Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang(85)

 

But what had me coming to a complete halt was the sight of the two men lounging on the couch.

 

“Took you long enough to get back,” Andreas said, looking up from where he was examining his fingernail.

 

Rowan, who had his feet resting on one of the prone men, stopped flipping through a magazine to glance up. “You found her, I see. We figured you must have her, since they didn’t.”

 

“Yes, and you might have told me you two were in town,” Alec said, strolling over to the two men. He squatted next to them and eyed them carefully. “It would have saved me a great deal of trouble. Where is he?”

 

“Kristoff?” Andreas nodded his head toward me. “He’s over there.”

 

I spun around and almost choked with horror. Kristoff lay on a small honey-colored couch that sat under a huge mural of the ocean, one arm hanging lifelessly off the edge.

 

“You bastards!” I shrieked, running across the room to where he lay. “What have you done to him?”

 

“I like that,” Rowan said, nudging one of the guys on the floor as he raised his head. “Did you hear her? She called us bastards.”

 

My horror turned to sheer terror as I realized the pattern on the floor was due to blood, not the design of the carpet. “Oh, my God, you’ve killed him! I swear by all that is holy that you will all pay for this. I will not rest one single second until you’ve suffered the way you’ve made my poor Kristoff suffer.”

 

I collapsed on Kristoff, sobbing into his chest as I clutched his lifeless body, my mind swimming with endless agony that threatened to burst from me in a blinding, searing light.

 

“Ah, nothing is sweeter than the sight of a Beloved reunited with her love,” Andreas said, his voice mocking the depth of despair that filled me.

 

Rage unlike anything I’d felt before washed over me. I lifted my face from the empty shell that was Kristoff and focused my gaze on his brother. “You think it’s sweet, do you? Let’s see how sweet you think this Beloved is when she’s through roasting you alive, you bastard brother killer!”

 

“Pia, stop,” a voice murmured in my ear.

 

“Ooh, someone’s in trouble,” Rowan said archly, pushing over the reaper on the floor.

 

“You’re second,” I told him, focusing my attention on him until light rained down from above. He yelped and leaped to the side, bouncing on the couch as he patted wildly at the sparkles of light remaining on his clothing.

 

“Beloved, you’re pulling out my hair.”

 

Alec crossed the room, giving the two men an irritated glance. “Mind the sofa. That’s Italian leather, and it didn’t come cheap.”

 

“You’re third,” I growled, slamming down a wall of light between Alec and the doorway through which he was obviously about to go. “Don’t give me that look, Alec. I’m sure you think I’m the worst sort of idiot for falling for your innocence act, but I assure you-”

 

“If you’re through with my ear, I wouldn’t mind if you released it. I’ve lost all feeling in it now.”

 

“I assure you that I . . . I . . .” I looked down. I had been clutching Kristoff’s head to my bosom as I swore eternal vengeance for his death, but somehow he’d shifted so that the fingers of one hand were gripping his hair, my other hand grasping his ear.

 

Eyes brighter than any gem regarded me.

 

“Boo?” I asked, my heart doing a backflip or two.

 

His face twisted into a momentary grimace as a muffled laugh, followed by, “Did she just call him ‘Boo’?” made its way from the vampires. “Would you mind releasing my ear?”

 

I stared in stupefaction at my fingers closed around his ear. It was turning white. “But . . . you’re dead.”

 

“Not quite. Nearly, but not quite,” Rowan said, vaulting the recumbent reapers as he strolled over to us. He hesitated a moment. “If I touch you, will you rain light on me again?”

 

“Eh?” I said, my brain finally catching up with my heart.

 

He gently took me by the arms and pulled me off of Kristoff. “When we found him, the reapers were in the act of hacking off his head. But he’s always been a fast healer.”

 

Kristoff sat up, rubbing first his ear, then his throat. I was aghast to see a nasty, jagged-looking welt that wrapped around the front, disappearing into his collar. “It no doubt looked worse than it really was. You could have arrived a bit earlier, however.”

 

“Traffic,” Andreas said with a shrug.