The Demon's Game (26 page)

Except he didn’t have a funeral. There was no body
found, for it had been taken by his killer.

The rest of Mordon’s fan club arrived and Jack made
tea for everyone. All of the dragons except for one introduced themselves to
me, including Mordon’s girlfriend. Sydney was very beautiful, but I got a very
different sense from her than I did from Divina. Without considering the
consequence, I took Mordon’s hand and absorbed his fire. The colors of the
world around me dimmed and the shapes became blurred, but the woman lit with a
light green, almost celadon, glow.

As a happily married man, I could notice the beauty
of a woman without wanting to do anything with her. For this reason, I could
both acknowledge Emiko’s lovely appearance and want to be as far away from her
as Duran allowed. Her beauty was like a gift-wrapped Pandora’s Box. Inside, she
was a snarly little snake. However, for whatever reason, Mordon liked her.

This woman was much better for him. Where my wife was
mysterious but ultimately a fairly “good” person, this woman was selfless. She
wanted to love and nurture someone. I let go of Mordon and pushed the fire
back. My vision returned to normal and Sydney was staring at me with shock. I
leaned in close, put my arm over her shoulder, and pressed my finger to my lips
in a shushing motion. She nodded, her eyes darting to Mordon.

“What are you?” she whispered.

“You haven’t seen her?”
I asked.

“I relied on my scent. What do you think?”

“I think you should keep her.”

Then Mordon delegated assignments and we got back to
work. It didn’t escape my knowledge that Mordon kept Sydney close. They touched
softly every time they passed each other. Mordon would reach out for the
hammer, feel her hand instead, and smile. Every time he looked at her, even
when she wasn’t looking at him, his expression would soften and he would
usually smile. I had never seen anyone cause this reaction in Mordon and I
couldn’t have been happier about it.

After about an hour, a young couple from next door
walked over and joined in. At around noon, another neighbor brought us lunch.
Before we were done, most of the neighborhood, the entire police department,
the fire department, and completely random strangers that happened to see the
commotion arrived to help. People were making trips to the hardware store and
buying stuff with their own money, not just to fix the house but to make it
comfortable for Jack.

It turned out there was a family of raccoons in the
attic, so me and some of the dragons trapped them and Taylor took them far away
to let them go in the woods. By sundown, the house was in great shape. Some of
the neighbors as well as the police force and firemen left, but the rest of us
had grilled steaks in the back yard. In addition to Ron and Hail, there were
four children who, strangely, all followed along behind my boys. In respects to
who everyone pulled together for, stories were told about Jack and what he did
to help them. Apparently, Jack was a friend and grandfatherly figure to
everyone.

I wasn’t used to all the people. Despite growing up
in Houston, Texas, I spent thirteen years living in Shomodii, where the closest
neighbors were Mordon at half an hour and Edward at an hour away. I was lucky I
still knew how to drive. Because of this, Mordon found me on the couch in the
living room instead of outside.

He sat beside me with a sigh and put his feet up on
the coffee table. “Ron will kill you,” I said. Ron had spent a good five
minutes polishing the table before whining that the polish was seeping through
his gloves.

He smirked. “I’m not a prince anymore; I can do what
I want.”

There was no reason to ask if he regretted running
from the throne. My friend loved his life. He loved being able to choose what
he did, where he went, and who he married. I leaned against him and his dragon
fire instantly came alive. I felt the heat in my blood, interacting with my
energy as it healed my headache.

“I’m used to the crowd. You wouldn’t believe how many
formal dinners I had to attend. This is nice.”

“It’s nice to see so many people pull together. This
town is like one big family, which makes me really miss… Earth.”

“I thought that’s why we came here in the first
place.”

“I missed humans, cars, and my cat, Dorian. I thought
it was all the material things that I missed so much, like soda and cartoons,
but now… I think I just wanted to meet people who couldn’t sense my power. And
I wanted the boys to get to experience it. I don’t know. I think I love it
here, but…”

“You’re not ready to settle down. Since the day you
first left Earth, you were a Guardian. Home was a little cabin with your
family. Everything else was work, so since you’re not in a little cabin on
Shomodii, you feel like you’re here to work. Give it time; things will settle
down.”

“What about you? This isn’t even your home world.”

“You’re my brother. Earth is my home as much as Duran
is yours. I’ll go wherever you need to be. Everything else is secondary.”

I knew that. With everything in my soul, I knew
Mordon was permanent. Divina could change her mind about me because, although
she loved me, she was a goddess. My boys were going to grow up and live on
another world, Shinobu would eventually die from old age, and Edward could
drift away. All of that hurt… but Mordon
couldn’t
leave. It would be him
and me until the end. I remembered the day we met. Oh, it had been coming since
the moment he was born.

If I hadn’t snuck out of the room, if the sleeping
draft he used on his father had worked better, if we hadn’t gotten on
that
particular ship… we would have met some other way. We were both kids then and
we didn’t understand.

And if it weren’t for Vretial, he would never have
been born.

“We owe him,” Mordon said, thinking the same as me. I
nodded.

“That dragon from earlier… the one who didn’t say
anything and just hung back, who is he?” Mordon got up and I followed after him
outside, where he led me to the dragon who was sitting in a lawn chair by a
tree, watching everyone with a scowl. The man was scruffy looking as if he
didn’t care about his appearance.

“This is Marco. He’s a surly bastard, so don’t mind
anything he says,” Mordon said when we got within hearing distance of the
dragon. Even from a distance I could tell the stranger was broken, for the
anger in his eyes masked something much deeper. Where there was anger, there
was pain. He glared at us and got up to leave.

Perhaps it was instinct that caused me to reach out
and take his arm. The instant I touched him, my energy soared and he had enough
time to gasp before Mordon shoved him harshly away from me. The man’s skin
changed, I heard the bones inside him crack, and his scream was horrifying, but
as I tried to get to him, Mordon held me back.

Taylor kneeled beside Marco, who writhed on the
ground. Everyone else just stared as Marco changed very slowly into a black
dragon almost identical to Krayer. He even had a spiked tail.

The dragon panted on the grounds as if lifting his
head was too much work and Taylor just soothed him with quiet words. Mordon
finally let me go and I went to the dragon. A split second of scanning him with
my magic told me he was absolutely fine. When I turned my back on the dragon to
face Mordon, I assumed it was safe. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground
with a two-ton dragon crouched over me. I rolled over onto my back to see that
the dragon’s face was two inches from mine.

He roared in my face until my ears rang and then
reared up on his hind legs, only to stomp his feet back down less than a foot
away on either side of me. The wind was shocking and the ringing in my ears was
painful. The dragon then took off with one flap of his wings. Mordon held out
his hand to help me up.

“Since when do you let a dragon have at me?” I asked
as he pulled me to my feet.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt you; he was thanking you. I
thought you spoke dragon.”

“Yeah, that spell faded years ago. I understand you
when you speak, but it takes magic to understand others. Are you going to tell
me what happened? I assume that he had some sort of affliction that caused him
to be unable to shift. When I touched him, my magic healed it and he shifted.”

“I think that covers it.”

“I’m glad you understand what just happened. Can you
explain it to me now?” Jack asked.

“I am sure glad saving
your
life wasn’t part
of our contract,” Xul said, finally returning just in time to see the action.

“Zeb?”

Absolute shock came over Xul as he turned to see
Sydney. The dragoness was no less astounded to see the demon, right before she
turned and ran out the back gate. It was apparent by Xul’s devastated
expression that he desperately wanted to go after her, but he remained where he
was.

“You know her?” Mordon asked incredulously.

“She lived in California before she moved here, but
no, I don’t think I know her at all.”

Xul

Five years ago

Lost on the streets of Anoshii, I was cold and
hungry. I also was clumsy for the first few days of my newfound mortality.
Discovering sleep was actually a pleasant experience; a way to pass time
without realizing it. Though I thought my dreams were real at first, it was
better than being awake constantly. The pain, lightheadedness, and weakness was
not pleasant. I really thought I was sick and dying until I found someone’s
leftover lunch and ate it.

I didn’t know Sudo and didn’t have my normal power. I
knew right from the start that stealing food was the only way to survive, but I
also had to go without hurting anyone, because it would break my contract.
Perhaps I was fortunate that, even starving, I had the sense not to unbury
trash to eat. At this point, stealing food was a challenge, but I was a fast
learner.

About fifteen days into my sentence, I believed Dylan
would discover my thieving and destroy me. By then, I didn’t care. From the
most powerful of all demons, I was now the lowest of the mortal caste. I had
nothing but the clothes on my back, including a cloak I stole, and a jar to
collect rainwater in.

Despite all of this, I was hardly humbled and there
was nothing about me worth compassion. I learned to be good at skirting the
boundaries of my deal. Instead of causing havoc, I would simply look for it and
enjoy the show. Instead of finding food nobody would miss, I became creative in
my methods to steal only the best. I would not rest in abandoned building, but
instead break into comfortable homes and enjoy the thrill of nearly getting
caught.

I was on the move to rob a particularly wealthy woman
after several days of careful observation when a man blocked my path. He was
not a large man, but then, neither was I. In fact, he was very unmemorable. If
not for the kindness in his light brown eyes, I would have pushed him aside.

“You look hungry,” he commented. I started to walk
away when I realized that I actually understood his words. He held out a fruit
I wasn’t familiar with; round, red, and smooth. I assumed it was a Duran food.
“Have an apple.”

“Who are you?” I asked, not taking the food. Sago
were not stingy people, but none had ever offered me anything for free.

“Just someone who wants to help you. I can see that
you are lost and cannot find what you need here. If you will accept my
assistance, I can send you somewhere where you will have a better chance. Earth
is a much easier world for someone like you to survive on.”

I believed him, for I found humans to be easier to
kill than any other people. “Only the gods can transport people to other
worlds.”

“So little faith. Trust me. What do you have to lose?
Let me help you.”

“Why?”

“Because I like to help people.”

I had the power of a mortal, but I had no idea how to
use it, so I couldn’t use those abilities to help me distinguish between
honesty and manipulation. “And you don’t want money? What do you get out of
this?”

“Let’s just say you will owe me a favor someday. That
is, if we ever run into each other again.”

He held the apple further out and I took it,
hesitantly. When my stomach grumbled angrily, I bit into the fruit, surprised
by its firmness.

“Remember this, demon; never have anything you cannot
bear to lose.”

*          *          *

I sat up, confused by the blaring noise. It was
rather horrifying. One moment, I was talking to a strange man on the streets of
Anoshii, and the next, I was lying on a hard surface, being glared at by a
metal beast. I recognized it as a machine for transportation, but the two
lights on the front of it were blinding, and seemed as if they were eyes.

“Oh my god, I almost hit you!” A woman ran to my side
and kneeled. She gripped my face and patted my head in an intimate way, as if
she had the right. “Are you okay?” she asked me.

I wondered how I could understand her words without
magic. She was not offensive in appearance, but her dark brown hair and dark
green eyes made her unremarkable. I was used to seeing a person’s power. Dylan,
his dragon, his children, his mate… they were all distinguishable by their
power. Without the ability to detect such, every single mortal looked nearly
identical to me.

Still, her voice was pleasant, but that was possibly
because of the note of panic in her tone. That breathless, shaky panic, as if
she could barely force the air from her lungs… The way her hands shook as she
tried to find any wounds on my scalp… I really liked it.

“Okay. You’re unresponsive, so I’m going to call an
ambulance. Can you tell me your name?”

I didn’t know what an ambulance was, but I didn’t
like where this was going. The few times I had possessed humans, I was trying
to suppress their memories. Had I known I would someday be stranded on Earth, I
would have been using them to get all the information I could have.

When the woman pulled out a small, black object of
plastic and glass, it was instinct to reach out and take it from her. I didn’t
know what it was, but I didn’t like it.

Instead of taking it back forcefully as I had
expected her to do, she let it go. “I need to use that to call an ambulance.
You might have a concussion or something. Do you know where you are?”

“Earth,” I managed.

“I mean, do you know what happened? You’re lying in
the middle of the street.”

Does it matter where I am? Is the street
significant?
“You need not call an ambulance.” My head was throbbing
painfully so I found it difficult to get my feet under me. I managed, but not
without assistance.
How disgusting, to be abetted by a mere mortal.

“At least let me help you until you can tell me what
happened.”

Without waiting for my approval, she wrapped her arm
around me, under my arms, and forced me into a small yard. I considered
dismissing her and her aid up until the point where she helped me up the steps,
at which time I realized I was in no condition to last the night alone.

Once inside the warm house, she sat me on a
comfortable suede couch and adjusted my feet on the low table before it. She
looked so pleased at her work that I wanted to put my feet down, but I couldn’t
spare the energy.

“I’m Sydney,” she said.

I didn’t ask her name, nor did I care, but I ignored
her instead of pointing it out. So far, it was my assessment that humans talked
too much. Perhaps silence made them feel awkward. My stomach growled and I
realized I never ate more than a bite of the apple. “I am hungry,” I said.

“I’ll get you something.” Obediently, she left the
room.

It was a decent place, but not as lavish as some of
the homes that I stayed in. The soft, tan padding on the floor was odd, though
I had seen it while hunting Samhail. The suede couch was plush, dark brown, and
matched the two chairs across from the low, wide, wooden table. Dark wooden
walls made the room appear smaller, but more pleasant than the white walls I
have seen on this world. There were three doors from this room, one of which I
already knew as the exit.

Sydney returned with a plate of food and a strange,
metal container. The food was a noodle dish with a thick red sauce. I prodded
it with the provided fork experimentally. I didn’t care for noodles; I
preferred meat.

“You don’t like spaghetti? I haven’t been to the
store so all I have is leftovers.”

I considered explaining to her that I would not eat
leftovers and demand that she buy me better quality food, but I was starving.
Instead of answering her, I gathered the noodles onto the fork and tried it.

Yuck.
It was spicy and acidic in an odd way.
Still, as I started to put my fork down, I found myself eating more. Hunger was
causing me to act like a plebian.

“I’m thirsty,” I finally said, only after I had eaten
most of the food.

She frowned as if confused, to which I barely
contained my snarl. When she took the metal can and pulled up a tab on the top,
I growled as the can hissed. The scent was instantaneous, so I took the small
container from her, raised it, and sniffed the new hole. It smelled cold and
sweet, not like any water or juice I had tried.

“I take it you’ve never seen a can of soda before.”
She moved slowly, as if afraid I would bite her, to place her hands upon mine.
With a gentle grip, she encouraged my hand until my mouth was on the can. “Seal
the hole with your mouth and tilt it back.”

I did as she instructed and was startled as a cold
liquid poured into my mouth. It wasn’t the mechanism that was alien to me but
the sweetness and bite of the drink. After a few sips, I felt an odd fizz that
caused me to cough. Respectfully, Sydney took my plate and left me to finish
the drink in private. She returned soon with more spaghetti.

It occurred to me to act appreciative of the woman
for feeding me, though I didn’t trust her kindness. “Thank you,” I said, taking
the plate from her. Her soft smile made me regret my decision.

“Will you tell me how you ended up on the street?”

“No,” I answered.

She sat in the chair across from me. “In that case, I
believe you should eat quickly and leave. I was going to work when you appeared
in front of my car.”

She was dismissing me, but I understood the concept
of having a prior commitment. “You can go to your work,” I said patiently.
Sydney raised her eyebrows, which was something I didn’t realized humans could
do. It was irritating.

“And leave you here in my home alone? Where the hell
do you come from? I don’t let strangers stay in my house.”

“Zeb.”

“Um… what?” she asked.

“My name. You asked for my name.” Of course I
couldn’t give her the name Dylan gave me, as only he could share the name that
held power over me. Zeb was the name of the last human I killed right before I
left Earth, hunting for Samhail. It seemed fitting. “Zeb Carter.”

She sighed and rubbed her face, then stood. “I’m
going to be late for my meeting if I don’t leave now. There is more food in the
fridge. Just don’t break anything and lock the door when you leave.”

She walked out the exit and shut the door hard behind
her.
So then… a name was all she wanted. Interesting.

I finished off my food and repositioned myself until
I was stretched out on the couch comfortably. It wasn’t a bed, but it would do
for the night.

*          *          *

The slamming of a door and clunking of metal hitting
the floor was an awful way to be awoken. I came awake with a start, sitting up
and scanning my surroundings instantly. I was in the apartment, it was night,
and Sydney was at the door. Ignoring me, she stomped into the other room. I
followed into a large kitchen.

The kitchen was the epitome of cheery, which was
revolting to say the least. The walls were some weird color between yellow and
orange. Disrupting the rectangular room was a rounded nook of windows in the
east wall with a white cushioned bench seat along the alcove. On the windows
were curtains more yellow than anything I have ever seen, complete with blue
flowers. The kitchen had the general furniture that I knew human houses had,
including a fridge, a microwave, a sink, and a counter.
Boring, really.

What I did find interesting was Sydney chugging a
drink from a glass bottle. Though my knowledge of humans was limited, hard
liquor had not escaped my attention. People were always more interesting when
they drank the stuff. Some drank it because they were happy, some because they
were sad, but the consequences were always amusing, and especially so if they
were drinking for a strong reason.

Sydney was furious.

“What happened?” I asked, assuming this wasn’t a
usual occurrence.

She slammed the bottle down and turned away from me.
“Don’t get involved, Zeb. You don’t want the trouble.”

“Oh, but I love trouble. I have a chance at life now
and I plan to get in as much trouble as possible. After all, what is life
without conflict? So tell me.”

“I hate this city. I hate people who can’t keep their
end of a deal.”

That I could definitely understand.

“I got to my meeting and the guy was an hour late. No
call or anything, just an, ‘Oh, I forgot.’ And he didn’t even have all the damn
money. I had to wait until the ass went to the bank and by then it was too late
to drop off the order. Then on the way home, I was nearly mugged!”

I didn’t understand much of what she said, but the
human had my full attention. “What is your job?” I asked.

She hesitated, took a chug from the bottle, and
sighed. “I deal with rare books and artifacts. I get contracted to find a book,
track a family heirloom, stuff like that. It gets messy, especially when I end
up in the middle of an ownership debate. Actually, sometimes I get hired to
solve
ownership disputes.”

“And that is why you are angry?”

“No. A client hired me a few weeks ago to track down
some rings. I did, but he wanted to pay me first, then have me make the
drop-off somewhere else.”

“That does sound suspicious. You still have the rings
then?”

“In my purse by the door. Shit, if I had been robbed…
money and rings…” frustrated, she took another drink.

At this point, I was worried, because I wanted her to
keep explaining and she couldn’t do that if she passed out drunk. I went back
to the front door, saw her black leather purse discarded on the floor, and dug
through it. She came in as I pulled out a small, wooden box that rattled, then
took it from me to open it. Inside were a dozen rings. Most of them were gold
with jewels or stones. Even as powerless and untrained in mortal magic as I
was, I could feel the power they held. Malevolent energy radiated from them.