His missing sister. The one he had left her and Aureliana and Bronwen and Belnus to find. She had almost forgotten that his sister was missing. Shame filled her. No doubt, his sister was as innocent as Bronwen. “Did he take her, too?”
“He or his twin brother. They rule the nearby territory of Lozicano. Danae was sent on a mission of peace weeks ago, to their capitol city, Dracanis. She should have contacted me or Joru 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 now. Honor demands they not just release her to me. Most likely, she’ll return, with a price of twice her body weight in gold. That is typical for a political prisoner of her rank. Any less than that, won’t happen. That would make them appear weak, and they will not risk that. 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. And I am not the one to have taken little Cerridwen. Apparently, she did nothing more than wander off in search of a playmate named Argi and get herself lost among all the foundlings, I believe. No, this is different, a tradition older than I am. The prisoners involved are always well-treated, given jewels and gifts for the inconvenience when their captivity is done. Most females of high rank speak as if they enjoy being taken as prisoners. We have entire novels devoted to political prisoners falling into gamata with their abductors. Tell me: How is the warrior female?” He led her deeper into the suite, guiding her to the small couch beneath the first of six large bay windows. She sank onto it and stared up at him, not sure which of the people she cared about that she should worry about first.
“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 wakened.” Her puzzlement was clear for him to hear in her words. “She has been taking blood. Part of that blood is demon, and I worry what that will do to her in the long run. Your brother Renakletos stopped by to donate. I believe that monster might just feel guilty for what he has done to her.”
“I have no doubt that he does. Like I’ve said before—he is part Incubi. Most Incubi will not hurt a female for anything. She is healing. That is a good thing. 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. She had to admit it helped her settle. Made her want to curl up on his lap, with his strong arms so tight around her the world—or worlds, as the case was—could not find their way back to her.
She just wanted to be safe, wanted all those she loved to be safe and happy again.
That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? She had devoted her life to helping her people. Now, she was past the point of exhausted. She was about to collapse in on herself completely. And she had barely gotten started on studying demon healing arts.
“I think it best she stays asleep. For her sake, and because once she learns of Bronwen, she will fight to find her. Aureliana needs to be kept calm and quiet so that she has a better chance of healing. She practically raised the girl, Rathan. She and Bronwen’s brother Thadd are extremely close friends, as close as siblings. And the two of them together assumed much of Bronwen’s care as a child. She loves Bronwen as a mother would. And protects her fiercely.” She relaxed against him, unconsciously seeking his warmth. A part of her settled as the scent of his blood sank into her starved lungs. “I fear what it will do to her recovery if Bronwen is not found before she wakes.”
“We will retrieve your healer and my sister while Aureliana rests. I shall send Phelius. He can speak with the healers of the twin demon king’s Lozicano 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 female’s side, while she rests.”
“This was supposed to be a simple exploratory mission, demon. Yet two of my people are injured, and the third was abducted by a demon. What if he feeds off of her? She’s as virginal as a female can be, and completely naive. Helpless.”
“He is a bloodsucker, not an Incubi demon. There is a difference. At most, he will drink from her. Which we both know will not kill her.”
“She has to be so afraid.” A fear Kindara herself knew far too well.
“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 among my court and provide you and our spawn—our babe—a safe and beautiful home. Whoever is ultimately responsible for holding Koios captive in the first place will make reparation for this to the female.”
She stilled. This…this was not the conversation she was prepared to have now. Not until she had Bronwen back and Aureliana and Belnus were well on the way to recovery. Until she had a better plan in place. “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. Though she did not understand this world she was now in, it was a part of her babe.
Her child deserved his heritage. Both parts of 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 spawn 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 hasha of green satin that tied her fresh vestis 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?”
She should have pushed him away. Kindara knew it, but the male—the damned demon—had hands that burned her. And he used them well.
He pulled her up, then turned her to recline against the window seat. He pushed her vestis the rest of the way down her arms, using the sleeves to pin her wrists behind her. Kindara arched, knowing what position he wanted her in. He’d had her in it before.
His eyes heated, burned the red fire she recognized as Incubi lust. She smiled.
He was so…easy…sometimes. He wanted her. Completely.
This was what she needed—this would make her forget for a little while. She pulled her hands free, jerking the white satin, causing one sleeve to rip at the seam. She didn’t care; she wanted to touch him. To grab him and put her mark on the golden flesh she knew waited beneath his shirt.
He was not Iavius, but he was hers.
She would have him when she could. Her hands sank into the black silk and she curled her fingers into claws; she ripped his shirt free of his trousers and over his shoulders.
“Pet?” His whispered word held indulgence and lust. Strong heat that evoked an answering flame inside Kindara. “Be gentle, my love. We must take care.”
“I don’t want gentle, demon. I want to forget.” Kindara stood, then straddled him. “Help me forget.”
52
Aureliana was propped up in the bed when Kindara entered her chambers the next morning.
Kindara stopped in the door frame and stared at her friend as relief filled her. “You’re awake.”
“I’m awake.” Aureliana moved with deliberation, rising up farther in the pillows. But her eyes were clear, and she was breathing well. Her cheeks were filled with better color than they had been before. “Was I not supposed to be?”
“I’ll admit it: for a moment there, I doubted you’d ever wake again.” Kindara sank to the seat beside the bed. What she wanted to do was grab the other female and cling,
just like she had thirty years ago. This…this was the sister of her heart. And always would be.
“How would you have explained that one to Aodhan?” Aureliana’s nonchalant tone belied the pain that Kindara read on her face. “So what exactly happened? I remember fighting the purple demon warrior. I remember tasting something not Dardaptoan and remember you sewing me up like a damned pillow. And burning. Intense, painful, I-never-want-to-think-about-it-again burning.”
“That was pretty much it. I used an embroidery stitch so it would look pretty. You…will scar. It was that bad. The purple demon warrior carried you to the castle here and you drank from him while he carried you. He most likely kept you from bleeding out. He helped Rathan hold you while Bronwen and I sewed you back together again. I’m not sure where he is now.” Off on demon political business, no doubt. Rathan refused to speak of his brother; just burned angry whenever the purple creature was brought up. “We used demon astringent, and it appears to work.”
Aureliana’s eyes widened, and she just stared.
They both understood the enormity of what she had said.
Kindara was still filled with questions.
“Why? Why did he attack like that? That is something I am still trying to figure out.” A look Kindara couldn’t identify—but almost looked like a cross between grief and betrayal—crossed Aureliana’s beautiful face.
“Apparently, he had just been told his only daughter had been abducted.”
“Poor child. Has she been found?”
“I don’t think she was ever taken. Something about her wandering off in search of a demon playmate. But it came on the heels of his favorite sister being taken. He overreacted; he admits it himself. Says he was just toying with you, and you fell. He apparently acts first, thinks last.” Kindara leaned in to check the stitches holding Aureliana’s skin in place over the wound in her back. She hesitated before continuing. “I have something I need to tell you. It’s not good.”
“Ok. Shoot.”
“Apparently, Relaklonos is divided into seven semi-warring feudal kingdoms, with eighty-three lesser kingdoms, each with dozens of different types of Demons. Rathan is king of them all, with the other kings ruled by him. It seems that while he was busy abducting me, some of his lesser kings and queens had another one of them held hostage here. That king…he took Bronwen the night you were injured. As a political prisoner. She’s being held a good two hundred miles or so from here. Demons have been sent to retrieve her, with a ransom of two times her body weight in gold. Evidently, they have a fund in place for these very things.”
Aureliana would have jumped from the bed if Kindara had not blocked her. Had not anticipated that very thing. “Stay, Auri. Rathan is getting her back now. He says it’s mostly political and she won’t be harmed.” Probably. He hadn’t been able to say so for certain.
She wasn’t about to tell Bronwen’s foster mother that, though. Kindara hadn’t made it to four hundred nineteen by being stupid.
“How? Has he organized parties to intercept this warrior bastard? Are you sure she’s still alive? What is he doing? Have you contacted Aodhan or Theo?”
“He is sending his cousin to the warrior king’s capital city. They will trade her back or purchase her back. Apparently, they cannot release prisoners here without some sort of face-saving measure. Jewels and gold were mentioned. Bronwen’s body weight in both, so they’re not getting such a great deal after all, considering how small she is. Rathan assures me she will not be harmed or killed. He will get her back for us. It seems his younger sister was also taken by this demon-warrior king’s brother. They’ll be trading to get her back as well. It’s a way for these demon kings to save face.”
Aureliana calmed slightly.
“You trust him, don’t you? Despite everything that has happened, you’re beginning to depend upon him. Are you sure you should?”
“I think I have no choice. Not anymore.” Kindara brushed a hand over the spot she knew the babe rested. He was so tiny, but the healer and mother in her knew where her babe slept.
Aureliana’s eyes narrowed, and she stared at Kindara for several long moments. “Kinney…what do you mean?”
“I’m carrying his babe, Auri. A babe. A babe who will be king of this world.” Kindara was inexplicably nervous. Aureliana was the first person other than Barlaam that she’d told. “He…I am having another babe, with the king of the demon world.”
“Can we have demon babies? Is it even possible?”
In four hundred years, Kindara had never seen Aureliana as shocked as she was right there in front of Kindara.
“It is. Barlaam confirmed it before we left. And…and I feel him. There’s a babe. A little boy who is already fierce of spirit.” Kindara’s eyes welled as she remembered telling Aureliana about the first babe she had carried. Carried and lost. “I will not lose this one, Aureliana. I…cannot lose him, too.”
Aureliana’s eyes filled. She’d held Kindara for days after Cormac and Dhar Rydere had found her, found Iavius’s body. Aureliana had held her while she miscarried Iavius’s babe that very night. “You won’t. Kinney, you won’t.”
“Barlaam agrees. So does the demon. Said they rarely ever lose one. There’s a strong, very high chance of a successful pregnancy.” But there was no guarantee Kindara would live to see her babe’s first breath.
She hadn’t forgotten that part either.
Her time to save her people might very well be running out; each day her babe grew stronger.
“And after the babe is born? What will you do then? With the demon?”
“Somehow split our time between Colorado and Relaklonos, I think. It will take years, possibly decades to study the medical practices of Relaklonos and the realms. Then even longer to create possible medications for our people. My time here could be justified…”
“That is not what matters. Your time doesn’t need to be justified. It’s your time. And you deserve it.” Aureliana draped an arm around Kindara, her movement slower and more deliberate than usual to accommodate the fresh stitches. “I think, after all that has happened to you, you deserve time for yourself that is not devoted solely to our people. Iavius and Erastine would have wanted that. You deserve to be happy.”
“Happy with an arrogant demon who expects everything to go his own way?” Kindara thought of the first time he had touched her, thought of the heat in his eyes. Then of the moment he’d told her of the babe, the tenderness on his face. She thought of the way he spoke of Joselyn and Mickey and the rest of the Taniss females. How he’d hugged Jade back at the Taniss vacation cabin.
He was almost more of a father to Jade than her own father at times—and that was saying a lot, considering how strong of a bond Jade had with her sire.
She hadn’t miss the tenderness with which he spoke of his younger sister and Renakletos’s young daughter.
He cared. And she knew he cared for her. Somehow. “He’s not my Rajni, Aureliana. I never contemplated life with someone other than Iavius. Not in thirty years.”
Aureliana stared at her for a moment. “Iavius would not have wanted you to be alone forever. He’d want you to find someone to be happy with, if that was possible. It sounds like it is possible now. A miracle. Doubtless, a gift from the Goddess. He would want you happy. And you haven’t been.”
“Life is a long time to be with someone other than a Rajni, Aureliana.”
Aureliana sighed before settling back into the pillows. “Life is a long time to spend alone, period. I have done it for over four hundred years, with just a few short-lived affairs to tease me with hints of the real thing. I don’t think I have a Rajni at all. I’m fated to spend the rest of my life alone, and I can’t change that. Wake up, Kin. Take your chance while you can.”
53
Ren lashed out with a long leg, and Rathan avoided it in the last possible second. He knew better than to battle this particular brother. Renakletos was one of the strongest demon males in existence. Yet when his brother had challenge
d him to a duel, he had known—Ren had something he wished to say. And his brother could not deal with emotions without battling through them first. Literally.
Rathan could do no less than listen.
“I do not believe the housekeep’s explanation that Cerridwen ran away to find a playmate.” Ren leveled a look at him as he swung out with his sword. He was the greatest sword wielder of all time, his brother. Rathan was immensely proud of him. But the thought that Ren could have betrayed him—stabbed as deep as any sword blade possibly could. “It is too simple. Her nurse, Isolde, would never be so lax with her care—nor would Cerridwen break one of the rules I have in place for her. She knows better than that.”
“I did not take the wee Cerri. And had I known my court was as filled with traitors as it is, I would have seen to it she was taken to Gaia and kept far from this place while I dealt with the Taniss oath I had made; you could have collected her after your own business concluded. You know that, right?” And Rathan would have. The five-year-old was as dear to him as Danae. She was his current heir, after all.
Despite the council’s anger at her being female.
He had countless other nieces and nephews, but Cerridwen was special to him. All knew that. Which made her a target. Once the kingdom learned of Kindara and the spawn, they too would be targets. “I would not risk her life for anything. Her or Danae.”
“You suspect Agmendias.” Renakletos’s tone said he held no surprise. “I have for a long time. And he was particularly close to our father, if you remember.”
Rathan lowered his sword. “Are you implying Agmendias holds responsibility for Father’s disappearance?”
“Someone was. I know you think it was me.” Ren gave one more good blow to Rathan’s arm before he too lowered his sword. Rathan let his brother have that last blow. Ren was a prideful demon, after all. More so than Rathan. “I’ve made my peace with that. Decades ago. Had I been in your position, I may have seen it the same way. But I knew it was not me. Therefore, it must have been someone else close enough to Father to have had access. My sources say there was a female. Possibly a Nellana—from the world from which you just came. At first, I thought the dark-haired female was of that Kind. I have seen very few Dardaptoan females. Several Nellana. Most had that dark hair.”
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