"what about the vampires on the reth alliance worlds?" jeral asked. "there used to be many of them."

"there still are," i replied. "but the reth alliance recognizes them as citizens and they are protected by alliance laws. they are allowed to petition for citizenship here and we will entertain their requests as they are presented. not all vampires will be accepted. i'm sure you see my reasoning in that."

"i understand that you may not wish to import a criminal element," jeral sighed.

"yes. that is exactly how we feel about this," i nodded. "i assure you, however, that if a crime is committed here, it will be dealt with immediately. i will not tolerate the breaking of the law."

"are there copies of the laws?" jeral's face held hope, something he hadn't experienced in a very long time, i could tell.

"as much as we have, at the moment. we are still hammering out some of them," i said. "le-ath veronis, as it now exists, is barely seven months old. we are gathering vampires as quickly as possible but it is a slow process, as you might imagine." gavin, tony, drake and drew folded in, with electronic copies of the current laws; some of those laws temporary, since we hadn't decided on all of them yet.

"what are the comesuli?" jeral asked after reading the first law. the handheld devices could translate the laws into almost any language. the one spoken on beliphar was common to the reth alliance, though it was no longer a member.

"are you interested in history?" i gave jeral a slight smile.

"in this case, i think i should be," he inclined his head. i explained what le-ath veronis was in the beginning and what part the comesuli played. i described what had happened when the ra'ak attacked and how many of the comesuli had been sent to kifirin, in order to save their lives.

"and now they are back?" jeral was intrigued.

"yes. how many of your vampires know how to take blood properly from a donor?" i asked.

"a few," jeral said. "the oldest, here, all know. the younger ones have not been taught."

"then teach them. i will not allow the comesuli to be harmed by an untrained vampire," i said. "they wear bracelets, with two numbers," i added. "those numbers represent the dates on which they can be bitten and then only once on that particular day. they must be given two weeks to replenish their blood supply."

we discussed many things that late afternoon, which wore on into the evening. every vampire we'd brought from beliphar was fascinated by the fact that this part of le-ath veronis was in constant twilight and the sun would not force them to find a safe place to sleep. maps were readily available on all the small, handheld computers, and each vampire was given a key that unlocked the door to his new home.

no females were in this group of vampires and that was sad. i'd seen many of these vampires staring at me and i knew it was because they'd never seen a female vampire before. jeral, davan and the other, older vampires stayed when the rest left to find their new homes. sadly, the twenty-seven thousand only filled a fourth of the city.

"we need a council from here-a governing body that will meet with me, gabron and the other councils to finalize the laws and the constitution," i told jeral when the others left. "you can decide this any way you want-most of the others already had a council in place before they came and they continue in that capacity. since you had no official governing body, i will let you decide how to choose your representatives. i will only interfere if there is no agreement."

"we have made nearly every vampire transported here," jeral indicated himself and the six others with him. davan was excluded; he was much too young. "there will be no problem; this council is at your disposal, my queen."

"very well, the next meeting is in two days. gabron will send a reminder-there are comp-vids in each house. if you need help working them, you only have to ask. you have mindspeech, do you not?" i smiled at jeral. i'd smelled the bright elemaiya about him-he was a quarter, as was davan, at his side. that wasn't all i knew about them, however, but that information could wait. davan needed more instruction from his vampire sire before anything else could be done.

"my queen, it will be the greatest of pleasures for me to be able to communicate with you in this way," jeral offered a half-bow.

"don't bow, i don't expect it," i said, waving away the formality. jeral straightened and smiled his first real smile since he'd landed on le-ath veronis.

chapter 4

karzac had his hands on me the minute i was back at the palace and grunted his approval. kifirin had been correct-i needed to come out of my corporeal shape one or two hours a day, just to replenish myself. maybe i could hook up with either connegar or reemagar, when they went to feed. i hadn't really explored the light half of the planet, yet.

"that doesn't exempt you from your evening meal," karzac lectured as he, roff and gabron chased me around my suite, handing out clothing while i did my best to braid my hair. giff and rolfe had the day off and were out somewhere, i knew, enjoying each other's company.

drake and drew were sitting on my right and left tonight. i was getting both falchani in my bed; i just knew it. they often held a tag team event and i'd go to bed with one of them and wake up with the other. not that it was a hardship, or anything. shadow, whom i hadn't seen in a few days, folded in wearing a deep frown. karzac pulled a chair out with power and shadow sat.

"are you hungry?" i asked.

"i've eaten," he sighed. "i heard a rumor," he added.

"what rumor?" i set my fork down; i was done with my roast duck anyway.

"that you're part karathian."

"oh, that rumor," i said. "i didn't find that out until today. daddy's bitch of a mother 'fessed up."

"lissa, this could turn into a problem if we ever have children," shadow rubbed his forehead. karzac was up and relieving shadow's headache right away.

"i'm vampire. i don't get kids." and thanks for reminding me, i silently added. i wasn't ever going to get kids. my fate had been decided the summer i was thirteen and barely having my first periods. howard graham had beaten my mother and me. he'd kicked me and pounded me in the abdomen. and then, when he was forced to take us to the emergency room, he claimed we'd wrecked the car.

howard graham wasn't a nice man and we were too afraid of him to say anything. i'd spent two weeks in the hospital, then. mom got out in a few days, but she was at the hospital whenever he wasn't home. he didn't want her giving me any attention when he was home at night.

"i'm done," i tossed my napkin on my plate, rose from my seat at the table and misted away.

"at least she can't walk into the sun again," gavin growled and rose from his seat, leaving the others behind.

"what did i do?" shadow gazed about him.

"female vampires have difficulty with the fact that they can't bear children," gabron sighed. "a very high percentage of the few who are turned walk into the sun before they reach the age of one hundred, partly due to that fact.

"lissa was unable to have children before she became vampire, because her stepfather damaged her," connegar folded in. "is there any other information i may provide before i begin searching for my mate?" when there were no other questions, connegar folded away.

"why would there be a problem if you were to have a child with lissa?" roff asked shadow. he was troubled as well and wondered where lissa had gone.

"the ritual," shadow replied. "grey house would demand the right, but the karathians might want it too, since wylend arden is lissa's grandfather."

"you're not likely to get a child with lissa," karzac pushed his plate away. "you worry over nothing."

"well, i didn't think about that," shadow said, running a hand through his hair.

"little queen, you should not be troubled." reemagar had found me, somehow, and now sat beside me on the dome covering the palace rotunda.

"i know," i said, looking over the city they'd named after me. lights twinkled everywhere. merrill told me once that grace supplied the crystal for the solar panels that were collecting sunlight and feeding all those lights. i sighed. we needed libraries, theatres and all sorts of things for the vampires who were collecting on le-ath veronis. and we still didn't have the laws hammered out. i worried over the application to join the reth alliance-we were supposed to get that information the following week and it would be a major blow if we were turned down. i realized i was saying these things aloud after a while and reemagar sat there, listening patiently while i let it all come out of my mouth.

"we need jobs and entertainment and ways to keep the population involved," i blew out a breath. "and as much as i hate to admit it, i think we may have to allow humans on the planet, at least to visit-these vampires are used to interacting with them and i think they miss it."

"these vampires were all humanoid at one time; of course they would miss it," reemagar agreed. "perhaps we should put up taverns so the vampires might socialize with the comesuli, or create sports teams of some kind."

"maybe we should ask the vampires for suggestions," i said, leaning my chin on my knees. "not just the councils, but the vampires themselves. ask them what they'd like to do or what kinds of entertainment they'd like to have brought in. we can't have a planet full of bored and restless vampires. that sounds like trouble in the making."

"your next meeting is in two days; i think we can prepare ballots by that time and download them onto the handheld devices they all have. i'm sure we can sort through the information we receive and have a workable solution in a short amount of time."

"that's a good idea," i sat up straight and patted reemagar's arm. he smiled down at me. "your face is transformed when you smile," i told him. "you should do that more often."