Blood Rebellion (Blood Destiny #7) (35 page)

"Might I hope that we can spend time with you?"

"We haven't had any time off, have we? We used to talk about taking time off, but we never did. Where can we go for a few days and just be lazy? I want to float in a pool or sit in a hot tub, or just lie around and read and eat potato chips."

"I will feed you potato chips," Gavin murmured against my skin.

"I love you," I sighed.

"And I love you. More than you know."

* * *

The Gulf Coast was very nice. We sliced up fresh melon and ate it. We ate grapes, pineapple and peaches, too. We went out to dinner and had lobster and fresh shrimp hauled from the gulf that morning. We'd rented a four-bedroom condo, so there would be room for everybody. I did get to read and swim and eat potato chips. Gavin bought four bags.

"I want something like this for us on the light side of Le-Ath Veronis," I told Erland. He was enjoying himself, just as everybody else was. And he hauled me off in the middle of the afternoon so we could do the horizontal be-bop before dinner. Garde got the night, after a late dinner.

Gavin, Tony, Shadow, Garde and Erland were all discussing exactly how big our oceanfront property should be, what amenities it should have and how quickly they could put it up. Three days of this wasn't nearly enough. I had no idea why we hadn't done it before. It was absolute heaven, just to be able to cozy up with one of my mates, or have a drink with any or all of them. Kiss them while they were half dressed in the morning or afternoon as I was flipping pancakes or making sandwiches. Most women might have swooned at the bare chests and hard abs that surrounded me. If my Falchani, my healer and my winged vampire had been there, it would have been bliss to the hundredth power.

"We're building something just as quick as we can get it up," Gavin growled when we had to leave. Tony and the others had made preliminary drawings on napkins or anything else they could find. They all knew what they wanted—enough bedrooms for everybody, a pool, maybe a tennis court, a big hot tub, a huge kitchen with a bank of refrigerators, plenty of closet space, big laundry room (my idea, they didn't care), a media room, screened-in lanai and a good stretch of private beach.

"And we'll be there nearly every off-day," Tony declared. Yeah, he didn't mind waking up in the morning next to me, with nothing on the agenda.

* * *

"Behave yourself, Raona," Grant grinned. I'd signed a stack of letters for him before heading off to see Kiarra. Heathe was the vampire I hadn't recognized before; he and Davan were my new assistants. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, so I straightened myself up a little and folded away.

"How is everything?" I asked when I materialized inside Kiarra's kitchen.

"Good—we're making headway." Kiarra offered me a cup of tea. I accepted.

"No new ones showing up?"

"No. Whatever you did seemed to work. We have containment, now. We just have to get rid of what's already there."

"Yeah." I agreed. "I just wanted to drop in and let you know what I found and what I did," I said. "I found the ones living inside a planetoid, about three hundred million light-years from the gate inside the void. That's sealed up now, by the way, and the entire area has been warded against the Ra'Ak or anyone else trying to get in."

"Good," Kiarra sighed. "I was worried about that."

"I have to tell you what I found, though. I learned a lot, from a very brief conversation."

"Does anybody else need to hear this?" Kiarra asked.

"Maybe Conner and Daddy," I said. Kiarra sent mindspeech to both and they showed up a few minutes later.

"What do you have for us, baby girl?" Griffin asked.

"Information on the Khos'Mirai," I said. "The minute I saw him—or scented him, actually, I knew who he was."

That raised eyebrows for sure. "Who was he?" Griffin asked.

"Saxom's brother," I said. That caused chaos.

"You're telling me that Saxom's brother was the Khos'Mirai? That's insane." Kiarra snorted when things were back to normal. At least she could talk about the schmuck without turning green, now.

"That's not all I learned about him," I said. "He was Saxom's twin. He and Saxom had insanity running through their veins. They were half Elemaiya, but one parent was Dark Elemaiya, the other Bright Elemaiya."

"Holy crap," Kiarra sighed. "The two races are never supposed to mix."

"Built-in insanity, like I said."

"All that time and we never thought to
Look
," A muscle in Griffin's jaw worked.

"He was waiting for me," I went on. "Both sides sold him to the Ra'Ak, did you know that?"

"I can't believe the Bright Elemaiya had him and they didn't kill him or contain him somehow." Griffin shook his head in confusion.

"He was glad they were gone—the Elemaiya, that is. The Bright ones knew they were doomed—somebody foresaw it. That's why they were desperate to get their hands on Fox. They wanted to change that."

"Too late now." Conner smiled tightly.

"Here's what bothers me," I said. "Saxom had to know what his brother was and where he was after a while. You guys were going after his captors. Why didn't he take advantage of the situation instead of doing what he did?"

"Perhaps he was working around all of us, instead," Griffin suggested. "After all, he managed to contact the Ra'Ak twice. Of course, his obsession with Kiarra probably interfered and his propensity for insanity didn't help either."

"I can only imagine what kind of nutcase he truly was," I grumped. "I sure had a hell of a time getting rid of his turns."

"Lissa, if I'd been aware of you sooner, I would have invited you to join the Saa Thalarr," Kiarra told me. "Griffin and Merrill were so tight-lipped where you were concerned, I never found out you existed until you went to help Dragon. And then you were hauled off immediately after to take down Xenides. I never got the opportunity to ask you when it came time to increase our numbers."

"Don't fret over it," I waved a hand at the suggestion. "I'm probably better off, now. Not that I want to go back and repeat any of that shit," I said, handing Griffin a meaningful glance.

"Baby, that's all over, now. Someday, maybe you'll forgive your old man. In the meantime, your little brother is beautiful. Amara wants you to come for a visit."

"That's great, Daddy," I said. "But I don't even know where you live."

"You're here and you don't send mindspeech?" Karzac was upset, I could tell. He and Grace folded in and Grace had the baby in her arms.

"This is Kevis," Grace handed the tiny baby to me. He had the cutest, chubby little face. One day he was going to look like his father.

"He has your nose and mouth," I smiled up at Karzac.

"He'll have Karzac's eyes, too," Grace agreed. Kevis was asleep at the moment, so his eyes were closed. I had to take her word on that.

"Honey, you deserved this," I rocked the baby gently. He slept in my arms.

* * *

Would I ever tell Kiarra and the others about the Khos'Mirai's clones and what might have happened? Probably not. They had enough to worry about for a while. Still, it makes me shiver at what could have happened if I hadn't had a little help. The Ra'Ak planned to gather uninfected humanoids and raise them like cattle on a few worlds so they'd have a food source. All while their Ra'Ak-enhanced army destroyed everything else. I doubt they'd informed their enhanced soldiers that they wouldn't live more than fifty years before they all died. The Ra'Ak would have everything to themselves if somebody didn't stop them.

I admit—I wouldn't have worked out a solution quickly enough if he hadn't come. It only took a nudge, but I'd sat there with that stupid tennis ball, staring at it until I looked past the surface. At all the things growing on it. Granted it was bacteria, but those were living organisms. Most of them were harmless. A few could be deadly if they encountered the right victim.

I'd removed the deadly ones—the Khos'Mirai clones. Now, the worlds represented by the tennis ball would have a chance. After all, the worlds had been pristine in the beginning. Before life was introduced. Life is messy. Not all of it is deadly. Sometimes those things have to take care of themselves, without interference. It's only when things get out of balance that they need a little help at times. A hand to touch the scales and restore the balance so we might see something close to normal, now and then.

* * *

My life settled into a routine after my visit with Kiarra. I went to Council meetings. I signed letters, took calls, played Queen. Our beach house was being built and it was going to be nice. Kifirin folded in occasionally. I met with the vampire who wanted to help build my university and library. He was old and had a lot of money. He wanted to put up half. I agreed to match his contribution. His one stipulation was that he be allowed to teach history courses or oversee that department. That was fine with me; after talking with him, I decided he'd be good at it. He was nice to look at, too. Dark-brown hair, gray eyes and tall. He was around six-two or so. Almost as tall as Tony or Drake and Drew. His name was Aryn and had all his papers in order. He came across as somewhat scholarly, but wouldn't be opposed to taking someone down if he were threatened. He was vampire, after all.

"I am looking forward to this stage in my life," he informed me over a glass of blood substitute mixed with wine. "Even though the Alliance worlds are quite tolerant toward our kind, it is a great relief to walk freely on the streets at any time and know I belong there."

"I know," I said, smiling at him. "And when we get this university built, it will be open to all vampires, taught by vampires and run by vampires. We may open it up to a few foreign students, but they'll be screened carefully."

"The library as well," Aryn's smile was wider, now. "Imagine all the books that our resident vampires have brought with them. I hope we can convince them to share at least parts of their collections, so that all may have access. Some of those volumes are ancient and the information may have been lost to others. We will have it again and we can transfer all of it into permanent storage. I will be handing over most of my collection as soon as the building is completed."

"That sounds like heaven," I sighed. "I just want to go through the stacks and smell them, one day."

"You will have that day and soon," Aryn promised. Yeah, he wasn't hard to look at. Not at all.

It took me a few days to realize that I hadn't seen Rolfe. I saw Giff every day and her baby pouch was quite large. When I asked her about Rolfe, she pouted.

"They came to get him—Wlodek and Charles. They wanted him to help fight those things—you know—those
things
."

"The Ra'Ak-enhanced humanoids?"

"They call them Rees," Giff was giving me the phonetic pronunciation.
REH
could sound like Ree easily enough. I smiled.

"Giff, this means he'll be able to walk in daylight now and eat dinner with you when he gets back," I said. "That's their gift to him, for helping out with this. You just have to be patient."

"I know. But father still has no memory of me and I miss him. We used to do everything together and I wanted him with me, when the child comes." She patted the baby sac carefully.

"Well, we're both in that boat," I told her, giving her a hug. There was a hole in my heart where Roff belonged. I saw him now and then, usually following Flavio when they attended Council meetings or came to the palace. He glanced my way often—in a curious way, I'm sure. Each time I was the one to look away—so I wouldn't weep.

* * *

My Falchani came back after two more months had passed. I'd missed them so much and we spent a few wild nights together. Nope, no details, but we were all happy afterward. An invitation was delivered, too, addressed to all my mates and me. It was for dinner and a reception at Gryphon Hall, to celebrate the destruction of the REHs.

* * *

"Gavin, stop grumbling," I swatted his ass as I passed him. He was already dressed in a suit and tie. My twins had taken him, Shadow, Erland and Garde shopping. They'd all come home with some very nice things. I was trying to dress myself—Giff and Rolfe were going, too, so Giff was having her own little tizzy about what to wear so the baby pouch would be nicely covered. Comesuli had eleven-month pregnancies—go figure. Of course, the babies did have full sets of teeth and could eat meat right out of the birthing sac, so there was that, I guess.

Kifirin showed up just as I was about to pull Gavin into the hall to join the others. Gavin hates parties, so this was a forced march for him. Kifirin folded all of us, this time.

All Saa Thalarr, Spawn Hunters and Healers were in Adam's huge ballroom, laughing, talking and drinking. As soon as my bunch showed (a few minutes late, of course) Kiarra called for our attention. She got us seated on chairs around the room first before going on to other things.

"I wanted all of you to come so you can meet our newest Spawn Hunters. They will be doing other things in between assignments, but they have already proven themselves admirably. First off, Jeral joined us."

That was a bit of a surprise. I knew I hadn't seen him around, but hadn't asked. I thought he was staying with Griffin, since they were brothers and were becoming close. Jeral walked in looking just the same, only he wore a confident smile on his face. The transition had been good for him. He went to sit with Griffin and Amara, who were there with Wyatt. My little brother, I realized. I had a brother for real, now. The though made me dizzy.