High Demon 3 - Demon's King (6 page)

Marc made flaky rolls with ham and sauce inside for breakfast while I supervised. Fresh fruit went with that, as did a flavored tea and coffee.

"Now we get decent food," Astralan was having seconds.

"Reah, I don't want a repeat of yesterday," Teeg rubbed the back of my neck after rising from his seat at the table.

"We'll work on that," Jes promised. He and I went back out to the pool and started my exercises again.

"Your walking is improving—you can go for half a click without tiring," Jes was quite happy with our morning results on the treadmill. "The weights are coming along—we did heavier ones today."

"Jes, I noticed we did heavier ones today." He and I were taking a break when Marc brought my mid-morning jumble.

"Your massage is set up for this afternoon, so we'll stop when the therapist shows up."

* * *

Teeg and the massage therapist showed up at nearly the same time. I didn't want to get undressed for a massage out by the pool. Teeg made everyone leave. Only he, the therapist and Farzi and Nenzi were there. The therapist was an older woman who worked on my back and legs for quite a while. "You have too many knots in your shoulders," she informed me, working on those even more. "You need to get rid of this stress."

"Don't look at me." Teeg held out his arms.

"Uh-huh," I mumbled while my back was kneaded. "Are you trying to be funny?"

"Maybe."

* * *

Jes was right; Teeg was preparing to take me with him an eight-day later. I was feeling better and my stamina was definitely improving. Jes still watched me carefully. Farzi and Nenzi had done their best to hover. They hadn't spent the night with me since I'd fainted, but there wasn't much need. I had dreams, too—unsettling dreams—that Gavril was in danger. Several times, I woke wiping my eyes.

Teeg always said Chash was fine and I didn't want to push him. Now I was stuffing clothing into a bag—Teeg had told me to pack enough for two eight-days. I had no idea where we were going and was afraid to ask. Of course, the four warlocks were coming with us—they were our transportation. It made me wonder why Teeg didn't use them to hunt his quarry. I went so far as to ask him about it one night after dinner, when he sat at the kitchen island while I showed Marc how to make oxberry tarts.

"Zellar was a power-seeker, didn't you know? He could feel power from quite a distance. Why do you think the King of Karathia couldn't catch him for centuries?" Teeg snorted at my question. "It stands to reason that some of his trainees could be the same. Or all of them. Doesn't it make sense, Reah, that he'd only train those who couldn't lead his enemies straight to him?" I thought about that for a bit.

"Yes, you're right," I'd admitted. "He certainly kept all of us from finding him. Until this time. I wonder how that information landed in two places at once?"

Teeg looked at me strangely. "Reah, you just frightened me."

"Well, if what you said before was true, then one of his trainees had to betray him. Didn't they? I mean—he's been dancing away from the best trackers and the finest warlocks for a very long time. Yet now, suddenly, everybody knows where he is?"

"Then that means at least one of them really is trying to take over. I'm sure he had his contacts—those who still used his services and paid well."

"Then one or more of the trainees convinced Zellar to trust them, or they did a little digging and went behind his back. What was he doing on Kareed anyway?"

"No idea." Teeg stood and yawned, stretching his tall frame. "Time for bed, Reah. Come on—you can puzzle out crimes later." He pushed me gently toward the door.

* * *

"Aren't you done, yet?" Teeg invited himself into my bedroom.

"You didn't tell me where we were going so I wanted to be prepared."

"Reah, sweetheart, we could end up in several places. I'm bringing Farzi and Nenzi with me, just for you. I didn't want you to feel outnumbered with me and two warlocks."

"You're only taking two?"

"Astralan and Stellan are coming. The other two are staying here with my assistant, to keep things running."

"I didn't know you had an assistant."

"We stay separated, just in case."

"You're not going to tell me."

"And risk getting a good employee killed? No way."

"Well, then, we mutually distrust one another."

"Reah, you're ASD and they probably have my name on a wanted list somewhere."

"And if I said they didn't?"

"I have Gavril, remember. If my name isn't on the list yet, it will be."

"True. Is he all right?"

"Gavril is quite fine. He isn't bored or lonely. He's being kept busy."

"I'm begging you not to mistreat him."

"Gavril will be fine as long as you don't mistreat me or disobey. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Reah, I'm not asking for the universe here. Most kidnappers would be asking for everything you know."

"Is that what you intend to get, Teeg? Everything I know?"

"Reah, I hope you trust me enough one day to tell me freely. Until then, you're welcome to keep the ASD's secrets."

"You think that day will come?" It was my turn to snort at him. A tiny curl of smoke came from my nostrils as a result. Teeg zoned in on that immediately.

"Is that what I think it is? I thought that was impossible for female High Demons."

"Well, it isn't for this one. Go away, Teeg. I have to finish packing." I tossed a jacket into my bag.

Teeg answered me by falling onto my bed and laughing. Hard. He did get up and move my bag for me after I closed it up. He was still chuckling. I pointed toward my bedroom door. He grinned and shook his head.

"Treat me well and Gavril gets treated well." He wanted in my bed. "Come on, Reah. I won't force it—I just want to be in the same bed."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?"

"Reah, I won't force you." He sidled up to me and put his hands beneath my jaw, his thumbs rubbing my earlobes gently. "I know what my Reah wants," he said softly, leaning in to place a kiss on my collarbone. "I know what my Reah likes." Fingers slid beneath the scoop neck of my blouse, caressing bare skin. He nipped my neck gently. I whimpered. "See?" He lifted his head and gave me a kiss, nipping my lower lip with his teeth and then deepening the kiss. "You're my wife, Reah. I won't ever let you go." I knew the truth in his words—he meant them. Is that why I didn't fight him when he took me to bed and loved me so gently I almost wept? I'm not sure I would ever have the answer to that question.

* * *

"Where are we?" I looked around the luxurious home—it was the top floor apartment in a very tall building. Marble floors, expensive rugs in beautiful colors, an open space leading to windows, floor to ceiling, along one wall gave me a spectacular view of a city all around as the warlocks landed us somewhere.

"One of my homes," Teeg announced, walking toward a wall and waving his hand across a scanner. I hadn't even realized we'd set an alarm off by appearing as we did. It made sense, though. Teeg seemed to be ahead of everyone in the technology game.

I still didn't know where he kept the remote that prevented me from skipping or sending mindspeech. If I could get my hands on that and turn it off, I'd be sending mindspeech to Lendill in less than a heartbeat, telling him where I was and who had kidnapped Chash. I worried about Gavril every day, although Teeg was telling the truth when he said Chash was fine and not being mistreated. He also wasn't lying when he said that if I didn't mistreat him, then Gavril wouldn't be mistreated. Treating Chash well was a good way to keep me in line and he knew it.

"Our bedroom is through here." Teeg took my elbow and led me through a beautiful kitchen that matched the rest of the home, then down a hall that held doors to several bedrooms, until we reached the suite on the end. Light surrounded us as we walked in the master suite, with another spectacular view through wide windows. The bed was enormous and covered with expensive fabrics and pillows.

"You bought that bed just for you?" I wondered how many women he'd slept with since I'd left him. I pushed those thoughts out of my head. I had no right to dig at him over that. I had two other mates. Well, three, counting Lendill. Four if Wylend decided to make his move.

Wylend—he was smooth and charming on the outside. Tough as steel on the inside, and once he chose to love someone, that love was fierce and consuming. He loved me, even though he held it back when he took me to dinners or brought me in on his arm at a ball he was holding at his palace. If any money-hungry woman saw Wylend's palace, they'd have pushed for marriage right away. I was content to wait with Wylend until I was free of the ASD.

Karathia still wasn't a member of the Alliance. Well, the Reth Alliance, anyway. Wylend never said, but he was watching the Alliance Teeg was putting together very carefully. Eventually, Karathia would be forced to make a decision. Even I knew that—it simmered around Wylend most of the time, although he didn't think I'd guessed at it.

Wylend had been King of Karathia for six thousand years—had inherited the throne from his father after taking down the warlocks who'd attempted a coup by murdering his father, the former King. Wylend was a powerful warlock and he surrounded himself with powerful warlocks he could trust. Erland Morphis, Ry's father, was one of those and perhaps the best and strongest that Wylend had around him. Ry had inherited his father's abilities plus some, unless I missed my guess. After all, Queen Lissa, who rumor had it was a goddess, was mated to Kifirin the god and was Ry's mother.

"I thought about you the whole time I was building this place," Teeg moved my hair aside to place a kiss on my neck. "The kitchen was built with you in mind. Not too big, not too small, with cabinets and things that you can reach easily. I wasn't thinking when I put Arvil's together. You have to have a step-stool to reach the upper shelves."

"Teeg, what are you doing?" I turned to face him. "The ASD is searching for me and for Gavril. You have to know that. They'll go crazy if they learn you have both of us." I didn't add that Wylend would likely send anybody he had (and that was a lot of warlocks) if he learned that Teeg held me and his great-grandson hostage. Wylend was Lissa's grandfather. Erland was one of Lissa's mates. If that wasn't a double whammy (one of Lissa's terms) against Teeg, then I was a lion snake shapeshifter.

"Reah, where bags?" Nenzi walked in, carrying Teeg's bag and mine.

"Nenzi, you don't have to carry my stuff around, I can do that." I went to take my bag from his hand. I gave him a hug when he smiled and dropped Teeg's bag on the floor. Farzi came in carrying Teeg's other bag. Teeg had two cases—I'd fit my things into one. That was the reverse of how things usually were, but the ASD had taught me to economize.

"We'll take it from here," Teeg smiled at the reptanoids. Farzi pulled Nenzi out of the bedroom.

"They've loved you since they met you, I think," Teeg sighed. "Arvil never knew that they'd have killed him if he'd tried to hurt you in any way."

"They're like my family," I said, walking toward the wall of windows to stare at the cityscape surrounding us. I realized as I said it that I'd handed Teeg another weapon against me.

"I know that," Teeg said, dropping his hands on my shoulders. "I'll never hurt them, Reah. They've been hurt enough in the past. When you offered them love, it was the first time that had been given to them. They soaked it up like a sponge. Nenzi talks about you often. He missed you the most, I think. Now that you're back and he can touch you anytime he wants, he's the happiest lion snake shapeshifter in existence, I think."

"Farzi is more reserved, but I think its shyness," I said. I'd watched him—he always closed his eyes in pleasure when I hugged him or stroked his scales while he was lion snake.

"They love being touched while they're lion snake," Teeg agreed. "It's confirmation that they're not repulsive in that form. That someone loves them, despite what they look like."

"I'm sure they didn't get that growing up," I said. "And that's a shame."

"Well, are you dressed to go hunting with me?" Teeg moved away.

"Hunting where?"

"Up in those mountains." Teeg pointed toward a mountain range I could barely see in the distance. I saw snowcapped peaks, but that was all I could see through the windows of Teeg's top floor apartment. I imagined the apartment took up the entire floor, but I wasn't going to ask.

"I'm not dressed for that." I turned to pull my bag off the floor.

"I'll do that. Jes says no heavy lifting for another eight-day, at least." Teeg lifted my bag easily and dumped it on the bed. I found my black leathers with the jacket quickly and walked into the bathroom to change.

The bathroom was almost as large as the bedroom and held a spa tub that could accommodate at least ten people. A separate bathing tub only half as large, plus a spacious shower took up one wall. A lengthy vanity with three sinks took up the opposite wall, and the closet took up the rest of the space. "Were you thinking of me when you put in three sinks?" I asked, coming out later with my leathers on.

"No, I was thinking of me. My baths all have two sinks and I use both of them. The third one here is for you."