Кейти Макалистер - Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang

It took them a few minutes to haul all the reapers downstairs. Judging by muffled thumps, I believe a couple of them were dropped on the way, but I didn’t feel too bad on their account. They had come close to killing Kristoff, and probably would have harmed Magda and Raymond if the vampires hadn’t stopped them.

“Proceed,” I said when they had all trooped upstairs to where I sat.

“It started about fourteen months ago.” Kristoff sat next to me, frowning at the tight T-shirt. “If you recall, I told you that it had become clear someone was passing information to the reapers.”

“The mole,” I said, nodding, my hand on his leg. Just feeling him so warm and solid next to me made me relax.

“The council tried for several months to pinpoint the leak, but was unable to. The mole knew they were looking for him, and the flow of information was temporarily halted. We eventually decided to take matters into our own hands. We decided that if one of us was marked as the traitor, it would allow the real one to relax his guard and go back to passing information.”

“So you set it up to make it look like you were the traitor?” My fingers tightened on his leg. “Why you?”

Kristoff shrugged, his fingers absently toying with the tendrils of hair that had escaped from my ponytail. “Luck of the draw. It took some time, but we eventually arranged it so that the council, presented with the evidence, had no choice but to imprison me.”

“But one of the charges had to do with Anniki.” A horrible thought occurred to me.

“No,” Kristoff said quickly. “We did not kill her. But we incorporated the mystery of her death into our plans, as we did the captive reapers. Alec went to ground, ostensibly a victim of my heinous plan, but actually to mislead the real traitor.”

“So all that trying to find Alec was an act?” I asked, prepared to be annoyed by his pretense.

Alec made a face as Kristoff answered. “Not all of it. Alec disappeared as planned, but then he went completely out of contact, which was not what we intended. We really were trying to trace him, just not from the time he left Iceland, which you believed.”

“It was too dangerous for me to make contact,” Alec explained. “I was being watched, and suspicions were already high as to my true intentions. I knew that sooner or later our paths would cross again.”

“It was very convincing,” I said, giving Kristoff a little frown.

He shrugged. “It had to be. Rowan and Andreas had to appear to support the council, although Andreas couldn’t quite bring himself to condemn me as easily as did Rowan.”

“He was never a good actor,” Rowan said, nodding toward Andreas. “I was much more convincing. I thought you were going to spit at me once or twice.”

“You’re damned lucky I didn’t,” I told him before turning back to Kristoff. “OK, I got that. You guys set up this whole big thing to flush out the mole. I’m a bit pissed that you didn’t bother to tell me about it, though.”

Kristoff’s fingers were warm on the back of my neck. “Our plans were set into motion long before I met you, Beloved. I had no idea if you could continue to carry out your role if you knew the truth.”

Relief filled me. So that was your deep, dark secret.

My what? He was startled, a wary feeling in his mind.

The big secret I could feel you keeping from me. The dark place in your mind, the one you always keep me from seeing. I have to admit that I’m relieved that this is what you were keeping from me, and not something a lot more . . . well, scary. I was worried.

He said nothing for a moment. No doubt he was embarrassed about the fact that I knew he was keeping something from me. It didn’t matter, I told myself. We hadn’t known each other long at all, and although I would have preferred Kristoff feeling as if he could trust me, I understood that he was reticent to share such involved plans until he was more comfortable with our relationship.

Don’t worry, Boo. I’m not going to yell at you for not trusting me. I understand. I’m just glad that this is now out in the open. “I assume those couple of unnamed friends you kept calling were Andreas and Rowan?”

Kristoff nodded. Pia-

Don’t apologize. Or rather, don’t do it now. You can do so later, with some massage oil, perhaps. You like lemon? “I take it that you knew that Alec was pretending to be the Ilargi all along, then?”

“No.” He glanced over to his friend. “That took me by surprise, as well. I had no idea that Alec had anything to do with the reapers.”

“I told you I’d find a way to infiltrate them,” Alec told him.

“I thought you meant to do so by the woman.”

“What woman?” I asked.

“A reaper, a woman I’d met a few years ago. She proved difficult,” Alec said, dismissing the subject. “I found another one, a secretary who had just joined and knew little about them. She was most informative.”

“So you found a way into the reaper headquarters?” Rowan asked, suddenly interested.

Alec nodded. “I myself couldn’t go inside-there were too many high-ranking reapers there who would have known me for what I am-but I did discover a way we can bypass the security.”

I looked from him to Kristoff. “I hate to sound like a party pooper, but now that we found you, Alec, we don’t need to break in. It’s not likely your mole is going to be there, after all.”

“There is still the matter of the director to be dealt with,” Kristoff said, taking my hand.

I tried to pull it away. His fingers tightened.

“I am not going to be party to wholesale murder for the sake of . . . well, I don’t even know what that would be, since there is no earthly reason you can have other than revenge for wanting to go after Frederic,” I told him.

“There are a number of compelling reasons why we should do just that,” he argued.

“Oh, yeah? Name one that doesn’t involve you guys wanting to get even.”

Kristoff opened his mouth, looked askance for a moment, then cast a pleading glance at his brother and cousin.

“Huh? Huh? ” I looked at them as well.

“Well, there’s . . .” Andreas stopped, his face screwing up as he thought. “There’s . . . er . . .”

“I thought so.”

“He poses a threat,” Rowan said suddenly.

The other two vampires nodded eagerly.

“A very big threat,” Andreas added.

“To whom? Other than in general to you vampires, I mean.”

“To Kristoff,” Rowan said, pointing.

Kristoff looked as surprised as I felt.

“He doesn’t even know Kristoff!” I protested. “Well, hardly knows him. He did imprison him, and tried to kill him after he couldn’t make me do the job for him, but that was two months ago, and I’m sure by now he’s forgotten all about Kristoff.”

“Thank you,” the love of my life said dryly.

You know what I mean, Boo. Besides, so long as I remember you, you have nothing to complain about, I said, blowing him a mental kiss.

His fingers tightened around mine.

“No other suggestions before I rest my case?” I asked the threesome.

The gentle whoosh of air from the air conditioner was the only sound for a moment.

“I hate to destroy any illusions you might possess regarding the director, Pia, but I’m afraid there is one very compelling reason for us to confront him and the other reapers.” Alec stood in the doorway, leaning against it with a mildly interested expression, as if he was somewhat bored.

“What would that be?” I asked.

He smiled. “You.”

“Me? I don’t stand in the way of anything Frederic wants.”

“You are a Zorya and a Beloved. Surely you’ve been in the Brotherhood long enough to know how vehement they are about anything to do with us. In their eyes, you are an abomination, tainted by your relationship to Kristoff, a contradiction to everything sacred. You must, at all costs, be destroyed before you can contaminate anyone else.”