“I’m in charge of your pleasure, love,” I growl teasingly.
She shrugs. “You let me have my way sometimes.”
Embry’s not wrong. Embry can have anything her little heart desires as far as I’m concerned, within limits of course, because both of us know that I’m only going to allow her control so far. It’s just how I’m wired and while she loves to tease about taking control, we both know she loves to hand the reins back over as soon as she’s had her fun.
We walk out of the private suite and down the hall, and our friends are at a large rectangular table that’s been created out of three small square tables pushed together for the size of our group. Embry’s mind starts going a million miles a minute, trying to decide who to talk to first, what to say, how to say it, if she should hug them first. I stop her midstep and she turns and looks up at me. “What’s the matter,” she asks as though her mind’s not running full throttle.
I take her hand. “Quiet your worries, love. We’ll just walk over to the table and let them take it from there.”
She inhales a deep breath and gives me a nervous smile. “Okay.”
I give her a gentle nod and place a supporting hand on her back as I guide her to the table. Her friends don’t even wait until we get there. They jump up in unison, all closing the distance with big smiles and arms outstretched to embrace her.
Embry’s eyes fill with tears as they tell her one after another how much they’ve missed her, worried about her, and couldn’t wait to see her again. She glances up at me and winks, swallowing through her emotion. Lucianna has stayed back, allowing the other ladies their chance to talk to Embry first, but now she leaves Descallia’s side and walks to Embry, her bright green eyes flashing as she pulls her best friend in the world into her arms. “I missed you so much!” she tells Embry.
She looks to Descallia. “This calls for drinks for everyone.”
His eyes don’t leave his mate, our queen, for a moment. It’s clear he’s as infatuated with her as I am with Embry. “Drinks it shall be,” he says, as a waitress standing close by moves our way to take the order.
She reaches the table, and Embry gives her a grin. “I’ll save you the trouble of asking everyone what they want. All the ladies want margaritas, big-ass margaritas, like a fishbowl of the stuff.”
Overmaster Descallia and the masters and I exchange a glance and grin while she’s taking the guys’ orders. Master Tuscano smiles down at Delilah, the blue-eyed blonde who looks up at him with adoration. “This may be one of those ladies’ nights for the books.”
“Got that right,” Embry says, taking the seat I hold out for her. She looks at the ladies and then at me. “Perhaps we should introduce Lord Corvinus to how we party, ladies?”
The masters around the table laugh, looking at me. “What am I missing?” I ask, mildly amused at the way their mates have the formidable masters eating out of the palm of their hands.
Master Campania gestures to the drinks. “They drink this when we have our consulate meetings. We’re off hard atwork, strategizing and solving the problems of the vampire communities across the globe, and we often have to go pick them up at Overmaster Descallia’s and take our loopy little ladies home. They drink, dance, and laugh while we slave away at work,” he says, trying to keep a straight face as Willow gives him a good elbow to the ribs. She rolls her eyes at him. “Don’t make me get out my little wand. Then we’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
Master Sardinia grins, placing his arm around Madria. I’m not sure if it’s to ward off an elbow to his own ribs or not but she snuggles into his warmth and seems happy to just listen to the others banter with each other.
Embry looks at me and gives me a wink.Thank you, vampire.
22
EMBRY
Never in a thousand years would I have thought a short time ago that I could be this happy. Corvinus is everything I could ever want, and now I have my friends back too. The waitress brings us exactly what we ordered, and while not exactly fishbowls, the large handblown glasses are large enough to hold the slushy margaritas with crystalized salt and lime around the edges just the way we all like.
We wait until everyone has a drink and then Lucianna raises a glass in toast. “To celebrate Embry’s return. We have missed you so much. Life has not been the same without our fun-loving friend. We love you, Embry, and are so glad you’re back.”
“Here, here,” Descallia says, while everyone raises a glass and clinks with those around them before taking a large sip of their drink.
Raven, Willow, and Madria talk quietly amongst each other and then look up almost at the same time. “We have a thought,” Willow says as Master Campania places an arm around her.
Lucianna turns her full attention to the ladies. “What’s the idea?”
“Well,” Willow says. “We think that we’d all like to help with the shadow books. We’ve all given it a lot of thought. Whateveris in the shadow books isn’t something that the witches want you to know, or that any of us knows exactly. We do know that it has something to do with the land that the witches and vampires have been fighting over for centuries, and that it’s said to hold the secrets to finding out the truth. None of us know what the truth is, but we’d like to help discover it. We believe if we can do that, we may save the vampires and witches from potentially going to war.”
Lucianna’s eyes begin to glow and the green hue floats over the table in the dimness of the room. “So you’re proposing we learn about it to keep us from fighting, not to get one over on the witches or take the land.”
Raven sighs. “It’s not black and white. Of course, we’ve always been taught that it was our land and the history behind it, but the vampires have been taught something completely different and believe their version of the story too.
“There has to be something special about the old, abandoned witch cavern that Embry was drawn to. There are quite a few around. They were meant to ensure that wherever witches roam, they have safe harbor nearby. It was necessary in the day and age of the burnings, and quite handy in times when the vampires in power would like nothing better than to catch and kill witches with their bare hands.”
Descallia scowls, but Raven is not to be dissuaded. “Both the witches and the vampires have done bad things in the past.”
He takes another drink and decides to hold his tongue but I’m not sure how long our fearless overmaster will do that. Patience is definitely not a virtue he owns. But Lucianna’s hand on his arm seems to keep him calm as the witches talk. She is good for our overmaster, of that, there is no doubt.
