The Bespelled -Kim Harrison *The Hollows series* 
 The Bespelled is a prequel 1000 years before the first Hollows book. The short story is written in Algaliarept's *Al* voice. The story takes place showing the circumstances around Ceri joining Al as his familiar. 
 I really enjoyed hearing Al's voice in this short story. It gave me a new appreciation for the demon. He is a true sociopath. Ceri intrigues him so therefore he must posses her. 
 The reader experiences all the tricks a demon will go through to obtain that which he covets. 
 Ceri does have a love for Al that still seems to shine through even during the newest release, A Perfect Blood. He seems to intrigue her as well. 
 Does Al lover Ceri as well? I think so, in his own way. 
 Quotage 
 "Does he make your heart beat fast?" Algaliarept demanded, a shudder running through him when her eyes closed in pain. "Can he make you laugh? Has he ever brought new thought to you, as I have? I've never touched you, but I've seen you tremble in desire ... for me." 
 "I'm forever young, and now you'll make me watch you grow old, watch your beauty fade and your skills tarnish as you shackle yourself to a loveless marriage and a cold bed." 
 "I will mourn your beauty when you could have been young forever," he said, looking for a crack in her resolve. "I would've forever been your slave." Faking depression, he slumped his perfect posture. "Only in the ever-after does time stand still and beauty and love last forever. But, as you say, it's the way of things." 
 "Do you love him?" he asked, adding the last brushstrokes to his masterpiece. 
 "No," she whispered. 
 His hands quivered as adrenaline spiked through him, but he held perfectly still. He would've given a lot to know which card she held crushed in her grip. "Do you love me?" he asked, shocked to realize he'd never used those particular words to seduce a familiar before. The silence was long, but from behind him came a soft, "Yes. God help me." Algaliarept closed his eyes. His breath shook in him. hid excitement racing through him like a living ley line, burning. 
 "Do you really love me?" he asked her as the butterflies swarmed, drawn by the scent of burnt amber, and she nodded, gazing at him as tears slipped down and she hesitantly folded herself into his arms. 
 "Then you are one stupid bitch." 
 Gasping, she flung her head up. Pushing from him, she tried to escape, but it was too late. Silently laughing, Algaliarept wrapped his arm around her neck, grabbing her hair with his free hand and pulling her across the garden to the nearest ley line. 
 Closing his eyes, he smelled her hair. "And I'm going to love you." he whispered into her ear as she began to pray to an uncaring god he'd teach her not to believe in. "I'm going to love you within an inch of your life, then love you some more." Anticipation high, he reached for her inner thigh. The instant his fingers touched her, she screamed, fighting lo be free. A fierce smile came over him and his blood pounded in his loins. This was going to be everything he wanted. A distraction for as long as he cared to make it last. "Let me jump you to my bed so we may begin your tutelage," he said 
 "Take me," she whispered as three magicians stumbled into the clearing, frightened but determined. "I don't want to grow old. You are my demon." 
 No one had ever come willingly, before. He was an artist, and destroying her as he made her into what he wanted, would be his finest masterpiece. Until I find someone with a little more skill, that is, he thought, knowing that wasn't likely to happen for, oh, probably another thousand years. 
 ***& a thousand years later... Rachel Morgan appeared!*** 
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