The Demon Master's Wife (Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) (24 page)

“Two thousand? I can’t even imagine the number of partners someone that old has had,” Gwen said, wincing as she realized Zade might be offended by her comment. “Thelorians live to be five hundred or so. An Earth human’s life span reaches around one hundred fifty now. If you live to be as old as your mother, I suppose I’ll just be one mate in a long line for you, right?”

“During my first century, I bonded indiscriminately, but never with any true sharing of self. When I began training with Ania, I found my spiritual life more fulfilling without those distractions. But it is not easy for a Siren to live a life without pleasure, so eventually I mated. My first mate lasted one and a quarter centuries. My second mate didn’t even last one. I had gone almost a century without mating when you came along. I find grieving for a mate to be torturous. It takes me years to let all their energy go,” Dorian said.

“So what they did to me—they essentially did to you?” Gwen asked, hurting all over again.

Dorian nodded. “Yes. Now I realize the dread I felt the night before was caused by what they were doing to you. My body grieves you as if you were dead, only it feels like you’ve been ripped away from me before we got to start.”

“Is it—will we ever be like we were?” Gwen asked quietly, studying his face, looking for the truth, not liking it when she found it.

“I don’t know,” Dorian said honestly. “I can only tell you that you never leave my mind even though I don’t feel your energy anywhere else within me.”

Gwen swallowed and looked away. “I regret that I resisted you for so long now.”

The admission said so simply and sincerely had Dorian sitting in the chair beside her bed and taking her hand again.

“Then we are both in similar emotional states. I regret the last two years when I refused the gift of you,” he said. “But wishing we had acted differently isn’t going to help us deal with what has happened. Just know I sincerely want you to get well. The rest we’ll deal with over time. We will research and discover what can be done safely in cases like ours.”

“Zade, I know you don’t feel the same about me now, but will you kiss me anyway?” Gwen asked, hoping it would keep her from dissolving into tears.

His answer was to pick up her hand and bring her fingers to his lips. He held them there, chanting softly over them. “Do not fear any further loss of us. I would serve you for your entire life as your mate even if I felt nothing at all for you for the duration of it, but that’s not the answer either. You deserve to be desired as fiercely as breath.”

“Is that a yes—or a no to the kiss question?” Gwen asked. “I’m just worried about the next couple of minutes. You have no idea how mad I get when I start crying.”

Dorian sighed and leaned over to cover her mouth gently with his. The pleasure was tactile and cool, but it did not race through either of them.

Gwen kept Dorian tethered to her with a firm grip, reaching out to run her other hand over his face. “You are without a doubt the prettiest male I have ever known.”

Dorian laughed against her stroking hand, whispering his thanks in the Rylen tongue.

“I thought you said I was the prettiest male you ever met,” Chiang teased, running a hand along one of Gwen’s injured legs as he walked to stand close to her. “Give me a hug, Commander. The Siren will just have to share that much of you with me.”

Gwen kept Dorian’s hand in hers as Chiang hugged her. “Stop being nice to me—I’m on the verge of crying as it is. I can’t stand crying. I’m hurting all over and I just want to get back to work. I’m going crazy like this.”

Chiang pulled away and patted her cheek. “Warriors have to handle their emotions just as bravely as shedding blood. Both require equal amounts of bravery. Healing requires it too.”

When Gwen nodded without spitting back at him, it was a very worried Chiang who looked at Zade. “I prepared as much as I could.”

Dorian eased his hand from Gwen’s grip and stood. “Of the two of us, you possess more healing knowledge. Do you have a preference for where to start?”

Chiang nodded. “I suggest we start on her legs. Her body will tell us what they did to her when it is ready to do so. We’ll move along the path we are shown. You may want to sit while we work on Gwen. This is going to be hard on you as well. In fact, we need help.”

Chiang looked around and saw Sarinnea standing with Ania and Synar.

“We need a filter. No offense, but I don’t think it’s safe to use Ania. Sarinnea—have you ever filtered negative emotions?” he asked.

Sarinnea shook her head, but a female Chiang hadn’t met stepped forward.

“My name is Boca Ador. I have filtered many times. It would be my honor to assist in Commander Jet’s healing. I take it I’m to support Lieutenant Zade?” she asked.

Chiang blinked at her in surprise. She not only knew what to expect, but which of them to help. Who was this female?

“Yes, you will help Lieutenant Zade. Are you an intuitive?” Chiang asked.

“I serve in many ways, but all of what I am is grateful to have been saved from those who have harmed your commander,” Boca said, going to stand behind the lieutenant. She placed her hands on his shoulders to make a physical contact, only then realizing the giant male was still as tall as her sitting down.

“Lieutenant, whatever you take from Commander Jet energetically, you may pass to me. I will absorb its vibrations and work on releasing it while you work on the next issue. In this way, you will be able to keep up with the pace her body takes in the healing,” she told him. “Chiang rightly assumes that the commander will be—proactive in shedding what she suffered.”

Dorian looked over his shoulder at her. “Do you know what I will be removing from her?”

“Yes—I know exactly. I was also cleansed before I was wired,” Boca said. “There is nothing Commander Jet endured that I have not. Give my comfort no consideration. I have a strong will to survive.”

“Indeed,” Dorian said, remembering her carrying the severed hand of her captor almost proudly. “Then let us begin.”

“Let’s start over the spot where they fed the wires,” Chiang suggested, folding down the covers and putting his hands over the wounds on her thigh as Dorian did the same on the other side of her. “In healing, all roles must be set aside. I’m going to use everyone’s given name for this work because it is linked to the physical body most strongly. Okay, I can already feel the trauma in her legs. Do what you need to remove the negative energy around it, Dorian. I will heal Gwen’s physical wounds after the pain energy is removed.”

Dorian chanted, ignoring Gwen’s constant groaning beneath his hands. His chants were strong and he could feel what he extracted passing into Boca. On the other side of the bed, he saw Chiang’s hands emitting energy and sending it into Gwen’s legs.

It took several minutes, but they finally got to the memory of the very first wire. The searing shock of it had Gwen swearing at them as she had at her captors.

Seeing a clear vision of her helpless as it was first done, Dorian paused in his chanting. Gwen’s eyes closed and her fists clenched against the bed covers When he felt Boca’s hands squeeze his shoulders in encouragement to continue, Dorian resumed the chant, relieved when the last of the pain ebbed away.

Yet as difficult as the pain of the wiring had been to heal, nothing could have prepared any of them for what they found next.

Gwen’s pleading and crying destroyed Dorian’s objectivity and along with it his control. Helpless to prevent it, his spirit insisted on sharing her agony. Dorian watched in his vision as Gwen fought to keep his energy. Because she had fought, it had taken a long pain-filled time for them to remove it all from her. Then she had wept and wept hard when they had been successful, sobbing in her enormous grief over losing their mating connection.

Though compassionate creatures, Sirens rarely shed tears because they were tiring and painful, depleting their bodies. Yet Dorian felt tears running down his face as he pulled the physical effects of the cleansing ritual trauma from his mate.

He had let Gwen’s caustic personality shield him from the truth of her feelings for him. How very foolish he had been to not value her as he should have, not to have respected her spirit that was already linked to his. Only now did he see how much Gwen had cared, now when there was so little left between them.

“It’s almost over,” Chiang said roughly, not letting his own emotions keep him from his healing task. He made himself focus on the healing when all he wanted was to take some action that would permanently end the torture that planet’s males inflicted on their females. Even though he was a healer and not a fighter, Chiang would still have gladly stood and watched the males who did those things to Gwen and Boca Ador die.

“Death is far too merciful for the males of Lotharius. May the creators think of a fitting punishment and curse them to be on the receiving end of what they have done,” Chiang said.

Then at last it was over and Gwen lay motionless in the bed, no longer making a sound, just staring blindly off, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. Chiang lifted his hands, pulling the covers back up and tucking them tightly but gently around her.

Dorian stopped chanting and shifted his touch from Gwen’s legs to her hands.

Chiang looked at Dorian, true compassion in his gaze for the hurting Siren. Now that he’d seen the depth of the bond they had lost, he wanted nothing more than to help restore it. It was like someone had turned out a light that had been shining inside both of them. Chiang had never seen what that kind of connection was like before.

“Do not be concerned that Gwen has pulled away from us—or you. It is not uncommon for patients to go into this kind of shock. Her mind was simply unable to bear reliving it all again so soon. She hears us and knows we are here, but just can’t deal with it right now. The shock should ease by tomorrow,” Chiang said. “After her mind returns, then the body should soon follow.”

Dorian felt Boca remove her hands from his shoulders, and looked back to see her weaving and pale.

“Ania, ask the dem—ask Malachi if anything can be done for Boca. I sense she took on too much,” Dorian said.

I can take the pain from her
, Malachi sent quickly.

At what cost,
Ania asked?

None
, he answered.
I swear it by the creators.

Ania walked to Boca. “Malachi can help if you are willing to risk it,” she said.

Boca nodded, not knowing what else she could do.

Malachi came out of Ania and disappeared inside the weaving female. Ania had to grab Boca’s arms to keep her from falling.

Moments later, Malachi came back out and returned to Ania.

Boca swayed, but in a couple more moments was able to right herself.

“Are you okay?” Ania asked.

Boca nodded. “It’s gone. All of Gwen’s—I mean, Commander Jet’s trauma, and some of my own.”

“I guess Malachi got a little carried away. He sort of feeds on misery,” Ania told her. “If you feel any negative effects, let me know. He swore by the creators. They are the only beings in existence that he fears.”

Boca took a few deep breaths and stood straighter as she turned to speak to the concerned male still sitting by the bed.

“Lieutenant Zade, it would be best if Commander Jet had someone stay with her tonight. Psychic healing is harder on Earthlings than many other beings. The medics said she was Thelorian too, but her physical makeup is primarily human from what I read in her history. I would venture to say the greatest part of her mind is as well. If you need me to stay with her, it would be my honor to do so.”

Dorian nodded. “Thank you, Boca. We’ll let you know. May I ask you a question?”

“You may always ask,” Boca replied. “I will answer if I can.”

“Why did Fener Sel’s kind do a cleansing on you?” Dorian asked. “Did they steal you from a mate?”

Boca met his gaze, almost relieved to be able to say it aloud to someone at last. She had never been allowed to speak of her loss to anyone, not even to the other females she knew. They had feared their Lotharian mates and refused to listen.

“My mate died long before I went to Lotharius, but I never—I never found another like him and declined to replace him. I only went to the planet out of duty to the Peace Alliance. It never occurred to me that I would lose my ability to make a choice. I carried my mate’s vibrations proudly. Fener Sel had them take my mate’s energy away thinking it would make me more loyal to my assigned captor. Instead, I only hated him more. They took the energy, but they were not able to remove memories of my time with him. I always retained a sense of my captor as a wrong mate despite my Sumerian programming.”

“I know of the deep connection within your mating bonds. It makes me even more compassionate for what you endured,” Dorian said. “May you find peace now.”

“Peace is all I want, Lieutenant Zade. That’s all I really want,” Boca said, walking out of the medical area.

Dorian noticed Chiang’s interested gaze followed her. “Boca is a brave healer and a brave female to accept it herself, from a demon no less.”

“Aye,” Chiang said. “I have the strangest sense of having met her before. It is almost like I feel what she feels.”