Zen and the Art of Vampires

Behind me, a door slammed. I whirled around to see who had just left the kitchen area, but the sight of Kristjana, a knife raised high in her hand as she ran toward me screaming what sounded like a Viking battle cry, instantly absorbed all my attention.

"Ack!" I yelled, and, turning on my heel, raced out of the kitchen toward the front of the house, from which all the noise was originating. "Help! Mad Brotherhood woman!"

I dashed into the main room, skidding to a stop at the sight of the room's occupants. Mattias was on the floor, his arms twisted up behind him as Kristoff slapped on the handcuffs that he'd just shed. There was a distinct look of pleasure on his face as he did so. Around him stood four men, all dark haired but for one blond. Alec spun around as I flung myself toward him, Kristjana in hot pursuit.

She was screaming something in Icelandic, but the murderous look in her eyes pretty much translated her intent. She'd gone off the deep end.

Alec shoved me behind him and lunged for her, while one of the other men—I recognized him as being Kristoff's brother Andreas—jumped toward her at the same time. Andreas grabbed her neck in some sort of disabling move, causing Kristjana to fall to the ground with a solid thud.

"Is she dead?" I asked, about ready to scream.

"No," Andreas answered, prodding her with his toe. "She's just unconscious. For now."

I shivered at his last words.

"Do we kill them now?" the blond man asked, a wicked light in his eyes as he stalked forward to help Andreas haul Kristjana onto a couch.

Andreas looked to one of the other men. Alec and Kristoff did the same. I examined the two men who were strangers to me—both were tall and well built, although the blond was a bit stockier.

The dark-haired man pulled off his fedora and gave me a long, considering look, his eyes so dark they were almost black. "Not yet. This, I presume, is the reaper you mentioned?"

"This is Pia, yes. My love, this is Christian Dante, one of the members of the council," Alec said. "The other is Sebastian."

"You're all vampires?" I asked, gazing at them with a kind of awed wonder. Each and every man could have graced the cover of a men's magazine. I couldn't help but wonder if being drop-dead gorgeous was one of the requirements to be a vampire.

"We are all Dark Ones, yes," the one named Christian answered. He made a little bow to me, although I noted he shot Alec a questioning glance.

Alec answered by putting his arm around me and hauling me up to his side. "Pia is not Zorya by choice. She is not responsible for what is happening here."

"You know, I really can speak for myself," I said, a tiny bit irritated with Alec's protective gesture. I twisted my way out of his hold and gave Christian, who clearly held some sort of a position of authority with the others, a level look. "I did not choose to become Zorya, that's true, but I have accepted the job now, and I am, in fact, responsible for my own actions. But…" I stopped, puzzled. "I thought you were in Vienna. Isn't that where you were trying to take me?"

Kristoff, to whom I had addressed the last question, quirked his lips. "Yes."

"We took a portal," Christian answered as the blond vampire walked around me, obviously examining me.

"A what, now?" I asked.

"A portal allows one to move from one area to another quickly, via a tear in the fabric of time and space," Christian answered.

My mouth hung open for a minute before I turned to Kristoff. "You guys can teleport like in Star Trek?"

"Not quite," Alec answered for him. Kristoff shot his friend an unreadable look. "But it's a similar principle. We don't use them often, since they can be tricky at best, but they are sometimes used in a time of emergency."

"Which this clearly is." Sebastian finished his examination of me and resumed his spot next to Christian. "An unmade Zorya, a sacristan, and a reaper elder—not a bad day's work."

Kristoff hauled Mattias to his feet and shoved him into the chair. At the sight of the latter's angry face, it struck me that Frederic wasn't anywhere in the room. "Did you hurt Frederic?"

"Unfortunately, no. He escaped," Kristoff's cousin Rowan said as he entered the room from the kitchen. He had a nasty burn on the side of his face, which, to my amazement, started fading even as I watched. "He had a car. The last I saw of him, he was headed out of town."

"You won't catch him," Mattias said sulkily. "Not before the Zenith gets here."

Christian spun around and stared at him in surprise. "Your leader is coming here?"

"To welcome Pia as a daughter of the moon." Mattias shot me an angry glance. "I am beginning to believe Kristjana when she says that you do not deserve to be Zorya."

"I think it's safe to say that Kristjana is not the most mentally stable person in town," I said dryly. "And I only know four of the six vampires here, and out of those four, three of them hate me, so you really needn't be so quick to judge."