Mona Lisa Craving

EIGHT

I SLEPT IN Amber’s arms that day. No scolding, no questions. Just sweet, blessed sleep. As soon as he wrapped me in the comfort of his big embrace, with his slow-beating heart thudding gently beneath my ear blocking out all other sounds in the house, I drifted off to sleep.

My eyes fluttered open as dusk began to fall. Wide awake and refreshed, I left Amber still sleeping, drifted silently down the stairs, and slipped out the front door. A few last, lingering rays of sunlight still defiantly painted the remnants of the day, as if to say, Do not hasten me on my way. I walked across green grass so lush that it cushioned each footfall, drinking in the magnificent hues of sunset, the vibrant splashes of color thrown upon the rich canvas of the sky.

It wasn’t until he spoke that I became aware that another watched the ebbing day as I did. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” His voice came from the trees lining the eastern edge of the lawn.

“Dontaine,” I said with surprise and pleasure, and walked across the carpet of grass to where my master of arms sat against a tree, half-hidden in its shadows. Sunset’s last faint light fell across the leaves to dapple his skin with purple-pink hues.

“You can walk in daylight?” I asked.

“Like any other Monère,” Dontaine replied in a voice carefully devoid of emotion, his eyes lifted to the setting sun. “Not like you, without any pain, any burning. It stings my skin still.”

I sat on the ground beside him and said softly, “I’m sorry.”

“For what? That I did not receive your gift, your immunity from the sunlight through our mating? Or for walking so carelessly out of the house like this, without any guards? Without anyone aware of where you go. Or are you apologizing for doing that very same thing yesterday, twenty-four hours ago, allowing yourself to be snatched from us, leaving the entire household in a state of frenzied panic?”

His voice was deceptively calm. But his eyes…his eyes, when he turned them to me, were far from calm. He was furious in a way that was even more frightening than if he had screamed and yelled. Contained fury.

I flushed with shame, with guilt, with knowing that I was wrong. “Dontaine, I’m very sorry for that.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, as you humans say!” He lashed out at me with the biting edge of his emotions unleashed, and I flinched, wisely shut up as he pressed his lips tightly together, holding back the hot torrent of words just waiting to spill out. Somehow he managed to swallow them down. His next words came out in a hoarse, strained whisper. “I promised him that I would guard you with my life.”

“Who?”

“Halcyon, your Demon Prince. Remember?”

His caustic tone made me wince. “Dontaine, please. Stop.”

“I can’t! It eats at me so. He entrusted you to me, to watch over you when he could not. And hours later, not even a day later, you are gone. Stolen from us while we slept.” He looked at me with tormented eyes, a painful mix of guilt and anguish filling them. “And I was not here. I do not live in this house. How can I watch over you if I do not even live here?”

“Dontaine…” My voice trailed away. What could I say after all?

“I am your master of arms by your decree. And your lover by the generosity of your heart. Let me stay here with you, Mona Lisa.”

The open vulnerability in that proud face hurt me more than any scalding anger ever could. I gave beneath the gentle force of it with a yielding sigh. “All right. Yes. You can stay here at the house.”

“In Gryphon’s room, next to yours,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Amber and have his agreement. He wishes it, too.”

Ah, so that was why Amber had held back on the tongue lashing. He knew Dontaine would deliver it to me with far more effective results. And that, loaded down with guilt, it would be hard for me to deny Dontaine this request.

My men were learning how to handle me.

But at the thought of someone moving into Gryphon’s quarters, my heart twinged painfully. He’s dead but not really gone, I told myself. Just moved to another realm. And it would hurt my new lover more were I not to let him use that empty room.

I nodded my consent.

“Thank you,” Dontaine said in a soft rush of relief, and brushed trembling lips across mine. I felt his weariness then, beating down upon him as we touched, as that electric spark of sensation jumped between us almost sluggishly.

“Did you sleep?” I asked, pulling back.

He shook his head and smiled sadly. “How could I when no one else was watching? When someone could lure you out? Or you could simply wake early, before others, and wander out as you just did.”

“I’m used to taking care of myself, Dontaine.”

“You did not even scan your surroundings. You were not aware I was outside with you until I spoke.”

I flushed. “Very careless of me, I know. I just feel…safe here.”

“And we can make it so, if you will allow us. With but a few simple measures.”

I’d refused it before when he had suggested it. “There’s no need, with three warriors living in the house. Four now with you.”

“There is every need when they are all sleeping and you are not.” Some of the bite leaked back into his voice. “Please, do not hinder me in my duty. A simple rotating watch, that is all I ask.”

“Not much, just moving into the house and setting up a watch guard,” I grumbled, but pecked a light, affectionate kiss on his lips. “Very well. Anything else you might want to ask for while I am in the mood to give in to any and all requests?”

“Not at the moment. But I’m sure I shall think of something later when I am less fatigued.”

“Silly me, then, for wanting you to get some rest. Come on.” I pulled my weary master of arms to his feet. “You need to sleep.”

“Lie with me?”

“Hah. See? You’ve already thought of something more to ask for,” I teased gently as we walked back to the house.

“Just rest beside me for a while. Until the others awake,” he asked softly as we made our way to the guest room on the lower floor.

“Sure.”

Of all the things he had asked for, that was the easiest to grant.

I LAY QUIETLY in Dontaine’s arms as he drifted off to sleep, finding a different sort of comfort with him. The comfort of bringing my warrior rest, easing his soul temporarily from the burden of my care entrusted to him by Halcyon and by his own heavy mantle of responsibility as my master of arms. He’d tiptoed around me. They all had these past few weeks after I’d returned to them once the storm of my grief over Gryphon’s death had broken and passed. But I was stronger now, less fragile, and they were treating me as such, making demands once more.

“You eat that, now. All of it,” Rosemary said at dinner that night, after all had risen to break fast, even Dontaine, who had managed to catch a few hours of sleep. Rosemary had been a cook at High Court. She had left her coveted position there to follow me out to this hot and humid southern clime because of her Mixed Blood children, Jamie and Tersa. Because she knew I would do my best to protect them. At least you’ll try, she’d said. No one else will do even that.

She was a natural, caring mother. And let me tell you, that was a rare thing among the Monère, at least toward their Mixed Blood offspring, which were often looked upon as little more than garbage to be gotten rid of.

She turned the brunt of her mothering nature on me now. “Eat,” she said, and I did. Not a hard thing to do when the food was so delicious. Tender roasted lamb with mashed potato, rich gravy, and the light salad greens that I enjoyed. Rosemary had taken over the general management of the household upon our arrival here. Good thing, because I wouldn’t have known what to do or who to ask to do it. Though she no longer cooked, she oversaw the kitchen, her first love, with a keen, critical eye.

I ate to please her and myself, and because it was wisest not to go against her in this matter that fell in her domain—a domain over which she ruthlessly presided, and which basically stretched to include any and all sundry matters pertaining to the household. Not only did I fear her tongue lashing, which could be quite blunt and biting, but one tended to fear her physically as well. She was huge, both in height, almost six feet tall, and in girth. She was built like an Amazon, with strong, capable hands that could wring a squawking chicken’s neck with one easy twist. I’d seen her do it once.

Only when I cleaned my plate, the last one to finish, did she release us from the table. Hard to believe that cheerful, freckled Jamie, reed tall and slender, and tiny, petite Tersa, walking beside me, had come from her massive body.

“Is Wiley all right?” I asked Tersa now. Wiley was actually short for Wild Boy—what I had called the feral Mixed Blood that the previous Queen had left behind as a snarling welcome present for me. He’d been half-starved and completely wild, having grown up in the swamps, abandoned there by his Monère mother.

Wiley, who was no older than thirteen or fourteen, had bonded with the tiny Tersa, trusting her as he trusted no one else.

“He was upset but unhurt,” Tersa said in that soft way she had of speaking. “He led us to where you were taken in the forest and did his best to tell us what happened.” Meaning that he had come to the house, dragged Tersa out into the woods, and the others had followed.

“He can talk?” I asked with lifted brow.

“A few words that I taught him. He learns quickly,” Tersa said with a smile. That was one of the changes the wild boy had wrought in her, those smiles. “He showed us what happened, mostly through gestures. Then he left. He didn’t stay.”

“He’ll be back,” I assured her. He was drawn as irresistibly to quiet, solemn Tersa as she was to him.

“I know,” she said with simple confidence, and quietly slipped away.

Our guests, the Morells, following behind us, watched our small byplay with interest. I sensed curiosity from Quentin, watchfulness from Dante, and puzzlement from Nolan and Hannah. Couldn’t blame them. The dynamics in this household were puzzling even to me, always shifting as we all tried to find the harmony that was necessary for a happy home. And that was what I was trying to make this, a happy home for all of us…adding one more to the mix this morning—Dontaine. Rested and fed, he was much more cheerful, eager to see to the new arrangements we had agreed upon.

As good a time as any to debrief him on the past day’s events, and to talk to him about Nolan. Amber and the rest of my guards needed to be debriefed also.

Our meeting took place in the front parlor, and if Hannah was unsettled by all the male testosterone squeezing the large room small, she didn’t show it. I guess she was used to it, having spent the last twenty years being the sole woman in a household of men. She sat serenely as I explained to my guys what I should have explained the previous day but had been too tired to. I told them about the snatch, my breaking free, falling into the river, and the fight with the other group of outlaw rogues.

“They were in our territory?” Dontaine asked, frowning.

“Yes, near the border fringing Texas,” I said.

“I’ll bring some men and see to them tonight,” he said curtly.

“Have they bothered us or disturbed any humans?”

“Not that I am aware of.”

“Then there is no need to.”

“They are rogues,” Dontaine said. As if that statement said it all.

“Who have harmed no one,” I returned.

“They threatened you.”

“Because I literally washed up in their laps. Who could blame them? If they’ve harmed no one, we will offer them no harm in turn. Besides, I doubt they’re still there.”

Nolan concurred with me. “They will have left the area by now.”

“I should have been aware of them,” Dontaine said, revealing the core of his frustration. What really ate at him.

“Do you perform regular sweeps of your outer area?” Nolan asked.

Dontaine eyed the bigger man with arrogance. “Every fortnight.”

“If you like, I’ll be happy to come along with you on your next patrol. Show you what to look for.”

Pride warred with need for a moment. Practicability won out. “Your assistance would be most welcome,” Dontaine said stiffly.

As good a lead as any for what I had to say next. Keeping my fingers crossed, I told them how Nolan had supported himself operating his self-defense school, and that I had asked him to set one up locally. “He will not just run the place, but own it, keeping all the profit as before, except for a twenty percent portion. Ten percent of that will go toward High Court’s per annum tithe.”

This didn’t just surprise everyone, it shocked them. They looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted two heads.

“Why would you do this, Mona Lisa?” It was Amber who asked. Amber who ruled the western Mississippi part of my territory for me. He seemed truly curious, wanting to know my reasoning.

“Because Nolan and his family have managed to support themselves for over twenty years this way. Why should I strip them of this hard-earned independence and expect them to go back to being wholly dependent on me for everything they eat and drink and wear? What does it hurt me to let them continue on as they have, and share a little in their profit?”

“You wish them to remain separate from our community?” Chami, my chameleon, asked. He was six feet tall, with a lean, wiry build like a greyhound. With his almost boyish slenderness and curly brown hair, one could be fooled into thinking that he was just an average guard and not very powerful, at that. But that would have been a sore miscalculation. He was a chameleon, old both in years and experience, able to blend in with his environment, become invisible. And even more deadly, he was able to mute his presence so that he could creep up silently on his target, unseen, unfelt, until he killed you. The perfect assassin. At the moment, though, with his violet eyes as puzzled as the rest of his fellow guards, he looked little older than Nolan’s twenty-year-old sons.

“No, Chami. They will be full members of our community, sharing in the benefits and responsibilities.”

“What particular responsibilities, milady?” Tomas asked, his voice once more flowing with that easy Southern twang. With his wheat-colored hair and light brown eyes, he was the plainest looking among my men. Sweet, honest, loyal Tomas. Plain only in looks, not in his presence, which reflected his long span of years and accumulated power. All the guards here in this room, my most trusted men, were older in years, strong in power. The type usually discarded by their Queens. Or killed by them.

Instead of answering Tomas’s question, I asked one of my own. “Do any of you besides Amber know Nolan?”

“I know of him,” Chami answered. “He is reputed to be a great warrior, a most gifted fighter.”

“I saw him fight once long ago. They say none can best him with a sword,” said Aquila, speaking in his usual precise and clipped manner. Everything about Aquila was neat and tidy, including his thin mustache and Vandyke beard. His gentlemanly appearance was odd only if you knew what he’d been before. Not just an outlaw rogue, but a rogue bandit serving under the infamous Sandoor. The confusion cleared up, though, once you knew what Aquila had been prior to becoming an outcast rogue—not only a warrior, but a man of business, a profession much more suited to his precise and tidy nature. Aquila and my brother, Thaddeus, had overseen all my business affairs in my absence. Were still continuing to do so, actually.

“I’ve seen them fight, also,” I said. Had in fact briefly fought Quentin, though I thought it prudent not to bring that up just now. “And I’m impressed. Nolan has graciously offered his help in training our men. Dontaine, the guards’ training falls under your province, right?”

Dontaine nodded.

“I’ll leave it to you then to see how best to use them.”

“Them? His sons also?” Something flickered in Dontaine’s eyes, and I wondered for a moment if he might be jealous or threatened by Quentin and Dante. Or rather more specifically, by Dante.

“I misspoke. Just Nolan. Quentin and Dante will be—” I still didn’t know quite how to say it. “—seeking positions with other Queens at the next Service Fair.”

Something eased in Dontaine and I knew then that he had felt threatened by my intimacy with Dante, and wanted to laugh…or maybe cry. If Dontaine knew how much I feared Dante—instinctively, unreasonably, something I’d been able to hide thus far—he would not have wasted any time at all worrying.

“Do the men have practice tonight?” I asked.

“We train every night.” Something I would have known had I been paying any attention, which I obviously hadn’t.

“Fine. His sons can join the other guards in practice, and you can assess Nolan’s skill and see how best you would like to work with him. If you do not wish to involve Nolan in the men’s training, I will abide by your decision, Dontaine. Hannah’s healing talent alone is more than enough contribution to our people.” That was a fact no one could dispute.

Dontaine inclined his head, pleased that I was leaving the final decision in his hands, and seemingly reassured by it.

“I will be happy to accept the assistance of one of whom everyone, including my Queen, speaks so highly,” Dontaine said, confirming that any reticence he had felt resided with the young virile sons, not the married father. “Will you come watch practice tonight?” he asked me. “The men and I would be pleased to see you there.”

There was only a brief pause before I nodded. Curiosity to see how Nolan and his sons fared against my guards won out over my instinctive need to avoid Dante.

TRAINING, I FOUND out, took place in the twilight hours just before dawn, after the men had finished their patrols and other duties.

Amber had to leave before then, and return to the small slice of my territory that he ruled on my behalf. He’d left there abruptly when he had learned of my disappearance.

“I will return and make sure that Nolan does not bring you more profit with his single twenty percent than I do with all of my businesses that you have entrusted me with,” Amber said with a tiny smile.

My giant had made a joke, I realized, and felt tears prick my eyes.

“Why do you cry?” Amber asked, lifting my face gently to his.

“Because you’re leaving.”

“Do you wish me to stay?”

Yes, stay with me always. “No, go back to your people.”

“They are your people, Mona Lisa, as am I. You do not have to wait for me to return here. You could come down and acquaint yourself with the businesses and people in that part of your territory.”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t go back to that place. Not yet.” It was where Gryphon had been killed and bad memories still lingered there for me. To turn our thoughts away from that, I brought up what I had been considering for quite some time now.

“I will be petitioning the Queen Mother to make the Mississippi portion of my territory officially yours, Amber. Your rule, separate from mine.”

Amber stilled. “There is no need to do that,” he said. But he was wrong.

“There is every need. You are my backup for our people. I want to know that there’s someplace safe for them to go if anything should happen to me.”

“Nothing will happen to you,” Amber said gruffly.

But so much already had, I thought sadly.

He stroked a gentle hand down my melancholy face. “Dontaine is now by your side. I am pleased that you are allowing him to take up residence in the house.”

“You don’t mind?” But my real question was: How did he feel about my taking Dontaine as a new lover? We had not spoken of it yet.

“No, I do not mind,” Amber said softly. “He is a good man and a strong warrior.”

“And Halcyon. Did Dontaine tell you of my arrangement with him?”

Amber’s eyes darkened with the mixed feelings he had always had about the Demon Prince. “I know of what you have agreed upon.”

“Do you approve of that as well?”

“It is not for me to approve or disapprove,” Amber said neutrally.

Smacking his thick arm, I glared up at my giant. “Don’t give me that bullshit. Tell me what you think.”

His eyes crinkled as he grinned down at me. Amused, I think, more by the girly way I’d hit him than my unladylike language. “Very well. I believe that the protection Halcyon offers by his public claim of you will be a good thing. Hurting you will risk his wrath. But I also think your relationship with the Demon Prince is a dangerous thing. Not just because you are a way to get to Halcyon, but because of the nature of demons themselves. They are blood drinkers, Mona Lisa.”

He hardly needed to tell me that. I was achingly aware of that fact.

“And they are dead, truly dead, while you are of the living.”

Not entirely true anymore. And one of the reasons why I wanted Amber safe and far away from me.

“Many Monères will be outraged by your union,” Amber continued. “And they will fear you even more because of this alliance.”

“Does it matter? You just said that hurting me will be risking Halcyon’s wrath.”

“That only means they will not risk doing so openly. They will be more devious if they choose to move against you.”

“Well. Isn’t that a thrilling thought?” I said dryly.

“Why could Halcyon not simply be with you discreetly?” Amber asked. “Why must he lay so public a claim on you?”

“He has to,” I told him softly, “for my protection.”

“You are in danger?” Amber’s face darkened.

I am the danger, I thought.

“Not from anything that you or anybody here can protect me from,” I told him. “Things are changing in me, Amber. Having Halcyon publicly claim me as his mate is more like a necessary diversion.” And would become even more so as the changes occurring in me became more apparent. “It will keep me safe.”

“I am not the one being ambiguous now,” Amber rumbled.

“It’s a demon matter,” I said solemnly, with utmost seriousness. “If I speak of it to anyone, I risk my life as well as the one I tell. Just know that whatever happens, none of it is Halcyon’s fault. It’s mine, through something I did.”

“Mona Lisa—”

“Please, do not press me on this matter.”

Tight furrows of frustration cut deep into that dear, craggy face. I traced over them with a finger, trying to smooth them away. When that didn’t work, I drew his head down to me and, stretching up on tippytoes, kissed him.

“Don’t be mad at me,” I whispered against his lips.

He kissed me tenderly back, his voice deep and rough. “I am not mad. Just concerned.”

“I’m safe for now. I promise.” For now being the operative words here. Couldn’t promise about later. Only time would tell.

“Are you happy ruling?” I asked, needing to know.

Amber’s harsh face gentled. “Yes, I enjoy it. I like the challenge, making the decisions, bearing the responsibilities. But I hate being apart from you. You have given me a bittersweet gift, my love.”

“Most things in life are.” I gave him one last kiss. “Go on.” Stepping back away from him, I wrapped my arms around my waist so I would not cling to him, beg him not to go. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Soon,” he promised, and left.