Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang(24)

 

I thought for a moment that Christian was going to kiss her, but he evidently remembered where he was, and simply said, after clearing his throat, “Quite.”

 

“Ysabelle calls me her little cabbage,” Sebastian said with a heavy sigh. “Only in private, I would point out, never in front of others. But I believe it is something inherent in Beloveds to use such terms. I’ve asked her to stop, but that just made her switch to ‘sweet potato pie of my dreams’ for two weeks, until I begged her to go back to cabbage.”

 

Allie grinned. “Good for Belle. What do you call Kristoff, Pia?”

 

Startled, I looked at the man in question. His face was now oddly devoid of any emotion. “Er . . . Kristoff.”

 

She blinked for a moment. “Oh. Sorry. That was . . . Never mind.”

 

I sighed again and, with limbs that felt like they were made of lead, brushed past Kristoff and walked over to the chair I had occupied previously. “I seem to be at a loss in that I don’t have the slightest idea why Andreas and Rowan are acting the way they are to Kristoff, any more than I know what it is you all are talking about. What am I supposed to be guilty of doing? Why did you drag Kristoff in as if he were a prisoner? Why did you let him starve, not even giving him animal blood if he couldn’t eat human blood? And why, exactly, have I been called before this council when I haven’t done anything to harm any of you?”

 

Rowan sat down next to Sebastian. Christian, rather than answering me, glanced at Andreas. “You do not sit with the council?”

 

“No.” Andreas’s gaze flickered over to where his brother still stood, holding on to the chair.

 

Christian pursed his lips. “Do you stand with Kristoff?”

 

Andreas’s gaze brushed me briefly. “No. I wish to remain neutral.”

 

“I see.” Christian nodded toward Rowan. “You do not suffer the same doubts?”

 

“I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes,” the latter answered with stony condemnation. “I stand with the council.”

 

“So be it,” Christian said, then gestured wearily toward the chair next to me. “Sit down before you fall down, Kristoff. Despite your Beloved’s obvious belief otherwise, we are not barbarians. You are weak still, and do not look that far from collapsing.”

 

I held my tongue. I didn’t exactly believe they were barbarians, but something was going on; some negative emotion was running rampant through all of the vampires that hadn’t been there when we parted ways in Iceland. Why were the vampires upset with Kristoff? Why were his brother and cousin treating him this way?

 

Kristoff sank heavily into the chair next to me. I was very aware of his leg just a few scant inches away from me, aware of the heat of his body, of his scent that teased my nose and made me want to run my hands over his bare flesh. . . .

 

Kristoff glanced at me, his eyes strangely alight.

 

“To answer your questions, Pia, you and Kristoff have been brought here to answer a number of charges for crimes that have recently come to light, beginning with the disappearance of Alec Darwin,” Christian said, his voice carefully neutral.

 

I gawked at him. I outright gawked at him. “ What ?”

 

“In addition to that,” he continued, glancing at a piece of paper in front of him, “you are also charged with the death of the Zorya known as Anniki Belvoir, and lastly, Kristoff is charged with embezzlement of several million pounds of funds rightfully belonging to the heirs of the Dark Ones destroyed by the Brotherhood.”

 

My jaw sagged as I looked from Christian to Kristoff. The words spun around in my head in a horrible mixture of confusion and disbelief. We were charged with killing Anniki, the previous Zorya? With doing something to Alec? With stealing money?

 

Kristoff sat impassive, his face inscrutable, but I could sense anger and frustration rolling around inside him.

 

“How do you answer these charges?” Christian asked.

 

I shook my head, so stunned I found it hard to put words together in a coherent manner. “This is all obscenely wrong,” I said finally. “I haven’t killed anyone, certainly not Anniki. And as for Alec . . . you were there that night when he walked away from me. You said yourself that he and Kristoff had left Iceland without a word to me.”

 

“I was, and I did,” Christian said, and again his voice was carefully stripped of all emotion. “But proof has come to light that indicates you had subsequent . . . er . . . dealings with Alec, and that he disappeared shortly after his most recent visit to you.”