Chapter 244: Rhys
The banquet hall was exquisite. It was exactly how I had imagined it. For vampires, it was beautiful. The marble floors and walls. The black table and chairs. The white dishes. The banners representing things that I did not understand in the slightest. I was impressed by the ability to do so much with so little variety. They really followed the black, white and grey, color stereotype to a T.
I pulled out a chair for Grace, and she nodded her thanks. Gods, I would do anything to have her speak to me for a moment, but I knew now wasn’t the time for that. I just hated when we’d fight. I had been an asshole. I got that. But it wasn’t fair. I wanted her to be herself, and comfortable with it at all times. Not whatever this was.
“My my, aren’t you all a quiet group,” Margaret teased from the head of the table, and I placed myself between her and Grace with Michael on Grace’s other side. Sawyer took the seat on the other side of the Queen with Maizie next to him. Through our bond, I could feel Grace’s nerves, now that we were fully mated, she couldn’t block me out like before, but on the outside, she looked perfectly composed. “I don’t bite other royalty, and I am in the presence of royalty.”
“Now Margaret, do not make promises you can’t keep,” A deep voice interrupted.
A Vampire with jet black hair and pale features, stepped out of the shadows. I had had a feeling that he would show up, but I had never met the man. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was the Vampire Prince, Elijah.
Margaret just scoffed. “How many times must I tell you to call me Mother?”
“At least a hundred more.” Elijah answered cooly. “I’m Prince Elijah.”
Elijah had never come with Margaret to the any of the Counsel meetings, but he was known everywhere. Everybody had heard of him, even Maizie and Michael by the looks on their faces which they quickly schooled back to neutral.
“Have we met before, beautiful?” The Prince asked, staring directly at Maizie.
I could tell how uncomfortable he was making her. He stood directly behind her chair, staring down at her, and smelling her? But she stayed composed.
“No. I don’t believe we have.” She answered. Her voice was tighter than usual, but still polite and composed, and I couldn’t tell if she was lying or not.
“But your scent, I recognize it.” He stated as he took his seat at the other end of the table, and for some strange reason, I was really glad Caleb wasn’t here.
Sawyer growled lowly, and I shot him a look. Elijah was purposefully being an ass and trying to provoke both of them. I knew it and he knew it, and it was working. But that didn’t give Sawyer the right to react. We needed to keep our calm. If Maizie could keep calm, then so could Sawyer.
“You must be mistaken.” Maizie answered, placing her hand gently on Sawyer’s arm in an attempt to help settle him.
“Oh I see,” Elijah smirked as he took his place at the end of the table. “You belong to the little Prince. But darling, I could offer you an entire Kingdom.”
I frowned at his comment. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Grace looking at Margaret though, and not Elijah.
“Yes, we are happily mated.” Sawyer responded angrily.
“You must have a thing for older men,” Elijah winked.
“What do you see?” I mindlinked Grace, super grateful that ever since we mated we had been able to mindlink, something I was sure we were never going to be able to do.
“She’s surprised and disgusted by her ‘son’s’ behavior. There’s more going on here.”
“Great, another mystery.” I sighed.
She laughed slightly in my head, which for a moment I forgot we were fighting. Or maybe we were done fighting. I didn’t know.
“What’s so amusing, Alpha King?” Elijah asked cooly.
“I didn’t realize how true the rumors that you liked mated women. And I didn’t know the Vampires had a Kingdom.” I recovered smoothly. I didn’t want to give away my secret connection with Grace. Years and years of training had prepared me for this sort of thing. I couldn’t tell you how many hours I had spent playing politics with my dad and mom, giving me a million scenarios we might encounter, and none of them were this. “I only knew of the city. Is this the empire you are referring to?”
“A part of it.” Elijah answered cryptically.
“The City is our main location, yes, but we do have others outside of it,” Maragret gave her son a strange look. She didn’t seem to understand what game he was playing, but I did. She might not be aware of what was happening outside of her borders, but he was, and he was a part of it. I had absolutely no questions about it. And he knew we were here, we could be in some serious trouble.
“Anyways, there’s a party tonight, we’d love for you to all join.” Elijah smiled coldly. “Since you have such a lack of understanding of the vampire world, we’d like to give you a real true glimpse at it.”
“We are here on business, actually,” Grace responded, surprising me.
“Oh, and what might that be?” The Prince asked with fake intrigue.
“Oh, it’s girl talk, actually.” Grace smiled at him with a sweetness only she could muster. “I’m afraid no boys allowed. Maizie and I have been just having a little trouble… But you wouldn’t get it. As I said, girl talk.”
Oh my Gods. She was a genius. She kept us from revealing completely why we were here but also giving her and Maizie a chance to find out anything they could.
A dark look crossed Elijah’s face and he glared at his mother who was looking at him curiously. She clearly didn’t know why Grace wanted to talk to her, but that didn’t stop it from infuriating her son.
“Well, I must insist that you come to the party then.” The darkness in his voice was unsettling, but I was proud that none of my people even flinched.
“Dear, if they are here on business, surely, they must be getting back to their pack-“
“Nonsense! I insist. Party tonight, business tomorrow.”
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