The males both nodded; Rathan braced his arms around the sides of Aureliana’s waist. His brother tightened his grip around her shoulders, tucking her head tighter to his chest. “I will keep her tight against me.”
“Ok. Here we go.” Kindara plunged the first stitch through the flesh of her best friend.
Auri keened, the sound tearing through the room. Sweat beaded on Kindara’s forehead. Rathan wiped it off.
“Is this normal for their people?” Renakletos’s arms were clenched tightly around Auri, all that prevented her from jerking away from the needle.
“We are cursed to feel pain more than the average kind. To be weaker than all but humans. To have little medical care. Every time I stitch through her skin it’s like I’m stabbing her with your sword over and over again.”
Leo Taniss had taken great advantage of that fact when he’d had her and Iavius trapped in his lab. Studying them like rats beneath a microscope. In her own research, Kindara refused to use live subjects— even rats—unless it was absolutely necessary, instead she tested everything out on herself that she could. They were testing demon blood out in a trial by fire. If it worked for Auri, Kindara would give the demon anything he wanted if he’d provide more demon blood for her people.
If he helped her save her people, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t give him. Even herself.
Finally, the incision on Auri’s back was closed. Kindara stood, wiped the blood off her hands. “We need to lay her flat for this. You’ll still have to hold her.”
“Can you give her nothing to help the pain?” Renakletos asked, running a large hand through Auri’s hair.
“I’ve been a healer for four hundred years, warrior. This magic potion in your brother’s horns is the first chemical to ever work on my people.” Kindara prepped the skin around Auri’s laceration. “She’s out from it, but she still feels everything. Every. Thing. And she will not forget it.” They spoke little while Kindara closed the wound. Once she was finished, the maids moved in to strip the soiled bed clothing and finish prepping Aureliana for sleep. “Hopefully, she will rest now. Let the healing begin.”
“Phelius will be here shortly. He was called away to tend an injured child. He will sit with her.” The demon stepped to her side, ignoring the rest of the room’s occupants. “You, pet, need to change out of those soaked clothing and eat something. You’ve done all you can for your friend.”
“I can’t leave her here. She may wake.” Kindara knew he was right; she wasn’t doing anyone any favors by being in wet, blood soaked clothing—not Auri, not herself—not the babe.
“I will stay, Kinney. I won’t leave her.” Bronwen stood by the bed, holding one of Auri’s hands in hers. “You’ve been through a lot these past several days—take a break.” The younger woman nodded toward the bed as she spoke. “I know what to look for, and what to do. If not, I can send for you easily, I’m sure.”
Kindara nodded. “Watch for fever. It’s almost a given, and you’ll know the signs.”
They stared at Auri for a moment. They both knew the odds. If the initial blood loss didn’t take Auri, fever or blood infection very well could. It had taken so many.
****
His woman was nearly staggering as he led her down the long hall to the king’s suite. His suite, decorated in the colors of his family, as it had been for thousands of years. She’d sleep there for the first time tonight, and for every night for the rest of their nights. He wrapped a supportive hand around her waist. “Come, precious.”
“Where?” Kindara’s voice was so soft he almost struggled to hear her.
“To sleep, is all. And to feed.” Rathan stopped walking and pulled her to him. He lifted her, with no resistance from her. That, more than anything, told him her true state. “Tuck close, woman. You will be sleeping in moments.”
“Why can’t anything be easy, demon?” Her head fell to his shoulder and she turned her face into his neck instinctively. Slipped her arms around his neck and melted him completely.
“Because then it would not matter as much, pet.” Rathan stroked the blonde hair that was matted with sweat. He had already ordered a hot bath drawn for her, and robes laid out. Robes that denoted her high position as his mate.
Despite the events of the last few hours, a part of him was filled with utter jubilance. She was his, in his world, and in his home. And she would sleep in his arms.
“I don’t think I can do much more for Auri. It’s in the goddess’s hands. They are always in the goddess’s hands, and she’s been remarkably inattentive lately.”
He carried her into the suite, missing the fanfare the moment deserved. But she did not need that. She needed loved; someone to take the burden off her shoulders.
He had not realized only a few nights ago how important to him she would be. Now she was everything; more so even than his kingdom. More so than the spawn.
Demons did not find true mates, but every once in a while, a pair of demons would find a tie so wondrous all envied it. Lilith and her Lothan had had such a tie. His parents had not. He now feared that he would soon feel that tie for this delicate, yet stubborn creature in his arms. Would she ever feel the same?
****
He helped her through her bath, surprised and concerned at her lack of resistance. It took little prodding for her to drink the juice he’d spiked with a strong dose of his blood.
He had sent the maids eager to serve them away and carried his woman to their bed. She looked so frail against the purple and black silk that dominated the bed. So ethereal. Like the angel he first thought she looked like.
Tonight she would rest; he would see to it. Tomorrow was soon enough for her quest to resume.
****
He was called to the warrior woman’s room in the middle of the night, brought by a rushed knock at the door and a fearful explanation.
“What is it? Is it Auri? Belnus?” Kindara’s voice held her fear.
“Your warrior friend sleeps, though fitfully. And the male has wakened and eaten. He rests.” Rathan hesitated.
“What is it? There is something you’re not telling me.” Kindara threw back the blankets he’d so carefully tucked around her and stood quickly. “Tell me!”
“The girl healer.”
“Bronwen? What happened?”
“She has apparently been taken.” Rathan did not understand it himself—unless he had a breach in loyalty.
“By what?”
“We do not know, yet. We have also had a report of a missing prisoner.”
“A prisoner took Bronwen? Who is he? Why was he a prisoner? Where would he take her? My gods, she’ll be terrified! Do you demons always just take women when you want them?”
“I do not know about him. Other than that he is the warrior king—one of them. There are two of them, twins. He will be found; she will be found. I am sorry, pet. This trip is not yielding the results I had hoped, and it is only the first night.”
“We have to find her, demon. She is even more sheltered than my daughter. She has spent most of her days in the lab studying. Out there,” Kindara waved a hand toward the nearest window. “Out there she is helpless.”
“We will find her. She will not be harmed. He probably saw her and realized she was a Dardaptoan healer and took her for the value she represents. Even in our world where medical supplies are abundant, your kind are valuable. Even more so that she is a young female. He probably just took her. But he will protect her with everything he has. It is the warrior way.”
“You respect him, don’t you? So why was he a prisoner?”
“Politics, pet. He trespassed into lands that were not warrior. My people could not let that pass. Let them get one foothold in, and they will demand more. My people were holding him until I could speak with him on the morn.”
“Instead, he gets free and takes her. Demon, does everything you touch turn to hell?”
“Fates conspiring to keep us apart. Or gods and goddesses. I must deal with this escape
and send my people to find your friend.”
“I need to be with Auri. And need to tell Belnus. He and Bronwen are very close. Cousins through the way. He will hold himself personally responsible.” “I am sorry.”
It was if the deities were against them. Rathan was beginning to feel the same. Why did this have to happen to the girl, now of all times? And to the warrior woman Aureliana?
He had envisioned taking Kindara to his home, and instilling her in his court, with a little lab in a tower for her to do her research. He had not expected threats to her friends. If the two other Dardaptoan women had now been fated to be injured or taken, what was next? A threat to Kindara herself?
Rathan hurried her to Aureliana’s chambers, stopping her just outside the door. “Do not speak of the spawn yet.”
“Why? Do you think there is a threat? I won’t have the babe threatened here. I will take him or her and return to my brother where he can keep us completely safe. Tell me.”
“I do not know the threat level here. I am ashamed to say I half neglected my court chasing down proof against my brother this last century. I do not fully know the atmosphere here; yet. I will know more within a few hours. I still must track down my niece, Cerridwen. And my younger sister Danae should be back by now, but is not. I will not stop until I find them all.”
“And the babe?”
“I will take extra precautions with your safety and the babe’s from here on out. You know I would not have left you alone if I had known Renakletos would harm you. Never would I cause you pain or damage. Or your friends. I will make this up to you.”
“Just see to it that you find Bronwen. I will take care of Auri.”
****
He fought to contain the flames growing within him. How dare they question his authority? “I am the king of Demonkin or have you all forgotten that?”
“Renakletos has ruled in your stead for one hundred and nine years, Rathan. Now you have returned and expect to just resume your reign? While we understand what was happening, I am afraid the demon of our kingdom might not. And you’ve brought back four of this strange race of beings. Our people are bound to be questioning your decisions, your ability to lead.”
“Do you question, Agmendias?”
“Of course not. You and I have been friends since the turn of the first century, Rathan. I know you and your capabilities. If you say these people can benefit ours, I believe you. But our people might not.”
“Have they lost all loyalty to their king, then? In a mere hundred years?”
“Of course not. But there are some factions who have managed to seed some doubt.” Phelius cautioned him with both tone and expression. “Now that you have returned, you can work to dispel those notions. In a few years, you can choose a mate, have an heir. Get the realm back on a more even keel.”
“That will be happening shortly anyway.” Rathan threw his head back, exposing his horns in full glory. He did not want to reveal it, but the time had come. He was king and no one would question that again. “The healer Kindara carries my spawn. She is my chosen mate. She is your queen.”
“That’s wonderful.” Phelius smacked Rathan on the back. “You’ve waited long to find her. And she is a remarkable female. You have my congratulations, both on the mating and on the spawn.”
Rathan knew his cousin meant what he said. Phelius was one of his most trusted friends. He was not the betrayer. Rathan had unshakable confirmation of that. They had been together in the month before the trouble—searching the uncharted territories of a realm no peoples had even thought to name.
But it could have been one of the other three men in the room. He looked at each of them to judge their reactions to his news. But each was well over a thousand years old—some more than three times that— and they hid their reactions well. Extremely so.
“When can we expect the arrival of the heir?” Agmendias asked once the felicitations were over.
“Sometime in the summer. I am not sure of the Dardaptoan race’s reproductive requirements.” Rathan made a note to study everything he could find on Dardaptoan birth. He would do what was necessary. He would set Phelius the task of studying the Dardaptoans while Kindara worked the task of studying the demons.
“Excellent. So you will be filling your court and calling your first session within the week?” Agmendias nodded his approval.
“Provided all goes well with my mate’s kin. And we find the missing girl healer.” Rathan glared at the older male. In his stead, Agmendias had been charged with keeping the peace between the two Kinds. It was abjectly clear that he had failed in that duty. “I also aim to find out why one of the warrior twin kings was held in my castle for more than a fortnight. We are allied with the warriors. A trust we cannot afford to have destroyed. I will be sending an envoy to their castle forthwith to convey my apologies and gifts of reparations.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Have you found her yet?” Kindara met the demon at the door to the suite one of the maids had led her back to. She knew it had to be the demon’s. It smelled like him and was decorated in bold colors that reminded her of him.
“We are looking, my love. I will be sending an envoy in moments. I just need to decide whom I trust the most to handle these negotiations diplomatically. My sister…was last seen in this warrior king’s hall.”
“Did he take her, too?”
“He or his brother. Danae was sent on a mission two days ago. She should have contacted me or Phelius. Or Ren. And has not. I wait two more days for word from her. But your Bronwen, the story is different. She can be purchased back or taken. Honor demands they not just release her. Any more than I would have been able to release the warrior king without some type of compensation.”
“You trade in prisoners? In people? Is that why your brother has still not left in search of his daughter?
You will trade her back to him later?”
“It’s not as barbaric as you’re making it. Tell me, how is the warrior woman?” He led her into the suite, guiding her to the small couch beneath the first of six large bay windows.
“Improved. So far as we can tell. There are no signs of infection and the skin around the injuries is looking better. But she still hasn’t awakened.” Her puzzlement was clear for him to hear in her words.
“But she is healing. Mayhap she has been granted rest from your goddess.” He sank down beside her and pulled her closer. He rubbed a hand up her spine and down again, the gesture meant to relax and soothe.
“I think it best she stays unconscious. For her sake, and because once she learns of Bronwen, she will fight to find her. Auri needs to be kept calm and quiet so that she has a better chance of healing.” She relaxed against him, her movements stating that she wanted his comfort and that she felt comfortable with him.
The ease with which she accepted him and his touch thrilled him. Soon, she would see him as an integral part of her life.
“We will retrieve your healer and my sister while Aureliana rests. I will send Phelius. He can speak with the healers of the warrior kind while he is there. He has compiled books of all the healing skills of our people for you to read. To study. You can do that at the warrior woman’s side.” Safe, in his keeping, while he set about restoring his reign. He had much to do, and he did not trust her safety to those around him.
Had he suspected his realm was in such disarray, he would have insisted she stay at her brother’s side. Now, even if he sent her back to her world, she faced danger. Demons could enter her realm at will with just a few simple words to open a portal, even inside her king’s home. It would be nothing to just open the portal, take her, and disappear into one of the seven realms forever. Take her and the spawn away from him.
It would devastate him to lose her. To lose their spawn.
His arms tightened around her.
“What is it?” She tilted her head up, looking out of tired, worried gold eyes. “What else is the matter?”
“I am so very sorry for all tha
t has happened.” He brushed a kiss against her forehead. She did not pull away from him. “I thought Relaklonos would be safe for you and your friends; instead it poses more danger than Colorado. I can promise you that it will not be this way forever. I will flush out the traitor amongst my court and provide you and our spawn—our babe—a safe and beautiful home.”
She stilled. “This is not my home, demon. My stay here is temporary. You know that.”
“I understand you have responsibilities, my pet. But so do I. We must divide our times between our worlds; teach our spawn to live a full life in both.”
****
Kindara thought on his words for several long moments. What did she want to do? The babe was a reality, and one she must accept. And like it or not, chances were good the babe would be male. Demon, like his father. Could she keep a demon child from the one male who would protect and teach him? Could she do that to her child?
No. Her child deserved his heritage. And he or she would have it. And that meant the demon and she would spend hundreds of years together. Could she do it? “Let’s just worry about finding Bronwen and healing Auri. Then we’ll find the things I need while you work on taking care of your kingdom. That’s all we can do. We’ll work out what to do about the babe later.”
“The babe is what I will think of every moment of every day. When I am not thinking of you, my pet.” His hand slipped lower, toyed with the sash of green satin that tied her fresh tunic at her waist. Kindara’s breath caught as the white material parted. Her nerves heated as the demon’s hand skimmed the skin of her side. “When I am not with you, you will be thinking of me. Won’t you, pet?”
Captive By Night: A Dardanos, Co. Taken Collection Page 57