Prince of Power by Elisabeth Staab Read Free Book Online

right. Disappearing that way without backup? Without as much as a cell phone? Leaving Tyra in the hands of a human? They were such unforgiveable, boneheaded moves that Thad didn’t see how anybody could have made them, let alone someone with Lee’s experience.
    Truth was, he loved Lee like a brother. Thad had recently lost his parents, and Isabel had come awfully damn close to being killed by wizards before they’d even had a chance to get to know each other. Hell, he could have lost his half sister in the past week. And feeling his way through this new gig as king? He didn’t have a clue half the time. He couldn’t handle losing Lee, too.
    Not that he knew how to say that out loud. So he paced. “I don’t want you to step down, Lee.”
    â€œYou haven’t put me back on active duty.”
    That made him stop again. “You haven’t been back very long. Wasn’t sure you were ready. I still don’t have a clear picture of what happened.”
    Lee rubbed his chest and throat, struggled up from the floor, and sat again with his hands braced on the bench. “That night I left, Agnessa had shown up in my room. I admit I didn’t handle it well.”
    Thad dropped to the bench. “Siddoh figured out that she’d been there. We thought that might’ve had something to do with it.”
    Lee shook his head sadly. “You think you’re over something… Anyway, I went down to your father’s office to clean it out like you asked me to. I wound up letting my anger run away with me and busted up a desk. Sorry about that, by the way.”
    Well, that explained how that had happened. Thad’s gums ached as his anger cooled and his fangs started to recede. “I was going to replace the furniture anyway.”
    Lee’s jaw worked side to side. “Thad, I found some important information hidden in your father’s desk. About Ty.”
    Thad’s pulse picked up its tempo. “What kind of information?”
    Lee took a drink of water and wiped his mouth. Hard, almost like he was slapping himself in the face. “Our suspicions were correct that they were gunning for her specifically. Your father went out that night to try and put a stop to it.” He pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Thad.
    The cream-colored note inside was wrinkled and stained. The late king’s words were perfectly legible, though. And their meaning was clear. Thad pegged Lee with a hard stare. “You haven’t told her about this, have you?”
    â€œNo way.” Lee held up a hand. “No question, she’s going to shoot the messenger. And I haven’t shared the info with anybody else, either. Nobody knows about it right now except you, me, and all of these barbells.”
    Thad nodded. His head was full of noise all of a sudden. “How am I going to tell Tyra that her mother wasn’t human?” Tyra, older than Thad by a quarter century, had been conceived before Thad’s parents were mated. The big, scandalous story was that their father had fallen in love with a human. It had ended badly, as those things tended to, and months later Tyra’s mother had dropped off a baby. Nobody had ever heard from her again. Nobody had questioned Tyra’s half-human lineage. Why would they have?
    Before Lee could answer, the double doors to the gym pushed open with a creak. Isabel stepped in, clad in a tank top and fuzzy pajama pants covered with glow-stick-wielding bunnies. Thad had found his queen at a rave in Florida, of all places. You could take the vampire out of the party, but not the party out of the vampire. In her hands was a skinny mutt of a dog. Something called a whippet mix, whatever that meant.
    Damn, but he was glad to see them both right now.
    â€œThad, I hate to ask, but I’m having trouble sleeping. It’s already after eight. Do you think you could come upstairs when you and Lee are done