Blood Double (God Wars #1)(22)

"I didn't say that," Kevis place cool fingers on my face to remove the pain. "I realize this may have brought up bad memories. I can place you in a healing sleep after this, if you want."

"I don't want. And we won't be talking after this."

"Talking?"

"You asking me uncomfortable questions and me spilling my guts. That talking."

"I'll find another therapist for you."

"No, you won't. We're done."

"You can't let this stand in the way of your health."

"My health was just compromised by the Founding Member of the Campiaan Alliance. Is that part of the health you're talking about?"

"I see we're not getting anywhere tonight. We'll discuss this later."

"No, we won't."

"I'll finish this, and you'll be ready for the meeting in the morning." Kevis went about his business and left a few minutes later. I sighed and crawled in bed.

*

Breakfast was brought on a tray to my room. The cook, a man in his late thirties, brought it to me as I stared at the selections in the closet. Deciding that Teeg's appointment for the day wasn't as formal as the meet and beat I'd gone to the night before, I pulled a blouse and tailored slacks off hangers and dressed.

Stellan took my arm as he led me downstairs toward the tunnel entrance we'd used the night before. "The boss built this as safe passage between the palace and his casino," Stellan murmured as we joined Teeg and Stellan's three brothers. Teeg didn't offer an apology. I wasn't surprised. Stellan kept my hand in the crook of his arm as we walked through the tunnel. Since I couldn't read him, I glanced at his brother, Astralan.

"Get us out of here," I shrieked. "Get us out now!" I have no idea who transported us from the tunnel, but it exploded in a fireball behind us.





Chapter 6


Rain poured off the roof outside the small room we occupied, while thunder rumbled over Campiaa City, occasionally rattling windows and shaking the ground with its intensity. Teeg was furious and all his warlocks grumbled as employees were brought in for questioning.

Stellan sat beside me, arms tightly wound around my body as I shivered in shock. Someone had just made an assassination attempt on Teeg San Gerxon. Only his employees (very few of them, in fact) had access to the tunnel doors. Enough explosives had been packed into the center section of the tunnel to destroy it and cave in the ground above it.

The destruction included several small businesses built on the surface, some of which were filled with shoppers and clients. Seventeen deaths were reported and many more victims had been transported to a local hospital for treatment.

My purpose in being in the questioning room was to validate the answers to Teeg's compulsion-laden questions. I knew before he did whether the employee was innocent. We were getting down to the last few; none Teeg had questioned had anything to do with the attempt and Teeg's fury was growing. Only those he'd trusted were left; that meant betrayal of the worst kind.

The moment the brothers were brought in together, I knew. Two men, in their forties, but that didn't mean old where I was. One hundred fifty might be old, if your expected lifespan was two hundred or more. These still looked very young. They'd worked for Teeg for fifteen years, and they'd just sold him out. That wasn't all I knew, either, when I gazed at them. My voice trembled as I pronounced their doom.

"They were paid. Nall Seak paid them. Nall is no longer in jail; he has escaped and President Ferdik is dead in his suite."

"Astralan, go. See about Ferdik. Take a few guards with you," Teeg ordered tersely. He rounded on the two who stood before him, then. He cursed them and they cowered. He'd given them opportunities and they'd risen in his business concerns. The promise of a big payday had lured them away quickly, however.

I was the one who cringed when Teeg began to destroy the room. It ended when he turned to mist and blasted the glass wall of the room outward, allowing the rain, wind and the scent of wet grass inside.

*

"They're still alive, in case you're curious." Kevis was back. Stellan had been forced to leave me behind at Teeg's palace after Teeg ordered him and his brother Celestan to escort prisoners to the local CSD cells. Astralan and Galaxsan were told to arrange for a contingent from Theele to claim the body of President Ferdik. Teeg's two employees had allowed assassins inside Ferdik's suite—they had security clearance and held the proper chips to gain access.

"You should allow a healing sleep; you're shaking," Kevis added in a conversational tone. His eyes (and my reading) betrayed how much the attempt on Teeg's life had rattled him.

"How's Gav?" Another man appeared in the room, and if I'd thought Flavio was the handsomest man I'd ever seen, he just took a back seat to Erland Morphis, father of Rylend Morphis, King of Karathia. Erland was also mated to the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis. As Erland's son, Rylend, was Queen Lissa's son, that meant he was a half-brother to Teeg San Gerxon, AKA Gavril Montegue.

"Gavril is fine. He wouldn't be if this one hadn't given warning."

"Foreseers are rare," Erland Morphis came closer, leaning slightly to peer at my face.

"She's not a foreseer. I don't know what she is," Kevis turned to Erland. "She can read what you are, no matter how many shields you have around you. Pheligar says she can even read Larentii."