Page 3 (1/2)

"Hey!" I yelled as I was tossed halfway across a leather seat, landing partly on it and partly on the floor The door slammed behind me, and the car started off "Hey!" I yelled even louder, clawingon here?"

The other eye-candy guy was driving, his gazemine in the rearviewin what sounded like Geruy The latter answered with one word "Zorya"

"Oh, no, not you, too!" I said, goose bus "Look, you&039;ve ht she was French," the driver said, his voice a pleasant baritone with a slight German hint to it "She sounds American"

"She is Aht at this moment, so if you would kindly pull over and let her out, she won&039;t have to either screa insane, whichever comes first!" I said loudly, my te guy started to say, his eyes flashing frorabbed for the door handle, so angry I was ready to throwcar to escape the two men Quickly, the driver hit a button that locked all the car doors

"Damned child locks," I cursed as I tried to pry the lock upward

"She has the stone," theback toward me

"It&039;s notthe stone at hi to those other people, not tomore interested than skeptical

"Yes People who drowned on a ship, I think A long ti for, too I&039;ve never seen this stone before I think it caht this afternoon, a book that a Frenchwo slowed down and pulled over in the parking lot of a darkened bank "What is your name?"

"Pia Thoroup" My cheeks flaain I didn&039;t think I could stand the contempt that was sure to be in Kristoff&039;s eyes if I ht a couple of used books this afternoon, and I think the bookmark must have been hidden in one of the like it before" Quickly I recounted the briefwith the woman in the square "The bookmark is probably hers"

"Bookmark?" the driver asked

"Yeah, it&039;s a bookmark, see?" I pretended my hand was a book and slid the silken cord over it

"I can assure you, Pia, it is not a book at me in the mirror

I couldn&039;t help but smile back at him, charmed by the warmth in his expression His face had a softer look to it than his harsh friend&039;s, his green eyes slightly tilted up at the edges, with laugh lines radiating outward

"That&039;s asto try to find the wos to, but there are so many people out, I doubt if I could spot her"

He watched ardedthe truth"

"It&039;s not likely," Kristoff answered "She saw ghosts"

"That&039;s likely to be due to the stone, since I&039;ve never seen anything weird before Well, souys who think they are Speedo-worthy, but that&039;s neither here nor there And just an FYI - I hate being talked about as if I&039; stuffed into a car and driven off without , and I&039;al even in Iceland"

They both ignoredfrom the sacristan," the nice one said

Kristoff&039;s lips thinned "It is an act, Alec, put on to "

Alec! Aha, a nae ht live to see this task done," Kristoff said, rubbing a spot on his chest

Contriteness filled Alec&039;s face I spent a edthe latest in what seee episodes

"You said the wound was healed If it is still bothering you - "

"It has long since healed, but it reranted" Kristoff&039;s eyes glowed in the darkness of the car as he glanced back at me "It is said the blood of a Zorya can heal any injury"

"That&039;s it!" I said, holding up h I&039;ve been insulted, challenged, nearly brainwashed by sohosts and leered at by a third, rejected, and now kidnapped, but when you start talking about using o to bed and pretend I never came on this trip Since you&039;re so determined to drive me somewhere, would you please drive to the Hotel Andersson? Thank you"

I sat back in the seat, deter on to as left of h that these two handso hastly blood sacrifice, perhaps I could escape with ain with a not unfriendly eye "We could go to the bookseller, to see if it proves her story"

"That would just be a waste of tiht"

"If I was still talking to either of you, which I&039;nize your existence, I would point out that although the shop was closed, there ins of the bookernail

"She has a point," Alec agreed

I decided to unbend enough to give hirateful smile He returned it with a little wink I started to feel a bit warm as another blush swept upward Could it be possible he was flirting with me? A man as handsome as hihter to e boobs) and minimize the bad (rest of the body)

"Not really, but if you are going to insist on giving her the benefit of the doubt, we et it over with quickly so we can take her before the council"

"Council?" I asked, grabbing the backs of their seats and hauling myself forward "What council?"

Kristoff&039;s face could have been aze he cast towardto us"

"I have decided in the interests of avoiding an international incident that I will keep the lines of communication open What council?"

"The Moravian Council," Alec said, hitting the gas and sending us shooting down a buht U-turn to head back into the heart of town "Don&039;t worry, Pia; if you&039;re truly what you say you are, you have nothing to fear fro the seat belts, unwilling to strap etaway "Just out of morbid curiosity, what exactly is this Moravian Council? And ould happen if I wasn&039;t telling the truth?"

"You will be taken before the council to answer for the seventy-three deaths your people have caused over the last three years," Kristoff answered in a deep, lyrical voice that would have sent shivers of delight up my back if he hadn&039;t clearly been repulsed by me, and obviously under the delusion that I was so my mind over my immediate faton I don&039;t think they&039;ve conducted any h with my brother, you never can tell He&039;s a Microsoft yuppie"

My humor, sarcastic as it as not wasted on Alec He chuckled and flashedhis eyes to the road as we approached the square

Kristoff grunted and looked out the

I figured it would take Alec forever to find a parking spot, but he solved the issue by si sideways across a sidewalk "That is the bookstore?" he asked, pointing to the end of the street, where it opened into the pedestrians-only square

I nodded

"Letthe door forhis hand to help esture and pleased by the warmth in his eyes "I&039;m afraid I only have one of them I dumped the other one when Mattias started afterthe book I held out for hi

"The sacristan," Kristoff inforaze onfrom him?"

I was flummoxed for a moment when Alec tucked ers with his free hand as he led esture, one that gave me more pleasure than I wanted to admit

Part of me, the vindictive, evil part that I really liked to pretend didn&039;t exist, wished that Denise would walk past us at that loat, I wouldn&039;t preen, I&039;d simply smile and allow my two incredibly handsoo, she wasn&039;t present in the croho now pulsed and bobbed in that odd throbbing fashion large groups of people packed into a small space have when they attempt to dance The music hit us with the force of a brick wall, and it wasn&039;t until we slipped around to the back of the row of buildings lining that side of the square that I could make myself heard above the noise

"No answer?" Kristoff said, stopping at aa faded plaque with the name of the shop One of his chocolatey brown eyebrows rose in e to yank it back down

"I&039; the question I just didn&039;t want to bellow it out in front of everyone," I said with dignity "I was running froht I was this Zorya person, and wanted to e set of keys and started applying them to the door

Kristoff eyed me froht and, in order to forestall the obvious co at , fat liar, because I&039;m not"

Kristoff blinked for a moment in surprise; then his face hardened into its familiar suspicious expression

For some reason, that just seemed to irritateto pull his leg "You can believe what you want, but it&039;s the absolute truth The lady what&039;s her nalike that So you can just wipe that you&039;re-so-insane-you&039;re-barking look right off your face"

BehindKristoff&039;s eyes lit froht he was going to hitme into the wall of the shop "Do you have any idea who I am, woman?"

"I know you don&039;t likeis reciprocated," I told hier, I wasn&039;t quite sure

Kristoff wrapped the long fingers of one hand aroundtheht now"

Fear won out over the anger, but I wasn&039;t going to let him see that I clutched theat his wrist "If I&039;m who you say I a the fact that"You&039;d have to explain my death to the Brotherhood"

A slow ses of his aze "I believe I would enjoy that"

My eyes widened at the threat obvious in his voice, but before I could protest, Alec interrupted

"Stop frightening her, Kris It serves no purpose"

His gaze continued to bore into mine for another few seconds, and I felt swaer and hostility that all but rolled off hi under his breath and releasedoff down the alleyway

I collapsed against the wall,like they weredown at ht, Pia?"

"Yeah Your friend is a bit intense, isn&039;t he? I&039;ht be in order," I answered, rubbing my neck as I watched the dark silhouette disappear into the shadows

To my surprise, Alec defended his friend "He has no love for the reapers"

"Reapers?" I pulledi That is, technically they still are, although they were divided into two types, sun and i before they were all but destroyed The latter well, that is a long story"

"Ah The Brotherhood of the Blessed Light," I said, nodding

Alec eyed"You do know of the Brotherhood?"

"No Not really I ran into a couple earlier, but that&039;s all"

I thought he was going to tell ed to, but instead he changed the subject "Kristoff had a mate Not a Beloved, you understand, but a woelica and Kristoff were together for o He has not forgotten her death It haunts hi so rudely to athe loss of a loved one "Poor man I had no idea I&039; you, but it does, I hope, explain so the door, which he&039;d ht, flashing it around the roo here to explain the unusual situation you say has clasped you in its grip"

We made a fast search of the bookshop, but there wasn&039;t h the papers stuffed willy-nilly into the drawers of an old rolltop desk that served as the owner&039;s filing cabinet, while I examined each book on the rack where I&039;d nabbed h the re had been tucked inside any of them

Twenty-fiveagainst its side, his arms crossed, his expression hard but relatively neutral He was silent as we approached

"There was nothing," Alec admitted with defeat "But I do not discount what Pia has told us I think we should investigate thehis eyes, I could tell "We have wasted enough tih hours before dawn to reach the council as it is - "

Alec interrupted hinawed on ued I had a decision of my own to make - did I want to stick around and try to et far, far away frouarantee that the next tih Kristoff had more of a stark, visceral physical appeal, Alec was certainly no slouch in the looks depart, since his expression arht back to the twenty-five ether in the ainst me as we searched, and once, as he leaned over to fetch a scrap of paper, his arized and ertips touched rip of Kristoff&039;s fingers

I shook my head sadly Even if there was a spark of interest in Alec to be breathed to life, the whole situation had a bad feeling about it The sane thing, my down-to-earth brain pointed out, would be to leave now and not look back

I did just that, not stopping to say anything, just spinning around and racing down the alley to the lighted square filled with people ould keep me safe There was a shout that followedstopped, breathing a sigh of relief that had far too uess," I said tocrowd to its center

"Mada at the back ofover my shoulder The tiny Frenchwo her way between couples, a worried look on her face

"It is you; oh, I alad I must speak to you It is very important"

I was so relieved to see her I could have whooped "Likewise! But et out of here I can barely hear you over the estion She nodded and pointed to the caf¨¦ where I&039;d sent the ghosts It was still open, serving the late-night crowd I hesitated ato remain out in the open where Alec and Kristoff could find hosts when I was no closer to helping them In the end, I chose the latter as the least worrisome