Nadine Book 4

62. The Kings Deal

We sit on the couch and someone knocks on the door. "ENTER."

Cruor pokes his head in. "I like these offices."

"Me too."

"We also have a file room. As soon as a file is closed, we put it in there. Now we won't have files everywhere. They're still working on most of this hallway. I wanted to tell you that. Come by tomorrow morning and I'll explain the filing system."

"Thank you doctor. I will stop by after breakfast."

"So who is the new boy?"

"Yes, he is cute."

"Prince Elek."

"Did he kiss you?"

"GIRLS."

The 3 of us turn to Dipak and Elek standing in the doorway. They are both smirking.

Dorseti freezes. "I WAS TALKING ABOUT TRE."

I laugh so hard. I nearly fall off the couch.

Elkie sits back on the couch. "Oh seriously. That's the best you could come up with?"

Dorseti slides off the couch and lays on the floor in a ball.

I try to pull her back up, and she just shakes her head.

Elkie rubs her eyes. "How can we help you sir?"

"Elek is going to come back tomorrow after breakfast with his brother..."

Dorseti sits up quickly. "THERE'S 2?"

"Yes... And they want a tour of the medical area."

Elkie jumps up and puts her hand up. "I'LL DO IT."

"I'm sure you would. But they are bringing their doctor. I need a doctor to go with their doctor."

"DOCTOR CRUOR."

Cruor pushes the boys out of the way. "Yes."

"They need a doctor to give them a tour tomorrow morning."

"Yes that's fine. After breakfast, Nadine, can you come in and deal with the floor?"

"Yea, I'll be here anyway. You are showing me the new filing system."

"I'll show them that too. Everyone be here after breakfast." He leaves.

Then the builders come in with boxes and sit them on my desk. I watch this happen confused.

"What is that?"

"I have no idea, Dorseti."

She pulls out my chains. "It's your bookshelf stuff."

"I CAN GET MORE STUFF NOW. MY BOOKSHELF IS BIGGER." I point. "I CAN PUT PAINTINGS IN HERE TOO."

I run out the door.

Elkie chases me out. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING? WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BOYS."

"I NEED PAINTINGS." I yell from halfway down the hallway. "I'LL BE BACK."

I get to the painting hallway. Everything is so formal. Maybe that is what I want. But I don't want any paintings of myself.

Dipak and Elek catch up when I'm about half-way down the hallway.

"What are you thinking?"

"I don't like the veil. I don't want to look at me. I see me enough. I can't really... I like the ones of you kicking the kings ass. But I don't think that's appropriate for a doctor's office."

Elek nods. "Probably not."

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe I won't have paintings."

"Why don't you put your paintings in it?" Dipak smiles.

"People can see me being tortured. That's what everyone wants."

"No, I meant the boat. The water. You paint well. Paint some ocean scenes and put them in there."

"I'm not that good."

"Yea you are. You paint a few, and we'll do an art show with your stuff. We can pull your torture stuff back too. People can vote on what would be best in your office."

"Torture?"

I smile at a painting of Dipak and Ylle. "I've been held and tortured. I paint it sometimes." I put my seal on it.

"Why do you want that?"

"Formal room. You 2 are very formal there."

"Yea I guess we are."

"Maybe I can steal some paintings out of the yellow room?"

"No, I want you to paint. You really are good."

"Fine. You haul the paint stuff here again and give me a room to paint in. I'll need like 10 easels. That way they can dry while I go."

Tre comes up to us. "Why do you want that?"

"Formal room."

"There's one of me and Tanny down there. It's formal."

"You're always formal, Tre." I wink at him. Then I find it. Him and Tanny are being introduced. They are smiling. I seal that one too.

"All but 15 are claimed. It's not that bad. We can find places to hang the rest."

"I almost fell over when they said 84 paintings."

Dipak nods. "I know. We weren't even there that long."

Tre shakes his head. "If it had been a full event, he would have had at least twice that."

Dipak stretches. "I'm going up to the office and calling us done for the day. They are coming back to tour the medical area tomorrow morning."

As soon as they are out of sight, I wrap around Tre. I give him a big kiss.

He pats my butt. "What did you do today?"

"I got a new office. It's done."

"Let's go check it out. I want to see it."

"Wow, this is nice, baby."

"I love it. See my big desk chair." I plop down in it.

"What's in the boxes?"

"My bookshelf stuff."

We get them put back on shelves. "I need more souvenirs from places. I have more space now."

"What are the clothes for?"

"I'm going to put them at the bottom for quick changes in here."

He carries the empty boxes out and puts them in the hallway. "Perfect."

I love him. I give him the biggest hug.

He lays us on the couch. "I love you baby."

"I love you Tre." I give him a deep kiss.

Then someone knocks on the door. I glare at the door. We stand up. "Enter."

Elkie comes in. "Guards are searching for you. They think you're lost. I didn't know you were even here. Figured I would check."

Tre rubs his eyes.

The alarm sounds. Tre signals to the guard to shut it off.

"You are being summoned to the advisor meeting."

We get up to Dipak's office and our people are there finally. "That was a horrible day. What the hell happened? It was a s**t show right from the beginning."

They crack up laughing.

"Did you find the 56k Tre?"

"Yea, but I lost it again."

"Kane brought 56k to give to the painter. I took 10k out, and he gave the painter 46k, so he got a bonus."

"What happened to the 10k?"

Dipak opens his drawer and gives 10k to Tre. "Elek told me we tried to overpay the painter."

Tre takes it. "I guess it's even now."

"Some of you heard earlier. I did work on the titles. Destroyer titles went to Kane, Tre, Tye, and Thora. Defender titles went to me and Thora. Thora has the custom patch open."

"QUEENS ADVISOR."

"You'll have to fill something out for that. Elder titles went to daddy and Bud."

"You forgot Dracul sweetheart."

"No way."

Dracul and daddy laugh.

"I'll add that next. I wanted to let everyone know my title office is now in the sitting room. There is a lock box outside of it. You can put the notes in when your projects and things get done."

"Why didn't more people get the defender patch?"

"We defended this room. She killed a hostile king in it. This is the only room I was in. I have no idea who was in the building when that happened. I don't know people's exact jobs. You will have to inform me if you were defending and not in this room."

Dipak looks at me. "Miculai, Bud, Mary, and Gunner get the defender title that I know about."

I get a piece of paper. "Daddy, Bud, Gunner, and Mary get defender. Dracul gets elder." I look at Dipak and laugh.

Dipak stands up. "They showed up asking about the water system. We explained that."

"We told them that was bullshit." I laugh and stand back up.

Dipak sits back down.

"Once you left. All of you left. We were the only ones here. Thora checked Frode's notes to see what you were discussing, so we could take over. She said, 'The water system'. I told them No. She said, 'That's just bullshit, what are you really here for?' They were busted. We gave them a minute to come up with a story. One of them said that they suspected me being the queen of queens."

Thora stands up. "SHE SAID... 'You come into my castle and lie about why you are here. You accuse me of being something. What do you want?' It was a badass moment."

"Thank you. Eventually, Elek said they were here for information and to see how the place is ran. See if I am the queen of queens. Then I stopped him because there was an annoying tapping."

Tye's confused. "Tapping?"

"Yes. As discovered later. It may have been those things climbing the wall outside. However, that's only a theory. I checked the hallway. On my way back to the conference table, the king jumped in the window. From there, it was an all-out disaster. 1 of them exploded. Thora threw a head of another at me. I was covered in blisters for a few seconds. Then everything was fine and Dipak and Dracul came in."

"You did not get the blisters from the head I threw at you. That was the one we exploded together."

"That is true. Did I say that backwards?"

She nods.

"I'm sorry. I did not get the blisters from Thora. It was a joint effort on that one."

Dipak stands back up. "Now we know what they wanted. Apparently they pretended to long and found stuff they liked."

"Like we did at Tye's castle." Everyone starts laughing.

Dipak smiles. "Did you tell any of them that you have a mate? Or which one of us it is?"

I shake my head. "I was waiting for you guys to tell me. I didn't even know who to sit with at lunch."

"Have you been caught hugging or kissing any of us?"

"No."

Tre rubs his eyes. "She doesn't have a mate this time."

Thora jumps up. "YOUR SINGLE. AND IT'S THEIR FAULT AGAIN."

"I wouldn't go that far."

Dipak smiles. "How do you want to play this off?"

"I'll have my mate someday, and I'm his. That seems like a good plan for me. Maybe we won't end up like last time with you 2 taking walls out pretending to fight over me."

Thora laughs. "No, it'll be worse. If you don't know who your mate is... They will go crazy trying to fight for your attention."

"No they won't. They know they are my mates. There's no reason for them to fight for my attention."

"You watch."

"What were you and Elek talking about constantly?"

"Everything. He was interested in the medical area, you, the beings. He never said anything about queen of queens. I was talking to him about that first war we had with the beings. He did end up taking one of that cream and the recipe. I could see how they were getting some information about us."

"Does he lead? His dad never seemed to do or say much when I was in the room. I don't even think he stood up. The advisors and brothers were checking the beings' information."

"She spider monkey'd Elek."

"She threw a head at me... Anyway, what's the king's deal? Did he show much interest?"

Daddy smiles. "He's letting his boys lead, and I think Elek is the oldest. He seems in charge."

Dracul nods. "Or it could be the other one doesn't care about leadership. We've seen that a few times too."

"Do they have a village or only a castle?"

"We have no idea, sweetheart."

"Let's ask them some questions, people. Maybe we can figure out who they are too. Especially if they are going to be roaming around our castle."

Thora jumps up. "Let's go on an undercover mission there. We can walk around and do stuff."

"That's a good idea. We can see what's going on with them too."

Dipak nods. "We'll figure out where the castle is. If they have a village, we can see the condition of it without them ever even knowing. Let's do dinner. Hopefully, tomorrow isn't such a s**t show."