Page 145 of Golden Eagle

Will said, “But I give my word that we won’t bother Nikita and Sasha again. If they don’t want to join us, we won’t press.”

Jamie didn’t know him well enough to know if he could be trusted – but the mythical reputation of Robin of Locksley went a long way toward creating goodwill.

From the bed, Much said, “Found him.”

~*~

“Will you stay in New York?” Alexei asked. His food sat untouched in front of him, his belly too tight with nerves for eating to hold any appeal.

Across the round, linen-draped table, Val over-buttered the last bite of a raspberry scone and popped it into his mouth, smiling as he chewed. On the first bite, his eyes had widened, and he’d murmured, “Gods, that’s delicious,” with sincere reverence.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug and reached for half a poppy seed bagel. “For a while, at least. But I’ve promised Mia we’ll eventually return to her farm.” He turned a warm, fond look on his mate, but Mia was staring at her plate, slicing a wedge of melon into tinier and tinier bits with her butter knife.

Val shifted his attention to Alexei, his expression hardening ever so slightly. It was a subtle change, the way the true warmth melted into a pleasantness that was all for show. Still beautiful, still charming, still smiling and gracious, but Alexei was royalty, too; he knew a court persona when he saw one.

He tried not to be offended. It was starting to become a habit, and not a healthy one.

“I suspect we’ll be here for some time, though,” Val said.

“What will you do here?”

“Live,” Val said, simply. And then, “Eat good food.” He gestured with his bagel, and then coated it in thick globs of cream cheese. “I want to see all the sights. Smell the ocean. I want to go up to the very top floor of one of these wondrous buildings” – some of the court façade slipped, and let true enthusiasm through, his eyes glittering in the filtered sunlight – “and look out across a modern city all lit up at night. I want” – his voice caught – “to stand in the rain, and smell the stink of humanity, and lie in the sun with my eyes shut until my skin burns. I want…to live.” And his voice sent shivers up Alexei’s spine, because Val hadn’t lived, not for centuries.

Asking anything of him would be horrible.

But everyone thought Alexei was horrible anyway.

He waited a moment. Watched Val set down his bagel, and sip his coffee. Watched Mia lay her hand over his, where it rested on the table. Val twisted his wrist and twined their fingers together; Mia’s face remained almost blank.

Then Alexei, as casually as he could, said, “That’ll make you the highest-ranking vampire in the city, then, I guess.”

Val went perfectly still for a moment, his gaze catching on Alexei’s face, brows lifted and body tense. Then he reached for his coffee again and said, “I doubt that.”

“No, you are,” Alexei insisted. “You are–”

“I know what I am.” Short, sharp. Pointed. “There’s no need to lay all my ugly titles on the breakfast table, is there?”

It was a dismissal, and a cutting one. At another time, under different circumstances, he would have ducked his head, eaten his bagel and lox, and kept his mouth shut.

But now, he cleared his throat and said, “What I mean is–”

Val’s gaze snapped up to meet his again, his jaw tight, and in that moment, Alexei was catapulted back to the manor house in Virginia, to a library, and Val’s brother drawing a sword from a scabbard on his back.

“Alexei, what are you doing?” Sasha asked quietly.

“I’m only curious.” He could hear that he sounded too defensive, but couldn’t rein it in. “When someone like him arrives in a place, the power dynamics change. Less powerful vampires will either bow or challenge you.”

“I’m not here to challenge anyone,” Val said, breezily. “We’ll need to find a place to stay on a more permanent basis, though. The hotels have been fascinating, but they aren’t cheap, and I suppose our good baron will run out of funds at some point.”

“One of my neighbors is a real estate agent.” Dante sounded relieved for a chance to change the subject. “I could see if she has any listings she could show you. There’s a vacancy in my own building, for instance.”

“Lovely,” Val said. “Mia tells me one needs an agent to secure a residence?”

“Oh, yes,” Dante said, and launched into a helpful explanation.

Mia kept slicing her melon down to microscopic pieces.

Silently frustrated, Alexei let his gaze wander, and accidentally caught Sasha’s eye. The wolf was studying him, unhappy frown tugging at one corner of his mouth.

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