Page 308 of Night's Fall
I took another step toward him. “Aleksei,Ireally want to understand where you are in your head, butI’mnot locking on.”
“You cannot control her, asIcan barely control him.Thisis whereweare, darling.Butfor my part,Ihave no choice but to come to terms with the fact you are warrior caste, in a time of possible war, and that will not be easy.Butthe bottom line is, you are, and we are for all intents and purposes at war, so you were brought in on the briefing because you need to know what’s happening.”
One good thing about this (really good), he was skipping past the critically-debilitating and the rift-tearing-us-asunder parts and pushing directly into the dealing-with-it part.
Even so,Isaid, “I’mnot a warrior.Idon’t even want to be.”
“Bissi,” he said softly. “Youflew in formation and instinctually understood our cover fire strategy without my creature communicating that first thing to yours.Evenbefore that, you glided low for over five hundred yards with the enemy leaping for you, and you flew evasively so successfully, not a single one of them got close to touching you.I’veseen this before atRedLair.Thereare those who just get it.It’snatural.Ingrained.Iwas one.Andyou, my darling, are too.”
All right, even though a bit of me thought this was cool (a bit),Imade a face, because, no shade on kickass warriors with ingrained instincts,Iwasn’t all fired up to be one.
He chuckled and ordered, “Comehere.”
The chuckle was good.
The order to come there was better.
I went, and he wrapped an arm around me and held me close.
“Now thatI’mnot terrified for you,Ican tell youI’mproud of you,” he stated.
Aw.
My gorgeous male.
“I’m proud of you too.”
That got me another chuckle.
And he took another sip of his whisky.
I waited for more.
ButIguessed that was it.Noknock down, drag out.Nobig scene.
Thank the gods.
“Aren’t you tired?”Iasked because he had to be.Icertainly was.
“I want to watchDad’sannouncement.Itshould have gone out by now.Wecan get a replay.Andthen, yes, we need to sleep.Tomorrowis going to be busy.”
I nodded.
He took his drink and me to the bedroom.Fromthe ceiling, he unfurled the screen that hung at the foot of the bed.Wehit the bathroom and got ready for sleep, went back out, and after we settled in, me cuddled toAleksei’sside, he ordered the screen to display the king andPrimeMinister’sannouncement.
I heardGermaineall over it, even if she wasn’t on thePM’sstaff, and thePMdid most of the talking.
So it was good.Angry.Clear.Resolute.Short.Butinformative.
And surprisingly, they intimated thatArnaudmay be behind the attempts onAlekseiand my lives, as well as the deaths ofAntheme,NaylanBiggerstaffandRichardTayor.
When it was done, he ordered the screen to refold and reached for hisPalm.
With me watching and reading as he did, he thumbed through some social tapes.
Shock.Dismay.Outrage.Disbelief.
There were some that clearly came from theEdgecalling for beings to calm down and wait for more information to emerge.
