Sex and the Single Vampire

"Been there, done that," I ground out through my teeth as I pulled more of Christian's power to keep from giving myself over to them, slowly, painfully restoring my wards. Loud noises outside of the room finally penetrated my consciousness, blessedly also drawing a bit of the triumvirate's attention. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, trying to catch my breath in the moment of respite.

Someone pounded against the door; then it splintered and was kicked aside, the ward guarding it shattering as the triumvirate's focus wavered. Several policemen poured into the room, stopping almost immediately at the scene that met their astonished eyes. Books still flew around the room, caught now in the whirlwind generated by the three people forming a triangle. Two policemen didn't duck in time and were struck by books; another just escaped being beaned by a small potted plant.

A hand reached out from the mass of blue-suited bodies and pulled me backward, out of the room. I looked up. The hand belonged to a very large man with glittering yellow eyes.

Christian had sent Raphael.

"I think I'm going to be sick," I told him. I assume I must have been green, because he immediately shoved me over to a chair in the hallway and pushed me down so my head was between my knees.

"Stay here."

I mumbled that I wasn't going anywhere.

Beloved?

Thank you, Christian. Thank you for everything. I appreciate it more than I can ever tell you.

Allegra, I hear your thoughts. You cannot protect me from Guarda and Eduardo. You cannot leave me. Without you, I have no life.

Reluctantly I closed Christian out of my head and stayed in the chair, rocking with pain and sorrow and the knowledge that my heart had been healed just in time to fall in love with a man whom I would lead to destruction if I didn't give him up. Sometimes life really sucks.

"Thank you for taking me home with you," I told Raphael later as he drove through the rainy, crowded streets of London. "I really appreciate it."

"Joy was nearly out of her mind with worry. She'll want to make sure you're okay. And besides, it's still daylight; Christian…" He made an odd little abrupt gesture.

I stopped my horrible introspection long enough to look at the man who had called in every favor he had with the Metropolitan Police to save me. "Why do you have such a hard time admitting to yourself what Christian is? You've known him for over a year, haven't you?"

"Yes, but… some things are difficult. It's just not natural, just like you and your…" He made the odd gesture again.

I smiled and stuck a hand out of the blanket he'd wrapped around me in an attempt to stop the shaking. I patted him on his arm. "I know, sometimes it's all so hard to take in. One minute you think you have a handle on everything; the next people are telling you to believe in ghosts and vampires and werewolves."

"Werewolves?" he asked, his eyes getting a bit panicky. "You know werewolves?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at him. "No, I don't. I don't think they exist, not really."

His strange yellow eyes lost their worried look.

"Then again, I didn't think vampires existed, either, but I have more than ample proof how wrong I was there," I mused, fingering the faint mark just below my ear.

Raphael was back to looking worried again. "What… uh… what exactly were those people in the office?"

"Psychics. Very strong ones. They'd formed a triumvirate, a sort of focus for their combined psychic power. It's almost impossible to overcome a triumvirate's power; there's something about the pyramid that becomes stronger just by being. This particular one was more powerful than anything I've ever felt." I rubbed at a bruise on my forehead. "It almost felt as if…"

"As if what?" Raphael asked, cursing under his breath as a car shot out in front of him.

I didn't want to put into words the feeling I'd had that one of the three had been tapping into a dark source of power. "It doesn't matter."

He glanced at me, and I had a brief feeling that those yellow eyes of his could see straight through all my guards and protection. "Ah."

"How did you get to me so quickly?"

His mouth twisted in a wry grin. "Joy can be very persuasive when she wants to be."

"But how did she know? Oh, Christian must have called her."

His wry grin turned into a grimace. "Yes, without bothering to use a phone."

"Oh." I let that thought sink in. If Christian could speak to Joy as easily as he did me… I sighed and rubbed my forehead again. It was too much to figure out until I had some time to myself. I needed to put some distance between what had happened before I was able to figure out all of the ramifications. "So what'll happen to them? Guarda and Eduardo and Phillippa? They weren't arrested, were they?"