I rubbed my forehead. Adrian's lips followed the path my fingers took. "Do not distress yourself, Hasi. It will come back to you."
"I'm sorry you were worried." I tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear. "I guess I was so focused on finding you, I didn't think you'd be trying to contact me."
His face darkened as he pulled back, hauling me to my feet and dusting off my backside. "Saer told me you had turned from me, that you were cleaving to him."
"Oh! I would never cleave to him!" I threw myself in Adrian's arms, kissing him for all I was worth, leaving my lips on his as I added, "You're the only cleave-worthy man in my life."
He didn't answer that statement with words, but by the time he had made it clear that he too was in business for some cleaving, we were both breathless.
"Saer is a great big poop, and you shouldn't listen to anything he says," I said, panting just a little.
His lips twisted into a wry smile as he grabbed up his satchel. "I realize that now. What he said could not be."
"Right."
I checked the room, creeping to the outer door to listen for sounds from above. It was silent.
"Obviously, he was trying to demoralize me."
"Men who are poops demoralize people all the time," I agreed as Adrian pulled me aside, forcing me behind him as we made our way to the next room.
"If I had been thinking correctly, I would have known that what he was saying could not be true. He told me you had given him Asmodeus's ring, and I know you would never do anything so foolish."
I froze as Adrian paused in the doorway, his nostrils flared as if seeking the scent of danger. Satisfied there was none, he gestured me forward, silently making his way through the dimly lit room, noticing only when he reached the door to the next room that I wasn't with him.
"Nell? Come. We must escape now, before they discover you are missing."
I gnawed my lip for a few seconds. Adrian made an exasperated noise, walking back through the room to stand in front of me. "You can't be afraid of the dark—you came through this room on your own."
"No, it's not that. Uh… about the ring…"
He brushed my jaw with his thumb. "What is wrong, Hasi? I cannot read your thoughts, but I can sense your emotions. Why are you feeling fear?"
I didn't have to tell him. I could just continue to play dumb and not tell him. He'd never have to know.
I sighed. I couldn't lie to him, not to Adrian. "I did give Saer Asmodeus's ring."
Adrian stared at me in disbelief.
"I didn't betray you," I said softly, putting my hand on his chest, my heart crumpling at the pain that flashed in his eyes. "I thought he was you. No one—including you, I'd like to point out—bothered to mention that you have an identical twin running around. So when I saw Sebastian and Christian in the train station, I gave you the ring to use against them. Only it wasn't you."
His jaw tightened. His hands fisted. His body language screamed so much anger, I took a step back, even though I didn't really think he would harm me. "You had the ring and didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know it was the ring until…" The explanation dried up on my lips. I wanted to sink into the ground, sick with what I'd done even though my motives had been good. "I was going to tell you. I was going to—"
"Allow him to use the ring to destroy us, perhaps?" came a voice from the doorway.
Adrian turned around slowly to face the blond man who lounged in the doorway with deceptive nonchalance. Adrian moved to block me with his body. I stepped to the side to look around him.
"Sebastian." Adrian's voice was soft, but filled with so much menace it made the hairs on my arms stand on end. "So you still live."
Sebastian made a courtly bow. "As you see, Betrayer. Alas that the same will not be said of you come the dawn."
"The dawn?" I asked. Adrian promptly moved in front of me again. I pinched his butt and stepped to his opposite side. "What do you mean, the dawn? You guys don't like dawn."
"Your woman is not very intelligent, is she?" Sebastian said, looking bored.
"Hey!"
"You will leave Nell out of this," Adrian said in a macho he-man sort of way that simultaneously warmed my heart and made me want to crack him over the head with the Pan statue. "She has nothing to do with this."
I elbowed Adrian, and slapped his hand when he tried to pull me behind him. "Like hell I don't. I'm in this up to my armpits. Now, what exactly did your vague threat mean, Sebastian? What do you guys think you're going to do to Adrian?"
Adrian growled deep in his chest as Sebastian strolled into the room. "A camarilla has been formed. The decision to destroy the Betrayer once and for all has been agreed upon."
"Destroy?" I asked, horror growing at his words. They were going to toss Adrian out in the sunlight? Over my cold, dead body! "You guys are insane! Utterly and completely—erk!"
Sebastian pulled a wickedly curved knife from his boot, casually gesturing with it.
"Stay back, Nell" Adrian said, moving forward to answer the wordless invitation Sebastian offered.
"And let you get gored again? No, thank you." I grabbed Adrian and hung on. "Look, this has gone too far. Obviously, Sebastian holds some sort of grudge—"
"Grudge?" the blond vamp snarled. "He betrayed me, tricked me, helped bleed me dry until the only thing that stood between death and me was my desire for revenge. He did all that for the glory of his master."
I looked back at Adrian. His eyes were indigo, intent on Sebastian. Although he stood as still as a statue, I knew he was poised to attack the other man. "You did all that to him?"
"Yes," Adrian answered, his eyes meeting mine for a moment, his gaze unabashed and offering no explanation.
"Oh." I turned back to Sebastian. "Well, I'm sure Adrian must have had a good reason to do it. He's not mean normally."
"A good reason?" Sebastian asked a bit wildly.
"Do you think it's easy being cursed by a demon lord?" I asked, hands on my hips. "Do you think he's had fun being the Betrayer?"
"Nell—"
"No, Adrian, I want to know. I want Sebastian to tell me what he thinks it's like to be bound body and soul to a demon lord, forced to destroy your own people. I want to hear from his own lips just how much entertainment he thinks you got from all this."
"Nell, it does not matter—"
"I want to hear how enjoyable he thinks it is for you to ruin everything and everyone you love. Go ahead, Sebastian. Tell me all about it."
Sebastian stared at me in disbelief for a moment before looking at Adrian. "This is the woman you would choose?"
Adrian's lips twisted in a wry parody of a smile. "She does not always see things as we do."
I smacked him on the chest. "Thank you both so very much! Can we get back to the attempts to kill each other and stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here?" The second the words left my lips I regretted them. I held up my hand as Sebastian started forward. "Wait! I didn't mean that. We can talk this out, I'm sure we can. It's just a matter of finding a common ground—"
"She will die after your withered corpse has turned to dust and been scattered to the wind," Sebastian told Adrian with an evil flick of his knife in my direction.
Adrian growled and thrust me aside.
"What makes you think you can beat us both?" I yelled, clutching the back of Adrian's shirt in my attempt to keep him from throwing himself onto the blond vamp. Adrian twisted and turned, trying to dislodge me, but I held on. There was no way I could stop them from trying to kill each other once the fight began, so I had to stop them before they started. "You've gone up against us before, Sebastian, and lost both times. All I have to do is draw a binding ward on you and—"