I laughed, then gaped, when I realized he was serious.

  “Wait, the prelate’s spoiled eighteen year old daughter and next in line for the big throne? What exactly is this mission?”

  Whatever bad feelings I’d had, this was worse.

  Killian said, “It’s a month-long assignment that starts next week, and you’ll be paid triple hazard pay. You should be able to arrive on Patience in that timeframe, if you leave tonight. You’ll leave your ship docked on the military station there, and you’ll be going out in the royal yacht. It’s armed like a light cruiser, two banks of eighteen-inch lasers, as well as four missile launchers, but the weapons are hidden beneath the yacht’s outer shiny veneer, as is the battle steel and a new state of the art energy shield.”

  “Right, so why does she need me exactly? Won’t she be safe enough with a ship like that and a military escort?”

  Killian sighed, “She doesn’t want a military escort. She wants a real vacation, not a state visit everywhere she goes. Your job is to guard her as she visits various space stations that are geared toward… entertainment.”

  I snorted, “I’m not a bodyguard, Killian, and you know what will happen. If I sleep with the prelate’s daughter, he’ll have me killed, if I don’t do it when she comes onto me, she’ll ruin me if not have me killed in retaliation. This is stupid, I don’t even know how to be a guard.”

  Killian raised his hand for silence, “She’s been targeted lately by assassins, and both demons and vampires have attacked her. The prelate knows of your cleansing fire, and he wants you to do it. The duchess has also agreed not to stand still long enough to have a stampede of ladies following you around, but that might not even be an issue.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Killian sighed, “It’s not well known, but the prelate’s wife is not strictly speaking, human. Duchess Fiona is half earth nymph, a fairy, and her powers work through her voice. She can heal or mesmerize others with no more effort than humming different tones. She can also cast other earth magics, with full blown song.”

  I gaped, this just kept getting weirder. The next prelate was half supernatural. No wonder he didn’t want to brief me on this over quantum communications, no matter how secure it was.

  There was also something amusing about the head of the church being seduced and snagged by an earth nymph. Earth nymphs were… well they were well named, total sex addicts and they tended to be total bimbos, unless you pissed them off, then they’d tear you apart and bathe in your blood. Passionate in all things and sensual as hell summed them up well.

  I wondered if that meant I’d just been given the green light to have a wild fling with the prelate on deck, but I shook my head. That was just too unlikely, but I bet she wasn’t all that different from her mother that way, so even at eighteen she probably wasn’t even close to pure. I wasn’t sure if that appealed or not, but I was sure it was… intimidating.

  “Okay?”

  Killian waved, “She believes she can counter your influence easily with her own, with just a few hummed notes every few minutes. She also believes your presence around her will lessen her sexual appeal to human men, who will be too intimidated by you, which will make it easier for her to go unremarked upon and unrecognized.

  “If she can’t counter your power, then she’s prepared to do what’s necessary to compensate. She insists she’d rather do a bar crawl than have a cohort of temple guards follow her around in one. Her father would only relent when she agreed to accept you as a guard. You are perfectly suited to protect her from vampires or even direct demon attacks, in a way even a full cohort of temple guardians couldn’t match.

  “You are also authorized to override her on any specific plan because of a security objection. But you’ll want to be careful with that and save it for critical things.”

  Translation, being too much of a stick in the mud would gain me an enemy, even if this whole idea was foolish.

  “Not to be indelicate, but it would help to know. What kind of entertainment?”

  Killian shrugged, “Massages, spas, drinking, dancing, gambling, eating out and that sort of thing. She hopes to be unrecognized so she can get away from all the pressure before starting her higher education in three months. Nothing illegal of course or too alarming, and I doubt she’ll be attending the brothels or picking up men,” he said that last with a shake of his head and subtle shrug, that told me he wasn’t sure about that at all. But he had been sure about the legal part, which meant the ship wouldn’t be visiting any space stations of a dubious reputation with illegal vices on the offer.

  Well, shit, that pretty much nailed it down. She was probably a nympho like her mother, so I’d have to guard her life from assassins as well as guard her privacy and public reputation.

  This was going to be a damned nightmare, and although I wasn’t trained to be a bodyguard, I could recognize demons and vampires when I saw them, and my spy training would make covering up public exposures easy enough. Especially since Fiona had mesmerizing powers, and she could help me with that even.

  While she was a spoiled brat, I had to admit she also had a reputation for being extremely smart and clever, so perhaps she wouldn’t do anything too stupid. Outside of the entire vacation plan being stupid that is. Perhaps she was tired of the gilded cage, and just wanted a break before going to university and being completely surrounded by bodyguards that likely wouldn’t let her party or get laid.

  “I need override codes, for all the stations we’ll be visiting. It’s the only way I can ensure her reputation comes out of this intact, and that her true race isn’t exposed.”

  He opened a draw and took out a data chip, and then handed it over.

  “This will have all the access codes you need, as well as the scheduled itinerary of planned stops so you can review security concerns during the four-day trip to Patience. The nature of the job and the nature of the duchess are not included, and they should not be spoken of again by you after leaving this office. Understood?”

  I nodded, and Killian continued.

  “The highly modified Royal class yacht will be named Impulsive for the duration of the mission. Fiona’s little joke at her own expense I expect. She’ll also be traveling incognito, her name and appearance her own, but no pomp and circumstance, or use of her title or calling her your grace. Just don’t do it, call her Fiona, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Don’t underestimate her, she’ll work with you and cooperate if you finesse her correctly.”

  Oh shit, finesse her correctly? What man used the word finesse? That was a direct suggestion to hit that and seduce her cooperation, if couched in a deniable way. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, as I secured the data chip in my pocket. I mean, a hot fling with the future ruler of the Fellowship, and a nymphomaniac nymph besides, sounded a bit thrilling in truth. Crudely put, she sounded like an amazing ride, and if she was half nymph she was bound to be beautiful and quite earthy.

  But it could lead to all sorts of complications, especially if she became obsessed with me and wouldn’t let it go. A duchess stalker wouldn’t be nearly as easy to dodge, especially because she’d know my real name and my real face and body. While still containing some shallow appeal, I’d hate being a kept man, and at some point, I would get tired of fucking her no matter how hot she was. Then I’d be in hell.

  This really was a bad idea but telling the prelate no after he’d gotten Fiona to compromise, would not do me any favors. It would ruin me, and none of the cardinals would come to me with supernatural problems again.

  Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen. She was a supernatural, so my power wouldn’t work on her in a blind way, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t turn stalker on me. It just made it less than definite.

  He asked, “Any questions?”

  I frowned, “Just one. Do we know why a demon would be targeting her and sending vampire assassins after her? Demons usually don’t focus on a remote and highly protected targets like that, they’re need to be cruel and to murder tends to be focused on whatever is closest at hand.”

  It was true enough, demons were pretty much lazy beings, and their desire for causing suffering was the end, not just the means like it would be for a human psychopath. They’d be just as happy torturing a housewife as they would the prelate himself, with the least amount of effort and wait possible.

  He nodded, “Agreed, which suggests the demon is bound and guided by a human intelligence and ambition. A dark witch or wizard could do it, but would have no quarrel with the duchess, so I suspect the one that bound the demon is under hire by one of the peers in the church. A high-level member is most likely, and it’d be unwise to speculate without proof.

  “But don’t concern yourself with it, Damien. I and the other spymasters are on that problem. You just keep her alive long enough for us to uncover it.”

  Hmm, maybe she was targeted because someone had figured out that she was a half fairy earth nymph. I could see some of the stricter men and women in the church being horrified at the idea of a supernatural, even a half blood one, at the head of the Fellowship. The fellowship had no strange ideas about sex, but I could see a few being concerned about putting a nymphomaniac on the throne.

  Of course, Killian wasn’t an idiot, it was probably the first thing they were looking for, and I’d only make a fool out of myself, and maybe a target, if I mentioned the idea out loud.

  “Fair enough. I should get going, before every single female in range starts knocking on your door.”

  Killian smirked, “I had the fifty feet around my office cleared, but you should get going. You have a five-day trip, and it’ll take two thirds of a sixth day for your trips out the FTL line, and the one on the other side to Patience. That only gives you a day of buffer time, and you really don’t want to be late, old friend.”

  I sighed and stood, “Thank you, sir.”

  Killian said, “Good luck.”

  I got out of there, and I headed back to the space station and my ship.

  This mission sucked, and there were so many ways for it to go really wrong. Best case, we fuck like animals for a month, and she gets it out of her system. Oh, and she doesn’t die, which would also likely kill me, and if not ruin my career and future.

  Three times hazard pay wasn’t nearly enough, but it was a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. If I’d turned him down, I’d have also been turning the prelate himself down, not to mention insulting the Duchess. I’d never turned down a mission before either, so what other conclusion could the duchess make other than the idea I just didn’t want to meet her under any circumstances.

  So, I felt a little trapped as I undocked my ship and headed out toward the FTL line, for the third time that day. Somehow, I doubted I’d be lucky enough to get interrupted a third time.

  Chapter Three

  FTL subspace travel was in relation to the prime mortal plane, in actual subspace the ship didn’t go any faster than it could in normal space, it was just subspace was a whole lot smaller than real space, by millions of times. Star systems just days or sometimes weeks apart, then the transition was made back to the point in real space.

  Which really, was the reason the FTL line was about ten A.U. out from the sun. Because if a ship went to subspace any closer, they’d be so close to the sun’s echo in subspace that the ship would be ripped apart.

  There were also occasional storms in subspace we didn’t fully understand, and those powerful subspace energies could destroy a ship. A battle in subspace also greatly increased the chances of a subspace storm, so most tried to avoid such things.

  Regardless, that’s why Killian had been concerned that I only had a thirty-two-hour buffer window. The five-day flight from Brione to Patience could be greatly extended, if I had to navigate around too many storms, or if my way was blocked completely and I had to wait for the storms to pass.

  Ships still disappeared, though not that often, and it was suspected they’d just had the bad luck of a storm forming right on top of their current coordinates. Even ships equipped with the latest energy shields couldn’t withstand the inside of a subspace storm. Fortunately, they were mostly predictable enough to see coming, and to change course before they truly became a danger.

  The initial scans however looked promising as we dropped into subspace, and I set a direct course and implemented.

  Then I took out the memory chip Killian gave me and installed it in the data port. Sneaker net was still the most secure network in the galaxy, nothing beat a hand off after all.

  “Digest that, and then display a star chart course as well as an itinerary and all the stops involved.”

  I didn’t like I’d be leaving Claire alone for a month, but it wasn’t like I could take her with me. I probably wouldn’t need to, the yacht would have a crew to handle all the details, and they would likely all be members of the temple guard. They just wouldn’t be following us into the space stations, which probably had them on edge.

  A course came up. The first five days we’d be travelling to New Hope, and visiting three of the space stations in that system over nine days. I actually recognized two of them from my own past vacations. They were a little rough, but nothing too crazy and nothing illegal, they also both had a supernatural bar inside, not that the humans knew that, they just always found something else to do whenever they tried to go in, since it was warded by witches.

  The third was mostly spas, a pampering kind of thing, that had never interested me so I hadn’t visited there. There were all the other listed services as well, restaurants, clubs, and bars, but I imagined visiting a space station full of females being pampered and on vacation wouldn’t have been very bright of me at all.

  In short, I didn’t see any major security problems, and if the duchess was embarrassed by the crudity of rough edges in a few places that wasn’t my problem.

  Then a three-day trip to New Charity, where we’d spend eight days visiting two space stations there. I’d never been to New Charity at all, so no experience with those two stations.

  The one before last seemed fine enough. It was primarily aimed at entertainment and fine dining. From the gutter entertainment of naked female mud wrestling and exotic dancing to the opera, and everything in between like boxing, plays, musicals, magic acts, and things like that. There was also as I said, fine dining and some gambling there.

  I was also a little a shocked to note the last station would be an all-inclusive sex club with nudity required. Essentially, it was a nudist station, and a private club. The listing indicated the staff was there for their members pleasure on demand.

  I mean, I’d kind of expected her to pick up men or women for fun if I decided not to seduce her, but that would be a lot easier to cover up than the duchess being sighted at a nude sex club space station. Even the tamest clubs on their list had live sex shows, many of the bars rotated around a single fetish, and the most risqué of them were full out BDSM clubs. What the fuck was she thinking?

  There was no way I was allowing it, in fact if she wanted to be spanked so badly… The thought that I’d do it myself, brought me up short, and made me wonder why I even cared. I’d warn her that it was a huge risk and I couldn’t guarantee her reputation if we went there. There was also the fact if I was naked, I wouldn’t have any weapons on me to protect her properly. I’d let her decide.

  No reason to be upset, I didn’t even want to seduce her, but I supposed it was the stupid risk of it that had me so annoyed. I’d thought she was smarter than that.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that last brazen location in truth, save that I knew the duchess shouldn’t be caught dead going into it and flashing all of her assets to every pervert in the star system.

  What was even more worrying, was how did she ever convince her father the prelate and the temple guard to a agree to put it on her itinerary.

  I decided I’d wait a few days, get to know her a bit, before I challenged her on it. Something told me she was a very formidable woman, even if she was most likely a total nymphomaniac by nature. Earth nymphs could also be fierce, clever, and deadly, so I’d need to make sure I kept that in mind and didn’t underestimate her.

  Just so I wouldn’t make any mistakes, I pulled her picture up on the system. I’d never seen Fiona before, and I wanted to be able to recognize her.

  Just by looks alone she was as I’d expected, easily a nine or ten, based on personal taste. She was five foot five, with long blonde hair that ran down her back to her ass in tight ringlets. I imagined if it was pulled straight, it’d easily hit the floor. She had warm and light green eyes set in a classically beautiful face. Low strong cheekbones giving her oval face a regal beauty.

  Her body was hard to judge in the conservative clothes, but I’d guess she was on the lithe side at her height, with B cups, a thin waist, and a petite bubbled ass. She was plenty curvy enough in my eyes, and her skin quite flawlessly lovely.

  Of course, it was just a holographic rendering, not the real thing. She was supernatural and a nymph, so her sensuality levels and her sense of presence also needed to be taken into account. I suspected with that added, she’d blow up the scale entirely, instead of just being a nine or ten.

  There wasn’t much else I could do there, so I went back to the five space stations. Three in New Hope and two in Charity. After those five days it’d be three days getting back to Patience. Twenty-eight days in total from start to finish, giving the whole tour a two-day buffer for travel issues and delays in subspace. It was a tight itinerary, but very doable, and open enough that if we got somewhere five or six hours late it wouldn’t throw off the whole vacation.

  Anyway, I did deep research on those five stations, including reading reviews and all cases of abuse, sexual misconduct, and other complaints that I could find. Really deep research, that I hadn’t bothered to do myself, to see if I could turn up any serious dangers.

  As far as I could see, it wasn’t too bad. As long as I stayed vigilant for vampire or demon threats, I shouldn’t have a problem keeping her safe. It was only that last space station and her reputation that truly had my concern, and I’d address it with her long before we’d gotten that far in our month vacation together.