"Turned me? You mean made me a vampire?" I rushed to the door, pausing when Kristoff hissed at me.
"My trousers," he said softly.
A little shaft of light fell across the room, striking him on the leg, allowing me to see that he was still exposed to view.
"Yes. Kristjana said that he would do so in order to keep you from becoming Zorya tonight." Mattias's eye examined me with calculation.
I moved to block his view of Kristoff, backing up until I reached him. "Don't be silly. Kristoff wouldn't vamp me. Would you?"
"At this moment, I'm considering the very attractive idea of throttling you," was the answer.
"See?" I told Mattias. "He wants to strangle me, not make me a vampire. Are you going to let us out?"
"I should not," Mattias said, his eye considering me with unblinking interest. "Kristjana said I was not to come down here. But you are the Zorya, and my wife."
"Actually, she's mine, but don't let that stop you from freeing us," Kristoff said.
"Hush, you," I said, giving a little trill of horribly false-sounding laughter as I squatted awkwardly next to Kristoff, reaching behind me to tuck him away and do up his pants. "He's such a joker. But you know, Mattias, I don't feel that we've really had the time to get to know each other, and as I have a few hours free now, why don't we have a nice, long talk about things? Out of the basement."
"Kristjana would not be happy," he pointed out.
"Well," I finished fighting with Kristoff's zipper and moved toward the door, smiling my most winsome smile. "She doesn't have to know, does she?"
He hesitated, clearly not sold on the idea of letting us out, but I was not going to let this chance slip by me.
"Mattias," I said gently, batting my lashes ever so slightly at him. "I'm the Zorya. Anniki picked me to be her successor, and I'm wholly committed to doing what's right. There are dozen ghosts upstairs right now just waiting for me to make good on my promise to take them to Ostri. I'm not a bad person—you know that, don't you? Please let us out. I promise I'll be responsible for both Alec and Kristoff."
"No, I could not let the Dark Ones out," Mattias said, shaking his head. "That would be wrong. They are to be cleansed."
"You are completely misjudging the situation—" I started to say, but Mattias suddenly pushed the door open a little wider, enough for his entire face to glare in at me.
Or rather over my shoulder. Kristoff had come up behind me, as silent as a panther. I turned to see what it was that had Mattias so angry.
Kristoff's shirt hung open, part of it poking out of his fly.
"No wonder I had such a hard time with that zipper," I muttered, frowning at it.
"What?" Mattias asked suspiciously.
I turned to face him with a bright, innocent smile. "Sorry?"
His face darkened. I looked down and saw to my horror that I had buttoned my blouse incorrectly—half the buttons were in the wrong buttonholes, while the other half weren't buttoned at all.
"You have slept with the Dark One!" Mattias accused, and I had to admit, the evidence of obviously hastily donned clothing was pretty damning. "You had sex with the other one, and now this one, too? You have sex with everyone but me!"
"I don't have sex with everyone!" My fingers danced along the front of my blouse, fixing the button issue.
Kristoff snorted.
I elbowed him in the gut.
"Right here, in the very house I was in, practically in front of me!" Mattias continued, his face turning red.
"Would I do that?" I asked, trying very hard to assemble my facial features into those depicting innocence, but I couldn't seem to remember what that looked like.
The door slamming closed and the key scraping in the lock were the answer to that idiotic question.
"Well, hell," I said, leaning my head against the door.
Chapter 17
"Would I do that to you?"
"Oh, be quiet, Mr. Actually-she's-my-wife. That didn't help matters one little bit. You just had to mention that, didn't you?"
"Are you attempting to blame me for our current predicament?"
I took a deep breath to answer him, and realized that I was, in fact, trying to blame him for just that. I slumped against the door in defeat. "No, I realize full well that it's my fault we're here."
Kristoff was silent for a few moments. "I believe Alec shares some of that blame. He should have known better than to take you to a public place where he had no easy means of escape."
"Probably."
"I suppose I should have made you stay back while I checked the perimeter of the house, as well."
"Hindsight and all that. Besides, shifting blame won't do any good." I sighed, my spirits drooping. "If there was just some way to reason with the Brotherhood people. I know if I could talk to them, they would see that you and Alec don't deserve their wrath."
"It won't do any good. We've tried for centuries to show them the truth about us, but they refuse to accept it."
"Maybe if—" I stopped, hearing something that had me taking a step away from the door, watching in surprise as once again it was opened a crack.
"Pia?"
I grabbed the door and hauled it open, relief swamping me as I beheld the welcome sight of Ulfur and Ragnar. Ulfur was in solid mode, his smile filled with warmth as we emerged from the cell. "Ulfur, I could kiss you, but given the fact that lately I seem to end up married or in some other way bound to any man I kiss, I'll settle for a heartfelt thank-you. How did you get the keys?"
Ulfur's smile widened to a cheeky grin. He flexed his fingers. "I saw that one who had the keys come upstairs a few minutes ago. I figured he must have confined you down here somehow, and… er… persuaded him to give me the keys."
"Is there a handcuff key on there?" Kristoff asked, nodding toward the key chain.
There was. He was still rubbing his freed wrists and shaking the blood back into his arms when we released Alec.
"My love, I knew you would find a way to free us," Alec said with a wet and hurried kiss.
I slipped out of his hold, not wanting to mislead him, but hesitant to say anything. Now was not the time to discuss personal relationship issues. I shot Kristoff a glance, but he was frowning down at his wrist as he rubbed away deep red marks. "You can thank Ulfur, not me."
"Ulfur?" Alec looking around the basement area.
"He's one of my ghosts. Is it safe to go upstairs, Ulfur?"
He flitted up the stairs, once again translucent. "Yes."
"Then, let's get the hell out of here," I said, starting for the stairs, but was shoved back by first Kristoff, then Alec.
Just as my foot hit the bottom stair, a sudden explosion of noise filtered down to us. Kristoff and Alec froze for a moment, then both shouted something and bolted up the stairs, right through Ulfur and Ragnar.
"What the—what is it?" I asked Ulfur as I ran up after them.
He stood in the doorway, his brows raised in surprise. "It's Dark Ones."
"More? Good lord, how many are there on this island?"
Behind me, a door slammed. I whirled around to see who had just left the kitchen area, but the sight of Kristjana, a knife raised high in her hand as she ran toward me screaming what sounded like a Viking battle cry, instantly absorbed all my attention.
"Ack!" I yelled, and, turning on my heel, raced out of the kitchen toward the front of the house, from which all the noise was originating. "Help! Mad Brotherhood woman!"
I dashed into the main room, skidding to a stop at the sight of the room's occupants. Mattias was on the floor, his arms twisted up behind him as Kristoff slapped on the handcuffs that he'd just shed. There was a distinct look of pleasure on his face as he did so. Around him stood four men, all dark haired but for one blond. Alec spun around as I flung myself toward him, Kristjana in hot pursuit.