"Lara'Kayan, it will be over soon," he was stroking hair away from my temple while Grant drank. He also told Grant when he'd had enough and Grant pulled away, licking stray drops of blood off my neck. He was nearly asleep when he looked into my eyes and smiled. Thurlow folded all of us to Grant's suite of rooms, and got him onto his bed. Grant was asleep already when that happened.
"Now, you," Thurlow said, lifting me in his arms before I could protest and folding me to my bed.
"I have work to do," I complained, but light was forming around his fingers, lulling me to sleep as they gently stroked my face.
"Sleep, my lady," he breathed, and just like that, I was out.
* * *
"She is sleeping," Thurlow allowed Rigo to step inside Lissa's suite. Rigo walked silently over the thick rugs scattered across Lissa's marble floors.
"I only want to touch her," Rigo whispered. Thurlow nodded.
Rigo settled on the side of the bed and lifted one of Lissa's hands, kissing each of her fingers. Before Thurlow could protest, he had her pulled against him, her cheek settled against his chest. "I have dreamed of this," Rigo whispered.
* * *
I was awake four hours later, eating a meal that Karzac set in front of me. He'd angrily crossed arms over his chest and waited for me to eat while I zipped through tons of information on my handheld computer. All sorts of laws were being put forward, including what to do with surplus recyclable materials. That bothered me—one of the proposals was to dump it on an uninhabited planet. Well, maybe not inhabited by humanoids—I was going to check that out myself. Another proposal suggested that each member planet be allowed to decide which religions to approve. That raised my hackles and made my skin itch furiously. Approval of that item would open the door for those Solar Red f**kers—I just knew it.
I wanted the Founder and the Grand Alliance Council to have final approval, and the matter would be debated during the Conclave. If it were left to individual worlds, then Solar Red and Red Hand could waltz right in under an assumed name to murder and plunder, all in the name of their state protected religions. Yeah, I was all for religious freedom, as long as it supported the population instead of killing and sacrificing. I'd seen firsthand what they could do. I didn't want to see any more of it.
"Karzac, please sit, you're making me tired by standing there." I scooted out the barstool next to me and patted the cushion. Karzac came to sit next to me. "Honey," I said, "look at this." I passed the small computer over to him and let him read the proposal. He looked at me as soon as he finished skimming the resolution.
"As long as Solar Red changed their name, they could be approved across the Alliance," he muttered, his green-gold eyes troubled at the thought.
"Anybody could do this," I muttered, "including Red Hand and Black Mist; all they have to do is set themselves up as a religion," I snorted.
"And by the time the Alliance figures out exactly what they are, they may not have enough support among the Alliance worlds to get rid of them again. They may be plotting a takeover," Karzac snorted.
"Oh, good lord," I muttered.
* * *
There was no sleep for me that night, which upset my twins quite a bit. I was busy, reading information on every ruler on every Alliance world. I knew, just by pulling up their records, which ones had been invaded already by Solar Red or Red Hand, under a different name. I figured a lot of them had taken money under the table, too, to allow the torturing ass**les in.
Erland doesn't appreciate being wakened out of his beauty sleep—I learned that, but he and I had a long conference inside my study that night. I also had a promise from him and a promise from my grandfather, by the time it was finished. No way was I going to approach my father—he hadn't even bothered to say thanks when I'd restored Wyatt's immortality. Maybe he'd been too insulted when I'd told him he wasn't any different from his mother. It was time, too, to have a talk with Kiarra. I waited until she was awake; I had to Look to get that information.
"Hey, Adam," I folded into the kitchen at Gryphon Hall while Adam was having a cup of tea and reading stock reports on his handheld computer.
"Lissa, sit down and have a cup of tea with me." He was smiling. Adam isn't hard to look at, by any stretch of the imagination. He reminded me of an English actor that had been popular when I'd been snatched away by Griffin. Long dead, now, but Adam bore a slight resemblance.
"I'll get my own tea," I motioned for him to sit down again. I'd interrupted him, not the other way around. He didn't seem to mind, either, that I'd just shown up, without any notice.
"I'm used to it," he smiled and went back to his computer. I made myself a cup of tea and was sipping it when Kiarra and Merrill came in for breakfast.
"Lissa, what brings you here?" Merrill asked, coming to give me a peck on the cheek.
"I just wanted to talk to Kiarra about the Ra'Ak that I killed on Vionn." Kiarra had gone to pull something for breakfast from the fridge, but she turned to look at me when I spoke.
"What about him?" she asked. "Dragon said you had a few words with one of them before you killed him, but he didn't know what was said."
"We had a few words, all right, but he was stalling for time, trying to work his mojo. He wanted a Saa Thalarr under his thumb," I said.
"As if that's possible," Merrill snorted.
"Maybe not for you, Merrill, because of what you were before—a King Vampire that wasn't susceptible to compulsion. Or to me, because of what I am. He thought I was Saa Thalarr. And let me tell you, the compulsion, or whatever it was that he had, might have taken one of the others down. Some of the Spawn Hunters, for sure, and maybe others. He was full Dark Elemaiya, Merrill, before he became Ra'Ak. Have you heard of that, before?"
"That isn't good." Belen folded in, shining brightly before gathering his light and forming a corporeal body.
"Yeah. That's not good," I agreed. "And if there's more of those schmucks out there, well, who knows what will happen? If somebody challenges them, can they just place compulsion to win the battle or send somebody back to destroy things from within?" I was thinking about my twins, Gavin, Tony and Jeral. It made me feel sick, to be honest.
"Conner's inviting us over for breakfast, so I don't have to cook," Kiarra had gotten silent mindspeech, her beautiful face set in a frown as she received the message. All of us were folded to Connor's, I didn't know by whom, and Franklin was sitting down beside me in a blink, telling me I was exhausted and needed to eat and then sleep. He'd gotten his hands on me, first thing, using his healer's skill to fix what he could.