"Reah, stop talking like that," Tory sighed. "You have other mates. Aurelius doesn't get a monopoly."
"Aurelius is the only one who cares about me." I bent over the toilet to heave again.
"Shit," Tory muttered. "Baby, that's not true. You know it's not true. Now straighten up and come talk with Gavril and me."
"Is that all you have to say?" I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and stared at him. "Straighten up and come talk to you? If I could skip away, I would, you poor excuse for a weed hen. Get away from me. Now!"
"Reah, can you stand up, love?" Aurelius lifted me off the floor. Tory grabbed my arm. I tried to jerk it from his grasp. I was pounding on his chest as soon as he lifted me off the floor and carried me away from the bathroom. Teeg was right behind him; Aurelius followed, a puzzled frown on his face.
Sitting with my arms crossed angrily over my breasts, I refused to look at Tory or Teeg as they did their best to explain to me that they had other things to tend to and couldn't—in Tory's words—ride herd on me every minute. I hadn't asked for them to do anything of the sort. In fact, Teeg needed to stay as far away from me as he could possibly get. "You don't need to be going off to Casino City on your own and you don't need to be sending your bodyguards away," Teeg decided to get in on this.
"I'm not listening to you," I muttered.
"Reah, you will listen. Farzi and the others are upset now that you just up and left them behind."
"They're welcome here. You're not."
"Reah, you are going to be the death of me," Teeg snapped.
"I have three words for you, Teeg San Gerxon," I snapped right back. "Remove the chip."
"Not likely," he almost shouted. "Forget that right now. I don't need to be combing the universe for a missing mate while I have other things on my mind."
"Gee, how inconvenient for you. I'm not your mate. Don't want to be your mate. Take the damn chip out. You don't own me, Teeg."
"I worked fifty fucking years for you. I'm not about to throw all that away because you think you don't belong with me!"
"Don't I have anything to say about this?" I shouted. "The next time you and Kifirin cook something up together that involves me, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know!" I was crying and shaking now, my breaths becoming heaving sobs with the effort it had taken to yell at Teeg.
"Enough of this," Aurelius was up and snarling. "We're not going to sort this out today and Reah is still recovering."
"Fine." Teeg disappeared. Tory looked from me to the spot Teeg had previously held. He disappeared right behind his brother.
"Are you sure that nephew of yours is High Demon?" Denevik looked at Jayd. They'd witnessed the entire argument and now I felt embarrassed—not only that they'd seen it all but that I was still sobbing in front of them.
"He's half," Jayd muttered, as if that should explain something.
"Reah, let's get you to bed—you're tired and out of sorts," Aurelius led me away.
* * *
Gavril was growling and stalking through his suite like a wounded lion. Tory and Ry watched him, unsure what to do. Gavril's communicator beeped. Pulling it out of his pocket, Gavril looked at the sender tag and answered the call. "Jes, where the fuck have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you. Dee is about to have a stroke."
"I just wanted to be alone for a while," Jes' voice came through clearly on the comp-vid. "How is Reah? Is she all right?"
"She's as well as can be expected," Gavril was still growling. "Where are you? Have you checked in with Dee?"
"Yes—I'm at the palace on Campiaa now. I didn't mean for everybody to get so upset because I took a few days off."
"Next time, check your messages," Gavril snapped. "And I may need you in a few days to help with Reah. I'll keep you informed." Gavril ended the call. "Fuck," he rubbed his forehead. "How upset do you think Reah is?" He turned to his brothers.
* * *
"Things are falling into place," Jes informed Ardalin later. "Teeg wants me to go help with Reah in a few days. That means we'll have both of them together to make this easy. Are you sure Nidris is ready to help?"
"Yebri says yes," Ardalin's image nodded at Jes. "They're working on the spell that will make Teeg care only for me. I'm looking forward to getting what I want," she laughed. Jes didn't like the sound of her laughter but didn't say anything—he wanted what he wanted, after all.* * *
"She's asleep—I had to call for Karzac when she wouldn't stop crying," Aurelius was as polite as he could be under the circumstances when Lendill dropped by.
"Just tell her I came to visit," Lendill felt uncomfortable under Aurelius' stare.
"I'll tell her if it won't make her cry again," Aurelius said, nearly shutting the door in Lendill's face. Lendill nodded and walked away. It had been a wasted trip. Lendill hunched his shoulders and strode toward the hovercar he'd borrowed from the ASD transport pool.
* * *
"I think I have information on Nidris and his family," Norian informed Gavril, Tory and Ry. "Lendill and I could use your help, I think."
"I can bring Astralan and Stellan," Gavril offered. "They have no love for any of those. Nidris' family killed their father, Skye."
"Then bring them. We can use the firepower, I think," Norian agreed. "We're targeting an area in the garden district near the equator—most of the fruit and vegetables Tulgalan produces comes from there and it’s the least populated in this particular portion—the oceans where the tourists visit are hundreds of clicks away. The only ones living in that part are the plantation owners and their employees. We think the Hazlan clan have bought an old tomato farm and are producing just enough to keep them away from suspicion."
"How did you find them?" Ry asked.
"We looked for purchases of homes or land parcels in the right time period and coupled that with unusual events reported for the same time period. You know there's nobody with any sort of wizard or warlock abilities native to Tulgalan. We dug up report after report of the neighbors' dogs coming home unable to bark or not coming home at all."
"Stupid," Gavril muttered.
"And we're glad of it," Lendill said. "We might have taken longer to find anything on them," he added.
"You think this is where the tapping originated?" Gavril asked.
"Yes," Norian replied. "We'll take Reah there as soon as we clean out the nest. We have everything under surveillance and should be able to provide images soon of anyone coming or going. Who can identify them?"
"My warlocks can easily identify them," Gavril offered.
"Good. We'll get the images to you as quickly as possible. Now, since you're still bent on setting up the Campiaan Alliance, what are your plans for creating a unit to mirror the ASD?" Norian settled into the chair behind his desk and put the tips of his fingers together, waiting on the one who called himself Teeg San Gerxon to outline his plans.
* * *
"It's just a precaution—stop whining about it," Nidris cast the spell to make his brother Derdris look exactly like him. "Father says it's for the best."
"Then why isn't Father casting the spell?" Derdris whined.
"Because I have the resources to do this quickly," Nidris snapped. He'd tapped the core gently again, he just hadn't told his father about it. What was one more small tap? The core was already leaking power. "Just a little longer," Nidris spoke mostly to himself. "There. We're twins now." He lifted the mirror so Derdris could see his image.
"I don't like this," Derdris muttered.
"They won't know which one to shoot if it comes to that," Nidris smiled nastily at his brother. "It could keep us alive if we're found. Besides, I have plans to get us all out of here. Just be patient—we'll live like kings in no time."
Derdris glowered at his brother. He'd heard that phrase before—on the night prior to a coup that left them in charge of Karathia for less than three days. Then, Wylend Arden, Erland Morphis and a stable of warlocks they hadn't even guessed at or calculated their power swept in and destroyed everything. They'd been hunted for so long afterward that now all Derdris wanted was to live his life in peace. He enjoyed farming—it was quiet. He could touch the earth and make it fertile. He'd found ways to keep the insects away from the crops and always volunteered to transport the crates of tomatoes to market, selling to upscale restaurants across Tulgalan. Desh's was one of his best customers.
"You'll either save us or kill us both, brother," Derdris grumbled and used his power to fold away from Nidris.
* * *
"Aurelius, I don't want to do this." I looked at him as I dressed to go to Tulgalan. Norian wanted to get there early. Seven days early, to be exact. I was hoping to spend my time with Aurelius on Le-Ath Veronis. Norian still held my leash so I had to go.
"Love, I hope to be here when you return but I may be sent out again," Aurelius closed the bag I'd packed.
"No," I whispered, going to him and wrapping my arms around his waist.
"My love, it cannot be helped," he kissed my forehead. "Come, I am receiving mindspeech from Tory. They are waiting for us at the palace."
"All right." I moved away from Aurelius. Ry, Astralan and Stellan were going to fold us to a plantation on Tulgalan temporarily housing ASD operatives. Norian wasn't taking any chances on letting Nidris and his family escape. The plantation was far enough away from the farm the Hazlan family supposedly ran that Nidris, as a power-seeker, wouldn't detect any of the warlocks with us. As soon as we had the Hazlans in custody, I would be sent out to heal the core.