Sunny - Mona Lisa Blossoming

Rosemary saved me by poking her head through the door. "I'll stay here with them, milady."

I nodded. As I stumbled out of the room, Rosemary slipped in, the door closing softly behind her. Chami stood up from where he'd been sitting with his back against the wall. He moved without his usual grace and quickness, the only visible sign that he was feeling the soporific effects of the sun.

"Where's Dontaine?" I asked.

"I sent him upstairs. He's bunking with me tonight."

"Good choice." Dontaine may have been wounded, but he was healing fast. He was a stranger and powerful. Formerly Mona Louisa's, maybe still hers. Chami would keep an eye on him.

"Thanks, Chami, for everything tonight." I trudged down the hallway, heading, I hoped, for the spiral staircase that would lead me to my bedroom. "You were great."

"You thank me?"

Something in his voice made me stop and turn around.

Chami wore an almost incredulous look. "When I had failed you?"

I frowned. "You were perfect with Wild Boy there. Quiet, non-threatening."

He gave a low, harsh laugh. "I did nothing."

"Doing nothing was exactly what I needed you to do. How do you see that as failing me?"

"I did not help you stop Dontaine from fighting Amber when you asked me for my aid."

Ah. The challenge. It seemed so long ago now. I'd forgotten about it. Chami obviously hadn't. I sighed, gathered my wits about me. "That was my fault. I should not have asked you."

Chami flinched as if I'd struck him.

"I meant that I should have known better. Killing is what you do best, and I did not want Dontaine killed."

"Yes, killing is what I do best," Chami confirmed quietly, his lean face inscrutable. Chameleon . He was still: Not the way humans are still, but completely immobile in the way reptiles are. Utterly. So that you aren't sure for a moment if they are real, living and breathing, or just a stuffed replica.

"I used to hate doing that," he said, speaking softly, without passion, without inflection. "Ending someone's life without any warning, without any chance. Whether they deserved to die or not. Very uneven odds with my ability to remain unseen. Few detected me. Sliding my knife into them was so easy that it felt like I was cheating. I used to hate it when other Queens prized me for that talent, and expected me to serve them in that manner." He gave a humorless laugh. "I didn't know how I had grown to depend upon that skill until I failed you. Twice now."

"Are we back to Kadeen again?" Kadeen had been the demon dead who had snatched me. "You and Amber almost died trying to stop him. You did not fail me. If anyone failed, it was me. I failed to protect you."

"It is not a Queen's duty—"

"It's a Queen's duty to care for her men."

"Not by physically fighting."

"Why not?"

"That is not what we expect of our Queens," Chami said gently.

"Chami," I said, equally gently, "in case you haven't noticed, I'm not like other Queens."

He laughed. A real laugh this time. "I could not fail to notice that."

I smiled, feeling a small glow of pleasure. Each rare laugh from my men felt like winning a prize. "You served me well just now, being there in case I needed you. But not being in the way. You serve me well by being a mentor to the younger ones, by teaching them how to use a dagger, how to protect themselves. By distracting them from me when you see that I'm uncomfortable. By being thoughtful." I cupped his lean cheek tenderly. "You don't have to kill anyone to serve me, Chami. You can serve me best by looking after my brother, keeping him safe."

His hand came up to cover mine, press it against his face. "That I can vow to do with all my heart. Thaddeus is very special to us all."

"Thank you. You have a wonderful way with the kids, you know. They look up to you." Only because my hand was against his skin did I feel the slight warmth. I lowered my hand to see if what I suspected was true.

"Chami, are you blushing?"

He didn't seem to know what to say. I took pity on the poor fellow. "Now, if you really, really want to serve me, you can help me find my way to that damn staircase so I can climb up to my room and crawl into bed."

"As my lady wishes."

We found the staircase and he headed off to his room while I headed in the opposite direction toward mine. But when I rounded the corridor, I knew that sweet blissful sleep was still a ways off. Gryphon sat in front of my door. Obviously waiting for me. Obviously wanting to talk to me.

"May I speak with you?" he asked.

Sometimes I hate being right.

My footsteps grew even heavier. Wanting to talk to your lover first, without wanting to jump her bones, was never a good sign. My heart pounded with dread, with what I feared most. He was going to leave me.

Gryphon rose to his feet as I nodded. Without a word, I opened my door, walked in, and felt him enter behind me, a soft presence. A sitting room next to one's bedroom was a good idea, actually. I sat on the plush sofa. Gryphon took a seat across from me, not next to me. Another bad, bad sign.

Unconsciously, I rubbed my chest, trying to ease the achy feeling there beneath my breastbone as I looked at Gryphon. My first love. He was as beautiful to me now as when I had first seen him—the ebony black fall of his hair like a shiny cascade of darkness about him. The pearl white glow of his skin like flawless porcelain. His hauntingly lovely eyes, crystal blue and clear. That beautiful full lush mouth, red like a river of passion, as tempting as Eve's apple. The first time we'd met, the moment my eyes had fallen upon him, something elemental inside of me had recognized him—mate—and had reached out to him.

"You no longer desire me," Gryphon said, breaking the silence.

I let my hand drop from my chest when I became aware that I was rubbing it. "No, I desire you still. I will always desire you."

His lovely eyes were sad, so sad. A liquid pool of unhappiness. "You say that and yet you sit there, far apart from me. You cannot bear to touch me after I told you what I had been."

I was suddenly confused. He'd been the one to sit apart from me. Hadn't he? "What are you talking about?"

"You are angry with me. Disgusted with me tonight, after I told you how others had used me."

"I was angry with you because you put my hand on another man's groin."

He shook his head, eyes downcast. "You say that is the reason, but that is not the true reason." And incredibly, he seemed to believe that.

"Gryphon, what you did before, what others did to you, does not matter to me. It's you, us, now that matters. I'm angry with you because you threw me at another man. Because you left a poor boy alone, shackled like an animal, when you could have freed him much sooner."

"I did not know what to do with the boy. And when you ran from me and from Dontaine…" He looked up and something like hope glimmered in his eyes. "Is it really as you say?"

"Having my lover wanting me to sleep with another man is not a small thing to me, Gryphon."

"We are Monère, Mona Lisa. We are not human."

"You keep saying that. But I am part human."

"If I could acquire gifts as easily as you, I would sleep with Dontaine myself in the hopes of passing it to you," he said quietly. And, dear Mother of God, he really meant it.

"But other Queens," he continued, "other men do not gain gifts and powers as you seem to. Sandoor and his band of rogues. They had a Queen who they bedded for over ten years, and they did not gain much power from the matings or the Baskings. But one time with you—" He turned his palms up in a graceful gesture. " — and Amber and I can walk in the sun. You can see with my falcon's clarity of vision, and have gained some of Amber's great strength."

"Terrific. So I'm even more of a freak than I thought, like a sexual vampire who sucks up gifts instead of blood."