The Phantom King (The Kings) (29 page)

Lalura leaned on
her cane and made her way in his direction. As she walked, she looked at each of the kings, her gaze steady and keen, her small form unnaturally strong in the presence of so many sharp-toothed men.

“
This meeting is distinctly lacking in femininity,”
her voice scratched
d
isapprovingly.
“But that will change,” she
said softly.

When
she
came t
o stand before the Phantom King,
Thane
grasped the armrests of his chair,
pushed
it out,
and stood, gesturing for her to sit
in his place
.

Roman
quietly approved
. Thane
was ready to kill; as much was apparent by the flash of fang he revealed when his lips parted. And yet he remembered to be a gentleman.
His behavior was that of
a true king.

Lalura
shook her
head, “No thank you,” she said, reaching out to brace herself on his tall form as she stopped, turned around, and began heading in the opposite direction once more.

Roman frowned.
“Lalura, did you not wish to giv
e something to Thanatos?” he
asked.

“Oh
, I already did
,” she said, waving her hand dismissively.

Roman looked over at Thane
, w
ho still stood beside his chair
and
was clearly empty-handed.

Lalura
glanced over her shoulder
at Thane. “Check your pocket
s,
dear
,” she said. And then she turned back to Roman. “And you, Roman,” she said,
“Thank you for the introduction,
” she relented. “I
t was very kind
of you
.”

“If I hadn’
t introduced you
Lalura,” Roman said, chancing
a glance at the men in the room and smiling a tight smile. “Y
ou might be dead right now.”

She either didn’t hear him or didn’t feel the need to justify his words with further response, because she changed the subject at once. H
er tone lowering, her expression grow
ing serious, she leaned forward.
The blue of her eyes intensified. He
found himself bending to meet her
. “The wolf is at the door
old friend,” she said
.
“And it’s like no other wolf you know.”

She straightened and shot
the werewolf Overseer
Jesse Graves a look. “No offense, Jesse.”

The black man
inclined his head. “None taken.”

With that, the high witch disappeared. No fairy dust
or smoke
or
poof
or drama this time. She simply vanished into thin air.

Roman looked over at Thane as Lalura’s words echoed through his mind. Thane slipped his right hand into his pocket and blinked. When he pulled it back out again, he was holding a chess piece.

A crimson colored
queen.

Chapter
Nineteen

The one on the right
, she thought. He was the bigger of the two, though not by much. If she took him out first, she would have a better chance at
taking out the second guy
.

Just as Siobhan
thought she was going to have to
let loose with some of the pent-
up anxiety brewing inside of her, the door to the room Thane had disappeared through opened once more.
Siobhan
whirled
to face it, her red hair fly
ing all around her like a fanned
flame. That same flame was crackling in her eyes; she
could feel it. She was pissed off
and she wanted answers yesterday.

The man with the piercing black
eyes came through the doorway first. Siobhan glared at him, the magic within her no longer caring how terrifying or charismatic he was. He watched her with an ultimate
air of calm,
and unless she was imagining it, there was even a hint of amusement
in the depths of his dark
eyes.
He moved into the study and his gaze flicked to the men at the door. He nodded.

Siobhan turned in time to see the men open the door and step through it to close it behind them.

She spun back around as Thanatos entered the room behind
his suit-wearing companion and t
he moment he appeared, a bit of Siobhan’s fury slipped away. She looked at him, at his beautiful face with its shadow of scruff and its piercing silver eyes, and some of the unyielding anger that had been hardening her heart over the last twenty minutes melted.

He was perfect.

Had she noticed it the last time she’d seen him? The way his jeans hugged every curve, the boots, the jacket, the hair that brushed his leather collar – the sheer masculinity of him? Had she paid it the heed it deserved?

She realized in that moment that she’d been missing him. She’d barely met him, had spent mere hours with him, and yet the entire time she’d been alone in that study with the guards, she’d be
en thinking about Thanatos and how
she couldn’t wait to see him again.

It was a sobering realization.

Those silver eyes
of his at once
found hers
and locked on as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. She felt held by him through that gaze, nailed in place, shackled and bound,
and Siobhan was filled with the o
ddest sensation. It was as if the Phantom King
were as entranced, as shocked, and as desperate to
lay eyes upon
her as she had been with him.

Was that possible? Or w
as it just
wishful thinking
?

A soft, deep chuckle tore her from her strange reverie and ripped her gaze from Thane’s. She looked over
at the man in the suit
. He was watching them both,
his eyes moving from one
to the other, his
expression knowing and
definitely
amused.

“Siobhan, I’m afraid that much must be shared w
ith you and that we haven’t a lot of
time in which to share it,” said the stranger. “But I’ll begin by introducing myself. I am Roman D’Angelo,” he said, placing his fingers to his chest by way of introduction. He bowed slightly. “The Vampire King.”

*****

Thane saw the emotions flicker across Siobhan’s beautiful brown eyes one after anoth
er. First
was surprise. Then fear. Then wariness. Then
came
plain old weariness. She looked from Roman to him and back again. And then she looked down at the floor and pinched the bridge of her nose, and Thane had never been more tempted in his life to pull a woman into his arms in order to comfort her.

He made his way toward her, but something told him to give her a bit of space, so he stopped a few feet away and suggested softly, “Please sit down, Siobhan.”

But s
he shook her head
and sighed. “The Vampire King?” she asked incredulously, her voice soft and breathy.
She closed her eyes.
“You’
re not shitting me, are you,
”
she whispered.

That last bit w
asn’t a question. It was a flagging
statement of fact, a realization
that in her
tired state,
she was
simply admitting to herself a
loud.

“No,” Roman said.
He
had used a little of his magic to
clean them both up
so that neither of them looked
as
battle worn any longer. Now the Vampire King appeared as put together and in control as ever.
He moved around his desk, pulled open a drawer, and procured from its depths a bottle of liquor
and a single crystal glass. The
glass
he filled with the alcohol
before making his way to Siobhan.

She looked up when she saw the tips of his shoes on the carpet in front of her. He offered her the glass. “As I said, we have much to discuss,” he told her as he bent and took her hand to press the glass into it. “So drink up a
nd have a seat because we’re truly short on
time.”

Another twenty minutes later, Thane was standing beside a large love seat in which Siobhan sat, and Roman D’Angelo was reclined against his desk, his palms wrapped around its edges, his eyes on the young warlock. He’d explained
to her
everything essential, such
as the existence of the various
supernatural factions, the thirteen kings, and the sudden rogue behavior of the Akyri King, Marius.

Now she was silent
and her gaze was locked on the fire Roman had ca
lled to life in the hearth.
Thane could only imagine wha
t must be going through her head
.

And with what he was about to tell her, it was probably about to get worse.

“I’m taki
ng you back to Purgatory,” he
said.
He could also take her to the astral plane, since as far as he knew, only the late Charles Ward and Roman D’Angelo were astral masters capable of traversing that particular plane along with him, and it was far less harsh than his own. He could even send his own Anime into the astral plane, so he was not without power there. However, he was certainly stronger in h
is own realm, and at the moment
he wanted
that extra edge
.

As he’d expected, she looked at him with wide eyes and a building anger
, despite the alcohol she’d imbibed
.

H
e’d thought hard about how
to get her to agree to come back with him. In the end
,
Steven Lazarus’ words about her stubbornness
played a big part in his decision
. If she wouldn’t come back to protect
herself
, then
maybe she woul
d do it to protect someone else.