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“Are you keeping people from interrupting us?”
“Guilty as charged. In my defense, it’s all been stuff that can wait. If they’d come with something urgent, I wouldn’t have diverted them.”
She sighed. “You can’t do that, Gavin.”
“Not only can I do it, but today, I believe it was important. I will agree there are times I shouldn’t but this was not one of those times. Four of them were coming to ask a question they should’ve decided on their own, the other three had questions that should be brought up in the meeting you’ll have in another hour and a half with all present. All I did was remind them — in their heads so they didn’t realize it was me reminding them — of the appropriate time and place to bring up what they were going to bother you with.”
“I chose this theater for my main office because I worried about the politics of having so many different kinds of supernaturals in the same building. It’s important everyone feels comfortable coming to me with issues.”
“Issues, yes, but this was just people wanting to check in with you on creative decisions we’re paying them to make.” He sighed. “The dance coach is headed this way now to ask about the transition from the flexibility act to the big cat with the gymnasts. Seems to me this should be handled in the meeting between the various coaches and directors, scheduled for just before the big meeting with everyone, in a few hours.”
He was prepared to let the woman make it to the door, but she saw the door was closed from fifteen yards away, stopped, and changed her mind without Gavin’s input.
“She left when she saw the door was closed. I didn’t do anything this time.”
Lauren looked at the door and leaned back into him, the heat of her body soaking into his cold one.
“Another five or ten minutes and I’ll open it,” Lauren said, and he could scent grief now. “I didn’t realize how much I needed this. Staying at Homewood always feeds my soul, but then I had to say goodbye to Smokey this morning, and I keep waiting for the phone call that tells me he’s gone. I’m sure he is, but no one has told me.”
“Why are you sure he’s gone?”
“I gave him permission to go. I’ve known I needed to for weeks, but I wasn’t strong enough to do it. This morning, I had to. Maybe I’m wrong and we’ll have him a while longer, but I just have a feeling he went out to lay in the sun, and went to sleep and then left in his dreams.”
“I’ve been around Smokey enough to understand he’s one of those beings you don’t forget. I’m sorry his time here is coming to an end.”
“You’ve probably dealt with death so many times, it’s just another person or animal gone.”
“There will always be the rare person who comes into your life and leaves a big hole when they leave. Do you want to call home and check on him?”
“No. What do you know about Ellania?”
“Mordecai’s daughter.Queen of the Amazons eventually, but she was raised to be something of a general under the queen, so she wasn’t groomed for it as her sister was. I’ve met her, and was around her quite a bit over a thousand years ago, but we haven’t had much of an occasion to be in the same room in centuries. I never had an issue with her, but I’m not certain the same can be said of her in regards to me.”
“She seems nice enough, but backwards, as if she hasn’t fully found her way forward through the centuries.”
An accurate description, but they were on dangerous ground, speaking of Mordecai’s daughter, so Gavin changed the subject. “What did you learn at home?”
“If someone attacks me, my hawk will jump off me and attack back. If that were to happen around humans, the Concilio wouldn’t be even a tiny bit amused. I have to learn control before I can go out without an escort. I’m probably good in this theater because everyone’s a supernatural, but I don’t want anyone to know, so it’s best I have people around me who can protect me, to keep my hawk from feeling the need to do so.”
“Which explains why Ellania is here — she’s one of the best females around to help teach control. The Amazons have a unique way of training their women as warriors. You’re well on your way already, just from the training you had in your childhood, and then in China before you started college. Ellania can help you get the rest of the way there.”
“Mordecai worked with me, and Nathan says he’ll have my mom pop him in occasionally to work with me.” She sighed. “I think that’s more about Nick than me, but I could be wrong.”
Gavin wanted to cup her cheek in his hand and kiss her, but he merely pushed a stray hair away from her face as an excuse to touch. “Ambrose has let me know I’m welcome to stay at his home tonight, but I want to doublecheck with you before I agree to come. If you want time alone, I’ll stay home.”
“In three nights, we’re doing a full-dress rehearsal of act one, so tonight’s a good time for me to spend the night with you. I’m not opposed to staying at the coterie house, if that’s better for you. I’ve spent the night before; it shouldn’t be any different.”
“It will make things easier, if you’re amenable.”
“I like the space you’ve provided. It isn’t that I don’t want to stay over at all, I just need my own space. Also, I don’t want to go from Nick’s house to yours.”
“The offer is open if you change your mind, but no pressure. You need to do what you feel is right for you, so long as you’re safe.”
Lauren’s phone rang, she looked at the screen, and they both saw it was her mother. She answered it, and Gavin could easily hear her mom.
“Can I come to you for a few minutes?”
“Smokey’s gone, isn’t he?”
