Mona Lisa Craving

SIX

EVENTUALLY, I WANDERED back to the house. Dante was nowhere to be seen, deliberately avoiding me, it seemed, to my relief. After a shower, some clean clothes borrowed from Hannah, and one soothing cup of chamomile tea to settle my frazzled nerves, I called home. The phone at Belle Vista rang only once before it was picked up, as if someone had been standing there waiting for it to ring.

“Hello,” said a voice abruptly.

“Tomas?” I wasn’t sure if that was who I was speaking to. It sounded like him, but sharper, crisp, without his usual soft twang and easy way of speaking.

“Mona Lisa?” The shocking loudness of his voice was heard clearly by everyone in the room, which happened to be the entire Morell family. All but Dante.

I winced. “Yeah, it’s me, Tomas. Is Dontaine there?”

“No. He and everybody else are out looking for you. Where are you?”

“In the next state. In Texas. I’m okay. I, uh, found a healer, and I’m bringing her and her family back with me. But it might take a little while for them to pack up everything, and then hours more for us to drive home. I’m going to try to make it back before sunrise, but don’t worry if I don’t.”

There was just the jagged sound of his breathing for a few long seconds. Then his voice sounded in my ear again, softer. But it was a harsh softness. “Worry? Why should we worry? Wiley woke the entire house up and they tracked your steps back to the woods. They found the scent of two strange men there and signs of a struggle.” His restraint slipped then. “What the hell happened, Mona Lisa?”

Oh crap. I could imagine the panic and uproar that had followed. “Listen, I’ll explain everything when I get back home, I promise.” Hopefully by then everyone would have calmed down some. Please let it be so. As it was, my raw nerves couldn’t take Tomas’s distress any longer. I felt oddly fragile, like a ceramic doll that would crack with any additional pressure. “Call off the search, Tomas. Tell everybody that I’m okay and that I’ll be back soon. I’m going to hang up now.”

“Don’t!” Tomas yelled, panic in his voice. “Don’t hang up! Tell me where you—”

Gently, I disconnected.

“Was that your lover?” Quentin asked. He seemed the only one capable of speaking in the sudden silence. His mother and father looked shocked, as if what they had heard was not what they had been expecting to hear. Their surprise surprised me. What was the big freakin’ deal here?

“No, that was Tomas, one of my guards.”

The big man, Nolan, unglued his tongue. “You allow a guard to speak to you like that?”

“He’s obviously upset,” I said, shrugging. “I think it would be best if we left here as soon as possible, so my people back home don’t freak out anymore than they already have. How long will it take for you guys to pack?”

“Hannah’s things are ready,” Nolan said, looking at me in an odd manner.

“Good. What about the rest of you?”

“We’re rogue males,” Nolan said, “who kidnapped you.”

Ah. So this was the reason for their shock.

“I know,” I said. “To save your son. It’s not the first time I’ve had a run-in with outlaw rogues, or been kidnapped by them. Some have become my dearest friends.”

“Oh, milady.” Hannah’s voice quavered. “You wish all of us to come with you?”

“Of course. What did you think? That I’d just take you and leave the rest of your family behind?”

“Yes,” Nolan said. “That’s exactly what we thought.”

They thought I’d take the woman, the valuable healer, and cast aside the men who loved her. “No, I’d never separate a family.”

“It was the reason we fled,” Hannah said, her voice trembling. “Because our Queen refused to let Nolan and I marry, even when it was known I was growing heavy with his child.”

“I thought it was customary for fertile couples to marry?” In the hopes that they would breed more offspring. Dontaine had explained some of it to me.

“That is the usual custom, if they both wish it, and we did,” Hannah said. “But our Queen denied us this.”

“Why?”

“Because she desired Nolan for her own bed.”

Husband and wife looked at me questioningly. It took me a second to figure out what they were asking, without actually saying it.

“Oh! No, I’d never…He’s a married man!” I squawked, and felt myself blushing. I took a deep breath and untangled my suddenly clumsy tongue. “You have my word that I will never ask Nolan to sleep with me or any other woman. I respect the bonds of matrimony, and appreciate those who honor them.”

“And our sons?” Hannah asked.

“I wouldn’t require it of them, either,” I assured them. But my words actually seemed to distress rather than please Nolan and Hannah.

“Milady, apart from myself, my sons are the last living descendants of Lacedaemon,” Nolan said, seeming to expect some sort of reaction from me. What, exactly, I had no idea.

“I’m sorry. I grew up among humans. My knowledge of Monère history is almost zilch. I only became aware that people like us existed several months ago.”

“In human Greek history, Lacedaemon was the son of Zeus and Taÿgete,” Nolan explained. “He was the founder of the city of Lacedaemon, more commonly known among humans as Sparta.”

“Oh, well, Sparta. Sure, I’ve heard of that.” Who hadn’t? The ancient Greek city famous for its military—the strict training and the superior soldiers it raised. And Nolan and his sons were descended from this line. I guess that explained their unusual fighting skills.

“Lacedaemon was a Full Blood Monère who came from an ancient bloodline of supreme warriors. He fathered several Mixed Blood sons. Instead of abandoning them, he built a city-state for them and taught them some of his fighting skills. Most of the citizens of Sparta had some Monère blood running in them.”

The concept was mind boggling. “Those fierce Spartans were Monère Mixed Bloods?”

“Alters your view of history, doesn’t it?” Quentin said with a slight smile.

“Greatness runs in my sons’ blood,” Nolan said. No bragging, just a statement of fact. “They would be worthy of you.”

It hit me then what they wanted and why they were so distressed. They wanted their sons in my bed. Not out of it.

Oh, cripes!

I struggled with what to say and finally settled on the truth. “Frankly, your sons can do much better than a Mixed Blood Queen. You know I’m a Mixed Blood, right?”

Nolan nodded.

“With their lineage and fighting skills, they can probably have their pick of Queens. Just not me. My bed is full, more than full. And not just by Monère, but demon dead. I guess you should probably know that I’ve…um, agreed to be Halcyon’s mate.”

Nolan paled, making me notice only then what I should have noticed before. That his skin was not the pure lily-white of most Monères. That all of them, even Hannah, were a light brown shade. “You’re tanned,” I said. “You can walk in daylight?”

“Like any other Monère can for limited amounts of time,” Nolan answered. “The few minutes of sun exposure every day—driving my sons to school, picking them up, and then driving to my business—results inevitably in darkened skin after several months’ time.” He shrugged and returned to the subject at hand. “The Halcyon you mention. Do you mean the High Prince of Hell?”

“Yup, that Halcyon. So you see.” And I think they did now. “It would be in your sons’ best interests to seek another Queen’s bed.” Any other Queen’s bed. I chewed my lip and continued. “It is my hope that you and Hannah will choose to make your home with me. And that I can serve as your sons’ re-entry into Monère society. They should be ready to…I mean, I saw boys younger than them seeking positions with Queens.” The main position hopefully being over or under her in bed, though I could scarcely say that to them. But that was the reality of our Monère society. Virgin boys…I winced at that, wondering if I had just hurt Dante’s chances of being selected…were taken into a Queen’s bed at a young and tender age. An arrangement that benefited both parties. The budding warrior gained power from mating with a Queen, and the Queen gained a sexual playmate she was not afraid of, a man just coming into his power, indulging herself with him until that power grew too threatening for her, or she tired of him and cast him from her bed.

“My sons are two years past the age of maturity when most young men would seek to intimately serve a Queen,” Nolan said. “They are, as you say, ready to go into service.”

“Oh, well, good. The next Council meeting is coming right up in nine days. They can…” Offer themselves up? “Sign up then at the Service Fair. If they want to, that is.” I blushed, unable to look at Quentin. “I was just thinking that the sooner for them, the better.”

Nolan nodded. “You are correct, milady. Indeed. The sooner for them, the better.”

I took a breath, willed the blush to fade away. “Yes, well, um…all I ask is that you come and give me a try for a few days. If you’re not happy settling in my territory, you can seek a position with another Queen of your choosing at the coming fair, and I will do my best to aid you in that endeavor. I know it’s not your usual Monère arrangement—a Mixed Blood Queen and a Demon Prince.” I smiled weakly. Actually, that didn’t sound attractive at all. I hesitated. “If you and Hannah would rather not join me because of this, if you’d just rather continue on as you have been doing, I’ll understand.”

“You humble yourself for no reason. You give my sons a chance I never thought they’d have, and myself a privilege I’d never thought to know again.” Nolan dropped to his knees and Hannah and Quentin knelt beside him.

“It would be a great honor to serve you, my Queen.”