"This is your race, too, Lissa; you are just new to it. Most vampires will accept that they don't have any chance with you and leave it at that if you do not wish to see them."
"And the others?"
"Vampires are unpredictable at times. And the older they are, the more likely that may surface. The Council has been in place for six hundred years. Many of our race are much older than that and did not accept the new law graciously. Those may be the ones to watch for."
"You're not making me feel better about any of this," I burrowed against his chest.
"I don't wish to frighten you," he said, pulling his arms tighter around me. "I should not have said anything."
"What if I don't want anyone?" My words were spoken against his chest, causing Gavin to go still for a moment.
"Then that may be your choice, but the Council's decision may be otherwise. Lissa, I am begging you now to give me a chance. Give me a little time, angel. Then tell me if you don't want to see me again." His fingers were stroking my hair. "I cannot tell you what I would give to go back to the night when I kissed and drank from you. I'd never had the opportunity to taste a female of our race. Your blood was so sweet, love. You gave yourself so willingly to my kiss; you trusted me at that moment. Now, that is all destroyed and I must rebuild it if I can."
"Gavin, if you hadn't chained me to the chair on that jet, or at least reassured me a little or told me where we were going, even, that might have gone a long way. But you didn't. I may never trust another vampire in my life. Not ever." I crawled out of his lap. We were done for the evening, he and I.
I saw him to the door; he turned to me as he was walking out. "Do we have some time, Lissa? Will you see me during that time so I may attempt to rebuild your trust?"
"Gavin, you have no idea how much I'd like to trust someone. To tell them what my worries and concerns are, ask them stupid questions and not have them look at me like I'm an idiot or something. I don’t think that's possible." His face turned gray at my words. "That doesn't mean I won't give you a little time," I sighed. "I'll give you a little time. I'll give us a little time. Goodnight, Gavin." I shut the door on him.
* * *
Franklin was coming downstairs for all his meals now and said he would be more than happy to take over his normal duties in another week. I handed him a bowl of beef stew and crackers. We talked while he and Lena sat there eating. "I never thought about putting pasta or rice in my beef stew," Franklin said. "This is really good."
"My mother put everything except the kitchen sink in her stew. I always liked the pasta and rice. The trick is, just don't go overboard with it. A little will do of each."
Merrill wandered in while they were eating and I was cleaning the kitchen. "Wlodek wishes to see you," he said when I straightened up after putting the stew pot in the dishwasher.
I wanted to mutter something long-suffering such as "not again," but didn't. I wouldn't be able to tell Wlodek no, no matter what it was that he wanted. "Let me go change," I said, wiping my hands on a kitchen towel.
I'd never seen Wlodek in anything except a suit and tie. If the man wore jeans, I probably wasn't destined to see it. Merrill also dressed most of the time but I did see him upon occasion in slacks and a nice pullover. Jeans, too, once in a while. Therefore, I dressed nicely for this occasion, in a calf-length silk dress. I hoped I wouldn't be running across the English countryside as I slipped into low-heeled sandals. The dress was a deep green; one of my favorite colors next to blue. I even wore my gold hoop earrings, one of the two pairs I actually owned. Merrill was waiting for me at the door when I was ready, and we went out to the garage together. He drove the Bentley, and it was a pleasure to ride in that luxury.
"You look beautiful, Lissa," Merrill said when he opened my door and helped me out of the car roughly half an hour later.
"Thanks," I said and followed him to the door of Wlodek's manor. Rolfe let us in as usual; Charles stood behind Rolfe, waiting to take us to Wlodek's office. Wlodek was busy signing papers when we walked in and didn't glance up for several seconds. For a moment, I wondered if he were signing termination papers on anyone before shoving that thought aside. Eventually Wlodek laid his pen aside and turned his attention to Merrill and me; we were sitting in the two chairs before his desk.
"Something came up missing recently," he said, in lieu of a greeting.
If I'd been talking to Don, I would have said automatically, "I'm innocent, as usual," and given him a smile. The Head of the Vampire Council, however, was as far removed from Don as I could possibly get. Instead of explaining what that something was, Wlodek lifted a paper from his desk and handed it to Merrill, who glanced at it briefly, raised his eyebrows slightly and then passed the paper over to me. It was a photograph of the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara and the Spencer family tiara. Holy crap.
"It has come to my attention that these items may be somewhere in France," Wlodek went on. "Lissa, I desire that you to fly to Paris with Russell and Radomir. While there, I wish for you to learn if these items are indeed where we think and retrieve them if you can. They will be returned to their rightful owners if you are successful."
There was only one reason I could see that Wlodek, Head of the Vampire Council, would involve two Enforcers and a mister in the theft of two tiaras and that was if they were stolen by a vampire in the first place. And the fact that he wasn't intending to bring the vampire in for doing this meant that the vampire had to be important and the whole thing was probably going to be hushed up. Great. This involved vampire politics and intrigue, and I was being shoved into the middle of it.
Merrill asked the question before I could. "When?" he inquired.
"Tomorrow evening. Have her at the airport at nine."
"Very well," Merrill nodded.
"The annual meeting is also approaching," Wlodek said, flipping his gold pen in his fingers.
"I will be there," Merrill said, sounding as if that might be the last thing he wanted to do.
"I expect you to be there," Wlodek agreed. "I also expect you to bring Lissa. See that she is dressed appropriately for the ball. You look lovely tonight, my dear." He turned to me and almost smiled.
"Thank you, Honored One," I did what I'd seen some of the others do, dipping my head a little. No sense pissing off the King of the Vampires.
Charles hugged me before I got out the door, telling me he intended to call sometime so we could see a movie when I got back. I grinned at him and told him I'd look forward to it. I hadn't gone to a movie since I'd seen one with Winkler, Gavin and the werewolf bodyguards in Corpus Christi. It seemed a lifetime ago, although it was only a bit over three months.