“Do you need me? I’m here if you need licking anywhere,” Mattias called from the doorway, blowing me a kiss as he beamed at Rick and Janice.
“His things are all packed and ready,” I told Rick with an urgency that I feared was unmistakable. “I’m afraid we didn’t have time to get Kristjana’s things, but with the town crawling with vampires, we thought it best to sit tight and not worry about her clothes and such.”
“Kristoff!” Mattias called happily from where he still sat in the doorway, his head turned to the door of the suite. “Pia said I must sit in the chair until you returned. Now I can go to her. She needs me.”
Kristoff! I told you the Brotherhood people would be here to pick up Mattias and Kristjana! Go away before they see you!
Dio , he swore. I thought they would be gone by now. Did you find out where Alec is?
No, I haven’t even brought that up.
“Kristoff?” Janice said, suspicion tainting the word.
“Yes, he’s my . . . er . . .”
“Husband,” Kristoff said, appearing in the doorway. He eyed the two Brotherhood folk for a moment. I do not know them. Where are they from?
Seattle.
Then they will not know me, either. I have not worked in the United States. “Kristoff von Hannelore,” he added, making a little bow.
Von Hannelore? I asked, somewhat surprised by his surname. I had been too flustered at our rushed wedding to notice what name was listed for him on the papers, and hadn’t thought to ask him about it since. Isn’t that German? I thought you were Italian.
My parents were from a small principality in what is now Germany. I lived there in my youth.
“But . . . you’re married to the sacristan,” Janice said, frowning.
Mattias took my hand and kissed my fingers. “Yes, she is. My Pia. My wife. She needs me. Licks?”
Kristoff pried Mattias’s fingers off my hand, taking it himself. “She was married to me first.”
“It’s a bit complicated,” I said, wondering how on earth I could explain Kristoff.
“Kristoff is my friend, too,” Mattias added, beaming at him and trying to take his hand.
Kristoff growled, I am not used to having to be explained.
Yeah, well, people who charge in on meetings with their mortal enemies just have to tough out what they find.
“You have two husbands?” Rick asked a bit hesitantly. “Is that legal?”
“Well . . . technically-”
“Yes,” Kristoff said quickly.
They don’t seem to realize you’re a vampire. I’m glad, but I have to say that it surprises me a bit.
It’s not like we walk around with a big sign pointing to us proclaiming, “Dark One,” you know.
Yes, but you’re their area of specialty. Shouldn’t they at least sense something different about you?
Experienced reapers might. These two appear innocuous.
“I like licking,” Mattias said, apropos of nothing.
“You try and you’ll find yourself without a tongue,” Kristoff threatened as Mattias grinned at him.
“Mattias! Sit!” I ordered, pointing to the chair. “No licking! No kissing! And stop trying to hold Kristoff’s hand.”
“Pia, Pia, Pia,” was his sad little refrain as he obeyed my command and sat in a chair next to me, pouting slightly as he clutched the hem of my gauze skirt.
“What you have done to that poor man-to both of them . . .” Janice said, her face dark with malevolence. “You will answer to the governors for these crimes; oh, yes, you will!”
Rick had been giving Kristoff a thorough visual examination, and said finally, a puzzled frown between his brows, “You are not a member of the Brotherhood?”
“No,” he said, tensing.
“Kristoff is helping me with . . . er . . . finding Ulfur,” I improvised, hoping the mostly true statement would pass muster. “Which isn’t going to be easy at all. An Ilargi has taken his soul.”
“Ilargi!” Janice gasped. “Here? You must stop him!”
“Easier said than done. Kristoff is here to help me find Ulfur’s remains, his essence, so we can raise him as a lich and get him away from the Ilargi.”
“You are a vespillo,” Rick said to Kristoff, nodding at my deception. “You have a necromancer already?”
I am not a vespillo!
No, but it won’t hurt if they think you are. I’d rather not have them poking around and figuring out you’re a vampire.
Bah!
“Yes, her name is Eve.” I glanced at my watch. “In fact, we have an appointment to meet with her and her . . . er . . . assistant in half an hour, so we really should get down to business.”
“What business would that be?” Rick asked politely as Janice gently shook Kristjana.
“She’s asleep,” Mattias said helpfully. “She was not nice to Pia, so we put her to sleep. She threatened to rip my lips off, too.”
“You have fulfilled only part of your bargain,” Janice said, giving up on Kristjana. “You must also retrieve the spirit left behind and escort him to Ostri. Which”-a slow, evil smile crept over her face-“considering he is now a phantasm, is going to be very difficult.”
“But not impossible once he’s a lich,” I said, hoping that was true.
Evidently it was, because her face darkened again, and she turned away with a muttered word.
“I’m afraid we cannot help with your spirit, if that’s what you are asking,” Rick said. “It would violate the terms of the agreement, you see. I wish we could help, but our hands are tied.”
“My hands were tied earlier,” Mattias piped up. He sent me a loving look. “Pia tied my hands to my feet and made me lie on the floor while she took a bath. I pretended I was her bath mat.”
“We weren’t going to tell people about that,” I reminded Mattias with a weak smile at the others. “It wasn’t like it sounds. . . .” Kristoff’s look had me stammering to a halt. “But enough about that. The business I referred to actually concerns the board of governors. You see, there’s a vampire I want to find, and I think they can help me.”
Janice bristled. “You dare to use us in that way?”
“You know, you keep asking me if I dare to do things, and I think by now we can take it as read that yes, I dare. I dare a lot, actually. Why? Because I have to. So if we could move past the dramatic gasps of horror and bugging-out eyes and pointing fingers and whatnot, and stick to the facts, I’d be really grateful.”
“I love you,” Mattias told me, and proceeded to suck on the bit of my skirt hem that he held.
Janice’s face turned beet red. “You dare-” She caught herself in time. “You can’t seriously believe that the governors would in any way aid someone who so clearly does not follow the precepts of the Brotherhood. You think we would turn over to you our database of vampire locations?”
“No, but that’s interesting that you have one.” Did you know that they have a database?
Yes. It is sorely out-of-date.
Good.
“That’s good, because I can assure you that the governors will do nothing-nothing-to aid one of the evil undead. Unless, of course, you’re referring to cleansing them of their darkness and bringing them into the light, as they all should be.”
Kristoff stiffened beside me.
Relax. That’s how they all talk.
That is not a thought prone to inducing relaxation, he answered with a mental grimace.
I fought the urge to touch him, knowing full well that I couldn’t do so without wanting to jump him.
Kristoff’s lips curled slightly.
You could at least pretend you don’t hear my smutty thoughts about you.
Why not? I enjoy them. I particularly liked the one you had about massage oil, although I prefer cherry flavor to orange.
“What exactly did you want to know?” Rick asked.
“I have reason to believe that one of the vampires has been held by the Brotherhood,” I said, picking my words carefully. I didn’t want to outright accuse them of nabbing Alec if he had gone along willingly. Then again, I didn’t know if he had done that. “I’d like to know where he is, and if he’s OK.”