"You are a piece of work, you know that?" I glared at Tony, then turned to René who'd been sitting quietly by, listening to everything and not saying anything. "René, what will you do if I kick his ass?" I jerked my head toward Tony.
"Nothing, as long as you do not inflict permanent harm," René smiled slightly.
I got up to go after Tony, but Wlodek hauled me back.
"We will not allow a brawl between our two youngest," he declared and settled me back in my seat. "Now, Anthony, where may we find your father and does he have other children?"
* * *
I'd gone to the kitchen with Griffin, after climbing out of the hot tub and shrugging into a wrap; Merrill followed us in and went to the wine fridge, pulling out a bottle of chardonnay. He uncorked it and poured three glasses. Wlodek and Charles had gone back to work in the basement and Rolfe had gone with them. René herded Tony toward Merrill's study to give him another crash course in vampire 101. Gavin had gone with them; René asked Gavin to help teach Tony how to take blood properly from a donor. Tony was about to be bitten by Gavin and I didn't know how that was going to go.
"Lissa, would you like for me to tell you why you were susceptible to compulsion for a year?" Griffin asked unexpectedly.
"Is it going to get me in trouble?" I asked, searching his face. Like Wlodek's, it could be shuttered and unrevealing at times. This wasn't one of those times.
"No, baby. Sergio Velenci placed compulsion to obey him and every other vampire for a year as your heart stopped beating. That is compulsion placed by your sire. The vampires on my home world called that PC—Preliminary Conditioning. It's an old secret, actually. It is also the ultimate compulsion—something a new vampire has to obey for the rest of his life. Your original sire did that to you, Lissa. The moment the year was up, the compulsion dropped away." Griffin paused to sip his wine, giving a nod to Merrill at the vintage.
"Sergio Velenci never expected you to live that long, of course, so he was toying with you just as he'd done with the others he'd turned," Griffin said. "This way, both he and Edward could command the ones they turned. Nyles taught them, I'm sure. Sergio wasn't intelligent enough to tell you to stay put and wait for him instead. Preliminary Conditioning must be placed quickly, in that brief moment before the change begins from human to vampire. Generally, it is only one sentence—that is all the time you have. It makes me grateful that Saxom failed to place it with Jovana, or she might have caused more trouble than she did."
I blinked at Griffin in astonishment. "You mean that if Saxom told her to kill everybody at just the right moment, she'd have carried on after he died?"
"Sadly, it is true, even with a King or Queen Vampire." Merrill lifted his usual eyebrow in alarm at Griffin's statement. "Most vampires do not know of this, and many who do refuse to attempt it. More than once, it has backfired, with disastrous results. Some vampires have been forced to destroy their vampire children, because of misplaced commands."
"Did you ever turn anyone? While you were vampire?" I stared at Griffin. I was still having trouble recognizing him as my father.
"That will come in time," he said softly. "And the answer is no. I did not turn anyone then. Someday, perhaps, I will tell you about my homeworld and what happened there. Someday. Meanwhile, Amara wishes to meet you."
"Amara?" I'd never heard that name before.
"My mate. Your stepmother. We don't feel jealousy—we can't. She isn't upset with your mother. She only wants to meet the child she could never have herself."
I was beginning to feel shaky again. "Sweetheart, she already loves you," Griffin came over and pulled me into his arms. "She just wants to hug you and tell you that you have somebody in your corner, now. Somebody that isn't male."
"Lissa, don't ever be afraid of me." Her voice was musical and she was there, standing beside Griffin when he let me go. She was beautiful, too; one of those women who would always be beautiful—one of those who made me feel as if I were clumsy and gauche beside them, with almond-shaped dark eyes and black hair that hung in a shining river down her back.
"Oh, now, have you looked in a mirror?" Amara touched my cheek lightly and smiled. She read my thoughts as easily as Griffin did.
"I don't think she has," Griffin said.
"Your hair is growing nicely; Brenten said it was," Amara reassured me.
"Brenten?" I blinked at Griffin.
"My given name," he offered a crooked grin. "Even the other Saa Thalarr don't know it."
"She's your daughter, she ought to know," Amara teased Griffin gently. Merrill came over and gave Amara a squeeze. They were old friends, I could tell. I didn’t have any old friends. Not anymore.
"A sad side effect of being vampire," Griffin nodded. "You'll have to settle for new old friends. And new old parents."
"Come to the guesthouse, we'll have wine and talk," Amara invited Merrill and me. Griffin must have moved us; we were in Griffin's guesthouse sitting room in a blink. Roff came in and sat on the sofa beside me, putting an arm around my shoulders.
"Raona, how much do you think I should pack?" he asked.
"Pack for two weeks at least; I hope we can do laundry sometime," I said. He pulled my face around and gave me a light kiss. Griffin passed out glasses of wine and Roff accepted his with a dip of his head.
"This is quite good," he said after tasting it expertly.
"How long have you been making wine?" Amara asked him.
"More than three hundred years," he said. "I am three hundred thirteen and my father began teaching me when I was ten. I was crushing berries and grapes before that, even."
"So winemaking is your family trade?" I leaned against his shoulder; he was very happy with me there.
"Yes. My family has been making wine for generations. My father always insisted that our ancestors were making it for the Queen before Le-Ath Veronis fell."
"You were on the High Demon world?" Amara asked. "How did you like that?"
Roff cleared his throat. Kifirin showed up as if he'd been called. Nexus Echo. Again.
"He will not say because I brought him from the future," Kifirin smiled, showing his beautiful, white teeth. If he were human, I'd have guessed him to be from India or ancient Persia—his skin was darker and quite beautiful. His smile widened at my thoughts and his dark eyes laughed at me. I swear, there's nothing on him that isn't gorgeous and when he smiles, he can create widespread swooning.