Ever so slowly, his chest lifted and lowered with a large lungful of oxygen, calming himself. His body relaxed on his chair. He rested back and tapped his fingers on the conference room table, analyzing my features. “What other information was Harmony able to garner that we haven’t so far?”
“Actually, I was surprised she found this part out since we have close to five hundred spies worldwide within the government agencies, and you don’t know yet.” I shook my head. “Someone may need to investigate to make sure those vampires aren’t double dipping if you know what I mean.”
Lord Belshazzar nodded his head once in affirmation, and then asked again, “What don’t we know?”
I swallowed down the nervous lump in my throat, worry etching my features. I ran my fingers through my hair and yanked at it, and stated quietly, “It’s unheard of in the human world. The U.S. and Russian presidents are working together now. They’re amassing an army a hundred times the size of ours. They’ll be ready in a short month to attack—and they plan to.”
King Niallan shoved out of his chair and started pacing, curses spewing from his mouth in a constant loop.
Lord Xenon and Lord Pippin stood from their chairs too and began their own pacing around the room.
Lord Cato closed his eyes and sat frozen in place.
Lord Otto didn’t appear to be breathing, merely staring off into space in shock.
Lord Belshazzar rubbed at his chin, not taking his eyes from mine. “How credible is the intel? I wouldn’t expect the Americans and Russians to work together. We thought they’d hold out until it was too late to even begin.”
“It’s credible. Their signatures are on the paperwork—invoices, contracts, new trade agreements, new military personnel—and Harmony even managed to snag a voice clip of them talking together about their plans.”
“Fuck!” King Niallan roared.
Then he kept on pacing.
Lord Belshazzar simply nodded at my words, unfazed by the battle we had ahead of us. “We’ll need all the added information Harmony obtained.”
I turned my phone back on and sent the massive file to all the individuals in the room. “Done.” Then I turned it back off when it started buzzing again, more emails coming in.
With his eyes still closed, Lord Cato asked, “King Niallan, how strong is that shield you put up? I asked a few people, and apparently, it needsa lotof power to be strong.”
Our king waved an irritated hand. “I drew power from the Original druid amulet while I created it. It won’t break. It’s more powerful than any druid could construct.”
I peered off to the side to hide my confusion. The king’s hands had been empty while he created the shield. So he formed the shield without touching the Original druid amulet? How the hell had he done that?
Lord Belshazzar’s features were carefully blank with that tidbit of information. He steered to another topic, most likely hoping the druid would forget about his blunder in his current vexed state.
“Once we review the documents Queen Gwynnore sent, we need to begin notifying our army. Including the druid army. Orders need to go out within the next few days for stations around our strongholds, and shields need to be put in place around each one—vampire and druid. We should begin mixing the armies to get on top of the fighting that’s sure to happen at the beginning between our people.”
As one, we all nodded.
Lord Xenon commented, “Until that’s done, we keep this quiet. Like the humans, we don’t want our people to panic.”
Again, we nodded.
“Ms. Francis is still here.” Lord Otto cracked his neck and flicked his gaze to the lord sitting next to me. “Lord Belshazzar, you need to meet with her tonight and find out any new information you can. Tomorrow, I’ll eliminate her. It’s time to weed out the spies in our homes.”
Lord Belshazzar’s face…whitened.
I snapped my mouth shut on the snappy comment I was going to make, utter shock holding me still. My vampire Overlord appeared faint.
My lover choked, “Will someone elsepleasefucking take her this time?”
Lord Pippin shook his head. “You’re who she wants.”
Lord Otto attempted a smile. “She’ll be dead tomorrow. Rest easy in that.”
Lord Xenon pointed a finger at him. “And you’ve always said you prefer the redheads.”
“Yes, I did say that.” Lord Belshazzar rubbed at his chin harshly, color now returning to his face for an entirely different reason. His fangs were down, and he was pissed. “Goddammit, fine.”
