Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
I leana’s stony eyes took me in, running them over the slip-on ballet shoes I had on from the day before and the billowy yellow dress Dominic had given me that morning to wear. My face was a vibrant glow from the endless night of sex. He had been a lustful distraction, but it was only a matter of time before the sex would be interrupted by my stomach growling. It was. The apartment had a meager supply of food. I ate a bagel and fruit and then we searched for his mother. He was greeted with a kiss on the cheek, me with a look of apprehension. When asked if she’d considered his request, the seconds of silence stretched to minutes.
“Will you do this for me?” he asked.
She frowned. I was treated to more scrutiny.
I was hyperaware of her every movement and the tension-laden silence as she stood and headed for the door.
“Luna, come.”
Dominic shot me a warning look, urging me not to suggest she ask me to follow rather than demand. I met the challenge and followed her.
She led me into a garden. Passing the beautiful gold-color lilies, black-and-white dotted roses, striped tiger lilies, and an array of florals I’d never seen before, we approached a small cottage suite where we were greeted by a man. Or rather another one of her man-like. A combination of panther and human, he stretched to a height close to seven feet. Silky black fur and taut muscles covered his anthropomorphic form. My eyes were drawn to his arm where I saw fur-covered digits instead of a paw. He wore shoes, so I assumed he had feet. It was like standing face to face with a panther.
“Hello, Luna.”
I responded with a start, surprised by his clear, deep, euphonious voice. He smiled.
“Expecting me to roar?” he asked, airy laughter in his tone.
“I don’t know what I was expecting,” I admitted.
“That’s understandable.”
Okay, Luna, be normal. Don’t try to scratch the panther-man behind his ears. And you damn sure better not rub his belly.
Forcing a tight smile on my face, I tried not to be weird, but it was a task. Chatting with a panther-man was nowhere on my life’s bingo card.
“It was nice meeting you, Luna,” he said, gracefully moving past us after giving Ileana a reverential bow.
Food was set out: an assortment of berries, grapes, cheeses, chocolates, and bread. After seeing flowers move, anthropomorphic animals, and all the oddities of Ileana’s world, I wasn’t in a rush to try the oversized strawberries that looked like they were staged for a commercial. Blueberries plumper than I’d ever seen. Large, bright green grapes. The strong scent of chocolates that looked as delectable as they smelled.
It wasn’t until Ileana started eating the strawberries that I took one, chomping at it with caution. Ileana remained standing, so I did. She roamed around the suite, slowly eating the strawberry, carefully watching me.
“You intrigue me,” she said. Demonstrating the same eerie grace of movement as the others, she devoured the distance between us in a breath of movement. Would I share similar abilities once I was recreated? Peter moved normally. But then, I’d only seen the version of him that he wanted me to see.
“What is it about you that draws my son?”
Dominic’s admission yesterday felt intimate. A confession meant for my ears only. Among those like him, it could be perceived as a weakness. He wanted to be grounded to a humanity he didn’t possess. For me to be the voice of reason and anchor him to humankind. Refusing to reveal our tacit secret, I remained silent under her continued inspection.
“This problem could be resolved by destroying the vessel and killing the Dark Caster, as he did with the others.”
“He kept him for questioning to find out if there were others.”
“When dealing with the likes of them, death is the answer. No questioning needed.”
My eyeroll was automatic. Tired of death and violence being the only answer, I wanted one person to believe in an alternative. But it was foolish of me to expect it to be the person Areleus chose to make his children. Nothing she’d said since our meeting had proven otherwise. Somehow, I remained optimistic and hopeful.
“He’s not human,” she asserted.
“I know.”
More of her narrow-eyed assessment. “Do you? He may be drawn to you for some unknown reason. He is my son. To perform his job, he needs to be cruel. Savage. Feared. People with great power and magic need a reason to abide by the rules.” She inched closer to me, studying me. “What you may perceive as unnecessary, is essential, I can assure you.”
“I am familiar with the way this world works.” Familiar enough to be saddened by the harshness of it.
“So young,” she whispered, and I knew my expression had betrayed me. As perceptive as Ileana seemed, I might as well have screamed my thoughts.
“My son will not be sacrificed to appease your need for civility,” she said, returning to the table and snatching up another strawberry. As she ate it, nothing about her seemed to signify she was a terror. A woman so feared and who harbored so much disdain for other magic wielders. Another strawberry devoured, she bit thoughtfully on a chocolate. Again, space was swallowed in a blink of an eye. She looped a strand of my hair around her finger and stared at it.
“You are pretty and you have a satisfactory body. And based on the reports from his apartment, you two find great satisfaction in one another. Hours of satisfaction.”
Why was this freaky family so open about discussing sex? Did I come from a family of prudes? How had I lived twenty-six years without my parents so brazenly discussing my sex life?
“Dominicus is no stranger to finding satisfaction in many ways with many others.” She made a face. “Human and your betters alike. But it’s the human that captures him.” The last part she mused as if she was trying to make sense of a complex riddle.
The room was fraught with a discord that needed a release.
“I’m witty.”
It spilled out as a joke, hoping to add some much-needed levity to the conversation.
Head canted, her brows drew together. “I don’t see that as being true.”
Ouch.
“Perhaps I’ll never understand the draw. But I accept that it exists. I question whether you will be a strength or weakness for my son. Know that if you are the fall of Dominicus, you will not survive the day.”
“Of course, because you can’t simply say, take care of my son the way I believe he will take care of you.”
The sensible part of me wished I’d held my tongue. As each minute ticked by, I scolded myself. When she started to speak, I expected her to respond with venom or more threats, but she didn’t. She made a choked sound I assumed was a laugh. Rusty from lack of use.
“You are a funny little creature. I see that you’ve mistaken it as wit.” She shrugged it off. “Very well.”
I wanted to debate it, but I wasn’t very funny and my wit was debatable. But I was good for a smile or two.
“Will you?” she inquired, returning to my comment about taking care of him.
“I want to,” I fumbled out, the words spilling so freely from me it felt mystical. This should have been said to him first. My feelings and intentions should have been voiced to him before sharing them with his mother. This world made everything ass backward.
“Helena betrayed him,” she acknowledged in a whisper, compassion and anger flooding her eyes along with the verdant green that eclipsed her amber eyes. A green that was then drowned by charcoal black. She was life and death. A creator of the peculiar beings that occupied her land. Through all her emotions, she seemed resigned to that being the way of her daughter. Another of her creations.
She frowned and stood. “They’ve had their share of quarrels. This one should resolve.” Her hand covered mine, confirming my assumption that this wasn’t an observation but a request for me to somehow intervene. I had no idea how I could help because I was firmly in Make-Helena-Pay-Camp. Theirs wasn’t a typical sibling quarrel. She’d stabbed her brother in the gut with every intention of stopping him permanently or hurting him to the point that he wouldn’t be an obstacle to their plans. Remembering his sorrowful look of betrayal made me resolute. I didn’t want her to die, but if he removed her magic and never returned it or made sure her remaining days were spent imprisoned in the Perils, she was deserving of it.
Ileana’s gaze moved over me in accusation, assigning blame to me for their conflict. With a forced smile she stood and headed for the exit in the opposite direction.
“Tell Dominicus that he and his creature are to meet me in my chambers at seven.”
“Luna’s fine,” I called after her. ‘His human’ was bad enough, but ‘creature’ seemed like a different level of disrespect.
Ileana made no indication that she’d heard me. Things had gone downhill fast and I had no idea how.
When I exited the suite, the panther hybrid was waiting. He flashed a grin at my handful of chocolates and me desperately trying to eat the ones I’d shoved in my mouth so I could speak.
“Hi—” I waited for a name.
“Sabin,” he offered. “I’ll escort you to the house. Dominic put up a flare when he closed the ward here and the others are a little upset. I don’t want them to take it out on you,” he told me. “They would never hurt you,” he quickly added, “but they wouldn’t think twice about using you to show their discontent.”
“Flare?”
“Yes, the ward should be sufficient, but he put up a flare as a secondary warning, giving those who choose to enter an opportunity to rethink. The queen doesn’t like visitors and it is made known.” His tone led me to believe that when you entered unindicated, you didn’t leave, and if you did, you would definitely not be in the same condition.
I was trying not to be rude and stare at the peculiar creature, but it was nearly impossible. A mishmash of human and animal was intriguing. Shifters seemed boring in comparison. He stopped walking. Smiling, he extended his arms out slowly and made a complete turn, giving me a full view of him. I took it all in, trying not to gape.
“You’re lovely,” I said. A lovely freak of nature but lovely nonetheless.
He preened. “I am.” It was apparent I wasn’t the first to give him that compliment.
“What is it like?” I asked. “Being created like this?”
“I don’t know of any other way.”
I was asking the wrong questions but had no idea which ones were right. All the information whirled in my head.
“You want to know what the recreation will be like?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Your situation is different. We were made from nothing. Your question is equivalent to you asking me to recall your birth and all that you felt. I was created like this. Not from another animal. Just a creation of her imagination. I believe you will be her first recreation. First human recreation.”
So he wasn’t formally a panther given humanoid characteristics. Panic overtook me. She’d never recreated a person. It had to be different. Taking slow measured breaths was the only thing keeping me from spiraling into a full-on panic attack. Had I agreed to be an experiment? Was Dominic overconfident in his mother’s abilities and her ego wouldn’t let her decline?
A heavy hand on my shoulder offered some comfort as the heat from it suffused through me. I hadn’t realized how cold I’d become.
“The queen would never agree to something she’d fail at. There are some benefits to dealing with people with egos of her magnitude.” His easy smile caused me to relax. Returning it, I started to walk again, desperate to find Dominic.
Sabin redirected me from the bedroom, where I’d assumed Dominic would be, to a library nicer than the one in his home. Floor-to-ceiling books on mahogany shelves embellished with molding at the top and the odd, animated flowers and vines that slithered along them provided a haunting decorative flair.
Dominic, seated in a black tuxedo chair, looked up from his book. I divided my attention between him and the fantastical range of creatures milling about and reading. Some were as beautifully intriguing as Sabin, and others were disturbing. Beauty being subjective, what I found horrifying may have intrigued others. Two people who were the human embodiment of butterflies walked by. Honey-color skin, coltish bodies, oblong faces, wings tapestries of pastels. Some of my apprehension dissipated. If I came out on the other side with cute wings, I was fine with that. Dominic’s gentle kiss to my neck drew my attention back to him.
After intensely studying me, he turned a pointed look on Sabin.
“Oh, get off and stop being so overprotective. I didn’t say anything to your Luna that would scare her away from here.” Sabin narrowed his eyes on Dominic and gave him an impish look. “Or you. So don’t be giving me any looks.” Sabin bristled with a dramatic wave of his arm. “I preferred broody and cynical rather than this infuriating overprotectiveness.”
Dominic glared. “She’s nervous about the recreation. I just wanted to ensure that the talking panther didn’t make her more so.”
He looked smug when he turned. “Myelinated jaguar, not panther,” he corrected. “I’m always correcting them.”
“You don’t have to. You choose to,” Dominic said, his expression mirroring Sabin’s.
“I live to educate,” he shot back. “There’s no such thing as a panther,” he muttered under his breath as he left with long, confident strides. Thinking that we had inadvertently offended him, I was relieved when he flashed me a grin. Sabin was odd. Marooned in the world of peculiar creatures, I couldn’t help but be amused that the thing he was finicky about was not being half panther.
“How was your meeting with my mother?”
I shrugged. “She very much belongs in your world.”
“And you don’t think you do?”
“I belong with you. I’m not sure about this world,” I admitted. He looked away, a flush creeping up his cheek. I preened. Inching closer to me, he leaned down and placed his hand on my side.
“You are very adaptable, Little Luna,” he growled as he moved his hand slightly, his thumb stroking over my breast. My nipple responded to his touch. I quickly scuttled back and glared at him. The prince didn’t like losing any control, and this was his way of wrangling a little back. Now I was the one blushing from his intimate touch in a library full of kind-of-humans. Pseudo-animals. Or whatever. “You belong wherever I am.”
The heat of his body laced around me. His lips covered mine in a deep sultry kiss.
“Your mother wants us to meet her at seven,” I breathed out when the kiss ended.
He nibbled at my ear. “Then we have time.” Taking my hand, he led me back to the apartment. As soon as we were in the room, his hand teasingly ran over my body, a delicious distraction that I refused to succumb to. I took his hand in mine and led him to the sofa where I urged him to sit.
“Helena sided with your father. That has to hurt and I’m sorry that happened.” More so because his refusal to kill me was likely the root of it. I laced my fingers with his.
A stern frown settled on his face before it unfolded into poorly restrained anger and frustration.
“There must be a reckoning for her, but my mother’s wishes will be honored.”
Helena’s life would be preserved. The flames that erupted in his eyes made it clear that only her life would be spared. The punishment would be harsh.
“Punishment or not, it has to hurt,” I said. Ileana’s words, although convoluted as hell, stuck with me. I needed to take care of Dominic in my way. Even if that was in no other way than allowing him to vent his anger about the betrayal.
“It’s not that she chose my father’s side. It is Helena’s nature to choose the side of strength.” He pressed his lips together, unable to voice what it meant. She saw a weakness in him that led her to believe that siding with her father to disrupt and destroy what Dominic had built was the winning side. After the sacrifices and accommodations Dominic made in service to her, to protect her and make sure she didn’t suffer any severe consequences for her many malicious acts, this was how she repaid him.
My lips swept lightly over his skin before making their way to his ear. “I want you to do what needs to be done to reestablish a world that will protect humans and hold supernaturals accountable if they violate the rules. I want fairness for both, and I think you do as well. Most of all, I want you to be Lord of the Underworld. By any means. I will be your anchor to make sure you never become your father, that you don’t lose yourself.”
Concessions would have to be made on both our parts. I had to accept that the world he occupied was darker, more turbulent, and handled with a ferocity that I wasn’t accustomed to. Dominic would have to see that his way may not always be the answer, but I had a feeling he’d listen and try.
I let out a sharp gasp when I found myself on my back, Dominic’s hips cradled between my legs. “Little Luna,” he rumbled against my ear, “you turned out to be an unexpected treat.”
“Maybe I’ll get some height with the recreation,” I teased. “Maybe a boost to five five, five six. Or a total giant at five seven.”
His roar of laughter possessed a lightness I wasn’t aware was possible in him. Whether it was for the moment or entirely, he had shrugged off the heaviness and tenebrous mood. “Like I said before, I want—need—you to come out of this as Luna, my Luna. I want you just the way you are.”
But I wouldn’t be just the way I was.
I’d have magic.