"Dontaine Fruge." Something about the way Horace announced him proclaimed him special.
My eyes narrowed as I sensed him, the quiet thrum of his power. He was strong, much more so than Bernard. Perhaps the confidence wasn't just in his looks then, I thought, as Horace went through his spiel.
Dontaine swept a courtly bow. "My Queen." Kneeling, he pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. Other men had kissed my hand before when acknowledging me, so I couldn't protest, though I wanted to. Because Dontaine did it differently. His lips caressed my skin with conscious, provocative heat that deepened the green of his eyes to a dark fiery jade. And he didn't just touch me with his flesh. He touched me with his power, a taste of it. A different kind of power than any I had ever encountered. An electric strumming that danced like little shocking jolts upon me. Pleasurable, for the moment, but with the dark promise of pain if it continued.
I removed my hand and he drew back.
"Another Fruge?" I asked coolly.
"Margaret is my mother."
Interesting how he'd answered that.
"And Bernard?"
"My mother's second husband."
"Your stepfather, then."
"Yes, my Queen."
So Margaret had borne two Full Blood children. A precious girl and a powerful warrior. They were a prized family, no doubt favored by their former Queen, Mona Louisa, with their fair coloring so like her own. Dontaine had clearly held her favor, I intuitively knew. Why, then, had Mona Louisa left them here for me?
Dontaine turned his head to my left, looking behind me, and inclined his head respectfully. "Warrior Lord Amber." But when he shifted his gaze to my right, there was some knowledge, some subtle difference in those cat-green eyes. "Warrior Lord Gryphon, a pleasure to see you once again."
"Dontaine," Gryphon replied, his voice bland, and I knew without looking that his body and face were as inscrutable as his tone.
They knew each other. My brow creased as I pondered that. Dontaine had not been with Mona Louisa at High Court. And then it came to me. Mona Louisa had brought Gryphon here to her home when he had bartered his body to her in return for protection for me.
Had she paraded Gryphon here before her people, her new pet? Her new toy to play with before he died from his silver poisoning? Had she shackled a jeweled collar about his throat and held the leash in her hands, the way she had displayed him at High Court? The answer yes whispered to me with certainty.
Oh, baby. No wonder you looked so sad.
Chapter Four
The rest of the introductions flowed forward like fast streaming water, filling the vessel of my mind with a general feel for the whole, but slipping away if I grasped for much detail. Like individual names, for instance. They were a glittering throng, dressed in their best to meet and greet their new Queen, the women sweeping the floor with their gowns like antebellum beauties, the men dashing and neat in their formal wear. They fit into the grand ballroom like naturally extended props because the fashion could have been set back a couple of decades or even a century. Sashes accented men's waists. Bow ties, neckties, even knotted cravats topped off crisp white shirts. In general, there were many more men than women, as seemed to be the norm among the Monère. But there were at least twenty women here; the whole number I had expected to rule. By the count of their women alone—those rare precious women—this must have been considered a quite prosperous territory, even though it was still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.
With the ceremony completed, refreshments were served and we were expected to mingle. I was never good at mingling. I grabbed Gryphon and slipped out onto a balcony, closing the French doors behind us. The cool night welcomed us with an airy embrace, a breeze rifling through our hair, over our faces, kissing our skin with refreshing grace.
"Gryphon, are you all right?" My question was like the night itself. Soft, natural. A whisper of sound. I touched the side of his face and Gryphon brought his hand up to cover mine, as if he would keep it against him always. Turning, he pressed a gentle kiss into my palm.
"I am well," he said quietly.
"You were here before."
"Yes."
"You met these people."
"Some of them."
"Did you…" I hesitated. "Did they…"
A breeze rustled the leaves, swaying some of the giant trees in the distance.
"Do I need to kill anyone here?" I asked abruptly.
Gryphon laughed but it was a sad sound that made you want to weep instead of smile.
"No, my heart." He called me that but it was the other way around. Gryphon was my heart. My reason for being here. "No one. Mona Louisa was selfish. She desired the gift of walking under the sun only for herself first before any others. I shared no one else's bed here but hers."
Gryphon was able to venture out without impunity into the light of day now, a rare ability for a cold-blooded Monère. Not many things could kill the Monère but the sun was one of them. Stick them under the hot rays and it fried them, literally. One hour and they would be lobster-red and panting. Four hours and they were covered in sores and great boils, their skin sloughing off. And they would die without a healer's aid. That's what my dear mother, Mona Sera, had done to Amber. A remembered shiver rippled over me at how Amber had looked when she had done that to him.
I had passed on my ability to Gryphon to withstand the sun when I had taken him as my lover. For the Monère, sex was much more than the slaking of lust—it was also away to gain new powers and abilities. Another reason why promiscuity was the norm. Mona Louisa had tried to acquire that ability by sleeping with Gryphon in turn. I wonder if she had been successful, if the sun's heat was nothing but a mild kiss upon her skin now. I sincerely hoped not. I hoped that when she stepped out into daylight, it burned her fair skin to a dark red charring crisp.
Dropping my hand, Gryphon stepped back from me, leaving me feeling coldly bereft. His voice was a low barren sound in the night. "When you took me back, even after knowing I had been in Mona Louisa's bed, I could not believe it, that you still wanted me, desired me. I considered it a miracle. A miracle that I cherished with all my heart. But I knew it could not last." His blue eyes drifted close, his heavy lashes casting delicate shadows over his cheeks.
"There are things about me, about my past that I would have kept from you always, were I able to. But you can never out-run your past, even if you have wings," he said, with a small wry smile. In his other form, Gryphon was a falcon.
Then his smile dropped away. "There are people in there who know me. Know of my past. They would have found a way to whisper it into your ears. I have found that I do not wish to wait in agony, in unknowing torment. I will tell you myself and have done with it."
Faint light streamed out from inside the ballroom, allowing me to see those beautiful eyes weighed down with deep shadows. His voice dropped until it became a bare whisper of sound. "In other places, other courts, with other Queens, I have done things with women… with men. I've done things you could never begin to imagine. Done and had things done to me…" His voice shook with remembered pain, with remembered shame.
I reached up and kissed his trembling lips. To stop him, to take away his pain.
"Shhh. It's all right," I murmured, stroking the dark silk of his hair. "That's all behind you now."
Gryphon was only seventy-five years old. Considered young, especially to have acquired so much power. But even among the lovely Monère, where the plainest of us still drew a human's eyes, he was exceptionally beautiful. Many Queens would have welcomed him in their beds. Until he had become too powerful for them.