All but Human by Kris Austen Radcliffe

Author:Kris Austen Radcliffe [Radcliffe, Kris Austen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939730510
Publisher: Six Talon Sign Fantasy & Futuristic Romance
Published: 2017-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Andreas Sisto, the Second of the Dragons’ Legion, set his phone to the side of his dinner plate. The asparagus, though warm and savory, had lost the bright and inviting green of a vegetable prepared with artful care. The potato, though steaming, now looked like muddy snow. The steak, though richly scented and mouth-watering, now smelled like the dead animal it was.

“Who was that?” Renee Silverton, his companion and the onsite manager of The Land of Milk and Honey, tapped her luscious finger against the tabletop. She too toyed with her food.

The scowl she wore probably mirrored Andreas’s, muscle-pull for muscle-pull.

The restaurant section of The Land bustled tonight with early holiday-season tourists. Dmitri’s people turned The Land and its surrounding territory into a winter wonderland between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, and this year they went all out. Andreas suspected the level of employee jubilation had as much to do with their escape from Seraphim control as it did with playing while their boss spent his time in Portland. Dmitri’s main tasks these days involved digging through Fate dealings as well as handling the layers of lawyer bullshit encrusting the integration of his global corporate holdings and those of Praesagio Industries’.

Andreas had waited to leave Portland until Rysa’s mother, Mira Torres, arrived. She and her Burnerized, past- and future-seeing sister were all that remained of the Jani Prime, the triad who, traditionally, chose the emperors of Rome.

Like everyone else, he’d been surprised when she and Ismene stepped off the plane with the wounded Adrestia—the present-seer of the War Babies—in tow. And nothing short of flabbergasted when the three Jani Fates chose Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov to take on the ironic title of Praesagio’s new Caesar.

The declaration had not gone over well with Trajan or the other Ulpi Fates. Yet they did not fight and instead seemed to accept the hand they’d been dealt. Ultimately, a merger with Dmitri’s holdings would increase their power, not limit it.

No number of promises of treasures unknown could have kept Andreas in Portland. He did not have the stomach for the vampiric bullshit of modern, planet-smothering corporate entities. His time in long ago Rome cured him of any drive to be part of the “rat race.”

So he’d returned to Renee and The Land. The employees welcomed him with open arms, as had Renee. And now everyone on the grounds reveled in the season’s festivities. Tonight, the kitchen had made them a nice steak dinner, and they were to enjoy their “date” in the somewhat peaceful “special patrons” corner of the restaurant.

But it appeared the big and brooding of his two commanding officers had returned to his big, brooding ways.

Andreas leaned back in his chair. It squeaked, as chairs often did under his bulk, but molded well to his back. At least the furnishings accommodated his life.

“That was Gavin Bower, our hybrid bride’s ‘bestie of honor.’” A stupid title, but modern wedding traditions did not accommodate male bridesmaids.

Renee chewed a bite of her steak. A smoothly round woman, she curved where Andreas liked curves.

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