by Erin R Flynn
“I don’t get it,” Cerdic admitted after his mother calmed down some.
“She played us,” Nora chuckled darkly. “Originally we were trying to make it clear she was tightly allied with us, access to her having to go through us and as close to adopting her as we could or making it seem that way. Instead she’s spun it around to be on top, with the three of us under her to act as managers of her assets and handle the menial tasks of raiding and distributing to those she allows.”
I felt all the questioning gazes dying to ask me if I knew what I’d done, or if it had been on purpose, but instead I went over to Wilson and took his hands. I started singing Pink’s “What About Us” from an iPod he gave me with all her songs, saying she was one of his favorites. I understood why. Her voice was magical and her messages powerful.
He smiled as he understood, spinning me under his arm and dancing with me, way better at it than I was. He turned me so my back was against his chest, swaying us to the beat of the song we now both heard.
“We’ve said she’s the champion of shifters and those who don’t fit the system or have gotten hurt by it,” he explained. “That’s the song. It’s asking about the rest of us who don’t play the game or march with the way things are. It’s all about remembering that if the leaders—the people in place to protect us—fail, if we stick together and raise the voices we have, we can protect each other and find a way.”
I pulled away and went over to Branko, moving my hands over his wide chest.
“Your favorite book helped. Everyone was so distracted with what they saw and in their frame of reference, they never saw what was really going on or the truth of Mr. Darcy helping in the background or the richest man of all the suitors was completely in love with Elizabeth. They only saw what was right in front of them in relation to them.”
A sexy grin slowly formed on his mouth. “They saw your love for Jaxon and how you would do anything for him. Or Cerdic. Or your kind heart and how you let them guide you around, lay out what needs to be done, and handle the details. To some they would see a puppet, either them or Aether pulling your strings. You were focused on shifters and getting people what they needed instead of the big picture.”
“But that is the big picture,” I confirmed. “The big picture is to do things right this time, and every step of what we’ve done has been built that way. I didn’t trade one person or screw anyone who didn’t deserve it. We’ve built every block of the foundation we have with doing what was right and for the right reasons, like Elizabeth did. And in the end she came out on top with a man who truly loved her and the wealth she didn’t care about.”
“How much of this did you really orchestrate?” Sebastian asked, frowning as if realizing he might have been party to upsetting his princess.
I shrugged as I turned to look at them. “You all came to your own conclusions and saw what you wanted in your frame of reference. I just understood what path you were following and when you were playing along.” I shrugged again. “Nothing’s changed. I’m not going to screw anyone or make people grab their ankles. You’re still heading north, but you’re just walking sideways to get there.”
“When did you start seeing this?” Jaxon asked, giving me a worried look.
I smiled brightly at him. “From the moment you said Nora would want to adopt me, and if that happened she’d never let me have you. The schooling Cerdic gave me about courts. I didn’t play anyone or evil mastermind this. It’s really not that big of a difference, but I made sure this couldn’t be spun as me being under someone, but instead, they’re under me to get what they want.”
“Well played,” Nora praised.
“Thank you, but I really didn’t do that much. You guys see kindness as something exploitable, but so are egos and pride. A few comments of letting you be in control, take over, or pumping the egos through Sebastian and Jacob, that you had your shit together—real powerhouses—and you focused on that and the score. And not that managers control assists for someone at the top, as it wasn’t conquering or imperialism.”
Moon moved closer and dipped his head to me. “Princess, I worked with Darius, and we have some ideas for Salt Lake if you’re open to hearing them.”
“Sure,” I said, glad for the topic change.
He nodded and moved over to a flag that was in place. “Kristof, if you would remove ground here to expose the utility lines.”
Kristof went over there and focused; the dirt, rocks, and whatever else there flowing away like water to expose some scary ass pipes and more. Moon thanked him and hopped down into the hole. My eyes went wide as he somehow—and easily—disconnected lines and then resealed them. It was like his hand became a saw or crazy cutter and he could reform the PVC and metal to close up again.
Wow.
He jumped out and nodded to what he’d just done. “Now the utilities are cut off to this huge neighborhood. You don’t have to worry about messing up lines, and can turn the full structures, streets, and everything else into energy beads.”
“Awesome,” I breathed, several people nodding in agreement. I glanced over to Hanna since she was going to handle Salt Lake. “Be honest if you want to raid places or you want the energy beads your people can reform or whatever. Let’s skip the crap and be honest, because I’d rather do it how you need it and yay, you have a guy who can make new toilets if we need them because we were nice.”
“Energy beads,” Hanna, Nora, and Matilda said together, a few echoing them.
“Good, that’s easier then,” I told them, nodding when they gave me confused looks. “All you have to do is get out organic stuff like bad food and stuff and toss it in a dumpster. Gas cans and propane tanks. Clear out what you want, and I’ll turn it all to beads. Wolfe found this massive industrial vacuum that goes right into trucks and electric engines.” I glanced at Moon. “So you can read these utility maps and figure out where to shut things off?”
“Yes, I know it and utilities well. I fixed a good deal of the power plant here so you can get it back online, and once there is more cleared, I can oversee installing a solar farm for sustainable energy for whoever will inhabit this area.”
“That’s awesome, thanks.” I smiled brightly at him. That was a good first step for sure.
Moon led us there and walked us through what needed to be done before we checked out the other utilities. Then he pulled out a map of the city and metro area with several areas circled. “Now, you have options on where to set up shop. There are several great options in the city and north of there. Or there are a bunch south in the suburbs and all the way to Provo.”
“Which would work better for what you need?” I asked Darius.
“All of them, I promise,” he told me. “There are even several kinds of companies that did structural like full buildings to prettier retaining walls and terraces. We would have a full range either way.”
“The difference is housing for whoever you allow to take the area,” Moon explained. “There are fine hotels for either option, but if you set them up with electric vehicles they could easily stay at something better with the city, and north option if they were fine commuting a bit.”
I worried my lower lip. “Let’s take a look then. We don’t know who’s going to be here yet, but it would be nice to have some long term options for sure. Maybe a normal hotel for guests?” He nodded and led us there, Darius carrying me while some of the others who couldn’t blur went with others. I let out a whistle when Darius set me on my feet. “Wow, this place is awesome.”
“There are several destination vacation resorts meant for all seasons and ultra luxurious in Park City,” Moon told us. “They’re basically swank suites and apartments for the ultra rich to have everything they could want on their vacations.” He held open the door for me, and there was enough light from the windows that we got a view of the amazing lobby.
“There are more of these? Wow,” I whispered, glancing around. “We should get the plans, and these could be like housing for the families o
f knights instead of just normal apartments or single family houses.”
Moon nodded. “There are more, but this seems in the best shape to move in immediately once utilities are restored. Given the hunting in the area, you could even have it set up for friends and allies to reside here when you gift them hunting rights, as the rail lines are in good shape.”
“We’re construction,” Troy blurted. “I owned a construction company before everything happened. It was Horne Construction. We did everything from strip mall construction to government contracts to refurbishing. We know precast concrete and more.”
“We were a shipping company mostly,” Glenn added. “We contracted with rail yards and port authorities to cover when they were personnel light. It’s why Matias and Thomas found us right away. We’ve got people from a lot of blue collar jobs and industries. We know another clan that was highway, bridges, and more sort of construction. They would know all you need.”
I caught Moon biting back a smirk, and realized he knew that already, and how to get them on board and fast. I nodded, glancing between them. “Did Matias go over the deal? You as the heads are my knights but you also sign an agreement that if you betray me or the coven—which includes the other clans—you declare war against their clans as well?”
“Smart play,” Hanna muttered, giving me an impressed look. “You really do like to layer your protection and deals.”
“I have smart help, but yes, I’m paranoid every damn hour of every damn day.” I waited until Troy and Glenn nodded. “Can you work together well and with this third clan? Maybe the oldest of you is mayor and coordinates directly with Hanna’s people and Darius, as he’ll be in charge of building our coven?” I smiled when they nodded again. “Awesome. Then we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“I would suggest you house the teams who are clearing out those six risky areas before setting up something better in Kansas City; otherwise you are spreading yourself too thin,” Matilda muttered, giving me a look like she could feel how exhausted I was. “With a day off. We all need it. You are powerful but young and if you don’t take care of yourself, thinking you can do it all, you can stall your growth.”
“You are not the first person to tell me that,” I admitted. “Thanks, yeah, good call. It’s just a hard line. I pushed to get the tree going and after I recovered, I had a spike, so that’s good like working out, but… It’s not easy.”
“No, it is not,” Nora agreed. “We are all powerful but we had time to grow into that power. You are a babe and you need to baby yourself. Take tomorrow to play and hunt for the gifts. Your engineer knights were working on the extended batteries and recharging arrays for the semis you’re gifting us. Wonderful; the ship will be loaded by the day after tomorrow for the gifts to go on and leave, but pace yourself.”
I smiled at her. “I’m working on it. It will help to have managers of the projects who won’t let just everyone run to me for everything and will prioritize what’s really first so I can go round-robin to areas.”
“Brat,” she grumbled, turning away with a smirk and heading back to Sebastian.
Yeah, I deserved that.
I waved for Moon and Darius to follow me off to the side, knowing others were around, but at least it gave us the illusion of some privacy.
“Will you keep working on this area and project with Darius? I don’t want him to get railroaded because he’s young.”
“It would be my pleasure, Princess.”
I studied his pretty eggplant eyes, taking in his jet black hair and the deep golden skin that covered so many muscles. He was Jaxon’s height but with more girth, a wider frame even, and just built like a Hispanic model of yummy. “So that was a good favor, or whatever I call it. What would you ask for in return?”
His eyes flashed shock, but then he gave me a soft smile before leaning down and turning his head so his cheek was closer. “Any sign of affection from such a wonderful princess and woman would be reward enough.”
“A kiss on the cheek, really? That’s all?” I whispered, my stomach filling with butterflies when he nodded. “Why?”
“Because I want to know you, not push you or demand anything of you. I wish to be part of what you’re building—at least for now—and maybe you would allow me the fun you had with Branko, now that you’re in the open as courting.”
“You want to be my next affair?” I asked, smirking when Darius snorted. “Yeah, yeah, not an affair if you all know.” I waited until Moon nodded. “Can I kiss another man, my husband?”
“Yes, on the cheek, but I will talk to the others about his interest. I think we need to know him better before any closet meet-ups or more.”
I nodded, giving him a wink before leaning in closer to Moon. “I can’t reach; come closer.”
He did, moving so he was almost completely pressing me against the wall. I slid his arm around me so his hand was on my ass as I brushed my lips over his cheek, sparks shooting through me just from that simple gesture. He pressed his lips against my ear.
“I felt it too. You are who I have always been looking for and never truly hoped to find, Inez.”
“You have to go slow with me, and I scare easily,” I admitted, staring up at him when he moved away. “Thank you for helping us.”
“Thank you for letting me join your fun last night.” He chuckled when I flushed. “I like that you would flush for me, as you do your nobles.” He stepped away, that soft smile back on his lips. “I am a very old and very patient man, Inez. I’ve never courted a woman with feelings involved, only pushed to accept a few princesses I hated. So I thank you for giving them the chance to experience what I haven’t.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I just nodded, and we headed back to join the others. I got a few heated looks from Branko, Cerdic, Kristof, and Jaxon, as if wondering what happened with Moon and I, but other than that we were focused on work.
And there was a lot of work before we got to play for sure.
11
I got half of the stuff we needed done in Salt Lake done before I had to chill out. I kept saying I would pace myself but then more kept coming up. I got it, people needed help and we had plans, but yeah, time for the baby vampire to rest a bit.
I was thrilled to hear that Grand Forks was ready to go, with a hundred and twenty that took every seat on the plane just from Matilda, Hanna, and Leonor’s covens. All really old, and able to get a lot done with not a lot of sleep, and they slept on the plane.
“They’re already loading open top rail cars with guns and bullets,” Cerdic told me, smiling when I blinked at him, freezing mid-bite even. “Mother does not mess around and as you said, there is a clock on the humans checking there. So that is easy for them to race back and forth on if you can fix one engine tonight. Then they’re set to keep going and avoiding corrupted so a train can leave Cincinnati before morning.”
“Wow, just wow,” I whispered, smiling as I took the next bite of my salmon. Salmon was so awesome. I loved it as much as the crabs. Yummy. “Should we send them some crabs or fish to thank them for jumping so fast before it’s even set up?”
“Being generous breeds generosity,” he agreed.
“Where did we land on payment?” I worried.
“We all agreed that one pallet per trailer,” Kristof told me. “There are twenty-four standard pallets for one shipping container which covers train cars and semi-trailers. They’re all the same size. So even for fuel they get one of every twenty-four tankers they load.”
“You guys drive a hard bargain,” I chuckled.
“I told you she would have been more generous,” someone grumbled from a few tables over.
“Yes, but the value is still there and worth it, plus she’ll be more likely to send more meat,” another princess answered, and I was actually shocked I could hear them.
“Welcome to feeding as you should and growing big and strong,” Jaxon muttered in my ear, my face probably giving away what I’d been thinking. “You’re also givin
g them all that area to raid, Inez. One pallet is still generous.”
Fair enough.
“You’re going down tomorrow,” James chuckled as I went for dessert. “I wonder what I’m going to ask for that favor?”
“Keep dreaming,” I purred, snagging some pie before heading back to my table.
We had talked earlier and decided to have some fun with the hunting, since we hadn’t gotten a chance for our rematch. We were the only two with guns but we had teams helping us. He would have shifters to chase prey to him and I had my nobles on my side. The others were playing and grabbing kills for us to bring back to the processing places.
The one with the most weight in kills would get a favor from the other. But only their kills, not anyone hunting on their teams. And pre-butchered weight, just because that was easier with the huge scales someone had found. Matilda had been nice and sent back some supplies, even like collagen casings for making sausages.
After dessert Cerdic brought me to Cincinnati to fix a few engines so they were set. I was worried about how they got the cars on the right rails but then saw they were just lifting the empty ones over there and attaching them. Oh, well, yeah, of course.
Yikes!
We swung by the coven and checked on Trisha who was fine, several of my knights taking some needed R&R. She wished me luck in kicking James’s ass.
Nice.
I added some of my blood to the tree, feeling the need to do it for some reason, but then I saw it absorbed the blood. Okay, my tree grew on my blood. That wasn’t weird. Blood, sunlight, and water. Sure, a well-balanced diet for trees.
I was excited for my first date with Branko, and even more when he seemed to feel the same way.
“First, I checked with your nobles,” he told me before handing me a bag. “And I invited some friends and you’ll understand why.” He leaned in until his lips were a breath away from mine. “Will you wear that for me?”
I nodded. I didn’t care if the bag was empty; he was so sexy and into this, I would have changed into just about anything. Kristof opened the door to our suite and I headed for the bathroom, cleaning up before slipping on the lace and satin short nightgown that was the same deep green of my eyes. I fluffed up my hair to be a bit wild after being up all day and headed out to the room.
