Leman

by Serena Akeroyd

  When he’d asked what made the bowl so super, Lara had just pealed off in laughter. Every time he asked since, she did the same.

  Maybe Grace would tell him… But first things first: “Valentine’s Day. What is it?”

  “It’s a holiday, Georgios,” she replied, a frown on her brow.

  “I know. But what is it? Why is it a holiday? Shouldn’t we show our mates we love them every day?”

  Grace seemed to melt before him. Her ruffled brow relaxed, her lips softened into a gentle smile, and her eyes rounded as she murmured, “Oh Georgios, yes. You’re totally right. Love should be shown every single day not just once a year.”

  “Well, why isn’t it then?” he asked, a little uncomfortable with her reaction to what had been a basic question.

  Dragons, though selfish beasts after years of living alone, worshipped their lemans for the precious jewels they were.

  Georgios would rather lose his family’s entire collection of rare books than have a single hair on his mate’s head harmed.

  It was their way.

  “Unfortunately, we don’t always appreciate what we have, Georgios. Days like Valentine’s are so commercialized too. It’s sad, really,” she confessed. “But it’s also fun. It’s different for humans and daywalkers, although, I suppose because the Sanguenna can eat now, you can take her out for a meal too. Give her chocolates. Get her a card. Silly things, but little treats, you know? To show her you love her.”

  “I have bought her flowers,” he confided. “Red roses. The florist said this would show my love for her.”

  Grace’s eyes brightened. “A dozen roses is something any woman can appreciate.”

  He scoffed. “A paltry dozen? I bought a hundred.” Well, he’d tried to buy. They were free now.

  Grace choked a little. “A hundred?”

  “Aye, the florist said only a hundred would do.”

  The small female ducked her head, but he could see she was amused now. Her cheeks pinkened and she lifted a hand to cover her mouth.

  “This isn’t the truth?” he demanded.

  “Well, a single rose can be just as sweet as a dozen,” she admitted.

  The florist had played him, he realized. Though it was hard to be mad when her actions in refunding payment as thanks to his leman had obviously cost her a great deal.

  He pursed his lips. “A hundred is excessive?”

  “Perhaps. But it’s certainly a grand gesture.”

  “Remy mentioned dinner too. What is considered a fancy meal?”

  “You know Audrey’s on Deckson Avenue?”

  He rubbed his chin and nodded when he pictured the sleek restaurant.

  A huge front of glass with what seemed a thousand glass bubbles overhead, each one glittering brightly like a ceiling of stars that twinkled over the diners. “This is a nice restaurant?”

  “Yes, it is. But you might find they’re already booked, Georgios. Valentine’s is two days away after all.”

  He rubbed his chin again. “I shall ask.” He handed her his phone. “Could you find the number for me, Grace? I would appreciate it.”

  She grinned, then amazed him as Lara did, by finding the number with a few sweeps of her fingers on the glass screen of what Lara called his ‘cell.’

  These gadgets were very clever, that, he couldn’t deny. But they certainly didn’t replace a book. He’d dropped the damn thing more times than he used it—Lara had to replace the screen twice and, then, had bought him a protector case.

  It appeared a rather childish-looking thing. With a yellow sponge on it called Bob, and whenever she used his cell, or he asked Grace, they always snorted at the sight of it.

  Aware he was causing them more amusement, he said nothing. If they remained amused, it meant they weren’t irritated with his inability to adapt.

  He’d seen Remy using his cell phone this afternoon, and his House Head was over four hundred years his senior! The older male had been switching between apps, bemoaning their realm’s lack of something called AT&T and 4G data.

  It all flew over Georgios’s head.

  Grace found the number and offered it to him. As always, his hand felt far too large for the delicate piece of kit, and he pressed it to his ear when he heard the dialing tone.

  The technology certainly was a marvel, but then, he supposed Elven magick would be far more miraculous to the people here. Magick enabled him to communicate between caverns without having to leave his home…

  That was wireless, which in this day and age seemed to be the be all and end all.

  “I need a table on Valentine’s Day,” he yelled down the phone when a lady asked how she could help.

  Grace jolted in front of him, and so did the few tables around him.

  “You don’t have to shout, Georgios, remember?”

  He grimaced. Lara had called him a dolt the other night for yelling at her through the phone.

  “Sir, I can hear you fine. There’s no need to shout,” the lady at the restaurant said, her voice pained.

  His bellow was renowned in the kingdom, he thought proudly. Apparently, it was rather strong for this one too.

  “I apologize.”

  “No need, sir,” came the tight retort. “But I’m afraid we’re fully booked for Valentine’s Day.”

  “No, that can’t be. I need a table for my leman.”

  “You need a table for what?”

  He huffed a breath. “My lady,” he replied. Why did everyone always think he was talking about citrus fruits. Leh-mann sounded nothing like leh-mon.

  “Your lady. Oh! Well, we have no tables spare, I’m afraid.”

  “How much will it cost for a table to be freed?”

  “Sir, that isn’t how Audrey’s works!”

  The umbrage didn’t impress him. He’d seen how this realm worked. It was most disrespectful and most avaricious.

  Everyone, and everything, had a price.

  “How much is a meal at Valentine’s at Audrey’s?” he asked softly.

  “Anywhere from two hundred dollars a head.”

  “I’ll pay a thousand dollars a head.”

  The woman squeaked.

  “To you. Personally,” he chivvied. “Then, I shall pay the restaurant their dues too.”

  Silence fell on the end of the line. “I have your number, sir. I’ll be in touch within the hour.”

  Satisfaction filled him. “That is most kind.”

  When he passed the phone back to Grace to cut the call, she shot him a look of disapproval.

  “If your lips get any tighter, Grace, you’ll look like an arsehole.”

  Her eyes widened at that. “Georgios! You can’t say things like that, nor can you do what you just did. That’s bribery.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?” he dismissed with a shrug. “You said Audrey’s would be somewhere Lara would like to go. I made that happen.” He rubbed his hands together. “My woman will soon know how I feel about her.”

  Grace sighed. “You could just tell her, of course. Knowing Lara, she probably would find that more romantic than a box of roses, that must have cost a fortune, and a twenty-five hundred dollar meal!”

  He shrugged. “I am a man of action,” he informed her. “Words come cheap.”

  She shook her head at him. “Apparently action doesn’t come cheap either.” She passed him back his phone. “You’ll bankrupt the coven before long,” she remarked, but he could tell she was amused again.

  “What is this bankrupt?” he asked, hating how little he knew about this realm.

  He should have traveled more with Remy. His friend had explored the seven seas, gone raiding with Vikings, avoided something called the Black Death…

  Georgios had spent most of his time in the other realm, trying to outrun his heritage, and pick up more books for his collection—that was the sole way to gain more respect from one’s brethren and gain prestige for one’s House.

  He supposed it was time to share that collection with Remy. Prestige and re
spect could only be given if said brethren were actually aware of the rare collection.

  “Bankruptcy is something you’ll never have to worry about,” Lara murmured, dropping into their conversation with ease. “Well, that is if you stop breaking your iPhone. Otherwise, we might be bankrupt sooner rather than later.”

  He wrinkled his nose at her as she dropped a quick kiss on his lips.

  “That wasn’t much of a kiss,” he complained, making her grin at him.

  “I’m saving the best for later,” she informed him, grinning broadly at his huff.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Grace told them, shooting them both a wide smile as she left.

  Lara cocked a brow at him. “You look like you’ve been making mischief.”

  Satisfaction filled him. “Now you see. Mischief is my true calling.”

  She snorted. “Mischief managed.”

  He clicked his fingers. “Fred and George Weasley!”

  She’d introduced him to a boy wizard called Harry Potter. Humans were unaware that wizards were actually real, but they wrote many stories about them. Yet another peculiarity of their race.

  She laughed. “Yep. I can’t believe you fell for that movie and hated Die Hard. Jesus. You’re so weird.”

  “You like me weird,” he told her, knowing that was true. His eyes fell to half mast, and more satisfaction flooded him when she licked her lips, and her own gaze fell to his mouth.

  “I like you weird in certain places, that’s no lie.”

  He couldn’t withhold his grin. “Lies. It’s not weird but freaky. That’s how you like me in bed.”

  She clapped a hand over her face. “I really shouldn’t have taught you that word.”

  He shrugged. “If you hadn’t, James probably would have.”

  “He’s a bad influence,” she grumbled.

  James was a member of her Chosen; he had chosen one of the traitors and held them for punishment all those nights ago. Ever since, Lara had been using them as enforcers.

  The ones who held more menial jobs, she’d transferred into positions of security.

  James and Deric were the ones who usually guarded her if Georgios wasn’t about, which wasn’t exactly often.

  Just the times when he had to sneak into the other realm.

  His leman’s safety was his responsibility and no other’s. It was his duty to keep her well protected. It would be to his shame if he let the task fall on another’s shoulders.

  “How did it go with Remy?” he asked her, changing the subject, because he was curious. After he’d informed the House Head of Lara’s actions with the Shifter, he’d asked to speak with her privately.

  Displeased at not being included in the conversation, he’d, nevertheless, ceded to Remy’s will. Not only because he was the head of Georgios’s House and an old friend, but because if he’d argued, it might have implied that Lara couldn’t handle her own business.

  Which would have been an untruth.

  His mate’s competence in matters of a financial nature astonished him.

  If anyone was a wizard, it wasn’t a boy called Harry but his leman.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m surprised you let me deal with him alone.”

  “Surprised or angered?” Her expression didn’t exactly fill him in.

  She shrugged. “I thought you’d want to be there.”

  “I did. But he heard about the situation with Max and decided he wanted to talk to you.” He studied the tight purse of her lips. “If I hadn’t thought you strong enough to cope with it, I’d have muscled in. As it was, I know you’re more than capable of wrapping him around your finger.”

  A pleased smile, like that of a cat, curled about her mouth, relaxing the rigid pucker of moments afore. “As long as you know that, we’re good.”

  He snorted, then, as he usually did every evening but hadn’t yet as he’d gone to meet Remy shortly after waking, asked, “Any signs of the mating mark?”

  She shuttered her gaze. “Is it really so important?”

  “Not to me,” he told her and surprised himself, because he actually meant it.

  The mating mark was the brand that all lemans wore. It was a declaration of ownership.

  He didn’t say that to her, of course. These modern females balked at the idea of stamps of possession and the like.

  Not that a female of his mate’s intelligence didn’t spot that anyway.

  “If it’s not important to you, then why do you ask me every evening?”

  “Because until it appears, I can’t take you to the other realm, and I have business of my own there.”

  “What kind of business?”

  Trust his leman’s ears to prick to attention at the word ‘business.’

  “I trade in books,” he told her.

  “Books?” She frowned with surprise. “Why?”

  “You know the stones on the floor of my cavern? My beast’s bed?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You mean the millions of dollars’ worth of rubies and diamonds and sapphires? Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “Well, those mean nothing to our kind. Books, on the other hand, do.”

  She gawked at him a little, then, sheepishly, rubbed her jaw as she contemplated his answer, eventually asking, “Why?”

  “They contain information.”

  “That’s it? They’re not special books.”

  “Nothing is more highly prized than wisdom to my people.”

  “Seriously?”

  He nodded. “Seriously.”

  “And you trade in that?”

  “Yes. It’s why I get into troubles with the other races. Over the years, they’ve stolen key works from us. Either in deals with old families, or simply out of sheer theft. I get them back.”

  “Wow.”

  “Surprised?” He grinned. Georgios liked surprising her.

  “Just a bit. Do you steal them back?”

  He began to pick at a loose thread on the arm of the armchair he was seated upon. As nonchalantly as he could, he murmured, “Sometimes.”

  “OMG. You’re a cat burglar!”

  He instantly scowled. “Dragon burglar.”

  She snorted, wafting her hand in dismissal. “It’s a phrase. It means you’re like a sneaky thief.”

  He thought about that a second then nodded. “Yes. I’m sneaky with it.”

  She laughed. “I love it. What do you do with the books then?”

  “Keep them. They’re our hoard.”

  “I mean, I’d have been blind if I hadn’t noticed the huge library at the cavern. I didn’t realize the books themselves were so precious to you… I guess that’s like how it used to be in the olden days. Before Barnes & Noble became a thing.” She snorted at that.

  He scoffed. “My collection is worth more than that company.”

  She raised a brow. “If it is, I’ll gladly manage your hedge fund.”

  Georgios let out a deep sigh. “You say these things to confuse me.”

  “No,” she denied, getting to her feet. “I say these things because I forget I’m talking to an old bastard whose youth was spent stalking around taverns when the Magna Carta was a modern type of lawmaking.”

  When she leaned over, he knew she was going to kiss him and return to the counter. Before she could depart, he grabbed hold of her waist and dragged her onto his lap.

  “I have to go,” she said around a laugh, wriggling around like a contented puppy.

  “You didn’t answer my question, leman,” he growled but ran his nose along the side of her throat. Pleased when she shuddered, he murmured, “Both of my questions actually.”

  “Yes, it went well with Remy,” she replied breathlessly. “He asked me what I wanted to bring to the House, and I said that all I could do was manage wealth. He said he’d think of a way of getting me involved in House matters.” She let out a mewl when he let his tongue dart out to flutter up to her ear, where he nibbled on the tasty morsel. “As to the mating mark, I can’t feel my stoma
ch.”

  That had him freezing in place and, then, grunting. “You jest. That’s the first time since we mated you’re not hungry.”

  She snorted. “I don’t mean I don’t feel it because I’m not hungry. I don’t mean the organ. I mean my stomach as in my abdomen.” She grabbed his hand, held it flat out to her stomach, and murmured, “I can’t feel your hand.”

  He frowned. “Is that good or bad?”

  “I don’t know.” She grimaced. “Good? It has to be the mating mark, right? You’ve been asking me about being numb for so fucking long, I didn’t actually realize that I couldn’t feel my stomach until Megan walked into me early this evening with a full tray. Not only didn’t it hurt, but I didn’t feel my belly getting wet from the spilled coffee either.”

  “I’ve never heard of a mating mark on the belly,” he confessed, his frown deepening with concern. “Normally, they’re in quite visible places.”

  She snorted. “So the whole damn world can see.” Lara caught his eye and shot him a mocking look; her contempt for the mark as strong as he’d known it would be.

  “It is simply the way of it,” he told her loftily. “I can’t help that the mate bond manifests that way.”

  Her huff told him exactly what she thought about that.

  He dragged his fingers along her stomach. “You truthfully can’t feel that?”

  She shook her head.

  “How long has it been numb?”

  “Like I said, I only realized it was numb tonight. Vampire bodies aren’t like a Shifter’s. We don’t have the same kind of nerve receptors. I know water is cold, for instance, but because it feels a different way than hot water. My senses don’t pick up the temperature.”

  “How is that even possible?”

  She shrugged. “It just is. Hot water feels silky, cold water feels kind of rough.”

  “So, you could have been numb here for a while?” He pursed his lips. “Two weeks ago, I went down on you. This is the phrase, no?”

  She grimaced, peered around. “Jesus, could you say that any louder? And yes, you went down on me.”

  “Should I be ashamed of easing all my leman’s needs?” he purred, enjoying the way her eyes darkened at his tone.

  “No, but this particular citrus fruit prefers her locals not to know her partner likes eating her out.”

  Dismissing her embarrassment as unnecessary, he continued, “I licked and kissed your stomach on the way down. Normally, I just dive for your pearl, but in this instance, I specifically remember touching your belly.”