I felt another man's approach and turned.
"Milady." It was the other older man. He was tall and slender, Gryphon's height but with a wiry leanness and curly brown hair and blue eyes. Something about him felt different, muted somehow. My impression was confirmed when I felt Amber and Gryphon stiffen beside me.
Cautious, painful hope was in his eyes. "I could not help but overhear you, milady. I have had many years of experience as a guard."
It was the hardest thing to say no, I discovered, to someone who looked at you like that. But Amber and Gryphon had not recommended him and they seemed to know him. "I'm sorry…" I said.
"If you will just give me a chance, milady," he urged with quiet intensity.
"I'll give you a chance, Charm," interjected a sly feminine voice.
Chami frowned, dismayed, as Mona Teresa swayed up to him, her guards and new boy toy trotting obediently behind her. "Mona Rosita no longer desires you? Do not worry. I shall find sonic interesting ways to occupy you, my deadly darling," Mona Teresa purred.
Holding my eyes, casting me a quiet plea, Chami said, "I would be willing to serve as a butler, footman, or gardener if you have no need of another guard, milady. Anything."
"You cannot desire to serve her," Mona Teresa said in an angry hiss. "She is a mongrel! A Mixed Blood!"
I turned stricken eyes to Tomas, my new man, when I realized he might not have known that. "I forgot to mention that to you."
Tomas gazed calmly back at me. "I was already aware of that, milady."
Mona Teresa gave Tomas a wily smile. "I am willing to take you into my service as well, Tomas."
"Thank you for your generous offer, milady," Tomas said politely, "but I have already been accepted into Queen Mona Lisa's service."
"If you wish to change your mind…" I ventured.
"I do not wish to change my mind, my Queen," Tomas said firmly.
"You shall regret it!" Mona Teresa snapped with vicious temper. "She will not last long. And when she is gone, you shall come crawling to me." She turned to go. "Come along, Chami."
Chami didn't move. He beseeched me with quiet passion, his blue eyes pleading.
Mona Teresa's voice crackled with warning rage. "I said, come along!"
"Wait." I spoke the word quietly. "Gryphon? Amber?"
Gryphon released a deep sigh of resignation. "Show her your ability, Chami."
With no warning, Chami dropped his shields and I felt him fully for the first time. He was strong. As strong as Gryphon had been when I'd first met him. From Mona Teresa's apparent shock, she hadn't been aware of it. All the other Queens whose service he had passed through probably had had no inkling of his true power, as well.
Chami gave me only a brief moment to feel his full force before he muted it once more, turning it down, down, down. Before my eyes he disappeared. I gasped and would have doubted my own senses but for a faint presence that I could barely detect. He moved and only then could I see him. A bare outline visible only with movement, and hardly noticeable even then. Chami had not faded so much as taken on the coloration and pattern of his surroundings so that he blended perfectly among them and became invisible.
Then he stood before me, visible once again, eyes cast down.
"What is your full name?" I asked.
"Chameleo."
He was a chameleon. The perfect assassin. My deadly darling,
Mona Teresa had called him. I wondered how many Queens he had served. And how many Queens had given him up because not only was he powerful but very, very dangerous.
"Enough!" Mona Teresa screeched. "Come with me now or I shall withdraw my offer!"
Chami's fists clenched but he did not move. "Milady?"
"Look at me," I commanded softly.
Chami lifted his eyes and opened himself to me, dropping his barriers, giving me permission to look deep within him. He was a well of dark complexity, his trait of loyalty a bit blurred. Only time would tell. And I detected a touch of viciousness and cruelty. He would be a gamble.
"I will accept you if Lord Amber and Lord Gryphon are willing to have you," I finally declared.
Hope flared anew in Chami's eyes, deepening the blue almost to violet. Chami turned his face to Gryphon and submitted to Gryphon's probing gaze. Searching with his senses, his power, Gryphon studied him for an intense moment.
Gryphon turned to me. "Do you see what I see in him?"
"Blurred trait of loyalty with a slight propensity for viciousness and cruelty?"
Gryphon tilted his head. "Yes, exactly what I saw. Were you always able to see traits of character within another?"
I thought back. "No, it's something that came to me rather recently. Right after…" My words trailed away. Right after I had first slept with Gryphon. "Could I have gotten my gift from you, from your sharp falcon eyes?" I whispered.
"Does it please you that part of me is now a part of you?" Gryphon asked softly.
"Docs sunlight please the flower? I will cherish your gift always. What do you say about Chami?"
"It's not wise, but… I will accept him with reservations."
"So noted," I said with a small smile. "Amber, how about you?"
"I will abide by your judgment, milady," Amber replied.
I turned back to Chami. "We will be happy to have you join us."
Chami dropped to his knees, kissing my hand with lips that trembled. "Thank you, my Queen."
"No!" Rage spewed from Mona Teresa. "You unnatural bitch! You think you have won? I wish you joy of them. You shall soon find that you have bitten off more than you can handle."
"Well, it certainly would have been more than you could have handled," I said easily.
"You are an obscenity!" Mona Teresa shouted, practically dripping with venom. I was surprised her teeth didn't burst into fangs.
I batted my lashes at her. "Aw, you're just jealous."
Mona Teresa stalked away in a cloud of seething wrath.
"You've made an enemy," Gryphon warned quietly.
I shrugged uncaringly. "She already was my enemy. Nothing has changed."
"She fears you now," Gryphon returned. "That makes her more dangerous."
I arched a brow. "Fears me?"
"How you marked Miles," Amber explained in his deep bass rumble. "There are few injuries the Monère cannot heal."
"In addition to that, five strong warriors serving one Queen… unheard of," Gryphon said thoughtfully. "Adding in your own unusual powerful gifts, all the Queens shall fear you now."
"Nor did recognizing and elevating us to Warrior Lords endear you to the Ladies of Light," Amber noted, reminding me of an important fact.
"I am so glad you did not leave me," I whispered fiercely.
"We are not fools. Why would we choose to depart from the one good thing we have found in over a hundred years?" Amber chided gruffly.
Tomas and Chami observed our brief interplay with wide-eyed fascination.
"Come along," Gryphon said, bestowing a warm smile upon me. "Let us sign the agreements and be done with it."
A counselor was called for the task. He came running with the contracts clutched in his hand and noted down the new placements in his thick ledger. Tomas and Chami both sign their names on their contracts. I signed with bold relish, in large stroking flourish in celebration of my first official act as a Queen. With the transaction consummated, we went to collect their luggage, two small trunks.
Behind us, a voice called out to me. "Mona Lisa."
I turned and saw Jamie. He was with two women, both whom I recognized. "Jamie."
"I want you to meet…" Jamie winced as the two women elbowed him on both sides. "Oops, I'm sorry. I mean, could I have the honor, milady, of introducing my sister, Tersa, and my mother, Rosemary."
Tersa was even smaller than I had imagined, a tiny, delicate creature, half a head shorter than I. I would have felt like an Amazon standing beside her but for her mother. Now there was a true Amazon, standing nearly six feet tall and massive in girth. She had a plump, round face that would probably have been quite pleasant were it not so grim.