“Who else did you tell about the portal?” Nikola asked, his voice deceptively calm. I knew better, however. Beneath the surface, his anger was as hot as the hunger that he held at bay. “Who else did you give the means to destroy Dark Ones?”
“No one! I told no one! Er… I might have hinted at something like a portal to the demon lord Ashtaroth, but—”
Nikola gave a mental groan.
That’s bad, yes?
Very bad.
I glared at Rolf. “You bastard.”
“My parents were properly wed!” he snapped back, but the fire had gone out in him. He slumped back, his arms across his chest, and glared at us all.
Io—
I know, I know.
I cleared my throat, not wanting to say what had to be said, but seeing no other way around it. “I have to close the swirly thing. I don’t know how to do that, though.”
“You will find the way,” Tallulah said, pushing back the bowl. I was uncomfortably aware of her gaze on me.
“I’m glad someone has faith in me, because I have to admit that right now I don’t.” I took a deep breath and glanced at Nikola. “I don’t suppose you know how to lock up a portal?”
“Lock up? No.” Tallulah rose to her feet, her hands flat on the table as she leaned toward me. “You cannot simply close the portal, Io. You must destroy it for good so that no one may ever use it again. That is the only way to bring back balance, and to ensure it remains.”
I felt literally sick to my stomach with the knowledge of what this would mean to Nikola. I looked at him, taking in those bright pale blue eyes ringed with impossibly thick black lashes, his long, straight aquiline nose, that chin that I loved biting so much, and felt a few tears burn behind my own eyes.
I’m sorry, punkin. I’m so sorry.
He gave me a supportive squeeze.
I know you are, and I will do what I can to make your life a happy one.
“You will…huh?”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that you do not regret the choice to stay with me,” he answered, filling my head with all sorts of erotic promises.
“You think I’m going to go back with you before I destroy the swirly portal?” I asked, knowing the answer even as the words left my lips. Of course he expected that—he always intended on returning back to his time, and assumed I’d be going back with him. “But…we’re here now. Couldn’t we just stay here?”
“Uh-oh,” Fran murmured, getting up and pulling Ben up after her. “I think this is where we make ourselves scarce.”
“I believe that would be wise,” Tallulah said, glancing at her watch. “You may make use of my trailer as long as you need it. I will be in my booth, should you wish to consult with me again.”
“Where are you taking me?” Rolf said in an outraged voice when Finnvid, after a whisper from Imogen, yanked him to his feet and shoved him along the aisle. “Unhand me, you deranged spirit!”
“Come with me, Uncle Rolf,” Imogen said in her soothing voice. “Papa and Io need a few minutes alone.”
“I don’t care what they need, I will not be treated in this manner—”
In a matter of seconds, the trailer was cleared of everyone, the puppy included. I stroked a hand along Nikola’s cheek, relishing the emotions that rolled through me when he turned his head to kiss my palm.
“You do not wish to return with me.”
It was a statement, not a question, and behind it was an entire world of pain.
“I want to be with you. I want to spend my life with you. Dammit, I already told you that I was in love with you, and I don’t have any idea how or when that happened, because everything was just fine with us being fond of each other, and now I just want to cry because I do love you, Nikola. I love you so much I want to stand on top of this trailer and yell it out to everyone.”
“But you do not wish to return with me to my home.”
“It’s not that. I liked your castle. But you haven’t spent as much time here as I spent in your time. There’s so much more to see, Nikola. So many cool gadgets and scientific crap and advances that you can’t even dream of, and you’ll never know about them if we go back to your time. We’ll never have a microwave, or a laptop, or even a hair dryer, and let me tell you, I miss my hair dryer almost more than I do modern underwear and toilet paper. Well, OK, not more than toilet paper. That really is something that is missed once it’s gone.”
“And what of Andras Castle?”
“Well…we can rebuild it, and live there.”
“What of the servants? How will they go on without me to provide for them?”
“They’ve been dead three hundred years, Nikola.”
“But they were alive when we left. It’s not that I care about them, you understand. I simply do not like shirking my duties.”
I shook my head at him, warmed at the genuine concern for others that he felt. “Oh, come on. I think we both know that you are Mr. Pushover when it comes to any misfit you run across. Why else would you have that motley collection of servants? But honestly, I’m sure they got along just fine before they met you, as they did after you went through the portal.”
He looked at me, just looked at me for a few minutes, keeping his thoughts closed off so I couldn’t hear what it was he was thinking. But I felt his emotions. I felt the pain, and the doubt, and the need to protect. I felt his innate nobility of character, and I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“Then we will stay here, in your time. We will take up our lives here, and begin again.”
“Nikola—”
“No.” He laid a finger across my lips. I bit it. “I did not think I was capable of it, but somehow, it has overtaken me, as well. You are my life now, Io. You are my heart and being and I cannot think of existing without you. You say you love me so much you wish to yell out your feelings—I love you so much that I am willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy. We will remain here, in your time, and you will spend endless nights making up to me the sacrifice I have made because I love you so greatly.”
I laughed and kissed him, tears spilling over my eyelashes as I let him feel the depth of my emotions for him.
And I love you so much that I’m going to let you get away with that wholly and utterly outrageous statement. Come on, lover boy, let’s go back to the hotel so I can feed you. Then we’ll go do a bit of shopping.
“Shopping?” he asked, allowing me to escape his lap. “More presents?”
“More presents. But this time, I think, we’ll get me some. And I need to call my cousin. But mostly, I want to shop.”
He said nothing, but gave me a long look as I left the trailer.
“I don’t know why, but I feel kind of sad,” Fran said softly as, several hours later, we stood before the swirly portal.
“He made his choice,” Ben told her, giving her a squeeze.
“Yes, but it seems kind of sad that he’s going to give up his home just to stay here. I mean, I totally understand, because now is much nicer than three hundred years ago, and of course, he has Io and you and Imogen and everything, but it still seems kind of a shame.”
I set down the large carrier bag that held a bit of shopping we’d done before the shops all closed. We’d come straight to the clearing from my shopping spree, stopping only long enough to pick up Nikola’s children and brother before heading for the portal.
I stared at the swirling smoke as it twirled and twined around on itself, marveling once again that such an ethereal thing could work such miracles.
And be the tool of unspeakable horrors.
“This portal is going to be destroyed,” I said loudly, my eyes on Rolf. He was extremely grumpy, having been woken up from where he was sleeping in Imogen’s trailer, Finnvid having remained behind to guard him. “Your demon lord buddy won’t be able to use it to do squat.”
“You woke me up for this?” he asked, his voice shrill in the night air. “You dragged me out of a warm bed to be shown this portal? I have already seen it, woman!”
“I just want to make sure that you understand that it’s not going to be functioning anymore. No one will be able to go through it. You got that?”
He said something in German that I suspected was very rude. Nikola gave a start, and answered back in a manner that had Rolf sniffing to himself and wrapping the blanket he held tightly around him.
So you think all I have to do is focus on this portal, and will it destroyed?
I believe if you focus all your attention on that, yes, you will be able to seal it forever.
I looked deeply into his eyes.
I love you, Baron Nikola. I’m going to expect you to marry me.
So you can be a baroness?
So I can be
your
baroness.
We will do so immediately, then.
“Imogen, Io has proposed marriage to me, and I have accepted. You will enjoy witnessing our marriage ceremony.”
I laughed out loud. “You aren’t supposed to tell people I proposed to you, you big oaf.” I moved around the portal to hug Imogen, who was offering her congratulations. “I was wrong about your father. I am madly in love with him, even though I just know he’s going to tell everyone that I proposed to him. Despite that, I will make him very, very happy. I promise.”
“I think that you already do,” she said, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
I hugged Fran, as well, since she was standing next to Imogen. “And I forgive you for being mean to my future husband.”
“Mean? Me?” She giggled. “I would never!”
I laughed with her, passing Ben and the two Vikings, stopping at Finnvid, who stood with one hand on Rolf. “My name is Iolanthe,” I told the former, giving him a little hug, too. “Note the consonants in it. Just don’t name a girl Yolanda, OK? Rolf. You know, I can’t think of a life more annoying than having it filled with you. So I think I’m going to take pity on everyone.”
I smiled at the startled look on his face, and ignored the warning voice in my head.
Io, what are you about?
Before Rolf could do more than sputter a profanity, I grabbed him by his shirt and, using the one move I could remember from my self-defense class, spun him around, directly at the portal. He gave a shriek, his arms cartwheeling wildly, and then all was quiet.
“Sweetling,” Nikola said, shaking his head as he strolled over to me. “I know you disliked him, but now we will not be able to keep an eye on him.”
I licked the tip of his nose before wrapping my arms around his waist. “I want you to be happy, too, you know. It matters more to me than anything. More even than showing you just how fabulous the future can be. I love you so much, I’m willing to sacrifice even my need for toilet paper.”
He didn’t expect it, not at all, and for that, I was grateful. Because if he knew in advance that I was going to flip him over my hip, right into the portal, and follow him through a second later, he would have made a big deal about it.
“And it’s not a big deal,” I told him half a day later, when we woke up to find ourselves lying in the afternoon shade of the trees. “I knew that, in the end, I wasn’t going to be happy unless you were happy, and besides, I did come prepared this time.”
“If you’re going to continue to make sheep’s eyes at him, I shall leave,” Rolf said. He’d been bitching ever since we’d woken up about ten minutes before, complaining nonstop that I had ruined his life. He had watched with acid comments when I—with Nikola’s advice—managed to disperse the swirly portal until nothing more remained of it but a memory. “It’s enough to make my stomach sour. Nikola, I shall be raiding your cellar, and expect to hear no chastisement later.”
“You are welcome to whatever you can drink,” Nikola said as Rolf staggered off into the woods, still complaining about his ill-treatment.
Nikola shook his head, and looked at the carrier bag I’d grabbed before throwing myself through the portal. “Did you bring your presents?”
“Yes. A laptop for us to play on.” I pulled out a small black laptop. “You’re going to have to rig up some way to recharge the battery, but I figure that’ll be a good project to keep you busy for a while. And the same goes for powering my hair dryer.”
He looked at the pink dryer I laid on top of the laptop. “You will need to explain electricity in more detail, then.”
“I’ll do my best. I got an encyclopedia on DVD for the laptop, so that should help with the parts I don’t know. And then there’s—”
“Toilet paper,” he said, nodding at the large package I set to the side. “I understand it is important to you, but, Io, I did not mean for you to sacrifice your happiness for mine. I was content to stay in your time and learn all that there was to learn.”
“Silly man,” I told him, leaning over to kiss him. “Content isn’t good enough. I want you ecstatically happy.”
He fell backward, pulling me down on top of him, his hands busily sliding up my skirt so that he could stroke my thighs. “I am always ecstatic where you are concerned. As Rolf has gone, and the portal is no more, I will allow you to seduce me here in the Zauberwald, but then we will discuss your heedless actions, and how you must learn that I am master in my home, and your place therein.”
“Oooh, getting all bossy with me, are you?” I murmured, kissing a line down his chest as I unbuttoned his shirt, my fingers and mouth going wild on all the exposed flesh.
“Yes. I am a dominant man, Iolanthe. You may not have noticed this about me—arms up, please; thank you—but I am, and I expect that since you made your choice to live with me at my home, a choice that I would have preferred we discuss before you made such a large sacrifice, but as you have made that choice, then I expect you will abide by my rules.”
Too many words,
I said, wriggling as he peeled off my shirt and bra, his fingers gently stroking my bare breasts. I paused for a moment, looking down at him, noting the deep sapphire blue of his eyes. “I made a sacrifice. Did you—”
“Yes,” he said, pulling me down so my breast was at his mouth.
I have my soul back. And for that, my love, as for everything else about you, I will be eternally grateful.
I do so love it when you get mushy on me,
I said, squirming with happiness as he laved his tongue along a very sensitive nipple.