intricate motions, Yannah ignored Uriel’s impatient demand for explanations.

  Kata frowned. Was the demon pretending to conduct an orchestra? Calling for reinforcements? Totally losing her mind?

  The answer was far more unexpected.

  The darkness in front of her began to shift, as if it were alive. Then, without warning, Yannah chopped her hand downward and there was a strange sound, as if the very air was tearing in half.

  Blessed mother.

  Kata shook her head, stunned by the outrageous display of power.

  “Come on.” Yannah impatiently waved for them to approach. “Through here.”

  Tentatively Kata edged toward the opening. She didn’t want to offend Yannah, but she wasn’t sure she entirely trusted the strange creature.

  Uriel, on the other hand, had no trouble being blatantly offensive.

  Stepping to her side, he pointed a finger at the opening.

  “Where does this go?”

  “Didn’t I just say there’s no time for questions?” Yannah turned to Kata with a baffled expression. “Was he hit on the head?”

  “Yannah . . .” she started to soothe, no more anxious than Uriel to step through a hole in space.

  A pity she wasn’t given a choice.

  Studying the gaping hole in what might be the very fabric of the space/time continuum, Kata missed Yannah creeping behind her. It wasn’t until she felt the demon’s tiny hands on her ass that she bela
tedly realized her danger.

  She gave a choked shout of alarm at the same time that Yannah shoved her forward.

  Chapter 6

  Uriel was rarely caught off guard.

  A complacent vampire was a dead vampire.

  But distracted by the lurking promise of an escape route, he hadn’t realized the tiny demon’s intention until too late.

  Swearing as he watched Kata being pushed into the portal, Uriel didn’t hesitate. Knocking aside Yannah, Uriel charged forward, managing to wrap his arms around Kata’s waist as they both plunged through the shimmering mist.

  There was the sense of freefalling through a tunnel of black nothingness and Uriel instinctively tugged Kata closer to his body. At the moment, she was the only real thing in the whirling darkness.

  Wrapped in her sweet scent of tiger lilies and the tantalizing warmth of her lush body, Uriel was struck by a piercing desire to keep falling. Anything just so he could keep this woman in his arms.

  Insanity, of course.

  He was a vampire.

  They didn’t do “happily ever afters.” Or even “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  At least not until they found their mate.

  And this woman couldn’t be his mate.

  Could she?

  Before he could actually consider the disturbing question, their freefall came to an abrupt end.

  Tumbling through the other side of the portal, Uriel hurriedly turned to keep Kata protected as they emerged into a heavily-wooded forest.

  His back smacked painfully onto the moss covered ground as his feet tangled in the undergrowth. Not that he noticed the rock poking into his shoulder or the overhead cry of angry birds disturbed from their nests.

  Instead he hissed in fear as a light breeze stirred the thick canopy of leaves and the dappled sunlight brushed over his skin.

  It had been centuries since his last glimpse of the sun. With good cause.

  Vampires plus daylight equaled instant death.

  Something he’d tried to avoid over the years.

  Now he braced himself for the searing pain.

  A pain that never came.

  Astonishment slowly gave way to the recognition that this place was nothing more than an illusion. There could be no other explanation.