CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Present Time

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Present Time

KATE HELD VINCENT’S arm as the security guards pulled open the double doors to the large dining room. She could see the large candles filling the room with warm light and the long cream drapes around the windows, drawn to create an intimate and friendly space, as she’d asked.

Vincent glanced down at her, and she smiled. “I’m fine.”

“Immediately, Kate. As soon as you feel a contraction, you tell me, and I am getting you out of there.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. Fine. I promise. You have told me that several times in the past ten minutes.”

He grunted.

Ahead of them, Brayden stood with Willow on his arm. The princess was wearing a gorgeous lilac mermaid-style gown. Kate had loaned her a diamond choker, and every time Willow touched it, it brought a smile to her lips. Kate remembered the night Vincent had gifted it to her, out in the rose garden. It had been the nineteen nineties.

Springtime.

The sky had been lit up by a full moon and sprinkled with stars. Kate had organized a picnic meal for them outside. She’d had no idea he was going to present her with such a beautiful gift. She’d had no idea he even remembered the date.

The day he had come to her and claimed her as his mate.

Outside, under the stars, he had kneeled and opened the long velvet box. Tears had sprung to her eyes and her hand had flown to her mouth. (Brianna would have been proud of her very Victorian response.) She’d truly been awestruck at her mate honoring that important day in their lives, one hundred years later.

“ Thank God I figured it out ,” was all he’d said, in true Vincent fashion.

Kate had let the tears flow when he’d put it around her neck, and she’d done the fingering thing just as Willow was doing now. Vincent had pulled her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “ Because I couldn’t have survived without you, my darling .”

No one could ever understand how important these little moment with her mate were.

Vincent had spotted Willow wearing it before they’d left the room. He had glanced at her in question.

“ She’s family. This is what queens do, my darling .” Then she had glanced down at her enormous six carat diamond ring and smiled. The day he had come to claim her in 1891, Vincent had placed it on her hand, and the rest was history.

“ That does not leave your finger, ” he had said this evening, planting a kiss on her lips as she murmured never.

Ahead of them, Willow and Brayden stepped inside the room filled with music, and they followed. The long table was dressed formally with a white tablecloth, crystal glasses, and silverware dating back centuries.

Kate took her seat first, followed by the king at the head of the table. Opposite her were the prince and princess, and sprinkled around the table were their guests, important members of the household, and their partners.

She leaned forward to take them all in, bumped her tummy, and groaned.

James Adler, who was sitting beside her, leaned back and gave her a smile. “We have three children.”

“That’s right. Vivienne, Samantha, and David.”

“I’m impressed.” He grinned.

“I’m a queen.” She winked. “It’s what we do.”

James raised his glass in a mock toast, and they laughed.

Down the table, she spotted Tom and Lucinda, Lance and Sofia, Craig and Brianna. Kurt and Marcus had also joined them, unmated and both looking dapper. All of them were dressed in black evening suits, and the females wore beautiful rich-colored gowns and sparkling jewels. They didn’t do this enough anymore, and Kate decided it would be a wonderful tradition to start doing it on a regular basis.

Starting with a Christmas meal.

Vincent would be thrilled.

She grinned to herself.

“So James, how did you enjoy the tour?” Kate inquired.

“Very enlightening. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s true, your lives are not dissimilar to a human’s. It’s still incredible we haven’t known about you for so long,” he said, shaking his head and glancing around the table. “But I do appreciate why you would fear exposing your race.”

Kate nodded. She didn’t want to expand on that during dinner.

They all knew why.

“Say, should you be here?” he asked, nodding at her belly.

“If you ask my mate, then no, but I am fine. Just pregnant.” She laughed, forking salmon into her mouth.

Everyone made small talk as the meals were served and the wine flowed. Or water, in her case. It was polite and boring as all these types of events were.

“Moretti, I didn’t realize you celebrated Christmas. Do you subscribe to the Christian faith, or...?” one of the humans further down the table asked loudly.

Willow choked on her truffle.

Brianna grinned into her glass of water.

Craig coughed out a Christ, here we go .

Kate dabbed at her mouth with her napkin, stifling a grin, and glanced at the king. Who was staring right at her.

“This is our first,” she answered, as straight faced as she could. “We thought, with a baby on the way, it would be a nice touch.”

Kate was not about to share that the two females across from her, and a few others further down, used to be human. Or how the males who had claimed them had taken a nice juicy bite of their neck (or whatever part of the anatomy they had chosen), and drained them of their blood before feeding them their own and turning them into fancy new vampires. And that they missed Christmas, so they were doing it for them.

Mostly.

I mean, she could...but it would put them off their Tiramisu. She also didn’t think Vincent had covered that topic with them yet.

“It wasn’t my choice,” Vincent grumbled, waving his spoon at Brianna and Willow. “But we have a couple of Christmas elves among us who insisted.”

“I mean, we can’t take all the credit,” Brianna started, smiling like she was on a toothpaste commercial. “Your idea of the little reindeer family was adorable,” she added, stretching the last word out.

Vincent choked on his sip of wine and began coughing.

Kate leaned over, patting his back, and chewed her lip.

“Seriously, Brianna, you are going to get me killed.” Craig muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

“Oh, we don’t do that sort of thing.” Bri nodded to the human opposite her. “My mate is joking.”

“Right,” Craig drawled, nodding and throwing back the remains of his wine.

“He just looks scary.”

“Stop talking, Bri,” Craig grunted under his breath.

Kate glanced at the king.

His raised brows and glistening eyes met hers. She could see he was torn between laughing and letting rip. She loved how the redhead gave her mate a run for his money. Vincent had never said anything, but she knew on some level he loved Brianna’s spirit.

Kate sure did. It would be easy to mistake her playfulness for something else, but the former human was sharp as a knife. She had them all wrapped about her gorgeous little finger, but she knew where the boundaries were.

Kate could see the humans were enjoying the humorous banter between them, and the fact it had relaxed them all enough to reflect the disjointed family they were was again a credit to the smart redhead.

She knew Vincent was smart enough to pick up on it too.

Kate glanced across at Willow, who was quieter than usual. She wondered how it felt for the females to be in the presence of such powerful leaders. These men would have been completely inaccessible to them several months ago. Now they were dining with them.

Willow smiled across at her, mouthing her question, asking if she was okay.

Kate nodded.

They were all concerned, knowing the baby was coming. She was hoping he or she would wait a few more days and be their little Christmas gift.

“So, Brianna, tell me about your role. What do you do here at the castle?” the UK prime minister asked.

“Well, I have quite a special role...” she began as Craig threw back more wine.

A few hours later, Vincent stood at the front door and watched the last of the vehicles drive off through the gates.

The females had taken Kate home as the meal finished, leaving him and the prince, along with Craig, other Moretti officials, and the SLCs, to stand around drinking brandy. Alcohol barely hit the sides of a vampire; they metabolized it too fast. Some could also drink fast and enjoy the buzz, but that wasn’t what tonight had been about.

Vincent knew his team had been pacing themselves, if not nursing their drinks, to stay sharp and alert should the need arise. But as expected, the evening had gone smoothly.

All the world leaders had asked a wide range of questions and seemed, for the most part, comfortable.

But these were men practiced at playing a role, and Vincent wasn’t going to be played for a fool. Not when it came to the safety of his race. Operation Daylight would continue to meet frequently, and he expected some interesting conversations when they met next in the new year.

“I’d like to see this prison of yours,” James had requested quietly when the two of them had a private moment. Vincent wasn’t surprised. The president and he had worked together to break up the laboratory where experiments were being performed on vampires, and he was privy to a few more things than the rest of the team.

“It only contains vampires. We do not concern ourselves with enforcing human laws,” Vincent replied. “Although some of our kind do work in law enforcement.”

“God, this really is going to take some getting used to,” James said, shaking his head.

Vincent slapped him on the shoulder. “I get it. We’ve had thousands of years. And it’s for that reason we ask you to continue to trust there are no nefarious intentions behind our existence.”

James nodded and rubbed his forehead.

“It’s going to be a damn difficult sell to most of the population, though, Vincent. Most don’t trust their local senator, let alone a whole new species.”

“Which is why we need to do our due diligence and have structures in place. With this fast-moving age of technology, we cannot continue to hide for much longer,” he said, frowning. “Like we have reiterated here multiple times, it’s in the interests of both humans and vampires to make sure we get this right.”

James tossed back his brandy and stared into the now empty crystal glass.

“Look, I think this event has achieved what we wanted.” The president glanced around the room. “Everyone is on board and can see you all live a pretty normal, humanlike life. Now we need to expand. We need experts working with us on this.”

Vincent laughed and took a drink.

“You have interspecies PR experts at the White House?”

“Consider it a new department,” President Adler replied, laughing with him.

Vincent swirled his drink inside the cut crystal and nodded. “Yes. Okay. We are learning as we go. I’ll arrange a private tour through our prison before you leave Italy. What I share with you remains between you and I for now.”

“Jesus, what am I going to see down there?” James raised a brow.

Vincent shook his head. “Nothing. They are treated humanely, as you would call it. It’s the punishment you won’t like.”

“Hey, we still have the death penalty in some states in the US,” James said, waving a hand.

Vincent looked up and saw a few other humans walking toward them.

“I am a fair king, James. The vampires who end up in my prison are dangerous predators.” He glanced up again. “Let’s continue this discussion when you return.”

“It will have to wait until after the holidays. My schedule is tight, as you can imagine.”

They had been interrupted at that point.

He turned and walked back inside the foyer, hearing someone shut the doors behind him. Craig was leaning on the banister of the large staircase, and a few of the SLCs stood nearby. Brayden stepped up.

“I think that went well,” the prince said.

“It was definitely good progress,” Vincent agreed. “We have a long way to go, and hopefully, time to do so. Good work tonight, everyone. I need you to be extremely vigilant over the next few months and years.”

They all nodded.

Not one vampire among them would risk anything.

“Ears and eyes to the ground, make sure our teams are well resourced, rested, and focused.”

“Gotcha,” Craig said.

“Tell Brianna I have a job for her.” Vincent looked at Craig. “We need a PR and communications team. After all this Christmas...stuff, I want her and Willow to work with me to build this team. It is, after all, their background.”

“I’ll speak to Willow.” Brayden nodded. “She’ll be pleased to have something to focus on.”

“Keep her out of trouble, you mean.” Craig smirked.

“That too.” He laughed.

“I’ll set up a meeting,” Vincent interrupted, beginning to make his way back home to Kate. “Tell them to enjoy the holidays. Work starts January 1st.”