The last was addressed to Rick and Janice.
“They’re from the Brotherhood,” I said, my frustration at the situation making me snappish. “This is my friend Magda. She was with me in Iceland. She knows all about the vampires and you people.”
“Then she must know how vital it is that you use your abilities for good, not evil,” Janice started to say, but my temper was becoming more and more frayed. If it wasn’t the vamps wanting me for one thing, it was the reapers wanting me to do their dirty work. I rubbed my temples, irritated at being caught in the middle of a war that was not of my own doing. “You cannot turn your back on humanity now, not when we are in such a strong position, not when we have the opportunity to eradicate the vampires once and for-”
“Just how many vampires have you met?” I shouted, startling Janice into silence.
Magda blinked at me. “Pia, I doubt if yelling at the poor woman-”
“Well, I don’t doubt.” I turned from Magda to Janice and pinned her back with a look that should have scared her to her toenails. “How many?”
“I . . . We . . .” Janice shot a worried look at her husband, who took her hand and answered for her.
“We haven’t actually met any vampires, but we don’t need to be on a friendly basis with evil to recognize it.”
“Evil, schmevil!” I stormed, my hands waving around as I stomped toward them. I realized I was being rude, but I’d had as much as I could take.
To my secret enjoyment, they backed up. Magda gave me a tolerant smile as she told the couple, “The vamps really aren’t that bad, you know. Some of them are very nice, in fact. I think they’ve probably just gotten a bad rap over the years because of the fact that they’re kind of intense. Nice, but intense. And sexy as hell.”
“Nice!” Janice choked on the word.
“Yes, nice. They’re no more evil than you are,” I said, trying to calm myself down. “No, I take that back-they’re a whole lot less evil than you, because they don’t blindly follow some dogma that requires them to hate an entire group of people based solely on their origins. Honestly, at times I think the Brotherhood is no better than the Nazis! How dare you tell me that vampires are evil when you haven’t even bothered to meet one!”
“We couldn’t meet one! They’re murderous-” Janice said, but once again I cut her off.
“Oh, they are not any such thing. They may defend themselves, but they don’t go out of their way to harm people. You guys have given them such a bad rap over the years that I don’t think any of you really knows what they’re like. Yes, it’s regrettable that they’ve had to defend themselves, and that may result in some deaths, but if you people wouldn’t attack them, there wouldn’t be any deaths!”
“Amen,” Magda said, nodding brusquely.
Janice’s spine stiffened. “Oh, there wouldn’t be any deaths? Those . . . monsters that you insist on defending attacked and killed several members of the Brotherhood in Iceland. Without cause they attacked them, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe what you’re saying.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” I crossed my arms, holding firm to my temper.
Janice cast another nervous glance toward her husband. I’m not normally the type of person who gets her jollies out of intimidating someone else, but I was beginning to see the attraction of doing so with someone so misguided, so intent on refusing to face the truth. If letting her see that I didn’t believe in what the Brotherhood stood for would help her understand the truth, then by heavens, I would become the scariest person around.
“No, I would never so insult a Zorya. I am certain that you have been misled-”
I took a step toward her, narrowing my eyes as I did so. “Good, because unlike you, I was present in Iceland, and I can assure you that the only reapers who were killed were a couple of guys who tried to slaughter a Dark One named Kristoff and me in cold blood. They attacked us without warning or cause and told him flat out they were going to kill us both. He simply defended us, and quite frankly, if Kristoff hadn’t been there to protect me, I wouldn’t be alive now.”
That stopped both of them for a moment.
“Are you sure it was members of the Brotherhood who attacked you?” Rick asked slowly after he and Janice exchanged a couple of doubtful looks. “Did the vampire tell you it was members of the Brotherhood? Perhaps he was mistaken, or you misunderstood.”