Death by Chocolate (6 page)

* * * *

"Welcome back." The totally unfamiliar female voice came from behind Guber.

He honestly thought the speaker was addressing someone else, until a slim hand landed
on his shoulder. Turning, he found himself gazing at an equally slim face with
magico-surgi-enhanced slanted emerald eyes.

Then he realized that the voice was not only female and sexy-raspy, but it hadn't gotten
any reaction from him.

Well, duh. Brain's too tangled up with Epsi and her problems and ... well, yeah, with
Epsi.
He muffled a chuckle, and a moment later realized he might just be in trouble. There
was something about the elegant face and form that made all his self-preservation interior alarms
burst into dissonance.

"Sorry, don't know you, so I'm guessing you mixed me up with someone else. Sorry."
He shrugged and turned to leave.

That elegant hand turned into a claw of titanium alloy, holding him in place. Guber
flinched, trying to twist sideways to free himself and then another twitch sideways to slide into
another dimension. He caught himself before the second twitch--the last thing he wanted was to
take this stranger with him when he fled for shelter.

"Do you mind?"

"Actually, I do." Those emeralds turned to steely gray. Guber swore he saw shark teeth
behind those lavender-tinted lips. "You have a civic duty to all the Fae."

"Excuse me?" Kevyn stepped up and stared at the hand--and the invisible magic
force--holding Guber prisoner. He displayed his Advocate powers and legally enhanced strength
without even touching this stranger. "You're Sybellianora Prescaville of the Heredity is Best
League."

She paled a few degrees, released Guber's shoulder, and stepped back.

Guber groaned, realizing exactly what civic duty this super-slim, super-hot chick
referred to.

"I'm not bound by my genetics anymore, 'kay?" He held up his hands in the
inter-dimensionally recognized sign of "no harm, no foul."

"Skabellious's legislation--" Kevyn began.

"Has been suspended for the unforeseeable future," Sybellianora said with a smirk that
somehow managed to be elegant. "Since it hasn't passed yet, it isn't valid. Which means you're
still one of four candidates for the throne with over ninety-eight percent royal blood." She held
out a hand, beckoning for Guber to surrender and put his life, his sanity, and his future into her
grasp.

Right at that moment, Guber mentally slapped and silently scolded himself to wake up.
There were some--only a few--advantages to having that much royal blood. One of these days,
he was going to sit down and go through the family tree and the mathematical calculations to
figure out how he could have ninety-eight percent royal blood. It just didn't make sense to him.
But who had time to spare for brain-teasers like that at a time like this?

One of those advantages was the ability to detect when influencing spells were being
used, no matter how subtle the spell, no matter how delicate the control.

And this twitchy chick definitely was using an influencing spell on him. In that fraction
of a second it took to figure out what was being done to him, and to fight it, Guber realized
something else. Part of the spell was anchored in pheromones, meaning he should have been
dragging his tongue on the ground about forty seconds ago--but he wasn't.

Mental multi-tasking was another benefit of a high concentration of royal blood.

His lack of reaction meant his physical attention was already focused on someone else
of the female persuasion, and focused strongly enough that Sybellianora couldn't leverage herself
in to capture his attention.

Okay, Epsi, I owe you a big one.

"Not interested, 'kay?" Guber stepped back. He wasn't too proud to put his advocate
friend between him and one of the extremists who wanted to put hereditary royalty back into
power. "I got better things to do with my time and powers."

"What could be more important than taking your fated place at the helm of the ship of
destiny of all Fae in every realm and dimension of reality?" Sybellianora blurted.

The panic tinting her eyes orange was almost amusing. She might have done her
homework to create a spell that would subliminally influence him, but she obviously hadn't
connected the dots. She should have realized that someone with that much purple blood, by
default, had the sensitivity and the strength to resist anything she tried to do to him.

That was what gave the royal family the ability and advantage and leverage to become
the royal family in the first place.

"Hold that thought," Kevyn said, holding up his index finger. A blue spark flashed off
the tip. "Okay, I just filed a new restraining order against you and your cohorts, anyone involved
in your league, and anyone who has even heard about the league. My client here has other things
on his mind right now--"

"Rumor is, he's using Human technology to track down who killed Queen Mellisande,"
she said, stepping back the required four steps. Meaning she had just received the restraining
order by Ether transmission. "Isn't that a conflict of interest?"

"If I was interested in taking over the throne, which I most definitely ain't," Guber said.
"Kev, pal, can we split?"

"Definitely." Kevyn stroked his index finger downward from above his head to his
waist. A slit appeared in the air and continued splitting downward, creating a dimensional
short-cut. He gestured for Guber to step through ahead of him. Green sparkles flashed along the edge
of the slit, marking it as a restricted access doorway. Even if she wanted to, Sybellianora didn't
have the power to overcome the bureaucratic barriers and follow them.

Advocates on official business, especially when they were involved in something as
serious as the death of an Administrator Queen, had even more power than purple blood and the
Council and the speaker for every ministry board in all the Fae enclaves combined.

"You rock," Guber muttered, as the two of them stepped out in the suite of offices
reserved for Kevyn's family in the administration dimension.

"It's fun the first dozen times you do it, then it gets kind of..." Kevyn dropped down into
the big chocolate brown recliner that was an exact match to his favorite chair at home and
grinned. "Can't lie to you. It never gets boring."

"I'm starting to see that. Guess we were wrong all those decades, huh? Hiding you from
your folks and avoiding school and all that."

"Hmm. Maybe. But when you figure I never would have met Sophie if I hadn't been
playing hooky for so long..." He shuddered. The last glimmer of playfulness faded. "Guber, I'm
sorry. I honestly thought that legislation was a slam dunk. I'll get to work, following up.
Restraining orders have a whole lot more punch here than in the Human dimensions, but they
still can only do so much to get those radicals off your backside."

"Nah. Don't worry about it. At least, not while we're working on Epsi's problem. If we're
working with the investigators, that'll protect me, right?" He didn't wait for Kevyn to think and
nod. "I'll just activate the dozen-odd escape and distraction spells I've put together since the last
time I had to run away to avoid the throne. If they're running at full speed before I actually need
them, ain't no way those loonies can track me when I hit the launch pad."

"Uh huh." Kevyn studied him for a few seconds, with enough intensity to make Guber
fidget, and then snap his fingers to teleport in his favorite recliner for serious thinking. "I have
access to a whole lot of serious information. I know that whenever some group shows up
wanting to restore the hereditary throne, on their heels is another group. Just as extreme, but
instead of being annoying, harassing you with rhetoric about civic duty and other idiot rhetoric...
well... restraining orders won't make an impression on them."

"The Erasers? Yeah, I've heard of them." He shuddered more violently than his friend
had only a few moments ago. The problem, he reflected, was that his shudder was for real,
whereas Kevyn had been acting silly. "Why waste time convincing people that hereditary royalty
needs to be nullified? Just save your breath and wipe out the entire gene pool."

Funny, but Guber didn't want to snap his heels together, activate every self-defense spell
at his disposal, and get it out of there.

He wanted to stay.

He wanted to see Epsi again.

And that was the weirdest thing that had happened to him in a long time.

After all, he was a charter member of the Single, Serene and Smokin' Men's Club. It was
one of their core principles that as soon as a member felt any sort of attraction to someone of the
female persuasion, they put as much distance, physical, dimensional or otherwise, between them
and said object of attraction.

Guber had made up that rule.

Of course, he had made the rule before the French Revolution, when it was dangerous in
a lot of different ways to hang around with those hot French chicks. Or any other hot chicks in a
lot of different dimensions. That was the funny--funny weird, not funny ha-ha--thing about
political and social unrest. It spread to multiple dimensions.

In the centuries since then, Guber had grown a little smarter, worked out a lot of
wildness, had a lot of fun, and realized that the female side of fandom and science fiction writing
came up with a lot more fun than the male side. Girls were cool.

Maybe girls
didn't
have cooties.

Even if they did, he was willing to bet Epsi didn't have any.

"Well, I figure, hanging tight with you is probably the safest place to be, if the Erasers or
anybody who thinks like this is on the hunt. I'm in." He snapped his fingers, bringing his
electronic tablet to him, to start putting together the next phase of his research.

"What I should do is a PR campaign, once Epsi's problem gets cleared up," Kevyn
mused as he brought in a stack of paperwork four inches thick to land on his lap. "We need to
show both sides of the problem that nearly everybody with purple blood wants nothing at all to
do with politics."

"Except for creeps like Theodosius." He sighed. "And that's exactly what the Erasers are
trying to prevent."

"Too bad we can't do genetic screening for the creeps."

* * * *

Theodosius wouldn't lower himself to actually come chase Epsi down, but he did send
one of his flunkies to listen when she reported to her friends about her meeting with Kevyn and
Guber. She had settled down with some of them to dissect the conference in further detail by the
time the flunky came back, with a summons to report directly to Theodosius. She considered for
a moment just ignoring the poor, worn-out looking fellow. Knowing Theodosius, he had
intimidated the flunky into volunteering to accompany him to the holding dimension. Or he had
attacked the poor fellow to the point that the flunky's ear tips were wilting, convincing him that
he deserved all his troubles, and only Theodosius could protect him from dire punishment--if he
kept the former Administrator King in a good mood.

"Sorry, but you can tell my very distant cousin that not only do I want to maintain my
distance, I'm not repeating myself for his benefit," Epsi said, after tossing aside a half dozen
other, more astringent responses. "He keeps forgetting he isn't the king anymore, and he doesn't
have any right or authority to give orders." The flunky went so white all the color bleached out of
his ebony hair and his navy-and-peach cashmere sweater. Pity for him prompted her to say, "Tell
you what, though. I'll ask my advocate to take you on."

"Would you?" The flunky nearly wept. His knees buckled and the color returned to his
hair. His clothes looked only marginally better; a washed-out shadow of the original colors and
pattern. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of Theodosius's cubicle. "Who's going to
tell--"

"Let him find out for himself." Rosamundiana giggled and her eyes sparkled
wickedly.

How Theodosius found out and how long it took, Epsi had no idea, but somewhere
along the way her distant cousin had learned how to make requests to the monitors for
information, including notifications when others had visitors. When Kevyn and Guber returned
for another meeting, Theodosius darted out of his cubicle and snatched at Epsi's sleeve as she
stood up, in preparation for being transported to the visitation area.

"I demand representation by my dear cousin's advocate," Theodosius said, using his
plummy,
I'm just so jolly and beloved, everyone has to give me what I want,
tone of
voice.

"Such a request can only be granted by the advocate in question. Epsibellah, do you
grant permission for this suspect to accompany you to your meeting with your advocate?" the
monitor voice asked.

"If my advocate says no, does he get sent back immediately? He can't stay and harass us
until he gets his way?" Epsi immediately snapped.

"Of course. Your advocate is not required to take any clients he does not wish to
handle."

"Okay. He can come. Hands off, Theo." She twisted her arm free of Theodosius's grip
and checked her sleeve, positive there would be oil stains from his fingers. After all, she had only
brought six changes of clothes. She wanted them to last as long as possible, and she didn't know
how long she would be held in the holding dimension.

Kevyn and Guber both stood up when Epsi walked through the portal. Their welcoming
smiles fell off their faces when Theodosius stomped through. He nudged her aside and snatched
at the only chair on his side of the table.

"Hey, dude, show some respect for the lady," Guber said, before Theodosius could open
his mouth and begin what promised to be a harangue, based on the sour look on his pudgy
face.

"What lady?" Theodosius said, looking around the room. His gaze landed on Epsi, who
took her place at the end of the table, standing closer to Kevyn and Guber than to him. It was
evident from his sneer that he was about to say something derogatory about her, but he glanced
at Kevyn and his expression froze. His flushed complexion paled, and he swallowed hard.