LITMIR.BIZ

      Cezar paced Styx’s private office with a restless impatience. Under normal circumstances he might have been delighted to have the opportunity to explore the rare scrolls that were carefully stored in a glass case, or the vast leather-bound tomes that lined the walls and detailed the history of vampires. Or even the stacks of petitions that were piled on the mahogany desk.

      As the king of all vampires, Styx possessed the grueling burden of leadership, but he also was given access to the priceless treasures that had been collected over the millenniums.

      Tonight, however, Cezar couldn’t appreciate his surroundings. Instead he battled the searing need to bolt from the room and find where Anna had been taken.

      Was she alone and afraid in a strange room? Had she been fed? Did she need…

      Dios. He growled deep in his throat. The woman was driving him nuts.

      Thankfully his dark broodings were interrupted as Styx entered the room and firmly shut and locked the door. Cezar was certain that the room had been soundproofed and suitably hexed to make their privacy complete.

      Styx was nothing if not thorough.

      “You have the fairy secured?” Cezar demanded as Styx crossed the room to perch on the edge of the desk. Dressed all in black, the king appeared precisely as he was. A large, lethal predator who would kill without mercy.

      A hard smile touched the vampire’s lips. “She is in a cell that has been built specifically to dampen her magical abilities.”

      “There might be those who will attempt to rescue her.”

      “The estate is fully monitored and I left a guard at the door to the cell. Trust me, no one will get past Gunter.”

      Cezar offered a small bow. He had chosen wisely in coming to his leader. “Thank you, my lord.”

      Styx gave a wave of his hand. “You have only to ask, Cezar, and I will do whatever is in my power to assist you.”

      “For now my greatest request is that you protect Anna.”

      “Of course.” Styx folded his arms over his chest. “Have you discovered who is threatening the woman?”

      Cezar grimaced as he slipped off the jacket to his tux and tossed it aside. The white satin tie was given the same treatment.

      “Morgana le Fay.”

      A shocked silence filled the room. The Queen of Fairies was shrouded in mystery to most demons. Although it was rumored she could enchant with a glance and lure even the most powerful of demons into her clutches, she so rarely left her secret lair it was impossible to know what was genuine fact and what was mere legend. She was as much mist and smoke as real woman.

      “You’re certain?” Styx at last demanded.

      “As certain as I can be at this point.” Cezar gave a furious shake of his head. “Dios, I have been so stupid. So blind.”

      “How could you have known?”

      Cezar returned to his pacing, knowing that he couldn’t keep secrets from Styx if he wanted his help.

      “I met Anna nearly two hundred years ago in London,” he grudgingly confessed, twisting the heavy signet ring on his finger. “At the time I didn’t realize that she was anything more than a beautiful woman that I desired.”

      “What happened?”

      “I seduced her.”

      “Hardly an unusual activity for you during those days,” Styx pointed out dryly. “As I recall you seduced several London ladies.”

      A smile touched Cezar’s lips at the memory. Ah, yes. For nearly three hundred years he had used his powers to indulge his love for women. It hadn’t mattered if they were human or demon. Just so long as they were beautiful.

      They had been fine years, but the insatiable desires that had once plagued him had come to an end the night he had met Anna Randal.

      She had taught him that there were depths to passion he had never before experienced.

      And while he had been reveling in the taste and feel of her, he had been oblivious to the evil that hunted her.

      “Not like Anna,” he rasped. “I sensed she was more than a mere mortal the moment I touched her, but I ignored my instincts. I wanted her and nothing was going to stop me. If I had just listened…”

      “What?”

      “She told me of her cousin Morgana, but I never considered the possibility that it could be the queen.” His hands clenched at his side.

      Styx pushed from the desk to cross the room and lay a heavy hand on Cezar’s shoulder.

      “Why should you?” he demanded. “Humans have always believed her to be nothing more than myth and legend. They readily name their daughters after the treacherous bitch even today.”

      Cezar smiled wryly. “I think it was more the fact that I was fully distracted at that precise moment. And, of course, there was that nasty meeting with the Oracles only moments after enjoying the delights that Anna had to offer.” He shuddered at the memory of the brilliant flash of light followed by the entrance of the eight ancient Oracles. He had been lying in the bed naked and utterly sated when they arrived, their grim expressions revealing the depth of their anger. “They were not happy that I had tasted of the next Commission member.”

      Styx gave a lift of his brows. “They actually came to the room?”

      “After they had made sure that they had put Anna into a deep sleep.”

      “So that’s why you were forced to serve them.”

      It was certainly what Cezar had believed for the past two centuries. And the Oracles had done nothing to disabuse him of that belief.

      But the moment that Anna had walked into that Chicago hotel, he had been drowning in his awareness of her. His every sense had been tuned to her as if she were the only woman in the whole damn world.

      “I’m beginning to suspect that there was more to it than that,” he muttered.

      Styx regarded him with a lift of his brows. “Such as?”

      “There are some things I refuse to discuss even with you, my lord.”

      A smile that was almost smug touched the vampire’s mouth. “Ah.”

      Cezar frowned, fiercely refusing to consider what might be behind his friend’s amusement.

      It couldn’t be good.

      Instead he turned his mind to more important matters. “It was not just that night that Anna spoke of her cousin,” he said, once again cursing his stupidity.

      “What else did she say?”

      “That after our night together she returned home to find it burned to the ground. She assumed her aunt and cousin died in the flames. She was no doubt right about her aunt.”

      “The work of Morgana?”

      A sharp, biting fury raced through Cezar at the realization that he had come so close to losing Anna. He would kill anyone who threatened her.

      Even the Queen of Fairies.

      “She couldn’t have known that dutiful Anna was locked in a magical sleep in another house, rather than sleeping in her own bed,”

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