Zen and the Art of Vampires

"But—" Karl looked around at the others. "The Ilargi could find us. He could steal our souls while you're gone."

"You've all managed to hang on to your souls for eighty years or more," I pointed out gently. "I think you can handle one more night on your own."

"I don't know, Pia," Magda said, frowning at the computer screen. She'd taken Dagrun's place and was, I could see, conducting several Web searches. She pointed at a page containing a message forum. "This person here says that the soul eaters are attracted to an area by the light of the Aurora. Didn't you say that's another name for Zorya?"

"Yes," I said slowly. "But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I only just took the job. I haven't had time to send out whatever cosmic Zorya signals there are."

Magda eyed me for a moment before turning to Ulfur. "When did you first see the soul eater?"

"Three nights ago." Old Agda answered. "He came to our village, sniffing around, but we were hidden in the cave and he didn't find us."

"Three nights," Magda repeated, her gaze back on me. "That's when we landed in Reykjavík."

"Purest coincidence," I said. "I wasn't Zorya then."

"No, but you said the woman who was killed had a sister who was Zorya. When was she killed?"

"I don't know," I said, suddenly uncomfortable. "She just said that her sister died recently, and she was called in to be the replacement Zorya."

"Hmm," Magda said, tapping her lip as she thought. "The Brotherhood people and the vampires hate each other. The Brotherhood killed your husband's girlfriend."

"He's not really my husband," I started to protest, but was shushed to silence.

"For all intents and purposes he is. They killed his girlfriend a couple of years ago, right? I'm sorry, but it's looking more and more like he, or your lover Alec, probably killed your Zorya friend." She paused for a moment, then looked up at me. "Is there anything to say they didn't take out the previous Zorya as well? Anniki's sister, that is?"

I shook my head, my gut tight at the thought of Alec being involved in anything so heinous.

"So let's assume that just as the Brotherhood are picking off the vamps, so your hubby and his buddy are picking off the Zoryas. First your friend's sister—do we know where she was killed?"

"Here, I assume."

"Gotcha. So Anniki arrives to take over as Zorya, and then your husband-to-be and his handsome friend show up. You don't think they're from here, either?"

"No, I'm pretty sure they're not. Their car was a rental—I saw the tag on the key chain."

"So they show up, probably hot on the trail of the new Zorya, and at the same time, a whatchamacallit, Ilarki?"

"Ilargi."

"Ilargi is seen sniffing around the local dead people." Her eyes met mine, her gaze serious. "Pia, I hate to tell you this, but I think your husband is doing more than sucking blood."

I stared at her in growing horror. "You think Kristoff is an Ilargi?"

Gasps reverberated off the walls of the library. A low murmur of concern started up as I tried to process that thought.

"Look at the facts. One, he wants to stop the Brotherhood. What better way to make them obsolete than to destroy the reason for their existence?"

"But they don't just exist to guide the dead. There's the whole thing about cleansing the world of evil."

"That is recent," she said, pointing to the screen. "According to the person here, the Brotherhood existed first solely to help dead people find their destination. It wasn't until the last five hundred years that they branched out to vampire killing."

"But the latter seems to be their focus now. More so, I got the feeling from Anniki, than tending the dead."

"Apples and oranges. If they don't have any dead to take care of, there's no reason for there to be Zoryas. And didn't you say something about the Zorya focusing their power?"

"Yes," I said slowly, remembering the conversation with Kristjana. "The Zorya acts as a focal point. I didn't pay it much attention because I thought it was all a bunch of hogwash, but you may be on to something. Kristoff could have killed me if he wanted to, but another Zorya would simply take my place."

Magda nodded. "This way, he takes you out of the running, thereby hamstringing the local group. It makes sense, especially if you couple it with him sucking down all the souls of the dead around here so there's nothing for you to do."

"It's all conjecture," I protested, although I had to admit I wanted to believe it. I wanted Kristoff to be the bad guy. "And it doesn't explain why they would want to kill Anniki rather than simply marry her."

Magda sucked on her lower lip for a second. "What if she refused?"

"I refused. That did no good."

"Exactly." She pointed a finger at me. "What if Kristoff tried to get her to marry him, but she refused to the point that they felt there was no other option but killing her? When it came time to try the same thing on you, he was ready—you said he had friends waiting, and that he'd bribed someone."

"Yes," I said slowly.