Demon Revealed (High Demon Series #2) (17 page)

"I'll fix you something." I sat up in bed. It hit
me, then. All those people. Still just as dead.

"Don't think about it," Teeg pulled my hand away
from my forehead and slid me across the sheets until I was huddled against him.
"It'll be all right," he soothed. I hoped he was right—even if I had
no idea
when
everything might be all right. "You don't have knobby
knees," he smoothed a large hand down my legs. "You lied to me."

"Teeg, I was trying to keep everybody from knowing I was
a girl." I slid off the bed.

"I know." He was right behind me, running his hands beneath
my sleeveless pajama top. We ate soup after thawing it in his zapper. With
crackers. "We can go to the market later," I said. I felt too weary
to move after we'd eaten.

"We'll go later." Teeg carried me back to bed.

* * *

The eight-day that went by after I returned to cooking (and
bodyguarding) for Arvil went without mishap. I found a flower shop in Campiaa
City early one morning, bought a bouquet of blossoms and tossed them in the
ocean. "For you, Xiri," I whispered. "Wherever you are." I
wiped tears away while I walked to Arvil's palace.

* * *

"Arvil wants to see you," Delvin came into the
kitchen on seven-day afternoon. Almost asking what Arvil wanted, I decided not
to put my worries into words and followed Delvin up two levels of stairs and
into Arvil's private study. His private office was enormous and decorated with
every luxury one might imagine or wish for. I wished at that moment that Teeg
had mindspeech—I was worried about what Arvil wanted.

"Sit down, Reah." Arvil sat behind a desk large enough
to serve as a bed for two people. Richly carved in dark wood and polished until
it shone, the desk was still dwarfed by the size of the room. A comp-vid lay on
one side; otherwise, the desk was clean.

I sat on one of the chairs in front of the desk. "Her
feet barely reach the floor," Arvil pointed. Delvin snickered at Arvil's
attempted humor. I wanted to get up and hit him. He'd gotten me into this mess
and I still owed him for that. Not in any good way, either.

"Reah, you know I lost my family," Arvil began.

"I'm very sorry about that, Lord Arvil." I was. Even
if they weren't the best family, they were family. I'd feel sad if one of my
brothers died. Well, actually they were my uncles and not my brothers. I'd
still feel sad. Mostly for what could have been, but it would grieve me, just
the same.

"I know you are. That's why I asked you here. Because you
seem to care about things like that." Arvil rose from his chair and stared
out a rather large window behind his desk. It overlooked the pool and gardens on
the spacious grounds below. "Do you know how old I am, Reah?" Arvil's
back was still turned toward me.

"No, Lord Arvil."

"I am more than two hundred. While I come from a race
that lives to be three hundred or more, well, things happen." He was right
about that—his brother and cousins had been wiped out in a blink. Even though
he'd told me to kill them if they threatened him, he'd felt something, I suppose.

"I know how old you are, Reah Nilvas." He turned
around, lifted the comp-vid in his hand and scrolled through information. "Conscripted
by the Alliance. Fell in with the drug crowd—involved in a drug war—considered
a traitor now. See, I have your information. You don't have to hide it anymore."
He turned the comp-vid around so I could see that he did indeed have my records.
The false ones. I still flushed and lowered my head.

In my entire life, I would never do what those records said I
did. Lendill had done this to me. He and Norian Keef. I wanted to slap them. Call
them names. That was childish. How was I going to get out of this? How? Even if
my records were cleared when I returned, there were too many people who'd seen
the newsfeeds and found these records. They'd still think I was criminal, even
though I wasn't.

"Teeg is here as requested, Master Arvil." His new
housekeeper—a male this time, showed Teeg through the door. I shrank back in my
seat. Arvil was going to show that garbage to Teeg and he was going to think
I'd done all those things, too. I wanted to weep.

"Teeg, sit down," Arvil nodded toward the seat next
to me. "This is information on our little girl, here." Arvil handed
the comp-vid to Teeg. His mouth was set in a frown as he read the information. The
comp-vid was handed back as soon as Teeg finished reading. He didn't look at
me.

"Teeg, I no longer have family. They're dead now." Teeg
lifted his eyes to stare at Arvil San Gerxon. "I've gone looking through
the people I know. The ones who work for me. The ones who seem loyal. Tested
all of them, at one time or another. Teeg, I want you to marry Reah here. This
afternoon. I've had the papers pulled already. I'm naming you and Reah as my
heirs. Don't cross me in this. I don't think either of you are greedy, as my
brother was. I'm depending on you to help me in my business and treat me fairly
and keep me alive. Be straight with me and I'll be straight with you. Deal?"

I must have been gasping like a fish. Teeg just looked grim. Well,
he'd received two shocking pieces of news, one right after the other. He
wouldn't want to marry me—not after what he'd seen on Arvil's comp-vid.

"When and where?" Were the only words that came from
Teeg's mouth. I stared at him. He couldn't be serious.

"Right now if you're ready—I have the authority to marry
anyone on Campiaa."

"Do it," Teeg said. "Before I change my
mind."

Arvil pulled papers out of a desk drawer and slid them across
to us. "You're married. Just sign at the bottom." I looked over the
standard marriage contract. I'd never seen one before, never having married
anyone before.

"Reah, just sign," Teeg's voice was clipped. I
accepted the pen from Arvil and signed my name.

"Now, for the adoption papers," Arvil slid another
stack of papers toward each of us. Teeg and I scanned all of them. They
stipulated that if we caused or attempted to cause Arvil's death in any way,
the adoption would be voided. It also voided the adoption if we did anything
untoward, such as stealing from Arvil. That one I was pretty sure I could keep.
The other one—not so much.

"Sign it, Reah," Teeg elbowed me after a while. I
signed. What else could I do? I cursed Lendill Schaff and Norian Keef while I
wrote my name and initialed many lines on many pages.

"Now, we'll have your things moved to the family
wing," Arvil said when we'd handed the papers back to him. "Starting
tomorrow, you'll both get your feet wet on running my businesses. Reah, you'll
be in charge of all the restaurants in all my casinos. I think some of them are
skimming off the top. Find that out for me, baby girl. Teeg," he turned to
my new husband, "I want you to go through all the accounts for the casinos.
Let me know if you find anything. You've never handed me any accounts from the
construction side that weren't perfect and accounted for every penny you spent."
Teeg nodded at Arvil. "You're my family, now. Reah, I hope you'll still
cook for us occasionally. Hire somebody else for us, in the meantime."

"Of course, Lord Arvil." I ducked my head.

"You don't have to call me Lord Arvil, although I like
it—I just adopted you, baby. You're only nineteen—I know that. On Campiaa, you
won't truly come into adulthood until you're twenty-two. You're my little
chick, Reah."

"I want to take Reah out for dinner," Teeg stood and
pulled me up with him.

"The uh, new staff should be able to finish dinner—we got
it started already," I said, pointing off in what I thought was the
kitchen's direction.

"Don't worry about it—go have fun. We'll get going on
this tomorrow," Arvil waved a hand. Delvin had stood by, his face
expressionless as he absorbed the news. I wanted to fling him through the huge
window behind Arvil's desk. Teeg hauled me out of the room instead.

* * *

"Reah, breathe, sweetheart." I was hyperventilating.
I'd made it to the beach across the road, but then I was gasping for breath,
hugging myself and going to my knees in the loose sand. Teeg was kneeling
beside me, trying to get my breathing evened out. "Just breathe slow,
baby, slooow." I realized I was crying when I did take shaky but more
normal breaths after a while.

"Reah, I don't care anything about what that comp-vid said.
I see what's in front of me. I'm not going to hold any of that stuff against
you." I blinked at him—he'd said
stuff
. I sobbed.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"You said stuff. Some old friends used to say that."

"You don't like that word?"

"I do, it was just," I flung out an arm, unable to
say what I felt.

"Then I'll say it again—
stuff
. How's that?" I
nodded mutely. "Come on, let's get drunk," he hauled me up.

We didn't get drunk but we did get tipsy. And then Teeg bought
a ring. A really nice one. "I'd put Tiralian crystal on that finger,
sweetheart, but they can't get any of it here." Teeg offered me a crooked
grin. He had a beautiful mouth. He kissed me with that mouth after we got the
ring sized and he slipped it on my finger. I hoped Aurelius and Tory were
understanding. I didn't think I could give Teeg up. Not for any reason. We went
to find something to eat after that, getting food to go and taking it to Teeg's
apartment.

"Last night here at my apartment," he muttered
softly as we ate our dinner on Teeg's kitchen island. We'd gotten a decent
pasta dish at one of the casinos Arvil didn't own. I wanted to check out the
competition as much as I could. Edan used to do it for Desh's. I was never
given enough money to check on the competition or I would have.

A hovertruck came for us and all our things the following day.
I had some clothing left but half of what I'd bought with Teeg had been
destroyed in the firebombing. I had mindspeech to send to Vice-Director Lendill
Schaff, too. I wondered what he was going to say or do when I told him Arvil
San Gerxon had adopted me. I wondered if Arvil could get his legal counsel to
void the papers from his prison cell when the ASD came calling. What would I
do, too—if Arvil asked me to kill someone for him? Someone like Neele, who I
had no desire to harm?

"What are we going to do?" I whispered as I grabbed
Teeg's hand before we walked out his door.

"No idea," he leaned down to kiss me.

* * *

I fired three cooks, six assistants and eleven members of the
waitstaff before the day was over. Either for theft, food safety issues or failure
to report tips. I knew when they were lying. Too bad for them. They were
escorted by Arvil's security to the shuttle station. A list of people waited to
be interviewed—I sat in on the interviews. I knew when those people were lying
or padding their resumes. Several of the head cook applicants made meals for
the guards and me.

The guards loved it—they never got to eat like that. Arvil's
kitchens and customers didn't suffer; we had replacements hired before the day
was out. I also set up a rotating schedule with each of the security
supervisors in every one of Arvil's casinos. Each member of the security team
would get a voucher for a nice meal for two in one of Arvil's casino restaurants
every eight-day. They could bring a date or a spouse on a day off and have an
expensive dinner.

It never hurt to have security on your side—especially if you
wanted their cooperation later. The guards loved it—they had to pay before and
the nicer restaurants tended to be out of their price range. The best the
casinos had wasn't inexpensive in any sense of the word. In return, security
would be less likely to turn their heads if they saw any of my staff taking
liberties.

I sent mindspeech to Lendill while I was cleaning up before
going to bed. Teeg was in Arvil's office, going over the books for several
casinos. I was going to wait until I'd gone through everything on the
restaurants before sitting down with Arvil.

Vice-Director?
I sent.

Reah? I haven't heard from you for several days.

A lot has happened since I talked to you last.

Tell me.

Arvil's family—what there was of it—got killed during the
firebombing.

Good news—what else?

Arvil adopted heirs.

Not good news. Who do we need to add to our lists of most-wanted
people? Some of the reptanoids?

No.

Then who? Did you get names?

Yes.

Tell me.

Arvil San Gerxon adopted me and another person
. That
brought silence. Either Lendill was stunned or he was already putting my image
on the comp-vid most wanted site. I waited. And waited some more. Finally, a
response came.

I'm sorry, Reah, but the Director and I just laughed so
hard we nearly cracked a rib. Arvil adopted you?
I think he had to stop and
laugh some more.

Yes. I am officially Reah Nilvas San Gerxon. The other
person is Teeg San Gerxon. And you can't kill him. Arvil married us yesterday. Teeg
is my husband. I don't think he's bad—in fact, the reason Arvil adopted him is
because he's
the one honest person, possibly, on all of Campiaa. He was
a building contractor for Arvil before he was adopted.

A contractor?

That's what I said. And we're married. I sure hope Tory and
Aurelius don't have a fit. I'm not giving this guy up.

Reah, you have been busy.

This wasn't my idea, Lendill Schaff. It was yours. What was
I supposed to do—tell Arvil no, so he could shoot me in the head like I've seen
him do with other people? Or watch while one of his wizards burns Teeg to death?
You kept me here, Vice-Director.

I know. Do what you can to keep from breaking the law, but
this is more than we ever expected. You are now in an even better position to
hand him over to us. His contacts as well. Keep your eyes and ears open, Reah,
and report back to me with whatever you learn.