I felt behind me for the table lamp, grasping it firmly and shifting slightly to the side to hide the fact I was holding it. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than a paperback.

The man stopped in front of me, so close I could smell his woodsy aftershave.

"I want you to leave this room now," I said in a calm, but firm, voice. Beside me, Sarah made a slight noise of unhappiness. "I don't know anything about a court, but I do know that you have violated several laws, and the police are even now searching for you. If you leave right now, I will not harm you, but I am fully prepared to defend my friend and myself from you if you insist on attacking."

An annoyed look flitted across his face. "Stop saying that! I have not attacked you!"

"You strangled me!" I answered, part of my mind pointing out that reason never worked with deranged madmen, but too irritated to listen. "I almost died! If that's not an attack, I'd like to know what is!"

"I told you - that was before I knew you were mortal," he snapped, irritation replacing the annoyance.

I waved the book around in a vaguely threatening manner. "I'd just like to know what you think I could be if not mortal!"

"You're a virtue," he answered quickly, reaching behind me and wrenching both lamp and book out of my hands, tossing them onto the bed. "Thus, you must be a member of the Court of Divine Blood, and as such, bound to uphold the laws therein. You wish for an accounting? I will give you one. The Hashmallim do not enter the mortal world unless it is to capture someone intended for destruction. Since I saved the lives of you and your friend by spiriting you away from under the nose of the Hashmallim, you are in my debt. I am calling in that debt, and the price shall be exculpation."

"I forgive you," Sarah said with breathy adoration, her eyes glowing as she gazed at him.

"The first thing I do after this guy is locked up is get you to a good head shrink," I told her.

"Woman!" the man roared, and grabbed me by the neck, hauling me up until my face was close to his. His eyes burned into mine, his breath skittering along my mouth.

"My name is Portia," I said without thinking. "I hate being referred to as if I was nothing but an object!"

"You push me too far, Portia!"

Sarah made faint mewing noises of distress as she pushed in close to us, her hands on his arms.

"You're assaulting me again." I waved my arms frantically for the lamp or book.

"Eee!" Sarah said, half demanding, half plaintive as she brushed her lips on his cheek.

The man turned his head slightly, and gave her another soul-piercing look. "You are not for me, sweet."

"Oh," she said, pulling away, an oddly content look on her face as she stood watching us.

"Stop hypnotizing - "

The man took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and twisted his body as I tried to knee him. 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 think such a thought. "I forgive you for kidnapping us, assaulting me, and attempting to strangle me. Happy now?"

"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 summoned her when I did, and that she was in danger and couldn't stay or she'd be killed."

"She is a virtue," Theo said as he rubbed his chin. The sweep of his thumb across his square chin distracted me for a moment, but I was firm with myself and looked at the grain of the wood in the door behind him, instead. "She cannot die unless she is removed from the Court. If she was in danger from someone, that would explain why I had such a difficult time tracking her down...Very well, continue. Who did she say she was in danger from?"

"From whom," Sarah corrected with a smile. Theo looked at her. "Sorry. I'm a writer. It's second nature."

"She didn't say. She just told me she was in danger, and that if she stayed, all would be destroyed. She was very drama queen about the whole thing, frankly, which is why I had no trouble believing she wasn't real. What exactly is a virtue, other than the normal definition of the word?"

Theo's black-eyed gaze swept over me. I wouldn't be a woman if I didn't notice that it lingered for a shade too long on my breasts. "You really don't know, do you?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't ask. How can someone not be killed just because they're a member of a court?"

He got out of the chair and paced to the end of the room, turning to face us. "This complicates the situation greatly. If you unintentionally summoned Hope, and she was desperate enough to use the escape you offered...but I'm getting ahead of myself. A virtue, my dear mortal, is a member of the Court of Divine Blood."

I sighed and leaned back on the headboard, adjusting a pillow so it supported my aching shoulder. "You're going to say things I don't want to hear, aren't you? You're going to spout all sorts of make-believe stuff in such a way that Sarah will buy it hook, line, and sinker, and I'll spend the entire rest of the trip trying to explain to her why immortal people don't suddenly pop into faery rings."

"I've heard of the Court of Divine Blood," Sarah said slowly, her eyes scrunched up as she hunted through her memory. "It's another name for heaven, isn't it?"

"No," Theo said, much to my relief. Religion was a bit of a touchy subject with me, one I certainly had no intention of discussing with a strange man who quite possibly had mental issues. "The concept of heaven is loosely based on the Court, but the Court of Divine Blood is not dogma for any specific religion. It just is."

"Good gravy, you're not going to tell me that the woman who snuck up behind me and popped out when I wasn't looking is an angel!" I sent Theo a look of utter disbelief.

He looked annoyed in return. "I just told you that the Court is not heaven. There are similarities, but that is all. The members of the Court are not angels, although their jobs are classified in a hierarchy that Christians took for their own. A virtue is a member of the second household, and controls weather."

"The cloud!" Sarah said triumphantly. "I knew it! Proof! Oh my god, that means you..." Her mouth hung open for a second as she looked at me with huge eyes. "...you spoke to an angel! She gave you her job! Good heavens! My best friend is an angel!"

I rolled my eyes. "Theo just said that there are no such things as angels. Use your common sense, Sarah. Some woman pops out of the woods at me, and you're convinced that everything Theo says is gospel...no pun intended. Who's to say the two of them aren't working together? He kidnapped us, after all. This is no doubt some elaborate scheme to get money from us." I thinned my lips at Theo. "And it's not going to work. Get out."

"Portia!"

"Pardon?" Theo asked, frowning.

I stood up slowly, holding my lamp. "I said your little scheme isn't going to work, and I want you out of here. Right now. I've listened to this crap long enough."

"Portia!" Sarah gasped again, looking appalled at my bad manners.

I didn't care. I was sore, tired, and sick of being made a fool. I wasn't going to stand for any more bull from this man and his accomplice.

Theo straightened up and looked as intimidating as he could, but I'd had enough. I didn't care what he did, so long as he did it away from me. I stomped over to the door, and jerked it open. "Leave. Now!"

"And just how do you expect to bend me to your will? Scream? I told you, no one below would hear you over the music."

Anger, frustration, and the suspicion that I had been made to look a fool grew within me, until I thought I would explode with it. I sucked in a deep breath, prepared to rip him up one side and down the other, but before I could, a storm broke directly overhead. Brilliant blue light exploded around the pub, followed immediately by thunder so loud it shook not only the glass in the windows, but could be felt in the walls and floor of the pub. Before the rumble of thunder disappeared, the lights went out, the music of the pub suddenly silenced. The silence was almost smothering in its thickness.

I tipped my head back and screamed for all I was worth. Sarah threw herself sideways and covered her ears as I released every bit of pent-up emotion. It was a scream the likes of which I'd never made before, and one I doubted I'd be able to duplicate.

Sudden voices from below indicated they had heard me.

Theo snarled something in the darkness. I stumbled to the bed, finding and clutching Sarah as she made odd little squeaking noises. Lights flashed in the hallway outside my room, visible through the open door. A shadow a hair darker than the surrounding blackness paused in the doorway for a moment.

"You foolish woman," the Theo-shaped shadow said. "Do you not realize you will need a champion for the trials? To try it alone is folly. You will end up destroying yourself...and me as well."

The pub owner called up the stairs to ask if we were all right, the light from his flashlight flickering and dancing in an erratic pattern on the wall opposite us. I slumped against Sarah, relieved when Theo's shadow merged into that of the hallway, his last words echoing in my mind.

"I will not let you escape me as Hope did."

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