“Mattias, calm down and behave yourself,” I told him. “Rowan is going to take you to your room. I want you to be very nice to him and do as he says.”
“I will be very nice to him,” Mattias repeated, beaming at Rowan. “He is pretty, too. Should I kiss him?”
Rowan recoiled.
“No kissing. Just go to sleep. No, not here. Sleep in your room.”
Mattias left, waving madly as Rowan led him away.
“It’s not going to cause his brain permanent damage to be like that, is it?” I asked, worried about Mattias’s extreme change in personality.
“How could you tell if it did?” Kristoff muttered.
“It will wear off in time,” Christian said, laughing. “Then it will be up to you whether or not you re-light-bind him, or let him return to his normal state.”
Allie grinned. “I don’t know; I think he’s kind of cute this way. He reminds me of Antonio when he doesn’t have someone to lust after.”
Christian heaved a martyred sigh and said to Kristoff, “I would like a word or two, if you don’t mind.”
“Roadkill?” I asked Allie as she pulled me toward the door, glancing over my shoulder to Kristoff. “You’re joking.”
His eyes glittered with a light I found hard to understand.
“I wish I were. There’s a lot you have to learn about vampires, Pia. Take it from someone who went into her relationship kicking and screaming all the way-the learning curve may be steep, but it’s also a whole lot of fun.”
CHAPTER 6
“. . . and then the spirit is bound to the item you picked to be the keeper, and voilà! Instant way to transport them when they can’t get around themselves.”
I eyed the small blob of yarn on Allie’s palm as we entered my room. It had a slight glow to it, a little shimmer that warned it was not all that it seemed. “That is very handy, I admit. But my spirits don’t seem to have any problem traveling around. That is, they can get in a car with me if they want. That sort of thing.”
Allie nodded and tweaked the satin eiderdown on the bed. “Christian might have given you a larger room, but I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being cozy. Especially since you and Kristoff have been separated for so long.”
“You’re going to have to forgive me, but I’m curious-why did you believe that we’re innocent when everyone else didn’t?”
Before Allie could say anything, the door to a corner closet was flung open as a small child burst out, a towel tied around his neck in the form of a cape, his hands curved into claws, his fangs bared as he yelled, “I am Dwacula!”
“You’ll have to forgive Josef. He likes springing out at people,” Allie said with a motherly smile. He jumped around the room making various gargling noises that I imagined he believed were terror-inspiring. “He and Esme watched one of the old Dracula movies, and he decided that he wants to be a vampire when he grows up.”
“Wise up, childwen of the night!” the boy shouted as he climbed onto a tapestry-backed chair, leaping off with a triumphant yell.
I gave Allie a startled glance. She laughed. “That was my first response, too. Christian was less amused, but you know how the Dark Ones are-they may look modern and sound modern, but they are far too medieval for words sometimes. You should hear him rant when I let Joe watch Buffy . You are innocent, aren’t you?”
“Of the charges laid at my doorstep? Yes,” I said, somewhat taken aback by the quick change of subject.
Josef climbed onto my bed and started bouncing on it until his mother plucked him off with a warning.
“I thought so.” She herded the boy back into the closet, telling him, “Go see to your dungeons, pumpkin. I think Van Helsing is in there.”
“Van Helsing!” Josef’s face lit up as he struggled with the knot on the towel.
Allie patiently untied it, tossing the towel on the chair as the boy disappeared into the closet, pulling the door closed after him. “He also wants to be Van Helsing. I can’t say I blame him after seeing Hugh Jackman in the movie, although they had the vampires all wrong in it, but that happens a lot. Where were we?”
“Um . . . Kristoff and I are innocent?” Exhaustion swept over me. I plopped down on the bed.
“That’s right.” She considered me for a moment. I found it vaguely disconcerting having those odd eyes scrutinizing me so intently, although I had to admit that I liked Allie. There was a sense of down-to-earth straightforwardness to her that I found refreshing. “I know what it’s like to have life out of your control, and I don’t like being manipulated any more than I can see you do. If you were guilty, you wouldn’t be quite so angry, if you know what I mean.”
I nodded. “It just irritates me that everyone can suddenly think the worst of me after what happened. I saved Kristoff’s life!”
She toyed with a small vase on the bureau for a moment. “Well, you have to remember that it’s not just a matter of whether or not they like you. I think Christian does. He spoke quite well of you when he came home from Iceland.”
“Sebastian doesn’t,” I said, making a little face.
“He’s . . . he’s a bit scarred yet. He went through some hard times and only recently found his Beloved. But he’s Christian’s oldest friend, and he is actually a very nice man once you get to know him. He’s just a bit suspicious of people at first. Given his history, it’s understandable.”
“Do we really smell horrible?” I asked, sidetracked for a moment.
She laughed. “So they say, but I think it’s a matter of the man in question. Christian says they get used to it, and he doesn’t think of it anymore.”
“It’s just rather disconcerting knowing I smell like a pile of garbage,” I answered. “I feel like bathing in perfume or something.”
“Kristoff certainly didn’t look like he found you offensive,” she said, a teasing note in her voice.
I looked down at my hands for a moment, not really wanting to discuss the issue of a relationship with Kristoff.
“I’m sorry,” Allie said quietly, her odd eyes seeing far more than I was comfortable with. “I didn’t mean to get personal.”
“It’s all right,” I lied. “It’s just that . . .”
“You still have some things to work out.”
“Yes.”
“Who doesn’t?” She smiled. “You should have seen Christian and me when we first met.”
My curiosity got the better of me again. “How did you find each other? I’m kind of amazed that they ever find a Beloved at all, since there’s only one for each vampire.”
“Well, there is and there isn’t,” she said with a little laugh. “You’d have to ask a woman named Joy about that, but that’s just going to confuse you, so we’ll move on. The first time I laid eyes on Christian, he was lying naked and covered in blood from a hundred cuts all over his body. It was the most romantic thing ever.”
I stared in horror at her.
She laughed again. “We had a rocky start. Christian was determined to have me admit I was his Beloved, and I wanted nothing to do with him.”
My gaze dropped again. “That’s not quite the problem between Kristoff and me,” I said, my heart wincing in pain at the memory of Kristoff looking at his ring.
“I’m sure you’ll work out whatever is giving you grief. These guys may seem overbearing and arrogant as sin, but you have to admit there’s something to be said for the fact that out of all the women in the world, you’re the only one for him.”
I said nothing, not wishing to dwell on it. A change of subject was called for. “Do you think there’s any
