She started to give me one of her smiles that I knew prefaced some outrageous comment or other, but with a glance at Terrin, who was glaring at a laptop as he punched angrily at the keys, she sighed and shook her head. “You make it too easy, you really do, sugar. You take all the fun out of it. And much though I should like tormenting you just a bit, just a tiny little smidgen, you know, to keep my hand in should I ever get the chance to be a demon lord again, even though I’d like to indulge in a bit of teasing, I won’t.”
I eyed her. “Asmodeus finally kicked you out of Abaddon, did he?”
Terrin said something rude under his breath. Sally sighed again. “Yes. Asmo really is very single-minded. He simply did not see the benefit in having one-half of the Sovereign being a prince of Abaddon. Such narrowminded thinking has never been to my taste, but it takes all kinds, doesn’t it? Alec went to see the vampires.”
“The council?” My blood froze in my veins. Alec?
There was no answer. I couldn’t tell if he just couldn’t hear me, or if he didn’t want to. Damn him. “He went to see them without me? Mother of God! He’s gone to sacrifice himself so they don’t put me in the Akasha with him! You have to do something, Sally!”
“I do?”
“Yes, you do! You can’t just sit there doing nothing!” My hands waved in the air as my inner devil prompted me to snatch the glossy magazine from her hands and beat her over the head with it.
“I’m doing something, sweetness. I’m reading a very informative article about cuticle health.” She glanced at my hands. “One that is sorely needed in some people’s lives.”
I took a deep breath. “Alec is a good guy. You are the head honcho of good guys. That means you have to do something when he needs help.”
She looked puzzled as she consulted Terrin, who was now swearing under his breath as he plugged in an iPod. “Do I have to do something, punkin?”
“I swear, I know what projects that Guardian who was proscribed used her minions on.... Hmm? Do you have to do what?”
“Do I have to help Cora?”
Terrin looked from Sally to me. “I thought you already did? Surely you offered them sanctuary so the Dark One could heal his wounds in safety?”
“Well, I thought that’s what I’d done, but evidently Cora here is feeling slighted.” Sally plucked a sugar cube from a bowl sitting on the table next to her, and sucked it thoughtfully. “And then there was the matter of the rope and scarf. They were my favorites, but I gave them to her willingly, because I could see that she wanted to indulge herself in a little nooky but was afraid he’d hurt himself. I thought that was quite generous and beneficent on my part, but evidently it wasn’t enough.”
I slumped against the wall, running my hand through my hair. Alec, please answer me. Please. I’m worried about you. Just tell me you’re OK.
Silence was the only thing that filled my head. I slumped even more. He might not want to discuss the fact that he ran off without me, but he wouldn’t let me worry unduly. That meant that either he was physically unable to talk to me, or something else was prohibiting communication. Either boded ill.
“I’m sorry, Sally, it was generous and beneficent, as was giving us a room overnight so Alec could rest and heal. Although . . . if you’re no longer a demon lord, why do you still have this house?”
She crunched the remainder of the sugar cube with very white teeth. “Oh, the palace part that was in Abaddon is gone. All that’s left is the original house, here in the mortal plane.”
“Gotcha. Where exactly did Alec go to meet the vampires, do you know?” I straightened up, wondering where my wallet had gotten to. So much had happened since we arrived in France, I had lost track of my belongings.
“Vienna, I believe. Why? Oh, you wish to go and rescue him, do you?” Sally tipped her head to the side and gave me a once-over, a definite twinkle in her eyes. “Yes, I can see that’s exactly what you intend to do. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I said grimly, disappointed that she hadn’t offered to fix everything with a wave of her omnipotent hand. Tempted though I was to beg them both to do just that, it was quite clear that Sally felt no further obligation to do anything for us, and really, I couldn’t blame her. She had done what we asked—toppled Bael from power, ending my Tooldom. She had given us a place for Alec to rest after removing from the immediate location everyone who threatened us. She had even given us that lovely silk rope and scarf. “I’ll just gather up what things I have here and be on my way.”
“Ta-ta,” she said, returning to her magazine.
I returned to the bedroom we’d occupied, but found no luggage, no purse, and certainly no wallet or passport. How on earth was I supposed to get to Vienna?
“I’ll get there if I have to hitchhike the entire way,” I growled as I wrapped the scarf around my waist like a sash, tying the rope on top of it. “Pia and Kristoff will loan me some money for one of those portals, I bet. And maybe I could call—” As I stepped out the door, I had a mental image of Terrin chastising Sally, who gave a little laugh in response before suddenly the floor was yanked out from underneath my feet, and I went tumbling into a black void of nothing.
“Hruh?” The black void was filled with a sharp pain. “Wha’?”
“You did not keep your arms and legs inside the portal at all times,” a brusque male German voice chided me.
I opened my eyes to find myself on a mat in a small room filled with pale sunshine. A spot on my head hurt—obviously I’d conked it on the floor when I . . . memory returned at that moment. “Jesus wept!”
“You were warned to do so. If you are unkempt now, it is not the fault of Portals Elite, Ltd. Please to move off the receiving cushion.”
I got somewhat painfully to my feet, dusting myself off as I limped out of the portal room, saying under my breath, “Thank you, Sally. I don’t know how you did it, but zapping me to Vienna was a very nice thing to do.”
Fifteen minutes later I was navigating the process of making an international collect call to Pia and Kristoff, who were unhappy, but not surprised, to find that Alec had abandoned me in order to take care of the vampires on his own.
“He wishes to protect you from the council, that is all,” Kristoff said at the same time Pia said, “Stupid man. Doesn’t he realize you guys are stronger together than apart?”
I agreed with both statements, and would have moved on to asking for the address of the Moravian Council’s headquarters, when Kristoff’s words struck me.
“What do you mean, Alec wants to protect me from the council? I haven’t done anything to them. They’re mad at Alec, not me. Aren’t they?”
“You had Sally remove them from her palace,” Kristoff said with a pronounced note of regret in his voice. “I’m afraid that means they consider you have directly opposed them in the act of completing their duty.”
“So what?” I snarled into the pay phone, startling an elderly woman standing at a bus stop next to me. I turned my back on her and lowered my voice. “You did the same thing. Defied them, that is.”
“Yes, but the difference is that they don’t know for a fact that we had Alec in our house,” Pia pointed out. “They suspect it, but have no proof beyond seeing us together in France, and I told them that was because of Ulfur.”
I sighed yet again and rubbed my forehead. “Great, so that’s why Alec ran off without me? To keep them from punishing me?”
“It’s what I would do,” Kristoff allowed.
“Well, screw that! I’m not going to sit around and let some damned holier-than-thou group punish Alec or me! Do you hear me? I won’t stand for it!”
“You go, girl,” Pia said with approval. “Boo, maybe we should go to Vienna—”
“No,” he said quickly. “Alec does not wish for our interference. Cora, you must have faith that he will do what is best for you both.”
Faith I had in buckets. It was the man of my dreams—literally—who was missing from my life, and I didn’t intend on lett
ing him martyr himself to save me. “Why won’t he talk to me? Have they done something to him? Something heinous? Oh dear lord, did they already send him back to the Akasha?”
“No, they wouldn’t banish him, not with you still here,” Kristoff answered. “Most likely he has closed you from his mind so he can deal with the situation. It is, again, what I would do.”
“Men!” Pia snorted.
“Agreed. What’s the address of the council?”
Reluctantly, he gave it to me, along with the phone number I requested.
“Cora—”
“I know. Let Alec handle it. The only problem is that’s the man I love in there with all those judgmental vampires, and I’m not going to let them touch so much as one hair on his adorable if sometimes far too stubborn head. Thank you for the information and advice. We’ll give you a call when the dust has settled.”
“Dust? What—”
I hung up the phone, dug around in my pockets to see what sort of change I had there, and resigned myself to making another collect call.
A half hour later I retraced my steps to the portal shop where Sally had dumped me, and greeted the first batch of arrivals.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” Jane asked as she pulled out a cell phone. “It’ll be very expensive having the entire union portalled here.”
“Do it. Alec will just have to foot the bill.”
She took one look at the grim expression on my face, and called her lieutenant to instruct the union members to begin the process of transporting them all from France to Vienna.
“And now the time has come for you to do penance for your attempt at killing Alec,” I said a short time later, grabbing the body that plummeted out of nothing to whomp hard on the receiving-end mats. I jerked Eleanor to her feet before she could even suck in her breath, twisting one of her arms up behind her back. “You’re going to be at the front of the group that storms the vampires’ castle.”
Eleanor sputtered something rude. I jerked her arm upward, causing her to squawk. “You’re going to do this, and then you’re going to get the hell out of our lives forever. You got that?”
“You are not the boss of me—”
“No, but Jane, as the head of the union, is. Jane?”
“I’m sorry,” Jane said, spreading her hands and moving out of the way as the union members started arriving with frequency now, one barely rolling out of the way before another appeared to drop onto the mats. “The donation Cora is offering the union is just too great to ignore, so I am forced to issue you with a direct command to obey Cora in all things.”
“I’m not bound to you,” Eleanor protested. “You can’t command me like that!”
“You are not bound to me personally, but you are bound to the union, and as its leader, you are obligated to follow the rules I put into place. This is one of the rules.”
Eleanor argued, as I knew she would, but I didn’t have the time or patience to put up with it. “Either you agree to do this, or I get hold of Sally and have you sent to the Akasha,” I bluffed, holding up my hand to stop her when she would have protested. “And don’t think I can’t do it, because Sally and I see eye to eye, and besides, I think she’s aching to send someone to the Akasha.”
Eleanor’s lips tightened. “Very well,” she finally said. “But I’m only doing this so I can wash my hands of the pair of you forever.”
It took another thirty-five minutes before the entire union, all 112 members, were assembled. We spilled out of the building into the street, and Jane had to resort to the use of a megaphone before she finally got everyone organized in a long line of liches, three abreast, that snaked around the block and across a pedestrian mall. The walk to the Moravian Council house took another half hour, but at last we had the tall, elegant house in our sights.
“Charge!” I yelled, not waiting for Jane to give the command. To my surprise, the liches did exactly as I ordered—they ran forward, streaming into the house once the door was battered down.
I was at the head of the group as it entered the elegantly furnished hall, and leaped onto a couch to scream, “Alec!”
Noise drifted down the stairs as the liches poured into the house. I pushed past them on the stairs, ignoring a scuffle that had broken out between a couple of vampires and the liches on the landing. “This way!” I yelled, urging them up after me as I ran to two double doors that the vampires had obviously been guarding. I flung open the door, dashing inside, the liches swarming behind me.
“Aha!” I yelled, pausing to point a dramatic finger at the scene before me. “I knew it! I knew you people had Alec!”
There were four men at a long table. Facing them, seated in a chair, was Alec, flanked on either side by the messenger and his buddy.
All seven heads swiveled to look at us, identical expressions of surprise on all their faces.
Are you OK? I asked Alec. Did they hurt you? Have they tortured you yet? And just what the hell do you think you’re doing leaving me to go off and be Mr. Brave on your own, huh?
What are you doing here? Alec answered, looking annoyed rather than relieved I’d come to save him from being St. Alec the vampire martyr. And what the hell have you brought all of them for?
“To save you, you idiot man!” I stomped forward, waving at the occupants of the room. “Liches, attack!”
“No!” Alec bellowed, leaping to his feet as the other vamps did likewise. “Stand down!”
“Who is this woman? The rest of you will not take one more step into this room!” commanded one of the vamps at the table, a dark-haired man with a pissed-off expression. To my surprise, the liches seemed to heed him as well as Alec, since all of them came to an awkward halt just inside the doorway. “Is this the Beloved of whom you spoke?”
Cora, you can’t attack the Moravian Council.
Want to bet?
I am in no danger, love. “Yes. This is Corazon, my Beloved, and the one you have to thank for the actions of the day.”
“And just so you know, Mr. Whoever You Are, I’m not going to let you send Alec to the Akasha or anywhere else evil like that,” I said, swaggering toward him, my words dripping with implied threat that I prayed I could actually back up. “I know you guys are conducting some sort of a vendetta against him, but that ends now, do you hear?”
“Very well,” the spokesman said, inclining his head, his expression now somewhat blank, although I could have sworn I saw his lips twitch once or twice like he was trying to hold back laughter.
Just the thought that he could laugh at something so heinous as Alec’s life freedom being threatened made my blood boil. I would sic the liches on him, first, I swore to myself.
Cora, you’re not listening to me.
“Who are you?” I asked, ignoring Alec as he tried to stop me from marching forward to the vampire. “Are you the head guy?”
“I am Christian Dante,” the man said, giving me a little bow. I had to admit, as bows went, it was a pretty nice one, almost as smooth as Alec’s. “And yes, I do lead the Moravian Council. Now, you will please remove your liches from the building before I have them removed for you.”
Corazon! Alec all but yelled in my brain. Will you stop?
Alec, I know you’re peeved at me for being here, but you’re just going to have to deal with the fact that we’re a couple now. I take that very seriously, and it does not mean that I’m going to expect you to solve all our problems by yourself.
To my utter surprise, he started laughing.
“Oh, they’re not Cora’s servants,” Jane said, rushing forward to stand next to me before Christian. She bobbed a little awkward curtsy, gesturing toward her chest. “We’re a union, you see. Technically the liches are under my control—”
Alec, are you insane?
“Oh, for the love of Pete,” Eleanor said, pushing her way through the mob of slowly retreating liches. She gave Alec a sour look before running her gaze over the remainder of the vampires present.
No, just amus
ed.
“—most of them are under my control, technically, as I said, but we are a cooperative, and under most circumstances function along the lines of a self-policing commune rather than a dictatorship. I’m Jane, by the way.”
Amused because I expect you to give me the respect due to your partner in life? I asked, outraged and ready to punch him in the arm.
No, I’m grateful beyond human understanding for that, mi querida.
Christian made a bow at Jane before turning to give Eleanor his attention. “And you are?”
“She is my Beloved,” Alec said, finally giving in to my glares enough that he stopped laughing, and, taking my hand in his, kissed my fingers.
Christian raised one eyebrow. The other vampires looked vaguely scandalized. “You have two, as well?”
“I do. Eleanor was my first Beloved, the one who was killed by Kristoff’s first wife some five hundred years ago. Corazon is her reincarnation, and thus it is she who is now my true Beloved.”
“You know,” Eleanor said to the vampire nearest her, the one everyone called the messenger, “I’m really getting tired of being referred to as the disposable Beloved.”
The vampire just stared at her.
“I don’t suppose you’d like me for your own?” she asked him.
“Er . . .”
“That’s it,” Eleanor said, shoving the vamp aside. “I’ve had more rejection than is right for any one woman to have. Send me back to the Underworld. Right now. You can all go to hell for all I care—I just want to go back to my adorable little house, and garden, and friend with benefits who never, ever rejects me.”
“Er . . .” I leaned into Alec. Do you know how to send someone to the Underworld?
Yes. You kill them.
My eyes widened as I looked at Eleanor standing angrily in front of us. “Uh . . .” Is there no other way?
Yes.
“Well?” Eleanor asked.
I looked at Alec. He looked back at me. Well? I asked him in turn.
Well, what? Are you trying to imply that you’d like me to take over this matter, rather than let you deal with it as you obviously prefer to do with problems?
Much Ado About Vampires do-10 Page 26
