Chapter 24

A noise pulled Grant out of sleep. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was annoyed. Determined to return to slumber, he snuggled closer to Roman and pressed his lips to his mate's bare shoulder. As much as he adored being in bed with Roman, the buzzing sound continued ruining everything, and he scowled as he buried his face in Roman's back.

"Grant," Roman grumbled, his voice scratchy.

"Shhh, I'm sleeping," Grant slurred.

"Wake the fuck up," Roman barked.

Startled by his abruptness, Grant sat up and rubbed his eye. "What's wrong?"

"Can't you hear the fucking phone?"

"Is that the noise I'm hearing?"

"For fuck's sake," Roman muttered. Roman shifted beside Grant and poked him with the phone. "Answer it or I will."

"Don't have to be so grumpy about it," Grant mumbled. It took a second for his brain to remember how to use the device, but eventually, he accepted the call. "Valerius."

"Should you not be answering with your title? As I understand it, fallen knights never miss an opportunity to use them."

With so much of his gray matter still firmly planted in the idea of cuddling against Roman, it took Grant a moment to place the voice on the other end. "Alaric?"

"We have a situation on the east coast which requires the presence of the supervisor on duty. Some of your fallen knights are here, but I asked for the chance to call you myself. I rarely get the chance to wake up Venerable Knights."

"Okay."

"Are you going to get dressed and get your ass over here?"

"I'm glad you're not my boss, if that's your attitude," Grant grumbled.

"You would be lucky to find yourself a sentinel."

Since Grant was already aware of Alaric's penchant for finding any reason to discuss sentinel superiority, he rolled his eyes. "Send me a photo, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Report to Grymmie. He is in charge of the scene."

Grant's brows flew up, and his scattered wits finally flipped to alert. "The terrorist group struck again?"

Next to Grant, Roman shifted and flipped the light on, making Grant wince.

"You can discuss it with Grymmie when you arrive. I have things to do which do not include chatting with sleepy fallen knights."

"Do I need to alert the RKs?"

"That will be your call to make upon your arrival. I assume you are coming at some point this morning."

"Just send me a picture, Alaric," Grant said, the snarky sentinel pulling a smile out of him. Grant had barely disconnected the call when a photo arrived.

Tugging the blankets off, Grant kissed Roman and climbed over him.

"The terrorist group?" Roman asked.

"Apparently," Grant said, tugging off his T-shirt. "I'll know more after I get there. Grymmie's in charge."

"His entire task force is probably there too. Grant, the RKs and all the VKs are usually pulled in on these."

Grant grabbed fresh underwear from the dresser and faced his mate. "Are you coming with me, then?"

"No. It's…" Roman trailed off and glanced at the alarm clock. "It's three in the morning. You can determine whether everyone needs to get up and start their day early or we can visit the site later."

"Thank you, I'll assess the situation and decide what to do from there. Go back to sleep if you can. I'll wait to call until your alarm goes off unless it's necessary for you to be there."

Roman smiled. "Think of me as you shower."

"I don't have time to jerk off, so that's not happening," Grant said. He stalked into the bathroom as the bedroom went dark again.

Shutting the door behind him, Grant hit the light switch and turned on the shower. He wiggled out of his boxers and tossed them into the hamper. In swift, economical movements, he bathed. He was in such a hurry, he barely noted that the temperature of the water wasn't warm until he was rinsing the shampoo out of his hair.

Once clean, Grant dried himself and pulled on his underwear. Roman had added a small closet for a few uniforms for mornings like this, so Grant grabbed clothes and yanked them on. His spare boots went on next, and he thanked Roman silently for his foresight in putting his work belt in there for him last night.

Grant grabbed his phone and opened the picture Alaric had sent. A second later, he was standing in a nearly desolate forest in the middle of nowhere. It was flooded with magical light provided by the mages examining the scorched trees. There was a group of frowning fallen knights picking their way through the wreckage of what Grant quickly discovered had been a vehicle of some kind.

They had sentinels working alongside them, but as was their habit, their expressions gave away nothing. Three reapers stood shoulder to shoulder, with their dogs sniffing the ground at their feet, deep in discussion with the Lich Sentinel.

"Good morning," Grant called out as he marched up to the group.

"You took your time arriving," Alaric noted.

"Some of us like to bathe before we go out in public, Alaric," Grant replied.

To Grant's delight, Alaric's mouth went ever so slack for a moment. "I certainly bathed."

Scythe Lord Orpheus Daray snickered.

"It's fine," Grymington said. "The scene is full of scents thanks to the explosion. If anyone skipped their usual grooming habits to arrive on scene quickly, no one would be the wiser. Grant, we arrived after receiving a call about a fire. One of the ignis mages recognized a trace of a wizard potion. She's familiar with the terrorist group; she has aided us on previous occasions."

"She called the Magus Superus, and Lochlan woke up the Lich Sentinel," Scythe Lord Masse Daray added. He glanced up at Alaric. "Maybe Lochlan should've shown up so he could provide some water to those who need it for their morning ablutions."

Alaric's mouth tightened. "I already told you I showered."

"Nope, you said you bathed. I thought sentinels couldn't lie," Grant teased. "I'm not lifting any memories from this other than an explosion, which is obvious. Have you had a chance to figure out anything else that happened here? Was this an accident or on purpose? I sense no living presence."

"No one was here," Grymington said. "At some point, someone had to drive the car here. Alaric, what do you sense?"

"Besides my annoyance at being accused of lying and skipping my shower?" Alaric asked tersely. "Nothing. Like Grant and everyone else, I sense no memory beyond a car arriving at some point. I cannot even determine if there was more than one person in the vehicle. It is odd. Was this detonated from a distance? Accident or on purpose? I do not know. But there were no injuries or death. That is the most important factor."

"After we clear the scene, I'll call Killian and ask him to get some druids here to mend the trees that they can," Grymington said. "In the meantime, let's join the rest of my team and try to locate any scraps of metal that can help us put together an identification number for the car or a maybe parts of the license plate. If we can trace the car, it would be great."

"Okay, I'm going north because I don't want to be downwind of Alaric," Grant replied.

Alaric glared and stalked off without a word.

Orpheus cackled. "He is going to make you pay for that."

"I know. I'm looking forward to it," Grant responded. "It'll be interesting to see how he exacts revenge."

"The scary thing is he could do it today or wait a thousand years," Grymington noted. "Sentinels are savage."

"Honestly, I love that about them," Grant replied. "Alaric's great and surprisingly fun to tease. I hope we find something to help with your investigation. Unless you want more bodies here, I wasn't planning on waking the RKs or the other VKs."

"My team can handle it," Grymington assured him. "But we are grateful for your assistance."

Taking care to steer clear of the annoyed Lich Sentinel, Grant followed Grymington's orders about how best to search through the scattered debris that had somehow once been an entire vehicle. It would likely prove to be a long morning.

∞∞∞

Several afternoons later, Grant sailed into a conference room and grinned. He recognized everyone who'd already arrived, but there was no question where he'd sit.

Grant dropped his ass into a chair and turned to the man on his right. "Hey, Alaric."

The Lich Sentinel's mouth tightened. "There are several other available chairs. Must you sit there?"

Although Alaric hadn't demurred from sparring with Grant when he'd poked his head into a gym at the Daray Sentinel Complex the previous night, the Lich Sentinel had not yet exacted his revenge for Grant's early morning teasing at the vehicle explosion. Unfortunately, those moments were the last with levity. They'd picked up every speck of metal they could but had found nothing obvious to determine the owner of the vehicle.

Since Grant wasn't on the task force assigned to the terrorist group, he didn't know if they'd learned anything new, but he hoped they would be successful.

Ignoring Alaric, Grant leaned forward and smiled at the leader of the necromancers. "Hi, Chander."

Chander's lips twitched at the displeasure on Alaric's face. "How are you, Grant?"

"Good. I'm glad I recognize everyone in here."

"Yeah, Elf deciding to oversee the committee means we won't have to deal with troublemakers," Chander replied.

A tall elf with skin the color of a night sky walked in. "Is that the leader of the Indrenakas tribe?"

Chander nodded. "Chieftain Temolvi Indrenakas. We'll make sure you get introduced. He's a D'Vaire connection but doesn't attend everything."

"If you were going to pretend I'm not here, you could have taken the seat on the other side of Chand," Alaric remarked coolly.

"Timotheus is sitting there," Grant scoffed, referring to the ruler of the centaurs.

A woman dressed in black—relieved only by the feather in shades of pink strapped to her arm—stalked into the room, and her dark eyes narrowed. She took the chair next to Grant and scowled.

"I am here under duress," Agrotera Tyvalis Athanasiou of the Harpy Clan declared.

"We appreciate your cooperation," Ellery remarked diplomatically. "Alaric thought you would be an excellent addition to our team."

"That is because he is still in a foul mood because he showed up at a crime scene the other morning with a foul odor emanating from his body," Tyvalis drawled. "He is angry at the world and decided I should be punished along with everyone else. I know nothing about parades or committees, and I could be finding lost people instead of sitting in this room."

"I imagine it's more important to get to a crime scene than worry about if you've showered," remarked Watchman-mate Jordan Hawthorneonca-Stone, the co-ruler of the Royal Order of the Gargoyle. His tone was neutral, but his deep brown gaze danced with laughter.

"I did not stink," Alaric grumbled. "And I did shower."

"I think you always smell delicious, handsome," Chander said with a smirk.

There was a small smile playing around his lips, but Ellery cleared his throat. "Should we begin our meeting?"

"Is everyone here?" Ignis Superus Reese Arturus asked, his blue eyes surveying the round table.

"Yeah, thanks to Elf, we're the lucky thirteen in charge of this thing," drawled Ducblanc Zane Draconis, the man tasked with guarding His Majesty.

"I thought we should begin with a date for the parade," Ellery suggested. "I am a novice at parades, so I will need your input on how long of a timeline we should aim for."

"Since I could hardly remember our last one, I had my sentinels dig up some information," Chander said. "I was apparently on that committee too, so we have the entire file. Some of it will be beneficial, but there were too many people and far too many opinions involved. It was postponed twice. Had there not been so much bickering, we could have done it in a few months. Instead, it was a full-year project."

"You met with this group every week for a year?" Tyvalis asked, shocked.

"It was probably of little note to Chand; he serves on every committee," Alaric stated.

"Of course he is invited often; his expertise in invaluable," Chieftain Kalthekor Valzadari remarked. The elf ruler was seated next to Temolvi, and though his skin was blue like Chieftain Indrenakas's, it was many shades lighter and resembled the spring sky to Grant.

"Agreed," Ellery said. "Would four months be sufficient?"

"I think so, unless anyone can think of a reason to extend it," Chander commented. "Grant, do you have security concerns that will take longer than that to resolve?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Grant replied. "But I have Alaric and Tyvalis to help me with planning to keep everyone safe. I'm assuming I can add harpies to the mix?"

Tyvalis hesitated for a moment before nodding. "We would be honored. Your invitation was unexpected."

"I figure since you work so closely with the sentinels, it'd make things run smoother since the Lich Sentinel has made it clear he has issues with the fallen knights."

Alaric's glowing chartreuse gaze slid to Grant's face. "Only certain fallen knights."

"I am sure that between the three of you, security will be flawless," Ellery said. "You can also use Draconis Dukes if you need them."

Grant chuckled. "Pretty sure everyone would object if we allowed a parade that will include our Emperors and we didn't plant plenty of dragons along the route."

"Put dragons where you need them," Zane responded. "We won't interfere with your planning. Just give me numbers so Damian and I can assign people."

"No problem, I want this safe for everyone," Grant replied. "My plan is to err on the side of caution. I'd rather have too many dragons, sentinels, harpies, and fallen knights than too few."

"Excellent. Let's discuss our route. That is what will determine how many people and vehicles can take part in the parade. Is that correct, Chand?" Ellery asked.

"Yeah," Chander replied.

Le ministre Etienne Bellerose, the ruler of the enchanters, lifted a hand and created an illusion above the table of the entire part of Las Vegas that the Council owned. "I thought a little map could aid us."

"Thank you, Etienne," Ellery replied. "That is very helpful."

Grant pulled out his phone to record as Etienne created several lines and the committee members peppered out ideas about which streets made the most sense to include. To Grant's amusement, Chander held out his hand and wiggled his fingers. Alaric rather reluctantly put his phone in his mate's hand, and Chander set it up so the Lich Sentinel could record too.

"Works like a picture," Chander murmured. "Just hit the button when you want to stop recording. Tyvalis, pass your phone to Grant. He can set yours up too."

Tyvalis patted her pocket and sighed. "I left it with Evanthia."

"I'll email my video to Evanthia," Grant promised. Commander Evanthia Athanasiou doubled as one of Tyvalis's most trusted guards and her eldest daughter. "Next time, bring your phone and I'll help you record it."

Zane leaned close to Tyvalis. "Or bring Evanthia. Elf won't mind."

"I will bring Evanthia and Sephine," Tyvalis replied. Sephine was Evanthia's mate and another commander rarely seen far from Tyvalis's side.

Grant unconsciously relaxed as everyone around the table discussed options good-naturedly, and he realized his nerves about being on the committee were at least waylaid. It was a relief, as this project was of great importance to not just the Council, but Grant personally.

The last thing he wanted was to embarrass the fallen knights. With such a cooperative team, he was positive he could give his absolute best to the committee and everything involved in planning the security for the event. Especially now that he had the help of both Alaric and Tyvalis—two of the fiercest people to ever draw breath.