In the Company of Vampires

Chapter 15

Ben was nowhere to be found when we made it back to the Faire. I considered calling him on my mental cell phone (it seemed so much easier than using a real one), but decided I wasn’t such a wimp that I needed to keep tabs on him every second of the day. He was a big boy—I could trust him to go off and do things on his own without knowing exactly what it was he was doing.

The fact that Naomi was at her tattooing booth might have had something to do with my determination to give Ben his space, but I preferred to think of it as being comfortable with our blossoming relationship.

“Let’s go find a quiet spot,” I told the Vikings.

“You are going to summon Loki?” Isleif asked, hope in his eyes.

“Yes.”

They cheered, and accompanied me to a corner of the field that held a couple of huge round cylinders made of up hay. I moved behind them, so they blocked the sight of anyone who might be arriving at the Faire, and pulled out the Vikingahärta. “I just hope I remember how to use this.”

“You will,” Eirik said, taking up a protective stance on my left. Finnvid did the same on my right, both swords in his hands, while behind me Isleif hefted his huge war ax. I didn’t point out to them that Loki wasn’t going to be as easy to destroy as the demon had been.

I held the Vikingahärta, closing my eyes for a few seconds to help calm my troubled thoughts, focusing on one image, as my mother had taught me to do whenever I was about to conduct an invocation.

That image was of her.

“By the fire that burns within thee.” My words came out halting and stiff, reflecting how uncomfortable I was with this. I held the image of my mother in the forefront of my mind and tried again to calm my nerves. “By the earth that feeds thee. By the air that hides thee, by the Vikingahärta that holds thee.”

The valknut grew warm in my unharmed hand, little pinpricks of light beginning to beam out from it. I slipped off the makeshift sling, not wanting Loki to see that I was anything but in the most tip-top shape.

“Deceiver.”

The air around us crackled.

“Slayer.”

Before us, motes of light started gathering together.

“Trickster.”

The lights swirled faster and faster around each other, spinning and elongating into a long oval shape.

“Betrayer.”

The shape shimmered, and darkened in the center as a human form began to resolve itself.

“I invoke thee and call upon thee to descend here!”

The man who stepped out of the light was not who I expected. We stared at each other for a few seconds—me utterly surprised, and he looking furious.

“Who are you?” he demanded, glaring first at me, then at the Vikings, who were just as taken aback as I was.

“I’m Fran. Er . . . you’re not Loki, are you?”

He didn’t look like Loki, whose appearance I remembered as an older man, rather thin, with very white hands and balding red hair. This man had dark brown hair, a goatee, and dark eyes that glittered with anger. I took an instinctive step back, raising my hand with the valknut in a protective gesture that attracted his attention.

“What do you have there? ” He ignored my questions, casting his own out with a sharp bark that had a compulsion attached to it—a sort of magic spell that made you want to do whatever was asked of you.

“It’s mine,” I said, struggling against the need to answer him.

“Vikingahärta,” Finnvid blurted out.

I glared at him.

“Sorry, goddess,” he murmured, looking somewhat chagrined.

“Goddess?” The man’s eyes narrowed on me. “Vikingahärta?”

I straightened myself up, holding the Vikingahärta firmly, drawing strength from the fact that it didn’t like this man. “No to the first, yes to the second. Would you mind telling me who you are, and why, when I summoned Loki, you appeared instead?”

“Do not summon me again,” he snapped, and while I stared at him in surprise, he spun around and walked back into the oval of light, which proceeded to dissolve until it was nothing.

“Bullfrogs! With warts on them!” I swore, wanting to do bodily harm to someone. “What was all that about? Who was that man? And why did he come when I called Loki?”

“Should we know the answer to that?” Isleif asked Eirik.

Eirik shrugged. “The goddess knows things. She tells us, not the other way around.”

“This goddess hasn’t a clue,” I muttered, kicking at a clod of earth. “Now what do I do?”

The sudden hum of the generators as they were turned on, triggering the big lights that lined the Faire, was the answer to that question. I sighed, felt sorry for myself for sixteen seconds, then turned and marched back to the Faire, slipping the Vikingahärta’s chain over my neck.

“What are you guys going to do this evening?” I asked Eirik later, as the three stood around my mother’s booth, where I was selling off the last of her stock.

“Bed Imogen when she is done,” Finnvid said immediately, casting a warm glance down the line of tents toward the one Imogen manned. “Until then, I will think about bedding Imogen.”

“We shall wench,” Eirik announced, nodding at Isleif. “There are many women in town who desire our rods. Then, after we have wenched our fill, we will pillage a McDonald’s. We have not done so in five years, and we have missed the joy of plundering Chicken McBlobs and dipping sauces.”

“And Big Macs.”

“Aye, and the Big Macs.”

“You would pillage without me?” Finnvid asked, looking hurt.

“You will be bedding Imogen,” Eirik pointed out.

Finnvid thought for a moment. “Imogen would like to pillage, too. We will do so after I have bedded her several times.”

“It is important that a man regain his strength after repeated beddings,” Eirik told me in the tone of one confiding a fact of great importance.

“Er . . . yeah.” I gnawed on my lower lip for a bit, wondering if I should ask Eirik and Isleif to stay with me when I tracked down the orgy Ben was supposed to go to, but decided that there really wasn’t any danger in what I planned to do—a little spying—and sent them all off with a happy wave, and a warning to Eirik and Isleif to use protection while wenching, and to be sure to pay for their pillaged goods.

I didn’t have much time to worry about them for the next four hours, since the crowds around my mother’s booth just about cleaned her out of all of her potions, charms, and spells. I waited until there was a lull, when the band started playing in the main tent, and tucked away the evening’s proceeds, shut down the booth, and dropped off the money with Absinthe.

“Peter says he is not sure if you will join us again or not,” she told me as she wrote up a receipt for Mom’s takings. “He says you may wish to return to your job.”

Absinthe and I never got along, at least we hadn’t when I was young and didn’t know how to protect myself against her mind-reading ability. Now I was an old hand at locking out people. I slid my mental barriers into place and gave her a placid smile. “That’s true. My plans are uncertain at this point.” Such as whether or not my future would involve a sexy vampire.

“Just so you do not forget your debt to me.” She tucked the money away in the big safe that sat in the middle of her trailer.

“I’m not likely to. You haven’t . . . uh . . . had any other visions of my mother, have you?”

One shoulder rose in a careless gesture. “I have not tried. It seemed clear to me that she was happy. I am not worried about her, although if she wishes to leave the Faire, I wish she would close her booth so that we may replace her. Peter says we must give her time, however.”

I murmured something polite and made my escape before she could pin me down with pointed questions, wondering once again how she and easygoing Peter could be twins and yet be so different from each other.

The speculation of what form paying off the debt to Absinthe may take kept me occupied as I sat in a taxi at the edge of the Faire parking area, waiting for the small blue car that I knew was Naomi’s to leave, praying to any and all gods and goddesses I could think of that they were actually taking Naomi’s car, and not going on Ben’s bike. I didn’t want to know if he’d taken her on long rides, where she could smell his hair and feel the warmth of his body pressed against hers, and even if she tingled all over just thinking about the way his muscles stretched and contracted as he moved with the bike . . . I shook away the image that was building in my head, just in time to point at the car that was exiting the pasture parking lot, and say, “That’s it. Could you follow that car, please, but don’t let them see you?”

The driver, dressed like a monk (complete with tonsure) in rough brown robes, and a rope belt upon which was attached his cell phone, gave me a long look in the rearview mirror. “If you get me into trouble—”

“I won’t. I promised you it was simply a little misunderstanding between me and my boyfriend, and that’s all it really is. So if you could just follow them, please?”

The driver gave me another stern look, but obligingly pulled out after them. I was a little surprised to find that Naomi drove not into town but away from it. I guess I’d always connected orgies with nightclubs and sleazy motels, but she drove deep into the countryside, entering what I judged from a sign to be some sort of official park.

“Now this is odd. They’re having an orgy outside?”

The driver, who had pulled up just outside the open gate, shot me an accusatory glance.

“Party, I mean. Not orgy. Er . . . here, will this cover it? Thanks. I’ll just get out now.”

“Yes, I think you should.”

I slipped out of the taxi, waved politely as he pulled a U-turn and sped off into the night, then slipped into the shadows of some scraggly fir trees that dotted a tiny parking lot, and immediately stepped on something soft and squidgy that moved.

Before I could scream, a hand clamped over my mouth. I didn’t wait to find out who it was—I brought my knee up, slammed the heel of my hand into his nose, and was about to gouge at his eyes with my other hand when a garbled, “Stop! It’s me!” reached me. I peered in the darkness at the shape as he doubled over, breathing hard.

“Who’s me?” I whispered.

“David. I think you broke my balls.”

“Frogspawn! I’m so sorry, David. I didn’t know it was you.”

“I really am going to have to stop surprising you,” he said softly, pain threading his voice as he lurched upright. Although the moon was almost full, we stood in the shadow cast by the trees, and all I could see of him was a silhouette. “One of these days you’ll actually succeed in breaking something.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, straightening up even more. “So long as you don’t attack me again. Damn. You have a good right punch.”

“Why on earth are you here lurking in the trees?”

He took my arm and steered me to the side, so that we skirted the edge of the parking lot, deep in the shadows. “For the same reason that I suspect you are here. Diego? How many?”

I stifled a squeak when another shadow loomed up next to me. “Five, counting the Dark One.”

“Two more to come, then.”

Even if I couldn’t see him beyond a black outline, I could feel the other man examining me.

“Fran, this is Diego, one of the members of my pride. Fran is Benedikt’s Beloved.”

Diego murmured something polite. He had a Spanish accent that made me think of Antonio Banderas. “Is she staying here?”

“No, she’s not,” I answered firmly.

Diego gave a soft chuckle. “It’s like that, is it?”

“On the nose.”

“Don’t mention noses,” David said, obviously feeling his nose. “Ow. Benedikt would have my balls if I left you alone, Fran, so it’s best if you come with me. Diego, you know what to do.”

“I’ll be on the south side. If he shows up, do you want me to take him?”

“No. It’s important we see what they are doing. If things get out of hand . . . we’ll deal with it.”

“Agreed.”

Diego moved off, as silent as the shadow he was.

“Who’s the ‘he’ Diego was talking about?” I asked as I followed David around the edge of the parking lot and up a steep, forested hill.

“Luis, Diego’s brother. He is the one the Agrippans have taken. We expect them to bring him here tonight.”

“For what purpose?”

David was so hard to see in the dark, I grabbed the back of his black shirt and held tight to it as we climbed up and over a rocky hill covered with dried pine needles. “Most likely to kill him.”

“They’re going to orgy him to death?”

“Sex isn’t the only thing they do at the tyro.” His voice was grim.

At the top of the hill, he paused. To the south of us was an open area ringed with tall, narrow fir trees. A couple of rustic tables and fire pits indicated it was normally used as a picnic area, but the tables had been stacked to one side and several blankets had been laid out in the center of the ring. As we watched, torches were placed and lit in an outer ring, while the two fire pits on either end had been set ablaze. The light from the fires and the moonlight made it possible to see the people beyond just their shapes. I was suddenly nervous as I recognized Ben’s form before he stepped into the firelight. I was sick at the thought that Naomi and her people might actually harm someone, but at the same time, I definitely did not want Ben there.

I’d gone and fallen in love with him, I chastised myself, while being very careful to keep my mental shields in place so Ben could not pick up on what I was thinking. All that talk about wanting to know if you were really meant for each other, or just programmed that way, and what do you do? You fall for him. Hard. Fran, you’re a boob.

David turned toward me, still in shadow. “Did you say something?”

“No. Just yelling at myself.”

“Ah. About what?”

“Ben.”

He gave a ghostly laugh. “I won’t say I’m glad you’re yelling at yourself, but in fact, I am. It means you care about him.”

“Yes, I do.” My gaze shifted from David’s shadow to the group in between the fires. I could see three women, including Naomi, as well as Ben, and another man, who looked to be arguing with Naomi. Every once in a while he gestured toward Ben. “Do you know who they are?” I leaned into David so I could whisper my question in his ear.

He did likewise. “We know their names. The two women are from Austria and Switzerland. One is related to Naomi, although we aren’t sure how; the man is Micah, a biologist from England. The last one we’re expecting is Isaak, a Dane. He’s the leader of the set. We believe he’s been holding Luis somewhere around here, but we haven’t been able to locate him.”

“Are you planning on rescuing your guy from them?”

“Of course. But after we see as much of the tyro as we can—even after almost a decade of trying to find out the truth, we have no idea why they are killing random members of the therion community.”

I squatted down on my heels, making myself comfortable for what I feared would be a long wait. And I was right. I spent most of the time watching Ben, not because I distrusted him, but for the simple fact that my eyes were drawn to him. He sat on a cooler, somewhat separated from the others, most of whom lolled around on the blankets talking, laughing, and guzzling beer. Naomi, I was annoyed to see, had evidently forgiven Ben for the shower episode, and spent most of her time hovering around him, touching his shoulders or his arm or head. Twice she leaned down to kiss him, which just made me grind my teeth.

A spike of jealousy ran hot through me when she tugged him onto his feet, then plastered herself against him, both hands on his hair as she slapped her lips on his. Ben’s arms went around her in a loose embrace, which sent me to my feet, my hands fisted, and fire in my eye.

“Steady,” David said, one prohibitive hand on my arm. “I know it’s difficult, Fran, but she’s just kissing him, that’s all.”

“That’s more than enough,” I growled, somewhat surprised to find that I was holding the Vikingahärta. I narrowed my eyes on Naomi as she giggled up at Ben, wiggling herself against him. The Vikingahärta had a good deal of power . . . perhaps I could use that to deal with Naomi. Change her into something fitting, like a slug. Or a cesspool. Or a patch of mildew.

Instantly, I was ashamed of myself. One of the precepts my mother held strongly to, and one that I had absorbed from her teaching, was the threefold law that said whatever I did to others would be returned trebled to me. Although the desire to use the Vikingahärta to bring disaster to Naomi burned in me almost as hot as the anger at seeing her touch him and kiss him and all but jump his bones in front of everyone, despite that, I clung to the belief that to purposely do harm to others was wrong.

Satisfying as all get-out, but wrong.

It was almost an hour before we heard the distant sounds of a car. By that time, Naomi’s group had donned long flowing robes, under which the women squirmed to remove their clothing. The men did likewise, but with much less gyrating.

“Why are they being so modest?” I asked David, standing for a few minutes to get the circulation going again in my legs. “I thought an orgy meant everyone stripped off all their clothes, not wore neck-to-ankle robes.”

“I have a feeling those robes won’t be in much evidence once the tyro commences,” he answered drily.

I made a sour face, looking at the berobed Ben. I couldn’t tell if he had taken off all of his clothes under the robe or left his pants on, and I was irked with myself that it mattered so much. I might have finally decided that I was in love with him, but that didn’t mean I had to be all gaga over him, did it?

Naomi cooed something at him and brushed her hand against his groin.

The Vikingahärta grew hot in my hand as I imagined what she would look like as an octopus with a form of leprous sucker rot, but my lovely fantasy of her tentacles dropping off was interrupted by the arrival of two men, one of whom bore a halogen flashlight.

Naomi’s group greeted them with happy cries, and it wasn’t long before the two men were also clad in long robes.

“Is that your guy?” I asked David. We had shifted position slightly, moving a quarter way down the ring of trees so that we were downwind.

A thin shaft of light pierced the tree next to us, making it possible for me to see David’s face. We both knelt behind a stump, in order to lessen the chances anyone would see a human shape lurking in the shadows. He lifted his chin as if smelling the air. “Yes, that’s Luis.”

“You can smell him?”

“Of course. All the members of my pride have a distinct scent.”

I would have asked him what they smelled like, but at that moment, the new arrival, presumably Isaak, stood in the center of the group and raised his arms to the sky, calling down a general invocation. At the last word of it, he turned to where Naomi was smooshed up against Ben.

I leaned forward a bit, keeping low against the stump, intent on hearing what it was he said.

“We have a full agenda for tonight, so we will get started immediately. Tonight we welcome a new member to the set. Benedikt Czerny, step forward and receive the blessing of the tyro.”

Ben moved into the center of the circle, and just like that, everyone tossed off their robes to reveal a whole lot of flesh in varying colors, covering forms that ranged from skinny to plentiful.

“Moon and stars above,” I said, blinking a couple of times.

“You will welcome our new brother to the set, Naomi.”

Naomi, stark naked, took Ben’s hand and led him over to a central blanket. All the others stood around, evidently going to watch them go at it.

I was on my feet again, the Vikingahärta almost burning my hand, my heart beating so loud I thought Ben would hear it.

David held both my arms, whispering, “Wait and watch, Fran. Please. For Luis.”

I ground off yet another layer of tooth enamel, looking away as Naomi pulled Ben’s robe off. I couldn’t stand not knowing the worst, however, so I looked back and found her gesturing to the jeans he still wore, laughing as she said, “Isn’t that sweet! He’s shy! Don’t worry, my darling. By the end of the tyro, you won’t have anything to be shy about.”

Without further ado, she unzipped his pants and pulled them down.

“Revenge is bad, revenge is bad,” I murmured to myself as Ben reluctantly lifted each foot so she could pull his pants completely off.

She reached for his penis, but Ben caught her by her arms and spun her around, whispering something in her ear. She laughed again, a shrill sound that made the hairs on my arms stand on end, and called out in a loud, clear voice, “Poor Ben hasn’t eaten since yesterday. He doesn’t think he can perform until he does so. Is there any objection to me feeding him first?”

“Make it fast,” the man named Micah called out, fondling the boobs of one of the two other women.

“By all means, don’t let my hunger keep you from celebrating the glory of the set,” Ben said, moving with Naomi to the far end of the area. She twined an arm around him, offering her neck, but he took her hand instead, his head bent over her wrist.

“Clever Benedikt,” David said softly. “He bought himself some time.”

“He can’t feed all night,” I said, watching him and Naomi with many dark thoughts that would have shocked my mother. “Sooner or later he’s going to have to stop, and then they’ll want him to join in the orgy.”

David was silent for a moment. “I can only imagine what you think of me for asking this of you, but I assure you that what Benedikt does tonight, he does for the welfare of my pride. He will not enjoy himself in the least.”

“Do you have a wife? Girlfriend?” I asked him, noting that he was right—the others were on the blankets, rolling around in one big mass of writhing arms and legs. I avoided looking at just what it was they were doing, keeping my attention on Ben.

“No. Why?”

“Because if that was your girlfriend out there about to have sex with someone who wasn’t you, I think you’d have a different perspective on the whole thing.”

He said nothing, but shifted uncomfortably.

“They don’t seem to be holding your buddy prisoner,” I added, my eyes drawn to him when he arched up from where one of the women was bent over him, and howled in wordless ecstasy. “In fact, he seems to be having a pretty good time.”

“So I’ve noticed,” he answered, a hard, flinty edge to his voice.

“I see I’ve arrived a little early.”

Both David and I ducked as two men strode within twenty yards of us, stopping at the edge of the ring of lights. I gaped in openmouthed surprise, then mentally chided myself for doing so yet again. I never used to be the sort of person who stood like an idiot with her mouth hanging open. It must have been Ben’s influence on me. He made me fall in love with him, thereby causing me to become a mouth breather.

Or something like that. I stared in disbelief at the dark-haired man who had appeared when I tried to summon Loki. “What is he doing here?”

David shot me a quick questioning glance, and whispered, “You know them?”

“I know the one. Well, kind of. I summoned him by mistake, but I don’t know who he is.”

“We have had a late start, but you are welcome to join in the celebration of the set,” Naomi said, stroking her hand through Ben’s hair. He was still bent over her wrist, although now I could see he was kissing his way up her arm. A stall tactic, no doubt, I snarled to myself. “Come, my darling. We must initiate you properly.”

She led Ben toward the mass of bodies. He stopped just at the edge of them, looking over at the two men who stood watching the scene. The man I’d summoned had a sneer on his lips. The other man, thin and anemiclooking, shot little darting glances around, as if he was looking for a way to escape. “I don’t perform in front of strangers,” Ben said. “Who are those people?”

“Just a friend of mine and his pet necromancer,” Naomi cooed, sliding her hand down to his crotch. He tried to sidestep her, but she had hold of him so he couldn’t. “Let us partake of the blessing of the set, lover.”

Ben, his brows lowered, glared at the strangers. “I said I don’t perform in front of strangers. Make them leave.”

“They can’t, darling. They are needed for what’s to follow your initiation,” she purred, pulling him down onto the blanket.

I clutched the trunk of the tree so hard my fingernails broke through my gloves. With a snarl, I ripped them off, holding the Vikingahärta tight, sick to my stomach with indecision and anger. I wanted to help David, but not this way. There had to be another way.

“What is to follow? I thought my initiation into the set was the highlight of the tyro. Now you tell me it’s not?” Ben’s voice was filled with arrogance and hauteur, and for a moment I smiled at it. The arrogance, yes, that was him, but he was never haughty, and I knew he disliked being the center of attention as much as I did.

“No, lover, of course your ceremony is to be the highlight,” Naomi said, trying to pull him back when he moved out of her reach. Beyond them, the others were fully engaged in their orgy, little cries and groans filling the night air. “We had an unexpected opportunity to further our experiments for de Marco, that’s all. Just as soon as we’re done with your ceremony, we’ll get on with the experiment, and then he will leave and it will be just us again.”

De Marco? The name rang in my head like a bell. What had he to do with this?

“I do not like how I have been shoved aside for another,” Ben said, getting to his feet, and to my intense relief, snatching up his jeans and pulling them on. “I will not have it. I am a Dark One, not some mortal you can appease with a little sex and then set aside.”

Naomi’s eyes narrowed on him. “Benedikt, you are important to us. But you cannot be one of us unless you complete the ceremony.”

He glared at the man I had summoned, and insight hit me with a flash. Was that de Marco? The man who’d had a baby with my mother?

“I will not be treated in this manner!” Ben snapped. “Obviously, you have some reservations about my involvement, or you would not delegate me to such a lowly status. Until such time as you realize my true value, I will find something else to occupy my time.”

Ben’s performance drove speculation about the mysterious de Marco from my mind. I wanted to cheer him, and kiss him, and lick every square inch of his delicious body. And then I would make him fall in love with me, so we could live together happily, and he would be safe from the wiles of smut-mistresses like Naomi.

“I think, perhaps, it is you who have reservations,” Naomi said slowly, getting to her feet. She had her back to me as she faced Ben, so I couldn’t see her face, but her body language made it clear she was no longer in sex kitten mode. “It is that damned Beloved of yours, isn’t it? She’s leading you around by your cock. I knew I should have taken care of her when I had the chance.”

Ben gave her one of his haughtiest looks. “No woman leads me, Naomi. No woman.”

“Such a shame.” She ran her hand down his bare chest. He stepped back. “You had such potential, too. Isaak?”

I had been ignoring the orgy in order to concentrate on Ben, but when I glanced back, I was surprised to notice that everyone appeared to be finished with their lechery. They lolled around in attitudes of limp exhaustion, their bodies draped over each other with apparent abandon. At Naomi’s call, Isaak pushed Luis’s legs off his stomach and got up.

“I believe in addition to our scheduled event, we have an extraordinary opportunity at hand.” She smiled at Isaak before gesturing at Ben. “Our friend here seems to prefer his Beloved to us. De Marco, have you ever tried a Dark One?”

“Uh-oh,” I whispered, my stomach tightening. “I think things have gone wrong. Not that they were right to begin with.”

“Yes,” David said slowly, his gaze moving from person to person. “I suspect you’re correct. Are you armed?”

I looked at him in surprise. “No. I don’t . . . I’m not big on guns and things. I have the Vikingahärta, but it’s not a weapon. At least, I don’t think it is. It protected me from Loki once, but that could be due to some other circumstance.”

De Marco had strolled into the center of the ring by that point, followed by the slight man who reminded me of a nervous ferret. “I hadn’t thought it was possible, but now that you bring it to mind, it would be a good experiment.”

“Experiment on someone else,” Ben growled, snatching up his shirt. “I am no one’s guinea pig.”

“Do you know what experiment they’re talking about?” I asked David softly, holding on to his arm as we leaned forward to hear.

“No. But if that little man is a necromancer . . .” His voice trailed off as he eyed de Marco.

“They raise the dead, don’t they?” I shivered at the implication.

“Yes.”

“But Ben is immortal. They can’t kill him.”

“So is Luis, and yet they have destroyed countless therions over the last decade. Immortal simply means we’re harder to kill than mortals. It can be accomplished.”

“Not so fast,” Isaak said, jerking a gun out of a backpack that lay beneath strewn clothing. The sight of a naked man holding a gun on Ben might have struck me as amusing in another circumstance, but I wasn’t laughing.

Ben did, though. He gave a short, harsh laugh. “Do you really expect me to feel threatened by a gun? I’ve been shot more times than you can imagine, mortal.”

The gun in Isaak’s hand wavered.

“Oh, for god’s sake . . .” Naomi stomped over to where she’d left her clothing and bag, marching over to Ben with a glinting dagger about twelve inches long. She thrust it toward Isaak. “I swear, if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Here! Take this. You can slit his throat with it, or cut out his heart, or whatever, but just do it!”

“Right. That’s enough for me. How good of an actor are you, David?”

He looked confused. I didn’t waste time explaining, I just marched forward until I reached the lights, hauling a softly protesting David with me. The second we became visible, I switched my determined stride to a stumbling stagger, leaning heavily on David as if my legs couldn’t hold me up. “That was the besh party I’ve ever sheen. Washn’t it the besht? I gotta say, theshe Germans know how to throw a shindug. Digshug. You know what I mean. But man, I gotta pee. Back teeth are floating. Oh, look, a blanket.”

I came to a stop near the sated orgyists, who quickly scrambled to their respective feet.

“David!” I said in a faux whisper, cupping my hand around his ear but not turning my head into it. “Peepsh! They’re having a naked party! We should totally join in. Do you naked peoplesh have a Porta-Potti around here? Gotta pee.” As the surprised faces of Naomi’s group turned toward us, I staggered to the side, pointing. “David, look! It’s that evil Naomi! And Ben! You bastard!”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Naomi demanded to know of Ben.

Fortunately, he looked as genuinely surprised as the rest of them, which gave me just enough time to do my best drunk walk over to him, waving my fist as I did so. “I am sho gonna punch you! I’m your Beloved, bushter!” I unguarded my mind just as I reached him. Hello. Would you duck, please?

I drew back my arm and swung in a huge circle. Ben obligingly ducked, which left Naomi the only body in the way of my fist.

I’d also like to know what the hell you’re doing here! he thought furiously at me. This is no place for you, Francesca!

She screamed and leaped toward me.

Did you honestly think I was going to let you go off and have sex with someone else?

Isaak and Micah jumped into the fray as Ben jerked Naomi to the side, roughly pushing her away from me.

No. I thought you would trust me to uphold my promise to you. There was pain behind his words.

David roared, actually roared as he shifted into lion form. He leaped onto Isaak, knocking the man to the ground.

I do trust you . It’s Naomi that I have issues with. And I’m glad I did, because clearly, you need us.

“I want him!” de Marco said, pointing at David’s lion form. “And the vampire. I want them both, along with the other therion.”

Fran, get out of here!

No way, Jose.

The two women whose names I never did hear looked at each other, then turned and grabbed their clothing, disappearing into the night. Luis stood watching the men fighting, looking confused and unsure of himself.

“Are you Alphonse de Marco?” I asked the man who was now yelling at Isaak to hurry up with it. “And did you once know Miranda Benson?”

He stopped shouting long enough to shoot me a piercing look. “Just who are you? Why do you keep interfering in my plans?”

“I’m his Beloved,” I said, pointing at Ben. “And you can’t have him. He’s mine.”

Ben and Micah had been duking it out until Ben sent the latter flying a good twenty feet. He turned toward me, his face a picture of shock. Did you just say what I think you said?

Look out! Naomi, with a bloodcurdling shriek, threw herself at him, slashing at his torso with the knife.

It was my turn to scream, and scream I did. “You bitch!”

Ben twisted her arm just as I ran toward them, intending on pulling her off him, which sent the dagger flying. Naomi suddenly seemed to radiate a shock wave of light, knocking back everyone nearest her with a deep compression blast.

I stared in surprise as I got to my knees. She turned on me, a strange black and blue light glowing around her in a corona that filled me with dread. “Now I will be done with you!” she snarled, lifting her hand toward me.

“No!” Ben leaped forward to stop her, but he wasn’t fast enough. A pulse of light shot out from her toward me. Without thinking, I raised the Vikingahärta, yelping when it glowed white for a moment as Naomi’s dark power hit it.

It was her turn to stare in openmouthed amazement as I did a little dance, transferring the burning Vikingahärta from hand to hand until it cooled down enough to hold.

“You . . . What is that . . . ?”

“Luis!” David was back in human form now, Isaak and Micah having been knocked out. Uncaring about his nudity, he jerked his pride member to the side, shaking him and speaking rapidly in an unfamiliar language.

I looked up from the Vikingahärta to Naomi, my eyes slits. “I have had enough of you.” I raised the valknut, but rather than it blasting her with its power, it shifted in my hand, changing form, the three triangles rotating until they all slid into a new position.

“What in the name of all that’s green and glorious . . .” Did you see that? Did you see what it did?

Are you all right? Ben was at my side in an instant, one arm around me as he looked not at the valknut but at my hand, before pushing me behind him as he faced Naomi. “Harm her, and you will die.”

I looked up from where the Vikingahärta had settled into a new arrangement, surprised by the threat in Ben’s voice.

“That goes for you, too,” he added, looking at de Marco.

He looked furious. “Your woman matters little to me, vampire. Just keep her out of my way. You, however, I will see again.” Without saying anything more, he spun around on his heel, shoved the slight man out of the way with a rude word, and strode off into the darkness. The second man shot us an unreadable look, and followed. Which left us with . . .

“Naomi,” I said in a sickeningly sweet tone as I turned to face her. “I have a score to settle with you.”

Francesca, do not, Ben warned me. She is more powerful than you know.

“It’s not nearly so big as the one I have for you,” she answered in similar style, smiling to boot. Her gaze dipped to the Vikingahärta for a few seconds, her jaw tightening as she lifted her chin and looked down her nose at Ben. “I am not done with you, either, lover.”

I started toward her, but Ben wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his side.

She laughed, and with sublime indifference to the fact that she was still naked, strolled casually over to her stuff, slipped on a discarded robe, and left with her clothing stuffed into her bag.