Mate Healer (8 page)

Score one for the brave kid. Pooling power usually freaked people out. There were few people who wanted to shake Lian's hand after watching him heal.

"Lian Blythorpe." They shook hands, Lian automatically scanning the person before him.

Normal.

"I'm Jaz," said the formerly unconscious patient.

The others came forward throwing out names. Lian didn't catch them all, but he nodded to them as they rushed to shake his hand. He adjusted a kid here or there, clearing acne just for the hell of it. Being a teen sucked sometimes and a little skin care barely brushed against his power pool.

Jaz and Connol sidled up beside him. "How much is this going to cost us?" Connol asked not meeting his eyes. "We don't have much, but I can probably scratch some funds from my dad."

Lian blinked back tears. Damn these kids were sweet. "No charge. I couldn't let you die, it goes against my oath." He flinched when he remembered how he'd damaged his reputation just a short time before.

"But you could be rich," Blaine said his eyes wide with astonishment. "Royalty would pay big to have a kick-ass healer like you. You could be living system high with all the big moneymakers."

Lian laughed at the kid's enthusiasm.

Jaz came forward. "A pretty man like you shouldn't walk the streets alone. Where are your keepers?"

"I don't have any keepers," Lian admitted. "I'm sort of in a bit of trouble and lying low until my people come." Before they could comment he switched the subject. He didn't need another group of watchers. "What's this game called? I'd love to get a board and try it some time."

Blaine flashed him a wicked smile. "This is solar ball and we're the west kingdom champions," he said indicating the other kids.

"Impressive," Lian replied dutifully.

"We can hook you up with a rippin' board. Our sponsors send us new ones all the time," Blaine offered.

Lian smiled. "I might take you up on that."

"I can give you a place to stay," Blaine offered, kicking the sidewalk with one worn sneaker. "I mean, it's the least we can do."

The other members of the team piped up in agreement.

Considering his lack of options, Lian nodded. "Thanks. I'll take it if you're sure your parents won't mind."

Blaine shook his head. "I live with my uncle and he loves to meet new people."

"Okay." If it didn't work out, Lian wouldn't be any worse off than he'd been five minutes ago.

Chapter Five

Lian followed Blaine from the area with broken sidewalks and shattered glass to a part of town where Lian wondered if he were dressed well enough to avoid getting arrested for vagrancy. No doubt about it, Blaine lived in the nicer area of whatever kingdom they were in.

"Where exactly am I?"

Blaine peeked at Lian curiously from under his floppy bangs. "What do you mean? Are you lost?"

Lian shrugged. "I sort of ran away from where I was before and lost track of things."

Blaine nodded. "I know what that's like. You're in King Raiston's kingdom. He's a pretty good guy but he's got a lot of area to look over and sometimes things get missed."

"At least he tries." A lot of rulers were indifferent to their people but no one could watch over everything, and there still remained that pesky problem of free will.

Blaine turned to walk up the steps of a large apartment building. Lian hesitated. "Come on. We've got lots of space and after I tell Uncle what you did, I'm sure he won't have a problem keeping you safe for a bit."

Lian followed Blaine inside. Two men stood on either side of the inner corridor with the look of bodyguards about them. If he wasn't mistaken they had the hardware, too. Lian's steps began to drag until Blaine grabbed his arm and yanked him towards the elevators. Blaine pulled a chain out from beneath his shirt. A keycard dangled from a metal loop. With an experienced swipe, Blaine cleared the security card and pushed the penthouse suite. Lian wondered what he'd gotten into this time.

As the transporter rose, Blaine chattered about the team and his boarding history. Lian listened with half an ear as his stomach plummeted to his toes. He really needed to talk to some dragonkin and get started on his research the whole reason he'd come to the planet to begin with. Assuming everything with Bourne ended well. If Bourne convinced the authorities to throw Lian off the planet, the dragonkin may never find the source of their fertility issues.

The bell rang alerting them they'd reached the top floor.

Blaine bounced out and Lian followed more slowly. Four more guards stood just inside. Lian automatically swept them with his magic. Several bone fractures, some bruising and… Lian froze. Walking over to the farthest guard on the left he poked at him with his magic.

"Doc what are you doing?" Blaine asked.

Lian continued to scan the man who had dragonkin blood. He couldn't tell how much but as he dug deeper Lian could see it in the DNA.

"There's something wrong with him," Lian said, musingly.

"There's nothing the fuck wrong with me, step back!" The guard snarled.

"Hey, be nice Flin, this guy can like, heal with his hands. He's magic," Blaine said.

Lian ignored the conversation running around him. Something was wrong. "What have you ingested in the past twenty-four hours?"

"Why?" Lian could hear the suspicion in Flin's voice but he didn't check out the man's expression. With his focus deep inside the guard he saw nothing but floating particles in Flin's body.

"Because something you ingested contained poison." Lian could see the little dots swirling around in the guard's bloodstream.

"What? Blaine what kind of wacko did you bring home?" Flin asked.

"What's going on here?" A new voice entered the mix.

Lian blinked, forcing his focus to return to surface. Still trying to regain his proper sight, he turned to face the new voice. He sank into the newcomer with his magic.

"You have it, too. Something you both consumed," Lian said, pondering the different things that could carry the same poison.

A hard hand gripped Lian's shoulder and shook him.

Lian snapped back to the present. "Oh, hi!"

"Blaine, did you bring me a pretty present?" The newcomer asked.

"What?" Blaine's voice sounded as confused as Lian felt. "No, Uncle Milot. Yuck! I brought him home because he needed a place to stay and he saved my friends' lives." The complete horror in the teen's voice almost had Lian laughing.

Uncle Milot had pitch black hair and snapping blue eyes. If he'd been on the cover of a magazine Lian would've grabbed it in a second.

"Explain!" Uncle Milot snapped, keeping his grip on Lian.

Blaine's interpretation of Lian's actions made him sound like more of a hero than he felt at the time but he let it slide. It wasn't his place to correct him.

Blaine's uncle released his hold. "I thank you, sir," he said formally. "Those kids are reckless, but they're good boys. I would've been devastated if any of them died in that accident."

"If you put me up for a few days I'd call us even and if you told me what you've eaten in the past twenty-four hours that would help even more," Lian replied.

"Why?" Milot's eyes narrowed.

"Because I think whatever you and your guard ate is part of the reason fertility rates have dropped for the dragonkin." Lian needed more input to test his theory but his gut told him he was on the right path.

"I'm Milot Stivy, you can call me Milot. Nice to meet you, friend." Milot held out his hand as they officially met.

Lian shook the hand held out to him. "Dr Lian Blythorpe. Nice to meet you."

"Explain what you said before," Milot demanded.

Lian hid his amusement. Milot apparently barked a lot of commands. In as succinct a manner as he could, Lian told him his purpose here on Dragait and even told Milot about his altercation with Bourne. Not that he'd injured the man but that Lian needed to hide out.

"So you need a place to stay until your team shows up?" Milot asked.

Lian nodded. "I hate to put you out. We did just meet, but Blaine said you might have a spare bedroom."

Uncle Milot sent Blaine an amused look. "Yeah, I'm sure we've got something. Is this poison going to kill us?"

"I don't think so. It looks like it's bioengineered to destroy your sperm. How it does that, I'm not sure, but it appears to be working."

"Huh. Well, doc, I'd be happy to help you out as you are trying to help my people. In fact, if you tell me what you need I can find you some lab space."

"Oh, that isn't necessary. I wouldn't want to put you to so much trouble." Lian barely knew the man and anyone with that many bodyguards probably didn't have a legally legitimate company.

"Nonsense. I own a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure I recently bought a pharmaceutical company. I bet they have a lab you can use." Milot waved his objections away.

Lian opened his mouth to answer when his communicator went off. Pulling it out of his pocket his heart pounded at the sight of Nevair's name.

"A problem, doc?" Milot asked.

Lian sighed. "I hope not."

He pushed the button to accept the call.

"You'd best be on your way back to the cathedral!" Nevair snapped

"Hi, hon. Um no, I'm staying with some friends for a few days." Lian knew Nevair wouldn't take that excuse but he had to try.

"You don't have any friends. You just got here. Where are you? I'm going to send Shean to pick you up," Nevair said.

"No. I'm fine, Nevair. I'll see you in a few days." He didn't need to get Nevair mixed up in his problems.

"You tell me where you are right now!" Nevair roared.

Lian disconnected.

"Are we going to be having your partner join us soon?" Milot nodded towards Lian's communicator.

Lian promptly shoved back into his pocket. "Not if he has any sense," Lian growled. "He's busy enough he doesn't need to be hunting me down."

"Come, sit down, my chef has food prepared. You can search it and see if anything looks poisoned and tell me all about your senseless beau."

Lian's stomach growled. He laughed self-consciously. "I guess it would be stupid to say I wasn't hungry."

"Indeed," Milot agreed.

"Come on, doc," Blaine said. "I bet you've got some kick-ass healing stories."

Lian laughed. "I might have one or two."

The table could have fed a family of twenty, instead the three of them huddled around one end.

Seeing his expression, Milot shrugged. "Sometimes the entire family comes for dinner. I like to have space for them."

"You have a big family?" Lian asked.

"Extended. I have four sisters and two brothers. None who've had more than one kid each. Blaine's mother, my sister, died in childbirth, so I kept him."

Milot talked as if Blaine were a puppy who followed him home. From the fond look Blaine gave his uncle, Lian let it slide. "That was lucky for you," he told Blaine. Memories of his loneliness after his parent's death gripped his heart.

Blaine shrugged. "Someone in the family would've taken me. That's how they are."

A servant put a loaf of hot bread on the table. Lian scanned it and shook his head. "The bread's not poisoned."

Milot sighed. "Great. I love my bread."

Since the man didn't have a spare ounce of fat, Lian supposed he must enjoy his exercise, too. Milot looked to be in his early forties but with dragonkin he could easily be a hundred and Lian wouldn't know.

Lian took a bite of a roll. "It's good bread."

Blaine nodded, his mouth stuffed like a rodent.

"Tell me about your man. What's he like?" Milot asked.

Lian shrugged. "Bossy."

Milot laughed, a big hearty sound. "A lot of guys are bossy."

"Yeah, but not the ones I usually go with. He's dragonkin and thinks we're mates. I'm still on the fence," Lian confessed.

Blaine dropped his fork. "When did you have sex?"

"Blaine! You don't ask people you hardly know when they had sex." Milot narrowed his eyes and contradicted himself by asking, "Was it long enough to get the mark?"

Lian shook his head. "We had sex this morning and yesterday."

"Ahh, so there's still time to find out. What's his name?"

Lian tore apart the roll and glanced around the room. "I'd rather not say. I don't want him to get in trouble because I'm hiding out."

Milot shook his head. "My boy, the last thing anyone in this room will do is snitch you out. Now tell me." Lian couldn't ignore the order.

"Nevair Dragonfang," Lian mumbled.

Milot jumped to his feet. "We've got to return you."

"Hey! I thought you said it didn't matter!" Lian scowled.

"I thought you were going to mention some lesser noble or maybe even a half breed with an optimistic spirit, but you can't just ditch Dragonfang." Panic crossed Milot's face.

"I didn't ditch him. I'm going to return as soon as my medical team arrives in two days," Lian said in a soothing voice.

"And if your mark shows up before then?" Milot challenged.

"Then I'll cope. Besides, with or without a mark, I'm going to return to Nevair. I like him." Nevair had a sweet vulnerability Lian found irresistible.

"He could tear this building apart," Milot glanced around as if expecting Nevair to arrive any minute now. "You're the one he destroyed the bar for, aren't you?"

Lian shrugged. "It isn't my fault he lacks control. It will be a good test for him to acquire some."

Two servers brought out the rest of the food. Lian smiled at the little woman who put a plate of roasted meat and some sort of tuber in front of him. "It looks delicious," he told the woman.

She curtseyed before walking away.

"Is it poisoned?" Milot snapped. "If you're going to endanger out lives with your stubbornness, you can at least see if the food will kill me before the Pontifex does."

Lian laughed. "You'll be fine and the food is not poisoned."

The same server poured Lian a glass of water.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome sir." The server bowed.

Lian absent-mindedly picked up the glass. Tipping it to his mouth he looked down at the surface and spewed out the liquid sending droplets everywhere.

"The water. It's the water that's poisoned." Lian announced.

"What? That's ridiculous," Milot snarled. "I only buy imported off-world bottled water."

That didn't make sense. "Off-world from where, and who imports it?"

Milot snapped his fingers at one of the guards. "Find out who distributes our water."

The guard nodded and quickly left the room.

"If it's coming from off-world, maybe someone who doesn't want the dragonkin to breed is tampering with the water. Since you're mostly a desert planet you need to import most of your water, don't you?"

Milot nodded. "Yeah two-thirds of our water comes from someplace else. I thought it was supposed to be safer. There are all kinds of restrictions on it."

"But restrictions occur at the water's source. If they put the poison in the bottles, then testing the water before its bottled won't show the poison," Lian reasoned.

Milo scowled at his glass. "Damn, it's the perfect way to kill us off. No one truly gets sick because the poison is subtle. In fact, I doubt anyone but you would've noticed it."

Lian basked for a moment in the praise before he nodded. "I need to get blood samples of you and your guard, from men and women who are poisoned, and samples of the water."

Milot stroked his chin. "All the women in my family drink the same water. I'll have them come and give you samples so you have a good variety. My men and I can give you male samples. Will that do?"

"That'll be fine, thanks." Lian couldn't believe his good fortune in finding the perfect group of people to fall into.

They finished their meal in companionable silence. Milot ordered wine to replace the water. After dinner, a servant showed Lian to a lovely suite with a balcony and an excellent view of the city. Not that it amounted to much as far as cities go, but it had a pretty, quaint feel Lian appreciated after visiting so many smog-filled, industrialized towns for his job.

Memories of the various places he'd gone brought his thoughts to Nevair. Absently, he scratched his back. Stepping out on the balcony he wondered what his life would be like if he agreed to be Nevair's mate.

A flapping of wings was his only warning before a familiar multi-colored dragon settled beside him. "Good thing these landings are so large," he muttered to the beast.

Nevair-dragon gave a snort.

"I would've come back to you." Lian scratched the dragon along his eye ridge, causing the creature's back leg to thump. "Like that, do you?"