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"Sign"

"No I&039;htened around n it or I will break your neck"

It wasn&039;t easy to sith hied it "Look, I don&039;t knohy you want to marry me - "

"I&039;d as soon as reed to do it, but since he conveniently disappeared last night when I went to arrange for the license, I am the sacrifice instead"

I bristled a little at the word "sacrifice"

"Well, I don&039;t particularly like you, either! Alec is n the darowled, indicating the two copies of e forms he&039;d produced

I had discovered he&039;d spoken the truth about the elderly clergyman Not only was he deaf to all pleas to save e ceremony while I tried to reason with the insane man next to me "This is ridiculous This is 2008 You can&039;t force soet married There are laws"

"There are also bribes, and as I spent the night getting the correct docu my old friend here to conduct the official cere As soon as you sign"

"But we&039;re in Iceland! I&039;al for noncitizens to be married without a ton of paperwork And don&039;t I have to be present to get a license? Surely I have to have been present!"

"There are ways to s"

"No," I said, folding my hands "And you can&039;t "

Kristoff snarled so a set that?" I tried to grab my passport back froes until he caave it toup the pen and thrusting it into ainst his body, one hand cla down on mine as he consulted the passport

"Stop it!" I yelled, struggling as he forced ly version of al! You can&039;t do it!"

"It&039;s done," he snapped, forcingme I jumped away and rubbed my abused hand

"You don&039;t have witnesses, Mr Smarty-Pants," I pointed out "You may have your buddy there falsely conduct the cerenature, but there were no witnesses to the ceremony, and I&039;m sure that even in Iceland you have to have witnesses"

Kristoff put two fingers to hisin the confined space of the sed from what I assumed was a back roouage that I didn&039;t understand

"Do either of you speak English?" I asked sweetly

"The one on the left is my brother Andreas The other isat es, English included"

My hand itched to slap that look off his face, but I hung on to ood to tell you that your brother is insane?" I asked the man named Andreas There wasn&039;t a lot of fah he, too, was the sort of man who made women stop and stare

"No ned the forms

My heart sank as the second man did the same The three of them spoke quietly for a few minutes while I contemplated my choices I&039;d run for it, except Kristoff retained a hold on my arm, not to mention the fact that I wouldn&039;t stand a chance of outrunning any one of the men present - other than the priest, and even he looked unusually spry for so that the vaht struck s?" I asked Kristoff, ers "Like Dracula fangs?"

The three iant ice-skating sloth

"You don&039;t, then? So the whole fang thing is a myth?"

The look of disbelief on Kristoff&039;s face was al there

Rowan burst into laughter Andreas frowned, saying so in what sounded to me like Italian

"You know, I&039;m normally a pretty circumspect person," I told Andreas "But since I woke up this , I&039;ve found a murdered woman in my bathroom, run away from the police, been kidnapped by a va, so what inhibitions I norone I&039;m sure you&039;ll excuse e that not everyone can understand"

Rowan laughed even harder

Andreas&039;s frown darkened for a h his face wasn&039;t nearly as hard as Kristoff&039;s, his s "I told my brother that he should have simply killed you rather than wed you"

"We&039;re notmy arms over my chest in a shohat I hoped looked like bravado Surrounded as I was by three tall, extre but brave, but it wouldn&039;t do to let theal cereave al"

"It was not! I didn&039;t understand anything that priest said, let alone agree to it! He could have been perfore for that, if you like," Kristoff said with smooth menace

I raisedbullied "You didn&039;t even kiss s always end in a kiss So there!"

Silence filled the church for a moment before Kristoff made a low noise deep in his chest and yankedat me - ?" I just had time to say before he kissed ans in ti in Kristoff&039;s arms This was not the saht before - this was a kiss of aggression, a punishment, an invasion He didn&039;t even wait for ue was there, insidearound as if it owned the place Not even Alec had kissed me so intimately!

I shoved hard on Kristoff&039;s chest and jerked out of his grip, wiping ain, so help od, I&039;ll I&039;ll I don&039;t knohat I&039;ll do, but you can bet your butt it&039;ll be horrible!"

"The ned sheets into hter than I remembered them "Complete with kiss Tell that to your reaper friends"

I opened my mouth to tell him that they weren&039;t necessarily my friends, but he didn&039;t wait around for me to answer He just turned on his heel and marched out of the church I stared in surprise for a few moments before I turned to the other two vamps They watched me with eyes filled with malice and suspicion

"He left," I said, too surprised to care that I was stating the obvious

"If you even think of using your powers against hiine," Andreas threatened before he, too, , hard look, shoved me aside, and left as well

"Good riddance!" I yelled after the to the door to watch as two cars backed out and sped off up the winding road It was at that moment that I realized I was stranded, alone, without e of the name of the town in which I&039;d been dumped "Hey? Anyone? I don&039;t have a car Hello?"

I turned back to the clergy on a windy cliff, outside of a cold, dank little stone church, clutching a e certificate that I kneas false but I had a horrible suspicion no one else would see it that way

"Married to a vampire," I said out loud, the words whipped away on the wind "Oh, joy Nohat a to do?"

"I don&039;t suppose you know the way to Ostri?"

I turned my head and stared with absolutely no surprise at the translucent figure that stood there I raised an eyebrow at the spectral horse next to him, but I didn&039;t say one word about the fact that yet another ghost had descended upon me "I&039;m afraid I&039;m new around here You&039;re er dead?"

"As you can see" The man, as dressed in what looked to be Victorian wear, frowned "You&039;re the reaper and you don&039;t knohere Ostri is?"

"Afraid not, but since I&039;uess I&039;d better find out What&039;s your name?"

"Ulfur"

"How do you do? I&039;m Pia, and yes, I&039;ain converted itself into a small lantern "But I&039;m afraid I&039;m new to the job, and don&039;t know all the ins and outs of the whole thing yet So you&039;ll have to join the others while you wait for ure out what&039;s what"

"Others?" he asked

"Three other ghosts They&039;re back in town I don&039;t suppose you have aus there?"

He pursed his lips and eyed uess we&039;d better go see if there&039;s a bus or so You can co into step with me as I started to pick e below

"I told you - they&039;re back in town I think I didn&039;t actually see them when I left them, but that could be because Anniki had the stone"

"No, I meant the others here" He waved toward the shore

I cautiouslythe craggy shoreline, a group of about twelve ghosts roa down in increasing despair More ghosts Just what I needed to cos

"This is the reaper," Ulfur bellowed down to them

They waved

I lifted a wan hand and waved back

"You&039;re all ghosts?" I asked Ulfur

He nodded and patted his horse&039;s head "Landslide Wiped out half the village I had been in college in Reykjavik but calish really well," I said, curious about that fact

Ulfur smiled "There is not much to do with our time but watch and listen to people A coet lots of tourists It provides us all with an excellent lish was the first we learned, and now that the Japanese tours have started, we&039;re hoping to learn that language next"

"I suppose it would provide for entertainht for a ure out how to get you to heaven Er Ostri Whichever"

"I don&039;t know that we&039;re safe staying here," he said, his face becoi has been seen"

"One of those bad-reaper, soul-eater guys?" A little shiver zipped down uess you&039;ll all have to come with me"

He nodded and bellowed out orders to the folks below

I looked out at the sea, bluey grey and wind tossed, and wondered what on earth I was going to do now "Could er?"

The sound of the wind and theoverhead were the only answer to estured to the waiting ghosts below and pointed to the village A faint hurrahing cry met my ears as I jammed my hands in e, Ulfur and his horse on otten et out of it?

It took the better part of the day to get back to Dalkafjordhur I didn&039;t want to encounter the police, so I took the only bus that ran fro the police wouldn&039;t stop people going into town There was a bit of a tussle when the driver found out I didn&039;t have the fare, but I succeeded in returning to Dalkafjordhur by dint of clinging with desperate stubbornness to the railing on the back of one of the seats Since none of the five passengers on the bus spoke English - or wanted to get involved - I don&039;t quite knohat threats the driver was using, but in the end he gave up trying to root me out, and let me ride without further harasshosts didn&039;t raise a single complaint, but that&039;s only because no one but hosts were all polite, however,frorateful I was taking the, but I suppose there&039;s safety in nu up on me, drove us up the track to the ave me an odd look from the corner of her eye I sy to try to explain that there was, at thatin her lap, while a horse nosed her bag on the ground beside her

"You are the reaper," an elderlyat Ulfur "He says you will take us to Ostri"

"That&039;s the idea," I said, gnawing on ot up and took a seat closer to the driver