Martin's Press, 2005) NOTE: This short story appears as a chapter in Acheron, located in Part I-Greece, 7382 BC

    After all, I had created him. When I wrote about Nicki, I wrote of adventure--of passion, danger and intrigue. None of those things even remotely touched my own ordinary life until that night in Madrid, when fate brought me face-to-face with my creation...He called himself Bryce Macklin. I would have known him anywhere, using any name. Strange and inexplicable as it was, I knew this stunning stranger was my Nicki come to life.He and I were bound inextricably, we soon discovered--by forces transparent as moonlight yet stronger than steel. We longed to trust the passion that burned so hotly between us, but we first had to unravel a mystery. First we had to break a potent spell...