The infuriating vampire was proving difficult to dismiss.
Kaderin was beginning to really remember infuriating. Quite akin to frustrating. She had those two down.
She dropped from the rail once more, intent on reaching the altar to collect her scroll. She waded past obsequious beings, desiring to pay their respects to her, to the Accord, and to the great Freya and mighty Wóden—as if Kaderin could simply text-message two sleeping gods.
'Katja,' the vampire said, cutting a path through the crowd as beings dove and cowered from him.
'That's not my name,' she snapped without slowing, but he easily fell into step with her. When did it get so hot? She found herself knotting her hair up. 'Tell me, leech. Did you enter to keep Bowen from killing you or to prevent me?'
'Leech?' He frowned, then seemed to shake off her insult. 'We've established that you can't kill me.'
She glared at him over her shoulder. 'I ache to make those your last words.'
'I am beginning to understand this.' He was calm on the exterior, gentlemanly even, but she knew the ferocity that lurked within him—tonight she'd seen it. 'If this contest is important to you, then let me help you. I could trace you to many of the places, and you could defeat everyone.' He hesitantly reached his hand to her shoulder, but he saw that she was about to hiss, and he drew it back.
'I'm going to defeat them anyway.'
'But why not take an easier path?'
'Okay, I'll play.' She crossed her arms over her chest, and his gaze dipped to her cleavage. She snapped her fingers in front of his face.
When his eyes met hers, he scrubbed his hand over his mouth. 'I apologize.' But his expression said he found it worth it. 'You were about to... play?'
'Have you ever been to New Orleans?'
'In the United States?' At her nod, he said, 'Not yet.'
'What about South America?' she asked. 'Africa?'
He hesitated, then shook his head.
'Vampires can only trace to places they've already been. So, where were you planning to trace me? Around your backyard?' she asked, with a deceptively pleasant mien that faded in an instant. 'Vampire, this game is for the big kids only.' She glanced up at the cracked skylight to the lightening sky. Dawn would come in less than an hour. 'And it's almost your beddy-bye time.'
'I could travel with you, to keep you safe.'
'Travel with me? Do you think I would stop and wait around every single day? To cut my time in half because you can't go in the sun?'
He looked as if he'd briefly forgotten a harsh reality and she'd just reminded him. 'No, of course not,' he said quietly. 'I just wanted—'
'You're crowding me. Didn't anybody ever tell you that females don't like to be crowded? One of women's big three turnoffs. Not very sexy.'
For some reason, that made him frown, and immediately back off. His voice was gruff when he asked, 'What are the other two?'
'You're wearing out number one. How about working on that first?' She turned from him to get to the altar, and surprisingly, he didn't follow.
She passed Scribe, who'd begun cleaning the temple—though not so much as to effect order. He plucked a camouflaging tree limb off the damaged column. When he saw the claw marks, he scowled at nearby creatures, who studied their hooves.
She strode past him with a kindly greeting, addressing him as 'Sacred Scribe,' which always put him in raptures, and he stumbled on the limb, nervously stuttering a reply.
At the altar, Riora was speaking with two elves, saying something about the 'real-time coverage of the competition online' and ordering them to 'drive visitors to the site.'
Still feeling the vampire's eyes on her, Kaderin hopped up, the only one in the Lore who would dare such a thing. She plucked a scroll from a pile of them and unrolled it. Every competitor would get the same list of tasks— and each list included the talismans or sought objects, the coordinates for finding them, and a brief description. As usual, there were about ten choices of tasks in any given round.
Once Riora was finished with her spate of PR, she said, 'And how are your parents, Kaderin the Cold?'
Kaderin knew Riora was inquiring about two of her three parents. Kaderin's birth mother had been mortal. 'They sleep still, Goddess,' she said absently, reading. Gods derived power from how many prayers and offerings they received with each passing of the sun, hence Riora's Internet attempt to garner more. But there were so few who worshipped Freya and Wóden that the two slept to conserve their energy. 'Interesting talismans this Hie,' Kaderin observed.
In the past, Kaderin had always gone after the closest talismans first. Now, with more than one real contender, she would devise new strategies, shake them all up. She would go for the far-flung points and the more difficult tasks at the outset.
'I thought so,' Riora said. 'Pity I'll only get about half on that list. You know, because of all the accidental deaths.'
Kaderin nodded in sympathy. Then her gaze landed on the option for the highest points offered in this interval: twelve points to retrieve one of three mirror amulets. The most she'd ever gone for was a prize worth fifteen points. This task wouldn't be so much about life-threatening peril but more about logistics. Whoever could arrange to get there first—won.
Though the destination fell outside the Accord's network, Kaderin had other resources, and for the first time in a Hie, she was going to ask her coven for help. Just please don't let Regin answer when I call...
Kaderin heard helicopters outside, engines humming louder as their bows dipped to surge forward. Strike hard, strike fast. Yes, that one. She rolled the parchment up and dropped down.
Before she could leave, Riora asked, 'You disapprove of my vampire knight?'
Kaderin faced her. 'I'm well aware that you couldn't care less about my approval. Or my extreme and absolute lack thereof.' Why was Riora studying her so closely? Kaderin flushed under her scrutiny. Riora had always seemed to take an unaccountable interest in Kaderin, but this was intense.
'You seem different.'
'Cause I can freaking feel! 'New haircut,' Kaderin mumbled instead. Could Riora sense her new emotions— most particularly, her shame over her attraction to the vampire? Her gaze darted to Sebastian.
'So, the interest flows both ways, Lady Kaderin? How inconvenient.'
'Pardon?'
Riora tilted her head and perused him. He leaned against a wall, staring at Kaderin with his arms crossed over his muscular chest above his injuries. 'Of course, if one were to be interested in a vampire, that one you could almost justify.'
'Riora, I never said I—'
'I'm merely saying it appears as if some gods blessed my knight in form.'
Kaderin felt her expression tighten. 'Did they bless your knight with a raging appetite for blood?' she snapped, shocking even herself.
'Watch your tone, Valkyrie.' The flames hissed and swayed. 'This isn't a coffee klatch.' Behind them, Scribe leapt back, swatting when his sleeve caught fire.
Kaderin ground her teeth, then said, 'Yes, Riora.'
She sighed. 'Go.' Her tone gentled. 'If you win the race, you can bring back your sisters.'
Kaderin's eyes narrowed. 'You know about them? I've never told you of my loss.'
'I already knew of you when they were killed.'
'If you understand how important this is, then would the incandescent Riora like to bestow some tips on the race?'
Riora gasped, playful once more. 'You treat me as if I'm a one-nine-hundred chess helpline. I feel cheapened.' She regarded her nails. 'I've blinded men for less.' Scribe was again busy behind them, more tentatively dousing the last of the fires, but he paused to nod, as if he'd definitely seen that one happen.
'I'm sorry. I should have known,' Kaderin said. 'Everyone says it's impossible to get information out of
