Rowan leaped to his feet and was over the table before the last word left my mouth. Instantly Kristoff was between us, his hands fisted as he scowled at his cousin.
“Oh, my!” Esme said, clutching the belt of her tattered bathrobe. “Fisticuffs!”
“Your Beloved is ill advised to speak thusly to me,” Rowan spit.
“And you dare much to threaten her, cousin ,” Kristoff answered, making me look at him in surprise. His lovely lyrical, Italian-accented voice was thick with anger. It warmed me that he’d be so protective, even when his heart wasn’t touched by our bond.
“Sit down, both of you,” Christian said, sounding weary. “What the Zorya says is true.”
“My name is Pia,” I said somewhat forlornly as I sat back down in my chair. “I really hate being called the Zorya.”
“It is what you are,” Sebastian pointed out.
“Not for long it isn’t.”
“Zoryas cannot be unmade,” he answered with a curl of his lip.
I smiled. “They can if you approach it the right way. But before I discuss that, I’d like to deal with the rest of the ridiculous charges against us.”
“It’s so nice to see another Beloved who refuses to be a doormat,” Allie said with a happy sigh. “Remind me to introduce you to Nell. You’ll love her. She doesn’t take any crap, either.”
“Nell is perfectly charming and has exquisite manners,” Esme agreed, with a look at me that told me she found mine lacking.
“The charges against you were not brought without ample proof, I assure you,” Christian said after giving his wife a long look. “Nor do we make them lightly.”
“You sure could have fooled me. So far all I’ve seen is a bunch of confusing paperwork that anyone could have faked,” I said. “You might find that compelling, but I certainly don’t. And while we’re on the subject of this council, can we discuss the fact that you’re all so very quick to turn on Kristoff? I’d think you would be acquainted with him well enough to know he isn’t the sort of man to embezzle. I mean, really! You’ve all known him for what? Three hundred years? Four?” Without intending to do so, I found myself on my feet again as I expostulated. “What sort of friends are you that you are so willing to believe the worst about someone who you’ve known that long? Don’t you have any concept of what loyalty means, what it means to call someone a friend?”
“Pia, dear-” Esme started to say.
I ignored her. “From where I’m standing, you guys are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites, talking big, but when it comes right down to standing up for a friend in a time of need, you’re all nothing but lame-asses. Yes, you heard me! Lame-asses! Of the . . . er . . . lamest kind!”
I sat down with a hrmph . Silence fell heavily in the room. It was at that moment that I realized just who I was yelling at-a roomful of vampires who had made it their life’s calling to rid the world of Zoryas.
“I really like you,” Allie said, applauding. She met the look her husband was sending her way with one of her own. “Oh, don’t look at me that way. I told you all along that I never believed Kristoff would do any of the things you guys believe he’s done.”
“Tsk,” Esme said sadly, shaking her head. “Women these days just have no idea about the subtle art of persuasion. One never shouts, dear. And one certainly never refers to those in a superior position as asses of any kind, no matter whether or not they deserve it.”
Christian shot Esme a look of surprise.
She smiled a little regretfully at him. “I’m sorry, dear Christian, but I do believe that in this case, the ladies are right and you gentlemen are the teensiest bit mistaken. Kristoff has been nothing but polite and a true gentleman when I pay my daily call on him, and, as you know, a gentleman would never steal money from others.”
“Thank you, Esme,” I said with a curt little nod at Christian.
“I am willing to concede that perhaps we have been overhasty with regards to the proof of the financial issue, although I find myself most curious as to how such a sum of money could have found its way into Kristoff’s personal account without his knowing. Regardless . . .” He held up a hand to stop me when I was about to protest. “I agree that it would be relatively easy for someone to arrange for him to look guilty, so I am willing to dismiss those charges, pending, of course, a further investigation into the matter.”
“One down, two to go,” I muttered to Kristoff.
“It matters not,” he grumbled.
I patted his hand before I could stop myself. His eyes darkened as my fingers lingered on the backs of his, capturing them in a gesture that made me flush to the tips of my toes.
“However . . .” Christian continued in a louder voice. I dragged my attention off of Kristoff and onto him. “However, two charges do remain.”
“Yes, let’s talk about that,” I said agreeably, trying not to let the feel of Kristoff’s thumb stroking the back of my hand distract me. “I don’t know where you got the idea that I killed Anniki, but I certainly did not. In fact, it was because of her that I got involved in the first place. If she hadn’t been mere seconds from death when I discovered her, I never would have agreed to become a Zorya.”
“Exactly,” Rowan said, sitting back in his chair, his fingers tapping ever so lightly on the table.
“What sort of a comment is that?” I asked a bit testily.
“He means that they all believe you wished to become a Zorya, and you simply took the most expedient method to do so,” Kristoff explained, his thumb still stroking my hand.
“They’re nuts, then,” I said, giving them all an astounded look. “I’m doing everything I can to stop being a Zorya.”
“Indeed.” Christian pursed his lips slightly. “And what, if you do not mind me asking, would that entail?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but thought better of it, taking my time before I finally said, “We’ll come to that, but after we’ve taken care of your stuff first.”
“I have a foreboding suspicion that your issue is very much connected with ours,” he answered dryly.
“You bet your-” I glanced over to where Esme watched with bright, interested eyes, and an air of being about to impart some of her homey advice. “Er . . . you bet.”
“Very well. As for the situation with the Zorya, she was found in your bathroom, a dagger stabbed into her heart. Locating and charging her killer is obviously beyond the mortal police; therefore, the crime falls under our jurisdiction. We have reviewed the facts, and can come to only one conclusion.”
“An erroneous conclusion,” Kristoff scoffed. “Pia said she didn’t kill the Zorya. I was hesitant to believe her at first, but I know now that she would not be capable of such an act.”
“Thank you,” I told him with a little smile that had his eyes darkening.
“Then who did kill her?” Sebastian asked. “You’ve stated that you didn’t. If it’s not you or the Zorya, who did?”
I hated to dwell on this, but now was not the time to worry about niceties. “I wasn’t alone that night.”
“Mercy!” Esme gasped.
Kristoff’s fingers tightened around mine.
I’m sorry. I’m not trying to rub it in.
He said nothing.
“We are aware that Alec was with you.” Christian inclined his head in an acknowledgment of what I was hesitant to say right out. “But he left shortly after two a.m., and the Zorya did not arrive until approximately three hours after that, whereupon she asked the desk clerk for your room number. He refused to give it to her, and she apparently left but, in reality, entered the hotel by a secluded side entrance, after which she was seen entering your room.”
I blinked at him a couple of times. “How on earth do you know all that? Even the police didn’t know what she’d been doing before she died.”
Kristoff’s fingers tightened again. “I was watching your room,” he admitted.
“You were watching me?” I asked, turning an incredulous look on him. “Why?”