“Of course we do,” the King said, remembering his bluster. “Faeries always have to bail you behemoth types out of trouble. It’s just this time, we’re helping our own kind too.”
“Name one,” the Queen asked primly.
“One what?”
“One time the faeries helped ‘bail you behemoth types’ out of trouble. No wonder we never have visitors. You’re a pompous ass!”
“Believe it or not,” Thorias whispered between the two women, “they actually really like each other.”
Shamira didn’t care. Her toes and pride had been effectively squashed and whatever authority she was trying to develop had been summarily undermined.
“Come back next week,” Thorias said. Then, under his breath he muttered, “They’ll probably still be here arguing.”
Shamira stood up and headed back into the woods. Renata rolled her eyes, then hurried to catch up. Every time the two of them found a happy medium, the new vamp lost her cool about something.
‘I’ve got the experience, and she was rushing into another decision. She would pawn it off on “duty,” do whatever it was that they wanted, then get freaked out about it later.’ Renata were’d out and went sniffing for her clothes. Finding them, but not Shamira, she got dressed and wished that maybe she hadn’t been so abrupt in taking over the assignment. ‘I just hope she didn’t shadow jump all the way home. Maybe I can talk her down.’
Shamira was waiting at the car, and one look was all it took to convince Renata that she was in for a long trip home. Sure enough, the camaraderie the two had formed had evaporated, leaving Shamira as cold as the other side of the pillow. The vampire didn’t say a word or allow herself to be coaxed in a laugh. And Renata was trying as hard as she knew how to be funny.
“Listen,” she said at last, “I don’t know what you’re so pissed about. All I was doing was trying to keep you from making another mistake.” ‘Crap,’ she thought, ‘that did not come out right.’ And she knew she’d made it worse from the tightening of Shamira’s eyes and jaw. Hell, she could hear that powerful woman grinding her teeth.
The car pulled through the security gate and finally into the garage. The garage door closed and for the moment they were engulfed in darkness. “Okay, let’s go talk to Shane about what happened and maybe he’ll have some good ideas for us. Okay? Shamira?” She hit the overhead light in the car, only to find that she was alone in the vehicle. “Crap.” She got out and headed toward Shane’s study. That’s probably where he’d be. Hopefully he’d have advice, about both the faeries and Shamira.
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