The Demon's Game (23 page)

“The school is locked!” Luca yelled after me. I
ignored him.

A lock was no match for my magic, thus I opened the
back door to the gym easily. Wasting no time, I made my way to my English
class. The door was unlocked, so I entered the room to find no blood, body, or
dueling teachers. After a few minutes, I decided I must have had the wrong day,
when suddenly there was a noise in the hallway. I dived behind the teacher’s
desk just as the door burst opened.

Peeking out from under the metal desk, I could make
out two women’s legs and shoes. One of them was clearly shoving the other.

“I told you, I have no idea where they are,” Mrs.
Sharp said. There was the sharp and unmistakable sound of someone being
slapped.

“I suggest you change your answer. I know you took
the kids and Keigan,” Ms. Sterling said.

For whatever reason I hadn’t heard their conversation
in Hail’s vision, I knew I had to heed the warning. I had to stop Mrs. Sharp
from killing Ms. Sterling. I couldn’t divert their magical attacks without
being discovered.

I created a spherical shield around me. This wasn’t a
shield of protection, but a shield of illusion. The outside of the shield bent
light around until it would appear almost invisible. The only way it could be
seen is if someone was looking directly at it when I had to move because there
would be distortion. I stood and faced the two teachers, who were so busy with
each other that they noticed nothing odd. I created another sphere, much
smaller, in my hand. This ball contained a very unique blend of elements that
Vretial taught me. It wasn’t that it used every element; it actually used whatever
was handy to create a distraction. It was specifically designed not to hurt
anyone.

I tossed the sphere at the ceiling above them and it
burst open. Out poured rain, lightning, and thunder until where was a
full-sized storm compacted in the room. Water flooded the floor as lightning
struck desks. Both teachers, as confused as they were, realized they were in
over their heads and bolted from the room. I ended my spells and waltzed back
to the archery field.

“Why are you wet?” Logan asked.

I looked down at my soaked clothes. “Oh, hey, look at
that. I wonder how that happened.”

Hail snickered. “We have to be home by seven,” Hail
told the others.

“What happens at seven?” Taper asked.

“We die,” I answered. “So let’s hurry. Logan, Luca,
what are your skills? What are you good at?”

“I like art,” Logan volunteered.

“Okay, boring and useless. You can be the pretty boy
who dies first in the movie. Luca?”

“Um… I can drive.”

“Useful in case we need a quick exit. What else?
Anybody?” In order to be a good ruler, I had to understand the strengths and
weaknesses of my subjects. Even the most useless skill can be utilized by
someone smart enough to use it.

“I can make cupcakes,” Tatum said quietly. “Pink
flavored ones. Um… I can also---”

Her brother slapped his hand over her mouth. “You
can’t tell anyone about that!” he said.

Hail put his arm around me and pulled until my back
was against his chest.
“Check them out with your magic. There’s something
weird about all of them. The twins are definitely hiding something.”

My jaw dropped as I did what my brother suggested. I
was so used to people being all that they seemed that I hadn’t even bothered to
check them out. Not one of the four people in front of me was human. “Okay,” I
said, disguising my shock. “I think if we’re going to work together, we should
be honest in what we are. Does everyone agree?”

“We’re not supposed to say anything,” Taper said.

“We are all on equal footing here and want the same
thing. We need to trust each other to save our friends,” Luca said.

“Then you go first,” Logan insisted.

“I’m a vouxeng, sort of a psychic vampire. I can
control people’s moods, including my own, but I
have
to take energy
every few days or if I overexert myself. I can calm myself by taking someone’s
calm energy. I could also kill someone, but I don’t want to ever have to do
that. The older I get, the more powerful I will become. My uncle could control
dreams when he wanted a certain type of energy. He could make people do things
and pretty much control their minds. He was killed before I was born.”

“I’m fae,” Logan said, glaring as if he was daring
one of us to tease him.

“So you’re like a wizard?”

“I like art. That’s my skill; I can make illusion
magic using art. It was a rare, highly prized skill for my people because we
were the ones who made our hiding places undetectable. I can draw a life-sized
door and people will walk by it, thinking it was a door without looking
directly at it. I once drew a sun and posted the paper on the window, and
everyone believed it was daylight out.”

“That could be useful. So how about you two?”

The twins looked at each other. “Our mother is from
Malta,” Taper said. “She is of the fire tribe, whereas our father was from the
land tribe. Their love was secretive and dangerous until our mother was
supposed to be married to another man. Our father jumped in the way, they got
married, and called it an accident. They were a little ostracized, but they
were happy. Mom was pregnant with us when there was a light.”

“Mom said it was the brightest thing she ever saw…
but she was never happy again. The light left her here on Earth, with no idea
what happened. She was alone and it took her years to figure out how to live
here. We never met our father. Every day, she sits in front of the living room
window and prays to Madus that our father will find her.”

“I can see, hear, and smell through the senses of
animals. I can spy on virtually anyone. Tatum can see things. If she touches an
object, she can see the people who have touched it, the thoughts they had, or
conversations that happened around it.”

“Okay. We can work with this. Taper and Tatum, you
two need to survey Alyssa’s house. I can get Tatum inside. Taper, spy on the
police. I want to know every bit of information they have and every move they
make. Luca, I need you to keep an eye on the teachers. They’re up to something.
Some of them are demons, though, so be careful. If any teacher is angry,
scared, or excited, I want to know about it. Logan, get some distractions
ready. We’ll all meet back Monday for lunch.”

“You haven’t told us your skills yet. Or are you
embarrassed? It’s okay if you don’t have much skill,” Logan said.

Hail and I looked at each other and smirked. “Our
mother is a goddess, our father is the most powerful Noquodi ever born, our uncle
is a three-thousand-year-old dragon, and if you share this information with
anyone, our demon bodyguard will destroy you in a very agonizing way. Our power
is limitless, but if that isn’t specific enough for you, I’m a genius and Hail
is a seer.”

They all stared open-mouthed, so Hail clapped his
hands once. “Get your butts in gear, people, we are on a schedule,” he
demanded. Luca, Logan, and Taper scattered.

When Tatum, Hail, and I arrived at Alyssa’s house,
the cops were gone and the driveway was empty. We found the most secluded spot
in the back yard of the house and I put the light-bending shield around us. The
sliding glass door was locked, but I ran my magic through the metal handle and
got the image of the type of lock it was; it was easy to unlock with Iadnah
energy.

We entered the house and Tatum snooped around while
Hail and I kept watch. She started crying when she touched a children’s book on
the coffee table, but refused to tell us why. It wasn’t until we went into the
girl’s bedroom that Tatum got a real idea of what happened.

“An evil man searched this room, looking for her. She
wasn’t here, which made him furious. It’s so hard to see anything because the
cops have touched everything. We need to try out back.”

“Why? What happened outside?”

“It’s just a feeling. I can feel it; the forest is
her safe place.”

We went outside and I relocked the door behind us.
Tatum could obviously see a lot more here… especially when she closed her eyes.
She went from tree to tree in a specific order, as if following someone. “What happened?”
I asked.

“He found her. She heard him break into her house
while she was out running… She was a wolf. Her parents weren’t home and she
wasn’t supposed to be outside, so she was afraid to do anything. She… became a
girl again and hid in a tree, but he found her.”

“Did he kill her?” Hail asked.

“Not yet. Not here.”

“We’re out of time,” Hail warned me. “We’ll talk
about things over lunch on Monday.”

Despite our rush, we walked Tatum home. After all,
there was a demon running around and kidnapping children. Dad’s car wasn’t in
the driveway when we got home. Hail climbed through the window and stopped,
backing up against the glass to hide me. I figured that whatever trouble we
were in, I might as well face it. I pushed him out of the way and climbed through.
Mom was sitting on my bed, leaning back with her arms folded.

“Hi, Mom. Ron and I were just going for a walk,” Hail
said.

“And yet I know for a fact that you are both
grounded.”

“Please don’t tell Dad,” I begged. We hadn’t factored
our mother caring that we snuck away into our plans.

“And put him in a bad mood? Not a chance. I’ll punish
you myself.”

“How?” Hail asked, taking my hand.

“You’ll see,” she said before standing up and walking
out. 

I squeezed Hail’s hand. “We’re in deep shit.”

Dylan

I started off that morning determined to get my
mother out of the building. It helped that I had the support of every single
nurse. My mother was the kind of woman who could bring down even the happiest
people, and the nurses had enough problems without her ridiculing and snapping
at them. She also spent every moment of my shift making my job and my life
hell.

“She hit the call button every five minutes last
night, most of the time just to fluff her pillows or hand her the remote.”

Mrs. Parris, our youngest nurse, happened to be
walking by as Ms. Manning ranted and paused. “She, at one point, said she
pushed the button because she wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting fatter on
her dime. I told her I am pregnant, not fat. She said I would make a horrible
mother because it took me too long to get to her when she pushed the button.
She said if I treated my baby like I did her, the baby would commit suicide!”
She was fired up, and rightly so.

Mrs. Parris was a wonderful woman who volunteered her
time at the youth center when she wasn’t working. She loved kids and was five
months into her first pregnancy. Having lived through Divina’s pregnancy, I
sympathized with any woman who had to work while with child.

“That woman has no idea what it means to be a mother,”
I said.

Grumbling about evil presences in the hospital, Mrs.
Parris left. Ms. Manning gave me a look. “Isn’t she your mother?”

I groaned. “Please don’t tell me there’s a
resemblance.”

“No, she just demanded that I ‘get her lazy bum of a
son in there’ before she disembowels someone. She was demanding morphine.”

“Overdose her.”

“Dylan! That’s horrible!”

I had more important things to worry about than
having a devil in my hospital; namely having demons after my sons. Had I known
the middle school was infested with demons, I would have had Xul guarding my
boys from the start. It was also pretty obvious that the “vampires” who tried
to get my book would try something else. “Don’t worry about her; she’s well
enough to leave.”

“Dylan, she almost died three days ago. I know she
can’t stay here; there are already two nurses threatening to quit. She went to
the nursery yesterday and started cussing at the babies. She went outside with
some bread to feed the bird and swatted them with her cane when they got close!”

“I am well aware what kind of person she is. Don’t
let anybody quit, and don’t tell anyone I’m her son.”

“Nobody would believe me anyway.” A buzzer went off
and she looked down at her switchboard. “She’s pushed the button again.”

“I’ll take care of it. Prepare the morgue.”

“It’s been prepped and ready since she arrived.”

I went to her room to find my mother thumbing her
call button with frustration.

“About time you got here! Get me another pillow!” she
demanded when she saw me. She had three pillows.

“Only if I can smother you with it. You’re getting
kicked out. I’m not losing my nurses because you can’t act like a civilized
human being.”

“You can’t kick me out! I’ve not recovered yet!”

The unfortunate truth was that if she couldn’t take
care of herself, even when she was healthy. “You can’t stay here. I’ll get you
a motel room and hire someone to help you there. All you need now is to rest
and heal. You can’t do that if you’re screaming at babies.”

“I’ll go home with you.”

“Not a chance.”

“Then I’m staying here. One or the other, boy, you
don’t have a choice.”

I did have a choice; I could have kicked her out on
the streets. As great a plan as that sounded, however, I couldn’t look at
myself in the mirror if I did that. For all her flaws, her hate, neglect, and
abuse, the woman was my mother.

The problem was, she would ridicule and pick a fight
with anyone. Mordon would burn her to ash, the boys would use her for target
practice, Xul would eat her soul, and my wife would…
“Mordon? Are you with
Divina?”

“For the moment. I was just heading out. Why?”

“If Divina isn’t busy, ask her to come to the
hospital. I need her to pick someone up. We have a houseguest staying.”

“For how long?”

“I wonder…”
I said.
“Divina will need to
drive the Charger.”

“Your houseguest wouldn’t make it home alive.”

“I’m counting on it.”
I gave my mother my most
trustworthy smile and she shrunk back. “I’ll have my wife pick you up. I hope
you’re not hungry, because all our food disappeared.”

She looked at my wedding ring in shock, and then
swallowed her surprise. “Well, if your wife is any half-way decent woman, she
can cook your mother some damn food.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“Divina is on her way.”

“Good.”
I went about my rounds, checking on my
patients. After about half an hour, the overhead came on.

“Dr. Yatunus, you are needed at the front. Take your
time, it’s just your wife here to see you,” Ms. Manning said sourly.

I scoffed, but concentrated on bandaging my patient.
He laughed. “Better get up there, son. You don’t want to keep your better half
waiting.”

“Especially not now that I’m about to drop my mother
in her lap. That should do it. Be careful with the stiches this time, Jack. You
shouldn’t be fixing your roof at night in November; that’s what you have a son
for.”

“Adrian went to Florida on his honeymoon and the
house wasn’t going to fix itself. There’s a leak in the basement, the stove
makes a weird smell when I turn it on, and there’s something in the attic that
sounds a lot bigger than a rat.”

Shit. The old man was going to take his riffle and
shoot his attic squatter.
“Sunday is my day off. I’ll come over with my
brother and we’ll take care of the chores.”

“I can’t let you---”

I glared. “How many years did you serve in the army?”
I asked, cutting him off. The old man was a doctor in his time. I was in
emergency medicine, but what I did was easy compared to what he did under fire.
After he got out of the army, he went into construction, where he was almost
immediately in a major accident. As soon as he was out of the hospital, he went
right back to work to support his wife and baby. Altogether, he worked for
nearly sixty years. “You did what you were supposed to do, now it’s your time
to sit on the porch and do nothing. Mordon and I will be over at nine.”

“Morgan?”

“Close enough.”

The old man left and I headed to the nurse’s station,
where Divina was waiting. She was absolutely gorgeous with a thin red plaid,
flannel shirt and skin-tight, dark blue jeans. Her jeans were tucked inside her
dark brown leather, high-heeled boots. Her shiny black hair was loose and
falling, slightly curly, over her shoulders and her deep blue eyes sparkled
like she was up to something. She wasn’t wearing lip-gloss, but her lips were
the perfect shade of berry-pink.

There were many reasons I loved this woman, and she
gave me a new one each day. No, her beauty wasn’t just skin deep; I loved her
for her giving heart. She was a goddess, but she showed her love for me in
everything she did. Even when she kept the Sight from me, I knew it was her way
of trying to protect me.

“Thank you for coming,” I said quietly.

She smiled. “You asked me to. Mordon said we’re going
to have a houseguest.”

“If you think you can handle it.” I led her to my
mother’s room.

She put her hand on the closed door and her eyes
widened. “What monster do you have locked in this room? I have felt demons less
evil than this.”

I sighed and opened the door. “Divina, meet my
mother.”

For a few blessed seconds, my mother stared in shock.
Unfortunately, she didn’t stay that way. “Is she your whore or your sugarbaby?”
the woman asked.

Divina laughed. “This is going to be fun.” She turned
to me and wrapped her arms around mine with the same child-like joy she had
when I first fell in love with her. “She’s all mine? I can do whatever I want?”

I was counting on it.

There was a collective cheer from the nurses and an
undertone of celebration from the patients when Ms. Manning announced over the
intercom that, “The wicked witch is dead!” Then she had to clarify that she
wasn’t dead but gone, because somebody really had prepped the morgue. Who
needed a padlock on a morgue shelf? Apparently my mother.

The rest of my day consisted of DIY and DUI accidents.
When I got home, Ron and Hail were cleaning the living room, Xul was reading a
book on the couch with a glass of red wine, and Divina was cooking up a potion
in the kitchen. My first thought was to ask what the boys did to get them on
clean-up duty, but it occurred to me I didn’t want to know.

I went into the kitchen, leaned over my wife’s
shoulder, and kissed her. My heart skipped a beat as it always did when we
kissed. When I let her go, her smile lit up her eyes. “Divina? Where’s my
mother?”

She smirked evilly. “Community service.”

“Where?”

“Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Don’t worry; she won’t die or
get sick with something.”

“She was injured. And how did you explain to her what
you are?”

“I didn’t explain. She figured it out herself when I
made her see some of your memories. I’m a god, Dylan; I will not fear a mortal.
I did make it so that she tries to reveal my identity, she will instantly
become deaf, blind, and mute. Then I healed her and sent her to work.”

“Have I told you how much I love you lately?”

“Not since breakfast.” She wrapped her arms around my
neck. My mind went blank as I was lost in her warmth. I pulled my mouth from
hers and she kissed my chest. After checking that she didn’t have a potion in
her hand, I picked her up, set her on the table, and unbuttoned her shirt to
find she had gone bra-free. A very annoying throat cleared, so I gave the demon
the one finger salute and kissed Divina again.

“Dylan, I would love to leave you alone to snog your
wife… in the kitchen… but you have a visitor at the door.”

I took a step away and sighed. “Why can’t my life be
easy? Like, ‘Dylan wakes up, goes to work, then picks up groceries on the way
home, and has a nice night in with his wife and kids.’ Instead my life is,
‘Dylan wakes up to aliens pounding on his door, makes it to work just in time
to be kidnapped by vampires, from which he has to be saved by the god of
Earth.’ And that’s on a boring day.”

Divina laughed and hopped off the table, causing her
shirt to flap open.
Damn.
I buttoned her top, more as an excuse to keep
touching her than to hide her beauty from Xul.

“I’d be better off in the void,” the demon muttered
as he left.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked Divina.

“Xul is an Ancient; one of the most powerful demons
and as old as the gods. He existed before humans were even an idea. His power
was unmatched by any mortal. He was fooled by the balance into going after Hail
and you crippled him for it. Powerless, he went to you and offered his life in
servitude to you. He took what you gave him without asking for more, and
instead of finding loopholes in your agreement he goes above and beyond to make
up for what he did. Now he has to stay here with us because he lost his job and
we sort of treat him like a dog. Demanding he keep watch over both boys every
minute of every day is like asking him to herd cats with a water pistol. He
wants to do well, but you’re demanding a lot from him. And at the end of the
day, you have me and he has nobody. I think his ego might be stinging.”

I thought about it as I went to the door. Before I
could even reach for the handle, Hail gasped. His eyes glowed fierce purple and
he fell onto the couch. Xul caught Ron before he collapsed. I sat down on the
couch and settled Hail in my lap. I couldn’t interrupt the child’s visions, but
he had told me before that he could feel what was happening to him during them.

Divina opened the door and let Ghidorah in. “Good
evening, Tiamat. Dylan? Are they okay?” he asked me.

“They’re fine. What’s up?” I asked, wanting to get
his focus off the boys.

“Stacy and John have been kind enough to let me stay
with them, but they make me leave every night for a few hours. I understand
why, I just cannot stand to wander the town. There are so many in need of
judgment that I am afraid to step outside. I sense sinister motives
everywhere.”

“There are demons everywhere,” Divina said.

“What do you mean ‘everywhere’? I knew they were at
the school, but just how many are we talking about?” I asked.

“There are hundreds, and many hang around your
hospital.”

“And nobody notices?” I asked. Divina and Xul shared
a look. “What?”

Divina gave me a worried frown. “You didn’t realize
that there are less than a hundred humans in this town? Everyone here is a
supernatural creature, a wizard, from another world, or married to one of them.
Stacy is fae. Mordon has been hanging out with a pack of dragons.”

“The sheriff is a dragon,” Xul added.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this?!” I asked,
frustrated.

“We honestly thought you knew. You usually figure
everything out before anyone else does.”

When I just stared at her, Xul left for a moment,
only to return with a Mountain Dew and a bagel. I turned my stare on the demon
until he honestly looked nervous. “Maybe we should call Mordon,” he whispered.

Divina sat beside me and took my hand in hers. “I
really thought you knew.”

“It can’t be,” I said, taking my hand back. “My
patients are always human… except for Alyssa. I get plenty of wizards, but I
never paid much attention to it.”

“Well, humans are more likely to get hurt and more
likely to go to the hospital when they are hurt. Besides, a lot of the families
here that originated elsewhere have been here for several generations. I expect
your magic would have trouble detecting it when you’re focused on healing them.
If their innards are the same and work the same, what does it matter?”