Sleight Of Hand Part 6

The older man nodded and then looked to Lissie. "Ah, you must be Lissette. It is my pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty." He bowed, and she barely held back a scowl.

"This is Charles Diamond. He's one of the elders in the tribe. He is three hundred years old." Xander introduced him to Lissie.

"It's nice to meet you, Charles." Lissie knew that by Charles' age, he'd be a very powerful member of the tribe. Vampires lived for hierarchy and status markers. Xander's mention of Charles' age was like telling her he drove a Bentley.

"We'll be there in twenty minutes." Xander sighed, and Charles bowed deep and left.

"You mind telling me what the h.e.l.l is going on?"

"My mother has called a meeting of the tribe. As an elder, it's her right."

"Okay." Lissie rolled her wrist in a 'get on with it' motion. "Let's get to the way he called me Majesty."

"Well, darling, as my mate, you're co-leader of the tribe. That's how we do things."

"When did I get promoted from human girlfriend you dated to bug your mom to your mate?"

He smirked at her before turning to walk back into the bedroom. Pulling a suit out of his closet he began to get dressed. "You may want to dress up a bit. And I never dated you to bug my mother. Although you've bugged me quite a bit."

"Hardy har har. You still haven't answered my question." She looked into the closet to find her clothes hanging there. Quickly, she selected a pair of gray pants and a black sweater. Finishing up with a pair of black heels, she turned around, eyebrow raised.

"I'll tell you on the way. Let's go."

There was a car waiting out front with a full escort of bodyguards. Once they'd pulled away from the house, she turned back to him. "Well?"

"The blood exchange. It bound us together. A king only uses his blood on family. You're my family. Plus, I wanted it that way." He gave her a look so arrogant she had to laugh. He then sobered. "Do you want to be with me, Lissie? I need to know."

She closed her eyes a moment and swallowed her fear. "Yes. Yes, I do, but Xander, there are still a lot of things we need to discuss before we can move forward."

He groaned and leaned back for a moment. "I can't deal with this right now. I promise we'll talk about all of it once this Call is finished. What's important is that you want to be with me. We can deal with everything else."

She nodded and began to plan on her own. If Xander wasn't going to deal with Graciella Stryker, well, there was a new queen in town. She'd done a fair bit of research when she began to do business with the vampires on a regular basis. Knew enough about vampire politics and culture to understand what her rights were as queen.

They pulled into the drive of a very posh country club that catered to the vampires in the region. After they'd been escorted inside, Lissie saw Dominic and headed toward him. She took him aside, speaking with him quietly as Xander worked the room for a few minutes.

The deep sound of a gong-like bell echoed through the room. Once. Twice. Three times, signaling the start of the proceedings. Xander held a hand out to her, and she went to him, taking it and her rightful place at his side.

The room was a lush conference type s.p.a.ce. A long, deeply polished mahogany table sat in the center with inset lights shining down on it. Chairs of dark red velvet flanked the table on both sides. The carpet was so plush that there was no sound as everyone filed into the room.

Xander led her to the head of the table where two chairs covered in gold velvet sat apart from the rest. The presentation was not subtle. They sat then, and the guards fanned behind and beside them as the other high ranking members of the tribe then took their seats lower at the table until everyone was seated.

Graciella came into the room and stood in the doorway. She was a striking woman, blonde like her son, but her eyes were green. She was pet.i.te and delicate and shooting an outraged glare in Lissie's direction.

"I'm here to force you to remove this interloper from Emerald territory, Xander. That half breed and this thing you've brought into our tribe have to go."

Dom gave an imperceptible nod, and before Graciella knew what hit her, Lissie was up and had connected her fist with Graciella's jaw. With great satisfaction, Lissie saw her head snap back.

Before she could do any more damage, two beefy bodyguards waded between them, and Lissie found herself less than delicately yanked off her future mother-in-law and held back. Graciella was behind a wall of testosterone just a few feet away.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Stryker asked Lissette.

"You! Let go of me now." When the vamp holding her back didn't let go, Lissie looked him in the eyes. "I am your queen. You will unhand me now."

He started and let go, stepping back. She turned to Xander again. "I'm being a queen, Xander. This woman tried to have me killed. My life as a human is over because of her actions. And let's not forget that she's the reason your twelve-year-old brother has to hide! She's not my mother, Stryker, and if you think I'll allow some tight-a.s.sed old b.i.t.c.h to try and kill me without some a.s.s kicking, you don't know me at all!"

"Tight-a.s.sed old b.i.t.c.h? How dare you!" Graciella thundered.

Everyone in the room was silent, staring at the two furious women, wondering what would happen next.

"Oh I dare all right. Look, lady, so your dead husband was an a.s.shole who screwed everything on two legs for years, utterly humiliating you. I am sorry for that. I can't imagine how much that sucked rocks. And I know it must suck even more that your son fell in love with some human woman who owns a bar and hates vampire politics, but that's life."

"Lissie..." Stryker began, and she spun.

"Look, am I the co-leader of this tribe or not?"

"Well, yes. But..."

"But what? You are not rational when it comes to your mother. I love you, Xander, but this has to be dealt with. She drew first blood, and I'm within my rights to kill her now. And as queen, I am most definitely within my rights to demand an accounting. Are you trying to stop me? Because if you are, you and I are going to have trouble."

He took a deep breath and decided to trust her. G.o.d knows he'd tried to talk to his mother about all of this on multiple occasions, and she wouldn't listen. Maybe Lissie could talk sense into her. Hoping she could spare his mother's life, he stepped back. "Go on, darling."

She smiled at him, hoping he'd see that she was trying to save his mother and not kill her. She turned back to Graciella. "Anyway, here's how it's going be. You're really p.i.s.sing me off. What's more, you're breaking the law right and left, and I'd totally hate to kill you. But I will because I didn't even like you before you had some thug rip my throat out in an alley. But then, Xander will be mad at me because for whatever reason, he loves you and thinks you'll get over this whole psychotic episode.

"So the deal is this-you can hang on to this utterly ridiculous homicidal streak, which will end when I kill you. Or you can get a grip on yourself, reclaim your dignity, and let it go. Right now, you're hurtling down a one way path to a stake in your heart. Alex is a child. A human. And you tried to kill him because you can't just accept that you were cheated on. You're not unique. It happens to people every day. I'm sorry to blow yourI'm a special snowflake act and all, but there's nothing unusual about what your late husband did. And I do take exception to being murdered, just so you know. Instead of being Bitter Betty, you could just drop this homicidal rampage and realize that, for a tight-a.s.sed old b.i.t.c.h, you are still incredibly beautiful and have plenty oats to sow of your own now that you're free."

Lissie and Graciella stood, neither looking away from the other, as the time ticked by. Lissie knew that Dom had silver shot and would shoot Graciella in the head if she gave a signal. Silver shot would kill a vampire in seconds, one of the few things that worked so well. There'd be h.e.l.l to pay with Xander, but it had to happen. She just hoped Graciella would blink first and give up this crazy behavior.

Finally, Graciella threw her hands up and slumped into a chair with a violent exhalation. "Are you going to let this mongrel talk to me this way?" she demanded of her son.

Stryker looked at Lissette, really saw her as the queen he told her she was. She'd loved him enough to do what he couldn't bring himself to do, and he adored her for it even as he hoped to G.o.d his mother wised up.

"She's not a mongrel. She's my queen. And yes, Mother, you need to hear it."

Graciella snorted and sat back, leveling her gaze at Lissette. "Have you ever been cheated on?"

Lissette nodded. One of the reasons she was slow to trust men, as a matter of fact. "Yes. A few years ago. He's meaningless."

"What would you do if Xander cheated on you?"

Lissette looked over at him, and she felt her heart soften. He'd given her the power and the freedom to do something that could end up harming his mother. But he trusted her to make it right, and she loved him even more than she'd imagined she ever could love another human being.

"He wouldn't." And he smiled at her, nodding. "But if he did, I'd cut his b.a.l.l.s off, even though they'd grow back."

Graciella gave a slow smile. "I do believe you would. Good for you, girl. And you would kill me, wouldn't you?"

"I would. I might even like it a little bit. But I hope you won't make me because I love your son an awful lot, and he seems to be fond of you and all. But he tells me I'm queen, and I've never done a job halfway. I'll do what needs to be done because if you won't stop this ridiculous vendetta, you're a threat to all of us."

Graciella considered this for a few moments and finally nodded. "All right then, Lissette. I see I've underestimated my new daughter-in-law. I think my son may have actually met his match. Even if you were human."

Stryker gave a surprised bark of laughter, but Lissette raised a brow and sat down.

"And another thing-will you leave Alex alone and let him go to school? Let him become a full member of the tribe when he turns thirteen and comes fully into his power? You're a mother, Graciella. He has no one but Xander. Can't you see that?"

Graciella sighed but nodded. "Oh, all right. I do suppose it was less than sporting of me to try and injure a child. He can stay, Xander. I give my official sanction to the council tonight."

Lissette stood. "Well, there you all go. I have a bar to run, and I need to get to it. Is this shindig over?"

Xander bit back a smile and nodded regally instead. "Dominic will escort you. I have some things to finish up, and I'll see you back home." He dropped a kiss on her lips, and she winked at him on her way out.

Chapter Six.

The next evening Alex had moved in, and all of Lissette's stuff had been delivered to the house as well.

When she awoke, she had the horrible cramping and knew it was hunger.

"The older you get, the easier it will be to wake up. You'll be able to go for a few hours without feeding.

For the first months though, it's hard," he said, seeing her grab her stomach. "Let me get one of my donors in here."

She stood up and then was amazed at how fast she could move. She let herself enjoy that for a few moments and then scowled at him again. "No way. I mean it, Stryker, they all go. You can pay for apartments or whatever for them like other vamps do. It's a simple thing-they live here or I live here, take your pick."

"You won't make me get rid of them?"

"You're negotiating with me to keep those s.k.a.n.ks?"

He grew hard as he took her in. All of the fury that turned him on when she was human was amplified now. As an angry vampire, her eyes glowed, and her lips were ruby red.

Just watching her made him want to bury himself inside of her and show her the glories of feeding from him during s.e.x as he'd done with her the night before. He bit back a groan, knowing they'd have to wait until they dealt with this very tedious issue of donors.

"We need to feed. Darling, you have to have humans to feed from, too. We can both feed from them. I'll have them all move out. This is your home, and I respect that."

"I wouldn't touch your s.l.u.tty donors with a ten foot stake, thank you very much. I'll get my own donors.

I want Dominic and Eric. I know a few others who will do nicely as well. Let's get dressed so that you can tell the bimbos they're moving out, and I'll just go and grab Dom and Eric. I'm sure they'll agree to be my donors."

"If you think I'm going to agree to you having ten attractive male donors, you're out of your mind," he sputtered.

"But I won't be f.u.c.king them." She tossed his words back at him. "And we need to eat, right?"

He bit back a grin. d.a.m.n his woman was good. Almost better than he was. He tossed his hands up, signaling defeat. "All right, I surrender. Tell me what you propose."

"How many donors would the two of us need to sustain our bodies and to keep the donors healthy?"

He thought about it for a bit. "I'd say fifteen. That would give everyone several days between feedings."

"You get rid of every single one of your harem. We choose a group of fifteen together from people we trust, half male, half female."

"But there will be one extra, seven male, seven female. What about the fifteenth?"

"We'll flip for it."

He nodded, holding back a grin. He went into the bedroom to pull out the double sided quarter. The same one he used to get her into his bed the first time. And more recently to get her back into his life.

Fate was that he'd found her, but he'd be a fool to trust the coin when he could manage just fine with sleight of hand.

About Lauren Dane.

Lauren Dane is a suburban mom with a lurid imagination that she's put to good use with her writing. Her favorite thing is when people tell her that she doesn't look like "someone who'd write those books."

She lives in the Northwest with her husband and three very rambunctious kids. She writes everything from paranormals to contemporary BDSM books and develops terrible crushes on all of her heroes.

Even though she lives in her head a lot, she does venture outside from time to time to collaborate with other authors-two great examples are Erotic Romance Authors and Maverick Authors.

Readers may visit her on the web at www.laurendane.com.

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