himself.
The music ended. I stood watching him for a moment, suddenly sad at the situation. How on earth was I going to get through a lifetime of being held emotionally at arm’s length when just a couple of days had me wanting to shake him?
Behind me, women squealed and called out excitedly as a bride was helped onto a table in preparation for throwing her bouquet.
“Bah. Competition is nothing,” Magda said, fanning her face as she and Raymond returned. “I could blow those skinny Icelandic women down with one breath, but I don’t need a bouquet that bad. What’s wrong?”
She had addressed the last comment to me.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s go before someone of the fanged variety spots us. Our plane leaves in ten and a half hours, so that ought to give us enough time to visit the hot springs.”
“Amen,” she said, taking Raymond’s arm.
Kristoff held out his hand for me, his eyes bright with passion, but it was not his sexual interest I doubted.
That thought remained, even two hours later when I found myself in heaven.
“I don’t care how you ended up with this money. I don’t care if you get to keep it. I don’t care about anything right now, to be honest.” I heaved a blissful sigh and sank up to my neck in the warm, milky blue, algae- and mineral-laden water of the famed Blue Lagoon hot springs. “Other than the fact that we have three whole hours of this. Who needs sleep when we can soak here?”
“This is not a replacement for proper rest, but it is the best I can do, since you refuse to sleep. You will do so on the plane, however.” Kristoff’s voice drifted out of the private lounge he’d reserved for us. Although the Blue Lagoon covered a large area shaped by the surrounding volcanic rocks, the main section did not offer privacy. The spa offered a couple of areas (for a hefty fee) that not only included personal changing rooms and a lounge where one could relax on some very modern-looking furniture, but also a tiny private lagoon.
“You said I was immortal now that I’m officially your Beloved.” I wriggled my toes into the soft mud, allowing myself to bob gently in the water. I had read in the spa brochure that the water was famed for its therapeutic qualities, and that the white silica mud was much sought after for its antiaging properties. I reached down and scooped up a handful of the mud, letting it slip through my fingers. It was chalky white, but smooth, like very fine sand.
“That doesn’t mean you don’t need sleep.” Kristoff emerged from the lounge behind us. He was still fully clothed. I frowned.
“Why am I here, naked, in our very own private watery paradise, and you’re not molesting me as is my due?” I asked.
“We’re here because I thought you would enjoy it. Also because it is likely that the Dark Ones will be canvassing hotels in the area. But mostly because you need somewhere to rest and are too stubborn to do so elsewhere.”
“Boo.”
“What?”
“You know full well what I mean. Why aren’t you here in the water with me, naked, so I can ply my womanly wiles upon your fabulous, if still slightly too skinny, male body?”
“There are things that must be done, Pia. I have a few friends remaining upon whom I can call, and I have done so.”
That got my attention. I bobbed my way over to the wooden planking that edged one side of our pool. “Call for what?”
Kristoff squatted and ran his fingers across the top of the water. “Information regarding reaper movements in California. And to track Alec’s last known movements.”
“Oh, excellent. What did you find out? Where did he go?” I asked.
He was silent for a moment. “Nothing has been discovered yet.”
I frowned. “Damn. What about the Brotherhood people? Is anything going on besides the fact that they’re hunkering down for a fight?”
“Nothing that I haven’t already mentioned.”
“Hmm. I was thinking about this on the ride out here.”
“You were not,” he countered. “You spent the trip out here fondling my leg and thinking the most erotic thoughts that a man can bear. And a couple I couldn’t.”
“I did both. I’m a woman-I can multitask. Anyway, I was mulling over the situation with Alec and the reapers, and I think I see the truth. It all comes back to Frederic.”
One eyebrow went up.
“You have the most expressive eyebrows. I love that about you,” I said, smiling before I continued. “See if you follow my reasoning, which I admit right now might be the teensiest bit flawed, because I’m a bit rummy from lack of sleep. One.” I held up my fingers to tick off the items. “Denise was protecting someone.”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
“I’m pretty sure of it. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Two, Frederic killed her.”
He nodded.
“Three, with the Zenith gone, the director of the board of governors is more or less in charge of the whole shebang.”
His nod was slower in coming this time, but it came at last. “There is a new Zenith, though,” he pointed out.
“Sooner or later, yes. But what if the later is much, much later? What if Frederic wanted to be in charge but, because he’s male, could never be a Zenith? What if he set up Denise, giving her some convincing line of bull that had her believing he was a good guy, but in reality he was setting her up for the fall? And then when she did fall, he shot her to keep her from talking? Voilà. Instant leader of the reapers, with no witnesses and no questions asked.”
He thought about that for a few minutes. “It is possible, I grant you. But where does Alec fall in this theory of double cross and hidden agendas?”
“Oh, Alec.” I sank back into the water, enjoying its warm, silky feeling on my naked flesh. “Well, we know vampires can’t be reapers, even if they’re from the Ilargi side of the family, right?”
Kristoff made a vague gesture.
“Right, so, he can’t be an Ilargi, but he can work for one.”
“Why would he wish to participate in the stealing of souls?” Kristoff asked.
“He doesn’t want to. Or rather, it’s a necessary evil in order for him to ingratiate himself with Frederic.”
“The director?”
“Yes! Frederic is the Ilargi! Don’t you see? He’s doing a double-cross thing, just like you said. He got Denise out of the way, and now he’s going around eliminating ghosts so Zoryas can’t do anything with them. Alec probably contacted him with some weird tale of wanting to help the reapers without letting him know he was a vampire, so Frederic set him up to appear to be the Ilargi, just in case anyone nosed around.”
“Less experienced reapers would not recognize a Dark One as being such on sight, but I assume the director would,” Kristoff pointed out. “Sooner or later he would come face-to-face with Alec and know that he was not what he appeared.”
“Exactly.” I back-kicked a couple of feet. “But by then the illusion of Alec being the Ilargi was in place. I don’t doubt that he’s innocent, as your gut instinct said. They probably have him in maximum security back in Brotherhood Central. The reason he’s still alive is because they don’t have a Zenith, so therefore, they can’t fire up the local Zorya and get her to off him.”
“I hesitate to ask this, but my curiosity to hear your explanation outweighs my better judgment: Why would the director wish to effectively destroy the ghosts his organization was created to protect and aid?”
I smiled. “Because he’s mad, of course. He doesn’t care about ghosts anymore. All he wants is to rid the world of you guys, so he’s eliminating any distractions that would keep Zoryas from performing his purposes-killing vampires.”
“But there is no Zenith, and thus the murders can’t be performed.”
“That had me confused, too, until I realized something really obvious-the original purpose of the Zoryas was
