The Demon's Game (24 page)

“Okay. I suppose it was my own fault; I should have
been around more. I’ll push that aside for later. I want to know why demons are
invading
this
town. We need to spy on the demons. Find out everything
about them.”

“I can do it,” Xul offered.

“No. You’re needed to protect the boys. If anything
happens, you will have whatever power you could possibly need at your disposal
to protect them. Right now, that’s invaluable. Priority one is protecting the boys.”

“I can go in as a spy,” Ghidorah volunteered. “I can
disguise myself as a demon… only it would never work. Never mind. I would be
unable to stop myself from judging every one of them.”

Xul shuddered and edged away from Ghidorah, who
snarled at the demon. I passed Hail into Divina’s lap and placed myself between
Ghidorah and Xul. “Remember what I told you,” I warned the Guardian.

“You don’t understand how painful it is to withhold
judgment.”

“I do. I also trust you to do so, because I promise
you I make a better friend than foe.”

“Daddy!” Ron cried. Everyone turned to him. He tried
to run before he could steady himself, so Xul held him back. “Get him out of
here!” he furiously gestured towards Ghidorah. Hail leapt from the couch and
pushed Ghidorah away from me.

Surprised by my son’s strength and sudden animosity,
the huge Guardian stumbled against the door. Maybe I should have asked them
what they saw, but their urgency spurred me to act first and ask questions
later.

“Ghidorah, just go. I’ll talk to you later.” Ghidorah
nodded and turned to open the door. I pushed Hail back towards Divina and she
got her arm around him just as the bright flash filled the room. When it
cleared, my mother stood in the middle of the room and I heard the sharp growl
from Ghidorah.

She was my mother, and that was the only thought that
crossed my mind as I stepped between her and Ghidorah. Unfortunately, the
Guardian had begun his judgment the instant he saw her and couldn’t stop it.
There was genuine shock and horror in his eyes as an agonizing pain ripped
through my body.

The boys were screaming, but a ringing drowned
everything out. I could taste pain. I survived horrible agony many times in my
life. Actually, I died a few times, but my heart was restarted each time. I
have been burned, stabbed, and electrocuted. This felt like all of those things
in one moment, all over my body. I wanted to claw my skin off, but the sting
was even deeper than that. I felt like my bones were all simultaneously trying
to break.

My eyes opened of their own accord and my vision was
nearly monochromatic. Everything had a weird sheen to it like it was reflecting
light that wasn’t there. My arm flexed out, though I couldn’t feel it, and
black fur sprouted over my skin. My fingers clinched uncontrollably as claws
started to form. The first thing that occurred to me was that I had somehow got
bitten by a werewolf. The second thing that occurred to me was that that was a
ridiculous idea. It made much more sense that I was just losing my mind. I leaned
towards the second conclusion when I squinted my eyes to find my arm back to
normal.

The only sensation other than agony was Mordon’s
presence, and when the pain finally eased, I knew for sure that Mordon was with
me, healing me with fire.

“That’s better. Your temperature is coming down, your
heart is slowing…” Mordon was trying to soothe me. “Can you open your eyes?”

I did with a grunt because it hurt. Everything was a
little bright and warped, but I could see in vague colors. After a few seconds,
my vision slowly returned to normal. Mordon and Hail were on my right while
Divina and Ron were on my left. I tried to sit up, but nausea threatened my
stomach contents, so I gave up sitting.

“Give him room,” Mordon ordered. Everyone but him
backed up several steps.

“What did you do?” I asked Ghidorah. My tone was
fiercer than I had meant for it to be. The Guardian looked sicker to his
stomach than I was.

Mordon moved behind my head and lifted my shoulders
slowly to help me sit up. I didn’t feel like I was about to lose my lunch this
time, but I started sweating with the effort of keeping myself upright.

“It didn’t happen like in our vision!” Hail said,
astonished. Ron frowned at me as if he couldn’t understand how I was still
alive.

Ghidorah shot my mother a glare before giving me an
apologetic look. It really didn’t help my confidence. Just because I was okay
for the moment, didn’t mean I was out of hot water. Ron looked really worried
and suspicious.

“The woman is a spoiled, greedy snake. She demands the
highest luxuries without lifting a finger for it. It was my judgment to make
her learn the lessons my people live by. My judgment was to make her a beast
and let her live her life without the luxuries she has learned to expect. She
would have to hunt, find shelter, and fight for her life to survive.”

“But in our vision, he struck you and you turned into
a huge black cat!” Hail said. Ignoring Mordon’s earlier warning, he crawled
into my lap to hug me, shaking like a leaf as he did. I hugged him back and he
hid his face in my arms.

My baby was scared. “A cat?” I asked thoughtfully. “I
always thought I was more like a wolf. But hey,” I put my finger under his chin
and tilted his head back to look at me. “I’m fine, see? Still your boring old
dad.” Ron crawled into my lap as well and hugged me from the other side.
“Are
you okay with Ghidorah?”
I asked Mordon.

“He isn’t causing me to sneeze now that he has
cleaned the plant matter off. However, not surprisingly, I don’t like his
scent. Ghidorah is extremely powerful and, although he is very honorable, he
will not hesitant to kill anyone who he deems unrepentant. His soul is
abundantly bright, which I don’t understand because he’s not what I would call
innocent.”

“So why didn’t your judgment work on me?”

“I don’t know. In almost two thousand years of being
what I am, I have never missed before. I have never misjudged, either. I
suspect that my judgment didn’t work on you because it was not yours; it was
not meant for you.”

“No, it is because Dylan’s power is superior to
yours,” Divina told him. “I should strip you of your power for judging a
Guardian.”

“Araxi will do it himself when I return to Skrev.”

“What will that do to you?”

“As much as my soul is bonded to my book, my power is
my soul. Therefore, it will be the same as losing the bond with my book.”

“You would die,” I understood.

“Yes. It is painful and usually impossible to resist
judgment, and that means I can never love anyone. I see souls. I see the
actions and thoughts of everyone I meet, so I can never take someone at their
word. The only rule my power comes with is that I cannot judge a Guardian, as
they are the protectors of their worlds. Guardians must do what they have to,
to protect their world.”

“I will have a talk with Araxi,” I said. I didn’t know
Araxi as well as some of the others, but I knew he was reasonable and
forgiving. He was one of the first to side with me when many of the gods wanted
to kill me. 

“Dylan,” Divina warned. She often told me I was too
quick to offer my assistance.

But that’s what I did. I wasn’t a soldier, teacher,
strategist, or wizard. I was a healer. I helped people. That was what I was
good for and that’s what did. Mordon fought to protect me so I could help
everyone I could, Divina was there for me when I needed her, and the boys were
the joys of my life. I had a family to support me, not so I could be the best
warrior Earth had or so I could be the best wizard.

“I will explain to Araxi that I got in the way. I can
convince him you are innocent in this, but that doesn’t mean I can convince him
to spare your life. You’re not exactly the most respectful Guardian around and
I think Araxi may be tired of you ignoring his orders.”

“You must realize, Dylan, our gods picked us. That
means that somewhere under his bickering and griping, Araxi must have wanted a
Guardian with my disposition.”

I looked at Divina and she shrugged. “I chose your
father. The book chose you. I guess you could say that Earth chose you to
defend it.”

“But you did choose me, at least in marriage.”

She rolled her eyes. “That I did. I will go and spy
on the demons.”

“What about my mother?”

“I’m sure I can get one of my brothers to babysit
Regina. I just haven’t decided on who; Vretial or Azenoth.”

“Vretial is nuts. Leave her with Azenoth. You don’t
think the demons can sense what you are?” I asked.

“I kept my identity a secret from Kiro for many years
until you came along. I am very good at making people believe what I want them
to. The only problem I might have is the demon queen allowing another female near.”

She told me about her trip, the conversation with
Nila, and about the gate keeper of Skrev, but I felt like it was abridged. It
explained why the food was missing. Then I told them what I went through the
day the boys were kidnapped and glossed over the details about the fact that I
stopped everyone in town.

It only bothered me for a day before I realized what
was so wrong with what happened, and it wasn’t that I stopped everyone with a
mere subconscious thought. I froze everyone in the hospital, including the
demons on Dios, but not Vretial and not Nila. When I touched Nila, any nominal
or Iadnah energy should have been destroyed. Demon energy worked on less
powerful demons, but not a void or an equally powerful god. On the other hand,
since demon and void energy were the same, Nila’s blood wouldn’t negate demon
energy.

Therefore, there was only one reasonable, impossible
explanation; I was using demon energy.

*          *          *

“Why do I always feel like a butler when you visit
me?” Vretial asked.

This was a dream; we were not actually in the Land of
the Iadnah under the apple tree. I wanted to ask the god to show me what it
looked like before the war, but this wasn’t the time. “I can’t imagine,” I
answered.

“What do you want this time, young Noquodi?”

“You sound so bored. Are you tired of helping me?”

“Of course not. I love being at your beck and call
without so much as a ‘thank you’ for it. You will find that I only ever do
things for my own benefit, but I had less work to do when I was your enemy.
Don’t you have anyone else to ask for assistance from?”

“I do. I just thought you might really want to help
me this time. You know, a lot of people owe you a favor. How would you like for
me to owe you one as well?”

He grinned.

*          *          *

It was a quiet Saturday morning since the boys slept
in. I didn’t bother with breakfast because Divina had already left to spy on
the “demon movement.” I was happy Mordon was enjoying his time with the dragons
since the only dragon he spent any time with was Emiko; however, it was a
little unusual not having him around. Mordon and I lived on bordering
territories on Duran and after I got the job on Earth, I was with him every
day.

The nurses were passing out cookies when I got to the
hospital, but Ms. Manning actually brought me a homemade breakfast of bacon,
eggs, and pancakes. I thought it was nice of her, if not a little odd.

It was a slow morning, which was a good morning.
Saturdays were notorious around here for at-home accidents. After checking on
my overnight patients, I had a boy who broke his hand when his brother
“accidentally” mistook it for a nail.

I was already heading to the nurse’s station when I
was called. Ms. Manning handed me the file with a strange frown. “What’s
wrong?” I asked.

She shrugged. “It’s a waste of your time is all. We
need to make it against the rules to request a certain doctor. Especially for a
young girl to request a male doctor.”

I scanned the chart, noting her name and her age.
“She requested a male doctor? Where are her parents?”

“No, she requested
you
. I don’t know where her
parents are; she’s legal.”

I realized I made an error, since I was distracted by
reading. The girl was twenty, so she was legally independent in America. The
legal age, at least in this country, was eighteen, while on Duran, it was
twenty-two. Although I voted against raising the legal age of women to
twenty-five, I was still accustomed to thinking of anyone under twenty-two as a
child.

“Abdominal cramps? She checked into the ER for
cramps?”

“She said they were agonizing, but that she would
wait for you.”

“I don’t recognize her name.” I would have known if I
had treated her before. There was the chance that she had an ulterior motive
for requesting me.
Maybe she is a shifter like Alyssa.
After all, Divina
had said this town was mostly supernatural.

I went to her room and checked her chart once more
before I opened the door, holding back a sigh. With abdominal cramps, she
should have insisted on a female doctor. We were a small hospital and the ER nurses
didn’t do preliminary questions like the general nurses did. Unfortunately, our
nurses usually didn’t enforce the questionnaires and only asked how bad the
pain was on a scale of one to ten. Half of my patients said eleven, and the
other half were trying to act tough. This girl’s questionnaire was blank and
because of the particular symptoms she listed, I was going to have to ask her
questions that were better left for a female doctor.

“Good morning Ms. Scott. I’m Dr. Yatunus.”

“Linda, please,” she said, smiling.

Linda Scott was blond with huge blue eyes and big
pouty lips. Her face was round, making her appear younger than her twenty
years, and ridiculously innocent. She wore a tight, blue plaid shirt and jean
shorts with cowboy boots.