by Lexi Blake
“I would have done worse.” Daniel looked at Declan and his fangs were long suddenly. “And I don’t need a gun.”
The rest of the room was startled and seemed to take a big step back, but Miria stood her ground. She went toe to toe with Daniel. She was definitely interested in those fangs.
She spoke to her son but her eyes were on Daniel. “Declan, you should know vampires are possessive creatures. It is impressive that Devinshea was able to forge a ménage with such a powerful creature and his companion. It makes a statement about his prowess. I am proud of you, son. You have done well. Tell me, Mr. Donovan, do you bite my son?”
“As often as possible,” Daniel replied with no hint of self-consciousness. “I find faery blood to be quite the treat.”
“Yes,” she returned with regret. “Unfortunately, it is why I was forced to close the mounds to your kind. Your kind likes our blood, and we tend to like your bite, Mr. Donovan. I found it to be a combustible mix.”
“Please call me Daniel,” my vampire offered smoothly.
“I will,” Miria promised. “And you and your companion may refer to me as Miria or Mother if you like. I am your mother-in-law. Formally, of course, for Zoey, but I completely recognize your relationship and approve. I am pleased to welcome you. You will be treated as a member of this family, Daniel.”
“Good,” Dev said between clenched teeth. “Then you can stop hitting on him. And for the record, while I feed my partner, we are not lovers beyond the fact that we share Zoey.”
Miria looked startled. “Whyever not, son? He is attractive. I did not raise you to be so close-minded. You should …what is that human term you told me about, Declan?”
“Hit that,” Declan supplied helpfully.
“Yes, Devinshea, you should hit that,” Miria said seriously.
Daniel finally lost it, and there were tears in his eyes as he laughed. He leaned over, whispering to Dev. “Shit, man, we should have come here earlier. This is awesome.”
Dev turned to me. “My goddess, what are the chances of the floor opening up and swallowing me whole, sending me to a blissful oblivion?”
“Not so good. Sorry.” Miria made me feel better about my dad.
“I think we should begin dinner now,” Padric said sourly, looking at Daniel with a shake of his head. He took Miria’s arm and started to lead her to the head table. Already servants were rushing to action.
Danny just couldn’t help it. “Dev, your mom’s a total cougar, man.”
I grinned as Dev blushed for the first time in…ever. “My mother is five hundred thirty-two years old. Cougar does not apply.”
“Sabertooth, then.” Daniel just had to rub it in.
Yes, it was time for dinner since we’d already put on a show.
* * * *
Two hours later, I walked up and down the gallery halls of the palace, enjoying the quiet. I glanced up every now and then at the paintings that lined the walls. They were mostly portraits, likely of past kings and queens. The whole place was lit with soft candlelight, and the moonlight seemed to flow in from every open space. There was still a low murmur that came from the great hall, but I could finally think again.
Dinner had been an event. We’d been seated at the royal table, Dev on one side of me and Daniel on the other. Both of my men had been almost immediately engaged in political talk—Dev by his brother and mother and Daniel by a duke. I’d sat there eating some sort of salad and wishing that vodka was a staple in the Fae diet. It’s not. I hadn’t even been offered a glass of wine, not that I could have enjoyed it. I had found myself pushing food around on my plate since my appetite was gone again. The rest of the meal was a lot of me looking out over the banquet hall at people staring. I was surprised I wasn’t feeling light-headed since I tended to crash when I ate as little as I had today.
When the meal ended and the dancing began, I found myself answering many somewhat invasive questions. There’s no such thing as shame in the Fae world. They will ask all sorts of things you wouldn’t expect to be asked about your private life.
The hardest part had been speaking with Braden, Gilliana’s father. He was a duke or something and had apologized for his daughter’s behavior. There was nothing at all sincere about it and he made sure both my husband and the queen heard him do it. There was something I didn’t like about the duke.
I heard a sound at the end of the hall and turned. I wasn’t alone, but then I never had been. Lee had followed me the whole time. Lee nodded at me as he leaned against the wall. He wasn’t going to intrude but neither would he allow me to be alone.
“That is my father,” Miria, who was going to intrude, said quietly. She stared up at the portrait we were standing under. The man in the portrait looked every bit the royal, but the artist had caught the slightest hint of mischief in his eyes.
I turned to my mother-in-law, who had Padric in tow.
“Yes, I see where Dev gets his looks.” I measured my words carefully. This was what I’d been dreading. The time had come to decide how to deal with Dev’s mother. It was obvious she loved her son, but she had also been behind the plot to force him into marriage with Gilliana. I didn’t know whether to condemn her or thank her because it was that betrayal that sent Dev to my plane. If Miria hadn’t tried that desperate ploy, I would never have met him.
“Yes, the twins look much like my father,” she murmured, her eyes on the portrait. “Devinshea is the one who took after him in temperament, however. My father was a stubborn man and not so quick to forgive.”
I turned to face her, not quite able to stop the words from coming out of my mouth. “Well, I’ve been with Dev for several years now and I find him forgiving when one deserves it.”
“Zoey,” Padric warned sharply.
Miria shook her head. “Stay out of this, Padric. I want the girl to speak her mind. She is my only conduit to Devinshea. She is my only hope for repairing the relationship.”
“Do you want to make up with Dev because he ascended?” I wondered if that was the case. She hadn’t invited us back to Faery until after his ascension.
“I want my son back because I love him,” she spat back at me, her mouth tightening. It must be frustrating for a queen to deal with not getting what she wanted. She’d had hundreds of years of pure obedience from her subjects.
I wasn’t her subject.
“You should have thought of that, Your Highness, when you chose to betray him.” There was nothing for it now. I’d started this. I should just go all in. “I would warn you not to try it again. I wouldn’t take kindly to those types of manipulations. Ask Gilliana. You try some witchcraft on my husband and you’ll get the same treatment.”
Miria’s eyes narrowed as she looked at me, and I heard Lee move in behind me. He wouldn’t care that she was a queen. He would pounce if he thought she was coming after me. “I could have you thrown in the dungeons for even threatening me.”
“You could try. You might get me in your dungeons, but I doubt you could keep me there. Execution is your only choice, and I don’t think that would win you points with your son.” I had a sudden thought. “Unless you chose assassination. I did have an attempt on my life earlier today. You could have me killed and throw the suspicion on some poor scapegoat. I’m sure you have subjects who would throw themselves on the fire for you.”
“Zoey, you go too far.” Just as my bodyguard had moved in close, Padric staked his place now. He stood to Miria’s side, towering over me. “You cannot accuse the queen.”
Lee growled Padric’s way, and his hand was on my arm, ready to yank me back at the merest hint of aggression.
Miria sighed and the anger left her body. “Stand down, Padric. If you could please have your guard do the same, daughter?”
I nodded at Lee, who took a step back. I was more than willing to allow the tension to dissolve now that I’d made a stand.
“You aren’t like the others,” Miria said, regarding me seriously.
“So I’ve been told.�
�� It was far better for her to understand that now.
“I was not behind the archer this morning,” the queen stated. “The men seem to think Gilliana is, but I doubt it. It is not her way.” She gave me a sly smile. “And after this day’s events, I doubt she will try anything again. No, I rather think this is a plot of the Unseelies to attempt to create chaos. Our relations are not good. It is one of the things Devinshea can help us with. He always got along better than the rest of us with the dark court.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I wanted to stay out of politics if I could. If the Unseelie liked Devinshea, I doubted they would come after his goddess. The Unseelie had problems with fertility. It would be foolish of them to assassinate their only hope, but then I didn’t have the Seelie prejudices. “I’m sure that once Daniel gets through with our guest we’ll know something more. He plans on interrogating the prisoner tomorrow. My vampire can be persuasive.”
Miria’s smile was just the slightest bit bloodthirsty. “Yes, Padric informed me that the vampire would be questioning the prisoner tomorrow. I believe I will make myself available to witness that.”
I just bet she would. Danny was going to give Dev the hardest time.
“I apologize for not forcing Gilliana to return to the country,” Miria continued. “Padric advised me to do it, but she cried and promised to behave. I felt so bad for involving her in my plotting that I am afraid I went against my better judgment. She is on her way home now.”
“So the duke told me.” He’d complained about how he’d had to restructure his staff to escort her home. I took a long breath and decided to air out all the dirty laundry. “Why exactly did you trick Dev into sleeping with her?”
She stared at me for long enough that I thought she would walk away. Finally she nodded and began to speak. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I will tell you anyway. You are important to my son, which makes you important to me. I am not human, obviously. Fae can die, as proven by the death of my father, but we don’t tend to think of our loved ones dying. I fought for hundreds of years to have a child. Even with my father’s fertility powers, Padric and I were never able to conceive a child. It was why I had to try with others, why we’ve never married. I can’t tell you the joy I felt when I gave birth to my babies. It rapidly became clear to me Devinshea was the sweet one. Declan was strong and always took the lead but Devinshea…you could not see his smile and keep your heart intact. When I realized he was mortal…”
Miria faltered and Padric took over, his hand reaching out to slide over hers. Their fingers tangled together with the ease of long intimacy. “Devinshea was young, only three years old, when he took a tumble down the palace stairs. He and his brother were always running through the palace at neck or nothing speeds. We would laugh and praise the princes because it had been so long since we had that kind of energy in the palace. And then Devinshea fell down the stairs and broke his arm. It was nothing new. Many Fae have such injuries. The trouble was he would not stop bleeding. We nearly lost him. A healer got it under control but it took him weeks to recover. We knew then that he was mortal. It broke his mother’s heart.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t easy on Dev, either,” I said. “I heard the nobles wanted him banished.”
Miria nodded. “He was considered unlucky. If I had not had such good control of the royal army, I would have been ousted and beheaded. They considered me weak where he was concerned. It got a bit better when his powers as a Green Man surfaced. He was trained to be a priest and he was a good one. He took his duties seriously.”
As his duties included screwing every girl in Faeryland, I wasn’t surprised to discover he was a devoted priest. I still hadn’t met those priestesses, yet. I wondered if they had heard the tale of Gilliana.
Lee had moved back to his wall now but I could see he was listening as Miria continued.
“As he grew, he became more reckless. He and Declan would leave the sithein for weeks at a time pursuing the pleasures of the human world. That plane is dangerous. I just knew he would die there someday. I wanted something, Zoey. I wanted something to hold on to when my son died. Can’t you understand that? I know I went about it the wrong way, but I did it because I love him. Gilliana was fertile and there was the chance he could produce a full Fae child. I tried to convince Devinshea that it was his responsibility, which it is. We cannot survive without a Green Man. He would not listen. I took the chance and I lost. Now all I can do is ask you to plead my case.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you know Devinshea misses his home,” she said. “You know he misses his family. I am willing to welcome you and Daniel into our lives. Someday you and Devinshea will have children. Would you cut them off from half of their culture? There is much Faery has to offer even its mortal children. I have so few years with him. Even now I only have fifty or so years left before mortality takes him from me. I do not wish to spend them completely apart.”
“It is a bit longer than that, Mother,” Dev said, and I turned to see he had heard much of our conversation. His eyes were serious, and he walked over to slip his hand into mine.
Miria lit up with understanding. “Of course, you feed Daniel and he gives you his blood. It elongates your life. I told you vampires weren’t all bad, Padric.”
“Perhaps Daniel is not but I did not like the other one,” Padric said forbiddingly.
“You are never going to forgive me, are you?” she asked with an indulgent grin. She turned to Dev and me. “I will tell you a secret, children of mine. I once had an affair with a vampire.”
Dev sighed. “Well, I hope your foray was better than mine, Mother. My first vampire was frightening.”
Dev had tried on a female vampire for size. They’re rare and pretty much creepy.
Miria smiled with the memory. “It was several hundred years ago. I was a young girl and he was…lovely. He was always giving me gifts. Such a gentleman he was. It was odd though. He seemed to think my name was cara.”
I couldn’t stop the startled burst of laughter that came from my throat. There was only one vampire she could possibly be talking about.
Dev frowned beside me. “You slept with Marcus Vorenus?”
Miria smiled brilliantly. “Yes. That was his name, I believe. He was a beautiful man from Rome, if I recall. So gallant. He knew how to treat a lady.”
“Well, you and Zoey should swap stories,” Dev said with a pout.
Marcus Vorenus was Daniel’s patron, and he had zero problems with flirting with me. He’d let me know that he was more than willing to accommodate me in any way I needed. Daniel tended to roll his eyes and wave it off. Dev pretty much hated the guy.
“I’ve never slept with Marcus,” I protested. Dev and Marcus were polite to one another, but Dev still hadn’t forgiven Marcus for trying to kill him. He also didn’t like the fact that Marcus referred to him as Lancelot.
“Not for lack of trying on his part,” Dev replied shortly. “He is always trying to get into my wife’s pants.”
“I never liked that vampire.” Padric clasped a hand on Dev’s shoulder in sympathy. “Vampires shouldn’t be able to walk about in the daytime.”
“It makes it harder to stake them,” Dev replied with a nod.
Miria leaned toward me, ignoring the men. “You should have him give you gifts. He gave me the loveliest jewels. Once he gave me a ruby the size of my fist. He said it brought out my eyes.”
There was more talk but I didn’t notice. A ruby the size of her fist. Yeah, that pretty much summed up the Blood Stone. Inside I was shaking my head. I should have known Marcus would be behind everything. I was being forced to work for Louis Marini because Marcus needed to steal jewelry for his mistress.
Or was there something else behind it? If that jewel was important enough, he might have stolen it to get it away from Marini. I still wasn’t sure that the jewel didn’t have some sort of magical property. What better place to hide something than another plane? Miria later closing the mounds
would only be a problem if he planned on using the gem himself. Marcus and I would be having a long talk the minute I hit the Earth plane and got cell phone coverage again. He had some explaining to do.
“I’d love to see the jewels Marcus gave you sometime,” I heard myself saying. I’d been told my mother-in-law might know something about the jewel. If she could just hand it over, my job would be so much easier.
Dev stiffened slightly beside me as he followed my logic. He’d read the file from Marini as well. “Yes, that is an excellent idea. Zoey loves fashion and jewels. You should show her your collection.”
Miria nodded. “Of course, though Padric forced me to give the Blood Stone away. It was my favorite. He pouted until I relented. I gave it to a woman in town. She had done me a service.”
Well, that answered one thing. The Blood Stone was here in Faery. I could do the job.
“Zoey,” Lee said, suddenly stirring. He started down the hall back toward the ballroom. “Something’s wrong. Come on.”
Dev took my hand and we ran in behind Lee. Dev didn’t question him. There was no way I would ask him what was happening. If Lee told me something was wrong, I would follow him. His instincts were that good.
We reached the archway that connected the gallery to the ballroom and I saw the problem. There was a huge crowd standing to the side of the dance floor. The band had stopped playing, and every single person was trying to get a good look. Dev forced his way in, and I realized the crowd was surrounding a single body.
I watched as Zack picked up the unconscious man.
“Daniel!” I yelled even as someone was calling for a healer.
My heart took a nose dive, and Dev ran for his partner.
Chapter Six
Thirty minutes later, we were comfortably settled into our room, having left the drama of the ballroom behind us. There were still a ton of people milling about outside our room waiting for the latest gossip, but it was easy to forget about them now that we’d shut the door. It was hard to forget how scared I’d been though.
