"He says there are too many zeros to count," Grace smiled, brushing honey blonde hair back. Karzac and Dragon had to be proud; they had two ladies who were knockouts. Devin came in, her red hair in a clip at her nape and dressed tastefully in a jacket and matching trousers.
The shocking thing came while we were preparing to fold to London—I learned the villa was roughly a mile away from Merrill's old manor. Devin explained things after I finished dressing in more borrowed clothing and misted back to the kitchen.
"Lissa, hello," Amara's musical voice hadn't changed since I met her the last time, and she was just as beautiful as I remembered. Another set of twins were right behind her as she appeared inside Grace and Devin's large kitchen. I drew in a breath when they materialized.
"They're your nieces; Brenten's granddaughters," Amara said as I backed away, shaking my head. I knew from the scent they were related—we had the same bloodline—on one side, anyway. They were also beautiful, with long, auburn hair that fell in waves down their backs. Nearly-gold eyes studied me as they sized me up. Their scents, though, were vastly different. Both held a great deal of power, but the power signatures weren't close. One held a scent of the Larentii about her, while the other could only be described as otherworldly.
"I found a way to duplicate the Larentii power signature," one stepped forward and held out her hand. "I'm Kyler, and Flavio is one of my mates."
"Kyler," I took her hand. I wanted to cry—I had family I hadn't known about. It made me wonder what else Griffin had kept from me.
"My mother—your half-sister, died long ago," Kyler squeezed my hand and stepped away so her sister could come forward.
"I'm Cleo," the other took my hand. "I'm a healer for the Saa Thalarr. Rhett is one of my mates. Our father," she nodded toward Kyler, "is Glendes, Eldest of Grey House. Our step-nephew, Shadow Grey, should meet you," Cleo said, smiling uncertainly. She wasn't sure how I'd receive her or her sister.
There's nothing to worry about, I sent mentally. "So, you both have multiple mates, too?" I asked aloud. Cleo took another step forward and hugged me.
"It'll work out," Cleo whispered in my ear. "Kyler says so, too."
"I sure hope so," I brushed away a bit of mistiness when Cleo stepped back.
"I'm mated to Dalroy, too, and as Cleo said, she's mated to Rhett," Kyler smiled brightly at me. "We know you know them."
"Yeah, I know them. I'd say they're damn lucky," I nodded to my newly discovered nieces.
"And we tell them how fortunate they are all the time," Cleo snickered.
"We'll sit down and tell you about all our mates soon," Kyler promised. "Our Larentii mates want to meet you."
"You have Larentii mates." I shook my head. How did they all get so lucky?
"Come on, you," Drake walked in with Drew and draped an arm around my shoulders. "We have stuff to buy."
"We're coming," three more people appeared in the kitchen. A short, perky brunette with close-cropped curls was there, flanked by Wlodek and Weldon. Truthfully, I wanted to punch Wlodek and hug Weldon. Both those thoughts flew away when I got the woman's scent—she had Bright Elemaiyan blood.
"I'm Bernadette," she held out a hand, "but that name is embarrassing, so I prefer Fox. And I'm the Ka'Mirai—the one the Elemaiya wish they hadn't rejected."
"I've heard of you," I took her hand. Griffin mentioned her before; said she could turn back time or change things for the Elemaiya. Well, they'd f**ked that up, just as he'd said they would.
"I've heard of you—now," Fox smiled brightly. I could see her with Weldon—he doted on her, I could tell that right away. What shocked me was the undiluted love in Wlodek's eyes as he watched her.
"Lissa, we'll talk and I'll grovel later," Wlodek offered. Honestly, I felt a headache coming on. Wlodek looked exactly as he always had—dark eyes and hair; dressed impeccably, still, but his face wasn't as shuttered as it once was. The Saa Thalarr had wrought changes in Radomir and his former vampire sire. It made me wonder what it had done for Merrill and the others.
"And we'll talk about withheld information," I retorted, my voice sharper than I'd intended. Wlodek winced at my words, and that wouldn't have happened before—that was a sure bet. His stone face had cracked—courtesy of the Saa Thalarr.
Lissa, if there were any way to change it, I would, he sent.
"Come on, itty bitty pants, we have shopping to do. There's no time for arguments or depression," Drew leaned down and pecked me on the cheek. I stared up at him. He grinned at me and I blinked, thinking how handsome he and his brother were.
Being able to fold was a special gift. It might have taken me ten or fifteen minutes to get to the shopping mall by misting. Malls were making a comeback, I learned from Grace. They'd fallen in and out of favor many times over the three hundred years I'd been missing.
"You don't know how much we missed you, little girl," Weldon said when we landed in a huge department store. He hugged me tightly, too, before letting me go.
"Weldon, what happened to Winkler?" I asked as we were going through racks of slacks, blouses, jeans, dresses and skirts.
"Lissa, why are you asking about things like that?" Weldon put his arms around me again and kissed my forehead.
"Hey, now," Drake tapped Weldon on the shoulder. Drew was right behind Drake, nodding at his brother's response.
"Winkler did what his father did before him," Weldon sighed, pulling away from me.
"Fuck," I whispered. I wanted to cry.
"Hey, we're here to buy clothes," Drew hugged me. "Dry clothes," he added. Somehow, the twins knew. Winkler's father had forced him to make the challenge, allowing Winkler to take the Dallas Pack and his life. Winkler had given the Pack to one of his children. I'd never get to see him or his beautiful, wolfish grin again.
"I'll be okay," I patted Drew on the back and continued looking through the rack of blouses, though I wanted more than anything to mist away and weep. I forced my thoughts away from Winkler and turned back to the clothing racks. At least Kifirin had given me my hair back; it hung past my shoulders and I'd French-braided it before going shopping. Drake kept playing with my braid the whole time we looked through clothes, and he and his brother had their hands on me as often as possible, offering silent consolation for the hole left in my heart.
"Get everything a little bigger—you still have weight to gain," Devin suggested as we pulled my normal size off the racks. She, Grace, Amara, Kyler and Cleo were doing their best to take care of me, with help from Fox. Of course, Dragon's twins were offering their opinion on everything. Every woman in the store, including the sales clerks, was staring at Drake, Drew, Wlodek and Weldon. Charles showed up after a bit and began pulling things off racks and tossing them into my dressing room. It reminded me of a shopping trip we'd taken so long ago. Wlodek sent Charles and me to London, to buy a wardrobe after I'd been allowed to live by a margin of one vote by the Vampire Council. I figured Wlodek had sent mindspeech to Charles, asking him to come now.