“You don’t know that for certain.”
“I’m pretty sure of it. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Two, Frederic killed her.”
He nodded.
“Three, with the Zenith gone, the director of the board of governors is more or less in charge of the whole shebang.”
His nod was slower in coming this time, but it came at last. “There is a new Zenith, though,” he pointed out.
“Sooner or later, yes. But what if the later is much, much later? What if Frederic wanted to be in charge but, because he’s male, could never be a Zenith? What if he set up Denise, giving her some convincing line of bull that had her believing he was a good guy, but in reality he was setting her up for the fall? And then when she did fall, he shot her to keep her from talking? Voilà. Instant leader of the reapers, with no witnesses and no questions asked.”
He thought about that for a few minutes. “It is possible, I grant you. But where does Alec fall in this theory of double cross and hidden agendas?”
“Oh, Alec.” I sank back into the water, enjoying its warm, silky feeling on my naked flesh. “Well, we know vampires can’t be reapers, even if they’re from the Ilargi side of the family, right?”
Kristoff made a vague gesture.
“Right, so, he can’t be an Ilargi, but he can work for one.”
“Why would he wish to participate in the stealing of souls?” Kristoff asked.
“He doesn’t want to. Or rather, it’s a necessary evil in order for him to ingratiate himself with Frederic.”
“The director?”
“Yes! Frederic is the Ilargi! Don’t you see? He’s doing a double-cross thing, just like you said. He got Denise out of the way, and now he’s going around eliminating ghosts so Zoryas can’t do anything with them. Alec probably contacted him with some weird tale of wanting to help the reapers without letting him know he was a vampire, so Frederic set him up to appear to be the Ilargi, just in case anyone nosed around.”
“Less experienced reapers would not recognize a Dark One as being such on sight, but I assume the director would,” Kristoff pointed out. “Sooner or later he would come face-to-face with Alec and know that he was not what he appeared.”
“Exactly.” I back-kicked a couple of feet. “But by then the illusion of Alec being the Ilargi was in place. I don’t doubt that he’s innocent, as your gut instinct said. They probably have him in maximum security back in Brotherhood Central. The reason he’s still alive is because they don’t have a Zenith, so therefore, they can’t fire up the local Zorya and get her to off him.”
“I hesitate to ask this, but my curiosity to hear your explanation outweighs my better judgment: Why would the director wish to effectively destroy the ghosts his organization was created to protect and aid?”
I smiled. “Because he’s mad, of course. He doesn’t care about ghosts anymore. All he wants is to rid the world of you guys, so he’s eliminating any distractions that would keep Zoryas from performing his purposes-killing vampires.”
“But there is no Zenith, and thus the murders can’t be performed.”
“That had me confused, too, until I realized something really obvious-the original purpose of the Zoryas was the ghost bit, right? And all the ceremonies and such were created around that. The stuff with the vampires came later, much later, so it’s quite probable that the rules just got grandfathered in. I’m willing to bet you that if a group of Brotherhood guys got together and started that evil cleansing ceremony, so long as they had a Zorya present, she could smite the hell out of her victims. The Zenith thing is just a holdover from days long past. And before you say we have no proof of that, may I remind you of this?”
I summoned a tiny ball of light and let it dance in front of his feet.
He looked at it without moving.
“If I wanted to, I could probably pull down enough light to seriously harm you, Kristoff. It may take a ceremony with a couple of Brotherhood guys channeling their powers to finish you off, but I’m sure we wouldn’t need a Zenith to do so. Frederic must have found this out. Remember that Denise was a Zorya before she was the Zenith. I bet somehow they found it out, and that started his convoluted plan.”
“Convoluted, indeed,” Kristoff said, still watching the light bobbing at his toes. I waved a hand and dissipated it.
“I just bet you that Frederic is making sure another Zenith isn’t named. Which all points to one very clear conclusion.”
“Yes, it does. It says that you are more tired than either of us realizes.”
I made a face at him. “No, silly. It means we’re going to have to deal with Frederic.”
“I agree. We will kill the director.”
I gawked at him. “How on earth did you jump from ‘we need to give Frederic the third degree’ to killing him?”
His eyes lightened a few shades. “He is manipulating you, Beloved. Your theory is interesting, but unproven at this time. It is more likely that if the director is not working with Alec, he is probably holding him prisoner. And since he is fortifying his defenses, he must expect an attack by us. You are my Beloved, a fact he knows. Do you honestly believe he will not attempt to destroy us should he be given the opportunity?”
I was silent for a moment, remembering the pain of the knife Frederic had wielded as it sank deep into my flesh. “I don’t condone what Frederic has done in the past. And I don’t appreciate him manipulating me, and he’s definitely up to no good. God knows I certainly don’t support the war between the Brotherhood and you vampires, but someone somewhere has to draw the line and end the war. Someone has to stop the killing. And I choose to be that person.”
To my surprise, a faint smile was visible on Kristoff’s adorable lips. “My mother would have liked you. She was frequently in the stocks for what the local nobleman who ruled the town called gross impertinence to his position. She always championed the downtrodden, and more than once came close to the gallows for her attempts to right what she saw as wrongs.”
“She sounds like she was a marvelous woman,” I said, and, tempted as I was to continue that line of conversation, I set it aside for a bit. “You’re not going to distract me from the discussion, Boo. Especially since you know I’m against unnecessary violence.”
He sighed, a weary expression on his face. “What would you have me do? Promise that no harm will come to any reaper?”
“No. I would like you to think about ways to get what we want without anyone dying.”
Water lapping gently at the rocks was the only sound for a few moments.
“I will not risk your life,” he said finally.
“Nor would I expect you to. Just don’t go into this with a no-quarter stance, OK?”
His expression was sour, as if he’d tasted something bad. “I do this under protest.”
“So noted.” I swam backward a couple of feet, determined to enjoy the few hours of respite granted to us. I allowed myself a few smutty thoughts about what I’d like to do to him before continuing. “Back to my original question-why aren’t you soaking in here with me?”
“My friend is continuing to track Alec’s last-known movements.” He glanced at his watch. “I expect the answer to come in shortly. Much as I would like to make love to you, Beloved, I must attend to this first.”
“You know what I say to that?” I asked, reaching beneath me to scoop up another handful of the white silica mud.
“Something that’s intended to irritate me, I’m sure,” he said with a mock sigh.
“No. I say: incoming!” I hefted the handful of dripping wet, slippery mud and flung it at his head.
The mud hit him full in the face with a wet splatting noise. He stood stunned for a moment before turning a really top-quality glare on me. “That was uncalled for,” he snapped, reaching for a towel.