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beating wildly as I tried to regain composure. “I’m
sorry, Sebastian. I realize that I look like a get your soul back free card, but
there’s a big point you are missing.”
    He watched me for a moment. “That is not an
issue. You are my Beloved. I feel it. I tasted it in your blood. I
know it in my heart.”
    I said nothing for a few
minutes while I tried to sort through my tangled thoughts. If what
he said was true, then I had very little time to make a decision
that would change the path of my life. I hated feeling pressured
into doing anything, and here I was being asked to commit myself
body and soul to a man—a vampire —I’d just met. Could I do it?
Did I even want to try? He said my handicap made no matter in the
issue of Belovedness, but did he truly know that? What if we tried
and it failed? What if he were just using me, manipulating me into
giving him what he wanted without regards to the future? Did I
really have any alternatives? Salvaticus would be over soon… but
somehow, I knew that he spoke the truth. The demon had seen me for
what I was, and it would move heaven and earth to return to its
master with me as a prize. The man before me held the key to my
salvation, just as I did for him.
    Sebastian said nothing as I wrestled with my
thoughts, simply holding me in a loose embrace, his eyes flashing
bluish gray lights that mesmerized me.
    “ Very well, I will Join
with you,” I said finally. He needed a soul, and I could redeem it
for him. I would do it his way because the alternative was
unthinkable.
    I didn’t want to die. Not again.

Chapter Four
     
    “ What…er…do we have to say
something?” I asked, more than a little nervous now that I’d agreed
to bind myself to the man whose mere physical presence filled me
with a strange excited happiness. “Is there something I need to
swear to? Or is it like a ceremony?”
    “ There are seven steps to
Joining,” he said solemly “The first two are marking and protection
from afar.”
    “ The demon and the
mind-talking,” I said, recalling his soft voice in my head urging
me down the alley. I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but
I recognized it now for what it was.
    “ Yes. The third and fourth
steps involve the first exchange of bodily fluids, and entrusting
the Beloved with the truth.”
    “ That would be the kiss
and…well, I guess telling me who you are.”
    He nodded. “The fifth step is the second
exchange.”
    “ I assume that”—I waved a
hand to indicate the necking session in which we’d just
indulged—“qualifies?”
    “ It does. The sixth step
is for the Beloved to overcome the darkness within the Dark
One.”
    “ Oh.” I thought for a few
seconds, frowning as I ran over our conversation. “I’m afraid I
don’t quite see where we’ve done that.”
    “ That’s because you
haven’t promised yet to assist me in bringing down the
Betrayer.”
    “ Who?”
    “ Adrian the Betrayer. The
man who sold me to Asmodeus.”
    I gawked at him for a
second or two. “He sold you to a demon lord?”
    “ Yes.” Sebastian’s eyes
grew as pale as a foggy dawn. “That is why I seek revenge against
him and his family. I swore my vengeance as Asmodeus drained my
blood away. Nothing but death will satisfy such a
betrayal.”
    The urge to take him in my arms and comfort
him, to lighten the darkness visible in his eyes, was almost
overwhelming, but before I could act upon it, the door opened.
    “ Sally told me to make
sure Sebastian doesn’t try to do something bad to you,” Damian
said, marching into the room with a pugnacious set to his
jaw.
    Sebastian’s entire body tensed. I put a
warning hand on his arm. “Damian, we’re having a bit of an adult
conversation. Sebastian isn’t going to do anything bad, so you can
go back and tell Sally—”
    “ She also said to tell you
that there’s a demon outside the house demanding to see you. And a
bunch of imps. She said she’s called Noelle already,
too.”
    I closed