Angela Knight - Over The Moon

His words and the calm acceptance of his fate shook me. "She may give you to another Queen," I whispered.

"And risk having another benefit from something she gave up, as what happened with you?" He shook his head. "No, that is not Mona Sera's way."

"You must not wish to… become lucky, Beldar. It is both dangerous and unfair to you because it is unlikely ever to happen. You must be content that Mona Sera does care for you." In her own twisted, selfish way.

"But I am not content," he admonished me gently. "And you must not ask me not to hope. It is my sole reason for living now."

There were no words with which to answer him. I could do nothing but sit beside him and quietly bleed from his calm words.

"Do not forget me, Mona Lisa," he whispered softly, in the barest of sound, as two black Town Cars pulled up to the curb. Two cars looking like all the others that had passed by. But these thrummed with the unmistakable power of Monère males, and of the presence of another Queen.

I gazed blindly at those cars. "I… No, I won't forget you, Beldar."

My nails bit into my palms as I fiercely willed myself not to cry. I would not send him off with tears in my eyes.

Kyle and Frangois emerged from the second car and opened the rear door of the first. Smooth white hands extended from within and grasped each of theirs. Mona Sera stepped out, covered in a flowing black cape covering her from head to toe. The lustrous brown mink collar was her only color.

She walked toward us and Kyle and Frangois fell subserviently behind her, ignored like good servants.

Beldar went forward to meet her and bowed deeply, kissing her hand in a smooth courtly gesture. "My Queen, I thank you for saving me." His voice was low with a husky warmth that brought a cool smile to Mona Sera. But his eyes… bent over low, bowing at his waist, his eyes glanced back at me. They found and met mine, and his words, I knew, were meant for me, not her.

"You have healed him," Mona Sera observed with not one word of thanks.

"Yes," I said and didn't bother to explain how I had managed to do so. I owed this cold creature nothing.

"When do you leave," Mona Sera asked abruptly, her tone clipped and sharp. Displeased.

"Tomorrow."

"To Louisiana," she said. "Mona Louisa's former territory, once quite prosperous, but no longer so after Hurricane Katrina's wrath." And I saw it clearly, then, what Beldar had seen when I had not. She was jealous of me. Of my men and of the territory that I had been awarded.

"Do not think," she continued with cool malice, "that the people there will embrace you as eagerly as they did Mona Louisa. You are far less a Queen than she was."

Louisiana had been Mona Louisa's former domain until she tried to kill me. Okay, not really kill me. Just deliver me into the hand of outlaw rogues who weren't exactly known for their gentle treatment of women. Oh yeah, and for trying to kill Gryphon when she could no longer have him. Bitch. She had a lot in common with my mother, come to think of it.

Now I had to take over what Mona Louisa had once ruled. I had to win over the local Monère there. And as my mother said, I doubted they would welcome me with opened arms. Too bad. They were stuck with me.

"Do not concern yourself on my behalf, Mother," I said mockingly. "I am up to the task before me. And if my territory is less than what it was, rest assured that I shall bring it back to its former glory."

"What unbecoming arrogance you have for a mongrel bastard."

" Your mongrel bastard," I returned evenly.

"The only reason I tolerate your presence now. But do not push me, child. And do not mistake our relationship for more than what it is. When you leave tomorrow, do not come back ever again or I shall hunt you down and kill you like the unwanted intruder you are. Is that clear, daughter mine?"

"Oh, yes, Mother dear. Like crystal."

She swept one last hateful glance as us—me sitting there, with my men tall and strong behind me—then she turned and walked away.

We watched as Kyle and Frangois returned to the second car, as Beldar gracefully handed Mona Sera into the back seat of the first car and shut the door.

Beldar looked up. Gave me one last searing look, his eyes running over my face as if he were engraving it into his memory. One last lingering glance from those haunting emerald eyes, so strikingly green set against the white spill of his hair, and then Beldar slid into the front passenger seat.

After they drove away, we sat there for a long time in the cool evening darkness, in an almost funereal silence; I mourned not the loss of my mother, but something truly heartbreaking, the loss of one of her men.

Beldar had always been hers, never mine. My mind knew that, but my heart did not. In my heart, I felt as if I had given him up.

"You cannot save everyone," Gryphon said softly beside me.

"I know." I truly did know that. But, oh, how I wished I could.

I watched as Gryphon and Amber carried the headboard and bed frame out of the apartment. Chami and Aquila hefted the mattress easily out after them. It was handy having five strong Monère men helping me move. Made things quick and easy.

In the tiny kitchen, Rosemary and Tersa were busy wrapping the glassware in newspaper and packing them in boxes. Thaddeus and Jamie carted each box downstairs as they became full, loading them onto the waiting truck parked in front of the apartment. They were being donated, along with the furniture, to a nearby homeless shelter.

Do not bring anything other than yourself and your clothes , I had been told. My new home in Louisiana was already fully furnished, and not just with ordinary furniture like the ones I was giving away, but with valuable antiques.

I gazed around the barren apartment that looked larger but more forlorn with its bare walls and naked flooring, and felt no sadness at leaving everything behind. I was taking the most important things with me, things that really matteredthe people in my household. My family.

"Is there anything else, milady?" Tomas asked me in his soft southern twang.

"I think that's it, Tomas, other than the kitchen stuff." With his light brown eyes and hair, Tomas reminded me of summer wheat fields swaying beneath the sun. He gazed at me with his usual quiet somberness. What wasn't usual was the closed, guarded expression on his face.

"Is something wrong, Tomas?"

His eyes fell, and he shook his wheat-colored hair.

I walked over to him and gently lifted his chin. "Tell me, Tomas, tell me what bothers you, please."

He lifted his eyes and looked at me like a child lost. "I thought that I would be the one to go," he said in a low voice.

"Go?"

"The one that you would give to Mona Sera."

My eyes widened. "Why would you think that, Tomas?"

"You love Amber and Gryphon. And Rosemary, as one of our few women, is too valuable. Aquila is good at business and can drive. And with his uncommon ability, Chami is uniquely useful. I have no special skills."

"Oh, Tomas," I said softly. His loyalty was as straight and true as the sword he had sworn into my service. I knew that had I chosen to give him up, he would have left me with bewildered eyes and a broken heart, but he would have gone had I ordered him to, because he had given his word to protect and to obey me.

He was only two inches taller than I was, so that I had only to lift my eyes a short distance to meet his, giving me an intimacy with him that I did not have with the other taller men.

"You are one of my guards," I told him. "When you gave me your oath, when I accepted you into my service, I also promised to protect you. I would never give you up, any of you. I would have bargained, negotiated with Mona Sera, had I not been able to save Beldar. But if she had left me with no other choice, I would have fought before I gave any of you to her."