“Bind him to a keeper and take him places with you,” she said with a little shrug. “Assuming he wants to go, that is. Keepers are a great way to let them travel and keep them safe. Not to mention out of your hair for those times when you want a little privacy.”
I smiled in response to her sudden grin, and was about to thank her when Christian appeared in the doorway. He held his son on one hip, the small metal skewer that I recognized coming from the antique shoe form sprouting out of his stomach. The glare he gave his wife would have scared me to death if it had been directed at me. “Allegra, would it be asking too much for you to not encourage my son to stake me at every available opportunity?”
“He was being Van Helsing. That’s what Van Helsing does. And I didn’t tell him to go for your heart,” she answered, patting her boy on the head. “Besides, I thought he was going to shoot you with his pretend crossbow. What a clever little boy you are to make a stake out of the shoe form.”
Christian’s expression turned into one of sheer martyrdom as he plucked the metal skewer out of his belly. “That’s it. I am destroying your Buffy DVDs. Kristoff, if you ever have children, I would advise you to ban any and all DVDs from your home. Come, Beloved. There are a few things I have to say to Josef, and I believe they will benefit you, as well.”
Kristoff, who had been standing behind him, watched with a horrified expression as Christian tossed the stake onto a hall table before taking his wife’s hand. Allie winked at me as she left with him, leaving Kristoff and me alone.
“Pia, are you back?” The door opposite me opened. Magda appeared, rosy and smelling of perfumed bath salts. “That was you I heard. I see you found Kristoff. Hello again. I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Pia’s friend Madga.”
“Magda and her boyfriend, Raymond, kindly offered to come with me to Vienna,” I explained.
Kristoff made her a little bow, but said nothing.
“Well . . .” Magda examined Kristoff for a moment, then indulged in a little eyebrow semaphore with me. “Ray’s having a quick shower, but he wanted to go out and see the sights. I assume you two prefer to take a rain check on doing the tourist thing?”
I glanced at Kristoff. He didn’t look even remotely as horrible as when I first saw him, but his face was still much too gaunt, and more important, I sensed a gnawing hunger in him that had yet to be fully appeased. “I think a rain check will be best.”
“Gotcha. How did the meeting with the fanged ones go?”
I dredged up a somewhat weak smile. “It was . . . interesting. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, OK?”
“All right, but I’m going to hold you to that. Nice to see you again, Kristoff.”
Magda withdrew into her room with a pointed look at me that warned she would, indeed, expect full disclosure.
I looked at Kristoff. Kristoff looked at me.
“Awkward?” he asked.
“Well . . . yes. Kind of.”
“If you would prefer I do not share a room with you-”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him into the room after me. “It’s not like we haven’t slept together before. If you’re worried I’m going to demand sex from you-”
“Christ, woman, is that all you think about?” Kristoff exploded suddenly, one hand running through his lovely brown curls.
“Sex?” I asked, my stomach contracting at his mistaken belief. I started to protest, but he cut me off.
“No!” He stormed forward, his hands clamping down on my shoulders as I tried to back away. “Why do you persist in deluding yourself that I don’t desire you?”
My jaw dropped for a moment before I snapped back, “Why? Maybe the fact that you ran away from me has something to do with it.”
“I explained that,” he said grimly, but there was a heat building in his eyes that immediately made all sorts of hidden parts of me sit up and take notice. “You said you wanted Alec. I was simply giving you what you wanted.”
“What I wanted?” I bit back the scream of frustration that threatened to burst free, saying instead, “Putting my wishes aside for a moment, why on earth would you think that Alec and I had a future? You knew I was your Beloved, not his.”
He released me. I took a step backward, simultaneously wanting to climb all over him and not wanting to be so close to him. The sense and scent and nearness of him were almost overwhelming. My body and mind were fighting a huge war to decide whether I was going to yell at him or jump his bones.