Lord Belshazzar sighed and dropped his bag on the bed below the smug lord’s. “My balls are off limits, fucker. Touch them again, and I’ll rip yours off.”
Lord Xenon laughed and rolled onto his back. “Guess it’s not just your secret brother you’ve lost against.” His gaze caught mine, and then rose back to the ceiling. He closed his eyes in satisfaction. “You must be more tired than you thought, my lord.”
The enigmatic Overlord was smart.
My father waggled a finger at Lord Pippin and me. “One of you is sleeping with me. I don’t trust you two together. There will be no flames rekindled.”
I lifted my eyes heavenward. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Exactly. It won’t be.” His brown eyes narrowed, and his waggling finger stopped on Lord Pippin. “You’re with me. Where I can watch your bastard ass.”
Lord Pippin snorted. “I hog the blanket.”
“It’s true. He does.” I walked to grab my bags. “And that’s why I agree with my father. You’re sleeping with him.”
Lord Pippin ran his fingers through his dark red hair. “That’s probably for the best, anyway.”
“Agreed. I might kill you while you sleep if you steal my blanket one more time. And that would upset all of our fans.” I dropped my bags next to my designated bed where a certain sexy Overlord was already resting. I lifted a black eyebrow. “Lord Belshazzar, you don’t hog the blanket, do you?”
Intimidating blue eyes stared—no emotion showed in their depths. He placed his hands behind his head and stretched his large body out. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had an overnight guest in my bed. So I couldn’t really tell you.”
“Let’s hope you don’t,” I grumbled.
The man knew he didn’t. I always had plenty of blanket with him. Both of us continued to play our parts, neither of us wanting the other lords to know about our sexual relationship.
I unzipped one of my bags and grabbed pajamas out, a few others doing the same. I walked on quick feet to the bathroom, making sure I was the first one to use it. I did not want to enter the bathroom after one of them took a crap. The highest echelon of our society or not, their shit still stank like anyone else’s. I grinned in victory as I shut the door on Lord Otto’s face, once again beating him to a restroom.
By the time I’d exited, they’d all changed into their pajamas. I chuckled as Lord Otto rushed past me in a blur, cutting off Lord Xenon’s attempts to enter the bathroom next.
I shook my head and flopped down onto my shared bed, and muttered, “I call first dibs on the shower in the morning.”
Who knew if Master Niallan had magical pipes. The water would turn cold fast if he didn’t. No amount of vampire speed would help with six royals who liked to look good and carried more beauty products than a human sorority. I’d noticed the lords’ open luggage. They were just as anal about their perfect hair as I was.
Lord Belshazzar tilted his head on his pillow and stared at the side of my face. “Dibs won’t work with them—which you saw earlier. You have to take what you want.”
I sighed. “Master Niallan is an asshole.”
“Yes, he is.” Lord Belshazzar lifted on one arm, leaning on his elbow and peeked through the slats on the bed. He eyed the closed bathroom door. “I really have to piss. He better not be in there forever.”
I tipped my chin to the front door. “You’re a man. Go outside.” The castle was beautiful and amazing—and just as large as ours. “I think there was an exit to a courtyard a few floors down.”
His lips twitched. He still stared at the bathroom. “I was being polite, your majesty.”
I grinned, unable to hold it back. “There’s air freshener in there. Top shelf. I dug through the cabinets.” I was so, so happy I went in there first. “Thank fuck that bathroom seems to be soundproof.”
The Overlord’s lips slowly lifted into a smile. “You took a shit in there, didn’t you?”
My twinkling eyes caught his. “I deny everything, my lord.” Lord Otto hadn’t known what he’d rushed in to.
Lord Belshazzar snickered quietly. “Then you must have stunk the bathroom up bad. That poor man.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “He deserved it.”
Lord Belshazzar grunted. His gaze returned to the bathroom door. But he said, “See that portrait over there? Above the desk.”
My attention snapped to the lovely hand-painted picture of a stunning druid woman dressed in a white, flowing robe. “What about it?”
“Watch her eyes.”
“Okay.” I stared, waiting good-naturedly.
Thirty seconds later, the woman blinked.
Her lavender eyes disappeared, then reappeared.
My lips pressed into a thin line. “That’s disturbing. And a violation of privacy.”
“As you said, Master Niallan is an asshole.” With his eyes still on his prize, he tipped his head to the painting. “That’s a painting of his deceased mother. He put it in here just for me.”
The room turned silent.
The other lords’ attention snapped in our direction.
My jaw hung open. “He’s the Original druid. How the fuck does he have a mother?”
Lord Belshazzar snorted. “How the fuck do you think he was born?”
“Magic.”
The Overlord shook his head, and his black hair brushed my face. His blue eyes narrowed on the bathroom door, apparently getting impatient for his turn. “Master Niallan is an egotistical shithead, who only cares about himself. Everything you know about him is a lie. He created his own story. Years passed. It became our societies’ truth.”
I blinked. “You’re saying the druid and vampire histories aren’t true? That he’s not the Original druid? That he didn’t kill the Original vampire—and obtain his vampire power that way? Those are bold statements to make, my lord.”
His attention swung down, peering into my eyes. “He killed his friend and obtained the additional power that way. That much is true. The rest is fiction.”
My nose scrunched. “How would you know this?”
“Because I was there. I arrived too late to change the consequences of their actions. But I was there.”
I couldn’t even breathe. I couldn’t even move.
The rest of the room’s occupants didn’t make a sound either—the Overlords stunned into silence like I was.
Lord Belshazzar lifted a black brow. “Scared?”
I swallowed hard and sucked in a large breath. “The amount of shit that I’ve learned in the past few days is scary. But I’m persuaded to believe you, like before.” I would never ask him his age again. This vampire was old-as-dirt. “How do you know that’s his mother?”
“Because I killed her.” Simple, cold words. “No one else had that shade of lavender in their eyes. She was breathtakingly beautiful.”
I shook my head. “No wonder he hates you.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I owed my brother a debt. I paid it with her death.”
I blinked. “I’m thinking Master Niallan probably is going to starve us while we’re here.”
His plump lips lifted into an entertained smile. The lord laughed softly and shook his head. “I tell you all of that and all you do is worry about food, your majesty?”
“My lord, your words will change our history books, but they don’t change our present. Everything is still the same now, even with our history based on lies.” I pointed at my belly with a sharp finger. “And I’m hungry. His abhorrence of you may keep him from being cordial. It already has with this room and the lack of food given when we arrived at his castle.”
The smile slipped off his face. He stared at my stomach. His plump lips turned down at the corners. “I’ll make sure the prick feeds us tomorrow morning.”
I eyed the front door. “I was thinking about going to get something now.”
Lord Cato stepped right into my line of sight. He shook his head. “Your majesty, in light of…this new information…you should refrain from sneaking around Master Niallan’s home in the middle of the night.”