Blood Double (God Wars #1)(16)

"He was helping with an assassination plot," I said as a bowl of soup was set in front of me.

"Assassination?" Kooper stared at me in alarm. "Who?"

"Ildevar Wyyld," I sighed. I didn't add that I couldn't read the obsession itself—this information Eddle had received in a comp-vid communication, and that I could read easily from him. Who knew what the obsession involved?

"Who else is involved?" Teeg asked after several moments of stunned silence passed.

"I only got two images—the rest seem to be comp-vid contacts with no names or images given."

"Who else?"

"Someone named Dorlan Ritt and Jendy Platt."

"Dorlan Ritt is a warlock, too. In fact, Ritt may have been one of the six who attacked," Stellan sighed. "Ritt is powerful enough, and he can throw out fireblasts."

"I'll never leave just one of you in the holding cells again," Teeg muttered angrily. "What do we know about Jendy Platt?"

"Petty criminal." Trevor had been busy with his comp-vid and handed it to Teeg. "Nothing like this in his background, so he's likely been paid to spread false information to hide the real criminal."

"Eddle wasn't particularly bright," I said, sniffing the soup.

"Yours is vegetarian," Kooper grinned and rubbed my shoulders. "Go ahead and eat."

"Eddle wasn't strong enough to be hired muscle," Astralan Starr, Stellan's older brother, remarked.

"He was a pawn. And obsessed about something," I sighed. "I just couldn't see what the obsession was."

"Stell says you gave a warning, there at the end." Teeg studied me carefully. His remark frightened me. They already knew too much—all of them, and I still didn't know exactly how they'd arrived at the information about me to begin with.

"That part doesn't work on command, if that's what you're talking about," I muttered, staring into my bowl of soup.

"You're saying that you can see into the future—sometimes," Teeg guessed.

"I don't know what it is." I wanted to leave the table, but that probably wasn't a good idea. Teeg made me uncomfortable, and it wasn't because his father had made me vampire.

"Where did your unusual eye color come from?" Here was a difficult question, and it would only lead to more questions. Questions I couldn't answer or that upset or embarrassed me to answer.

"I don't know." That was the truth, and I hoped they'd leave it at that.

"Your parents didn't have it?"

"I never met my parents." I rose from the table. "Excuse me," I said, and walked away.

The palace on Campiaa was a work of art. It wasn't half as big as the palace on Le-Ath Veronis, but it didn't exist in constant darkness, either. The sun was down when I walked through a back door somewhere and found an expansive patio with a pool. Tropical plants and flowers were everywhere, as was outdoor furniture. It probably was heaven to sit on the patio in the sun and have a drink.

"You just walked out on the Founder of the Campiaan Alliance," Stellan Starr said behind me. He'd gotten up to follow me when I left the table.

"Are you saying he'll imprison me, now?" I gazed levelly into Stellan's brown eyes. I couldn't read him, but I'd read his brothers. All three had the same past. Some of it was violent. Some of it made me shudder. If the other three had the same past, it was a good bet that Stellan Starr shared it as well.

"He only does that if you walk out a second time. Come back to dinner. We don't mean to be rude or ask uncomfortable questions."

I wanted to tell him that many people weren't intentionally rude or hurtful. Some were. I didn't want to place Teeg San Gerxon in the wrong category, just because his father had treated me as he did. "I'll come back." Stellan put an arm out to touch me as I walked toward him. I shied away from his touch.

*

"So, a long day yesterday, when we should have been talking instead." Kevis Halivar was waiting for me after breakfast at NorthStar the following morning. "I'm Doctor Halivar."

"You look like your father," I said. Kevis was Karzac's son. He was also the Alliance equivalent of a psychiatrist. They thought I needed treatment. After the attempted suicide and everything that had happened before then, they were probably right. I just didn't want anyone prying into my personal life.

"My mother says the same thing." Kevis smiled. "And Adam said it was foolish to try to keep anything from you."

"There are things I won't discuss," I said.

"What things?"

"I said I wouldn't discuss them."

"That's all right; we'll skirt those topics for now. I hear you never met your parents. Who raised you?"

"That's one of the things I won't discuss."

"Then this will be a very short session," Kevis informed me. I shrugged. "Tell me about the beating, then," he suggested. I blinked at least twice before I realized he was talking about Skel Hawer. Relaxing as invisibly as I could, I answered.

"I don't remember much. He knocked me out with the first punch. I only woke briefly while he was beating me, before losing consciousness again."