“Don’t you think it’s a little odd that there aren’t more guards around?” I whispered, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Or, rather, any guards?”
“If Alec has done his job, they will be swarming him,” Andreas answered.
“Yes, but they’d also want to know where he came from, and be searching for any of us. You said there were a ton of Brotherhood people here, right?” I asked Kristoff.
“No. I said they were preparing for a battle. The two things are not the same,” Kristoff said. “There are fewer reapers here than normal, but the ones who are here are higher in the organization. They are members of the governing board.”
“Brought out the big guns, did Frederic?” I murmured.
As we approached a double door at the end of the hallway, Kristoff paused for a moment, his head tipped as he listened intently. I put my hand on his back, as much for my own comfort as to remind him he was not alone anymore, when I noticed something curious.
“Uh, guys?” I held up my wrist. A crescent moon- shaped light glowed gently as it swung from my bracelet. “There are spirits here. Do you think it’s Ulfur?”
“He is a lich now, not a spirit. He wouldn’t register on your stone that way.”
“Oh. Good point. Well, regardless, there are some ghosties here somewhere.”
“Stay behind me,” Kristoff said, glancing over my shoulder at Andreas. The latter nodded at him as they exchanged some sort of macho guy look, the kind that said they had to protect the poor little feeble female in their care.
Silly vampires. I snorted to myself, flexing my fingers as I gathered a little light, preparing to halt the charge of reapers that was sure to follow when Kristoff flung open the doors to the conference room. They should know by now that this female was far from feeble.
Kristoff opened one of the doors a smidgen. Andreas and I crowded around him to peer in.
“ . . . tried and tried, but I just can’t understand them. Maybe one of you can, but for the life of me, I can’t see how I’m expected to do a job if these people can’t even be bothered to speak something understandable!”
The voice that reached our ears was female, whiny, and had a faint inflection that I mentally termed “mall rat.”
“Get her out of here,” a low male voice said. Its sheer lack of emotion sent a little skittering of fear down my back. That and a jolt of recognition, not to mention a number of memories I’d rather do without.
“Frederic’s in there,” I said in an almost inaudible whisper.
Kristoff nodded.
“You were told before that the director had no time for this,” a male voice said in a bossy, also familiar tone. “You must leave now.”
“Great. And Mattias.”
Kristoff’s back twitched.
“I don’t care what sort of war games you’re running-how am I going to get these two to T’ien?” the whiny woman demanded to know.
“You will leave now. You never should have been allowed in. The office is closed while the board deals with some unprecedented events. You must find your spirits’ destination by yourse-”
The door suddenly opened in front of us. For a moment, we stared in surprise at an equally surprised Mattias, behind whom was a petite woman holding a Chihuahua. Beyond her I could see two spirits, both male, both Chinese, dressed in identical tattered blue cloth jackets and pants. They looked like the poor immigrants forced to work on the railroad lines during one of California’s many growth spurts.
Mattias was the first to recover. “Wife!” he said, his blond brows pulling together in a frown. His gaze narrowed on Kristoff and Andreas. “You’ve come to flaunt more lovers in my face? I will not have it! You will not-”
I flung my handful of light past Kristoff and fully into Mattias’s face. He stood dazzled for a moment, the scowl fading into an expression of delight. “Pookie!”
“Oh, God,” Kristoff muttered.
Andreas snickered.
“Hey! He’s helping me ,” the other Zorya said, stuffing her dog into an oversize violet bag. Light flashed in her hands as she sent it flying around Mattias’s head.
He turned to her, a slightly less delighted expression on his face. “Zorya Amber.”
She smirked at me for a moment before turning to him, pursing her lips, and making one of the most repulsive simpers I’d ever beheld. “Big ol’ sacristan wants to help Amber get rid of these annoying ghosts, doesn’t he?”