bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered by Sam Cheever

your skin wears on you. What can I do to help?”
    “Tell me what you did to make me sick?”
    “I don’t...” He shook his head. “If I did this then I assure you it was unintentional.”
    Something in the way he said it set off alarm bells. “But you know what happened, don’t you?”
    “Not for certain, no. I can only guess.”
    I waited a beat for him to go on and then lost my temper. “Are you going to tell me?”
    “When you disappeared from your rooms I tried to use our old connection to call you back.”
    I nodded. “I heard you call my name once.”
    His eyes widened. “You heard?” He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips. “Maybe all is not lost.”
    I pulled my hand away. “Nope. All is lost. Mostly what your communicating did was create excruciating pain.” I frowned. “That’s it? You just tried to contact me?”
    He hesitated just long enough to make me suspicious.
    “What else?”
    “I might have infused some marking magic into my call. I’d been told that it might help re-open the mark.”
    I lay back with a disgusted sigh, closing my eyes. “Well, that’s unfortunate, but it doesn’t sound like it contributed to my problem.”
    “That’s just it. I think it might have.”
    My eyes snapped back open. “Explain.”
    “I might have inadvertently corrupted the mating mark I gave you.”
    “What does that mean exactly?”
    “It means it could be poisoning you.” When I looked suitably alarmed he went on. “I had no way of knowing it would do that. If you’d been a royal it wouldn’t have been possible. But since you are a halfling, half of the light, the extra infusion of black energy may have been too much for your system.” He leaned over me, a hand pressing into the mattress on either side of my hips. “I’m so sorry, gorgeous. I would sell my soul to take it back.”
    “A little late for that,” I joked grimly. I couldn’t look at his handsome face. The pain there was too deep...the attraction I’d thought had diminished was still too strong. I tugged the sheet higher and focused on smoothing it over my torso. “At least we know what’s wrong now.” I glanced up. “We can fix it.”
    He looked away, guilt transforming his features.
    Panic swirled in my chest. “We do know how to fix it, right?”
    Torre stood and paced away, saying nothing.
    “Dammit, Torre! You can’t tell me this frunkin’ mark I never wanted is going to kill me and there’s nothing anybody can do about it!”
    He swung around. “I won’t let it kill you.”
    “Then tell me how to fix it.”
    He shook his head. “You will not like it.”
    I was sure of that. I hadn’t liked anything that had happened to me since he’d flown back into my life. “Regardless, I need to know my options. Spill it.”
    His hand fell to the hilt of his sword and his expression darkened. Clearly he thought I was going to take his next statement badly.
    He couldn’t have been more right.
    “I can replace the current mark with a new one. A better one. One that will hold this time.”
    Holy Gargoyle toes. I hadn’t seen that one coming.

CHAPTER TEN
    An Impossible Choice
    Death of my body?
    Or death of my heart?
    The Supreme High Witch of the Angel City Coven was impossibly beautiful in a way that made me hate her on sight. I especially hated the way she licked her full lips and batted thick blonde eyelashes when she saw Torre.
    Ignoring the witch’s obvious come-on...mostly...Torre took my hand and kissed the palm, letting his lips linger there. “I’ll leave you. I’m sure you have much to consider.”
    He wasn’t kidding. I had to consider whether to let the poison eat me away to nothing or just leap into the fiery pits and be done with it.
    The idea of letting Torre tamper with the mark again was terrifying. Though, on the other hand, he might finish me off faster if he tried. A definite bonus.
    Whatever I decided, I had to take into account the agony I’d felt when the mark had failed the first