Demon Lord 5: Silver Crown King (21 page)

“To who or what?” I asked.

Drake turned to Kinsey, smiled weakly, and said, “Now, just hear me out.”

I smiled with bottomless amusement. 
An arranged marriage, behind Kinsey’s back.  I so didn’t see this coming
.

“Fuck!” Kinsey said.

“Fuck!” Julia said. 

A hand-shaped shadow formed behind Julia’s head, swatting her. 

“Hey!” she said.  “That hurt.”

TWENTY-TWO

“Hell’s broken loose; call a decorator.”

                                                  —Caine Deathwalker

“You traitor!”  Kinsey unrolled the steak knife in her cloth napkin and picked it up, scarcely pausing to admire the Brazilian rosewood handle before swinging the serrated edge over to Drake, pressing it into his throat, forcing his chin higher, his head back.  Displaying admirable nerve, he remained motionless, as his guards crept closer. 

He said, “Killing me won’t change the fact that our clan has entered into negotiations for your marriage.  In fact, a murderous streak in your character raises your value as a bride.  Demon’s love that kind of thing.”

“It’s true,” the Old Man said.  “We do.  Now, why not put the knife down and discuss this like an adult.  We have to set a good example for the kids.”

Sneaky.  I saw why the Old Man had wanted them here.  Damage control.  He was using Kinsey’s maternal instincts against her.

She looked over her shoulder as several guards got close enough to jump her.  Her voice went low.  “You want your asses kicked, too?”

“She said asses!” Julia pointed out.  A shadow hand formed behind her head, smacking her.  “Hey!  Why pick on me and not her?”

The Old Man explained, “She’s a guest who has forgotten her manners in a moment of shock at finding out she can actually have
all of
me for her very own
.  You are family, and so held to a higher standard.”

Julia crossed her arms, a sulky expression on her face.  “That really…” she cast a fast glance past the Old Man, “…uh, never mind.”

In times like these, I fell back on habit; I opened the bottle so the wine could breathe. 

“Not going to say anything?” the Old Man asked me.

I shrugged, then paused in thought.  “If you
can
drag her to the altar—that will make her my new mommy.”

Kinsey made a choking, gagging sound.  “Now I really have no appetite.”

“Uh, Careful, my dear,” Drake urged.  “I think I’m bleeding a little.”

She pulled back the knife and let it clatter on the table.  “What do these demons have on you, Drake?  Why would any self-respecting dragon want to be shackled to a demon?  A blue one at that?”

Drake cleared his throat and picked up his water glass, taking a sip.  “It’s not my idea.  This comes down from the top.”

“Kur?  Uncle Kur is doing this to me?”  Kinsey sat down unsteadily.

I asked for clarity, “That would be my grandfather, right?  The guy currently sitting on the dragon throne that’s mine by right of blood and strength.  I get it now.  He’s afraid I’ll kick his ass and take over the dragon world.  He wants some leverage over me.”  I looked at the Old Man.  “Why not offer Kinsey to me then, instead of you?”

Kinsey’s eyes narrowed into feral slits.  “Like I’d pollute myself so far.”

I told her, “You are one insult away from getting seriously hurt, you know that?”  

Her hands were in her lap, hidden by the table.  She thought I didn’t know that she was pulling throwing spikes off her wrist band, arming herself.  Drake’s curious gaze gave her away.

The Old Man answered me.  “No one expects you’d do anything with Kinsey except ravage and impregnate her.  You certainly wouldn’t care enough about her feelings to spare the dragon world.”  He touched his bare chest with one hand.  “I, on the other hand, am the last Atlantean demon, a breed known for chivalry, integrity, and honor.  Kur is counting on me siding with him out of family loyalty.  He also thinks I have some small control over you.”

“I do put up with more shit from you than anyone else would survive.”  I poured myself a drink, feeling a shadow hand forming at the back of my head.  I let the shadow tat on my hand crackle with black lightning, a warning.  “No more head-smacking, Lauphram. I’m grown. It’s disrespectful to a Lord of Fairy, crowned or not.”  

Kinsey shouted at Drake, “My happiness is being thrown away in the name of politics?  I’ll challenge Kur for the thrown myself before I put up with this crap!”

“Don’t say that, even in jest,” Drake said.  “Throughout history, cadet families have been exterminated for much less.”

Kinsey held his stare.  “Who—the fuck—is joking.”

“Bad word,” Tera pointed out.

Lauphram looked down on the little girl sitting beside him.  “I know.  It’s terrible how literate expression has become so disreputable in recent centuries.”

I frowned at him.  “I’ve been to ancient Atlantis.  I happen to know they cussed quite freely back then.”

“Memory softens reality,” the Old Man said, “winnowing out the parts least glamourous.  Life should be that way, too.”  He stood, sliding his chair back, impressing us all with his seven-foot, Mr. Universe body.  He came around Julia’s chair and advanced fearlessly on Kinsey.

She tensed like a rabbit in the shadow of a hawk.

Lauphram stopped near her and held out his hand.  “Come, walk with me.  At least allow me to plead my case.  You’d do that for anyone, wouldn’t you?  What can it hurt?”

She looked at Drake.

He said, “We are under an oath of protection offered by our host. If I did not believe Lauphram’s word was good, I would not have brought you, no matter what my brother orders.”   

She looked back at Lauphram’s hand, just hanging there.  She put her hand in his and stood.  He led her toward the balcony—as if those with dragon blood didn’t have heightened hearing.”

Julia said, “She can’t marry a prince before she gets to dance in glass slippers at a ball.  That wouldn’t be right.”

I nodded.  “Well, she is invited to my coronation in Fairy.  She can do her dancing there.”

The star-crossed couple went outside.  While pretending to be absorbed in my wineglass, I listened shamelessly to the Old Man.  He said, “First, do you find me utterly repulsive?  Is blue so unbecoming?  It seems to me that it contrasts quite nicely with gold.  I know, it’s the demon part that throws you.  I have character references…”

“It’s not that,” Kinsey said.  “I’m sure you have your good points, for a demon.  I’ve just never envisioned marrying someone who was not full-blooded dragon.  Besides, hasn’t enough damage been done by bringing half-breeds into the world?”

“How about we set a long engagement, a year or two?  That would give you time to get to know me, and would keep the pressure off you.”

Kinsey sighed.  My uncle wouldn’t go for that.  Once he makes up his mind, few can sway him.”

The Old man said, “How about a human ceremony that can be severed by divorce.  That would be less binding than dragon ways, leaving you an out down the road.”

There was a long silence out on the balcony.  I noticed all the guards and Drake had an ear turned that way, avidly curious to know what would happen.  Some of the demon waitresses were edging across the room to listen in too.  By morning, this story was going to be everywhere.

“I’m hungry,” Julia said.

“Hungry,” Tera echoed.

Fortunately for them, the food arrived.  A massive swarm of toga wearing demons brought plate after plate, asking if there was need of anything else, rushing off to refill glasses.  By the time they all cleared the area, Lauphram and Kinsey were back.  She had a guarded expression.  The Old Man was smiling.

Drake looked up.  “Well?”

She said, “We’re going to try a six month engagement, possibly followed by a discrete civil ceremony, if terms can be reached in a prenuptial agreement.  I am not putting dragon wealth into demon hands.”

Julia stared at Kinsey.  “You’re going to be my new grandmother?”

Kinsey looked back.  “Definitely maybe, if that’s alright with you.”

Julia nodded.  “Then I’d better leave you a note on when my birthday is, along with a list of things I don’t have yet.”

“That’s a very long list.”  I unrolled my napkin, and picked up a coconut shrimp skewer, savoring the smell. 

Tera balanced a wedge of pizza on fingertips, blowing under the crust to bleed off some of its heat before biting in.  “I want a new grandmother, too!”

I was gratified by this ambush on Kinsey because of what it implied: Kur was getting nervous sitting on the golden dragon throne.  Because of his treatment of my mother, I had every right by dragon law to challenge him for justice, and the golden crown as well.  In my mind, that crown was already mine; as well as the black, and silver crowns. 

Reading my father’s crystals had been highly instructive.  They revealed he was in exile, but still retained a claim to the crown of the Village, the blood crown.  In his absence, I had the right to claim that crown as well.  That made me royalty four times over.  Kur had to see that I wasn’t sitting on my ass, waiting for crowns to be handed me; I was going out after them, one by one, while defending what I had.  With my powerbase growing, and the Red Lady at my side, he was being forced to do something just short of acknowledging me as an heir.

I bit into a shrimp and noticed red flickers dropping from the ceiling, flurrying to the floor behind Tera’s chair.  There seemed to be multiple streams.  The motes thickened, adhering, taking on three human form: one adult, two child-sized.  The adult I knew, the Red Lady, my beloved Selene.  The kids were strangers: a ten-year old girl in a homespun dress, with black hair and emerald eyes, and a twelve-year old boy with white hair, wearing leather britches and vest.  His eyes were smoky jade, wary, sliding from face to face as if in search of a threat.

A house alarm went off, triggered from the War Room.  I knew Selene’s goddess level aura would be wreaking havoc with the house wards.  A half dozen of the mirror panels in the ceiling swung open.  Wearing body armor and an array of weapons, an elite team of demon warriors repelled into the room to provide the Old Man with security. 

The dragon guards drew weapons, coming in to surround Kinsey and Drake.

“Stand down everyone,” I yelled.  “If she wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”

Julia and Tera looked around, trying to see why everyone was suddenly all worked up.  Lauphram stood and turned to see his uninvited guests.  He made a mystic gesture and the house alarm fell mercifully silent.

The Red Lady lived up to her name, dressed head to foot in red silk.  Her pale face and red lips were a sharp contrast.  Her high-piled hair and eyes were red as well.  She’d started life as a red dragon.  What she’d transformed into over the centuries was a whole lot more.  Even the legendary Wild Hunt of the fey feared her.  As her mate, I knew she loved me, but I remained cautious of her power and whims, few of which were reasonable. 

She ignored Lauphram, coming up behind Tera, peering at her from around the back of the chair.  “I’ll be your grandmother, if you like.  When’s your birthday?”

Tara stared, stricken mute by whatever her fey senses told her.

Left behind, the two nameless children moved together.  The boy held his sister in his arms, trying to be protective in what was likely an alien environment.  I guessed that these were Elena’s children.  The succubus was working for me as a spy under condition that I’d protect and care for her children until her mission was over.

Drake called to me, “Caine, what’s going on, who is this?”

I swallowed a crunchy morsel, putting my skewer down.  “Everyone, allow me to introduce Selene, the Red Lady, my soul mate.” 
And the best fuck I’ve ever had
.

Hearing that thought, her red-crystal eyes found me.  A feeling of being wanted, needed, desired above all else, hit me like a brick to the head.  “Greetings, beloved.  Have you missed me?” 

Women expect to be lied to.  It’s why they ask these kinds of questions.  “Terribly.  Desperately.  I’ve had no appetite at all.”  I picked up my skewer and resumed eating.

She swept around the end of the table, opposite from Drake and Kinsey.  Several of our security demons backed away from the Red Lady, still trying to figure out what they should be doing since neither me nor the Old Man were freaking out.  Selene came up beside me, bent, and seized my face.  I could smell that she’d recently bathed in rose-petal scented water.  Her eyes glowed softly.  She pressed her lips to mine chastely, then with growing hunger.

“Buddha on a crutch, get a room,” Kinsey said.

Selene straightened, keeping her hands on my body.  She turned her attention to Kinsey.