"You will give me your virtue, for without it I am damned," Gyorgy cried, pointing to where Marvabelle was still partially slumped against the wall. "She stole my manhood from me! She took it when she rejected me. Me! The most renowned lover of all the House of Balint! I offered her endless bliss in my arms, asking only for her soul in exchange, but she refused me, cast me aside, laughed at me, and called me a poor lover."

"Whoa! This is all about your feelings of inadequacy?" I asked. "You killed two innocent women and attacked a third simply because one of the thousands of women you've had sex with didn't think you were the best?"

"I was the best! There was no one better than me! Until she spurned me. Then I could not function as a man. I have waited many years, knowing that the day would come when she would return to beg my forgiveness."

"Never!" Marvabelle croaked, clutching an extra podium that had been stored in the room. She hauled herself upright, then collapsed against the dividing wall. "I will never beg you! You aren't half the man my Hank is. Not one third!"

I dug the four containers out of the bag, placing them at compass points around Gyorgy. He didn't pay me the slightest bit of attention, intent as he was on pleading his case with Tiffany. "You will return me to my former power. Only a virgin's purity can restore me, and you, my glorious one, my flower, my blossom, will make me once again whole."

I flipped open the lid of the container to the south. "Frankincense for fire."

"I told you before that I would not give you my purity," Tiffany said. "It is too priceless to give away, and although I am sorry that you are not whole, perhaps if you tried smiling more you might feel happier. Sharing a smile always makes me feel better whenever I am sad."

The container to the west was next. "Mercury for water."

"No. I will not allow this," Gyorgy said, getting to his feet. "You are my salvation. Just as she must die, so you must give to me that which will make me powerful again. I thought the amulet would restore my manhood, but now I know the truth—only you can do it."

"Incense for air," I said softly, opening the third container.

"No one can save you because there is nothin' to save," Marvabelle crowed, on her feet at last, although she lurched drunkenly to the side. She took a couple of steps toward Gyorgy. "You were a useless, pulin' piece of turd then, and you're the same now. Useless and impotent!"

"No!" Gyorgy roared, slamming his arm into Marvabelle, who spun backwards until she slammed into the wall. An electric hum started up somewhere.

I scooted to the side and reached behind Gyorgy to the container marking north. "Gold for earth."

"Enough of this. Poppet, my fragile one, leave the room while I take care of this hag, this castrating harpy. Then we shall be together, and you will restore me."

I stepped back, out of the circle that was now cast around Gyorgy. Behind Marvabelle, the retracting wall started folding in on itself, accordioning back into recesses on either side of the walls, revealing a couple of extremely surprised faces of the people sitting nearest it.

Lovely. I got to have an audience. Just what I needed. I sighed. "Thread of crime, evil in design. Cord go round, your soul be bound. Earth, air, water, fire, by my will the elements conspire."

Gyorgy looked at me in surprise. "What did you say?"

I backed away, unsure if there was anything else to the spell. The nuns didn't seem to think there was. "Um. Bright as fire glow, deep as water flow?"

His eyes widened with genuine puzzlement as he tried to step forward. The nuns must have been dead on with their binding spell, because his feet were evidently stuck to the floor. "You did this to me? I gave you my amulet. I thought you were my friend."

"You're a psychopathic, cold-blooded murderer. I'm a bit choosier in my friends," I answered, stepping to the side and beckoning Monish, who had appeared holding up a sagging and bloodied Hank. Marvabelle shrieked and threw herself forward, lunging onto her husband. Their heads collided with an audible thunk, both of them slipping to the floor.

Monish stepped over their inert forms. "You have him?"

"Yup. Where have you been?"

"Jim told me your suspicions. I went to find Marvabelle, but found her husband unconscious. By the time he told me what had happened, people were already talking about your appearance, I knew you must be close by." He looked down at the red thread and the four elements binding the incubus. "Excellent work. Has he confessed?"

"Not really. The rest is up to you." I turned to the doors to the ballroom, which were more than half open. Everyone was watching us, identical expressions of disbelief on their faces. "Hi again. Is there a doctor in the house? We've got one unconscious Guardian, an oracle who's had a couple of knocks on the head, and a half-strangled . . . uh . . . Marvabelle."

The audience rippled uneasily, looking around. A woman in a lovely peach power suit stepped forward. "I am a physician."

"Good. Could you look at the Guardian first?"

She nodded and knelt by Nora. I waited a moment to be sure Nora would be all right, then walked out of the room. The people in the ballroom started shouting something, applauding for some insane reason, but I didn't wait around to see what it was all about. My heart was destroyed, my future finished before it had a start, and not much was waiting for me other than a trip back home, where I would have to explain to my uncle why I had failed my job as a courier for the second time, and probable banishment from the Otherworld.

Drake stood at the end of the hallway.

"You want me to run interference for you?" Jim asked as I stared at the man who had so easily broken my dreams. "If I got a running start, I might be able to knock him down long enough for you to get past him."

"I, too, will run this interference," Rene said. "We will both tackle the dragon. You will escape without him bothering you further, hein?"

I thought for a long moment about asking Jim and Rene to do just that, but decided it wasn't any good. I had to face Drake one last time.

He waited until I was within a few feet before he spoke. "You cannot unmake what is, Aisling. You are bound to me, to my sept. You are my mate. No desire on your part can change that."

I thought of all the things I wanted to say to him, all the screaming and yelling and crying and pleading, but all that stayed bottled up inside me. Instead I leaned forward and kissed him. Very gently. Very lightly. "You're wrong, Drake. There is a way for me to change what happened. There is a way for me to cancel the fealty to you and cease being your mate."