It had been days since she had encountered the wayward vampire in his trap to bring her to his presence, and a few short days more since she had spent the time with Marcus within the confines of MSI...and still, nothing confused her more than the current situation where she felt trapped once again.

For a spirit so free, and yet so orderly, she had never felt so confined,so shackled to herself. While her heart remained content within the walls of her sanctuary of MSI, her mind wandered, most often to the roguish vampire in their midst and to her partner of quite a few years...

It had become to much, coupled with the recent attacks on her understudies and apprentices, most of the newest resourcers injured and sentenced to bedrest within the Medical Wing. She had begun to wonder if she had failed, or if they merely had not heeded her warnings and teachings when the time came to exercise her wisdom that she so meticulously passed on.

Venturing into the Land of Dreams, realm of a man so near to her brother, Drake Morpheus, Danae walked along the grassy slopes, her skirt brushing against her knees as her eyes remained downcast, gaze fixed on the grass below with the interest of an art curator trapped within the Louvre. It seemed that nothing could tear her from her thoughts, and yet, as a chill ran up her spine, familiar in its presence, she wondered whose eyes it was that watched her...

A part of her hoped for Marcus, dreamt that he might rush to her and confess what Raelin swore was true, but deep down, she knew it was another creature of the night, bold enough to approach as the sun slowly sank beyond the failing horizon...

Walking on the edge of destruction meant walking on the last beams of sundown, dancing in the first kisses of morning. Dorian had never feared destruction or death because he was smart enough to get himself out of bad situations, whatever they were. And he sure of the dark magic his mother had once imparted on him. Oh yes, very sure.

He wouldn't be trapped in a cave this time with Danae. He'd followed her, watched her, known where she was at all times. Not an angel but a guardian of some sort.

"Danae Walker," he said. "Little girl, lost in her life, lost in her past, not sure of her future, searching and running. Stop running a while." He stepped towards her, knowing he wouldn't startle her. She'd probably sensed his presence some time ago. "Tell me, Danae, what are you looking for?"

Just as she had suspected...Danae shook her head in mild amusement, a foreign smile of mirth dancing on her lips, mingled with sarcasm and a dark sort of humor that had seemed to envelope her in the days that had shortly passed.

"Stop running...How I wish I could," she said, her voice sounding far off, distant, and then with a spin on one heel, she turned slowly to meet the man that approached her...The man that was a man no more, but a creature of the night, a dark and dancing figure that she had seen in the shadows on more than one occassion. Folding her hands behind her back, in perfect countenance as always, Danae tilted her head to the side to regard her newfound companion and raised a brow in question. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of poetic greetings and visits at dusk, Dorian?"

She ignored the latter parts of his statements, skimming over the question as if it had never been uttered. What she searched for, Danae was almost certain that she would never find...not in this world. She had found it in eyes of blue, in subtle speech, in the immortal that danced in tune to Sinatra on late nights by the light of a desk lamp...but it would be nothing more...And yet, she searched for it all the same. A quest that had no end...

And to what do I owe the pleasure of poetic greetings and visits at dusk, Dorian?

Dorian laughed softly. "I'm afraid it may all come down to my own curiousity and amusement... and the fact that I've become a bit spoiled. When I want something, I tend to get it."

He looked away from her for a moment, at the newborn night around them. "What about you, Danae... do you usually get what you want?" he asked, noting that she had avoided his earlier question. Ah, let her avoid, let her waver... she couldn't hold out forever. Not to him.

Danae nearly laughed out loud at his question and as he averted his gaze, she watched him, preternatural skin glowing in the light of the waning moon as his ethereal eyes glistened with reflections of illusionary stars.

Shaking herself from the daze, she, too, looked away, but lifted her eyes upwards toward the skies. Her mother had always said that she need only look to the stars to find her, and tonight, Danae felt, more than ever, that she wished just once to be able to sit down and pour out her heart to the woman who had given her life, the woman who would understand.

A soft chuckle raced past her lips as Danae finally acknowledge his inquiry, shaking her head again in response. "No, Dorian...Sometimes, no matter how hard you may fight, the things that you desire the most still find ways to elude you. Perhaps you can share with me your secret of success..."

Perhaps you can share with me your secret of success...

Dorian shrugged and scoffed. "I take what I want. I don't listen to 'no' and I don't have much in the way of patience." He stepped closer to her, moving up behind her so quickly that she probably barely didn't see. "When things interest me, though, I can extend a lot more patience. You're very, very interesting to me... And I'm prepared to take however long I need to capture you."

Subtlety had its moments and this wasn't one of them. Dorian just stood directly behind Danae, looking down at her, his breath on the top of her head.

His words had hardly registered when she felt his presence behind her, his breath against her hair, combined with the subtle breeze that never seemed to end as it wound its way through the aptly named Elysian Fields where so many of the fallen had been laid to rest, unmarked and now, undisturbed.

"You'll have me?" she questioned, slowly turning, finding herself far closer to him than she had expected. Still, she stood her ground, gaze lifting to meet his eyes. "You do realize, Dorian, that you cannot have what others are not willing to give up. I am no prize and I will be no trophy. You cannot trap and ensnare me, simply because you will it to be so. I've known your kind...I know your kind well...And to this day, I've not fallen to them."

Her words were soft, with hardly a biting edge. In the back of her mind, she wished that Marcus would hold the same countenance that this phenom before her did, but...Ah, she cared for her partner simply because of what he was not...and he was nothing like Dorian Cael.

He watched her turn around, looked into her eyes without a hint of fear. She was strong, sure of herself, and at any moment if she wanted, she could attempt to hall him off. Or to rid the world of another of his kind. After all, wasn't that her job? But no... she wouldn't. As much as she would stand her ground, he knew she was also intrigued.

"I think you enjoy this far more than you would admit," he said quietly, smiling and putting one finger under her chin. He tipped her face up just a little farther and studied her. "Because there's someone else in your life who isn't as forthright. Isn't there? Some man, perhaps. No, not just a man... you've been raised around too great of things to fall for a man. Something else... some other creature that you can't quite understand. Some other shadow you chase... And you wonder why he doesn't chase you."

She held his gaze for as long as she could, only to look down again when he mentioned the man that ran from her, that fled from what she knew was between them.

Looking away, out across the rolling hills, Danae's jaw clenched, setting firmly as she closed her eyes, if only for a moment.

"Why does it matter? Why do you bring up things you know nothing of?" she asked, and now, her voice even softer, she stepped back from him, turning her back to him once again. As long as it had been, the idea of Marcus no longer hurt her, but only saddened her...And perhaps, somewhere, deep down, it angered her.

"I'll tell you now that it no longer matters..."

Why does it matter? Why do you bring up things you know nothing of?

He started to say the first thing on his mind, that he brought up things so he could know them, that nothing stopped him from speaking or knowing, that learning was something he did as ruthlessly as anything else, but seeing her turn away stirred something in him that he hadn't felt for a long time.

Surprise.

Dorian looked at her back, moved his eyes down her outline, her gentle curves and the shape of her body. The proud tilt of her head that was barely keeping her from seeming sad.

A few seconds passed and he realized with seething frustration that he didn't really know what to say or do. This wasn't a situation he'd ever found himself in often, even the day his brother brought home the limp body of their dead sister. No, even then he'd let blood lust and anger rule. Tonight he felt the pull of something else, like the moon wasn't right, like the world had stopped.

"Danae," he said finally, because he wouldn't let this hesitation last.

When she turned her back, she had closed her eyes, but now, as she opened them, she tilted her head back to view the stars above her, watching as they sparkled in the sea of darkness and seemed so far away.

There was a place that she could remember as a child where the stars were within her reach and she felt as though reaching up meant she could hold one in her palm before it too faded. But like the rest of her world and a great deal of her memories, that place had been swallowed up by the sea.

Now, as darkened eyes and the subtle voice of Trellan haunted her, she closed her eyes again...But she was far from alone. His voice spoke her name and slowly, she turned her head, looking back at him over her shoulder.

There was a difference in her eyes, a thoughtful consideration of the man with her now...For once upon a time, he had been a man. Now, he was so much more, and still, while he might have chilled others with the fear of his words and his icy gaze, Danae could only marvel at him, and within, some part of her was intrigued by him, by the fearlessness of him.

Slowly, gracefully, she turned on her heels, tilted her head as she watched her name fall past his lips. "What is it, Dorian?" she asked quietly and took a step closer to him. Within his eyes, she could see something foreign, something that had not passed between their locked gazes before.

This was most certainly not his plan, this moment of feeling uncertain and worst of all, in front of this girl. Dorian raised his chin and searched his mind for something to say.

"Do you know that sometimes the world goes by in such a blur that a hand has to come and yank us off? Perhaps your world is too much of a blur, Danae. Perhaps you need someone to get you off the ride a while and remind your heart how to beat."

He shrugged, raising an eyebrow and pretending to be completely nonchalant. "Maybe this fellow hasn't gotten you off the ride. Maybe he is just part of the ride."

Watching him, listening to his words, Danae heard the hint of a man, something more human than the vampire before her would ever care to admit. In that, he became more intriguing, more complex...

His words dawned on her and she sighed, averting her eyes once more and considering what he laid before her. Perhaps he was right...How long had it been since her heart had truly beat? It raced with the thrill of a mission. It fluttered when she saw the immortal investigator in her midst, and it nearly ceased to beat when those she cared for had been ripped from her, and yet...Had it ever truly beaten?

Danae turned to look back at Dorian, studying his profile in the failing moonlight before raising her voice above the whisper it had become to speak to him again. "And does that make you Carnival Master, then? Intent on stopping this ride and letting me off?" The metaphor seemed all too fitting, as in his eyes, she could see that he thought he could control the depths of space and time, the actions and reactions of those near him...Such a monumental creature in a world that was dwindling far too fast...

And does that make you Carnival Master, then? Intent on stopping this ride and letting me off?

Dorian laughed at this analogy, letting his laughter ring out because there was no one around except for them and the ghosts of those long dead.

"Of course I am!" he said and bowed to her, as he had in the old days. "You've heard those old words... something wicked this way comes... they could have written that about me." He thought of some of the whispers he'd heard, some of the screams and words mumbled in his ear. "I'm a devil, Danae Walker. And very good at stopping the carnival ride."

Now that she was looking at him again, he reached out and put his cold fingers on the side of her face, just for a few seconds.

To her surprise, despite the chills that traipsed down her spine as icy fingers lighted on her skin, Danae turned toward his touch, but never did she stray from his eyes.

"And I'm the angel to thwart your plans," she answered softly, though in her words, there was no malice, no threat. He was dark and she was light. He was a mystery and she was but an enigma in the dying sun.

Of its own volition, her hand raised, warm fingers brushing against the cool skin of his hand before she let it fall back to her side. "You paint a far more frightening picture of yourseld than need be, Dorian," she told him, softly, knowing that the creature that stood before her now was hardly the vampire of olde that she had heard so much about in her years as a resourcer. "Something wicked this way does come...but tonight, it isn't you."

Dorian raised his eyebrow at this, impressed and also momentarily speechless. Very bold of her, more bold than he had expected. This young woman was not afraid of him or completely enthralled by him either. She was something else altogether and it was almost maddening.

"Find something more wicked than me and I'll be impressed," he said, moving his hand from her face at last. "But even so, you play with words the same way I do. Hmmm. Whatever should I do with you now?"

It was a question that he wanted to know a little more than he could admit.

As his touch fell away, Danae still held his eyes with her own, watching the mannerisms of the vampire before her and committing to memory the toughts that marched across a handsome, albeit darkly tainted face.

"There is nothing for you to do with me, Dorian," she answered simply, her shoulders shrugging in nonchalance as she clasped her hands behind her back once again. "We are masters of words, those that play with metaphors as others play with chess pieces, and yet, equally matched, I'll always be Queen, and you always King, destined to rule on opposing sides..."

Pausing for a moment, Danae glanced down in consideration, then lifted her eyes once more. She knew the stories of the creature before her. She had known his ruthless and had seen his cold-kill maneuvers a time or two before, when she had been only the young resourcer, hiding amidst the shadows and out of range. There were files upon files on him within the Hall of Records at MSI and yet, it seemed as the world had shifted and time had changed, he had fallen prey to the ways of the world. He was hardly the man that had been catalogued in days gone by...There was something different, something far more subtle. It caused her to wonder if it was only in her presence that his buried humanity came through...or if he had truly changed.

"Tell me, Dorian...What side do you play on?"

I'll always be Queen, and you always King, destined to rule on opposing sides...

Her word play was cultured; she must have been well schooled in this whole thing. She might as well belong to a different era. Someone had raised her right.

"Even though king and queen want for different things and sit far from each other, once in a while they share a bed and a universe all their own," he said. This was certainly proving different than most of his adventures with women. This one could think, even with him standing in front of her. And she hadn't asked him for a single thing yet.

Tell me, Dorian...What side do you play on?

Dorian had been asked a question like this, long, long ago. Some vampire 'hunter', back in the days when all of the good little people lived in good little houses and had good little families and were damned if someone like Dorian was going to exist. A particularly stubborn hunter had been pleased with himself to stand in front of Dorian and ask that question, "which side do you choose, monster?" Dorian had smiled and said, "My own" and had ripped the man's throat out without a second thought.

"I always play on my own side, Danae Walker," he said. "I've yet to be won over to any other side. My mother taught me early on that no one in this world ever cares for you, truly. They pretend, but they don't care. I've seen it a million times!" He put his hand out again, this time taking her chin in his hand, tighter than before. "Convince me of any other 'side' and you'll have done more than any living being walking this earth."

Fascinating creature, it was not in her heart nor in her mind to be afraid. Danae had only one fear, and that was the fear of never living, but only existing in the falling world that surrounded her. She did not fear those shadows in the night...and she did not fear Dorian Cael.

As he smiled, she found the display contagious, if only momentarily so. Taking her chin in his hand, she met his eyes firmly and offered only a subtle glance, her eyes meeting his. "I'll convince you of my side, Dorian Cael...and I'll show you that there is a heart that beats here...not only mine."

It was a challenge, a promise. For a creature so jaded, Danae knew she could help him, save him...whether he would ever admit it to the shadows or not.

Her words carried a challenge, and Dorian had always loved challenges. He let go of her, stepped back and bowed to her as he had earlier. "Very well, lady. I accept your challenge... what should our stakes be? If you win, you'll hear me admit it. If I win... perhaps I'll have to show you a little more about vampires than you had planned to know. Perhaps I'll have to make your heart race again... show you a little of the romance they used to be afraid of, enthralled by."

His eyes glittered at his statement. "I've been known to inspire a myth or two and all of them scandalous. Death is only one of my talents."

A little more than she planned to know? Danae chuckled quietly at the statement, shaking her head as she watched him, the slow, graceful surity of each and every motion. "I'm curious as to what these other talents might be, Dorian...But if it is your ruthlessness, I know of it all too well. Your disregard for life? I've known that too. You think yourself a mystery, but I've spent my fair share of time logging your name into our ancient texts..."

She stepped up to him then and laid her hand against his cheek, the cool of his skin rushing against the warmth of her palm as she met his eyes once more. Something about him enthralled her already, and there was hardly any romance intermingled between them.

"You'll see that I will win, sir...I've never lost a challenge and I will not start with you." Sliding her hand down his cheek, she let her touch fall away, folding her hands behind her back once more as if she had never touched him at all. The only evidence that she had was the closeness with which they stood, scant inches separating them as the wind blew her skirt about her knees, causing the fabric to brush against him.

Ah, so his reputation preceded him. How delightful!

When Danae put her hand on his face, Dorian's thoughts scattered for a few seconds. This wasn't really what he had expected. He'd just need to always be prepared for Danae Walker to surprise him.

Her hand was warm and soft, it smelled good, and even as she touched him, her skirt was blowing against him. So close. Poor, poor girl... don't know what you're asking for, he thought.

Dorian smiled as Danae pulled her hand away again. She thought she was done with him, on her own terms.

I've never lost a challenge and I will not start with you

"Well, you might not have lost a challenge, but you've underestimated me this time," he whispered to her, almost at the same moment that he moved forward and placed a kiss on her lips. Not a long kiss of desire or a quick kiss of policy... no, something else altogether. Something he had learned well and used often. He dropped his hands to her back, holding her there and waiting for her reaction. "You haven't been kissed in a long time either, I see."

MSI had taught her the art of subtlety, the grand illusion of never showing surprise, but as his lips fell to hers and he kept his hold on her, determined not to let her leave, she was indeed shocked and awed, if only inwardly. Danae had known how close she teetered to the edge, but it had seemed that on the edge and ready to fall was where he was most open, most honest, and most driven...

His hands against her back caused her to repress a shiver as her own much smaller hands came to rest against his upper arms. Her head tipped back, she looked up into his eyes and while she knew she should have taken the customary road of decorum and slapped him or stepped away, she did nothing but tilt her head in curiosity. This was not a creature that would toy with her, she knew...And so why he had done such a thing and remained after it had passed?

"Not as long as you might thing, Dorian," she answered him, her voice quiet. Some part of her wanted to kiss him again, to feel the sparks and shudders that the kiss of such quickness had caused. But then, even in her mind though she knew he was a fiend, she did not wish to do such a thing to him. Her heart, she told herself, was so firmly planted in Marcus Trellan's hands, but even now, she stepped closer to him, her hands sliding up to his shoulders and resting there.

There was nothing between them, she told herself, but as she gazed into ethereal eyes and saw her own reflected back at her, she began to doubt...everything she had ever known. Her lines had been drawn. Black and White. Good and Evil, but now, standing with him, Danae Walker had begun to see in shades of gray once more, as she had done when pure innocence had raged within her.

Not as long as you might think, Dorian

Dorian scoffed. "Long enough though. Quite too long. A woman shouldn't go for more than three days without being kissed, and properly at that." He realized that a little of his old accent was creeping in, that Irish flavor that he had left behind some time ago. He just smiled and went on as if it hadn't. "Yet you hesitate..."

He had a feeling it had nothing to do with her job or superiors or even moral choices... this was all tied into some faceless stranger who had gotten her attention.

She did not back away, but remained, looking up into his eyes, noticing now that he was indeed taller than her, though his stature was hardly intimidating.

"And whose decree is that?" she asked, wondering just what logic and reasoning lay behind his words. Danae began to wonder if he had been in love, if he had known a such woman that had formed his suspicion of the duty of the world to a woman.

Her hands still resting on his shoulders, a slight smile lifted the corners of her mouth as she heard the faint accent dipping into his usual words of wisdom and philosophy.

And whose decree is that?

"My own," he answered, tracing a finger over her cheek. "I've studied, learned... I know more about women than any mortal man does. Centuries more." He leaned down again, this time speaking directly into her ear. "Who is this other one that makes you hesitate? Has he studied? Does he know you? Does he know every curve of your body?" he whispered, his other hand traveling lightly down her side, barely touching. "Does he know the tone of your voice and the taste of your lips? Does he know what makes you smile and what makes you blush? Does he have command over your attention and does he deserve it?"

He worked his hand back up her side, pulling her just that little bit closer. "What has he done to deserve you? Has he ever made you shiver? Does he know you like I do?"

She shivered as he touched her, casting her eyes downward and finally closing them as his words rang out, vibrating in her ears, causing her to turn her head away. His words, she could not take.

Finally, finding some resolve, Danae lifted her head once more and met his eyes, struggling for the answers to the litany of questions that he so easily cast her way.

Marcus drifted into her mind, but immediately, she forced the image away. Danae had known of the Nightwalkers that could read minds and if Dorian was one, then she wished that he not know of her love for another of his kind that worked behind the fortress that was MSI.

Marcus had made her shiver, but just as quickly, he had pushed her away. They had shared moments in the quiet solitude of her quarters within MSI, but he had left abruptly, like a shadow in the night. For every step forward, he took two steps back, unable to allow the young girl he once knew to grow into the woman before his eyes...And yet, within him, she could see so clearly that her own feelings were reflected...

And yet, Dorian was right. What had he done to deserve her? "He saved my life..." she answered, and even then, she knew it was a poor excuse for the things she felt for him. Her gratitude had long since become something of the past. She had fallen for him, and yet, he fought her for everything she was worth.

As her body met his Dorian's, pressed against him, she sighed and lowered her gaze again, the hand that rested on his shoulder sliding down, lighting against his chest as she looked up at him once more. "And what makes you think that you know anything of me?"

And what makes you think that you know anything of me?

"Because I have chosen to know you. I've studied you and it didn't take long to see that you're in love with someone or something but you aren't getting back what you need. What you deserve." His hand moved to her hair, and he worked his fingers through it for a few seconds. "And he saved you... sometimes we value too highly what others will do for us in a crisis. It's what people do of their own choosing that counts."

Dorian smiled at her. "This is something I've chosen. No voice or cause has called me to seek you out. Or to give you something you've been missing for far, far too long. To let you be weak in the knees again, for a moment to rest on someone else. To be helpless to them. What a feeling that is..."

Tipping her head back, Danae realized how easily she could give in to the things he said, even as his hands sifted through her hair, as she fought against closing her eyes and falling headlong into the dark creature before her now.

He wanted to know her? It puzzled her, to wonder how she had caught the attention of the being before her that had surely seen it all...And he wanted to give her something. Perplexed, Danae met his eyes, searching for answers she knew she would not find.

"But why did you choose this, Dorian? You have no reason...In the old world, we'd have been enemies. For centuries, my kind have sought to bring you down..." And therein, Danae had her answer, if only she would see. Deep down, she was not like those that she aligned herself with. Every creature of the night was not evil and every being of the light was not good...Despite her efforts to see in black and white, she had always viewed the world through the grayness of uncertainty...and she had become the outsider for it.

Enemies... yes, once they would have been enemies. Once he might have slipped up behind her and taken her life from her, only to disappear and forget her immediately. Or she might have hunted him down and killed him.

"And doesn't it make it all the more exciting that we shouldn't even be standing here? That we shouldn't be speaking to each other, shouldn't be at peace?" he asked, smiling. "There must be a part of you that pauses at the end of the day and wonders what it's all like. What these monsters are like... the ones you strike down with such calculated movements. The ones that are dark but still seduce the world... Surely, Danae, you must wonder what it would be like to be one of those whispered about. The woman from the story... the one romanced by a vampire..."

Raising a brow, she laughed quietly, her head shaking in denial, but deep down, her thoughts belied her actions. It was true, that she had often wondered, but just as soon as the thought had crossed her mind, she had banished it, knowing far too well those of infinite power that might see her thoughts and cast her from the life she had sewn herself into so tightly.

"And if I did?" she countered with a slight smile, still standing far too close to him, but unable to be pulled back. It was as if an invisible force held her there, but Danae knew all too well what stopped the motions she should have made. It was nothing more than her own curiosity...The curiosity that Antony swore would be the death of her some day.

Perhaps that day had fallen now, she mused, cloaked in night and waiting within the reigns of the vampire before her. "You think yourself capable of romancing me?" she asked him, and while the statement was one of doubt, she truly wondered at the answer...Could he? Would he? But no...

You think yourself capable of romancing me?

Dorian held up his hands, palms out. "And you doubt me? Dear, dear Danae... you must not know me as well as your file would convince you of. I'm capable of romancing whoever I want and right now I want you. You fascinate me." He paused, considering her. "And I believe I fascinate you every bit as much. I can play this game however you want. You're used to fine gentlemen and boy soldiers... why not have the best of both of those? Why not have the old world and manners and dark whispers?"

He thought of the princesses and noblewomen that he had become companion to in his years. Oh, if Danae only knew... if any of them knew...

She considered his offer for far longer than she should have...He was treading the line of the enemy and yet, she could not fear him. Nothing within her signalled the need to run. Instead, she watched him, stepping close as she dared and meeting his eyes that seemed to burn into her own, past all blockades and defenses.

Something Marcus had never done...would never do, because he was afraid of himself...and of the truth she could see within him.

"If you're so skilled, Dorian, then why must I agree to be romanced?" she asked, toying with him now. She had not decided whether this dance would be her end, or just the beginning, but he was right, he did fascinate her just the same. "Should you be able to convince me that I long for you, delve deep into my mind and bring forth those darkened desires that have been locked away, and make it so that I see only you...Isn't that the power of your kind?"

Danae had fallen to the clutches of a vampire once before, long years ago...She could still remember it now. Before Marcus. Before the creature that stood before her now...Lionel had been his name and he had wooed her. Never had he been harsh or cruel, but he had only loved her, and she had hid him from her Uncle and from Raelin...But then, the night had stolen him away, just as she had always known it would. Looking at Dorian now, she saw a slight resemblance, but then, with the magnetism of his kind, who would not notice such a trend?

Should you be able to convince me that I long for you, delve deep into my mind and bring forth those darkened desires that have been locked away, and make it so that I see only you

Dorian watched her face as she said this and smiled. "It's well within my power, Danae. But there's something about you that's worth far more than an easy capture and a little black magic. I want you to enjoy this... I want you to see what you've been missing. And to take something that you want, for once."

He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth again. "I have an invitation for you, a very very secret invitation. You mustn't refuse, my dear, or I'll be terribly disappointed. Tomorrow evening, meet me in the Neptonia Cemetery as soon as the sun has gone down. I want you to be my lady and escort to a magical evening of darkness and awful things that you only read about in your little books. It'll be fun."

He didn't wait to hear an answer from her. He bent and dropped a kiss on her cheek and then disappeared, as if he'd never been.