"This happens, cara. Humans are placed in danger at times, because they associate with us. This is the way it has always been." Gavin came to stroke my hair before pulling me against him.
"Meanwhile, Merrill is looking for someone to live in," Franklin continued.
"Where will we find somebody, Frankie? We can get them all killed," I said, pulling away from Gavin. I was upset that I wouldn't see Lena again, too. "You can't do all this yourself," I swept a hand out. Frank had his own set of worries to deal with—Greg's health was only going to get worse. "We'll need somebody to help clean this behemoth, especially since there are so many people here, now. Where will Merrill find anyone that can help?"
"Your surrogate sire may curtail his search," Kifirin appeared as if he'd been called, and the two comesuli that I'd met before were with him. They shouted with delight when they saw me, and both came to give me a hug.
"Nexus Echo," Kifirin explained as I stared at him in shock. "It is a Larentii trick I have borrowed. They listen for key words—or names even—and they can follow up at a moment's notice if those words are spoken by certain people. It is quite handy, m'hala." He bent to give me a kiss. The comesuli were still attached to me like leeches, and they smiled their approval when Kifirin kissed me.
"This is Roff," Kifirin placed his hand on the dark-haired comesula's shoulder, "and this is his son, Giff," he did the same for the lighter-haired one. Gavin was staring speculatively at the way both were fawning over me.
"They'll fawn over you, as well," Kifirin smiled at Gavin. "You may only drink from them once every two weeks. Do not do this more often, even if they beg."
"You hear that?" I tapped Giff on the nose. He beamed excitedly at me.
"I hear that," he nodded.
"Hey, you can speak English!" I was very happy about that.
"The High Lord has done this for us. We begged him to bring us to you, and he says that your home needs help." Giff seemed ecstatic over housework. "We are very good at this, along with making oxberry wine. That is my father's trade. We can sell this and increase your wealth."
"If you sell anything, you can increase your own wealth," I said. "And we'll pay you. Fairly. What are oxberries?" I'd never heard of them.
"They are not native to this planet," Kifirin answered for him. "The closest you might come are blackberries, but that description does not do them justice. They are very sweet and make exceptional wine."
"We'll get blackberries for you, or any other kind of berries if you want to make wine," I said. "Roff, how have you been? I didn't realize when I first met you that you were Giff's father." I'd been too stunned, I think, to notice the related scents.
"There was no time for that information; you left us too quickly," Roff smiled, his honey brown eyes twinkling. "My second child, Toff, is still on Kifirin, helping my brother and his son with our business."
"Really? How old is he?" I asked.
"He has recently gained his adulthood," Roff was happy to talk about his child.
"That means forty in their culture," Kifirin supplied. "The comesuli live an average of six hundred years, and when they were near death on their homeworld of Le-Ath Veronis, the Vampire Queen and her inner circle would decide whether they should be made vampire." Frank and Greg were listening to Kifirin's explanation, spellbound. "It was the next step in their lives, should they be selected," Kifirin continued. "As comesuli, they have no genitalia and only experience sex with the vampire's bite. If they were chosen and turned, they became male or female, as they were disposed. On Le-Ath Veronis, the numbers of males and females was nearly equal."
Giff and Roff's eyes were shining as they listened to Kifirin speak of their ancestry and the promise that a new day might come for their race. I could almost read their minds on this.
"Is this true?" Gavin was surprised, although he was doing his best not to show it.
"Yes. However, I was sleeping when the Ra'Ak came and the High Demons failed to wake me as they should," Kifirin said. "Le-Ath Veronis was the last of my Dark Worlds to fall; the Vampire Queen sacrificed much to get some of her people away. She sent as many comesuli to the High Demons as she could; they accepted them at least, although they would not accept her vampires." Kifirin sounded sad.
"My Bright brothers came for the vampires and the werewolves that still lived," Kifirin went on. "The Bright Lords sowed those two races across their worlds of light, asking them to remain hidden and to respect the life already there. Some have honored those rules, while others have not. The Vampire Queen died on Le-Ath Veronis, fighting off the Copper Ra'Ak." Someday, you will take her place. Kifirin sent mindspeech to me alone.
Those sound like big shoes to fill, I returned.
Her feet were small, like yours, he teased mentally.
"I have many things to do," Kifirin said aloud and disappeared.
"I wish I could do that," I sighed, staring at the empty space he'd occupied seconds earlier.
"You do well enough when you're mist," Merrill was now listening in the doorway. "Who have we here to take care of us?" He came to meet Roff and Giff.
"A King," Roff's voice was reverent as he bowed to Merrill.
Merrill's eyebrows rose sharply in surprise. "How do they know?" he asked, turning bright blue eyes in my direction. I shrugged. I could have bet everything I had that Merrill didn't want that information leaked.
"They knew I was a Queen the minute they met me," I replied. "They were kissing my feet, too, and they should never do that," I came to hold Giff's face in my hands. He gave me a lovely smile.
"That's more than we knew," Gavin's voice held sarcasm.
"You are my Queen's other mate?" Giff asked.
"I am her first mate," Gavin declared.
"That is a technicality," Roff informed him. Greg snickered; he couldn't help it.
"Come on you two, I'll show you around," Franklin was laughing with Greg as he rounded up Roff and Giff before they could get into an argument with Gavin.
"They truly have no genitalia?" Merrill whispered as Franklin led them away.
"Yeah. Their blood is sweet, too," I said. "Kifirin says they reproduce autonomously. They grow a pouch on their side with the baby inside that, and it drops off when they're ready to be born."
"You're joking?" Gavin lifted an eyebrow.
"That's what Kifirin says."
"I'll ask Wlodek to set up identification for them," Merrill sighed. "And we'll determine what to pay them. Do you think they might learn to drive?"
"You won't even let me drive," I grumbled.
"You may drive me around later," Gavin offered. Paul and Deryn chose that moment to walk into the kitchen, both yawning. They'd been asleep all day, I could tell. Not that I blamed them; they'd fought hard beside Charles the night before.
"Let's take the wolves for a bite to eat," I suggested, "since we're out of live deer."
"How do you know about that?" Deryn asked. Tony and René walked into the kitchen, then. René was dressed more casually than Gavin, in a designer shirt and slacks, his slightly curly, dark blond hair styled neatly. He had a smile in his warm brown eyes as he caught sight of Gavin and me. Gavin pulled me against him and wrapped his arms around me. With René, Tony, both werewolves and the comesuli in the house, Merrill's huge manor was filling up nicely.
"I spent some time with Winkler and Weldon, remember?" I said, answering Deryn's question. "I misted over several runs, just to make sure the Grand Master was safe."
"You watched them hunt?" Deryn didn't know what to think.
"The bear was the hardest; I think I turned away when they killed it," I said.
"I love bear meat," Paul sighed.
"I don’t think it's on the menu here or at any of the restaurants in London," I replied. "You'll have to settle for domesticated bovine."
* * *
"This restaurant belongs to Adam Chessman," Merrill informed me quietly as we walked into a restaurant later. Franklin offered to prepare a meal at the house, but Merrill decided to take the werewolves and comesuli out to eat so Frank wouldn't have to cook. The maître d' of the upscale eatery recognized Merrill immediately. Consequently, we were seated right away.
Giff and Roff were excited that they could read the language on the menu and talked together about what they should order. Paul got into a conversation with them, pointing out what was good. They knew not to reveal either race and were quite circumspect. Gavin, René, Tony and I didn't eat; we merely had a glass of wine and talked with the others.
Tony gazed longingly at the steak his brother ordered, but he knew he wasn't hungry; René had seen to his feeding earlier. Merrill had a small meal, laughing and talking with René, Gavin and Tony. I was content to watch all of them, I think, although Greg and Franklin were teasing one another and then teasing me.
"I want you to sing karaoke with me again," Greg announced.
"Buy a piano and we can do it at home," I suggested.
"But we won't have as good an audience," Greg declared.
"Fine. We'll go right after we get done here," I said. That's how we ended up at the same bar Greg, Franklin and I had gone to, shortly after my stint in the sun. I can tell you this; every man inside the bar drooled over Merrill, Gavin, René, and the others. There wasn't a slouch in the bunch. Even Giff and Roff were invited for drinks. They smiled and said they were with me. Greg signed both of us up for a song apiece.
Greg loves Judy Garland so he did Over the Rainbow. I didn't know what I was going to do until I got on the stage. I did You Raise Me Up just for Greg, and played the piano instead of using canned music. Merrill was staring at Franklin when I finished to a nice round of applause.
"I will buy a piano," Gavin said when I sat down again. "How did you hide this from us?"
"There hasn't been a lot of time for this," I pointed out. "I turned down a music scholarship at an out-of-state college when I graduated from high school. I wanted to stay close and make sure my mother had some support against Howard Graham. He managed to kill her anyway, after I finished my first year at OU. It was difficult after that, because people would recognize my name in some of my classes. I dropped out of several because I couldn't handle the stares after a while." Gavin didn't say anything; he pulled me against him instead, and dropped a kiss on my forehead.
Greg was tiring, so we left shortly after that. I had no idea how much time he had left or what the disease was going to do to him before it took his life. I wondered, too, when Merrill might make his offer as he said he would.
We found a bedroom for Roff and Giff; Merrill offered them separate rooms, but they insisted on using the same one so an extra bed was brought in. Merrill and Franklin arranged to buy clothing and other necessities for them. Gavin and I left the others and went to Merrill's roof. I hadn't sat on a roof since leaving Refizan, which made me think about Gabron. So many of his vampires had died the last night I was there, and I didn't even know their names to grieve for them properly. Here on Earth, we were into August already; time was moving so swiftly and there I was, thinking that as an immortal it should slow dramatically.
"How have you done this, Gavin?" I shook my head sadly. "How have you watched things change around you daily while you don't change? How have you watched people you love die in front of you? How do you handle that?" I was sitting beside him, his arms wrapped around my shoulders.
"You worry for Greg." His words were a statement and not a question.
"And Franklin," I nodded.
"You have had much pain in your life already," he sighed, ruffling my hair with his breath. "You do not look forward to the grief coming because of this." I nodded at his words. "You cannot choose for everyone, Lissa," he pointed out. "They must make their own decisions in this respect. Some do not desire this immortality. They do not want the restrictions this existence imposes. They know the pain is coming and they are preparing themselves for it. All we can do is support them in their decisions and be grateful for the time we have."
"Gavin, I want you to know now, and for you to let Merrill know, that if anyone ever tells you I've walked into the sun and am dying as a result, then they are lying," I said. I remembered how Aurelius had died—he'd been lured into a trap with the lie that one of his vampire children had been injured by the sun. "When I went to Refizan, they put something beneath the skin on the back of my neck," I explained as Gavin stared at me in confusion. "It's technology from another planet that shields me from the sun. It's supposed to last a hundred years."
"It will keep you from dying in the sun?" Dark brown eyes raked my face, searching for verification. He was shocked, I could tell.
"Yeah. You should see the Larentii who put it there," I said, smiling. I was thinking about Pheligar's sky-blue skin.
"Larentii?"
"He's eight and a half feet tall, has blue skin, blue eyes and hair the color of wheat," I said. "He placed the disc beneath my skin and I didn't even feel it."
"The idea of other worlds is not new," Gavin sighed as his arms tightened about me. "I was in the Council chamber four years ago when the female Saa Thalarr was brought in. That was the last time I saw Chessman; he was with her, as was Merrill." Gavin's gaze was now turned toward the night sky; it was mostly clear and I could see a few stars shining overhead.
"I met them," I said. "Adam and Kiarra have a child, now. His name is Justin." Gavin drew in a breath at my words. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"When Chessman was turned, he had a younger brother named Justin. Long dead now, of course. The Council considered taking him after Adam was turned. Merrill prevented it."
"Adam lowered his shields and I got his scent," I said. "He has Bright Elemaiyan blood—I know that now."
"He was a mister," Gavin nodded.
"Gavin, Tony has Elemaiyan blood, too. That's why he can mindspeak," I added. "Does Wlodek know this?"
"René has informed him," Gavin shifted uncomfortably at the admission. "That is a part of what the meeting was about earlier. Wlodek has given permission for Tony's training to be accelerated because he has so much experience in security and law enforcement. Wlodek wants him groomed to take Sebastian's place."
"I thought that might happen," I said. Gavin and I sat in silence after that, until I saw three vans rolling up the long drive to the manor. "Are we expecting company?" I asked, standing up to get a better look.
"Wlodek, Charles and Rolfe are moving in until the threat Xenides presents has been eliminated," Gavin stood up and stretched beside me. "Merrill's property is warded for two miles in every direction. Merrill tells me that Griffin does this for him, and that none who mean harm can cross the boundary he has set. This is the only safe place for the Honored One to stay. Come, we will see to their comfort; they are taking over the basement."
