channeled her telepathic communication to Atreides privately, "Yes, he was dying to return home to oversee things. But he knew you were handling things just the way he would have done, and there was no sense in him returning early from our vacation when you were getting a handle on it."
That's what Atreides figured. He wasn't sure Daemon felt that Atreides was handling things just fine. He suspected Tezra had a hand in convincing him to leave well enough alone. And he appreciated her for it.
"How is Selena and her brother?" Tezra asked.
"Her brother is milking his injury for everything it's worth—getting lots of huntresses' attention. Selena is getting much better. She wants to meet you tomorrow night. She figured you would be tired from your journey home, and she would have another day to rest up." Which was true, but Atreides knew she had made the suggestion because she knew how unsure he was about speaking with his brother about this whole situation. Though he thought her resting up for another day was a good idea too.
"That works for us. Did you want to have dinner at our house then?" Tezra asked.
Atreides hesitated. He hadn't thought they would want to have dinner right away after they got home from their vacation and he was wondering if Selena would prefer to be in the comfort of their home, or in Daemon and Tezra's.
"At our house," Daemon said. "She needs to visit with us there since she has never seen the place. We'll prepare dinner. She has been through a couple of ordeals. Let her rest up and we'll treat her to a feast."
"All right. At your house then." Atreides was so relieved all of it was out in the open, even though he thought he was going to have to do a lot of explaining.
"We're proud of you," Tezra said, "Aren't we, Daemon?"
"Yeah, I couldn't have done a better job than you did."
Atreides couldn't have asked for better praise from his brother and he felt so much better about it now. "Thanks. I didn't want to trouble you when I knew I could handle it.” Which Atreides knew for sure, but he just hadn't been so sure his brother would have wanted him to take care of matters. Well, he was actually sure his brother wouldn't have left it up to him to do. Especially if Tezra hadn't had a hand in it. He would have to thank her later. But he had to know, had anything he had done been in secret? “Was everything I was doing reported back to you?"
It bothered him that there were spies in the clans who might have been reporting every little thing back to Daemon. Which reminded him of the dance he’d had with Selena and what all was said about that! And the way he had danced with the fiery huntress before she'd even been turned!
"No. You'll have to fill us in on all the details," Daemon said. "The League Council contacted me so that I knew they were working with us now, and they wanted to make sure it was fine with me. Iconia told me about you protecting a huntress and taking her home with you. But then she told me later that it didn't matter, everything was fine, Iconia and you had broken up and she was happily seeing Ragnar. I pressed her about the huntress, but she just said all that had been handled."
Atreides appreciated that Iconia had made a complete turnaround where Selena was concerned. He didn't expect the women to become fast friends, but anything was possible.
"We want to meet with Selena's family as soon as possible also," Tezra said. "Since I'd lost most of mine, it will be great to expand our family."
"It's going to really work out well, I think, with having ties to the League and they're coming around with working with the fringe hunters too. But I'll let Selena know you want to meet with them too," Atreides said.
The rain started and pelted the car as they drove to their home. Tezra gave Atreides a hug. "We're so glad you took charge so we could have our vacation."
Daemon hugged him also. "You did good. You know what this means, don't you?"
"You're going on more vacations?" Atreides was hopeful Daemon felt that he and Tezra could now.
Daemon smiled. "Yeah, and if I need to help out others in need, like even the hunters turned against the rogue vampires in Florida, I can do