Blood Rebellion (Blood Destiny #7) (17 page)

"And what do the applicants for the brothels put under experience?" I raised an eyebrow at my Refizani vampire.

"They don't describe their abilities in detail, if that's what you mean," Gabron sighed. He and I just wouldn't see eye to eye on this. "I would appreciate your talents in weeding out the unsuitable ones, however." He was going to make me look at those damned applications.

"Fine. And Drake and Drew can stand outside my office and fall in the floor laughing," I muttered. They were having a hard time keeping the laughter back even now.

"Are you going to hang signs up that say
No Compulsion Allowed
?" Drake couldn't hold back a snicker any longer.

"Compulsion should not be needed," Gabron huffed. He was frowning as the twins laughed helplessly.

"Well, meals around here are certainly never boring," I dipped into my oatmeal.

"Lissy, it'll be all right," Tony said. He was sitting next to me now. Well, it was his night, then. I was missing Karzac, though. A lot.

Karzac, I miss you
, I sent
.
I didn't get a reply. And I had forever of days
like this to look forward to
.
Fucking lovely.

* * *

I was depending on whether my skin itched or not while making decisions on the stacks of applicants. If it itched even slightly when I put my hand on the paper, it went into the "No" pile. Everything else went into the possible pile. Gabron could choose whom to interview from that stack. I sighed.

"Lissa, you placed two of my former employees in the wrong stack." Gabron was pulling those applications out and putting them in the other stack. I was too weary to argue with him over it. Nearly a thousand applications had been tested—and that was after the boring meeting, lunch, and then more boring meetings. There would likely be more applicants—on a daily basis if I guessed correctly. I wanted to bury my face in my hands and moan.

How had Le-Ath Veronis come to this? I had envisioned a tranquil and idyllic environment where the comesuli worked, played and raised their children while the vampires watched over them. I hadn't counted on those vampires wanting some of the things they'd enjoyed during their lives on other planets. They were bored, so of course something had to be done about that. We were building whorehouses. And casinos.
Fuck
. I moaned and misted away before Gabron could stop me.

* * *

It would have been easy to find me sitting on the roof of my own palace. I'd folded my mist to the High Demons' world and sat on top of their palace, instead. The newly arrived humanoids were doing their best to clean away the evidence of the previous occupants from Veshtul's streets. These looked as if they knew what they were doing. I hoped so—I was feeling guilty enough over the whole debacle already.

"Lissa." Garde came to sit beside me.

"How did you know I was here?" I grumbled.

"Glinda has wards up. She knew the moment you touched the roof. Otherwise, she'd never have felt you. You're sort of untraceable, you know."

"Lucky me," I said. I was depressed. Even I realized it. My chin was on my knees as I stared out at the world named after Kifirin.

"What's wrong?" His hand was on the back of my neck, moving the hair aside so he could rub my nape.

"Le-Ath Veronis is about to turn into the biggest commercialized piece of crap," I muttered. "There'll be neon everywhere, advertising whorehouses and gambling dens. People will walk the streets drinking and carousing. The noise will be continuous, Garde. They're already talking about the types of vehicles they want to import to provide transportation, which means navigable streets have to be built. You won't believe how many want to set up souvenir shops. Want a shirt that says,
my friends went to Le-Ath Veronis and all I got was this lousy top
?" I asked. "Pictures of my palace are going to be printed on coffee mugs. I wanted to build a university. I'm getting casinos, instead."

"And brothels," Garde nodded beside me.

"And brothels," I echoed. His fingers felt good on my neck.

"My claiming marks go here, just below Kifirin's." He was breathing on my neck.

"Uh-uh. Roff told me that you guys do that and make the woman sick for days. Nope, not going there. It was bad enough when Kifirin stuck his teeth in my neck. That hurt, but at least I wasn't ill afterward." Garde's hand had stilled on my neck.

"It is only the once, avilepha. I will be gentle and I will find healers for the illness if it comes."

"Hmmph."

"Glindarok loves my brother very much and he was far from gentle when he placed his marks upon her. He was angry at the time. She has forgiven him."

"And how long did that take?" I asked. His fingers were moving again.

"A while. Perhaps a month or two. But then Glinda knew beforehand what was coming and she endured it."

"Sounds like fun."

"You are being sarcastic."

"Duh."

"I was hoping you would find me worth the pain."

Oh, Lord. He was putting
that
on me? "Do you know how many males guilt their dates into sex by saying
you don't love me
? Do you?"

"I can see that was a foolish statement." Garde was still rubbing my neck.

"There's no other way with you people?" I asked. Did they ever forego that unpleasant little ritual?

"Not with the one chosen by our Thifilathi. We have to change at least once a month to keep it under control at other times. Mine howls for you when I change. I have to be far away when that happens, otherwise it might be persuaded to hunt you down."

"And yet I cooked for you for nearly two months and there was nothing."

"That is not completely true—I thought I was going mad, lusting after a comesula. That had never happened before and they have no way of having sex anyway—not in any conventional sense."

"Garde, why is my life complicated? I have a mate that I am terrified to have sex with. Another mate who prefers males in this particular cycle of his existence. One of my mates insists on building brothels on my planet. And I know this, because I
Looked
, that he used to train most of his employees. Tell me how to deal with that?"

"I don't know what to tell you," Garde was back to breathing on my neck. Yeah, I wouldn't mind going to bed with him—if it could be normal sex. And it might be, after a bite that made me sick. "Glindarok had a harder time with Jaydevik, because she was virgin for the sex later," Garde offered.

"Oh, Lord." I echoed my previous sentiment.

"We can do this now—I will take you to my bed and ask Jayd to place a guard so we will not be disturbed."

"Honey, I think I'll only consent to this if you knock me out first," I said, leaning away from him.

"I will do that for you, since Gardevik does not have the talent." Kifirin was there suddenly, placing fingers against my forehead. I only remember blackness after that.

* * *

"Be as gentle as you can," Kifirin instructed. Garde held the sleeping Lissa in his arms—Kifirin had folded Garde and Lissa into Garde's suite. Kifirin watched as Garde placed Lissa on his bed and pulled her blouse away, exposing her nape. The Thifilathi was already threatening—he was blowing smoke from his nostrils as he leaned down to nuzzle bare flesh. He turned her onto her belly, allowing his smaller Thifilathi to manifest. Kifirin folded away. Garde's darkened skin made a sharp contrast against Lissa's lighter flesh as he sank his lengthened fangs into her neck.

* * *

"Lissa, avilepha, please wake." Those were the first words I heard and I ached. All over. My neck, though, felt as if it were on fire.

"Shhh, we will take care of this." I think I was moaning and crying at the same time, grasping sheets in hands that had grown claws, ripping them and possibly the mattress underneath, I was in so much pain.

"Lissa, pull your claws back or we will not come close." Karzac was issuing an order.

"Get the hell away," I hissed between my teeth. "Fuck, this hurts." I realized quickly that I was half-naked as I forced my eyes open. I was lying on my stomach on a bed—Garde's by the scent of it. I struggled to sit up; I had to pull in my claws to do it. Punctures covered the sheets and mattress. The fucker was going to have to get a new bed, at least. A trail of blood dripped over my collarbone and then farther down, nearly to my left nipple. My neck was on fire and Garde's Thifilathi had made me bleed.

"Lissa, we're here to take care of this," Karzac stood beside the bed with Frank, Shane and Tomas right behind him.
Fuck cubed
. Wasn't it lovely that they were all here to witness this? Garde stood right behind them, a huge look of guilt on his face. Well, he needed to look guilty. He and Kifirin, both.

 "Since when do you respond to mindspeech?" I snapped at Karzac and got myself off the bed. I could barely move but I wasn't about to let them know that. "Where the fuck is my shirt?" I felt feverish as I jerked it off the floor where it had been tossed and misted away.

* * *

"That went well," Shane sighed.

"You will not find her now," Karzac said and sat down on the side of the bed. "When did she send mindspeech?" He had to go
Looking
to find the answer. "Ah," was all he said.

* * *

"I don't care how much it costs; I just need a room with a spa tub in it." Yeah, I looked like crap and the desk clerk at the five-star hotel was giving me shit, questioning me about whether I wouldn’t be happier at the three-star hotel down the street. I was in New York and just about to jerk the dickhead over the desk and give him compulsion he would never forget. He took my credit chip that still hung on a chain around my neck, gulped when he saw the rating after scanning it on his computer and gave me a room double quick. I got my chip back, took the key and got the hell away from him as fast as I could.

Soaking in the jetted tub helped a little, but I had trouble getting in and out of it. Garde's bite had made me stiff and achy everywhere and I wondered briefly if aspirin would help but ended up abandoning that idea—vampires tended to be impervious to drugs.

* * *

"Where is she?" Tony demanded. Garde had gone to Le-Ath Veronis, hoping Lissa had come home.

"I don't know," Garde sat down heavily at the dinner table. Giff was having a meltdown, as was Roff, although he was attempting to calm his oldest child. Gabron was cursing under his breath and Gavin refused to leave his suite.

"Come, my friend, you cannot do this." Erland folded into Gavin's suite.

"She doesn't like this whole thing," Gavin muttered. "The brothels, the casinos, all of it. We are pushing her and she is consenting to it, to please the rest of us."

"She knows the planet is more than just her," Erland sat next to Gavin on Gavin's sofa.

"But shouldn't a part of it be about her? If she were not here, there would be no Le-Ath Veronis. Tell me this is not so."

"So we are going forward with this and not including her, is that what you mean?"

"I believe so. All of this is quite exciting to the vampires, but we failed to look at it from one perspective, and perhaps two. How do the comesuli see this? We have not given them a vote."

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Erland was puzzled.

"I overheard the kitchen staff talking this afternoon—I went there for something to eat after Lissa left abruptly and I heard them long before they knew I was approaching. Many of them are frightened that we will treat them as the High Demons treated them—working for those who will come, with little or no compensation. They are satisfied with what they are earning now and the Queen is making sure they are paid, but with the influx of visitors that many of the vampires are talking of, they expect to be treated once again as second-class citizens or worse. And it made me wonder just how it is they will be treated. I had taken no thought for this before."

"But I thought many of the vampires were forging relationships with them."

"Some of them have their favorites, but it is not the same as full sex, as you see. That was something else they were discussing—that the pleasure houses will take their vampires away because the women and men will offer their vampires more than the comesuli can provide. They worry that they will only provide a warm meal, now and then and mean nothing more to the vampires." Gavin had been spending the evening thinking about this, Erland could tell.

"Under normal circumstances, the comesuli would have been the vampire's family—their children, cousins and future vampires. That connection will come in time, but is not in place as yet." Erland was thinking this through for himself. "And we have not hammered out the amount of taxes to be collected for the crown from this venture. I currently pay the San Gerxons a full twenty-five percent and still make a good profit. Lissa will not demand anything close to that, but it will be necessary to maintain Le-Ath Veronis."

"I heard that Gabron paid fifteen percent to the Refizani government—it was a luxury tax as decreed by the Reth Alliance, because he did not provide what is considered a vital service. Only the businesses providing basic needs were taxed less—food, housing, clothing and medical care."