HARMONY PUSHED HER GLASSES UP ON her nose with a single finger when I entered our offices. “Good morning, your majesty.”
I had to admit. It was odd seeing this elusive killer sitting behind a desk. I wondered when that newness would wear off—for both of us.
“Good morning. Did you get the text I just sent you?” I asked as I opened the door to my office behind hers, waiting for her answer.
“I did. I’ve already sent in a request for our record keeper to see me today.” A piece of her brown shoulder-length hair was caught on her black round glasses, but she didn’t notice. Or didn’t care. The once human had never cared about her appearance in all the time I’d known her. “Is there a reason why you want to know what was marked down for Lord Belshazzar during his crowning? Do I need to be watching for something particular?”
I turned to face her. “You can’t lie during a crowning. Otherwise, your crowning isn’t legal. King Niallan’s answer of S’Kir threw me, and I don’t like being surprised like that. If my memory’s correct, Lord Belshazzar’s from a place called Ota’ano. I want you to double check that I’m correct on the official document. If I am, I want you to run a search for that town throughout history. I want any information you can find on it.”
Her brown eyes blinked behind those horrible glasses. “I already started researching because that’s what I heard too. So far, it’s pulled up nothing.”
My brows scrunched. “Nothing? Even with technology as it is now?”
“Absolutely nothing so far.” She shook her head.
I ran my fingers through my hair in agitation—and confusion. “All right. You may need to ask a vampire historian, but do it quietly if you do.”
“I already have a call out.”
I chuckled softly. “Of course, you do. When will you have the information for me?”
She hummed in thought. “Probably by dinner.” Harmony lifted her cell phone from her desk and tapped on it. My own cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Her brown eyes met mine. “And you now have all the information I could find on the attack while you were at Cape Argent. It’s…not good.”
“Thank you.” I had actually expected the details sooner from her since one of her skillsets was in information. “I take it the file is extensive?”
“It is. That’s why it took me so long. It goes deeper than even I thought.” Her sigh was worried. Very un-Harmony-like. “You have your work cut out for you, your majesty.”
A war was coming. Which I already knew.
I nodded once, gazing off to the side.
I was already on to another thought.
I walked back toward her desk and pointed at her computer. “I have another assignment for you. I want a list of Lord Belshazzar’s previous paramours. All of them. Is that something you can find online?”
Her eyes flickered between mine.
A smile spread across her small features.
I snorted. “Don’t look too much into it, Harmony. I’m simply curious about the eldest Overlord.”
“Sure you are,” she drawled, and turned to her computer. My assistant started tapping on her keyboard at lightning speed. “You and the rest of the single vampires out there looking for an amazing fuck. I’ve heard he is, by the way, if you’re wondering.”
Thank God her back was turned to me.
I was pretty sure I flashed a little fang there.
I cleared my throat. “Anyway, is that something you can find online? Or will it take some snooping on your part.”
“No, it’s pretty much all here. Even with photos and historical information. Though there may be a few that slipped through the cracks of the Royal fans.” She tapped once more with finality, then pointed at her screen and turned her attention back to me. “See? Some crazy even made a website just for him. You have one too, which I’m sure you already know. All the Royals do.”
“Hmm.” I bent at the waist and used her keyboard to flip through the pages of Lord Belshazzar’s fan page. There were, indeed, hundreds of photos of him with other vampires. Some were innocent enough while others caught him in a liplock with women and men. I cleared my throat again and straightened, attempting to keep my expression blank. “I want you to cross-reference all of these people with anything work related happening at that time. I only want a list of the ones who didn’t have business here.”
“So his fuck buddies, purely for pleasure?”
“Exactly. And I want it soon.” I turned on my heel and moved toward my office. But I stopped dead in my tracks, finally seeing what was inside my open office. I gawked. “What in the flying fuck is all that?”
Harmony snickered behind me, bending over on her chair to peer into my office along with me. “That, your majesty, is all of the files on the current laws against vampire women that you asked for.”
My mouth bobbed while I stood stumped.
She waggled her finger, darting it in a zigzagging pattern. “I left you a path through the boxes to your desk. There’s enough room for you to squeeze in there if you turn sideways.”
“Harmony!” I shouted in exasperation. I jammed a finger at my box-filled office, the tops reaching the ceiling, half the brown boxes coated with dust—and what appeared to be mold they were so old—and pivoted to glare straight into her gaze. “Get that shit out of there. I can’t conduct business with a mess like that stuffed in my headquarters.”
“You asked—”
“I know what I asked for. But I didn’t expect you to turn my office into a storage closet.” More finger jamming at my office. “I want that chaos out of there by tomorrow. And then, I want you to find the oldest laws first. Review them. If they have nothing to do with the Original vampire laws, then hand them over to me.”
My assistant nodded her head slowly. “All right.”
I lifted my hands in front of me, palms upward like I was carrying something small so that she completely understood what I was saying. “I mean, you hand me a few files at a time. Understood?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I get it, your majesty.”
This is what I get for hiring an assassin as an assistant. Ask her to kill someone? Check. Done in a blink. But ask her to do, you know, assistant work? Boom. My workplace looks like a giant took a moldy shit in my office.
She glanced back into my room and shook her head at all the work she’d have to do—again.
I rubbed my forehead and sighed. “I appreciate you doing this, Harmony. We’ll get there. I’m sure.”
She tilted her head at my bodyguard, who was studiously ignoring us and standing against the wall silently—always silent. “May I borrow Crow for a few hours to help move the boxes? They’re heavy.”
I shook my head. “He has to stay with me. You’ll need to find someone else.”
“Phoenix then?”
“He’s guarding my bedchambers right now.” My head cocked. I eyed her clenched hands. “Do you have a thing for my bodyguards?”
Harmony snorted…while a small blush formed on her cheeks. “No, your majesty.”
I droned, “You kill for a living, and yet your cheeks pink at the mention of two handsome men.” I shook my head slowly, turning serious. “I can’t order you to do something in the love department, but I would advise against crushing on them. They are my personal guards while I am queen. Neither one of them will have time for any type of relationship. You will only be hurt if you allow your infatuation to—”
“I understand,” she whispered harshly, cutting off my speech. She didn’t look anywhere near Crow, her face flame red now. “No more daydreaming about being their Harmony-meat sandwich.”
My smile was gentle and kind. “I don’t mean to be harsh. It’s just their reality. And I don’t want any of you hurt.” And the fact they still weren’t over their long-dead love. I turned and walked to the exit, waving my left hand over my shoulder. “If you need me, I’ll be in my bedchambers reviewing the file you sent about the attack, and then I’ll be heading to the conference room again.”
* * *
In a huff, I sat next to the asshole king. I didn’t glance up at anyone in the conference room since not everyone was here anyway. I kept opening emails and answering them as quickly as I could. My brows drew down over my eyes as two more emails came in while I was answering one.
At this rate, I’d be glued to my phone for eternity.
I growled under my breath and opened a new email.
This one I couldn’t answer immediately. I’d need to look at the database for the vampire population numbers in London first. I closed that one out and opened another email, this one petty but manageable. I tap-tapped away on my phone and kept on scowling at the screen.
King Niallan leaned in my direction, asking, “What’s put that look on your face, your majesty?”
“Nothing,” I snapped, in no mood for civil conversation with the druid. “Leave me alone.”
“All right,” he drawled, extended and deep. He held his hands up in pacification as he pulled away from me. “I’ll leave the testy queen alone right now.”
I sniffed. “Maybe you are smart.”
“At times.” He chuckled quietly.
My eyebrows dipped even further as four new emails pinged into my inbox. I lifted my cell phone to my face and hissed at the screen, baring my fangs at the damn thing. Then I pulled it away…and opened another email.
And another five landed in my inbox.
“Oh my goddamn God,” I shouted, giving up. I turned my cell phone to the lords, all having arrived now and taking their seats. “Okay, Overlords, tell me how the hell you did it when you ruled. How did you manage all of these messages? I need guidance.”
Lord Xenon muffled a laugh with a drawn-out cough, but he finally answered, “Your assistant should be handling those messages, then sending you one email at the beginning of the morning for clarification on the ones they couldn’t answer themselves the day before.”
I stared. “Oh.”
My head snapped down to my cell phone, reviewing the emails more closely. All of the emails were being forward to me…from my assistant.
I looked back up at the Overlords, and stated seriously, “I think I may need two assistants. Is that feasible with the budget?” I really didn’t want to fire Harmony.
Fuck, she’d probably kill me if I did.
Was it normal to be scared of one’s own assistant?
Maybe?
Hell, I was going with maybe.
That was the quickest answer, instead of looking too deeply into the fact I continually held an assassin’s—very large—paycheck in my hands.
Lord Otto shook his head in the negative. “You do not want to be known as a high-maintenance queen. That will follow you your entire life.” Another shake of his head. “And it’s not in the budget.”
I whined, “Fuck.”
Lord Pippin snickered quietly. “Harmony having some transitional issues?”
I dropped my head back and stared at the ceiling while tossing my still buzzing cell phone on the table. “If you mean that my office is currently unserviceable, and I want to use my cell phone for target practice now, then, yes, she’s having some transitional issues.”
Lord Pippin laughed harder. “She’s never been anyone’s assistant before. It’ll take time.”
“Lots of time,” I grumbled, and raised my head back up. I grabbed my phone that was vibrating so hard with every new email that arrived that it was traveling over the table into Lord Belshazzar’s space where he had sat next to me. I turned the fucker off and pocketed it again. “Dammit. This is not what I need right now.”
My father lifted his pointer finger off the table where his hands rested. “I can send Joshua to your office to train her if you would like, your majesty?”
My eyes widened in hope—real hope.
I barked too quickly, “Yes!”
Lord Cato’s lips trembled.
I cleared my throat and calmed myself and straightened my back in my chair. I tried again with decorum. “Yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you, my lord.” I scratched at my cheek in thought. “Actually, if he finds her attractive, I’m pretty sure she needs to get laid too.”
My father stared. And snorted so hard his entire body lurched in his chair, failing to contain his hilarity at the absurd request. He quickly straightened his tie and ran his right hand down it to cover the mistake, and asked evenly, “Are you attempting to pimp out my assistant, your majesty?”
I shrugged my right shoulder. “Yes. Joshua is attractive—and don’t you dare tell him I said that—and my assistant has been eyeing my bodyguards. If he’s going to train her at her job… Well, two birds, one stone, my lord. And don’t tell me you’ve never asked him to do it before. I want my assistant focused—and trained—and she is not right now.”
“Harmony isn’t exactly known for her love affairs.” Lord Cato ran his hand down his tie again and looked off to the side while he thought it through. “Eh. I guess it’s manageable. Nothing Joshua can’t handle. He’s seduced tougher targets. When do you want her trained and fucked by?”
“By the end of the new week. Tell Joshua to work his magic quickly on her.”
“Done.” My father shrugged a shoulder. “He’ll probably do it faster.”
I bowed my head to him. “Thank you, my lord.”
“You’re welcome, your majesty.”
I turned my head to my king, muttering, “Make sure you pick your assistant wisely.”
He lifted a blond brow. “It’s safe to talk to you now?”
“I’m looking at you, and my mouth is moving. I would take that as a yes.”
King Niallan smiled, baring all his teeth. “I really do love your bitchy side.” He added a wink that was meant to be sexy—perhaps it worked on most. I wasn’t most. He purred, “It turns me on, your majesty.”
I patted his shoulder. “I’m glad to see you’re acting like yourself again. Back to business as usual now?”
A shadow of pain crossed over his eyes. “For the most part.”
“I understand that completely,” I murmured honestly. I gifted him a rare, genuine smile. I spoke softly, “I’m here, you know, if you need me.”
I was pleased my king was back to rights.
I needed to be close to him. Watching him.
I couldn’t do that if he stayed in his room crying all the time. King Niallan feeling better…made everyone else in the room feel better.
So the Overlords and I could kill him. Once we figured out where the fuck he always hid the Original druid amulet. Then the Secret could be completed.
Lord Cato just needed to stay alive, in the meanwhile.
“I might take you up on that offer.” King Niallan’s own resulting smile was genuine and beautiful. “If you can handle the wicked mist in my room again.”
I snorted. “You might press pause on the mist while I’m in there. It’s too damn cold for my liking.” I shook my head. “And it’s a little disturbing.”
My king chuckled under his breath. “It could be a lot more disturbing if I wanted it to be.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
Lord Belshazzar cleared his throat—hard. “Everyone, let’s focus on the point of why we are here. The attack on our stronghold and who is behind it.”
The room quieted of any other discussions.
I turned my attention to my vampire Overlord.
He continued, “The attack wasn’t random—”
I raised my hand high into the air, cutting him off.
Lord Belshazzar’s aggravated blue eyes cut to me, disliking being interrupted…and my flirt-working on our king. “Yes, your majesty?”
I lowered my hand to the arm of my chair. “With all due respect, my lord, I was tired of waiting for the news, so I took matters into my own hands. I already know what you’re going to say.”
“As do I,” King Niallan murmured. He yawned behind a fist and kicked his feet up on the conference table, crossing his ankles. “I was tired of waiting also.”
My lover’s nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. “Please, do tell. I’m sure you both know more than the other lords and myself, and the research we’ve been doing for the past ten fucking years.”
Our king’s lips twitched. “Where do you think I got the information from last night after everyone passed the hell out?” He pointed toward the ground. “Your servers are shit, and your firewalls are lax. That’s something we’ll need to rectify and soon. I understand you’ve spent the majority of your funds on building a strong army—from what I could decipher—but the lack of talented and skilled individuals here showed. I hacked into the system far too easily. We need to set aside funding to hire more employees for our own safety—against foreign and friendly foes.”
I pressed my lips together and rolled my chair back a good foot, getting out from between them. Because…my king was right. Most of Harmony’s intel had come from our own ‘secure’ servers. And Lord Belshazzar was not a man to take well losing an argument to the druid.
But my vampire Overlord just smirked and pointed down, as my king had. “Those servers? Those are the ones you obtained your information from? On the lower level?”
King Niallan’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded his head gradually. He didn’t comment, knowing something was amiss.
Lord Belshazzar explained, “Those servers are meant as decoys—for the friendly foe, as you so helpfully mentioned—and track anyone who hacks them. Which Lord Xenon knew you did last night. Our real servers are underneath the old jail, and only a few brilliant individuals are entrusted with their care. Everything that you hacked into is what the Overlord allowed you to see.”
Our king’s mouth opened. Then snapped shut.
Properly put in his place.
Damn. I really didn’t want to say anything now.
But…fuck. It needed to be said.
I cleared my throat and lifted my hand again—not so high—into the air, trying to be respectful.
Lord Belshazzar’s eyes zeroed in on me. “Yes?”
Well, here I go. I lowered my hand.
“Um, actually those servers and firewalls under the jail could use a few updates, too. I was able to obtain all the information from them, including the fact the attack was not only to test our borders but also our response time. It was initiated by the human group HLF—Human Life First—and it appears to be funded by multiple governments across the globe. There were one hundred HLF agents who were on our grounds the day of my crowning.
“Humans now know of us, both vampires and druids, but the government officials are currently keeping it quiet so the human public doesn’t panic. We have ‘friendly foes’ on both sides of our races, two of which were of the druid faction that Lord Otto eliminated while we were at Cape Argent. Also, there’s a certain redheaded vampire traitor, Ms. Olivia Francis, whom you have been sleeping with to obtain intel from—most recently, the night of the Blood Rite; your notes on her were very thorough, by the way. I was most impressed by her ticklish spots. Who would have thought behind the right ear, right? That’s just bizarre.”
I glared hard enough to scare most people, my eyes now fire red, unable to cover my jealousy. I had broken a few vases in my room while reading that fucking report this afternoon. Thank fuck for housekeeping.
Lord Belshazzar’s lush black lashes fluttered down, shuttering his intimidating gaze from me. With extreme nonchalance, he stated, “Please. Do continue.”
“Fine,” I spat, unable to argue about a work fuck. “The man I killed during my Challenge, Timothy Ginter, was a man all of you wanted to be destroyed. Lord Cato even put a newly turned vampire into his house to watch him while she worked as a maid.
“Mr. Ginter was a golden child the HLF was watching and wanting to turn to their side, a possible Senate candidate and wealthy enough to help fund their cause. Although the new vampire losing her shit when I showed up put an unintended twist on my Challenge—really, the five of you should have warned her I was coming. The poor gal probably thought I was on the wrong side when she followed us to Samson’s house. Lord Cato’s main rule for her was to kill Mr. Ginter if the HLF came for him. And she thought someone had.”
Lord Cato sighed heavily. “I didn’t expect her to act that way during your Challenge. You handled it very well given the information we fed you.”
I shrugged a shoulder, not glancing in his direction. My attention was wholly on the Overlord ready to pounce on me. “Do you want me to continue, Lord Belshazzar? I believe I have information that even you don’t.”
He growled quietly, “How?”
“How did I get the new information? Or how did I get the information from the ‘secure’ servers?”
“Both,” Lord Belshazzar grunted.
“The same person.” My lips twitched. “Even though my assistant is godawful at her normal duties, she’s really good at her old profession.”
Ever so slowly, his chest lifted and lowered with a large lungful of oxygen, calming himself. His body relaxed on his chair. He rested back and tapped his fingers on the conference room table, analyzing my features. “What other information was Harmony able to garner that we haven’t so far?”
“Actually, I was surprised she found this part out since we have close to five hundred spies worldwide within the government agencies, and you don’t know yet.” I shook my head. “Someone may need to investigate to make sure those vampires aren’t double dipping if you know what I mean.”
Lord Belshazzar nodded his head once in affirmation, and then asked again, “What don’t we know?”
I swallowed down the nervous lump in my throat, worry etching my features. I ran my fingers through my hair and yanked at it, and stated quietly, “It’s unheard of in the human world. The U.S. and Russian presidents are working together now. They’re amassing an army a hundred times the size of ours. They’ll be ready in a short month to attack—and they plan to.”
King Niallan shoved out of his chair and started pacing, curses spewing from his mouth in a constant loop.
Lord Xenon and Lord Pippin stood from their chairs too and began their own pacing around the room.
Lord Cato closed his eyes and sat frozen in place.
Lord Otto didn’t appear to be breathing, merely staring off into space in shock.
Lord Belshazzar rubbed at his chin, not taking his eyes from mine. “How credible is the intel? I wouldn’t expect the Americans and Russians to work together. We thought they’d hold out until it was too late to even begin.”
“It’s credible. Their signatures are on the paperwork—invoices, contracts, new trade agreements, new military personnel—and Harmony even managed to snag a voice clip of them talking together about their plans.”
“Fuck!” King Niallan roared.
Then he kept on pacing.
Lord Belshazzar simply nodded at my words, unfazed by the battle we had ahead of us. “We’ll need all the added information Harmony obtained.”
I turned my phone back on and sent the massive file to all the individuals in the room. “Done.” Then I turned it back off when it started buzzing again, more emails coming in.
With his eyes still closed, Lord Cato asked, “King Niallan, how strong is that shield you put up? I asked a few people, and apparently, it needs a lot of power to be strong.”
Our king waved an irritated hand. “I drew power from the Original druid amulet while I created it. It won’t break. It’s more powerful than any druid could construct.”
I peered off to the side to hide my confusion. The king’s hands had been empty while he created the shield. So he formed the shield without touching the Original druid amulet? How the hell had he done that?
Lord Belshazzar’s features were carefully blank with that tidbit of information. He steered to another topic, most likely hoping the druid would forget about his blunder in his current vexed state.
“Once we review the documents Queen Gwynnore sent, we need to begin notifying our army. Including the druid army. Orders need to go out within the next few days for stations around our strongholds, and shields need to be put in place around each one—vampire and druid. We should begin mixing the armies to get on top of the fighting that’s sure to happen at the beginning between our people.”
As one, we all nodded.
Lord Xenon commented, “Until that’s done, we keep this quiet. Like the humans, we don’t want our people to panic.”
Again, we nodded.
“Ms. Francis is still here.” Lord Otto cracked his neck and flicked his gaze to the lord sitting next to me. “Lord Belshazzar, you need to meet with her tonight and find out any new information you can. Tomorrow, I’ll eliminate her. It’s time to weed out the spies in our homes.”
Lord Belshazzar’s face…whitened.
I snapped my mouth shut on the snappy comment I was going to make, utter shock holding me still. My vampire Overlord appeared faint.
My lover choked, “Will someone else please fucking take her this time?”
Lord Pippin shook his head. “You’re who she wants.”
Lord Otto attempted a smile. “She’ll be dead tomorrow. Rest easy in that.”
Lord Xenon pointed a finger at him. “And you’ve always said you prefer the redheads.”
“Yes, I did say that.” Lord Belshazzar rubbed at his chin harshly, color now returning to his face for an entirely different reason. His fangs were down, and he was pissed. “Goddammit, fine.”
I kept my mouth firmly shut.
Now was not the time to poke the beast.
And I wasn’t jealous now.
I actually felt sorry for him. He didn’t want to do this at all—to the point that if his claws were out, I was sure he’d be slashing this room apart. He hated it that much.
But he would do his duty. Our people were all.
I rolled my chair up, placed my right hand on his tense back, and started rubbing in soothing circles. While the other lords talked quietly amongst themselves, I leaned in and whispered against his ear, “I’ll come by later tonight when you’re done. Okay?”
“I hate this,” he hissed. His fingers jerked through his long black hair hard. His blue eyes trapped mine, torment running behind them. Talk of war hadn’t even put this look on his face. He damn near bellowed, “And I hate fucking redheads! I lied one day—hundreds of goddamn years ago—to shut someone up, and it fucking stuck. I’ve never heard the end of it since then. It irritates the shit out of me, Gwen.”
Sweet baby Jesus.
The man was definitely out of sorts right now.
A few of the Overlords glanced in our direction. Shock stamped their features at his proclamation—and shouted weakness—but they quickly looked away when Lord Belshazzar cast them a deadly glare.
I continued rubbing his back and gave him an out to get away from everyone—and from saying anything else too personal that they could use against him later. “We’re done here, my lord. Why don’t you go take a walk, get some fresh air, and soothe that soul of yours a little?”
He growled, that beast taking voice again. “You’ll sleep in my room tonight?”
“I will.” I tipped toward him and pressed my lips to his right in clear view of everyone. Our mouths molded together like a dream as our heartbeats linked, perfect and beautiful, like coming home. I ran the pads of my fingers over his bristled cheeks, relaxing him softly, and then I pulled back to whisper against his lips, “I promise.”