The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series (35 page)

“Didn’t Peace Keeper Looren used to be fair-haired and slender?” one asked. “I always liked fair-haired and slender females best.”

Karr laughed and snorted. “Obviously you haven’t known many females if you are surprised by a radical change in one’s appearance.”

“Yes, well at least I’m not in mating heat for Ensign Ador,” he said in rebuttal.

Karr sighed. It was true. He favored the Sumerian. But no way in Kellnor was he challenging the Doctor for her. The giant Greggor would literally break him in half.

“We do need more females on this ship,” Karr declared, frowning.

The other two laughed and nodded as they headed out into the docking bay to their posts.

Chapter 24

Kefira woke thanking the Creators for her continued life and to find a demon guarding her. In some circumstances, that fact would have caused her great alarm. His approving smile swept all the concern away, and then she recognized his energy. It made her smile even more.

“Good to see you survived your ordeal,” Malachi said softly, standing up. “What assistance do you require?”

“The pain is mostly gone,” Kefira said.

Malachi bowed his head. “Also good to hear. We kept you sedated while we removed the wires. It seemed you had suffered enough.”

“I am grateful. Where is the female who rescued me?”

“Boca? Ensign Ador is helping the doctor work on some wounded crew members,” Malachi said, frowning as he searched for the com chart. He needed to log her vital signs now that she was awake.

“Yes, the doctor—I remember him as well. He helped break me out and then carried me to safety,” Kefira reported.

“Yes, that’s right. Looks like your memories are intact,” Malachi said dryly, coding information into the unit.

“Your name is Malachi. You’re a servant of the Creators,” Kefira announced. “Yes. I see it all very clearly now.”

Malachi laughed harshly. “It is a truth. I am forced to serve them.”

“Forced? That seems a very harsh term for such a great privilege,” Kefira said kindly.

“It seems like an appropriate term to me,” Malachi said.

“I wish to ask you for something, Malachi,” Kefira announced.

“You can ask. However, I don’t assist in waste evacuation. I’ll get one of the junior medics to help you.”

Kefira laughed. “None of that help is needed, but thank you. You are very amusing.”

“I doubt many find me so,” Malachi answered, his tone dry. “What is your question? Ask quickly. I need to fetch the doctor to check you.”

“I wish you to come inside me and remove my memories of being wired. They are blocking the use of my other abilities,” Kefira said.

Malachi laid the com unit on the medical table at her feet. “You did say you knew I was a demon, right?”

Kefira nodded.

“Then you should know that once I’m given access to an entity, I can read their thoughts and intentions also? This is not something I can choose or not choose to do. It is simply how a demon functions. Our energies would unite.”

“I understand,” Kefira said. “This is a necessary measure for me.”

Malachi thought about it for a few moments, wondering if he should discuss the request with Ania and Liam first. After all, this was the high ambassador’s daughter, not the average ambassador they were used to saving.

And she had a very unusual energy signature herself.

“Please let this request remain between us. None will know of your aide to me, and neither of your masters would mind if they knew it was at my request. I can repay your service to me with service to your crew. It is the least I can do after all of you helped preserve my unbreached state.”

“You may not feel unbreached after I’ve been inside you as demon mist. I carry the energy of others I have collected over time. While I can shield you from the worst of it, a little evil always leaks through. Each entity retains what I unavoidably end up leaving behind,” Malachi warned.

“May the Creators will be done,” Kefira said quietly.

“You’re even more fanatical about them than Zade,” Malachi declared. “Very well. I am inclined to do your bidding. Prepare yourself.”

Kefira closed her eyes, feeling a sudden cold sensation as the demon came into her. Then her spirit lightened. The trauma of what the Lotharians had done to her suddenly didn’t seem to matter as much. She opened her eyes in time to see a black mist sparkling with gold enter the host body waiting patiently for its return. The change in his mist form made her smile.

The male beside her—whole once more—blinked and then laughed at her intense perusal.

“I couldn’t exactly remove the bad memories. Hard to explain if you don’t understand energy dynamics, but let’s just say it had torn several areas of your spirit. To remove the memories would have caused further damage, so I put an energy block—a form of binding—on the memories to cover them from your consciousness. You should be free of the worst of the emotional pain until some similar trauma takes place again. Hopefully, you will remain safe in this incarnation, and die without reliving your experience in any way at all,” Malachi said, reaching out and patting her arm.

“Thank you so much,” Kefira said sincerely. “I can feel my light returning.”

Malachi grinned. She was charming, and so bloody innocent that it hurt him to think about anything happening to dim that kind of goodness. He was to a point of admitting that his opinion of females was forever altered, but it was uncommon for him to feel such a wave of protectiveness. The last time he felt such a need to watch over a being was with Ania.

“So tell me, Kefira—does the Creators’ light hurt when it returns to you? I’ve never had that happen before.”

Giggling, Kefira reached out a hand. “It is good to laugh. Help me off the table. I want to try walking now.”

“It’s a little soon to be getting up. Let me get Chiang and Boca first. . .” Malachi drifted off in his lecture as his patient swung her legs over the side of the medical table and slid to her feet. She wiggled her incredibly attractive legs beneath the long, ugly yellow medical tunic before walking around the room.

“Almost like new again,” Kefira said, happy that she managed it on her own. “Now let’s go to Medical. I think I can help your wounded crew members, or at least one of them.”

Hope rose inside him swiftly, only to be dashed by Kefira’s sympathetic gaze. Reaching out a hand, she rubbed his arm gently. It was all he could do not to push her violently away, but she didn’t deserve that kind of harshness merely for caring.

“I am sincerely sorry. I cannot influence the emissary’s destiny. I can only bring the Lieutenant back,” Kefira said gently.

Malachi nodded. “I guess that’s what everyone wants anyway.”

“Everyone but you,” Kefira stated. “You want the emissary to return.”

“So you’re a mind-reader? I’m not really surprised, but now I’m doubly glad you weren’t stuck reading Orem Sel’s. He’s one of the coldest, most twisted males I’ve had the misfortune to be inside.”

“You joke to avoid my question, but I see the truth,” Kefira said.

“If you are with us long,” Malachi said flatly, offering her his arm for support as she walked, “you will soon learn that no one on this ship cares what I want. I am merely the Demon of Synar.”

“Everything changes. Have you not learned that in your long life, Demon of Synar?”

“Stick around,” Malachi advised. “The beings on this ship will beat that positive Klageldon dung out of you in no time.”

Kefira laughed at Malachi’s protestations and tightened her hold on his arm. “Praise the Creators for sending such delightful beings to rescue me.”

Malachi shook his head and sighed at the naïve young female’s knowing smile.

***

After finally convincing Ji Warro to leave long enough to seek food, Boca and Chiang both sighed with frustration when Kefira walked slowly into Medical on Malachi’s arm.

“I tried to stop her, but short of using forbidden physical restraint, there was nothing I could do but make sure she didn’t fall on the way over,” Malachi said, defending his actions.

Kefira smiled. “He speaks true. I have come to help heal those who risked their lives to save mine.”

Boca walked over to Kefira, taking her other arm in hand for additional balance.

“Your touch carries the gift of
vindecarea incendiu.
It is from the home planet of your mate,” Kefira informed her with a smile. “What a wonderful reward for your service to the Creators.”

“I suppose that is one way to look at it,” Boca said, frowning at the other gift from that planet that she hadn’t really wanted to receive. That gift was currently glaring at her with a hurtful expression because she had yet to tell him what had happened. “Sometimes it is hard to tell a curse from a blessing.”

Kefira laughed. “Indeed, I see you struggle with that concerning the doctor’s compassion for you.”

Hearing Malachi laugh, Boca swung a glare in his direction. “I am not the only one cursed.”

“
Demon
,” Malachi said succinctly, pointing to his chest. “And I don’t care what anyone thinks.”

“I was not referring to
that
curse,” Boca said stiffly, but her heart thumped hard when Malachi’s tortured gaze met hers. An apology was on her tongue, but Kefira broke in before she could get it out.

“The journeys of natural mates are so interwoven that nothing can affect their destiny to be together. Your arrangement with the doctor is that strong, Boca Ador. And for the record, he felt no desire for me while he carried me from the cell. That was just your judgment of him when he was having a typical male response to a female. Such biological things are like short flashes of light. What he feels for you is a thousand times greater and as bright as a newly formed star,” Kefira said, letting go of Malachi to use the medical table for balance. She moved up it to peer at the entity currently using Seta Trax’s body.

“Hello, Zorinda,” Kefira said, smiling kindly at the demon.

“How would someone like you know the torture of a female who had never gotten to choose her mating?” Boca demanded, wanting to bite out her tongue when Kefira turned a shocked gaze to her.

“Has the Greggor claimed you?” Kefira demanded. “No, he has not. Yet your energy surrounds him, Boca. You
have
already chosen. Why do you deny it?”

“I did not choose. I had no choice,” Boca argued.

“There is always a choice,” Kefira said sharply.

The lecturing tone reminded Boca entirely too much of the emissary who kept interfering in her life. She turned and walked away before she was tempted to kick the female’s hurt legs out from under her. She had only herself to blame. After all, she had helped save the smart-mouthed devotee of her spiritual torturers. Maybe she should have left both Kefira and Chiang in the cell and just saved herself.

Boca put her back to the wall and crossed her arms, determined to watch silently.

“Since you and the Kefira wish to discuss our relationship in public, let me add to the record,” Chiang announced loudly enough to make sure there were plenty of witnesses. “I have refrained from claiming you
precisely
to leave you a choice. The last thing any male wants is be bound physically to an unwilling female for the rest of his existence. Creators forbid you might actually admit that you want me in your life.”

“
Mine persse
,” Boca shouted in Sumerian, more afraid than she wanted him to know about becoming any more committed to him than she already was. She had decisions to make. Important decisions. Decisions that might not include him.

“
Oricand
,” Chiang answered her oath harshly, using the strongest Greggor oaths he could think of. “
Data viitoare am sa te mai legati de pat
.”

“Fascinating. You have no idea what the other just said, do you?”

Malachi asked the question, truly hoping for an answer. The energy of the insults in two different languages fit together so perfectly. He had spent considerable time lately learning enough of Greggor and Sumerian to follow their fighting. While Boca was still just being disrespectful, the Greggor was stepping up his aggression. Chiang looked like he actually meant his threat about tying Boca to the bed next time.

Kefira sighed at the distraction, turned, and raised her hands. One palm was aimed at Chiang. The other aimed at Boca. “
NISME
,” she said.

Then she smiled as Boca and Chiang rubbed their foreheads.

“You will find it more helpful to fully understand each other when you fight. Now, Malachi, will you stand on the other side of the medical table.”

“Kefira? You didn’t do anything to keep them from fighting in the future did you?” Malachi asked, walking around the table. “Life gets really boring on this tiny ship. Listening to Chiang and Boca fight was my best entertainment.”

“Fighting is merely the method Boca and Chiang are using to remake each other. One mate changes another. Have you not observed this pattern in energy as well?”

“Yes, but it’s more fun to think they just irritate each other for no reason at all,” Malachi said, watching Chiang and Boca glaring at each other. Neither of them seemed to care about what Kefira intended. Kefira’s giggling brought his attention back to her.

“Truly, you are amusing,” Kefira said. “I wish I could stay on the ship for a while, but my destiny lies elsewhere.”

“I hope Ania gets here soon. I truly wish her to listen to you speak. You sound like she does. Or Zade—yes, Zade needs to hear too,” Malachi said, and then his gaze went to the empty medical table behind Chiang. His eyes and temper flashed before he could stop it from happening.
“Where is she? What have you done with the body?”

Chiang straightened at the venom in the demon’s words, pulling his attention from Boca’s at last. “Stop glaring. I put Rena Trax’s body in stasis. Decay was happening slowly, but I decided to completely stop it until we figured out what to do. You said you had no need of the unit anymore.”

Malachi visibly wilted when all gazes fell on him. Okay. Maybe he’d overreacted just a little. “I. . .I apologize, Doctor. I don’t know what possessed me to react that way. It won’t happen again.”