Cezar grudgingly allowed himself to be led up the stairs. Dios. His entire body trembled with the fierce need to be on the hunt. Anna was out there…somewhere. And no matter how great her powers, she needed him.
Stepping into the room that Anna had stayed in so briefly, Cezar came to an abrupt halt as her sweet scent invaded his senses.
Closing his eyes he allowed the lingering essence to seep into his body.
“Cezar?” Dante murmured softly.
With a shake of his head, Cezar forced himself to move further into the large room decorated in shades of yellow. His gaze skimmed the canopied bed and French armoire, noting that everything seemed to be in order.
If there had been a fight here then it had been a tidy one.
It was as he was moving to check the window that he was struck by the too familiar odor.
“Pomegranates,” he snarled. “Morgana.”
“That was our guess,” Abby breathed softly, kneeling beside a scorched mark that stained the ivory carpet. “This was not here before.”
Cezar frowned. “Magic?”
“Yes, although I don’t know enough to say for certain what sort,” Abby confessed.
“It had to be a portal,” Dante gritted, his silver eyes flashing with fury. He didn’t like magic any better than Cezar. “There is no other means for Morgana to get past my security.”
“Morgana has Anna.” Cezar’s cold dread was replaced by a raging fury.
The Queen of Fairies had to die.
She had to die now.
Turning on his heel, Cezar blindly stalked out of the room, heading down the stairs and entering the foyer before Dante could leap in front of him and bring him to a sharp halt.
“Cezar, wait,” the vampire snapped, his muscles trembling with the effort of restraining the furious Cezar. “You can’t just charge out without knowing where you’re going. It will be dawn soon.”
Cezar shook his head. Mixed with the fury was a raw, pounding pain that made him want to howl.
“I can’t stay here.”
Dante refused to ease his grip. “At least wait until Viper and Styx arrive. We can’t do anything until we know how to find Morgana.” The silver eyes narrowed. “Did you discover anything among Jagr’s books?”
Knowing he would have to distract Dante if he was ever to get out of the mansion, Cezar dug into his pocket and handed over the scrap of paper that he used to copy the original text.
“Nothing more than a vague poem that refers to Morgana’s retreat to Avalon.”
Releasing his hold on Cezar, Dante smoothed the paper and read out loud.
From the ashes of her brother’s grave
Shall emerge the means of her demise.
In ancient blood will powers stir
Arthur’s revenge once more to rise.
The vampire gave a snort at the gibberish. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that Morgana is determined to kill every last descendent of Arthur,” Cezar growled, darting past Dante and charging toward the door. “And next on her list is Anna.”
He was a step away when the door was thrown open and Styx stepped over the threshold.
For an odd moment time seemed to stand still as the ancient vampire studied Cezar’s bleak features.
Then, with one fluid motion, Styx raised his hand and Cezar found himself flying across the foyer to blast through the wall and into a marble column in the next room with enough force to rattle the house.
After that everything thing went blessedly black.
That was it, Anna decided, as she lay flat on her back in what she could only assume was some farmer’s field. That was the very, very last time she was using her freaking powers.
All she had wanted to do was free herself and Levet from Morgana’s portal. It wasn’t as if she’d even allowed more than a trickle of her power to escape.
But the moment the stirring wind had touched the portal things had exploded.
Really and truly exploded.
As in flashing stars, mind-numbing concussion, flying debris (well actually, she and Levet were the debris), and landing with a bone-jarring thud.
The only plus side was there wasn’t a damn portal in sight and the sickening scent of pomegranates had been replaced by the scent of recently plowed dirt and fresh air.
Feeling as if she’d been beaten with a baseball bat, Anna struggled to sit upright, swiveling her head as she frantically searched for Levet.
At last her gaze landed on his tiny form only a few feet away. He was standing, but his wings were drooping and he was anxiously inspecting his long tail as if he feared it had been damaged.
Hell, he was lucky he still had a tail.
Portal travel was worse than braving the Chicago L during rush hour.“Are you okay?” she managed to rasp, batting the clumps of dirt from her jeans. She didn’t even try to smooth her hair, which felt as if it was standing on end.
Levet dropped his tail, his ugly little face scrunched into a grimace as he peered through the shadows that shrouded the surrounding countryside.
“I am fine, but where the hell are we?”
“I…” Anna gave a helpless shake of her head. There was nothing to see other than the fields and a few abandoned buildings clustered near a dirt road. In the distant sky there was a faint glow, as if the lights of a city were being reflected, but there was no way to know what city.
They could be a handful of miles from Chicago, or they could be in the middle of Kansas.
Or hell, maybe that had just exploded their way to Oz.
“I don’t have a clue,” she muttered.
“Don’t panic.” The gargoyle began pacing in a tight circle, his poor, battered wings flapping in tempo. “We will somehow get out of this mess. Just do not panic.”
“Okay.”
“We have to think clearly. We have to…” Pace, pace, pace. “We have to think and not panic. That is the most important thing.”
“Not to panic.”
“Right. Do not panic.”
Anna cleared her throat. “Levet.”
Coming to a halt the gargoyle regarded her with a wild glitter in his eyes. “Oui?”
“I’m not the one panicking.”
“Okay.” He lifted his stunted hands. “Good point.”
Waiting until Levet had managed to calm his fluttering, Anna took a step forward.
“I don’t suppose you have a cell phone on you?”
Levet managed an offended sniff at the perfectly reasonable question. What was it with demons and technology?
“I am a gargoyle. I do not need such foolish devices.”
“Can you contact someone with your magic?”
“Of course.”
Her heart turned over in relief. “Thank God. You have to let Cezar know that…”
“Wait, Anna,” Levet interrupted, wrinkling his tiny snout. “I am not certain that would be such a good idea.”
Anna counted to ten. They were stuck in the middle of God-knew-where, and he didn’t want to contact anyone to come and get them? “Why not?”
“I communicate with portals.”
Her hope died a swift, painful death.
“Oh.” Anna grimaced. “Yeah, I think we should avoid portals for a while.”
“My thought exactly.”
Anna lifted her hand to lightly touch the signet ring that dangled on the chain around her neck. Cezar had promised that she could find him anywhere with the ring, but unfortunately it didn’t include an intercom system. Even if it did, she wasn’t about to stir up her dangerous powers for any reason. The next time she might toss herself to Mars instead of the middle of nowhere.
Glancing around the vast emptiness, Anna heaved a sigh. She had spent enough time over the years living in various places around the Midwest to realize that they were probably miles from the nearest town. “Then it looks like we need to find a friendly farmer who will let us use his phone.”
“Ummm…” Levet rubbed one of his horns. “Actually I need to find a place to hide.”
“Can Morgana find us?”
He shrugged, glancing toward the pinkish glow on the edge of the horizon.
“I don’t know, but the sun will soon rise.”
“Will it harm you?”
“I am a gargoyle, Anna,” he said, as if she were particularly dimwitted. “When the rays of the sun touch my skin I will turn to my statue form.”
“Ah.” Feeling like an idiot, Anna once again surveyed their surroundings, finding nothing but the dilapidated house and barn. “What about that barn?” she suggested.
The gossamer wings gave a sharp flap. “A barn? Do I look like a cow?”
“Fine.” She slapped her hands on her hips. “Then you find a place.”
Turning a full circle, Levet muttered beneath his breath. “I suppose the barn will have to do.”
“Then let’s go.”
Together they stumbled across the rough field, Anna’s aching body protesting each step. Being blasted out of a portal was obviously something to be avoided.
Tripping over a loose clump of soil, Anna moaned as she forced herself upright.