Linda Welch - A conspiracy of Demons (27 page)

The woman
curtsied
, then went
back out and
shut
the door
. Royal stood in the middle of the room, arms folded, tapping one foot. I studied the blue and beige flocked wallpaper.

“
Well
- ” I began as a
phtt
heralded the approach of a deadly missile.

What looked like a spit
wad hit Royal square in the chest.

I had to give him credit for not morphing into warrior mode and leaping
to
battle, although he looked on the verge of doing so for a second until he saw what had hit him.

A
snort
honk
ed
from behind one of the couches.
“Gotcha!”

Ph
t
t!
Royal’s hand snapped up to catch another tiny missile from the air.

Trying not to grin, I put hands to hips. “Lawrence, get your scrawny li
ttle butt out here this instant
.”

Lawrence popped up from behind a couch, a thick, wide red straw in
his
hand. “Is that any way to address the High Lord of all Bel-Athaer, Miss Banks?” he chortled.

“It’s how I speak to sneaky little kids who attack from behind cover.”

Royal ran his hand down his face to hide a smile.

“Better to attack from cover when your adversaries outnumber you,” Lawrence responded. He came from behind the couch, a tall, slim lad with burnished brown hair, a high, proud nose and firm chin,
his
copper eyes creased in mirth.
He had changed out of his more formal attire.
The sleeves of his silky cream shirt covered his fingers
to the tips
and blue hose with baggy knees fell short of his ankles and bare feet.

I could see Royal was at a loss.
T
he
young High Lord
had switched back to kid—
playful mo
d
e
during a deadly serious mission
.
But I liked to see the weight of rulership lifted from Lawrence’s back. He did not get to be
a
kid
often enough. Six-years—
old is too young to lose your mother and b
e taken to an alien world. Nine-years—
old is too young to rule an alien people. Courtesy of his heritage, Lawrence had an inner strength proportional to the task, but
the
boy
inside needed to get out and romp on occasion.

A door in the back of the room opened. “Lawrence?” said a deep voice.

Gryphon, Law
r
ence’s father and
chief advisor, came in the room.
The big
former heir
took in Lawrence with straw in hand, the spitwa
ds on the floor, and Royal and me
, and
tried to straighten his features. “Lawrence,” he admonished, eyes twinkling, “
is this how we
treat ou
r
guests?
”

Lawrence tucked the straw in his leather belt. “You’re right, Father.”

Father
sounded more of a
n official
title than a term for the man who sired him. Lawrence and
Gryphon had known each other
less than a year.

Gryphon’s eyes no longer shone with humor.
“Your team is being briefed,”
he told Royal.

I looked over
at Royal.
“Is it happening today
?”

“The sooner the better. Pride is still in
Pocatello
and discovering where he is staying should be simple. We take him tonight, before he moves on.”

He
put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m going down to pay the cab driver and tell him he can go.”

“And we must leave you also,” Gryphon said.

Royal didn’t rejoin me until half an hour later when he returned with f
our women and two men. I guess covert ops calls for black clothing, b
ecause they wore it head to toe:
tight, stretchy outfits of long-sleeved shirts, pants, gloves and calf-high boots. They carried no weapons that I
could see. All wore their multi
colored hair scraped back from their faces and worked
in
a single braid down their backs. They looked militaristic, standing with legs
parted
, h
ands clasped behind their backs.

Royal didn’t introduce us, which was okay with me. They weren’t here for a buddy-buddy relationship
.

“
We will go over it one more time,” Royal said
.

Obviously the strong and silent types, they dipped their chins.

They
rehashed a simple strategy.
Gelpha intel put Robert Pride at the Hampton Inn.
They would go in fast an
d take up position at the hotel:
four outside with one man in the lobby and another in the back stairwell. If Pride made a break for it, someone would spot him and
the team
converge. Fast as demons move, they hoped to corral him befo
re he knew what
was happening
. B
ut Pride was also a demon and as fast as they; the instant the Gelpha sensed him
in the
hotel, he could also sense them coming.

They would hit a major snag w
ere
Pride
not there.
They couldn’t hang around, as
Pride, heading for his hotel for the
night, would sense them
waiting
.

I pictured a squad of black-clad demons zipping toward the hotel then veering off and speeding away again.
They could be at it all night.

“It is time,” Royal said.

I pushed up to my feet and went to him.

“You are staying here, Tiff.”

I couldn’t believe he tried
that. “No way! What about keeping me with you and safe?”

He took my face in his hands, thumbs either side of my eyes. “I think you will be okay
here
.
We will
take the Ways as far as we can then go
cross country
to
Pocatello
. I will move faster than I ever have with you in my arms. The pressure would cause you considerable pain. I will not know what to expect until seconds before we arrive, when I can detect Pride’s physical signature if he is
there. He may not be alone.
I
may
have
to make split-second decisions.”

“Which will be easier if
I’m not in the way
,” I conceded.

His
fingers
went behind my head and pushed into my hair. He kissed me, hard and fast. For a moment, we sank
in
each other’s eyes. Then he walked
from
the room, his team following. The door shut behind them.

L
eaving me s
tanding
here, wondering what
to
expect next.

I didn’t know what to do
with myself
. I looked
at
the opulent room without seeing it, then went to a couch and
sat with wrists dangled over knees, shoulders hunch
ed, feeling helplessly useless.
The clock
’s tick seemed to become louder
until it was all I could hear, but I thought my heartbeat might overwhelm the sound if I had to wait here too long.

“
You’ve never asked about
your uncle, Tiff. He’s in Weirayme Penitentiary.”

I came up two inches off the couch. I don’t know what
jarred
me more: that Lawrence came in the room and I didn’t hear him, that he called me Tiff instead of Miss Banks, or that he spoke of Cicero.

I held one hand to my heart and felt
the organ erratically pound
. “I don’t care where he is, Lawrence, so long as he stays there.”

Lawrence came around the
couch to face me with shoulders hunched and
arms tight against his sides. “He’s your only family, isn’t he?”

No doubt family meant a lot to the High Lord. He lost his mother, then found a father.
He and Gryphon were still working on their relation
ship, but they would get there.

But me? Cicero was never family, and I told Lawrence so. “I didn’t know he existed till last year, yet he knew about me from the day I was born. He only wanted me
when he thought he could use me.
Birth is circumstantial,
a real family isn’t blood and bones, it’s how much they care. Cicero didn’t.”

I felt tired now. I wanted
Royal back here. I wanted it
over. I didn’t want to
think
about Cicero.

“I’m lucky,” Lawrence said. “My father loves me.” But he spoke with hesitancy, as if he w
ere not
sure.

“
He does love you. When I met him, he described how he held you in his arms when you were born, that he wanted nothing more than to be with you and your mom
.”

He sat on a chair across from me. “I’ll wait with you.”

I nodded wearily. I couldn’t sit here staring at him for
ever
, or alternat
iv
ely,
look
at
the room, so I slung one leg over the other, folded my arms and closed my eyes.

S
cenes roved through my mind
as I waited for Royal
, from when I walked into Cicero’s cavern and met him
,
till days later when Gelpha carried him from the High House. He couldn’t walk with a shattered kneecap.

Lawrence had gi
ven up and left hours ago when
m
y
eyes flew open along with the door as Royal walked in. I came off the couch slowly
and awkwardly
because my leg had gone to sleep.

He braced one hand on the doorframe
. “It went well. He was at the hotel
. We apprehended him
.”

H
e looked unhappy, eyes dark and cloudy,
his
lips compressed.

“But?” I prompted.

“He will talk, after he has spoken to you
, alone
.”

I cocked my head on one side. “Say again? Why does he want to speak to me?”

Royal came forward until we
were close. “He refuses
to elucidate. You do not have to.” His voice hardened. “We will get the truth from him.”

I didn’t want to think how. “It’s okay, I’ll do it.” In fact, curiosity piqued, I
wanted
to hear what Pride had to say.

Royal and I crossed a hug
e grass area, a
park inside the High House’s four wings.
I remembered my first visit to the High House when I saw Gelpha boat on the small lake, loll
on the ban
ks of several ponds and stroll or sit in groups. I ha
d watched children play in the summerhouse
s and fly colorful kites.
Now, the silence and emptiness gave me chills
.

We strode to the far side, through a set of high, narrow double doors, jogged left and went a few feet along a corridor to a plain wood door. Royal opened it and I followed him through to the top of a staircase. From the time it took to descend
the stairwell
, and the doors leading from it at intervals, I think we went down three floors to the bowels
,
our footfalls echoing
in the narrow space of high walls and polished slate steps.
We came out in another corridor faced in brown brick, with a brick floor and strip lighting along the ceiling. The place was poorly v
entilated, the air tasted stale
,
and
musty
like damp cardboard
. Despite how the ceiling soared,
the corridor generated a sense of claustrophobia
.

Royal stopped at another door and led me
to
a suite of
con
n
ecting
room
s
.
The musty smell
lingered
.
In the first
two, dustcovers lay over what I think were desks and office equipment. T
wo big, muscular male Gelpha in black
occupied the third and last room, one at a metal desk upon which a large monitor sat, the other stood
beside a plain metal door
with
his
leg
s
spread
and hands clasped
.