"Settle down, princess," he murmured softly.

"Settle down?" A flush stained her beautiful face. "I wake up naked in the company of a strange vampire far away from my home and you want me to settle down?" She bit her bottom lip, her flush deepening to crimson. "Did you-"

"What?"

"Violate me?"

What the h.e.l.l? Cyn surged upright. Six foot three of quivering, offended, naked male.

"No, I didn't d.a.m.n well violate you," he rasped. "And if I had I can a.s.sure you that you would not only remember, but you'd be on your knees thanking me for the privilege."

Her fear was replaced by a more familiar disdain. As if he was a bug that needed to be squashed beneath her royal heel.

"Why you arrogant . . . leech."

He folded his arms over his ma.s.sive chest. "At least I'm not a stuck-up prig of a fairy."

"If you didn't violate me why are we naked?" she demanded, careful to keep her gaze locked on his face. Was she afraid his bare body might strike her blind? "And how did we get here?"

He snorted. "That's a question I should be asking you."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm a vampire."

Her lips thinned in annoyance, her chin tilted as she continued her ridiculous charade of innocence.

"Yes, I had managed to figure that out."

"Then you know that I can't create portals," he snapped, deliberately allowing his gaze to skim downward. Unlike the aggravating female, he had no problem enjoying a naked body. Especially one so appetizing. "Only the fey can do that."

She frowned, belatedly realizing she couldn't try to pin the blame of their abrupt teleportation on him.

Odd, she hadn't struck him as stupid.

Just the opposite, in fact.

"Fey aren't the only creatures who can create portals," she tried to hedge.

"Well I obviously didn't do it."

"Neither did I."

He made a sound of impatience. Why was she continuing with this game?

"You expect me to believe you?"

The flecks of emerald shimmered in her eyes. "My father has forbidden his people to leave our homeland."

"Oh aye, and a daughter has never dared to disobey her father."

She cast a condemning glance around the barren cave. "Trust me, if I did decide to defy my father I wouldn't choose to travel to this dump."

His low growl filled the air. He was a true hedonist. A vampire who reveled in rare books, fine wine, and beautiful women.

And in turn, women adored him.

All women.

But this female . . .

She wasn't the warm, willing bundle of pleasure he was accustomed to. She was rude and p.r.i.c.kly and downright dangerous.

"Watch your tongue, princess," he snarled. "This dump happens to be a part of my private lair."

"There." She pointed an accusing finger toward him. "I knew it. You kidnapped me."

Cyn rolled his eyes. Could this farce get any more ridiculous?

"The only one kidnapped was me."

"Why would I kidnap an oversized, ego-bloated vampire?"

Yeah. Why would she? It took him a minute to shuffle through his still fuzzy thoughts.

"To keep me from protecting my friend," he at last concluded.

Hadn't she pulled him out of the throne room leaving Roke at the mercy of her father, Sariel? And then she'd plied him with some wicked fey brew that had knocked him unconscious.

Aye. It made perfect sense that it was a nefarious plot to separate him from his friend.

At least it did until she glared at him in outraged disbelief.

"Are you completely mental? Your friend was exactly where he wanted to be."

Okay. She had a point.

Roke hadn't looked like he needed Cyn's services. In fact, the last he'd seen of his fellow vampire he was wrapping his mate in his arms, his expression one of besotted devotion.

Bleck.

"Then perhaps you simply wanted to be alone with me." He flashed a smile that revealed his snowy white fangs. One way or another he was getting answers. "You wouldn't be the first female to use magic to get me into her bed."

She muttered something distinctly unladylike beneath her breath.

"I am a fairy princess."

"And?"

"And I don't share my bed with-"

He planted his hands on his hips, his expression daring her to finish the sentence.

"With?"

Her lips parted to complete her insult, but before she could speak there was a sizzle of power in the air. Cyn turned toward the center of the cave, his muscles coiled to attack as there was a faint pop and then a tiny demon dressed in a long white gown appeared out of thin air.

Cyn gave a startled hiss, his eyes widening at the creature who could easily pa.s.s as a young girl with her small stature and long silver braid that nearly brushed the floor. Cyn, however, wasn't fooled. He recognized the strange oblong eyes that were a solid black and the sharp, pointed teeth.

This was no harmless juvenile.

She had enough power to crush him and his entire clan.

Even worse, she was an Oracle. One of the rare demons who sat on the Commission, the ultimate rulers of the demon world.

"Enough squabbling, children," she chided, folding her hands together as she studied them with an unnerving intensity.

"Holy s.h.i.te." Cyn offered a belated bow. "Siljar."

Fallon crouched on the ground, her arms wrapped around her knees in a futile effort at modesty.

"You know this person?"

"Not person," Cyn corrected, shivering as Siljar's energy sizzled over his skin. "Oracle."

The amber eyes widened. "Oh."

"Forgive me." Siljar gave an absent wave of her hand and Cyn made a strangled sound of shock as he found himself covered by a plain white robe that hit him just below the knees. The Oracle gave another wave of her hand and Fallon was covered in a matching robe. "I haven't created a portal into the fairy homeland for a number of centuries."

Cyn scowled, ignoring Fallon's I-told-you-so glare. "You brought us here?" he demanded.

Siljar gave a nod of her head. "I did."

"Why?"

"Because I have need of you."

His acute hearing picked up Fallon's soft sigh of relief as she rose to her feet and brushed her hands down the satin robe.

"You need the vampire?"

"I have a name," he reminded the princess with a snap.

Siljar clicked her tongue, her gaze shifting from Fallon to Cyn.

"I need both of you."

Cyn stiffened. It was never, ever a good thing when an Oracle had need of him.

"Why?"

There was the unmistakable scent of sulfur as Siljar's expression tightened with anger.

"I fear the Commission is being tampered with."

Cyn arched a brow. Hadn't Styx sent word that they'd uncovered the plot by the strange demons who'd been holding Fallon's father captive?

"Aye, we know the Nebule planted a spy to pose as an Oracle," he said.

Siljar shrugged. "He has been destroyed."

Oh. Cyn grimaced. "You suspect there's another traitor?"

"That was my first thought," Siljar admitted. "But I believe that on this occasion the Oracles are being manipulated without their knowledge."

That seemed . . . unlikely.

"Why are you suspicious?" he demanded.

Siljar hesitated a second before revealing what was troubling her.

"Over the past few weeks I've found myself awakening as if from a trance to discover I'm seated in the Council Room," she at last said.

Cyn blinked in confusion. That was it? He'd been kidnapped and dropped naked in these caves because the old gal was becoming forgetful?

He forced himself to consider his idea. Only an idiot implied that an Oracle might be going a bit batty.

"The past year has been stressful, especially for the Commission," he murmured.

"It has. And if I was the only Oracle to experience the strange phenomenon then I would a.s.sume that your implication that I'm suffering from some sort of mental decay was right." Her lips twitched as he flinched at her blunt words. "I am, after all, quite old and it wouldn't be entirely unlikely that I would accidentally transport myself to a familiar location without realizing what I'm doing."

Cyn ignored Fallon's barely hidden amus.e.m.e.nt at his discomfort.

"But?"

"More than once I discovered I wasn't alone."

Cyn grimaced even as he heard Fallon suck in a startled breath.

Having Siljar suffering from an occasional blackout was one thing. To think of the entire Commission being controlled by some unseen force . . . b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l.

"The other Oracles didn't know how they got there either?" he rasped.

Siljar gave a somber shake of her head. "No."

When Fallon had opened her eyes to discover herself far removed from her fairy homeland she'd been more annoyed than frightened.

Strange considering that it was the first time in her life she'd ever awakened in a dark cave, stark naked, and in the company of an equally naked vampire.