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  Kenna once again brought him back to the place they were currently. “Lore, you have to be the king. Feel the panic around us. We cannot leave them like this. They know as little about what to expect as we do. These changes are not normal for anyone and I think it’s our responsibility to help people feel safe.”

  She referred to the waves of shared fear as Keepers dealt with the issue of nearly losing her so soon after finding her. The mix of emotions was boiling at volatile levels as the community realized there was a threat they could not see or touch. They wanted to lash out as much as their king did. The impotent frustration of nothing to punish was escalating the situation. The royal couple’s time in private communication had cut them off from the others and left the collective without answers.

  Added to that was the newness of all this. Even though most of the local Keepers had known something about what they were, they hadn’t known much. Their level of surprise in dealing with the swiftly altering world around them was only slightly less shell-shocked than the royal couple.

  Gathering in his turbulent emotions, Lore took a moment to assess the explosion of power he’d felt and the corresponding deadly intent her near death had triggered. The danger that he now embodied was something he’d have to control with an unyielding hold. He also realized that each jump in power occurred in direct correlation with how fully intimate the two of them had been. As he suspected, being physically intimate had made them more mentally intimate.

  Their connection grew, but it was the emotional increases that triggered every other increase. When her life had sputtered, he had felt as if someone were reaching into his chest with bare hands and extracting his heart by pulling it out, stretching the arteries and veins to ruthlessly rip them apart.

  The tearing pain of almost being separated from her would have crippled the man he’d been a day ago. Through it, he’d had no other thought than reaching her and annihilating whomever it was threatening her. He didn’t just want to kill them. He’d wanted to wipe them from the planet in the most excruciating way possible.

  Over her head, Lore issued orders mentally, marshalling the chaos into bustling activity.

  “Yuri, open the castle. The creature does not need doors, no reason to frighten the general public.

  “Boris, you know its signature. If you feel it we need to know. Stay close.”

  Having calmed the activity around the palace as much as he could, there was another pressing need he had to take care of. “Julianna,” Lore summoned on the private connection, “Kenna needs something to eat, please.”

  “At once, sir,” Julianna responded calmly. “My lady is all right?”

  “So it would appear,” Lore answered abruptly, impatient to get on with what needed doing.

  “Then stating this would be helpful, my lord. It is not just you who felt her pain.”

  Lore was aware he needed to make some sort of statement. This was a new reality, being connected to so many was a responsibility and right now it was a shackle. Kenna was his woman and he would give anything for them to be a normal, human couple. No one connected to them, no one trying to kill them, no unknown abilities, just people. Then she could have been his alone.

  “Of course, thank you, Julianna.”

  Lore forcibly calmed himself. Making public statements simply by thinking them was a danger in itself. Whatever they were, or were becoming, sucked. Privacy was forfeit.

  ”As all of you know, there was a serious incident. Currently your first daughter is fine. The details are unclear but now we know our kind are not the only paranormal creatures in the world. Extreme caution is called for by each of us.

  “Let me take this opportunity to impress upon you the danger of sharing the developments in our lives with anyone who does not join us in this form of communication. We have no scientific explanation for the changes we are experiencing. Please do not endanger yourself or all of us by broadcasting information that might be used against our people.

  “Historically, the cost of being different from normal humans has always been death. Don’t assume that outcome has changed in modern times. The only thing that will reflect modern sensibilities is the label for capture and kill. That command will be dressed up in scientific terms but the intent will remain the same.” Lore closed the public statement, hoping he’d impressed everyone with the dangers they could be facing.

  Having no idea how wide the population he spoke to was, it was a very fragile hope. The greater the numbers, the more likely someone would talk to the wrong person. Their only defense would be information and the time to gather it had probably just been cut in half. Figuring out what they were, what was happening to them took on new urgency.

  They needed to follow the breadcrumbs of history. The path to the past was their best hope of gaining more information.

  “Mrs. Yeltsen, please come in here,” he summoned his senior secretary. The discovery that she was a Keeper had been a pleasant surprise.

  “Damn it! I need Gregory,” Lore warned Kenna as he verbally sent for his cabinet through the efficient secretary who’d appeared after Yuri left the room. Now was as good a time as any to prove Gregory was still in the position he’d always held. They needed him.

  Julianna entered with a tray of soup and something else that smelled heavenly to Kenna. This morning all she’d eaten was the fruit.

  Lore let Kenna out of his hold reluctantly. The sunlit table area was a pleasant oasis with a lovely view of the formal gardens. It was close to the sitting area but even that distance was almost too much. He had no intention of letting her out of his sight again.

  Both Lore and Kenna were sure whatever healed her was also the entity that almost killed her with a push of power. The events suggested the unknown creature hadn’t meant to damage her but the disturbing power signature was so massive they had to suspect it might not be able to control the effects. Also, the reason she’d even encountered it was because it had been reaching for her mentally. Now this enigmatic power had her blood and they could feel the connection the creature had gained with that theft.

  The room started filling with the small group of cabinet ministers required in running both countries. Gregory arrived last.

  Entering the royal apartments, Gregory felt a rush of satisfaction. He hadn’t expected this so soon. Nobody could argue with his place, it was an inherited right. However he’d expected the conspirators to make it much more difficult to retain his position. It would have been helpful to have them do a few more stupid things trying to deny him. He’d hoped they’d give him more ammunition to prove to his people that their rightful born leader was being shoved aside by usurpers.

  Glancing around cautiously, Gregory took note of the conspicuous placement of those who had shown themselves to be involved. The bitch was present and made a show of smiling at him and nodding, which he returned with all the graciousness of a true monarch. She would learn her place soon enough. Satisfaction invaded the cold resolve he’d armed himself with. Gregory greeted Lore as he always had.

  Gregory’s participation meant Kenna had to read him. It was a security issue at this point and Lore joined her to do it. She’d been expecting bitter anger after this morning’s events. His mental assault at the sight of her had the energy of a slap. But after his initial bitter reaction he was calm, relaxed and even happy.

  Lore would rather backhand his smug advisor than smile and invite him to sit. Seeing the man’s jealousy through Kenna robbed Lore of the ability to respect anything about Gregory. Directing Kenna to block the whiney bastard’s energy was a relief for both of them.

  Briskly starting the meeting, Lore quickly went over the facts he could share. His future queen had been attacked. There were issues he needed to deal with and would have to leave some of the governing duties to his cabinet. Lore made it clear he was not going to explain further. This was not a discussion group.

  Passing out assignments and distributing the appointments he’d made for the remainder of the week was comp
licated. Two of the men were Keepers but the other four were not. Each appointment required discussion to be sure the cabinet member understood Lore’s goals for that meeting.

  At the table, Julianna sat across from Kenna, blocking her view of Gregory and watching her eat with a motherly eye. Kenna relaxed as calming concern settled around her. Julianna provided an added layer of diluting composure and protective distance to enduring being in the same room with Gregory.

  Kenna found having a look into someone’s soul made her a damn excellent judge of character. Not that she’d ever read Julianna’s thoughts, but she felt herself invited to the heart of this woman at all times. The connection between them was comfortable in the way of a lifelong friend, perhaps a sister.

  Kenna didn’t have to listen to hear her thoughts, Julianna was simply open to sharing them and they drifted between the two women with the freedom of dust motes in the sunshine. Julianna was making sure my lady ate before she had to deal with the rest.

  “The rest?” Kenna’s head jerked up and her eyes narrowed on Julianna.

  Lore repressed a sound of frustration and glanced at them. He was almost done freeing his time and he needed whatever “the rest” was, he wanted it to wait a few more seconds. His complete awareness of Kenna drove him hard as he laid out the last of his instructions. He sent an impatient command to Julianna to wait. He was met with gentle but placating assurance, much like he’d heard her use on her brothers.

  “Of course, my lord,” Julianna assured him. “My lady is not done eating.”

  “Julianna? You know who that was. Don’t you?” Kenna could not resist asking.

  “I know many things, some yes, some no,” Julianna answered aloud calmly.

  Kenna burst out laughing but continued talking on the mental channel. “That makes no sense and you know it,” she accused Julianna. “You do that on purpose.”

  Julianna crossed her arms and looked at Lore, who was trying to wrap things up. He’d managed to free himself from the next two days’ appointments but that was it. It was impossible to schedule any farther in advance.

  “Oh no you don’t, he’s not going to help you,” Kenna warned Julianna.

  Julianna made a rude noise and waved her hand dismissively at the group of men. “Pish-posh. I don’t need help.”

  Gregory watched this exchange with a benevolent smile on his face. They were not making sense and he could feel a certain strangeness in the room. The conspirators actually sounded like lunatics, throwing out sentences with no conversational context. It was worse than he’d thought. Their mental processes seemed garbled and disjointed.

  His suspicions about a drug being involved grew. Lore was most certainly not himself. The thought began to form that he, Gregory, might be in position to take over both thrones if this continued.

  Yuri, who was standing closer to the table than the ministers, chuckled softly and joined Kenna and Julianna’s conversation. “She also thinks she can still take me, my lady. The last time we wrestled I was eight, eh, Julie?”

  “You are not too big for the wooden spoon. You and the little devil prince…” Julianna went off into her own tongue to tell Yuri just where he deserved the wooden spoon for some long-ago offense. Him and the little “devil prince”.

  Kenna put down her spoon. She was laughing too much to eat. Reading Julianna’s intent translated the unknown words for her, and Yuri’s answers showed he had yet to repent. The only thing she didn’t know for sure was who the little devil prince was. It sounded as if it had to be Thomas since the activity occurred when they were all children.

  “Wait, you have to tell me what Yuri and Thomas did?” Kenna asked, laughing around the question.

  “No, not Thomas! He’s an angel,” Julianna insisted while looking at Yuri to be sure he got the sisterly dig. “Boris is bad little devil prince. He and Yuri make very bad mischief.”

  “Boris?” Kenna laughed. “You guys grew up together? Why do you call him devil prince?”

  “He’s a skinny night cat. A very naughty one,” Julianna added for emphasis.

  Yuri was openly chuckling as Julianna tried to express to Kenna how bad he and his friend had been as boys.

  The meeting across the room was finally over and the ministers filed out. Gregory was the last to leave, his suspicious glances at those remaining were ignored. His effusively cheerful farewell was almost sad in its transparency.

  Boris, holding the door open for the ministers leaving, inserted his own comments as Gregory passed, effectively dismissing the negative minister’s impact. It was the equivalent of a laughing, teasing free-for-all, verbally and on the connection that included Kenna in a family circle unlike any she’d ever heard of. It wasn’t a matter of sharing parents. It was a deeper sharing, wider.

  The Keeper telepathy provided them with trust, Kenna realized. It was indisputable and freed each one to relax. It bound them in its gifts and its dangers, creating a unit. The dynamics of what might happen when this many strong individuals joined together drifted out of her head as her eyes rested on the large man moving toward her.

  Lore strolled over to them and picked Kenna up, sitting down in her seat with her sideways on his lap. He commandeered her spoon and brought it to her lips, inserting soup into her mouth while joining the joking. “Tell me more of this wooden spoon, Julie,” he egged, his amusement evident at the story of his stoic guard’s misspent youth.

  Boris interrupted to insist it was an epic tale of heroic proportions.

  Julianna sniffed dismissively. Yuri and Boris at ten decided they were spies on a mission to steal thirteen-year-old Julianna’s diary. They had done it but she caught them on the escape and eventually cornered them in a second-floor bedroom. Boris deserted out the window, somehow landing on his feet, last seen laughing up at Yuri and Julianna before disappearing. That stunt had earned him the title “cat”. Yuri then became the focus of his sister’s ire. Apparently the issue was not yet settled.

  By the time the story was done, so was Kenna’s soup. The story had been an excellent distraction from pressing issues. Its emotional rest allowing her to eat.

  Julianna stood and smiled down at the couple as Kenna relaxed onto Lore’s wide chest. “I must go finish. My lady’s new things arrived and there is a mountain of trash.”

  “What of the explanation about our recent guest? I’m not letting you out of that one,” Kenna insisted.

  “Hmm.” Julianna looked at Yuri. “My brother can explain it. I really must go now,” Julianna insisted again.

  She was already across the room and at the connecting door. Everyone could feel her need to leave. It was personal. Privacy required they respect her feelings even though the matter felt urgent. And she’d indicated Yuri knew as much as she did. It wasn’t a lie. That would have been known to them all.

  “You know who that was?” Lore questioned Yuri sharply. “You couldn’t tell me when we were sprinting across the entire property?”

  “I didn’t know then,” Yuri growled as he watched his sister leave the room with a frown. “She just sent it to me.”

  “What?” Kenna was tempted to invade Julianna’s privacy as the woman disappeared. There seemed a sadness about Julianna’s need to leave the warm circle of the room. Kenna felt nothing wrong in that departure though, it was more a need to be alone to handle personal emotions.

  “She thinks you met one of the gods. That’s not the only term used for them. They have been called gods in every variation and Satan in all those forms. They may be one or the other, but Julianna thinks they are neither. Our knowledge of them is vague and has been passed to us verbally through the first daughters in our family.

  “My female ancestors felt they were forbidden to record knowledge of the gods. They were not the actual Keepers of the Treasure. As their place was beside the royal first daughter, they could not assume the privilege of record keeping.” Yuri paused to mull over his next choice of words.

  “Julianna is hard to read on this next part.
She sent emotions more than words. The gods are feared and loved with a sadness of the soul. They are or can be everything mythology paints them as, but it is not what they should be. She is talking about scary children’s stories here. Her mind equates them to monsters, and villains as depicted in the old tales, but that makes her sad. They are not these things and Julianna truly does not understand why she feels this way,” Yuri finished.

  “That’s it?” Lore questioned sharply.

  “All she gave me. It would have been more logical to simply send this information to you both. I don’t know why she did not,” Yuri replied.

  “Ah—that’s not much information, Yuri. All you’re saying is the boogie man exists and Julianna kinda thinks he’s cute.” Lore raised a brow.

  “She was upset,” Kenna injected softly. “Why was she upset?”

  “I haven’t been able to answer that since she turned thirteen,” Yuri stated as honestly as he could. “It has to do with the god and his hurting you. The event upset everyone. It’s understandable in that context.”

  “I suppose.” There was a pause. Kenna turned her face up to Lore, telling him verbally, “I went to the old castle for a reason. Your buddies interrupted but weren’t the reason for my being there. I need to go back.”

  “I’ll claim old Alex because he’s blood, but the other guy is on his own. Not a buddy of mine.” He smiled at her and let their banter lighten the mood around them.

  Kenna returned the smile to the man literally wrapping his body around her. She could feel his constant fear that the so-called god would come back. He was determined any attacker would have to step over his lifeless body, mentally and physically, to reach her. He was full of the male certainty that even if he didn’t survive the attack, his death would give others the time to reach her and save her.