Justine Ch. 22

Gabra and Jian both accepted; but knew that the apology wasn't sincere. Later they would talk in the privacy of their suite.

"Lien ren-sweetheart." Jian said as he rubbed Gabra's neck. "She means trouble and she bears watching."

"I know." Gabra replied as she turned to face Jian. "But not yet. We must also watch her mate. His life will be endangered."

"Noted." Jian replied. "We must watch and wait for the Queen of Queens. She is the one who must deal with the traitor."

*******

"Gabra?" Jian called softly bringing her back from her memories.

"Yes lien ren?" Gabra replied.

"If we are to help the queen we must leave here soon." He replied.

Gabra stopped walking and looked at him. While they were both Clairvoyant, Jian's gift leaned more to the near distant future while hers was geared to the immediate future. She had learned long ago that whenever Jian spoke; he knew something.

"What do you know?" she asked softly.

"Nothing for certain." He replied. "But I feel that we must go soon."

"Then we shall go." Gabra said. "We will speak to her tonight."

"It will be good to see Thomas and Lottie again." Jian said with a smile that lit up his face and made his light brown eyes sparkle.

"Yes it will." Gabra agreed. "Shall we finish our walk before we send our summons?"

"Of course." Jian replied taking her hand. "Let's continue."

********

Justine had just finished adding bath oil to the Jacuzzi when the summons came.

"Got it!" Quinn called in to her.

A moment later, he called into her.

"Jussie, you might want to hear this."

Justine sighed and shut off the water. No matter how hard they tried to keep business out of the bedroom; sometimes it slipped in.

"Who is it?" she asked as she walked into the bedroom.

"Gabra and her mate Jian." Quinn replied. "They want to speak with us."

Justine stood in front of the portal next to Quinn and greeted the couple.

"Hello! I was expecting to hear from you long before now."

"Yes my queen; but the time wasn't right." Gabra replied. "Please, may I introduce you to my mate Jian?"

After the introductions were made; Gabra explained what they wanted.

"When you came to the realm to deal with the traitor; we spoke briefly. I told you that I would like to offer my services to you."

"I remember." Justine said.

"As I mentioned a few moments ago, the time wasn't right. Jian and I needed to stay in the realm."

"Why is the time right now?" Quinn asked.

"My King, it you will allow me to explain what we offer; it will become clear." Gabra said.

"We're all ears." Quinn said as he put an arm around Justine.

Gabra nodded her thanks and continued.

"Jian and I are both clairvoyants. We have other gifts but the clairvoyance is the primary gift. We knew many years ago that Wilhelmina was going to betray the Queen of Queens but we couldn't do anything. It was for you to handle. We also knew that Thomas' life would be in danger so we watched over him as best we could and when the time came; I warned him.

Jian's gift is aimed at the near and distant future while mine is the immediate future although our gifts at times overlap. At the moment it is his gift that is at work. I detect no immediate danger but I have learned that when he speaks, it means something."

"Tell us what you know." Quinn said to Jian.

"At this point in time not much other than it is time for us to offer our services. We know that nothing is happening at this moment because Gabra would know. We are aware that you have little reason to trust us and we invite you to search our hearts and minds."

"My Queen." Gabra said softly. "We are at your disposal. Jian and I have both sworn our loyalty to you and yours. We are at your command."

The red flames in Justine's eyes flickered as the green flecks floated lazily between the flames. She looked first at Gabra and then at Jian and nodded. She waited for Quinn to finish his assessment before she spoke again.

"Come for dinner tonight. I want you to meet my mother and her mate."

"You wish to confirm what you already know to be true." Jian said. "That is wise." He added.

A few moments later, the portal closed.

"What are you thinking?" Justine asked.

"I'm not sure." Quinn replied. "But that's the human in me talking. I didn't do a complete assessment because I'm determined to keep as much business out of this room as possible. Having said that, I believe we were going to take a bath weren't we?"

Justine grinned.

"I believe we were and then we were going to watch the baseball game in bed."

"We'll see about that." Quinn said pulling her against him. "Maybe I have another game in mind." He said as he nuzzled her neck.

"You've been talking about this game all week." Justine said as she reached around and grabbed his ass.

"Yes... but that's why we have DVR. I can watch the game anytime, but I can't have you whenever I want... well I could; but I don't think that the others would enjoy the show." Quinn said.

Justine looked at Quinn. He had always been very sexual; but this was different. It wasn't a bad different, but ....

"Quinn what's going on?"

"Nothing... I just want to spend the day in bed making love with my wife." He replied.

"Quinn..."

"Let's just skip the bath and go to bed." He urged.

He nipped her neck hard enough to draw blood. When he began to fed from her, the questions that's she had flew from her head. Whatever it was, he would tell her when he was ready.

Quinn picked Justine up, carried her to the bed and lay on top of her nudging her legs apart with his knees. He looked down at her, the green red flecked flames in his eyes blazing.

"Jussie... I love you more than I can even begin to tell you."

"I love you too..." Justine said. She was cut off by Quinn's mouth covering hers. She moaned into his mouth when he slid into her with one thrust.

He rode her slowly, gently and with a reverence that almost brought her to tears but she knew that nothing was wrong per se. Quinn rode her for almost an hour just keeping her on the brink before he took a nipple into his mouth and bit down.

"Come for me." he murmured against her breast.

Justine bucked against him as if surprised at the orgasm that she knew would come.

"Come with me." she whispered against his head. "Come..."

She didn't have time to complete the thought. Quinn was pounding into her with wild abandon moaning as he bit and sucked on the nipple that he still had in his mouth. The nipple was now sore but the pain added to the pleasure instead of taking away from it. Justine cried out in protest when Quinn released the nipple, but cried out in pleasure when he took the unattended nipple into his mouth and bit down on it.

The orgasm started in the pit of her stomach and spread throughout the rest of her body. There wasn't a part of her that didn't feel it. The scream came when she felt Quinn grow within her and fill her womb with his essence. She came a second time when Quinn bit down on her breast as he emptied into her.

Afterwards, didn't speak as he held her close. Finally, several minutes later; he spoke.

"Baby... I'm sorry... I got kind of rough there. Are you alright?"

"Don't worry... I liked it." Justine replied kissing him. "Are you ready to talk to me?"

Quinn hesitated trying to gather his thoughts.

"I don't know where to start." He said. "I guess the most important thing is that you know that I wouldn't trade being with you for anything. There are times when what I feel for you is so strong that it's frightening... I know that I'm rambling, but bear with me here. Every so often, I think about Lana and her mortality and then I think about our children. Lana won't know her brothers and sisters and that saddens me. Knowing that she's going to get old and die saddens me. Jussie I won't get to know her children, my grandchildren and if there's one thing that I regret about this whole thing; that's it."

"How long have you been worrying over this?" Justine asked.

"A while." Quinn replied. "I didn't bring it up because there's nothing that can be done about it."

"Quinn, you once told me that one of your roles as my mate was to bear all things with me no matter what they were. How dare you keep this to yourself! Did you think that I would blow you off? And don't you dare say that you didn't want to add to my stress level. You come before anything or anyone else here."

"Jussie..."

"I'm not finished," Justine said cutting him off. "Need I remind you that you work as hard as I do but yet you take care of me? But yet you won't let me do the same for you. I want your word that you'll let me care for you as you care for me."

"I'm sorry and you're right." Quinn said. "You have my word." Quinn said quietly. "Jussie are you sure that I didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine and as I said, I liked it... more than like it, but back to Lana. We don't know what's in her future. For all we know, she could be the mate to a vampire and as far as seeing her and being involved in her life; I'm sure that we can figure something out."

"I would like to go see her; you know spend time with her while we can. I want her to know you. I want her to be proud of her old man." Quinn said.

"I understand." Justine said. "I wish that you had said something sooner."

"I thought that I would be alright seeing her on her birthday and Christmas." Quinn replied. "I didn't want to place them in danger like I did before."

"That wasn't you! That was that son of a bitch Jeremiah Mathers and not only that; you saved them. If you blame yourself for what happened then you'd better blame me too. It was because of me that you became involved with him."

"Jussie..."

"No seriously. If we follow your logic; then I'm as much at fault as you are. Now, if you're done playing the blame game; let's concentrate on Lana."

"Jussie... thank you." Quinn said kissing her. "I bet you were a kick ass lawyer."

"I still am." She teased. "As you know, Lana and her family are under our protection. We've already beefed up the security in anticipation of the gala. So the question is spending time with her... you know, we never did find out if we could go out in the sun..."

"If we could that would solve more than a few issues." Quinn said. "I vote that we find out as soon as possible."

"Agreed... I wonder about mom and David. I bet if we can be in the sun then so can they." Justine replied.

Suddenly, Quinn felt better even as he realized his stupidity in not sharing his concerns with Justine.

"I know that he gala is two months away and that we're busy...."

"I would love to spend time with Lana." Justine interrupted.

"I was thinking about all of them." Quinn said.

"Quinn I have no issues with your ex-wife. In fact, I like her. She was prepared to give herself up for her babies even after she realized what Jeremiah was."

"Baby, you're the best." Quinn said in his best Jackie Gleason voice.

"Okay Ralph." Justine said laughing. "It's daylight; let's find out if we're going to turn into crispy critters."

Thirty minutes later, Justine, Quinn, David and Josephine were standing by the door that led to the east garden. They were each dressed in long sleeves and pants so that their skin wouldn't be in direct contact with the sun. Maurice was on standby in case someone needed help back into the house.

"You may feel some tingling." He told them. "That's fine but if it becomes pain then you must come back in. You will probably need to build up a tolerance which will take some time. I would suggest that Quinn and Justine go our first. I agree with her that if they can go out, then you David and Josephine can as well. Whenever you're ready."

Justine and Quinn held hands as they looked out into the warm spring sunshine. It had been more than two years since either of them had been in the daylight. In their free hand they each had a pair of specially made sunglasses to protect their eyes.

"Are we ready to do this?" Quinn asked giving her hand a squeeze.

"I'm ready if you are." Justine replied.

"Let's go." Quinn replied.

"Wait!" Josephine called out. "Shouldn't you wear hats too?"

Quinn looked at Justine and smiled. A second later they were wearing Philadelphia Phillies caps.

"Are we all set?" Quinn asked.

Maurice moved closer to the door poised to move if he had to.

"Remember, come back if it burns." He reminded them.

Still holding hands, Justine and Quinn took their first step in two years into the sunlight. They both jumped when the initial blast of heat touched their faces.

"You ok?" Quinn asked Justine prepared to take her into the house if she said no.

"I'm good. How about you?"

"Me too... I'm going to roll up my shirt sleeves."

Josephine and David watched anxiously as Justine and Quinn rolled up their shirt sleeves.

"Look at that!" David said. He hadn't realized just how much he had missed the warmth of the sun until he saw Justine and Quinn standing in it.

"Are you having any pain?" Maurice asked.

"A little tingling but it's going away." Quinn called back.

An hour later, the baseball caps were gone as well as the long sleeved shirts.

"Jussie can you believe this? It feels wonderful! I can work outside and take pictures! I've missed this so much!"

"Me too." Justine replied as she watched the sunlight play on Quinn's auburn hair.

She looked back and saw the anxious expression on David's face.

"Let's go back. It's been longer for David than any of us." She said.

"You're right." Quinn agreed. "But if they can come out, I vote for an outing and I don't care where we go."

"Deal." Justine said taking Quinn's hand.

When they were inside, she took one look at David's face and knew how badly he wanted to be able to go out in the sun. She closed her eyes and prayed to whoever was listening that he could. She and Quinn watched as her mother and David put on the baseball caps and stood at the door. She Squeezed Quinn's hand as David and Josephine took one step and then another into the sunlight.

They all moved when David dropped to his knees.

"He's alright!" Josephine called back as she knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around him.

David was at a loss for words when he realized that he could go out. Tears streamed down his face as he took the baseball cap off and felt the sun on his head. He grabbed Josephine and held her in a death grip as he sobbed tears of joy.

He pulled back from Josephine and kissed her.

"I didn't think that I would ever feel the sun again." he whispered against her lips. "I didn't...this is amazing! We can go out for breakfast and lunch! We can go shopping!" he said crushing her to him.

Josephine clung to David. She like him didn't think that' she would ever see the sun again. Of all of the physical comforts that she had missed, it was going out during the day. She started to laugh as she listened to David talk about all of the things that they could now do.

Josephine looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Justine was smiling down at her.

"Let's walk back to the gravesite." She said and held out her hand.

Quinn offered his hand to David and helped him stand. The two men looked at each other and hugged.

Maurice stayed where he was and watched with a smile on his face. He had suspected that Justine and the others could go out into the sun; but hadn't said anything. In his experience, things happened when they were supposed to. He made a mental note to double check the security surrounding the house. He didn't believe that anyone would be stupid enough to come near the royal quartet; but it never hurt to be cautious.

*******

The news that the two couples could go out into the daylight circulated around the house like wildfire. As far as Mikhail was concerned, it was a double edged sword. The positive was that if they needed to escape during the day time hours; there wouldn't be a problem. On the other hand, it also presented more of an opportunity for abduction.

Mikhail started laughing when he realized what he was thinking. "The abductors would be the ones needing to be rescued." He said out loud and laughed again. The laugher stopped as suddenly as it began when he remembered that while the royal quartet was safe from harm, the reign itself wasn't. It would take the abduction of one child or mate and a traitor would be born.

As he sat thinking, he had a thought. It was something that Maurice had mentioned months before. He hadn't thought much of it then; but now...

He jumped out of his chair and paced. Could it work? And would Justine and Quinn agree to it? If they did, it would solve a whole myriad of problems with security not being the least of them. Mikhail snatched the phone off the desk and called Maurice.

"Maurice... we must talk. How soon can you be here? Yes bring Lorenzo. I'll gather the others. We'll meet you in the library while the women meet with Emmanuel. I prefer not to say over the phone... I will see you soon.

Mikhail hung up and felt for the first time that maybe all would be well.

********

Emmanuel looked at the dress. He had removed almost all of the jewels from it leaving enough of the blood red rubies to give the dress a simple but elegant look. The neckline was modified so that it didn't plunge down to the navel, but would show a fair amount of cleavage. He walked around the dress and looked at the back. The back was in the shape of a diamond with the bottom point ending mid back. The original design had the point ending at the crack of the ass.

Fortunately, he still had plenty of the material left and had the presence of mind to bring it with him. He added enough material so that while the dress was still form fitting, it wasn't skin tight. He walked back to the front of the dress and looked at the waist line.

"Perfect." He muttered as he looked at the hem. He had wanted Justine to wear heels but she was adamant in her refusal.

"I couldn't wear the damned things when I was human why do you think that I can wear them now?"

"But my Queen, it will put you at eye level with the King. It symbolizes the equality between you that one is not above the other..."

"I have no problem with Quinn being taller than me and I sure as hell don't care what other people think about it. I'm only having this circus because I have to. Now don't bring up the damned shoes again or I'll go barefoot!"

Emmanuel looked at the shoes of which the heel was two and a half inches shorter than the original shoes and hoped that she would fuss too much. The next challenges would be the accessories and head piece.

He had noticed that the only jewelry she wore was her wedding band. He knew then that the giant ruby that was a part of the wedding ensemble wasn't going to happen. That he could work around but the head piece...

He walked around the dress again stopping at the back again.

"Pity." He muttered. "You delectable ass would have been perfect..."

"GET YOUR FUCKING MIND OFF MY WIFE'S ASS!" Emmanuel heard in his head.

Emmanuel dropped to his knees in supplication cursing at his stupidity and arrogance. He should have known better.

"My... my apologies." He stammered but there was no response.

He let out a sigh of relief. Quinn's warning had been a reminder of the many close calls he had in the past for doing the very same thing. He got to his feet and concentrated on the task at hand. Justine and the women of her court would be arriving soon.

It was a dream job if he didn't manage to screw it up by not controlling his thoughts. Until he had gotten the summons from the Queen, he hadn't worked in centuries. His career as a designer would be rejuvenated especially when it got out that he had redone the wedding dress and if the King and Queen wore the clothing that he had given them as a gift.