Zen and the Art of Vampires

"Not really, but if you are going to insist on giving her the benefit of the doubt, we might as well get it over with quickly so we can take her before the council."

"Council?" I asked, grabbing the backs of their seats and hauling myself forward. "What council?"

Kristoff's face could have been made of granite, so cold was it and the accompanying gaze he cast toward me. "I thought you weren't speaking to us."

"I have decided in the interests of avoiding an international incident that I will keep the lines of communication open. What council?"

"The Moravian Council," Alec said, hitting the gas and sending us shooting down a bumpy street, making a tight U-turn to head back into the heart of town. "Don't worry, Pia; if you're truly what you say you are, you have nothing to fear from the council."

I sat back, grasping the seat belts, unwilling to strap myself in just in case I needed to make a fast getaway. "Just out of morbid curiosity, what exactly is this Moravian Council? And what would happen if I wasn't telling the truth?"

"You will be taken before the council to answer for the seventy-three deaths your people have caused over the last three years," Kristoff answered in a deep, lyrical voice that would have sent shivers of delight up my back if he hadn't clearly been repulsed by me, and obviously under the delusion that I was someone bad.

"My people?" I asked, running my mind over my immediate family members. "They run an apple orchard in eastern Washington. I don't think they've conducted any mass executions in, oh, geez, years and years. Although with my brother, you never can tell. He's a Microsoft yuppie."

My humor, sarcastic as it was, was not wasted on Alec. He chuckled and flashed me a quick grin in the mirror before returning his eyes to the road as we approached the square.

Kristoff grunted and looked out the window.

I figured it would take Alec forever to find a parking spot, but he solved the issue by simply parking sideways across a sidewalk. "That is the bookstore?" he asked, pointing to the end of the street, where it opened into the pedestrians-only square.

I nodded.

"Let me see the books," Alec said, opening the door for me and offering his hand to help me out of the car.

I was simultaneously charmed by the gesture and pleased by the warmth in his eyes. "I'm afraid I only have one of them. I dumped the other one when Mattias started after me."

"Mattias?" Alec asked, examining the book I held out for him. He riffled the pages but found nothing.

"The sacristan," Kristoff informed him. He turned a hard gaze on me. "Why, exactly, were you running from him?"

I was flummoxed for a moment when Alec tucked my hand in the crook of his arm, covering my fingers with his free hand as he led me down the street. It was a surprisingly intimate gesture, one that gave me more pleasure than I wanted to admit.

Part of me, the vindictive, evil part that I really liked to pretend didn't exist, wished that Denise would walk past us at that moment. I wouldn't gloat, I wouldn't preen, I'd simply smile and allow my two incredibly handsome escorts to accompany me.

Fortunately for my ego, she wasn't present in the crowd who now pulsed and bobbed in that odd throbbing fashion large groups of people packed into a small space have when they attempt to dance. The music hit us with the force of a brick wall, and it wasn't until we slipped around to the back of the row of buildings lining that side of the square that I could make myself heard above the noise.

"No answer?" Kristoff said, stopping at a metal door bearing a faded plaque with the name of the shop. One of his chocolatey brown eyebrows rose in mock surprise. I had the worst urge to yank it back down.

"I'm not avoiding the question. I just didn't want to bellow it out in front of everyone," I said with dignity. "I was running from him because he was just as mistaken as you two—he thought I was this Zorya person, and wanted to marry me."

Alec pulled out a large set of keys and started applying them to the door.

Kristoff eyed me from toes to nose. I flushed for the umpteenth time that night and, in order to forestall the obvious comment, said quickly, "You can stop looking at me like I'm a big, fat liar, because I'm not."

Kristoff blinked for a moment in surprise; then his face hardened into its familiar suspicious expression.

For some reason, that just seemed to irritate me more than if he'd come out and accused me of trying to pull his leg. "You can believe what you want, but it's the absolute truth. The lady… what's her name… Kristjana mentioned Mattias and me getting married so he could die in my arms or something like that. So you can just wipe that you're-so-insane-you're-barking look right off your face."

Behind me, Alec started laughing. Kristoff's eyes lit from within with anger, and for one horrible second, I thought he was going to hit me. But instead he took two steps forward, backing me into the wall of the shop. "Do you have any idea who I am, woman?"