Demon's Dream (High Demon Series #6)

by Connie Suttle

  "You're not even worth the effort," I said, skipping away.

  I didn't go far; only to the pool. The water was cool and I still felt cold, so I wasn't going in. The spa beckoned, its hot water frothing in the late morning sun, but I was pregnant. Pregnant women shouldn't get into heated water like that. It made me sigh at the injustices in my life. It wouldn't hurt to put my feet in it, though, and that's what I did. Rolling my pants legs up, I dropped to the edge, set my feet into the water and kicked them gently, mesmerized by the water jetting around my legs.

  "At least you know not to get in," Kevis settled beside me.

  "You don't think I have an active brain cell in my skull, do you?" I glared at him. He muffled a snicker. Leaving my legs in the water, I lay back on the flagstones and stared up at the sky. A few fluffy, white clouds floated by.

  "It may rain tonight," Kevis said, lying back beside me.

  "Now you're the weather predictor?"

  "I have an eighty-seven percent accuracy rating."

  "Damn, you are in the wrong business." My words made him laugh out loud.

  "Tell me about the ASD," he said when the chuckling stopped.

  "What about it?"

  "What did you think of working for them?"

  "Lendill and Norian?"

  "Just in general."

  "Did you know that insects and small animals are afraid of High Demons?" I asked, avoiding his question. "I once captured a criminal as he was running through a sewer, trying to get away. The rats were running ahead of me because they were afraid, and they ended up tripping the guy. He was screaming while a thousand rats ran across his back."

  "Does it bother you that rats and insects are afraid of you?"

  "No. Too bad a few humanoids don't react the same way."

  "I hear you were shot a few times while working for the ASD."

  "Yeah. And blown up once. Teeg was trying to kill Zellar. I was collateral damage on that one."

  "You two have some history."

  "You have no idea. Feel free to ask him about that," I said.

  "And this is his." Kevis reached out to stroke my belly. Lying down like that, it was almost flat, still. "I hear you won't call him by his given name."

  "That person is gone. Teeg is all that's left."

  "What happened to the Reah that knew Gavril?"

  "Gone, too, I suppose. That Reah trusted him. Trusted other people, too. All that's in the past."

  "Pull your feet out of the water, Reah. They've cooked long enough," Kevis said. I lifted my feet out obediently, the flagstones feeling cold beneath them as I settled them there.

  "Now, would you like to lie down on a bed or do you want to continue lying on hard stone?" Kevis turned his eyes to mine. He was lying quite close; I'd just ignored him while I examined the sky. I saw that his lashes were long and dark—something that most women would love to have.

  "I'm going to ask Farzi if he'll buy a hammock," I said, sitting up. "It's warmer out here."

  "Do you feel cold?"

  "Yes. A little. It's warmer on Kifirin's Southern Continent. I suppose I'm used to that." I turned back to examining the sky.

  "Come along. You're tired and you know it. Let's get you in the bath and then bed. You can sleep after we bring you something to eat." He rose, dusted off his designer slacks and then pulled me up. The doctor had his priorities, after all.

  * * *

  "You want to ask us questions?" Jayd stared at Kevis, who sat inside the King's private study, comp-vid in hand.

  "I do. I want to get your perspective on all this, regarding Reah." Kevis had a determined look on his face. At that moment, he looked very much like his father.

  "What do you want to know?" Glinda, sitting in a chair near Jayd, asked. Raedah, Tara, Lara and Kara sat on a sofa off to the side. Lara's High Demon husband had grumbled when she'd been asked to come to the palace and speak with the doctor.

  "I'd like to direct these first questions to Reah's daughters," Kevis said. He had their immediate attention. "Can any one of you tell me what your mother's favorite food is, or what kind of jewelry she likes?"

  All four of them looked at one another. Kevis waited patiently. Glinda frowned, Jayd stared at his hands.

  "Perhaps you can tell me what your Aunt Glinda likes to eat, or what kind of jewelry she prefers." The answers were swift in coming.

  "Aunt Glinda likes noodles in a sauce that Mom makes, and her jewelry has to be small and tasteful," they all agreed with Raedah's statement. "We just flunked a test, didn't we?" Raedah asked.

  "Why wasn't I asked to this meeting?" Garde appeared, angrily blowing smoke.

  "I wanted to question you separately, but since you are here now, invited or not," Kevis nodded in Garde's direction.

  "He's asking us how well we know Mom," Raedah sighed. "We're not doing that well on the answers."

  "What did he ask?" Garde crossed arms over his chest defensively.

  "What Mom's favorite foods are, or what kind of jewelry she likes. We didn't know," Tara said. "But we know what Aunt Glinda likes."

  "And what Uncle Jayd likes, and what you like, Grampa," Raedah said.

  "Now, look at these photographs. Which chin is your mother's," Kevis handed three photographs to Reah's daughters first. There followed a heated discussion over this photograph or that. The results were inconclusive; there was no clear consensus on what Reah's chin looked like. One chin in the photographs had been round, another pointed, a third more square-like.

  "Let me see that," Jayd rose to take the photographs. He and Glinda pored over them for a while. "I think either the square or the rounded one," Jayd flipped through the photographs several times.

  "But you don't know." Kevis pointed out.

  "No," Jayd sighed, tossing the photographs onto his desk. "I don't."

  "Was it our fault, or did Kifirin do this?" Lara asked.

  "I think it may be a combination of the two."

  "And it's too late, isn't it? We should have gone when our father asked us after Mom was hurt. But we didn't." Raedah sounded ashamed.

  "I don't know what to say about that," Kevis replied. "Either you care for her or you don't. If you don't, then I ask that you don't hurt her further."

  "I don't know if it's possible to take back twenty-five years of neglect," Glinda sighed. "And any move we make might be perceived with suspicion."

  "Yes. She is very distrustful."

  "She doesn't need any of us." Kevis jerked his head in Gardevik's direction.

  "Why do you say that?" Kevis turned green-gold eyes on the eldest of the House of Rath.

  "Because it's true. She has skills that will support her anywhere. She doesn't have to rely on us for anything."

  "Does that bother you?"

  "It does." Garde tossed up a hand in frustration, turning his back on everyone in the room to stare through Jayd's huge window—the one overlooking the city of Veshtul.

  "I think she needed love. From all of you. Did you fail her?" Kevis stood and pocketed his comp-vid. "By the way, that delicately pointed chin is hers. You'd have known it if you recognized the beautiful, alabaster skin." Kevis folded away from Kifirin.

  "I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of Mom," Kara pulled the pictures to her to take another look.

  * * *

  "Child, I'm afraid I have bad news," Kaldill Schaff glanced worriedly at his youngest son. Lendill, after folding to Gaelar N'Seith, had sat down for a quiet meal with his father, the King of the Elves. Lendill held the title of Prince-Heir now, and had a standing invitation for dinner with his father whenever he wasn't busy with ASD business.

  "What's the bad news, Dad?" Lendill seldom used any affectionate term for Kaldill Schaff.

  "I'm afraid," Kaldill's green eyes were troubled as he pushed shoulder-length golden hair behind a pointed ear, "that your two oldest brothers are out to cause harm."

  "What? I thought they were held inside Gaelar N'Seith."

  "I removed Naldill's power s
o he couldn't go anywhere, but as usual, Reldill, ever willing to come at Naldill's command, has taken his brother out of the confines of the Elven lands. They took the shot at Reah, child. If Reldill had relied on power instead of his skill with the weapon, she might have taken a mortal blow from that stupid thing. It was something from Naldill's collection of archaic weaponry. Now that they know the Larentii has placed a shield around that farm on Campiaa, they have taken themselves off to cause other kinds of harm. They think to get back at us and Reah in this way."

  "They blame Reah?" Lendill's dark eyes held worry, which in turn worried his father.

  "They do. I should never have mentioned her when I named you Prince-Heir," Kaldill admitted sadly. "She is responsible for removing the spell that Naldill placed upon you. I should have done it myself, but when Reah came along, I knew she would accomplish the same without interference from me. So I allowed it. Now, she is a target. Their target. As are you and anyone else who might get in their way. They know they will never have the Kingship; I have locked them out of it. But they think to have their revenge this way. They never learned this lesson, Lendill. The one where they realize that petty revenge serves no useful purpose. Things come to us that will."

  "Father, that petty revenge could have killed Reah. What should we do? Shall I go after them? Haul them back here and lock them away?"

  "You are Prince-Heir, Lendill. What would you do if they weren't your brothers?"

  "Go after them and press charges. Likely remove Reldill's power so he can't do harm in the future. Send them to Evensun, perhaps."

  "Then you must do what you must, according to Alliance law. Perhaps it is time that our people realize that they are citizens of the Alliance, just as all the other inhabitants are. We were here first, before Ildevar Wyyld ever thought to set foot on the planet and create the Alliance with twenty others of his kind. And since we allowed him to settle here and then watched while he and the others built the Alliance from nothing, we have an obligation now to join with it and uphold its laws. They are generally just, those laws. And I am proud that my son has helped keep those laws in place and weeded out corruption over the years. I am most proud of you, child."

  "I didn't think you felt that way for the longest time, Father. I thought you only tolerated me because you loved my mother."

  "I did love your mother. Still do, although she is gone from me. But she left you with me, son. The one who always looked for justice. The one who sought the truth, always. Naldill always looked to his comforts, depending upon Reldill to act as his army at times; punishing those he thought offended him. If he had changed his ways at any time, or looked upon the people here as his kin and not his subjects, I might have considered him as my replacement. I waited a very long time for that to happen. I tired of it, as you know. I picked the best of my four sons to take my place. Never doubt my love for you, child. I know I put you through the fire and I apologize for that."

  "Father, you don't know how hard it was to deal with that from my end. I can't tell you how many times I thought about cutting myself off from you and Gaelar N'Seith. Whenever Naldill would taunt me about this or that, usually about my lack of power, I considered it."

  "I'm glad you stayed the course, child. Perhaps you will forgive me someday for allowing those things to happen."

  "It made me more determined that Alliance citizens should be protected, father. There was a benefit, I think, although I suffered through it."

  "You have a generous heart, child."

  "Father, Reah has the generous heart. She could have skipped away from Kifirin at any time during the past twenty-five years, leaving them to struggle. She paid off a crushing debt to get them on their feet, and they rewarded her by taking her children and dumping more work on her shoulders. I don't even want to talk about my part in all of that. And I begged her, Father, to allow that bastard to attack her so we'd get the information we needed. And then, when all the power went down, we couldn't even get troops in there to help her. She was on her own until the very last, and took them down by herself. They kept attacking her, even when they knew it was useless to do so. Fired rockets at her. Bombarded her. She was pregnant, and they did that."

  Lendill surprised himself with the wetness on his cheeks. "She kept all those girls safe, fighting to keep the army Nedrizif controlled from killing all of them. We haven't even paid her for that. How can we compensate for that, Dad? How? What we planned to pay her is paltry and an insult. Ildevar has promised half the confiscated funds from the pirates, but we're still working on getting all that put together."

  "I understand that Torevik has promised half of the Schuul's holdings as well. Has he handed that over to her yet?"

  "No. She's getting treatment by a doctor since she tried to kill herself. I'm not sure she's cooperating with him at all."

  "Son, his nurses betrayed her. What can you expect? I watched that vid and wept. Imagine if you'd been in a session, claiming to be Vice-Director of the ASD and Prince-Heir of the Elves, talking about your torture at the hands of your brothers. Imagine what people might think if they saw it on that foolish program. You'd be ridiculed as well."

  "I know." Lendill squared his shoulders uncomfortably, trying to shake off the images of Reah's exposure on Alliance vid programming.

  "I am glad I did not witness the near-suicide," it was Kaldill's turn to shiver.

  "I don't know what to do for her," Lendill went on. "She could reject all of us. That's the way things are looking right now. She hasn't come to any one of us. Asked us for anything."

  "What do you think she might want, Son?"

  "Probably for the past twenty-five years to not have happened."

  * * *

  "I need someone who will care for her. Not someone to feel jealousy or treat her badly or with indifference. And I don't know who that is," Kevis held his head in his hands as he sat in his father's study. Karzac sat behind his desk, located in the southeastern corner of the villa where he and his extended family of mates and co-mates lived. Kevis was Karzac's only son, born to Karzac and Grace, one of Karzac's three mates. Kevis wanted to find a nurse and assistant for Reah, but there weren't any candidates.

  "What about Franklin?" Lissa appeared in Karzac's study, something she seldom did. "I wish I could get the old Franklin back. She'd trust him, I think, and he wouldn't appear threatening at all."

  "I don't think we should mislead her, she's had too much of that," Kevis sighed. "Will Frank even consider it? We don't need someone who is only doing it because they feel sorry for her or obligated to any one of us for any reason. This person has to care about her and what happens to her. She needs a gentle touch from someone who isn't interested in sex. Someone neutral that she might come to trust."

  "Let's take all the healers in while she's asleep, and see if any one of them feels a connection," Karzac suggested. "And if they don't, then we'll look elsewhere."

  "Let's gather all of them and let them know what we're dealing with," Kevis agreed.

  Chapter 5

  "Belen has given permission to try this," Karzac announced to all the healers for the Saa Thalarr. "This is a delicate situation, as you might imagine. Reah is pregnant, a recent victim of an attack on Stellar Winds and an attempted suicide not long after that. Kevis is currently treating her, but he needs an assistant. Someone who might feel a bond with Reah in some way. We're going to take you to her while she's sleeping so we won't upset her. If you don't want to be a part of this, then you'll be excused. We want a healer who is willing to walk a few extra miles for someone who more than deserves the time and trouble."

  "We'll go," Cleo spoke for all present.

  "Then let's go," Karzac said. They folded to Campiaa.

  * * *

  "She's pregnant? She's so frail," Cleo said.

  "Has she lost weight? She's very thin," Jeff remarked.

  "There's no color in her cheeks," Norton pointed out. Nefrigar had come, making sure Reah was in a healing sleep before allowing any
of the healers to touch her. Blankets were lifted back; ankles, feet, hands, heart and the recent bullet wound were examined. Nearly all of them placed their hands on Reah's belly, checking on the child. The child was healthy; Reah's health wasn't nearly as good.

  "What problems are you encountering?" Franklin asked Kevis.

  "She's defensive and argues with me at times. Not that she doesn't have cause," Kevis held up a hand.

  "And she's a cook, too?"

  "Probably the best I've ever seen."

  "I think I'd like to try," Franklin said. "Anyone else interested?"

  "I'd do it if nobody else wanted to," Norton volunteered.

  "As would I," Joey said.

  "Why don't all three of you move in?" Gavril walked in, finding his mother, Karzac and twelve other healers in Reah's room. "She might not agree to any one of you, so you'll have to be prepared for that."

  "We're up to the challenge," Joey grinned. "Besides, maybe we can distract her with video games. I've got something new I'm working on."

  "And Norton and I wouldn't mind help with our sauces," Franklin smiled. He and Norton both loved to cook.

  "Fine. We'll throw all three of you at her. See how she reacts," Kevis huffed out a breath. "Let's hope this works, everybody."

  "It'll be fun, I haven't stayed on Campiaa since Erland owned a casino there," Joey grinned.

  * * *

  "Re-ahhh," the voice was soft and coaxing, almost a whisper. "Re-ahhh, dinner time."

  "Go away," I moaned, unwilling to open my eyes.

  "But that little baby bump is hungry, too," the voice said.

  "Who are you and how would you know?" I cracked an eye open, finding a blond man leaning over my bed, grinning at me. Granted he had a nice smile, but I had no idea who he was. And that was only the beginning. Two other men stood behind him, one dark-haired and quite handsome, who had his hand on the other's shoulder. The last one had brown hair, kind eyes and also smiled encouragingly.

  "I'm Joey Showalter, healer for the Saa Thalarr," the one who woke me said. "And this is Franklin," he pointed to the dark-haired handsome one. "And this is one of my mates, Norton." He slipped an arm around the tall, brown-haired man. Joey was shorter than the other two and he was taking my hand, attempting to pull me off the bed.