Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (The Three #1)(18)

As I stormed into the dressing room, I announced, “I need to call my mother.”

I walked to the dressing table and had to put a hand out to steady myself. I was still feeling woozy and weak. I needed food. And, as much as I hated to give it to the guy, Lucien was right, I needed rest.

“Um…dear…” Edwina said behind me as I caught my breath, controlled the dizziness and reached for my purse to get my cell phone.

I ignored her and started digging through my purse.

“Dear…” Edwina called from closer.

“Where is it?” I muttered, “I’m sure it’s –”

“Leah,” Edwina said from beside me, “Lucien told me you weren’t to phone anyone.”

My head snapped up and I looked at her. “Sorry?”

“Direct orders. No calls.”

“Why not?” I asked.

She shrugged looking uncomfortable.

I looked back down at my purse and kept digging, “Well, he can order all he likes. I’m still going to –”

“You won’t find it. Lucien took your phone.”

My head snapped up again and I stared.

All I could do was stare. My heart had stopped beating which was pretty strange since my blood was boiling.

Finally I found my voice. “He took my phone?”

“Yes, and he told me to lock away all the others.”

“Did you?”

She nodded.

I straightened and faced her. “Well, unlock one.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“Lucien would be angry.”

“I don’t care,” I snapped.

Her face grew pale. It didn’t take a mind reader to know she didn’t want to do anything that would make Lucien angry.

I could understand that. He could be a pretty freaking scary guy. And, I didn’t know her, but I still didn’t want to scare her.

Thwarted again by the hated Lucien.

“I’m going to kill him,” I bit out, my emotion got the better of me and I had to lean against the dressing table to stay standing.

“You need food. Lucien said the minute you woke, I needed to feed you.”

“Lucien can go to hell,” I clipped.

She studied me a moment, surprise behind her eyes, her head angled to the side like a bird’s.

“I think something’s not right here,” she announced.

“You think?” I asked sarcastically.

“Why are you angry with Lucien? No one is ever angry with Lucien. Well, not no one. He has enemies, of course. But not his concubines. Never his concubines. They all love him.”

Oh please.

“I’m not like the others,” I proclaimed.

“I’m sensing that,” she agreed on a comprehending nod.

I dropped my head and lifted my hand to my forehead.

“I think I need space,” I told her, not wanting to be rude but I did.

In this moment of tumult in my life, I hated to admit it, but I really needed my mother even though she and her ancestry of rabidly adoring vampire concubines had gotten me into this mess.

Suddenly, I felt Edwina’s hands gentle on me as she pulled me away from the dressing table.

“What you need is bed and food, in that order,” she declared.

I went with her because I didn’t have the strength to fight.

I blamed that on Lucien mainly because it was his fault.

And I filed it away in my Why I Hate Lucien Vault.

Edwina put me to bed. She came back with a tray covered in food half an hour later, time I spent organizing all the many, many files in my Why I Hate Lucien Vault. A stack of light, fluffy, buttermilk pancakes drenched in melting, real butter and warmed syrup. Crisp bacon. Succulent berries. Grilled sausage links.

I ate it without complaint.

Normally I would never eat that much food as food like that, especially in those amounts, magically expanded to ten times its size and weight before it settled on my ass.

But I needed my strength. For tonight, I would be battling Lucien.

Chapter Five

That Night

Lucien drove toward Leah’s house feeling a welcome sense of anticipation after a not very good day.

She was, he knew, going to be cold or furious but he couldn’t care less.

Whatever she was, it would not be eager, it would not be sycophantic, it would not be adoring and it would not be complaisant.

It would be something different, something he relished, something he had not had in a very long time.

That morning after he arrived at the home he shared with his mate, Katrina had been waiting for him.

The minute he closed the door behind him, she unleashed the fury that he knew she’d kept pent up all night waiting for his return.

Even though he was still furious with her for the plot she’d attempted to unleash at Leah’s Selection, she had every right to be angry. A vampire did not sleep with his concubine, not in any sense of that word. He or she didn’t spend the night.

Goodly portions of it, maybe. The entirety of it, never.

Vampires slept with their vampire mates in every sense of that word.

Things might, and often did (and The Dominion turned a blind eye), get out-of-hand at Feasts but not with concubines. The lines were drawn, the boundaries understood and no one, not even Lucien, could break them.