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The words ca

" - think we should get a doctor She&039;s been out for two hours now Maybe she&039;s seriously hurt"

"I&039; even before my brain was I opened up nizant thought before my brain had shut down had been that Bael&039;s powerbut a crispy shell of my forled around inat the blankets that coveredBrother Ailwin in the river At least that&039;s what they said they were going to do I don&039;t think they really would, but there are times when I just don&039;t want to know, and this is one of they" I put my hand to my head, surprised to find it intact Alec?

You&039;re awake? Good Are you sitting down?

Yes, I&039;m awake, and why on earth would you want to know if I&039; time, and it would be better forit For the love of the saints, Beloved, do not ever do that to ain ! 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&039;s about to" I laughed again

"It&039;s probably best if you let him work it out of his system I&039;ve found that the vampires may look all urbane and in control and stuff like that, but they get grumpy if you don&039;t let them have their drama queen h I should probably check that Eleanor hasn&039;t gone on a ra for you to wake up"

All right, I told Alec, sitting on the edge of the bed What happened? How codom come, or whatever would have happened to you if Bael&039;s power had hit you?

You told me to hide As soon as I realized we had been Joined, I threw et nailed

It was the other lich the dark power struck He is no uy Should have been his boss Hey, you went into the sunlight? Oh Alec! How badly are you burned?

I&039;m not noasn&039;twas co?

I took stock of ot a bit of a headache, though What happened to Brother Ailwin, and are you really duh that thought is very te When you collapsed and he realized that he couldn&039;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 co to him You beat the tar out of hi it, yes Kris helped a little because he threatened Pia But he letaard and suddenly a bit shy After all that protesting I hada va crow to ad 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&039;d say you were fishing for a complientlehed

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&039;re not really a ards to you? Beyond your i

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&039;t just take the rat&039;s ass andinto the room with Pia&039;s cell phone in hand "I just called the lord in charge of the hour where I live, and he says I can&039;t come back He says liches are not allowed into the Underworld"

"Uh" Pia blinked a couple of times at Eleanor

"So nohat am I supposed to do?" Eleanor demanded "Alec would rather shack up with her than o back home, where at least I had a life and a friend with benefits, and roses who lovedon how to spin yarn using a drop spindle and dog hair, and now I can&039;t!"

"Er" I said, at a loss "What&039;s an hour? And there really is an Underworld?"

Eleanor sighed and slumped into a chair "The Underworld is pided into twelve hours, each ruled by a lord I live in the seventh hour It is very pleasant The lord there is English, so the hour looks like a quaint little English village with thatched cottages and digital cable TV and high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access I won&039;t tell you howon the Home and Garden TV channel, but you can rest assured that I am not happy about it!"

"Since Kristoff and I were responsible for bringing you here, we&039;ll be responsible for getting you back," Pia said after a ht "I&039;m not sure hoe&039;ll do it, but thereback to Pia&039;s laptop, where I had been trying to find a phone number for the Guardian Noelle "Ultimately, she&039;s our responsibility"

"I really dislike being spoken of as if I&039;m not here," Eleanor said with a surly look to both of us "And I really don&039;t care who fixes things, I just want them fixed"

"Want what fixed?" Alec asked as he and Kristoff entered the room

I quickly explained the situation with Eleanor before she could unload yet another tirade

"Ah Yes, we&039;ll find soet you hoave hiainst the chair

"I won&039;t ask you hoent because I can tell by the looks on your faces that you got rid of Brothers Ailwin and Godwin You didn&039;t do anything really bad to the over to her vampire, her hands all over him as if to check he was OK

Kristoff looked cranky "Alec only let me have a couple of shots at Ailwin, so no, I didn&039;t"

"I owed hi his knuckles and looking very pleased with hiers trailing across the back ofwith arousal "All we did was rough them up and hand them over to the watch with a complaint of assault, Pia I don&039;t expect the, however, so ill have to be on our way soon"

"You&039;d have to leave anyith Julian hanging around," Pia said

I slanted a look up at Alec, warmed to my toenails by the passion in his eyes You can&039;t possibly want to - I almost killed you, Alec! How can you want to make love to me when I could be used to destroy you?

Pia is a Zorya, and wields the power to destroy Kristoff - and every other Dark One, for thathi a Tool of Bael s he was thinking "What&039;s a Zorya?"

"Huh?" Pia, who had been gazing into Kristoff&039;s eyes, blinked at me a few times "Oh, Alec told you about me? I&039;m a reaper"

"You&039;re a forroup of woht of the moon They&039;re next in line to the Zenith I&039;m also a Zenith"

"A for cranky as he allowed Pia to lead him over to the love seat

"It&039;s all part of a wacky religion called the Brotherhood of the Blessed Light," she said, cuddling up to hiroup a o, which I have to adht binding people But all in all, it&039;s better that I not be the Dark Ones&039;how on earth she had ended up that way

It&039;s a long story I shall tell it to you sometime when you have exhausted me with your lustful demands

I&039;ll hold you to that Both the story and fulfilling all , slow, sultry smile full of much promise

"Oh, for the love of the saintsif you four are going to sit there o see what passes for the Ho off to another rooo back ho atto suggest that we have him summon Ulfur after the events of this afternoon - but since he&039;s out of it, how are we going to get Ulfur?" Pia asked

"We&039;ll find another lich tohere I sat

"I&039; called the Guardians&039; Guild that lists a contact number" I scribbled down a phone number and relinquished the laptop "Evidently you can hire Guardians through them I wish I knew Noelle&039;s last naood if you did," a tired voice came from the doorway

Kristoff was across the rooht there with hiin with a wicked intent

"Who are you?" Kristoff snarled

"My apologies," the man said in a choked voice Literally choked, since Kristoff held him up by the neck just as Alec had done with Brother Ailwin "I should have known better than to startle Dark Ones with Beloveds in the same room"

"Yes, you should have," Alec said "Answer the question"

"I&039; Kristoff on the ar red, Boo You should probably let him down before he passes out"

Boo?

It&039;s Pia&039;s love name for Kristoff She said he scared the hell out of her when she firstYou scared the crap out of ht of me hen I killed the woman who decapitated you That hardly counts

"Who are you?" Kristoff repeated, releasing the ood foot shorter than Alec and Kristoff, balding, dressed in a brown suit, but with a pleasant face despite the fact that he&039;d just been throttled "And how did you get in here?"

"What did youof no use to call the Guardian?" Alec added

Ia new career as a matchmaker Unattached Beloveds were not my problem "Just out of curiosity, do you know Noelle?" the devil forced me to ask nonetheless

"My na Kristoff first "I walked in Mortal doors have never been a problem for me It&039;s of no use to contact the Guardian - who I do not personally know, by the way - because she couldn&039;t get Diauy is one of you?

He&039;s not a Dark One, no But he is immortal Alec considered him with interest The name seems familiar to me, but I can&039;t place it, or hi Diarowl, asked Terrin what he was doing there

"I would be happy to explain both if you would allowwhen he hit a tender spot

Pia gestured toward the couch "Of course Please come in and sit down Do you drink tea? The water&039;s fairly hot still, I think"

"Tea of any te journey to get here" Terrin held up a hand, giving Kristoff a watered-down smile "I see you&039;re about to object to such civilities Would it relieve your mind if I told you that I am a member of the Court of pine Blood?"

The who of what, now? I asked Alec,over to the couch to sit with Pia opposite Terrin

"It ht," Kristoff allowed

It is what the mortals think of as heaven Or rather, the mortals based their notion of heaven upon the Court

So he&039;s a good guy?

Presu startled I had a feeling she&039;d been asking the very sael or soh we are frequently confused for it, and there are no angels there, simply employees Thank you, I&039;ll take it black if you don&039;t estured atit dohen I shook my head "In answer to both questions, I am here because I have been sent by the mares to seek the help of Corazon You don&039;tyou that, do you?" he asked me

"No, I don&039;t You don&039;t work for Bael, by any chance?" I asked, suddenly suspicious Why would someone want me to help them if not to use my Toolness? "And how do you know about Diamond?"

"Who are the mares?" Pia asked at the same time "More importantly, just how did you knohere to find Cora?"

"Sohis tea "And so little time to answer them I will explain as quickly as I can I am unar him with a suspicious expression "And I intend no one here any harm"

"You just admitted you wish to use Cora," Alec said, in a uise his hostility