"But then how can one be sure if one loves?"

Margaret stopped rolling the dough and turned her full attention on Sarina and the impending question.

"I think everyone asks that question one time or another, and I think that the question has no answer.

Love is not easily definable. It is an emotion that must be trusted and firmly believed and most of all it requires faith. Faith in yourself and faith in love."

Sarina asked the question that had haunted her of late. "What if you have faith in that love but the person you love feels differently?"

Margaret picked up the biscuit cutter and dipped the edges into the bowl of flour. "That is the chance we take when we love, though I think our hearts know."

Sarina asked another troubling question. "What if it is merely l.u.s.t?"

Margaret laughed robustly. "l.u.s.t is a flame that satisfies but for a moment and burns out all too quickly. Love is a flame that satisfies forever and burns continuously."

"You're saying that love fires the soul."

"You say it much better than I."

"You make it understandable."

Margaret laughed even harder and shook her head. " Understandable? Never. It has proved confusing since the beginning of time."

"I once thought love would be easy to find and easier to capture."

"Oh, my dear child," Margaret said with a bittersweet smile. "Love can never be captured, it can only be shared."

Sarina sighed and hugged her near empty mug. "Does Dagon share?"

Margaret appeared reluctant to answer.

"Please, Margaret, I know I'm foolish-"

"No," Margaret said. "Foolish you are not."

"And Dagon?" Sarina persisted.

Margaret answered with reluctance. "He wishes true love and yet fears the search."

"Why?" Sarina asked curiously.

"I think he fears finding it."

Again Sarina asked, "Why?"

Margaret smiled. "Because for once in his life he would lose total control of his emotions."

"Something he has never done?"

"Never," Margaret a.s.sured her. "Which is why he attempts to make plans for finding a lifemate."

"Plans?" Sarina asked, a sense of distress filling her.

Margaret stopped cutting out biscuits and looked directly at Sarina. "You should know that Dagon has made arrangements to meet with the Ancient One with the purpose of proposing she accept him as a lifemate."

Sarina was stunned speechless, and all color drained from her face. "To think I would compete with her .".

Margaret grasped her hand. "Love always wins out."

"I had thought that once."

"You sound doubtful."

"No," Sarina said with a smile. "I remain hopeful and I have faith."

* * * Dagon sat in the small receiving parlor appreciative of the blazing fire in the hearth since outside the cold bl.u.s.tery wind was knocking at the windows demanding entrance. The gray skies promised that the weather conditions would soon worsen, and he wouldn't be surprised if the afternoon brought with it a chilling rain.

He had spent the early morning working in his study- at least he attempted to work. His mind refused to cooperate. His betraying thoughts constantly turned to Sarina until finally he grew so irritated with himself he left his study to come sulk in the receiving parlor.

"Tea, sir?" Bernard asked from the doorway.

"Yes, thank you, Bernard," he said and bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from asking about Sarina. It didn't work. His tongue escaped and he spoke in haste. "Sarina fairs well?"

Bernard stiffened. "She has caused no problems- yet .""

"Perhaps she improves."

"We shall see," Bernard said without enthusiasm.

Dagon looked to the flames in the hearth and gave thought to his own frustration. He should be thrilled with the prospect of meeting the Ancient One and the possibilities it represented. Instead he thought of an inept witch who ignited a pa.s.sion in him he never thought possible.

Now there was real possibilities.

Perhaps even the possibility of love.

He had thought of love quite frequently lately and recalled with pleasure the many women he had known over the years. Had he loved any? And what was love but a wild emotion that lacked rhyme or reason and therefore lacked definition? So what really was love?

Poetry often extolled the virtues of love. Great philosophers attempted to make sense of it. Psychiatrists thought to dissect it, and yet lovers simply accepted it. So perhaps one needed to be in love to know what love was.

He would soon have a headache if he continued to deeply examine the essence of love. A small four-letter word that possessed the power to break and heal hearts. Was that where the spirit of love resided, in the heart?

Dagon stood and walked to the window. Love could not be contained, and that thought suddenly brought a clearer understanding of the strange emotion. Love was like magic-belief and faith gave it life. So therefore one needed to be in love to know love.

He thought about his crazy need for Sarina and wondered if he had given love life without even realizing it.

Sarina was almost done with Dagon's room. The last thing she needed to do was shake the small hearth rug out the window. A persistent meow got her attention, and she looked to see Lady Lily sitting on the bed licking her tiny pink paw.

"Keeping yourself busy while you wait for me to finish, are you?" Sarina asked and received a meow of confirmation.

She rolled up the hearth rug and walked over to the window. "I'll be done in a minute, and then we'll go get a snack for you."

The kitten meowed her appreciation, and Sarina reached for the window latch.

A gusty wind whipped the window from her grasp, and she had second thoughts about shaking out the rug. She placed the rolled rug on the ground and reached out to grasp the latch. It rested just out of her reach, and she quickly moved a chair to the window and climbed up on it, and with her balance a bit unsteady she stretched out, reaching for the latch.

Sarina was hanging half out the window by the time her fingers finally grasped the latch, and with a smile she pulled the stubborn window toward her. The gust of wind tore around the castle and struck like a bolt of lightning. It hit the panes with a mighty force, blowing it wide open and sending a startled Sarina tumbling out the window.

Dagon sat enjoying his tea and a good mystery. Bernard, his usual attentive self, had brought a book, a favorite author of Dagon's whose work never failed to please, along with a pot of tea and an a.s.sortment of pastries fresh from the oven. It was obvious, though Bernard made no remark, that he thought it a good idea for Dagon to spend a relaxing afternoon reading.

After a sip, a taste, and the first three pages he couldn't agree more and he settled himself in for an enjoyable afternoon.

He thought the first distant meow his imagination, but the second sounded more like a screech and could not be ignored. He closed his book after inserting a bookmark and went to the staircase to find Lady Lily continuing her theatrics from the top step.

Dagon hurried up to console her, but when he drew near, she gave a pitiful screech and raced away from him down the hall. He thought to ignore her when suddenly he felt the urge to follow her. The urge turned to alarm as he approached his quarters, and he hurried his steps, racing into his room.

Lady Lily sat on the chair by the open window, her anguished cries filling the room. Dagon practically flew to the window, his heart beating madly. He was certain it stopped beating when he caught sight of Sarina barely hanging on to the stone ledge. His hands instantly grasped hold of her slim wrists.

He wanted to rant with rage when his powers once again failed in helping him. It would take mortal tactics to see to her safety, and he wasted not another moment, especially after feeling the first heavy spat of rain hit his arm.

"Grab hold of my wrists!" he ordered with a shout.

She nodded that she heard him, and when she released hold of the ledge, he winced at the sight of her fingers sc.r.a.ped almost raw from grasping so tightly to the rough stone. She clasped her hands firmly to his wrists and he used his strength to pull her to him. When she was up and over the ledge, he reached out and grabbed her beneath the arms pulling her completely through the window.

He held her cold, shivering and wet body close to him. "We need to get you dry."

He tucked her safely in the corner of his arm while he reached out to close the window against the rain and cursed his lack of powers in righting her wrongs. Whatever was the problem? A witch with limited powers could always be helped by a witch of greater powers. What prevented his intervention?

She sneezed and he hurried her over to the hearth, where the heat of a blazing fire welcomed them. She shuddered when the heat reached out and brushed over her cold, wet skin.

"You must get out of those wet clothes," he said, his fingers hastily releasing the b.u.t.tons on her white blouse. "I'll go get you a warm robe."

Sarina didn't argue with him, her only thought was to chase away the deep chill and the awful fright from her body. She had feared she wouldn't be able to hold on or manage to rescue herself in any way. She had thought her fall inevitable and the consequences final, and she had never felt so helpless in her life.

Her thoughts had immediately gone to Dagon, and all she had never told him and all she had never experienced with him and she felt regret and a sadness for what they would miss sharing.

But he had rescued her once again and with mortal skill. She smiled though her teeth chattered, and she hurried to rid herself of the wet garments. Her wet skirt joined her discarded blouse on the floor, but her wet panty hose gave her a fight.

Dagon returned to the room, walking up behind her and unhooking her bra. She pulled it off as he draped the thick black velvet robe over her shoulders and ordered, "Slip your arms in."

She intended no argument and did as he directed.

He moved in front of her, his hands going to the waistband of her panty hose.

"They're stuck," she informed him with a trembling smile.

"Not for long," he said and dropped down in front of her to tug the stubborn wet panty hose along with her panties down her legs. He grasped each thin ankle firmly in his hand as he yanked off the final garments, and then he stood securing the robe closed over her naked body with a double tie of the velvet belt.

He moved the high back chair closer to the hearth and sat her down in it. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a pair of thick gray socks. He went down on bended knees in front of her and reached out to capture one of her ankles.

She a.s.sumed his intentions were to warm her feet with the socks, but instead his fingers went to work ma.s.saging her cold foot, and she sighed with pure pleasure. His lean fingers rubbed at the sole of her foot, stroked her instep, ma.s.saged her toes, and when her foot radiated warmth he slipped the thick sock on and went to work on her other foot.

She surrendered to a world of pure bliss, closing her eyes and relishing every touch and stroke. She drifted in a hazy slumber, wishing his soothing touch would never end. When he finished slipping the other sock over her foot, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his bed, depositing her in the middle and covering her with a plaid wool blanket.

He picked up the phone by the bed, hit a b.u.t.ton, and ordered hot soup and a pot of tea brought to his quarters. He then stretched out beside her on the bed and gently tapped at her nose. "Tell me of your powers that be."

She sighed long and hard and was not at all in the mood to discuss her dormant powers. She snuggled deeper beneath the blanket, pulling it up and almost over her face.

Dagon would have none of her hiding and pulled the blanket down to beneath her neck. "Tell me of your powers."

"What powers?" she said with a yawn.

He kissed her then, firm and hard. "You will not fall asleep."

No, she certainly wouldn't after that breath-stealing kiss. It shocked her senses, sent her hormones surging, and her body temperature climbing.

"Your powers," he reminded.

She sighed in frustration. She was not presently capable of dealing with his probing questions, and she certainly could not relate the truth to him. How did she deal with his inquiry? She could not lie to him and she could not be entirely truthful. As usual her answer lay between the two, but she tired of avoiding the full truth.

And this time she chose to speak it. "My powers wait."

"Wait?" he repeated, not understanding her answer.

A chill raced through her and she shivered. He reached out and pulled her to him, running his hand up and down her back to warm her. She snuggled her face in the crook of his neck and eagerly sought the warmth his body offered.

Wait.

The word hung suspended and temporarily ignored as Dagon's hand became more and more familiar with Sarina's body. And in turn Sarina found his neck all too appetizing to ignore. She licked and nipped at him until she had him moaning, and he touched and explored beneath her robe until he had her groaning. And soon their heated pa.s.sion took hold and sent them tumbling completely out of control.

His hands roamed her with an urgency, her lips sought him with a hunger, and they surrendered to their unbridled desires with complete abandonment. He lay on top of her, her legs wrapped around his and her hands running up his gray sweater.

The heat of his hard flesh tingled her fingers, and she played over his naked skin like a musician testing a fine instrument and forcing it to respond to her accomplished touch. He moaned when her fingers teased his nipples and his mouth swooped down on hers to rob a kiss that stole her breath and muddled her senses. She felt his readiness, hard and thick pressing against her, and all she needed to do was to reach down, release him, and welcome him into her.

Before sanity escaped her and with great reluctance and difficulty, she reined in her senses and moved her mouth off his to ask, "What do you want from me, Dagon?" His hand squeezed her breast, and his tongue teased her hard nipple. "Isn't it obvious." "s.e.x?" she asked candidly. Her question startled him. "Is that what you're looking for from me? Plain and simple s.e.x?"

Her bluntness cooled him considerably, and he rolled off her and sat on the edge of the bed.

She closed her robe and persisted to question. "I a.s.sume it is only s.e.x, since I have heard of your plans."

That remark shocked him. "What plans?"

"Your plans to meet with the Ancient One for the purpose of seeking a lifemate."

The idea that she was aware of his intentions disturbed him, though he would not deny the truth. "I am