The Last of the Red Hot Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,40

is not heaven, so Abaddon is not hell, although it is commonly referred to as such. The prince you refer to is the head of all the seven demon lords who rule Abaddon, and I'm sorry to say that they do very much exist."

The skeptic in me wanted to argue the point, but I reminded myself that I was still in the process of coming to grips with the idea that there was more to life than I imagined, and thus such an argument could wait.

Not to mention the fact that I now had to admit to Sarah that she was right and I was wrong.

"So what is this demon lord guy likely to do? He can't hurt us, can he?"

Theo laughed a particularly mirthless laugh. It made a little chill skitter down my back. "He's likely to demand reparation for the demon's form. Such things do not come cheap, or so the demon lords would have us believe."

We turned into the pub's now-crowded parking lot. "Wait a second...are you saying I just destroyed the demon's body, but not the demon itself?"

"Yes. Demons can't be destroyed as such...their power changes into a different form, but isn't actually obliterated, if you understand what I mean."

"Of course I understand. It's the first law of thermodynamics." I wrapped the blanket tightly around myself as I got out of the car, smiling at Theo's look of confusion. "Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It can be transformed from one form of energy to another, but the sum total is always the same. What you're saying is that a demon is made up of some sort of energy, so it makes perfect sense to me that the energy of the demon is itself not able to be destroyed. I could go on to draw an analogy about what the physical form is like, but unless you're into physics, it would probably seem like overkill."

Theo laughed, a warm, deep laugh that rolled around me, filling me with an incredible light feeling that I identified with some surprise as happiness. "You have the most deliciously analytical mind."

"Well, I guess it's better to have you admire my mind over my breasts, like the other men I've dated."

A little flame of desire burst into being in his eyes. "Oh, I admire your breasts greatly, have no fear. But I do appreciate the desire you have to understand how the world works, rather than just blindly accepting it."

I shuddered despite the warmth of his gaze as I went through the door he opened for me. "Blind faith was never my forte. So what do we do about this Bael?"

The pub was just about to close when we walked in the door. I won't say conversation came to an abrupt halt at the sight of me, but the few die-hard regulars who were still there did give me curious glances.

"I...er...fell in the river," I explained to the pub owner, who walked past carrying a batch of dirty glasses.

He eyed the blanket I clutched around me, and nodded, saying nothing.

"Maybe we'd better discuss this in a more private area," I said quietly to Theo.

"Whither you lead, so shall I follow," he said with a little bow.

What a ham he was. A sexy, adorable, gorgeous ham. I led the way upstairs to my room, plopping down on the bed still clutching the blanket. My room wasn't huge to begin with, but with Theo in it, it suddenly seemed very small and intimate.

He went to the window and looked out into the night. I was very, very aware of him as a man, and no amount of reminding myself that just a few days ago he had tried to throttle me dissuaded my body from the idea of flinging itself on him right at that moment.

He kidnapped you a few days ago, I told my errant erogenous zones, all on full alert and tingling with anticipation. I touched my neck where his fingers had left it bruised and tender. He could easily have killed me.

"What's wrong?" Theo asked, turning back to me.

I felt my neck all over, then got up to look in the mirror on the inside of the wardrobe door. The blanket slid to the floor. "Where are my bruises?"

"I have no idea. Do you normally have bruises on your neck?"

"I do when people try to strangle me. The day that you did that, and tried to kidnap us, I had bruises all over my neck, and it was tender to the