"You look beautiful. And unless you tell me no, I'm about to fuck you until you scream my name," Drew nuzzled my neck before kissing me again.
"You think so?" I mumbled between kisses.
"Oh, yeah," he murmured, his mouth settling on a nipple. He did. Twice, at least.
* * *
Drake and Drew were off sparring with their father and the other Falchani when I slid off the bed the following morning. It was the best I could do; I was a little stiff. A hot shower helped and I dressed in walking shorts and a tank top before pulling socks and athletic shoes onto my feet. It was Friday, I discovered, and I forced myself out my bedroom door, down a flight of stairs and through the maze of hallways that led to the kitchen. I was almost limbered up by the time I got there.
"Coffee?" Mike was there, puttering around the kitchen.
"Hi, hon," I said, sitting down at the island. "Coffee would be very nice." Jamie walked in while I sipped my coffee laced with cream and sugar. "Today is laundry day," Jamie grinned at me.
"You guys don't have to wait on me hand and foot," I said, looking at him and Mike. Jamie had an arm draped around Mike's shoulders.
"It's our job, and we like it," Mike informed me. "Do not thwart us in our mission to feed, clothe and clean." He had a fist in the air, like a superhero. That made me laugh. "Besides, you wouldn't believe how much we get paid or the health benefits attached or the vacation time we get," Jamie added. "Plus, we get to see shit that even sci-fi fans never get to see. I've even been folded here and there, a couple of times. You should see the beach house on their private planet."
"Uh-huh," I said. "And you now know that vampires and werewolves are real, too, I suppose."
"Oh, yeah," Mike sighed happily. He fixed breakfast for me while Jamie went off to collect laundry from all the bedrooms, including mine.
Five gates were taken care of that Friday. The Flakkar were nesting close together on those five worlds—large populations lived near them and were suffering losses, though the Flakkar nests were smaller in number than what I'd dealt with earlier. Seventy nesting pairs spaced across five worlds. I was exhausted by the time I finished.
A three-hour nap helped, but I was still groggy when someone tapped on my bedroom door. I got up to answer and was quite shocked to find Fox standing there.
"You know, I'm still coming to grips with the fact that Wlodek and Weldon ended up with the same woman," I said, inviting her inside. She sat down on a chair in the corner across from my bed while I dressed. She looked so cute, perky and young. I wondered how Wlodek felt about that.
"Weldon tells me you almost died saving his life, once. And Wlodek says you saved him several times."
"Yeah, well, Wlodek needs to learn when to hand out important information," I grumbled.
"He knows that now," Fox replied brightly. "He's worried you won't ever forgive him for that."
"Like Wlodek ever worried about those things," I said. "You ever stand in front of him while your life is hanging in the balance?"
"No. He scared me a few times while he still held the position as Head of the Council, though. He can be a little intense."
"Hmmph," I snorted. Fox smiled. "He regrets those things, Lissa. Very much. He still considers himself your second vampire sire."
"Yeah, well, I've already gotten the visit from Merrill, my surrogate sire. And I'm sure my actual sire wants to weigh in on all this as well." I hadn't thought about Griffin lately. Should I feel bad about that? And my parting with Merrill had been far from amicable.
"They care about you." Fox's words were simple.
"They have a funny way of showing it," I said. Jamie had placed a pile of clean clothing on the end of my king-sized bed and I was now putting all of it away in drawers and on shelves in my closet. I'd napped with it sitting on my bed. I know—how lazy was I?
"I didn't come to upset you, honest," Fox said. "I feel like I need to know you better. How about going with me to do some shopping? Kiarra's birthday party is coming up and I wanted to look for a gift."
"All right," I said. "Am I dressed properly?" I held out my arms—I'd put gray slacks and a black tank top on, with sandals.
"It might be too cool in London for the tank," Fox said, looking me over critically. "Same with the sandals." That sent me back to the closet and I pulled out a short-sleeved blouse in pink with low-heeled black pumps. "Very nice," I got Fox's approval when I came out again. She folded us to a huge mall just outside London. Malls were back in and this one could fit the Vatican inside it, plus a few small villages.
"She has so much jewelry already," Fox sighed as we passed a jewelry store. I shrugged. I didn't know Kiarra at all and had no idea what she might like. We looked at clothing next, but again Fox said that Kiarra was kept fully stocked. We looked at electronics. Gadgets, knick-knacks, doo-dads, gizmos, everything. We ended up in an art gallery where all sorts of artwork and sculpture were for sale. We wandered through that.
"I don't see a single thing that might appeal to her," Fox grumbled.
"Well, she's the Unicorn—can we look for something in that direction?"
"Yeah." Fox smiled.
"I was fascinated by unicorns in my early years," I admitted. "I once painted a unicorn for my graduate thesis exhibition. It was huge, like four feet by four feet. I even had some offers on it but I kept it for myself. It was hanging in the house when I was turned vampire."
"Can we go see it?" Fox asked, dimpling slightly.
"Can you get us back there?" I asked. "I mean, the best time to see it was probably the night I was attacked. I doubt anybody was in the house then."
"Sure," Fox breathed. "Let's go take a look."
Bending time is easy, I suppose, if you have the ability. It only took a blink or two and we were there; inside my house on the same night I was being attacked outside a bar fifteen miles away. I remembered the scent of the house as we landed inside it. It's funny, I know, that you don't really notice things like that so much when you're human. Now, scents were everywhere, telling me things I needed to know as often as not.
"It's in the bedroom," I told Fox, who'd landed us inside the kitchen. We walked down the hall I knew so well, then into the bedroom and past the bed I'd made up early that morning so I could get to the hospital. I sent up a quick mental I love you to Don—he hadn't been gone that long from where I was at the moment.
"This is it? This is incredible," Fox said, examining the painting. I'd always liked it, although my graduate committee had grumbled over it. The rest of my exhibition was more abstract—and in their eyes more acceptable—but I couldn't help myself on this one. The unicorn was white, of course, standing in three-quarter view and gazing off to the side as if it were on guard and watchful. The mane and tail rippled in an unseen breeze as twilight was falling, with the barest hint of stars over mountains off in the distance. The gold horn was long and sharp; I'd always seen it as a weapon. Otherwise, why have it at all?
"Does it have a title?" Fox asked. She was still staring at the painting.
"Vigilance," I replied.
"Right now, this is still yours," Fox turned to me. "Take it, Lissa."
"If I take it, then I'll give it to Kiarra. I'm not the Unicorn, she is. And this represents a part of my life when I still had idealistic dreams. That's what this painting is. May as well give it away." I hadn't had any idealistic dreams in a very long time. They'd all been stolen or beaten out of me. I lifted the heavy painting off the wall—I'd had it framed nicely in a dark wood. Fox folded me back to my suite at the villa and I set the painting against the wall inside my closet. There was still plenty of empty space inside it, after all.
"I'm getting mindspeech from my mates," Fox smiled. "Time for dinner. Why don't you come with me? You haven't met Steve or Gilfraith, yet." She named two of her five mates.
"Fine," I muttered and Fox folded us again.
Chapter 13
"Look who I invited to dinner," Fox announced brightly as we landed in a very p
retty kitchen with a huge, arched window on one side. There were several people there, Wlodek and Weldon among them. There were two I didn't know and one had me drawing in a huge breath; I'm sure the shock must have been plain on my face. He was Ra'Ak. Or had been Ra'Ak—he had the scent, still, but it was overlaid with other things.
"That's Gilfraith," Fox patted my shoulder, smiling at the male with pale brown hair and golden-brown eyes. He wasn't tall—perhaps five-nine or so, but that didn't matter. If he turned to Ra'Ak, he'd be formidable.
"I'm an expatriate," he nodded politely and offered his hand. "And I don't manufacture poison or turn much. I've helped train the spawn hunters and some of the Saa Thalarr." I could see how that might be helpful—Gilfraith probably knew all the Ra'Ak tricks.
"And I can't tell you how happy I am to hear it," I said, shaking his hand. He smiled.
"And this is Steve, Conner's oldest son," another man came forward as Fox introduced him.
"I hear you're mated to my half-brother, Connegar," Steve said, shaking my hand.
"Yeah, that's the current rumor," I said, feeling embarrassed.
"Hey, what's this? You didn't tell us where you were again; we had to send out blanket mindspeech," the twins showed up with Shadow.
"Do I have to tell you everything?" I asked, my hands on my hips as I stared at all three of them.
"You do not, but we would like it very much if you did," Connegar folded in, too. Weldon, the schmuck, snickered off to the side.
"Hey, keep your furry ass out of this," I leaned around Drake to point a finger at Weldon.
"I'll keep my furry ass out of it if you'll bake cookies," Weldon was still laughing.
Everybody ended up having dinner with Fox. I offered to help cook and a mountain of food was prepared. And I baked a truckload of cookies. Three kinds, in fact—oatmeal, chocolate chip and peanut butter. I did get help—Fox, Grace, Devin and Mike all pitched in.
"I remember these," Weldon bit into a peanut butter cookie with a satisfied sigh.
"I remember you could eat a dozen by yourself," I said, handing him a glass of milk.
"Why is everyone getting cookies and I'm just now hearing about it?" Kiarra folded in with Adam, Merrill, Griffin and Amara.
"Baby, may I hug you?" Griffin came over and looked at me with the saddest expression on his face. What was I supposed to do? Refuse and embarrass both of us in front of all those people?
"I guess," I said. Griffin hugged me tightly.
"I'm so sorry, baby," he whispered against my ear. "Just believe me when I say I love you." He kissed my temple and was wiping his cheeks when he stepped away from me.
"It's not worth crying over," I said, handing him a napkin.
"Sweetheart, you have no idea what you're worth," he said. Amara came over and hugged me, too. I know she wanted me to call her Mom. I just couldn't. Maybe someday but not that day, and she hadn't done anything to deserve otherwise. I was going to have to get comfortable with the idea, first.
"Cookies!" My nieces appeared, bringing Flavio, Dalroy and Rhett with them. I was worried we'd have to make more.
"This is the first time I ever got to eat anything Lissa cooked," Wlodek was very happy with the oatmeal cookies.
"You, maybe," I said. "Merrill there was drinking coffee and eating barbecue at least once a week the whole time I stayed with him." I wanted to call Merrill names. Tell him how awful he was. I couldn't. Kiarra was right there, and everybody else was watching. The vampire mask slid into place.
"You knew that?" Merrill looked shocked.
"You came in smelling like barbecue or some other thing all the time," I said, hugging myself and turning away. "I knew you weren't just vampire the first time I met you. Those sunglasses in the Range Rover weren't Franklin's either. You think I'd let that cat out of the bag and risk my life doing it? Jerk," I muttered.
"Lissa, we treated you like a baby vampire and that was perhaps our greatest failing," Wlodek admitted.
"Yeah, well, you can't undo it now," I mumbled, deliberately refusing to look at him.
"Go forward with us, instead," Adam offered. He and I had never really talked, but he was there in front of me suddenly, lifting my chin with his fingers. "Leave the past in the past, pretty girl. There's a world of light in front of you now; all you have to do is walk in it."
"I'm not sure I can," the tears dripped down my cheeks.
"Let it go," Adam whispered. Connegar was beside me, suddenly.
"You will try, won't you, little rose?" Connegar lifted me in a warm embrace and never said a word when I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed.
* * *
"Mother, Lissa needed to get away for a while." Connegar set me down at yet another large, granite island—the one in Conner's kitchen. Conner was there having a late dinner with Russell, Will and Martin. Franklin, his mates Shane and Tomas were also there.
"Hi, honey," I walked over to give Franklin a hug as soon as Connegar let me go. "Hi, other honey," I gave Shane a hug, too. "Third honey," I hugged Tomas.
"Lissa, why have you been crying?" Franklin pulled me against him and wiped my cheeks gently with a thumb.
"Long story," I sniffled, wiping my own cheeks. "Do I look like shit, now?"
"No, sweetheart," Franklin pulled me against him. "You need to come over and see us more often," he scolded gently.
"I would not object if I were notified more often of the Queen's movements. I have attempted to see her many times," Erland Morphis folded in. I stared—I know I did. I'd seen him once before, in the arboretum above the High Demon's palace.
"He's mated to some of ours," Frank said softly. "That's how he found out you were with us."
"Do you remember meeting me?" I asked Erland, leaning against Franklin and putting my head on his shoulder. Yeah, I missed Franklin. A lot.
"When did we meet?" He didn't remember. Well, Kifirin had taken me to the future, so this Erland had no recollection of meeting me.
"Forty years in the future," I sighed. "Kifirin took me to Veshtul. We met in the palace arboretum. You told me you were a Karathian Warlock, and never cast dark spells."
"Fascinating. Did I also inform you that you are one of two women I would like to have in my bed?"
"Uh, no. And that's not embarrassing or anything. I thought you were attracted to males."
"I am currently attracted to males, but I would beg if it would get me into your bed."
"Uh-huh," I said, snuggling against Franklin. Maybe this conversation didn't embarrass Erland Morphis, but it sure as hell embarrassed me.
"See, I am forever to be rebuffed by the two females I would enjoy making love with," Erland declared, tossing up a hand. It made me wonder who the other woman was—after all, he was the second most beautiful male I'd ever seen.
"And the other is?" I asked, mildly curious.
"Glindarok. Only she treats me exactly the same," Erland grumbled. "My Lissa thinks I am the second most beautiful man she knows. My Glinda thinks I am the most beautiful." Well, he'd just plucked the thoughts right from my head. The schmuck.
"She hasn't met Kifirin, has she?" I asked. She couldn't think Erland was more beautiful than that.
"Avilepha, did you call my name?" The most beautiful man I'd ever met showed up right then, as if he were listening for his name to be called. Nexus Echo. I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.
"I did mention your name," I admitted. Everybody in Conner's kitchen was now staring at Kifirin with their mouths open. He had an angel's face. I always thought that, anyway.
"M'hala, you are too kind to me," Kifirin smiled.
"I am not, stop fibbing," I pulled away from Franklin and went to swat Kifirin lightly on the arm. "I missed you, you schmuck."
"I live for the day you call me darling or any other endearment," Kifirin sighed.
"Don't count your chickens, honey," I said. Conner snickered.
"I came to take you away for a bit, love. You appear to need a break."
Kifirin reached out and touched my face gently. It was probably still blotchy from crying. At least the guys were all too polite to mention it.
"Where are we going?" I asked, wishing I had a mirror.
"You look beautiful," Kifirin informed me. "And I was going to take you to see Roff and Giff."
"Really?" I wanted to jump up and down with happiness. "They're still alive?" I missed Roff. Loved Roff. Really wanted to see Roff. And Giff, too.
"Of course. I see I chose the right thing," Kifirin flashed his perfect smile. "Come avilepha, we will go." Connegar nodded and smiled at me when I glanced his way, so Kifirin lifted me up and we were gone.
We were back in the High Demons' palace, only it wasn't in the future. I'm not sure how I knew that, I just did. Kifirin set me down, took my hand, kissed it lightly and then led me down a wide hall tiled in the beautiful marble I'd seen before. The occasional sculpture lined this hall depicting High Demons, both humanoid and in their Thifilathi. That wasn't scary or anything. Those Thifilathi sculptures were life-sized and around sixteen to eighteen feet tall, which meant the hall itself was much taller than that. We stopped at a door carved in ornate patterns and inlaid with gold, silver and semiprecious stones. The knob was also a carved oval in gold. Kifirin knocked out of politeness and then blew the door inward with Power.
Gardevik stood there with his brother Jaydevik and a woman was held behind King Jayd. Jayd looked as if he were about to explode or go Thifilathi. Garde breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was Kifirin and me. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to a battle between Kifirin and Jayd and was glad Jayd backed down.
"We wish to see Roff and Giff," Kifirin announced, as the woman elbowed Jayd aside and then stepped around him.
"Wait," she said. "I haven't been introduced to the person who saved us." She came forward and held out her hand. "I am Glindarok," she said. "Queen of the High Demons." There wasn't any way around it, she was gorgeous. Long, white hair hung down to her waist and she had blue eyes and beautiful skin. She wasn't much taller than I was, either. I took her hand. "I wanted to meet you as soon as I found out you still lived," she said.
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