Blood Double (God Wars #1)(34)
"Did you do it? Did you?" Kal hauled me up and shook me, my face inches from his own.
"Y-yes," my teeth clacked together.
"Good." He tossed me onto the ground. "We'll work on folding space, now."
"What?" I cowered at his feet. Folding space terrified me, and my head still hurt from his power blasts.
"You will learn. What use are you if you can't fold space? The prophecies of the Vhanaraszh are filled with her legendary power. You are weak. You are not the Vhanaraszh and I will prove it with my last breath."
"Really? I didn't know Larentii had last breaths. I thought they were immortal," I muttered sarcastically. I should have kept my mouth shut. Another power blast bore into my brain as I was dropped into a dark, raging sea and left there.
*
"Dad, I think I'd like Breanne to come." Rylend Morphis tossed a comp-vid onto his desk with a sigh. "We have the Ambassador from Tyriss coming with his camp followers tomorrow. He has offered generous payment for one of our warlocks to work in his office, but I don't trust him. Something about him doesn't seem right, and I think Breanne would tell me immediately if he can't be trusted."
"I'll tell Gavin we need her. She'll probably be glad to get away from him for a few hours. I'll ask the kitchen to prepare a meal for her, too. I hear from the Falchani twins that she's getting by on blood substitute because the kitchen is rebelling against her. Gavin should have remained silent. The rumor is running through the palace comesuli that she's working to take your mother's place."
"Do you think they're right, Dad?" Rylend studied his father's face. "I mean, Mom never said a thing to us before she disappeared."
"Son, stop worrying. And whatever you do, don't mistreat Breanne because of gossip. She didn't have a thing to do with this, and I have the feeling that if she had her way, Le-Ath Veronis might be the last place she'd want to be."
"Gavin certainly wouldn't be her choice of sire, I know that much," Ry snorted. "Anybody would have been better than that crusty bastard."
"Rylend, if you were younger, I'd send you to your room for that."
"I'm King of Karathia, Dad, and I'm already in my room." Ry swept out a hand, encompassing his private study, which attached to his suite of rooms.
"Thought you wouldn't notice," Erland grinned. "Your mother will come back to us, I feel it. We just have to be patient. Have you heard from Tory?"
"No. What's up with him?"
"I heard a rumor that King Jayd is saying Reah's pregnant again. With Tory's baby."
"I don't know how he manages to do that so easily," Ry muttered angrily. "I want another child. Bel wants to spend time with Travis and Trent when they go to Falchan, and learn more from the Saa Thalarr. I'm not about to stand in his way on this."
"I know. You can always take a second mate if you want another heir. Reah says you should."
"I haven't found a single woman who can look past that chair I sit in. Besides, Reah will always be first with me."
"I believe she knows that," Erland replied wryly. "As long as both of you approve the match, someone can be found, surely."
"I don't want that. There's plenty of time. Reah can get pregnant with me again. I just don't want to wear her out."
"I think Jayd knows to step back on this one—he and Glinda won't get to raise it like the others," Erland observed.
"I think all of us will fight him over it. I don't care if Jayd is High Demon. There's enough of us that we can provide stiff competition."
"Reah will let him know soon enough," Erland sighed. "She's almost an equal to Kifirin, and because she's one of the bright gods, he doesn't have any say, now, on how her children will be raised."
"If it's a girl, he'll try anyway. You know he has a list of High Demons waiting for a mate."
"He can try. I wouldn't want to be the one defying Reah on this. Plus, there's nothing to prevent any High Demon male from attempting what Reah's grandfather did, and having a child with a humanoid. Reah's only a quarter, and she's single-handedly saving the High Demon race."
"If this baby is a girl, that'll be seven High Demon females. No other High Demon female has given birth to more than two females in a very long lifetime," Erland agreed. "All the rest are males, and there are still plenty of those."
"Because they have hope, now. Before Reah and Tory started providing girl babies, High Demons were jumping into Baetrah in droves."
"Am I being selfish?"
"No, I think you want to be a father. Again," Erland smiled. "And I want to be a grandfather again. Bel is sixteen. He probably would love a full brother or sister."
*
Breanne's Journal
Drawing in a breath when you're dumped in very deep seawater is the wrong thing to do. I was trying my best not to drown while I coughed up brackish water. Kalenegar, the sadistic swine, had disappeared, unsurprisingly enough. Once I'd emptied my lungs of foul-tasting, ugly-smelling water, I concentrated on getting my bearings.
No land was in sight, so Kal had planned this well. Even if I possessed excellent swimming skills (I didn't), I had no idea where land might lie or how long it might take a vampire to swim there. Either I would fold space and get myself to a familiar place, or I'd drown. If I'd been wholly vampire, I likely could have held my breath for a very long time. I wasn't wholly vampire, and could probably drown easily. Yeah, it sucked to be me, most of the time. A brief thought of what I'd like to do to Kal occurred to me before I concentrated on what I'd learned from reading Graegar. The world shifted about me and I was gone.