oney to buy it. It went through the accountants.”
“Oh,” he says flatly, clearly not pleased that he was deliberately cut out of the deal.
Finally bringing my gaze back to Cole, having avoided him thus far, he looks annoyed, but resigned.
“With regard to Cade,” I say, bringing the conversation back around full circle, “it can wait. We have far too much to accomplish. If it becomes pressing, we will deal with it then. In the meantime, we need to get back home. Dev, let Jim know we’re on our way to JFK.” He nods and pulls out his phone.
“I will need to go back to Milan for a couple of days. I will see you there on Tuesday. No, make that Wednesday as I will have to fly in,” CK adds and frowns at the inconvenience.
“Okay,” I say, having expected he would say that anyway.
“Good. You have been so strong these last few weeks, Aefre,” he says softly. “I am so proud of you.”
I twinkle under his praise as he kisses me quickly and pulls out his own phone to call Nico to come to get him.
O nce CK has gone, with assurances that I’m fine after all the upheaval, destruction, and mother issues, we head out ourselves. Back on the dreaded G6, I snuggle up to Cole and even though he is upset with me he lets me.
“So, if you are Queen and I’m your husband, does that make me King?” he asks with a chuckle.
Devon snorts in mirth.
“I don’t think so, my love,” I say apologetically, with a little laugh as he looks mock sad. “Oh, Dev, that reminds me. Tiamat said that my Shifting ability is a Dragon thing and it isn’t passed down to my Vampire charges.”
“Ah ha! I knew it wasn’t me,” he says smugly. I grin at him.
We sit in a companionable silence for a few minutes and then Cole asks, “When are you going to try and Shift?”
“I don’t know. I’m a bit nervous about it,” I admit shyly. He pats my hand in reassurance.
“I’m sure you will do it on the first try.”
“Such confidence in me,” I say dryly. “My problem is that I have no idea what my Dragon self looks like. When I Shift to look like someone else, I obviously know what I want to look like.”
Devon ponders that for a moment. “But when you Shift, do you have to think about it or is it like imprinted?”
“Well, imprinted, I guess, for forms I know.”
“So, you think ‘Elizabeth’ and you are?”
“Yes.”
“Then just try it. Think ‘Dragon' and see what happens. Not right now, though,” he adds hurriedly, looking around the small aircraft.
“Hm, it might work, I suppose.”
“It also stands to reason that if Tiamat looks like you in human form, then maybe you look like Her in Dragon form.”
I nod. “She called you clever,” I say shrewdly, enjoying his preen at the compliment.
L anding at LAX a couple of hours later, we all gratefully disembark and ask Grayson to head to… you guessed it, X-tasy. Seems to be a ritual now. I am beyond starving and ask for two Feeders much to the alarm of my boys.
“Stay with me, Dev. Please,” I ask. “Not sure if I can pull back.”
He nods grimly, keenly aware that there isn’t much he could do to stop me anyway. I bare my fangs I bite down once, then twice, remaining in perfect control. The calm comes over me and I flex my shoulders.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He gratefully goes off to fulfill his own needs as I head to find Cole.