Sunny - Mona Lisa Awakening

He mated with me and made love to me with such exquisite tenderness and heart-rending beauty that tears filled my eyes and overflowed when our quiet gasps of release shimmered the room with light and gentle pleasure.

"I didn't know it could be like that," I whispered.

"Neither did I," was Gryphon's soft reply. "Neither did I."

Noon light pressed against the drawn curtains and the rest of household still slumbered when I awoke, all but one. I dressed and slipped quietly downstairs. My brother looked up calmly from his breakfast cereal when I entered the kitchen.

"Do you want some?" Thaddeus asked.

Surprisingly, I did. He poured me a bowl of Frosted Flakes and the sugary sweetness satisfied a craving I hadn't known I'd had.

"Tastes grrreat!" I said, imitating Tony the Tiger.

A grin flashed across his face then disappeared. "How are you feeling?"

I set down the spoon down carefully. "I'm okay now. How about you?"

Thaddeus shrugged. "Shocked. Awed. Okay now, too, I guess. I don't know." He fiddled with his spoon. "I did that eye thing with the police."

"Eye thing? You mean compulsion?"

He nodded. "Aquila came with me to talk to the policemen who'd driven up. A neighbor had called in a complaint about the loud noises coming from the woods. They didn't buy my explanation about wild cats mating and wanted to have a look themselves."

I forced myself not to react to that unfortunately accurate comment about wild cats mating; he had uttered it entirely without guile.

"So I tried to do that thing you did to Dr. Smith. Amazingly, it worked, and they went away." He seemed undecided whether to be pleased about it or not.

"It's a gift not all of us have. Among us, only Gryphon, I, and now you possess it."

Thaddeus smiled, deciding to be pleased. "Really? I knocked me out afterward, literally. I think I conked into sleep right after they left."

I sent up a prayer of thanks for that merciful fact and felt much more at ease with him. "You must have questions."

He looked at me with somber eyes. "Basking… when those little bits of light entered me… it was the most incredible feeling. Indescribable."

"I know," I said softly. "As if that was what we were meant to be."

"Yes," he whispered. "Lunar creatures of light."

"Did the others explain how unusual it was for you to able to do that?"

"Not really. No time. But I caught some of what you and that Sandoor guy said. He was going to take me because I could draw it down like you did, wasn't he?"

"Yes. Before you, only Queens were able to Bask and allow others to share in the Basking. No males. Ever."

"Ever?" His young voice jumped an octave and cracked.

"You're very unique."

"A unique target, you mean. For other men like the one you just killed."

I flinched at the last word. Killed . Couldn't help myself. It was the first life I'd ever taken. But there was no regret. I'd done what I had needed to do to keep us safe. I just wasn't entirely easy with that fact yet.

"Yes," I made myself say. "You'll also be a target to most of the Queens who rule by that power. They would be most displeased to sec an ability they have long considered uniquely theirs spreading to the male gender."

"What do we do?" he asked.

"We keep it a secret."

Thaddeus took that in, digested it slowly.

"You can still try to lead a normal life," I said softly. If he wished it, I would do everything within my power to make it so.

"I don't think that's possible now, even if I wanted to," Thaddeus said with surprising wisdom. "And I don't want to. I want to learn more about us, about what I am. And I want to stay with you. It feels right being with you and the others." He grinned. "It's certainly much more interesting."

My lips twisted into a feeble smile. "Well, let's pray it will be less so from now on. It's all new to me, too. I'd like to be able to catch my breath, rest a little, adjust."

"That's right. It is new for you also, isn't it?" he said wonderingly. "We can adjust together."

I reached out and squeezed his hand. Felt him squeeze back. "I'd like that."

I called Lord Thorane to inform him of what had become or Sandoor and five of his men and found out that the other two rogues had been killed in an encounter in Indiana.

When I heatedly mentioned that it would have been nice to have been notified of this earlier, Lord Thorane invited me to bring up the matter before the Council when next it met. The inefficiency and infrequency of communication among the territories had long been a complaint of his, as well, he said blandly, and took the opportunity to remind me once more of the next session's date. Oh joy.

We buried Thaddeus's parents in a small quiet ceremony. I stood beside my brother as his parents' coffins were lowered into their graves and made a silent promise to them. You did a good job raising him. He's a wonderful young man. I'll do my best in your stead. I'll do my best to keep him alive .

Thaddeus arranged for Mr. Compton, first his parents' and now his attorney, to have the house listed and sold. He packed his belongings, selected a few precious mementos of his parents and traveled with us back to the island of Manhattan where I closed down my apartment.

A new private jet picked us up at LaGuardia Airport. It came along with the territory, I was informed. A lot of other things would come with the new territory, I suspected, both good and bad, and perhaps a few unpleasant surprises left behind by Mona Louisa, the bitch Queen I'd kicked out of there. I hoped she hated her new territory and prayed that she stayed far, far away from me. Not because I was afraid of her, but because I was afraid I'd kill her the next time I saw her.

Lastly, I prayed for wisdom and the power to protect all who depended on me now. Yes, power. It was not just me anymore. I could no longer afford to hide from my beast, that dark power that I had kept muted and leashed all my life. It was a living, growing force now that prowled restlessly within me, eager once more to be loosened. More powerful and difficult to control, perhaps, because of how long I had suppressed it. I had embraced the wild beast within me once to save my brother and would do so again to keep him safe. To keep us all safe.

Dear God , I prayed, pressing my palm over the gold gilt cover of the Book of Holdings, the scepter of my Queendom. Please help me be able to control my beast . And to control that other even more frightening part of myself that was emerging, that part that enjoyed another's pain, exulted in it. That was my most ardent prayer of all. Please, don't let me become like my mother. Let me become myself, a new breed of Monère Queen .