"We're here, breah-mul," Lendill wanted to put an arm around me. I flung it away. No mate was welcome near me at the moment. "Reah?" Surely, he knew better than to turn that hurt look upon me.
"So, tell me what you are," I snapped at Zendeval Rjjn when I walked up to his cage.
"I will answer that for you," Kifirin appeared at my side. "He is the last of his kind now, since you killed his cousin and the others."
"Kifirin, state your business and leave," I said, turning to the god of the Dark Realm.
"Kifirin? Did you say Kifirin?" Zendeval was at the bars of his cage, and if there was such an emotion as crushed hope, he wore it.
"Yeah. Kifirin. The god of the Dark Realm and all that," I waved a hand loftily in mock grandeur. I didn't add that in my mind he was the god of everything that was wrong with my life.
"Where were you?" Zendeval slid to his knees. "My father asked and asked, but you never heard."
"I answered, you were just too deaf to hear," Kifirin blew smoke. "Every woman who became ill when they were bitten would have borne children to that particular Greater Demon. Yet you and your kind sold them. All of them."
"What?" Zendeval didn't understand. I was now staring at Kifirin in shock. He'd called Zendeval a Greater Demon. He was right, too, about the claiming. A claiming always made the female High Demon ill. For days. I'd been ill for days after Zendeval attacked me. I wanted to slap Kifirin.
"Reah became ill," Zendeval whispered.
"Reah is High Demon. Among that race, there are only seventeen females. Females have never been plentiful among the immortal Dark races. Did your father never tell you that? And yes, Reah could ha Ren. Ave borne your children. You might have convinced her, if you'd treated her better."
"My father only said that the females of our kind must be protected." Zendeval hung his head.
"The females who would have accepted your seed deserved your protection, too. How were they treated, son of the last Greater Demon King?"
"You already know the answer to that."
"I do."
"Reah?" Zendeval raised his eyes to me.
"You'll never touch me again," I said. "And thanks to you, none of my other mates might touch me either." I turned to Perdil's cell. Just as always, he was watching and listening. "What did you hope to gain out of all this?" I asked him.
"I? I wanted what all my kind wants. Wealth and power." Perdil's voice was a growl as he turned away from my steady gaze.
"Somehow, I don't believe that. But I'm past caring, I think."
"Reah, what is going on?" Teeg had come to stand behind me. Tory and Ry were right behind him. Lendill was watching me closely after I'd rebuffed him.
"She's pregnant with your child, I already told you that," Lendill announced. "But she became dangerously ill after that filth bit her." He jerked his head in Zendeval's direction. I wanted to hit him for that. This was neither the time nor the place for that announcement. Now Zendeval and Perdil knew. I didn't want them to know. Didn't wish for them to have that knowledge—of how badly they'd hurt me. If it hadn't been for Teeki and Neeki, it was likely that Teeg's child would now be just a memory.
"Shut up," I hissed at Lendill.
"Reah, how ill were you? Are you sure the baby is all right? I want Karzac to do a full examination." Teeg cursed. At Zendeval Rjjn. At me. At Dantel Schuul and everyone else there, his eyes red. I was surprised we weren't getting the full blast of fangs, eyes and compulsion.
"Teeg, don't get self-righteous with me. This is all your fault."
"I had nothing to do with this," he hissed. Fangs were likely to pop out next, unless I missed my guess.
"Come here." I hauled him by the arm toward the other cells. "Tell me you don't recognize him," I jerked Teeg around to face Faldin Bierla.
One sniff told Teeg what he wanted to know. His nose was just as good as his mother's, I think. "Prin Ralnik?" Teeg was staring at Faldin.
"It took a while to figure it out, but you had to get that chip from somewhere, didn't you?" I poked Teeg in the chest. "The one to keep me from skipping or sending mindspeech. Only your little helper here took it a few steps further, and then sold the technology to Dantel Schuul. Your technology, Teeg, made it possible for the pirates to operate across both Alliances. Allowed the Schuuls and their partners to rape, kill, and sell into slavery anyone they wanted. They were well on their way to controlling everything. And it's your fault."
Teeg stood as if thunderstruck. "I didn't know the compulsion didn't work."
"Too bad, Teeg. It didn't. Forget about taking me to Campiaa while I'm pregnant. I won't go." I stalked away from him.
"I want to kill you, you little fucker,&quole bout t; Teeg reached in to haul Faldin against the bars of his cell. "I hired you. Paid you well and handed over the schematics. And then thought I'd placed compulsion well enough that this would never see the light of day again. And what do you do with it?" Faldin gazed helplessly into eyes so deep a red they were almost black. I watched as wetness stained Faldin's trousers. I walked over to him after Teeg let him go.
"They'd have shot you with one of those things too, you stupid fuck," I hissed at him. "Go ahead. Ask Dantel. Lissa, will you tell Dantel to answer Faldin's questions honestly?" We both listened while Lissa laid compulsion for Dantel and Darletta to only speak the truth.
Faldin's voice quavered as he asked the question. "Would you have done that to me?" He stared at Darletta.
"You stupid little shit, you don't think I'd have kept you for anything other than the technology, do you?" Darletta's voice was sickly sweet. "Face it. You don't have anything in the looks department, and honestly, you're just—tiny."
"And now we learn the technology wasn't even yours," Dantel shouted. "Wait till my lawyers get their hands on you. This is all your fault." Faldin was weeping as soon as Darletta dropped her little bomb, so Dantel's words went unheeded. Dantel was unhinged, in my opinion. He wasn't expecting to ever see the inside of a jail cell. My thought was he wasn't going to see it for much longer. Teeg stepped back from Faldin's cage before turning a look of shock and sadness in my direction. Did he expect sympathy from me? I'd gotten none from him.
"I allowed this," Kifirin sighed, breaking the silence. "Reah, do not penalize Gavril overmuch for this. I allowed it. Made it happen. Should never have interfered in the way I did."
"That name is dead to me," I said. "Gavril was taken when he was seventeen. I haven't seen him since."
"Reah, what do you think should happen to these?" Lissa walked over, Thurlow at her side.
"I don't care."
"I will allow you to execute all of them, if that is your desire." Ildevar Wyyld appeared with four others that I recognized as members of the Grand Alliance Council.
"I don't want anything to do with that." I had to raise my voice; Dantel Schuul and his daughter were shouting their displeasure, now. Mostly that they had lawyers and would bring charges, but that meant nothing to me.
"These five, then, will die tonight," Ildevar said. "Lissa and Willem both say that you can be trusted, little High Demon. If you do not wish to watch because of your pregnancy, I will understand."
"I'll stay." I crossed arms over my chest. I had no idea what Ildevar planned, but I was going to watch. After all, I'd seen at least seventy of Zendeval Rjjn's race die; they'd burned after coming in contact with my Thifilatha's skin. They'd screamed while they burned, too. After I'd seen them commit mass rape, it was the least they deserved. But then hundreds more—mindless, unsuspecting slaves—had been cremated instantly by my Thifilatha's scales. If for nothing else, Dantel Schuul needed to pay for that.
"Bring out that one first, so the others will see what awaits them," Ildevar pointed at Matiss Meldrim. He was hauled out by Gavin and Tony. He tried to run when they released their hold on him, but he didn't get far. One of the Grand Alliance members turned to Ra'Ak, and in one quick gulp,ne by Matiss Meldrim was history.
Darletta was shrieking by that time and Dantel Schuul was about to swoon. Gescht Prekisule tried to put up a fight, but no mortal is a match for vampire strength. Faldin came after that, his body stiff and uncooperative as he was swallowed swiftly. Then it was Darletta's turn.
"It's too bad we can't give you the misery you've given others before you die," I said as she was led out of her cell. She tried to spit at me, but Kifirin sent an energy blast in her direction, knocking her to the floor. She was eaten quickly.
"Now, you are mine, Dantel Schuul," Ildevar Wyyld said pleasantly. Tory had come for the executions and stood by silently while the others died, including Darletta. He never blinked when Ildevar turned to Ra'Ak as his four companions did and devoured Dantel Schuul. Perdil, from his cell at the end, never said a word, either.
"Now, what shall we do with these two?" Ildevar walked down to Zendeval and Perdil's cages.
"Kifirin, what world did the Greater Demons inhabit?" I asked.
"Nrath," he said. "Only it is deserted, now."
"Good. Send them there. And shield the planet so nobody gets on or off for a thousand years. You owe me that much, I think."
"It will be done as you say, daughter."
"Daughter?" Perdil was interested, now.
"The daughter of my heart, only I abused her, much as her mortal father abused her when she was small," Kifirin sighed. "Did you know she is the mate of Kings? Surely you recognize the founder of the Campiaan Alliance? And the mate who came with her to Stellar Winds? He is the newly-crowned King of Karathia."
"And she is mated to me." Nefrigar appeared at my side. "My little one is feeling queasy. Make your statements quickly so I may attend to this matter."