Drake and Drew took them to the guest wing after they finished their bottle of blood substitute. Gavin came and nuzzled my neck. Tony sighed. He figured he'd get tomorrow night, I'm sure.
"Lissa, cara, are you all right?" Gavin pulled me against him as we made our way to my suite.
"Honey, things are kind of awful," I sighed. "There's just nothing we can do about it now."
* * *
Thurlow watched as Gavin lifted Lissa, got her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck. He was kissing her, even as he opened the door to her suite and went inside. Thurlow sighed softly before heading toward the front doors of the palace. A walk in the moonlight seemed appropriate.
* * *
"I intend to see Lissa tomorrow," Erland yawned as he sat in a chair before Wylend's desk in his private study.
"How do you think that's going to turn out?" Wylend asked, watching Erland's face carefully.
"No idea," Erland admitted. "I hope, for both our sakes, that she doesn't blame us for the whole thing."
"This situation is a two-edged sword for me," Wylend muttered. "I can condemn Brenten for the treatment of his daughter, but he was doing this to save his son and my heir. What am I supposed to do about that?"
"No idea," Erland shook his head. "But that's my mate, either way. What would you do, if she were yours?"
"She is mine, only in a different way. I am still trying to figure this out."
* * *
I was sleeping, sprawled over Gavin, who had an arm held loosely about my shoulders, when even I heard the call for the Spawn Hunters long before our sleep period was over. My palace was emptied of everyone that had anything to do with the Saa Thalarr, which meant Gavin, Tony, Drake, Drew, Winkler, Aurelius, Rolfe, Jeral, Radomir, Rush and Lisster mobilized quickly and disappeared. Even the healers were called out, including the ones who'd been teaching classes at the hospital in Casino City.
Kyler must have been with Flavio, because they folded in with Roff right after the others left. Gavin didn't even have time for a quick kiss before he folded away. I was hugging myself, standing in my study still dressed in pajamas when Flavio, my niece and Roff appeared. Rigo rushed in, followed closely by Thurlow.
"My Queen, the Rith Naeri are now guarding the entrances to your palace." Rigo dipped his head respectfully.
"Thank you, Rigo." I shivered—it was early fall, now, and the air on this side of the planet was definitely chilly at times. Kyler
Pulled
in a robe for me and moved to put it over my shoulders, but Roff plucked it from her fingers and wrapped me in it. He pulled me against him, too, after I tied the belt. I looked up at his face. He still looked care-worn, but his face held grim determination. And why was he holding me? He still didn’t have a clue who I was.
"Do we have enough to guard the palace tonight? What about the walls?" I asked as I trembled in Roff’s embrace. He pulled me tighter against him.
"I have contacted your guard and mustered out extras," Thurlow surprised me. "Baxter and Dmitri are heading up the detail and fanning out extra guards. Lissia should be safe tonight, and we will make arrangements tomorrow, should it prove necessary." I thanked him softly for his words and his efforts on my behalf.
"Don't forget you have that trip to New Hesperia, this morning," Kyler reminded me. That made me sigh. A new vampire city had been settled and populated while I'd been on Vionn. It held around thirty thousand or so. The applicants were under review just before I'd gone to Vionn, so I hadn't had final approval on all of them. Someone else had done it in my absence. They had a newly elected Council, but hadn't attended Council meetings yet. That was one of the things I'd planned to discuss during my visit. I was counting on taking Drake, Drew, Gavin and Tony with me, too. They were gone now, and I'd have to get up and be ready to go in another hour or so.
"I will come with you," Rigo offered. "When shall I be ready?"
"You need to be ready in an hour and a half," Kyler told him. "Meet here. Grant, Davan and Heathe will be going, to take notes in case anything needs tending to or provided for the new residents."
"I will go," Roff stated firmly, tightening his arm around me and almost daring Flavio to tell him no. Flavio flicked a glance at Roff but didn't say anything.
"I will go as well," Thurlow added.
"Thurlow, those are vampires we're going to visit," I told him, looking at his almost-handsome face. His sensuous mouth twisted into a grin.
"Lady, I am more than aware," he replied.
* * *
"Are we ready?" Grant was always excited to go on what he termed
a road trip
, even if it was only fifty miles away. Davan was happy to get away from the palace; he offered me a smile as we walked through a side door and into the courtyard where a hoverbus waited. A vampire driver waited with the hoverbus, so Grant, Heathe and Davan loaded into the back, Thurlow and Rigo took the middle seat and Roff and I got the first row, behind the driver.
Roff had gone back to my suite with me earlier, never said a thing and lay down beside me while I stared at the ceiling. His hand crept toward mine eventually, until my fingers were clasped tightly in his. We’d stayed that way until we had to get off the bed, clean up and get dressed.
I worried about my Spawn Hunters, but had to put it out of my mind. I would be meeting the newly formed Council from New Hesperia, and it made me wish for Garde or Aurelius to back me up. I wasn't comfortable about this, and felt vulnerable without their presence. Aurelius was off killing spawn somewhere and didn't need to worry about an uneasy Vampire Queen. Garde had a meeting on Kifirin to attend in his official role as Prime Minister. Besides, I'd taken up enough of his time.
The vampire driver, who seemed happy to be driving the Queen around, opened our doors for us. I guess that gave him status or something. How was I to know? The Council for New Hesperia was there to greet us formally, as we were ushered inside City Hall. Kifirin must have manufactured marble from thin air, I thought as we walked up grand steps and into the building. New Hesperia's City Hall housed multiple offices, a meeting chamber, a kitchen area which held shelves of blood substitute and a bank of refrigerators quietly humming, keeping blood substitute cold in case you preferred it that way.
"We would like for more of the comesuli come to visit," the Head of the newly formed Council informed me as we were shown to their Council chamber. He was around five-ten or so and looked twenty-two, although his scent said close to a thousand. He also had blond hair, almost the color Gabron's had been. I was trying to keep that from having any influence over my first impression of him, which wasn't very good, to be honest. I wasn't itchy, but felt on the verge of it, somehow.
He was demanding more comesuli, too. That was preposterous. We divided them among the existing cities as it was, according to population. The city councils were supposed to portion out the taking of fresh blood fairly among their constituents.
"You are getting as much as we can send," I said. "So many are pregnant right now, and we portion out the ones eligible for the bite fairly," I responded to his complaint.
"We thought we would be getting more fresh blood," the guy continued to whine.
"What is your name?" He hadn't given it, yet, only introducing himself as the Head of the Council.
"Geratt, Raona," he replied, pronouncing the G as a J.
"Geratt, were you promised anything before you came, other than a place to stay on Le-Ath Veronis?" I asked.
"But the rumors all said we'd get fresh blood."
"How much have you had since you arrived?" I asked.
"I have gotten to drink twice," he muttered, sounding angry.
"How much fresh blood did you get, where you lived before?"
"None, it was forbidden," he grumbled.
"Perhaps you'd like to go back there." I wasn't going to listen to much more of this. He'd gotten a taste for blood from the source, and looked to be on his way to becoming addicted. Apparently, Rigo thought the same; he was frowning at Geratt.
I made a mental note to check with the comesuli who'd come here, just to make sure they weren't abused when they offered blood. It looked like these might not have been trained to take blood properly, and I was out of patience with anybody who might mistreat the comesuli. Roff, too, wasn't happy with this guy. Thurlow had as good a non-expression going as any I'd seen. I didn't have time to wonder about him for perhaps the fiftieth time.
"Come, let us walk through New Hesperia," Geratt offered, noticing, finally, that he was in a minority about getting additional fresh blood. We walked out of City Hall with him, past the inevitable courtyard and down the center street leading up to City Hall. We passed a few grand manors, quite a few nicer homes and some that were more than adequate. The latter didn't seem to be occupied—the new residents had claimed all the nicer properties.
"My home is down this street," Geratt informed us as we walked along. I noted the street sign—the street was named after him. How nice. Of course, his mansion was at the end of the block and took up most of the cul-de-sac, wrapping around the circular area in a U-shape. Well, weren't we uptown? "I am looking forward to my first meeting at the palace tomorrow," Geratt smiled. Odds are he'd try to dominate it, too. We'd see how that turned out.
"Please, come and see what I've done with the house," Geratt went on. Heathe and Davan were already headed in that direction.
"Lady," Thurlow took my arm, just as my skin began to itch. I drew in a huge breath as wooden shafts were shot around us from nearly every angle. I turned everything around me to mist as swiftly as possible, mentally screaming out a distress call to anyone listening. What I wasn't expecting was for Erland and Wylend to show up, nor what they did when they got there. Anything on that street that wasn't mist was burned to cinders in three blinks. Now I was seeing just what it was that Karathian Warlocks could do.
Chapter 9
When I came back to corporeality, turning everything else within my mist as well, that's when I learned just what those shafts had done. Davan was already dead and Heathe nearly so.
"No!" I shouted, struggling to get to Heathe before the last spark of life was gone. Cleo, healer that she was, got there ahead of me and nearly landed on top of Heathe, glowing like the sun. Davan was turning to ash as I knelt next to him and wept.
* * *
Sixteen piles of vampire ash—that's what we found behind houses—six behind Geratt's manor alone. Garde and Aryn had shown up quickly; I was staring at Geratt as he sat at a table at City Hall, looking guilty as hell. Rigo had the other Council members off to the side—he'd placed a compulsion to end all compulsions, I think, and he was glaring at all of them. I pitied any one of them who might be involved in this.
Davan had been my uncle.
Had been
. We'd only known each other for a short time. He'd been so good—so grateful, even—for the job he'd been given, and the place he had at the palace. I wanted to cry again over his loss, along with so many other things. Roff stood beside me, a hand stroking my jaw and neck carefully as he watched Garde question Geratt after Aryn placed compulsion.
"Tell me everything you know of this attack." Garde was blowing a lot of smoke. If his smaller Thifilathi came, we'd all have to leave and I figured Geratt would be dead quickly.
"They assured me it would be clean and swift," Geratt whined.
Where did you think you would hide afterward?" Aryn asked.
"I was promised transport back to Brisdan, if it appeared I might be implicated."
"How much?" Erland and Wylend were still there, and Erland now had Geratt's shirt gripped in his fist. "How much did they promise you for this? Because I can assure you, they meant for you to die here so they could keep the money for themselves. Only Lissa's quick thinking saved your sorry hide from those arrows, which killed her uncle, by the way."
Garde was still blowing smoke, but seemed content to have the Warlock do some threatening. Thurlow was at the back of the room, watching everything and everybody. We learned that three humanoids had hired Geratt and twenty vampires to kill me, for half the fifty million promised by Black Mist. Three vampires had escaped and the humanoid masterminds were staying somewhere in Casino City, waiting to pay Geratt for my assassination.
Cleo had taken Heathe and Grant back to the palace; Heath had been really shaky but alive when she'd folded them away. I figured he'd be getting plenty of blood substitute the minute he got back. I looked up at Roff.
"Lissa, I am sorry," he leaned down and kissed me gently, wiping the stubborn tears away afterward.
"Me, too, honey," I put an arm around his waist and buried my head against his shoulder.
* * *
"I see them." Rigo spoke quietly to Aryn, Garde, Thurlow and Erland. Three men were gambling at a table nearby. Geratt had given names and descriptions. The names were assumed, but it was easy enough to fit the descriptions to the accents Geratt provided. It was a simple matter afterward to track down where they were gambling. A vampire pit crew manned the craps table, and they knew not to say anything when Erland and Garde walked up.