Chapter Six
Nevair watched in amazement as Lian stood in a white lab coat and took blood from over two dozen dragonkin, himself included. When Lian explained his predicament in getting a good number of test samples, Nevair had thought he'd have a problem getting volunteers. However, the hope of solving their fertility issues had dragonkin coming out of the woodwork to offer their blood.
It probably didn't hurt that Nevair sanctioned the study and Milot encouraged them to participate. Lian's people hadn't arrived yet, but Milot had put spies in the spaceport to keep an eye out. Nevair smiled when Lian scratched at his back. His mating mark had come out in brilliant glorious color that morning but apparently it itched. Nevair spent a good hour spreading lotion on the design before becoming distracted by the rest of the man.
Nevair's new communicator rang. He didn't look at the number, his gaze stayed on Lian. "Yes?"
"You need to get your ass back to the cathedral and conduct your services. The council is having dragon kits. They say you've abandoned your post and are looking to replace you," Tres demanded.
Nevair growled. "Only the goddess can replace me."
"I think they have a different opinion," Tres said dryly.
"I'll be right there. Someone needs to remind them of the sanctity of mates." Nevair wouldn't put up with that kind of behavior. He knew his rights.
"Mates?" Tres asked.
"Lian's mark came in this morning." Nevair couldn't keep the pride from his voice.
Silence filled the communicator. "Tres?"
"Um, congratulations." His voice didn't sound right but Nevair didn't call him on it.
"I'll be there in an hour," Nevair said.
"See you then," Tres agreed.
Nevair disconnected in time to see one of the dragonkin males get too close to Lian. "Hey," Nevair snapped. "Don't even think about touching him. He's mine."
The man held up his hands and stepped back. "Sorry, Pontifex, I didn't know you'd claimed him."
"I should make you go shirtless all the time so your mark is on display," Nevair threatened.
Lian laughed. "Yeah, that would show them."
The female he had just extracted blood from snickered at Lian's words. "He's adorable. You should give your mate a ring."
Nevair thought it over for a moment. A ring wouldn't be enough. Anyone could wear a ring for any reason. He needed a stronger statement.
He knew just what to give Lian once he could take his mate back to the cathedral. "I'll keep that in mind."
Lian set her vial of blood next to all the other vials.
"Why do you need samples anyway? Can't you see the poison?" Nevair asked.
Lian nodded. "But I can't see why. Besides although they trust my judgment I can't expect my bosses to take my word for stuff until I can give them concrete proof about the poison and hopefully its source."
"I've got to return to the cathedral. Apparently they are lost without me. I'll see you later." Nevair was reluctant to leave his mate but he needed to attend to his duties.
Lian nodded absently, his attention already back to his research. "Good luck."
Nevair chuckled. He'd have to get used to someone who had more important things to pay attention to than him.
Still shaking his head, Nevair walked his way back to cathedral, keeping an eye out for anyone following him. He didn't see anybody but he didn't exactly have super spy skills either. When he arrived at the cathedral, he found Tres standing on the front steps tapping his foot. His handsome face twisted in disapproval as he caught sight of Nevair.
"What?"
"Where is he?"
The sharp tone had Nevair looking closer at his friend. "Why?"
"We need to get control of him or the media is going to have a field day with your inappropriate mate," Tres said.
"Watch how you talk about him," Nevair warned. "We might be friends, but he's the other half of my soul."
Tres rolled his eyes. "Sorry to impugn the sanctity of a two second old mating. You can break it, you know."
"What?" Nevair had no idea what Tres blathered on about, his mind still remained on his mate.
"There are ceremonies to remove the mark," Tres insisted.
"Why would I want to do that?" Why give up the one man specifically chosen for him?
"Because he's not suitable. He attacked Bourne and then ran," Tres snapped.
"He attacked Bourne because the man is an ass and hit him from behind. Wait," he examined his friend's cold expression. "Since when do you care about Bourne?"
Tres frowned. "I don't care about Bourne. I care about you."
Except Tres's tone didn't match his words. Nevair wondered about the disconnect even as he saw Tres tremble with some unnamed emotion.
Nervous. His dragon muttered inside.
Why would Tres be nervous?
"Are you going to tell me where he is?" Tres asked with a scowl.
"No, Tres. I'm not going to tell you where he is. He's going to stay hidden until his team arrives." Nevair's instincts were sounding warning bells like the village fire alarm.
Tres's face turned an angry red. "You can't do that!"
"Whoa! What are you talking about?" Where had he lost the conversation?
"I told the council I would take care of this and you are being purposely difficult!" Tres screamed.
"Because I won't turn over my mate? Tres, you need to forget about whatever plan you have. I won't turn Lian over to you. He's doing important work." Lian could possibly save all of dragonkin.
Tres snarled at him. "You're ruining all my plans. Take him!"
"What?" Nevair turned at the sharp pain piercing his neck.
"He'll come for you eventually. He won't be able to resist. Stupid dragons." Tres' face contorted into an ugly expression Nevair had never seen before. Damn, how many clues had he missed over the years? Darkness closed over him as his mind swirled with the act of betrayal.
* * * *
Lian had finished his last blood draw of the day when a panicky feeling struck him from out of the blue.
His head jerked up and Lian examined the room but nothing popped out as the thing that disturbed him.
"Are you okay, doctor?" Brea, a pretty dragon lady, asked. Her amber eyes glowed with concern.
Lian rubbed his chest. "I don't know. I feel like something's wrong."
"You're newly mated, right?" she asked shyly.
Lian nodded. The feeling intensified as he tried to put a finger on the source.
"It might be your mate. If your bonding is strong you sometimes share emotions," Brea said.
"Huh. I should've gotten a dragonkin mating handbook." Lian thought he knew everything about dragonkin. Coming here only showed how little knowledge he had.
Brea laughed. "That would be handy."
"Did you find your special guy yet?" Lian asked, curious about the woman.
She shook her head. "I've dated a lot but none of them have been the one, you know?"
Lian nodded, he did know. "Don't give up, you're bound to find someone and you've got a lot of time."
"True. Still I wouldn't mind having someone to share my life with." Her wistful tone had Lian appreciating his bond with Nevair.
Lian thought of all the years he'd spent alone since his parents' death and the past few nights he'd spent in the arms of Nevair. "Yeah. It is nice," he agreed.
Brea gave him an understanding smile. "I hope you stick around, doc. You're really good for Nevair. He's been alone for a long time and that assistant of his is crazy."
"What do you mean?" Tres hadn't struck him as too odd. The man was just doing his job.
Brea rolled her eyes before leaning in and talking in a confiding whisper. "Everyone knows Tres has been waiting for Nevair to give up on finding a mate. Why do you think he's stayed on as his assistant all this time when he could've gone on to do more?"
"What do you think he's waiting for?" Lian asked.
"For Nevair to give up and accept Tres. He's convinced himself they're mates and if Nevair has sex with some other guys he'll get it out of his system and pick Tres as his permanent mate. He must be shitting dragon eggs now that you've been marked." Brea smirked.
"Huh." Lian didn't mention that Nevair hadn't seemed so pure last night. "Thanks for the info," he settled on saying.
Brea patted his shoulder. "Good luck with Nevair. Sometimes it's harder to love someone who's in the public eye. I'm glad he found someone."
"Me too," Lian said. He didn't know how he felt about their relationship but he didn't want anyone else to get close to Nevair.
He'd fought most of his life against attachments. It didn't take a psychiatrist to know his parents' death led to his fear of intimacy. He didn't mind a good hard fuck from a next-to-anonymous guy but to bond with someone, to know them inside and out, that took an entirely different level of connection. Lian didn't know if he could live up to the commitment set by the mark on his back.
Lian's nerves didn't settle the rest of the day. He tried a few times to call Nevair but his lover didn't answer the phone.
When he'd finally finished for the day, Lian stood up and stretched his back. Looking around the lab he had to smile. His benefactor had done him proud. Apparently Milot did own a pharmaceutical company. Lian had no doubts the man knew to a dime what belonged to him, but he'd let Milot play the absentminded protector if it got him what he wanted. Besides he was there to help out the dragonkin.
Putting aside his blood samples in the allocated refrigeration unit, Lian took off his lab coat.
"Doctor, oh thank the goddess you're still here."
A young couple Lian had interviewed earlier rushed into the room. The man had his arm wrapped around his wife as they rushed her inside the small space. "My wife's in pain and worried about losing the baby."
"Why aren't you at the medic center?" Lian demanded. Concern made his voice sharper than he intended.
The woman, Carti, shook her head. "You can't trust them to take care of dragonkin."
"Why not?" Lian asked hoping he didn't know the answer.
"Bourne." They said together. The woman's face paled under her obvious pain.
"Come, lie here." Lian pointed to his medical table. It had a padded bench for people who became dizzy from blood work. A few donors hadn't taken it well when Lian had used a needle.
When Carti settled on the table Lian scanned her with his magic. "That's strange," he muttered. Poison ran rampant through her system. Lian quickly grabbed the vial of blood he'd taken from her before and double checked. Two hours ago she hadn't been infected.
"What did you have in the past two hours?"
"An apple and some water. I haven't been hungry today."
Lian would bet money she drank from the same water supplier as Milot. "I'll need samples of both. Do you still have the apple core?"
Carti shook her head, grimacing at the motion. "But I still have the rest of my water bottle. It's in the car."
"Go get it," Lian told the husband.
Without a question, the man tore off out of the lab.
"I think you've been poisoned. Your child isn't big enough to be born yet so we're going to change its mind," Lian said, using his best bedside voice.
Lian talked the woman into relaxing as they waited for her husband.
Keeping his hand on her stomach he monitored the baby's progress. "I think she's willing to listen to reason," he said with a smile.
"We're having a girl?" The man had quickly returned with the bottle and handed it over to Lian.
Lian grimaced. "Sorry, I didn't know you weren't aware it's a girl. What's your name?"
"Davin." He clumsily shook Lian's hand.
"Nice to meet you." Davin's DNA had showed up as one hundred percent human.
It only took a second for Lian to determine the water as the source of Carti's contamination. His inner eye saw hundreds of the poisonous droplets spinning around in the bottle. "Where did you get this bottle from?" It was a clear glass bottle, the kind people refilled.
"F-from the d-delivery service," Davin stuttered, stress causing him to stumble across his words. "Please, can you help my wife?"
"Yes." Lian set the bottle down. The source could be investigated after he purged Carti of the poison.
He lifted her shirt up just enough to expose her rounded midriff. "I'm going to heal you and then I want you to tell me everything you know about this water."
Carti nodded. Lian figured she would probably agree to anything to save her child. If it were his, he knew he'd want to. Lian placed his fingers on Carti's stomach. The procedure would take more finesse than he generally used. Too much magic could kill the fetus and possibly ruin any chance of Carti getting pregnant again. Too little, and the poison would succeed in killing the child. From what he could tell, the toxin only affected dragonkin because if Davin drank the same water it didn't show in his body.
"This might hurt a bit," Lian warned.
"I don't care, fix me!" Carti's voice, her terror stark and sharp, stabbed at Lian's heart.
"I'll do my best," he promised.
Closing his eyes, Lian focused a pinpoint of power across Carti's stomach destroying the poison droplets with surgical precision. It was almost like playing a retro video game where little beams of light annihilated the intruders, except in this case, the possibility of failure could lead to the death of two living beings.
Sweat beaded on Lian's forehead and dripped down his cheeks as he concentrated.
Carti gasped at the heat from his touch.
"It's too much," she whimpered.
"Hang in there," Lian whispered. "I'm doing this as fast as I can."
An eternity strung across a few short minutes and Lian's body trembled as the collection of muscles in his spine protested their stillness. In one breath-stealing moment, the small fetus's heart stopped beating. Fortunately, a gentle push from Lian had it speeding along again. When he finally opened his eyes he felt like he'd aged ten years.
"You're poison free," he finally got out.
Tears filled Carti's eyes. "And the baby?"
"She's fine." He didn't mention that second of heart failure, the mother didn't need to know that.
A hard grip on his shoulder turned his attention to Davin. "Thank you. My family owes you a debt I know we'll never be able to pay."
Lian wondered how many times he'd have to relive this scene. The dragonkin were a grateful bunch, but he didn't want anyone to feel they should pay him back. "The goddess gave me a gift, I'm happy to return the favor."
Relief and joy crossed both their faces. "She might have given you the gift but I know many who'd be happy to take advantage of people in order to use it," Davin said.
"If you tell me everything you know about your water distributor we might be able to help the entire race of dragonkin."
Lian listened as they explained how the water delivered belonged to a new company. "They claim to add minerals and that it's healthier. I thought with the baby…" Carti trailed off.
"How long have they been in business?" Lian cut her off not wanting her to wallow in self-recrimination.
Davin and Carti exchanged looks before Davin spoke. "I think about a year now."
Carti nodded her agreement. "About that."
"Thank you." Lian helped Carti down from the table. "Go home drink some juice and I'll let you know how everything turns out." The water ads he'd noticed before were starting to take a sinister twist. Milot's water had contained poison but the man confessed to Lian that more than one person might have reason to want him dead. To find the same poison in an innocent woman's drink told him it was a wider spread problem than a vendetta against one man.
"Thank you." They spoke in that freaky unison some couples get when they spend a lot of time together. Lian hoped he never reached that point with Nevair; it was weird.
The fact his lover hadn't called him started to bother Lian.
Grabbing his communicator, he dialed. Once again, no answer.
"Is there a problem, doc?" Milot asked, entering the lab.
"I think I know where the poison came from." With a quick summary he shared what little he'd learned so far. "Did you find out who owns the company?"
Milot shook his head. "Not yet but I'm expecting a phone call soon."
"Good." The more Lian learned the better off they'd be.
"Come eat. I'm sure we'll have an answer by dinner time," Milot assured him.
Lian nodded. "Okay."
Milot put his hand on Lian's back as he led him from the lab. "Will his holiness be joining us for dinner?"
"I don't know." Worry crinkled Lian's brow. "I haven't been able to get a hold of him since he returned to the cathedral."
"That is odd. Do you want me to send some of my men over there? I doubt they'd make the connection between us."
Lian nibbled his bottom lip as he thought it over. "If you don't mind. I might just be paranoid, but it isn't like Nevair not to check in with me." Even with only being mates a short time, Nevair had proven to be the type of man who called when he said he would.
"No, it's not. A new mating is a fragile thing. Most dragonkin won't leave their mates the first twenty-four hours after their mark appears. I'll send over a few people and ask discreetly. As long as they stay away from Tres they shouldn't be detected."
"Thank you. You've been great, really. I mean, you didn't have to take in a complete stranger."
Milot's eyes glowed with the power of his emotions. "You didn't have to stop and help a couple of injured kids. I heard from their parents. They sobbed over the phone, so thankful someone stopped to help. So many people don't care anymore. You did." Milot gripped Lian's shoulder. "Your act of kindness saved two of my nephew's best friends. That's worth a lot more than a small lab, a guest room and asking a few questions."
Lian nodded. He didn't want to argue. He'd always lived with his gift so he didn't always understand how his actions affected others. Milot appreciated his efforts and Lian received a lot of benefits for one moment of compassion. "Thanks."
"No problem. My cook made some of her amazing pasta and I'm dying to eat. We can dine while we wait for our report," Milot smiled as if everything would be fine now.
Lian gave a weak smile. "Sounds good." His stomach hadn't stopped churning at the thought of Nevair in trouble.