Much Ado About Vampires

The words came through to me as if through a dense fog.

" - think we should get a doctor. She's been out for two hours now. Maybe she's seriously hurt."

"I'm not hurt," I said, amazed that my mouth was working even before my brain was. I opened up my eyes, even more amazed that I was still alive. My last cognizant thought before my brain had shut down had been that Bael's power must surely have burned me up and left me nothing but a crispy shell of my former self.

Former self . . . for some reason those words wiggled around in my mind until I sat up, clawing at the blankets that covered me, gasping, "Alec!"

"Is out with Kristoff dumping Brother Ailwin in the river. At least that's what they said they were going to do. I don't think they really would, but there are times when I just don't want to know, and this is one of them," Pia said, smiling at me. "How do you feel?"

"Groggy." I put my hand to my head, surprised to find it intact. Alec?

You're awake? Good. Are you sitting down?

Yes, I'm awake, and why on earth would you want to know if I'm sitting?

Because I intend on lecturing you for a very long time, and it would be better for my peace of mind if I knew you were comfortable during it. For the love of the saints, Beloved, do not ever do that to me again ! If I had been mortal, you would have stripped at least twenty-five years from my life span!

I giggled. Pia raised an eyebrow. "Is he giving you hell? "

"Yes, I think he's about to." I laughed again.

"It's probably best if you let him work it out of his system. I've found that the vampires may look all urbane and in control and stuff like that, but they get grumpy if you don't let them have their drama queen moments. I'll be downstairs when he's through. I should probably check that Eleanor hasn't gone on a rampage while I've been waiting for you to wake up."

All right, I told Alec, sitting on the edge of the bed. What happened? How come you escaped being fried to a crisp, or blasted into kingdom come, or whatever would have happened to you if Bael's power had hit you?

You told me to hide. As soon as I realized we had been Joined, I threw myself out of the window.

But I saw someone get nailed.

It was the other lich the dark power struck. He is no more.

Poor guy. Should have been his boss. Hey, you went into the sunlight? Oh Alec! How badly are you burned?

I'm not now. I wasn't much burned then, either, because the Joining was complete. How are you feeling?

I took stock of myself. Arms and legs seem to be moving OK. I've got a bit of a headache, though. What happened to Brother Ailwin, and are you really dumping his body into the river?

He's not dead, although that thought is very tempting. When you collapsed and he realized that he couldn't use you again until you were conscious, he tried to carry you out to his car. I stopped him.

There was a distinct tone of satisfaction in his voice that I knew I should protest against, but honestly, I felt Brother Ailwin had it coming to him. You beat the tar out of him?

That's one way of putting it, yes. Kris helped a little because he threatened Pia. But he let me have most of the fun.

So now you . . . I stopped, feeling awkward and suddenly a bit shy. After all that protesting I had made about Alec being a vampire, it was a bit too much like eating crow to admit that I was willing to bind myself to him for the rest of our lives.

Yes, now I have my soul back. Thank you, Corazon. I know you did not want to do this. I know you did not want to share my life.

You know, if you were anyone else, I'd say you were fishing for a compliment, I said somewhat testily. And if you were any sort of a gentleman, you wouldn't make me eat my hat.

He laughed.

Fine, have it your way, you obnoxious man, you. I did it because I wanted to, not because I felt I had to. And I know you're not really a murderous bloodsucker. Happy now?

With regards to you? Beyond your imagining.

His words, and the emotions behind them, warmed me for the next hour as Pia and I waited for the two men to return.

"Well, if this doesn't just take the rat's ass and make it into a hat!" Eleanor snarled, stomping into the room with Pia's cell phone in hand. "I just called the lord in charge of the hour where I live, and he says I can't come back. He says liches are not allowed into the Underworld."

"Uh . . ." Pia blinked a couple of times at Eleanor.

"So now what am I supposed to do?" Eleanor demanded. "Alec would rather shack up with her than me, and I can't go back home, where at least I had a life and a friend with benefits, and roses who loved me, not to mention the class I was thinking about starting on how to spin yarn using a drop spindle and dog hair, and now I can't!"

"Er . . ." I said, at a loss. "What's an hour? And there really is an Underworld?"

Eleanor sighed and slumped into a chair. "The Underworld is pided into twelve hours, each ruled by a lord. I live in the seventh hour. It is very pleasant. The lord there is English, so the hour looks like a quaint little English village with thatched cottages and digital cable TV and high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access. I won't tell you how many of my favorite shows I'm missing on the Home and Garden TV channel, but you can rest assured that I am not happy about it!"

"Since Kristoff and I were responsible for bringing you here, we'll be responsible for getting you back," Pia said after a moment's thought. "I'm not sure how we'll do it, but there must be a way."

"No, Alec and I will do it," I said, turning back to Pia's laptop, where I had been trying to find a phone number for the Guardian Noelle. "Ultimately, she's our responsibility."

"I really dislike being spoken of as if I'm not here," Eleanor said with a surly look to both of us. "And I really don't care who fixes things, I just want them fixed."

"Want what fixed?" Alec asked as he and Kristoff entered the room.

I quickly explained the situation with Eleanor before she could unload yet another tirade.

"Ah. Yes, we'll find some way to get you home if that is what you desire," Alec reassured her.

She gave him an injured sniff, and kicked her heel idly against the chair.

"I won't ask you how it went because I can tell by the looks on your faces that you got rid of Brothers Ailwin and Godwin. You didn't do anything really bad to them, did you? " Pia asked, immediately moving over to her vampire, her hands all over him as if to check he was OK.

Kristoff looked cranky. "Alec only let me have a couple of shots at Ailwin, so no, I didn't."

"I owed him more than you," Alec replied, cracking his knuckles and looking very pleased with himself as he came over to see what I was doing, his fingers trailing across the back of my neck in a caress that had me shivering with arousal. "All we did was rough them up and hand them over to the watch with a complaint of assault, Pia. I don't expect them to be held for long, however, so we will have to be on our way soon."

"You'd have to leave anyway with Julian hanging around," Pia said.

I slanted a look up at Alec, warmed to my toenails by the passion in his eyes. You can't possibly want to - I almost killed you, Alec! How can you want to make love to me when I could be used to destroy you?

Pia is a Zorya, and wields the power to destroy Kristoff - and every other Dark One, for that matter - but it doesn't stop him from indulging himself every opportunity he gets. Why would you being a Tool of Bael mean I should do likewise?

I shivered again at the things he was thinking. "What's a Zorya?"

"Huh?" Pia, who had been gazing into Kristoff's eyes, blinked at me a few times. "Oh, Alec told you about me? I'm a reaper."

"You're a former reaper," Kristoff said.

"Zoryas are a group of women who have the power to call down the light of the moon. They're next in line to the Zenith. I'm also a Zenith."

"A former Zenith." Kristoff was back to looking cranky as he allowed Pia to lead him over to the love seat.

"It's all part of a wacky religion called the Brotherhood of the Blessed Light," she said, cuddling up to him. "Better known as the reapers. They booted me from the group a month ago, which I have to admit was a bit of a bummer, because I seriously enjoyed light binding people. But all in all, it's better that I not be the Dark Ones' most hated enemy."

"Merciful Mary," I said, wondering how on earth she had ended up that way.

It's a long story. I shall tell it to you sometime when you have exhausted me with your lustful demands.

I'll hold you to that. Both the story and fulfilling all my lustful demands, that is.

He smiled, a long, slow, sultry smile full of much promise.

"Oh, for the love of the saints . . . if you four are going to sit there making googly eyes at each other, I'm going to go see what passes for the Home and Garden channel in Italy," Eleanor said, stalking off to another room. "Call me when I can go back home."

"So if Brother Ailwin is in jail - and stop looking at me like I'm insane, Kristoff, because I wasn't going to suggest that we have him summon Ulfur after the events of this afternoon - but since he's out of it, how are we going to get Ulfur?" Pia asked.

"We'll find another lichmaster," Kristoff told her, looking toward where I sat.

"I'm almost done. I found a Web site for something called the Guardians' Guild that lists a contact number." I scribbled down a phone number and relinquished the laptop. "Evidently you can hire Guardians through them. I wish I knew Noelle's last name."

"It wouldn't do you any good if you did," a tired voice came from the doorway.

Kristoff was across the room before I could blink, Alec right there with him. Kristoff pinned a slight, balding man with dark hair and dark eyes to the wall, Alec leaning in with a wicked intent.

"Who are you?" Kristoff snarled.

"My apologies," the man said in a choked voice. Literally choked, since Kristoff held him up by the neck just as Alec had done with Brother Ailwin. "I should have known better than to startle Dark Ones with Beloveds in the same room."

"Yes, you should have," Alec said. "Answer the question."

"I'm not sure he can," Pia said, tapping Kristoff on the arm. "His face is turning red, Boo. You should probably let him down before he passes out."

Boo?

It's Pia's love name for Kristoff. She said he scared the hell out of her when she first met us.

That's fitting. You scared the crap out of me, too.

Your first sight of me was when I killed the woman who decapitated you. That hardly counts.

"Who are you?" Kristoff repeated, releasing the man. He was a good foot shorter than Alec and Kristoff, balding, dressed in a brown suit, but with a pleasant face despite the fact that he'd just been throttled. "And how did you get in here?"

"What did you mean about it being of no use to call the Guardian?" Alec added.

I moved over to where he stood, telling my inner devil to stop attempting a new career as a matchmaker. Unattached Beloveds were not my problem. "Just out of curiosity, do you know Noelle?" the devil forced me to ask nonetheless.

"My name is Terrin," he said, answering Kristoff first. "I walked in. Mortal doors have never been a problem for me. It's of no use to contact the Guardian - who I do not personally know, by the way - because she couldn't get Diamond out of the Akasha."

Mortal doors? So this guy is one of you?

He's not a Dark One, no. But he is immortal. Alec considered him with interest. The name seems familiar to me, but I can't place it, or him.

"Why couldn't Noelle spring Diamond?" I asked at the same time that Kristoff, in a growl, asked Terrin what he was doing there.

"I would be happy to explain both if you would allow me a glass of water?" Terrin rubbed his throat, grimacing when he hit a tender spot.

Pia gestured toward the couch. "Of course. Please come in and sit down. Do you drink tea? The water's fairly hot still, I think."

"Tea of any temperature would be most welcome, thank you. I have had a long journey to get here." Terrin held up a hand, giving Kristoff a watered-down smile. "I see you're about to object to such civilities. Would it relieve your mind if I told you that I am a member of the Court of pine Blood?"

The who of what, now? I asked Alec, moving over to the couch to sit with Pia opposite Terrin.

"It might," Kristoff allowed.

It is what the mortals think of as heaven. Or rather, the mortals based their notion of heaven upon the Court.

So he's a good guy?

Presumably so.

"Heaven?" Pia said aloud, looking startled. I had a feeling she'd been asking the very same thing of Kristoff. "You're from heaven? Are you an angel or something?"

"The Court is not heaven, although we are frequently confused for it, and there are no angels there, simply employees. Thank you, I'll take it black if you don't mind." Terrin gratefully accepted a cup of tea from Pia, who gestured at me with the teapot, setting it down when I shook my head. "In answer to both questions, I am here because I have been sent by the mares to seek the help of Corazon. You don't mind me calling you that, do you?" he asked me.

"No, I don't. You don't work for Bael, by any chance?" I asked, suddenly suspicious. Why would someone want me to help them if not to use my Toolness? "And how do you know about Diamond?"

"Who are the mares?" Pia asked at the same time. "More importantly, just how did you know where to find Cora?"

"So many questions," he said, sipping his tea. "And so little time to answer them. I will explain as quickly as I can. I am unarmed," he added to Kristoff, who lurked next to him, watching him with a suspicious expression. "And I intend no one here any harm."

"You just admitted you wish to use Cora," Alec said, in a mild voice that didn't at all disguise his hostility.

"Not in the sense you mean," Terrin said, suddenly looking exhausted. "It has been a very long day. Let me start at the beginning, and see if we can't get through this quickly, so that my visit will not have been in vain. I am a seneschal at the Court, which basically makes me a middle-level bureaucrat. One of the three mares - they are second-in-command to the Sovereign, who rules the Court - has sent me to seek the aid of Corazon Ferreira, mortal, who was imbued two days previously with the Occio di Lucifer."

"Former mortal. She is now my Beloved," Alec corrected him.

I really am immortal now?

Yes.

Wow. I thought about that for a few minutes. That's kind of mind-blowing. At least now Jas can stop fretting that she's going to live forever, and I'll be an old lady who looks like her grandma rather than her sister.

"So I see. You have my felicitations."

Alec bowed his head in acknowledgment.

Are you guys always so formal and old-fashioned?

It is the way of the bureaucrats, yes. I prefer to live in the here and now, but many beings in the Otherworld honor the old ways.

Gotcha. "What sort of aid?"

"I believe our goals are the same," Terrin said, setting down his teacup. "The mare in question - Mare Disin - desires to free her great-granddaughter from the Akasha, namely, one Diamond Reed."

I gawked at him despite the fact that I was gawking far too much ever since I'd met Alec. "Diamond has a grandma who is in heaven?" I shook my head. "That came out wrong. She's got a grandma who is a big-time angel? Boy, that still doesn't sound right."

"Diamond has a great-grandmother who is one of the three inpiduals who wields great power in the Court of pine Blood, yes," Terrin said, glancing at his watch. "And we are running out of time to effect a rescue."

"I have heard of the mares," Alec said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "If they wield as much power as is reputed, why does not this mare simply remove her descendant from the Akasha?"

"The mares' powers are confined to the Court; they have none outside of it, much less so in the Akasha."

"But they do control the Hashmallim," Kristoff interrupted.

"I was just going to point that out," Alec agreed, turning to me to add, since he knew I was going to ask, "The Hashmallim are the beings who act as the police force of the Court of pine Blood. They also serve to guard the Akasha. It is because of them that we could not simply leave it."

"I remember the greeter saying something about them," I murmured, wondering what Diamond was doing at that moment. Was she worried? Afraid? Guilt swamped me at being so caught up with Alec that I had been ready to let her happily putter on her own in the Akasha. Despite her reassurance that she was looking forward to seeing all the Akasha had to offer, it was still a place of punishment, and she had done nothing to deserve being trapped there.

"They do indeed direct the Hashmallim," Terrin acknowledged, smiling his thanks when Pia poured him more tea. Already the bruise marks on his throat had almost faded to nothing. "And if Her Grace Disin had asked the Hashmallim to take her great-granddaughter to the Akasha, she would most certainly be able to demand a release. But Diamond was banished by Bael himself, and combined with the fact that she is a vessel, it makes for difficulties in gaining her release without extraordinary measures."

"I understood, like, one word in five in that," I told Pia. "How about you?"

"One in four," she said, patting my knee. "But I've been around these guys longer than you. What's a vessel?"

"A member of the Court of pine Blood. In the hierarchy of the Court, they are the lowest member, and justly serve mortals. They answer to - "

"Whoa, wait just a second, here," I interrupted, shaking my head. "You're saying that Diamond is an angel, too? Diamond who stole my husband away from me?"

Alec made an abortive gesture.

"Not that I wanted him anymore, and I'm much happier without him," I said quickly, flashing a quick smile at Alec. "But still, she stole him from me! Angels don't do that!"

"She is a vessel," Terrin said, his warm brown eyes doing a little twinkle thing at me. "She serves mortals."

I thought about that for a moment. "You're saying she took Dermott from me because . . ." My gaze shifted to Alec, enlightenment dawning in the dusty hallways of my mind. "Because I was going to meet Alec?"

"Because you are a Beloved, and you have a moral code that would not allow you to fulfill that role if you were bound to another man," Terrin said, hiding his smile in the cup of tea.

"I can't help but be a little annoyed with the fact that she thought she'd just come along and manipulate my life like that," I said, feeling disgruntled and somewhat betrayed. "I thought she really loved him. I thought he was better off with her. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving them my blessing."

Terrin shrugged. "She most likely does love him. Her job would not have required her to marry him, so I assume she felt they had a future together. And just for the record, no member of the Court takes it upon themselves to manipulate mortals. We may guide now and again, but in the end, the choice of what path your life takes is entirely yours."

My gaze went again to Alec, whose mouth was tilted up on either end in the very faintest of smiles.

You look smug.

I do not feel smug. I feel grateful.

Grateful that I let my inner devil have her way and hook up with you?

Grateful that Diamond had the foresight to separate you from your ex-husband. Did you love him?

When we were first married, yes. But it wasn't the sort of love that had much depth to it, and before six months were up, I knew I'd made a mistake.

"That's all and well, not that I mean to make light of your relationship with your ex-husband, Cora, but what, exactly, do you expect Cora to do to get her friend out of the Akasha?" Pia asked Terrin. "Are you going to . . . for lack of a better word . . . use her?"

"Would that I could," Terrin said, looking even more tired. "But although one Tool by itself is powerful enough to pull most people from the Akasha, a member of the Court is beyond its power. Two Tools, however, should do the trick."

"Are you saying that the Tools can work together?" I asked. "That they can . . . what, chain power or something?"

"That is a very apt way of phrasing it."

"So if two of the Tools together are enough to yank Diamond from the Akasha, what would all three be like?" Pia asked.

Terrin shuddered and closed his eyes. "The three Tools wielded by one person would rock the mortal world. They could cause irreparable damage to any being, mortal or immortal. It would, in short, have a devastating effect the likes of which have not been seen by this world since the creation of Abaddon."

Pia looked at me as if I were a walking time bomb. I knew just how she felt. I looked down at my hands, panic and fear swamping me.

I will let no harm befall you, mi querida. No one will use you in such a way - that, I swear.

But they could, Alec. I could be part of something seriously, unimaginably bad.

I would not allow it, he reassured me, but there was a shadow in his mind that made me feel sick to my stomach.

"So you need us to summon Ulfur in order to get Diamond out, yes?" Pia asked as I was trying to come to grips with my emotions. She glanced at Kristoff. "We'll have to find another lichmaster."

"There is one in France. We will contact her," he answered.

"Won't it be dangerous for Ulfur and me to be together?" I said slowly, leaning into Alec when he sat on the arm of the couch next to me.

"Normally I would agree that it would not be in any way ideal for you to be within close proximity of another Tool, but this is an extraordinary situation." Terrin glanced at his watch again. "The time of acclimation is almost upon her, and that would be most tragic."

What's an acclimation?

I have no idea.

I hate to always be the one asking questions. Your turn.

"What is the time of acclimation?" Alec asked just as Kristoff did the same thing.

"The Akasha was created by the Sovereign as a place of punishment for members of the Court who deserved such treatment. Later, others were allowed to be banished to its confines, but since it was created to hold former members of the Court, it deals with them particularly harshly. There is a period of time during which the inpidual sent there may be resummoned to the Sovereign's presence if it should so desire, but after that period is over, the inpidual loses his or her powers and becomes mortal."

Did he just call God an it?

The Sovereign is not God, and it is commonly referred to by a gender-neutral pronoun, yes.

"What's wrong with being mortal?" I asked, letting that point go for the moment.

"Nothing," Terrin said, getting slowly to his feet. "For one used to such a thing. But for a member of the Court to be stripped of his or her powers in the Akasha is a life sentence. Not even the Sovereign itself could change that."

"A life sentence? But nothing can die in the Akasha," I argued.

"Exactly," he said, his eyes suddenly serious.

"But why couldn't she simply be summoned later, even if she was mortal?"

He shook his head. "I wish she could, but Diamond is immortal. If she loses that quality, she ceases to exist in any plane mortals touch. She would exist in the Akasha, but" - he spread his hands - "nowhere else."

"Oh, my god." I looked at Alec as I realized what he was saying. "She'll be trapped in the Akasha forever."

"How long do we have?" Alec asked as Kristoff pulled out a cell phone.

Terrin gave us all a long look. "Two hours and thirty-three minutes."

Alec swore as Pia leaped to her feet, exclaiming loudly, "There's no way we can have Ulfur summoned in that time!"

Alec? What are we going to do?

Be patient, love. Let Kris determine if the lichmaster will help us before you think about panicking.

Kristoff turned his back on us, speaking rapidly in French into his cell phone.

"I'm afraid there is no other choice," Terrin apologized.

"But the lichmaster is in France! There's no way we could fly there in time," Pia wailed, moving over to her vampire.

Could a private jet -

No. Do not worry, mi corazon. If Kristoff can locate a lichmaster, we will be there in time, he said, obviously listening to Kristoff.

How?

We will take a portal.

To where?

To wherever we need. Ah. This sounds hopeful. Alec moved over to Kristoff, asking a question in French that Kristoff repeated.

I looked at Terrin, whom I was unnerved to find watching me. "You couldn't have told us this earlier?" blurted out of my mouth, making me blush at the rudeness. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but really, a little more time would have been nice. Not that I've been proactive about getting Diamond out, so I'm just as guilty as you, but still. You, at least, knew the truth about her."

"I began tracing your whereabouts as soon as Mare Disin realized what happened to her descendant," he said gently. "You appeared to have traveled quite a bit in what is a very short amount of your time."

"Yeah, but you're some sort of an angelic bureaucrat, aren't you? Couldn't you just tune in your magic TV screen or whatever you guys have up in heaven, and see where I was?"

He gave a soft, but genuine, laugh. "I would give much to have a magic TV screen. Alas, the Court does not work that way. I traced you by means of bribery and several acts that I would prefer not bandied about."

"Thank god," Pia said, smiling at Kristoff. "We got the lichmaster, Cora. Very nice work, Boo."

He rolled his eyes as Alec held out his hand for me. I expected him to look a bit happier, but he looked worried.

Is there something wrong with the lichmaster that Kristoff found? I asked as Pia and Kristoff dashed upstairs to toss a few things into a bag, and alert Eleanor to our change in plans.

No.

Then why do you look so worried? If the lichmaster will summon Ulfur, we can get Diamond out. Oh, do you think he will do the same thing that Brother Ailwin will do, and try to use us?

No.

I moved around to his front, examining his expression. His eyes were a pale, seawater green, his brows pulled together. Then what? I asked as I put my hand over his heart.

It's what comes after, he said after a few minutes' silence.

After?

Yes. His gaze slid over to where Terrin was examining the pictures on one wall. But I believe I see a way through it.