The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts

going down into a dark basement. Both were horror-movie clichés for a reason, after all. She settled on the nightly routine of cleanser, toner, moisturizer. As she started to turn down the bed, Quinn came in.
    “Cal and I are staying here tonight.”
    “All right, but wouldn’t it make more sense for you two to go home, with Gage?”
    “Fox and Layla are bunking at Cal’s. I wanted to be here tonight.”
    Because she understood, Cybil’s eyes stung. She sat on the side of the bed, took Quinn’s hand, laid it against her cheek as Quinn sat beside her.
    “I was all right until the lights went out. More interested, even intrigued than scared. Then they went out, and I couldn’t see. Nothing was as horrible as that.”
    “I know. I can sleep in here with you tonight.”
    Cybil shook her head, tipped it to Quinn’s shoulder. “It’s enough to know you’re across the hall. We all felt it, didn’t we? That smudge like you said, that smear it left on the house. I was afraid it was just me, just being paranoid.”
    “We all felt it. It’ll fade, Cyb. We won’t give ground.”
    “It’ll never understand how we are together, or what we are together. It would never understand that you knew I’d sleep better tonight with you in the house, or that I’d be better talking to you for a few minutes alone.”
    “It’s one of the ways we’ll beat it.”
    “I believe that.” She sighed. “Marissa called.”
    “Crap.”
    “Yeah, and it was—the usual crap. ‘Can’t you do this, can’t I have that? Why are you so mean?’ It just added to an upsetting day. I dumped a good chunk of my unfortunate family history on Gage’s head.”
    “Really?”
    “Yes, I know, not my usual style. It was a weak moment, but he handled it well. He didn’t say much, but he said exactly the right thing. Then I kissed his brains out.”
    “Well.” Quinn gave her a friendly shoulder bump. “It’s about damn time.”
    “Maybe it is, I don’t know. I don’t know if it would complicate things, simplify them, or make no damn difference at all. But while I’m sure the sex would be good—in fact superior—I’m equally sure it would be as risky as going down in the basement to see what the banging’s about.”
    “It could be, but since there’d be two of you involved, you wouldn’t be going down to the basement alone.”
    “True.” Pursing her lips, Cybil studied her own toes. “And there would be some comfort when we were both hacked to death by the ax murderer.”
    “At least you’d’ve had sex first.”
    “Superior sex. I’ll sleep on it.” She gave Quinn a squeeze. “Go on, go snuggle up with your adorable guy. I’m going to do a little yoga to help me relax before I go to bed.”
    “Just call if you need me.”
    Cybil nodded. That was the thing, she thought when Quinn left her. That was a constant in her life. If she needed Quinn, all she had to do was call.

Five
    SHE’D BEEN IN HIS DREAMS, AND IN HIS DREAMS, she came to his bed. In his dreams her lips, soft and seeking, yielded to his. Her body, sleek and smooth, arched up, long arms, long legs wrapping him in warmth, in fragrance. In female.
    The wild glory of her hair, dark against white sheets, spilled away from her face while those deep, seductive eyes watched him.
    She rose. She opened. She took him in.
    In his dreams, his blood beat like a heart, and his heart pounded its fist in his chest. Inside him, joy and desperation rolled into one mad tangle of need. Locked, lost, he took her lips again. The taste, the taste that burned through him like a fever while their bodies raced together. Faster. Faster.
    While around them the room began to bleed, and to burn.
    She cried out, her nails biting like teeth into his back while the sea of bloody flames rolled over them. And the word she cried as they were consumed was bestia .
     
    HE WOKE, ONCE AGAIN AT FIRST LIGHT. AND THAT, Gage thought, had to stop. He had no particular affinity for mornings, and now it