Page 4 of Mystique of the Fallen
Without a goodbye, Reginald hung up. Grant rolled up what was left of his popcorn bag and threw it in the dirty backseat of his car. He’d lost the taste for even his favorite treat.
∞∞∞
Roman was tapping away on his computer when his stomach rumbled. It wasn’t yet ten in the morning, but he’d basically inhaled his small breakfast and rushed out the door. Like most fallen knights, Roman was a workaholic, and he’d gone straight from the shower to answering his email. He hadn’t glanced at the clock until he was nearly late for work. Thankfully, he wasn’t the Venerable Knight assigned to assist the Council leaders entering the legislative building of the Main Assembly Hall that morning, because it was far quicker to slip into a work shirt and pants instead of the required dress uniform he would’ve had to don.
Leaning back in his chair, Roman glanced across the room. Like him, Arvandus was at his desk and hard at work.
“I’m hungry,” Roman announced.
Arvandus grinned, and the clacking of his keyboard ceased. “Want to raid Samson’s desk?”
It was tempting. Samson’s mate insisted on keeping half or more of the drawers filled with the delicious things he baked. But Roman didn’t think Samson would appreciate anyone rifling through his things.
“I wish,” Roman replied. “We should chip in and buy a snack machine for our office.”
“We’d have to pay someone to keep it filled with snacks too.”
“Yeah, my bank account is basically empty these days.”
“You spent your money well; your place is awesome.”
“It will be. I can’t wait to get settled in.”
“Oh, that brings up a good point. We were talking about your place last night at dinner,” Arvandus said. The Darays were a tight-knit family and rarely missed meals together. Roman had attended his fair share of meals at the Daray condo, and the company and food never disappointed. Mostly made up of sentinels, the Darays were frank and brutally honest, and their chef, Victor Antonov-Daray, was adept at creating fabulous meals.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Victor mentioned you’d probably have a housewarming party at some point.”
Roman crossed his arms behind his head as he stretched. “Not a bad idea.”
“Right? But things kind of spiraled out of control after that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our sentinels don’t know what kind of gift is appropriate. Victor told them to bring wine or something to drink.”
“Seems fine.”
“Exactly, but then they asked about types of wine and other beverages. Next, we argued about where you’d keep all this shit because if everyone invited brought you a bottle or a case of beer, you’d basically be swimming in it. I think you should make a wish list or something. Only thing that’s going to help at this point.”
Roman laughed. “We’ll figure something out when I’m ready to have a party. I don’t want any Daray losing his damn mind.”
“That makes two of us. Anyway, are we hitting a snack machine or what? You mentioned food, and now my stomach is ready for something sugary.”
The phone on Roman’s desk rang, and he shrugged at Arvandus. “I guess that depends on who this is and how complicated my life is about to get.”
With a knowing nod, Arvandus returned to his computer screen as Roman scooped up the receiver.
“VK Calixtus,” Roman said.
“Yo,” replied Kyle Meadowscroft, the fallen knight resurrected exclusively to act as their office manager. Although Kyle was an incredible asset to the Order of the Fallen Knights, he was a menace to machines everywhere. Despite how many times Roman had to have things fixed, he still loved and had the utmost respect for Kyle.
“What’s up?”
“Lord James is on the phone. You at your desk for him, or you want me to take a message?”
Lord James Volkov was not only part of Vampyress Irina Volkov’s family, but he was also included in the vast extended D’Vaire clan that Roman was lucky enough to be included in.
