Page 91 of Becoming D'Vaire
“That’s horrible about the Cwylld. I’ll tell Cadlyr. In the end, his parents were just as dangerous to their own people as they were to ours,” Dre’Kariston said.
“Truly horrid people. Trust me, when I run into them—because I’m looking—I plan on doing what I can to make their afterlife as wretched as our deaths.”
“Thank you for everything,” Dre’Kariston offered as three portals popped open in front of them. “We have to go. One last question—do you know where we can find Klodjana? Scheredin would love to be reunited with his sister.”
“I wish I knew. Visit again and ask the leaders of this side’s Coven of Warlocks. As her parents, they might have a better chance pinpointing her location,” Briallen suggested.
There were hugs all the way around; then Delaney stepped through the portal Grigori opened for him. The shadowy world faded away, and he slowly opened his eyes back in the D’Vaire mansion he loved. His lips curved upward when he found a worried vampire studying his face carefully. Letting go of Chander’s hand, he got to his feet and wrapped his arms around Grigori. He was soon cuddled against his chest.
“I’m so doing that again,” Delaney whispered.
“Why am I not surprised?” Grigori responded with a chuckle. “I guess it was worth it?”
Delaney leaned back so their eyes met. “Depends on how bad you suffered.”
“Mac and Idris made sure I survived. I had our family to see me through it as I will every time you shadow walk.”
“Grigori?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re the best,” Delaney told him, then leaned up to kiss him. They had tons of information to hand out and plans to make, so he decided to ravage him later. He doubted Grigori would offer any complaints.
Chapter 31
Grigori was lost in thought when Delaney put a hand on his thigh. “Hey, I only yanked you out of your lab because I figured you’d want to be included in our meeting, but if you prefer to go back and work on whatever’s making you frown like that, it’s not going to hurt my feelings.”
His lips curved upward. It was wonderful to have someone who knew you well enough to realize your mind was elsewhere. “No, I failed at another blood experiment, and it got me thinking. What if I’m not supposed to figure out how to make us independent of real blood? How would it affect our culture and way of life? Would our clubs become obsolete, and would having a mate who nourished you suddenly seem like a burden instead of a gift? I’m not sure I want to know the answers to those questions.”
“I didn’t even think about that kind of stuff. You’ve got it to the point where your people are safe. Maybe that should be enough. I’d hate to see everything unique about vampires disappear.”
“I think I’ll talk to my parents about it and explain why I think it’s a smart idea to start focusing on other projects,” Grigori decided. For over a decade, he’d been trying to accomplish his goal and it was a bit strange to consider moving on, but it was almost as if without being dependent on real blood,hewas the one curing vampirism.
That was something he could not stomach, and he wondered why it had taken him so long to come to that conclusion. A sense of sureness settled in his soul, and he knew it was time to give up his pursuit. He had his side projects with additives, and now his aphrodisiacs, but nothing major. Inside of him, excitement and curiosity brewed over what other improvements he could make to vampire life and perhaps a project to enhance more than just his people.
“Not that I want to intrude upon your conversation, but there are some sicknesses vampires can either be born with or develop. They’re mostly related to blood, the inability to tolerate certain aspects of it, or the body doesn’t absorb it properly. As wizards, we’ve worked with doctors to manage it the best we can, but if we had a brilliant mind like yours to investigate these things we might be able to offer cures,” Vadimas said. “You’re likely the only person on the planet that has spent years looking exclusively at how blood’s absorbed and what nutrients are vital to your people.”
“Vadimas, you’re awesome. That’s right up my alley. I’d love to work on that.”
“Wonderful, I’ll give you all the data we have to get you started,” the Prism Wizard promised.
Grigori laid a hand over Delaney’s where it rested on his thigh, and they interlaced their fingers. The dark wizard grinned at him, and Grigori leaned forward to give him a kiss. He’d just pulled his head away when the door swung open.
“Sorry I’m late,” the Arch Lich said as he flopped down into a chair and loosened his tie. “I was in a meeting that some idiot invited Aloisa the Dwyer to, and she wouldn’t shut up.”
“I tuned her out after the first five minutes,” Alaric stated as he took a seat next to his mate. Like Alaric, he was still dressed in his work clothes. Grigori thought the charcoal gray uniforms Larissa designed for the Sentinel Brotherhood were amazing, and their leader wore it the best.
“You called us all together in the middle of the week. What’s up?” Dra’Kaedan asked.
“You’re not going to like it, but I’m losing sleep over this, and we need to talk about it,” Chander replied.
A line formed between Dra’Kaedan’s brows. “Why aren’t I going to like it?”
“I imagine he’s worried because our time’s running short, right?” Saura asked.
“We’re down to any day now, and you’re going to feel the compulsion to go into a deep sleep. Even if you’re already snoozing, it’s going to wake you up to prepare you for your crossing. It’s imperative we’re all on the same page. Let’s start with the resurrection spell. Have you got the final version, Del?” Chander inquired.
“Yeah, you put together a great framework. I just went over every line with T’Eirick and Saura to be sure we covered all the bases of what they want the darkfallen to have. Alaric was nice enough to give me the nearly complete version of the sentinel spell you guys found, and I have the full fallen knight one. They’ll be able to track and have invisibility as well as the ability to teleport. Those are skills, not spells. Their immortality will be absolute like the fallen knights but after talking about it, we decided they want something closer to sentinels as far as fighting skills go. They’ll have swords instead of daggers—shorter than the Lich Reapers to make them distinct—and those have already been designed by Madeline. It’s a more ornate version of the dagger the D’Vaire guys who practice sentinel skills use,” Delaney explained.
