Much Ado About Vampires

He slid me a look as he took my hand, making me hurry to keep up with his long-legged stride. “I’m glad you’re including me in your escape plans, although I regret to inform you that there is no way to get out of the Akasha short of being summoned out.”

“Then we’ll just have to arrange for that,” I said, feeling a bit mulish. I didn’t plan on spending the rest of my life dodging committee meetings.

“And just how do you expect to pull that off when we’re stuck in here with no way to communicate to the outside? ”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure as shooting not going to sit around here waiting for people to use me for who knows what bad—Diamond!”

A familiar face turned as I called out her name. She was standing with two other people, but smiled when I almost dragged Alec up to her, her eyes moving from me to him, widening when she took in all his manly glory.

You are making far too much of my appearance, querida.

Oh, don’t tell me you don’t like it, because I can feel just how much you enjoy overhearing my inadvertently and wholly insincere smutty thoughts about you. I bet you just love it when women go gaga over you, pandering to your insatiable ego, inflating your head until it’s approximately the size of Montana . I’m equally sure you love it when women look at you like Diamond is looking at you, which honestly I have to say is way out of line, considering she has a husband she claims she loves, not to mention the fact that she stole him from me.

I thought you no longer wanted him?

I don’t, but no woman likes to have a man stolen out from under her nose, and if Diamond thinks she’s going to pull that again with you, she’s going to be in a whole world of hurt.

Now who’s jealous?

I transferred my glare from Diamond to Alec. “I really don’t like you,” I told him.

“And just when I was beginning to think otherwise of you,” he almost purred into my ear.

A shiver of the purest pleasure rippled down my back.

“Cora! You missed a fascinating breakfast. There were some lovely speakers talking about the sorts of things that are available for us to pass the time here in the Akasha. But tell me, who is your friend?” Her gaze flickered from where my fingers were twined through his to his face.

“This is Alec Darwin. He’s a vampire. He killed a woman several hundred years ago.” I bit back the words that my inner devil was trying to force out, hiding them deep in my psyche so Alec wouldn’t overhear them: And he’s not available.

“Hello, Alec,” Diamond said with a cheery smile.

He responded politely, then peered at her for a few seconds. She’s glowing.

She is? I glanced at her, my eyes widening. Oh, no, she is! Was she affected by me becoming the eyeball of Sauron?

Occio di Lucifer, and no, I don’t think it works that way. I could feel him turning the facts over in his mind. Did you say that Ulfur glowed, as well?

Yes.

And that he had stolen something from Bael?

Something gold, yes. It looked like a flattened disk when he showed it to me.

Before or after you were cast into the Akasha?

After.

Sins of the saints . . . Ulfur must have stolen all three Tools.

You think he’s an Occio, too?

No, it sounds like he’s the Anima di Lucifer. That used to be a dragon-shaped aquamanile. Which means that this woman must have been holding the third Tool.

“And you just met? ” Diamond interrupted my thoughts with a pointed look at where I still held Alec’s hand.

“Yes.” I pushed away the spike of jealousy, focusing on what was important. “Diamond, when we were at the house and you were in the basement, what were you doing? ”

“Taking pictures. You know that.”

“No, I mean right at the moment when suddenly we were zapped here.”

“Oh.” She looked thoughtful. “I was examining a very pretty goblet I found that had rolled beneath the stairs. It looked valuable, and I was going to bring it up to show you, when poof!”

“Goblet?” I asked Alec.

He nodded. “The Voce di Lucifer. All three of you were holding a Tool when Bael banished Ulfur.”

“Bael?” Diamond froze. “The demon lord Bael?”

“Yes.” Alec looked at her with speculation that was mirrored in my mind. “Do you know him?”

“Me? Merciful sovereign, no! But I know of him, of course. Everyone does,” she explained, her hands fluttering in the air as she spoke. “Are you saying Bael sent us here?”

“That’s what we think,” I said slowly. “Diamond, how come you know about the demon lord guy? Why didn’t you see him at the house? Why aren’t you freaking out about being here? And why were you so happy to go off to a breakfast of the damned without so much as wigging out one tiny little bit?”

“What is there to wig out about?” she asked with a bright smile shared between us. “It’s the Akasha, not Abaddon, Cora. I’ve never seen a demon lord before, so I didn’t know he was at the house, although it did feel as if there was a very old entrance to Abaddon somewhere on the premises. As for being here, well, I’ve always wanted to see the Akasha, and here we are! It’s so very fascinating, don’t you think? And the people here are so nice. Almost desperately pleased to have someone to talk to, if you know what I mean. Margaretta told me there were some informational meetings I could sit in on if I liked to see how things were done here, which sounds super fun, don’t you think?”

She’s deranged, I told Alec, staring at her in astonishment.

It’s tempting to agree, but I don’t think she is. I think she’s . . . hmm.

She’s what?

I’m not quite sure. She appears human, but that could be just a glamour. Whatever she is, I don’t believe she’s mundane.

Mundane?

Mortal.

I pinched his fingers. Are you saying I’m mundane, buster?

You are mortal, yes, he said with a mental leer. But you’re anything but mundane in every other sense of the word.

Warmth washed through me, which I strove to keep him from feeling, but I knew by the smug smile in his mind that he felt it nonetheless.

I seriously needed to get out of here and away from this man before I lost all my wits and ended up like Jas. “I think that this is just about the worst place I’ve ever been in, Diamond. I’ve asked Alec to help us get out of here, in fact, and I think maybe you should help us think of a way out.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” she said, waving away something so minor as permanent occupation in the Akasha. “My great-grandmother is very resourceful. I’m sure she’ll figure out something to get us out of here.”

Mentally, I shook my head at that comment, but so long as she wasn’t worried about being stuck here, I wasn’t going to push the point.

“In the meantime,” she continued happily, “I intend on enjoying myself. I think I’ll sit in on one of those meetings Margaretta told me about. Why don’t you and Alec come with me, and we can brainstorm if it will make you feel better?”

“Pass,” I told her, smiling to myself at Alec’s mental shudder. “We’ll just work on getting out of here. I’ll give you a yell if we find a way.”

“Suit yourself,” she said, giving Alec another once-over that had me shifting closer to him, which just made my inner devil giggle. “Then again, perhaps you are doing exactly that. Ta-ta!”

“Don’t say it,” I told Alec as he was about to make a comment that I knew would make me blush.