King Tomb (Forever Evermore, #3)(20)
Ah…in no way did he hate children.
That was all I needed to know for now. Slowly, I moved out from between them. “That’s very kind of you,” I murmured, feeling Isa’s cool, rosy cheek. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”
He grunted, no emotion showing as he glanced back to where two Vampires stood — a male and a female, both of them very similar-looking to each other — and asked one of them to have the heat turned up. King Zeller’s green gaze then turned to Antonio. And stayed there. I watched his eyes harden even further than while he had been evaluating my daughter. His black eyebrows snapped together as he glanced over Antonio’s facial features. “Last week, I didn’t…” He trailed off, his gaze slamming back to Antonio’s. “You never caught me, Elder Farrar.”
I blinked and hid my confusion the best I could by staying silent. I had no clue what this was about, but Antonio seemed to understand by the way a small smile played at his lips.
He rested Isa more firmly on his hip, eyes never leaving King Zeller. “King Venclaire may have been the one to eventually find you,” his lips lifted further, “but who do you think helped him be in the right place at the right time?” His eyebrows lifted in question. “And believe me, I had much better things I needed to be doing, such as raising my daughter,” a head tilt in my direction, “Lil, here, but instead, I had to run after a foolhardy young man while she was sent to live with her now,” his grin was a bit evil, “deceased uncle.”
I stood still as a statue, completely understanding now. Antonio hadn’t just left me after my first Awakening, which felt like so long ago. He had been searching for a goddamn runaway Prodigy Vampire. Doing the math quickly in my head…I blinked…well, hell. I couldn’t exactly add this to my list of things to hate King Zeller about. That had been around the time he had lost his mate. Some unhinged more than others when their mate died, and as my eyes roamed King Zeller’s carefully blank face, I realized he was one of them.
“Love’s a bitch, King Zeller,” I murmured, lifting Isa from Antonio’s arms to break the growing tension between them. “We’re all much better off without it.” I kissed Isa’s forehead. “Unless it’s the love of a daughter or son.” My smile matched Isa’s, and I placed another kiss on her forehead. “Now that is worth having.”
King Zeller slowly dragged his eyes away from Antonio, his gaze meeting mine. “I’ll take your word for it.” Green eyes flicked to Isa, and his voice softened the barest bit. “Although, I can see your reasoning. She really is beautiful, Queen Ruckler.” Truth. My lips lifted at the honesty — there was almost kindness in his void words — before he bent, bringing his head level with hers as Elder Zeller had done earlier. Isa eyed him, her own green eyes tracking over his features, her expression reverting back to cautiousness. King Zeller’s lips lifted on one side, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was a shadow of his real smile. He whispered, “Hello, Isa. You’re a smart one, aren’t you?”
I knew what she was going to do before she did it. She had just recently picked up a fascination with noses. And she was studying his awfully hard.
Isa grabbed it, digging her tiny fingers in, and wiggled it. She grinned slowly with a giggle bubbling past her lips at her ornery action.
Quickly, I pulled her hand back, muttering, “Sorry. She thinks it’s cute.” I paused and blinked. “I mean, she thinks pinching noses is cute,” I waved a hand at his nose, “not that your nose is cute.” Well, hell. That hadn’t come out right, either. “I mean, not that your nose isn’t cute.” I choked, because that sure as hell didn’t come out right, either. “Um, what I mean is—”
King Zeller held up a quick hand to stop my idiotic ramblings. Thank God.
A smidge of the hardness was gone from his gaze, green eyes sparkling with amusement and dancing as he watched me. “I get it. And it’s all right. I can handle a baby’s playfulness.” Appearing like he wanted to laugh at me, which pissed me off — I was truthfully upset at myself for my blathering — he turned to Isa, careful to keep his distance from her hand that twitched as she stared at his nose again. “And you, little one, are not only smart, but ornery.” His lips lifted, but this time it was his cruel, hard smile as he bent forward, whispering quietly near her ear, “Give your mom hell for me.”
“That’s enough of that,” Elder Zeller muttered, slapping a hand on King Zeller’s shoulder and giving him a reprimanding look as he straightened. “Try not to corrupt the young.”
A grunt was his answer, that cruel smile still lifting King Zeller’s lips before he glanced at those silent around us. “Shall we sit down to eat? Our food’s probably getting cold.”
Elder Zeller grunted, too, much like his son. “We might as well.”
Turning to take my seat and pulling my chair out, I froze as my gaze landed on a table three over. Or, more precisely, on a Mystical sitting at the table. His eyes were on me as mine were on him. John Smith. At King Cave he had challenged me, and we had fought, but I had ended up letting him live. He was also a hybrid, which I had figured out during our fight. He pretended to be fully Shifter, as I did, but where I hid my Vampire nature, he hid his Elemental side. I hadn’t seen him since the challenge, but here he was at King Shadow. And he was one hell of a powerful being, his power damn near rivaling my own Queen’s power.