Haven,” said a male voice beside her, making her start.
She looked up. It was Prince Leo. He wore a dark suit, his style and manner as impeccable as an aftershave commercial. He was holding another extension cord, neatly bundled. He gave her a faint smile. “I thought you could use some assistance.”
She accepted the cord. It was a polite way of hurrying her out the door, but it was graciously done. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Have you got everything?”
She put the cords in her bag and glanced around. “I think that’s it.”
His fingertips brushed her sleeve. The contact was barely there, but it made her shiver, and not in a good way. The gesture reminded her of her brother, who’d been the perfect gentleman in public and something else when her parents’ backs were turned.
“Then I bid you good night, Ms. Haven. I must say I admire your spirit. I’m not fond of large dogs, to say nothing of wild animals.” Without waiting for a reply, Prince Leo gave a brief nod and went to join the other royals.
Her spirit. Just a suave way of saying that her particular brand of crazy had some entertainment value.
Lexie bent and zipped up her duffel bag, then hitched the strap over her shoulder. It was heavy, but the familiar weight was a comfort. Chloe, who had been speaking with Princess Amelie, finished the conversation and joined her. Together they left the reception room for the corridor, the heavy oak doors slamming behind them. The sound echoed along the marble palace floors.
“I can’t believe any of this,” Chloe said, pale with anger. Her heels clicked on the marble floor, the sound like snapping teeth. “Their wedding is just weeks away.”
Lexie frowned. “What was all that about Kyle’s knights going after the Company? Did you follow any of the conversation?”
“I don’t think it was Kyle’s idea. He looked ready to strangle Captain Gregori.”
And then they stopped walking. The corridor was crammed shoulder to shoulder with people—guests, palace employees and medical personnel tending to those with cuts from the broken glass. Lexie hated enclosed spaces. “We’ll never get through this.”
Chloe glanced around, noticing that Lexie was standing motionless behind her. “You can dive out of an airplane, but you hate a crowded room.”
Lexie shrugged. “I want somewhere private to hash this all over. A jam-packed hallway isn’t the place.”
“Follow me.” Chloe took a left turn and led her down a different, less populated corridor. Eventually they came to a narrow door. She pushed it open, revealing the palace garden beyond.
Lexie followed her out. A walk across the soft, springy grass wasn’t ideal—Lexie’s bag was heavy and Chloe had to take off her spike heels, but the open air was a relief. The dogs were absent, and a few guardsmen patrolled at a distance. Otherwise, it was quiet.
“Well?” Lexie asked after a moment. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“There is a disagreement between the two royal houses,” Chloe said, keeping her voice down although there was no one close by. “Sam won’t tell me anything.”
At that, her cheeks darkened to a brighter pink.
“Has he even hinted what it’s about?” The breeze whipped Lexie’s hair across her face. She brushed it away.
“I don’t think he knows the details, but it’s to do with the wedding. It’s all wedding, all day. No one thinks about anything else.”
Lexie shifted the strap of her bag. “Still, it’s a wedding. What’s so wrong that they’re shooting at each other? Did someone order the wrong napkins?”
Chloe gave a derisive laugh. “This isn’t like an ordinary marriage, sweetie. With royal families involved, it’s as much a treaty as anything else. The politics are above my pay grade, but even I know everything could fall apart in a blink.”
The wing of the palace where they slept was just ahead, and Lexie’s spirits began to recover a little. They walked without speaking, the way old friends could, and she caught the scent of the sea. The Mediterranean was visible from the upper balconies of the palace, but here there were only trees and pale stone walls.
“Who’s that?” Chloe asked, pointing ahead.
Lexie squinted. Someone was sitting on a rock wall, hunched over as if he was resting. The waist-high wall—according to the official palace guidebook—was part of an ancient fortification no longer in use. The breeze gusted again, rustling leaves. The ambient light caught a shock of fair hair. Lexie stopped, dumbfounded for a second. Faran.
Chloe gestured with the hand that held her shoes. “I’m sure you two have something to say to each other. I should go.”
“Don’t you dare!” Lexie reached out to catch her arm.
But Chloe was too fast. “I’ll see you in the morning. Maybe Sam will actually tell me something by then.” She retreated across the lawn.
“No, wait!” But Lexie’s feet were glued to the earth, and it felt as if that earth was opening up to swallow her whole. Defeated, she set her bag of equipment on the ground.
Slowly, Faran slid from the wall and landed with easy grace, although he seemed to favor his right side. Lexie felt the same tug of recognition as when she’d seen him inside. Now that he was in human form, he was terrifying in a completely different way.
Faran had shaggy fair hair and strong-boned features that reminded her of a Viking. But it was the memory of what she couldn’t see beneath the black T-shirt and jeans that made her mouth go dry. Faran Kenyon was tall, with a warrior’s lean and muscular body that had made Lexie reach for her camera time and again because she barely trusted what her naked eyes told her. She could have made a fortune from those photos. For a moment, she drifted in memory, recalling the hot, hard feel of him beneath her hands.
They’d met in Cannes when she’d been photographing a swimwear collection. He’d been catering private events, and looking as sexy as sin fresh out of the box. When he’d turned on the charm, it had been a full-on sensory assault.
Two months later, they’d been living together in Paris. She’d had no idea he’d been working undercover the whole time, hunting down a ring of rogue vampires who dealt in the traffic of runaway girls. Not until the end, when she was halfway out the door.
“Hey,” he said, watching her warily. It was too dark to see the color of his eyes, but she knew they would be blue now, and not wolfish gold.
“Hey,” she returned, hot embarrassment stealing over her. She groped for something to say that wouldn’t be inane. “You got dressed fast.”
So much for sounding cool and collected.
His eyebrows gave a slight lift. “The guardhouse has lockers.”
“Oh. So you’re prepared.”
He gave her an exasperated look. “Normally I’m a prepared kind of guy. Though I didn’t expect to see
