"she forces me to take days off," rolfe grumped.

"i would be more than pleased to guard your life," jeral stood and bowed.

"please, don't bow. i'm not that important," i motioned for jeral to sit down. "you'll be compensated, and i want to set up accounts for both of you. i think adam and merrill have our first bank open, now."

"we do-flavio moved the last of his assets from earth two days ago. we're doing quite well." adam laughed. that didn't happen often-even i knew that.

"am i missing something?" erland folded in.

"erland, erland, erland," i said, leaning my chin on a fist.

"you are lovely, lissa," he gave me a smile that would make just about anybody experience an orgasm.

"uh-huh. what's grampa doing?"

"ruling with an iron fist," erland laughed. "or an iron spell, take your pick."

"jeral, davan, this is erland morphis, an emissary from my father, the king of karathia," griffin said.

"a karathian warlock?" jeral asked. davan was unfamiliar with the term. that didn't surprise me-beliphar had become an isolated world.

"yes," griffin nodded. "lissa, if you wouldn't mind, i'd like to take jeral and davan with me tonight, so we may get to know one another. i've never had brothers before and hardly know where to start."

"go ahead-i won't expect them back until i see them again. if you wouldn't mind, though, would you make sure they both have everything they need and charge it to my personal account?"

"we must make sure the others from new beliphar know where we are," jeral rose from his chair, followed by davan.

"i'll take you there first," griffin said and all three disappeared.

"sheesh," i dropped my face into both my hands.

"is that any way to be?" erland came to sit on the desk beside me.

"how should i be?"

"you can come to bed with me and i'll show you."

"erland, you keep saying bed to me, like you can't get in bed with anybody else. we both know that's a lie." i looked up at erland-he was frowning. adam laughed out loud. "erland, i don't think i could handle being a disappointment to the second most beautiful man i know," i swatted his leg.

"you have such a terrible opinion of yourself," he smiled at me.

"and you have such an inflated opinion of yourself," i snipped.

"come to bed with me and find out," he was still smiling.

"she could come to bed with me, instead." garde skipped into the room. high demons didn't fold; they skipped, like rocks on a pond. one skip was all it took to get from kifirin to le-ath veronis.

"garde, i have scars from one set of teeth already. i don't think i need any more," i said.

"my thifilathi longs for it."

"i'm sure it does. forget i said anything. are you hungry? i was thinking about putting an apple pie together. i'm a little too restless to sleep right now."

"i'll definitely come to watch, and i'll eat anything you cook," garde smiled. word got out fast. just about every mate i had, plus garde, erland, adam, merrill, gabron, frank, shane and tomas was in the kitchen after a while, waiting for eight apple pies to bake. they had warm slices with ice cream afterward.

"lissa, this is exceptional," gavin loved it, as did tony. i hadn't realized they hadn't had my apple pies before. winkler had loved them, too. i wanted to weep at that memory. instead, i picked up half a pie in a pie plate. "i'll be back," i said and folded to grey house. shadow was completing a protection jewel when i arrived, so i didn't disturb him until he finished.

"lissa?" he looked up at me.

"i made apple pies, so i brought some for you," i said.

"great. there's ice cream downstairs in one of the freezers," he said and folded both of us to the kitchen. i had a small slice of pie and a scoop of ice cream with him and watched as he devoured the rest.

"this is so good, baby. will you stay with me, tonight?" he kissed me and the kiss tasted like pie and ice cream.

"if there's more where that came from," i said, kissing him back.

"yeah. plenty. how much do you want?" he murmured against my mouth.

i had to send mindspeech to gabron, saying i'd be back in the morning and let shadow take me to bed.

"hey, my two favorite misters." henri and gervais had come with susila and oluwa.

"should we bow to you now?" henri smiled.

"you do and you'll be in trouble," i teased. "what's up?" the daily meeting was about to start-with more questions about the entertainment district and gabron's plan to build the brothels coming first. i'd rolled my eyes at breakfast when kyler handed the agenda to me.

"we asked to come and see a meeting for ourselves. susila gave permission."

"you're welcome any time," i said. "and i think we need a larger meeting room. it might not be a bad idea to allow some of the public inside. what do you think?"

"i think that is an excellent idea-many are wondering what goes on and they would not mind getting a closer look at you, my queen." gervais agreed with my assessment.

"brock is forming baseball teams among the younger vampires," henri informed me. "he is making different rules. anyone hitting the ball over the fence will be considered out. the ball must remain inside the playing area. it is the only fair way, with vampires playing."

"i see," i said. "how many are interested?"

"many. he had to bring in metal bats and cases of balls. also, there are basketball leagues forming, football leagues forming, both american and european, as well as cricket, tennis and many other sports. other communities are anxious to put their own sports leagues together."

"when they start playing croquet, i'm there," i teased. oluwa laughed. "do you know where brock is at the moment?" i asked.

"i do not," oluwa shrugged. i sent mindspeech. brock, are you available?

i am.

can you meet me at the palace for a minute?

i'll be right there. and he was. he appeared in less than five seconds.

"brock, get with kyler and take money to buy sports equipment," i said. "get with somebody in every community and find out what they need. tell them i will take it all away if they get into fights over this."

"you got it," brock grinned broadly as he folded away.

"we'll need umpires and referees, now," i sighed and walked into the council chamber.

"it's not the same without hot dogs and sodas," i said, two evenings later. we were watching the first baseball game on le-ath veronis. brock was having a great time and drake and drew decided to get in on the action. there weren't any lights either-they weren't needed. everybody had to pull back on their strength; a ball knocked over the makeshift fence was an out. the game was fun to watch and there was only one friendly argument-the ball had bounced and then rolled under the fence by only a fraction of an inch. it was settled after the benches emptied and vampires were on the ground, their faces pressed to the grass as they examined the position of the ball and the line of the fence. i buried my face against gavin's arm and did my best not to guffaw.

"i don't care if they leave. we will take the property and put it to our own use. the gamblers will not desert us. they will remain loyal, as they always have." arvil san gerxon snapped at his assistant. theos had fretted over bringing the news to arvil to begin with. arvil was so mercurial over these things. it could be much worse, however, if theos failed to turn over the information that le-ath veronis had submitted an application with the alliance to build casinos there. that would mean that erland morphis' casino, as well as the one owned by the a & m consortium, would likely leave campiaa.

"my brother spent years trying to rid this planet of those two, and now they will leave us freely if this application is approved? i see that as a great day for the san gerxon clan," arvil snorted.

"as you say, lord gerxon. i merely wished to keep you informed." theos bowed low and hurried from arvil's private study. "stupid vampires," arvil muttered and turned to other matters.

"we're approved." kyler stuck the letter from the alliance in front of my face the minute i woke up. it had only taken the reth alliance three weeks to process our application to set up gambling on le-ath veronis. nearly everyone had anticipated our approval, so buildings and businesses were already going up.

"did you tell adam and merrill?" i asked, trying to get my eyes open. roff was snuggling against me, still. even he didn't want to get up this morning. two more days and it would be off-days.

"i spent the night with flavio, so he knows," kyler said. "and he sent mindspeech to merrill, so he and adam know, too," she smiled.

"is that wily vampire good in bed?" i asked innocently.

"you know it. and stop digging, or i'll ask how kifirin is."

"i have no complaints," i said and sat up. "roff, we have to haul our asses out of bed." roff smiled at me and sat up, getting one last kiss before sliding off the other side of the bed and padding off to the bathroom.

"it's nice just to get snuggled, sometimes," i said, as kyler watched roff walk away. roff had gotten his bite when we'd gone to bed the night before; it was the second monthly bite he was allowed.

"i think those two falchani women have discovered vampires," kyler's dimple was showing.

"oh, you're kidding?" i watched her face. she wasn't.

"baxter and dmitri," she snickered.

"the enforcers?"

"yeah. gavin and tony had them up here for palace security. those two women went to them like moths to a light bulb."

"well, they might not want to go back to falchan now," i said.