Chapter 6

• “How many children?” Quinton came over and looked down at me.
• I bit my lip and thought. “Five, which if you look at how long he’s lived, that’s not a lot.” I rubbed a hand over my throat, it always made me feel sad to think about him. “Three of them are still alive, I mean he had them with his first few wives and that was…” I blew out a breath as I did the math, “between two hundred and fifty and one hundred and fifty years ago.” I glanced to Daxx and frowned, “He’s never married again, that I’ve found, for the last one hundred and fifty years. He’s just been alone. It’s very sad.” It was, I knew better than most how hard alone could be.
• “If the children died, they weren’t of our blood then. Or they didn’t know enough to sustain their lives properly. Do you know where the great grandchildren are?” Rafael asked as he sat on the corner of the table.
• “I don’t…” I looked at Daxx then back to him, “I only follow him. I didn’t know you’d want to know about the others.” I shrugged, “I don’t think he has been able to stay with his wives for long, because they’d sort of notice he wasn’t aging, wouldn’t they?” How long would I live, I’d always questioned that. I loved life and seeing new things, learning unknown pieces, but to live too long I would grow tired of the constant flashes inside my head. I would never know peace, that I knew for sure. Shaking my head, I remembered they were talking.
• Troy hissed out a loud breath. “We’re going to have to find them. All of them, to be sure.”
• “Find who?”
• I looked to see Troy’s twin come through the door. It was quite clear, now that I was seeing him, that they were nothing alike. He stopped and looked me up and down then gave me a charming smile.
• “Ah, the infamous Crissy has finally joined us.” He grinned. “Love the hair color.”
• My eyes widened and I felt my cheeks flush, he knew of me. Moving over, I stopped and looked up at him for a moment. “Your eyes don’t go red.” I found that interesting.
• He shook his head, looking amused.
• “Do you have fangs?” I looked at him mouth.
• “No cutie, I’m afraid I was left out of the gene pool on that one.”
• I studied him for a moment longer. “Hmm, that’s okay, I think you got something the rest of them didn’t.”
• He exhaled and held his hand over his chest then glanced to his look-alike brother. “Can we keep her?”
• Daxx laughed, “She’s not a puppy, Chase.”
• He chuckled, “Good thing, kitten, or you two might not get along.” He touched my hair and smiled again. “I do love this color.”
• I blushed again. “I wanted to feel bold and daring when I did it.”
• “I don’t know about that, but it takes a daring person to try it.” He smiled down at me for a moment, then looked around at the others. “Who are we finding?”
• I remembered what we were talking about before he came in. “Your lost brother… who looks like Arius and his great grand children.” I bit my lip, “Or maybe they’re great, great,” I shook my head, “I’m not sure, I didn’t know I should trace those branches of the family trees with his wives.” Turning, I went back to the pages and started to flip through them to find the dates he’d been married. “I don’t know if any of them lived a longer than normal life span, but those that didn’t wouldn’t be hard to track…” I frowned, “if any of them did though, that takes hours of reading and searching to find who they became next, or are now…” I looked at the papers. “I’m going to need more pens and paper too.” I nodded.
• “I don’t know who pissed off Victor, but they can go fix him. He just fired one of my constables.”
• A man with short black hair and blue eyes came in and then stopped and looked at me. I’d seen him before too. I was sure this time, his scar on his face confirmed that it could only be him.
• I had to pause for a second and wonder if all people were this large in this world we were in. I wasn’t tall, just five foot five, which worked out fine for me, easier to hide in small places, but everyone I’d met here so far had to be well over six feet tall.
• He glanced around at everyone else then walked toward me. I could feel he was safe, knew it matched what I’d seen of him. When he stopped in front of me and held out his hand, I looked at it and then reached up and ran my finger over the faded scar that ran down the right side of his face. “It’s sad, how you got this.” I looked to see surprise in his blue eyes. “You shouldn’t have kept it as a reminder.” I offered him a little smile, “you’ll never forget.”
• He pulled his hand back and frowned at me.
• “This is Crissy.” Daxx offered, “Criss, this is Michael.”
• His eyes searched my face.
• “Michael, call everyone now.” Troy said as he tossed the papers on the table. “We need to discuss what Crissy has found out.”
• Straightening, he suddenly looked like a warrior, on alert. “Regarding?”
• “Our lost brother,” Arius said without looking up from the papers, “and his children.”
• Michael’s head snapped toward him so fast, I was sure it must have hurt. He nodded abruptly and pulled out his phone.