"And left me there? I'd much rather be facing the problem of one too many Beloveds than that. It wasn't at all pleasant."
"No, but I imagine you're none too happy right now, either, faced with both your original Beloved and her reincarnation. What are you going to do about Eleanor ? "
"I have no idea," he said, his shoulders slumping. "I assume since I never even fed from her that she'll be fine picking up a new life as a lich. Our bond, such as it is, is tenuous, and she shouldn't be affected by it being severed. It's Cora who concerns me. She has an aversion to Dark Ones. She saw me kill the reaper." Alec cast his mind back to that horrible day. Odd, though, that the memory now carried with it no pain. After centuries of it causing him the utmost agony, emotion had been drained from the memory, just as if Cora's admission had wiped it all clean. "Sorry, she saw me kill your wife."
Kristoff made a half-shrugging gesture. "Ruth was a reaper. She just didn't mean to run down and decapitate Eleanor."
"No." He knew that now. He hadn't for centuries, but after the last time he tried to kill Kristoff, they had finally worked out what had really happened, and moved past it. "Did I ever apologize for killing her?"
"No, but I never apologized on her behalf for killing your Beloved."
"I never apologized for turning you, either," Alec said moodily, feeling that so long as he was going to lash himself with guilt, he might as well get all of it out at the same time.
"If you hadn't, I wouldn't have found Pia, and she was worth all those centuries I had to wait for her," Kristoff allowed. "I could have done without you planning on destroying her, but since you couldn't see it through, it's all a moot point."
Alec couldn't help but smile at that. "She smote me with that damned reaper light of hers. That was no fun, I can tell you. My chest hair hasn't been the same since."
Kristoff laughed and punched him in the arm. "You had it coming. If Eleanor goes off without giving you any grief, what will you do about Corazon?"
He sighed. "She's my Beloved. What do you think I'm going to do with her? Bind myself to her and spend the rest of our lives convincing her I'm not a murdering bloodsucker. Assuming, that is, no one gets to her first."
Kristoff slid him a curious look. "Gets to her how?"
"I'd tell you, but I believe we're about to have company, and it's probably easier to explain it once rather than twice."
"Have you gentlemen worked through Alec's issues ?" Pia asked, appearing in the doorway, her gaze drawn, as ever, to Kristoff. He held out his hand for her, and she moved immediately to his side, snuggling against him with a private smile meant only for him.
Alec watched them, wondering if Cora would ever cleave to him the way Pia did with Kristoff. "I have no issues. I was just . . . surprised." And hurt, but it wouldn't do to admit that.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.
He turned to find Cora in the door, her eyes wary. Eavesdropping, querida?
No, she said, startled, and he realized she hadn't picked up his thoughts. I just . . . I figured I must have hurt you when you left like that, and then didn't want to talk to me. You've been put in a bad place, and part of that was due to the fact that I hadn't told you the truth about me. I wanted to tell you about it. I think I probably would have, but then Eleanor was there, and she was your real Beloved, and I figured you'd want her.
I don't.
No, I gathered that. But it didn't seem fair to you to have to choose. I thought I might just make it easier on you by letting Eleanor serve her purpose.
He studied her face for a few seconds, then decided to see what path his life would take. He held out his hand for her, just as Kristoff had done with Pia.
Cora looked at his hand, hesitating. His heart contracted with the pain that accompanied the knowledge that she didn't want him, truly did not want to be his Beloved. He was a convenient end to a means, that was all.
Her hand was warm in his as she moved next to him, one delicious hip pressing against him. Hope flared deep in the empty space where his soul was meant to be, the hope that, after more than five hundred years, he might not be alone any longer.
Pia murmured something about getting some refreshments before they got caught up on all the news, taking Kristoff with her as she left the room. Alec barely noticed them leave, so caught was he in the beauty of Cora's eyes. "Mi corazon," he said, rubbing his thumb down her silky cheek to that lush lower lip that begged to be tasted. "My heart."
"Alec, we need to talk. Eleanor - "
"We will talk to her. I do not want her hurt any more than you do, but she must come to the realization that you are my Beloved, not her."
"I don't know. It seems so heartless, somehow."
"Is your hesitation due to the situation with Eleanor, or that which is between us?" he asked, suddenly worried again. Was he misreading her emotions? She felt guilt with regard to him - that he knew - but whether it was about hiding the fact that she was his Beloved, or for the fact that Eleanor had been upset, was beyond his understanding.
"It's . . . it might be both. I feel like I stole you from Eleanor somehow, even though I know I really didn't. She's me, for heaven's sake. Or a past version of me. So I couldn't steal from myself, could I? And yet it feels like I did, and, Alec, I've never been the 'steal someone else's man' sort of person."
"You didn't steal me, love," he said, amused despite the fact that she was obviously distressed. He wanted to kiss the worry right out of her mind, but knew she had to work things out for herself, or she would never be content to bind herself to him. "We were meant to be together. There's no other explanation for the fact that you saved me in the Akasha."