Page 262 of Night's Fall
So pretty much nothing would brighten my spirits.
“We’ll go through them the day after theMasque,”Itold her as we alighted from the cart in the cavernous area under thePalace.
It was replete with walls that were fortified by shiny black steel, other parked hover-carts, a few glide-cycles, a moto-bike, and alarmingly, six armored combat-crafts.
Not to mention, one whole wall was lined all the way across, three rows up to the ceiling, with at least a hundred powered-down defense bots resting (but doing it like they were at attention) in charge pods.
They were not humanoid, though they did have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head.Theywere made of a shiny opalescent black and purple metal with a sight screen that went all the way round their oval-shaped heads.
And they were killer cool, but totally terrifying.
Though, knowing they were there gave me an increased sense of safety.
I ignored them (not really, they were hard to ignore, butItried) as we headed toward the lift up to the admin wing.
“I’ve already had some clothing delivered,”Natasaid as we moved. “Wecould go through those now.”
Definitely trying to distract me from the next item on my agenda.
I gave her a smileIknew was wan, butIcouldn’t make it anything else, as we stepped into the lift. “TheMasqueis tomorrow.We’lldo it the next day.Okay?”
She nodded despondently.
She was a very good female.Imade the right choice withNata.
This made me feel minimally better (minimally).
We bid adieu in the admin wing, andIexecuted the long trek toAleksei’ssuite on my fabulousEduardoNavasco, ankle-strap heels that had the big, fabulous bow at the side.Theywere lethally stylish, girlish and sexy, but murder on your feet.
OnceIhit the suite, knowing from the emptinessIfelt,Alekseiwasn’t there, this added to the emptinessI’dcarried with me all day becauseI’dheard nothing from him.
I went direct to my tablet, grabbed it and headed to thePrincessRetreat.
I checked the fridge and snacks first.
Grape sparkle, cherry-lime sparkle (ouch, butIhad to order it for him for those times, hopefully soon, when he’d hang out with me here), sparkling water, white wine, and mixers in the fridge.Thecupboard had bottles of booze and a variety of nuts, blobs, crackles, bars, snaps, stars and clusters.Slidinto sideways slots also in the cupboard were bottles of red wine.
In the small freezer department, there were four small tubs of stem ginger ice cream.
It was all perfectly organized.Soperfectly, it was good enough to pic.
And it was full to the edge.
The top of the cabinet now had a tasteful array of glasses, a drink shaker, bar tools, linen napkins in colors that coordinated with the room and a cool-tub filled with chipped ice.
It seemed when theTrueBridemade a request, the staff of theCelestialPalacedidn’t mess around.
I decided against a pink fizz or an almondine sour, a martini or wine.
I wanted one (or all), but likeAlekseilast night, for whatIwas about to do next,Ineeded a clear head.
Instead,Ipoured a grape sparkle over chipped ice in a heavy, tall, cut-crystal glass that probably was worth a quarter of the feeImade for my entire last contract.ThenIput a fancy bent straw constructed of glass with a crystal star affixed to the bend in it.
I set this on the table by the daybed, sat, let out a sigh of relief, but kept on my shoes, becauseIwanted to be totally together when he saw me.
I sucked in more oxygen.
I released it.
