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"Would I do that to you?"

"Oh, be quiet, Mr Actually-she&039;s-my-wife That didn&039;t help matters one little bit You just had toto blame me for our current predicament?"

I took a deep breath to answer hi to blaainst the door in defeat "No, I realize full well that it&039;s my fault we&039;re here"

Kristoff was silent for a few moments "I believe Alec shares some of that blame He should have known better than to take you to a public place where he had no easy means of escape"

"Probably"

"I suppose I should have made you stay back while I checked the periht and all that Besides, shifting bla "If there was just some way to reason with the Brotherhood people I know if I could talk to them, they would see that you and Alec don&039;t deserve their wrath"

"It won&039;t do any good We&039;ve tried for centuries to show them the truth about us, but they refuse to accept it"

"Maybe if - " I stopped, hearing so in surprise as once again it was opened a crack

"Pia?"

I grabbed the door and hauled it open, relief swanar Ulfur was in solid ed froiven the fact that lately I seem to end up married or in some other way bound to any man I kiss, I&039;ll settle for a heartfelt thank-you How did you get the keys?"

Ulfur&039;s sers "I saw that one who had the keys coured he must have confined you down here soive me the keys"

"Is there a handcuff key on there?" Kristoff asked, nodding toward the key chain

There was He was still rubbing his freed wrists and shaking the blood back into his arms e released Alec

"My love, I knew you would find a way to free us," Alec said with a wet and hurried kiss

I slipped out of his hold, not wanting toNoas not the time to discuss personal relationship issues I shot Kristoff a glance, but he was frowning down at his wrist as he rubbed away deep redaround the baseo upstairs, Ulfur?"

He flitted up the stairs, once again translucent "Yes"

"Then, let&039;s get the hell out of here," I said, starting for the stairs, but was shoved back by first Kristoff, then Alec

Just as my foot hit the bottom stair, a sudden explosion of noise filtered down to us Kristoff and Alec froze for aand bolted up the stairs, right through Ulfur and Ragnar

"What the - what is it?" I asked Ulfur as I ran up after them

He stood in the doorway, his brows raised in surprise "It&039;s Dark Ones"

"More? Good lord, how many are there on this island?"

Behind me, a door slammed I whirled around to see who had just left the kitchen area, but the sight of Kristjana, a knife raised high in her hand as she ran towardbattle cry, instantly absorbed allon my heel, raced out of the kitchen toward the front of the house, fro "Help! Mad Brotherhood wo to a stop at the sight of the room&039;s occupants Mattias was on the floor, his arms twisted up behind him as Kristoff slapped on the handcuffs that he&039;d just shed There was a distinct look of pleasure on his face as he did so Around him stood four men, all dark haired but for one blond Alec spun around as I flung myself toward hi in Icelandic, but the murderous look in her eyes pretty one off the deep end

Alec shoved ed for her, while one of the otherKristoff&039;s brother Andreas - jurabbed her neck in soround with a solid thud

"Is she dead?" I asked, about ready to screa her with his toe "She&039;s just unconscious For now"

I shivered at his last words

"Do we kill theht in his eyes as he stalked forward to help Andreas haul Kristjana onto a couch

Andreas looked to one of the other men Alec and Kristoff did the saers to h the blond was a bit stockier

The dark-hairedlook, his eyes so dark they were almost black "Not yet This, I presume, is the reaper you mentioned?"

"This is Pia, yes My love, this is Christian Dante, one of the members of the council," Alec said "The other is Sebastian"

"You&039;re all va at theraced the cover of adrop-dead gorgeous was one of the requirements to be a vampire

"We are all Dark Ones, yes," the one nah I noted he shot Alec a questioning glance

Alec answered by putting his ar me up to his side "Pia is not Zorya by choice She is not responsible for what is happening here"

"You know, I really can speak for myself," I said, a tiny bit irritated with Alec&039;s protective gesture I twisted ave Christian, who clearly held some sort of a position of authority with the others, a level look "I did not choose to become Zorya, that&039;s true, but I have accepted the job now, and I am, in fact, responsible for ht you were in Vienna Isn&039;t that where you were trying to take me?"

Kristoff, to whom I had addressed the last question, quirked his lips "Yes"

"We took a portal," Christian answered as the blond va me

"A what, now?" I asked

"A portal allows one to move from one area to another quickly, via a tear in the fabric of ti open for a uys can teleport like in Star Trek?"

"Not quite," Alec answered for him Kristoff shot his friend an unreadable look "But it&039;s a similar principle We don&039;t use them often, since they can be tricky at best, but they are soency"

"Which this clearly is" Sebastian finished his examination of me and resumed his spot next to Christian "An unmade Zorya, a sacristan, and a reaper elder - not a bad day&039;s work"

Kristoff hauled Mattias to his feet and shoved hiry face, it struck me that Frederic wasn&039;t anywhere in the room "Did you hurt Frederic?"

"Unfortunately, no He escaped," Kristoff&039;s cousin Rowan said as he entered the room from the kitchen He had a nasty burn on the side of his face, which, toeven as I watched "He had a car The last I saw of him, he was headed out of town"

"You won&039;t catch hiets here"

Christian spun around and stared at hi here?"

"To welcolance "I a to believe Kristjana when she says that you do not deserve to be Zorya"

"I think it&039;s safe to say that Kristjana is not the most mentally stable person in town," I said dryly "And I only know four of the six vampires here, and out of those four, three of thee"

"The Zenith is co a look with his friends "How very interesting"

The one named Sebastian smiled It made oing to be used as bait to capture yet another member of the Brotherhood?" I asked Alec

He brushed a strand of hair from my face "It must be, Pia The Zenith is the leader of the reapers - to have hireat blow to them"

"And if I say I won&039;t cooperate?"

"You will not have a choice," Christian answered He strolled over to gaze down into aze with one that see and leave me bare and exposed "You are a Zorya, a potential ain the power to do that Do you understand?"

"Oh, I understand"

"Good" Christian nodded and released me from his hold

"I understand that you&039;re just as blind as the Brotherhood people are"

All six va it was to challenge them when they were enan overabundance of common sense, so I raised my chin and added, "It obviously doesn&039;t occur to you that perhaps I can be a Zorya who doesn&039;t destroy your people And yet, that is exactly what I intend to do Assu, I can, that is"

I shot a quick look at Alec and Kristoff Alec was looking puzzled, while Kristoff avoided ether

"And how do you propose to do that?" Christian asked in a velvety soft voice He had an odd sort of an accent, part English, part sohtly Ger like the silky tones that Kristoff could utter when he so chose

I dragged my mind from that subject to the one at hand "A lot of that depends on your answer to a question"

Christian&039;s eyebrows rose "What is the question?"

"Did you kill Anniki?"

He frowned

"The other Zorya"

His brow cleared "Ah The one Kristoff said was discovered in your hotel room" He was silent for a moment "Her death, while unlamented by my people, was not caused by any of thee I had a pretty good sense of when so true Of course, it could be that one of the vampires had killed her, and just not told his buddies, but that didn&039;t seem very likely "You may not have doing She hadn&039;t been fornized as a Zorya, so she couldn&039;t have hurt any of you"

"The point is moot," Sebastian said with a note of finality "Sooner or later, she would have destroyed us, just as you would have done if Kristoff had not taken steps to stop you"

"You e?" Mattias&039;s face turned red "Youto cale," Kristoff said stubbornly

I raised an eyebrow at hiabout this, and everything I&039;ve seen and heard the last few days has left roup like the Brotherhood is reed to and participated in willingly over one where the grooe the bride&039;s signature, and bring in false witnesses"

Silence filled the roohtfully, his gaze on Mattias

The latter&039;s face suddenly broke into a grin "Then you are et too excited - that&039;s only a supposition," I said, suddenly worried that Mattias hts "I don&039;t know for sure which e is real"

"It is a reasonable point, nonetheless," Alec said, glancing at Kristoff

"And one which er if Kristoff&039;sat lare "Even if it&039;s true, it doesn&039;tto hurt anyone"

The silence that followed that statement was filled with disbelief

I turned to Alec as the most reasonable of the s right &039;Let justice roll down like waters,&039; she said, and I have done my best to do just that I will find her murderer, and see that he or she receives justice for that act But I will not persecute the innocent I didn&039;t want the job, but now I have it, and assuod, I&039;hosts I&039;had been oddly absent, but I sa that they had just been hiding They stepped forward now, all of them, out of the walls, from behind the furniture, and from the doorways All of them solidified for a moment, until the rooed out of his head as he took them all in

Ulfur strode forward until he stood in the center of the roo Christian "We will not let harhosts nodded their heads Tears pricked inin my chest

"I see" Unexpectedly, Christian sroup of champions, Pia"

"I do indeed And it&039;s because of theht be able to help, that I will re streahteousness I will not be a Zorya who destroys people without due cause"