Leman

by Serena Akeroyd

  “And Dragons don’t?” he asked, cocking a brow. “We all get grumpy.”

  “You guys have something to wait for. Vampires don’t. Not really.”

  “There is no mate bond like this, is there?”

  She shook her head. “No. We mate like humans. By our own choice. But sometimes it’s real in a way that pushes boundaries. It was that way for my parents, and theirs too. ”

  He sniffed at that. “I prefer that the Mother chooses. She knows us both inside out.”

  Her lips quirked up at that. “You wouldn’t have picked someone who was a little taller or with bigger boobs, if you’d had a choice?”

  He stared at her like she was batshit nuts—maybe she was to bring up topics of conversation like this one. “Why would I? Your breasts are like pale mountains that need me to climb them.”

  She snickered. “You want to climb my breasts?”

  “Well, my face does.” He reached for her, and before she could do more than shriek, shoved his head between her tits and shook it back and forth amid her jiggling flesh.

  She broke down in laughter but gripped a hold of his head when he diverted course and aimed for her nipples.

  “No fair. No more. I’m sore!” she argued.

  He grumbled but bestowed a gentle kiss to one tip. “Meanie.”

  “You’re the meanie. Your cock’s too big,” she complained matter-of-factly.

  “You’ll be grateful once you’re used to it,” he said, preening.

  She shook her head at him. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “Only sometimes,” he teased.

  Rolling her eyes at him, she started, “So, what’s the game plan then? I refuse to stay in bed for another night. It will give you ideas that my pussy will wholeheartedly reject.”

  “I think we shall wait for signs of the mating mark to come before we go to the Goblins.” He snickered, but his last words triggered a grimace. “It will give time for word to spread that I have met my leman.”

  “Will that make a difference?”

  “Aye. They’ll know I’m desperate, and that I’ll have no choice but to be open to terms of negotiation.”

  “That means you’ll be at a disadvantage.”

  He shrugged. “I know. You win some, you lose some.”

  He was taking that so well that she had to stare at him a little in surprise. The Goblins and Elves, from what she could tell, did little to irritate him, but he did a lot to irritate them. And yet, nearly every marvel in the cavern—bearing in mind she came from twenty first century America where the dishwasher could be controlled via cell phone and tourists were going to be visiting space soon—all his marvels came from the other races.

  The smokeless, endlessly burning braziers were Elven. The plant life in the cavern, which should have died from no sunlight, was nourished by Goblin potions. There was no housekeeping to take care of—thank you, Elves.

  There were a hundred and one ways in which the other races’ magick made Georgios’s life easier, and yet, he got a kick out of being a damn nuisance.

  She truly needed to keep him busy.

  “If we’re not going to sort out the tear stone, then what are we doing?”

  “As you’re not incapacitated, I shall heed your desire and we’ll return to the other realm.”

  She frowned. “Incapacitated? Why would I be that?

  “The mating marks cause issues at first.

  “Issues?”

  “Nothing serious.”

  “Serious enough for the word ‘incapacitated’ to come into the conversation.” She huffed. “You’re like the master of understatement. You suck sometimes, mate.”

  He chuckled and then chucked her under the chin. “You like it when I suck, leman.”

  Though heat unfurled in her core, she gritted out, “Are we going to the other realm now, then?”

  His eyes sparkled, but he confirmed, “Aye. Might as well.”

  “Do you have clothes for me to wear?”

  She’d been wearing little more than bed sheets for the last few days. Even flying here, she’d been tucked up in one of the goliath bedsheets from the palace. The beast inside her, the newly aroused ‘feral’ nightwalker, had refused any clothes that had scented of others.

  “I have a chest with garments for you.”

  The way he said garments had her wondering what he was talking about. And twenty minutes later, when he showed her the chests he had stored in a craggy outcrop at the back of the cavern, she could do nothing more than groan.

  “I feel like something from Frozen,” she hissed when he guided her through the portal a few hours later. “Thank God, it’s late, and no one will see me.”

  “You look beautiful,” he retorted.

  She had to admit, his sincerity was so genuine she was a little astonished by it.

  It was either an Elsa or a Lizzy Bennett costume she was currently sporting. With its empire lines, high bodice with rippling tucks that flowed to the ground, she looked like a Regency Miss.

  And she’d been around in those days.

  Not in London or anywhere in England, granted. But she knew how shitty that time period had been.

  Vampires had always been light-years ahead of human societies in how they’d treated their females, but that hadn’t helped when, back in the day, she’d had to remain in her parents’ home until she’d found another coven that would accept her.

  She’d only been allowed to leave the protection of one place to enter another.

  Males, of course, had had the freedom to do whatever the fuck they wanted.

  Not so for Lara and her Vampire sisters, which totally sucked.

  Not that there was much use in pouting about it. Instead, she wrapped the silk pashmina around her shoulders to stop any humans still awake at this time of the morning from wondering why she wasn’t freezing to death.

  Seattle was considered mild by her kind but not so much for humans.

  With the Seattle Mural behind her, the famous glass mosaic in the amphitheater courtyard, she had to admit, for the first time in her life, to feeling uneasy in their current location, and to being relieved she had such a strong male at her side.

  For one who had always chomped at the bit, struggled against the need for males to protect her, now, she could understand the consequences of those choices.

  Had she had security with her, like most of her coven had pestered her to over the years, she might not have been attacked.

  It was hard to be regretful about that now she was mated. Though well aware that was a stupid mentality to have, she couldn’t help it. The mate bond wasn’t flourishing as it should have been without the mating mark’s appearance, her nightwalker half was suddenly a little ‘unnatural,’ and she had a rebellion to quash in her coven. Things weren’t exactly turning up roses, but none of that mattered because Georgios was at her side.

  He would never realize how important this mate bond was to her. Blossoming or not.

  She’d struggled against the strictures of male dominion all her life. Taking it to the extreme by starting her own coven, running it, and running it well for over a century now.

  To admit to wanting and needing any kind of male in her life was so much more than a big deal… It was everything.

  That was how much he meant to her.

  Sure, she cared about all the problems her situation had caused, but nothing compared to the relief she felt at his being in her life. Permanently. When it had seemed so unlikely for weeks now.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, as he tightened his hand about hers. His gaze swept over her once, before he looked at the streets and found two taxis hovering, waiting for the stragglers from the movie theater in the amphitheater.

  He held up his hand, nodding with satisfaction when one started their engine and began to drive toward them.

  “I’m just thinking about how different things are now that I’m back here,” she admitted as he opened the door for her and let her climb into the taxi b
efore rounding the vehicle and getting in too.

  “I should have brought you to another portal,” was the first thing he said to her after he told the driver that he wanted them to be taken to the Meeting (Coffee) Grounds. “Why?”

  “Because you were attacked there, Lara. I should have thought…”

  She wafted a hand and reached for him with the other. “I’m fine. I promise.”

  “How can you be? The memories…” He shook his head. “I need to take better care of you.”

  “If you do, you’ll smother me,” she warned. “If anything, I was thinking the opposite.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was worth being attacked to have you claim me as yours.”

  His eyes widened, and his stare looked so bemused she had to chuckle. “You can’t be serious,” he said hoarsely.

  “I am. Deadly so.”

  He blinked at her slowly, like he was dazed and needed to process her image carefully. “That’s crazy.”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged. “I can’t help how I feel.”

  “I’m bad for you, Lara.”

  “No. You’re not. You’re good for me. You’ll see, over time, things will settle down, and you’ll realize you’re nothing like your father.”

  He grimaced. “I pray for both our sakes that is the case.”

  “How can you even believe it?” She rolled her eyes at him.

  “He didn’t start off a bastard, Lara,” Georgios warned. “There was a reason my mother allowed herself to be claimed. And when I was a child, there was love between them. That love turned twisted, however.”

  “Do you know why?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t like to think about it.”

  “It must have happened for a reason,” she pointed out.

  “Perhaps.” He wriggled his shoulders and turned to look out onto the rain slick night. Sensing that was the end of that particular conversation, one that had been cut off for her, but she hoped enlightening for him, she let him be.

  The roads were dead at this time of the morning, but dead in Seattle was still busy. Lights still blared, cutting out the stars overhead. Something she only noticed because in Georgios’s realm, the stars were so bright, so clear and crystalline, that they looked like little sources of light themselves.

  She missed that, she realized. And as the artificial motion of the car swayed and jerked, as the vehicle braked and then set off at a traffic light, it was a reminder of how Georgios had carried her to their cavern.

  It had been great clinging on to a bedsheet and being flown over a mountain range the size of Everest. Sure, she’d felt a tad exposed, and she was really looking forward to Georgios having a saddle built for her so she didn’t have to be dangled from his talons, but give her that to this any time.

  She bit her lip as she realized being in the other realm reminded her of her childhood. Something she’d never have imagined appreciating, not with the marvels of the modern era to ease so many discomforts from that time, but Georgios’s realm was different.

  Even Vampires, back then, had to suffer inconveniences. Traveling had been a nightmare. The cities had been revolting—roads loaded with horse shit from the carriages that traversed the land, smog from the fires the humans burned. Dirt, filth. Disease and poverty everywhere. Then, there had been the simple things like sending a letter. It had taken weeks, or longer, to get responses to mail.

  For daywalkers, there were more differences. They had more human bodily functions—they ate real food—and so, for them, inventions like the oven and a fridge and freezer were of immense note.

  Not that many daywalkers lived as long as she had. Not unless they were mated to a nightwalker—which was beyond rare—and lived long enough to see the differences.

  Georgios’s realm, however, had Elven and Goblin magick to ease those petty discomforts. And traveling involved flying—better than airplanes. Hell, she’d never have to worry about a TSA line ever again.

  The notion had her smirking smugly, and it came with a jolt of surprise that she realized they’d made it to her favorite café while she’d been lost in her thoughts.

  Georgios was eyeing her like she’d grown another head, and maybe in his mind, she had. He was so scared for her… She’d never been the center of someone’s world like this. Naturally, her parents had loved her, but Vampire parents were always a little standoffish. It was in their nature to uphold their bond as a unit over that of the familial one.

  She highly doubted Georgios would allow that, and she was glad for it, if she were being honest.

  “Come on,” she told him, when the driver repeated the fare and her mate was content just to study her in the light from the coffee shop windows.

  His perplexed glower melted her heart, but she waited for him to reach in his suit pocket, retrieve his wallet, and hand over payment.

  She noticed the driver had received two hundred dollar bills for a twenty dollar fare, but said nothing.

  It was nearly Christmas after all, and like her mate had said, he could afford to spoil her.

  The driver gawked at the tip, thanked them profusely, as they scampered out of the taxi, and was still thanking them as they shut the door and headed for the Meeting (Coffee) Grounds.

  When she walked into the warmth of her most favored establishment, she was careful to take note of the daywalkers on staff.

  Four of the five she hired were here. Nightwalkers tended to have more administrative positions on her staff, as daywalkers could work through the day, and younger ones didn’t mind the shifts or the pay, because they were still figuring out what to do with their lives before they settled on whether they were going to move covens or stay in their familial coven forevermore.

  Human kids mused over college, moaned over grades and GPAs. Vampire children worried about really leaving the nest, or staying in one that would be their home for the next hundred years or so.

  Megan was the only one who looked shocked, and her reaction was overlong enough for it to matter. Lara shot her mate a look, to which he nodded, silently informing her he’d seen the same thing.

  When she reached the counter, Linda was the first to ask, “Ma’am, are you all right? Where have you been? The coven’s been worried sick!”

  In the midst of her orgy, she’d kind of forgotten about her family waiting back home. And didn’t that just make her feel guilty—although, granted, it wasn’t her fault she’d been attacked by her own kind.

  “I’ve been busy,” she said, a teasing note to her tone. She cut her mate a glance, grinned at him then shared that grin with the girls who, not complete dunces, totally understood what that look meant.

  They gawked at her then at Georgios. Their eyes rounding as they took in what that meant.

  She’d never claimed a male before. Sanguennas led rather solitary lives, unlike their male counterparts. So, for her to make such a statement, even if it was inferred with looks, had all four girls looking bemused.

  As well as a little jealous as they eyed her mate like a woman who’d been dieting eyed an All-You-Can-Eat buffet.

  The thought stirred something in her, something she couldn’t understand, and what she couldn’t understand, she quite naturally ignored. Instead, she cut a curtsey before them, holding out her skirts with a grand gesture. The quartet of girls laughed, only Megan’s sounded forced.

  “Why, ma’am, such a pleasure. May we offer you refreshment for your repast?” Jenna teased, as she genuflected back.

  The human version was far tamer than the Vampire’s—she crossed her left arm over her chest and cupped her throat in offering.

  Lara accepted the respectful courtesy with a smile. “I’ll have a hot chocolate, please.”

  As a unit, the quartet gasped. “Hot chocolate?”

  Then, she realized what she’d said, and even she wondered at it. What on Earth had made her ask for something she couldn’t drink? Turning to Georgios, who was frowning with confusion, she simply cleared her throat. �
�I meant green tea, of course. Silly.”

  The quartet chuckled, but it was uneasy as they looked over Georgios and the possessive hold he had on their Sanguenna’s forearm.

  “I’ll have a double espresso. We’ll be over there,” he said, pointing to the corner table he preferred. Though the coffee shop was busy, that space was usually free, as at this time of night, they dealt more with clusters of people intent on some philosophical discussion or a small crowd working together to get a project or proposal done for a deadline.

  A two-seater seating area wasn’t adequate for those kinds of numbers.

  Together, they wended their way through the light crowd, and with a huff, Lara dropped into the armchair. When Georgios sat opposite her, she blurted out, “I really wanted a hot chocolate.”

  “I know,” he confessed, eyeing her a little warily as he rubbed his jaw. “That’s not altogether uncommon, Lara, but usually after a very long time as a leman. Plus, your mate mark hasn’t manifested. None of this makes sense,” he grumbled, then his eyes sharpened as his gaze drifted behind her, and she knew one of her staff was approaching.

  Megan.

  She scented her fear and anxiety from here.

  The mugs clattered on her tray as she bent over and set them down on the coffee table between Lara and Georgios. As she put the cup and saucer down in front of her Sanguenna, Lara’s hand snapped out and grabbed a tight hold of Megan’s wrist.

  “Megan,” she said softly, noticing the jolt of fear that rammed through the younger girl’s body.

  “Sanguenna?” she asked shakily.

  “Why are you scared?” Lara couldn’t help it when her fangs dropped—a sure sign of aggression from a nightwalker as old as she—and Megan, upon seeing them, looked like she could faint.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can scent your fear.”

  “You’re frightening me, Sanguenna,” she whimpered.

  “No, as soon as I entered the café, you looked stunned. Why? Didn’t you expect me to come back?”