“After they were both done, the pile of knives and guns on the coffee table looked like they’d cleaned out an armory. “I think we have a problem, Dmitri.”

“You refused to fall in love with anyone else, Dmitri.” A whisper with the impact of a gun-shot. “So I had to come back for you . . . husband.”

“You’re not useless. You’re a hunky bite of sex and I’m not sure if Dmitri swings both ways.”

“I can smell blood, Elena,” Dmitri drawled, walking back into the room. “Are you trying to flirt?”

“Bluebell,” she said, remembering from Erotique. “Pretty name.” “I call Dmitri Dark Overlord.”“Shae,” Dmitri said and the female vampire rose at once to walk quickly into the house. “Now, pretty Bluebell”—another languid stroke across her skin—“tell the Overlord what you discovered.”

“Do I look like I want to be eaten alive after sex?”

“Take her to the kitchen,” came the order. “If she lies, throw her in the cauldron."“He was jesting about the cauldron, wasn’t he?You cannot have a cauldron big enough for a person?”Bard halted, sighed, looked at her with those wide, liquid eyes.“We,” he said, “have knives.”