"Would you like a bit of blood, Lissa?" Gavin pulled me against him, nipping my neck lightly.
"Sounds like you want some," I said.
"That is certainly true." He peeled the towel away and bent his head to my br**sts.
* * *
I was hearing voices before I came fully awake; someone was talking to Gavin. I moaned and attempted to shut out the drone by curling up in a ball on the bed and lifting the sheet over my head. "Raona, you should wake now and bathe; the wolf and the others have important information," Roff pulled the sheet away from my face. I blinked up at him and then turned my head, seeing that Gavin was indeed talking with Winkler. I was naked under the sheet; there was no way I wanted to rise and parade in front of Winkler sans clothing.
"Roff, I'm naked under here," I muttered. Of course, Winkler and Gavin both heard. Winkler laughed; Gavin just frowned at me.
"Then I will bring your robe," Roff was off the bed and walking toward the bathroom. I could have misted out of the bed, but Roff had already gone to get my wrap. Sighing, I waited until he came back with it. Roff held it up so I could slip into it, though I was pretty sure Winkler was doing his best to stare. I tied the robe around me and stalked into the bathroom with as much dignity as I could gather under the circumstances. Yeah, it wasn't a lot. "Raona, would you like help?" Roff followed me into the bathroom.
"That's all right. I can get this," I said. He looked disappointed. I shooed him out the door and closed it behind him.
After I was clean and dressed, I walked out to the small living area of the guesthouse, located next to the kitchen. Winkler was still there, having a snack that Roff put together for him. That man—well, werewolf—could eat better than anyone else I'd ever met.
"Lissa, come and sit, cara," Gavin patted the seat next to him on the sofa.
"What's wrong?" I asked. There had to be something wrong. Nobody asked you to sit unless there was.
"They found Sara Workman's body," Winkler said. "Bill called two hours ago. She was dumped out by Crescent; some kids found her body in a ditch. Looked like she'd been savaged by animals." Crescent was a small town forty miles north of Oklahoma City, surrounded by wheat fields and farmland.
"No surprise. Xenides' shapeshifters probably got into that sort of thing. She was already dead, though." I looked away from Winkler and Gavin. This was my own personal hell, I think. People were dying because they were related or connected to me. I was running out of relatives, too. The two cousins in Kansas were the last of the lot and they were Don's relatives, not mine.
"They're doing an autopsy to determine the cause of death," Winkler went on when I didn't turn back to him. I nodded wearily.
"Cara, you cannot accept the blame for this," Gavin said softly.
"Can't I?" I turned to stare at him. "If I hadn't walked into that stupid bar after Don died, Sergio and Edward would have picked somebody else to play their sick little game with. It wouldn't have been me."
"Lissa, I'm alive because you walked into that bar," Winkler said softly. "Twice over, at least. From what I understand, Gavin's alive too, for the same reason."
"How many live because you are what you are, Lissa?" Gavin tucked me against his side. "How many will live in the future? You have no idea. You are upset and blaming yourself for this. That is understandable, but not the truth, love."
"Then why don't I feel any better?" I grumbled. "Stupid, f**king Xenides. Stupid, f**king Saxom. What did he want from all of this? What did he hope to gain?"
"The actions of a warped and twisted mind cannot be interpreted by logical means," Gavin said. "It is useless to attempt it. All we might do is prevent them from happening, if we can."
"Where are Tony and René?" I asked.
"They've taken Mr. and Mrs. Alford out to dinner," Winkler replied. "The Alfords are leaving tomorrow, so they're spending the evening together."
"Oh," I said and sighed. I hadn't talked much with Tony's mother. That hadn't kept me from wondering what she knew or where Tony had come from. I felt sure that Charles had already done research into medical records and that sort of thing. I wondered what he'd found. Poor Tony. I had a feeling his birth mother had given him up because she wasn't prepared to take care of him, somehow.
"Gavin, may I borrow your laptop?" I asked. I hadn't emailed or talked to Franklin and Greg in days. Merrill, either, for that matter.
"Of course, cara." Walking into our bedroom, he returned quickly with the case in his hands. Gavin emailed Charles or Wlodek often. He even had Wlodek's personal email account. I didn't have that. I'm sure it had to do with secret stuff that nobody else was supposed to know. Gavin opened up his Mac and settled it on my lap.
"I only want to email Franklin and Greg and Merrill," I said, entering Merrill's email address. I wrote that I was fine. I told Merrill what had happened in the last few days, but I was sure Wlodek already informed him since he was in the house, now. In Franklin's email, I asked how Greg was doing. I was hoping Greg wouldn't read Frank's email; I didn't want him to think I was going behind his back. My email to Greg was as upbeat as I could make it. Shutting Gavin's laptop, I handed it back to him with a sigh.
Sara's body had been mauled after her death; Dominic was sitting in a cell at one of the Council's holding facilities. There wasn't anything I could do for Sara, but I should have told Dominic before he left that I'd been in his situation a couple of times myself.
Gavin took the laptop back after I was done, and while he was up, Roff came in and sat down next to me. "Two more days," he said and smiled.
"Two more days?" I didn't understand. Roff pointed to his neck. Now I knew. He wanted another climax. "You poor thing," I put my arms around him and leaned my forehead against his shoulder.
"I am extremely fortunate," Roff informed me. "I am the comesula to the Queen."
"You will not repeat that word outside this room," Gavin warned Winkler. He'd walked in just as Roff was letting the cat out of the bag.
"What word?" Winkler feigned innocence. "I didn't understand it anyway. Did you say comma sula?"
"It means companion," I said. "And it's one word—comesula. Roff's not local." I didn't point out that Gavin referred to the term Queen and nothing else.
My statement caused Winkler to frown at me. "What do you mean, not local?"