High Demon 3 - Demon's King (9 page)

"You don't know how he knew where we were, yet you ordered a ring from a jewelry shop?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"The shop's owner wouldn't have betrayed us, but that doesn't eliminate all his employees or stray customers," Teeg set my blanket aside and pulled me to my feet. "I'll check on that tomorrow."

"Did the people inside the shop die?" I was back to my original worry.

"Reah, two people died in the blast. Customers near the door. They were aiming at me, baby."

"Does this happen frequently?" I stretched as I walked toward the bedroom.

"Not often now, since we've cleaned out most of my would-be assassins, but there are still a few left. Zellar's rogue warlocks just complicate things." Teeg lifted me and I put a hand around his bare neck. Teeg has very wide shoulders and muscles anyone would be proud of. I leaned my head against his shoulder and reveled in the smell of him. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that. It didn't matter, he chuckled and I knew he knew it anyway.

* * *

"Baby, do you want to come with me while I question the employees at the jewelry shop?" Teeg woke me with kisses.

"You'll let me come?"

"Yes. And if you sniff out anything from any of them, I expect you to tell me."

"All right." I started to scoot away from him so I could get off the bed.

"No, let's shake the bed a little first."

* * *

"Harji, you're such a hairdresser."

Teeg and I were interviewing the last two employees at the jewelry store. None of them had known anything, but Harji was asking me questions about my clothing and shoes. His coworker, Mish, was elbowing Harji.

"Mish, honey, if I could look like that in those clothes, I'd never go home to you," Harji teased. Teeg wanted to laugh, I know he did. So did I, but I held back. Teeg had picked out what he wanted me to wear and it turned out to be a low-cut, breast-hugging red silk top with black pants and heeled boots. Teeg's ring was on my finger—he wasn't willing to let me take it off. Dangly diamond earrings rounded out the ensemble. My hair hung loose—if I were out with Teeg, that's what he wanted. I'd given up on trying to braid my hair with him around.

"You'll never have her hair, even if you wear a wig," Mish was poking at Harji again. "Face it, sweetie, you're stuck with me."

Of course, both of them had ogled Teeg, but he was Teeg San Gerxon. You didn't make a big deal out of that to his face. We thanked the owner and walked out of the shop. Astralan and Stellan were waiting for us, but thankfully, no one was waiting to hurl bombs at us today. Teeg pulled me close against his side anyway as we walked along.

"Teeg?" I looked up at him.

"What, baby?" His mind was miles away, I could tell by the slight frown on his face. I was about to bring him back from wherever he was.

"Teeg, what if those two you have in your apartment have some sort of homing beacon or locating chip? We've dealt with that before—well, you know. We have." I didn't want to say reptanoids or ASD aloud on the streets, since I had no idea where we were.

"Then we'd better do some checking. Astralan?" Teeg nodded toward the warlock, who folded us straight to the bedroom that held Teeg's captives.

"Tell the truth, do you have an implant that will allow someone to find you?" Teeg demanded right away. I didn't know what good that might do, but I was surprised.

"I do." One of the two warlocks—the shortest one—pointed to the back of his neck. Teeg cursed. "Stellan, go get Jes. Now." Stellan disappeared.

Jes spent the afternoon removing a tiny chip implanted in the back of a warlock's neck.

"I have the urge to destroy this, but I'm hoping it will bring somebody right to me, instead. They know we're here, they're just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. We got those last night, but now I have a feeling they have friends." Teeg was growling. "Astralan, take this chip to the plantation on Birimera and leave it on my desk. Inform Denast what it is and to be ready in case somebody shows up. Then get back here; we need to go back to Campiaa and ask a few questions of our friends, here." He jerked his head toward the rogue warlocks. They were still inside their cage and didn't look happy about their current situation.

"You look nice," Jes whispered while the rogues cringed and Teeg cursed and paced nearby.

"Thanks." Normally I didn't wear red—didn't like the color much. Teeg obviously did. Nenzi helped pack our bags packed later; Teeg was busy in his study; he and Stellan were closeted there, sending messages, no doubt.

* * *

Breszca Loffus stared into her drink glass. Graumil Loffus, her husband and candidate for High Council on Tulgalan, should have skated through the election. Now, some industrious journalist had gone digging into her past instead of that of her husband. The damaging information would be released in the morning.

Tulgalan law required that all parties be notified at least one full day in advance of the release of information, if the information could damage the parties in any way. It gave them time to refute the information in case it turned out to be false.

Breszca wished she could prove it false. She couldn't. Every bit of it was true. How the journalist had managed to get his hands on the adoption records when they were supposed to remain secret for one hundred turns might remain a mystery.

Breszca hadn't even seen the baby after it was born, signing it over quickly to the state. Someone had adopted the little girl and named her Raedah. Breszca had only been nineteen when she became pregnant—she'd put off getting the birth control chip and then
he
had come along.

Breszca had just gone to university and drinking with new friends was her favorite thing to do. Denus was handsome, no doubt about it, and Breszca couldn't help herself when he'd invited her to his bed. She'd gotten pregnant after only two encounters, but didn't learn of that fact until she'd left Denus behind for Alvis.

She'd listed Alvis' name as the child's father—Alvis who'd somehow gotten killed in a hovercraft accident. Now, merely the fact that she'd put the baby up for adoption wouldn't have raised eyebrows—it was the responsible thing to do for one so young and unprepared for parenthood. What the journalist had found when he went through the records was that Raedah couldn't have been Alvis' child—the blood types and DNA didn't match.

Breszca couldn't imagine anyone going to that much trouble just to get Alvis' records after learning she'd had the child. Anyone else would have taken the records at face value. If she'd ever wanted to kill anyone, the journalist now topped that list. It was a crime not to report the true parent of a child put up for adoption—not to notify said parent that they had a child in order to give them the opportunity to take it instead of consigning it to state care at state expense.

Generally it was a good law and one that her husband had supported over the years as a magistrate in the capital city. Now, Breszca's past was undermining his bid for High Council by flouting that law. Who knew where Denus was? She hadn't seen him since she'd dumped him in favor of Alvis.

The other things the journalist had ferreted out about Raedah were perhaps even more bizarre, but Breszca wouldn't be held accountable for that. Raedah had married Addah Desh at the age of twenty-one. She'd been his eighth and last wife he'd taken, gotten pregnant shortly after the marriage and died after the birth. Still not so bizarre, until you learned that the child Raedah had wasn't Addah Desh's but his second oldest son's—Edan Desh.

Breszca blew out a breath at that name. Edan had frequently been in the news in years past—he'd taken the crown from his father, making Desh's number two the best restaurant on Tulgalan. That no longer held true—Edan was now serving prison time, as was his mother, Marzi Desh. Edan had raped Raedah, then had been found to be the child's father. He and his mother had plotted to kill Raedah with the help of a physician after the child's birth.

The physician had been stripped of his license and had served a shorter sentence—only a few moon-turns—after testifying for the state. Meanwhile, Breszca's grandchild had disappeared. The journalist found records that the girl had separated from the Desh family, taking another name. Nobody could get into those records, although the journalist had tried his best. They were sealed and hidden. The journalist informed Breszca and Graumil at the formal meeting they'd had that he was currently tracking Denus. As yet, Denus hadn't been located, but he was determined to keep looking.

Graumil had stalked out of the house the moment the journalist left with his crew, leaving Breszca alone. Breszca had asked a servant to bring a bottle and locked herself inside her suite. The vids would be all over the news by morning—the journalist had sold the story to every affiliate on Tulgalan. He'd already made enough to retire off Breszca's mistake and looked to make even more if he could find the real father. His daughter was dead but he had a granddaughter somewhere. The journalist was determined to find her as well.

* * *

Hild Marolla, noted investigative journalist, sat at his desk and sighed. He'd hit another dead end. Records of Denus Lithik were scarce—rental records, banking records, things of that nature, were available for a period of six years. No records were found, however, of Denus coming to Tulgalan by conventional means. Or leaving Tulgalan the same way. He'd still been on Tulgalan at the time and could have been notified of the child's birth—no doubt about that—Hild had all those records on his comp-vid. He wondered, and not for the first time, whether Denus had been an illegal involved in criminal activity.

No work records were available, either, though Denus appeared to have plenty of money. The short time he'd been with Breszca, he'd bought her jewelry and taken her out to the best restaurants. Vid-photos were acquired; Hild had gotten those from Breszca's college friends. They were more than willing to come forward in exchange for money and the notoriety it would bring them. Denus was a handsome man—with dark hair and green eyes. The vid-photos of Raedah showed the same green eyes and unusual, white hair. Rumor had it that Raedah's child, Reah, had looked much like her mother.

Hild grimaced every time he thought about Reah. He had no photographs of her and when he'd tried to dip into her records, someone from the ASD had shown up at his office. That same someone had offered Hild a stretch in prison if he continued to dig into Reah's information. Hild was angry about that—he'd already paid a bribe to a lesser public agent to get what was available. His bribe and the public agent disappeared the following day.

The story would still go public in the morning. The entire Alliance would then begin searching for Denus Lithik. Generally, they weren't willing to let something like this go, and as far as favorite news-vids went, reuniting lost children or grandchildren with their parents or siblings was right at the top. Even though Hild couldn't produce the daughter or granddaughter, he was sure that anyone in the Alliance who found Denus would alert him to the fact that he'd fathered a child and still had family out there, somewhere.

* * *

Denevik Lith was having breakfast. The home he had now was a rented mansion—the owner had been forced to lease it and take humbler accommodations when a business had failed. The property was perfect for Denevik—he didn't plan to stay more than a turn or two before moving on. Jusef, Denevik's servant, had served up rolls, coffee and eggs, leaving Denevik to eat at the kitchen island while Jusef puttered around, cleaning up and worrying over the midday meal. Denevik moved often in case Jaydevik Rath ever came looking for him. Or Gardevik, Jayd's oldest brother.

Of the two, he felt Jayd might be the most merciful. Denevik hadn't been on Kifirin since his oldest brother Tarevik had killed Lendevik, their father. He still didn't know if Tarevik had intended for their mother Belarok to die as well—she'd been attacked and raped by two High Demons in their smaller Thifilathi. She'd died, according to his sources, screaming in pain. Denevik could still not get that mental image out of his mind. Now, he was the only one of his brothers who still lived.

Glindarok, his sister, was Queen on Kifirin and ruled alongside Jaydevik Rath, her husband and King. He'd heard that Glinda had birthed twin daughters for Jayd, but they'd gone to other houses.
 
A High Demon female would never come to him, or any children. When he'd failed to see the true plot behind Tarevik's lies, he'd sealed his fate.

"Isn't that you?" Jusef brought Denevik away from his morbid thoughts. Jusef was pointing to the vid-screen in the kitchen. Denevik stared in horror as a vid-photo of himself was splashed across the screen.

"Turn it up," Denevik demanded. Jusef increased the volume.

"Breszca Loffus failed to inform the true father that she was pregnant with his child
," the journalist reported.
"Instead, she identified another as
the father, who was killed before the child was born. The child was given over for adoption, and little Raedah was taken by an older couple."
A vid-photo of the couple replaced Denevik's image.
"Raedah married Addah Desh at the age of twenty-one,"
the journalist went on. Denevik watched in horror as a wedding picture, featuring his daughter and Addah Desh was shown. There was no mistaking the long white hair or the green eyes. His daughter looked exactly like his mother, Belarok. He wanted to weep when he learned that his child had died at the hands of others, and then stared in shock when it was announced that he had a granddaughter.