title: Aleks Sager's Daemon
author: Elliot, Lucinda
description: Two males are in love with aspiring model Natalie Nicholson, and she is not even sure that one of them is human. The best selling writer Alex Sager, and his own fictitious character, the wicked but beguiling Ivan Ostrowski from early nineteenth century Tsarist Russia.
   The jaded rake Ivan Ostrowski has broken through the barrier  from his own reality, seeking revenge on the so-called creator who has imposed a series of unhappy love affairs on him.
  Besides, Ostrowski has seen Natalie from afar, and now wildly infatuated with her, schemes to draw her back with him into his own world.
  Natalie is unwillingly drawn into a nightmare situation which few can credit. Alex himself cannot believe - as his closest friend insists - that he has brought this situation about through insulting a sinister being known as 'The Magus' at an Ouija board session many years ago. He also refuses to credit the increasing parallels between his own life and that of his idol Pushkin, the great poet of Tsarist Russia, whose life was tragically cut short through a duel over his wife.
  But even Alex has to admit, Natalie strongly resembles Pushkin's Natalya, and Ivan Ostrowski certainly wants a battle to the death.
  Natalie enlists the help of two New Age gurus, only to realise that the handsome and unscrupulous Ivan Ostrowski is enticing the woman into becoming his dupe.
  Meanwhile, she senses that Alex is hurtling towards destruction, and dreads that Ostrowski will draw her into his own world.