Allowing instinct to take over, Abby forced herself to pretend a resignation she far from felt.

"Do I have a choice?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

"Very well."

Weakly following his lead toward the bed, Abby waited until Dante was convinced of his victory before reaching out to push him sharply away. Caught off guard, he stumbled, and in the blink of an eye, she was bolting toward the door.

She was fast. Growing up with five older brothers ensured she was well practiced in running from a potential massacre. But shockingly she had taken only a few steps when Dante's arms were wrapping about her and lifting her off her feet.

With a muffled scream, she reached her arms over her head and grasped two handfuls of his silky hair. He gave a low grunt as she gave a violent tug. Still keeping grasp of his hair with one hand, she shifted the other to dig her nails into the side of his face.

"Dammit, Abby," he muttered, his grip loosening as he sought to ward off her attack.

Not pausing for a moment, Abby wriggled free and, turning, she aimed a kick that over the years had proven to bring even the largest of men to a screeching halt. Dante gasped as he doubled over in pain. Not pausing to admire her handiwork, Abby lunged for the door.

On this occasion, she managed to actually touch the knob before she was roughly hauled up and over a broad shoulder and carried back to the bed. She screamed again as Dante easily tossed her onto the foul mattress, and then followed her downward to cover her struggling form with one much larger, and much harder.

More frightened than she had ever been in her life, Abby gazed into the pale face with its unearthly beauty. She was sharply, disturbingly aware of his lean muscles pressing against her. And the knowledge that he held her completely at his mercy.

Uncertain what was about to happen, she was startled when a slow smile curved his lips.

"You possess powerful weapons for such a tiny thing, lover," he murmured. "Have you practiced those rather nasty tricks often?"

Somehow his teasing managed to ease a portion of her rabid terror. Surely if he were going to suck her dry, he wouldn't be indulging in conversation?

Unless of course vampires preferred a bit of pre-dinner chat?

"I have five older brothers," she gritted.

"Ah, that would explain it. Survival of the fittest, or in this case, survival of the one with the dirtiest arsenal."

"Get off me."

He gave a lift of his brows. "And risk becoming a eunuch? No, thanks. We'll finish our discussion without anymore scratching, hair pulling, or low blows."

She glared into his mocking expression. "We have nothing to discuss."

"Oh no," he drawled, "nothing beyond the fact your employer was just barbequed to a crisp, the fact that I'm a vampire, and the fact that thanks to your stupidity, you now have every demon in the vicinity after your head. Nothing at all to discuss."

Barbequed employers, vampires, and now demons? It was too much. Way, way too much.

Abby closed her eyes as her heart squeezed with horror.

'This is a nightmare. Dear God, please let Freddy Krueger walk through the door."

'This is no nightmare, Abby."

"It's not possible." She reluctantly lifted her lids to meet the glittering silver gaze. 'You're a vampire?"

He grimaced. "My heritage is the least of your concerns at the moment."

Heritage? She swallowed a hysterical urge to laugh.

"Did Selena know?"

"That I was a vampire? Oh yes, she knew." His tone was dry. "In fact, you could say that it was a prerequisite to my employment."

Abby frowned. "Then she was a vampire too?"

"No." Dante paused as if carefully considering his words. Ridiculous since he could have informed her that Selena was Beelzebub and she couldn't have twitched a muscle as long as he held her in his relentless grip. "She was… a Chalice."

"Chalice?" Her blood ran cold. The woman screaming in agony. The crimson flames. "The Phoenix," she breathed.

His brows drew together in shock. "How did you know that?"

'The dream. I was in a dungeon, and there was a woman lying on the floor. I think the other women were performing some ritual upon her."

"Selena," he muttered. "She must have passed a portion of her memories onto you. That's the only explanation."

"Passed on memories? But that's…" Her words trailed away as a mocking smile curved his lips.

"Impossible? Don't you think we're beyond that by now?"

They were, of course. She had tumbled into some bizarro world where anything was possible. Like Alice in the Looking Glass.

Only instead of disappearing cats and white rabbits, there were vampires and mysterious Chalices and who knew what else.

"What did they do to her?"

'They made her a Chalice. A human vessel for a powerful entity."

"So those women were witches?"

"For lack of a better term."

Great. Just great. "And they put a spell upon Selena?"

The silver eyes shimmered in the shadowed light. "It was rather more than a spell. They called forth the spirit of the Phoenix to live within her body."

Abby could almost feel the crimson flames that had seared into the woman's flesh. She shivered in horror. "No wonder she was screaming. What does this Phoenix do?"

'It is a… barrier."

She eyed him warily. "A barrier against what?"

"Against the darkness."

Well, that made everything as clear as mud. Impatiently Abby wriggled beneath the man pinning her to the bed.

A bad, very bad move.

As if a lightning bolt had suddenly struck her, she was vibrantly aware of his hard body branding her own. A body that had haunted her dreams more than a few nights.

Dante's jaw tightened at her unwittingly provocative movements, his hips instinctively shifting in response.

"Do you think you could possibly be a little more vague?" she managed to choke out.

"What would you have me say?" he demanded in rasping tones.

She struggled to keep her thoughts focused. Good God. Now was no time to be thinking of… of… that.

"Something a bit more clarifying than the darkness.'"

There was a moment of silence, as if he were waging his own battle. Then at last he met her gaze squarely.

"Very well. The demon world refers to the darkness as the Prince, but in truth it isn't a real being. It is more a… spirit, just as the Phoenix is a spirit. An essence of power that demons call upon to enhance their dark skills."

"And the Phoenix does something to this Prince?"

"Her presence among mortals has banished the Prince from this world. They are two opposites. Neither can be in the same plane at the same moment. Not without both being destroyed."

Well, that seemed like a good thing. The first ray of hope in a very bleak day.

"So, no more demons?"

He gave a lift of his shoulder. 'They remain, but without the tangible presence of the Prince, they are weakened and chaotic. No longer do they band together to attack in strength, and rarely do they hunt humans. They have been forced into the shadows."

"That's good, I suppose," she said slowly. "And Selena was this barrier?"

'Yes."

"Why?"

He blinked at the abrupt question. "Why?"

"Why was she chosen?" Abby clarified, not quite certain why she even cared. She only knew that at the moment it seemed important. "Was she a witch?"

Oddly Dante paused, almost as if he were considering not answering her question. Ridiculous after all he had already revealed. What could be worse than the fact that she was being held captive by a vampire? Or that the one person who kept away all the scary, bad things in the night was now dead?

"She was not so much chosen as offered as a sacrifice by her father," he at last grudgingly confessed.

"She was sacrificed by her father?" Abby gave a startled blink. Hell, she had always thought her father was a shoo-in for scumbag of the year. He had been a brutal jerk whose only redeeming act had been tossing aside his family for a bottle of whiskey. Still, he hadn't offered her up as fodder to a band of crazed witches. "How could he do such a thing?"

The elegant features hardened with ancient anger. "Quite easily. He was powerful, rich, and accustomed to having his way in all things. Or he was until he was struck down with the plague. In exchange for a cure, he gave the witches his only daughter."

"Holy crap. That's horrible."

"I suppose he thought it a fair trade-off. He was cured and his daughter made immortal."

"Immortal?" Abby caught in breath with sudden hope. 'Then Selena is still alive?"

The beautiful features sharpened even further. "No, she is very much dead."

"But… how?"

"I don't know." His tone was rough with coiled emotions. "At least not yet."

Abby bit her bottom lip, attempting to wrap her aching brain around the consequences of such a death.