"Shit, she's losing her lunch," Tory was up in a blink and walking toward the bathroom with Gavril, Aurelius and Denevik right behind him. They found Reah crouched in the floor, dry heaving. She'd already lost everything she'd eaten earlier. "Get a wet cloth," Gavril ordered. Someone complied and Tory was kneeling in the floor next to Reah, pulling her against him and washing her face with the cool cloth.
* * *
"Tory, leave me alone," I sputtered weakly when he began washing my face with the wet cloth. "Go away. Go build the Campiaan Alliance with your brother."
"Reah, stop talking like that," Tory sighed. "You have other mates. Aurelius doesn't get a monopoly."
"Aurelius is the only one who cares about me." I bent over the toilet to heave again.
"Shit," Tory muttered. "Baby, that's not true. You know it's not true. Now straighten up and come talk with Gavril and me."
"Is that all you have to say?" I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and stared at him. "Straighten up and come talk to you? If I could skip away, I would, you poor excuse for a weed hen. Get away from me. Now!"
"Reah, can you stand up, love?" Aurelius lifted me off the floor. Tory grabbed my arm. I tried to jerk it from his grasp. I was pounding on his chest as soon as he lifted me off the floor and carried me away from the bathroom. Teeg was right behind him; Aurelius followed, a puzzled frown on his face.
Sitting with my arms crossed angrily over my br**sts, I refused to look at Tory or Teeg as they did their best to explain to me that they had other things to tend to and couldn't—in Tory's words—ride herd on me every minute. I hadn't asked for them to do anything of the sort. In fact, Teeg needed to stay as far away from me as he could possibly get. "You don't need to be going off to Casino City on your own and you don't need to be sending your bodyguards away," Teeg decided to get in on this.
"I'm not listening to you," I muttered.
"Reah, you will listen. Farzi and the others are upset now that you just up and left them behind."
"They're welcome here. You're not."
"Reah, you are going to be the death of me," Teeg snapped.
"I have three words for you, Teeg San Gerxon," I snapped right back. "Remove the chip."
"Not likely," he almost shouted. "Forget that right now. I don't need to be combing the universe for a missing mate while I have other things on my mind."
"Gee, how inconvenient for you. I'm not your mate. Don't want to be your mate. Take the damn chip out. You don't own me, Teeg."
"I worked fifty f**king years for you. I'm not about to throw all that away because you think you don't belong with me!"
"Don't I have anything to say about this?" I shouted. "The next time you and Kifirin cook something up together that involves me, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know!" I was crying and shaking now, my breaths becoming heaving sobs with the effort it had taken to yell at Teeg.
"Enough of this," Aurelius was up and snarling. "We're not going to sort this out today and Reah is still recovering."
"Fine." Teeg disappeared. Tory looked from me to the spot Teeg had previously held. He disappeared right behind his brother.
"Are you sure that nephew of yours is High Demon?" Denevik looked at Jayd. They'd witnessed the entire argument and now I felt embarrassed—not only that they'd seen it all but that I was still sobbing in front of them.
"He's half," Jayd muttered, as if that should explain something.
"Reah, let's get you to bed—you're tired and out of sorts," Aurelius led me away.
* * *
Gavril was growling and stalking through his suite like a wounded lion. Tory and Ry watched him, unsure what to do. Gavril's communicator beeped. Pulling it out of his pocket, Gavril looked at the sender tag and answered the call. "Jes, where the f**k have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you. Dee is about to have a stroke."
"I just wanted to be alone for a while," Jes' voice came through clearly on the comp-vid. "How is Reah? Is she all right?"
"She's as well as can be expected," Gavril was still growling. "Where are you? Have you checked in with Dee?"
"Yes—I'm at the palace on Campiaa now. I didn't mean for everybody to get so upset because I took a few days off."
"Next time, check your messages," Gavril snapped. "And I may need you in a few days to help with Reah. I'll keep you informed." Gavril ended the call. "Fuck," he rubbed his forehead. "How upset do you think Reah is?" He turned to his brothers.
* * *
"Things are falling into place," Jes informed Ardalin later. "Teeg wants me to go help with Reah in a few days. That means we'll have both of them together to make this easy. Are you sure Nidris is ready to help?"
"Yebri says yes," Ardalin's image nodded at Jes. "They're working on the spell that will make Teeg care only for me. I'm looking forward to getting what I want," she laughed. Jes didn't like the sound of her laughter but didn't say anything—he wanted what he wanted, after all.
* * *
"She's asleep—I had to call for Karzac when she wouldn't stop crying," Aurelius was as polite as he could be under the circumstances when Lendill dropped by.
"Just tell her I came to visit," Lendill felt uncomfortable under Aurelius' stare.
"I'll tell her if it won't make her cry again," Aurelius said, nearly shutting the door in Lendill's face. Lendill nodded and walked away. It had been a wasted trip. Lendill hunched his shoulders and strode toward the hovercar he'd borrowed from the ASD transport pool.
* * *
"I think I have information on Nidris and his family," Norian informed Gavril, Tory and Ry. "Lendill and I could use your help, I think."
"I can bring Astralan and Stellan," Gavril offered. "They have no love for any of those. Nidris' family killed their father, Skye."
"Then bring them. We can use the firepower, I think," Norian agreed. "We're targeting an area in the garden district near the equator—most of the fruit and vegetables Tulgalan produces comes from there and it’s the least populated in this particular portion—the oceans where the tourists visit are hundreds of clicks away. The only ones living in that part are the plantation owners and their employees. We think the Hazlan clan have bought an old tomato farm and are producing just enough to keep them away from suspicion."