Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) (6 page)

“Then more the fool are they.” She, however, moved back, allowing him the retreat he needed. “Thank you for taking time to instruct me. I appreciate your efforts in making me feel comfortable, Andries.” She smiled softly just for him. “Can I feed you?” she asked curiously. He had been so wonderful to her, feeding her and allowing her questions. Now she would like to give back to him, if she could.

His shock was so complete that he knew it showed on his face. He’d had no warning, and therefore he’d been unable to hide the reaction to her words. “If you wish,” he said to her as he scrambled to adjust his thinking toward the little human female. He’d never had anyone offer to do anything for him, let alone feed him. The fact he had the distinctive incisors of his species tended to turn people off from even inviting him to meals unless there was something to be gained.

She didn’t see the incisors of his species. She didn’t see the blood-lust that marked his kind. She saw him. She saw the kind and gentle man that he was. She saw a man who was worth so much more than what people tried to give him. “I do wish.” Picking up her utensils, she cut him off a piece of the meat and brought it close to him. “Open up?” she asked softly.

Opening his mouth for her, he watched as she brought the meat to him and, at the last instant, caught her wrist. Pulling the meat back, he took the utensil with a frown as he lifted it closer to his nose. A low growl formed in his chest as he tossed the meat to the plate, her hand resting on his chest where he’d pulled it out of some protective need. Pushing his seat back, he stood with a look to the chancellors. “If you will excuse us, gentlemen.” The last word had a definite bite to it as he helped her from her chair with a shake of his head at her look.

Guiding her from the room, he found an empty room where he paced away from her in anger before coming back, his temper having exploded as his mind had processed what had nearly happened in there. Moving to her, he caught her chin in a light hand. “Did you eat any of the meat?” he asked as horror set back in again.

The fear was in her eyes as she shook her head. “No, I’ve only eaten what you yourself have fed me.” She moved her hand to cover his and asked, “You’re hurting. Let go.” She was sure he didn’t know his own strength and in his anger he was squeezing her chin tightly, bruising the delicate skin there. “Andries, what happened?”

Staring down into her eyes, Andries felt a huge, swift flood of relief that later he’d question and wonder about but for the moment he put down to not wanting an innocent to suffer. Releasing her chin, he fought not to give into another urge, to pull her into his arms and cradle her close, but such softness had been mostly beaten out of him, at least for acting it out. “The meat was poisoned. It would have done me no harm, but had you eaten any…” Some things really didn’t need to be said.

She understood. Moon and stars, she understood. “I don’t understand why.” She watched him as he once more began to pace in the small confines of the empty room. “Why would someone want to try to kill me now?” Because that was what it was, a clear and present attempt on her life. “We are already married. What good would it do to anyone? My father wanted the alliance with the Vampire Nation and your father wanted the alliance with the Syndicate, so why now?”

“Neither wanted the alliance,” Andries said, turning to look at her. “The Alliance members wanted an in to the Syndicate so that they had a way to keep them from their continued foolish forays into our territory. The Syndicate wanted a spy on the inside that would give them information and a way to take us down so that they could take our worlds and the space they inhabit as their own. Besides that, the claim that they took down the Castitans would look extremely good on their resumes when dealing with other species of the universe. We’re greatly feared after all.” If she didn’t know that, then he wasn’t really going to explain the whys of it. “That is why we pointedly hustled your assistant that your father sent along back to the man.”

She sat down hard, eyes wide as she looked at him. “I knew that Diego had always been attached to me to watch over me, to beat me into submission when the need arose, and to keep me from finding things and places I shouldn’t, but a spy?” It made sense though. Diego was not an assistant. He was hard and brutal, just like her father. “Why was I chosen then? Because believe me when I tell you that my father could care less if I lived or I died.” However, if she died in the hands of her husband, that would give him the opportunity to cry foul and play a grieving father. “It’s because of my mother’s position in the Syndicate, isn’t it? It’s not me, or my father. I wasn’t chosen or pushed forward by him, but by my mother’s mother.” The so-called Matriarch of the Syndicate.

Stopping his pacing at her words of beatings, Andries refocused on the last of her statement. “Likely, my lady,” he said quietly as he moved to look down at her. She looked so forlorn. Crouching down, he caught her eye. “Nothing is going to happen to you, Xandra, my word of honor,” he said, wondering just what he might be taking on. “No one will get near you to do any harm, and we’ll figure out just what your father is playing at with this move.” To take out a child just to exact revenge seemed harsh even to him. He’d never use anyone he considered under his protection for such despicable deeds, especially a child.

She nodded and after closing her eyes found her center. When she reopened her eyes, she looked at him and nodded. “Thank you, Andries.” She stood once more so he didn’t have to kneel at her feet. “I believe that we need to make a plan, Andries, a way to find out just who is doing what.” There was a pause before she asked, “When you leave for your mission, am I to go with you or do I remain at your home?”

That had been on his mind as well. “I believe it would be best if you came with me,” he told her as he straightened up, although he had a feeling that might bite them both before it was over. “To worry over your safety while I’m unavailable would be highly disruptive to the mission. It’s also not overly dangerous.” But going into space always did hold a certain amount of danger. “We should go and meet your new assistant so that you will know her when she comes in the morning. Then we will go to our suite,” he said and wondered if he could keep his hands to himself from that point on. He hadn’t wanted a wife, but now that he had Xandra it was messing with his vows to himself. Holding out his arm, he waited for her. “Shall we, my lady?”

Bowing her head, she slipped her hand over his arm and moved to his side. He was tall, but she was not a small woman either. Her head reached just high enough that, were she to lay her head on his chest, it would be right over his heart. “I would like to meet the poor woman that you have saddled with preparing me for your culture, for our new home.” She felt as unschooled as a newborn babe in her new world.

“She was once a teacher before she wed and chose to raise her own children,” Andries told her as he walked with her through the halls, ignoring the imploring looks on the chancellors’ faces, his own closed and cold. He would discover who had attempted his bride’s death and, when he found them, there would be no mercy. “Since they are now at an age that they no longer require her attention, she came back to a new career. Previously she was an assistant to an ambassador of one of the worlds under our protection while he resided here on our planet. She is well versed in all aspects of our culture and very mild compared to many of my people. She will be a good fit, I believe,” he told her as he guided her toward one of the cars that rode upon hidden rails for fast transit throughout the cities.

“I appreciate you taking the time to ensure that I am comfortable and happy, Andries. Not many men would do that, especially not ones being forced into marriage.” As they walked, she watched the people, and when they paused before the rail cars, she looked up at him and smiled. “I wish that you could see my homeland sometime, Andries. I would love to take you riding through the countryside on horseback.”

Andries waited for a car to arrive and stepped in with her, a look ensuring they were alone. Programming it to where they needed to go, he encouraged her to sit in one of the contoured seats. “I am not a man to be forced into anything, my lady.” But cornered was another matter. “If we are able, we will see about arranging a trip back to your world, if that is your desire,” he assured her. Though the cost would be vast, he believed this might be something she would appreciate because of the rarity of the event. Or, if he arranged a mission just right, they could take his vessel to her world, perhaps a diplomatic envoy mission of some sort, something he’d need to investigate and look into.

She shook her head and smiled. “I wish that you could see my home world, my birth-world, and that I could take you riding. However”—and this was going to make her sound very cowardly—“I never want to see that place again. I never want to chance running into my father or his men. I would prefer to simply find new adventures with my husband in his home world, my new home world.” She shifted slightly in the seat as it conformed to her body and then sighed as she waited for the pronouncement of her cowardice.

Glancing to her, Andries nodded. “If that is what you wish, then I shall think no more of it,” he told her and wondered if she’d feel that way were her father not around. Looking up as the computronics signaled that they were approaching their destination, he stood. When their transportation slowed, he offered her a hand up and then guided her toward the massive five-tower building with walkways every ten floors between the towers. “Each tower is over a mile and a half in radius,” he told her as they moved toward the entranceway. “Our suites are in tower two on the ninetieth floor and ninety-first. It spans two floors. The greeting, meeting, and formal rooms are on the lower level and the family rooms on the top floor.”

“Is this where you always stay when you are here instead of your home world? When not on your ship, that is?” Looking at the gleaming silver and glass buildings, she felt something akin to awe. “This is beautiful.” She wanted to reach out and touch it. “I know you likely think I am a country bumpkin, and I wouldn’t be able to argue that.” She had been schooled in much before her father killed her mother. After, however, she had been all but locked behind closed doors. “When Father would go to the Trades Meetings, he wouldn’t take me. I wasn’t allowed to leave our home world, ever.” This was her first time off of Terrain soil.

“This is my home world, Xandra, but this is where I stay when I need to be available or before I leave on missions, as we launch before dawn here,” he told her, guiding her into the building and the richly lush foyer. Moving to the lift, he encouraged her in and pulled out a key-card. “There is a duplicate in our rooms for you. Whenever you are here you will need it since everything above the fortieth floors is for high-ranking officers and therefore secure,” he said, swiping the card and pressing in the floor number. Silently and swiftly, the car began to rise, no discernible pressure from the speed being applied to their bodies thanks to the dampeners that were the same as on their spacecrafts.

“Oh.” She had forgotten this was his world. She was thinking about his country home more than the city dwelling he had before her. Likely because she was more of a country girl than a city girl.

When the gilded doors opened, he guided her through the hall to a door with his rank and last name on a plaque to the left of the dual doors. Her name and title had been added to the new plaque and, while he was amazed at how quickly it had been done, he was also impressed. Unlocking the door with the same key-card, he let her enter so he could turn on the low level light of the space. It was very cold looking and spartan in appearance on the lower levels, appropriate to the position he held and atmosphere he preferred for guests. He rarely, if at all possible, ever used the spaces. “I don’t particularly like these spaces, but they do put certain individuals in their place when I must meet with them here,” he told her. “Upstairs I am sure you will like more,” he said before he paused at a polite knock at the door. Turning, he opened them and bowed to the older female standing there with a guard. “Thank you,” he directed to the escort.

Xandra wrapped her arms around herself and frowned at the chill in the air and the sparseness of the space. She didn’t like this space at all. She wondered briefly if he would allow her to redo it, redecorate it.

“Xandra, this is Aleina Chathers. Madam Aleina, this is the Lady Xandra,” he said in introduction after the woman had said her greetings to him. “Please, come in, Aleina,” he said with a wave of his arm even as he moved toward Xandra to encourage her further into the sitting room.

Xandra moved more into the sitting room and smiled at the woman. “Hello.” She offered her hand to the woman and then frowned. “I’m sorry.” She looked to Andries and asked, “Can we move upstairs. I really, really don’t like these rooms, Andries. They are freezing cold, far too formal, and I am simply uncomfortable.” She looked to Aleina and smiled. “If you don’t mind, that is?”

“Of course we can,” Andries said, taking her arm and leading the way to the stairs knowing that Aleina would follow. As they reached the second level, he looked to her and the warmer tones that were on the second level. “More to your liking, my lady?” he asked softly for her ears alone as he walked her toward an armless plush chair.

The very air around them seemed to be warmer and the decoration was more of a home than a stark military bunker. “Thank you, my lord, yes, it is much better.” She took the seat that he led her to and reached out, clasping her hand in his, not thinking about the action, simply needing to touch him and remind herself that he was there and she wasn’t dreaming.

“Thank you, Aleina,” she began as the woman took a seat opposite her. “Thank you for accepting the position to teach me the ways of my new home. I will confess that while my younger years were filled with protocol training and manners training, the latter years were not.” She wouldn’t say why. That was no one’s business. “And I would like to know as much as possible so I don’t embarrass my husband. I want to be a good wife to him.”