"Mother seems to think that about me. I try not to disappoint her."
"And there's your answer, right there," Kevis laughed.
* * *
"Get estimates," I told the head cook, who nodded and smiled at everything I said. Aurelius was also smiling and sending mindspeech, telling me the poor man was star struck. Lok, who was also grinning, told me he'd Looked. The man had watched the Hild Marolla special at least six times. I breathed a troubled sigh and went back to explaining what we needed done to Dee's. Head cook Jorden told me he'd get on it right away. We went over the books while I was there, too. Jorden seemed an honest man; Fes had done well when he'd hired him for me.
When I walked onto the floor of the restaurant, there were stares. And then whispers. I thought to duck back inside the kitchen, but Aurelius and Lok had firm grips on my hand and shoulder, so we went through the place. Jorden spoke to some of the lunch crowd, who seemed to be enjoying their food.
"Excuse me," a mother who was there with three children and an older woman, held a hand toward me when I was about to walk past.
"Can I help you with something?" I stopped at her table.
"You're that woman, aren't you? The one from that program." I wanted to sigh or skip away. Other diners were watching, so I could do neither. All I could do was extricate myself as quickly as possible.
"Yes, I am that woman," I nodded and smiled as pleasantly as I could.
"I saw that conference, too, where they asked you questions."
"Yes, that is certainly me," I agreed amiably. "I own this restaurant, and have for many years. I'll understand if you don't wish to bring your little ones here any longer, although I can assure you that your children would be very safe here. I seldom come. I'm only here today to see what upgrades are needed."
"But you're a hero," the woman sighed. "I stopped watching that stupid reality program after I saw what they did to you. I couldn't help thinking that some of those other people might have suffered at their hands as well. I find that attitude demeaning and revolting."
"As do I. I've never been able to watch those programs. We make fools enough of ourselves as it is. There isn't any real need to publicize it."
"I totally agree," she smiled. She was a pretty woman, with pale-blonde hair and hazel eyes. Her children—three girls, must have ranged in age from six to eleven or so. They were all staring at me while I spoke to their mother.
"Auri," I turned to Aurelius, "will you get some ice cream for our guests, here?" I winked at him when I looked him in the eye.
"Right away." Aurelius walked through the kitchen door and disappeared, coming back with two kitchen helpers, a load of bowls and an armload of gishi fruit ice-cream containers. He'd had to fold to Avendor to get it, but he'd accomplished it swiftly.
"We'll be providing free dessert today," I announced. Jorden placed bowls around the tables while the kitchen helpers dipped out generous portions of ice cream for each guest. The screams and excited shrieks began immediately. "This is the ice cream it's impossible to get," the woman was smiling after she tasted it.
"Yes, it is," I agreed. "We'll carry it here as well as Desh's. Here's my comp-code, if you need anything," I handed a small card with the code to her. "It was a pleasure speaking with you."
"Kevis is ready," Lok said when we finally escaped into the kitchen.
"I'll bring in contractors right away," Jorden's eyes were shining. "When will we have the ice cream?"
"Tomorrow," I said. "But I've been working on a special dessert for Dee's, using the ice cream. We'll unveil that next week, perhaps."
"Thank you," Jorden sighed.
"Call me when the estimates come in," I said as Lok, Auri and I walked out the employee entrance.
* * *
"You don't need another mate," Lok laughed. I thought about elbowing him in the ribs. Aurelius folded us back to Desh's.
"I've got one of the banquet rooms reserved for tonight," Kevis said when we appeared. "And an offer for a free meal, if the King of Karathia and the founding member of the Campiaan Alliance will agree to pose with Fes, here."
"What, you're passing on the Prince-Heir of the Elves?" I laughed at Fes.
"Funny, baby girl. Give me a hug before you go," Fes said. I gave him a hard hug and Aurelius took us away.
"Lunch and then a nap," Kevis ordered.
"Do people always do what you say?" I wrinkled my nose at him.
"If they know what's good for them," he replied. "Come along. I think lunch is ready."
It was. A nice soup with crispy finger sandwiches. The soup was wonderful. Farzi and Nenzi, who'd been out with Edward, came in and sat on either side, eating with me. "We lie down for nap," Nenzi announced when I was pointed to my bedroom.
"Sounds good," I said. I brushed my teeth first, as did my reptanoids. They helped me into lounging pajamas and crawled into bed with me.
"Kiss me?" Nenzi said hopefully.
"Sweet man," I brushed his mouth with mine.
"Your sweet man here for you, Reah-love." Nenzi deepened the kiss, placing hands on my face. His kisses became more demanding. As if he wanted something he'd never gotten before. I blinked at him when he pulled away for a moment. "We give Reah what we always want to give," he said, and came right out of his clothing. When I saw what he wanted and what he now had to get it, at first I was shocked. And then I smiled at him.
Chapter 13
"Dee and Aurelius talk to us," Farzi was smiling, his nose rubbing mine. Had I ever known that lion snake shapeshifters had a few extra vertebrae? It makes them very limber. I was exhausted and now knew exactly how Lissa had ended up pregnant by her Falchani twins. My reptanoids, given back what was taken from them at an early age, had gotten a quick lesson in sex education from two very old vampires. Farzi and Nenzi appeared to be fast learners.
"You sleep now. We want to do this again soon," Nenzi said. "That amazing. We always wonder what fuss all about."
"Fuss?" I turned to Nenzi and gave him a kiss. "That wasn't fuss. That was fun. Amazing."
"Yes. Reah amazing. We do this again. Often."
"Did Kifirin say whether you might father children?" I asked, hugging Nenzi.
"He not say. We not ask. He just say we get back what we lost. And Aurelius say that this not hurt baby. We skeptical at first."
"He's safe, unless somebody means harm," I said.
"We not ever mean harm. We know what happened at awful place. We never do anything like that."
"Honey, I love you. And my Honey Snake, too. I know you wouldn't do that." I rubbed the back of his neck with my fingers. He seemed to like that. He leaned in to kiss me. "You sleep. Tired. Kevis say not to wear you out."
"He knew about this?" I lifted an eyebrow at Nenzi, who smiled.
"He did. He examine us afterward," Farzi turned me to him. His brown eyes held a bit of laughter. "We not know what to think when this happen," he placed my hand on a newly formed erection.
"Honey, you may have to take care of that yourself," I yawned, covering it up as well as I could.
"He say that, too," Farzi grinned. "He say that what showers for."
"Honey Snake, you're going to make me laugh," I said, settling on his shoulder to sleep.
* * *
"Just relax. Let the water support you," Kevis said later. We were having a session in the pool.
"I don't think I can relax when you're asking me personal questions," I said.
"Sure you can. My hands are beneath you. Do you think I'd let you sink?" he asked.
"Hmmph." I glared up at him, his face was over mine and he seemed grimly determined about something. I guess it was a good thing that we'd gotten a swimsuit that would cover Garwin Wyatt when we'd been out shopping for baby things.
"Reah, close your eyes. I wish you'd learn to trust me."
I crossed my arms over my chest, almost turning over in the water.
"Now, what did I say? Wasn't it relax?"
"That's just a word."
I tried. Really. It wasn't going to be easy. "Now," Kevis said when I'd gotten halfway there, "why are you so angry with Tory for not marrying you?" I almost turned over in the water again. "Reah, you're not trying. Meet me halfway, here."
"All right," I stared up at the clouds floating overhead, instead of at Kevis' face. I still wanted to cross my arms over my chest. "He never made any promises to me. Like he did Darletta. The marriage vows are standard across the Reth Alliance. Both parties promise to love, honor and support one another. Tory never said that to me. He did say it to someone he barely knew. How was that supposed to make me feel? He'd made me pregnant—twice—by that time, and there I was, carrying his twins, and he walks away because Wylend lied. Well, lied is the wrong word. Withheld part of the truth, I guess. And he didn't even come to me to ask me about it. He just got all pissy and went off to make promises to Darletta, because she was pretty and crooked her finger at him. I figure that's what I can expect from him always, if we stayed together. He'd get angry over something and find a way to retaliate. I can't live with that."
"Reah, he's one of your last ties to the High Demon race. Are you attempting to isolate yourself?"
"Kevis," I attempted to stand up, discovering that my feet wouldn't touch the bottom of the pool. He was holding me up. My choice was either grip his arms or swim away, and he had a firm grip on my waist. I looked at him, frowning deeply. "As Garde so eloquently put it, I'm only a quarter-blood. I don't belong to that race, in his eyes. They've made that clear. They took what they wanted and cut me loose. And then Tory can't help but mention his bitch ex-wife while we're in bed together. Maybe he didn't see what I saw on Cloudsong or Stellar Winds, but she was in just as deep as her daddy and any of the others. She didn't care that those girls were raped or sold. She didn't care that both Alliances were about to be enslaved. She didn't care that she'd controlled her husband all those years. She wanted to play with people. That's what they were to her—playthings that she could toss aside when she tired of them. I don't care if Tory did mean what he said as a compliment. I don't want to hear her name or her daddy's name or Nedrizif's name or any of the rest of them." I skipped to the side of the pool, lifted a towel and wrapped myself in it before stalking angrily away.
* * *
"You asked. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Kevis turned to a corner of the pool, where Nefrigar and Tory appeared. Nefrigar had shielded Tory from sight while he listened to Kevis' questions and Reah's answers.
"I'm never going to get her back," Tory sighed and skipped away.
* * *
"Son, what are you doing?" Garde walked into the palace kitchen in Veshtul. Tory had one empty bottle and another half-empty bottle of bourbon sitting in front of him.
"Drinking."
"What happened?"
"I never made promises to Reah, but I did to Darletta. When we got married, I said those vows, whether I meant them or not. Reah won't ever forget that. Then I made the mistake of mentioning Darletta's name when we were in bed together not long ago. It was a stupid mistake. I'll never get her back. She's walking away from the High Demon race as a whole. I heard what Kifirin said a few days ago on Cloudsong. He said he made a promise to Jayd that Kifirin would thrive and the race would recover. He used Reah to make good on that promise. He released the mute in her mates, but he didn't release it in our daughters. They think of Jayd and Glinda as their parents, just as Reah says. Kifirin did that to her. And he said he'd have made her pregnant again if she hadn't almost died when Dara and Sara were born. He said that it was a sign that his parent was angry with him over what he did."
"There's a mute in place with those girls?"
"I don't think Kifirin will ever release it," Tory swallowed more bourbon. "They'll never go to their mother. Never recognize what she did for them. And I fucked them around too, didn't I, Dad? I guess the good news in all this is that all my daughters' children will be female. Kifirin said that. Go get Uncle Jayd and do a little dance on top of the palace. Reah won't come back, but you don't give a shit, do you?" Tory lifted the bottle of bourbon and skipped away.
* * *
Reah, wake up my darling, my love.
"Reah? What's wrong, sweetheart?" I'd jerked awake when I thought I heard Edward's voice. It turned out to be nothing and Teeg was trying to soothe me as I breathed ragged, uneven breaths. "It's all right," he pulled me against him. "We'll get up in a moment." We'd made love the night before—for the first time since he'd gotten me pregnant. He'd followed me to bed after the dinner at Desh's in Targis. Fes had sat with Farla, his mother, and they'd shared a very good meal with us. Now, Teeg was placing my arms around his neck and pulling me against him.
"Reah, I've loved you since I was twelve," he murmured.
"That makes me sound like a cradle robber."
"I'm older than you, now," the corner of his mouth twitched into half a smile. "If you count the number of years I've lived, I'm nearly a hundred. Almost twice as old as you." He tapped my nose gently with a finger.
"And you're so mature," I grumped.
"I can be. I usually don't laugh behind the Council's backs or throw spitballs at the ones I don't like."
"An admirable trait in the Founder of the Campiaan Alliance."
"It's part of my job description."
"That you wrote."
"I did, didn't I?" He kissed me, his mouth warm and comforting. "Come on, let's get a shower and get dressed. We have an errand to run this morning."
"What errand?"
"I'll tell you after breakfast. Come on, sweetheart. We have to get up."
I groaned as I slid off the bed. Teeg steadied me and kept an arm around my shoulders as I walked toward the bathroom.
"This looks good." Teeg picked my outfit. A deep-green top, gathered a little to cover Garwin Wyatt with a sprinkling of tiny beads across the yoke, coupled with off-white slacks and light-brown, low-heeled shoes. The outfit had been expensive and he'd paid for it. "Just a little jewelry," he helped put the emerald earrings in my ears. My hair was partially clipped back, with most of it hanging loose. "Now, breakfast," he said. He'd dressed in a very expensive suit and looked to be the founding member of the Campiaan Alliance. I found all my other mates, including Edward, Astralan and Corolan in the dining room, having breakfast when Teeg and I walked in. Kevis was there as well. I was still a little miffed at him, I think.
"Where are we going?" I asked again after I'd brushed my teeth following breakfast.
"To Refizan," Teeg said. It looked as if everybody else was going, too. When we arrived, I knew exactly what was happening and I tried to back out of the hearing chamber. Ceerah Kade sat at a table, cuffs on her wrists and her legal counsel sitting next to her.
"Reah, stay with us," Lendill said behind me. "You and Kevis may have to testify."
"I don't want to," I whispered. Nobody was listening. I was led to a witness box off to the side and sat there with Kevis, Norian and Lendill. The rest of my entourage sat in the seats reserved for the public. They took up nearly half the space. Many other spectators had come to this trial, too. I blew out a breath.
The Citizen's Panel filed in and sat down first, and then the magistrate walked in with his clerk. Everyone in the room stood for that. The trial would be held on Refizan, since that was the location of Ceerah's last crime, but the magistrate was likely a High Magistrate from another world, and he would decide on all pending charges, since Alliance laws concerning drug trafficking were universal.
The clerk went through all the charges against Ceerah, including the aliases she used. "Now, Ms. Kade, how do you answer these charges," the magistrate asked.
"I am not guilty," she said. "I was insane at the time and not in proper control of my faculties."
"But you are not insane now?"
"Yes. I am still insane."
"Has a mental evaluation been perfo
rmed?" the magistrate asked. A clerk brought a comp-vid forward and offered it to him. The magistrate scrolled through the information for a short time.
"It says here that you are competent, Ms. Kade. Now, are you still insane? Remember, the truthfulness of your statements here will be considered when you answer questions later. Bear in mind that you took—and passed—a mental evaluation when you began working for Doctor Halivar. He would not have hired you otherwise, and those records have been provided to this court." He held up the comp-vid.
Ceerah conferred with her counsel for a moment and then said, "I was only insane after I began working at the clinic."
"And those are the least of the charges I see against you," the magistrate observed. "Very well, we will proceed with this hearing."
Ceerah's defense was very weak. All she could do was deny that the fingerprints were hers and insist that the vid-images had been altered—most on unalterable chips recorded by the constabulary or certified businesses. She'd once sold drakus seed to an undercover constable, who identified her from photographs. She'd managed to escape, however, when he attempted to arrest her.
After lunch, several people were brought in, all of whom testified that they'd purchased various prescription medications from Ceerah while she'd worked for Kevis. Many patients in the facility had gotten placebos or sugar pills instead of the proper medication as a result. Kevis was seething beside me at the magnitude of her duplicity. A midafternoon break was allowed, then the magistrate went after it again. I was hoping I could stay awake. Hearings often went far into the night, with a short sleep break before continuing the next day. Some could go on for weeks. I was hoping that wasn't going to happen with Ceerah. I just wanted her to go away. For a very long time.
"How are you feeling?" Kevis asked as we walked out of the Courts and Hearings building into a muggy, Refizani night. We were in the capital city of Ordinandis, which was near a river and the ocean.
"Tired," I said.
"I know," Aurelius said sympathetically, taking my hand and kissing it. "We have a suite of rooms nearby. Edward and some of the others have to go back, but Lok, Lendill, Kevis and I will be here with you throughout."
Demon's Dream (High Demon Series #6) Page 21