Central

by Raine Thomas

  She smiled. “You will?”

  “Of course.”

  Her heart all but melted into a pool on the bed. When he turned without another word and walked over to his bedroom, she got up to put her brush back on the vanity where it had been set out for her and removed her robe. She was pulling back the covers to climb into bed when James walked into the room with a pillow and blanket. Her eyes widened when he reached behind him and waved a hand, extinguishing the balls of light in his bedroom.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

  “I am sleeping on your floor,” he said, as though it should be obvious.

  “Um. Huh?”

  “I am not comfortable sleeping in the other room, even with the door open. I might not be able to hear the door to your room open in time to come to your aid.”

  She blinked several times. Surely this was taking guarding her to a whole new, obsessive level. But when he tossed his pillow down onto the woven rug beside her bed, she realized she would not be able to deter him.

  “You are not about to sleep on that floor, James,” she said firmly. “That will make for a perfectly miserable night’s sleep. That floor is harder than Amber’s head.”

  He sighed, obviously recognizing the inflexible line in her voice. “What do you propose then? I am staying near you.”

  She studied the huge bed consideringly, then glanced back at him. He dipped his head and gave her an incredulous look from beneath the hair that fell in front of his eyes.

  “Archigos Gabriel would positively kill me.”

  She frowned. He was right. “Fine then. I’ll help you drag your mattress in here. That’s my final offer.”

  “Guess I had better take it then,” he said with a smile.

  Amber lay on her side in the big bed, propped up on her right elbow, watching Gabriel emerge from the bathroom after brushing his teeth and finishing his bedtime routine. The troubled look that had been in his blue-gray eyes since Skye left the room in her typically dramatic fashion was still there. It went straight to her heart.

  Her expression neutral, she watched him pull back the sheet and start to climb into the bed. Then he frowned.

  “How many pillows do they think we need?” he asked in true bafflement, noting the plethora of dark blue pillows filling the bed where his head was supposed to go. He began tossing them carelessly onto the floor until he had just two.

  She didn’t comment. If he had looked on her side of the bed, he would have seen most of her pillows on the floor, too.

  He sighed as he got into the bed and flopped back onto the pillows. He brought his hands up to rub them tiredly over his face. Her gaze touched on the ring he wore on his left hand. Made of white gold and honey amber, it was a more masculine version of the ring she wore on her left finger. The rings had been promise rings on the human plane. Here, they signified both their avowed status and their marriage. She knew now was one of those times where she needed to be a supportive wife.

  “Skye sent a message,” she began, reaching over and brushing a dark wave of hair off his forehead where it had fallen into his eyes.

  He looked at her, obviously miserable.

  “She said she’s okay, and she’s sorry for ‘wigging out.’”

  He raised an eyebrow, then looked up at the dark blue canopy in consideration. “Well, I guess that’s better than trying to get to sleep picturing her crying all night.”

  “And she kissed Caleb.”

  “What?”

  “And don’t you go chastising Caleb,” she said, tapping his forehead gently. She knew him very well. “I got the distinct impression that he had nothing to do with it. And he cleaned up your mess.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it and briefly pursed his lips. It was obvious that he was wrestling with his gentlemanly sense of propriety and the knowledge that it was really none of his business.

  “Fine,” he said. “Just—fine. As long as she isn’t upset anymore. I don’t know what I was thinking. I really don’t.”

  Keeping her expression and thoughts carefully contained, she said, “I know. Calling us freaks was rather harsh of you. Especially since you’re married to one of us.”

  His jaw fell. Disbelief lighting his gaze, he propped himself up on his left elbow. “Oh, get out. You don’t seriously think I—you don’t…” He paused, unable to read her. “Amber, you can’t possibly believe that I think that.”

  After a long moment of dragging out his worry—during which she felt only mildly guilty—she waved a hand dismissively and made a buzzing sound with her lips. “Puh-lease. You think I’m a total babe. I can read your thoughts, remember?”

  Then she grinned cheekily and batted her eyelashes at him.

  His eyes narrowed. Then his lips twitched. “You are evil.”

  She shrugged, completely unapologetic. “You were beating yourself up, just like Olivia said you would. Now you know how silly and undeserved that is.”

  “Is that right? Well, now I’m more in the mood to beat you up,” he said, leaning over and encircling her waist so he could pull her closer.

  “Sorry. I’m pregnant. No beating allowed.”

  He leaned down, lifted her tank and kissed her bare belly. Then he moved up toward her lips. “Then I’ll find some other way to exact my revenge,” he whispered meaningfully.

  And when her eyebrows winged up, he tickled her breathless.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The next morning, James awoke to a soft sound that he recognized as something other than Olivia’s sleeping noises. He was on his feet almost instantly, his gaze adjusting to the darkness to take in the form of a shape easing through the doorway from his bedroom. A faint light emanated from the room, highlighting the figure opening the door with backlight.

  James?

  Mentally wincing at having been caught sleeping in Olivia’s room, as he had intended to move the mattress before anyone else woke, he thought back toward Caleb, Yes?

  I want to take a shower, but Skye is still sleeping. Keep an eye and ear out, will you?

  Of course.

  Caleb stepped a little further into the room and eyed the mattress on the floor for a long moment. Then he looked up and caught James’ sheepish gaze.

  I wish I had thought of that, he silently conveyed. Skye’s floor is ridiculously uncomfortable.

  He held up a fist and James tapped his to it, then watched him walk back through the open doors to Skye’s room, negligently tossing another dim ball of light over his shoulder into James’ room as he walked.

  It was at that moment that he realized Caleb had become more than just a fellow Gloresti to him over the past few months. He had become the human equivalent of a brother.

  Nodding to himself, he quickly got to work hauling his mattress back over to his room so he could start his watch.

  Gabriel’s eyes flew open. His Gloresti energy surged as he realized there was another presence in the bedroom. Because he had left a single, dim light glowing in case Amber needed to get up during the night, he easily identified the presence.

  “Good morning, archigos Gabriel,” Caoilinn murmured deferentially from less than a foot away from the bed. Amber’s side of the bed, closest to the door.

  Without a thought, he threw his power at the Lekwuesti commander, making her stagger back with a surprised gasp. Furious over her disrespect of his and Amber’s privacy and wondering how he hadn’t heard her enter the room, he pulled the sheet up over Amber’s still-sleeping form. She was sprawled over him, her back to the door, but she hadn’t put her pajamas back on the night before.

  He, on the other hand, had pulled his pajama shorts back on before sleeping, knowing there was a possibility for just this kind of scenario. Estilorians as a whole had no real concept or understanding of the human penchant for privacy. That didn’t ease his fury a bit.

  Carefully and quickly extricating himself from Amber’s hold, he leaped from the bed and advanced on Caoilinn,
who was standing back by the bedroom door. She all but pressed herself against it when she saw the look on his face as he neared.

  “Why didn’t you knock?” he demanded in a viciously soft voice. “I know as Sebastian’s commander that you were instructed to do exactly that.”

  “I-I did knock,” she insisted, pressing her hands together and gazing back at him as if willing him to believe her.

  But he had nearly lost Amber due to another Estilorian female’s jealousy, and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake again. Going with his instinct, he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him toward the door to Olivia’s room.

  Opening the door a few inches, he held Caoilinn’s gaze as he quietly said, “James.”

  “Yes, archigos,” James promptly responded from the darkness beyond the door.

  Gabriel saw Caoilinn’s shock register. She hadn’t expected James to be in Olivia’s room. Gabriel, however, knew his Gloresti much better than she did.

  Clenching his jaw as his anger flared, he asked, “Did you hear a knock on my door any time in the past few minutes?” He never moved his gaze from Caoilinn’s face.

  “No, sir. I heard no sound until you addressed commander Caoilinn.”

  “Thank you, James,” Gabriel said softly, and closed the door.

  Caoilinn’s face flooded with color, then completely drained of it.

  “Your leader is on his way up,” Gabriel said, his whisper colder than a wintry night. “Let’s have a little chat, shall we?”

  “I do not understand, Caoilinn,” Sebastian said.

  He and Gabriel were standing with the Lekwuesti commander in an empty room not far from the bedrooms. From the sparse furnishings, it appeared to serve as some kind of waiting room. Gabriel had thrown on a tank top as soon as Sebastian arrived, leaving Amber sleeping and, fortunately, blissfully unaware. He knew she needed her sleep and they had stayed up late the night before.

  “I am deeply sorry, to both of you,” Caoilinn said, looking directly into their eyes. Her voice rang with sincerity.

  Sebastian seemed well and truly perplexed by his trusted commander’s behavior. “You deliberately used your Lekwuesti ability to enter a room without using the door, something that we only use when it has been requested by our guests to avoid disturbing them. I specifically told you to knock when entering any of these guests’ bedrooms.”

  She closed her eyes briefly, then again caught Gabriel’s gaze. “I was, indeed, so instructed, archigos Gabriel. I do not know what came over me. I came to you at my leader’s request to inform you that other Lekwuesti will be up here soon to meet your avowed and her sisters and get their measurements for their gowns for tonight’s festivities. And I…” She trailed off. Her cheeks flushed with color. “I remembered how you kissed her.”

  Gabriel blinked. His brain tried to reconcile her statement with her actions and simply couldn’t. He exchanged a look with Sebastian, who turned a puzzled frown on his commander.

  If possible, the color in her cheeks intensified. “It was a foolish, feminine desire to see the two of you together, unguarded and obviously in love. I have never seen such a thing before.”

  There was a long silence.

  “Caoilinn, do you realize what you have risked by your actions?” Sebastian asked, his voice incredulous. “To just see them?”

  “I cannot explain myself,” she said, wringing her hands together. “Sebastian, you know me. I have served as your commander for more than two centuries. I just could not help myself.”

  Gabriel was torn between anger and sympathy. He actually believed that she might not have understood what prompted her to enter his room unannounced. But he remembered waking and seeing her standing so close to Amber, and that memory shoved his sympathy brutally to the side. One flash of a dagger before he had been aware enough to react and things would be very different that morning.

  “You will be sanctioned for this grievous breech,” Sebastian said, his voice hard. “Consider yourself relieved of your duties until the elders have had time to meet and discuss your future.”

  Gabriel expected outrage or tears, and was surprised when Caoilinn produced neither. She simply nodded.

  “I accept the consequences of my actions,” she said resolutely. Then she lowered herself to her knees and crossed both of her arms over her chest. She bowed her head submissively. “I beg your forgiveness, archigos Gabriel. I meant no harm.”

  “You have not earned the right to ask that of archigos Gabriel,” Sebastian responded, his voice now laced with irritation. “You have presented a threat to his wife and—” he stopped himself. “You understand protocol,” he finished, his tone more subdued. “You will come with me now and await deliverance of the decision by the elders.”

  She rose, now clearly upset. Gabriel sensed it wasn’t because of her pending consequences, but because she wouldn’t receive forgiveness before facing those consequences. Still, she didn’t argue or look back when Sebastian led her from the room.

  Gabriel stood in the room alone for several minutes after they left, considering what had just happened. Thus far, Amber and her sisters hadn’t had much interaction with Estilorian females. The only ones they had been around, as a matter of fact, were the few females who had attended the Becoming ceremony—one of whom had been the traitor, Kanika—and the female elders. Twice now, two trusted females had been prompted to act outside of their usual characters as a result of his relationship with Amber. He suspected it was because such intimacy and emotion were completely unheard of on the Estilorian plane. It was apparently something that Estilorian females innately desired, however.

  He and the other elders had never predicted this. Certainly, they had identified the appalling lack of emotion among their kind and had taken steps to remedy it. Of course, the plan had been to send him over to the human plane in an attempt to learn and understand human emotion and then return in hopes he would be able to teach the concept to other Estilorians. His falling in love with Amber had most certainly not been a part of that plan.

  Running his thumb along the ring on his left hand, he considered this. Knowing what he did now, he was absolutely certain that the plan would have failed if it hadn’t been for his relationship with Amber. She had been the anchor that had allowed him to carry his human awareness through to this plane. If it hadn’t been for her, he would have reverted completely back to his former Estilorian self. The plan would have never succeeded. And when the girls had transitioned to this plane, as they inevitably needed to in order to assume their inherit powers, there wouldn’t have been a single being able to understand them and their emotional needs.

  He frowned. What if all of the Estilorian females grew jealous of Amber and her sisters? He had prepared the girls for the reaction of possible social ostracism by the Estilorians who judged them only on their differences. But what if it went even further than that?

  And when he thought of Amber and the baby she carried and then thought of the tens of thousands of Estilorian females around them who couldn’t ever conceive, he felt positively ill.

  Would they forever be at risk?

  Amber eased awake, automatically reaching over for Gabriel. He wasn’t in the bed, though that wasn’t unusual lately. She tended to sleep much more than him these days.

  Gabriel?

  I’ll be there shortly.

  Taking him at his word, she got up and showered, allowing the steamy water to clear away some of the haze still coating her brain. She generally wasn’t worth much in the morning for at least thirty minutes. After she toweled off, she put on the black tank and pants she had brought into the bathroom with her, brushed her hair and teeth, and went back into the bedroom.

  Gabriel was sitting on the side of the bed. He held a glass filled with orange juice, her favorite beverage regardless of the time of day.

  Smiling, she walked to him and took the glass. “Thanks,” she said. Then she noted his serious expression and her smile faded. “What’s up?”

 
He pulled her against him, his head resting on her chest. “We need to talk,” he said.

  He told her everything. She sat cross-legged beside him, not interrupting, sipping her juice. When he finished, she nodded and reached to put her empty glass on the end table beside the bed.

  “I get it.”

  “You do?”

  “Of course I do. Look, you know me. I’m about the furthest thing from a roses-and-candlelight romantic. But if I didn’t have you—have your love and everything that means—and saw someone else with it, I would envy it.”

  He considered that. Putting it in such basic terms actually made him realize that he felt the same way.

  “These Estilorian gals are just being introduced to the gentler emotions. I’m sure it must be more than a little overwhelming and even enticing. So, we curb the PDA and only kiss in public if absolutely necessary for healing right now,” she said with a shrug. “When everyone starts to learn emotions and can interact in more, well, human ways, then it won’t matter so much.”

  “You’re assuming that they’ll learn emotions. The elders have learned them, certainly, but only because of their connection to me as a fellow elder. It won’t be so easy for everyone else.”

  She gave him a pitying look. “Honey, what about James and Caleb?”

  He paused.

  “They’re not elders,” she pointed out, “but they’ve certainly learned emotions.”

  For the first time since she saw him that morning, he seemed to brighten. “You’re absolutely right,” he said, catching her gaze. “I was so knotted up about everything, I didn’t even consider that.”

  “See?” She smiled and patted his knee. “It’s just a matter of time. We’ll get these Estilorians interacting with each other so much that they won’t have time to worry about the three measly half-humans anymore. And they’ll learn that there doesn’t have to be a resulting baby to get enjoyment out of joining with each other.”