Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,81
happened to him. I want to keep Theodore away from it all.”
Blood poured into my cheeks. Not anger at her, necessarily, anger and frustration at the situation. “I’m it all?”
She opened her mouth, and I held up a hand. “Seriously, I understand that more than you know. If that’s the way you want it, I’ll respect your decision. Just try to avoid lying to him. They catch up with you pretty quick.”
Tommy rounded the table, taking my hand. “It’s not you. Trust me, he’s heard all about you. It’s just this fucked-up situation.”
That I’d be in for a long, long time. I should probably get used to being held at a distance. It hurt, but I really did understand. “I know, Tom. I wish it was different, but there’s no beef between us.”
She leaned back, her shoulders relaxing. “Good. Then… one more thing.”
“Hmm?”
“Are we going to talk about these?”
I glanced around at the vases of white roses filling every available surface in my office. “What’s there to talk about?”
“Well, was there a card?”
Opening my desk drawer, I passed over the note.
She snorted after reading it. “Kyros. That’s all he wrote? His fucking name. Jesus, this guy is old as shit and still has no idea.”
I had to agree. “Yep.”
“You gonna give away the flowers? Seems a shame to just chuck them out.”
I tipped my head back against the upholstered chair and smirked at her. “Oh, they’ll be used.”
Tommy grinned. “That’s my girl. I’ll leave you to the hottie then. Ask him how many abs he has, I dare you.”
My smirk disappeared. My friend was hot-blooded to the extreme. Fernando had proved himself a coward and was therefore nowhere near good enough for her. It wasn’t happening.
My personal spy strode in moments after my friend left.
Closing the door, he clicked on the noise-cancelling button.
“Fernando, report,” I said, leaning back.
He placed a paper with a list of properties on my desk and I pushed up my glasses, scanning it.
“Fyrlia are yet to secure anything in the agricultural suburb. The divide between the triplets and the other siblings continues to grow. The triplets had three meetings with their father in the last week. I trailed them to an attack on Princess Safina and her daughter last night. It failed, but it seems Fyrlia are upping their illegal activities in an attempt to distract Sundulus. They believe a win is within their grasp.”
Safina had a daughter? News to me.
“Are attacks like that common?”
“From Fyrlia? Yes, Miss Le Spyre. That is why Sundulus own more Indebted. Their vision to stick to human law leaves them vulnerable in many ways. Guarding their human liaisons and top workers takes up many of their resources.”
“And the clans are still locked evenly.” To me, that made it clear who possessed the greater business prowess.
Fernando bowed. “There was something else, miss. I heard your grandmother’s name several times during the delivery of my report yesterday. And your name—though that’s commonplace.”
I froze. “My grandmother’s name?”
He nodded. “I was too far away to hear the particulars of the conversation. But I picked up Le Spyre because I’m always tuned for conversations about you. Then I heard them say Agatha Le Spyre twice.”
Who the fuck was talking about my dead grandmother? “Who is them?”
He grimaced. “The Tonyi triplets.”
I smiled as fingers tickled my side.
“Elmo,” I murmured against the desk.
“What does that even mean? I just don’t understand where the fuck her sleep mind is at,” a male said.
Kyros answered, “Tickle Me Elmo. Kid’s toy.”
“Do it again, Lionel,” a female urged.
I snorted as the tickling fingers returned. I twisted and pushed away the multitude of hands attacking me. Some people had no manners. “Sit up straight.”
“Kyros?” another man asked.
“That one’s harder. I think she wants you to stop touching her. Have some manners. Sit up straight.”
A female cooed. “You talk sleeping human. That is so cute, big brother.”
“Shut up, Safina,” Kyros answered, not a trace of anger in his voice.
I cracked open an eyelid, peeling a paper off my cheek and straightened my skewed glasses. “I fell asleep? What time is it?”
“It’s 3:10 a.m.,” Kyros said, coming to stand behind me. He rested a hand on the back of my neck. “We thought you might like to be awake for the video call to my father.”
Sleep wanted to drag me back under, but the siblings had assumed right. Or Kyros, more likely. I’d still be asleep if his brothers and sisters were in charge.
“Your human body can’t keep up,” Francesca said, wrinkling her nose.