Much Ado About Vampires

one who is freaking out?

No! Not over a ghost horse. Cora looked at Ragnor as the horse snuffled her front. She put out a wary hand to pat it, but her hand passed right through its neck. OK, maybe a little.

He put an arm around her, kissing the top of her head. You have nothing to fear, love. I will not allow anything, mortal or immortal, to harm you.

You know, that sort of an attitude could be cloying and very annoying.

But you understand my need to protect you and cherish you, he said, making it a statement and not a question.

Something like that.

Jane the lichmaster seemed to be suffering the same sort of surprise as Cora. “A horse. Yes. Well. Can it take a corporeal form?”

“For short periods, yes,” Pia answered. “Ragnor?”

The horse’s form solidified. Cora pressed against Alec. Not because I’m afraid, she told him.

Of course not.

She snorted, then smiled when everyone looked at her. “A ghost horse. So . . . yeah. Um. Do I need to do anything for this ceremony?”

Jane eyed her. “Are you related to the summonee?”

“No. Well, not unless you consider the fact that we’re now both—”

“She is not related,” Alec said quickly. Beloved, this woman is a lichmaster. I don’t think we need to tell her that in a few moments she’ll have two of the three Tools of Bael in her presence.

Oh! I didn’t think of that. She seems so nice. But you’re probably right. I’ll just keep my lips zipped on that subject around lichy people. How come she doesn’t recognize what I am, like Brother Ailwin?

Probably he’s much older than her, and has either seen a Tool or knows what signs to look for.

“‘Now both’ what?” Jane asked Cora, obviously curious.

“Both . . . having had contact with his boss. Alphonse de Marco, that is,” Cora said with a toothy smile.

“Ah. Shall we proceed?” Jane drew a circle in the dirt floor, chanting as she did so. She directed Ragnor to stand in the middle of the circle, which the horse did, then held out a small silver dagger to Pia. “The lich is to be bound to you, yes? He will initially be bound to me when I summon him, but directly after that, we’ll transfer him to you. This blood bond should help that transfer. If you would prick yourself with the dagger and squeeze six drops of blood into the circle, following with six strands of your hair. Then blow on the horse six times. I shall do the same.”

“They have to blow on the horse?” Cora asked Alec.

“Blood, hair, and breath. They are the three common elements in summoning spells.”

He could feel her turning that over in her mind, one part of her warning her to run as fast as she could from the concept of magic, the other part of her, the curious part, fascinated with the whole proceeding.

It took longer than he hoped it would take, requiring three separate summonses and an hour and a quarter before the air in the circle shimmered, pulled itself together, and resolved into the form of the former ghost.

“Ulfur!” Pia squealed, starting forward toward him. Kristoff pulled her back before she reached the circle at the same time that Jane called out a warning.

“Do not touch him yet! We must first bind him to me quickly before his master can summon him back, and then we will transfer him to you. By my blood I bind you, by my body, I bind you, by my breath, I bind you.” Jane slapped her hands together, the sound reverberating with the intensity of a small bomb.

Too late. Cora clapped her hands over her ears. Jesus wept, what was that?

The sound of a lich being bound. It is done at last, and by my reckoning, we have less than an hour to summon your friend.

But won’t de Marco just summon him back?

He can’t, Alec answered.

Why not? Cora nodded toward Jane. She just did.

Jane summoned Ulfur because Pia had a connection to him in the form of his horse, who he was bound to in death. De Marco has no such link; thus he has no way to summon Ulfur from Pia.

Well, that’s a relief.

The transfer to Pia went quickly after that, and in no time Kristoff was writing out a very large check while Pia repeatedly hugged a teary-eyed Ulfur.

“I will never be able to thank you for what you’ve done,” he said, holding Pia’s hands before turning and making a formal bow to Kristoff. “For what you’ve both done. I will be eternally grateful that you released me from my bondage to de Marco. But I must tell you—”

“I think we’d better be leaving,” Alec interrupted with a telling glance to Kristoff, who nodded and shooed Pia toward the side door. “Beloved?”

“Right here. Nice to see you again, Ulfur. We have a lot to talk about, but I’m sure Jane is anxious to get Eleanor up to speed on her Web project, so we’ll catch up back at the hotel, OK?”

Ulfur opened his mouth to say something, but evidently caught the undercurrent of tension, and simply nodded.

They made their good-byes to both Eleanor and Jane, using the time spent traveling back to the hotel at which they’d agreed to meet Terrin to fill in Ulfur on the recent happenings.

“I never thought other lichmasters would want to use us in that way,” he said after hearing about Brother Ailwin’s failed attempt to take Cora. “Oh, god, we’re going to have to live with that forever, aren’t we? Not to mention the fact that every lichmaster and necromancer who knows what we are will summon me away from you, Pia.”

“Well, as to that, Alec has a plan,” Cora said, giving him a worried look. “I won’t say it’s not crazy as a coonhound, but it’s the only thing we can think of to fix the situation.”

“A plan?” Ulfur asked, looking slightly worried.

“What plan?” Kristoff demanded to know.

“Crazy as a coonhound? Oh, it sounds completely up our alley,” Pia added, patting Kristoff’s arm. “Dish!”

“It’s quite simple, really,” Cora said as she leaned into him, her scent teasing him, as it always did. “Alec is going to destroy Bael.”

The silence that met that statement wasn’t particularly flattering to his ego, nor was the “He what? ‘Crazy as a coonhound’ is the understatement of the year” comment as issued by Kristoff. But Alec was a man driven, and he knew that if he wanted to have any sort of future with Cora, he’d have to do the impossible.

It was just a matter of organization, and if there was one thing he was good at, it was making plans.

Chapter Fourteen

“Cora . . . this isn’t going to hurt, is it?”

I gave Ulfur a reassuring smile. “Of course not. It just makes you kind of tingle, like you’re almost touching an electric fence wire. Why would you think it hurts?”

His lips twisted. “Everything else does. Why should being the Tool of Bael be any different?”

I stared at him for a few seconds as Pia cooed over him. Another one who is in pain. What is with you guys?

Alec was startled for a moment. Another one? You can feel my pain?

I did before we Joined, yes. Shouldn’t I have?

No. Once I realized we had a sympathetic link, I made sure to keep those emotions from you.