Shalador's Lady
Jaenelle walked into the room—and the gold eyes that now looked at Gray and Ranon held a barely controlled savagery.
“Daemon,” Jaenelle said softly.
Daemon stared at the two men and snarled.
“ Prince .”
Those gold eyes focused on her.
She, in turn, smiled at Gray and Ranon.
*Mother Night, Gray, I can smell moon’s blood,* Ranon said. *We have to get out of this room before he kills us.*
*How?*
Ranon gave no answer, since moving toward the door meant moving toward Jaenelle, and that would be a lethal mistake.
Then two other males entered the room and stopped on either side of Jaenelle at the same time Daemon stepped closer to her.
Still smiling at Gray and Ranon, Jaenelle said, “I believe you know my little brother, Ladvarian.”
Gray hadn’t met the Red-Jeweled Sceltie Warlord when Ladvarian and Khardeen came to Eyota, but he nodded anyway.
She hooked an arm around her other companion’s neck. “And this pretty kitty is Prince Kaelas.”
The “pretty kitty” was a white, huge Warlord Prince who wore a Red Jewel—and wasn’t half as terrifying as Daemon at that moment.
“You have some business to take care of this afternoon?” Jaenelle released Kaelas and turned toward Daemon.
“It can be postponed,” he said in a croon that produced a chill down Gray’s spine.
“There’s no reason for that,” Jaenelle replied. “At this moment, Beale and Holt are in my private garden, arranging a lounge chair in the shady spot, Mrs. Beale is making a pitcher of that fruit punch I enjoy drinking in warm weather, Ladvarian and Kaelas are going to keep me company, and . . .” She called in a book and held it up between them. “I have Fiona’s new Tracker and Shadow novel to read.”
Daemon studied his wife through narrowed eyes. “In other words, you have no use for me this afternoon.”
“No use at all.”
The words could have been cutting to a man in love, but not when they were accompanied by the look in Jaenelle’s gorgeous eyes as she smiled at Daemon and gave his face a brief caress.
A code, Gray thought. Like the one he and Cassie had.
“You’ll bring our guests back for dinner,” Jaenelle said.
Daemon hesitated. “As my Lady wishes.”
*He doesn’t want us anywhere near her, but he won’t hesitate to hurt us if we decline her invitation,* Ranon said.
*Did you read the section in the Protocol book that covers this situation? * Gray asked.
*Yes. Thank the Darkness.*
“Gentlemen,” Jaenelle said before she left the room with Ladvarian and Kaelas.
“Shall we go?” Daemon asked.
He didn’t wait for an answer, so they followed him out of the Hall.
Daemon stopped at the edge of Halaway and waited for his companions to catch up. Gray and Ranon had been trailing after him since he’d walked out of the Hall and headed for the village on foot. He had needed the movement, had needed to burn off some of the temper. When Saetan had contacted him to find out if he was willing to host Gray and Ranon, he’d warned his father that Jaenelle’s moontime was close and he might not respond well to male visitors.
Jaenelle had decided that the visit shouldn’t be postponed.
Daemon frowned. Gray and Ranon immediately stopped walking.
He sighed. “It’s all right. I’m steady now and won’t eviscerate you for being in the same room as my wife.” But in the moment before Jaenelle had said “Prince” in a tone he recognized as a command, he had considered it.
Ah, well. At least he could tell Saetan that two of Cassidy’s court had paid attention to the additional notes about how Warlord Princes reacted to the scent of moon’s blood and how to avoid provoking an attack.
“You could have told us not to come,” Gray said when he reached Daemon.
“My Lady decided otherwise,” Daemon replied.
“So . . . no choice.”
“None. But if it makes you feel any better, Ladvarian and Kaelas didn’t object to your presence today. Since those two didn’t see you as a threat to the Lady, I can keep my temper leashed.”
“What kind of cat is Kaelas?” Ranon asked.
“Arcerian,” Daemon replied. “In fact, he’s the Warlord Prince of Arceria. All eight hundred pounds of him.”
“Mother Night.”
He liked these men, and while he wanted them to be careful during their stay at the Hall, he saw no reason to frighten them. So unless it became necessary, he wouldn’t tell them what a Red-Jeweled Warlord Prince of Kaelas’s size, speed, and strength could do to a
Weitere Kostenlose Bücher