Much Ado About Vampires

toppled in Bael’s wake. “You just say a few things and he’s gone?”

“Well . . . I could have made it a big production if it would have been more satisfying,” Sally said, getting down from the piece of rock that had thrust itself up through the floor. “I just assumed everyone had better things to do.”

“But . . .” Pia looked around the room as if seeking an answer. “But that was so easy. Why didn’t you do that before?”

“Easy? Oh, lawks a-mercy, no, it wasn’t easy.” Sally shook her head. “Bael was the premier prince, sugar. You don’t get to be the premier prince unless you’re packing a whole lot of wallop, if you know what I mean. And Bael had more wallop than anyone I’d ever met, which is curious, really, when you think about it. . . .” Sally looked thoughtful as her voice trailed off.

“I’m still confused,” Pia complained.

“I think it was us, Pia,” Ulfur told her, relief evident in every line in his body. “I think we made the difference. Being Tools, that is.”

“If Bael’s gone, does that mean no one can call me a Tool again?” Cora asked Alec, her hands gently caressing his arm and chest as she checked his injuries. Do you still hurt?

Not when you are near. “Yes, that is exactly what it means. Thank you, Sally,” he said, giving the petite woman a formal bow.

Sally, who had just resummoned Sable and was giving orders in a low tone, waved her hand in acknowledgment.

“But . . . they’re just three people. I mean, I understand they’re conduits and all. . . .” Pia shook her head. “I guess I’m missing something.”

Kristoff bent his head to whisper in her ear.

“I think it’s just that we’re awesome when joined together,” Cora said with a little laugh, licking the tip of Alec’s nose. His heart warmed at the silly gesture. He wanted to sing and dance, to shout from the highest peak that Cora loved him.

“Say it again,” he demanded of her.

She smiled a secret smile that delighted him to the tips of his toes, her dark eyes glowing with love. “Te amo.”

“Speaking of that, Cora, sugar, if you’re going to molest your Dark One, why don’t you do it somewhere private rather than jumping his bones right here where any of the demon lords coming to pay me homage can see? If you’re worried about Alec’s injuries, you can use one of the rooms on the human side of the house if you like.” Sally, having dismissed Sable once again, brushed past them, straightening the little red wool jacket and patting her hair. “Now, should my first act as premier prince be to restructure the hierarchy, or to install high-speed wireless Internet in Abaddon? I’m thinking the latter. I’m just a grouchy ole thing if I have to go a day without my LOLcats.”

“LOLcats? Right, that’s it!” Cora said, turning in his arms to frown at Sally. “One minute you’re being all nice, and apparently perfectly normal, if slightly obsessed about hair and makeup, and the next you’re the evil demon lord who wants to conduct the most horrible tortures upon us, and hand us over to Bael so he can destroy us.”

“Are you destroyed? ” Sally asked her sweetly, and Alec could feel the frustration and genuine confusion that gripped his Beloved.

“No, of course not,” Cora said with a glance over her shoulder to him.

“Then I didn’t want to hand you over to Bael.”

You’re not in the least bit concerned about Sally despite the fact that she is the source of all our troubles, are you? Cora asked.

She isn’t, you know. For some reason, she just likes to make it look that way.

Cora sighed into his mind. I’m missing something, aren’t I?

You didn’t happen to see a flash of light a few minutes ago, did you?

Huh?

I’ll explain it later, if Sally doesn’t do the job herself.

Cora rubbed her temple as if she had a headache forming. “You didn’t want to hand us over to Bael, and yet you told him you were doing just that. How is bringing us to Abaddon not handing us over to him?”

“Cora, Cora, Cora. I don’t know where you get your ideas about dear Sally, but I can assure you that you really are not being quite fair to her. Oh dear, is that the time? Dee will be absolutely furious with me. I must go reassure him that all is well.” Diamond bustled over to them, patting Cora’s hand and kissing her cheek before turning her eyes to Alec. “You take care of her, now.”

“I intend to,” he said gravely, amused that anyone could imagine he would do anything but worship the woman who made him whole again.

Diamond took her leave, greeting a man as he strolled into the twisted remains of a ballroom.

“Somehow, I knew you’d be here,” Cora said to Terrin as he made a bow in their direction.

“Indeed? I take it all is well?” He looked around the room with curious eyes before turning back to Sally. “I thought you said the room was full of liches and Dark Ones? ”

“It was, darling, it was positively teeming with them! You couldn’t put so much as an iron maiden down without hitting one or the other of them.”

“Iron maiden!” Cora said, straightening from where she had been leaning against him. “You’re back to that, are you?”

Sally giggled. “I just put that in to see if you were listening, sugar. I would never use an iron maiden.”

Cora glared at her with suspicion.

“Now, a Catherine wheel is a whole other matter. One of the demon lords—you wouldn’t know him; Bael had him expulsed because of his dragon consort, and oh, there’s ever such an interesting story to be told about them, but far too long to go into here since I am a busy person now that I’m the premier prince . . . where was I?”

“One of the demon lords?” Terrin prompted, propping one hip on an edge of the table.

“Oh, yes, one of the demon lords had such interesting ideas about ways to use a Catherine wheel, given to him, he says, by a Spanish wyvern’s mate who was very inventive when it came to matters of bondage and such. But I digress. How are things at home?”

The last question was directed to Terrin.

“Fine, although the mares are a bit distressed that—”

“What is this?” A man’s roar interrupted him, ripping through the room with the force of a bulldozer. Instantly, Alec moved to guard Cora, aware of her mingled annoyance and appreciation over that fact, amused when she grumbled to herself about men who had to learn a thing or two about women.

Terrin turned in surprise to look at the slight, small dark-haired man who strode into the room, a piece of paper clasped in his hands.

“Who are you? ” Alec demanded, Kristoff moving Pia to stand next to Cora, the two men presenting a solid, protective front. Alec knew full well the newcomer was a demon lord, and thus not likely to bother them, but Cora had been through a lot, and he wanted nothing more than to get her away from all this business so he could seduce her as she deserved to be seduced.

She pinched his back and ignored his demand to stay behind him, her arm around his waist as she stood next to him.

“I am Asmodeus,” the man answered, dismissing them with a curl of his lip as he shoved the paper at Sally. “What does this mean?”

“You got the e-mail already?” Sally gave a little shake of her head. “I told Sable to wait until the others were gone. Oh, well, I suppose you’re here to make a scene about the fact that I’ve banished Bael to the Akasha.”

“No,” Asmodeus said, his expression closed. “That act can only gain my approval. I am here to claim the position of premier prince.”

Are you sure I can’t be used as a Tool anymore? That guy looks mean enough to use me against Sally. Or, heaven forbid, you, if you keep thinking those things about what you’ll do to him if he so much as looks my way. Really, Alec, I’m a big girl.

Unbidden, his hand slid up to cup her ass, just the thought of it and her hips and breasts, and all the rest of her, making him hard. A fact for which I’m prepared to get down on my knees and thank whatever fates, gods, or circumstances sent you into my life, but that is really not the important point at this moment,