“I am Ensign Boca Ador of a Peace Alliance rescue ship called the Liberator. We were intending to free you, but they have incapacitated Doctor Chiang. Now it appears we are captured as well,” Boca said. “Can you move to the front so I can see you?”
“I cannot walk,” Kefira said. “Wires have been inserted in my limbs, and they use a device to cause me great pain.”
Boca walked away from the gap to grip the bars. She screamed in frustration and then smacked the unrelenting metal.
“Why did you show me a destiny I could not change?”
But no stoic entity with a knowing gaze replied to her question.
“Slaggika,” Boca swore loudly.
The female they came to rescue couldn’t walk. Chiang wasn’t conscious. Even if she managed to subdue a guard and escape the cell herself, she wasn’t going to be able to take them with her.
She would have to tolerate the situation and keep hoping Chiang regained consciousness soon.
***
The banquet table was laid out with more food than Malachi had seen in many years, regardless of which host body he had been in.
On the Liberator, food was rationed, prepared carefully, and served immediately. With so many planets in organic crisis, nourishment for the physical body was never wasted, and rarely put on gross display. The spoilage of anything edible was a punishable offense on Norblade. Apparently on Lotharius, the potential spoilage was sign of great wealth.
As they took seats, Malachi placed Seta on one side and Rena on the other. Liam shook his head about sitting and took a protective stance behind them, keeping his back to the wall.
“Did you have to violate her so visibly?” Rena demanded.
Malachi looked at Rena. “Want to kiss me and remove the vile memory? I can easily convince you there is no competition there.”
“Add it to your collection,” Rena said, ignoring Seta’s warning glare. “There is no competition.”
Malachi leaned into Rena, deliberately blowing on the top of her ear. “Indeed—that is a profound truth,” he whispered, noting the shiver that shook her.
Across the table, Issa Onin took her indicated place next to Orem Sel. Malachi could see the great pleasure on the wicked ambassador’s face as servant after servant came to meet her every need.
Looking to each side, he noticed the females next to him barely registered any emotion as they were handed warm towels for cleansing and offered any beverage they wished.
“Not impressed with the offerings of our opulent host?” Malachi asked Seta. He already knew Rena didn’t care, because he didn’t either.
“I find this feast obscene,” Seta said softly, making sure the host did not overhear her comments.
Malachi laughed. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Eat, please,” Orem Sel said loudly, having to raise his voice to span the distance across the table he’d had specifically built for intimidating his guests.
Malachi watched his host warily. Orem Sel was smiling instead of eating. “Since you didn’t know when—or if—I was coming, I find it hard to believe that you had time to prepare this feast in the short time it took to say hello.”
Orem Sel laughed at Conor’s wit. Sources had shared many things about Conor Synar, but none had mentioned his wit. “I eat like this every day, but the company across the table is rarely so interesting.”
Malachi narrowed his gaze at the false flattery. Orem Sel was hiding something. Two guards suddenly appeared in the doorway of the room. One remained there closing the door gently behind him. The other went to Orem Sel, speaking softly in his ear. Malachi watched the ruler smile and nod in approval, obviously very happy with his minion’s performance.
Rena’s hand clutching at his arm brought his attention back sharply. “The food—I ate without thinking. My host suffers for it.”
Her head bobbed as her eyes closed. Her body fell sideways out of the chair forcing Malachi to catch her before she fell.
“No,” he called out, sliding back to scoop her close. The pleasurable warmth of holding Rena Trax’s body for once failed to comfort him. He glared at the smiling man across the table. “What have you done to her?”
“Nothing that cannot be undone—when I am ready,” Orem Sel said quietly. “She sleeps for now. How odd it is that only one of your Ethosian mates seem to be affected. I made sure both got the same.”
Malachi looked at Seta and saw her eyes glowing white.
Ignoring the statement, Seta stood and walked quickly to her sibling, reaching out a hand to check for life within her form. “Does Rena still live?”
“Yes. The despicable Lotharian is telling the truth. Though this state seems a bit more problematic than sleep,” Malachi said firmly.
But what he was thinking was that the emissary’s spirit could leave Rena’s body to come help if she desired to do so. Why wasn’t she liberating herself of the skin suit she professed to detest?
“Liam—I believe our Lieutenant is getting churned up,” Malachi said in warning, watching his master swing his attention to the female who should be in a similar condition to Rena.
Seta glared at the gloating Lotharian across the table. “To what end do you practice more treachery?”
Orem Sel looked away from the angry female to her even angrier owner. “You need to train your females to be more respectful, Conor.”
“And you need to heed my warnings better,” Malachi said tightly, his eyes blazed and a second later all the guards fell, their weapons clattering against the stone floor.
Orem Sel didn’t flinch. Instead he laughed loudly. Hearing the deceitful male laughing, Malachi felt rage build inside him to a proportion he rarely experienced, even in all the years he had served the Synar family and killed for them. This was the first time he had wanted to kill in a long while—wanted it badly in fact.
He felt Liam put a hand on his shoulder. “Glad you took out the guards, but let us keep a cool head,” Liam cautioned.
Orem Sel just laughed harder.
“You find this amusing?” Malachi demanded.
“Immensely,” Orem Sel said. “You have already seen I am protected. Keep this up and the beautiful Ethosian’s death will be on your hands. Her body cannot last forever in this state. I’m just sorry I didn’t get both females. Did you really think I was going to trust you?”
“You are a fool to test my patience this way,” Malachi said, turning to the male who had come to stand beside him. “My mind is clouded with concern for her, Liam. I don’t know how males function in this mental condition.”
“You learn how to set it aside to do what you must. Now pass me her body,” Synar ordered.
Malachi looked at the female in his arms, worry engulfing him. He had to know what was wrong with her.
“Yes, I agree we must find out,” Synar said, seeing Malachi’s thoughts clearly. “So go into Orem Sel if you are able. Not being able to harm him doesn’t mean you can’t just look around. The answer to what she has ingested and its effects must be within him. Find out what he’s planning if you can.”
Seta swung back. “I don’t understand. What are you ordering him to do, Captain?”
“Lieutenant, I’m sorry you had to find out this way. It was Rena’s request that I not share this,” Malachi said flatly.
He lifted from his host to the sound of Seta drawing in a shocked breath. He hovered over Orem Sel and then went inside to the sound of the man protesting the invasion.
This may take a while Liam, he sent. There are energy blocks everywhere.
Do what you must. Be as quick as you can, Synar returned.
“Is demon invasion really necessary, Synar?” Issa said. “We have no idea what Orem Sel was even planning.”
“No, of course not, Ambassador,” Synar replied. “Next time maybe he will poison your food as well. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be inclined to hold your comatose body in my arms. I’d let you fall to the cold stone floor.”
“There’s no
need to be sarcastic about the matter,” Issa said.
“Malachi is—he is—he is really a demon?” Seta declared.
“Aye,” Synar said, admitting what could no longer be avoided. “Pull yourself together, Lieutenant. This crisis isn’t over yet. Relieve the guards of two fully charged laser weapons. We may need them shortly.”
“Aye—Captain,” Seta stammered in shock, walking to the guards. Everything suddenly seemed surreal to her. All this time—what she was sensing. She had never met a demon before. Malachi was not representative of her training though.
As she gathered the weapons, she also watched Orem Sel frozen in his chair, eyes wide in alarm. What was the demon doing to him? She put one weapon in the band of her skirt. The other she carried back to Captain Synar, whose eyes would glow now and again as he stared at the quivering body of their evil host.
She held the weapon out until his full attention was on her again.
“Lieutenant, how are your firing skills?” Synar asked.
“You won’t find my skill lacking,” Seta said.
“Yes—I’m sure, but have you ever killed?” Synar demanded.
“No,” Seta answered finally, unable to lie. “At least—not since my I joined the Peace Alliance.”
“Today it might be necessary, so accept that now,” Synar ordered. He looked at the ambassador. “We’re finding Chiang and Boca, and then we are leaving. Are you with us or not?”
“I can be no good to the Peace Alliance if I leave,” Issa said.
“You won’t be any help to anyone if you are dead,” Synar said.
After what seemed like hours instead of minutes, Seta watched a black mist exit Orem Sel, who trembled as he watched the mist flying across the room and back into Conor Synar’s body.
“I am chosen. I am to be spared,” Orem Sel protested. “Why were you allowed to possess me?”
“Possess you?” Malachi said with a snort. “Hardly. The only reason I’d possess you would be to kill you from the inside out.”
“Malachi—tell us what you learned,” Synar ordered. “We’ll deal with him after.”
“There will be no after for the emissary’s host. The poison is deadly. The body will not recover,” Malachi said tightly.
“I do not accept that,” Synar said, standing and passing Rena’s body back to Malachi, who took it reluctantly. “Do not get resistant on me now. And do not start to grieve a loss that I don’t see happening.”
“Lieutenant Trax,” Synar barked, heading around the table. “Locate the energy signatures of Chiang and Boca.”
Seta turned back to Malachi. “Who is he speaking to? My host has succumbed to the poison as well.”
“Liam—we seem to have another problem,” Malachi said flatly. “Speak your name, demon.”
“I am Zorinda,” she said, walking to face Malachi. “Who are you?”
“I am Malachi, the Demon of Synar. You must obey and help us, Zorinda,” Malachi said coldly.
“No one controls me,” Zorinda said firmly. “The emissary’s hold is no more within me.”
Malachi’s eyes blazed, and he watched her back up in alarm. “Let me put it this way then. In terms of energy, I’m a big demon and you’re a little demon. You will do as I say or be absorbed until your every vibration is indistinguishable from mine.”
“Very well,” Zorinda replied. “I see you speak the truth. I will comply for now.”
“You will comply until I say otherwise,” Malachi said coldly. He pointed and looked to Liam, who was binding the Lotharian ruler to his chair. “Obey my master.”
“Raging fires of Helios, your Ethosian mate holds a demon as well?” Orem Sel exclaimed. “I see I bargained for the wrong female.”
Synar tightened the straps. “What did you do to Chiang and Boca?”
“They are unharmed, just restrained. Release me and we will reach a new accord. I can see that I’ve acted with poor judgment toward your family,” Orem Sel said.
Synar looked across the room. “You can use the device inside your host’s adornment to find our people. Or you can use your demon energy to find where they might be holding prisoners.”
Seta’s eyes glowed brilliantly and then settled. “My host body is quite intuitive without your scanner. They are in chambers beneath us. There are three held there.”
“Liam?” Malachi asked. “What are we to do with…this body?” He couldn’t bring himself to say her name—not even that of her host. Pushing down the sensation that rose inside him, Malachi tightened his grip on the still warm form of the female he held.
Synar had great empathy for Malachi’s predicament, but he said nothing as he looked to his right. “Are you staying or leaving with us, Ambassador?”
“I’m staying…with my new mate,” Issa said boldly. “I find him highly entertaining.”
“If you free Orem Sel before a full revolution on the timekeeper, I will send Malachi back to kill you. Do you understand me, Ambassador?” Synar asked.
“Quite clearly, Liam Synar. I hope you and your demon spawn mate meet a horrible death soon,” she said sweetly, smiling at the Norblade male she was glad not to have to answer to anymore.
Synar walked back around the table. “Pass me Rena Trax’s body. We are taking it with us. Do you know where the emissary has gone?”
“No. I feel nothing from her,” Malachi said tightly, passing the body over to Liam, who tossed the slight female casually over one shoulder. Something inside him winced at Liam’s callousness, but another part of him said there was no one in the body anyway.
What did it matter if they left behind the human skin suit, as the emissary had called it? When the thought of doing so brought a dark cloud over his energy, Malachi decided he didn’t like the weakness of missing her. Or the concern about whether the spirit of the emissary lived on. He had learned to live with the loss of Jonas, hadn’t he? He would learn to live with this.
“Let go your worry for now. It solves nothing to churn on the problem so hard,” Synar ordered but kept his tone sympathetic. It was just hard to believe Malachi cared about a female who had tortured him.
“I do not know how to stop from…churning,” Malachi said.
Synar reached out and put a hand on Malachi’s arm. The gaze that sought his was that of a broken male who mourned. “This is beyond my understanding. Dorian and Ania might be able to help us figure this out. Right now, we need to focus on escaping without doing any more harm.”
“Right,” Malachi said, pulling away from Liam, trying not to dwell on the fact that it had been the first time his master had ever touched him voluntarily.
Taking the weapon Seta had retrieved for him earlier, Synar adjusted it for what appeared to be the setting just below death. He could only hope it was so because he intended to use it on any who did not succumb to Malachi. “Can you take out all the guards in this building without leaving your body?”
“There is only one way to find out,” Malachi said, walking forward and opening the door.
“Follow him,” Synar ordered, watching the Demon Zorinda march out with an arrogant stride Seta Trax had never possessed. Yet he knew instinctively that his lieutenant was still inside the body. The demon had to have simply pushed Seta’s spirit aside when she’d fallen ill with the poison’s effects.
“Show us the path we must take,” Synar ordered.
“Very well, oh temporary master,” Zorinda replied, smiling at his frown.
Just what he needed, Liam thought, another disrespectful demon on his hands.
Chapter 22
Boca paced in the cell, feeling like a trapped animal. Chiang was still unconscious but starting to moan. She kept assuring herself that the horrible noises he was making meant he was fighting off the effects of the drugs. If she believed differently. . .well, she just wasn’t going to allow herself to do so.
Next door, Kefira kept drifting in and out of sleep as well and talking in a language Boca had not heard before and couldn’t understand.
With only her own thoughts to keep her occupied, her mind was unable to find any peace. She knew both Ania and Lieutenant Zade would be disappointed in her inability to calm herself, but what if Orem Sel had been able to subdue the others? Would she and Chiang be killed before the Peace Alliance decided to invade?
Boca swallowed hard at her rising panic and wondered how long she could maintain this state of distress without losing her mind. It was this planet and all its bad memories. It was knowing the male who used to own her still lived.
It was seeing the only one she had ever really cared about lying on the cold stone floor of their cage.
“Be at peace, Che’ta. I am here.”
Boca moved into a defensive stance at the sound of the voice. It was coming from the other side of the bars. “Have you truly come to help, Emissary? Or point out the Creator’s will for me and Chiang is to be in this cage instead of helping Kefira? I do not need more lectures.”
“I have come to help you, but unfortunately not as you wish. And I have come with another gift from the Creators, even though you scorn them as well as me. You are blessed that they favor you anyway. The Creators have said you may choose greater proficiency in battle or increase your healing abilities. Which do you choose?”
Boca snorted at the stoic emissary whose gaze never revealed any emotion. Suddenly, she realized that she did not want to go through her own life pretending that she was as impervious as the being presently tormenting her.
“I want the key to this cell and an unblocked path of escape,” Boca said, her tone adamant.
“Choose one of what I offered, Boca Ador. You can do nothing else. Neither can I.”
Boca closed her eyes, clenched her hands into fists, and swore richly in both Sumerian and English, thinking of her hot-tempered commander and wishing she were here. When she opened her eyes again, her gaze automatically dropped to the semi-conscious male on the floor.
Chiang was annoying, but he could easily bend the metal bars and free them. She had seen him bending metal on the ship. He could also carry Kefira to freedom. All she needed was to be able to heal him so he could do what was needed.
The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series Page 25
