Page 44 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"I know."

"Do you think she'll do it? You know her better than River and I do."

I propped my head up on my arm. "I think she will, if she can. Before, she couldn't have gotten them out even if she wanted to. She didn't have the power for it. It took her nearly a year to get the pottery ready for the two of us."

Jazz's eyebrows shot upward. "Fuck."

"Yeah. Now that she has more magic, I don't know how long it will take, or what she's planning. If she has a plan yet. She seemed overwhelmed by everything that happened, so she'll probably need time and space to figure it out. Everything will go better if I give her a few days to adjust to being out of the prison before I reach out."

"You can't starve anymore," she argued. "We both know you need to feed every day, even if you don't like it."

"I bit her in the car. I can wait until the day after tomorrow. Considering how the last decade went, I can get by with feeding every other day."

Mostly.

"I can go with you when you track her down, if you want. We can both try to talk her into going back for everyone else. River wants to get involved too, but neither of us think that would end well."

"You can't get involved. I'll ask her on my own. She might have a plan by then."

"I guess a few extra days wouldn't be the end of the world."

Both of our heads turned as Grayson stepped into the doorway with two plates of home-cooked food.

My stomach growled immediately. So did Jazz's.

He narrowed his eyes playfully as he took us in. "Are you doing platonic snuggling without me?"

Platonic snuggling was the name Jazz had given the many random times when Grayson was an asshole because he'd gone too long without physical contact.

I'd always dragged him into my bed and forced him to snuggle with me until his dickishness faded. Jazz joined in reluctantly, though she usually sat on a chair and just stuck her foot into the bed so she was technically a part of it.

"I don't platonically snuggle with other people's mates," Jazz informed him.

Grayson strode into the room, handing her one of the pasta bowls before plopping down on the bed next to me. "Unfortunately, I do."

She lifted an eyebrow. "And your fae queen doesn't kill them?"

"Technically, it was only Darius. He's basically her brother, so murder was off the table. And it was only a couple times, thank fuck."

"That sounds like a much better story than the ones we've been exchanging," Jazz said, digging her fork into the bowl of pasta. "Tell us, immediately."

He chuckled, and launched into the story.

After we ate, Jazz went back to Grayson's place to grab another plate for River, and Grayson went back to his room to unplatonically snuggle with his mate.

I picked up my phone, and clumsily made a plan on the app I'd used before. My bed felt uncomfortably empty, on top of being too soft. Spending the last week sleeping with a pretty little angel draped over me pretty much ensured that.

I'd get over it.

That was really my only option, at the moment.

The next two days would be about retaking control of my largest businesses, and driving around to check in personally with the people running them.

After that, I'd figure out what to do about Ophelia.

eleven

OPHELIA