"Tiessa, you should have brought me with you; I can help with this," Rigo told me softly as Norian asked other questions that Tony was doing his best to answer.
"I know, honey," I replied, squeezing his fingers. All we'd gotten from the captured vampires was that the bombs were scheduled to be detonated in two days. I had no idea what the leader or leaders of Black Mist intended to do when their bombs didn't explode according to schedule. Alliance bomb squads had been dispatched to Tykl to disarm what I'd dropped off there.
"If we notify the local authorities that Black Mist is attempting a takeover, it will cause widespread panic. If we don't notify them and an attack happens anyway, lives will be lost. This is the worst kind of mess," Norian raked hands through his hair in frustration.
"They need to know, boss," Lendill walked over to stand next to Norian.
"I suppose you're right," Norian sighed. "Get the Chancellor on the communicator—see if he can come down here himself." Lendill nodded and pulled out his communicator.
* * *
"It isn't just vampires—it's humanoids and possibly rogue wizards as well," Norian and Lendill were trying to get the Chancellor to calm down—he was about to condemn all vampires, even as he was surrounded by them at the moment. We weren't about to alert him to that fact. The Chancellor was still railing several minutes later when I tired of listening to his rant.
"It is in times like these that we learn what our leaders are made of," I barked at him. He was so shocked he shut up for a moment. "That's better," I said. "Now, this could have been any world under attack by Black Mist. They chose yours, for reasons known only to them. What do you intend to do about it? How are you going to keep your people safe? Now is the time to act, Chancellor. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may be too late." I watched as his mouth worked for several seconds—he wasn't bad looking or particularly old and I wondered what his qualifications had been for his election. Of course, none of that mattered now—it was what he did from this point forward that would define him and his rule.
"We will not succumb to these threats," he said finally. "I must tell my people that Black Mist wants our world and we must stand strong and refuse to let them take it."
"The Alliance already has three legions on the way, but you must have your security personnel ready to coordinate and get the population involved. We will invite the media in, too, and this story will be spread across the Alliance. All will know that Black Mist is attempting to take control of Darthin." Norian nodded with satisfaction.
Put all the Alliance worlds with long nights on alert, I sent to Norian, who nodded discreetly to acknowledge my sending. And alert the other cities here—the ones we caught didn't have information on other attacks, but that doesn't mean there won't be any.
"Already on it," Norian muttered, knowing I would hear. That's how we ended up in two more cities later that evening; Norian's agents had found twelve more vampires and sixteen humans. They'd all been taken into custody before the sun set; the agents were waiting for Norian and the rest of us to arrive and question the vampires after nightfall.
We also found the bombs set in those city sewers, and they were shipped offworld to the bomb squad on Tykl. Gavin and Tony began their questioning after I told them that the oldest of these vampires was barely two hundred. That had Norian raising an eyebrow and hauling me out of the questioning tank, Rigo right behind.
"Do not harm my Queen," Rigo eyed Norian's hand, which gripped my upper arm.
"Do you think I would?" Norian gave a snort but dropped his hand anyway. "You can tell the ages?" We were back to that again.
"Norian, I have no idea what you've learned about me or whether any of it is true. Maybe we should get together later and discuss it. In the meantime, you and Rigo should try to get along. You have some things in common, after all."
"And what would that be?" Norian snapped. He was about to get hissy, I figured, and that didn't need to happen with so many others close by.
"I think you could have a long conversation about poisons," I grumbled and attempted to move past Norian.
They were both staring at me now—Rigo and Norian—as if I'd let the most important cat out of the biggest bag ever. "Look," I said, "If both of you think you're going to end up in my bed, then all my mates need to know. Therefore, 'fess up."
"They have already guessed about me, after Satris," Rigo grumbled.
"You did that? Then you have my support and admiration," Norian clapped Rigo on the back. "I couldn't have done better myself."
"He almost killed my tiessa," Rigo defended his actions.
"You think I don't know that?" Norian displayed one of his famous grins. "I might have hunted him down myself. You saved me the trouble."
"See, you do have a lot to talk about. I need a drink." I moved away from them but they caught up almost immediately. Neither of them was satisfied with sitting on the opposite side of the booth at a nearby bar, so I was wedged between Rigo and Norian while I sipped a fruit drink.
Norian was quite impressed with Rigo and his story, and I had a feeling Norian would be studying up on his Hraedan history just as soon as possible. Rigo was Rigovarnus I. Six other Rigovarnuses ruled Hraede, but none were good enough for the turn, according to Rigo. I bumped his shoulder and teased him about it—he doesn't like the formal version of his name much. He leaned in to kiss me, which caused our server to raise eyebrows.
We had to take Rigo to a nearby ASD office later so Norian could make the turn and Rigo, after he recovered from the initial shock, asked Norian if he could have poison to work with. Norian carries the poison glands all the time; they're just well hidden while he's humanoid. He showed Rigo the sacs, located on the sides of his neck.
"I can extract some for you, but I have to release it," Norian explained. Rigo nodded—he had extensive knowledge and a healthy respect for all poisons. Rigo and Norian were well on their way to a strong friendship when we got back to the others. The information regarding Black Mist's attempted takeover had already been distributed to the media across the Alliance, so we were watching the news reports as they were broadcast.
* * *
"Do you see this?" Viregruz wanted to smash the vid screen with his fists, but he needed the information and another vid screen might be hard to come by at that time of night. Viregruz looked sixteen of his thirty-six hundred years, and anyone who failed to respect him when they were looking to join Black Mist, died in the most painful way possible.
Viregruz's two Blood Captains nodded deferentially to Viregruz. They were talented as vampires—both could turn to mist, but neither held the complement of talents that Viregruz held. He not only had misting ability; he could mindspeak and shapeshift. Viregruz became a falcon when he shifted, and while falcons were day flyers, Viregruz's alter ego could see as well as any vampire in darkness. He could take that shape in an instant, rather than waiting lengthy minutes to become mist. Many were the times when he'd gotten into a closed room as mist to commit murder and then shifted to falcon and sat in the rafters or some other out-of-the-way place while everyone went looking for a humanoid perpetrator.
"The Alliance is behind this—only they would notify the authorities and spread this across the Alliance worlds," Viregruz cursed again.
"The ASD," one of his Blood Captains ventured to speak.
"Of course the bloody ASD," Viregruz growled. "If it were that Queen bitch Vampire, she'd have killed my operatives and kept it quiet."
"Do you want us to switch the vendetta?" Viregruz's second Blood Captain asked. Viregruz had pulled back the reward on the Queen Vampire's head, announcing a vendetta against her instead. Viregruz's war with the queen had become personal when she'd managed to kill his brothers, who were his six best operatives. Black Mist would be eliminating her itself, and if Viregruz could do it single-handedly, so much the better.
"No, I want you to add that fucking director of the ASD to the list. Get them both. I demand satisfaction in this."
"Are we g
oing to attempt a rescue?"
"And risk losing others? Besides, our operatives were my turns. No important information will be given out." Viregruz at least had that satisfaction. "The humans were merely slaves. They knew nothing; they were only there to be watchful during the days."
What irritated Viregruz most, even if he held it back from his captains, was that the Alliance now knew that Black Mist had vampires working for them. Perhaps they didn't realize yet that it was also run by vampires, but that supposition had to be there. Too bad they didn't know about Viregruz's stable of rogue wizards and warlocks. That trump card was still well hidden and remained up Viregruz's sleeve. If anyone might be able to track the director of the ASD and the Queen Vampire when she was away from her world, his power-wielding members would.
"Bring Zellar to me, I have an assignment for him," Viregruz smiled grimly.
* * *
"Have you been to bed with her?"
Shadow was offended at his grandfather's question. "No! And I bloody well don't intend to get in bed with her. She's rude to the servants, expects them to wait on her hand and foot and hasn't lifted a finger to do anything. You wanted Calebert to assess her talent—I suggest you ask him how that went!" Shadow wanted to throw something, there just wasn't anything on Glendes' usually cluttered desk to throw.
"Son, settle down." Raffian had come and was now sitting at a corner of Glendes' desk. Shadow had already seen the demands from Kenderlin of Cloudsong when Glendes called him to his study and handed over the package. Glendes had already opened it and read the messages before giving it to Shadow. Shadow was more than angry—his father and grandfather had not only destroyed his relationship with Lissa, they'd brought trouble to Grey House in the form of Melida of Belancour.
"We'll attempt to get a writ of detachment," Glendes sighed. "Your father and I suspect that Marid and Melida both knew of this before shopping Melida around so quickly after Findal's death." He lifted a pile of papers from a desk drawer and pushed them toward Shadow. "If we can't get the writ of detachment, things will go very badly for Grey House."
Shadow now wore a look of concern as he drew the papers toward him and began to read.
* * *
"Lissa, this worries me. You are considering taking a shapeshifter who becomes a lion snake as a mate?" Roff was pacing at the foot of my bed and rustling his wings.
"Honey, I don't get any bad vibes off him. Rigo and his Hraedan Order of the Night Flower concoct poisons all the time, yet you don't have any problem with him." I watched Roff pace. If he had a problem with Norian, what were the others going to say?
"But Rigo is a vampire and only wishes to protect you. How can we know about Norian Keef?"
"If Norian wanted me dead, I'd be dead already," I muttered. In the physical sense, anyway.
"Then give this some time. Surely, you can wait a few months before offering a ring. Do you love him, Lissa? Do you love him already?"
"Honey, I don't know what I feel," I told him honestly. "But there's a part of Norian that is vulnerable, and terrified of rejection. I'm worried about him."
"Then he can court you, as the others have. If you do not love him after six months, then you should reject him, no matter what the effect will be. You are taking in strays, my love. Do not allow the Grey House betrayal to affect your judgment in this."
"But you don't care if Rigo comes on board."
"No. In fact, the others have wondered why you have dithered so long over this."
"You've talked about this behind my back." I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
"Love, this affects all of us, so of course we have discussed it. If you are happy, then we are happy. Things have been off for a while, Lissa. You have not invited Karzac to your bed since Kevis was born. He loves you, and you are both upset. Do not make him feel guilt over having a child."
"Roff, what do you expect? Toff was stolen away after the worst kind of betrayal, and Kevis needs to know who his father is. I don't want Karzac to be forced to divide his attention—his child deserves as much of that as he can get."
"Lissa, a night or two during each month is not stealing time away from Kevis. That child gets more than enough attention from Radomir, Justin, Mack, Lisster and the others to smother any normal baby. You did not turn me out of your bed because you were worried that Toff wouldn't know who I was."
"No, but it was accomplished by other means," I sighed and fell back on my bed. "Roff, what are we going to do? I want that baby back so bad I can taste it, and now Erland and Garde have children on the way. Black Mist is out there, seething because I killed those six pet Ra'Ak of theirs, I'm not speaking to my father and he's refused to apologize. And Shadow hasn't even tried to talk to me."
"You sent his ring back; perhaps he doesn't feel welcome."
"What would you have done, Roff? Say okay, fine, go right ahead and rub it in a little more that I can't have babies?"
"Lissa," Roff sat beside me and stroked hair away from my forehead. "That wasn't Shadow talking. That was his father and grandfather talking, and they had no right to carry such news to you—not at any time and especially at the moment they did. You were ill, and while that would have been a blow at the best of times, it was particularly heavy then. My concern is that they have not approached you since then and tried to set things right."
"Roff, they were glad to get rid of me. I'm just a barren Vampire Queen who has nothing to offer Grey House. Admit it—they're happy I gave Shadow's ring back."
"My love, they cannot be anything of the kind. They have made Shadow miserable and they know this. I have spoken with your Falchani twins—they know Shadow well. Things are not going so well for Grey House at the moment." Roff leaned down to kiss me, preventing me from asking questions. After a while, the questions didn't matter anyway.
* * *
"Are you both well? Do you need anything?" Connegar and Reemagar had shown up after my unplanned nap with Roff and folded me to my beach house where Poradina and Evaline were. The two surrogates were smiling at me.
"She's worse than any new mother," Poradina laughed. "We're only a month along, stop fretting. We haven't even felt sick yet, and this beach house is amazing. The comesuli bring us anything we want and if we don't gain forty pounds, then it will be the biggest surprise."
"You're handling this much better than I would," I said. Yeah, I was completely amazed.
"Because these are your children and not ours. You get to rise in the night to feed them and chase after them and listen to them whine over something they can't have," Evaline teased.
"I'm looking forward to it," I said.
"We know; that's why we're teasing you about it. Don't worry about us. We're living in luxury."
"We will bring an apprentice Larentii surrogate next week—this will be good training for Daragar," Connegar smiled brightly.
"What will a Larentii do for us?" Poradina asked. She was very curious, but wasn't rejecting the idea.
"He will help with the morning illness and will trill for you if it is needed," Reemagar replied.
"What is trilling?" Evaline wanted to know.
"Only the most restful sound in the universes," I answered her question. "If they do it for me, I fall asleep in no time."
"It is for the mothers, mostly, but it will soothe any female if it is needed," Connegar explained. "We love our mate and that is why we do it."
"That's so nice of you, honey," I reached up and hugged his waist.
"We will take our mate, now. Let the comesuli know if you require anything," Reemagar said before folding me away.
* * *
"First of all, I don't see how they could do this, and to name Lissa as part of this and attempt to extort money from her is preposterous!" Shadow was ready to take the workshop apart.
"Any legal counsel will attempt this—to get as many parties involved as possible. They're looking at not only how profitable Grey House is, but Le-Ath Veronis as well. If Marid and Melida were aware of Findal'
s perfidy, then they plotted this out well. I know you haven't been to bed with her—Shannon verified it for me," Raffian held up a hand to hold off Shadow's ready complaint. "But Melida got pregnant somehow. Who knows how that happened? This is so confusing," Raffian muttered angrily, pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off an impending headache.
"Mom says it had to happen sometime before Melida got here. They wanted insurance and they went to great lengths to get it," Shadow pointed out. "This is to keep Marid's head and body connected. We know that, now, but what is Lissa going to do when she discovers she's been dragged into this?" Shadow felt sick. Before the package had arrived from Cloudsong, he'd been toying with the idea of approaching Lissa and trying to apologize, just to see if he couldn't repair things in some way. Marid and Melida were going to destroy any chance he might have with Lissa.
"Son, if it makes you feel any better, we moved too quickly on this—your grandfather and I. I heard from Kyler that Lissa has two surrogates pregnant right now—her Larentii received permission to manipulate the DNA in two donor eggs and now Gardevik and Erland Morphis are going to be parents with Lissa. They might have done this for you, too. We've managed to fuck this up all the way around and now that Cloudsong is attempting to get judgment against us and Lissa as well, I think you know what the outcome is likely to be where Lissa is concerned."
"Yeah, Dad. That has already crossed my mind."
Chapter 6
"What is this?" Rigo was almost afraid to take the small box I held out to him.
"Something you have waited for," Thurlow was there in a flash of light. It's a good thing he doesn't feel jealousy. I'd called Rigo to my study and asked Grant and Heathe to leave us alone for a little while. Too bad Thurlow can go anywhere he likes, being what he is and all.
"You were approved by the others," I said, as Rigo opened the box. The gold signet ring bearing the claw crown crest nestled inside. I'd had to Look to get it made in the proper size. I'd had a second ring made, too—in Norian's size. My mind was turning to him more and more often, lately. He'd wiggled his way into my heart, and not in any traditional manner. I was going to give it a while, as Roff suggested, but I didn't know how long I could hold out. I had already warned the inner circle and the palace guards and comesuli not to harm any lion snake they might come across—lion snakes weren't native to Le-Ath Veronis. Somehow, Norian had heard of it and came to dinner grinning hugely.
Blood Redemption (Blood Destiny #9) Page 9
