The Demon Master's Wife (Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) (22 page)

But he’d make a deal with Malachi the demon if it would help Gwen get back to normal.

***

“You’ve got the wrong person, Lieutenant. Sure, I get a flash of intuition now and again. Most species get those. But I can’t heal anyone,” Chiang said, going back to mending the cable that had he had found frayed.

“You could try, Chiang,” Dorian told him. “You owe Gwen that much.”

Chiang’s sharp eyebrows rose high at the accusation. “Gwen—I mean, Commander Jet and I owe each other nothing. She will always be my friend. The rest we had is over. It will remain over whether she accepts your mating claim or not. Only a fool would follow a Siren anyway.”

“How much of the new situation with us do you see?” Dorian demanded. “Tell me the truth. I will know if you attempt to deceive me.”

“What new situation? Gwen always felt drawn to you. No matter who shared her bed, she never stopped wishing the male with her was you,” Chiang said. “Her bonding partners just overlooked her wishing since it seemed like you didn’t want her anyway.”

Dorian swore viciously and walked away, chastised again. He stood silent a moment to deal with his self-loathing, and only spoke when he felt he was mostly calm again.

“A Lotharian male named Fener Sel removed all my mating energy from her. They put probes inside her and . . . I can’t talk about it further. I cut off his hands because he had a control device installed in one of them that was going to shoot electrical current through Gwen to make her obey him. He intended to force her to be his mate.”

Chiang stopped his task when he realized he’d bent the cable cutter in his hands beyond use. He tossed the now mangled tool to the floor. “You should have killed him.”

“I would have, but she went into shock when we freed her. Ania sent the demon to finish him once we rescued Gwen and the ambassador,” Dorian said. “Now Gwen can’t walk. My mother—I mean, Sarinnea says we can help her walk tomorrow if you help me.”

“
Sarinnea is your mother?!
” Chiang exclaimed, standing up to stare at Zade in shock. “But I thought—she never said.
Shades of Kellnor
.”

Chiang ran a hand through his braids in remorse. “I swear I had no idea, Lieutenant. What else did Sarinnea say?”

“That Gwen got her bonding needs met well by you while I was being a fool,” Dorian said sharply. “Now will you help me help Gwen or not?”

“Zade, look, I haven’t touched Gwen since you claimed her, and I’ve already called off the others when they noticed things were—different—since she came back from the mission,” Chiang said sincerely.

“Chiang, if I was worried about any of that, you and the others would know it. I can hardly feel angry about her past when Gwen came to me first. If I had not refused her, she would have already been my mate for two years. Now are we done confessing our past errors enough to focus on healing Gwen?”

Chiang looked at the large handsome male glaring down at him, furious and worried over a female that just a short time ago had stunned him with her weapon at close range. Somehow he just had to honor a relationship that so blatantly had intervention by the creators stamped all over it.

And to think, he’d once thought the captain’s estranged mating arrangement was odd.

“I was a healer, Lieutenant. But I am a healer no more. A century ago I trained for it and then I went to serve in the EnLi district on Greggor. There was an epidemic. We lost more patients than we saved before a vaccine could be created. I almost died myself. When my contract ended, I went into retreat. When I came out, I didn’t want to heal anymore. So I trained as a ship’s engineer. Now I find this life suits me better,” Chiang said.

“I’m not asking you to join the blasted medical team,” Dorian ground out. “I’m asking you to lend me your healing energies this once so Gwen can walk again. After that, I don’t care what you choose to do.”

Chiang sighed. “You know as well as I do that healing is a sharing of yourself. Do you honestly want me to share myself with your mate again?”

“No, of course not,” Dorian said bitterly, not bothering to deny it. “But I would stand and watch you bond with her if I thought afterwards she would walk over to me. I want her well and whole more than I want anything else. What is it going to take to convince your stubborn Greggor mind that I would do anything to achieve that end result?”

Chiang huffed out a breath in defeat. “I guess you just did. Sarinnea told me her favorite mate had been a Greggor. She even said he was the only one she had allowed to give her a child. Of course at the time, I didn’t know that child was you, but still I guess that makes you half Greggor. I don’t suppose I can refuse one of my own kind.”

“My mother’s time with you is worse for me than your past with Gwen. Discuss me with Sarinnea again and I will cut out that forked tongue of yours,” Dorian said. “Meet me in medical when you get off duty.”

“It’s a dominant trait, Zade, even those with only a little Greggor in their gene pool get one. Say, speaking of forked tongues, can I just this once share something you might want to know about Gwen? I’ll never volunteer anything else, I swear,” Chiang teased.

He was grinning at the angry Siren now. Chiang figured that if he was going to get tangled up with the fierce Siren and his mate, he was going to need a sharp sense of humor to deal with it. And he needed to know if he should fear for his life—or Gwen’s.

“Commander Jet doesn’t complain about many things in bed, but male to male I feel like I need to warn you about just this one,” Chiang said, lowering his voice.

“Be careful what you say, Chiang. I am not without limits to my patience,” Dorian warned.

“Gwen hated my forked tongue. Wouldn’t let me near her with it,” Chiang said, watching fascinated as the Lieutenant turned multiple colors in an effort not to release his temper.

When he saw Zade rein it all in and turn it to calm, Chiang felt confident that Gwen could say nothing to ever enrage Dorian Zade to the point of danger. Inside, Chiang found he was already secretly giving his blessing to them.

“That’s bizarre, Chiang. I don’t recall Gwen complaining about my forked tongue. Maybe you just weren’t using yours right,” Dorian said sharply, striding away.

He wasn’t about to tell the indiscreet male that Gwen had been unconscious every time he’d used his forked tongue on her, or that it had been necessary only because he’d had been forbidden by Ania to use anything else.

Chiang’s laughter floated on the air to him, but Dorian ignored it, walking on.

I swear when we are mated I’m going to keep Gwen Jet in my bed until I have had my fill and she never thinks of anyone but me ever again
, Dorian promised himself.

Then he remembered what he’d felt seeing her naked and strapped to the medical table and felt ashamed of his forceful thoughts.

“Raging fires of Helios—never has a creature so disrupted my peace,” Dorian said aloud, heading to his room in order to prepare for the healing.

Chapter 18

The mist that was Malachi was sitting in the chair pretending to cross his legs and look casual. When Ania looked up from her seat on the bed, she laughed.

“Something funny?” he asked, finding pleasure in her amusement for once.

“Do you even have the sensation of sitting? You’re in mist form,” Ania said.

“I practice being normal just in case I ever get a chance to do so again. You try living in mist form and see how well you do at it,” Malachi said.

Ania shook her head. “I can’t believe we’re even having such as light-hearted conversation after all the creatures we killed yesterday. What we did lingers with me, Malachi. I know they deserved it, but I still feel bad.”

“Of course you do, but they did deserve it,” Malachi said confidently. “I could tell you more horrible stuff I learned from the ones I killed, but it would only distress you further about the females we left behind.”

“I’m sure that is true,” Ania said, frowning.

“Besides, your time would be better spent helping shore up Ambassador Onin. Her energy is too erratic to read. That female seems scared of her own shadow now, though technically I shouldn’t say that since I am a shadow,” Malachi teased.

“Are all demons as amusing as you?” Ania asked, not laughing but appreciative of his attempts to distract her from her darker thoughts.

“I assure you I am one of a kind,” Malachi said. “Don’t look now, but your mate and my master is coming to visit. Forget your differences and bond with him, Ania—go on. We deserve a break, and it will help you forget about what we did to those less honorable males.”

Ania snorted and waited for Malachi go back inside her before she went to open the door. It was no surprise to see Synar standing there. However, it was a surprise to see him holding a tray of food.

“I brought dinner for you,” Synar said quietly, looking hopefully at her frowning face. “I was told you haven’t eaten since your return.”

“And who would have noticed that?” Ania said, motioning Synar in and watching him set the tray on her desk.

“Dorian noticed,” Synar said, not bothering to cover for his friend. “Despite all the time he’s spent with Gwen keeping her in a constant state of irritation, he has somehow also managed to counsel all the other females we’ve rescued, report to me, and talk Chiang the Greggor into helping him do a healing ritual.”

Ania’s look of shock must have been great because Synar actually laughed. “I figured you knew most of the real news. That’s not even the most amusing, but you have to let me stay while you eat to hear the rest.”

Ania sat down heavily on her bed. “I am still dealing with what I had to do yesterday and wondering if I made good decisions.”

“You rescued Gwen and the ambassador. When a species is that corrupted in their leadership, sometimes it takes a lot of suffering to make them see the error of their ways,” Synar said, pulling out her desk chair and sitting.

“Why are you being so nice to me today? After all the scathing remarks you made, I would expect you to be disgusted at me and my actions with the demon,” Ania said tightly.

Synar studied his hands while he searched for how to explain his efforts to make her understand.

“Shortly after you left my quarters, I regretted that I responded so poorly to your news. I was worried about not telling you before you left with Dorian that I had given it more thought. Hopefully, we will not have go to the training room to work things out again. I have a feeling I would lose for sure now.”

Ania snorted but didn’t laugh at his teasing. Synar could use some lessons in being charming, but his sincerity rang true. That still didn’t make up for the pain his unwillingness to listen to her had caused.

“We seem to have this unproductive conversation a lot, Synar,” Ania said sadly, then shook her head again to clear away the frustration. “Never mind. Skip the apologies. Just tell me the amusing news you have to share. I could use a distraction.”

Synar wanted to push the real discussion but conceded that Ania probably did need a distraction.

“You could not even intuit it,” he told her, risking a tease again.

“Well? Stop stalling and tell me,” Ania said, watching a slow spreading smile cover his face at her insistence.

She felt a flutter inside at how attractive he was and recognized it was genuine arousal. It was all she could do not to sigh at her weakness.

“Chiang bonded with Sarinnea,” Synar said finally, then burst out laughing. “And it makes me laugh every time I think of it. Dorian is appalled.”

Ania’s eyes grew wide, both at the news and Synar laughing. It was such a rare sight to see him so relaxed. “But she’s—Sarinnea is Dorian’s
mother
.”

Synar chuckled. “The engineers heard Dorian and Chiang’s discussion about it earlier. That kind of story spreads more quickly than a virus on a ship like ours.”

“Sarinnea is probably two thousand years old,” Ania said thoughtfully.

“Yes—at least that. Sarinnea refuses to give her exact age. Trade places with me so you can eat while your food is hot,” Synar said, standing and hoping she would comply.

Not wanting to seem rude, Ania stood and edged past him to sit in the space he vacated. Synar was so big the entire desk chair was warm from his heat. Of course, she wasn’t a small female anymore herself. Missing a couple meals was not going to hurt her despite what everyone thought.

Sighing, Ania lifted the lid from the food. It did look good. She picked up a bite, chewed, and sighed with delight as she pulled her chair closer to the desk.

“Wasn’t Chiang one of Gwen’s bonding partners?” Ania asked.

“Yes,” Synar said, removing his shoes and propping himself up on Ania’s bed pillows.

The bed smelled like her. In fact the whole room smelled like her. Even over the food he’d brought, Synar could still smell her. And just like it had the first time, something essentially her made him long to be the only male she let into her bed and her life.

“I figured Gwen had already told you about her and Chiang,” Synar said, watching her eat.

He found himself studying the changes in her appearance with a more objective eye than when she had surprised him. Was her body bigger? He couldn’t tell for sure. Finding out appealed to him though.