Blood Rebellion

"This is my favorite seat," Roff led me to a booth near the kitchen door. Comesuli were inside the kitchen, chattering away while they filled food orders or made drinks. "I like to listen in," he grinned and jerked his head toward the kitchen door. A vampire waiter sidled up discreetly to take our order. We both asked for a bottle of blood substitute.

"Are you just enjoying the conversation or are you listening for anything in particular?" I asked.

"I just like to listen," Roff said. "I learn many things that way. The comesuli are all cursing someone named Gabron."

"Well, they’re not alone," I sighed.

* * *

"You know I have no problem with your business, or with your attraction to some of your girls, Gabron. What I have a problem with is your treatment of Lissa. What your normal practices have cost her. I was the one who brought this to my king’s attention, because it involved many things, some of which concern him. My spies found out about Desire nearly three weeks ago—shortly after you hired her. You did not allow Lissa to review the application, did you?" Erland’s arms were crossed over his chest. Gabron had been a friend and he was doing this out of respect for the old vampire.

"Lissa was not speaking to me."

"Lissa would have spoken to you if you had asked. If you had bothered to apologize. Yet you did not. Why is that, Gabron?"

"I am old as a vampire—you know this. I allowed my pride to hold me back. I generally know more than most—the experience is there. But I have only dealt with the females who worked for me all this time. I have forgotten that not all women are meant to bow or be subservient to my every whim. And I certainly had no experience with a Queen Vampire. It went right past me that she ruled Le-Ath Veronis instead of me. I am used to being in charge, Lord Morphis. Much of Refizan has been under my influence for a very long time."

"Could you not have loosened that grip, just a bit, for the Queen?"

"I did not think so. And I threw it all away, as you see."

"What do you intend to do now?"

"I do not know. Perhaps I will turn my interests in another direction. In the meantime, I have paid to clear away the graffiti from her statue. I still have some connections, after all. It was the least I could do."

"There were unkind things painted there," Erland agreed.

"I saw the interview she gave two days ago."

"Disturbing, wouldn’t you say?" Erland examined his fingernails.

"She looks frail."

"She does. We are at a loss as to what to do about it. She has lost two mates, after all."

"Two?"

"You know Roff doesn’t have a memory left in his head concerning her. Or his children. Some effect of the near-death, I assume."

"I know. At least she doesn’t despise him, now."

"You have a choice to make, Gabron. Work to forget her, or work to get her back." Erland folded away.

* * *

Flavio had placed a piano in New Fangled, but nobody was playing. I’d gotten through half my bottle of blood substitute and Roff had ceased talking, choosing to listen to the kitchen conversation instead. He didn’t notice when I left my seat and walked toward the piano.

I played and performed Follow Me, an old John Denver song. I got a round of applause when I was done, so I followed that with another John Denver song, Seasons of the Heart. Abba’s I Have a Dream finished it off.

"I’m going home," I told Roff when I went back to our booth.

"I did not know you could do that," he nodded toward the piano.

"Now you do," I said and turned to mist in front of him. It would have been too heartbreaking to stay.

* * *

"Lissy, come to dinner with me." I was cleaning up in the huge walk-in shower in my suite, which meant that Tony could walk right in. The spray from my shower hid the tears that had fallen. Tony had stripped down to his underwear, but that came off quickly, all it took was a quick rip-through with his claws. Tony doesn’t ever have to bite to make me come. He knew me. Up, down and sideways. He knew to cushion my back with his hands against the shower wall. He knew I didn’t like the spray in my face. He knew just the right pace to go to make me crazy. He knew to urge me on when the climax started and he liked it if I squealed a little.

Dinner was roast beef and I ate. More than I had recently, anyway. We settled in the library after the meal, having coffee or drinks. Shadow had come—he was splitting as much time between Grey House and Le-Ath Veronis as he could. It was becoming a habit to watch the vid screen in the library to see what new crap was being spouted about me or Le-Ath Veronis. No, gambling hadn’t slacked off—the applications were increasing. They all wanted to be near the scandal, I guess. Another vampire had paid the crown to take over Gabron’s brothels and they’d become a tourist attraction. Figures. I made sure I was far away when the tours came through the palace.

News travels fast, too, I learned, as footage of me singing inside New Fangled was splashed across the screen during the news. Somehow, either a vampire or a sneaky reporter had recorded all of it. Then the program switched to their version of breaking news. An Alliance world was displayed and an entire city there was on fire after an explosion had destroyed more than half of it. And then the camera turned to show all of us something I hadn’t ever expected to see again. My mates were shouting at me as I folded away in a blink.

Chapter 14

Ra’Ak. Copper Ra’Ak—three of them, blasting everything about them with barely a thought. There were no High Demons here to neutralize their power. I figured the attacking Ra’Ak had already eaten as many of the population as they could hold, there on Phericia. Now they were toying with what was left, killing, exploding, destroying. Where had these come from? I’d forced all living Ra’Ak back to their original forms on Kifirin, as well as taking power away from the Elemaiya. Now I was looking at three of the Copper bastards. Well, I knew how to take care of that. They exploded in quick succession. And since the attack on the city was being recorded, the deaths of the Ra’Ak were shown in live vid feeds across the Alliance.

After I eliminated them, I went looking for any spawn or Ra’Ak-enhanced humanoids. They’d taken over an entire island and were preparing to ship out to other parts of Phericia. They died. I went to energy and just blasted them. I was filthy when I got back to the palace. Gavin didn’t say a word; he just plucked me from the floor and took off toward my suite.

"Cara, you frighten me more than I can say," he muttered as he scrubbed me. My clothing had gone straight into the garbage.