Blood War

* * *



"Lissa, if you will hold still, I will heal this gash." Karzac was at his grumpy best as he worked to heal the wound on my thigh. That's all my attacker had been able to touch before Gavin sliced him to shreds. He'd only reached me to begin with because I'd tried to get to one of the women before she died.



"How's Roff," I asked, instead of grumbling back at Karzac. Roff, Flavio and Radomir had been surrounded by rogue Council members. Flavio and Radomir had no trouble fending off attackers, but Roff had been knocked down and deeply clawed. Without even thinking about it, Radomir had dropped to his knees, given permission and then offered Roff blood. Roff was now sleeping the eight hours it would take for Radomir's Saa Thalarr blood to bring the changes to his vampire body. I'd wanted to offer blood to Roff if he ever returned to me. Radomir had done it instead. I sighed.



"Roff is very well. I believe Franklin is with him, checking for additional wounds."



"Do you think Radomir's blood will bring back his memories?"



"Lissa, you are wounded, sixty-four vampires are dead including sixteen females, your Council chambers are in shambles and you're worrying about Roff's memories?"



"Thanks for the wake up, honey," I muttered sarcastically. "I was trying not to think of what the media is going to make of this. This makes the riot on Serendaan look like a schoolyard brawl."



"Serendaan's King deserved the blow he took. And the fight that came after." Light formed around Karzac's fingers as he touched my thigh. I didn't want to look while he worked—I'd done it once and the flaps of skin hanging from the wound made me want to blow chunks. "I trust you've canceled Council meetings until tempers are calmed and the chambers can be repaired?"



"I'll take care of it," I sighed. "I want to take a look at our prisoners, too. We'll move the trials up to the next Council meeting. Gavin, Aryn and Aurelius are questioning all of them now."



"Your Falchani and your wolf are also in the dungeons, and your wolf is, well, a wolf. I believe he's growling at the prisoners, too."



"You don't think he should?"



"As long as he removes no vital body parts until judgment is passed, I think I can live with it," Karzac replied. He knew, as did I, that Winkler had taken down at least two vampires inside my Council chamber. As a Spawn Hunter, he no longer had to undress to become wolf. He'd gone to his wolf and that wolf had snapped heads off two vampires who'd just murdered their wives.



"I can't believe they all went crazy like that," I tossed up a hand.



"Lissa, please stop moving about. It makes it difficult to heal shredded skin."



"Fine," I mumbled. "Did I take you away from something? You don't usually dress in a suit." I focused on what Karzac was wearing for a moment.



"Devin, Grace and I took Kevis to Refizan for his naming ceremony."



"Oh, Karzac, why didn't you stay there? Somebody else could patch me up." I reached out to touch his cheek—his head was bent over my wound as I lay on the bed inside my suite.



"Dragon has promised to bend time to get me back for the ceremony. I will miss nothing."



"That doesn't make this right. Call Frankie or Shane. They can fix me up. Go on, shoo." I was moving my hand again, making Karzac's frown deeper as he worked.



"What in the name of the first Warlock happened?" Erland strode into my bedroom and he didn't look particularly happy. That was unusual—Erland didn't anger easily.



"A bunch of wife-killing vampires plus a few of their closest collaborators, that's what happened. Erland, will you call another healer so Karzac can go back to Kevis' naming ceremony?" I begged Erland to do something. Karzac wasn't happy. Actually, I'd settle for not happy. Karzac was seriously grumpy.



"Healer, she is more upset than she sounds." Kifirin had arrived. "You are not helping. I will deal with the wound."



Karzac looked up and raked Kifirin with green-gold eyes that weighed and measured before he nodded and folded away. It was a relief, actually.



Erland stepped away but stayed inside my suite, preferring to remain silent as Kifirin touched my thigh with gentle fingers, healing in a blink what Karzac had struggled to cure. "Lissa, you and I know that you could have done nothing other than what you did inside the Council chamber," Kifirin admonished. Well, he knew if the others didn't. "If you are not energy, you cannot prevent things such as this. Trying while in your corporeal body would have destroyed it."



"And bending time to bring back the dead is interference. I know," I sighed.



"We must have permission for those things," Kifirin agreed, brushing hair back from my face. I brought my eyes to his, knowing I would see stars in their dark depths. I wasn't wrong.



I existed in a paradox. If I turned to energy and left my corporeal body behind, I held a great deal of power. When my spirit was stuffed inside a corporeal body, I had a corporeal body's limitations. Did it irritate me? Irritate is much too tame a word. At times, it infuriated me. And the knowledge that Kifirin was the only mate I could keep if I left my corporeal body behind had me holding onto it—dearly.



Yes, I carried my body as mist at times when I went to energy, but if I wanted to expend any of that energy, I had to set my body down somewhere and concentrate on what I wanted to do. I sure didn't need an unconscious body lying on the floor of my Council chamber while I took care of business. Bryan's cameras had recorded the whole incident anyway. The entire Alliance didn't need to know that my body was vulnerable at times.



"We lost sixteen female vampires." Those were precious and rare lives—all wasted.



"My love, do not allow this to worry you. These lives will return."



"Kifirin, they deserved justice in this life. Not the next," I grumped, wiping away the first tear. I'd forced myself not to cry. Until now.



* * *



"How are you feeling, child?" Flavio sat on the edge of Roff's bed. After Roff was knocked down and clawed by a rogue vampire, Radomir removed the attacker's head and then quickly offered his blood to heal Roff. Roff wasn't sure what it meant when Radomir gave formal permission for him to take blood, but the blood had been the best he'd tasted. He'd been extremely sleepy afterward, even amid the battle raging inside the Council chambers. Once it was over and the brief rebellion quelled, Radomir helped put Roff to bed, explaining that he'd sleep for eight hours. Now, Roff was waking and his sire was asking how he felt.



"I feel very well, father," Roff politely covered a yawn. "Perhaps a little hungry."



"Good. Come with me; we'll see if you can eat solid food, now."



"Father?" Roff was confused. As a vampire, he'd learned that solid food made him ill.



"Radomir's blood may have brought about changes, child. We'll see." Flavio urged him to get out of bed. Roff rose, slipped into a shirt and pants, then folded wings tightly against his body and followed his vampire sire to the kitchen. Flavio's comesula cook was there, preparing breakfast.



"Try this," Flavio handed a plate of pancakes to Roff. Roff recognized them; thick, sweet syrup would go over the pancakes. He remembered the sweet taste from before, but he doubted they'd taste good now.



"Go ahead, try them," Flavio coaxed. Roff poured warmed syrup over his pancakes and cut off a small bite. The sweetness hit him immediately and he moaned in pleasure.



"Father, these are excellent," Roff sat down at the small kitchen table and dug in. Flavio got a plate for himself and joined his youngest at breakfast.



* * *



"Lissa, wake, my darling." Only one of my mates woke me like that—Erland had spent the night. After Kifirin placed me in a healing sleep. The schmuck.



"Erland, please tell me I can fold away and not come back for months," I mumbled as he kissed and stroked my hair.



"Sadly, you cannot. I have received mindspeech from Gavin and Anthony. Your prisoners are demanding to see you."



"Great." I forced my eyes open. "They think they still have rights, don't they? Has the entire Alliance seen what happened inside my Council chambers yesterday?" I blinked up at Erland's handsome face. I still didn't understand how he managed to look so good after a full night's sleep. I looked like a rumpled mess every morning.



"And most worlds outside the Alliance have witnessed your debacle. Certainly those with any sort of signal-receiving technology. Your grandfather has already offered to send Warlocks if you want your prisoners to suffer before their beheading. He found the murders of those poor women appalling."



"Tell Em-pah to hold off, although it's tempting." Erland leaned back to allow me to sit up in bed. "But those murderous assholes can wait until after we've had breakfast."



"They will undoubtedly wait until after breakfast," Erland agreed and insisted on carrying me to the shower.



* * *



"If you will bathe and dress, we will visit the Queen this morning," Flavio informed Roff. "I believe the flowers you sent her should arrive before we do."



"I sent the Queen flowers? Father, why would I do that?" Roff’s brow furrowed in puzzlement.



"Child, do you not remember her—again?"



"Did I remember her?"



"Oh, my child, she will be horribly disappointed," Flavio sighed.



* * *



"My Queen, these came for you." Grant placed a vase of flowers on the table beside my plate.



Lissa, have you received flowers? Mindspeech came from Flavio as I was admiring the arrangement of roses and lilies.



Just now, I returned. Did you send them?



No. Roff sent them yesterday. When he still recalled who you were. Now he has no memory of you again.



"Fuck," I muttered, causing everyone at the breakfast table to look up.



"What’s wrong?" Winkler asked.



"Radomir’s blood didn’t help Roff’s memory. He’s back where he was when he first woke as vampire. He has no idea who I am. Again." I tossed my napkin onto half-eaten food. Rolfe had kept Giff away from breakfast with all of us—she’d been very upset over Roff’s wounding the day before. The baby would come soon, too; her baby pouch was getting larger every day. I was glad she didn’t have this information to add to the stress she was already experiencing. As for me—I wanted to weep. Roff had sent me flowers the day before, which might have meant something. Today, he didn’t know me again.