Zen and the Art of Vampires

"Researching, hopefully. Hello, everyone!" I raised my voice in order to cut through the murmur of conversation. "I'm back, and I've brought a friend. This is Magda. She's new to all this, like me. Have you found anything out about Ostri?"

"Ulfur did," Ingveldur said with a father's pride, beaming at him. "In a book about mythology. Show the reaper, Ulfur."

"I don't know how helpful it will be," Ulfur said, gesturing to a distant table where a thick book had been placed. He escorted us over to it. I glanced at the book, but it was in Icelandic. "This is an entry for Ostri. It includes alternate spellings, and the etymology of the word, but has little about the meaning. It just says that in Basque and Iberian religions, Ostri was used to refer to heaven. The word changed over time, and later came to mean the Christians' concept of God."

"Hmm. It doesn't say anything about where it is?"

He shook his head.

"Crap. Was there anything about it online?"

"Not much more than what's in the book," he answered, going back to the terminal. "Dagrun found similar references to Ostri, but no specifics about how you get there. The information on the Brotherhood, however, is very interesting."

"Oh, really?" Magda and I crowded around the computer terminal.

"What's the Brotherhood?" Magda asked as I scanned the screen.

"The religious group who maintains the Zoryas. Is this their Web site?"

"Yes." Ulfur watched me as I read the page.

"That is interesting," I said.

"What's interesting?" Magda asked. "All I see is Brotherhood of the Blessed Light, a list of cities, and a Web page counter. There's not much there to be interesting."

"I find it interesting to know that the Brotherhood evidently has branches or churches or whatever they call gatherings of their members in all of the major cities of the world, including seven U.S. cities. And I don't think that's a Web page counter," I said, a chill feeling gripping my stomach.

She looked again. "Then what's it counting? People it's helped? Spirits, I mean?"

I shook my head slowly. "I think it's the number of vampires they've… er… cleansed over the centuries."

"Vampires!" Magda said, plopping herself down in a chair. "All right, spill. I want to hear everything, right from the start."

I gave her an abridged version of recent happenings while puzzling over the starkness of the Brotherhood Web site. As Magda noted, there was nothing there other than a symbolic moon, the name, a list of major cities, and a somber number.

"You're married to a vampire," she said, looking a bit stunned.

"Yup."

"And the other man, the one you said didn't kill the other Zorya, he is also a vampire."

"So Kristoff says, and I really don't know why he'd lie about Alec."

She thought about that for a few minutes. "You slept with a vampire. Did he… you know… dine?"

I blinked in surprise at the question. "Kristoff says yes, and I suppose he'd know, but I'm not convinced, not absolutely. There was nibbling going on, but I don't recall anything out of the ordinary."

"Wow," she said, looking at me with something akin to awe. "That's just… wow. I really want to meet this Alec. Not that I'll take him from you, because one, you're a friend, and I wouldn't do that to a friend, but mostly because it's clear you guys have some sort of a connection."

I dropped my gaze, unwilling to follow that thread.

"One thousand, one hundred and eighteen," Magda said, her attention returned to the screen. She let out a low whistle. "That's a lot of vampires."

I thought of Kristoff's girlfriend. That, too, was an uncomfortable line of thought. "Yeah. Did you find out anything about the history of the Brotherhood?" I asked the young woman named Dagrun.

"Not much." She tapped a few keys and pulled up a Web page that appeared to focus on mystical societies. There was a brief description of the Brotherhood, with reference to reapers lighting the way of the dead, but nothing specific or even helpful.

"Well, pooh." I gnawed my lip for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "I guess we're going to have to go to the source for information."

"The Brotherhood people you ran away from?" Magda asked, smiling at Ulfur.

Interest sparked in his eyes as he smiled back.

"Yes." I straightened up and realized just how exhausted I was. No food and no sleep were quickly taking their toll.

"But you said that your vampire husband told you that they'd kill you when they find out you married him."

"That's why I'm not going to tell them. All right, everyone, thank you for your hard work. I don't believe we're going to find out anything else here, however. I think it would be best if you all went into low-watt mode and stayed here in the library where you're safe."

"Stay here?" Karl strode toward us, Marta at his side. "Shouldn't we go with you? In case you need us?"

There was an assenting murmur from all the other ghosts.

"No, I think you'll be safer here than with the Brotherhood people, at least until I know what sort of a reception I'll receive."