Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter
Thirty-One
Beck
I stride out of the caves and hand my sword to Colin
Dellacourt. The heat of the desert scorches everything it touches. I’m filthy
and covered in blood and I don’t want to think what else, but the job is
finally over.
Colin takes my sword and reverently wipes it clean. He
motions to the employees walking around camp. A young vampire walks up to
answer the sidhe’s call.
“His Highness is finished,” Colin announces. “Take the
telemetry unit and gather the data we need.”
The young vampire looks to the mouth of the cave with
obvious anxiety. “He’s sure?”
Colin’s brown eyes narrow. I hide my smile as the former
farmer scares the shit out of a young executive with just a look. “Are you
questioning His Highness?”
The young executive shakes his head. “Not at all, Mr.
Dellacourt. I’ll get you those readings immediately.”
Colin stares at the small group of Dellacorp employees as
they scramble to do his bidding. I pull my filthy shirt over my head and reach
for my robe. I need a shower. The vampires’ camp is set up with all the
luxuries their technology has to offer. One of those luxuries is the portable
shower that cleans with something called sound waves.
I prefer a good soak, but it isn’t available out here in the
desert. I can’t help but think about the gift I approved before I left for the
Bad Lands, as they called this place. Susan was insistent on getting us a
wedding gift. It’s probably being delivered this very day. I can’t wait to lie
in the soaking tub with Meg in front of me. I’ll hold her as we soak in the hot
water and talk about our days. I’ll tell her about the work I do in the fields,
and she’ll talk about…
“What do you and Susan talk about?” I hear myself asking. I
didn’t mean to. It just popped out. I won’t take it back, though. I’m curious
about the consort’s relationship with my cousin.
Colin sits down beside me and pulls out a bottle of whiskey.
He’s quickly handed two glasses by an assistant who always seems to anticipate
his needs. I gratefully take the glass and tip it back. I’m going to be damn
sore tomorrow.
Colin thoughtfully sips at his well-aged whiskey. “We talk
about everything, Your Highness. Mostly, it’s business, of course. She is the
CEO of one of the most powerful corporations on the plane. It helps that I have
a fairly decent head for numbers and processes.”
He does. It surprised me when Colin announced he was
accompanying me on this job. Susan told him to send detailed reports but didn’t
argue. She wasn’t his CEO when they parted, however. She was simply his wife
when they said good-bye. She asked Colin three times if he remembered
everything and checked his bag. She kissed him good-bye and made him promise to
call.
“I also have a very thick skin,” Colin says cheerfully.
“That helps a lot when your wife is also your boss. Damn woman can flay a man
alive with that tongue of hers. I screwed up the quarterly reports a few months
back, and she took a chunk out of my hide right there in the boardroom.”
“She yelled at you?” I’m surprised my cousin would yell at a
consort. Vampires are supposed to be as gentle with their consorts as the Fae
are with bondmates.
“Yelled, screamed, threatened me with all manner of
humiliation,” Colin explains with a smile on his face. “That woman of mine is a
righteous bitch when she wants to be. It’s all right, though. I took my fair
share out of her pretty ass later that night, if you know what I mean.”
I’m pretty sure I do. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking
about Colin and Susan while working in the caves. Colin doesn’t seem to want
the type of life I expected a consort to require. He seems to like to work, and
he’s tough. His wife doesn’t treat him like he’ll break, but she still loves
him. “You were rough with her?”
I try to ask the question with expectant curiosity rather
than accusation.
“Vampires are rough, Your Highness,” Colin explains without
a hint of self-consciousness. “Relationships here, at least sexual
relationships, involve a dominant partner and a submissive partner.”
Now I sit up and pour himself another glass. Meg used those
words. “Are you the dominant?”
“Yes, I am. Susan prefers to give up control in the bedroom.
It was strange at first. You have to understand, Your Highness, I was raised in
an isolated part of the country. I didn’t know I could bond until I came to the
Vampire plane. I was a farmer. I’d been taught to treat females with great
softness.”
“We’re bigger and stronger,” I say, parroting the words I
heard from my father. “They need our protection, not our abuse.”
Colin’s dark brows rise questioningly, and there’s a
distinct chill coming from him. “If you’re worried about me abusing your
cousin, Your Highness…”
“Say what you need to say, Colin.” I encourage the slightly
younger man. “Forget I’m the bloody king. I’m your cousin. Talk to me that way.
The goddess knows I need someone who’ll be honest with me.”
“Fine,” Colin says, his eyes narrowing. “I’d tell you, cos,
to get the stick out of your ass. My relationship with my wife isn’t open for
your judgment. I’ve heard that gentry marriages were cold exchanges of
protection and money for bloodlines and a proper bond. I don’t want that. I
want a real marriage. Maybe it’s because I’m a commoner, but you can keep your
perfect proper bondmate. I don’t want to be treated like a bit of fluff to be
taken off a shelf and fucked when my mate thinks about it. I certainly don’t
want to treat my wife like that. Life is hard, no matter your circumstances.
You should have a partner, not a weight around your neck.”
I feel my stomach drop. What had I said to Meg? I told her
she was a responsibility to be borne. She asked to be my partner, and I
complained about having to feed and clothe her.
“I don’t think of her that way,” I say quietly. I don’t.
However, I do think of her all the time. I can’t sleep without picturing her
with me. Sometimes I hold a pillow close to my body at night and pretend it’s
Meg against my chest. Goddess, I miss her.
Colin pours another round. “It’s hard in the beginning.
Marriage ain’t easy. You have to find your way. It’s harder for you because
there are three of you involved.”
“Ci doesn’t seem to be having a problem.” I take a drink,
shooting the warm liquor into my belly. Cian has been plain in his
correspondence. He’s pissed with the way I treated our wife up to this point.
Everyone is mad at me.
“Then maybe you should listen to Ci,” Colin says sagely. “He
would listen to you when it came to killing gigantic bats.”
That thought amuses me and reminds me I do have a place
where Cian doesn’t best me. “He wouldn’t have time to listen. He would be
running the other way.” Cian has always been a baby when it comes to things
with fangs trying to kill him. “I want to go home, Colin. Can you get me home
tonight?”
The big Fae smiles. “That I can do, Your Highness. I suspect
I could get someone to drive you straight through to your village, if you like.
If you go back to the city, you’ll find yourself being debriefed for twelve
hours.”
I groan at the thought of being stuck in another meeting.
“Please, no more meetings.”
Colin graciously inclines his head. “Go take a shower while
I get a driver set up for you. I have to prep this site for mining operations,
or I’d take you myself. As it is, I suspect I’ll get in trouble with my boss.
She’s expecting you to report back like a good employee.”
I grin. “Then she shouldn’t have paid me up front.”
I rush off to get changed. I’m anxious to get back to my
sleepy little village where my sweet wife waits to start our life together.
This time I’m going to listen to her. This time I’m going to
make things right between us.
Five hours later, I stare slack-jawed at the chaos
around me. There are tents and campsites everywhere. My quiet village has
turned into a raucous marketplace. There are Fae of all kinds walking about.
“Your Highness,” a pretty sidhe says. “Welcome
back. I hope your trip went well.”
I think her name is Bri. She’s carrying a basket, and I can
hear the coins jangling in her pockets. I search my memory. Her father is the
miller.
“It was fine,” I reply, still dazed. “What is going on
here?”
Bri’s eyes are wide. “It’s a celebration. It’s the
tradition. We’re celebrating the kings’ bonding with three weeks of
festivities. Last night we had a great bonfire, and the priestess blessed King
Cian and Queen Meg. It was a lovely ceremony. They’re so in love.” Her face
shines with remembrance. She frowns suddenly. “We’ve missed you, of course, but
King Cian explained you had important business to attend to. Not that we forgot
about you. Not at all. Your name was mentioned, Your Highness. Everyone cheered.”
“I’m glad someone remembered me,” I grind out. This is how
Cian chooses to protect our bride? He’s supposed to hide her from prying eyes.
Instead, he invites the whole damn plane to a party. The goddess only knows how
many spies are reporting back to Torin. I catch sight of a big shape walking
through the stalls and my jaw drops. “Is that a bloody goblin?”
The young girl nods. “Yes, they have brought so many strange
wonders. Some of us worried they would not behave without Your Highness around
to keep them in line, but they are terrified of the queen, so all has been
well.”
My heart threatens to seize. My Meg met the goblins? Cian
allowed a goblin to get close to our wife? Has he lost his mind? What did the
girl say? “What do you mean the goblins are terrified of the queen?”
The girl smiles proudly. “Our queen beat them and threatened
to never make another cookie for them if they ate her. She got the goblin chief
to back down. Imagine that—a Seelie queen forcing an Unseelie lord to concede.”
She leans in conspiratorially. “If you ask me, the force is strong with our
queen.”
I wonder if somehow that damn vampire has taken me to the
wrong plane. “Someone is forcing the queen to do something?”
“No,” Bri says helpfully. “It’s an old human legend. You
see, the force represents…”
But I see someone who might be more helpful. Liadan is
walking toward the shops at the center of the village. “Thank you, Bri. Tell
your father I’d like to talk to him about the mill. We’ll need more flour if
this goes on for too long.”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness,” Bri says as I start to walk
away. “The queen has already taken care of it.”
Well, of course she has.
I hurry along, pursuing Liadan across the square. Liadan
won’t be under the new queen’s spell as everyone else seems to be. “Lia!”
The blonde turns and when she sees it’s me, makes her bow.
She’s cool and polite. “Your Highness. You returned early. You weren’t due back
for another week.”
Yes. That’s why Cian thought he could get away with it. In
another week, the three weeks of celebration will be over. My brother is a
tricky bastard. Cian might not be able to cover the fact that he held the
festivities, but he would be able to say they were small. He would have
attempted to convince Beck that the parties were small but necessary to the
villagers’ acceptance of Meg. He’s a sly one, my other half, and he’s about to
get that magnificent brain of his bashed in.
“Would you like to tell me what the bloody hell has been
going on while I was away?”
Liadan smiles sweetly. “It is a celebration for your queen,
Your Highness. I was surprised you authorized it. It is very expensive and
seems a strange thing to do when so many are hungry. I wouldn’t be surprised if
our food stores are empty by the end of the festivities.”
I haven’t thought of that. Cian always handles those things,
but he seems to be derelict in his duties lately. I hoped that once he bonded,
he would go back to his responsibilities. “And what has my brother been doing?”
Liadan shrugs gracefully. “He rarely leaves the queen’s
side. He dotes on her when he should be working. She demands it. I thought she
wasn’t royal, Your Highness, but she certainly acts like it. She forced the
women of the village to sew her a new wardrobe and the miller to up his work
all because she has to make some strange human food. She even took one of my
dresses. The new queen thinks that anything to catch her eye should be hers, I
suppose.”
“Is that a fact?” I ask.
Liadan looks properly intimidated by my low growl.
“She’s even forcing the villagers to work for her.” Liadan
points out a stall to her left. There’s a long line, and two young sidhe
are working hard to sell some sort of food product.
My queen got out of hand while I was gone.
It’s time she understands the king is back.