Are they still meeting in the cave? I sent to Wlodek. He was Saa Thalarr—he'd have mindspeech now, even if he didn't have it before. Wlodek knew what I meant.
The cave was bombed several years ago, he replied. By zealots hunting vampire. The Council purchased an old church and excavated beneath it. That's where they meet, now. I heaved a shaky sigh. So many things changed, so many people gone. Moro mou, do not let this upset you, Wlodek added. And you were correct about Nestor and Cecil. They are gone, now. Dalroy, Charles and Rhett are on the Council instead.
Good for them, I returned.
"Oh yeah, keep that," Drake and Drew were both nodding approval at the long black dress Charles found on a rack. It had an empire waist and a halter neckline with thin ties that hung down the back. Most of my back was bare; the back of the dress came down to the small of my back and Drew's fingers touched me there fleetingly as I turned to go back inside the dressing room.
Lunch came after we'd bought a mountain of clothing—someone sent all of it back to the villa using the Power available to them. "This is one of Adam's restaurants," Wlodek informed me when we walked inside. I sighed—I'd gone to one of Adam's restaurants in the past—with Roff, Giff, Franklin, Greg and several others. I squared my shoulders and forced myself not to think about it. Frank was gone; nobody mentioned him. And the whole time I'd been on Kifirin, I hadn't seen Roff or Giff. I had no idea whether they still lived or not.
I'd been seated at the table between Drake and Drew—they'd arranged that somehow. If they were only looking for a fling, I wasn't their girl. I just didn't know how to tell them that.
"The prime rib is good," Drew leaned over my shoulder, reading my menu instead of his own. "And this is good, too," he pointed out a chicken dish. He was as close as he could get, an arm draped around my shoulders as he tapped my menu. I knew by scent that he and his brother were a hundred years old. It made me wonder how I should determine my own age. Was I forty-nine or was I three hundred forty-nine? I didn't know what to do about that.
I settled for the chicken dish and it was good, but I couldn't finish it. Drew helped me eat it and Drake fed me a bit of his dessert. We went looking for lingerie and shoes after lunch; Charles, Drake and Drew insisted on coming along. Charles was the only male who'd ever helped me pick out underwear before, and he wasn't interested romantically. I couldn't say that about the twins, and felt my face go hot several times at the suggestions they made. "No, I hate underwires," I poked Drake in the chest over his choice in bras.
"Then get this one," he picked another in the same color—a fuchsia. I ended up with a pile of underthings I was too embarrassed to put back. The twins were grinning when we were done and Devin and Grace were smiling the whole time they shopped with me. Charles was the voice of reason in all of it, while Kyler, Cleo and Amara made quiet suggestions and watched me carefully. Amara was afraid I might break and Kyler and Cleo were struggling to get used to an Aunt they hadn't known about. I'd bet half the zeros on my credit chip that Griffin hadn't told them anything about me—ever. Until now, that is.
After a while, I had so many pairs of shoes I didn't know what to do with all of them. Those and other accessories were purchased after lengthy consideration. And then everything was sent back to the villa, just like all the other bags.
"Now for jewelry," Wlodek announced. Somebody folded us to an exclusive jewelry store.
"We're wearing our girl out." Somehow, I ended up in Drake's lap, yawning as discreetly as I could while we sat at the jewelry counter. A sales clerk showed us tray after tray of earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets. Drake was running gentle fingers down my ribs and that wasn't hot or anything. It was all I could do not to collapse against him and close my eyes with a contented sigh.
"I like this," Drew pointed out a cuff bracelet in hammered gold that held several rows of diamonds. The price on it could have bought me a round-trip ticket to another galaxy. The cuff was placed on my wrist. "See, that looks good," Drew smiled, leaning forward to kiss me. I blinked at him in a stupor. The sad thing? I wouldn't have minded if he'd gone on kissing me, even while I was sitting on his brother's lap.
"We'll take it," Wlodek announced. There was already a pile of jewelry they'd set aside and we ended up with all of it plus several other items. The total was staggering. I thought I might hyperventilate when Weldon and Wlodek split the ticket.
"We owe you," Weldon whispered near my ear. "And the others are chipping in, too."
"Take her home and let her sleep, she's exhausted," Karzac was suddenly with us, handing out orders.
"I get to hold her on the way home," Drew said softly, and I felt boneless as I was passed from one brother to the other. I was asleep before we ever got home and don’t remember how I got in bed.
* * *
"What can we do about her records?" Merrill asked Wlodek. Wlodek sat in Adam's study at Gryphon Hall, Adam's family home for centuries.
"Are all of them gone? How are some of those things she did explained away?" Adam studied both former vampires sitting before his desk. They were having a brandy and discussing the difficulty they currently faced. Flavio would demand to know how and why a Queen Vampire had escaped his notice.
"They were attributed to others," Pheligar folded in and promptly Pulled in a rather large, comfortable chair for himself, temporarily enlarging Adam's office to accommodate it. None of the former vampires present so much as lifted an eyebrow. They were used to this and could do it themselves if they wanted.
"The Larentii hand in all this," Wlodek sighed. "I had memories of taking Xenides' head—until recently."
"It was requested, lest she become a target in the past and make the future turn out differently," Pheligar drew in a deep breath. "A few werewolves were allowed to remember, and they wisely kept that information to themselves. Belen and his superiors had to arrange for the vampires and any others to forget. It was the only way."
"Yet we were allowed to remember it all the moment she died," Wlodek pointed out. "This could not be done for the others?"
"You know Belen does not like to interfere in that way—any more than is necessary, as he says," Pheligar replied, a large blue hand rubbing his forehead. Adam knew that gesture—Pheligar didn't agree with the way things were going.
"So Lissa gets no credit whatsoever—somebody else gets it?" Merrill didn't appreciate that.