Zen and the Art of Vampires

His teeth pierced the skin behind my ear, the burn racing through my body, setting me alight and pushing me over the edge. I clutched at his shoulders, shaking with the strength of the climax even as he cried against my neck, his sensations pushing me beyond awareness into a new place, something made up of the two of us.

I collapsed against him, almost sobbing with the euphoria of the moment, confused about what I'd just experienced. This was beyond normal sex, beyond even incredibly fabulous sex. What we'd just done was earth-shattering, profoundly momentous in a way I couldn't begin to understand, but disturbed as I was, I knew one thing for certain—I would die before I let the Brotherhood people sacrifice the man in my arms.

I had to get him out, get Alec and him both out, and away from Kristjana. Frederic and Mattias might be reasoned with, but I knew with chilling conviction that Kristjana wouldn't be happy until both vampires were dead.

I just wouldn't let that happen.

"Heea."

A voice, muffled and indistinct, reached my ears. I drifted on a cloud of post-orgasmic insensibility, finally realizing that the word spoken was my name.

"What?" I asked, too boneless to move. I had collapsed onto Kristoff, and was draped across him now, his face smashed into my breasts, my knees still gripping his hips.

"Mrrphm reef."

"What?" I asked, pulling back in order to hear him better.

"I couldn't breathe," he said, a slight edge of amusement in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think about you breathing." I scooted off him, groping around on the ground to find my clothing. "That is, I didn't think about the fact that my boobs were smothering you. Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Full? Or do you need another go-round?" I pulled on my clothing, my face flaming for no good reason. Yes, I'd just had the best sex of my entire life, but it was with a man who saw me as nothing more than an annoyance who could occasionally scratch an itch—or fulfill a hunger. There was no cause for me to be blushing like a virgin.

"That was quite sufficient, thank you," he said politely, but the humor was gone from his voice, replaced by a flinty note that made me, for some reason, want to throw something large at his head. Or cry. Possibly both.

Sufficient, my shiny white ass! Once again I was left swearing that if that was the way he wanted to deal with the fact that we had quite possibly the best sex in the entire history of the world, then I would certainly not disillusion him.

Sufficient. The bastard.

I was formulating an extremely cutting comeback when there was a noise at the door.

"Zorya Pia? Are you there?"

A crack of light appeared along the edges of the doorway.

"Mattias?" I asked, astonished.

The door was pulled open a few inches. Mattias's eyeball was applied to the open space. "Has the Dark One turned you?"

"Turned me? You mean made me a vampire?" I rushed to the door, pausing when Kristoff hissed at me.

"My trousers," he said softly.

A little shaft of light fell across the room, striking him on the leg, allowing me to see that he was still exposed to view.

"Yes. Kristjana said that he would do so in order to keep you from becoming Zorya tonight." Mattias's eye examined me with calculation.

I moved to block his view of Kristoff, backing up until I reached him. "Don't be silly. Kristoff wouldn't vamp me. Would you?"

"At this moment, I'm considering the very attractive idea of throttling you," was the answer.

"See?" I told Mattias. "He wants to strangle me, not make me a vampire. Are you going to let us out?"

"I should not," Mattias said, his eye considering me with unblinking interest. "Kristjana said I was not to come down here. But you are the Zorya, and my wife."

"Actually, she's mine, but don't let that stop you from freeing us," Kristoff said.

"Hush, you," I said, giving a little trill of horribly false-sounding laughter as I squatted awkwardly next to Kristoff, reaching behind me to tuck him away and do up his pants. "He's such a joker. But you know, Mattias, I don't feel that we've really had the time to get to know each other, and as I have a few hours free now, why don't we have a nice, long talk about things? Out of the basement."

"Kristjana would not be happy," he pointed out.

"Well," I finished fighting with Kristoff's zipper and moved toward the door, smiling my most winsome smile. "She doesn't have to know, does she?"

He hesitated, clearly not sold on the idea of letting us out, but I was not going to let this chance slip by me.

"Mattias," I said gently, batting my lashes ever so slightly at him. "I'm the Zorya. Anniki picked me to be her successor, and I'm wholly committed to doing what's right. There are dozen ghosts upstairs right now just waiting for me to make good on my promise to take them to Ostri. I'm not a bad person—you know that, don't you? Please let us out. I promise I'll be responsible for both Alec and Kristoff."