"If you had this ring, could you use it to break Asmodeus's curse?"

"I could not, but others might." He gave me a sharp, questioning glance.

"You can't use the ring?"

"Not against Asmodeus. I could wield it in other circumstances, but not against the dark lord to whom I am bound."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot he was the one who pulled the nasty on you. Say you found the ring and gave it to me," I said slowly as we hurried into the train station. "Using it, could I blow the curse away without doing any Charmer stuff?" If I could, there was I chance I could help him and Melissande's nephew both without burning out any more of my brain.

"Yes."

"Really?" Hope swelled within me. Maybe things weren't as dire as they seemed. All I needed to do was use the ring against Asmodeus to free Melissande's nephew and break the curse on Adrian. Then he and I could live happily ever after… What was I thinking? Use the ring against Asmodeus? Just the memory of that hideous monster left me faintly nauseous. How on earth could I rally enough strength to face him again?

"If you had the training to master a demon lord, or access to someone with that information, yes. But as you have neither that nor the ring, the point is moot."

Before I could grill him further about the ring, he hustled me to the main floor, pointing at a seating section. "I will get the tickets. You wait over there for me."

"Um." I gnawed my lip, looking around at all the flashy shops that edged the waiting area. "I assume the reason we're taking the train rather than flying to London is because you don't want to be trapped on an airplane in case something happens and you'd be stuck, possibly exposed to the sun?"

"No," he answered, giving the area a quick once-over, obviously looking for anything threatening. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside to be on the receiving end of his protective manner. Some women might find it stifling to have a man constantly be concerned about her well-being. I found it endearing. "We travel by train because that is all I can afford."

"What?" I all but shrieked, grabbing the back of his duster as he started away. "What do you mean, that's all you can afford? You're a vampire! You're four hundred and eighty-two years old!"

He turned back with an annoyed look. "Four hundred and eighty-one."

I smacked him on the arm. "Old enough to have put aside considerable wealth so you can keep your Beloved in the fashion she means to be kept in! You can't be poor! Everyone knows vampires have oodles of money lying around!"

"Would these be the same people who expect Dark Ones to be able to change themselves into bats, and to materialize objects just by the will of their mind?"

I made a face, my eyes dropping before his midnight-blue ones. "Maybe. Are you telling me you're broke? I'm going to spend eternity broke?"

"No." He gave me a grim look. "I will see to your future, have no worries about that."

"Yeah, but what about—"

"Stay here." His voice was rough and hard, but I slipped into his head long enough to know it hid a regret so deep I could not fathom it. Gently he pushed me out of his mind. "I will return as soon as I have the tickets."

I thought about pouting over his putting up the no-trespassing sign, but decided I was bigger than that. Slowly I window-shopped my way down the main hall, wondering how I was going to tell him that I held the key to his salvation nestled firmly against my right butt cheek.

A woman wearing dark glasses limped by me as I stood peering into a bookstore, wishing I had my purse so I could buy us a couple of books or magazines for the long trip to London. She stopped near me, arguing in a soft American voice. I turned at the unexpected sound of English, my eyebrows shooting up as she stuffed a snow globe into a bulging canvas bag. Who was she talking to, I wondered.

"Next time, you're all finding something smaller to bind yourselves to. One snow globe is fine, but seven is heavy."

Was she talking to her show globes? And what the heck was binding? One thing was certain, this American wasn't all there upstairs.

My eyebrows shot up as she glanced toward me, giving me a weak smile. "I… uh… they're snow globes."

"Uh-huh," I said, moving away slowly. You never knew where you were going to find crazy people. "Seven of them."

"Yes, seven," she said with another tense smile, turning to mutter into the bag's opening.

"You don't… uh… have names for them, do you?" I couldn't help but ask.

She turned back quickly, the bright lights of the station shining on her impenetrable black glasses. "Names?"

"Yeah, you know, like Dopey, Sleepy, Snowy, Icy…" I stopped when her lips made a thin line, slowly moving down to the far window. From the corner of my eye I watched as a tall man in a black leather coat strolled over and put his arm around the crazy lady. The man was handsome, very handsome, movie-star handsome with black eyes and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Now, that's how a real vampire should look. Sexy, well-dressed, and loaded," I muttered as I watched the reflection in the shop window. The woman gestured toward the shop, and the man pulled out a wad of cash big enough to choke a water buffalo, peeling off a number of bills and giving them to her. I was just about to turn away when another man joined them. A blond man. A blond man who looked all too horribly familiar.

The blond man who had tried to kill Adrian, voicing his intentions to do away with me as well.

"Sebastian," I hissed, remembering what Adrian had called him. Another vampire, one that evidently made it his job to rid the world of the Betrayer. I had to warn Adrian and fast, but without drawing undue attention from Sebastian and his friends.

Adrian!

Both Sebastian and the dark-haired man turned as I reached out to touch Adrian's mind. I leaned into the shop window, my head craned as if I was trying to read something farther in the shop. Sebastian took a step toward me.

What is it, Nell?

I pulled up my coat collar, rubbing my arms and hunching my head down as I pretended to be cold. Obviously the dark-haired man was a vamp, and both he and Sebastian had some sort of mind-meld radar that I'd inadvertently set off. I hated to give them something to ping from, but if I didn't answer him, Adrian would run straight into my arms. I had to keep that from happening. Nothing. Just making sure you didn't run into the pointy end of a stake or something.

His sigh rippled across my brain. Have patience, Hasi. I will be with you in a moment or two.

I sidled down the length of the shop window, being careful to keep as much of my back as possible to the two vamps. In the window I saw the reflection of Sebastian as he took another step toward me, his eyes scanning back and forth across the stream of people passing. I felt his touch for a moment as if it were barbed with fire, fighting to keep from reacting to it before it moved on. The dark-haired man said something, calling him back. I breathed a sigh of relief as Sebastian's attention was withdrawn, not risking a glance back as I walked away from them as quickly as I could. I whipped around a corner, heading for a sign pointing toward the ticket counters.

Adrian strolled toward me, a sinfully handsome, sexy figure in black.

I ran to him, struggling to push aside the heavy material of my jacket in order to reach my hip pocket. "What happened to your coat? Never mind, it doesn't matter. Here, take this." I pressed the ring into his hand, ignoring his startled look as I tugged him over against the wall behind a big pillar. "It's Asmodeus's ring. Don't ask me how I found it, there's no time to explain now. There are two vamps just around the corner, and one of them is that Sebastian guy who stabbed you."