Morwin
Mother Rose waited for us when Chloe and I returned to the ship. I worried that she didn't like us staying out until the last moment, but we couldn't help ourselves.
"My apologies," I said immediately.
"I'm not concerned about that," Mother Rose said immediately. "I wish to have dinner with Zaria and those two new arrivals."
"I will inform her," I said, relieved that I wasn't about to face Mother Rose's wrath. After all, Chloe had only reached adulthood in the past two years.
"Good. She can choose the restaurant. You can join Chloe and the others in the dining room tonight."
"It will be a distinct pleasure to do so."
"Hmmph." Rose turned away from me, then. I was dismissed.
* * *
Zaria
"Morwin?" I stood aside to allow Morwin into my cabin after he'd knocked on the door.
"Rose wishes to have dinner with you and your two new companions."
"She wants to check us out, huh?"
"I believe the idea of multiple mates has her befuddled," Morwin said.
"Oh."
"While I have no problem with monogamy, it appears to be her dearest wish," Morwin pointed out.
"So you think she's worried that Chloe will have to share you?"
"I believe so."
"It all becomes clear, now," I waved a hand. "And this is only after two sort-of dates."
"But," Morwin began.
"No worries," I said. "We'll have dinner with Mother Rose, and I'll bring a few others with me."
"I will let her know," Morwin said. "Thank you."
"Shall I call the ship's Entertainment Director and tell him we wish to rent the theatre to hold all your mates?" Klancy teased.
"Honey, that's really humorous," I said. "And close to the truth."
* * *
Mother Rose
If I'd had any idea how dinner would go, I'd have kept my mouth shut. I had thirteen dinner companions waiting, including Zaria, when I arrived at the Japanese restaurant on the ship.
We had an entire room to ourselves, thankfully, or I'd have been embarrassed by all the stares.
Two women—twelve men. It was overwhelming.
"Please, sit," Klancy pulled a chair out for me. I needed to sit, if all these were Zaria's husbands. I was a fool for expecting only three or four.
Chloe's future played in my mind, too, as I studied the men who were taking seats at the low table after getting Zaria in a chair.
"Introductions?" I lifted an eyebrow at Zaria.
"Of course," she smiled. "I'll go around the table. This is Caylon Black, he's originally Falchani, but now belongs to an elite race of protectors," Zaria said.
"You look Asian," I said to him. He did, with a long, black braid down his back.
"It is easy to make that connection," Caylon dipped his head respectfully.
"This is Ilya, who arrived to help this morning," Zaria indicated the man sitting next to Caylon. "He is a Fifth-level warlock, from Karathia. This is Bleek," she began. I stared. The man was huge and had four arms.
"Bleek is Blevakian and like others of his race, he has four arms, six lobes and a wicked sense of humor," Zaria said before moving to the next man. "This is Phrinnis Tampirus, who has also come to help," she went on. "Tamp is a pod'l-morph, who can become anything animal, vegetable or mineral. Ask him to show you his cactus sometime."
"You can become a cactus?" I asked.
"I like becoming cacti—it is soothing. As is the large, jungle plant I also prefer—whenever it is raining, of course."
"This is Belen, and he's a god," Zaria said. If I'd thought the pod'l-morph and the Blevakian were strange enough, she'd just introduced someone as a god. I wanted to huff my disbelief, but when he became a shining creature, I forced the hiss to remain behind my teeth.
"This is Bekzi," Zaria continued. "He's a lion snake shapeshifter. Next is Gerrett, a Sirenali, along with his brother, Morrett, also a Sirenali. Then we have Valegar, whom you've met, and Edden Charkisul, a diplomat of the highest order who recently joined the ranks of the Avii."
Yes, I was stunned; Edden had blue wings folded against his back. He—I wanted to speak with him. Discuss flight with him. I felt a kinship with any winged creature, and he was no different.
"Last but not least," Zaria said, "This is Kalenegar, Head of the Larentii Council."
Zaria had twelve husbands. How the hell did she keep up with all of them?
Why did she have twelve husbands? The logic escaped me completely.
"It just happened," she shrugged, somehow reading my questions easily without my asking.
"Having multiple mates is common among many races," Kalenegar, who had dark red hair to his shoulders, said. "Mostly among the powerful or wealthy. Female Larentii are very rare, therefore it is logical that she be mated to more than one male of the species. As for these others—she loves them and they love her."
"But Chloe," I whispered helplessly.
"Morwin doesn't have a single problem with monogamy," Zaria smiled. "Set your fears to rest, Mother Owl. Chloe is in fine hands."
"Well, then. Well," I straightened the napkin and chopsticks at my elbow. "I'm hungry. Shall we eat?"
"I second," the one called Bekzi declared. The one who was a snake shifter. I'd never met one of those, before.
"Our server is on the way," Valegar said. "You will have a meal soon."
* * *
Lexsi
"Kory, please say we can have a hot tub at our house," I said, leaning into the jetted, warm water at my back.
"I think I can do that. Where are we living?" He grinned at me from his seat across the hot tub.
"I don't know," I chewed my lower lip for a moment. "I guess I never thought about that."
"It doesn't have to be Kifirin," Kory said. "I can skip to work from just about anywhere."
"But you like living there," I pointed out. "Your family is there."
"I had dinner with my parents once a week," he said, his voice thoughtful.
"You miss them."
"I do. As parents go, they're really awesome, as Earth slang would describe them."
"I miss Mom. And Uncle Edward. I lived with them, although my dad and other uncles visited EastStar often. Avendor is beautiful, but there were times I really wanted to go out on my own, or with friends. I really didn't have many of those—just my brothers. My sisters, well, they barely acknowledged me. Or Mom."
"Jayd and Glinda have so much to answer for," Kory snorted a plume of smoke. "And, as they rule Kifirin, they will never be called to account for those things."
"Mom deserved so much better from them—especially Glinda, since she was Saa Thalarr, once. She could have asked Belen or somebody for help. She didn't. She just pulled my sisters away and took them for her own."
"I know this is a delicate subject, but has the rift ever completely healed between your mother and father?"
I only knew a little about the break-up early in their relationship. Daddy had taken up with another woman, who tried to destroy him—physically and emotionally. Yes, there was more story there, but Mom always refused to talk about it.
As if it still caused her pain.
I think Daddy regretted every second of that pain, but didn't know how to wipe it away. I loved him, but Edward was the one I went to when I needed advice or a shoulder to cry on.
Maybe Daddy felt that loss, too—more than anyone imagined.
"Come over here, onion," Kory held out a hand. I took it and made my way across the hot tub. He set me beside him and wrapped his arms around me. "It's not worth your tears," he whispered against my hair. I realized then that I was crying.
* * *
Royal Palace, Kifirin
Glindarok, Queen of High Demons
I'd asked Roff to come. Yes, now he was a winged vampire, instead of the comesula who'd acted as my valet and bodyguard when I was new to the throne of Kifirin.
I remembered Giff, his child, who'd ende
d up killing herself and her tiny child after committing treason against the throne of Le-Ath Veronis.
He'd had terrible pain in his life. I realized I wasn't being fair by asking him to come. I wanted his advice, nonetheless.
He'd grown since I'd last seen him—not in stature, but in power and wisdom. A light shone in the depths of his eyes that hadn't been there before.
Those I'd served with as a member of the Saa Thalarr had all grown.
They'd changed.
Became more.
While I'd chosen to leave that group behind. My power had withered and became less as a result.
It was a choice I'd made, and I was coming to realize how bad a choice it was.
"I asked Li'Neruh Rath for something," I blurted.
Roff, whose back was turned to me while he gazed out the windows of the palace arboretum, turned swiftly.
"It will not come without a price," he warned, his voice stern.
"I understood that before I asked," I said.
"What did you ask for?"
"I asked for children." I sat on a lounge chair and hung my head.
"What did he say? What were his demands?"
"He hasn't told me the price, yet. He said he would return and lay out the terms then. Only if I agree will I ever have another child."
"Then you are lucky. Others have not been given a choice."
I knew he referred to Gavril, Lissa's son, who'd asked Kifirin for something. The price he paid was terrible, and it had cost his mother and father, too.
"This is Li'Neruh Rath, not Kifirin," I pointed out.
"And yet the price still may be a terrible one. What do you want from me?" He lifted a dark eyebrow.
"I don't know. Not now. Once, the Roff I knew would have sat with me and wrapped his arms about me. That Roff would have said that things would be all right."
"That Roff no longer exists," he said, his voice soft.
"I know."
I hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "What happened?" I said, wiping a tear away. "What happened to me? To you? To the High Demons as a whole?"
"When we met—do you remember that?" Roff took a seat beside me and gently rubbed my back.
"Yes."
"You were so strong, then. Determined. Deliberate. A Queen. Someone who could rule Kifirin. When was the last time you became Thifilatha?"
"During the final battle with the General," I confessed. "It hasn't been needed at other times."
"What if it has been needed? What if you merely failed to answer the call?"
"Jayd," I began.
"Yes. Jayd," he sighed. "No," he held up a hand, "Jayd hasn't been the worst ruler of Kifirin. He hasn't been the best he could be, either. I know you've argued with him during his reign as King, but he generally makes the final decision. Is that not true?"
"It's true," I admitted. "He and Garde."
"Then I hope things go well for you, Queen Glindarok, when Li'Neruh Rath returns and names his price. This time, Jayd cannot make the decision for you."
Roff folded space away from me.
He'd return to Lissa, and the palace on Le-Ath Veronis.
Lissa was a strong Queen. Perhaps the strongest. She had many mates and yet the final decisions were hers. She made them after stern deliberation.
I wished I had her resolve and determination. Twisting my fingers together, I was left to contemplate my failures, past and present.
Chapter 6
Melbourne, Australia
V'ili
We'd gotten little information from the hotel employees in Sydney. The Amterean had paid for his room, then disappeared. They had no idea where he went. Morgett fumed about his disappearance; even using his considerable power, he couldn't locate the dwarf.
"He'd stick out like a sore thumb," Daris said. She had the temerity to file her fingernails in my presence, but I refrained from saying anything. She was Morgett's grand-niece and his pet witch.
"Those affected by dwarfism are few on this world," I pointed out. "Perhaps one in twenty-five thousand. That cannot be hidden easily."
"Yet they exist," Morgett appeared thoughtful. "Perhaps he thinks to hide among others like himself."
"I will begin my research immediately," I said and walked toward the door. Any excuse would work to get away from Daris' incessant scraping of an emery board against her claws.
* * *
New Zealand Waters
Lexsi
"Honey?" Zaria put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug.
How does she know stuff like this?
I was still feeling depressed at breakfast the following morning, although Kory had held me all night long. Homesickness had finally come to call, I suppose, and it had hit me hard.
It's okay, Zaria sent. Suddenly I was enveloped by a warm feeling of love. I wrapped my arms around Zaria, then. Whatever she was doing, it made me feel so much better.
Kory pulled me away eventually, otherwise I may have stood there for half an hour while Zaria babied me in her arms.
"Onion, let's have breakfast," Kory kissed my forehead. "You can sit next to Zaria if you want."
"I only know of one race that can do what you just did," I whispered to Zaria. "Is that what you are?"
She had to be Larentii—had to be. So far, there'd been no other indication, but this—I'd only felt this once before, when Uncle Nefrigar held me after I'd lost my first baby tooth.
"I'm the Vhanaraszh," Zaria smiled at me.
I gaped—I know I did.
"You can Change What Was," I whispered as Kory gripped my hand and led me toward the breakfast buffet.
"That's a secret," Zaria whispered back. "Keep it, okay?"
Uncle Nefrigar had told me stories, too, when I was young. About the Vhanaraszh and Vhirilaszh—female and male Larentii, who could do alone what it would take all five Wise Ones to do together.
Somehow, the Vhanaraszh had taken an interest in the doings here on Earth. It meant, in Earth lingo, that something heavy could be going down.
As if I didn't already know that. It now appeared to be more serious than I originally thought.
"At least Dervil, Laurel and Berke are still in jail," I blew out a sigh.
"The fangs are removed from those snakes," Ilya walked up to embrace Zaria. "What's for breakfast? I'm starved."
* * *
San Rafael, California
Jamie Rome
"Laurel asked to see you. We said not bloody likely," Thomas grinned at me.
"Why the fuck would she want that?" I exploded. "I sure as hell don't want to see her." I thumped the coffee cup in my hand on the granite island, before recalling that I could have broken it.
"We're saying you have no part in all this, but she's been talking to her lawyer, of course, and, even though she doesn't know the last name you're using now, she's convinced her lawyer that you're involved in all this."
"How?" I demanded.
"Her phone has photographs of Berke Gillson—before he, ah, took on your previous body."
"And that's who I look like now," I growled. "Fucking, body-stealing, Berke fucking Gillson."
"Her phone shows her and the previous Berke in ah, compromising positions."
"Of course. It's perfect that she took photographs of them fucking. That's sarcasm, by the way."
"I've been to college. I know sarcasm. We're BFFs," Thomas said, his words dry. "We're trying to keep you away from all this, but Laurel is complicating everything."
"As she has, my entire married life," I complained. "If I'm deposed, and it looks like I will be, I can't say I don't know her. They have photographs." I made air quotes with my fingers. "I'll end up in jail, because I can't explain any of this—so that anybody believes me, anyway."
"I'll contact Opal—maybe she has some advice," Thomas offered. "As it is, if they call you as a witness, at the very least, I'll have to turn you over to the authorities."
"Who will probably toss me into a jail cell witho
ut bothering to ask questions," I mumbled. "Gillson's fingerprints are on more than Laurel, I'd bet my last dollar on it. Any way you look at this, I'm fucked."
"Yeah. That's what Davis and I think, too."
* * *
New Zealand Waters
Opal
"Things are complicated back in the States," I shut off my cell phone with a sigh. "We may have to go back to put out some fires that just cropped up."
"How long will that take?" Kell asked.
He and I stood inside our cabin, still dressed in swimsuits after a late swim in the ship's largest pool. Thomas' call had pulled us away from our stolen moments.
"No idea," I shrugged. "They found images of the real Berke Gillson on Laurel's cell phone. That means Jamie, who now looks like Gillson, may be hauled in on drug charges, murder and treason, just like Laurel. Fuck, this is the wrong time for this to happen."
"What about your association with the Secretary of Defense? Do you think he may be able to help with this?"
"I sure hope so. At least he's convinced of the truth, but the Justice Department and everybody else will think the truth is the biggest lie ever, and discredit us and all the evidence we've collected. Besides, Jamie's been through enough, without having to stare at prison bars while he awaits trial for something he was never involved in."
"Being wrongly accused is more than disheartening," Kell murmured, pulling me against him. "We will deal with this, one way or another."
"We have to, unless we want Jamie to spend his life in jail," I whispered against Kell's chest.
I really didn't want to lay this on Zaria, either; she had enough to deal with. And, if my guess were correct, Morgett, V'ili and the twins had more murder and violence up their sleeves.
It was a terrible, hopeless wish for the body count to remain low.
Because it wouldn't.
* * *
Morwin
"There is speculative information available on your Internet," I told Chloe. She and I occupied a single deck chair after breakfast. She'd asked me about my father and why I was searching for his murderer.
That led to the Metal Library.
"Speculative?" A delicate eyebrow lifted.
"Yes. In all my father's research, there was never a reason or a purpose given for its existence," I said. "I have no idea what excuse the murderer gave for his search, other than the usual treasure-hunting for valuables," I shrugged. "It's not your worry, love."
A Demon's Due: Latter Day Demons, Book 3 Page 7
