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by
me.”
    She sighed. “Of
course—there are always laws. Anyway, it’s a lot faster than the
way I usually get here.”
    “ How do you travel to the Shadow Lands?” I asked. I knew she
had been here, on Hell’s front doorstep before, but I had never
accompanied her on any of her trips.
    “ It’s a long, complicated spell with a lot of expensive
ingredients. It’s a real pain in the ass because if you don’t do it
just right, it doesn’t work and then you have to start all over
again.” She shook her head ruefully. “I tried something like fifty
times and spent two months income before I finally got it right the
first time.”
    “ Fifty trials?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “You must have
wanted to get here badly.”
    “ I
had to,” she said, looking down. “There were…things I needed here
that I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
    “ Things to work the revenge spell you’ve been trying to gather
ingredients for?” I asked.
    I
confess I wanted to know more about that particular
spell—specifically, who Gwendolyn wanted revenge on badly enough to
risk her immortal soul in order to get it. What had they done to
her to raise the little witch’s ire…or a better question might be
what would I do to them when I found out? I felt a possessive growl
rise in my throat and swallowed it with some difficulty. Why did she affect me so?
I had no answer.
    “ Well?” I said, when she didn’t reply.
    “ That’s none of your business,” she snapped.
    “ Oh, I think it is.” I went to her, crushing the plentiful
demon’s breath plants that grew in the arid soil under my feet and
releasing their sickly sweet, rotten-ripe smell. “Let us have an
understanding right here and now, Gwendolyn,” I said.
    “ What?” She
wouldn’t look at me so I lifted her chin, gently but firmly, and
looked into her eyes. “What?” She repeated, meeting my gaze at
last. The look on her lovely face was half defiant, half
fearful.
    “ You and I will be traveling together through difficult and
dangerous terrain,” I t old her, still holding her eyes with mine. “You will forgo
your usual defiance and treat me with courtesy—the same courtesy I
will show to you.”
    “ You mean the courtesy you showed me when you told me I would
have to…have to ‘yield’ to you while we were here?” she
demanded.
    I
sighed. “So that is the
crux of the matter. Of course—I should have known.”
    “ Yes, you freaking well should have.” She crossed her arms
protectively over her breasts and I couldn’t help noticing that
there were two spots of color high on her cheeks. “If you know
anything about witches you know I can’t really ‘yield’ to you. At
least, not all the way. If I do…”
    “ Your power will be halved. Yes, I know,” I told her gently.
“But I am not asking you to give yourself to me simply for my own
gratification, mon
ange. It is a
necessary sacrifice if you wish to travel through the Infernal
Realm.”
    She shook her head.
“How can it possibly be necessary for me to have sex with you just
to travel through Hell? I don’t understand.”
    “ No,” I said, cupping her cheek—which felt hot in my palm.
“But you will.”
    Her cheeks got even
darker and her breathing seemed to quicken. She pulled away from
me. “Don’t do that. Don’t touch me.”
    “ You must get used to my touch,” I told her grimly. “Before
this trip is over you will feel my hands over every inch of your
flesh.” I knew she wouldn’t like that part and sure enough, she
opened that lush little mouth of hers to complain. I raised one
finger, cutting her off. “Again, it will be a necessary sacrifice,”
I told her. “As will the fact that while we are here, you will be
traveling as my concubine.”
    “ Your what?” She
shook her head. “Oh, no—I don’t think so. What the hell are you talking about, anyway?”
    I was rapidly losing
my patience. “What we are talking about is the fact that I am
smuggling you—a living