08 Blood War-Blood Destiny

by Suttle, Connie

  "Will it be soon, then, Master?" Prylvis didn't like groveling, but if it gained the death of his target sooner, he'd do it. He would never admit it, either, but he had a network of spies, just as Viregruz did, and they were working toward the same goal—to find a way to kill the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis. After all, if Prylvis obtained the objective through his own people, there was no need to pay Viregruz's exorbitant price. Sadly, the vampires he'd hired on Le-Ath Veronis had been defeated and captured before they could kill the Queen, but this was only his first volley. Many more were scheduled.

  "It will be when I say it will be," Viregruz's temper was running short. "My Blood Captains have hired spies to search for weaknesses in the walls surrounding her city, and for entrances into the palace that are poorly guarded. Once we have this information, our plans will be made and the Queen will die. I'll have my payment and you'll have your dearest wish. Leave me, now. I must feed."

  "Please, may I stay to watch?" Prylvis had only seen it once, and he ached to see it again.

  "Oh, very well. Captain," Viregruz nodded to one of his commanders. "Bring my meal."

  "Immediately, my lord." The Captain bowed and left the room swiftly, returning with a young girl in a matter of minutes. Her eyes betrayed her terror as she was hauled before Black Mist's founder.

  "I always enjoy their screams," Prylvis found a seat and made himself comfortable as he prepared to watch Viregruz consume his meal.

  * * *

  "Lissa’s adopting Roff's child." Griffin sat at the breakfast table with his father, Wylend Arden, King of Karathia.

  "My granddaughter is adopting?" Wylend gazed at his son, whose given name was Brenten. Wylend knew that Narissa, Griffin's half-Elemaiyan mother had given him that name. It wasn't one he'd have picked for a child, but Narissa had stolen the child away and he hadn't been able to find the boy. Wylend had to contend with things as they were, and a son not only grown but older than his father. "What does Toff's father say?"

  "Roff’s memory has worsened after he was wounded in the Vampire Council chaos," Griffin admitted. "I don't believe he'll object to the adoption, do you? Especially since he cannot recall that he has children." Griffin busied himself with the food on his plate.

  "Then have her bring the child to the ball. I wish to meet any relation, adopted or not. All children are to be brought to the palace to determine the strength of their gift."

  "Toff is a comesula. He has no gift, Father."

  "I know this, my son. I wish to meet the child anyway. He will have a favored place in the family as my youngest great-grandchild."

  "Then I will inform Lissa and Lord Morphis that Toff's presence is requested by the crown." Griffin smiled as he buttered a roll.

  * * *

  "What? He wants us to bring Toff, just because I plan to adopt him?"

  "That is one of the functions of the ball—to meet the children. They are inspected by Wylend and his Council, to see if any hold special promise. That's how Erland was sorted out and trained at court. Amara and I will be bringing Wyatt." Griffin was trying to make me see the reason in all of this. I just wasn't. Toff was comesula; would one day be a beautiful, winged vampire like his father if I had anything to say about it. He would never be a Warlock or anything close.

  "Lissa, do you wish to disappoint your grandfather? He wants to see the child—asked to see him, in fact."

  "Fine," my shoulders slumped. We sat at the breakfast table in my palace. Griffin had come just as we were finishing our meal, asking to talk for a few minutes. I needed to return to my suite to change clothing for the day; we had a postponed Council meeting to make up, a trial to conduct and executions to perform.

  I also intended to announce that Aurelius would be the first to join my Second Circle, as a Special Advisor. He would not be one of my mates but would be treated with the same respect and wear a silver Claw Crown ring, denoting his service as an advisor to the Queen. Cheedas, the old comesula cook, was scheduled to receive a silver ring, too. I often went to him for advice in matters concerning the comesuli. The vampires from Earth had heartily agreed to Aurelius' selection already, and none had objections where Cheedas was concerned.

  Aurelius and Garde were going to be my private advisors, either one capable of taking over Council meetings if needed. Garde still acted as Jayd's Prime Minister on Kifirin, but things there were now running smoothly. Garde had two assistants, one from the House of Weth and the other from Foth—High Demons that he trusted. Jayd was getting their kingdom and their treasury back in order with Garde's help and a sizable loan from the Crown on Le-Ath Veronis.

  Only Jayd, Garde, Kifirin and I knew about that loan. Kifirin had nearly emptied a vein of gold under the southern ice cap in order for me to extend that loan, but then it was supposed to be mine anyway. The casinos twenty miles away, as well as the ones near the ocean on the light side, were making profits and taxes were going into a general fund to run everything except the palace itself. It was a point of pride not to accept money to do so.

  The taxes collected from exports helped with the everyday costs of running my palace. Oxberry wine, produced by Roff's winery, constituted a large portion of Le-Ath Veronis' exports. Merrill and Adam had gotten upset that the crown was paying for some expenses for the gambling cities, without taking anything from the taxes collected. Therefore, taxes from the exports, combined with taxes from the fruit, vegetables and meats sold to the gambling cities, went toward the crown's expenses.

  "They wish to run more water lines down the easement," Aurelius cautioned me as he and I walked into the large Council chamber. We now had fifteen cities represented. Once the application was approved for an Alliance vampire to relocate to Le-Ath Veronis, there were six cities available for them to choose from for their new home. The banks on Le-Ath Veronis were doing well, also—the vampires inevitably moved their liquid assets here. Adam, Merrill, Flavio and Charles were all on the Bank board. If there were any wrongdoing, I would hear about it quickly.

  "They keep trying to wiggle their way into that ten-mile buffer," I grumbled.

  Aurelius smiled. "Forbidden fruit," he agreed and led me to my seat.

  "We need more wall patrols," an Alliance vampire stood to make his request after the other business was concluded. "We have at least twenty a day, if not more, Casino City visitors attempting to scale the wall and get inside Lissia. If they could find vehicles, there would be more attempting to find their way into the other cities. As it is, we arrest them and hand them to the city guard, but we can't keep up with the growing number of wall climbers."

  "What is their excuse?" I asked.

  "They want to mingle with vampires. As if the vampires working in or visiting Casino City aren't enough for them to gawk at. I have no idea what the fools think they will find, once they get inside a vampire city."

  "They love the feel of danger," Flavio said, standing. "Many still think we kill with the bite. They want to feel the thrill, I think, of associating with creatures stronger and wilder than themselves."

  "Perhaps we should have a few High Demons run through the streets, then," I muttered. If a High Demon went Full Thifilathi, you sure as hell didn't want to stand in their way.

  "Lissa, that, of course, would be highly unlikely and extremely dangerous," Aurelius brought me back to the present.

  "You're right," I nodded to him. "I have some with experience in the field of security who have expressed an interest in working for the crown. I will entertain applications for additional city guards. Send them to me in the next two days and we'll get this sorted out."

  "Thank you, Raona," the Alliance vampire sat down.

  * * *

  "That only took three hours longer than it should have," Aurelius noted as we made our way toward the kitchen and a much-needed meal. There'd been no debate on the executions, but they'd still taken longer than expected. Every remaining Council member voted guilty, and Trevor and Gavin took turns beheading guilty vampires.

  We'd worked ri
ght past dinner, with blood substitute passed among the vampires to keep us going. Our late dinner was quiet, with hardly anyone speaking. Drake and Drew tried to take me to my suite afterward, but I fended them off and Aurelius and I went to my private study instead.

  Once there, I sent mindspeech to Radomir, asking him to bring Lisster and Rush, two of his co-mates. Lisster was a shapeshifting leopard and Rush was a black lion; both were members of the Saa Thalarr and mates to Devin and Grace. Lisster, Radomir and Rush arrived moments after I’d sent mindspeech to Radomir.

  "We're having security problems with fence-climbers," I said, once they were seated and comfortable. "The city Councils are supposed to be in charge of that, but they're overwhelmed with people sneaking in from Casino City and trying to hobnob with vampires. Would you three like to take that problem on? I'll be hiring vampires from the cities as guards, but I need somebody to oversee them and make sure they don't kill anybody. We've been in the media too much already."

  "I can knock heads," Radomir grinned.

  "Sounds like fun," Rush offered a perfect smile. He was tall, dark-skinned and had muscles that impressed even vampires. Most people (vampires included) would be foolish to take on the black lion.

  "Love to," Lisster snickered. Honestly, I wouldn't want to be any vampire that pissed Lisster off. He was a shapeshifter by birth—a leopard. He even had spots on his back, legs and neck while in humanoid form. Yeah, I wouldn't want to get in his way, either.

  "Come to me; I will parcel out assignments," Aurelius said. "You will be working closely with Gavin, Anthony, Drake and Drew." We offered our three new Crown Investigators a drink, and they accepted.

  Chapter 3

  We’d hired our new guards and Crown Investigators just in time, it seemed. Three wall climbers stood before me inside my study. They'd not only climbed over the wall, they'd managed somehow to paint insults on the wall and a few nearby businesses before Lisster and Rush hauled them in. Drake and Drew took them into custody at that point and brought them to me. They all looked to be in their twenties or early thirties—two men, one woman. From Rorda.

  "You signed the agreement to honor the laws of Le-Ath Veronis before you came, did you not?" I gave them an angry gaze.

  "Yes, Raona." They were contrite. Now.

  "And you did this anyway, even though you knew you could be caught, sent off-planet and never allowed back?" I was pacing, now. Something about these three bothered me. Drake and Drew didn't normally bring me fence-climbers. They must have thought something was up with these, only they couldn't use their Looking abilities to interfere. Those were the rules they had to abide by, being Spawn Hunters for the Saa Thalarr. My head jerked around after I'd passed them. "Grant, check their bank accounts. See if they've gotten any large deposits lately, or whether their recent spending is supported by the jobs they have."

  Grant, standing behind me, started tapping on his handheld computer. He already had their records pulled up. "No deposits, but they've been throwing Alliance credits around like they were among the wealthy, and I see that all three work in prison detail on Rorda."

  "Find out if any Solar Red suspects are imprisoned there." The three that stood before me began to sweat. I'd hit the proverbial nail on the head with these. The Solar Red fuckers, now trying to come back to power, wanted me dead since I'd brought them down last time. Three vampires in my Council had failed to exact revenge.

  These three, playing at being pranksters, were trying to scope out a way to get to me. Well, they were going to be mind-wiped by compulsion and sent home. The Rordans were also going to be notified, and that notification was going to be copied to the Alliance. Aryn had come to the palace to help; he was with us, watching our prisoners carefully.

  "I will be happy to place compulsion, Raona," he said. Aryn always dressed impeccably, like many of the older vampires. He was old, too, I could tell by the scent.

  "Go ahead. Before you do, though, find out if they've gathered or sent any information off world. Drake and Drew are already searching their rooms at the casino." They'd had the temerity to stay at the Chessman.

  "Is this going to hurt?" The female asked timidly.

  "Why are you worried about that now?" I wasn't pleased with any of them and I think they knew it. "You risked your life doing this. Why weren't you worried about it before you signed up?"

  "Ari, shhh," one of the males tried to hush her.

  "You got her into this, didn't you?" I had my arms crossed and went to stand in front of him.

  "Do not stand too closely to this filth," Garde skipped in and glared at all three, smoke pouring from his nostrils.

  "Are you a vampire?" Ari asked Garde. I'm sure the information provided by Solar Red had given her a description of vampires in general, and breathing smoke wasn't anywhere in that description.

  "I am High Demon," Garde growled. "You are threatening my mate. Do not threaten her further, or I shall allow the Thifilathi to come."

  "Garde, honey, back up a little, okay?" I misted to his side and grabbed his arm. We didn't need heads twisted from bodies. That wouldn't be good, especially since their apparent crime didn't warrant a death sentence. Not yet, anyway.

  "How did you get?" One of the males asked, but he didn't get a chance to finish the question. Aryn took over immediately.

  "You will forget what you just saw. Now, let's see what you know," Aryn placed compulsion, so I pulled Garde from the room. The farther away from the interrogation room we went the calmer he became until his eyes cleared and his skin lightened. He was still blowing smoke, though, as he turned me in his arms and gave me a possessive kiss. The Thifilathi was still not far from the surface.

  "We found a few things, and asked the hotel staff to pack up the rest," Drake and Drew appeared beside us. Garde pulled back and accepted what Drew handed him. They'd found a portable computer with information on the space station orbiting Le-Ath Veronis, plus specs for the shuttles, the landing area and the casinos. I was going to have to call in Adam and Merrill. We were being scoped out and I was worried that Solar Red might be planning an invasion. Garde, Drake and Drew thought so, too.

  "They're not on any Alliance worlds, not in any numbers, anyway," Drake growled, looking at the images of the space station's interior. "That means Solar Red is based on a non-Alliance world and able to grow as fast as they can recruit thugs and criminals."

  "And they want to take us out," I muttered, staring at the images of the casinos. They'd only gotten one or two interior shots—casino security was pretty tight.

  "You, at least," Drew looked grim. "Erland showed us the old footage from Refizan."

  "How fast is that army coming along?" Garde asked my twins.

  "We're in good shape, but we need to know what kind of weapons they have, so we can prepare for that."

  "Yeah? I hadn't thought about that." It made me rub my forehead.

  "Baby, don't worry, all right?" Drake pulled my head against his shoulder.

  "I'm not worried so much about me; I'm worried about my vampires and my comesuli, not to mention the guests."

  "We'll take that into consideration," Drew said, rubbing my back while his brother pulled me tighter against him.

  "They aren't organized enough, yet; these are only scouting parties," Kifirin folded in. I hadn't seen him for days. "Come, Avilepha, you have not been energy for a while. We will take care of that now." Kifirin folded me away before I had time to argue with him.

  * * *

  "Solar Red is scouting Le-Ath Veronis?" Dragon scowled as his sons gave him information they'd gotten from the three spies.

  "Aryn wiped the information from their minds and we put them on a ship back to Rorda under guard shortly after that. We kept their computer and everything else they had, but they'd managed to send out some information before we caught them. We transmitted our records to the authorities on Rorda and to Alliance headquarters. The Alliance isn't happy with Solar Red, right now; I think they blew up White Light temples on Obler
ik. That means they're scouting other worlds, too."

  "I fail to understand how they keep recruiting," Dragon snorted.

  * * *

  "Erland, what have you done?" I had my hands on my hips, now, staring with distaste at the dress he’d laid across my bed.

  "You should wear this to the Century Ball," Erland flashed a smile that could melt hearts and cause general swooning. "It will go perfectly with my suit."

  That meant, of course, that Erland was wearing white to my grandfather's shindig. I liked white okay, but this dress was a blinding white, with crystal beading. Just the reflection of light off it could cause blindness. "Honey, I'll look like a chandelier," I said as tactfully as I could.

  Shadow, who'd come in to pick up oxberry wine for Grey House, was gazing speculatively at the dress, too. He snickered and nodded at my chandelier comment.

  "Will you settle for white satin, then?" Erland was being patient with me.

  "I think I'll need to see it, first," I offered dryly.

  "Very well," Erland sighed dramatically. "I had no idea I had such a demanding mate."

  That caused me to blink at him in shock. He turned his smile on me. "I was merely teasing you, my beautiful Queen." He came to kiss me, waving one hand while he did so. When he pulled away, a second dress was on the bed. It was white satin, just as he said, and much more suitable than the other.

  "I'll wear that," I sighed in resignation. The second dress was still going to draw moths, it was so bright, but not as many as the first one.

  "You'll be beautiful," Erland kissed me again.

  "Not as beautiful as you," I poked at him when he let me go.

  "Few are," he tossed back his black hair and laughed.

  "And he's not insufferable or anything," I smiled at Shadow. "I'll wear my Tiralian crystal with this." Shadow had made a complete set of Tiralian crystal jewelry for me, and all of it held protection spells. He was a real honey, all right.

  "When is this blow-up?" Shadow grinned at Erland.

  "The Ball is tomorrow evening. My mate had best not be late. The King of Karathia is not noted for his patience."