"Oh! It's a Dark One!" Ulfur said behind me. There was a murmur of agreement.
"He's ever so handsome. He can bite me any day," the whiny girl said. I shot her a look. She smirked at me.
"What is there to say?" Kristoff answered, his scowl truly world-class. "I suppose I will have to take you to him."
"You don't have to sound so disgusted," I snapped, my pride stung yet again by the fact that he obviously disliked me intensely. "It's not like I have cooties or anything! And just for the record, I don't like you very much, either. You're not at all what a vampire should be like."
That took him aback for a few seconds. "And just what do you think a Dark One should be like?"
"Sexy! Like Angel and those guys in the vampire movies. Well, except the bun-head version, but that wasn't meant to be sexy."
"You don't think I'm attractive?" he asked, an odd expression flickering across his face.
"I do!" the teen ghost said.
I ignored her and made a big show of examining Kristoff from head to foot. If I thought he had been eye candy before, he definitely improved with nearness. His hair was sort of a chestnut reddish brown, with curls that looked as soft as satin. His face was hard, as I've noted, but it was a hard beauty, with a cleft chin that somehow kept drawing my eye. Like Alec, he was several inches taller than me, but where Alec was bulky with heavy muscles, Kristoff possessed a leaner frame that reminded me somehow of a big cat, like a lion or panther. I ignored the breadth of his chest, telling myself that Alec's was just as broad. His legs were longer, however, and filled out his faded jeans in a manner that left me admiring his obviously muscled thighs. I had a sudden urge to go peek at his behind, but quickly squelched that. The ghosts, I had a feeling, would never let me hear the end of it.
"Attractive?" I gave a little nonchalant laugh that sounded awfully strained. "No, not at all. Not in the least. That dead rat over there exudes more sexual attraction than you do."
"Is she blind?" I heard the girl ask someone else. "Or just stupid?"
"Hush, child, and let the reaper alone," the older woman answered.
"That's right, miss, you let him have it," another ghostly woman spoke up. "Don't do to let your man think as he can speak to you like that."
"He's not my - " I stopped before I said anything more.
Kristoff just stood there and looked at me with those uncanny eyes, making me squirm a little.
"Oh, all right, I'm lying like hell. Yes, you're very attractive, the kind of sexy that makes women want to rip off their underwear and throw themselves on you. Happy now?"
He didn't even blink, just stared at me for a second or two. "You mean as you did last night in the park?"
My cheeks burned at the memory. I glanced behind me. The ghosts were all gathered together in a half circle, watching me with interest. Even the horse seemed to be waiting to see what I'd say next. "That was a different situation entirely. And I had my undies on, thank you! Regardless of your god-amongst-men status, I don't like you. You have insulted me, deliberately intimidated me, and tried to make me feel guilty about something that is not my fault."
His eyes darkened. I swear to god, the teal color darkened a couple of shades. I watched in fascination as the black spikes from the pupils seemed to elongate and fill the iris. "When have I insulted you?"
The words snapped me back from a reverie about how bad men so often had such pretty eyes. "What? Oh. When haven't you insulted me? You wanted to kill me last night."
"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead," he said in an even tone. That scared me more than anything else.
"Oooh," one of the ghosts said as there was a general intake of breath.
"Yes, well... that aside, you told me you'd rather marry a viper than me," I told Kristoff, incensed enough that I didn't care if I was arguing in front of an audience or not.
His lips tightened. "You didn't want to marry me, either."
"They're married?" the teen asked in a sulky voice. "That just isn't right."
"No, of course I didn't want to marry you, and still don't. I don't know you, let alone have those sorts of emotions for you that usually end up in a marriage. And there's the little fact that you're an evil vampire, and I'm evidently one of the good guys, so this whole Romeo-and-Juliet scenario isn't going to work."
He took a couple of steps closer to me, his glare menacing. "If you think I harbor romantic illusions about a mere legal convenience, I urge you to rethink. I am not Romeo."
The ghosts forgotten in my ire, I took a step toward him, the toes of my shoes just a hairsbreadth from his as I leveled him a look that told him I wasn't the fool he took me for. "With the implication, I suppose, that I'm no Juliet? Well, thank you, you don't need to point that out any more than you do the fact that you don't like that Alec and I spent the night together."
A bluish fire flared to life in his eyes as he leaned in toward me. "Don't like it? Are you implying I'm jealous?"
"Of course not," I said, gathering up my tattered shreds of dignity. "I'm no stranger to the mirror, and you've made it quite clear you not only think I'm physically repulsive, but that Alec is crazy for not having the same taste as you do."