“Right! Let’s all simmer down so we can figure out who is who. Ben, are those dudes werewolves like David?” Io asked, pointing at the four other men who were in a circle around David, all of whom were talking at the same time.

“Sorry, yes, those are members of his pride. We called them in when it became apparent that you and my father had been taken. The lich whose head we finally convinced to talk told us about this place. No one else was close enough to help, and we had some hope that if we found you here, we’d be able to gain information about where David was being held, as well. We had no idea that we’d find you all together.” Ben clapped his friend on the back, his smile of such happiness that Nikola was well pleased.

My son is generous and free with his affection, he told Io, unable to keep the pride from her.

She slid an arm around his waist. He is. I like him now that he’s done being a jerk to you. I like Fran, too.

And Imogen? You will have no problems dealing with her? I have brought her up to be a modest, gentle maiden, but she always had her mother’s will, and sometimes would not yield to my desires the way she should.

Io laughed into his head. I’m sure she had you wrapped around her little finger. Yes, of course I like her. She’s very nice, and I think she’s very much in love with that Viking ghost. Him, I’m not so sure of, but he seems to be crazy about her, too, so I guess all is well.

Yes, all is well. We can return home knowing that my children are as happy in their lives as we are in ours.

Io shot him a look, but said nothing.

July 23

Boy, I can’t tell you how good it is to be typing this up on a laptop, rather than writing with that horrible goose feather, or even writing it all out longhand on a spiral notebook from the St. Andras drugstore.

Nikola, of course, is fascinated by the laptop…but I’m jumping ahead, and I swore I wasn’t going to do that.

We got back to St. Andras about dinnertime a couple of nights ago. That was the same day that we found ourselves in Innsbruck (where the over-the-top lisping guy, whose name turned out to be Lemuel, had taken us), the day when I came out of my Taser-induced stupor to find Nikola being all brave and heroic and smart, and figuring out the truth behind his brothers and the whole deal with being made a vampire.

“It’s all very well and fine you knowing this,” I said quietly to him a couple of hours later while Ben drove us in our rental van back to St. Andras. It was even more cramped in the van because now we had Rolf with us, as well, but obviously we couldn’t leave him behind to sell out other vampires to the lichmaster dude. “But what are we going to do with him?”

Nikola instantly knew whom I was talking about. We will have to take him back with us, naturally. And I will see to it that he does not abuse the portal.

I bit my lip, a little queasy at the thought that Nikola was so calmly sure I would be going back to the past with him. I glanced around, but no one appeared to be paying attention to us as we drove through the mountains toward St. Andras. I thought we were going to stay here for a bit, so you could see how things worked, and appreciate all the technology and stuff that this century has.

We have stayed, he said with a little surprise. I have seen many things.

Yeah, but we haven’t been here for very long. Certainly not long enough to see everything.

He considered me, his icy blue eyes not so icy when you knew what lay behind them. You wish to stay longer? We have Rolf. We have protected the Dark Ones of this time, and found David for Benedikt. There is nothing more to keep us here, unless you are worried that Rolf and Arnulf will attempt to murder me again. I have told you that I will take care of that situation, too.

Yeah, by giving them more money.

He shrugged. I have more than I need, and they have not many years left to them. It cannot hurt me to give up a little more wealth to them.

I’m sure they had enough to begin with, but that’s not the point.

Then what is?

I made a vague sort of gesture. I just thought you’d want to stay here for a bit. There are so many wonders to be seen here.

But if I learn them all, what will I have left to study?

He had me there. I was left to gnaw my lower lip and keep my dark, unhappy thoughts to myself as we drove back into town.

It was dusk when we arrived at the fairgrounds.

“I thought David was following us?” Fran said as she got out of the van.

I took the hand Nikola offered, and got out, as well, stretching from the long ride.

“He will be along later. He needed some time with his pride before he rejoins us and we can go over all that happened, and what we’ll do next about de Marco,” Ben answered.

“I do not understand why you insisted on bringing me back here,” Rolf groused as he emerged from the van. “I do not wish to be here. It is not nearly as exciting as Innsbruck. I wish to return to Innsbruck. I wish to be paid the amount of money that is owed to me for the capture of my brother.”

“You’re going to be paid a knuckle sandwich and a two-by-four across the knees if you don’t knock it off,” I mumbled, evidently not soft enough to escape Nikola’s ears.

Woman, you are not helping matters.

Bah. He’s being a pain in the ass and you know it.

Yes, and you are inflaming his anger. I do not wish to have to separate you while we are here in your time, but I will if I must.

I couldn’t help but giggle at his stern-dad voice. You’re so cute when you’re fatherly.

I assure you, Io, at this moment I feel anything but fatherly toward you.

Oooh, someone’s hungry, I said, slinking toward him with a look in my eyes that should let him know just how much I wanted to sate his desires. All of them.

He started toward me at the same moment, but unfortunately, life or fate or whoever it is who dictates when things get messed up chose that moment to put a halt to what I hoped would be one hell of an evening.

It will be one hell of an evening, sweetling. Just one that is delayed for a short while.

“Imogen! Benedikt! You are back so soon?” Tallulah emerged from between two tents, holding a squirming pug puppy in her arms. “Have you run into trouble?”

“Just the opposite,” Fran said, smiling. “We found David with Nikola and Io. And there were only two guys guarding them, one of which was Ben’s uncle, and—”

Tallulah held up her hand, glancing over at a group of tourists that were waiting for the ticket stand to open. “Perhaps we should continue this elsewhere? There is half an hour before the fair is to commence.”

We all followed her into her trailer, some of us more reluctantly than others.

“I hate to be a party pooper, or appear ungrateful that you guys came to save us, and now want to rehash the experience—not that we haven’t done that during the three-hour ride here—but Nikola’s hungry, I’m hungry, and we still have to figure out what we’re going to do with him.”

“Nikola, your woman is being rude to me,” Rolf said, sniffing when he was forced to take a seat next to Finnvid.

“In what manner is she being rude?” Nikola asked, smiling into my mind when I sat on his lap.

“Chairs are in demand,” I told Eirik the ghost when he raised his eyebrows.

He grinned.

“She keeps referring to me as him. With an emphasis on the word that is not at all pleasant, or even respectful.” Rolf sniffed again, and told Finnvid, “My father may not have been a baron, but he was very wellborn, and I will not be looked down upon by a whore.”

Finnvid looked at me in openmouthed amazement. “The Goddess Fran’s mother-by-marriage, soon-to-be my mother-by-marriage, is a whore?”

“OK, the next person who says that word is getting a punch on the schnoz,” I said, waving a fist in the air.

And you do not think you are bloodthirsty.

No, I’m not. You are, because you’re always thirsty for my blood. But me? I’m a pacifist through and through. I’m just not going to stand for your nasty little brother to keep saying I’m a slut.

I’ve explained to you that he heard that from Frau Leiven when we were all mistaken about you—

I know, I know, but he can just get with the program and realize that it was simply a matter of difference of apparel between centuries. Oh, hell, now Tallulah’s been talking and I haven’t listened to a word. Hush so I can listen.

Nikola gave a mental eye roll (it’s not as awkward as it sounds), and pulled me tighter against him.

“I don’t understand,” Imogen was in the middle of saying. “You told us that we needed to find Rolf to save people from being killed, and we have done so. Why is the world still unbalanced and in peril?”

Tallulah, who had given Imogen the puppy to hold in order to take up her bowl of water, consulted it. I leaned forward to see what it was that the bowl held, but all I saw was an inky blackness. “The balance of time is still skewed because the threat still remains.”

I looked at Rolf with mean eyes.

“Nikola!” he said, pointing at me.

“I’m not doing anything!” I protested.

“You mean Ben’s uncle?” Fran asked from where she was (once again, drat her young self) draped on the arm of Ben’s chair.

“He is part of it, but he is not the whole,” Tallulah intoned, staring at her bowl. “The means by which the deaths of countless souls can be made still exists, and will continue to exist until it is no more.”

“The swirly thing?” I asked, my stomach turning over. Oh, I wanted the portal closed, all right, with Nikola and me on this side of it, but I also knew just how much he wanted to go home. But this was my home, not his, my time, not one with which he was familiar.

“The portal that you summoned must be closed. It is known to too many people now.”

“The only guys who know about it are us, Rolf, and that Lemuel guy, and David has him, so I don’t imagine he’s going to have any opportunity to do anything but be mauled by a bunch of angry lions,” I pointed out.

“That is not true, sweetling,” Nikola said, looking past me to Rolf. “Is it?”