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betrayed them all. This was a woman who would fight from the front lines, and she had taken control in Angelica’s absence.
    Excellent. Because the chicks had been altogether too boring before.
    “Mari. What do you want?” Nigel allowed daggers to ease from his fingertips as Mari waved cheerfully at him, holding a piece of paper in her hand. On it was his drawing of Pascal.
    Nigel grabbed his sketchpad off the ground and saw that the picture of Pascal was still there. But Mari was holding the exact same image in her hand.
    “Get her!” Christian charged the hologram, sword blazing, but when he tried to tackle her, he went right through Mari’s image without doing anything more than causing her image to flicker.
    “It’s a hologram,” Nigel called out. “She’s not real!” Which was good. Murdering the woman in cold blood wouldn’t be the best therapy Christian could find. You know, given that they were all pretty much hardwired not to harm women in any way, even those decidedly lacking a reciprocal set of morals.
    Christian whirled around. “What do you mean?”
    “It’s not her. It’s just her image.”
    Christian swore and slammed his sword through the image in frustration. Yeah, old girlfriends were a real drain on a man’s ability to get up and go. But Nigel sensed that something else was bothering Christian, something that ran a whole lot deeper. Because Christian was, quite simply, not the type to harm a woman. Even Mari. Even a hologram of her. Not once. Not ever. No matter what.
    “Hey, dudes. A little help, maybe?” Pascal called out.
    Nigel glanced over at him and was surprised to see he was apparently being dragged by some unseen force straight toward Mari, who was gripping the drawing tightly in her hand. “Whoa. She’s trying to take you through the portal?” Damn. That just wasn’t acceptable. Invading his digs and stealing his peeps? He shot a hard look at her. “No chance, Mari. You don’t get to have us anymore.”
    She didn’t respond. She just kept watching Pascal, who’d grabbed onto the footboard of his bed, hanging on with impressive strength for someone who’d been almost dead a few minutes ago. But they were warriors. They did shit like that.
    Nigel stiffened, not liking the intensity of Mari’s stare. How had she opened the portal in his place anyway?
    “She shouldn’t be here.”
    “Unfortunately, she’s not.” Christian leaned on his sword, still looking overly disgruntled that he couldn’t grab Mari by the hair and drag her out of the portal. “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone get sucked into a portal through a drawing.”
    “Impressive,” Pascal agreed, still hanging on tightly. “Maybe we should sell tickets?” His voice grew more strained. “I gotta say, though, going back to party with Mari isn’t my first choice. I mean, she’s hot and all that, but she is my buddy’s ex-girlfriend and all. Violates man code to do her.”
    Christian barked with strained laughter. “She’s all yours, newbie.”
    “Don’t really want her, actually.” Pascal gasped as one hand slipped off the footboard.
    “Fight it, man. I’m coming.” Nigel loped across the room and grabbed Pascal’s wrist. “I’ve got you—”
    Pascal was ripped out of his grasp. “Hey!” Nigel lunged after his comrade as Pascal tumbled across the room toward Mari and the hell that they’d all suffered for so long. Crap! What was going on?
    Christian swore, and both warriors lunged for Pascal’s outstretched hands. “Hang on,” Nigel ordered. His fingers brushed against Pascal’s. “Got him!”
    Pascal met his eyes, a stricken look on his face. “First time ever that I didn’t get pleasure over you being wrong.” Then he was torn away from Nigel and sucked through the portal.
    “Pascal!” Christian dove into the portal, but it shut too quickly, and Christian crashed to the floor, empty-handed. Except, of course, for his sword. He swore and whirled toward Nigel.