“It will feel better if you move,” he advised her, amazed he could actually speak, so overwhelming was the sensation of being buried inside her.

“Yeah, I know, but this is good, too.” She flashed him a grin, then leaned down to nip his lower lip, her eyes growing wide when he shifted his hips, causing him to slide a little more into her.

It was as if he’d set a torch to a keg of gunpowder. She moved in a rhythm that seemed to leave him mindless, his whole being focused on her, and the pleasure that she was pouring into his mind. He pulled her tighter to him, licking a spot on her shoulder, asking her wordlessly for permission.

Yes, she groaned into his mind, her hips moving in an erotic dance that he knew would drive him over the edge in just a matter of seconds. Oh, yes, please, Nikola. Feed. Take it from me.

Her flesh was warm and smooth against his mouth, but the moment he bit deep, and her life flowed into him, he knew that she had captured more than just his fancy.

July 15

The postorgasmic glow wasn’t the only thing that knocked me out, but it did contribute to the effect. I’d like to blame the mouse in my room for the bulk of the reason that I was so tired after seducing Nikola that I conked right out afterward, missing dinner and, more important, missing the fact that Nikola roused himself from his own snooze, and had toddled off.

“What do you mean, you blame a mouse? What has a mouse done to you?” The vindictive round lady with the big fat gray curls stood over me as I struggled to get into all the various layers of clothing that women wore at that time. “You are trying to confuse me with talks of this mouse, but you will not do so! I can see through your ways! I know you for what you are—the devil’s bed partner! I will listen not to you, and so I shall advise Fräulein Imogen, for she is of the tender heart and innocent mind, and she will not see you for what you truly are.”

“The devil’s bed partner, yeah, yeah—dammit, can you hook that up or whatever it does?” I asked, spinning around in a futile manner trying to see my own back. I stopped when she jerked the back of the gown closed, swiftly tying up a bunch of little cloth tapes, and connecting a series of hooks and eyes. “And just for the record, Miss Casting the First Stone, I was talking about the mouse that was in my room that kept me awake a long time this morning when I was trying to take a nap. I’m not used to sharing my room with rodents, and I was worried it would walk on me or bite me or nest in my hair or something while I was asleep. Thus, I’ve been operating on very little sleep these last few days, and also thus, I fell asleep after Nikola and I—” I stopped, eyeing her as she snatched up a pair of shoes and shoved them at me.

“Engaged in copulation with the baron!” she said, giving me a scathing look. “It is all over the castle that he has taken you to his bed. The Lord shall smite you for your wicked ways, and if He does not, then we, the decent people of Andras Castle, shall see to it that you do not pervert us all with such immorality!”

“Oh, for the love of—what did Imogen say she wanted me for?” I sat on the edge of Nikola’s bed—which still smelled like him, and made me want to burrow back into its warmth and remember the wonderful experience of a few hours previous—and strapped the shoes onto my bare feet. “It’s got to be the middle of the night. Can’t it wait?”

“She is ill, and cannot rise from her bed. She made me swear I would bring you to her, for nothing would dissuade her from the idea that she must have talks with you. I do as she bids, but I will protect her! I will be at her side when you are there, so that you may not turn her into a devil’s bed partner, too.”

“You’ve got sex on the mind,” I told her, getting to my feet. “You seriously need to see a shrink. And if you poke at me one more time with that, I’m going to talk to my partner the devil about you!”

She gasped, clutching a large enamel crucifix to her massive bosom, her eyes filled with horror. Even her giant curls seemed to shrink back in horror. “You would not! The devil will steal my soul and turn me into a Krampus!”

I had a vague memory of Gretl telling me about a mythical being called a Krampus, but connected it to Christmas. What on earth did that have to do with being the devil’s love bunny? “Whatever. Let’s just tone down all the accusations and maybe we’ll get through this without anyone being Krampused, OK?”

She sucked in her breath again, but confined herself to muttering in German as I tottered down the hall toward Imogen’s room. I didn’t like the sound of Imogen being sick, which was pretty much the only reason I had let her crabby companion drag me out of bed.

“How are you feeling?” I asked a few minutes later when I sat on the edge of Imogen’s bed and studied her face. She looked pale and fairly clammy, with two bright spots on her cheekbones. “Your nanny, or whatever she is, says you’ve been sick, but that you wanted to see me. Can I do anything to make you feel better?”

“I have been poisoned,” Imogen said weakly, but the hand that clutched my arm had a grip that made me yelp. “My uncles put something in my wine.”

“They what?”

Her eyelids fluttered at my shriek of horror before she nodded. “They know I have a weakness for a fine wine…but that is not important.”

“I don’t know, I’d say being poisoned is pretty damned important! Oh my god, Imogen! What can I do?”

“Blasphemer!” gasped Anna. “Profaner!”

“Get a doctor, you deranged woman!” I ordered, taking Imogen’s hand in mine and trying to remember what one did for poisoning. “Is it drink lots of milk, or eat bread? Or maybe barf…man, I knew I should have signed up for that first aid course at work, but I never got around to it. Hang in there, Imogen! You’ll be OK.”

A little smile touched her lips. “I will not die, if that is what you are concerned about. My kind does not do so easily, and never from poison. It makes us ill for a little while only, and Anna has already purged the wine from me, so I will feel more the thing soon. I am just a bit weak, too weak to go after Papa.”

“I’ll go find him for you if you want to tell him what his brothers did. I bet he’ll open a serious can of whoop-ass on them, and after hearing about this, I wouldn’t mind helping him. Are you sure you’re OK?”

“I’m fine, just weak. You must save Papa, Io. You are the only one who can stop them.”

“Stop…” Enlightenment dawned as she clutched my hand. I glanced at Anna, not knowing if I should speak in front of her. “I thought we had that out earlier, when I explained about how certain things weren’t supposed to happen for another two years.”

“I know that is what you said, but somehow, it has changed to now. Perhaps you misunderstood what I said in…in the other time.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You said you were twenty-two at the time, and your dad said earlier today that you were only twenty—”

“No!” Imogen struggled to sit up, sweat breaking out on her forehead as she took me by the arms and shook me. “I am twenty-two! Papa is forever forgetting my age, but I am twenty-two now, Io! It is today that he is meant to die!”

Goose bumps crawled up my arms, making me shiver. “Good god. Then his brothers—”

“He is out with them right now!”

I got to my feet, unsure of what to do, but feeling a desperate need to do something. “Are you sure? Maybe Nikola is in his study playing with his robot. Did you check there?”

“He is gone to meet my uncles,” she wailed, falling back on the pillows. “I know because Robert told Anna, and she came to tell me that you were seen going into Papa’s room, and that you should be stoned because of your loose ways, and that if we waited until midnight, Papa would be off meeting my uncles and we could capture you, and stone you.”

I stared at her in horror before turning my gaze to the woman in question. She bared her teeth at me. “You are so over the line, babe. And we’re going to have a little talk about that later.”

“I will stop up my ears to your unholy words! The devil will not have his way with me!”

I shook my head and leaned down to Imogen to say, “You need to seriously consider getting someone else as your nanny before this one goes completely bonkers. I mean, sheesh, Imogen—wanting to stone people because they sleep with someone isn’t right.”

“We can talk about this later. You must go save Papa!”

I straightened up and took the woolen shawl she pushed at me, turning to the crazy lady. “Where exactly did Robert say Nikola was going?”

Her lips tightened as if she didn’t wish to speak, but after a sharp word from Imogen, she finally said, “The Zauberwald.”

“What the heck is a Zauberwhoosits?” Nikola? You out there in brain radio land?

Silence was the answer to my tentative question. I wasn’t sure if we could do the brain talking thing if we were far apart, but I felt obligated to give it a try.

“It is the name given to a small curve of wooded area slightly more than two miles from here. It is said to be a magical place, one where enchantment is heavy in the air.” She shifted slightly, pressing my fingers in a painful grip. “Io, you must go there immediately and stop my uncles. Do not let them destroy my papa.”

“I don’t—I don’t know how to stop guys intent on murder,” I stammered. “I’m not good with martial arts or anything. I suppose I could throw a rock at them, but I’m just pretty much useless about that sort of thing.”

“I don’t care what you do.” She jerked me forward until my face was a few inches from hers, her eyes, a darker blue than Nikola’s, filled with a fervent light. “I don’t care how you save him, but save him you must. Swear to me you will do it.”

“Even if I knew how—”

“Swear!”

I swallowed back all my protests, all my doubts, all my concern for what sort of effect I might have on the future. All those protestations would be useless—the second I gave in to the desire that had been building ever since I met Nikola, I signed away any ability to act in a dispassionate manner.