The gargoyle shot her a desperate glance. “Now would be a good time for those powers of yours.”
Morgana laughed. “She cannot best me. I am a queen. My powers are without limit.”
Anna could feel the strange ripples of energy brushing her face. Damn. This was bad. Really, really bad.
“Don’t you have a spell or something?”
“Oui, but…”
“But what?”
“They are not always so predictable.”
“Perfect.”
The gray eyes were round with fear as the demon gave her fingers a painful squeeze.
“Do it now, Anna.”
Do it? Do what?
Anna squeezed her eyes shut. A part of her warned she was as likely to bring the roof down on their heads as to save them, but with that strange energy beginning to surround her, she knew that she had to do something.
Anything.
Releasing the doors in her mind, Anna focused on the blood rushing through her veins. In that blood was the magic that was growing stronger with every passing day.
So strong that she wasn’t at all certain what was going to happen.
Reluctantly opening her eyes, Anna met the triumphant emerald gaze of Morgana le Fay and allowed the building power to explode around her.
Cezar was returning to Dante’s mansion when he felt Anna’s distress.
He had wasted hours among the books, searching for any hint of Morgana’s weakness. Hours that revealed nothing more than one obscure poem that only confirmed what he’d already suspected.
At last it was the approaching dawn that had driven him from the tunnels and back onto the streets of Chicago. He said a terse good-bye to the hovering Jagr and tracked his way toward the north of the city.
He was still blocks away when he felt the first surge of fear race through him.
It had taken him a moment to actually realize that it was Anna’s feelings he was experiencing. As a vampire he could read the souls of those standing close to him, and even their emotions if they were strong enough.
But this was different. This was far more personal. Far more intense.
It was almost as if they were…mated.
He didn’t have time to worry about the dangerous sensations flowing through his body. Not when the fear that he sensed reached the level of terror, then disappeared with a shocking wrench.
Anna.
With blinding speed he consumed the last few blocks and burst into the massive house, the door swinging open with enough force to rattle the pictures on the walls.
“Anna?” he bellowed, heading for the stairs, when Dante abruptly appeared before him. Coming to a halt, Cezar glared at his friend. “Where is she?”
Something that might have been sorrow touched the lean features. “Cezar.”
“Dammit, Dante.” Cezar reached out to grab the vampire by his shoulders, giving him a violent shake. “Tell me where she is.”
“We don’t know,” Dante muttered.
He gave the man another shake, a cold dread forming in the pit of his stomach.
“That’s not good enough,” he rasped.
Abby appeared at his side, her hand reaching up to lightly touch his arm. Under normal circumstances that light touch would have been enough to send him bolting away. The spirit within Abby had a nasty habit of setting demons on fire.
Now he didn’t even flinch.
“Cezar, I know you’re upset,” she murmured.
“Upset?” he growled, glaring into her brilliant blue eyes. “I’m way past upset.”
Her expression remained calm even as the lights flickered and more than one bulb burst beneath his surge of power.
Obviously she was accustomed to dealing with angry vampires.
“I know, but if we’re going to find Anna and Levet then we can’t fight among ourselves,” she pointed out softly.
Cezar hissed. He was wise enough to know that Abby was right. If Anna was in danger then he needed all the help he could gather to rescue her.
But at the moment, he didn’t want to be wise.
He wanted to tear the city apart brick by brick until he had Anna in his arms.
Backing from her touch in case he did something truly stupid, he held himself with a rigid restraint.
“Tell me what you know.”
Glancing briefly toward Dante, Abby sucked in a deep breath. “Anna and Levet went to her rooms to discover a means of shielding her mind. They had been in there less than half an hour when I brought a tray to them and discovered they had disappeared.”
“You heard nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“What about the room? Was it…”
As his voice cracked, Dante clapped a steadying hand on his shoulder. “There were no signs of a struggle. No blood. But there is something you should see for yourself.”
Cezar grudgingly allowed himself to be led up the stairs. Dios. His entire body trembled with the fierce need to be on the hunt. Anna was out there…somewhere. And no matter how great her powers, she needed him.
Stepping into the room that Anna had stayed in so briefly, Cezar came to an abrupt halt as her sweet scent invaded his senses.
Closing his eyes he allowed the lingering essence to seep into his body.
“Cezar?” Dante murmured softly.
With a shake of his head, Cezar forced himself to move further into the large room decorated in shades of yellow. His gaze skimmed the canopied bed and French armoire, noting that everything seemed to be in order.
If there had been a fight here then it had been a tidy one.
It was as he was moving to check the window that he was struck by the too familiar odor.
“Pomegranates,” he snarled. “Morgana.”
“That was our guess,” Abby breathed softly, kneeling beside a scorched mark that stained the ivory carpet. “This was not here before.”
Cezar frowned. “Magic?”
“Yes, although I don’t know enough to say for certain what sort,” Abby confessed.
“It had to be a portal,” Dante gritted, his silver eyes flashing with fury. He didn’t like magic any better than Cezar. “There is no other means for Morgana to get past my security.”
“Morgana has Anna.” Cezar’s cold dread was replaced by a raging fury.
The Queen of Fairies had to die.
She had to die now.
Turning on his heel, Cezar blindly stalked out of the room, heading down the stairs and entering the foyer before Dante could leap in front of him and bring him to a sharp halt.
“Cezar, wait,” the vampire snapped, his muscles trembling with the effort of restraining the furious Cezar. “You can’t just charge out without knowing where you’re going. It will be dawn soon.”