King Hall (Forever Evermore 1)

Jack took a step forward. “I actually don’t know. King Fergus has been listing location after location trying to get me to decide, but I haven’t given him a solid answer.”

Pearl flopped on Ezra’s bed with a CD clutched in her hand, which she had grabbed behind Jack’s back while he had been talking. “I haven’t decided, either. Gideon’s been hounding me about it, but,” her eyes darted to all of us, “I can’t decide.” Those golden eyes landed on me. “What about you?”

“Assuming I can do an Awakening?” Her eyes rolled at my question, although, her forehead crinkled in worry as she nodded. Sighing heavily and pushing away any of those fears, I answered, “I haven’t picked a place.” I nuzzled my forehead deeper against the crook of Ezra’s warm neck, feeling his pulse beat against my forehead. “King Kincaid keeps going on about staying here in New York, but I haven’t told him yes or no.”

Biting my lips, I hesitated, and then blurted, “I just can’t imagine living away from you guys. Having all those simpering subjects surrounding me. They’re good people, but I can’t even have a simple conversation with them. They just agree with everything I say because of who I am.” I shook my head under Ezra’s chin. “That doesn’t sound at all pleasant. At least you and Jack have Gideon and Nikki. Ezra and I have no one. We’ll be stuck with a bunch of brown nosers.”

Unfortunately, it was a dangerous game to ask anything else from our subjects. We were the Law. So, brown nosers they had to be. Not my fault, nor theirs. It just was the way it was. The way it had to be.

Jack sat on the bed, his hand inching toward the CD in Pearl’s hand. “You’re forgetting that Nikki — after she graduates — and Gideon will be traveling quite a bit for a while, being our eyes and ears and making contacts we can’t.” Again, that came from us being who we were. Their mates had their roles, too. “We’ll be in the same situation as you two, in the beginning.” His fingers landed on the edge of the CD, Pearl not noticing.

We sat in silence, all of us detesting our fate. There was no stopping it. We were going to be ripped away from each other a few weeks after graduation when we had to choose.

I whispered, “Maybe, we can choose locations close to one another.”

Ezra half cleared his throat/half grunted, the sound odd enough that Jack stopped trying to steal the CD to glance at him as I lifted away a smidge to see his face. Hesitantly, Ezra stated, “I might have an idea for what we’re all dreading, but it’s a bit…radical…for the Mys community. It would also depend on how we each plan to rule our subjects.”

“Ooh,” Pearl did a fake shiver, “I love radical.” All kidding aside, she was watching him just as intently as Jack and me.

“We aren’t leaving immediately after graduation, and we still need to see if,” Ezra patted my hip, “Lily can do an Awakening, so I propose we wait until graduation night to have this discussion. Once we’re through with King Hall completely and have more freedom to do as we want, we’ll sit down and I’ll tell you my thoughts.”

Jack rubbed his chin. “We wait until after graduation to tell the Kings where we’re setting up shop?”

“That would probably be wise if you’re interested in hearing me out.”

I gawked. “You’re thinking about all of us living under one roof, aren’t you?”

His lips pursed, and he tilted his head back against the top of his circular chair, staring at his dark ceiling. “That would be part of it, but it would have to be a massive roof and be in more than one location worldwide. It could benefit our subjects in ways the previous Rulers never even contemplated because of their lack of connection, a connection which the four of us have.” His face slanted back to our shocked ones. “Like I said, it would be radical. There are a lot of different factors we would have to think about, but,” another pat on my hip, “we need to make sure we aren’t dealing with other issues before we really consider this.”

Silence.

What he was proposing was a first. It could either cause a rebellion or cause unity. It was a formidable line to cross if we chose to be as progressive as that. Like he had said, it was an idea no other four Rulers had ever contemplated, because they had kept themselves separate from one another, which seemed ludicrous to me now. How they hadn’t jumped at the chance to have a bond like ours was beyond me.

In the extended quiet, Pearl whispered, “That’s ballsy.”

“Yes.” Ezra cracked his neck. The action had my gaze landing there. His pulse. “It is. Just think about it until graduation, and then, if we want to discuss it more, we can.” He paused before adding quietly, “If you don’t want to, I won’t think poorly of you. Of any of you. It makes me anxious and I was the one to come up with it.” His face turned in my direction, although, that wasn’t what I was eyeballing. “On that note, we’ll put this subject on hold, which is perfect timing because I do believe Lily’s got a craving.”

His pulse thumped so deliciously under his skin, I licked my lips. “Yeah.”

“Well,” Jack stood, “I’m thirsty and hungry, but not for,” he gagged, “what she wants. I’m going to see if Nikki wants to eat.”

“Same here,” Pearl said, standing. “It’s your day, anyway.” Always careful with words in a Vampire’s home.

Ezra nodded. “I know.” As they started moving across the room, he advised, “Don’t eat a lot. The King loves a sit-down political dinner when guests are here. The cook probably has something special planned.”

They agreed not to eat the entire pantry — right now — and left us alone.

“Here or my bed?” Ezra whispered softly.

I debated, my eyes never leaving his pulse. “The bed would be better for you.”

He easily lifted me in his arms as he stood. Sitting on the bed, he lay back completely.

Moving like clockwork, I straddled him as he tilted his chin back and to the side. His arms rested around me as I lowered, and I gently placed my tongue against his throat, feeling his pulse throb. Breathing in deeply, I sighed — he was my favorite flavor of my three donors.

He chuckled, barely breathing, “Drink up.”

My fangs already descended, I bit into his flesh, his blood pouring into my mouth. Groaning softly as the spice of his blood slid over my tongue, I pulled, instantly sending him serenity, and his arms started to go slack, but his fingers hooked into the belt loops on my pants, so they didn’t completely fall as I drank from him softly, but greedily.