"Daughter, she is paying for her sins, now," Griffin muttered.
"Yeah, well," I didn't finish my sentence.
"What does this mean, though?" Jeral sounded confused.
"It means that you have a place here, if you want it," I said. "Or we can find you another home, somewhere in Lissia, or you can go back to the house in New Beliphar." They'd named their new city after their old planet. Go figure.
"As members of the Royal House, it might be wise to stay here, at least in the city. While most of the vampires here have good intentions, it wouldn't be the first time members of a royal family were kidnapped or threatened to achieve certain objectives," Merrill said dryly.
"And I probably need someone to watch over the books; Kyler is doing what she can with help from Charles, but neither is able to keep up with all of it." I smiled encouragingly at Davan.
"Rolfe could use some help as well," Gabron suggested.
"Rolfe?" Jeral looked up.
"I'll get him," Gabron offered and slipped out the door. Rolfe was there with Gabron in a matter of minutes, a worried crease on his forehead.
"I'm not in trouble, Rolfe," I held up a hand. He breathed a relieved sigh. "Rolfe is my personal guard," I told Jeral. "But he can't be in all places at all times—he gets days off."
"She forces me to take days off," Rolfe grumped.
"I would be more than pleased to guard your life," Jeral stood and bowed.
"Please, don't bow. I'm not that important," I motioned for Jeral to sit down. "You'll be compensated, and I want to set up accounts for both of you. I think Adam and Merrill have our first bank open, now."
"We do—Flavio moved the last of his assets from Earth two days ago. We're doing quite well." Adam laughed. That didn't happen often—even I knew that.
"Am I missing something?" Erland folded in.
"Erland, Erland, Erland," I said, leaning my chin on a fist.
"You are lovely, Lissa," he gave me a smile that would make just about anybody experience an orgasm.
"Uh-huh. What's grampa doing?"
"Ruling with an iron fist," Erland laughed. "Or an iron spell, take your pick."
"Jeral, Davan, this is Erland Morphis, an emissary from my father, the King of Karathia," Griffin said.
"A Karathian Warlock?" Jeral asked. Davan was unfamiliar with the term. That didn't surprise me—Beliphar had become an isolated world.
"Yes," Griffin nodded. "Lissa, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to take Jeral and Davan with me tonight, so we may get to know one another. I've never had brothers before and hardly know where to start."
"Go ahead—I won't expect them back until I see them again. If you wouldn't mind, though, would you make sure they both have everything they need and charge it to my personal account?"
"We must make sure the others from New Beliphar know where we are," Jeral rose from his chair, followed by Davan.
"I'll take you there first," Griffin said and all three disappeared.
"Sheesh," I dropped my face into both my hands.
"Is that any way to be?" Erland came to sit on the desk beside me.
"How should I be?"
"You can come to bed with me and I'll show you."
"Erland, you keep saying bed to me, like you can't get in bed with anybody else. We both know that's a lie." I looked up at Erland—he was frowning. Adam laughed out loud. "Erland, I don't think I could handle being a disappointment to the second most beautiful man I know," I swatted his leg.
"You have such a terrible opinion of yourself," he smiled at me.
"And you have such an inflated opinion of yourself," I snipped.
"Come to bed with me and find out," he was still smiling.
"She could come to bed with me, instead." Garde skipped into the room. High Demons didn't fold; they skipped, like rocks on a pond. One skip was all it took to get from Kifirin to Le-Ath Veronis.
"Garde, I have scars from one set of teeth already. I don't think I need any more," I said.
"My Thifilathi longs for it."
"I'm sure it does. Forget I said anything. Are you hungry? I was thinking about putting an apple pie together. I'm a little too restless to sleep right now."
"I'll definitely come to watch, and I'll eat anything you cook," Garde smiled. Word got out fast. Just about every mate I had, plus Garde, Erland, Adam, Merrill, Gabron, Frank, Shane and Tomas was in the kitchen after a while, waiting for eight apple pies to bake. They had warm slices with ice cream afterward.
"Lissa, this is exceptional," Gavin loved it, as did Tony. I hadn't realized they hadn't had my apple pies before. Winkler had loved them, too. I wanted to weep at that memory. Instead, I picked up half a pie in a pie plate. "I'll be back," I said and folded to Grey House. Shadow was completing a protection jewel when I arrived, so I didn't disturb him until he finished.
"Lissa?" He looked up at me.
"I made apple pies, so I brought some for you," I said.
"Great. There's ice cream downstairs in one of the freezers," he said and folded both of us to the kitchen. I had a small slice of pie and a scoop of ice cream with him and watched as he devoured the rest.
"This is so good, baby. Will you stay with me, tonight?" He kissed me and the kiss tasted like pie and ice cream.
"If there's more where that came from," I said, kissing him back.
"Yeah. Plenty. How much do you want?" He murmured against my mouth.
I had to send mindspeech to Gabron, saying I'd be back in the morning and let Shadow take me to bed.
* * *
"Hey, my two favorite misters." Henri and Gervais had come with Susila and Oluwa.
"Should we bow to you now?" Henri smiled.
"You do and you'll be in trouble," I teased. "What's up?" The daily meeting was about to start—with more questions about the entertainment district and Gabron's plan to build the brothels coming first. I'd rolled my eyes at breakfast when Kyler handed the agenda to me.
"We asked to come and see a meeting for ourselves. Susila gave permission."
"You're welcome any time," I said. "And I think we need a larger meeting room. It might not be a bad idea to allow some of the public inside. What do you think?"
"I think that is an excellent idea—many are wondering what goes on and they would not mind getting a closer look at you, my Queen." Gervais agreed with my assessment.