order to throw off Dark Ones, all the while rescuing a hundred-year-old ghost and a murderous reaper, as “good news.”
CHAPTER 8
“Remind me . . .” I hit the floor with a whump , dazed for a moment despite the soft padding Kristoff had assured me would break my fall. Even with that, it took me a moment before I felt my wits returning. “Remind me next time to take a plane instead of a portal.”
Hands grabbed my arms, hauling me to my feet. I leaned against the warm, hard body attached to the hands, breathing in his delicious scent.
“You wanted to use a portal.” Kristoff’s voice rumbled deep in his chest. I let out a sigh of sheer happiness and managed to take a step back from him, just in time to see a body suddenly appear in midair, twisting like a cat as it, too, hit the floor.
“Yeah, I know. I thought it would be quicker and easier to get out of Germany that way, but I’ve changed my mind. Ow.” I rubbed my butt as I eyed the body on the floor next to us.
“Have your light ready,” Kristoff warned as he released me in order to grab Mattias by the back of his collar.
I nodded, gathering up another small handful of light. Kristoff had warned me that traveling through a portal could well remove the effect of the light-binding on Mattias. “Just one more reason to take a plane.”
Mattias shook his head for a moment, squinting until his eyes focused on me. “Wife!” he said.
That was all I needed to hear. I tossed the light at his head, watching with some amazement as it wrapped itself around him, slowly dissipating into nothing.
The frown that Mattias had donned upon seeing me melted away into a happy grin. “Pia-pooh!”
“Ugh. I had hoped he had forgotten that. Mattias, we’re in Iceland. I want you to do exactly as Kristoff says.”
“I love Iceland!” he cried, delighted. “I love Pia! I love Kristoff!”
“If he tries to hug me again, I’m going to-”
Kristoff didn’t get to finish his threat before Mattias, who was as big as Kristoff, shouted, “Hug time!” and enveloped both of us in a bear hug.
“You just had to say the word, didn’t you?” I said, extricating myself from Mattias’s grip. “Mattias, remember what I said before about inappropriate shows of affection?”
Mattias released Kristoff, a pensive look on his face. “I’m not to kiss you anymore because Kristoff doesn’t like it.”
“That’s right. And?” I prompted.
“And I can’t lick you when he’s looking because it makes you squirm.”
Kristoff eyed me.
“No,” I said hastily. “You can’t lick me at any time because it’s wrong.”
He sighed. “I can’t lick sweet, adorable Pia because it’s wrong. How about him?” He pointed at Kristoff.
“He can lick me if he wants. But that’s neither here nor there.”
“Can I lick her?”
I looked over to my shoulder to where an employee of the portal company we’d used to transport ourselves from Berlin to Reykjavik stood waiting for us. “Judging by the expression on her face, I don’t think she’d enjoy that, no.”
“I want to lick someone,” he said forlornly.
“I know you do,” I said, taking his arm and propelling him toward the door. “I’ll get you an ice-cream cone or a puppy or something lickable later. Right now we have to get going before certain vampires figure out we’re not with Magda and Raymond.”
“They should follow them to Rome before they realize we aren’t with them,” Kristoff said as a form of reassurance as we exited the tiny office that was the portal service in Reykjavik. “You can stop worrying, Pia. I know my brother’s mind.”
“I just hope so. I’m not going to underestimate him again, though. Not after he was waiting for us in Frankfurt. We barely made that train to Berlin. You’re sure he didn’t read your mind to know what we were doing?”
“I’m sure. We do not have a sympathetic connection like that.”
“Hmm. How’s your nose?”
Kristoff’s shoulder twitched. I took his hand, enjoying once again the feeling of his fingers twining through mine. “I told you it wasn’t broken. Andreas wasn’t trying to hurt me, just stop us.”
Mattias, walking behind us on the narrow sidewalk, nudged the back of my shoulder. I ignored him. “I don’t care. I think that was pretty underhanded of him to sock you on the nose just because I roasted his toes a bit.”
Mattias nudged me again, making an unhappy, lost-puppy noise. Exasperated, I stopped.
He held out his hand.
“Oh, for God’s . . . Fine.” I took his hand as well. He beamed at me. “Just so you know, I feel like I’m three years old and being escorted across the road.”
Kristoff, who had been glaring across me to Mattias, donned a familiar martyred expression. “I can’t decide if I would rather have him as he normally is, or this human version of a puppy demanding constant petting.”
“Hugs?” Mattias asked.
“No!” I said quickly, ignoring the looks we were getting as we strolled through town to a nearby car rental agency. “Behave yourself, or you’ll have to take another long nap like you did on the plane.”
“I will behave,” he promised solemnly.
Are you absolutely certain the reapers want him back? Kristoff asked as we entered the car rental place. We could just drop him off somewhere and make our escape.
Kristoff! We can’t do that! He’s like a child in this state, very suggestible and clueless. Anyone could take advantage of him and make him do the most heinous acts without him being aware of it. They could even make him throw himself off the top of one of the fjords.
Only if we’re very lucky.
I gave him a mental glare. He actually smiled into my mind, a warm, tickling sensation that left me silently bemused, watching him as he arranged for a car.
“Ulfur first,” I told him once he had possession of the keys.
“Reaper first, then your spirit.”
“Ulfur has been left alone, and is probably bored out of his mind-”
“And the Dark Ones guarding the reaper could be alerted at any moment that we are in the vicinity.”
I made a little face. He had a point. “All right, but if Ulfur yells at me because we got Kristjana first, I’m totally blaming you.”
Fifteen minutes later we were beetling out of Reykjavik to a town about half an hour away, where the Brotherhood folk had said Kristjana was being held. I looked up from the GPS unit and over to the man who sat beside me, and decided the time had come to get to know him better.
How come you know terms like “blow job”? “Turn left at the next cross street, then a right onto the highway.”
Kristoff shot me a quick glance before returning his gaze to the road. Why shouldn’t I know what a blow job is?
“Pia, Pia, Pia,” Mattias said happily from the backseat.
I sighed. “Nap time, Mattias! You’re tired. Very tired. Go to sleep until I wake you up.”
“All right. I will sleep. You will wake me up. Smoochie?”
Because you were born during the Renaissance, weren’t you? “I’m going to give Magda hell for ever using that word in front of you. No, you do not need a good-night smooch. Go to sleep.”
