It was, as I said, very much a Hallmark moment, and although Ben seemed to harbor some less than Precious Moments feelings, he did at least let Nikola hug him, and answered his father’s questions about his life readily enough.

“Once again I find myself in a position of interrupting,” Tallulah said in a neutral voice that nonetheless had everyone retaking their seats. “But this is only part of the mystery of which Sir Edward speaks.”

I’m so glad we got that straightened out, I told Nikola, leaning into his side and enjoying the feeling of his hand on my thigh. I hated the way they were treating you. What do you think of how they turned out?

They are intelligent and charming, as I knew they would be, he said with lofty disregard of the fact that a few minutes before he was distressed by their behavior. My wife always said that they took after me.

Man, what an ego. If I didn’t think you were smart and sexy as hell, I’d be all over you for that.

I know you wish to seduce me, he said with what was meant to be a rebuke, but plainly wasn’t in that he was at that exact moment thinking of the most erotic things that could be done to the human body with a tongue and two hands, but I feel compelled to listen to this woman. She appears to have interesting insights.

“It’s not something to do with David, is it?” Fran asked, trying to see into the bowl of water. “You said last week that you couldn’t see anything about how he was or even where he was. Has something changed with that?”

“No,” Tallulah said, somewhat hesitantly. She held her gaze on the bowl as she tipped and rotated it slowly, making the water lap lazily from side to side. “At least, not in the sense you mean. Sir Edward claims that Nikola’s presence here foretells violence to come, and that it might spill over to your concerns if left unchecked.”

“In what way?” Nikola asked, his curiosity temporarily overriding his smutty thoughts.

“And what sort of violence?” I asked, worried that, by bringing him to the present, we’d set in motion a horrible war or something similar.

“It is an unbalance.” Tallulah set down her bowl and gave us both a frown. “The shifting of the balance will cause great pain for many if it is not redressed. You are a weaver, Iolanthe Tennyson. Time that you should have woven together to form a barrier has been unmade. Beyond that, I cannot see.”

“What?” I said in a voice that was more a horrified squeak than anything else. “You’re saying that this unbalanced violence is my fault? Is it because I went through the swirly portal?”

“You are a weaver,” she repeated, just like that was supposed to make things clearer. “You can summon and dismiss portals in time. You have stated that you traveled through a portal you summoned, but you did not state whether or not you closed it so that no others could use it as you did.”

“But—but—” I stopped, turning to Nikola as his mind was suddenly filled with speculation and worry.

“Do you mean to say that someone else has used the portal that we used?” Nikola asked, his muscles tense.

“Has already, or may in the future, yes,” Tallulah answered, her eyes grave as they watched me. “Did you close the portal?”

“No! That is, I don’t know. Maybe I did. I didn’t even know there were such people as weavers, not that I’m sure I am one.”

“I have never seen a portal in the Zauberwald except when the demon lord cursed me,” Nikola said, his fingers stroking along the top of my hand. “I had no idea such people existed, either, but it would explain why the portal was present when you were there, but missing when you were not.”

“Did you close it?” Ben asked me, but looking at his father.

“I have no idea. I guess not, if something has to be done to close it. It was really faded when we last saw it. Nikola thought it was depleted. Is that the same thing?”

“No,” Tallulah said. “A portal is just that, an access point to somewhere or some other time. It has no power itself, but draws on those who master it. There are few beings who can do so—demon lords, as Nikola mentioned, Guardians, and of course weavers. If you have little experience controlling it, then it is likely that it would have run out of power after you used it, and thus you would require a period of rest before you could use it again.”

“Kind of like charging up its batteries?” I asked, trying to get a grip on the whole idea that I was a magic-door-in-time wrangler.

“If you like, although as I said, the portal itself does not have the power; you do. Do I take it that you suspect someone other than you has used the portal?”

That last question was addressed to Nikola, who answered in an equally somber voice, “I believe so.”

“And do you know who that person might be?”

“Yes.” He looked at me, and I felt a sudden spike of fear in my gut when I felt the distress that gripped him. “I thought I saw one of my brothers earlier while we were in town.”

The fear grew until I felt sick. “No! Oh, for the love of the four and twenty virgins, if they saw us use the swirly portal—but how could they use it, as well, if we ran it out of juice? Or rather, I ran out of portal-using juice?”

“Perhaps it hadn’t yet run out of energy,” Nikola said, his fingers drawing random symbols on the table. “If they saw us disappear into it—or even if they concluded what happened by our absence and the presence of the portal—then they might have used it before we resumed our awareness here in your time.”

“That’s right, we were out for a bit. It was nighttime when we went through, and afternoon when we came to here. Holy hairy pickles, Batman, your murderous half brothers are running around the present doing who knows what horrible things. What if they still want to kill you?”

“Or you,” he said, pulling me closer. “Since evidently they did that in the alternate past.”

I looked at him, speechless with horror.

What on earth had I done?

July 16 (still, yes)

“We don’t know for certain that my uncles used the portal after you,” Ben pointed out. “But at least you can keep them from killing Io easily enough. You just have to complete the Joining, and then Io will be a proper Beloved.”

“I told you we’ve already hooked up.” I gave Ben a look that should have told him that I wasn’t up to hearing snide comments about my relationship with Nikola. “You don’t have to belabor the point.”

“Belabor?” Nikola looked puzzled.

“The word ‘Beloved,’ it’s not what you think,” Fran told me with a tight little smile. “The vampires—”

“Dark Ones,” Ben and Nikola said in chorus.

“—have a special relationship with one woman, who they call their Beloved. That’s a capital B Beloved. It’s like a title. Anyway, Beloveds are special because they can redeem the soul of the vamp—Dark Ones, but to do that, they have to go through seven steps called Joining. I don’t really remember exactly what the steps are, because Ben and I did part of them several years ago, when I was only sixteen—”

“We don’t need to bore them with that,” Ben said quickly, giving her a look that made her laugh.

“Sixteen?” Nikola’s eyebrows rose. “That is too young. Women of sixteen do not yet know their own minds. I taught you to respect women better than that, Benedikt.”

To my great enjoyment, Ben looked abashed. “It wasn’t like that—yes, Francesca was only sixteen when we met, but we spent several years apart before we—before we decided to—”

“You dug yourself into that hole,” Fran said with another laugh. “And no, I’m not going to help you get out of it.”

“It was not until a few months ago that the Former Virgin Goddess Fran allowed the Dark One to engage in bedsport,” the ghost named Eirik said helpfully. “We guarded her most diligently until she insisted that we allow her to enjoy his manroot. She sought much advice from us on how to please him, however, and what to do should he decide he preferred sheep to her.”

Fran sighed heavily. “Just an FYI—don’t ever ask them for advice. But we’ve strayed from the point. Imogen, do you remember what the steps are?”

“Of course. The first step is a marking, followed by protection from afar, an exchange of…er…fluids, usually a kiss. Then the Dark One entrusts the Beloved with his life, by giving her a means to destroy him, which then leads to…well, an intimate situation…after which the Beloved helps him overcome his darker self, and that leads to a blood exchange. The last step isn’t really a step, it’s more of a coup de grâce, and that’s where she sacrifices herself to save him.”

“You have got to be kidding!” I said, aghast.

“No.” She shrugged. “Those are the seven steps. If Benedikt says you smell like a Beloved, then you must have completed the majority of them. And yet not all, because Papa does not have his soul back.”

“A sacrifice? What sort of sacrifice? Like death sort of sacrifice?” I pointed at Fran. “She’s still alive. How can you sacrifice yourself and live? I don’t want to be a sacrifice! I just want to live with Nikola and do all the things he’s almost constantly thinking about doing, and several that I have thought up which I haven’t yet let him see, and I can’t possibly do that if I’m dead. Besides, the whole point is to let me live as long as he does.”

“Calm down, it’s not as dire as it sounds,” Fran said, giving me a genuine smile this time. “The sacrifice part is very open to interpretation. From what the other Beloveds said when we met up while we were in Vienna last week, it depends on the couple. It could be something as simple as giving up your job and family and life at home to live with your vampire, or something with a bit more oomph to it.”

“Like what?” I asked. I don’t mind giving up my job, because I don’t have one. And I don’t have close family, so that wouldn’t be an issue, either.