back for a second, his eyes bright even in the shadow of his hat as they searched the street.
Because Siobhan just asked me if I sucked your chin.
He shot me a startled look before gesturing that it was all right to proceed.
She thinks you’re gorgeous.
Ah.
“Which way?” Eve asked as Kristoff held the back door for me to climb into the car. She had a map spread out on the steering wheel, while Siobhan was poking at the GPS unit.
“It’s broken,” she said, waving toward it. “So we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“This is the wrong map,” Eve said, frowning at it. “Shivvy, get me the other one.”
“Sure thing.” Siobhan turned and reached back between Kristoff and me, inadvertently knocking his hat off in the process.
Kristoff ducked away from the window, lunging over me to avoid the sunlight coming in on his side.
“Sorry. I . . . er . . .”
Are you OK? Did you get burned?
I grabbed the hat she held out and gave it back to Kristoff, who got it adjusted so he could sit up.
Barely. I’m fine.
Eve watched us with curious eyes via the rearview mirror.
Oh, crap. You think they know? I turned in my seat to grab the couple of maps in the storage area behind us. “I’ll get the map.”
Siobhan took them from me with a look at her partner. “Er . . . you’re a Dark One?” she asked Kristoff.
“Is there a problem with that?” he asked with absolutely no expression on his face.
You’re really good at that. I bet you clean up at poker.
“No, I’m just a bit surprised. Eve . . .” She waved toward the other woman. “Eve has always wanted to meet one.”
Eve nodded quickly, an excited light in her eyes. “I’m doing a thesis on the relationship between the otherworld and mortal literary conventions. I’d love to talk to you about Dark Ones versus vampires in the popular culture.”
“Everyone loves a hunky vampire,” I said, smiling.
Eve grinned for a moment, then sat back, but she positively hummed with excitement.
“I’ve only seen one Dark One before, and never up close. Oh, my God!” Siobhan’s jaw dropped for a moment as her gaze moved over to me. “You said you guys are married. Does that mean you’re-”
“A Beloved? Yes.” I gave Kristoff’s leg a possessive pat. “And yes, I am tempted to suck his chin. That cleft drives me wild, too.”
Kristoff went into martyr mode, not actually rolling his eyes, but the urge was apparently almost overwhelming.
Oh, stop looking that way. You love it. What man wouldn’t like random female adoration?
I am only interested in adoration from one person.
I withdrew my hand slowly, not sure if he was referring to his girlfriend, Angelica, or to me.
His fingers captured mine and returned them to his leg, where he held them.
Warmth pooled low in my belly.
“Hee, hee, hee,” Siobhan said, turning back in her seat, although I noticed she lowered her sun visor so that she could see him in the mirror. “I don’t blame you one bit. Man alive, a Dark One and his Beloved. That’s so awesome. How did you guys meet?”
A heavily edited version kept Siobhan occupied until we had reached the small village south of the town I had stayed at two months before. It wasn’t until we had climbed down a rocky, steep slope from a tiny stone church that sat atop a cliff that she finally turned her attention to the reason we were there.
“There are several essences here,” Siobhan said as she wandered up and down the rocky shoreline, dashing first here, then there, like a shorebird on the trail of a tasty morsel. “There’re a number clustered right here,” she added, having taken off her shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of her pants to wade into the water.
“Do you see a horse?” I asked, eyeing the water. I knew it must be very cold, and I didn’t particularly want to have to swim. “Ulfur had a horse named Ragnar who died with him. They were very close.”
“Horse . . . horse . . . no, no horse. Let me try farther out. Good thing I put on the suit under this, eh?”
She returned to shore just long enough to strip down to a long swimmer’s bodysuit, Eve doing the same. “No spirits around here, are there?”
I looked at the stone dangling from my wrist. “None that I see.”
“Hell. So much for the easy way. I guess there’s nothing for it but a little swim in the icy drink. Brrr. Here goes nothing.”
It took them two hours and several trips back to shore, where they stood huddled in blankets guzzling coffee from a large thermos Eve produced, before Siobhan called out from about thirty feet off shore, her hand held high in the air as she swam back to shore.
“Got it!” she said rather breathlessly as she stopped in front of us, both she and Eve bright red with cold. I handed them towels, holding blankets at the ready as Siobhan explained, through chattering teeth, how she was just about to give up when she spotted the essence of a horse, and followed that to Ulfur’s final resting place. “We may get pneumonia from this, but by God, it was worth it. Behold, the essence of one human named Ulfur Hallursson.”
I looked at the empty palm she held out for inspection.
Do you see anything? I asked Kristoff.
He frowned. No.
“Um. Are you sure it’s there?” I asked her.
“Oh, yes, it’s there. Only vespillos can see the essences-otherwise, we’d be out of a job. He’s right here, swirling around like a piece of blue dry ice.”
Eve had been peeling off her wet suit under the cover of a blanket. She emerged now fully clothed, with her head wrapped in a towel, rubbing her hands to get the warmth back. “Do we want to do this here?”
“Sure,” I answered, glancing around. “No one else is here, and I know you guys want nothing more than a hot bath.”
Have you ever seen a lich raised before?
Not raised, no, Kristoff answered, his gaze interested as he watched Siobhan gently set her handful of nothing on a flat rock. I’ve seen liches, of course.
What do they look like? Is Ulfur going to be all green slime running off his oozing flesh, and empty eye sockets? I asked nervously, trying to brace myself for the sight of Ulfur as an undead, albeit corporeal being. Or is he going to be nothing but a skeleton, like in those role-playing games?
Liches don’t look any different from a mortal, other than having black eyes.
Soulless, dead eyes that leach the life from people around them, you mean?
Siobhan changed into her clothing as Eve sat cross-legged on her blanket, her eyes closed, her hands held out as she swayed and chanted softly. “It shouldn’t be long now. Eve is pretty quick. She doesn’t do all the fancy ceremonies unless someone really wants them.”
Kristoff gave me a long-suffering look . I will be glad when you move past the point of believing everything you’ve read or seen in the movies.
Don’t get snarky with me, Boo. As of a couple of days ago, I had no idea liches even existed, let alone what they were.
Eve got slowly to her feet, her eyes still closed, her hands held out palms down over the rock. Suddenly she froze for a moment; then her eyes shot open and she brought her hands together with a loud clap that sounded like a shot, causing me to take a step back.
“Holy . . . Ulfur!” I jumped forward in joy at the sight of the familiar face, even if it was a bit wavery and wispy, as if it had been projected on a curtain of smoke. “Thank God! I thought I’d lost you!”
“Pia?” The smoky figure solidified before our eyes, Ulfur looking down at his hands for a moment.
“Yes! It’s me! I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. Oh, well-done, ladies, well-done. Ulfur, I wouldn’t blame you in the least if you were pissed at me for leaving you to be sucked up by an Ilargi, but I assure you-”
“Dear God, what have you done?” Ulfur asked, his eyes as black as Kristoff had warned they would be, shiny
