“Pia!” I de-slumped when a familiar dark-haired woman emerged from the other elevator, tugging a tall, thin woman after her. “Hi! We’re a bit early. You don’t mind, do you?”
CHAPTER 10
“I thought we’d get a good jump on searching for your spirit. This is Eve. Wow, nice room! Oh . . . er . . . hi.”
So much for feeding you. I’m sorry.
There wouldn’t have been time for the food I was interested in , he answered with a mental image that threatened to buckle my legs.
Oh, that is not playing fair . “That’s my husband, Kristoff.”
“Siobhan Gullstein. This is Eve Voorhees, who is the necromancer I told you about, Pia.”
“Hi,” Eve said, holding out a hand. She was as tall as Kristoff, freckled, with short sandy blond hair and wire-framed glasses. Her gaze was straightforward and earnest. She looked absolutely normal, not in the least as if she were the sort of person who raised the dead for a living. “Siobhan says you know where the essence is?”
“Not exactly, but I know where the village was before it washed into the ocean.”
“I see.” Eve had a slight accent-Dutch, I assumed by her name-and although her manner wasn’t as friendly and open as Siobhan’s, I liked her. She hesitated a moment, biting her lip before she continued. “I don’t normally do this. I may be old-fashioned, but I like to honor my commitments, and I don’t usually betray a client in this manner.”
“I absolutely understand, and I would never ask you to do so except this is really an emergency.”
She nodded. “Siobhan told me that the spirit in question belonged to you, but his soul was taken by the Ilargi who hired me. I do not judge those for whom I work, but I do not agree that it is right to take the soul of another.”
“I’m glad you feel that way,” I said, relieved. “Naturally, we will pay you the going rate for lich raising. Er . . . what is that?”
She named a figure that had me reeling for a moment.
Kristoff made a face and pulled out his checkbook.
Thanks, Boo.
“Excellent,” Eve said, folding the check and tucking it away. “Shall we go?”
“Sure,” Siobhan answered.
“I will meet you downstairs,” Eve said, heading for the door.
“She left the car parked illegally, and is worried about it getting towed. You have no idea how on top of those sorts of things the Icelanders are,” Siobhan told me.
Kristoff murmured something about getting our coats as he disappeared into our room.
“Wow, he is . . . Hoo, mama! Some kind of gorgeous,” Siobhan said in a whisper, taking a few steps to the side so she could watch Kristoff gather up his coat and hat. “I love men with cleft chins! It’s so sexy! I bet you suck it, huh?”
I blinked at her in surprise.
“Sorry,” she said with a little giggle. “Didn’t mean to shock you or anything. It’s just that you didn’t tell me you were married to a fashion model. My God, those eyes! Mmrowr!”
“I thought . . . Aren’t you . . .” I gestured vaguely toward the door through which Eve had just left.
“Oh, I am. That is, I like both sides of my bread buttered,” she said, winking as Kristoff came back into the room with my jacket.
Why are you looking so odd? Kristoff asked a few minutes later, as we emerged from the hotel. He held me back for a second, his eyes bright even in the shadow of his hat as they searched the street.
Because Siobhan just asked me if I sucked your chin.
He shot me a startled look before gesturing that it was all right to proceed.
She thinks you’re gorgeous.
Ah.
“Which way?” Eve asked as Kristoff held the back door for me to climb into the car. She had a map spread out on the steering wheel, while Siobhan was poking at the GPS unit.
“It’s broken,” she said, waving toward it. “So we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“This is the wrong map,” Eve said, frowning at it. “Shivvy, get me the other one.”
“Sure thing.” Siobhan turned and reached back between Kristoff and me, inadvertently knocking his hat off in the process.
Kristoff ducked away from the window, lunging over me to avoid the sunlight coming in on his side.
“Sorry. I . . . er . . .”
Are you OK? Did you get burned?
I grabbed the hat she held out and gave it back to Kristoff, who got it adjusted so he could sit up.
Barely. I’m fine.
Eve watched us with curious eyes via the rearview mirror.
Oh, crap. You think they know? I turned in my seat to grab the couple of maps in the storage area behind us. “I’ll get the map.”
Siobhan took them from me with a look at her partner. “Er . . . you’re a Dark One?” she asked Kristoff.
“Is there a problem with that?” he asked with absolutely no expression on his face.
You’re really good at that. I bet you clean up at poker.
“No, I’m just a bit surprised. Eve . . .” She waved toward the other woman. “Eve has always wanted to meet one.”
Eve nodded quickly, an excited light in her eyes. “I’m doing a thesis on the relationship between the otherworld and mortal literary conventions. I’d love to talk to you about Dark Ones versus vampires in the popular culture.”
“Everyone loves a hunky vampire,” I said, smiling.
Eve grinned for a moment, then sat back, but she positively hummed with excitement.
“I’ve only seen one Dark One before, and never up close. Oh, my God!” Siobhan’s jaw dropped for a moment as her gaze moved over to me. “You said you guys are married. Does that mean you’re-”
“A Beloved? Yes.” I gave Kristoff’s leg a possessive pat. “And yes, I am tempted to suck his chin. That cleft drives me wild, too.”
Kristoff went into martyr mode, not actually rolling his eyes, but the urge was apparently almost overwhelming.
Oh, stop looking that way. You love it. What man wouldn’t like random female adoration?
I am only interested in adoration from one person.
I withdrew my hand slowly, not sure if he was referring to his girlfriend, Angelica, or to me.
His fingers captured mine and returned them to his leg, where he held them.
Warmth pooled low in my belly.
“Hee, hee, hee,” Siobhan said, turning back in her seat, although I noticed she lowered her sun visor so that she could see him in the mirror. “I don’t blame you one bit. Man alive, a Dark One and his Beloved. That’s so awesome. How did you guys meet?”
A heavily edited version kept Siobhan occupied until we had reached the small village south of the town I had stayed at two months before. It wasn’t until we had climbed down a rocky, steep slope from a tiny stone church that sat atop a cliff that she finally turned her attention to the reason we were there.
“There are several essences here,” Siobhan said as she wandered up and down the rocky shoreline, dashing first here, then there, like a shorebird on the trail of a tasty morsel. “There’re a number clustered right here,” she added, having taken off her shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of her pants to wade into the water.
“Do you see a horse?” I asked, eyeing the water. I knew it must be very cold, and I didn’t particularly want to have to swim. “Ulfur had a horse named Ragnar who died with him. They were very close.”
“Horse . . . horse . . . no, no horse. Let me try farther out. Good thing I put on the suit under this, eh?”
She returned to shore just long enough to strip down to a long swimmer’s bodysuit, Eve doing the same. “No spirits around here, are there?”
I looked at the stone dangling from my wrist. “None that I see.”
“Hell. So much for the easy way. I guess there’s nothing for it but a little swim in the icy drink. Brrr. Here goes nothing.”
It took them two hours and several trips back to shore, where they stood huddled in blankets guzzling coffee from a large thermos Eve produced, before Siobhan called out from about thirty feet off shore, her hand held high in the air as she swam back to shore.