"What's wrong?" Roxy hissed in my ear. "You look funny all of a sudden."
"It's Raphael," I whispered back. "He's doing something to me. Something with his mind. He's evil."
Her eyes got big.
"Do not punish me this way," Tanya cried to Dominic, clinging to his cape. He snarled at her in another language and tugged his cape from her grasp.
"You mean he's merging with you? Right now? This instant?" Roxy whispered her question, one eye on the unfolding scene between the two men and Tanya, the other on Raphael. "What's he doing?"
I yanked my gaze away from Raphael, determined not to allow him to sway my mind without my permission, instead focusing my attention on Tanya's anguished face. Even knowing she'd tried to do me serious injury by kicking me on the stairs, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the horrible manner in which Dominic was treating her. It was a very small twinge, however.
"What is it you are whispering about?" Christian leaned in to ask us.
"It's Joy. Her Dark One is doing something to her mind."
"Really?" he asked, examining my face. "She doesn't look any different. What is the vampire doing to her?"
"It is all her fault!" Tanya screeched, mindless of the attention she was drawing to our little group. She spun around and pointed at me dramatically. "She has cast a spell upon you! You are doomed to fall under it unless I can reverse it. I, alone, have the power to save you from her!"
I waggled my fingers at her. "Boogedy-boogedy-boo!"
She turned red with fury.
"She's having visions like before, aren't you, Joy?" Roxy tugged at my sleeve, dragging my attention back to her.
"No, it's not like the visions," I whispered out the side of my mouth, too embarrassed to admit that Raphael could have such an effect on me with just a few lewd thoughts planted in my head.
"Ma petite, you go too far. Mon ange has not the evil presence in her soul. It takes one who knows evil to cast spells."
"You're not helping calm her down," Raphael told him at the same time I commented, "Ooooh, low blow, Dominic!"
Dominic just smiled at me and made a corny bow.
Raphael shook his head, raising his hands in defeat as he took a couple of steps toward me. I switched my attention to him, smiling victoriously as he moved closer. Two could play at this little mind-seduction game. I'd been willing him to come to me, and now he was.
"Then what is it he's doing?" Roxy whispered in my ear, so low I almost couldn't hear her over the shrieks of anger Tanya was emitting at regular intervals as she lambasted Dominic for his nasty comment. "Joy? What's Raphael doing to you?"
"Seducing me," I answered, taking a step forward and letting my eyes go all soft at Raphael. I thought he needed a little reward for giving in and coming to me once he realized I had an iron will that couldn't be swayed by a little mind-seduction. His amber eyes opened wide in response. I took a deep breath and inhaled that lovely Raphael scent that wrapped around him. The cheerleading team in my nether parts kicked into overdrive.
Raphael, with one last look at me that I was sure would turn all the bones in my body to oatmeal, turned back to Dominic. Tanya was on her knees before him, pleading with him to listen to her.
"If having a nightly catfight is a new attraction," Raphael told him, "you really should consider charging more for admittance." He nodded toward the people gathering behind Dominic and Milos. I turned to grab Roxy and Christian and make an escape while we could, but Christian had disappeared.
Dominic stiffened and gave Raphael one of his pseudo-haughty stares. "You will not speak about mon ange in that manner."
"Will you give it up?" I frowned at Dominic, interrupting the reply Raphael was about to make. "I'm not an angel, and I'm certainly not your angel. If I'm anyone's angel, I'm his." Of its own accord, my finger pointed at Raphael. I clapped a hand over my mouth a fraction of a second after the words left my lips. Raphael's eyebrows raised in an expression of sheer, unadulterated surprise.
"You're not playing fair!" I accused him. "You made me say that! You're making everyone think I'm the one who's wild about you! I'll thank you to stay out of my mind, and stop seducing me!"
"Seducing you?" he asked, ignoring Dominic as he frowned at me. "I am seducing you?"
"Yes, you are, and you needn't try to look so innocent, we both know who you are and what you're doing, so you can just wipe that 'I haven't the slightest clue what you're going on about' look off your face, and keep your mind to yourself! If you want me in your bed, you're going to have to do it properly, you got that?"