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

learn rank protocol. I shall save that taunt for an appropriate time.”
    Zade felt another laugh coming on but dared not set it free. He had no quarrel these days with the Greggor, but he couldn’t help enjoying the fact that the demon routinely tormented Chiang with mind games.
    The elevator door slid open, and they both stepped out onto their appointed floor. Malachi’s eyes blazed suddenly, and he reached out with a firm grip on Zade’s arm to hold him back.
    “ Demon ,” he said succinctly, because it was the one word that both fit and was sure to gain full attention. “There is one nearby.”
    Dorian wrinkled his eyebrows, gaze scanning but seeing no threat. “Are you jesting with me?”
    “No,” Malachi answered coldly, lips pressed into a line. “There is another me somewhere on this ship, perhaps this deck. The energy signature is distinctly demon. Proceed with caution while I endeavor to discover the identity and location. It is a harder process while inhabiting a physical form, but I will try to be quick.”
    “Your assistance is greatly appreciated, since I have no wish to go to the Creators today,” Dorian said sincerely, bracing himself and walking forward, with Malachi only a few steps behind.
    ***
     
    “ Seta—stay . It’s not too late to change your mind.”
    Captain Ji Warro was embarrassed to hear himself actually pleading with the stoic female. Where was his pride? Despite his disappointment in her not returning his personal interest, he also didn’t want to lose her skills. There was no better tracker. He had worked hard to lure her to the Paladin before he ever knew her. Perhaps his reasons for wanting her to stay were more complicated than his original interest, but that had nothing to do with her tracking skills.
    “We have had this discussion many times, Captain. My decision remains the same. It is time for me to leave,” Lieutenant Seta Trax replied as respectfully she could to her Siren captain who had gone from yelling at her to begging. What more could she say to him? She hoped her new crew members would appear soon, and rescue her from the awkward conversation she had not been able to avoid yet another time today.
    It had been hard work to stay neutral about her superior’s unwanted bonding advances over the past year of her commission on the Paladin. She had even confessed her lack of interest in any sort of bonding at all with any male, trying to specifically discourage him. Like most males in her limited experience, Ji Warro believed himself capable of being her exception. But he wasn’t, and Seta had no intentions of ever aligning herself to him. Her adamant resistance kept her Siren superior angry with her.
    “You are not unhappy here,” Ji said, making it a statement instead of a question, and then practically daring her to refute it by glaring hard at her lack of expression. More, he was hoping Seta would give him an excuse to put his hands on her, because it was all he could do to stop himself from doing so, permission or not.
    “No, Captain. I have been quite happy here under your command. It has been an honor to serve on your ship.”
    Seta searched for the right balance of deference to soothe the frustrated male vibrating in front of her. Besides, she was speaking no more than the truth.
    Serving on the Paladin was undemanding, and yes—the work had often lacked challenges. Still, Seta might have been bored at times, but she couldn’t honestly say she had ever been unhappy in her current position. When she had announced that she was leaving, most of her fellow officers remarked that she’d obviously lost control of her common sense. In their opinion, no one willingly left the luxury of serving on a Guardian level vessel with several thousand others. It was like working in a floating city in space.
    Perhaps it bothered her that Ji Warro obviously thought her rash professional decision was about escaping him, but Seta knew her aversion to his personal interest