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

confirms my evil nature to you.”
    Dorian shrugged. “Fearing the spiritual does not make you evil. I fear it myself. I fear it so much that I have brought it into me so I can understand it and cease fearing. The divine spark of the Creators lives in all creatures but burns within the spirits of some beings, like me. Or Ania. She is the most spiritual being I have ever known.”
    “Yes. Like Ania. The priests and priestesses were like her. How odd that I never made that connection before,” Malachi said slowly, considering it. His presence in Ania was very much emulating what happened in his past. He would have to give the parallel more thought.
    “I did not mean to interrupt your story. Please continue,” Dorian said, wanting to hear the rest and wishing he could record it.
    “Though I took the life of many, I had not managed to kill them all. Fulfilling some ancient prophesy of cleansing our planet of all evil—of which mine was legendary—the emissaries of the Creators, what your charming Earthling mate would probably refer to as ‘avenging angels,’ merged with the physical forms of those who served the Creators. The possessed entities, now part energy and part physical form, became virtually all powerful,” Malachi said, remembering. “Ironically, those I wanted to kill ended up with the fate I craved.”
    “All powerful?” Zade asked. “Is that even possible?”
    “They spoke softly and merely waved their hand to manifest their will into reality. Yet they did only what was commanded of them to do with us. I remember the day of my conversion like it just happened moments ago. My particular punisher stood in front of me, the fates of me and all my people in her control. Yet all I could do was feel envy for her abilities. My mind was filled with lust for such great power, and I sought eagerly to attain it.”
    Fascinated with Malachi’s story, Dorian had to pull his attention away to contact the Paladin and request permission to dock. Once permission was granted, he turned his attention back to Malachi. “You do not sound resentful of your fate. Instead, you sound in awe.”
    “A very astute observation, Lieutenant,” Malachi said agreeably, “that’s exactly what I felt then and still feel. I floated above my punisher’s head, staring down with demon mist vision at my lifeless corporeal form at her feet. Even then, I had no comprehension of anything but the enormous power she held over me. I wanted to possess it badly. I still do. She made me watch my corporeal body rot. I never mourned it, but I did memorize it well enough to shape my mist form into it when I chose to do so.”
    “What happened next?” Dorian asked, wanting to know as much as he could before they landed, morbidly fascinated at Malachi’s take on the things that happened to him. It was very different from the legends.
    Malachi laughed as he studied the Siren with new interest. “My nature did not change. I set about trying to use my new situation to my advantage of course. I felt very much like you did when you learned the Pleiadian words of power and first used them to subdue an enemy. My demon mist form gave me the same sort of exquisite sense of myself as invincible.”
    “How do you know my intimate thoughts about my abilities? Oh, right, I keep forgetting you were inside me while I was being abducted,” Dorian said, frowning.
    “Don’t worry, Lieutenant,” Malachi said, grinning at the spiritual male’s sudden withdrawal. Not many people could face their dark side well. Ania was rare in that. She did not fear her own darkness, rather openly constrained it. “That tiny bit of power madness in you is barely a speck on the cloak of your very pure and genuine spiritual nature. You need not fear that the quest for ultimate power will ever rule you as it did me.”
    “Indeed,” Dorian said flatly. “That concern never crossed my mind. Ever.”
    Malachi laughed at Zade’s discomfort but did not press more. It had been a