Blood Double (God Wars #1)(31)
"Of course it will be as I desire," Erithia hissed when the screen went blank.
*
Breanne's Journal
An entire week went by, while Gavin divided my time between Council meetings and handing me off to Teeg, who forced me to either look through images of suspects on a comp-vid or kept me by his side while he met with this ambassador or that president or despot. It seemed the Campiaan Alliance had more despots than the Reth Alliance, but I wasn't about to point that out to Teeg.
Sadly, too, he kept Stellan away from me, just as his * father ordered. Neither Teeg nor Gavin were real, stand-up guys to me—they were heavily into punishment if somebody didn't do exactly as they wanted. Honestly, I had no idea how Lissa put up with either of them—I would have banged them on the head with a skillet and then claimed amnesia later.
Even my off-days were taken up, thanks to Teeg San Gerxon and the Council, and I was falling farther and farther behind on the requests coming in from the comesuli. I got little sleep as a result, and was more than thankful that Flavio put in a standing order for coffee during every Council meeting. The kitchen staff was afraid to sabotage it since a high-ranking Council member placed the order, but they served it to me with anger in their eyes. While that might not concern most people, it concerned me a great deal.
The laundry, too, I left outside the laundry room door, since I couldn't get in. At least they went ahead and cleaned it—it belonged to the Queen, after all, and they adored her. Me? I might as well have been the worst, child-molesting, murdering criminal.
Actually, I might have gotten better treatment at the prison facility if that were true. At least the food would have been better. I'd learned quickly not to eat anything served by the kitchen. I subsisted on blood substitute on Le-Ath Veronis. On Campiaa, the Starr brothers saw that I got decent meals, at least.
Closing the door of the Queen's suite behind me after a particularly grueling day, I nearly shrieked when I saw what waited for me there. No—it wasn't additional sabotage by the comesuli—I would have welcomed that to what did wait for me. A very tall Larentii—nearly ten feet tall, waited, his arms crossed angrily over his chest. Just as I couldn't read Stellan, Kooper or Trevor, I couldn't read this Larentii, either. And, if there were ever a Larentii I needed to read, this was the one. Was he different from what I considered a normal Larentii? In every way possible.
Larentii dress in natural fibers, loosely woven so sunlight can filter through to their skin. They could feed in that way, if it became necessary. Sandals are worn most of the time, if they wear shoes at all. Their hair is some shade of blond, ranging from nearly white to almost red, while their eyes are a sunny, bright blue. This Larentii looked nothing like that. Yes, he had the telltale blue skin, but his resemblance to any other Larentii stopped there.
Curly, dark-red hair cascaded to his shoulders, his eyes were a deep, cobalt blue (very much like mine), and he was dressed, head to foot, in black. Black boots were on his feet and chains, glittering with black jewels, circled the ankles of the boots. He looked as if he were prepared to ride off on a giant motorcycle.
"Why are you here?" I asked, suddenly fearful. The number of those I couldn't read was rising dramatically, and threatened to become an epidemic.
"I am the Vhirilaszh," he proclaimed, as if that were supposed to mean something to me. "I was asked to take a look at you, to determine whether you might be the Vhanaraszh. You are too small and insignificant, I think. Nevertheless, I will test you, so I might take a full report to my father and be done with it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I muttered, wondering what Vhanaraszh actually meant. "And I don't recall inviting you here. I'm tired and I want to go to bed." I did—it was after moon hour, I was exhausted and a new Council meeting loomed in my very near future.
"No. we will do this tonight, and if you warrant teaching, then we will proceed. I warn you, I have no patience, so you must learn quickly. Fail to apply yourself and I will punish you."
"What?" I stared at him in shock. "Look, I don't know who you are or what Vhanaraszh means and I don't think I want to learn. Get out or I'll start screaming."
"Go ahead. I have the room shielded. Your screams will only irritate me, and that may bring punishment earlier than anticipated." His eyes were hard as he stared at me, his blue arms crossed angrily over his chest. He was the most muscular Larentii I'd ever seen, but then I'd only seen three so far. That likely wasn't a good cross-section of the race as a whole, and certainly no basis for any judgments I might make.
"Really?" I backed slowly toward the door. No wonder he didn't look like a normal Larentii—the others had likely tossed him off the Larentii homeworld and told him to get lost. Larentii didn't act like that—not that I'd seen, anyway. If I could just reach the door, I'd be out of the Queen's suite like a shot and screaming my head off while I ran. This guy was terrifying, with a great big, capital T.
"It is useless to try the door; you will not escape. I have little time to devote to you, so you'd best resign yourself to my testing."
"Really?" I turned and ran for the door. I turned the knob. Nothing. I pounded, kicked and punched until my toes and my fists were sore. Nothing. I knew I'd hit the thing hard—my knuckles were bloody. The door was impervious, even to my vampire strength.