Demon’s Dream (High Demon #6)(20)
Author: Connie Suttle

"I’d do it if nobody else wanted to," Norton volunteered.

"As would I," Joey said.

"Why don’t all three of you move in?" Gavril walked in, finding his mother, Karzac and twelve other healers in Reah’s room. "She might not agree to any one of you, so you’ll have to be prepared for that."

"We’re up to the challenge," Joey grinned. "Besides, maybe we can distract her with video games. I’ve got something new I’m working on."

"And Norton and I wouldn’t mind help with our sauces," Franklin smiled. He and Norton both loved to cook.

"Fine. We’ll throw all three of you at her. See how she reacts," Kevis huffed out a breath. "Let’s hope this works, everybody."

"It’ll be fun, I haven’t stayed on Campiaa since Erland owned a casino there," Joey grinned.

* * *

"Re-ahhh," the voice was soft and coaxing, almost a whisper. "Re-ahhh, dinner time."

"Go away," I moaned, unwilling to open my eyes.

"But that little baby bump is hungry, too," the voice said.

"Who are you and how would you know?" I cracked an eye open, finding a blond man leaning over my bed, grinning at me. Granted he had a nice smile, but I had no idea who he was. And that was only the beginning. Two other men stood behind him, one dark-haired and quite handsome, who had his hand on the other’s shoulder. The last one had brown hair, kind eyes and also smiled encouragingly.

"I’m Joey Showalter, healer for the Saa Thalarr," the one who woke me said. "And this is Franklin," he pointed to the dark-haired handsome one. "And this is one of my mates, Norton." He slipped an arm around the tall, brown-haired man. Joey was shorter than the other two and he was taking my hand, attempting to pull me off the bed.

"Healers for the Saa Thalarr? Do they have any left?" I quirked an eyebrow at all of them.

"They have a few," the one called Franklin assured me. "And we can always fold away if there’s an emergency. Right now, we’re here for you."

"That doesn’t sound sufficient to warrant three healers," I grumped, sliding off the bed.

"But this is a vacation for us," Norton smiled. "So get that tiny butt of yours into some clothes and we’ll go have dinner."

"Do you treat all your patients this way?" I asked, scooting around him to get to the closet.

"Only the ones with tiny butts," he laughed, following right behind me. "No, don’t wear that," he pushed the brown blouse away. "This is good," he held up another. It was red. I didn’t like wearing red and said so.

"But you’ll look beautiful in this. It’s a nice contrast to the color of your skin and hair."

"And these are too pale," Joey brushed a thumb over my right cheek. "We have to get some color back in those."

"See, you look great in that," Norton nodded when I came out of the bathroom later, fully dressed in the red blouse and gray slacks. "Shoes or just socks?" he asked.

"Socks are fine," I said, feeling overwhelmed. I couldn’t recall being dressed by committee before.

"Come on, let’s go see what’s for dinner," Franklin grinned. We all trooped down the long hallway lined with bedrooms until we came to the dining area.

"This is an improvement," Teeg, Tory, Aurelius and Lok were there, sitting with all eight reptanoids and Doctor Halivar. Four spaces were left for us. I sat between Joey and Kevis Halivar.

"You don’t have a problem with this?" I wiggled a finger at the three healers that had mysteriously shown up.

"Not at all," Kevis’ mouth twitched a little, as if he were about to smile and then thought better of it.

"Hmmph," I sighed, looking up as a server set a glass of water and some fruit juice in front of me.

"I love pot roast," Joey smiled as a plate was set before him. I liked it, too, but it generally wasn’t something people went to fine restaurants for. I made it for myself when I wasn’t worried about cooking for others so much.

"Trade your onions for my carrots," Franklin grinned at me from his seat on Joey’s other side.

"I love carrots," I said, passing my plate over. Franklin had the exchange done quickly.

"Call me Frank if you want," he passed my plate back with an extra serving of carrots instead of onions on the side.

"This is great," I smiled at the first bite. The meat was tender, the vegetables cooked just right and the gravy was wonderful. "Tell Mathilde this is amazing," I told the server, who was setting fragile gravy bowls on all four sides of the table. The server, a young man, smiled and nodded.

"See, we don’t have to convince her to eat," Norton observed, cutting another bite of pot roast and stuffing it in his mouth.

* * *

"I get some time," Aurelius pulled me away from Joey, Frank and Norton right after dinner. Joey wore a disappointed look.

"I was going to show her the new video game I’m working on," he said.

"You can do that later. Reah and I are going to sit down somewhere," Aurelius said, pulling me away. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to go with Aurelius or with Joey right then, as I was worried over what Aurelius might have to say. I blinked up at him. His shoulders were just as wide as they’d always been, his golden hair falling to brush those shoulders. Brown eyes searched my face before tucking my hand in the crook of his arm and walking me toward the back of the house.

"Farzi had these brought for you," Aurelius said, settling me onto a covered swing. A comfortable-looking hammock swung in the breeze not far away.

"That was nice of him," I said, leaning back against the cushion of the swing. The fabric covering was soft and expensive, I could tell by the feel of it.

"Reah, do you remember when we first met?" Aurelius lifted one of my hands and kissed it. He held onto it, too, when he lowered it again. I stared at his fingers entwined with mine. Of course I remembered when we met. I thought he was someone else at the time. He was posing as Commander Aris on Mandil. He’d been sent there by the Saa Thalarr to eliminate invading Ra’Ak spawn.

"I remember," I sighed, looking away from him. The sun had just gone down over Campiaa, leaving streaks of red, gold and purple on the horizon. I knew that less than fifty clicks to the west of us, the sunset would be burning over the waters of Campiaa Bay.

"The way I felt then is the way I feel now. My love is right in front of me and I can barely touch her because something stands between us. Please don’t let us go, Reah. I realize that you’ve been treated badly for a very long time, and I wish it weren’t partly my fault at some level. I should have realized something was wrong and gone to Belen or one of the others about it. I just didn’t."