“Um . . . Kristoff and I are innocent?” Exhaustion swept over me. I plopped down on the bed.
“That’s right.” She considered me for a moment. I found it vaguely disconcerting having those odd eyes scrutinizing me so intently, although I had to admit that I liked Allie. There was a sense of down-to-earth straightforwardness to her that I found refreshing. “I know what it’s like to have life out of your control, and I don’t like being manipulated any more than I can see you do. If you were guilty, you wouldn’t be quite so angry, if you know what I mean.”
I nodded. “It just irritates me that everyone can suddenly think the worst of me after what happened. I saved Kristoff’s life!”
She toyed with a small vase on the bureau for a moment. “Well, you have to remember that it’s not just a matter of whether or not they like you. I think Christian does. He spoke quite well of you when he came home from Iceland.”
“Sebastian doesn’t,” I said, making a little face.
“He’s . . . he’s a bit scarred yet. He went through some hard times and only recently found his Beloved. But he’s Christian’s oldest friend, and he is actually a very nice man once you get to know him. He’s just a bit suspicious of people at first. Given his history, it’s understandable.”
“Do we really smell horrible?” I asked, sidetracked for a moment.
She laughed. “So they say, but I think it’s a matter of the man in question. Christian says they get used to it, and he doesn’t think of it anymore.”
“It’s just rather disconcerting knowing I smell like a pile of garbage,” I answered. “I feel like bathing in perfume or something.”
“Kristoff certainly didn’t look like he found you offensive,” she said, a teasing note in her voice.
I looked down at my hands for a moment, not really wanting to discuss the issue of a relationship with Kristoff.
“I’m sorry,” Allie said quietly, her odd eyes seeing far more than I was comfortable with. “I didn’t mean to get personal.”
“It’s all right,” I lied. “It’s just that . . .”
“You still have some things to work out.”
“Yes.”
“Who doesn’t?” She smiled. “You should have seen Christian and me when we first met.”
My curiosity got the better of me again. “How did you find each other? I’m kind of amazed that they ever find a Beloved at all, since there’s only one for each vampire.”
“Well, there is and there isn’t,” she said with a little laugh. “You’d have to ask a woman named Joy about that, but that’s just going to confuse you, so we’ll move on. The first time I laid eyes on Christian, he was lying naked and covered in blood from a hundred cuts all over his body. It was the most romantic thing ever.”
I stared in horror at her.
She laughed again. “We had a rocky start. Christian was determined to have me admit I was his Beloved, and I wanted nothing to do with him.”
My gaze dropped again. “That’s not quite the problem between Kristoff and me,” I said, my heart wincing in pain at the memory of Kristoff looking at his ring.
“I’m sure you’ll work out whatever is giving you grief. These guys may seem overbearing and arrogant as sin, but you have to admit there’s something to be said for the fact that out of all the women in the world, you’re the only one for him.”
I said nothing, not wishing to dwell on it. A change of subject was called for. “Do you think there’s any chance that if I worked on Christian, he’d let Mattias and Kristjana go?”
“Well . . .” She slid me an odd look. “Christian is the head of the Moravian Council. That position has a lot of responsibility with it.”
She waited a moment, obviously expecting me to understand something that wasn’t at all clear.
“I’m afraid that I don’t see what one has to do with the other,” I admitted.
She sighed and thought for a moment. “He doesn’t break rules. He can’t, not in his position. And what you’re asking for would mean he’d have to do just that. So no, I don’t think there’s anything you can do that will get him to release Kristjana and Mattias.”
There was an odd emphasis on the word “release” that I didn’t quite understand. My brain chased around a hundred different thoughts, all of them ending with the same sad conclusion: If Christian wouldn’t let them go, I was going to be damned to Zoryahood for the rest of my life.