"This is absolutely uncalled for. I am, if you recall, the Zorya. I do not expect to be treated like this!"
My exaggerated outrage fell upon deaf ears. Well, almost deaf ears.
"That's telling them," Ulfur said, giving me a nod of approval.
"Aye, our reaper has spirit. But what is this place?" Hallur asked as the ghosts trooped after me.
"I told you this would happen," Kristjana almost spat as I was shoved toward a flight of stairs.
"This is the house that the Brotherhood uses," I said softly to my ghosts.
"Ah. Rather chill here, isn't it?" Hallur rubbed his ghostly arms.
"That's a root cellar down there," Ingveldur said from the stairs. "Are we going down? I don't particularly liked closed-in spaces."
"You can stay up here," I told Ulfur sotto voce, so the others wouldn't hear me. "You should be safe in the Brotherhood house. I can't imagine an Ilargi would come here."
He nodded and went to explain to the rest of the ghosts.
"We'll be right up here if you need us," Ingveldur called as I was led down into the basement. Frederic was behind us; Mattias manhandled a handcuffed Kristoff before me. I glanced at Kristoff, who was being unusually silent. He hadn't gone easily, his face still showing the effects of the battle with Mattias that had been ended abruptly when Frederic pulled out a wicked-looking gun and held it to my chest.
Kristjana gave me a shove between my shoulders that almost sent me tumbling down the stairs. Trussed up like a turkey, I would have preferred to have a hand free to hold on to the railing lest she act on the idea of getting a new Zorya.
"I told you that she was tainted," the woman in question said to the man behind her, giving me another shove. "She's a Beloved!"
"Hey, watch it! I almost fell! You could have broken my neck!"
Behind me, Kristjana snorted. "A Beloved is immortal."
I flared my nostrils at her. "Look, I don't know what sort of relationship you think that Kristoff and I have, but we're not dating, much less in love," I told her as I stumbled on the last step. "And I'm certainly not immortal."
"Not him, the other one," she answered.
"Alec? Is he here? Is he all right?" I stopped, refusing to go any farther. "If you've hurt him - "
"Stop treating us as if we are fools," Kristjana interrupted. "Yes, your Dark One is here." A slow smile crept across her face. It wasn't particularly nice. "He has not been cleansed... yet. But I very much look forward to watching him embrace the light."
"If you strike us down, you will simply bring more of the council upon your heads," Kristoff said, breaking his silence. "We do not act alone. Nor will we tolerate your persecution."
Kristjana spat at him, literally spat at him, moving around him but being careful, I was interested to note, to stay just out of his reach. "We will purge the earth of your kind just as the light was purged of darkness."
"Rhetorical gibberish," Kristoff said, and probably would have continued if Mattias hadn't slammed his head into the wall.
"Stop that!" I yelled, starting toward them, but Kristjana jerked me back.
A moment of sadness gripped me as her face lit with a pleasure bordering on the fanatical. I wondered if she was mentally stable, or if her belief in the Brotherhood had consumed her past the point of reason. "You will watch when the light cleanses your Dark One. You will see as I have seen how the darkness can be stripped from them."
That pretty much answered the question. I kept my voice calm and soothing as I said, "I understand why you think they are evil, but I assure you, Alec and Kristoff are not. You might have good intentions, but where they concern these two men, you're way off base. If you would untie us, I'd be happy to sit down and explain everything to you."
"The time for talk is past," Kristjana said with dismissive self-righteousness. "Now is the time for action. We will be conducting three cleansings tonight?"
The question was asked of Frederic.
"Who do you expect will conduct the ceremony?" Frederic asked in his soft, French-accented voice. "You just declared the Zorya tainted."
"And you cannot deny that!" Kristjana cried. "You can't deny that she was unsuitable for the job from the very beginning. Look at how she's deceived us! By the light, Frederic, she's a Beloved!"
Frederic said nothing as he strolled down the last of the stairs, merely nodding toward a door. Mattias shoved Kristoff up against the wall, whipping out a set of keys to unlock the door.
"I told you that I'm not dating anyone - " I started to correct Kristjana.
She spun around. "Oh, shut up, you ignorant fool. A Beloved is not a girlfriend, it is a so-called savior of Dark Ones, not that they can be saved by anything but the purity of the light."
I decided the best defense was a good offense, and whirled away from her, taking an assertive stance in the middle of the room. "You will not talk to me that way! I am the Zorya, not you, and you will treat me with the respect and honor due someone in my position!"
Kristjana slapped me. She just reached right out and smacked me smartly across the left cheek. "How dare you! You pollute the very air we breathe, and you expect us to treat you with respect? You, who have betrayed everything we stand for. You, who have aided the Dark One we hold by promising him salvation. Well, we shall see that he has it - but it will be true salvation, not the farce you call redemption."
Kristoff made a low, growling noise. "Hypocritical diatribe. You murder my people, then claim to save them, hiding your true intentions behind a cloak of righteousness, but not even your precious light can hide the truth about your actions. You deal in death, not divinity; torture, not salvation."
"I will enjoy watching you cleansed, too," Kristjana said, her face as rigid as a mask. "But I think you should be given the chance to see the truth when your friend receives the light first."
I stared at her in horror, the zeal in her voice raising goose bumps on my back as I had a mental image of the sort of light Alec would be forced to endure. "Please, listen to me. I swore to Anniki that I would right the injustices done her, and I am trying to do that. But she was wrong - you're wrong - about Alec and Kristoff. If they were what you say they are, I'd do everything in my power to help you, but you're damning them without reason."
She straightened up, clearly about to launch another physical attack, but Frederic's soft voice stopped her. "That will be enough, sister. You will not strike Zorya Pia again."
"She is not worthy of the name Zorya," Kristjana spat.
"That has yet to be determined," Frederic said, eyeing me. "We will leave that to the Zenith to decide."
I turned to him as a bastion of sanity. "May I see Alec, please? I'd like to make sure he's all right, then I would like to explain to you what's been going on."
Frederic looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded toward Mattias.
Mattias shoved Kristoff through the door he'd unlocked and slammed it shut, locking it before he marched over to the door on the opposite side of the room, quickly opening it.
A maw of darkness gaped open before me as he flung open the door.
"Alec?" I said, taking a hesitant step toward it.
"Pia?" From the obsidian depths a shadow appeared, stumbling out. "Love, is that you?"
"Love?" Kristjana said, her voice dripping with scorn.
"Are you hurt?" I hurried over to him, but Mattias leaped in front of me, his normally placid face hard and unyielding. "Mattias, please."
His eyes narrowed on me. "You marry me, but you are his Beloved? I did not believe that of you, Pia."
"I'm sorry about that, but there were... reasons..."
"I'm all right, just a bit bruised," Alec said as I stopped. He peered over Mattias's shoulder at me. Like Kristoff, he'd been handcuffed, although his hands were bound in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't give you enough time to get away, however."
"I did. We came to rescue you," I said with a wry smile.
"We?"
"Kristoff is here, too."
"He always did have more brawn than brain," Alec said, his gaze warm on me despite the circumstances. He turned to consider Frederic. "I take it you have plans to use Pia to destroy Kristoff and me?"
Kristjana started to answer, but Frederic held up a hand to stop her. "You are Dark Ones. We are obliged to purify you. However, the Zorya has asked for a chance to speak, assumedly in your behalf."
"Yes, I would like to do that." A tiny little flicker of hope rose despite the situation. "I think if you could get to know them as I do, you will see that they are not the murderous, vengeful monsters you paint them."
"Just yesterday two of our brothers were injured, and a third killed. By all accounts, the murderer was the Dark One you name as friend."
"There were extenuating circumstances," I said, licking my dried lips. "Your people attacked Kristoff and me without provocation. The man who was killed held a knife to me and threatened to kill - "
Frederic raised his hand again. "We will save this discussion for the Zenith to hear."
"You're not going to let her go?" Kristjana asked in outrage.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I believe that would not be wise. However, we will allow you to have your say, Zorya Pia. As you know, the liturgy of light is to be held tonight, to endow you with the powers of Midnight Zorya. We will hold a convocation then to bear witness to all you wish to say. Following that..." His gaze went to Alec, who glared back at him. "We shall see."
"I'm glad someone is willing to listen," I said, holding up my hands, which, unlike those of the two men, had been bound together with duct tape. "I'd appreciate it if you could take this off me. It's beginning to chafe."
Kristjana looked like she wanted to chafe the rest of me, most likely with a chainsaw or large tub of explosives, but Frederic simply gestured toward Mattias.
"Love, don't let them - " Alec's voice was cut off as he was shoved back into his hellhole, the door slammed after him.
"Is that really necessary?" I asked Frederic as Mattias flicked open a penknife and cut through the tape on my wrists. I peeled off the grey wad and absently rubbed my tender flesh. "Couldn't you at least give him a light and something to read?"
He ignored my comment, still watching me with an impassive gaze. "You will understand that we cannot allow you to roam freely until the convocation and the liturgy have been conducted."
"I don't understand, but I have resolved myself to confinement," I said loftily.
"We only have two secure cells," Kristjana said, her expression doubtful as she looked at Frederic. "You do not intend to leave her with her Dark One. The two of them together... they could be dangerous."
"I am not so convinced of that as you are," Frederic answered slowly. "But I agree that it would be unwise to leave them together."
"I'm perfectly happy staying in a hotel room," I said with only a little nudge of my conscience about leaving Kristoff and Alec behind. "Or I could - "
"Place her with the other one," Frederic pronounced before turning and starting up the stairs.
"What? No, wait - "
Before I could rally a protest, Mattias grabbed my arm, unlocked Kristoff's door, shoved me inside, and slammed the door closed behind me.
"Hey! I'm the Zorya, remember?" I threw myself back into the door and pounded on it. "Mattias, let me out! I promise I won't run away or marry anyone else, OK? Mattias? Hello?"
"Perhaps you shouldn't make such hasty promises," Kristoff's deep, rich voice rolled around in the darkness of the room. "You never know when you might wish to take a third husband."
"Oh, be quiet, you. Mattias? Damn." I turned to face the room but saw nothing. There was no light in the room, not one tiny little smidgen peeking in from outside, which meant either there weren't any windows, or they were boarded up tightly. There was a smell, however, an earthy, slightly musty scent that must have been what Ingveldur had picked up on when she looked down into the basement. It smelled like a bag of potatoes left sitting in a pantry too long. "Where are you?"
A painful-sounding thud came from a few feet away, followed by a muttered oath and slight scuffling noise that finished with a wooden creak. "On a chair."
I held out my hands, taking baby steps to avoid running into anything. "Where on a chair? Lovely, now I sound like Dr. Seuss. I don't suppose you can see in the dark, can you?"
Kristoff snorted. "No. Nor can I turn into a bat and escape this prison, or change into a wolf and attack your second husband the moment he opens the door, or even dissolve into a wisp of smoke and slip through the crack under the door. I'm a Dark One, Zorya, not a djinn."
"I'm having just as bad a day as you are, so you needn't be quite so snarky. I don't know where you are," I said, taking a few more shuffled steps forward, my hands still reaching into the darkness.
"Why do you care where I am?" he asked sullenly.
"My hands are free. I might be able to get yours free, as well, and then we can do something about this business. Could you talk some more so I can find you?" I shuffled a couple more steps, and suddenly my fingers met something soft and squishy. I jumped back, startled. "Ack! Something else is here!"
"Yes. My eyeball."
"Oh. Sorry." I reached out carefully, baby stepping forward until my questing fingers landed on a nose with a little break in the middle. "Did I hurt you?"
"No, but if you don't let go of my nose you'll make me sneeze."
"Sorry." I took the last couple of steps forward, feeling my way down to his shoulders, then around to his back where his hands were bound. "I suppose you've tried wiggling your hands out of the handcuffs?"
"Yes. I am not a magician, either."
I knelt and felt the bindings. They seemed pretty secure, snapped tight around Kristoff's wrists. I sat back on my heels, sighing. "And I do not know how to pick a lock, unfortunately. Well, no use in crying over spilled milk. What else is in here? Nothing we can use as a weapon?"
"I didn't find anything."
It didn't take me long to examine the room. There were a couple of wooden bins that had evidently been used at one time to hold root vegetables, but all that was left now was a fine dirt at the bottom of the bins, and a couple of shriveled lumps that could only be desiccated potatoes. I searched the last bin, finding nothing but an especially odd-shaped potato. It had sharp little pointy eyes, and a soft coating, as if it had sprouted a growth of fungus.
"Other than what smells like a mummified rat, that is."
I screamed and dropped the horrible thing my fingers were still examining, and leaped to the side, bashing into Kristoff and knocking him over. As we fell, our heads clunked together painfully.
"Oh my god. Are you hurt?" I hurriedly scrambled to my feet and leaped backward when I stepped on something soft and gooshy. "Eeek! Rats! Rats!"
"That was my hand," Kristoff said in a rather pained voice.
"I'm so sorry! Let me help you up - "
"No!" he said quickly, his breath coming sharply. There was a ruffling noise, a muffled groan, and then the chair creaked again.
I huddled against the door, my arms wrapped around myself, my forehead throbbing where it had smacked against Kristoff. "Are you hurt?" I asked again with what I thought was noble, if miserable, concern.
"Not really. Why, were you planning on attacking me again?"
"I didn't attack you. I was trying to help you."
"By poking me in the eye, twisting my nose, knocking me down, beating me about the head and shoulders, and attempting to break the bones in my hand?" His voice was as deep and rich as ever, but there was a distinct note of dissatisfaction in it that riled me.
"Well, I'm doing the best I can, but you didn't tell me that bin had a dead rat in it!"
"I couldn't see what you were doing to tell you to avoid it," he said with maddening reason.
"You know how much I hate rats. You could have warned me."
The sound of a tiny sigh reached my ears. "Zorya, there is a dead rat in the far bin."
"Very funny. What are we going to do?" I was almost glad it was dark in the room, so Kristoff wouldn't see the tears of frustration and self-pity welling in my eyes.
"Christ, you're not going to cry, are you?"
"No, of course not. I'm not the crying sort," I said with a betraying wet sniffle, defiantly wiping my eyes. "It's just that it's been kind of a long last couple of days, and I'm a bit tired and stressy."
He didn't say anything to that, but he didn't need to.
I rocked myself, feeling absolutely pathetic at that moment. I'd failed miserably in trying to do what Anniki had begged of me before she died, failed in getting the ghosts to their final reward, failed trying to make the Brotherhood people see reason. And now Alec and Kristoff were likely going to be subjected to the clearly insane Kristjana's most demented tortures, and there was only myself to blame. I'd botched the whole thing horribly, and I wanted nothing more at that moment than to go home and cry for a week or two.
Kristoff sighed again, this time loudly and aggressively. "Come here."
I swallowed the painful lump in my throat. "Why?"
"Because you're miserable and I can't stand the sound of you sniffling over there." His voice was gruff and abrupt, but there was an underlying note that had me carefully moving forward without questioning why I sought comfort from him.
"Sit down," he commanded.
"I'm not touching those bins again - "
He swore in Italian. "Sit on me, woman."
My fingers brushed against his chest. "I'll squash you - "
"Sit!"
I swiveled around to sit across his legs, swearing that if he made one little intake of breath that indicated I was smashing his legs into a pulp, I'd leap off.
All he said, however, was, "I can't pat you in a suitably calming manner, but you can consider yourself patted. Now, stop crying."
"Why are you being nice to me?" I asked, blinking like crazy to keep the tears from spilling over my lashes.
"Would you rather I yelled at you?"
"No. I'd rather you answered a question."
"What?"
"Why did Kristjana keep referring to me as Alec's Beloved? I told her we weren't dating, so even if she knew that Alec and I had spent the night together, that doesn't constitute a relationship."
Kristoff was silent for a few moments, reluctant to speak. I relaxed on him a smidgen, refusing to allow myself to admit just how much I enjoyed breathing in his smoky scent.
I didn't want Kristoff, I reminded myself. It was Alec who indicated he loved me, Alec who clearly felt I was something more than a pest to be endured.
"My people have a long history," Kristoff finally said. "Males can be either Dark Ones or what are generally referred to as just Moravians - men born with a soul, but still needing blood to survive."
"You really don't have a soul?" I asked, amazed at such a thing.
"No. I was born with one, but lost it. The only redemption is to find a Beloved, a woman who will take the seven steps of Joining and, in doing so, will return a soul to the Dark One."
"You lost your soul? How can you lose a soul? I mean, it's not something you can misplace easily, is it?"
"It is if another Dark One strips it from you."
I gawked at him despite the fact that I couldn't see anything. "Another vampire turned you? I thought you said that doesn't happen often."
"It doesn't. My circumstances were... unique."
I waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "You're not going to tell me about it, are you?"
"No."
I sighed. "All right. Where are these women you mentioned? The Beloveds?"
I felt him shrug. "They can be anywhere, at any time. There is only one Beloved for a Dark One, and if their paths do not cross, there is no other. At least... One of the members of the council claims his Beloved was not the woman born to that role, but I am not privy to all the details, so I can't say if that's just a rumor or not."
"Good lord. So if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this soul-redeeming woman gets married to someone else, and spends her life without knowing you..." Profound sadness leeched into the air. "Oh, Kristoff, I'm so sorry. The Brotherhood killed your girlfriend, the one who was going to do that for you. I didn't blame you before for being so determined to have justice done, but now I feel even more horrible about it."
"Angelica was not my Beloved."
I could feel his grief, feel the anger that filled him when he thought about her. Without thinking, I put my arms around him and pressed his head to me, wanting to comfort him as he'd given me comfort. "She wasn't? How do you know?"
"I'd know," he said, somewhat muffled since his face was pressed into my cleavage.
"How? Is there some sign? Because if I'm supposed to redeem Alec's soul for him, I'm going to need some help. I don't have the slightest idea how to do that."
Kristoff froze for a moment, then relaxed, his face moving slightly against me.
"What are you doing? Are you sniffing me?" I asked, pushing myself back.
"Yes. Beloveds smell."
"They what?"
I stared down at where his face was, even though I couldn't see so much as a glint from those lovely blue eyes.
"Beloveds, when claimed, have a different scent. It's... Some have described it as unpleasant. I've never found it particularly so, but they do definitely smell different than other females."
"You're saying I stink?" I said, jumping off his lap.
"No, you don't, you smell... It doesn't matter. You don't smell like the other Beloveds I've met."
"I honestly don't know whether to be offended or grateful," I said, stumbling back until I felt the rough stone wall behind me. I sank down onto the floor, feeling it was better to put some distance between Kristoff and myself. Sitting on his lap had brought up far too many memories, memories that for Alec's sake I should squelch.
"You should be grateful. Once a couple has Joined, they are bound for life."
"Joining requiring some steps, you said?" I was curious as to what, exactly, made one a Beloved.
"Yes."
"I'm probably going to regret this, but what, exactly, are they? Maybe I'm like partway to being Alec's Beloved, and that's what Kristjana picked up on?"
"Or she could just be jumping to conclusions."
"True. What are the steps?"
"Nothing very profound. The first is a marking. That can mean anything from the ability to share thoughts without verbal communication, to being able to sense things that were hidden before."
"You can share thoughts? You mean like mental telepathy?"
"Yes. It is not unknown for Dark Ones who are very close to do so, and it is always the way with a Beloved."
"Wow. Interesting. Still, that first step sounds pretty vague," I said, thinking about how I knew Alec was hungry and needed blood. Or had that been Kristoff?
"Second step is protection from some sort of a danger."
"Alec sacrificed himself for me earlier, in the restaurant," I said, but the image that flashed into my mind was of Kristoff turning to face me after he'd killed the man who'd held a knife to my throat.
"Third is an exchange of the body."
I raised my eyebrows.
Kristoff's voice held a slight note of amusement. "More like a kiss than what you're thinking."
I blushed despite the darkness.
"Fourth is an issue of trust - will the Beloved betray the Dark One or keep his faith?"
I moved uncomfortably on the cold dirt floor. I wouldn't perform on Alec and Kristoff whatever horrible ceremony the Brotherhood folk wanted. I just wouldn't.
"Fifth is another exchange of the body. Yes, your night with Alec would qualify." His voice ceased to be amused, and was back to being hard and flinty.
"Sixth is a need that the Beloved can fulfill to overcome the Dark One's true self."
I frowned. "A need? What kind of need?"
"It's personal to each couple. Something the Dark One needs that the woman provides."
"Blood, you mean?"
"Possibly. I don't know; I don't have a Beloved to ask."
"Hmm." I thought about that for a few minutes. Both Alec and Kristoff had needed blood from me, but it was Alec who said he needed me, wanted me in his life. "And the last step?"
"Exchange of blood. After which the Beloved makes some sacrifice, and the Joining is complete."
"Well, I certainly haven't drank Alec's blood," I said, my nose wrinkled at the thought of such a thing. "That sounds extremely unhygienic, not to mention dangerous if one person was diseased."
"Dark Ones don't get mortal diseases."
"Still, it doesn't sound very good. You know, I think that may be what's going on - I fit all the rest of the steps but that one. I just don't know if I can drink blood, even to save him. It's just so icky."
Kristoff was silent, but a sudden wave of hostility from him had me wondering if he would be jealous if I found his friend's soul.
I didn't want to break up their friendship, but he couldn't expect me to turn my back on his friend if he needed me, could he? More importantly, how were we to get out of this horrible fix so I would even have the chance to find out if I was a potential Beloved?
I sighed. It was shaping up to be a long, unpleasant day, and I didn't have any expectation of it getting better soon.