Chapter 8 Adalind
Their travel was leisurely, as any pampered Royal like Victor would demand. Christmas and New year's were spent during their layover in New York, something Adalind would have relished a few years ago. Too much had changed and too much had been taken from her to go back to her shallow days of desiring luxury above all else. How could she lounge around when Diana was God knows where? She impatiently pressed Victor, who refused to be rushed. It was infuriating. In the past Adalind had used her body, her sex to control the men around her, teasing them with just enough to leave them panting after her. Victor seemed willing. He had even come to her bed chamber of the castle in Austria, waking her in her negligeè. Still Adalind had no desire to play with him, no stomach to let him use her body.
Was it motherhood and the fact that her body had produced something, someone far more precious than all her other schemes had yielded her? Maybe it was the fact that she had finally been made to use her body to curse someone, Nick's curse and how futile that had turned out. She was done with the sex game. Could that be the whole of it? The honest question crept into her consciousness. Why did the fact that Nick was the last man to pleasure and be pleasured by her body rankle her? He was good but he wasn't that good, she fumed inside. Anger had her tongue sharp and her thoughts sharper in Victor's presence. Taking a deep breath, Adalind attempted to calm herself knowing she had to bide her time for Diana's sake, but even dwelling on her daughter couldn't dispel her unsettled feeling. She had began to soften towards the Grimm when he protected them and she had regretted tricking him and stealing his powers, then she discovered he was behind Diana's abduction. It drove her crazy that unwanted memories still came to her of their time together.
Meanwhile, Victor squandered time. There was nothing expeditious about the man, she thought with frustration. If Adalind was going back into the lion's den, she would rather meet it head on. Portland held no welcome for her, in fact Nick would probably kill her if he could. That would be doubtful since he was no longer a Grimm, but Sean wouldn't take too lightly to her stripping him of Nick's usefulness. Well Sean could just go to hell! That prospect made her smile.
"Victor, why are we still here?!" Adalind demanded.
"I'm arranging some intelligence. Contacts that Cousin Sean has been in touch with, they'll get the information we need," was Victor's indulgent reply. "Go shopping for one of this city's world renown fashion designers," he suggested attempting to maneuver her.
"Shopping won't help get my baby back," she pointed out with false sweetness. "If you would just get me to Portland, I would coerce some information out of those involved," she said adamantly not to be dissuaded.
"Patience," he cajoled.
"I think I've learned enough patience in that dungeon of yours," she countered.
"Now that was your fault for leaving my protection and trusting the resistance," he pointed out. Adalind snapped her mouth shut knowing this was not the time to make him pay for that. Patience indeed! If only Victor knew where she invested her patience, she thought with a private smile. He would know her real opinion of him, she promised. Victor was just pompous enough to believe she would let it lie, so Adalind pouted prettily.
So wait she did, counting those who would realize their fault in torturing her or separating this loving mother from her daughter, as the biggest mistakes of their lives. Victor, Sean, Kelly and Nick had all been part of her misery since the day she met each of them. Of them all, only Nick had real reason because of what she had done to him. Still he seemed to put all that aside when he protected Diana and her and Adalind had begun to trust him. Look where that got her! From her first thought in the morning to her last one at night, she remembered Diana's face. Nick and Kelly Burkhardt took her reason for living.