Chapter 23

No matter how long it had been since I'd been home adjusting wasn't hard. I had things to keep me busy. When my thoughts tried to turn to Eric, I sought out Sai. He was happy to spar with me and he didn't cut me any slack because I'd gotten rusty. He kicked my ass up until I got unrusty and well beyond.

My father was making me more active in his affairs. It was something I never really did, at least not the day-to-day stuff. I had always been more of his ears and eyes over all his businesses. He didn't necessarily need me now.

Word would get out about how close he was keeping in his affairs. Secondly, I think he wanted to keep me close after I'd been gone so long and him busy. I didn't mind either way, not even when it meant working in close proximity with Victor Madden. My father had made me the point of contact for the Lieutenant. If he had a problem with taking orders from someone with a pulse he didn't show it. He continued to refer to me as Princess or Your Grace, and he sure as shit didn't speak on it either. Maybe he hadn't forgotten the sole time he had seen me fight.

I was sitting in Sai's office at MGM Grand. He was my father's right hand, but he was also a Sheriff. Sometimes his responsibilities overlapped. He was having a meeting with his own vampires about the length of time he would be away. Despite the clear declaration that they were enemies, my father was still very much invited to Freyda's wedding. It was to show that she wasn't afraid and not going would say he was. Sai would be attending with my dad as would I.

"I have revoked the passes of all visitors or have remanded them to the Boulder City while I will be in Oklahoma," My brother said.

I had never been to work with Sai before. I knew he inspired fear, but I never really got the clear picture until then. There were eight vampires in the room. I'd heard of five of them because they had done some noteworthy thing or another throughout their existence, human or otherwise. There was Joan of Arc or The Arcadian as she was known after her turning as well as Hans the Barbarian and Aiko the Bloody Rose to name a few. I was in a roomful of natural born power hitters but, they could have been confused for church mice at the moment. They looked at my brother with a healthy dose of fear and respect.

"Any vampires you come across while I am gone are trespassing and you are to engage them with extreme prejudice."

A tiny hand flew up in the back. I couldn't see her face, but I could see her tiny feet that were clad in light up 'Sketchers'.

"Jazmina?" Sai called.

"Capture, torture, or kill?" she asked.

Her tone made it sound as if it was a game and, judging by present company, it might be. Who would have thought that there would ever be a group in which Sai was the normal one? Just about all of them looked as though they had gotten up on the wrong side of the coffin.

"Pick your favorite two," he replied. "But I do not want so much as a wrinkle in the routine while I am away."

There were no more questions and they filed out. I wasn't sure what it said about them that none of them so much as looked at me in question.

"Does Daddy know you employ nutjobs?" I asked after they had gone.

To my surprise, Sai answered the jab. "Wait until you meet the King's guard."

Victor arrived and I sat in that meeting too. I felt the tension the second he sat down, without invitation mind you. The power differences between the two vampires were obvious. In a physical test, Sai would obliterate Victor, but there was a reason why my father kept Madden around.

Madden was slicker than a can of oil and I think on some level my father felt as if he needed him to stay as cunning as he was. It irritated Sai because, as the eldest of five, Lieutenant should be his position. Instead he was a sheriff and second in command. I wasn't sure why he didn't have it, but knowing my father there was a good reason.

They talked logistics and I wondered if gravity was multiplying or if it was just me. I was debating that when I got a call from Caspian. I left happily. It had taken time for my friend to pack his life up and relocate. I had missed him. We talked almost every day, but when I arrived at the air strip and saw him getting off the jet I'd sent, I threw myself at him.

"I missed you, Cas," I said.

"Can't…breathe," He gasped.

I let him go and we both fell out laughing. "I'm happy you're here," I said.

He hugged me again. "I am happy to see that you are well."

I was waiting for the day when I would see Eric again, knowing that it would send me right back to Hell because it would be the day he married another woman. The date of his union was approaching. While I would never admit it, I was awaiting a phone call from Eric that would set this all to rights. He would tell me he was sorry and that he needed me. In that fantasy, I would swarm in and end Ocella, and then seriously hurt Freyda. It didn't happen. Caspian was the only one to whom I admitted that.

"Have you considered just letting him go?" He asked gently.

"I can't," I said. "He is mine."

I knew that Cas wasn't a vampire and wouldn't understand what that meant, but there was no other way to put it. Even though I hated him a little I still wanted Eric with me. I needed him. I loved him.

"Owning someone and having them belong to you is not the same. Letting him walk his path alone will only lead him back to you if it is with you he truly belongs."

The words Eric spoke to me the last night we were together entered my mind.

"…distance has a way of making things clear," He'd said. "And when you know you are flawed, you wonder if anyone can love you. When someone does, you wonder if they can't see your flaws or if they love you in spite of them."

I realized that the fears he had were now mine. Eric was going to see the side of me that I had never shown him. I never had to, but now he was going to be on the receiving end of it. It would guarantee that he came back to me but what would be left? I would butcher and eventually end his Maker. What would he feel for me? I had no idea. I still wanted him back because I didn't just think that Eric belonged to me, he belonged with me and that mattered.

I didn't say anything and Caspian didn't push. I showed him around. I offered him the estate that my father had bought for me when he brought me home. It was close to the main house without having fangs a plenty. I also took him to UNLV where I introduced him to Genie. Oddly enough, Genie had heard of Caspian and was an instant fan. He had his own suspicions that Caspian had written under other pen names over the years. He was right. I watched the bromance with a smile. Then I had to pry Caspian off Doctor Wexler.

"I wanted to absorb Wexler's note pad so bad. Did you see it?"

I did. Genie always had one for when inspiration struck but I'd never lusted after it before. I laughed because after all this time, Caspian could shock me with his level of nerdy behavior. Honestly, if he wasn't pretty, I didn't know what he would do.

"He's in the know." I told him. "But he's the only one. Everything you do at the school will have to be under wraps."

"You mean to tell me you have free run of this state?" He asked wide-eyed.

I nodded. "With the exception of area 50, Reno, that is where my father's lieutenant is based." I stayed out of Reno. Victor just wasn't worth the hassle.

"Talk about the magic stick," He said with a chuckle. "You turned down two thrones and all this. I can't imagine…"

I stilled.

"Forgive me," He said. "That was insensitive."

I shook it off. He hadn't said it to hurt me but I knew there are people that would. I should get used it. No one in my family had brought it up so far, save Sai. He would razz me about it so hard that I would be desensitized in no time.

"No. I know what you meant and it is kind of true."

"Let's go to a brothel and a casino. Watching me sin might do you a world of good!"

While Cas gave a brothel full of whores a run for their money, I met with John Quinn. When I entered the diner, his eyes were glued to the door. He had caught my scent which in this greasy spoon was impressive. He was built like a wrestler; tall, muscular, but not bulky. His head was shaved clean, making his pansy purple eyes stand out like Amethyst gems against his tanned skin. As I'd been observing him and making my way over, he had been giving me what could only be described subtly as an eye fuck.

"I'd tell you to take a picture but I'm not sure that you wouldn't." I said in hello. Then without awaiting an invitation I sat.

A predatory grin spread across his face. "You want me to believe the vamps keep you around for your brains?" He asked with a sneer. "You smell like a brothel."

Okay, that wasn't my fault but I wouldn't argue that point. I didn't know all the details, but I knew that my father owned him and because he had a mentally unstable mother who was also weretiger and a younger sister to provide for, he behaved, but he never could quite curb the hostility.

"If I was a whore you would beat feet to my door." I said mildly.

An unabashed nod, "You are definitely an upgrade from the people Victor and the Sheriff normally send." He replied with his eyes lingering on my breasts. "So what does he want?"

"You will be coordinating the wedding of the Queen of Oklahoma. All that is required is this."

I pulled the metal case from my jacket pocket and opened it. It contained a flat adapter the size of an acorn. It was a fuse box, once plugged in it could emit the power needed to fuel the anchor for the hollo strips. The anchors were four little translucent circles that were imperceptible even to vampire eyes; it was made from the same thing the Fae gloves were.

It was the same method that allowed Fin to project his holographic image through whatever house he was wired into. When Quinn got this done I would have eyes and ears in Freyda's house via Fin. That bitch thought she could hide from me. She was dead wrong.

"Plug this into any outlet in the house," I indicated the plug. "Put it in a place with as little traffic as possible; attics or behind furniture ideally."

"What do I do with those?" he asked, pointing to the anchors.

"You will place one in each cardinal direction of the home as close to the ceiling as possible. If you do this quickly and efficiently, Victor will cut the time you have left in half."

His eyes went wide with shock, and then narrowed in suspicion. At last check he owed my father fifty years of service for cleaning up after his mother. With each assignment he earned years back. Quinn could resent my father all he wanted, but at least the King of Nevada didn't make him fight in the pits for the entertainment of others.

"I don't kill for Victor or even the King, so if that is some kind of explosive—"

As if. "It's just ears. Plug in the adapter, plant the bugs and get out."

"He is going to shave twenty-five years off for a simple spy job."

I shrugged as if I was just a hired hand. "From what I understand there is some great big secret and maybe time is an issue too. I don't know."

That seemed to appease him. "Vampires spying on each other. I could fucking yawn."

I shrugged. "So this is nothing your big brain can't handle," I said getting to my feet.

Of all the ways he could choose to die, the tiger grabbed my wrist. "If you're not a working girl, I still want to take you out sometime."

"You are out of your league, Puss in Boots," I retorted flashing fang.

He dropped his hand as if my skin had caught fire.

"Just get it done."

When I got back to the brothel, Cas was on his way to being shoved out the door. The only other women there he hadn't touched were the vampire whores and they were offering him freebies. We all knew how that would end. I grabbed him and dropped him off at my house. Then I went back home.

I didn't want to go back to the lab. There was nothing for me to do there but think. I didn't want to think. Just the little bit of time from the drive, my shower, and dinner had my thoughts whirling. I didn't want to be alone, period, but the house was mostly empty. Zee had flown out midday to make a show in London. My two eldest brothers were with my father as he oversaw his affairs of state. Oliver was the only one present. I found him in the den. He took up the entire sofa just as he always did.

"Hey, Ollie," I greeted.

"Hello, Shy'ra," he called.

With the iPad in his hand, the day's paper across his lap, and the remote to the television on his chest, it was hard to make out much of my brother. This wasn't new. I grabbed a throw pillow and sat on it with my back to the couch. Of all the things he was doing the easiest to interrupt was the TV. I snagged the remote and after a halfhearted battle, I got to control it.

It was close to dawn and I was watching my third episode of 'Ghost Hunters' when my father and two other brothers walked into the house. There was a moment. It was so slight and so fleeting that I could have imagined it, but I knew I didn't. I looked at my father and he froze as if he was expecting me to disappear. When I didn't, he stared at me a second longer, and then he smiled, leaving me to my brothers like he always had my whole life.