"Shhh, we will take care of this." I think I was moaning and crying at the same time, grasping sheets in hands that had grown claws, ripping them and possibly the mattress underneath, I was in so much pain.
"Lissa, pull your claws back or we will not come close." Karzac was issuing an order.
"Get the hell away," I hissed between my teeth. "Fuck, this hurts." I realized quickly that I was half-naked as I forced my eyes open. I was lying on my stomach on a bed—Garde's by the scent of it. I struggled to sit up; I had to pull in my claws to do it. Punctures covered the sheets and mattress. The f**ker was going to have to get a new bed, at least. A trail of blood dripped over my collarbone and then farther down, nearly to my left nipple. My neck was on fire and Garde's Thifilathi had made me bleed.
"Lissa, we're here to take care of this," Karzac stood beside the bed with Frank, Shane and Tomas right behind him. Fuck cubed. Wasn't it lovely that they were all here to witness this? Garde stood right behind them, a huge look of guilt on his face. Well, he needed to look guilty. He and Kifirin, both.
"Since when do you respond to mindspeech?" I snapped at Karzac and got myself off the bed. I could barely move but I wasn't about to let them know that. "Where the f**k is my shirt?" I felt feverish as I jerked it off the floor where it had been tossed and misted away.
* * *
"That went well," Shane sighed.
"You will not find her now," Karzac said and sat down on the side of the bed. "When did she send mindspeech?" He had to go Looking to find the answer. "Ah," was all he said.
* * *
"I don't care how much it costs; I just need a room with a spa tub in it." Yeah, I looked like crap and the desk clerk at the five-star hotel was giving me shit, questioning me about whether I wouldn’t be happier at the three-star hotel down the street. I was in New York and just about to jerk the dickhead over the desk and give him compulsion he would never forget. He took my credit chip that still hung on a chain around my neck, gulped when he saw the rating after scanning it on his computer and gave me a room double quick. I got my chip back, took the key and got the hell away from him as fast as I could.
Soaking in the jetted tub helped a little, but I had trouble getting in and out of it. Garde's bite had made me stiff and achy everywhere and I wondered briefly if aspirin would help but ended up abandoning that idea—vampires tended to be impervious to drugs.
* * *
"Where is she?" Tony demanded. Garde had gone to Le-Ath Veronis, hoping Lissa had come home.
"I don't know," Garde sat down heavily at the dinner table. Giff was having a meltdown, as was Roff, although he was attempting to calm his oldest child. Gabron was cursing under his breath and Gavin refused to leave his suite.
"Come, my friend, you cannot do this." Erland folded into Gavin's suite.
"She doesn't like this whole thing," Gavin muttered. "The brothels, the casinos, all of it. We are pushing her and she is consenting to it, to please the rest of us."
"She knows the planet is more than just her," Erland sat next to Gavin on Gavin's sofa.
"But shouldn't a part of it be about her? If she were not here, there would be no Le-Ath Veronis. Tell me this is not so."
"So we are going forward with this and not including her, is that what you mean?"
"I believe so. All of this is quite exciting to the vampires, but we failed to look at it from one perspective, and perhaps two. How do the comesuli see this? We have not given them a vote."
"Why are you bringing this up now?" Erland was puzzled.
"I overheard the kitchen staff talking this afternoon—I went there for something to eat after Lissa left abruptly and I heard them long before they knew I was approaching. Many of them are frightened that we will treat them as the High Demons treated them—working for those who will come, with little or no compensation. They are satisfied with what they are earning now and the Queen is making sure they are paid, but with the influx of visitors that many of the vampires are talking of, they expect to be treated once again as second-class citizens or worse. And it made me wonder just how it is they will be treated. I had taken no thought for this before."
"But I thought many of the vampires were forging relationships with them."
"Some of them have their favorites, but it is not the same as full sex, as you see. That was something else they were discussing—that the pleasure houses will take their vampires away because the women and men will offer their vampires more than the comesuli can provide. They worry that they will only provide a warm meal, now and then and mean nothing more to the vampires." Gavin had been spending the evening thinking about this, Erland could tell.
"Under normal circumstances, the comesuli would have been the vampire's family—their children, cousins and future vampires. That connection will come in time, but is not in place as yet." Erland was thinking this through for himself. "And we have not hammered out the amount of taxes to be collected for the crown from this venture. I currently pay the San Gerxons a full twenty-five percent and still make a good profit. Lissa will not demand anything close to that, but it will be necessary to maintain Le-Ath Veronis."
"I heard that Gabron paid fifteen percent to the Refizani government—it was a luxury tax as decreed by the Reth Alliance, because he did not provide what is considered a vital service. Only the businesses providing basic needs were taxed less—food, housing, clothing and medical care."
"Yes, and the Alliance will be expecting their percentage—for membership," Erland agreed. "It was two percent, the last I heard."
"It is two and a half," Gavin replied. "To maintain the Alliance army and things of that nature. I asked Wlodek about this already."
"We are still no closer to finding a solution for Lissa and the comesuli," Erland observed.
"I know," Gavin acknowledged.
* * *
The vid screen covered an entire wall in my hotel room and I was watching something that made no sense at all. I muted the sound; I no longer wanted to hear it. It was something to distract me and nothing more. I hurt. So much that I contemplated calling for Karzac anyway. I don't know who had called him to begin with, but at least he had come.
"Lissa, I do not know if you want me here, but I wanted to come."
Reemagar was suddenly there in my hotel room, sitting on the end of my bed. I was huddled against the padded headboard, dressed only in the robe the hotel provided for its guests.