The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series (7 page)

“We have had this discussion many times, Captain. My decision remains the same. It is time for me to leave,” Lieutenant Seta Trax replied as respectfully she could to her Siren captain who had gone from yelling at her to begging. What more could she say to him? She hoped her new crew members would appear soon, and rescue her from the awkward conversation she had not been able to avoid yet another time today.

It had been hard work to stay neutral about her superior’s unwanted bonding advances over the past year of her commission on the Paladin. She had even confessed her lack of interest in any sort of bonding at all with any male, trying to specifically discourage him. Like most males in her limited experience, Ji Warro believed himself capable of being her exception. But he wasn’t, and Seta had no intentions of ever aligning herself to him. Her adamant resistance kept her Siren superior angry with her.

“You are not unhappy here,” Ji said, making it a statement instead of a question, and then practically daring her to refute it by glaring hard at her lack of expression. More, he was hoping Seta would give him an excuse to put his hands on her, because it was all he could do to stop himself from doing so, permission or not.

“No, Captain. I have been quite happy here under your command. It has been an honor to serve on your ship.”

Seta searched for the right balance of deference to soothe the frustrated male vibrating in front of her. Besides, she was speaking no more than the truth.

Serving on the Paladin was undemanding, and yes—the work had often lacked challenges. Still, Seta might have been bored at times, but she couldn’t honestly say she had ever been unhappy in her current position. When she had announced that she was leaving, most of her fellow officers remarked that she’d obviously lost control of her common sense. In their opinion, no one willingly left the luxury of serving on a Guardian level vessel with several thousand others. It was like working in a floating city in space.

Perhaps it bothered her that Ji Warro obviously thought her rash professional decision was about escaping him, but Seta knew her aversion to his personal interest had little to do with her decision. She was being compelled by a larger instinct too insistent to ignore that was telling her to leave the Paladin and join the Liberator. Her spirit would allow her no peace without doing so. Even her enlightened twin sister had encouraged her to make this move, though Rena professed not to be able to intuit why.

After dreaming several times about what others considered a nonsensical career move, Seta could accurately describe the tiniest corners of the Liberator, the small rescue ship she had yet to set foot on. The last time those kinds of dreams had come so strongly, Seta had ended up in the Rylen Cadet Academy. Shortly after, she and Rena had been hopping across the universe on various assignments until coming at last to serve on several Peace Alliance ships, each larger and more prestigious than the last.

Seta’s growing skills as a tracker had managed to move them into the well-paid commissioned job on the much sought after Guardian level vessel and into a room big enough for them to have separate beds. Rena got to pursue her spiritual studies unhindered. For the last year, it had seemed like they were finally to have some genuine peace in their lives.

But peace, Seta was learning, was often no more than a passing moment you had convinced yourself was without conflict. The last time she had been so strongly compelled, she and Rena had fled their home planet to escape their father’s attempts to marry them to wealthy neighboring landowners as part of a profit bargain for keeping peace. If that had been allowed to happen, they would have likely never seen each other again. As daughters forty and forty-one of over a hundred for trade or barter, they had no bargaining power with their father, nor would matches have been made according to their wishes. That fact had been made very clear long before the last betrothals that had caused them to flee.

When they had been a few years younger, their father had traded them as a pair, swapping them for goods during hard economic times on their planet of Ethos. Though Seta could not clearly recall doing so, Rena said she had killed their new owner in self-defense to keep him from violating the two of them. To cover the deed, Rena had woven a clever lie that had allowed them to return to the safety of their father’s protection, with no loss of income to the family. It was the last lie Rena had ever told, as well as the only time Seta had ever killed. Unfortunately, that hard won peace had lasted only a few years, until her father’s plans to use them again caused them to flee their planet.

Now their time on Ethos seemed very long ago and like a dream.

“Seta, I insist you tell me what holds your attention. You are not responding to any of my statements. I am offering you a chance to forget this madness. Your mind seems to have already left the ship.”

Seta bowed her head respectfully to the angered male. “Forgive me, Captain Warro. I thought I sensed someone outside the conference room door listening to our conversation. I was trying to intuit if I was correct.”

A knock on the door raised Ji’s eyebrow. “Of course you are correct. Almost nothing gets by those bloody pointed ears of yours. I said I will promote you to the next grade of Lieutenant and give Rena her own private quarters if you stay on the Paladin.”

“Your offer is most generous,” Seta stated, bowing her head again. “But I must decline. Captain Synar has a great need for my services, so the Peace Alliance is allowing me to switch ships. I’ve already accepted his invitation. I will only return if he declines my contract after our interview.”

“Very well,” Ji said, bowing his head one final time. “If Synar does so, or you become displeased with your new job, contact me. My terms for your return will not be as favorable, but I will allow it. Shades of Kellnor, you infuriate me with your lack of emotions. There is no other like you. Perhaps in many ways I will be glad to see you gone.”

Seta didn’t know what to say to her captain’s parting remarks, especially when they sounded more like a threat than anything else. Nor did she know how to respond to his jab about being glad to be rid of her.

So she blinked at him calmly as he stalked by her, shoving her arm aside. She watched his rigid back as he stomped to the door and wondered if what he said might be true. Was she lacking in real emotions? Perhaps she needed to ask Rena about Warro’s complaints.

Warro opened the door on the two men standing there getting ready to knock and held it open for them to enter.

“Take her,” Ji ordered, sneering at their surprise, knowing they had no idea what prize they were leaving with today. “Lieutenant Trax seems quite anxious to go serve on your tiny ship.”

Both Dorian’s eyebrows shot into the air as the angry male brushed between Malachi and him, not extending the common courtesy of a professional greeting. By the rules of the Peace Alliance, all ship’s officers were peers regardless of the size of the vessel. Normally the rudeness would have instantly raised his own anger, but after Warro’s sharp statements, Dorian was now very curious about the female he noticed waiting patiently in the middle of the conference room.

His shock was greater when he saw Malachi’s eyes glowing as the demon walked briskly past him, striding in defiance over to the female.

“Malachi—wait.
Stop.
”

From doing what, Dorian wasn’t sure, but he feared the demon would do something rash because that had been the case every time his eyes took on that red haze. He looked briefly at his wrist com unit and thought about calling the Liberator for help. Stopping in front of the female, Malachi stood glaring while she stared innocently back.

Something odd was going on, Dorian thought, but he sensed no imminent danger from anything but Malachi unleashing his wrath. He shut the conference room door behind him and started toward the female himself.

“She is the one I sensed. It is in her,” Malachi said flatly. “I am forbidden to harm without your permission, Lieutenant Zade. Be quick. I think I can still save you and my host body. She seems to be waiting on me to make a move.”

Zade put a hand on Malachi’s arm. “Calm yourself and check your information. Are you certain this is a threat?”

Malachi looked at the female, her gaze confused but unalarmed as it held his. The energy signature was right. The female was obviously a demon host, even though she had taken no action so far. It was likely she was being kept unaware, which meant also somewhere nearby was a master.

“I swear by the Creators,” Malachi answered, his voice ringing with assurance.

Dorian looked at the female and saw only a respectful peer gazing at him in confusion, no doubt wondering about his and Malachi’s odd exchange.

She bowed her head, and then raised it to him again.

“Lieutenant Seta Trax. And you are?” she asked, wondering why the frowning male’s eyes were glowing red.

Since hers had a tendency to glow with her own unleashed energy when she was stressed, Seta chose to overlook his odd reaction. Not wanting to insult a new crew mate without more provocation, she turned her attention to the more peaceful of the two males. “Is my appearance so surprising? I have been told my pointed ears are not attractive but have chosen to wear them because they mark me as Ethosian. I respectfully inquire—which of you is Lieutenant Zade?”

“That would be me,” Dorian answered, letting go of Malachi and bowing his head to the female. Seta repeated her head bow and turned her attention to the still glaring male.

“And you are, angry sire?” Seta asked, her tone dry as she lifted her chin. Both males were much taller than her, so she was forced to look up at them.

“This is Senior Medic, Malachi Synar,” Dorian interjected before Malachi could open his mouth and declare himself a demon in a host body just like her. “Forgive my crew mate. This is Malachi’s first visit to a Guardian level vessel. He’s been a bit nervous and out of sorts since we got here. The Paladin is a bit overwhelming after serving on the Liberator for a long time.”

“I regret I cannot offer you a tour of the ship,” Seta said politely, attempting to be friendly. “My captain, as you saw, is not pleased with my decision to join your crew. To reduce his consternation, he wishes me to make all haste in departing.”

“A tour is unnecessary,” Dorian announced. “But we do need to pay a visit to your Medical area and collect a stasis unit that was arranged to be received from your ship. It shouldn’t take long. Do you need to make further preparations to take your leave?”

“Lieutenant Zade, I must insist you reconsider. . .” Malachi began in earnest, but before he could finish the sentence, he saw Zade’s actions slow and freeze until he stopped moving and speaking.

As did the female demon host calling herself Seta Trax.

Malachi stepped away from the two of them who were now standing still as statutes, trying to determine what kind of energy bound them in place and time so completely, but the signature was beyond his experience. Putting out a hand he felt for evidence of the life force in Zade and found it to be normal. He was about to check the female as well when a voice stopped him.

Chapter 5

“
Do not touch her
. There is no need, and Seta has an aversion to male touch,” a voice said from the doorway.

Malachi turned to see an incredibly alluring female dressed in layers of sheer fabric walk quietly into the room. She glided like a professional dancer across the floor to where he stood. It did not escape Malachi’s notice that the new female was almost an exact duplicate of Seta Trax, and yet—not the same. No, not the same at all. Her energy was dramatically different.

He let his gaze rake over her, trying to determine her origin, which Malachi realized he was being blocked from seeing. Discovering an energy shield he could not penetrate around the second female, Malachi lifted one brow in defiance and glared. “I guess since Zade still lives, that you also would not harm the creature who is a mirror of yourself.”

“Greetings Malachi, Demon of Synar. I see you have adapted well to a physical form not your own,” Rena said sharply, walking slowly towards him until she stopped a short distance away. “Your habitation of an empty shell is better managed than I imagined. It doesn’t quite suit the size of your energy, but I suppose that matters less than having the organics all to yourself.”

“How do you know my sacred name? You seem very familiar. Have I tried to kill you before?” Malachi asked, looking her over again.

“So many questions,” Rena commented with a small, uneasy laugh. “Unfortunately, I am not inclined to answer them today.”

“Was I wrong about the demon being in Seta Trax? Is it in you instead?” Malachi demanded.

“No. A demon is indeed in Seta, though she is unaware of the entity that lends her its life,” Rena said calmly. “And she will remain unaware of it. This is my will. Though I am not her demon’s master, the one within her obeys my every intent—as will you.”

“Sounds very ominous. You exert power over those around you and call it your will. So who are you exactly? Better yet,
what
are you?” Malachi demanded, letting his eyes glow so much he felt the face of his host body suffuse with heat.

Rena waved a hand in front of Malachi, smiling kindly as he immediately grabbed his middle and sank to the floor. “You have a very disrespectful tongue, even after almost two millennia in mist form. Will you never learn respect?”

Malachi’s head spun and his stomach churned from feeling extreme sensations of pain, which he hadn’t felt in a couple millennia. “Normally my torturers can’t wait to give me their names. Am I to guess yours? You are not Rena Trax, I take it.”

“What is in a name? The only aspect of me that concerns you is that I am a being who can choose to end what remains of your life unless you cooperate with me,” Rena said softly. “That is the most important piece of information you need to know right now. Well, perhaps that
and
how very much I sincerely mean what I say.”

Malachi called out in pain again, shocked at his inability to stop it or ignore it. “How is this possible? I do not feel pain as a demon. And why can I not lift my mist form out of this body?”