"I watched the boy turn into that creature the moment I called out to him," Lok said. "And then he charged me. I was wearing my blades beneath my coat." He had a long coat lying on the ground nearby. "I cut several of them; they surrounded the boyfriend and all turned at the same time. Everybody was running and screaming."
"Can we go now? I'm a little underdressed," I complained.
"And turning blue." Lok lifted his coat and wrapped it around me.
Auri, I'm going to the apartment. Come by when you're done, I sent.
I will. I grabbed Lok's arm and skipped away. He made tea for me this time, while I was dressing in the warmest fleece I could find. I was still shivering when he handed the hot drink to me after I scrambled onto a barstool.
"Reah, you're still shivering, love," Aurelius appeared, followed by Lendill, Norian, Gavin and Tony a few ticks later.
"I'm trying to warm up," I said, sipping the tea. Lok made it stronger than I did, but that was to be expected—he was Falchani.
"Gavril says that the core must be repaired on Campiaa," Gavin sat on my other side.
"I know. I was going this week." I'd always been frightened of Gavin, for some reason. He never let you see what he was thinking and that always worried me. Aurelius was his vampire sire, and Gavin was Teeg's father. Either way, I had to deal with him.
"Am I something to be dealt with?" He tilted his head slightly and looked at me. Gavin was a Spawn Hunter, just as Aurelius, Tony, Drake and Drew were. He could lift thoughts from heads just as easily as the rest of them.
"You scare the bejeezus out of me," I admitted, using one of Lissa's terms. Chash and I used to laugh over that one—we never could figure it out.
"He scares you? Reah, I just watched you shoot eleven of those creatures in four ticks." Lok shook his head.
"Yeah? You're not married—inadvertently—to his son, either."
"Is that what you call ours, too? Inadvertent?" Lendill looked at me while reaching for the sugar across the island. I stared in amazement as it moved on its own, slapping into his hand.
"Uh, honey, you just pulled the sugar to your hand," I pointed out.
"Well, maybe I'm not such a disappointment to my father after all. Now, back to the question." Lendill was like a bulldog. A handsome bulldog, but a bulldog, all the same.
"What would you call it?" I said. "You show up with your father, you're both speaking a language I don't understand and then he says say yes, Reah. I say yes and boom! We're married. Isn't that inadvertent? And before you start," I turned to Gavin, "Arvil San Gerxon demanded that Teeg and I marry. I'd say that was inadvertent, too. And you still scare the bejeezus out of me."
Tony started laughing. Maybe he could. Maybe he'd never been afraid of tall, dark and brooding.
"I do not brood." Gavin declared and sipped his tea.
"Child, she can't interpret what you don't show," Aurelius told Gavin over my head.
"Reah, how would a High Demon stack up against a Spawn Hunter?" Tony was only chuckling now.
"I have no desire to find out," I snapped. If I had anything suitable at hand, I might have thrown it at him.
"What's a High Demon?" Lok was watching and listening with his usual inscrutability.
"Reah." Several voices said at the same time.
"Reah, it is decidedly inconvenient to have to search constantly for you." Corolan showed up, his arms crossed over his chest.
"You could have sent mindspeech," I said, trying to make myself smaller.
"Would you answer?"
"Yes. All those times, you would have gotten something from me, if you'd just bothered."
"Stars have mercy," Corolan rubbed his forehead.
"Who is this?" Lok said.
"Corolan, uh—what's your title?" I asked him. I couldn't say concubine; that was demeaning and didn't fully explain what he was. Well, now he was my lover, too, and I still didn't know how to explain it.
"Special advocate to the throne," Corolan looked at me. "Reah, I want to glare at you. Perhaps chastise a little. Wylend has court, or he would be here himself."
"I know. But leather pants over here can't be alone for a click without getting into trouble." I jerked my head in Lok's direction. Lok lifted an eyebrow at my statement but remained silent.
"And you should consider explaining things to Radolf, he thinks he did something wrong," Corolan continued.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, is he still there?" I asked.
"He's probably in Queen Lissa's kitchen on Le-Ath Veronis, preparing a meal. Badly."
"Let's go," I slid off the stool. I didn't know he'd taken another job. Truly. I thought he was still cooking for Wylend. All of us, Lok included, were taken to Le-Ath Veronis by Aurelius, who volunteered.
"Honey, what's this about you cooking a bad meal?" I stood in Lissa's palace kitchen staring at Radolf, who was grumbling and stirring batter—much too hard.
"Reah, where in the universes have you been?" Radolf dumped the bowl onto the island and nearly ran toward me.
"I had to go kill Ra'Ak spawn. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Heart's love, don't scare me like that again." Radolf put his arms around me and rocked me gently.
"Hon, just send mindspeech next time, all right? I'll answer, even if I'm mad."
"I will. I don't suppose you'd help me cook?" He stood back and looked at me.
"I'm starved. I haven't had anything to eat all day. What are you making?"
"Ox-roast. And I'll feed you something while it cooks."
"Sounds good." I wrinkled my nose at him.
"I love you," he said, leaning in to kiss me. And in front of at least eight other witnesses, I told him I loved him, too.
Radolf, Corolan, Aurelius and Lendill were all there, sitting and eating tiny sandwiches and fresh oxberries while Radolf cooked and I offered advice. Radolf teased me. Fed me a berry. I sat between Aurelius and Lendill, with Corolan on Auri's other side. I wasn't surprised when Tory walked in and sat beside Lendill.
"Baby, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" He sounded hurt.
"I didn't know until a few minutes ago."
"Will you sit with me?" I looked at him and sighed.
"Yes." I slid off my stool and went to him. Lok, who sat apart from us at one end, watched the whole thing with hooded interest.
"Do you know about the Dragon Warlord?" I asked him, even as Tory pulled me off the stool beside him and settled me on his lap.
"The Dragon Warlord is my many times great-uncle," Lok sniffed. Tory pulled my hair back and kissed behind my ear. He knows that drives me crazy and initiates the linking.
"Really?" I was starting to feel it, heat suffusing my body. "Drake, Drew, is your father available?" I gasped and sent mindspeech at the same time. Drake, Drew, Dragon and Crane all appeared in the kitchen. "Lok here," I was breathing with difficulty while Tory kissed down my neck, "is your many times great-nephew, Dragon." Lok stood up, startled.
"My many times great-nephew?" Dragon's inscrutability could eclipse anyone's, Lok's included. And Crane was right behind Dragon in that respect.
"How is the Dragon Warlord here?" Lok whispered.
"Uh, somebody else explain," I breathed when Tory's hand brushed a nipple through my fleece shirt. Tory skipped both of us to his bedroom.
"Reah, baby, I just," Tory was pulling my clothes off as fast as he could. Then his came off. Tory is perfect. Perfectly proportioned for his height, with wide shoulders and well-muscled everything. He never finished his statement. Both of us were so heated by the time we were undressed we made love as quickly as we could. High Demons had what was termed the linking, and the desire feeds off itself until lovemaking is a frenzied affair. We both fell asleep afterward.
* * *
"I am First among the Saa Thalarr," Dragon held out his hand. "We are an immortal race, chosen to combat the Ra'Ak."
"Reah killed eleven spawn earlier," Lok nodded.
"Reah is High Demon. They have the ability
to fight spawn and the Ra'Ak as well. It is the way they are made. Saa Thalarr also have ways to fight them. We are recreated for that purpose."
"Is this the Crane General?" Lok nodded toward Crane.
"Yes." Dragon smiled. "And these are my sons, Drake and Drew. I have another son, Dragon Taylor, but he is with his mate at the moment."
"I haven't had anyone to spar with for months," Lok winced. "I feel out of practice."
"We can take care of that," Crane grinned maliciously. "Easily."
* * *
"Baby, wake up," Tory kissed me gently.
"Huh?" I cracked an eye open.
"Baby, I love you. And I'm an idiot. Tell me you'll overlook that." Tory rubbed his nose tenderly against mine.
"Tory, what will you do if it happens again?"
"If I make you pregnant?"
"Yes. I don't even have an empty birth control chip, now. Karzac removed it since it was drained."
"If you get pregnant again, I'll be screaming with happiness from the top of the palace. Your grandfather will hear me and jump for joy."
"Denevik. I keep forgetting about him."
"Baby, he knows you're not used to this. He would like to see you, though. Just so he'll know you're all right."
"I don't know what to do with all of you. It's too much, almost."
"Don't worry about it. We'll give you as much space as you need. Come on, let me love you again, then we'll go to dinner."
* * *
"Thank goodness," Lissa muttered when Tory steered me into the dining hall later. We had quite the crowd and Lok was sitting with his ancestor. He looked like Dragon and Crane had given him a workout. They weren't ones to allow laxness as far as bladework was concerned.
"Did they beat you up?" I gave Lok an innocent look.
"Pretty much."
"Good."
"Completely unsympathetic," Lok said. His dark eyes sparkled with humor, refuting his statement. Who could hope to meet an ancestor they'd admired greatly, and have them appear, alive, well and able to spar with them? Lok was lucky. Extremely so.
"When will you heal Campiaa's core?" Gavin was back to a previous subject.
"I'll go tomorrow." I'm sure I was a huge disappointment to the old vampire.
"Gavin." Lissa slapped his hand lightly.
"Reah, you remind me of Lissa," Gavin sighed. "You have no need to be frightened of me. Do you think I might harm you?"
"Emotional harm is still harm," I said, lowering my eyes to my plate. "I always think you disapprove of me." A tear fell before I could stop it. "I think I should go now." I pushed my chair back and stood.
"I will come with you." Aurelius was beside me in a tick, motioning Tory back to his seat. He folded me to his home on the light side of Le-Ath Veronis. "My child does not disapprove of you," Aurelius settled me on the sofa overlooking the floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows. The sun was setting over the ocean, and it was beautiful.
"But he always looks at me as if I'm not adequate in some way," I brushed away another tear.
"I think he worries that you are at odds with Gavril. Gavril is his only son—he never made any vampire children. Gavin has suffered too, Reah. He thought his son lost to him, and in a way that is still true. Gavril left at seventeen. Now, he is nearly seventy. Gavin was robbed of those years with his child. Just as you were robbed of your friend."
"My best friend," I said. "Chash is gone forever, and now there's a hard-nosed vampire in his place."
"Then you know how Gavin feels. Lissa, too. Child, all of you were cheated in some way. Gavril is different now, and that will never change. There is a chasm between all of you that might never be bridged or repaired."
"Kifirin," I muttered angrily.
"Gavril is at fault, too, although he made his request at such a tender age. Asking a god for something such as this holds a danger he didn't realize. I think that young boy is still there somewhere inside Gavril, but he is a prisoner now, that Teeg San Gerxon will only allow to come out now and then. You are the key, Reah. I think you are the one to bridge that gap for your Chash. Convince him to surface, once in a while."
"He held me captive, Auri. He knew I was pregnant, and still he was hauling me around, using me as a shield against those warlocks. How am I supposed to feel about that?"
"I believe that pains him more than you might imagine. He thought to keep you safe as best he could while he used you, thinking that your comfort would be seen to during the later months. He didn't know the child would be lost, Reah. None of us did."
"Is Jes still in the dungeons?"
"No, love. He was sent to Evensun nearly two months ago."
"He was damaged, Auri. Mentally."
"I know." Aurelius' voice was soft. His arms came around me, hugging me tightly as the sun slipped below the horizon.
Chapter 7
"Love, must you go?"
"I promised I'd go to Campiaa and heal the core." Aurelius had coaxed me into his bed the night before. Now, the sun was up again and I was getting dressed after my bath.
"You could go later." Aurelius slid an arm around my waist. "Or have breakfast with me."
"I don't feel hungry."
"You didn't eat last night."
"I know. I feel queasy. I'm worried I'll run into Teeg. I want to see Farzi and Nenzi, but that means asking Teeg."
"And you don't want to ask him for anything."
"No."
"Don't you love him at all, Reah?" Aurelius' voice was soft. Persuasive.
"How do you want me to answer that question?" I moved away from him. I wasn't sure about my feelings where Teeg was concerned. What did I owe him? What did he owe me? What could he hope to get from me now? Teeg killed Nidris, then I'd tossed Teeg aside while the Ranos launcher was fired at me. I had no memory of that rocket piercing my flesh, I only knew that it had and that the Larentii—I couldn't say which ones—had saved me afterward. The eternally curious boy that Gavril had been was now Teeg San Gerxon, the King Vampire with nearly unlimited knowledge and inexhaustible resources. He knew almost everything. Except how to get his mate back, an inner voice insisted.
"Auri, I'm going," I said, pulling his head down for a kiss.
"Do you know how much I worry about you?" His hands cupped my face and golden-brown eyes gazed into mine with concern.
"I don't know what to do about that. Even though I'm out of the ASD, I feel guilty if I'm not out there, trying to do something about the Ra'Ak and the spawn and the rogue warlocks. I wake hyperventilating sometimes—did you know?"
"The only reason the Saa Thalarr and the Spawn Hunters aren't out seriously hunting this bunch is because this is outside the norm. Usually they camp on a planet and we go in disguised and hunt them down. These are moving around, and even now Belen and the others are deciding what to do about it. This shouldn't be your worry, it's just you're the one who can do something about it. You and Lissa, perhaps. We live by a structured set of rules, and we have to be sent after the enemy. So far, we haven't been sent."
"So, I'm the rogue and can move about freely," I sighed. "Just as well, I wouldn't want Norian breathing over my shoulder again."
"Reah, he knows he hurt you. And it eats at him. He's a good man; he thought he was doing the right thing. It isn't like Norian to sit still when something can be taken care of right away."
"And we saw where that led." I was ready to go.
"He didn't know Nidris was still free. Nobody did. You and your baby paid the price."
"So you just expect me to forgive right here and now? Is that what you want? Act like it never happened?" I wanted to cry. And shout. At Aurelius, and he hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe in time, I'd drop the anger and guilt I felt over the whole thing. But right then, the pain was still too fresh. If I said I forgave Norian, I'd be lying. I wasn't ready to forgive him.
"No, Reah." Aurelius pulled me against him and hugged me close. "No, my precious love. If there were any way I could make this pain less, I would. I
can only hope time will take some of it away."
"Then it can't pass soon enough, Auri. I want to crawl out of my skin sometimes, just so I can be free of it."
"I know that feeling." Aurelius kissed the top of my head. "Send mindspeech, my darling, if you need help. If I cannot come, then I can ask someone else. I am not without resources, love."
"I know." I skipped away before I broke down completely.
* * *
Campiaa was busier than ever when I landed in the casino at the end of the half-moon bay forming casino row in Campiaa City. Teeg didn't own this one, so I considered it neutral ground. I thought about getting something to eat before healing the core, but because my stomach was still queasy, I decided against it. I'd eat afterward. Instead, I went in search of the spot where the core was leaking.
* * *
Breathing a sigh, I stared at the place on Teeg's private grounds. Trust Nidris to make this as difficult as he possibly could. Tall trees surrounded the small clearing and I could see leaves turning brown already, although it was early summer on Campiaa. I would have to sit down and then turn or my Thifilatha would be obvious to everyone.
I'd skipped onto Teeg's property—I wouldn't have gotten past the guards or over the wall if I hadn't. Feeling exposed, even with trees around me, I undressed and folded my clothing, setting it to the side before dropping cross-legged onto the grass. The grounds were meticulously kept—Teeg made sure of that. Only the best for him, all the way around.
Sighing, I made the turn, my head just beneath a heavy, overhanging branch. "We'll have you back to normal in no time," I promised the brown leaves hanging down around me. Closing my eyes, I focused on Campiaa's daystar.
* * *
Boss, she's here and healing the core! Astralan's mindspeech came to Gavril while he was meeting with the President of Avendor, an important member of the newly-formed Campiaan Alliance.
Avendor grew the much desired gishi fruit that sold on the black market for more money that most drugs. Gishi fruit was delicious and only grew on Avendor. Their climate and volcanic soil saw to that. And, since Avendor was outside the Reth Alliance, it was considered contraband. Until now.
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