Page 25 of Midnight Serenade
I wasn’t sure yet, but I thought she might be my forever mate. The match of my innermost heart and soul. And that I might be hers.
So, if Grace needed me to go slowly? To give her the dating and falling in love experience that she’d always dreamed of?Then I would do that. If Grace needed alone time because she was more introverted than I was? No problem. I’d send Kazi with her and have a bodyguard discreetly follow her. If Grace needed a soft place to land because being a siren was confusing and sometimes painful? I would give her that and more.
I swallowed more ice water as Grace stood up. I hadn’t wanted to intrude upon her privacy, but my other security personnel were otherwise occupied, discreetly following the five people she’d pointed out, and I hadn’t wanted to leave her with just Kazi and Rafe when she’d been in such distress.
I would tell her I’d watched over her. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.
I just hoped she was ready for the battle I was about to wage for her heart. A battle that took no prisoners, and where both sides surrendered. A battle that I intended to win.
But first, I needed to take care of something.
Chapter 10
Sebastian
Deck five was another high-class deck with higher-end suites.Not as good as Grace’s and my suites, but much better than the typical stateroom.
It was to one of these suites that my security team and I went. They gathered around me, ready to proceed at my orders.
“The level has been cleared?” I asked Gray.
“Yes, sir.”
He didn’t really need a gun because he could go full wolf shifter, and he was one of the bigger of his kind, but he still held a handgun in one hand, loaded with gold-plated bullets, just in case.
I nodded at the security officer who had the room key card, and she swiped it. The door beeped to let us in, and my team immediately swarmed into the room. I waited a moment while they secured him and then followed. They’d bound the vampire’s arms and legs together, and put an iron cage over his head, locking it with chains that wrapped between his legs and up to his shoulders. The room was dark, the blackout shades drawn.
I strolled up to him, and leaned close, as though it were just a conversation between him and me, although we both knew differently.
“I know what you are,” I whispered. “And I don’t mean a vampire.” I turned to leave, dismissing him easily as the lowest of curs. “You’re being sent to our liege. Your last free days are upon you. You might want to try to make peace with that.”
I entered my office with my phone to my ear.
“Yes?”
“My liege, this is Sebastian Solace. I’m sending a present to you.”
“Will I like this present?”
“No, my liege, you won’t. A siren friend of mine has pointed a vampire on my ship out. He’s a danger to others, sire. One of our kind who preys on the innocent.”
“Ah, this siren has the knowing that most of her kind have?”
“Yes, my liege.”
He sighed. “We’ll be ready to receive him. I’m grateful to you and your siren for sending him my way.”
“I’ll have my security send a file of all that we know of him, but I think his life and habits need a closer scrutiny than we have the means or time for, my liege.”
“We’ll handle it. When can we expect him?”
“In about six hours, sire.”
“Thank you, Sebastian. We’ll be ready. I’ve heard good things about your cruise line. My consort and I were thinking of getting away for a bit. We’re both in need of a vacation.”
I would imagine so, given the headache it surely was being the king of our kind.
I had to feel for my desk chair before I sat down in it or I would have just kept going until I hit the floor. I swallowed. “My liege, if you would let me know before your arrival, I can have everything taken care of for you and Consort Mia so that you don’t have to worry about a thing.”
