you what I have," I said in a loud voice as I grabbed the doorknob. "I have a job that's going nowhere, a deranged vampire murderer trying to drive me insane, and abso-friggin'-lutely no man on the horizons. I swear, what I wouldn't give to meet someone - urf!"
The force of a brick wall bursting through the basement doorway and slamming straight into me not only drove all the air from my body but sent me flying backward, the brick wall falling with me in a tangle of arms and legs, and heads clunking together painfully. My camera fell to the floor, and the tinkle of coins and the smashing of glass warned that the contents of my purse had spilled out under the force of the impact.
It took me a few seconds to shake the stars from my aching head, but that gave my lungs time to reinflate after the brick wall - which I was amazed to see turned out to be a man - rolled off me.
He spoke in some lyrical language, stopping himself to grab my hand and yank me to my feet. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there. Get out."
"Huh? " I said, rubbing my forehead where it had smacked against his. "Who are you? What are you doing here? We were told the house was empty."
The man cast a glance over his shoulder to where a narrow stairway descended into the yawning blackness of the basement. "Get out now! He knows I found the exit that led to this place!"
"Who knows you're here? Oh, man, if my camera is broken - " I ignored the man when he ran toward the front door, instead squatting to scoop up the small collection of coins, my now broken compact mirror, a tube of lipstick, and some sort of gray-striped flat round stone edged in gold, with a gold dragon embossed on one side. "What on earth is this? Hey, mister, this must be - holy Mary and all the apostles!"
Another man emerged from the blackness of the basement, but instinctively I knew this was no normal man, not with the way power and fury were rolling off him in almost visible waves. I clutched my things to my chest, stumbling backward to get out of his way, ignoring the pain of the coins and broken compact as they cut into the flesh of my palm, my eyes huge as his attention was momentarily directed my way. I froze, unable to breathe, but was instantly dismissed as he turned toward the front door, raising one hand as he bellowed out a word.
"Desino! "
Automatically, I translated the word from Latin to English - halt - and for a second, it seemed as if the world had stopped rotating. Everything seemed to hold its breath. Time just stopped dead as I stared in horrified wonder at the man. A sudden dizziness overtook me as the air in the house was suddenly contracted, then exploded outward with the velocity and volume of a nuclear explosion.
I fell to the ground, my arms around my head, as the walls of the house itself groaned. I was going to die right then and there, without even finding someone to love.
"Damn," I whispered to my knees, and consigned my soul to heaven.
Chapter Two
Heaven, it seemed, didn't want me. I realized this when the furious, frightening man stalked past me toward the man with whom I'd collided, the same man who was even now trying desperately to wrench open the front door.
"You dare steal from me!"
The powerful man's voice was as terrible as a nightmare, shrill and piercing little bits of my soul, making it feel as if it were being ripped from me.
"I would never do anything so heinous, Lord Bael," the other man said, dropping to his knees in a penitent position when he realized the door wouldn't open. "It was my master. He covets your tools, not I."
"Your master is a dead man," the one named Bael said, his words wrapped in such horrible tones, I didn't for one minute doubt the veracity of the prophecy. "What is your name?"
"Ulfur, my lord."
I watched the scene with terrified amazement. Was the powerful man named Bael some sort of a peer? He had a British accent, so maybe he was some visiting dignitary. I wracked my brain trying to remember who owned this house before it got tangled up in probate. Maybe the Bael person was the owner? If that was so,