The Healer (The Order of Intergalactic Peace #1) - Kelly Lucille Page 0,61

motioned to the door behind him. “Follow me to my ready room and we can discuss my newest guard.”

“I would like to speak to the healer herself…” he started. But Mal just gave him a long look and interrupted before he could finish his demand.

“With the way your power reacts to her?” He gave the councilman a pitying look. “I don’t think that would be advisable, do you?”

Before he could answer, Mal went on. “Besides, I assure you I can answer any questions you have about my guard. Her time is better spent going about her duties.”

Gren narrowed his eyes but merely smiled as if he was fine with the suggestion, as if his power were not reaching for her again, even as he tried to prove his control.

He left the room with an almost pained slowness but leave he did. Mal shared a long look with Jas and then left as well. Tram following at his back.

For the moment Serenity was safe. His hunters would not let her out of their sight. Now he just had to find a way to get the councilman off the ship without his healer.

***

“Well,” Serenity said, as soon as the doors had closed them off from the danger. “Should I be worried that one of the men on the council for the Order of Intergalactic peace and in charge of the most powerful army in the known galaxies, is completely insane?”

No one answered. Which was answer enough.

Chapter Twenty-One

After the councilman left with Mal, the rest of the phoenix guard escorted her to the medbay where Flinn stood sentinel at the door. He stood aside and let her and Jas through and followed, leaving the rest of them like a wall outside the door.

Meg was trying to look busy, but at the appearance of Serenity, she dropped what she was doing and headed straight for her. “Are you all right?”

“Me?” Serenity asked with a poor attempt at a smile. “I’m not the one who was spirited out of there by a shield.” She looked at Flinn. “Is Meg in danger?”

Jas and Flinn shared a grim look. “Rumors are all we have, but they are too consistent to ignore,” Jas muttered. He looked at Meg. “You will not be alone while the councilman is on the ship.” He looked back at Serenity. “Don’t let him touch you.”

She gave him incredulous eyes. “The man is made of nothing but rot and death, if he comes into a room I will make it my mission to leave it.”

That surprised Jas and Flinn as they both arrowed in on her. “His power is not public knowledge.” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you keeping more secrets little rabbit.”

She sucked in a breath and met his eyes. He had heard, she realized, when Mal had whispered to her. Of course he had. He was an alpha hunter. He could probably hear whispers in the other room too.

She cleared her throat delicately and raised her chin. “I am a healer. I see the rot on a person’s soul, just as I see the damage to a body. And I felt his power.” She shuddered. “I don’t know which was worse. The complete and utter black rot of his soul or the feeling of his death power against my own.”

“You see a person’s soul?” Meg asked with stunned surprise. “More than just the body?”

She nodded slowly, looking into shocked eyes. “Soul might be the wrong word. I can see rot in some people, usually it’s a sign of mental illness. Those I can heal. Sometimes, when it’s really dark and prevalent it tells me other things, mainly that I need to stay away and that they are beyond healing. You don’t see that in people?”

“I have never even heard of such a thing.” Meg suddenly looked uncomfortable, “You can see my soul?”

Serenity smiled. “I can see your personality, which I see as soul. Your mental stability and your gifts, your power level and usually a suggestion of what you can do, some gifts I can recognize easily. Such as healers, and hunters. If you are wondering what you look like to me, you shine with an inner beauty I am privileged to experience.”

Meg blushed prettily.

Serenity thought briefly and then decided she might as well get it all out there, even with the audience. “You are also more powerful than you know. I don’t know what has convinced you that you are a small power, but whatever it is blocks you from your