Кейти Макалистер - Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang

“Christian is holding Mattias prisoner, which means I’m going to have to try to reason with him. You know what that means, don’t you?” I said glumly to my hands. “He’ll make me go talk to their council. And you and I both know what they want to talk about.”

“A certain incredibly gorgeous vampire, so handsome he makes your eyes hurt, and we won’t even go into that sexy, sexy Italian accent? Oh, yeah. And I can’t say I blame them. I’d want to talk about him, as well. Mrrowr . I mean that, of course, in the strictest of platonic ways.”

“It wouldn’t matter if you didn’t,” I said, sighing heavily before picking up my satchel and purse. “It’s not like Kristoff wants me.”

“Bah. You just need to have a little quality time with him.” Amusement was rich in her voice as she walked out the door. “Besides, I’ve never been to Vienna. I bet it’s very pretty this time of year!”

I locked the door behind us, giving her a little shake of my head. “You can’t possibly be serious about wanting to go with me.”

“Of course I am,” she said, whapping me on the arm. “We’re here to spend two weeks with you, aren’t we? So if you go to Vienna to meet with the vampires, and then pop over to Iceland to pick up Kristjana and Ulfur, we’ll go with you. We’ll be your entourage! It’ll be fun!”

Fun. For some reason, that was the last word that came to my mind.

“Well, that looks . . .”

“Ominous,” I said, pausing next to Magda as we emerged from customs at the Vienna International Airport. Three men stood waiting at the end of the hallway for us. All three were tall, clad in black or midnight blue, and each wore the same identical suspicious expression. Two were dark-haired, one blond. All three were gorgeous enough that more than one woman’s gaze lingered on them.

“They look familiar,” Magda whispered to me as we walked toward them.

“They should. The one on the left with the scowl is Andreas, Kristoff’s brother. The middle one is their cousin Rowan. And the guy on the left is named Sebastian. I don’t know what his connection is to everyone else, but he seems just as unflinching as the others.”

“Oy,” Magda said under her breath.

I thought for a moment of turning and running back to the plane to demand that I be taken back to safety, but I had a feeling that Julian, the messenger, would grab me before I took more than a few steps. “You’re the one who begged to come with me,” I reminded Magda in an equally soft voice.

“I didn’t beg. I just had you suggest to your watchdog that if he ponied up tickets for Ray and me, you would be less inclined to smite him with that blinding light you can summon up. And you have to admit he didn’t really protest much once you told him you changed your mind.”

I glanced behind us. Ray walked alongside the messenger, the former chattering happily and looking about with bright, interested eyes, while the latter stared at me in stony silence.

“I just wish we didn’t have to involve an innocent bystander in all this. You’re sure Ray is OK with the whole vampire thing?” I asked Magda.

“He is, rather surprisingly. He said he always suspected there was more going on around him than people were willing to admit, and who am I to poohpooh general paranoia? To be honest, he’s dying to see them, since he’s a big Joss Whedon fan. He was a bit disappointed when I told him they don’t change their appearance at all, but he’ll survive.”

My gaze moved to our reception committee. “The question is, will I?”

“They do look awfully grim, don’t they?” Magda agreed.

“Hello, gentlemen. I expect you remember my friend Magda,” I said as the three men stepped forward to greet us. I gestured to Ray, who stopped on Magda’s other side. “This is Ray Victor. He’s a friend of Magda’s who has kindly consented to accompany us.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Ray said, sticking out his hand. After a moment’s slight hesitation, Andreas shook it. “Can’t tell you how grateful I am you let Mags and me come along. I’ve been a big fan of Angel ever since the show came out, and it’s a real thrill to meet a vampire in person.”

The three men introduced themselves briefly to him before turning back to me. I was a bit puzzled by the cold reception we were getting-although I hadn’t parted on the very best of terms with the Dark Ones, we weren’t enemies, either. In fact, Christian had gone to great trouble to ensure that I was not blamed for the murder of an innocent woman, handing over to the police the person to blame. I knew how much that had cost him, and was duly appreciative, a fact about which Christian was aware. So why was I now getting the icy treatment?

“Hello, Andreas. How’s your brother?”

Andreas had blue eyes, as did Kristoff, but where the latter had eyes of the purest teal, Andreas’s were darker, a midnight blue that considered me now without the slightest bit of warmth. “You will find out soon enough,” was all he said before he turned around and started walking out.

The two remaining vampires fell into place behind us as we were escorted out of the airport to a waiting limousine.

“Your vampire friends sure know how to travel,” Ray said in a hushed voice as we filed in to occupy the backseat of the limo. Andreas and Rowan sat facing us, while Julian and Sebastian took up positions in the front of the car. “This is very nice. Are we going to the hotel first? I’d like to get my camera out of my bag so I can get some pictures for my travel album.”

“I assume so,” I said, puzzling over Andreas’s comment. I leaned forward a smidgen. “Is Kristoff here? In Vienna?”

Andreas ignored me, turning to look out of the tinted windows.

I switched my attention to Rowan. “I realize there’s no love lost between us, but I would appreciate it if you could overcome your natural aversion to me and answer my question.”

Rowan had reddish brown hair and grey-green eyes. His face was not as angular as his cousin’s, and had hints of laugh lines around the mouth and eyes. There was no evidence of any form of amusement on his face now, however. He simply looked at me as if I were a bug before answering, “He is here.”

I sat back, my heart beating wildly all of a sudden. Kristoff was here, in Vienna. I was going to see him.

Magda touched my hand and mouthed, I told you so.

I shook my head at that-if Kristoff had suddenly been possessed by a change of heart regarding me, he would have told me, not had the council summon me with grim faces and a pronounced air of suffering. Still, he was in Vienna. That meant something. Didn’t it?

To my surprise, we weren’t taken to a hotel. Instead, we stopped at a large pale pink stone house that sat at the end of a row of connected tall, narrow cream-and-yellow houses in the fringes of Josefstadt, a section of downtown Vienna.

“This house belongs to the Moravian Council,” Julian said, showing us into a room on the top floor. “The administrative offices are below us. The top three floors are set aside for residents and guests.”

“Nice,” I panted as I dropped my bag and tried very hard not to collapse on the floor. “Sixth . . . floor . . . Nice . . . view.”

“Sweet Mother Mary.” Magda gasped as she, too, staggered into the room. Ray propped her up on one side, his own breathing a bit frantic as he leaned against the wall. “Couldn’t you people put in an elevator? Or at least install a bench halfway up?”

“Your room is across the hall,” Julian said, a somewhat martyred look on his face as he opened the door in question.

Magda shot him a narrow-eyed look, but followed him out to the other room. I looked around while I caught my breath, admiring the clean blue-and-white decor of the room. It was rather sparsely furnished, but the bed, bureau, and small writing desk and chair were all antiques.