Chapter: King IV

The lethal !! Can you believe it !! : D
If you're wondering where your email is - it's being typed, don't worry. PC time is unfortunately limited at the moment ... You can find more detailed information in the mail!

Ok, everyone who is not interested in this can happily devote themselves to the chapter ...

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A rough push in the stomach area wakes me up and I gasp in shock and strike at the supposed attacker. He playfully evades and looks down at me, shaking his head. "So many rooms with beds in this house," he remarks, "and you're sleeping on the uncomfortable couch, of all places ?!"
I run my hand through my hair, yawning, and straighten up in a sitting position, ignoring the protesting crack of my shoulders. "I read something yesterday," I explain briefly and point to the tome that lies on the table in front of me.
Dismas casts a mocking glance at the book. "Pleasant bedtime reading?"
I snort softly and then shake my head.“Not necessarily, no,” I reply, “I just had to look a little bit.” Appraising him with a glance while I nestle a little more in the cozy softness of the upholstery, I add: “Have you ever had something about the Lahrdi belongs?"
The effect of these words is amazing. He, the oh-so-controlled werewolf, devoid of any emotion except mockery, drops the mask of coolness and stares at me
flabbergasted at. "Was she here?" he asks hoarsely and rushes to the window, probably expecting to see someone out there - and above all as if he wanted nothing more desperately than to discover someone there.
"Who she?" I follow up carefully, looking at him a little astonished. It doesn't happen every day that one can see such human impulses at Dismas.
"Louise! Louise!" he replies frantically and gives me a wild look, as if it were completely logical that only she could be meant.
"Yes," I then answer truthfully, "she was here."He is with me in one jump, knocks over the table with the book in passing, grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me like crazy. "What did she say? Tell me!What did she say ?!"
I push it away from me and look at it carefully from top to bottom. Who, I ask myself dully, or much morewhatis this Louise to make him such a shadow of himself?
"She only said that she was a Lahrdi," I reply calmly with an effort and quietly hope that some of my calmness may also pass to him, "and somehow she knew who I am."
“Of course she knew that,” interjects Dismas and suddenly laughs out loud, as if I had made an incredibly funny joke, “of course, of course!” The laughing convulsion shakes him and he has to sit down, which I watch with suspicious looks. Well, the new Dismas was quite nice for the first few seconds - but it's getting creepy to me.
“Dismas,” I say firmly, “calm down."Somehow I never would have thought that I would have to get these words out of my lips - much more otherwise our roles were always the other way around, me the hysterical bundle of nerves and he the one who brings me back to the bottom of the facts. I can only hope that I won't get another memory boost in the next few seconds and then join his idiot laughter until one of the messengers finds us. That would probably not be very beneficial for my new king position.
His laughter slowly fades and he leans his head back and stares at the ceiling. From one second to the next he became completely calm, as if my words had some magical effect.
“Lahrdi are demons,” he says after a while, “female demons.” He closes his eyes and sighs softly. "One could well consider them the counterpart of you with a clear conscience."
"To us?" I repeat in astonishment, "How - us? The messenger?The pink? Or what?"
He frowns slightly. "What do you have to do with the Rosar?"
I consider for a second to tell him about my complicated situation with this breed, but finally decide against it. Not necessarily the right time to give him another shock. "Long story," I answer evasively.
He continues to look at me intently, but then shrugs his shoulders and takes it - for the time being, as I immediately realize. He wouldn't be him if he didn't drill into me again later because of this thoughtless remark. But not now. "If a woman decides not to become a vampire - then she becomes a Lahrdi. Have you never noticed that there are no female messengers?"
My expression must be inexpressibly stupid because it shakes with a "Ts!" upside down and looks out the window again. "Their powers are completely different from yours," he explains absently, "they fight with the mind, not with the body like you."Ghosts. Is that what the note-writer meant?
"And how exactly can I imagine that?" I ask with skepticism in my voice. Somehow I can't really imagine the whole thing.
He shrugs. "They manipulate you. Can make you feel the most terrible pain. Doing things you never wanted to do. Can raise the dead in your mind's eye. Read your mind."
I shudder involuntarily and, like him, look outside. If that's true, then the Lahrdi are far more dangerous than I previously thought. Why haven't I noticed them all the years that I've been strutting the globe as the undead?
"They are fighting in secret," he continues, as if he had guessed my thoughts - the question was probably plain to see on my face, "with goals completely different from yours."
"That would be?" I follow up, getting more and more nervous. What I could least use now would be the statement that this powerful race is secretly planning the destruction of all messengers.He turns his gaze back to me and helplessness is written on his features, an expression I'm really not used to from him. "I don't know," he confesses quietly, "and that's actually why I'm here."
I tilt my head, and he hurries to add: "Not just because of that. Well, originally I came about Mullholland, of course ... But this whole royal thing with you - it was clear that they would seek contact with you. It too much power is concentrated in you for them to just ignore. "He swallows hard and looks at the floor. "The Lahrdi ... Louise ... you have my son."

The baby screeches and kicks in Cal's arms, who, despite his loud protests, looks at it with such a blissful expression that I quickly turn to the window.So this is my son, hisses through my head and I claw my fingers around the windowsill.
"Ryan, do you want to hold him too?" Cal asks me and looks at me beaming.I can't refuse without someone's suspicion, so I have to smile and nod. He carefully puts the little bundle in my arms and I look interested in the little creature's face and swallow.
The baby stops screaming and looks at me with the same interest, then laughs softly and holds out his tiny little fingers to me. As a reflex, I raise one hand and allow his hand to close around my index finger.
"He likes you!" Cal announces softly and laughs happily, "and he stopped screaming!"
"Yes," I say absently and rock the child gently in my arms, it closes its eyes with relish and wiggles its feet.
Cal turns in one smooth motion to Elaine, who is looking at both of us with an expression that is difficult to interpret. “Do you already have a name for him, darling?” He reaches for her hand, on whose ring finger a thin gold ring flashes.She nods and doesn’t let us out of her sight. "I think Ryan would be a good idea," she says, "or do you mind?"
I look up and give her a cool look. “No,” Cal replies, although I'm sure that the question was put to me, “I've already thought of something like that.” He looks at me again and notices, confused, the cold expression that crept into my eyes Has. "What do you mean, Ryan?"
I blink a few times and look down at the baby again. It smiles easily. "I am honored."

"Son ..." I mumble softly and my fingernails dig so hard into the upholstery of the sofa that the fabric cover gives way in some places and something like cotton wool presses against my palm, disturbingly soft.
"Yes," replies Dismas, apparently too self-absorbed to notice my mood change, "Me and Louise ... We were a couple. She got pregnant. I didn't even realize she could get pregnant ... after all she was dead!At least a large part of her! She never told me how it could happen ... and I never saw her again. Neither does my son. “He looks up, his eyes boring into mine.” I need to get him back, Orion. At least him, if I can never have her either. "
[i]"That's why I want it," she then says, "because I know that I can never have you ... But so I have something from you, mixed with my blood, forever!"
I shake off the memory and look back seriously. "And what can I do about it?"
He smiles slightly, almost winning back the ridicule of days gone by. "You can resist," he explains, "just as you have done before."
I frown and look at him blankly. "Ever before?"
"Once before," he confirms, nodding, "Ariel."