Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

“The oddest thing is, he didn’t go ballistic until after he answered one of his mother’s fifty million calls. Maybe the duchess got mad that he was making nice with me, especially when you consider she once did her best to get me killed. But would that make him attack me?”
    â€œCan’t even guess,” Mom said. “Can’t ask Milo, either, as he’s been on the phone the entire time you were gone.”
    Dad came in then, his wild hair and beard wet from the shower and slicked down. “Back already? That was a fast tour.”
    I gave Dad the short version. He rubbed his chin through his beard, which was beginning to fluff out as it dried. “I know one thing,” he said. “If Tony’s steely form of interrogation has any connection to Milo’s being on the phone all this time, the last thing anyone is going to want is visitors underfoot. What’s been going on with Dobreni politics, hon?”
    Mom shrugged. “Milo and Emilio don’t talk about Dobreni politics much, since I’ve never been there. But you can’t help picking up vibes when you’re around people, and I get the idea there’s something or other happening with the mines.”
    â€œA big part of the GNP, mines, right?” Dad asked. He sank into a satin-covered chair, then said, “How about this: If things still look bad in the morning, we’ll vamoose and hole up in some tourist hotel. Leave Milo a polite note, make some excuse. We can hang around in London for a few days, and if their problem clears up, we come back here for the Christmas bash. If it doesn’t, we can always go back to LA, and try again in spring, or something. How’s that sound?”
    â€œMy mother would probably think it’s the right thing to do,” Mom said. “I just don’t know if she’d be relieved or disappointed.”
    While this conversation was going on, I was only half listening. Deal with it , said LaToya’s image.
    Help me, said Ruli’s image.
    I looked up at my parents. “Mom. Dad. I think I need to go back.”
    â€œTo Los Angeles?” Dad asked.
    â€œTo Dobrenica.”
    â€œWhoa.” Mom set her laptop on the coffee table. “Whoa-ho.”
    â€œLook. I’m beginning to wonder if Ruli got into some kind of trouble, and Tony’s family thinks I’m to blame. Then there was that . . . vision? Apparition? Hallucination? Anyway, she begged me to help her.”
    Mom tipped her head to one side. “Hey, maybe all that astral plane stuff we talked about in the seventies is true. Ruli sure doesn’t sound like she’s got much in the way of support from that family of hers.”
    â€œAstral planes make as much sense as ghosts.” I sighed, wishing I didn’t have to deal with this stuff while under the influence of megajetlag. “Then there was something Tony said: ‘The cock-up you left behind.’ You guys know I thought I was doing the right thing, for all the right reasons. But if he’s telling the truth, nothing worked out like it was supposed to. So maybe, somehow , my leaving is mixed up with politics, and Ruli’s caught there in the middle.”
    Dad grimaced, then coughed, trying to hide it.
    â€œSpit it out, Dad.”
    â€œWhat if it’s not politics, but personal, Rapunzel? If it’s something like her having had a royal fight with Alec, what if she wants you to trade places with her, like she suggested before you left Dobrenica? Without the hassle of divorce and remarriage?”
    That gave me a sickening jolt, especially when I had to admit to myself that deep down (or maybe not all that far down) I wanted just that.
    But daydreams and reality seldom match up. When Mom was a baby, Gran broke up with Armandros partly on ideological grounds but partly because she had found out their marriage was fake. Though Gran and I are at either end of Mom’s generation, we are a