Much Ado About Vampires

The same sense of standing in a river swept over me, and I knew the monk was pulling on the power of Bael. I also know that it was directed at Alec, and that I absolutely could not allow.

You will not sacrifice yourself for me! he yelled into my head.

I’m not going to let you suffer any more, Alec. You’ve done enough of that. I wrapped my arms around myself as the power built and built within me, wanting to escape me, wanting to flow out of me and nail Alec in the chest. I fought it, spinning it around and around inside me, trying to contain it, but knowing in my heart that I hadn’t the strength to do so for long.

Brother Godwin dropped me as I curled up on myself in an attempt to hold back the power, and sneered, “You will only destroy yourself, Tool. Release the power!”

“Never!” I panted, writhing on the ground with the agony of the still-building power. Alec reached me just as the second monk threw himself on his back, sending both men to the floor. Kristoff started forward to help, but Brother Ailwin screamed something about Pia, his dagger glinting as he jumped over the ottoman toward her.

Eleanor yelled god alone knew what, dancing around on the fringe, waving a vase and threatening pretty much all of us.

Inside me, the pressure continued to grow, pain lacing every breath as I struggled to hold it back. I felt like a stuffed potato in a pressure cooker, my entire body twisting upon itself as I screamed in anguish.

Corazon! We must Join! Now!

This is not really the moment for this!

If we don’t, you’ll die!

Jesus wept! It hurts, Alec! I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to hold it. Get out of here! If I lose control, it’ll destroy you!

Alec, whom I could barely see through the tears that blurred my eyes, was fighting like a madman with the monk. In the middle of clawing desperately at the floor to reach me despite the monk trying to bash his head on the floor, he did something that boggled what was left of my mind—rather than biting the monk and draining him of his blood, he bit his own thumb, then with a tremendous effort dragged himself and the monk toward me. Take my blood, Cora. You must take it to complete the Joining.

I didn’t argue the point. I didn’t question my need to obey his command. I didn’t even debate with myself the wisdom of taking a step that I knew would change the course of my life forever. I’d already made that choice. I rolled over toward Alec, kicking out at Brother Godwin as I did so, every last atom of my body in torment with the need to fight the power. My control started to slip just as Alec’s hand loomed before my blurred eyes. I opened my mouth, praying the few drops of blood on his thumb would be enough.

As the blood touched my tongue, the power surged within me, spelling certain death to Alec. I screamed an oath of vengeance as I made one last, desperate attempt to turn it back onto myself. “Hide!” I yelled at Alec. For the love of the saints, hide from it!

My back arched as the power broke free, pouring out of me, slamming into the man in front of me before sucking me down into an ebony pool of oblivion.

Chapter Twelve

The words came through to me as if through a dense fog.

“—think we should get a doctor. She’s been out for two hours now. Maybe she’s seriously hurt.”

“I’m not hurt,” I said, amazed that my mouth was working even before my brain was. I opened up my eyes, even more amazed that I was still alive. My last cognizant thought before my brain had shut down had been that Bael’s power must surely have burned me up and left me nothing but a crispy shell of my former self.

Former self . . . for some reason those words wiggled around in my mind until I sat up, clawing at the blankets that covered me, gasping, “Alec!”

“Is out with Kristoff dumping Brother Ailwin in the river. At least that’s what they said they were going to do. I don’t think they really would, but there are times when I just don’t want to know, and this is one of them,” Pia said, smiling at me. “How do you feel?”

“Groggy.” I put my hand to my head, surprised to find it intact. Alec?

You’re awake? Good. Are you sitting down?

Yes, I’m awake, and why on earth would you want to know if I’m sitting?

Because I intend on lecturing you for a very long time, and it would be better for my peace of mind if I knew you were comfortable during it. For the love of the saints, Beloved, do not ever do that to me again ! If I had been mortal, you would have stripped at least twenty-five years from my life span!

I giggled. Pia raised an eyebrow. “Is he giving you hell? ”

“Yes, I think he’s about to.” I laughed again.

“It’s probably best if you let him work it out of his system. I’ve found that the vampires may look all urbane and in control and stuff like that, but they get grumpy if you don’t let them have their drama queen moments. I’ll be downstairs when he’s through. I should probably check that Eleanor hasn’t gone on a rampage while I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

All right, I told Alec, sitting on the edge of the bed. What happened? How come you escaped being fried to a crisp, or blasted into kingdom come, or whatever would have happened to you if Bael’s power had hit you?

You told me to hide. As soon as I realized we had been Joined, I threw myself out of the window.

But I saw someone get nailed.

It was the other lich the dark power struck. He is no more.

Poor guy. Should have been his boss. Hey, you went into the sunlight? Oh Alec! How badly are you burned?

I’m not now. I wasn’t much burned then, either, because the Joining was complete. How are you feeling?

I took stock of myself. Arms and legs seem to be moving OK. I’ve got a bit of a headache, though. What happened to Brother Ailwin, and are you really dumping his body into the river?

He’s not dead, although that thought is very tempting. When you collapsed and he realized that he couldn’t use you again until you were conscious, he tried to carry you out to his car. I stopped him.

There was a distinct tone of satisfaction in his voice that I knew I should protest against, but honestly, I felt Brother Ailwin had it coming to him. You beat the tar out of him?

That’s one way of putting it, yes. Kris helped a little because he threatened Pia. But he let me have most of the fun.

So now you . . . I stopped, feeling awkward and suddenly a bit shy. After all that protesting I had made about Alec being a vampire, it was a bit too much like eating crow to admit that I was willing to bind myself to him for the rest of our lives.

Yes, now I have my soul back. Thank you, Corazon. I know you did not want to do this. I know you did not want to share my life.

You know, if you were anyone else, I’d say you were fishing for a compliment, I said somewhat testily. And if you were any sort of a gentleman, you wouldn’t make me eat my hat.

He laughed.

Fine, have it your way, you obnoxious man, you. I did it because I wanted to, not because I felt I had to. And I know you’re not really a murderous bloodsucker. Happy now?

With regards to you? Beyond your imagining.

His words, and the emotions behind them, warmed me for the next hour as Pia and I waited for the two men to return.

“Well, if this doesn’t just take the rat’s ass and make it into a hat!” Eleanor snarled, stomping into the room with Pia’s cell phone in hand. “I just called the lord in charge of the hour where I live, and he says I can’t come