* * *
"I don't care how much it costs; I just need a room with a spa tub in it." Yeah, I looked like crap and the desk clerk at the five-star hotel was giving me shit, questioning me about whether I wouldn’t be happier at the three-star hotel down the street. I was in New York and just about to jerk the dickhead over the desk and give him compulsion he would never forget. He took my credit chip that still hung on a chain around my neck, gulped when he saw the rating after scanning it on his computer and gave me a room double quick. I got my chip back, took the key and got the hell away from him as fast as I could.
Soaking in the jetted tub helped a little, but I had trouble getting in and out of it. Garde's bite had made me stiff and achy everywhere and I wondered briefly if aspirin would help but ended up abandoning that idea—vampires tended to be impervious to drugs.
* * *
"Where is she?" Tony demanded. Garde had gone to Le-Ath Veronis, hoping Lissa had come home.
"I don't know," Garde sat down heavily at the dinner table. Giff was having a meltdown, as was Roff, although he was attempting to calm his oldest child. Gabron was cursing under his breath and Gavin refused to leave his suite.
"Come, my friend, you cannot do this." Erland folded into Gavin's suite.
"She doesn't like this whole thing," Gavin muttered. "The brothels, the casinos, all of it. We are pushing her and she is consenting to it, to please the rest of us."
"She knows the planet is more than just her," Erland sat next to Gavin on Gavin's sofa.
"But shouldn't a part of it be about her? If she were not here, there would be no Le-Ath Veronis. Tell me this is not so."
"So we are going forward with this and not including her, is that what you mean?"
"I believe so. All of this is quite exciting to the vampires, but we failed to look at it from one perspective, and perhaps two. How do the comesuli see this? We have not given them a vote."
"Why are you bringing this up now?" Erland was puzzled.
"I overheard the kitchen staff talking this afternoon—I went there for something to eat after Lissa left abruptly and I heard them long before they knew I was approaching. Many of them are frightened that we will treat them as the High Demons treated them—working for those who will come, with little or no compensation. They are satisfied with what they are earning now and the Queen is making sure they are paid, but with the influx of visitors that many of the vampires are talking of, they expect to be treated once again as second-class citizens or worse. And it made me wonder just how it is they will be treated. I had taken no thought for this before."
"But I thought many of the vampires were forging relationships with them."
"Some of them have their favorites, but it is not the same as full sex, as you see. That was something else they were discussing—that the pleasure houses will take their vampires away because the women and men will offer their vampires more than the comesuli can provide. They worry that they will only provide a warm meal, now and then and mean nothing more to the vampires." Gavin had been spending the evening thinking about this, Erland could tell.
"Under normal circumstances, the comesuli would have been the vampire's family—their children, cousins and future vampires. That connection will come in time, but is not in place as yet." Erland was thinking this through for himself. "And we have not hammered out the amount of taxes to be collected for the crown from this venture. I currently pay the San Gerxons a full twenty-five percent and still make a good profit. Lissa will not demand anything close to that, but it will be necessary to maintain Le-Ath Veronis."
"I heard that Gabron paid fifteen percent to the Refizani government—it was a luxury tax as decreed by the Reth Alliance, because he did not provide what is considered a vital service. Only the businesses providing basic needs were taxed less—food, housing, clothing and medical care."
"Yes, and the Alliance will be expecting their percentage—for membership," Erland agreed. "It was two percent, the last I heard."
"It is two and a half," Gavin replied. "To maintain the Alliance army and things of that nature. I asked Wlodek about this already."
"We are still no closer to finding a solution for Lissa and the comesuli," Erland observed.
"I know," Gavin acknowledged.
* * *
The vid screen covered an entire wall in my hotel room and I was watching something that made no sense at all. I muted the sound; I no longer wanted to hear it. It was something to distract me and nothing more. I hurt. So much that I contemplated calling for Karzac anyway. I don't know who had called him to begin with, but at least he had come."Lissa, I do not know if you want me here, but I wanted to come."
Reemagar was suddenly there in my hotel room, sitting on the end of my bed. I was huddled against the padded headboard, dressed only in the robe the hotel provided for its guests.
"I'm not good company right now. I don't feel so good," I muttered.
"I know this," he folded next to me and placed large blue hands on my body, taking the pain away easily and trilling to me while he did so. "Lissa Beth, I've missed you so," he soothed, in between trilling. His words made me go still, and then I shivered. "I only wanted to hold you again," he whispered. "You don't have to take me back if you don't want to."
Why hadn't I seen it before? Connegar had been René once. Now I had my first love back, as a Larentii. Don deserved that if anyone did.
"Did someone want to give me the best gift ever?" I asked, nearly sobbing.
"Shhh, don't cry, my love," my tears were wiped away by large blue thumbs. "See, I am better at this, now," he was trying to smile at me.
"I missed you so much," I almost threw myself into his arms. He cradled me against him and trilled again. Light formed around him and I knew he was healing my body while he held me. His eyes were closed in bliss while he did this. I felt so good and so free I could have flown afterward.
Chapter 8
There was quite a stir in the meeting when Reemagar and I showed up together the following morning. He'd stayed the night with me in the hotel room. I'd Pulled clothing in to dress, after he enlarged the spa tub and let me lean against him while the water bubbled around us. Connegar had folded in and smiled at both of us. He'd known, the little devil. Well, not so little, since he was nine and a half feet tall. He'd sat on the edge of the tub and trilled for Reemagar and me. Yeah, I loved my Larentii.
"Lissa, where have you been?" Gabron was upset, I could tell. Well, so was I. And Gardevik, the slime, who knew where he was?
"Before we get started today," I announced, "I want to make a proclamation. The palace will be moved when the casinos and brothels open. I will move it myself, if I have no volunteers to help."
That caused a stillness throughout the room.
"Lissa, what are you saying?" Gabron didn’t want to dress me down in front of the Council.
"I'm saying I don't want to be anywhere near this," I said. "I have no desire to see the comesuli treated like slaves or children. I have no desire to see pictures of my palace on T-shirts and coffee mugs. Go ahead and turn my planet into a circus if you want, I just don't want to see it on my front doorstep when I wake up in the morning."
"Lissa, that is not our intention." Adam and Merrill showed up in a flash of light. Flavio must have sent them mindspeech.
"That's easy for you to say, you don't live here," I pointed out. "Imagine a casino in your front yard, Merrill. Tell me how the comesuli will be treated. The tourists will be coming to see vampires. The comesuli are my family. I will not have them mistreated. They are already frightened by the brothels being built, thinking the pleasure workers will entice their vampires away. How will you calm their fears, Gabron?" I turned to my Refizani vampire mate. "Who will be training the pleasure workers, Gabron?" He knew I knew, when his eyes met mine.
"We can control the visitors into the capital city," Adam offered. "We will make it so they must apply for a permit to visit. The casino city will be ten miles west of Lissia and we can offer day passes to those who wish to visit. You may reject any of those, if you wish."
"Adam, I have no desire to sit at my desk and go over hundreds of requests daily," I said. "Select one day a week when tours may be arranged. I will most likely be out of town on that day."
"What has precipitated this?" Gabron asked. He wanted to tell me I was acting foolishly—I could see it in his face.
"Am I Queen of Le-Ath Veronis or not?" I asked. "Am I Queen of all its inhabitants and not just the vampires? When you build this, tell me that I will not become a laughing stock—Queen of the casinos and brothels. A figurehead only, while all of you make the decisions. I will not be put on display while tourists snap photographs of me to transmit to their colleagues at home."
Jeral stood near the back of the room. "I do not believe it was our intention to upset the Queen," he said. "The Belipharan vampires are grateful for the comesuli who live among us, now. They have become like family in such a short amount of time. I cannot imagine that we would treat them as less, even if we do seek the pleasure houses."
"I thought you were moving into the palace," I said.
"Davan and I are making arrangements with help from our brother, my Queen. We are working with my associates to ensure a smooth transition." He sat down again.
"My Queen," another vampire stood, near the middle of the room. "You will never be a figurehead to me. When two others and I came to you three months ago, we were not turned away at the door as we expected to be. We were ushered directly into your study and we discussed vacation time for the workers. You told me then that you had already considered it and showed us several plans. You also informed us that the Reth Alliance planets might be possible destinations if we desired to travel off world. Then you took my two colleagues and me to visit the space station, which was being built. I was shocked that the Queen would take time to do this for us."