I was stunned. Completely. "Are you sure?" I squeaked. "The babies will be mine, with my genes and everything? Not the surrogate's or the egg donor's?"

"They will be, little mate," Connegar said, smiling at me. Okay, those blue eyes smiling at me were something to see. "We will extract a bit of your DNA and place it in the egg—afterward, it will match yours completely. Ferrigar has approved this—he says it is deserved."

"You'll get two babies, fathered by Erland and Gardevik first," Karzac had already talked to the Larentii, I could tell. "Then, if you want others, the rest of us will be happy to find surrogates and donate sperm."

"Karzac, do not kid me about this," I was standing suddenly, feeling numb. Was this true? They could do this?

"We can and will do this, if you say yes," Reemagar was smiling now, too. Both my Larentii smiling at the same time? Wow.

"Then I say yes. When can we do this?" I was so excited suddenly I was nearly vibrating.

"We will do this in two days—we will bring the surrogates then," Erland was considering coming across the table, I think, just so we could embrace. I misted to him instead.

"You're sure they don't mind?" I kissed Erland and asked questions in between.

"Love, they are very willing and the money will be well spent," Erland replied.

"Will they replace Toff in your heart?" Roff was now behind Erland.

"Honey," I started crying, then. "If I could get Toff back right this minute, I would. Nothing is ever going to fill that hole in my heart." I was kissing my winged vampire, then, and crying at the same time.

"I did not mean to upset you," I think Roff was crying with me. I could only hope that one day Toff would come back to us. I think we both clung to that hope.

"Honey, we have a right to be upset." I had my arms and my legs wrapped around Roff, and the others disappeared from the room like mist on a bright sunny day.

* * *

"Director, we have evidence that Black Mist may have scouted the planet." Vice Director Lendill Schaff had contacted Norian via comp-vid, and now they were discussing a new turn of events. "I know you wanted to investigate Trell first, but that can wait. This is more important."

Norian thought so, too. "We knew they would attempt to relocate eventually; I was hoping they'd head for Campiaa. Our spies there have been watching for them for months."

"Even those criminals wouldn't appreciate Black Mist living among them," Lendill Schaff replied. He and Norian had argued at length about placing spies on Campiaa. "Darthin is perfect for them—Black Mist prefers longer nights and shorter days for some reason. Campiaa is much too sunny."

"Do you think they intend to destroy the population on Darthin?"

"I have no idea, but they appear to be working their way through the capital city of Darthough. Murders and other crimes have certainly risen, and before this, Darthough had very little crime."

"Well, the Liaison will be available for travel in two days. We will attempt to join you there. I hope to find a reason for this and stop it before it is too late." Norian broke the communication with Lendill and sat back in his chair. He liked his office very much—Lissa had given him a better one than the closet he'd originally had. The space was quite large and had original art on the walls and a nice rug on the floor. He could spend thirty years using this office with no trouble.

* * *

"Lissa, why wouldn't you allow us in?" Thurlow actually sounded hurt. I didn't know what to do with that. Rigo looked crushed.

"Look, it was private, all right? Besides, it's not like you both couldn't hear what was going on anyway." I went to Rigo and brushed a lock of dark hair away from his face. "It'll work out. You'll see," I told him.

"Sit with me," he begged.

"All right. Where do you want to sit?"

"Come to dinner with me at New Fangled," he suggested.

"You're saying you're hungry?" I asked. I think I was smiling foolishly at him. After Thurlow had done whatever it was he'd done for Rigo—he could eat just as I could, although he still drank blood substitute most of the time.

"I could eat." Rigo was smiling, too.

"You know I've only been there once," I said, taking his arm. "And I only had blood substitute. What do they have on the menu that's good?" I folded Rigo to New Fangled.

"I am still getting used to the fact that many of your mates can transport themselves in this manner," Rigo smiled and put his arm around me as we walked through New Fangled's doors.

* * *

"My heir was actually my brother's son—my nephew," Rigo told me later over a plate of spaghetti. "My queen died in childbirth and I had no other wife. A very old vampire came to me as I was aging and voiced his worries regarding Argovarnus' penchant for self-absorption. I agreed with him and he offered vampirism as a solution, so I might guide my nephew's steps. At first I refused, but as Argo continued in his excess and his mistreatment of the population, I had no choice."

Rigo sipped his glass of wine, smiled at me and when I remained silent, he continued. "I hid myself away after my turning, only giving suggestions wrapped in compulsion, to this one or that. Until Halimel came along. He welcomed my advice and ruled wisely. Hal was my first turn. Then Rondival came, Alrenardo after that, and finally Brinelodus and Yandiveri. We formed a vampire army, too—when it was necessary to repel several takeover attempts. We became the Order of the Night Flower upon Hraede—my five vampire children and I. We often wished we could turn females, but after three failures, we no longer made the attempt. We became a living myth to the monarchs who had neither the ability nor the desire to rule wisely, and trusted advisors to the ones who had Hraede's best interests at heart. Over the years, too, we developed our poisons—the ones we used when there was no other way to eliminate evil."

I watched Rigo as he talked—he toyed with his wineglass while he told his story. "That's what happened to Satris, isn't it?" I asked.

"Tiessa, he would have been put to death here, had he not slipped through our grasp under the guise of diplomatic immunity. Therefore, two of your mates and I made sure that his sentence was carried out, by alternative means."

"I know. He took money from Solar Red and then refused to do or say anything when he knew those monsters were killing his people." I didn't add that he was responsible for Davan's death, in addition to the attempt on my life.

"Someone else will take his place in a few weeks. I hope they rule with a wiser head."

"I hope there's someone in line for the throne who has a wiser head," I grumped.

"Tiessa, that is not for you to worry about." Rigo lifted my chin in his fingers. He'd insisted we sit together in the small booth against the wall and he leaned down to kiss me. "Someday, love, you and I will be mated. I am content to wait, but do not shut me out again, I beg you," he whispered against my mouth.

* * *

"You mean you're going to lift the specimen away without going through the usual?" I couldn't bring myself to say masturbation out loud. Connegar, Reemagar, Karzac, Jeff, Joey, Franklin and Gilfraith were all there, to either help or observe.

"I will do this—we have the donated eggs already; we took DNA samples from you and the eggs have been prepared. Now we only need sperm from Erland and Gardevik," Connegar smiled. Garde and Erland were both inside the master suite of the beach house on the light half. The two surrogates were in a bedroom down the hall—as soon as the sperm was obtained and the eggs fertilized, they would be placed with Larentii power and know-how into the wombs of the surrogates. Things were happening so fast, now.

I really didn't see anything—the specimens were taken amid blinding light, somehow combined with the eggs that Connegar Pulled in from somewhere and then Connegar and the healers folded into the bedroom next door for a few minutes. I didn't even have time to pace before they were all back. "We have a successful transfer and impregnation on both surrogates," Connegar was smiling.

"Wow, honey, that's spectacular," I said, giving him a hug.

"You might repay us by spending some time together," Connegar suggested.

"Right now, you can have anything you want," I smiled back at him.

We did spend some time together—about four hours—before Norian Keef came looking for me.

"We have trouble on Darthin—my agents believe the capital city of Darthough is being infiltrated by Black Mist. This may be the vanguard for a complete takeover. That's how they took Phraxes years ago." Norian had such hope in his eyes—hope that I'd take him and see what we could discover on Darthin. His fingers itched to clutch the throats of criminals, I just knew it. And, if he could corner Black Mist, he'd like it even better.

He'd mentioned Phraxes, too; it was now a dead world, located just outside the Alliance. Phraxes was a haunted world, filled with ghosts and little else. Somehow, Black Mist had managed to kill the entire planet before relocating. The ASD had struggled to track Black Mist ever since.

"Do I need to pack?" I asked, resignation plain in my voice. Norian was determined to drag me away from Le-Ath Veronis.

"Well, since we don't know what is going on, you probably should." Norian's green eyes searched my face.

"How much are you packing?" I'd been sitting with my Larentii near the pool—we'd had sun lamps installed in case anyone wanted to use them. Normal vampires stayed away from my pool and hot tub, but Connegar and Reemagar were happily soaking up artificial sun.

"At least a week's worth," Norian replied, doing his best to hurry me without being obvious about it. He had the nervous energy about him again, as if he wanted what he wanted, at least two weeks ago.

"Fine." I got up, kissed both my Larentii and followed Norian, who was talking while he led me toward my suite. I learned the name of his main operative and second-in-command—Lendill Schaff—who would meet us on Darthin. Norian also filled me in on the numbers of murdered Darthinians, which now stood in the thousands in less than a month. I sent my mates mindspeech, telling them I might be gone for a few days. I heard quite a bit of grumbling as a result—apparently, Garde and Erland wanted to celebrate impending fatherhood. I told them we'd do it when I got back.