Blood Double (God Wars #1)(26)

A slap woke me. I can't describe it any other way, and Cheedas, my favorite kitchen vampire, was the one who'd dealt it. It frightened me so badly, and brought up so many bad memories it knocked me off the chair I'd foolishly fallen asleep on.

Cheedas stood by, his anger showing plainly on his face as I gathered clothing from the dryer and raced to the Queen's suite. He hadn't said anything to me, but with my curse, he hadn't needed to. There wasn't any way I'd be taking the Queen's place. I had no doubt where that rumor originated, and I was in trouble with him, too.

"There will be no outbursts as there were yesterday," Gavin had a hard grip on my arm as he stalked toward the Council Chamber. I almost had to run to keep up with him; otherwise, he'd have dragged me down the marbled halls of the Queen's palace.

Names came to mind—names that I wanted to call him. Sadistic was one of the tamer ones that trembled on my lips. It would do no good to voice those names aloud; I would only be in more trouble if I did. No, I hadn't had breakfast. As my sire, he should have seen to that, but he and Cheedas seemed bent on obliterating me in any way they could. I almost cursed Adam Chessman for removing the only means I had of destroying myself. I could stand in sunlight all day and it wouldn't do a damn thing to me.

It didn't matter that Gavin told me to keep my mouth shut that morning. The Council members from the smaller cities had banded together, meeting late the night before to examine every line of the budget. They'd shown up at the Council meeting angry and armed with knowledge. The Casino City vampire contingent never stood a chance.

By the end of the day, the small city contingent had thirty-five percent of the budget, which would be distributed fairly among all the smaller cities—with ten percent going to the comesuli cities on the light side. The five comesuli members, with their votes, had sided with the small-town Council members and they'd driven a wedge into the Casino City monopoly. If I hadn't been so weary—and so hungry—I might have stood and cheered for them.

As it was, Gavin would have found fault in that activity, so I remained silent and walked out of the Council Chamber with him, fainting halfway to the Queen's suite.

*

"If it's your intention to starve her or kill her by working her night and day, I want no part of it." Karzac was angry, and even Gavin quailed before the furious physician. "You don't know when she ate last, and I know she was up all day and all night when you shipped her off to that slave-driving son of yours." A rift had existed between Karzac and Teeg ever since Teeg mistreated Reah.

"Calm down, healer. I didn't mean to cause this much harm," Gavin attempted to slow Karzac down.

"But you intended harm. When Kiarra and the others return, we'll see what that harm will cost you." Karzac disappeared before he said anything else he might regret.

"Fuck," Gavin muttered, raking fingers through short, dark hair.

*

Breanne's Journal

"You're to go to the kitchen for breakfast before you take up your duties for the day," Gavin snapped the moment I opened my eyes. Blinking at him in confusion for several seconds, I could only nod. A bottle of blood substitute was shoved in my hands (after he grabbed my arm and jerked me upright).

I'd wakened in the Queen's bed and I could read in Gavin's face how much it irked him that I was there and the Queen wasn't. I wanted to tell him that he'd ordered me to stay there. I didn't. Instead, I drank the first meal I'd had since Stellan had taken me to breakfast.

Telling Gavin Montegue that the kitchen staff would prefer to poison me rather than feed me a decent meal would be useless; his reaction would be one of scorn. I didn't say anything and finished the bottle of blood substitute while he watched.

*

"I can't go take a look at her, bro, the boss sent a message." Trajan passed key chips to his brother, Trace. "I have to help him with something he's working on. Didn't say what it was."

Trajan, just shy of seven feet, with dark hair and eyes, sighed as he focused on his brother's troubled frown. Trace looked much like his older brother and he'd counted on staying at NorthStar for another month, until gishi fruit harvest. In his brother's absence, he was obligated to return to SouthStar and supervise the grove managers, a job Trajan normally handled.

"The boss won't mind if you bring Frank, Shane, Tomas or your warlocks," Trajan hugged his brother. "But only them. You know the rules."

"Yeah. I know the rules," Trace nodded. "I'll think about it. They know the rules, too, and they don't like it if they can't fold in and out. They hate it if they have to ask me or somebody else to transport them back and forth."

"That barrier protects us. Nobody comes in or out unless we allow it."

"Yeah, I know that, too. And it keeps the edict from affecting the residents."

"Exactly. Look, I'll catch up with her eventually. I promise I'll take a look, bro, when I get back."

"You'd better. This one, well, Traje; you need to see this one."

"You said that about the last one. She wasn't it."

"Yeah, but man, you need to see her eyes."

"Is that what you're basing this on? Because that last one had nice eyes, and nice other things, but she was, well, I shouldn't say bitch, but I will."