* * *
"Bryan?" He'd seen me walking down the street—he'd been out trimming some sort of shrubbery that grew in his front yard. The vampire belt—where the light was constantly in twilight, still supported plant life—a few things had adapted to the weak light available. Even certain types of flowers grew and Bryan, it seems, was taking full advantage. He'd already planted a very nice garden in his yard. Bryan Riley, former assistant to the night director for one of the local news channels in London was now trotting happily in my direction.
"Lissa!" He gave me a huge hug.
"Are you doing all right?" I smiled at him when he let me go.
"Great. But I wanted to come and talk to you about our media, or lack thereof," he grinned.
"Ah. Well, we probably need it, don't we? I can imagine that those vampires are just starving for news and weather reports."
"Flavio says he'll set me up, if I want to manage the whole thing."
"Well, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have in charge," I said. "Would you like to walk with me for a bit?"
"Absolutely!" He was quite happy with that idea. We talked about where we could build the station and he mentioned public access for the Council meetings, which was a good idea. I agreed with him on that. And we both agreed that some meetings would remain private, and most of those dealt with trials and (when we needed them) executions. He and I also talked about communication satellites, where we could get them and the cost.
"You might want to talk to Joey and Shadow," I said. "Since they're engineering geniuses or something." As we walked along, we gathered more vampires. One of them was painfully shy, but he managed to speak up after a while.
"Queen Lissa, I can't get the toiletries and laundry soap I like," he mumbled.
"What?" I stopped right there in the street, causing everybody else to stop, too. "Why can't you get those things?"
"We don't get shipments from Earth—we have to deal with what comes from the Alliance worlds," someone else spoke up.
"Let me see what I can do about that," I said, wondering if Radomir, Russell and Will might want to go into the grocery/pharmacy business. I think Brock and Stephan were considering my proposal to open sporting goods stores and clothing chains. Vampires weren't much on groceries, but the tourists would be. Somebody had to sell snacks. And shoes and books—my gosh, how had I forgotten books?
"Who likes to read, here?" I asked. Several hands went up. "Good. I'm looking to open a library and maybe some bookstores. Come to the palace tomorrow and we'll see what we can do."
We ended up at somebody's house, about forty or so of us, and we talked about all sorts of things. Bottles of blood substitute and wine were passed around, if anybody wanted it. I had a glass of red wine and enjoyed the company.
By the end of the week we had books, both paper and electronic, on order, a news channel in its infancy and Radomir, Russell and Will were going together to put up stores offering a variety of toiletry needs. My shy vampire got what he wanted—I folded to Earth and got him a case of everything.
His name was Grant and I decided he would make a very good personal assistant. He already knew his way around Alliance hand-held computers, could file like the wind and was overjoyed when I offered him the position. He moved right into the palace (cases of toiletries and all), and Roff, Giff and little Toff liked him very much. Actually, Toff loved Grant and would squeal and laugh if Grant held him. Grant had a cubicle just outside my large, private study and started making sense out of all the paper that was piling up, in addition to pointing me toward the important electronic messages I was now getting from the Reth Alliance.
We were also coming along with the rules and laws concerning the vampires and comesuli, and then we had to hammer out the rules and laws concerning the gambling guests who were already lining up to come for a visit, cameras in hand, no doubt. Bryan got his network set up and running smoothly, which meant that vid screens were ordered by the thousands. One of the Reth Alliance worlds made a lot of money on the sale of giant vid-screens and I think it might have been Refizan. Gabron, no doubt, had connections. He and I still weren't talking much. Two months later, the brothels were in place and the pleasure workers were arriving. I hoped they all didn't expect a personal greeting from the Queen when they walked off the ship—that wasn't going to happen.
* * *
"He's married to her?" Shala stared at Elthine. They'd worked for Gabron on Refizan and leapt at the opportunity to come to Le-Ath Veronis. They enjoyed the climax they received whenever a vampire had bitten them before and often begged for it. Gabron had frequently satisfied them himself. They were now discussing the Queen, whom they hadn't seen.
"Seems to be. He wears a ring he never had before." Elthine had noticed that right away, when Gabron had shown them their new home.
"She can't compete with us," Shala snorted, making Elthine laugh.
* * *
"I applied for this under your name," Arvil San Gerxon handed the ticket to his assistant. Theos stared at the official document—it bore the crown of claws on the front, which was the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis' royal seal.
"You want me to go?" Theos squeaked, reading the acceptance card in surprise.
"I do. I want information," Arvil snapped. "I have all the hype the media are releasing, but I want someone there on the ground. You will send me regular updates; you're scheduled for a two-week visit."
Theos knew what concerned Arvil the most. Erland Morphis and the A&M Consortium had pulled all their employees away from Campiaa, closed down their casinos the previous week and Arvil had wakened the following morning to find both casinos razed to the ground. Arvil had yet to determine how that had been accomplished. Of course, there were rumors that Erland was Karathian, which might explain things. Some of the other casino owners were allegedly negotiating with Le-Ath Veronis to open casinos there. Arvil was considering breaking his own laws and building on the now vacant lots still owned by Erland Morphis and A&M Consortium. That would increase the San Gerxon holdings and their profits.
"Get my contractor on the phone," Arvil barked, breaking Theos out of his stupor. He'd been staring at the ticket Arvil placed in his hand. Theos rushed to obey.
* * *
"I will consider almost anything, if the money is sufficient," Gart examined his fingernails. A Karathian Warlock by birth, Gart had been on Wylend Arden's most wanted list of rogues for a very long time. He nodded to his newest client, who'd identified himself as Felix. "How many do you have and where would you like them transported?"