Page 204 of Rise of the Queen

I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers.“I love you. More than I ever thought possible.”I could feel her smile against my lips.

“My adorable Russian guardian, do you think we can find out more details on the Mexicans? Like what they know about Martin that seems to have them so spooked?” she asked Misha.

“I can try, but I’m going to need your help to see if we can translate any of it. We’ve really got to hire a Spanish tutor,” he said, shaking his head.

Sephie giggled, but agreed. “After dinner though. I’m starving.”

I surprised them both by suggesting they try something new. “Why don’t you both use your demons to see how detailed we can get?”

She grinned at me. “Maybe my demon knows Spanish. This could really work in our favor.”

After dinner, the other guys worked on cleaning up the kitchen so Misha and Sephie could try to find answers. We’d discussed what we needed to find out as we ate, so those two set about trying to find the answers to our questions.

When Misha first started looking, both their eyes switched to black, but both of them inhaled sharply, eyes wide. “Whoa,” they both said at the same time. I could feel Sephie’s surpriseat whatever she was seeing, but she stayed mostly calm. I could almost feel her trying to understand what was being said.

They watched the movie only they could see for a few minutes. We saw them look at each other, clearly surprised at whatever new thing they’d just discovered. “Well, that was different,” Sephie said as she looked at Misha with wide eyes.

“What was different this time, solnishko?” I asked, curious to find out what had happened.

“It started with snapshots, then went to a movie that we were watching, then a movie that we were standing inside of. This time, it was like we had the remote and could pause the scene and walk through it, looking at every detail we wanted to,” Misha said.

“I could look in people’s heads,” Sephie said, her eyes still wide.

“Really?” Andrei asked, now just as surprised as she was. “You’ve never done it from that far away before, have you?”

“No. God, no. I threatened to try it once with Ivan, but I never actually did,” she said.

“What did you find?” I asked, walking to her side, finally unable to stay away from her any longer.

“They’re scared of Martin, which we already suspected. It’s hard to tell exactly how much they know. Language is still a very big barrier for us,” she said. I could feel her frustration.

“I think we should take a closer look at Martin, gazelle. Maybe we can figure out why they’re so scared of him that way,” Misha said.

I clicked my tongue, pulling her in front of me. “Is it going to zap either one of you? We can’t afford for anyone to get zapped right now.”

Her eyes flashed red as she grinned at me. “You, my King, have enough power to keep all of us going now. I think we’ll be okay.”

My breath caught looking at her red eyes. She felt the full effect it had on me as she pressed herself closer to me, wrapping her arms around my neck for a moment.“Unexpectedly hot,”I told her as she stayed in front of me long enough for me to calm myself down. I heard her giggling in her head, but she never gave any indication of it outward.

Once she felt me mostly calm once again, she sighed, stepping away from me. She glanced at Misha, extending her hand to him. “Let’s see if we can find out what our dearest Martin has been up to,” she said.

They watched for several minutes once again. I could feel both Sephie’s and Misha’s demons getting angry while they watched Martin. Really angry. Everyone else could too. We were all somewhat nervous to see what they’d found.

Sephie immediately turned to look at me once the movie stopped. Her eyes were black, so were Misha’s. Everyone else’s eyes had turned black in response so she knew we were all very aware of her demon’s anger.

“You know this isn’t us, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. Your demons are pissed. Quite frankly, it’s making mine pissed as well,” I said, feeling the growing agitation inside.

“Same for mine,” Ivan said.

“Mine too,” Andrei said.

“Yeah, this is not going to end well for whomever you guys were watching. I know that much,” Stephen said. He took a step back from everyone, putting his hands in his pockets. It was his go-to move when he felt himself losing control. His reflexes were lightning fast when his bloodlust took over. He tried to contain it by keeping his hands out of the equation.

Sephie, of course, noticed. I felt her anger increase in response to him. “You good, Stephen?” she asked. Her tone had a slight edge to it. She wasn’t mad at him in the slightest. She was just ready to meet his anger with her own, if necessary.

“Good, Seph. Just explain what’s happening. It’ll help,” he said, through clenched teeth.

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