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the aggravating vampire.
    “I . . .”
    “What?” he prompted.
    “I didn’t know my soul was bound to Marika’s until just before we met,” she said, for whatever reason needing him to know she hadn’t deliberately led him into a trap.
    He muttered something too low for her to catch, leading them through the gap at the back. He was forced to bend nearly double as they squeezed through the opening and entered . . .
    A cavern that exactly matched the cavern they had just left.
    Kata grimaced, not bothering to point out that there was every possibility that there was no escape from the ghastly place. Why bother?
    The same thought had to be going through Uriel’s mind.
    Not that he bothered to share what he was thinking. She might as well have been a stray dog for all the attention he was giving her.
    Annoying ass.
    In silence they crossed the cavern, nearly reaching the opening in the back when Uriel abruptly whirled around, his eyes searching the shadows.
    “Damn.”
    She frowned. “What now?”
    “Something’s following us.” He tilted back his head, as if testing the air. “Several somethings.”
    “Demons?”
    “Phantoms,” he corrected her.
    “Perfect,” she muttered, instinctively ducking as he darted past her and swung his oversized sword at the translucent creature that formed out of the steam rising from the lava pits.
    There was a shriek of fury and Kata bit her lip as the phantom struck out, knocking Uriel into one of the stalagmites with shocking force. Grimly the vampire shrugged off his injuries, charging back at the enemy that had turned its attention to Kata.
    She saw the gleam of malevolent red eyes among the black mist that made up the phantom before Uriel was leaping in front of her, his sword dropped to his side as he instead held out his hand and released a burst of power.
    The phantom tried to halt its forward charge, but it was too late. Uriel’s icy power wrapped around the creature, crushing it before it could dissipate back into the lava.
    Watching the battle, Kata very nearly missed the second phantom that rose from the lava behind her. It wasn’t until she felt the stinging pain in the center of her back that she belatedly turned to face the danger.
    Without Uriel’s brute strength or his vampire powers, Kata was severely limited in her defensive skills. And why shouldn’t she be? Until Marika had become a vampire, the only defense she’d needed was the sharp edge of her tongue. She was a healer, not a fighter.
    A damned shame she wouldn’t be able to convince the hovering creature to settle matters with a smile and a handshake.
    Hell, she didn’t even know if it had hands in all that swirling mist.
    Taking a step backward, Kata held up a clenched fist and chanted soft words beneath her breath. They burnt across her brain as if they were being etched in fire, then, as she finished the spell she released the curse and let it fly toward her attacker.
    She didn’t have a clue if it would hurt a phantom.
    The thing didn’t have a corporeal body, but it did have an essence that could take physical form.
    All she could do was hope for the best.
    For a minute nothing happened.
    Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The creature continued to float forward, while from behind she could hear the dying shrieks of Uriel’s opponent. But her curse seemed to be a complete bust.
    Desperately searching her mind for something, anything , that might hurt the phantom, Kata sucked in a startled breath as the air suddenly began to thicken with the force of her words. Her curse was not only working, but it was growing with an intensity she’d never been able to conjure before.
    Obviously a perk of being in hell, she wryly accepted, taking a hasty step backwards as the phantom began to pulse, almost as if it were being inflated from the inside. Then, with a scream that nearly deafened Kata, the creature exploded.
    There was just no other way to describe it.
    One minute it was a hovering mass of