It was appalling. My heart broke for Antonio, even though I now thought him even more sadistic than any of the Kings, because he had experienced this. The war. Been out there in it. I couldn’t even imagine the reality of his life’s existence.
I was physically shaking. My hand squeezed Jack’s shoulder, probably too hard, but he didn’t complain, continuing to move us forward and lead us through the trek. We finally made it to the back edge of the property where it veered off in several directions, and I prayed Antonio wouldn’t make us keep going. All four of us wore the same expression.
Wide-eyed and disturbed.
Antonio merely nodded approvingly. “Good.” His eyes quit glowing, and thank the heavens, the scene outside the dome disappeared. “Now, head back, and then walk here again. We’ll do this until school is out. Continue moving. Never stop. Never waver. Stay focused.”
School wasn’t out for another three hours.
I bit my lip, glancing back and forth between Ezra and Pearl. That was a long damn time. At least there were no bloody slaying and screeching cries outside the dome.
We didn’t argue. We did as told.
“You’re done for the day,” King Fergus said absently, wiping sweat off his forehead as we finished putting the pond back in its proper place. He waved a hand. “Go relax together.” Another absent wave as he started moving toward their lawn chairs.
We blinked after him, wiping our own brows and panting from exertion. We were exhausted and still a tad uneasy from that gruesome show, but King Fergus telling us to go off together? That was even more peculiar.
“What about the gremlins?” Pearl asked, referring to our babysitting duties.
I only just refrained from slapping her over the head.
King Nelson was staring up at the sky, eyes glowing, and he murmured softly, “No more babysitting duties. Just go rest.”
We stood there stunned for, oh, maybe, half a heartbeat before we turned and tore away from them. We most certainly weren’t going to give him a chance to take that back. Tired, or not, our feet were moving.
King Kincaid hollered, “Don’t you dare do anything stupid!”
We nodded, still hurrying away.
“And you’re all sleeping at my house tonight, so make sure you have a bag packed!” King Venclaire shouted. “In fact, just go to my house right now and stay there.” A pause. “And try to not break anything.”
We did stop at his pronouncement. That was news to us. Sanity quickly returned, and we were hurrying off again. Surprised, or not, none of us wanted them to go back on having no brat duty.
“So,” Gideon scanned the area around him, “where’s King Venclaire’s real lair?”
I knew I wasn’t the only one who thought that.
We were sitting in the formal living room of King Venclaire’s house and, again, it was just too wrong for him compared to what I knew Vampires enjoyed.
“I’d tell you,” Ezra took a swig of his beer, “but then King Venclaire would kill me.”
There were no guards inside the mansion right now, so we were free to be ourselves.
Ezra was sitting on the corner of the couch with his back to the arm, one leg on the floor, and the other against the back of the couch while I lay between his legs with my back against his chest. My legs were stretched straight in front of me, my feet on Pearl’s lap. She was painting my toenails black with gold sparkles while Gideon sat on the floor below her, massaging her sore feet, since she had been wearing new shoes during those hours of walking, breaking them in, and it had been a mini-torture of its own kind. She had not complained once until we were in the Hummer, driving away from King Hall. Jack sat on a recliner with Nikki curled on his lap, both taking a small nap, damn cute all snuggled together.
I tilted my head, looking up at Ezra. “Seriously. The first time I was in here, I knew this room wasn’t right. What gives?”
His lips twitched. “I really can’t tell you. He would be pissed.”
Absently, Pearl waved the brush in the air, indicating the room at large, and cocked her head as she examined my toenail she had just painted. “It doesn’t feel right in here.”
My eyes didn’t leave Ezra’s, watching him as he scanned the room with a cocky grin teasing his lips. “Oh, you’ve got to tell us.” I poked him in the ribs, which probably hurt my finger more than it hurt him. “Come on!” My brows snapped together when his eyes met mine again as I suddenly realized a key fact. “I’ve never seen your bedroom.”
A black, arched brow rose. “I’ve never offered.” He was deflecting, and was a master at it. A true Vampire down to his Core.
I shook my head. “Show me your room.” That was the real Vampire area.
“The only women who see my room end up on my bed.” His lips curved.
I blinked, and glanced at Pearl. “You want to see his room?”
“Hell, yes.” Carefully, she painted my pinkie toe. “I bet it’s all black and morbid.”
“Want to sleep in his bed with me tonight?” A finger flick at her mate. “It’s bound to be big enough for Gideon, too.”
She shrugged, even as Gideon choked. “Sure. Why not? It’ll be like the camping trip.” Her hand stalled, and I bit my lip to keep from laughing as she quickly jammed the brush back in the paint bottle. “Gideon will be there, at least.”
Ezra was, literally, vibrating under me.
I elbowed him covertly. Gideon didn’t know anything about that first morning. I felt compelled to say, “No freaky magical shit in the bed.”
Ezra laughed outright.
Pearl rolled her eyes, muttering, “As if I would let you see Gideon like that.”
As if I wanted to see Gideon like that.
Luckily, I didn’t voice that little thought. That would have been rude. But, Gideon, well, he was just too…proper, maybe? I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it didn’t make me all woohoo envisioning him naked. I more imagined him at a country club, sitting by a fire and sipping tea while Pearl snuck outside to steal a golf cart and raced it across the course, doing donuts and tearing up the green, as Ezra, Jack, and I cheered her on from the eighteenth hole. Not really erotic fantasy material for me.
Pearl waved a slightly glowing hand over my toenails, and I felt them go from damp-cool to dry-solid.
I thanked her and rolled over, staring Ezra right in his face. “Show us?”
Taking another drink, his nose crinkled. “King Venclaire will seriously be pissed. Only Vamps allowed.”
Shaking my head softly, I tried for innocence. “He said we were spending the night.” I smiled sweetly. “He didn’t specify where.”
Ezra’s eyes narrowed. “It’s definitely possible you were a swindler in another life.”
“Whoa,” Jack mumbled, staring at Ezra’s bedroom. “Just whoa.”
Ezra had taken us through a hidden door that, indeed, took us by another living room most definitely Vampire style, all in dark wine and black. The hallway we had walked down was painted a deep plum. Ezra’s room wasn’t any different. It reminded me of my old room at my uncle’s, where I’d lived before my Shifter power had been Awakened.
I asked, “Did you get to decorate it yourself? Or did King Venclaire do it?” I ran my hand against one of the walls, and realized they were papered in black velvet, not just painted.
“He let me do it,” Ezra replied, sitting on a massive, black leather chair that was circular with no armrests. “He gave me a pretty sizable amount to spend, so I went a little overboard.”
Nikki lifted a red bra by the strap with one finger, holding it out in front of her. “I didn’t know you did drag.”
We stopped and stared, until Jack murmured something against her ear, and she blushed prettily, dropping the bra and mumbling an apology to Ezra. God, she was so innocent. It was endearing but, really, could she honestly imagine Ezra in drag or, instead, imagine one of his girlies leaving that behind so she would have a valid reason to come back?
Yeah.
&
nbsp; I stepped over a purse on the floor. “On the last day of school, you should set up a lost and found table so these women can get their crap back.”
Ezra’s expression turned thoughtful. “That’s not a bad idea, but I’ve been debating giving it all to charity. I think the disadvantaged could use it more than the women who left it.” He pointed to the black wooden door. His closet. “I’ve got three full boxes in there. It’s absurd.”
I snickered because he was serious, and wandered to his collection of photographs on his black and grey marble desk. Bending, I peered at them. It was obvious who they were of. His mom and dad. I could tell one was definitely of his late mate by the goofy way he was smiling at her. She was predictably gorgeous. “She was very beautiful.”
He nodded, draining the rest of his beer.
I cast my gaze away from him, seeing a familiar grief in his eyes I knew all too well, and went back to studying the pictures. There were photos of him that must have been taken during his travels. In most of them he looked drunk or stoned with other Vampires hanging on him in much the same state. My attention snagged on the framed photo at the end.
I picked it up slowly, and stared. It was of the four of us. Pearl, Jack, Ezra, and I at the New Year’s party we had attended. I remembered now that Ezra had found a disposable camera lying on the floor during one of our boogie sessions, and asked someone to take a picture with it for us. Pearl and I wore those stupid pointy hats, and when we had leaned in together, well, the picture captured Pearl and I with our cheeks smashed together with big, silly grins on our faces, Jack holding his eye after Pearl almost put it out with her hat, but he still had a huge grin on his face, and Ezra had his fangs out, standing behind me, dipped to my height, with his mouth spread wide against my throat — not actually biting, but still managing to smile, eyes up at the camera.
My voice was soft. “Can I get a copy of this?”
His eyes tracked over my face. “Sure. I’ll scan it and make a print for you.”
“Thanks.” I ran a finger over my captured smile, it caught forever in this picture. I had been really happy then. I was really happy now. Glancing at each of my friends, I was misty-eyed, and quickly sniffed any tears back, putting the picture down. Once upon a time, at the beginning of the year, I had lost my heart. With these completely different Mysticals, I had found it again in them.
“Come here,” Ezra said quietly, watching me.
I took one last glance at the photo, and made my way to him. He pulled me down onto his lap and I curled up there, watching Jack and Pearl go at it over music choice while Gideon and Nikki tried to referee. I asked loudly, “Where is everyone going after graduation?” This had been eating away at me for the past month. My friends leaving. Going home, or wherever they wanted to set up their home base. All of us had been avoiding this topic with one another. After seeing proof like that picture…well, I wanted to know where they would be.
Jack and Pearl shut up, turning their attention our way.
Ezra wove his arms around my hips, holding me.
I was trembling a little, and I knew my voice had shaken just the same.
Into the silence, Ezra kissed my forehead, resting his chin on top of my head. “I haven’t decided yet.” He paused. “Pearl? Jack?”
Jack cleared his throat. “Nikki, can you give us a minute?”
She nodded, and, as if by cue, Gideon kissed Pearl’s cheek, both mates leaving Ezra’s room and closing the door behind them. I could hear them walking down the hallway and back out the secret door to the “company”, formal living room.
Jack took a step forward. “I actually don’t know. King Fergus has been listing location after location trying to get me to decide, but I haven’t given him a solid answer.”
Pearl flopped on Ezra’s bed with a CD clutched in her hand, which she had grabbed behind Jack’s back while he had been talking. “I haven’t decided, either. Gideon’s been hounding me about it, but,” her eyes darted to all of us, “I can’t decide.” Those golden eyes landed on me. “What about you?”
“Assuming I can do an Awakening?” Her eyes rolled at my question, although, her forehead crinkled in worry as she nodded. Sighing heavily and pushing away any of those fears, I answered, “I haven’t picked a place.” I nuzzled my forehead deeper against the crook of Ezra’s warm neck, feeling his pulse beat against my forehead. “King Kincaid keeps going on about staying here in New York, but I haven’t told him yes or no.”
Biting my lips, I hesitated, and then blurted, “I just can’t imagine living away from you guys. Having all those simpering subjects surrounding me. They’re good people, but I can’t even have a simple conversation with them. They just agree with everything I say because of who I am.” I shook my head under Ezra’s chin. “That doesn’t sound at all pleasant. At least you and Jack have Gideon and Nikki. Ezra and I have no one. We’ll be stuck with a bunch of brown nosers.”
Unfortunately, it was a dangerous game to ask anything else from our subjects. We were the Law. So, brown nosers they had to be. Not my fault, nor theirs. It just was the way it was. The way it had to be.
Jack sat on the bed, his hand inching toward the CD in Pearl’s hand. “You’re forgetting that Nikki — after she graduates — and Gideon will be traveling quite a bit for a while, being our eyes and ears and making contacts we can’t.” Again, that came from us being who we were. Their mates had their roles, too. “We’ll be in the same situation as you two, in the beginning.” His fingers landed on the edge of the CD, Pearl not noticing.
We sat in silence, all of us detesting our fate. There was no stopping it. We were going to be ripped away from each other a few weeks after graduation when we had to choose.
I whispered, “Maybe, we can choose locations close to one another.”
Ezra half cleared his throat/half grunted, the sound odd enough that Jack stopped trying to steal the CD to glance at him as I lifted away a smidge to see his face. Hesitantly, Ezra stated, “I might have an idea for what we’re all dreading, but it’s a bit…radical…for the Mys community. It would also depend on how we each plan to rule our subjects.”
“Ooh,” Pearl did a fake shiver, “I love radical.” All kidding aside, she was watching him just as intently as Jack and me.
“We aren’t leaving immediately after graduation, and we still need to see if,” Ezra patted my hip, “Lily can do an Awakening, so I propose we wait until graduation night to have this discussion. Once we’re through with King Hall completely and have more freedom to do as we want, we’ll sit down and I’ll tell you my thoughts.”
Jack rubbed his chin. “We wait until after graduation to tell the Kings where we’re setting up shop?”
“That would probably be wise if you’re interested in hearing me out.”
I gawked. “You’re thinking about all of us living under one roof, aren’t you?”
His lips pursed, and he tilted his head back against the top of his circular chair, staring at his dark ceiling. “That would be part of it, but it would have to be a massive roof and be in more than one location worldwide. It could benefit our subjects in ways the previous Rulers never even contemplated because of their lack of connection, a connection which the four of us have.” His face slanted back to our shocked ones. “Like I said, it would be radical. There are a lot of different factors we would have to think about, but,” another pat on my hip, “we need to make sure we aren’t dealing with other issues before we really consider this.”
Silence.
What he was proposing was a first. It could either cause a rebellion or cause unity. It was a formidable line to cross if we chose to be as progressive as that. Like he had said, it was an idea no other four Rulers had ever contemplated, because they had kept themselves separate from one another, which seemed ludicrous to me now. How they hadn’t jumped at the chance to have a bond like ours was beyond me.
In the extended quiet, Pearl whispered, “That’s ballsy.”
“Yes.” Ezra cracked
his neck. The action had my gaze landing there. His pulse. “It is. Just think about it until graduation, and then, if we want to discuss it more, we can.” He paused before adding quietly, “If you don’t want to, I won’t think poorly of you. Of any of you. It makes me anxious and I was the one to come up with it.” His face turned in my direction, although, that wasn’t what I was eyeballing. “On that note, we’ll put this subject on hold, which is perfect timing because I do believe Lily’s got a craving.”
His pulse thumped so deliciously under his skin, I licked my lips. “Yeah.”
“Well,” Jack stood, “I’m thirsty and hungry, but not for,” he gagged, “what she wants. I’m going to see if Nikki wants to eat.”
“Same here,” Pearl said, standing. “It’s your day, anyway.” Always careful with words in a Vampire’s home.
Ezra nodded. “I know.” As they started moving across the room, he advised, “Don’t eat a lot. The King loves a sit-down political dinner when guests are here. The cook probably has something special planned.”
They agreed not to eat the entire pantry — right now — and left us alone.
“Here or my bed?” Ezra whispered softly.
I debated, my eyes never leaving his pulse. “The bed would be better for you.”
He easily lifted me in his arms as he stood. Sitting on the bed, he lay back completely.
Moving like clockwork, I straddled him as he tilted his chin back and to the side. His arms rested around me as I lowered, and I gently placed my tongue against his throat, feeling his pulse throb. Breathing in deeply, I sighed — he was my favorite flavor of my three donors.
He chuckled, barely breathing, “Drink up.”
My fangs already descended, I bit into his flesh, his blood pouring into my mouth. Groaning softly as the spice of his blood slid over my tongue, I pulled, instantly sending him serenity, and his arms started to go slack, but his fingers hooked into the belt loops on my pants, so they didn’t completely fall as I drank from him softly, but greedily.
King Hall Page 25