The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series by Donna McDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

long, it is quite easy for me to convince others I am a Norblade.”
    There was a comfortable silence as Dorian made flight preparations, but he broke it because there was something he really wanted to know. “May I ask a personal question?”
    “Yes. Since I first conversed with Ania, I now quite enjoy conversation with most corporeal beings. It is much more stimulating than simply reading images and energy.”
    “How did the Creator race come to your planet if there were no ships?” Dorian asked. “And why has no demon ever revealed the history of how they came to be converted? I read extensively on the subject when I studied to be Khalsa, and Ania tells me she did not find any mention of conversions when she researched either. It is not in any recorded history of the matter for the last two thousand years in Earth time.”
    “How interesting. I guess that potentially makes me almost two thousand years old. I told Ania as much,” Malachi mused.
    Then he noticed Zade was still studying him.
    “Oh, you want to know why you’re just now hearing from one of the converted. That would be because we are under no obligation to discuss the making of our sacred contract. We are just bound to obey the terms of it with our hosts and masters. Also, most demons are forbidden to talk much. My current host body without another resident within it allows me more speech than I have had since my conversion,” Malachi explained. “And you know Liam rarely lets me say more than a few words.”
    “Indeed, Liam is not given to much verbal sharing,” Dorian said, putting his focus back on the controls as the shuttle got the go-ahead and the docking bay doors opened to release them. “I find your words well worth hearing.”
    “Thank you—I guess. You have an odd way of offering a compliment. Too bad I am forbidden to probe your mind. I would like to know more of this amazing neutrality you possess about my wicked past.”
    Malachi grinned at the instant flash of warning in the Siren’s gaze on him.
    Dorian frowned at the idea that the demon could, if he chose, see into him and know his personal thoughts. Though he routinely used his abilities to do so with others, the idea of Malachi knowing all his personal truths made him very apprehensive.
    Malachi checked his safety harness and then met the slightly agitated gaze of the Siren next to him. Zade reeked of all things spiritual, and yet lacked the most basic of understandings about the beginning race that had seeded the universe. It did not surprise him because Malachi had discovered most creatures had no real knowledge. For some reason, he decided to enlighten the Siren just to see what Zade said about it.
    “Those who came to my planet called themselves emissaries of the Creators. They came as energy beings traveling in a compacted globe of brilliant light that would fit in one of your very large hands, Lieutenant. They travelled almost instantly across massive distances that would astound most minds. Ironically, their energy forms are very much like the mist they turned my people into, as I understand it now. No one knows this fact about them but those they directly convert. They have the ability to make beings forget and often do for reasons I don’t fathom. And as for demons not sharing the information about their conversion, who would believe any spiritual explanation from someone like me?”
    Malachi offered his explanation with a shrug, but he sensed Zade did on some level believe him.
    “I find it most interesting, but concede it is hard to take it in,” Dorian replied.
    “Well, it shouldn’t be. My story is unimpressive and typical of those who crave unlimited power. In corporeal form I ruled all, or so I believed in my naïveté. There were some priests and priestesses of the Creators of All on my planet who were in hiding. I had killed as many as I could find in my lifetime, mostly out of an innate fear of their spirituality,” Malachi explained. “I suppose this