Demon’s Dream (High Demon #6)(17)
Author: Connie Suttle

"Honey Snake," I said, "this is better therapy right now than what Doctor Halivar was doing."

"Where your shoes?" He was staring at my feet. Likely at my pajamas, too. I really wasn’t dressed to do what I was doing.

"At the house," I said, answering Farzi’s question. I’d skipped out to the orange groves without bothering to grab any footwear. Now, my soles were covered in dirt. I didn’t have a hoverstep, but it wasn’t needed with the oranges.

"Reah," Farzi took my face in his hands. "Something bothers you. We all know this. We want it to leave. We want to lie with you. Hold onto you. Say how we feel. Say how angry we are that we were treated bad. And treated you bad, too."

"Farzi, I don’t know how long that will take, or if it’s possible, even." I wasn’t looking into his eyes any longer. I couldn’t. Concern as well as pain lay in those honey-brown depths.

"My beautiful Reah." Farzi pulled me against him and stroked my hair. "So fragile," he murmured, kissing the top of my head. "Let me take you home," he sighed, his breath stirring hair at my temple. "Car close," he whispered, stroking my jaw with a thumb. I allowed him to lift and carry me the distance to his small hovercar. They owned many of those; the vehicles ran between rows of trees easily and didn’t interfere with the picking.

"There you are," Tory was waiting with Aurelius when Farzi parked in front of the large plantation house. The spacious home consisted of two stories, built of fieldstone and covered with whitewashed stucco. Many tall windows lined the front and the plantation was beautifully landscaped. The reptanoids certainly had good taste in architecture and landscaped grounds.

"Come, we wash feet," Farzi was herding me, an arm around my waist, toward the house.

"Reah, what the hell were you doing?" Tory blew a cloud of smoke as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest and glared disapprovingly at me. I wondered where the good doctor was; here was a male High Demon venting his anger.

"Picking oranges, but that was before. Now I’m picking a fight with you, apparently." I brushed off Farzi’s embrace and stalked past all three of them.

"Don’t upset her," I heard Aurelius say as I tiptoed through the house. I didn’t want to scatter dirt on expensive area rugs. The reptanoids had employees who cleaned and cooked, but I didn’t want to make their jobs harder.

"You should probably wear shoes next time," Kevis said dryly as he found me toweling off my freshly washed feet later.

"Like you wouldn’t have tried to stop me from going if I’d waited to find shoes," I snapped.

"I wouldn’t have, but I’d have tried to talk you out of it. You’re still weak. Tell me; your shoulder hurts now, doesn’t it?"

"Yes, it hurts. Don’t be an ass about it," I said, dropping the towel onto the edge of an octagonal tub inside my bath.

"You get so defensive," he said.

"Where’s your comp-vid?" I asked sarcastically. "Doesn’t that need to go in your notes?"

"Already there," he said, smugness in his expression.

"Of course it is," I agreed. "Get out."

"Are you going to throw me out?"

"You’re not even worth the effort," I said, skipping away.

I didn’t go far; only to the pool. The water was cool and I still felt cold, so I wasn’t going in. The spa beckoned, its hot water frothing in the late morning sun, but I was pregnant. Pregnant women shouldn’t get into heated water like that. It made me sigh at the injustices in my life. It wouldn’t hurt to put my feet in it, though, and that’s what I did. Rolling my pants legs up, I dropped to the edge, set my feet into the water and kicked them gently, mesmerized by the water jetting around my legs.

"At least you know not to get in," Kevis settled beside me.

"You don’t think I have an active brain cell in my skull, do you?" I glared at him. He muffled a snicker. Leaving my legs in the water, I lay back on the flagstones and stared up at the sky. A few fluffy, white clouds floated by.

"It may rain tonight," Kevis said, lying back beside me.

"Now you’re the weather predictor?"

"I have an eighty-seven percent accuracy rating."

"Damn, you are in the wrong business." My words made him laugh out loud.

"Tell me about the ASD," he said when the chuckling stopped.

"What about it?"

"What did you think of working for them?"

"Lendill and Norian?"

"Just in general."

"Did you know that insects and small animals are afraid of High Demons?" I asked, avoiding his question. "I once captured a criminal as he was running through a sewer, trying to get away. The rats were running ahead of me because they were afraid, and they ended up tripping the guy. He was screaming while a thousand rats ran across his back."

"Does it bother you that rats and insects are afraid of you?"

"No. Too bad a few humanoids don’t react the same way."

"I hear you were shot a few times while working for the ASD."

"Yeah. And blown up once. Teeg was trying to kill Zellar. I was collateral damage on that one."

"You two have some history."

"You have no idea. Feel free to ask him about that," I said.

"And this is his." Kevis reached out to stroke my belly. Lying down like that, it was almost flat, still. "I hear you won’t call him by his given name."

"That person is gone. Teeg is all that’s left."

"What happened to the Reah that knew Gavril?"

"Gone, too, I suppose. That Reah trusted him. Trusted other people, too. All that’s in the past."

"Pull your feet out of the water, Reah. They’ve cooked long enough," Kevis said. I lifted my feet out obediently, the flagstones feeling cold beneath them as I settled them there.

"Now, would you like to lie down on a bed or do you want to continue lying on hard stone?" Kevis turned his eyes to mine. He was lying quite close; I’d just ignored him while I examined the sky. I saw that his lashes were long and dark—something that most women would love to have.

"I’m going to ask Farzi if he’ll buy a hammock," I said, sitting up. "It’s warmer out here."

"Do you feel cold?"

"Yes. A little. It’s warmer on Kifirin’s Southern Continent. I suppose I’m used to that." I turned back to examining the sky.

"Come along. You’re tired and you know it. Let’s get you in the bath and then bed. You can sleep after we bring you something to eat." He rose, dusted off his designer slacks and then pulled me up. The doctor had his priorities, after all.