Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Of course.” His hands skimmed over my shoulders as he stood behind me. “I’ve kept up with the heads of the rogue packs. I’ve thought seriously about assassinating them to send a message, but it’s been fairly quiet lately. I suspect now that Evan’s fathers have returned they’ll think twice.”
“Or they’ll get desperate.” I had to wonder what Donovan would be walking into. I moved to the next painting. This one was a portrait. It showed a lovely young woman in old-time clothing. I wasn’t a student of history, but she looked like she could have walked out of a Jane Austen novel, so I was betting that was the time she was from.
“We’re all desperate these days,” Trent whispered. “Now that you’re back, they will try something. They will go on the offensive because if they don’t the king will shut them down. They have to come after us. We have to be ready.”
I wasn’t sure we could be totally ready for them. I’d read the intelligence. I’d spent much of the afternoon in the library reading through everything the primals had on Myrddin and what he was capable of. Throwing in a couple of rogue wolf packs who wanted to kill the princess was one more problem I didn’t know if we could handle.
How many wakes would I have to go to? How many friends would I lose?
“She was a companion,” a deep voice said. “Her name was Marie.”
I turned and there were two primals and the woman who’d seen to my wounds yesterday. Rufus was taller than the new guy, but Christopher Miller was built on slightly bulkier lines. I recognized the primal as the male who nearly killed us all in Wyoming months… Yep, that was years ago. This whole time thing was hard on me.
Rose stood with Christopher, her hand tucked away in his. “Alvis said she loved to sing. She’s why he always has a piano. Had a piano.”
I’d been meaning to sit down and talk with Christopher and Rose but hadn’t found the time yet. Rose worked in the clinic all afternoon, and Christopher’s time had been spent contemplating Alvis’s death as part of the primal funeral rituals. I glanced back at the portrait they were looking at. Again there was a glow that seemed to come from the painting. “She was beautiful. Was she Alvis’s companion?”
“Not in a technical sense, of course,” Rufus said. “But she did abide with him for the majority of her life. She was a bit like our Rose.”
“How so? If it’s not rude to ask.” I hadn’t questioned her while she’d been working, but I was curious about how she’d come to live with the primals.
Rose started to reply when a little whirlwind rushed into our space. Luna was cute as a button in her jeans and a pink T-shirt, her mass of hair barely held back with a sparkly tie. “Mama, they have grapes. Can I have some grapes? Luthor is hungry, too.”
Rose smiled down at her adopted daughter. “Of course. You’ll have to ask Luthor’s father though.”
“Hector will not mind,” Christopher assured them. He put a hand on Luna’s head, a gesture of obvious affection. “Go back and play, sweetheart. I saw some butter cookies on the buffet, too. You can have one and so may Luthor.”
She grinned and ran back out.
“Luthor is another orphan. He’s a year younger than Luna,” Rose explained. “He was taken in by another member of our community. The non-vampires watch him when his adoptive father cannot. It helps Luna to have another werebat around. It can be hard to be the only one. I should know. I was the only human for years.”
“You lived in Council headquarters, love,” Rufus corrected. “There were always companions in Paris, from what I understand. Most of the Council members kept a companion.”
Christopher snorted, an oddly human sound. It was the sound that let another person know they’d stepped in something.
Sure enough Rose’s expression turned distinctly salty. “I assure you those companions weren’t really human. They were walking visions of pure snobbery who were only looking to climb that particular social ladder.”
Oh, I liked a girl who didn’t mind telling it like it was. “So you were the companion to a Council member?”
“She was married to the head of the Council before the king took over,” Rufus explained, his voice going grim.
I felt my eyes widen because according to Marcus that had been one bad dude, but there was a problem with that. “I thought the queen was forced to marry him.”
“Yes, I was the castoff companion.” Rose took a long breath, obviously steadying herself. “When Zoey was kidnapped, I was to be sold, but she told me to run if I had the chance. I did.”
Trent’s head shook. “You didn’t run. You escaped and made your way to the king and offered your blood to keep him strong. Don’t ever say you ran. You are not a coward, Rose. Never.”