I touched the spot gingerly, eyeing it before turning to him. "I always thought vampires left two little teeth marks."
"You watch too much TV."
"Are you saying you always leave a mark when you bite someone?"
"Not always. It takes much concentration, however, and generally we're... distracted."
"By what?" I couldn't help but ask. "Garlic?"
He did roll his eyes now. "Hardly. The act of taking blood can be very... intimate."
"Oh, that sort of distracted." I touched the spot again. It didn't hurt, just felt somewhat numb. "So drinking someone's blood is sexually arousing?"
"It can be, yes. Not always, but it can be so, depending on the subject."
I flinched at his term, casting my mind back to the events of the evening. There had been a moment when Alec was nibbling my neck, and I thought he'd bitten me a smidgen too hard, but that had eased up almost immediately. "And the person you're biting doesn't know you're doing it?"
"That depends," he said, consulting his watch.
"On what?"
"On whether or not there is a shared sexual attraction."
Well, there had definitely been that last night. So perhaps the hickey wasn't so much a hickey as it was an indicator that Alec was more than he seemed. But if that was true, then he'd be no better than Kristoff.
"No," I said, shaking my head. "I don't believe it. Alec is good. He's not evil, like you."
Kristoff turned his teal eyes on me, the look of scorn in them so strong it stung. "Your people kill mine ruthlessly, without prejudice, conducting the most obscene rituals they can think of, and you call me evil?"
I clawed at the seat belt, ripping it off as I jerked open the car door, desperate to escape the dangerous Kristoff.
He snarled something and leaped after me, slamming me up against the stone wall of the building. We were on the shaded side, the sun not having yet warmed the stone, but it was not for that reason that I shivered against the cold wall.
"The Brotherhood purifies people - " I started to say, grabbing at my memory of what Anniki had told me the evening before.
"Purifies." He spat the word out like it was poison, leaning close to me, so close I could feel the warmth of his body, but it was the rage and hatred in his eyes that left me paralyzed with fear. "Do you know how your precious reapers purified Angelica? They started with a crucifixion, draining almost all of her blood, leaving her racked with pain and almost unbearable hunger. After that, they called down their cleansing light. Do you know what that is, Zorya?"
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision.
"Complete immolation. They used to simply burn people at the stake, but now they use a form of electricity to burn her body from the inside out."
My stomach lurched, a horrible vision rising in my mind. I closed my eyes, tears burning paths down my cheeks.
"They didn't burn her to death then. That would have been too easy a death for her. Their last rite of purification was a beheading... slowly, taking several strokes, with the spinal cord severed last."
I shoved him away, racing to a small scrubby bush and falling to my knees, wanting to vomit, but my stomach was too revolted to do even that.
"They left her head with her body so I could see the expression on her face," he said from behind me. "They wanted me to know what torment she suffered before she died. Those are the people you represent, Pia. And you wonder that I hunt them."
"If that's true, I wouldn't blame you in the least," I started to say, but before I could finish he yanked me to my feet.
"If it is true?" His furious gaze searched my face. "You doubt me?"
"I don't know what to think," I wailed, too overwhelmed with confusion to try to sort things out. "I don't think you're lying, no. I know grief when I see it. But Anniki wasn't that sort of person. At least I don't think she was - she seemed compassionate, as if she really cared about people."
"People, but not Dark Ones."
I opened my mouth to dispute that statement, but didn't know what to say.