"We came to check on the competition." Fes spoke for the first time. "You know we've always done that."

"Yes, I do know that," I nodded. "I might have liked to do it in the past, when I was still at Desh's number two, but I never received anything other than pocket change from Edan. I had to buy all my clothing second hand, Grandfather."

"That blame is Edan's," Addah rumbled.

"No, Grandfather. That blame is yours as well. You sent a child you didn't want off to someone else, because she had no mother. You never thought to check on me or Ilvan or any of the others besides Fes and Edan. Where are your other twenty-two children tonight, Addah? Can you even give me their names? Is there anything else you want from me tonight? I can give you a full sampling of the menu if you like. And you Fes, I envy you. You at least saw my mother when she still lived. I never got that. Even the photographs of her were withheld or destroyed. I never saw those. You have a mother, Fes. A good one. I saw how she treated you, Aldah and Rane. You probably don't appreciate her nearly enough." I turned and walked away from them, wiping tears.

"Reah, what did they do to upset you?" Lok was walking beside me before I got even halfway to the kitchen.

"That's my grandfather and two of my uncles, come to check on their competition," I sniffled. "It could have been worse. Did you get your noodles and your rice wine?"

"Yes. They are very good. Do you need anything?"

"No. I promised I'd send a sampling of the menu out, and I will," I said. "Go finish your meal before it gets cold." I patted Lok's shoulder. He examined me carefully with glittering black eyes before nodding and moving away.

I sent a tray out with a bit of everything on it, and it was dutifully delivered to Addah's table. I hid behind a row of tropical plants and watched as the three men sampled this or that, discussing the food. Eventually I went back to the kitchen and finished everything for the night.

"Sure you don't want to take the bus?" Oris asked when we walked out of the restaurant after midnight.

"You know, I think I will tonight," I said. I was tired and I wanted time to think before going back to the apartment. Now, I'd be going in the same direction that Oris and Danis went. We waited in the cold at the bus stop, our breaths blowing away from us in a strengthening wind. Limited seating was available at this particular stop and the hard plastic slats on the bench would be frigid—I didn't want to sit on that.

We all stood, waiting for the hoverbus to arrive. The familiar noise of the braking system sounded as the bus pulled up, the door swishing open to allow us inside. Warmth billowed out—the bus was heated well, at least. Danis, Oris and I scanned our credit chips as we climbed up the steps and chose seats. Six others rode with us as the door shut the cold out, the brakes released and we lurched forward.

Perhaps it was because I was as tired as I was, or perhaps it was because the visit from Addah, Fes and Aldah had rattled me so much that I kept going over and over it in my mind. Regardless, when the Ra'Ak hissed and attempted to change in the lengthy bus, I still beat him to the punch and killed him in my smaller Thifilatha.

Chapter 9

Many passengers were injured—every Ra'Ak dusts when it dies and this one was no different. Chunks bigger than my fist blasted outward when I twisted the head from the body. Some pieces shattered windows and went flying into the street. Four of the six passengers needed medical attention, their injuries caused by flying Ra'Ak dust.

Oris and Danis, who'd been behind me, were spared because my Thifilatha's body blocked anything from reaching them. They were both staring at me in shock, however, when it was over.

Lendill, Norian and Gavin came. I don't know who'd called Gavin, but I was more than thankful. He placed compulsion on the passengers, telling them that it was an accident only. Norian and Lendill were smoothing things with the local constabulary, and I was thankful for that as well. My hands shaking and my entire body quivering in reaction, I sat on the back seat of the bus and let the others handle everything. Lendill brought clothing, shoes and a coat for me—everything had been burned away the moment I went Thifilatha. I'd dressed with shaking fingers in the back of the bus while Gavin placed compulsion.

"Reah, little one, shall I send for Gavril?" Gavin's voice was low and calming. I nodded at his question—I needed someone with me right then and I knew it. Teeg showed up almost immediately.

"Sweetheart, do you want to go to the apartment or come home with me?" Teeg lifted me off the seat in the back of the bus.

"I'll come with you," I muttered. I was still shivering and couldn't seem to get my breath. What had the Ra'Ak been doing on a bus? I didn't normally travel that way—it couldn't have been looking for me. All the people on the bus were adults, too. Was this Ra'Ak even one of the six we were hunting? I couldn't tell. Perhaps Teeg could have, or Lissa, with their perfect sense of smell. But the Ra'Ak was in chunks now and we wouldn't know, more than likely.

"Can somebody let Lok know that I won't be back at the apartment tonight?" I asked Lendill as Teeg carried me off the bus.

"I'll let him know." Lendill pulled out his comp-vid.

"Come on, baby, let's get you home. You're cold and shaking," Teeg murmured and folded me away.

"I should have known sooner, but I was still fretting over Addah, Fes and Aldah showing up and calling me out of the kitchen like assholes," I muttered later as Teeg dumped me in the hot water of his spa behind the palace.

"They showed up and demanded that you come out and talk to them?" Teeg was shocked. So was I, honestly. I might have walked into Desh's to sample the food, but I sure wouldn't alert Addah to my presence. But then Addah wasn't afraid of me. I was of him, though. I drew a shaky breath.

"Addah tried to accuse me of stealing their recipes—said the fish stew was close to what they served. The only reason it's close is because I designed the original recipe. Fucker." I didn't have any kind words for my paternal grandfather. "I'm glad now that I left out three ingredients when I wrote down the yaris fish recipe for Edan six years ago. They can't lay claim to that, either."

"Baby, stop fretting about your grandfather and tell me about the Ra'Ak." Honestly, the Ra'Ak had upset me less than my own family.

"I didn't notice him when I walked past his seat toward the front of the bus," I said. "I was too busy going over Addah's visit. The moment the doors closed on the bus and it started moving, he stood up. I noticed it then and went right to my smaller Thifilatha. I had to twist his head off; he tried to lash out at me but that's a mistake with a High Demon."

"And then he dusted," Teeg added. "Did the dusting hit you, sweetheart?" He ran his hands over my body.

"I ducked and covered my head with my arms," I said. "But I got hit in a couple of places. I'm better equipped to handle that than the other passengers were."

Farzi, Nenzi and six other reptanoids crawled up in lion snake form and all of them plopped into the water. Farzi and Nenzi draped over me as well as they could while the others got as close as Teeg would allow. I think I cried a little while eight lion snakes tried to console me.

"That's Reah." Lendill ran the images from the bus camera back, then allowed them to play again for Lok's benefit. Norian had confiscated the recording to keep it out of the locals' hands.

"That's what she becomes?" Lok was surprised.

"That's the smaller one," Lendill nodded as Lok stared at the golden scales and long white hair flying as Reah decapitated the Ra'Ak using only her hands. "She's about six feet or so in the smaller one?" He looked to Norian for confirmation. Norian nodded. "In the larger one, she's around fifteen feet. And she has her wings tight against her body here," he stopped the image. "They're amazing when she spreads them out."

"So that's what a High Demon looks like."

"When they change, but Reah is the only one with gold scales. The only other female who has ever turned is the High Demon Queen—Glindarok. Her Thifilatha is white. The males turn Thifilathi and theirs are larger and all black with short horns. Reah doesn't have horns."

"Reah is unique." Lok nodded.

"They can't ever get tattoos," Lendill jerked his head toward Lok's red dragons—it was late and he wasn't wearing a shirt. "The ink burns right off when they change."

"Their clothing burns off, too, if they're wearing any. Reah didn't have time to undress, obviously," Norian ran the footage forward, showing Reah coming back to herself. She was completely nude. "Lendill knew to take clothing when she sent mindspeech to him."

"I can't even see the attack, it happens so quickly," Lok muttered.

"Neither can we. That's how fast they are. Lissa says that the High Demons were made to fight the Ra'Ak and the other creatures that inhabited the Dark Realm. They were designed specifically for that purpose." Norian sighed.

"I was worried about her earlier—her family from the other restaurant—they came in and upset her." Lok said.

"Who was it? Did her grandfather come in?" Lendill was seething, suddenly.

"I believe so—with two others. Her uncles, she said."

"Calm down, Lendill, you can't bring charges against someone for being a prick," Norian said.

"Addah Desh would be at the top of the list if I could."

"That's neither here nor there—we've had a Ra'Ak attack in Tulgalan's capital city. That's unheard of. What are we going to do?" Norian looked at Lok and Lendill.

The reptanoids were gabbling excitedly as we climbed into the reserved snowbus—Teeg had rented one for the day to carry us up the mountain near Campiaa City and back again. Somehow, Teeg had provided several outfits inside the closet he'd set aside for me—all of them ski outfits. Other things were there as well, but I was almost afraid to sort through all of it. Now, we were loading onto a luxury snow bus and driving up the mountain. Unsurprisingly, Teeg and the reptanoids had their own snowboards. Farzi's was black with white stripes, Nenzi's was a bright red. He loves red and wears red shirts often. The others also had their own special colors, ranging from orange to blue. It made me smile to see them so happy.