When Issa did as Ania demanded without complaint, Conor smiled in approval. She turned to him again, taking her time to look him over. He looked so much like his brother that Ania’s pulse jumped and she knew he knew it. This close to him, her emotional state was being telegraphed and amplified through Malachi.
“I admire your technique for getting others to obey you,” Conor said.
Ania walked around him slowly, looking him up and down. He was a bit taller than Liam, but leaner, and much less muscled. Just as powerful, she thought, but in a very different way.
“The likeness between you and Liam is quite amazing,” Ania said, folding her arms. “You could wear his clothes and command the Liberator. Only a few would even suspect you weren’t him.”
“Why would I ever consider such a trivial ruse?” Conor said. “My aspirations are a lot higher than pretending to be a ship’s captain.”
Ania shrugged. “It was just an observation. I didn’t mean to offend you with the comparison. Such a remarkable resemblance does make me wonder if you’re like Liam in other ways as well. Just female curiosity, I suppose.”
Conor smiled. “I assure you I am not like my younger brother with females. I am much better,” he said, holding her gaze.
The power of him was just as alluring as Issa had declared. It was not hard at all to let herself feel a fleeting wave of desire, and Ania knew Conor was aware when he smiled. It was odd to be attracted and repelled so equally by the same creature.
Ania laughed at his bragging. Issa rose from the bed glaring at her, but sat back down quickly when she gave the jealous female a stern look with her eyes glowing red. “If you insist on disobeying me, I can knock you out.”
Conor’s smile couldn’t have been broader. “If I didn’t detest his weakness so much, I’d almost feel sorry for Liam’s loss of you. I’ll think I’ll be excited for me instead. ”
“Don’t waste sympathy on your brother,” Ania said breezily, walking away. “Don’t get your hopes up either. If you’re not genuine in your desire for this merging, it won’t work. Then I’ll have to hide you until we can discuss a Plan B. I still do not trust your intentions.”
“My desire to control the demon is the purest intention in me,” Conor said firmly.
Ania walked to the bed. “On second thought, we really don’t need any witnesses for what we’re going to do. Looks like I lied, Issa. I have to knock you out anyway,” she said to the glaring female just before she popped her in the forehead.
She chanted the trance spell under her breath so Conor would not hear the words.
Stepping away from Issa’s glassy gaze, she pointed at the bed. “Sleep now,” Ania ordered and watched Issa Onin fall obediently to her side and curl up to sleep.
“What was that you did?” Conor asked. “I did not feel the demon.”
“That’s because I did not use the demon. I am a trained Khalsa,” Ania said, lifting her chin. “Malachi has restored what I set aside. At first I hated it. Lately, I am finding it useful again.”
“Khalsa? Now that I find interesting. So you are a weapon even without the demon’s power to assist you,” Conor said, rubbing his face until it creased in a smile. “My brother’s mistakes are highly amusing. How old are you?”
“Asking my age? Obviously you are not as good with females as Issa proclaimed,” Ania said dryly.
She watched Conor throw back his head and laugh joyously, again sounding so much like Liam that the female energy in her fluttered in response. If only Liam could laugh like that more. She was imagining Liam, but she saw that Conor thought she was thinking of him. His eyes flashed with his awareness.
“I see your interest in me, Ania Looren,” Conor said.
When he extended a hand to touch her, Ania stepped out of reach and glared, her eyes flashing red as Malachi’s power rose in her again.
“Never touch me without my consent. Unlike your weak-minded mate, I will not be used by any male ever again. If you think to not keep our agreement because of my female interest in you, keep in mind that I will still control the demon to some degree even after what we do. I will countermand everything and thwart you in every way I can if you cross me,” Ania told him.
“Brave words considering that after the merging I will be the more powerful of the two of us,” Conor reminded her, letting his gaze linger on her chest instead of raising it to meet her eyes.
“Perhaps you will be,” Ania agreed, trying to keep her flesh from crawling at the implication of his gaze. “For just such a possibility, I have learned the words of doing and undoing. While I will assist you in this conversion, I have hidden the books of training. I am determined in my plans and not a fool. You will do as I ask as much as Issa is doing now.”
Conor drew in a deep breath, smiling even as he sighed in resignation. “You are indeed a worth adversary. I will earn your loyalty as an ally one day, Ania Looren, and then you will do all I ask willingly. You might even beg me to let you keep your life so you can spend it at my side.”
“Seems very unlikely, Conor Synar. From what I understand, the males in your family have a bad history of treating their females poorly. Liam practically wept telling me the story of your mother’s abuse,” Ania said flatly, no trace of sympathy in her voice.
Conor snorted. “Father waited several days to kill her attackers who availed themselves of her body during the time they held her. When she lost respect for him, my mother refused him in their mating bed. I do not blame my mother because he proved himself too weak to protect her. She has taken no other mates since. It is a respectful decision.”
“Refusing to bond with a mate who controls a demon doesn’t sound like a very wise choice to me,” Ania said, crossing her arms.
“Bogdan Synar sought to teach the men the error of their ways,” Conor said, derision in every word. “He had the power to bend them to his will and make them pay for what they did to her and others, and yet he did not. My grandfather would not have been so lenient.”
Ania shrugged. “So your mother’s attack made Liam want to shun the demon’s power and you to embrace it more. That still doesn’t explain how Liam came to be the demon’s master when he so clearly does not want to be.”
Conor shrugged as well. “My grandfather trained me much more than my father did in the true meaning of control. He broke me and then he remade me into someone worthy of wielding great power. Father failed him. I do not plan to do so.”
Ania narrowed her eyes. “More family secrets. Does Liam know about your grandfather’s darker side?”
“Doubtful—as you rightly say, Liam was never meant to be the demon’s master. Only the worthy are chosen and trained,” Conor said, walking closer to the most delectable and challenging female he’d met in a century. “Are you a worthy demon master, Ania Looren?”
His words rippled through Malachi and then through her until her eyes flashed red. “Be grateful I need you, Conor. I may not be able to kill you, but I think I would enjoy trying just to still your insulting tongue.”
Conor smiled at her threat. “Now I’m envious of Malachi. Perhaps when I am mist, you will share your host body with me as well. I know a freed demon can possess anyone they desire so long as they have permission.”
“You’ll be lucky if I concede to protect your physical body while you are out of it,” Ania told him coldly. “Are you ready for the ritual? Liam will be off-duty soon. I would rather not be interrupted and have to explain this to someone under the protection of a demon. I fear it would not work out well for either of us.”
“Agreed. Do you have the chest?” Conor asked.
Ania shook her head. “No. The chest is stored. I could not get it without revealing my plan, but I have all we need. I was able to obtain the amulet from inside it.”
She stepped to a drawer and slid it out, retrieving a purple bundle from inside. “I wrapped it in a shirt I stole from the Siren. The material from Rylen prevents the vibrations from escaping.”
Carryin
g the shirt to the desk, Ania unrolled it carefully and stepped away from it. “I—I cannot touch it. I am still hurting from handling it when I obtained it. You must pick it up and put it on yourself. Because I carry Malachi, I cannot assist.”
Conor walked to the object. “This is the amulet? It is much more plain than I imagined it to be.”
“Yes—that was my thought of it as well,” she put a hand over her stomach. “Malachi’s trembling is the only reason I trusted it was real, but once you hold it—you know.”
Conor picked up the locket and placed it over his head. “Yes. You speak the truth. I can feel the power, very old and very strong.”
When he walked towards Ania, she stepped back as if afraid. “Stay where you are. I need to get the chant and the amulet is painful to me.”
Conor smiled at her nervousness, feeling no concern himself, but liking that Ania Looren was afraid.
Ania hurried because Conor and Issa had been closed away with her a long time. She began thinking of how truly awful it would be if Liam or anyone else walked in and disrupted this before the ritual was done. It was enough genuine fear to make her hands tremble as she handed Conor a small piece of paper from her uniform jacket.
“I carried it with me so I wouldn’t need the book. I have it memorized. You will read the entreaty and as a current demon master I will grant the request,” Ania said. “I warn you to mean what you say. There were warnings not to do this unless you were committed. If you want to see how serious to heed them, compare my former visage to my current one.”
“Yes—I did so when Issa said you hosted the demon. You scarcely look like the same female,” Conor agreed, perusing the words. “This request seems very simple and with few disadvantages. Why would I not want to risk this?”
“Pain for one thing. There was great pain in my change. It did not last terribly long, but while it did, it was almost unbearable,” Ania said sincerely. “I feared for my death while it was happening. From what I can tell, the ritual for you will separate the spirit from the physical form. The severance is permanent and will allow you to travel in and out of your physical body as Malachi travels in and out of me. The sacrifice awards you unlimited power that mirrors his with the only exception being your contractual obligations to your host body. Since your host body will be your own, I do not know exactly how it will all work.”
“Do you swear all you say is true?” Conor asked.
“I swear by the creators that you will have all the power you have dreamed of and even more than you have ever imagined. That is the promise of the creators to all who accept the sacred contract,” Ania said.
Conor took a breath and felt the amulet start to hum against his chest. “I feel the truth in your words as well, and the amulet seems to be in agreement.”
Ania listened to Conor read the sacred bargain, speaking the ancient tongue of the creators as if it were his own. Malachi fluttered within her as if he was having a panic attack.
Be calm, she sent, rubbing her stomach. This must not be interrupted.
I remember saying those words, Malachi sent. What are you doing to Conor?
Just what I told him. I am helping him have everything he wants, Ania sent.
When Conor lifted his gaze from the paper to her, Ania bowed her head to him, whispered the names of the creators, and answered in kind. The words sealing his bargain had scarcely left her mouth when Conor groaned and fell to his knees.
“There is ice in my veins. I feel like I am being stabbed with cold. I thought you said it would burn,” he choked.
“It burns to merge. You are not merging. I did not do what you are doing,” Ania said sincerely.
She watched as Conor tried to wrap his arms around himself, but his limbs failed to work. Then he fell sideways and a vapor lifted off his body and hovered in the air.
What is happening to me? Conor demanded, his thoughts floating to her from the mist.
“You are now like Malachi,” Ania said aloud. “You have unlimited power. But we are not finished Conor Synar. There is more to the ritual.”
She took a paper from her pocket and read the commands on it in the creators’ tongue. Then she repeated them in English, increasing their power by the additional energy of the common language of most creatures.
“Solra Kokum Ynati. By the power of the creators of all and their sacred contract, I declare you Conor, the Demon of Looren and myself, Ania Looren, to be your master. Now obey me demon and enter the amulet,” Ania said firmly, pointing to the body on the floor and the amulet around its neck. “According to the terms of the sacred contract you have entered into with the creators of all, you must do as your demon master wills.”
Conor’s mist wavered in shock. From the depths of it, Ania heard a refusal, but she pointed to the amulet and lifted her chin.
“You must do as I command. Now enter the amulet,” she repeated more firmly.
Then their spirits were locked in a battle of wills, a new master and a new demon fighting over control. There was cursing and more resistance from Conor, but in the end the mist form he now was finally went into the amulet as directed.
When the last of the mist disappeared inside the metal container, Ania sagged to the floor, exhausted from the struggle.
“Solra Kokum Ynati. I remain your servant . . .” Ania said falling forward, the gratitude prayer drifting away as everything went black.
Chapter 29
When Ania opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the fallen physical body of Conor Synar with its open eyes staring at her as if to ask what was wrong.
How long had she lain in the floor unconscious, she wondered?
She blinked and tried to push herself up. Malachi, get Liam now, she ordered.
When Malachi lifted out of her and floated off, Ania fell sideways again, her energy depleted further without the demon’s additional strength accessible to her.
Unsure of how much time was passing, she finally saw Liam run into the room and stoop down to check her.
“Leave me and get the amulet. Put it in the chest. Conor’s spirit is now in it, but he and I are still engaged in a battle for control. I feel his energy screaming at me,” Ania choked out as she was lifted into familiar strong arms.
Synar reluctantly laid Ania gently down again and went to his brother’s body. He stood looking at it long moments. It had been years since he’d seen his brother in the flesh.
Ania saw his hesitation, but hardened herself to Synar’s emotional pain.
“Liam, I know this is difficult, but you must do as I ask,” she demanded. “Conor struggles against my power over him still. I fear blacking out again. If I do, he might escape and find a way back into his body. If that occurs, I may not be able to stop him before he hurts you or others.”
Taking a deep breath, Synar lifted his brother’s body into his arms. He couldn’t help his horror at looking into a face so like his own as he removed the chain from around his neck. Blank eyes stared at nothing while the amulet in his hands vibrated with what was left of Conor.
Lowering the body back to the floor, Synar grieved over what he had allowed to happen, condoned even. By helping Ania do this, he had suddenly become the only male left in his family. The reality was much harder to deal with than he’d suspected it would be.
“Hurry, Liam,” Ania implored, struggling to sit up once more.
Synar stood with the amulet pulsing along the chain dangling from his fingers. He retrieved the chest, opened it, and laid the amulet gently within its depths once more.
There was little sense of fulfilling his destiny. Instead, Synar’s heart was heavy as he closed the lid, sealing the rest of his brother’s fate with his own actions. All he felt was an overwhelming sense of failure as he placed his palms on top of the chest and chanted.
After that was done, Synar turned to look at Ania’s weakened body. He reminded himself he was lucky his mate was still alive. “It is done now.”
“Yes,” Ania said, relieved as
the struggle she had been having with Conor’s energy finally eased. She sat up straighter and pushed back her hair. “Your brother’s energy was very strong. It was all I could do to restrain him once he became demon mist. I have more empathy now for what you endured learning to control Malachi.”
Synar nodded solemnly, kneeling beside her, not really comforted by her words.
“Now what?” he asked, his voice hard and devoid of emotion no matter how much he fought to view the situation positively. Grief was a ball of pain in his gut wrapped in the guilt of not having found a better way to stop Conor.
Ania looked at Liam’s sad face and sighed, wishing she did not have to say more, but time was critical. It might already be too late for what she had in mind.
“Now you get to decide whether or not to give me back more of my life,” Ania whispered, trying to be sympathetic to his pain. “I know this is going to shock you, but you can order Malachi into what’s left of Conor’s body. His Norblade physical form will start to decay shortly without a spirit to animate and care for it. Conor is not in there anymore and his shell can be used for a higher purpose.”
Synar looked at Conor’s body in horror, looking at the face so much like his.
“How can you suggest such a thing? You’re asking me to increase my misdeeds by putting the demon into the form of someone who was meant to be his master. It is a sacrilege.”
“Or perhaps it is the destiny of Conor’s empty form to be a demon host,” Ania replied logically, but as firmly as possible. “Open your mind to larger possibilities, Liam. Perhaps this is your chance to make the whole situation in your family more right. I no longer need to carry the demon to live, but Malachi must always have a host. You know how it works. This can be a good thing and save your brother’s form.”
“Did you intend this all along?” Synar asked coldly.
Ania drew away to look him, hurt by the question even though she knew it was reasonable for him to wonder about her motives. She knew Liam didn’t view life as she did, knew his sensibilities would be challenged by her request, but it truly was for a greater good. And it would ensure that all of Conor Synar was preserved one way or another.
The Demon Master's Wife (Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) Page 25
