Demon Lord 6: Garnet Tongue Goddess (12 page)

TWELVE

“I am committed to vengeance

because everyone needs a hobby.”

                                                  —Caine Deathwalker

Halfway through a bottle of fey wine, the feeling in my legs returned, that annoying pins-and-needles prickling of awakening nerves.  This didn’t surprise me; I was resilient due to my genetics, and the fey wine served as an unnatural restorative as well.  The only drawback to my half-dragon metabolism was that it kept me from getting drunk too easily—I really had to work at it.

After a while, my legs lost their poisoned blueness and obeyed my will as I ordered them to move.  I managed to sit up on the edge of the bed and finish off the bottle.  It went back to the basket I set on the floor near my piled clothing.  I picked up my clothes and began to dress. 

Beyond the screen, I heard the door open and soft padding footfalls.  Christie said, “I’ll put some coffee on.  Just be a few minutes.”  I saw her passing the gap in the screens.  She wore a silk robe: black with green lily pads and pinkish lavender flowers on it.  Her hair was wrapped up in a turban.  She smelled fresh from the shower, the scents of shampoo and body wash clung to her.  I smiled.  The scent of Holy also clung to her.  My bodyguard had found it necessary to enter the shower with her and, um, guard Christie’s body very closely.

Apparently, Christie’s willing to let just anyone rape her.  I’ll have to ask Holy if she left any bruises.

Carrying a small can of ground, generic coffee, Christie walked back past the gap and never once looked my way.

How soon you’re forgotten when the bee moves on to another flower. Ah well, I can at least have fun tormenting Holy for stealing my girl.

My grumpy inner dragon nodded in agreement.
  We saw her first.  Ours!

It was my turn to nod in agreement.  Another first for me: my first starring role in a rape fantasy.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. 

Dressed, steel-toed boots on my feet, I stood, finding my balance compromised only for a moment as I picked up the last bottle of dandelion wine from the basket and left the walled-off bedroom.

On the workstation, Christie’s coffeemaker burbled to itself.  Waiting on high-rise stools, the girls sat very close, leaning into each other.  Their eyes were locked, their lips about to be.  In a new change of clothes, her hair wet, Holy reached out and teased Christie’s robe open.  Christie didn’t object, not even when Holy’s hand found other things to do inside the robe. 

Tech-girl gave out a needy little whimper. 

Perfect timing.

I made a little noise with my feet, staggering a little as I passed them.  The girls jolted a little, reminded they weren’t alone.  It was funny; I’d recently fucked Christie and had certainly seen
all
of her, but she closed up the robe in sudden modesty.  I felt her eyes on me as I headed for the door. 

“Drunk!”  Christie made it an accusation.

“Actually not,” I said.  “I’ve only had one bottle of fey wine, and while that’s enough to kill a human many times over, what I’m really suffering from is demon venom—and the betrayal of a bodyguard stealing my girl while I lay recovering from a magical attack she didn’t protect me from.” 

I sighed dramatically as I reached the door, leaning there a moment as if I really needed the support.  I used a toe to dislodge the screwdriver on the floor that was keeping the broken door shut.

I said, “Oh, Holy, be on the lookout for a naga.  I don’t know where he is or when he’ll get here, but we’re uncovering secrets he probably doesn’t want disturbed.  And his poison magic was potent enough to mess with me while I was spirit walking.  Another thing, you really suck at your job. This will
so
not look good on your performance review when we get back.  You’ll probably get transferred to housekeeping.  How good are you at making beds?  Never mind.  You’ll learn.  By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about a missing bottle of wine, would you?”

I didn’t wait for an answer, wobbling out into the hall.  From there, I headed off, firming up my stride. 

My inner dragon thumped his tail.
That was fun
. 

“Yes, it certainly was.”

The monitor room was silent.  I didn’t stick my head in to see who was on duty.  Moving on, I took the stairs down to the first floor and made my way to the cafeteria.  Morning sunshine made the place look cheery.  Lillian and Deedee were in the kitchen, hard at work.  I smelled biscuits, ham and eggs, orange juice, and coffee.

My inner dragon stilled, nostrils flaring as if he could take in the smells without using my senses. He rumbled, unless that was my stomach.  He breathed two words with great reverence:
Pig meat!

Still clutching my bottle, I got in line for a plate, returning waves from a table where Rooster—still a little singed—sat with his daughter Malevolence.  Thorn and Clifford were at the table, too.  Crusher and Teresa weren’t in evidence.   I stood behind Shiva, waiting for her to move on with her food.  Having nothing else to do, I studied her fine ass.

Note to self: make sure all future bodyguards are into guys so they won’t poach my conquests.

After a moment of woolgathering, I realized that Shiva had acquired her plate and had turned, seeing me.  I lifted my gaze slowly, scanning her shapely terrain.  She would be a scary fuck. With stone magic, she could accidently break me off if I were inside her while she climaxed.  The prospect terrified, but the danger also had a certain allure.

“What?” she said.

“You know, you are really beautiful.”  I said it sincerely, but her eyes narrowed suspiciously because she knew me.  Her face warmed with a blush.

“Don’t play with my heart.  I will kill you dead.”  She moved on to the others.  They pulled over a chair so she could join them.  It looked like I’d be sitting by myself.

Like a knife, a new voice stabbed out.  “Caine!  There you are.”

I caught Lillian’s eyes.  “I’m going to need another plate.” 

Turning, I watched Izumi’s approach.  Her beauty was exotic, landing like a punch to the guts.  People think because I have my own harem, that I don’t fully cherish all the women in my life. 

My inner dragon snorted. 
It’s a poor collector that doesn’t value all he owns.

I nodded. 
I know, right?

A wave of cold air hit me just before Izumi reached me.  Her arms wrapped tightly around my neck.  Her heart-shaped face pressed against mine. Her high cheekbones held the palest of blush, making her look like a perfect doll.  The kind you’d want to fuck.  Not that I had to resort to that.  I wrapped my arms around her, returning the embrace, careful not to drop my bottle.

When I’d first met her, she’d been masquerading as a Japanese Snow Woman, a kind of Asian demon.  She’d been on the run from her mom, a fairy queen who’d wanted to drag her home to a shotgun wedding. 

Now that Izumi was mine, she didn’t need a disguise, but she’d grown fond of the illusion and used it most of the time.  Her perfect, pale skin was real enough, but her hair—long, straight, and black—concealed a snow white mane.  Icy eyes also hid under a fey glamour.  What I actually saw were large, black pools you could drown in.  Five-foot nothing, a hundred and five pounds, she could freeze a man’s blood in seconds, but had a smile that could thaw him out just as fast. 

She was smiling now.

Lillian cleared her throat.  “I’ve got your food here, lovebirds.”

Izumi released me.  “Great, I’m starving.”  She snatched up some silverware rolled in napkins and grabbed two small glasses of orange juice for us.

I brushed the frost off my chest, stuck the bottle under an arm, and took the two offered plates.  “Thanks.”

Lillian smiled.  “Any time, my lord and master.”

That caused Izumi to stare grimly at me. “Spreading yourself around, I see.”  She followed me to an empty table where I put the plates and the bottle down, and noticed that those at other table had fallen silent and were staring at my guest.

Rooster stood, glaring the hardest.

Thorn put a restraining hand on his arm.  “Winter fey, be careful.”

He ignored the warning and yelled at me.  “How the hell do you get all the hot women?  It isn’t fair!”

I grinned at him.  “Yeah, I know.”

Rooster dropped into his chair.

Ignoring the disturbance, Izumi sat down, scooted my fork and napkin across the table to me, and dug into her food.  As she chewed, she rolled her eyes heavenward in delight.  I picked up my fork, combining ham and eggs in one bite. 
Mmmm,
g
ood!

A moment later, Shiva was at our table, edging in between Izumi and me.  The women locked stares.  Shiva spoke over her shoulder to me.  “This is the extra support you called in?  I don’t remember seeing her around the clan house.”

“Backup, yes,” I said, “demon, no.  This is Izumi, a queen of fairy, and heir to the Winter Court.”

“Ice magic?” Shiva said.

Izumi inclined her head a moment in acknowledgment, then lifted a questioning eyebrow, canting her head.  “Stone magic?”

“Yeah.”  Shiva stuck out a hand.  “Pleased to meet you.”

Izumi smiled, shook the hand, and shifted her gaze to me.  “Take good care of my ‘lord and master’ here.  I’m the only one who gets to kill him.”

I grabbed a buttered biscuit off my plate.  “I hear that
all
the time.”

Shiva said, “He’s got me watching Thorn.  I need to get back to her.” 

“Thorn?” Izumi said.

I ignored the question in her voice, addressed my underling. “Shiva, get some eye protection from Christie, and tell Holy to stop moping and get down here.”

“Eye protection?” Shiva echoed.

I nodded.  “I’m expecting an attack from a naga that uses poison magic.  Your skin should protect you, but…”

A fierce look overtook Shiva’s face.  “Understood.  I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”  She headed for the door.

“You seem a little more mature,” Izumi said.  “Power becomes you.”

“You don’t have to suck up,” I said, “unless you really want to.”

Izumi said, “Caine, who’s Thorn?”

I looked at the other table, saw that Thorn was all eyes and ears, riveted on our conversation.  I wiggled a finger at her.  She got up and came over.  Surprisingly, so did Malevolence.

I took a drink of O.J. and used the glass as a pointer.  “That’s Malevolence and this is Thorn, human and fey.”

Izumi’s dark eyes held Thorn’s gaze.   Izumi asked, “What court are you from?”

“No court,” Thorn’s voice trembled slightly.  “I’m from a free village.”

“That’s rare,” I said.   “Fey lords try to snap up all the lesser fey they can manage.”

“Under-The-Hill,” Thorn said.  “Our village lies on the border between the lands of the Oak Lord and the Rose Queen. They keep the peace between them by
not
claiming our village.  Both great fey have access to my mother this way.”

“Your mother?” Izumi asked.

“She’s a seer,” I said.  “A very strong one.  And her granddaughter here has similar gifts.  She’s also good with barrier magic, which is why she’s helping me with some pesky ghosts.”

Izumi looked around quickly.  “There are ghosts here?  Real ghosts?”  She picked up her glass.  It frosted over.  The juice inside became orange ice.

“Well, yeah.” Malevolence interjected some snark.  “We’re saving the cardboard ones for Halloween.”

In jeans, a ruby top, and clomping sneakers, Teresa ran into the cafeteria, coming straight at me.  Her face was white with shock, her eyes wide and distressed.  “Caine!”

“What have you done now?” Izumi asked.

“Trust me, I have no idea.  Maybe the naga’s been sighted.”  I stood, a thought away from summoning my guns, waiting to see if I needed them first.

Teresa reached our table and stopped, huffing with breath.  “You’ve got to come at once.”

Without foreplay? 
My inner dragon was indignant.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s Crusher…” Teresa said.

Malevolence provided dramatic mood music. “Dunt-dunt-duhhhh!”

“Keep going,” I told Teresa.

Her voice became a broken whisper.  “He’s dead!”

“I take it, not by natural causes?” 

“No.”

As I considered this, my gaze turned to Izumi.

“Don’t look at me,” she said.  “I just got here.”

I turned back to Teresa.  “Show me the body.”

“This way.”  She left the table.

“Can I come, too?” Malevolence asked.