Zen and the Art of Vampires

I glanced at Magda. She gave an almost imperceptible shrug.

'You may proceed,' Kristjana said, pulling over a chair from the wall so she could write at the end of the desk.

I briefly went over my actions upon finding Anniki.

'I find it… interesting… that you were sleeping so soundly that you were not aware of someone entering your room, let alone stabbing the Zorya. Do you, perhaps, suffer from a sleeping disorder?'

'No,' I answered hesitantly. I really did not want to tell them I'd been with a man, not through any prudishness, but more a desire to avoid the repercussions that would be sure to follow if they found out just what Alec was.

'Ah?' Frederic's mild brown eyes considered me with an unusually perceptive glint. 'Do you have a reason accounting for the fact that you slept through the attack on the Zorya?'

'Is all this really important?' Magda asked before I could answer him. 'I mean, so she slept through two people creeping through her room into the bathroom. It's not really so out of the bounds of reality to imagine that she was just tired and didn't wake up.'

'I do not imply that it is,' Frederic countered. 'However, you must grant that the Brotherhood has a right to be interested in the circumstances of the death of one of our most esteemed members. More than a right—we have a duty to ensure that the guilty person is punished for the murder.'

'I want the person caught, naturally,' I said slowly. The question was, did I really? It couldn't have been Alec. It just couldn't have been. I couldn't have slept with a man who possessed the ability to mercilessly slaughter a woman while I slept in the next room. I would have sensed that sort of evil. Wouldn't I?

But if the killer wasn't Alec, then it had to be Kristoff, and much as I knew him to be capable of killing someone, I had a hard time resolving the image of him stabbing Anniki in the chest and running away. Kristoff wasn't the sort of man to run—if he killed a Zorya, I imagined he'd take full credit for the act, feeling it a point of pride.

I bit my lower lip while those thoughts chased each other around. Alec or Kristoff… it had to be one of those two who had killed Anniki. And yet my instincts told me that neither had. But what motive would anyone but a vampire have to want the Zorya dead?

'You wish to tell me something but are afraid we will think poorly of you for it.' Frederic's voice cut through my murky thoughts. I glanced up to find him smiling benignly at me. 'I can assure you that will not be the case.'

Would it matter if I told them I was with a man, so long as I kept Alec's nature from them? It was clear they knew I was keeping something back, and I was a horrible liar, as was proven a few minutes earlier. If I tried to lie about what it was I was hesitant to say, they'd know, and perhaps keep after me until the truth came out. And then surely they'd wonder why I felt it necessary to keep mum about something so innocuous as spending the night with a man.

'You're right, of course,' I said, taking a deep breath. I would hedge my bets a bit by mixing most of the truth with a little bit of a red herring. 'I come from a small town where old-fashioned values are still held, and I forgot that Scandinavians are more open to such things. The reason I slept so heavily is because I had been up into the wee hours of the morning with a man. He was gone by the time I woke up, an unflattering reflection on my charms that I hoped to avoid dwelling upon.'

'A man?' Mattias said suddenly, frowning. 'You are my Zorya, and yet you slept with another man? Who is he?'

'I really don't think his name is pertinent,' I said, striving for a lofty tone. 'He didn't kill Anniki.'

'You have known this man for some length of time?' Frederic asked, his expression shrewd.

I gave a little embarrassed laugh that was entirely heartfelt. 'Now you really are making me bare my sins. As a matter of fact, I just met him last night.'

'If you just met him, then how do you know he did not murder the Zorya?' Kristjana asked, looking up from her sheets of paper.

That was the question, wasn't it?

'I don't make a habit of sleeping with murderers,' I said, manufacturing an outraged expression.

'But you don't know for sure that he didn't kill her.'

'No more so than I know any one of you didn't creep into my room and stab Anniki, but I certainly don't think that's likely,' I pointed out.

'I wish to know more about this man,' Mattias demanded. 'Is he a tourist? American?'

'I think he's a tourist,' I said, not wanting to get into too many details, 'although he's not American. He has a slight German accent.'

'German. Tch,' Mattias said with a frown.

'How exactly did you meet him?' Frederic asked.

'Look, I've answered your questions no matter how embarrassing I've found them, but I am not going to subject myself to a third degree!' I said with a quick glance at Magda. She gave me a discreet thumbs-up at my indignant attitude. 'The details of my night with him are neither here nor there. I've told you that he didn't murder Anniki. He was with me for part of the night, and after that he left. I don't know anything other than that.'

Frederic was silent for a few moments before he rose and went to the lone window in the room, pulling back a faded gold curtain to glance outside. It was starting to get late, and I was beginning to feel the full effects of a day of stress and no food. 'You do not seem to understand the full ramifications of the death of the previous Zorya, Pia. She was a blameless member of the Brotherhood, and had no enemies that we know of—save one. You are aware of the existence of Dark Ones, yes?'

'Dark One what?' Magda asked, clearly confused.

My fingers tightened around the armrests of the chair. I forced myself to relax. 'Anniki told me about them, yes.'

'Who are they?' Magda asked.

The three people in the room all watched me, clearly expecting me to provide the answer.

'They're the vampires I told you about earlier,' I said, picking my words carefully. 'They have a long history of animosity with the Brotherhood people.'

'Animosity?' Kristjana snorted, jabbing her pen into the paper. 'That is a deceptively mild term. It is our goal to cleanse the world of the evil the Dark Ones possess.'

'Oh, those vampires,' Magda said thoughtfully. She nodded after a few moments' reflection. 'The ones you do the Buffy number on, right?'

'Buffy number?' Frederic looked confused for a moment.

'It is a reference to an American television show,' Kristjana explained.

'Ah. Buffy! Yes, I remember that now. It is not quite the same thing, mademoiselle. In reality, Dark Ones are merciless, soulless monsters intent on corrupting our world until no light at all exists.'

I sat silent, thinking of Alec. He wasn't evil. Kristoff certainly had a harder edge, but even he wasn't a monster. He could have killed me easily, but opted not to.

'I had no idea,' Magda said, shaking her head at her folly. 'Well. That's certainly an eye-opener, but what has that to do with Pia? You don't suspect her of being a vampire, surely.'

'No, of course not,' Frederic said quickly, making a vague gesture. 'We would know if she was, but there is the fact that the only people who would desire a Zorya dead are Dark Ones. Thus it must be one of them who killed Anniki. And it is entirely within the bounds of reality, as you so charmingly put it, that your friend here was used by one.'

'You think she slept with a vampire?' Magda asked, with obvious incredulity.

I arranged my face to look surprised at such an idea. 'I think that's stretching things a little, don't you?'

'Perhaps,' Frederic said, moving quickly to my side. Before I could object, he swept back my hair and examined the side of my neck. 'But not so unlikely as you might imagine. You are aware of the mark you bear here, Zorya Pia?'

'A mark? She bears a mark?' Kristjana said, half standing.

'It's just a hickey,' I protested, pushing Frederic back and getting to my feet. 'A love bite, if you will. Not a vampire bite.'

'She does! She bears the mark,' Kristjana said, throwing down her pen and starting toward me.