Much Ado About Vampires

Alec absently wiped the blood that dripped down his arm and off his fingers onto the material of his pants, very aware of the heat building in his left arm as the shoulder-to-elbow slash made by the wrath demon's claws slowly healed itself. "This way," he said, holding up his uninjured hand to help Diamond down the last few yards from the balcony where they'd made their escape. "I think this alley leads to . . . you can't possibly be serious."

"Oh, I am, I assure you. You wouldn't believe how cutthroat the real estate business is in northern California! You think the demon lords are bad? They don't have anything on - "

"Hush," Alec said, lifting his hand in warning as he turned his head, straining to catch the words of the two men who ran past the entrance of the alley.

". . . Sally, said she . . . Corazon . . ."

"I think Alec's comment referred to those two men, not your experience in real estate, Diamond," Kristoff said as he leaped to the ground, holding up his arms for Pia, who followed him with a whomp.

"Nice catch, Boo," she told Kristoff with a kiss as he held her in his arms. He smiled and looked like he wanted to kiss her with much more thoroughness, but obviously realized in time that the back alley of the hotel, with the premier prince of Abaddon on their heels, was not the ideal place for romance.

"What two men?" Diamond asked, brushing off her legs. "Dratted hotel. Don't they dust their drainpipes?"

"Why would they mention Cora and Sally, unless . . . bloody hell." Alec stopped talking and started running, fear snatching at his breath as he ran.

"Where is he going?" he heard Diamond call. "Ow! I can't run in these shoes! Hey, you don't have to shove me!"

"They have Cora," Kristoff growled, obviously trying to hurry the women. Alec didn't wait for them to catch up to him; he shot out of the alley. Down the street a few blocks, a black sedan pulled out and sped off into the night. Alec swore under his breath, spinning around to head for the car park next to the hotel. Kristoff and the two women emerged from the alley as he passed. He didn't pause, just grabbed Diamond and slung her over his shoulder. "They're heading west, to the highway," he called as he ran, ignoring Diamond's protests that she could walk. "Be quiet, woman - you're too slow. I won't risk Cora for the sake of your shoes. Kristoff, keys?"

Alec knew it didn't take much time at all for them to reach the car and set off after the two Dark Ones, but he felt every passing second as if it were an hour. How the hell had the bastards found Cora? And why hadn't she told him they were around?

Mi querida, are you safe? he asked as he slammed on the brakes to avoid plowing down a couple who weaved into the street, obviously a bit too flushed with the fruit of the grape. He spun the wheel and drove around them, partially on the sidewalk, until he reached the highway that ran to the north out of town. He had no idea which way the two councilmen had gone, but was betting on the more populated north than the south. Corazon?

"I don't understand what's going on," Diamond complained, righting herself from where Alec had tossed her into the car. "Who has Alec seen that has him so upset? "

Cora, you will speak to me right now.

"The two men from the Moravian Council," Pia answered her.

"But . . . Alec and Kristoff are Dark Ones. Is it bad to see the members of the group that rules your people?" Diamond asked.

Beloved, this silence worries me. I need to hear from you.

"It is when they want to imprison you in the Akasha. Alec?" Kristoff, playing navigator, pointed to the right as the highway curved around a hill. "Junction with another highway coming up. They could be taking that and we wouldn't know."

Alec swore. "Sins of the saints, why doesn't she talk to me?"

"She's not answering?"

"No." Alec ground off a few layers of enamel, jerking the car's steering wheel as he pulled off the road, sliding on the gravel that littered the shoulder. Ahead of them was a sign announcing the exit for the highway that ran roughly east to west. He had no idea whether the two councilmen had taken that road or the one they were on. Hell, for all he knew, they could be going in the opposite direction.

"Well, they're with Sally, aren't they?" Diamond said, giving a little shrug. "They probably went to her house."

Alec ripped off the seat belt in order to turn around and face Diamond. "Sally has a house in France? Here, in the south?"

"Yes," Diamond answered, looking startled. "In Privas, not too far from us, from what I can remember. She held a big barbecue here last summer, when she became a demon lord, and invited everyone from the Court to see her new palace. Well, the extension of her palace into the mortal world, because naturally we couldn't go into the Abaddon part. I mean, what would the Sovereign say if it found us all frolicking around Abaddon enjoying steak and cedar-planked salmon?"

Alec stared at her for the count of four. "Why would the messenger wish to go to Sally's house?"

Diamond gave a little shrug. "It's handy? If they're trying to lure you into a trap, which I assume is what you mean by the reference to banishing you to the Akasha, then that seems like the most private place to do so. Unless the Moravian Council has buildings in this area?"

"No," Kristoff answered as Alec turned around and gunned the motor, ignoring the merging traffic behind him as he drove over the shoulder and verge and onto the highway going to the east. "They don't. They must be holding Sally and Ulfur, too. Cora still not answering?"

I am coming to save you, Beloved. Do not fear for your safety; I won't let anyone hurt you. "No, she isn't." His voice was raw as he thought of Corazon being treated roughly. The messenger, he knew, wouldn't kill Cora, but she would no doubt fight him, and he might use more force than necessary to subdue her.

That thought made him grind his teeth even more, a desperate need to be with her, to protect her, riding him hard until it caused the hunger within him to awaken.

The drive to Privas was the longest event he'd ever suffered, filled with all too many horrible visions of Cora being harmed, and he swore that if the messenger or his partner so much as bent one single hair on her adorable head, he would have his vengeance.

"Is Alec growling?" Diamond asked Pia.

"Yes, yes, he is. And swearing," she answered.

"In Latin," Kristoff added. Alec shot his friend a look. Kristoff grinned, and added in Italian, "She'll be all right. They have no reason to hurt her."

"Cora is a fighter. She won't tolerate being used as bait to trap me. She'll fight them."

"She's also your Beloved now, and won't take injury like a mortal would. I know you're worried, but just remember that it's you they want, not her. She's just a means to an end."

"What are you guys saying?" Pia said, flicking a finger at the back of Kristoff's head. "You know how I hate it when you talk in languages I don't understand, which really is all of them because I'm horrible with languages. So stop it and tell me what you're saying."

Alec ignored the chatter of the women as they discussed what the council could or could not do to his Beloved, and focused his attention on getting them to Sally's residence as quickly as possible without killing any mortals in his way. Kristoff, knowing what emotions he was feeling, was blissfully silent with the exception of pointing out turns, a map of the area spread across his lap.

Periodically Alec tried to get Cora to respond to him, but all was silence. Worse, and far more worrisome, he had no feeling of her presence. The messenger might have silenced her by means of threat or drugs, but he would still be able to feel her being, bound as it was with his. But now . . . he felt empty, as if she had left, and taken his soul with her.

"If they've harmed her," he said in German to Kristoff.

"Don't torture yourself with that," Kris answered him, pointing to a wrought iron gate. "Christian Dante may be many things, but he wouldn't condone a Beloved being harmed. His own would never let him hear the end of it."

Alec growled to himself, not waiting for the door of the gate to open - he simply jammed his foot on the accelerator, and crashed through the double gates in best action-movie-hero style, crumpling the front of the car in the process.

Kristoff sighed. "There goes the damage deposit."

"Whoa!" Pia gasped, clutching the back of Kristoff's seat. "You almost gave me a heart attack! Next time warn us when you're going to - holy moly, will you look at that place? It looks like a palace."

"It is," Diamond said without looking up from where she was texting on her cell phone. "One of the Louis, I believe, gave it to a mistress. Louis the thirteenth? Fourteenth? I lose track of them. Sally said she got it cheap from a mage who was unloading some property to buy a quintessence."

Alec was out of the car almost before it had come to a complete halt, his hands fisted as he glared for a moment at the car that the members of the council had driven. He swore vengeance again as he marched toward the door. One hair, if they so much as touched one single hair on her delightful head . . .

"Would it do any good if I asked you to stay here?" he heard Kristoff ask.

"None whatsoever," Pia answered.

Alec tried the front door, found it locked, and stepped back a few paces to assess the building. It was rather blocky, but built in a warm cream-colored stone, with tall windows pided into numerous small panes, encased in a darker marble. Formal gardens made wings on either side of the main building, with wellkept gravel paths winding through the greenery. Alec didn't wait to see if anyone would respond to the bell that Kristoff rang - he ran to the left, skirting a small koi pond, and leaping over a low stone balustrade to stride up to large French doors flanking a gigantic stone urn. "Corazon!" he bellowed as he jerked open one of the doors, luckily unlocked. "You will answer me now!"

"I'm afraid she can't," a woman's voice answered him. "Oh, you're all here? Goodness. I'll have to have one of my minions rustle up more orange cinnamon rolls. I wasn't expecting everyone. Why, Diamond, I haven't seen you in . . . oh, it must be a century or two. You look so mortal now."

Alec spun around to find Sally beaming at them from a doorway that clearly led into the main hall.

"I try to fit in," Diamond said, breathing a little fast from the run around the house. "You look as fabulous as ever. Is that a Chanel suit?"

"You like?" Sally did a little spin to show off the cherry red suit with short skirt. "I prefer simple lines, myself, not all those fussy bits that so many designers seem to want to put into clothes these days."

"Where's my Beloved?" Alec demanded, his patience at an end.

"Cora?" Sally clucked her tongue and moved forward until she could put a hand on Alec's arm. "I am the last person to criticize, as anyone will tell you, but really, Cora needs to take in an anger management class or two. You would not believe the things she said to me! She threatened me with the most heinous, the most cruel . . . well, let us draw a veil over exactly what she said, and instead acknowledge that should she ever wish to become a demon lord, she'd fit right in."

Alec stared at the woman in utter disbelief. "Cora threatened you? Why would she threaten you?"

"Oh, you know how it is," Sally said with a wide smile as the others gathered around them. "Misunderstandings, misconceptions, a little binding spell or two . . . these things get blown out of proportion, and then poof! Someone threatens someone else with drawing and quartering, and it all goes downhill from there."

He rubbed his forehead. Either he was going insane, or the world was. "Cora threatened you with drawing and quartering?"

"Well . . . no, perhaps that was me, but she definitely said unkind things to me when I called the Dark Ones to take her and the lich away. Uncalled-for unkind things."

Alec's blood froze solid in his veins. "The messenger has her?" As he was about to demand to know more, her words filtered through the fury and fear for Cora that held him in such a tight grip. "You called them?"

Sally tried to step back, but he was too fast. His roar of rage made her wince as he lifted her off the floor to shake her. "Where the hell is my Beloved?"

"Abaddon," she corrected him, her eyes wide with surprise as he snarled a few threats of his own into her face. "Oh, my! I see where Corazon gets her ideas! That was . . . really? With Popsicle sticks? I never thought about that, but I suppose if you sharpen them first . . ."

"Alec, stop," Kristoff said as Alec wrapped his hands around the woman's neck. "You won't achieve anything attempting to throttle her to death, so it's not worth wasting your time. Where is Cora now, Sally?"

"I told you," Sally answered as Alec released her. "Abaddon. Well, the part of the house that's in Abaddon. Technically only the north side is in the mortal world, although I was thinking about reclaiming the west garden - "

Alec was off before she finished the sentence, Kristoff on his heels.

"Stay here!" Kristoff bellowed to Pia, who answered with a terse, "In your dreams!"

"I'm going to stay here," Diamond told them. "My great-grandma would have kittens if she knew I went to Abaddon."

The house was filled with antiques, a showcase that should by rights be on a historical register, but Alec appreciated none of that as he tore through the large entrance hall, heading for the opposite side. The hall itself was pided down the middle by what looked like a curtain of dark light, delineating the part of the house that projected into the mortal world from that which resided in Abaddon. He passed through the ebony field, stumbling over the twisted tiles of the floor as he entered the hellish side.

The antiques here were grotesque parodies of furniture, all the angles skewed, odd little legs and arms projecting, twisted, into space, snaring the unwary passerby. The light was different, as well, feeble streams of light from the other side of the hall dying a quick death in the murkiness inherent in Abaddon. "Corazon!" Alec bellowed, jerking his jacket from the grasp of what was once an armchair. Where are you?

Alec? What the . . . run, Alec, run! The vampires are here!

I know, he answered grimly, starting off down a side hallway just as Kristoff and Pia entered the Abaddon side of the building.

"Good god," Pia gasped, clutching Kristoff. "This is horrible! Look at that couch. It looks like it's been tortured. Who in their right mind would torture furniture ?"

"A demon lord," Kristoff answered.

"I had to practice my persuasion techniques on something," Sally said, her voice reaching Alec as he ripped open door after door searching for Cora.

"Sally, really, I must insist you unhand me. What's my great-grandma going to say?" Diamond objected.

"Don't be such a sissy," Sally answered. "Where's your sense of adventure? Where's your gumption? Where's your desire to see the seamy underbelly of life?"

Are you harmed, Beloved?

No, but, Alec, you have to leave. Sally is evil! She's working with Bael, and she called up the vamps to tell them that you were going to be here, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she did something to Ulfur's horse that made him not a ghost anymore, so now he can't go invisible.

"It's back on the non-Abaddon side of the house," Diamond grumbled.

Alec jerked open one of a set of double doors that led into a grand ballroom, once obviously the pride of a bourgeois heart, and now a horrible battleground made up of black and mildew-stained parquet tile that erupted upward in sharp spikes, as if the ground itself couldn't bear its unholy existence. The walls were likewise stained, tatters of once beautiful flocked wallpaper hanging in despondent strips, a broken and twisted chandelier drooping almost to the ground. But it was the group of people at the far end that caught and held Alec's attention. Two men crouched behind an upturned broken sofa, its wooden claw feet clutching at nothing as an enraged horse snorted and pawed the ground, clearly protecting the two people behind it.

"Alec!" Cora screeched, then clapped her hands over her mouth. Oh, my god, I'm sorry. Now they know you're here.

The two men, the messenger Julian and a Dark One Alec didn't recognize, both turned to look at him.

"It's all right, Beloved," Alec said with dark intent as he stalked forward toward the two men, who hastily - but with one eye on the horse Ragnor - got to their feet. "We have nothing to fear from them. They, however, should be extremely worried."

"You threaten us, Alec Darwin? " the messenger asked.

"You took my Beloved," he answered, the thought of anyone touching her fueling a rage unlike anything he'd known.

Alec, I'm all right. They didn't hurt me. In fact, they haven't been near us since Sally zapped Ragnor.

They took you. They will die for that.

"You cannot be serious," Cora said, moving around the horse and heading straight for him. "It's not really their fault, anyway. Well, part of it is, because we wouldn't be here if Sally hadn't told them that you were going to show up, but really, it's all Sally's fault."

"Did I hear my name being taken in vain?" Sally entered the room with a still-protesting Diamond. "I do hope so, because really, how can one call oneself an effective demon lord unless one's name is taken in vain all over the place? Oh, good, you found the Dark Ones."

"Smite her!" Cora commanded, pointing at Sally, a furious look on her face. "She's pure evil!"

Smite her?

"Oh, not pure, surely," Sally said with a little giggle. "And, you know, I did say I was naughty, not truly evil."

You can't smite?

"That's right, she is," Diamond said, giving Sally a gimlet look. "Although I am willing to bet that Great-grandma Disin is going to have a thing or two to say about you dragging me here. You know how she gets."

Not that I'm aware.

Sally shuddered, her smile dissolving as she muttered, "She wouldn't know anything if you didn't tell her."

Well, hell. It sounded so dramatic, too.

Alec moved quickly, pushing Cora behind him as he faced the messenger. "You will say what you have to say to me, Julian. Then I will destroy you."

"Alec - " Kristoff said, sighing as he stepped forward between the two men. "You can't do that."

"No, he can't," Cora agreed, shoving Alec on the back before moving around to his side.

He wrapped an arm around her, holding her close, needing her warmth, needing her light to banish the darkness that threatened to claim him again. "It is a crime for one Dark One to threaten the life of another's B eloved - "

"We made no threats against her, nor did we harm her," Julian protested. "Give us a little credit, Alec. We simply wished to talk to her . . . and you."

"Oh, sure you do!" Cora flung herself in front of him, her arms held wide as if to protect him.

He would have found the idea laughable, but he felt in her a determination to save him.

You already have, love.

Saved you? Your soul, maybe, but there's more to you than that.

"You wish to talk, messenger? What do you have to say to me that doesn't include a command of punishment?" Alec demanded to know, gently but firmly moving Cora back to his side. Now is not the time for relationship talk, mi querida.

I'm a woman - there's always time to talk about relationships, she answered, digging an elbow into his side when he spent a few moments wishing he had a sword. No decapitating, Alec. It's not nice, and besides, they really aren't to blame.

"I'm thinking that if you've got something to say, you'd better hold on to it," Sally suddenly interjected, strolling over to the mangled remains of a table, leaning one hip on them. Diamond, looking vaguely uncomfortable, trailed after her.

"Why's that? " Cora asked. "Are you going to do something else 'naughty' to us? Maybe bring Bael in to torture us a bit? Burn down hell? Destroy the entire planet? "

"You see?" Sally whispered to Alec with a little nod toward Cora. "Anger management counseling would do her a world of good."

Cora sputtered something extremely rude under her breath, and started toward Sally. Alec caught her and held her tight against his body. "Beloved, I know you are enraged at her - as am I - but as Kristoff pointed out, it can do no good to think about beating her with a two-by-four. Nor dropping her in the La Brea tar pits. No, not even feeding her to a tank of hungry sharks."

Sally gasped in horror, her eyes huge. "Sharks! Cora!"

"It was just a thought," Cora muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "A damned good one, too, if you ask me."

"No one did," Sally said, looking decidedly disgruntled.

"Why should we be quick?" Kristoff asked, clearly curious as to Sally's warning.

"And tar pits? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to clean tar off of wool - what? Oh, we're about to have company."

"Who? " Alec asked, his eyes narrowing on the woman.

"Some liches," Sally answered, gesturing to Ulfur. "Other than you, dear boy. Come over here so I can pet your nice horse."

"Don't do it, Ulfur!" Pia warned. "It's some sort of a trap!"

"Honestly, I wouldn't have your mind for all of the minions in Abaddon," Sally said, giving Pia a look. "Such suspicions!"

Ulfur moved slowly toward her, the horse, now perfectly solid and not in the least bit ghostly, at his side.

"What liches? " Alec asked. "The lichmaster who lives in the caves nearby?"

"I expect she'll be here, too," Sally said, giving Ragnor a pat on the neck. "She's smart, Jane is. She'll see Brother Ailwin sniffing around, and know he's up to no good, so no doubt she'll follow him here."

"Brother Ailwin!" Pia clutched Kristoff. "He'll use Cora and Ulfur! We have to get out of here!"

"Too late," Sally said, waving. "Welcome to Abaddon, Brother Ailwin. Oh, I see you brought your monks with you. Mercy, a whole army of them. Welcome, gentlemen."