"What are you talking about?" Griffin turned his gaze on me.
"Mom's pregnant, that's what I'm talking about. How did that happen?"
"What?" Griffin and Amara said at the same moment.
"Check for yourself," I grumped. Griffin did a little Looking, as did Amara. Amara was shrieking and throwing herself into Griffin's arms. Wylend was beaming while Erland came to return me gently to my chair.
"Love, it is fine—Wylend needs an heir and Griffin has already declined because of his Oracle status." Erland was making sense, I knew, but really. Now two people were pregnant. I blew out a frustrated sigh.
"Are you a vampire, too?" Nima asked Erland, who was busy searching for an empty seat at the table. She was staring at the second most handsome man I'd ever met and liked what she saw, I could tell.
"I am a Karathian Warlock," he announced with an imperious wave of his hand and then laughed.
"Did you leave any for us?" Garde folded in with Jayd and Glinda, each parent holding a tiny baby. Amara went to Glinda immediately and lifted the baby girl from her arms. They sat at the table, too, and the servants soon had plates of food in front of them.
"How are the new ones working out?" I asked.
"Lissa, we only got them yesterday," Garde smiled. "I hear you were gone," he held up a hand before I could explain my unplanned stint on Falchan.
"Then eat something before you cave in," I said.
Should I tell Gavin you were shot with an arrow? Drake teased mentally.
You want me to suffer, don't you? I sent back.
"Lissa took an arrow through her arm," Drake announced. I wanted to throw my napkin at him. Maybe a few plates and the salt and pepper shakers, too.
Gavin was sitting next to me, as was Tony. "Lissa, tell me what happened," Gavin demanded, helping himself to another sausage. Drew was the one who told the story; I wasn't in the mood.
* * *
"These are the plans for the new theatre and the shopping district," Flavio unrolled architectural plans and laid them out on the conference table. I was hearing quite a bit, today. The age vote had been approved unanimously—the legal age for the comesuli had been set at twenty-nine. Then we turned to other things. The vampires wanted entertainment. They wanted work to keep them occupied and they wanted female companions.
"This just came from the Reth Alliance," Roff stepped quietly into the room and handed an envelope to me. The room went still. I opened the envelope, frightened of what it might contain.
"The High Council of the Reth Alliance has approved the application for Le-Ath Veronis to join the Alliance," I read off the first sentence of the document. The entire room of vampires cheered. Reemagar, who was there to help translate, smiled at me and gave me a hug.
* * *
"I've missed you." I brushed a lock of hair off Gavin's forehead.
Gavin was half-covering me, doing his best to convince my body to open up to his. "Lissa, my body wishes to speak with yours—intimately," Gavin growled.
"Well, you just need to move a little," I muttered. I was the one who ended up doing the moving and little Gavin slid right into home plate.
"That is what I waited for," Gavin nuzzled my neck, giving me a gentle thrust. "Oh, yes. This is what I want." He nipped my neck. Another thrust. Fangs were in my throat and I was crying out and lifting our bodies off the bed with the climax that was taking us both.
"My love. Cara mia. My beautiful rose." I went to sleep with those words whispered against my temple.
* * *"You think this could work?" I'd set up a meeting with Adam, Merrill, Erland, Gabron and many others, including Flavio and most of the Council of vampires from Earth. They all wanted in on this.
"Campiaa is not a part of the Alliance," Erland was almost crowing with excitement. He wanted this very much, I could tell. "The Alliance allows gambling, as you likely know, so this will not be a stretch for them. The ones who come to Campiaa are already used to the process of preapproval before they set foot on the planet. Gambling is all they do and they have no Alliance to oversee the payouts. The San Gerxon clan has been raking in money for centuries. I think it's time they had a little competition." He and the others wanted that competition to be on Le-Ath Veronis. They wanted to set up a gambling city on my planet.
"I will take charge of setting up the brothels," Gabron offered.
"Gabron," I slapped a hand over my face. I knew the Alliance recognized it as a legitimate business and had laws in place to protect the employees, but the thought of it made me grind my teeth.
"Lissa, only the ones desiring that profession will be allowed," Gabron said. He knew how I felt about it. He had no such qualms. "And a suitable retirement allowance is mandated by law. They will not suffer."
"Fine," I muttered. "But I want to see a list of written laws handed to me in the next two weeks, protecting everyone involved, from the employees to the vampires to the gamblers. I do not want a criminal element to establish itself on Le-Ath Veronis. I swear I will lop off heads myself if that happens. Do you hear me?"
"Lissa, we feel the same. That is why Erland, Adam and I wish to move our casinos here and shut down what we have on Campiaa. Our casinos have become very popular with the gamblers because the payouts are better and we treat the guests better. The San Gerxons screw everybody." That word, coming from Merrill's mouth surprised me greatly. He winked at me. He knew and had probably used the word deliberately.
"Are these casinos going to have hotels attached? And are they going to be here in Lissia?" That was my next question.
"I propose we open a new township, just west of Lissia." Dragon and Crane had come along—they wanted in as well. Dragon made the suggestion.
"We can build a transit system, to take guests to the light side of the planet, if they wish to spend time on the beach," Crane said. "More casinos can be built there. I believe both will thrive—this side because of the vampire element—the sunny side because of the lack of the vampire element."
"You've thought of everything." Charles slapped Dragon on the back. Well, they'd all been discussing this. And I had a feeling they had an ulterior motive in setting up casinos on Le-Ath Veronis. I sighed.
"A few other casino owners from Campiaa wish to build and invest here, if we do this," Erland went on. "I have already priced work crews and I believe we might be able to forego the cost of transporting materials." Of course, he could say that, since members of the Saa Thalarr were interested in building and Erland was no slouch in the power department. They could bring in supplies in a blink if they wanted. And put up buildings in a blink, too, if they wanted.
"Well, Roff might have a built-in market for his oxberry wine," I sighed. Alcohol generally flowed freely in any casino.
"Raona." Roff was nodding and beaming at me. I would have reached out for his hand if he weren't sitting across such a wide table at the moment. He was looking forward to this, I could tell.
"And Garde and Jayd can have a market for all their exports," Charles said. "In fact, we may be able to hire a few High Demons to work the light side casinos. I wonder if they'd be interested."
"I wish to be in charge of the Entertainers who come to perform," Susila spoke up. I lifted my head to look at her—she was down the table, sitting next to Oluwa. His smile was huge and flawless. "I would like to work with Susila," he said.
"Fine. You get to be in charge of that. Is somebody writing all this down?" I was about to get a headache. I was just as aware as the next person that Le-Ath Veronis needed entertainment, but even I hadn't gone in this direction. Now everybody, including the Saa Thalarr and Heads of Councils, wanted to turn Le-Ath Veronis into a gambling mecca.
"That headache is there because lunchtime has come and gone," Kiarra sat between Adam and Merrill but hadn't spoken before now.
"Okay, we need to do something about that," I sighed. Roff went to the door and shouted for someone to go to the kitchens for us.
We hammered out more details over plates of fruit, vegetables and turkey sandwiches, while the vampires enjoyed bottles of blood substitute. I had a bottle with my sandwich. It actually tasted good. Merrill was suggesting that we set up a method whereby any vampire might invest in the venture. Charles agreed.
"Then I wish to purchase shares for all the vampires from Beliphar," I said. "They came to us with nothing, although they deserved more. They have been little more than slaves for a very long time. This will be my gift to them."
"I'd like to contribute," Kiarra nodded. "I'll sell off a bit of Tiralian crystal for this." She could do that—she actually owned the deserted planet of Tiralia and had it warded, so any new crystal that was mined was hers to sell or give away.
"I'm getting all this down, Aunt Lissa," Kyler was off in the corner, acting as my chief of staff. She was recording the entire meeting on a handheld computer device. "And we're already being swamped with requests from Alliance vampires who wish to relocate here."
"I know it's not good for the environment, but can I get hard copies on all those requests?" I sat up taller in my chair so I could see my niece in the corner.
"I'll have them ready for you tomorrow," Kyler grinned. My nieces weren't gorgeous or anything.
"The Wolf contingent wants in on this." Weldon, Martin and Mack all appeared. Wlodek scooted over so Weldon could take a seat. Flavio moved things around so Martin and Mack could sit down. If anybody else showed up, I wasn't sure where we could put them. Of course, others showed up. Lynx, Will and Russell appeared as if they'd been called.
"All right, if there's more mindspeech to send out, do it now, so we'll know how many chairs to bring in," I said. I went to the door this time, motioning for Roff to remain seated. The room was extremely crowded now—even Glendes Grey, Eldest of Grey House, had come with Shadow, and I think every one of the Saa Thalarr were there, with their healers and Spawn Hunters.