Along Came a Demon (23 page)

I woke stretched out on the chaise lounge, my head on Royal’s knees, his palm resting lightly on my hair. Someone had removed my shoes, which sat together on the carpet. Evidently, I fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with Gorge and Royal. It felt like early morning. I looked at an ornate black and gold onyx clock on a low cabinet. Six-thirty.

Lawrence bounced into the room. “I’m going to stab someone with a sword!”

“
Only if necessary, Lord Lawrence,” said Gorge, following on the boy’s heels. “There will also be studying and homework.”

Lawrence scowled, looking like an ordinary little boy when told he has to do extra school work, except he sparkled. Then he charged back to the bedroom, slashing the air with an imaginary sword.

“
You told him he will stab people?” Royal asked Gorge.

“
Certainly not! I was talking about his lessons and when I mentioned weaponry and the martial arts, he asked what I meant.”

I roused myself. Royal helped me upright. “Hello, Tiff,” he said softly.

“
Hello, you,” I replied with a soppy smile. “Will Lawrence really get to learn how to use a sword? He’s six!”

“
He’ll learn to use every weapon known to your world and mine. The sword is traditional.”

“
And traditionally used in duels?” I asked, recalling the flash of polished metal as Royal fought his brother in the depths of Morte Tescien. “You guys are big on tradition in the nastiest ways.”

“
Tradition has a depth of meaning only those who were slaves can understand,” Gorge said.

I intercepted a look between them. Royal was not happy Gorge brought that up. Gorge cringed.

We have committed many acts of atrocity, we who call ourselves human beings, as if the title makes us humane, although I never heard or read of the enslavement of people like Royal’s. “But we’re weaklings compared to you guys. How could we - ?”

Royal cut me off. “You were not our masters.” I thought I saw loathing in his eyes. He sounded … upset, and angry, and … uneasy. He looked at his clasped hands. “We don’t speak of them. It was a long time ago, Tiff. Don’t ask.”

I saw the enormous conceit of my assumption, so I didn’t ask. Which didn’t mean I would not one day; but not now.

“
We should be going,” Royal said.

I smiled at Gorge. “What about you, Gorge? Are you leaving soon?”

“
Right after you.” He sighed heavily as he looked around his living room. “Someone will take care of the Emporium for me. Me, I’m off to Bel-Athaer and a life of … tagging along behind the High Lord I suppose.”

Poor Gorge, who thought he did his good deed and could go back to posing as an incredibly cute but rather twee young man.

Lawrence emerged from the bedroom, went to Gorge and took his hand. He looked up at Gorge’s face. “I need you, Gorge.”

Gorge forced a bright smile. “Which makes everything all right, then, doesn’t it!”

“
Good-bye, Lawrence,” I said. I couldn’t bring myself to call him Lord.

The boy eyed me solemnly. “Good-bye Miss Banks. Thank you.”

I felt Royal’s hand on my shoulder. “Come on. I brought the truck over while you slept.”

As we went downstairs, I heard Lawrence. “Gorge, where are my pictures of momma?”

“
In your backpack.”

“
Where’s my backpack?”

“
I don’t know,” Gorge said rather snappishly. “Where did you leave it, young Law … my Lord?”

Royal held the wheel in a tight-knuckled grip, driving with grim determination. I tried to break the heavy silence and succeeded in putting my big ol’ foot in my big ol’ mouth. “You mentioned your family.”

“
I meant my people, my clan. My mother and father died in the wars. My brother was Lord of Morte Tescien.”

His fingers dug in the leather-covered steering wheel. “The High House will avenge the murders and the attempted assassination of the High Lord.”

I had already thought of that. “I’m sorry your House was responsible.”

“
Morte Tescien is no longer my House. I was sixteen when my uncle and his family were murdered and my father returned to Bel-Athaer as Lord of Morte Tescien. I transferred my allegiance to the High House when called to serve as an enforcer.”

“
You can change Houses?”

“
Only if you go to the High House. Otherwise, you remain with the House to which you are born.”

I decided to keep my mouth shut; now was not the time to bug him with a heap of questions. He must be as exhausted as I felt, and I felt awful despite a sleep so heavy I didn’t know he left to get his truck. I wondered if he dwelled on the events of the past hours, how he killed his brother to save my life. No matter what he said about their relationship, they were brothers and that had to mean something.

I wouldn’t know. If my family were still alive, they were a mystery to me.

I thought about Lindy Marchant. I hoped she went to where she should be and did not haphazardly wander around Clarion. I like to think it’s a happy place. I guess I’ll find out when I get there.

I thought about Lawrence’s father making Lindy want him, love him, and Caesar’s partner Phaid putting his will on me. Royal didn’t do that to me and never tried, but had he ever used the faculty to influence a human being?

Demons could
control
the mind and heart of the unwary; that opened up horrific possibilities. A demon in a position of power could do untold damage to our society.

I thought about Lawrence Marchant, an eerie amalgamation of little human boy and alien Lord.

We left downtown Clarion and drove through The Avenues, street after street of Victorian mansions, most of them converted to apartments. The majority look sad, the paint on window-and door frames chipped, their cookie-cutter moldings dirty and faded. Landlords buy them cheap and don’t want to put more money than necessary to their upkeep. The wealthy elite once lived here, but now it belongs to the downtrodden. I often walk The Avenues because the trees are so big they cast shade full across the streets, and no one bothers me. People up here mind their own business.

I noticed Royal kept checking his rear-and side-view mirrors and nausea churned in my stomach. I twisted in my seat to look back at the street falling behind us, hoping to not see a following automobile. “Will they come after us?”

“
I’m watching for the boys in blue. Mike put an APB out on you.”

Oh. Shit.

A cryptic few words, the line goes dead, I’m nowhere to be found—of course Mike suspected the worse. “Have you still got my cell?”

He dipped in his pocket and handed me my phone. I turned it on. Five incoming calls from Clarion PD. I would find some on my home phone too.

We climbed Beeches Street. I hiked my body up, waiting to see the roof of my house. In the cavern, I thought I would never see my house again, and knew how much it meant to me. My home was the one stable thing in my life. Oh, yeah, along with my permanent fixtures, Jack and Mel.

Royal parked his truck in the street and we got out. The sun hung just above the mountains behind the house, but snow cloaked the peaks and mottled the slopes below. Frost dusted what was left of my plants in their bed beneath the kitchen window. Time to hang my down coat on the rack in the hall, put my boots in the tray beneath.

Except I didn’t have a coat-rack and tray anymore.

It felt good to put my feet on the path to my house, good to fit my key in the lock and push the door open.

Mac sat in the hall. He looked up at Royal. “Bad boy!” Royal said sternly. “Bad boy, Mac!”

I went to my knees. “You can’t call him bad when he hasn’t done anything.”

“
He wants to. I can see it in his eyes.”

I reached for Mac, and he slit his eyes, stepped back, presented his rear and trundled to the kitchen.

I got myself upright and went after him, Royal right behind me. Mac stood over his empty bowl, looking in it as if he thought food would miraculous rise up and fill the thing.

“
Well. Look who’s here,
Tiffany
and the Iron Chef,” came Jack’s mocking voice.

“
Finally decided to come home, did you?” said Mel. “I suppose fun with Mister Hunky blew any thought of us right out of your mind.”

I ignored them; I had to with Royal in the room. I went to the pantry and got Mac’s kibble. He dipped his nose in the bowl before I finished filling it and I swear he
inhaled
the tiny nuggets.

Royal sniffed the air. “Can you smell something?”

“
Yeah. See it too.” I eyed the puddle by the backdoor and the malodorous brown pile next to it.

“
Disgusting little beast,” Jack sneered.

I got some old newspaper from the recycle bin under the sink, a bottle of pine disinfectant, a rag, paper towel, and went to the door, trying not to breathe through my nose. I spoke to Royal, but not for his benefit alone. “Not his fault. I wasn’t here to let him out.”

After dealing with Mac’s thoughtful gift and putting it in the bin out back, I sank in a kitchen chair and rubbed my brow with the back of my hand. “I don’t know why I’m so worn out. I slept heavy.”

“
But not long enough,” Royal said as he took the chair opposite me.

“
You found time to sleep?” Mel said.

Jack chimed in. “Bet she needed it after all the exercise.”

“
Why don’t you get some sleep,” Royal said.

“
Sounds good, but I need a shower.”

He gave me an intense look, a little something smoldering in his eyes. “I could do with one of those.”

I’m sure I went bright red. He gave me a toothy grin.

“
And then I better go see Mike.”

He grunted, expression suddenly sober. “What will you tell him?”

“
I’ll think of something,” I said unhappily. “What about you?”

He shrugged. “I gave up looking for you and went off duty.”

“
You better report in before he gets suspicious.”

His mouth crooked. “I guess a shower will have to wait.”

But neither of us moved.

Then he pushed to his feet and came to me. I stood to meet him. When his arms came around my waist I clung to him. He ran his hand down my arm, brushing one of the tiny nicks on my shoulder. I sucked air through my teeth. He jerked back from me. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”

And I forgot my vow to not speak His name in vain.
Je-sus Christ!
“Oh poo!” I said elegantly. “I’m a tough girl. Now come here.”

“
And you need rest.”

The man had
way
too much self-control. “Royal,” I whispered, “if you don’t kiss me right now, I’ll make you wish you never came to Clarion.”

If you wanted to see a visible definition of a demonic grin, Royal had it down pat. “We can’t have that,” he said hoarsely.

His mouth nibbled up my neck to my ear and I savored every touch of lips and teeth, until we were face to face, our lips a hair’s breadth apart. I wanted to feel his mouth on mine with desperation I had never known before, not with any man. Mike be damned. He could wait.

The phone rang. We ignored it. I no longer heard the insistent trill as Royal’s lips caressed mine.

It was everything I remembered, everything I could imagine, more than a kiss. Delectable warmth stole through me, eradicating my tension. My entire body relaxed. I felt loose and tingly, as if I would turn liquid and melt into a puddle.

Maybe a century later, my lips had been so thoroughly worked over, they burned, and I was having a little problem with breathing. He put his hands to my head and ran his fingers back through my hair, moved them to cup my face and looked in my eyes with intensity powerful enough to melt stone. I eased back a few inches as he pushed my shirt off one shoulder, allowing him access to my collarbone; a gentle nibble there, and his lips moved to my earlobe. Drowning in his touch, I closed my eyes and let my head fall back.

“
Tiff, if you’re there pick up the goddamn phone!” Mike said.

The Lieutenant’s voice went through my head like a saw-tooth blade, effectively destroying the mood. As Royal lifted his head and looked past me at the phone, I silently cursed Mike to hell and back.

“
I can disconnect the phone,” I whispered, as if Mike could hear me.

Royal smiled in a pained way. “He’s furious. He’ll get worse the longer you leave it.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Royal took his arms from around me as if doing so were a major effort. I felt cold without his warmth cloaking me. I went to the counter and picked up the phone. “Hello, Mike. I suppose - “

He cut me off, but at least his voice gentled. “Are you all right?”

“
I’m fine. Now, I know you - “

“
You’re fine. Nothing wrong? Nothing at all?”

“
Yeah, really, Mike. I was - “

His voice erupted in my ear, making me wince. “In my office! Now!”