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WHEN I GOT BACK FROM my run, Keegan was dressed and waiting for me on the front stoop, keys in his hand. I’d gone running so that I could gain my focus. These last few weeks had flown by and soon we would be back into the thick of the issues at Grigori. Keegan hadn’t really brought it up. Not since he had decided that rebuilding his play rooms and the carriage house was his priority. I understood he needed the place to vent, and take out his stress, but I also knew we had more pressing issues. Like who had facilitated his kidnapping in the first place? Charles couldn’t have been acting alone and if Rumor Amity wasn’t the brains, then who was? The ride up to the big house would take about forty-five minutes, no time like the present to bring up all my thoughts, since I had him contained and without Ryane.
“Hey Boss, seeing as registration for our classes is next week, followed by the freshman inductions, have you given any thoughts to what we are going to be doing?” I stared straight ahead as though my question was commonplace and not a questioning of his motives as my master.
He wiped at the corner of his eye, looking sideways at me. “I have been looking into some things. Did you know that Claudette disappeared right after I was taken? According to my father, Greisen made the call to her the night it happened, and the women that were sent were laced in Werewolf venom. It’s how they took me down.” He stared at me, waiting for my response, which was a bristling of my scales along my arm.
“Greisen? That son of a bitch. I knew those fucking Calder’s were in it to their eyebrows.”
Keegan shook his head. “Leonas will deny it, and rally around him. As there is no proof, there is little we can do without finding Claudette, she will tell us who she was working for. I have my father working on it as well as a few other things unrelated. I think that we need to keep an eye on that bunch and that includes Gage when he returns from the break. I know Ryane said he was helpful in my rescue, but he’s way too chummy with the rest of them. It may turn out to be nothing, personally I don’t think Greisen has the balls to outright attack me.”
“Maybe not, but if he’s got help it might bolster him to action.” I gritted my teeth. All I wanted to do was get my hands on that weasel. “Let’s face it, you’ve let him control the Deviant Class for far too long and it’s gone to his head.”
“Agreed, that’s why my first order of business when we get back on campus is to relieve him and Collette of their positions as the Deviant Class Representatives.”
“That’s going to piss them both off. Who are you putting in their place?”
“Why, you and Ryane of course.”
“Me?”
“You. For a multitude of reasons. Firstly, I trust you, and frankly, you could use some softer attention that doesn’t come from my fiancé.”
“Well, if it works, it won’t take long for those two to snap. It will make being your Guardian difficult though. Won’t I be expected to do all the social shit he was doing?”
Keegan nodded. “You will, which will make me seem more vulnerable, but I’ve got that covered. Doing this, you are acting as my First Guard. You are responsible for my wellbeing and my interests. Well, keeping the Deviant Class together is my largest interest, next to Ryane.”
I nodded. “Guess all those years of law school are gonna pay off, should you find yourself in any trouble.” I held to the wheel tightly. “Never thought I’d have to be pushed into having a social life.”
Keegan gripped my shoulder. “Hey, if you manage to have a little fun in the process, no one will begrudge you it. Especially not me or Ryane.”
I thought back to that girl, Aella, from the coffee shop. Images of her round little ass in those tight black jeans had gotten me through a rough night or two over the summer and I wondered if she would ever cross my path again.
“You have that distant look again. Where did you go?” Keegan laughed. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were in love.”
I smiled, she was lovely, but I didn’t know her, or anything about her. “Nah, just rolling it over in my head about Greisen, and wondering how Ryane is doing on her first day back on the job.”
“Well, so long as she doesn’t try to eat the staff or the customers, I’d say she’ll be just fine. I sent her off with a thermos of blood, spiked with a little bit of synthetic as well, so she should stay good and calm most of the day.”
“I was curious about that, I know it’s not my business, but the synthetic was made for a reason. Just because you had issues doesn’t mean she will.”
“I’m going to slowly introduce her to it. The hallucinogenic qualities it can have, take some getting used to.”
“You seem to have it all worked out, boss.”
“Yes, it does seem that way, doesn’t it? Let’s just hope it stays that way.”
***
WHEN WE ARRIVED AT the big house on the cliff, it was busy with movement. King Herlihy’s hired Guardians scoured the grounds, making sure that the construction crew didn’t stray into the main house. They were heavily armed and deadly as sin. When we approached, we were stopped at the gate that had been recently installed. From now on, no one got by without first stopping at the gate and showing proper I.D. Of course, one look at Keegan and we were allowed inside, his resemblance to his father easily seen. We drove up the winding path and he smiled for the first time in a while.
“It’s perfect.” His eyes scanned the grounds in full bloom, the new white stucco already beginning to be covered in brightly flowered vines. The last time we were out here had been two weeks ago and they had only just started the facial, now the exterior was complete. He had the window removed and the place seemed like a large box. His new toy chest, as it were.
“The inside? Have they begun it yet?” he asked the foreman who was shouting up at the workers who were painting the trim a pale ocher to match the big house.
“Yes, Sir, you should be able to move in your supplies by next week. All that’s left to do is paint and move in the items you have on back order and in the garage proper.”
Keegan nodded, he looked like a kid in a candy store, his eyes wide as he headed for the entranceway. He needed, no doubt, to inspect it for himself.