The term female cycle caused my eyes to open faster than they wanted to and the light blinded me for a moment. I squinted as the light dimmed around me. My grandfather was sitting in a chair beside a bed and Erland was propping me up on the bed, stroking my face and hair. "That's better," Erland leaned down and kissed my forehead.
"Erland," I raised a hand and rubbed the space between my eyebrows.
"What, love?"
"What are you saying? Female cycle?"
Wylend cleared his throat and I glanced over at him. "We are nearly immortal," he offered. "And we go through cycles—male and female. We can change our appearance and anatomy if we wish, but many of us do not. Therefore, every hundred years or so, our attraction to males or females changes. Erland is in his seventieth year of a female cycle, which means he is mostly attracted to males. He and I are generally opposites and yes, we have been lovers in the past."
"Erland, I always thought you were weirder than holy water in hell, now I know it's true," I mumbled.
"If we find a mate or mates, we still love them, no matter what cycle we are in," Erland lifted my chin and gave me a kiss. "Wylend and I have not been together in that way for some time. We lean on one another—that is true, but sex is no longer in the picture."
"Erland, this isn't awkward or anything," I shook my head in confusion.
"I will give up my friendship with Lord Morphis if it will make my granddaughter happy." Uh-oh.
"Your granddaughter already has ten members in her Inner Circle and can't keep up with all of them," I admitted, feeling my face go hot. "And why should you give up your friendship with Erland? That's silly."
"Pfff," Wylend tossed an arm in the air. "Having that many mates or more keeps them interested," he was smiling. "The powerful always draw multiple mates. And Erland and I have been close for a very long time. I am grateful you do not mind our relationship. Here," he did the Warlock version of Pulling and suddenly had a drink in his hand. "Drink this, it will help."
"What is it?" I sniffed it, attempting to determine what it was.
"Fruit, berries and protein," Wylend smiled and convinced me to try it. It was a smoothie and very good. I'd barely had breakfast before Griffin hauled me off to Kifirin—the planet, not the Lord of the Dark Realm and mate to yours truly.
"Lissa my love, I am getting urgent mindspeech from nearly all your mates, demanding to know where you are," Erland grinned. I figured that grin was his way of saying I have you to myself right now, so I'm not answering the call.
"Who is sending mindspeech?" I asked, slurping more of my drink.
"Karzac is the one who is most demanding—Gavin is cursing in multiple languages, Gabron is considering slicing and dicing and Drake and Drew aren't considering it—I think they're about to sharpen their blades."
"If Gavin is using mindspeech, it's time to go," I said, sliding off the bed. "He never does that unless he's forced to."
"Lissa, your continued absence may result in a national emergency upon Le-Ath Veronis." Connegar and Reemagar folded in. The Larentii could find me, even if nobody else could.
"I was just about to leave," I handed the empty glass to Erland, who caused it to disappear.
"Lord King, the Oracle is waiting at the palace in Lissia," Reemagar nodded to Wylend.
"Then I will come as well," Wylend stood and flicked imaginary lint off his clothing. "I wish to meet my child. Inform the others that I will be back shortly." He jerked his head in the direction of the two guards, who stood in a corner. I'd scented them earlier but hadn't paid much attention to them otherwise. They bowed to Wylend and left the room.
"I can't recall that I've ever had Larentii in my bedroom before," Wylend smiled. The Larentii in question folded us to Le-Ath Veronis.
* * *
Griffin stood straight and tall as we landed in the library of the palace. Amara stood beside him and she was the one who gasped when she saw Wylend. "Brenten, you look alike!"
"Child, I wish I could have been a part of your life," Wylend said and that's all it took. Griffin was pulled into a huge embrace and both of them looked a little misty when they parted.
"Where have you been?" Karzac had fists on his hips, giving me the once-over.
"She fainted," Erland stood at my side, handing out information when he should have kept his mouth shut.
"Can somebody send to the kitchen and have drinks and snacks brought up?" I had to say it over my shoulder; Karzac was hustling me out of the library, closely followed by Reemagar and just about everybody in my Inner Circle.
"Karzac, are we gonna wrestle here in the hall?" I asked. I shouldn't have said it. Connegar pulled me into his arms quickly and all of us were folded to my suite. Kifirin was there, waiting for us.
"She needs to drop her corporeality or she will continue to faint," Kifirin accepted me from Connegar.
"But my grandfather is in the library," I said, or at least I got most of it said before Kifirin and I both disappeared. And disappeared might have been an understatement. We were pure energy, floating over the surface of Le-Ath Veronis. Kifirin was in charge, now, spreading me out somehow until I was everywhere. It scared me.
Avilepha, do not be frightened, his voice came to me in the thunder over a valley on Harifa Edus—the werewolf planet. Night had fallen there and a full moon would have been shining across a portion of the planet, except for the rain. We became a part of Evensun and I saw that the exodus from the High Demons' world had begun. The new occupants were busy fighting with each other, for the most part. They should have been building shelters together and searching for food, but that behavior was foreign to them, it seems. We flew away from Evensun, skipping lightly over the world that held the black Ra'Ak. So many empty worlds populated the Dark Realm; the only life they held was vegetation, insects and a few animals. No other inhabitants. None of the ones for whom the worlds had been created. I felt the sadness in Kifirin as we passed them by. He'd constructed those worlds so carefully, yet it had taken only one of his creations to destroy all of them.
We'll make it right, I sent to him.
Lissa my love, are you gathering energy? It is there for you to take, m'hala. Kifirin showed me how—I hadn't done anything except observe up to that point. I thought it might be similar to the Larentii feeding off sunlight, only we could gather energy from anything. I was doing it now and realized how weakened I'd become. Maintaining a corporeal shape prevented me from drawing the energy I needed to keep going. And I could only do that while I was energy; stuffing that much power into a fragile, humanoid body was like placing a flame inside a plastic container. If the flame became too hot, the container could be destroyed.
Kifirin pulled me along as I replenished myself. We even wandered into the worlds of light, scooting here and there. I heard voices—talking, laughing, crying, praying. Dark spots cropped up, too, now and then. Those dark spots consisted of worlds the Ra'Ak had taken; now empty of life except for the usual plants, insects and a few stray animals. Other worlds we passed over were not quite dark, but growing increasingly dim. Worlds not worth saving, Kifirin's voice came to me. I want you to see Beliphar—it is one of those, but there are vampires there, love. Some of those may be worth saving, but it must be done soon.
Let's take them now. I was getting information from that planet; we were right above it and the vampires there were used as slaves. It was awful. They were controlled by electronic cuffs that boiled their blood if they misbehaved, or the cuffs were employed at times merely because their human controllers wished to see the vampires suffer. Some of the vampires were criminals, but many were not—falsely accused and turned as punishment. How had this gotten past me for so long?
Send mindspeech to the others and I will gather the ones that should come to Le-Ath Veronis, Kifirin informed me. I sent mindspeech to Gabron and Flavio, telling them that the city ten miles east of Lissia was about to be occupied. Kifirin guided me and I assisted in gathering the vampires who would be welcome on Le-Ath Veronis. Kifirin was the one who turned the others to dust—I couldn't bring myself to do it, although they were better off. You should have heard the angry shouting as vampires disappeared across Beliphar. Kifirin and I rushed our vampire cargo to Le-Ath Veronis and we dropped them gently in the wide, circular courtyard of their new city.
Roughly twenty-seven thousand vampires stared at Kifirin and me as we materialized before them. Flavio and Gabron were there quickly, followed by most of the Council from Lissia. Drake, Drew, Gavin and Tony were there in a blink.
"Where are we?" A vampire made his way through the crowd, which parted to allow him passage. Another, younger vampire was at his heels—he was only days old as a vampire; I could tell by the scent. The other was old—at least seven thousand years.
"You stand upon Le-Ath Veronis," Flavio replied. "That means Heart of the Vampire. Lissa, Queen of this world, and Kifirin, Lord of the Dark Realm, have found you worthy. This is your new home."
The older vampire pulled the younger one against him. "Davan, we are home," the old vampire wept.
* * *
"This is blood substitute? It tastes like blood," Jeral, the oldest vampire from Beliphar remarked as he emptied the bottle. Davan, his youngest charge, was also drinking happily. We were poring over a map of the city with a committee of new arrivals—vampires that Jeral had handpicked. They were also quite old and I could see the City Council forming already. Davan was a baby vampire and I didn't want to interfere with his teaching at Jeral's hand.
"This blood substitute was developed here," I informed Jeral. "The manufacturing plant is just outside Lissia."
"Do vampires run this facility?" Jeral asked.
"Yes. They are extremely meticulous, since they will be drinking quite a bit of it themselves," I said. "It is owned by the crown but everyone who works there earns a salary. They seem happy with the arrangement." I pointed out the spot on the map where the blood substitute plant was located. "We currently have nine worlds represented here—your world is the ninth," I said. Reemagar was standing behind me; Flavio and Gabron were on either side, helping explain things as much as they could.