Page 6 of Princess For All (House of Garner #9)

I was impressed when Vanessa didn’t immediately jump on him, simply studying him.

“It could absolutely be taken that way, and given the apocalypse hasn’t brought out the best in people, I can understand your thinking. However, it is a completely normal and healthy way to say I have faith in this meeting and I’m not worried.”

“Meaning you have a plan,” I surmised.

“Not really, but I know the process and how the steps should work, but I can’t begin to understand the logistics of making it happen with your power or the apocalypse.”

Fair enough.

“Where would you start?” I asked.

“Getting the medical personnel out of the general accommodations,” she said firmly. She chuckled at whatever our reactions were. “Not to somewhere nicer. I’m not being pompous. I’m being practical.”

“I saw someone grieving kill a doctor because they blamed their science for corrupted eating their family,” Darius muttered. “You’re talking like that?”

“Yes, it’s why we were mostly separated everywhere,” she confirmed. “More than that, if I have one more person ask me to look at a mole or spot on their body, I’m going to lose my mind. I’m not that type of doctor. I have no idea the answers and would go to a dermatologist as well. We’re all being bogged down by this. Constantly.”

“The problem is that if we say we’re pulling out medical personnel, others will lie again thinking it’s for better accommodations,” I muttered. “And we’re a bit busy to have the guys who can spot lies focus on keeping everyone in line.”

“Plus, it’s quickly going to become that we’re too overbearing and stomping on everyone’s freedoms,” Kristof said with a sigh. “What’s after that even? What is the goal you have?”

She seemed shocked by his abrupt and thorny tone. She did a double take at whatever was on my face.

Whatever emotion said to clearly leave it alone. She had no idea what my husband had been through. I saw in her eyes that she had questions but would leave it alone.

“Boston,” she answered him. “We heard you were setting up another settlement or outpost in Boston.”

“And there’s something there you think the humans need specifically,” Kristof muttered, nodding that he accepted it and for her to go ahead.

Surprise filled her eyes. “You weren’t annoyed with me for bothering you or taking up time, but that it would upset her. That if this didn’t have a tangible way to be fixed now, it would be added to her stress and shoulders. That’s why you started to get annoyed and short with me.”

“Yes,” he answered before I could interject. “She is my everything, and people constantly bug her for everything. Things will be so much better if we do this. We can bear the apocalypse if you do this and kill yourself constantly for us. It’s maddening as the man who loves her.”

“You need to join me the next bum day,” I said gently, reaching over and rubbing his arm.

“For a morning or afternoon,” he accepted, chuckling when I pouted. “I need your baby steps too sometimes. Taking the nights has been a big step for me, and I appreciate them more than you know. I appreciate you for pushing me to experience that and self-care. I wish the same for you and we can spread around the time off.”

“That’s a very healthy attitude and way to look at it,” Vanessa praised, smiling when she surprised Kristof. “One of the US’s largest—or I think the largest actually—pharmaceutical companies is outside of Boston. Their manufacturing and development labs. All of everything we should need to make a huge impact on the wound that will start gushing soon.”

“The problem with allowing chemists access to chemicals is they can use them for evil if they want, and there are too many who don’t like us in charge,” Kristof worried, immediately focused on me.

“I don’t think it’s the same chemicals for bombs, and we’ve not been letting in the nutjobs. Most are happy with the improvements in their lives,” I reminded him. “That might change, but they could do this on their own once we kill all of the corrupted and the world is open to them again.”

“You’re right. Pessimistic, but you’re right,” Vanessa said. “It’s better you take control of the facility even if I hadn’t meant it like that. I just think it might be the best option of one that wasn’t bombed. And you’re taking back Boston, so it all fits.

“We’d still need the personnel to supervise and control it,” Jaxon worried. “We blink and some idiot is going to make it into a meth lab.”

Vanessa winced. “Yes, that’s a fairly realistic worry. I understand your worry that oversight is quickly perceived as overreaching, but that facility had strict system implementation. People are used to that for this sort of thing. There would need to be guards—even human ones to watch monitors. It’s not something to be left alone.”

That was fair and made sense.

Mostly.

“But I do recommend you maybe focus on growing some cannabis with all of your other projects. If there was ever a time people needed to smoke pot, it’s right fucking now, and I include myself in that,” she said firmly. “I would prefer edibles, but—maybe there’s someone who can get a place going and cook them up.”

“Because it’s better than anxiety medication for a lot of people,” Cerdic muttered, finally jumping in. “And can make people happier than their antidepressants. I remember that much. You would definitely need to start it slow and regulate letting people have it or we could have serious problems.”

“Yes, and even designate areas,” Vanessa immediately agreed. “People are too worn down to care about much, and I don’t want them doing it around the kids. The last thing any child born in the apocalypse needs is to get fucking high. We didn’t have many kids around Fort Knox, but I know you do at other settlements. They are going to need a lot of help, not drugs.”

Though vitamins were a drug, so… Life was complicated. We understood what she meant.

“We’re already ahead of you on the cannabis growing,” Cerdic told her, smiling when I gave him a shocked look. “I agree that we need some damn pot, love. I wanted you to get a chance to try some good, fresh hash, not whatever was left and years gross like others have.”

“The coven that invited themselves to our wedding grew it,” Kristof grumbled. “One of the female nobles of that court offered us a link to it if…”

“ If? ” I growled before turning and smacking his chest. “Did someone else proposition you and you didn’t tell me?”

“Yeessss,” he answered and grabbed me, dragging me onto his lap before I could flee. “Inez, I truly forgot. I wasn’t being dismissive. We have so much going on, and that weekend—you were so exhausted and then what happened with Henry. I was terrified for you and that I’d broken my wife demanding too much of you.

“I completely forgot about one stupid twat who thought too much of herself. I did. Until this topic and I remembered the cannabis conversation. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I didn’t even let her finish or touch me. I warned her that she should not be so stupid to proposition a man at his wedding that she was crashing if she wanted to leave alive.”

I didn’t struggle and listened to him before letting out a huff. “What’s the rule?”

“Anyone who tries to steal me from you gets bitch-slapped by my wife. I haven’t forgotten. I will find her and bring her here for your justice,” he promised.

I snickered. “Do you even know what coven she was from?” I kissed him when he sighed. Kristof hated the courts and politics of them even more than I did. I absolutely believed he had no idea but could recognize people if he saw them and put it together. “If you ever stumble upon her again, you bring her to me, but I don’t want you wasting your time on some skank.”

“Very merciful of you, my love,” he chuckled and kissed me again.

“Not always,” I purred. “I am letting Branko whisk me off and do dirty things to me and you aren’t involved.” I smirked when he frowned and slid off his lap. “That’s your punishment tonight.”

“Yes, My Princess,” he agreed.

I looked over at Cerdic. “So we’re growing pot?”

“We are. The first harvest is looking like next week. It’s not some huge production, but headed up by some vamps who have a talent for growing like Princess Nora. They offered to have a side project in New Orleans in one of the buildings back online, so it’s a controlled environment.”

“And we trust them or this idea?” I worried.

He nodded. “Lorenzo is looped in and checks on it. They’re vamps who are now permanent members of the coven and doing a lot.”

“Okay, good. Let’s put out the word that we’re looking for people with experience and extend the project,” I told them. “Also, I heard repeatedly that Boston had one of the best hospitals in the world. Let’s make sure we clear that. This lemon juice will make it easier for humans to travel with us. At least until we get the trains there.”

“Trains?” Vanessa asked. “What trains?”

“High-speed bullet trains like they had in Asia,” I answered. “We’ve got crews working on the map. Right now, the focus is getting paths ready for the outposts to reach here. But eventually there will be travel between all the different settlements.”

“I don’t think anyone had any idea that was on the agenda,” she whispered.

I smirked at her. “Do you trust those assholes who were in charge of Fort Knox? Even the ones who now took over?” I snorted when her eyes clearly said no. “I don’t either. They weren’t read in on everything. The kids behave better then.”

“You’re as smart as I heard some people complain,” she chuckled.

“How about you set a time to talk and then we can head out?” Branko interjected.

I frowned. “I wanted to shower and dress nice for our date.”

He smiled at me. “This was important and it’s a casual date this time. Snuggly and relaxing.” He gestured to his relaxed clothes. “I’m wearing this. We can dress up for another fancy dinner when you’re not dealing with so much.”

“Seriously, what the hell happened that they’re all so scared for you?” Vanessa asked, glancing between them. “They all have indicators of fear when they focus on you.”

I ignored her question and focused on Jaxon. “Let’s get the rest of the details about what’s going on with the Fort Knox people and if we need to beat any up or kick them out. I don’t like that it was completely acceptable to that guy to try and silence her and no one around them blinked.”

“Agreed. There’s a line, and they seem to be crossing it with keeping order now under someone else. I don’t like they’re limiting the information we might receive. Their priorities aren’t what everyone else might have and they’re still too much of a military mindset on that when we’re not doing the protecting.”

“I knew you would understand. Let’s also talk to the heads of the different areas and start figuring a system to pull out medical personnel without issue and liars.”

“Yes, My Princess. I would also recommend your doctor not be among the groups of people,” Jaxon worried. “Especially if she’s human. That’s too easy for someone to slip in and take advantage of.”

Or kill her. If she was helping me, and Keres and those with her didn’t want that… Vanessa would become a target.

“Smart,” I agreed before looking at Vanessa. “We would move you to the wing of the castle with the nobles not sworn to the coven. You would be the head of our human medical… Czar? Director? I have no idea the right term. But that would be your baby along with trying to keep me sane.”

“Yes, yeah, that would be great,” she said firmly. “And I can get you the list of medical personnel that was at Fort Knox.”

“Even better.” I thanked all of them and went off with Branko.

I hadn’t realized that it was dark out, but it made sense since it was winter now. It surprised me that we left the castle… And that there were massive lights set up where we ended up?

My vacation home. We were there.

I raised an eyebrow and he chuckled.

“You’re the lure for some hunting tonight too,” he explained. “The US is too vast. So some of our dates will be lures for the remote areas. You appreciate multitasking.”

That I did.

And a man with a plan. I smiled when we went inside and I saw it was updated. The place had been cleaned and some renovations done.

He shrugged. “You really like this place. It’s nice to have somewhere outside of the castle where so many people are coming and going. We all agree.” He blew out a slow breath and glanced around. “Plus, sometimes it’s nice to have a quiet project when I can’t sleep or am frustrated.”

Fair enough. I could more than understand that.

I was excited to see everything set up and to learn what it all was. I mean, I knew what hot pot was, but there were four different pots plugged in and I didn’t think that was normal.

“Growing up in Russia, other Asian countries were the easiest to visit when I needed a break,” he said as he started uncovering dishes. “I love Chinese food. Love it. So one of these is my favorite type of hot pot—which is what I always want for comfort—and one is the basic, starter, not spicy base for hot pot.”

“And the other two?” I asked as I glanced at the options.

“One is the recommended for seafood and the last is a safe tomato soup base,” he answered. He was smiling as I moved closer. “I figured just fun and we can kinda graze while talking.”

He had to explain that to me. I knew cows grazed, but I didn’t know how people did it.

Apparently, it was the same. Basically, it was a way to say take our time eating and over a longer period than most meals. “Over a long time” seemed to be how all supes ate, but without rushing and simply enjoying it for the fun was a nice idea.

And it was cool. He’d actually gotten produce from Asia that they still had growing over there. He said he’d talked to some of the farmers we had in Seattle and they wanted to add extra greenhouses to get more variety going. We needed more food—we always did—and expanding what we grew meant we could bring back more to our lives.

I fully agreed.

We ate and ate and enjoyed the fun he’d set up for us. Most everything was great, and apparently I really liked all kinds of different mushrooms, especially in the tomato broth. I saw he was taking note of it all and how I was trying new things.

I decided to address the elephant in the room. “I guess it’s the Italian in me,” I muttered, gesturing to the tomato base and noodles I’d gone with.

He went tense but then nodded. “Have you thought of getting in contact with your birth family or coven?”

I sighed. “It seems a very slippery slope. I think Kristof should go give them notice of what they’d allowed to happen around under their nose. That I’ve renounced being their family and name, and if they want to keep their lives, they should leave me alone. Also, that my father’s dead. But Aether didn’t include that coven in the ones to make deals with.”

“Yes, but because you might find out the truth too early or because they’re not good people?” he hedged.

I shrugged. “We’re dealing with a coven in Italy and they can make deals as they want. That’s for them to decide. I can’t help everyone and handle everything.”

“No, of course not,” he sighed. “It’s all too much and too stressful and I’m just on the outskirts of it.” He reached over and rubbed my hand before leaning in and kissing my hair. “You’re doing great, Inez. You’re keeping it together better than any of us ever could. I hope you hear me that we truly all feel that way.”

“I do but…” I focused on eating for a few minutes and then decided to be honest. “I don’t know the line to stop. It’s always just something else right there to help. One more thing. Two more things. A few more to add to the day could do so much more. And then I’m overloaded and I break. What’s the line? What’s reasonable? What’s me being lazy? What’s too much?”

“I feel the same and then see others doing only the requirement,” he muttered. “I’m really glad you took over Kaitlin’s coven and it’s thrown new life into everything. All of the visiting vampires and nobles have always worked their asses off because it was for their covens who needed so much. But we’ve been focused on getting structure and holding it together—I didn’t realize how lazy Safie’s coven really was.”

“Me either.”

We talked some more as we ate, especially about the ones we’d shown the door and how people were shocked about that and it had helped. When we slowed down on the food, we moved on to the next part of the night and I was glad it included a shower.

That part was fun, but after was… Awkward.

Even lame. It definitely wasn’t up to Branko’s normal level and I started to get really upset. Was he bored with me after only a handful of date nights? Was it really only the chase and fight to get near me?

Maybe I wasn’t putting enough effort in. He’d been putting all of the effort in and I’d just been showing up. That wasn’t fair. I would hate that.

I doubled my attention on him, kissing him fiercely as he thrust in me. I even moved his hand to my neck as I lifted my hips to meet his.

But he flinched and stared off in the distance again, completely losing the rhythm. I lost my cool. Totally unable to hide my upset. I shoved at his chest, annoyed when he didn’t even register it, so focused on whatever was more important.

My magic did something new and moved him. It was like how I could hurt people, but it wasn’t a gash. It was like… It seemed like I punched him in the chest.

But it came from someone who could hurt him.

He was shocked as he had the sense to still pull out of me gently.

I was shocked too but more upset about how he was behaving. He grabbed for my wrist as I rolled out of bed and I used my nails to cut his arm so he’d get the hint to let me go. He got the idea but then jumped off the bed and blocked me from hiding in the bathroom.

“Let me explain. Please, my sweet Inez,” he begged. “It’s the fighting. I can hear the fighting and the old guys killing corrupted. I didn’t think of that.”

“Turn around,” I bit out, pissed he wouldn’t let me escape when I wanted to. I let out a slow breath when he did, feeling better about it. Then what he said hit me. “Wait—what? You—they’re coming that close to the house?”

“No, but my hearing is that good,” he sighed, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “And they’re joking about how useful our date is and then a huge group came and I got worried if we had to move or—then I was thinking they could hear us and—”

“I get it,” I whispered as I moved back to the bed. I wrapped myself up in the comforter and sighed. “You can turn around.”

He winced when he saw I was covered. “I’m sorry.”

I focused on my lap and let out a slow breath. “No, I’m sorry I acted like a brat. And whatever my power did. I just wanted you off of me when you weren’t focused on me.”

He moved next to me and slid his arm around me. “I’m glad you have a way to fight back against us who are so much stronger. I’m already healed.” He kissed my hair. “They got within a mile of the house. That was why I was so distracted. I’m sorry.”

“Do we need to move?”

“No, but I don’t think we should have intimate times when they’re hunting like this. I was…”

“Is it me?” I said before I could stop my stupid, insecure brain. “Am I not enough?”

He turned me towards him, cupping my face in his hands. “You are always amazing and overwhelming, my sweet Inez. Always. The only thing that could distract me from you is keeping you safe. Only that. I swear it. I didn’t want to—your whole life has been the apocalypse and this crazy. I didn’t want it to ruin our night. I’m sorry I didn’t just tell you what was going on.”

I nodded and leaned into him. There was no right answer to something like this, and he’d tried really hard to plan something nice for us. I angled my head and kissed under his chin. “It’s fine. I’m going through a lot and overly sensitive. I feel like I could break at any second. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to respond calmly and articulate what I’m feeling.”

“We all need to learn that,” he said gently and gave me a soft kiss. “You do way better than you think.”

“And you’re putting in a lot of effort with these date nights and showing me you care. I see that. I appreciate it,” I told him honestly. “I know I’m being spoiled and doing all the taking and not—”

“Hey, none of that,” he chastised, his voice harder than I expected. He nodded that he wasn’t kidding when he tucked my hair behind my ears. “Inez, if you sat at home and did nothing all day and then expected this sort of behavior from a date, you’d be spoiled. But you give everything of yourself to give us everything we’ve gotten back.

“You give your blood and sanity so we can have hot showers and my favorite snacks again. You could be in the castle living your best life that’s easy just on your own without all this extra bullshit. But you kill yourself to save everyone all over the fucking world now and do more and more.” He kissed my nose which made me smile.

“Yeah, but I’m not being a good girlfriend.”

“You are, but you’ve been too hurt to see it. When our lives are calm and bland after the corrupted are all gone and this war is won, you can plan dates to spoil me, okay? Until then, your plate is overloaded and I’m blessed . I’m very blessed and we all feel that. You appreciate the spoiling, see it as spoiling, and don’t expect it. That’s what we want.”

Okay then. For now, I was pretty sure that I could accept that.

For now.