Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang(30)

 

“I had no choice. Alec was busy trying to find another reaper, and I had no idea if you were just using me or-”

 

“If we might continue,” Christian said in a mild tone.

 

“Using you!” I was surprised to find myself on my feet. I was even more surprised at the fact that I was yelling at Kristoff. He sat before me, still gaunt, but with color in his face now, and his eyes burning with a cool blue heat. “If our marriage had been legal, I would divorce you right now!”

 

“Please-” Christian said, but he didn’t stand a chance.

 

Kristoff jumped to his feet. “Our marriage is legal, and you can hardly blame me for suspecting that you might be manipulating me, since you had made it clear you preferred Alec to me, and yet there you were in my bed.”

 

“It wasn’t a bed. It was a bunch of moldy straw, and don’t you dare try to make yourself out to be the victim! I’m the one whose trust was abused!”

 

“I never abused your trust,” Kristoff said with a grim note to his normally sensual voice. “I didn’t believe you were actively working against us, but I knew that the reapers could use you without you being aware of it. I was simply trying to protect you and us at the same time.”

 

“You were?” I asked, surprised. You really believed me?

 

Yes.

 

Oh. I . . . oh. Thank you.

 

“Enough!” bellowed Christian.

 

We both turned to look at him.

 

“Still think they’re putting on an act?” Allie asked him.

 

A flicker of irritation was momentarily visible in his face before his mouth relaxed. “I am beginning to see your point.”

 

“It takes them a while sometimes,” Allie said with a fond smile at her husband before turning to me. “But they usually get there in the end.”

 

“The fact remains that the Zorya was killed in your bathroom.”

 

“That means nothing,” Kristoff answered abruptly, warming me with his quick defense. “Anyone could have gotten into her room. The door to her balcony was open, and the bathroom connected to the room next door.”

 

“The room containing the same woman who accompanied you here,” Christian said, looking thoughtful.

 

“Magda had nothing more to do with Anniki’s death than I did,” I said.

 

He continued looking thoughtful. “No one else was seen entering your room.”

 

“Exactly. No one was seen entering. But much as the idea gives me the willies, it doesn’t mean someone didn’t enter.” I turned to Kristoff. “Where were you watching?”

 

“Outside, in the garden beneath your window.”

 

“That means you couldn’t see who was coming or going.”

 

He shook his head. “I could see both hotel entrances that were still unlocked, and your door through the window. No one entered after Alec left.”

 

I thought for a moment. It was true my room had been at the end of the building, but there was more than one way into it. “Then someone must have come through Magda’s room. She had a balcony, too.”

 

“It’s possible, of course,” Christian said. “But likely? Why would anyone but you wish to kill the Zorya?”

 

“Why don’t you ask some of the other vampires you seem to have granted the right to kill Brotherhood members?” I asked somewhat snappishly.

 

“Ooh, she has you there, love muffin,” Allie said.

 

His mouth tightened. “Despite what you may think, we do not encourage our people to murder reapers without a reason. We imprison, yes, but that is only for the safety of our people, and as you see, our captives are treated humanely.”

 

“I will grant you that, but I’d just like to know how we’re supposed to prove we didn’t do something.”

 

“In mystery books, that would be motivation for finding the killer yourself,” Kristoff said.

 

That astounded me. “You know how to find a killer?”

 

“Yes. But not in this situation. There were only so many people who had access to your room. One of them must have done it.”

 

I thought over the list. Magda and Ray had been asleep in the room next to mine, the one that shared the bathroom. But neither of them would have a reason to kill a woman they didn’t know. That left Alec and Kristoff, but I couldn’t believe they had done it.

 

Thank you for the vote of confidence in my moral base.

 

Oh, I don’t mean you wouldn’t have done it-I think under the right circumstance, you’d be perfectly capable of killing a woman like Anniki. I just don’t think you did.