The Demon's Game (28 page)

“My dad was attacked. There’s a town that I’ve been
dreaming about for months. I think there are other dragons there.” She stopped
packing and faced me. “Come with me. California is no place for a demon
anyway.”

“What kind of town?”

“I don’t know; it’s in my dreams. There are
mountains. It’s a tiny, remote town with not many people.”

“It sounds ghastly. You’re just going to abandon this
house and go search for a town in your dreams? That’s really silly. What about
your job?”

“I can do my job anywhere.”

“I can’t. I like it here. I like all the people.”

“You like the suffering and hatred,” she accused. I
nodded and she sighed. “Think about it. I’ll stay for the night, but I’m
leaving tomorrow. If you don’t want to come, I can’t force you. I can tell you,
it will get to you. Maybe you find the conflict from people fun when you can
come home and relax with someone to talk to, but eventually, other people’s
problems just weigh on you.”

That night, Sydney cuddled into my arms when I got under
the covers, leaned up, and kissed me. It was soft, warm, and sweet. “My dreams
haven’t just been about the town. There’s also a man in the dreams… another
dragon.”

I stroked my finger gently down her back. “I don’t
want to know.”

She propped herself up on her elbows. The moonlight
streamed in through the window and across her face. I wondered how I could ever
confuse her with other women. Humans still looked similar to me, but she was
beautiful. Whereas I could see a person’s magical aura before, now I saw
Sydney’s soul when I looked at her.

She was kind, loving, selfless… and mine.

“I’m being selfish,” she said. “I know you enjoy your
job. We can protect my dad here. If you really don’t want to go, we’ll stay.”

I could have said something. I could have conceded
this once and let her have what she desired… but I didn’t. Instead, I nodded.
She snuggled against my chest and fell asleep. I knew she would relent. I knew
it from the moment she said she wanted to leave. She wouldn’t leave me, not
after spending three years with me.

I maneuvered her gently so that I could get out of
bed without waking her. In the dark, I easily found the magic chest and took it
into the spare room for privacy. It had a concealment charm on it so that the
contents could not be found for as long as it was closed. Breaking the lock was
far too easy.

I opened the box that had driven me insane for three
years, but what I found was not a Noquodi book. Inside was a large book with a
black cover made of actual dried skin. It was heavy with a metal binding and
thick paper. I opened it to the first page, which was blank. Suddenly, as if
there was a gust of wind, pages flipped themselves until it was most of the way
to the middle of the book.

Handwritten scribbles and sketches of dark horrors
adorned these pages. It was a grimoire of more power than I had the capacity
of… far exceeding the abilities of any mortal. Much of it was notes on magic
spells or even notes about people. Whoever wrote the grimoire had the ability
to spy on the gods. The author was a traitor and wrote of a weapon that was
used in the Iadnah wars. Someone had the knowledge and motive to kill the gods,
and the book had very specific details on where to find not just this one weapon,
but several of them.

I felt movement behind me and turned. The man who
stood before me emanated power, which I was envious of. I missed my power
terribly. “Who are you?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. He was memorable in his odd
red/silver hair color and his gray/gold eyes, but I still had trouble telling
people apart. When he held out his hand expectantly, I clutched the book to my
chest.

“Are you willing to die here, demon?” he asked.

“I am not afraid of death.” It was quite lovely
compared to the void.

“And what of the void? I can easily banish you
there.”

I froze, not sure what to believe. If this was the
author of the book, there was no doubt he was powerful enough and willing to
banish me as Dylan had. Everything I fought for, worked for, was to keep myself
out of the void.

Even as I debated it, frozen and weak with fear, the
man pried the book easily from my unresisting hands. I couldn’t fight him.
Dylan had taken my power and given me no defense against a man who could defeat
the gods.

Then he was gone as suddenly as he had appeared… and
Sydney was standing in the open doorway.

“What have you done?” she asked, then left after I
had no answer for her. When I heard the front door close five minutes later, I
was still sitting on my knees, ashamed and confused.

The man who had offered me this second change on
Earth appeared sitting on the corner of the bed. “Oh, dear,” he said. “That
didn’t go well. I did warn you: Never have anything you cannot afford to lose.”

Then he disappeared.

It didn’t occur to me to wonder how I understood the
words in the book until much later. The morning sun found me curled up on the
floor.

Hail

“You know, I’m starting to think your entire family
has a complex,” the dark god said with a sigh. He sat on his boulder like it
was a throne. “Of course, I never expected
you
to come to me. You have
always been a lot more suspicious than your brother.”

“I must get it from my father,” I said.

He smirked. “What have you come to demand of me?”

“I’m not Ron; I haven’t come to demand anything.
Unlike my entire family, I don’t think I could defeat you. I don’t even want
to. Really, I would be happy if you just went away and never contacted me or my
brother.”

He was no longer smiling. The god was very twisted
and manipulative, so the look on his face made me feel awkward. It wasn’t quite
sadness in his eyes, but it was close enough. Surely it wasn’t because of what
I said. Surely the fact that I was his son meant nothing to him.

“Then what do you want?” he finally asked.

“Divina said Nila was having trouble on Dios. He’s
trying to fight slavery and he’s starving. I know he isn’t really my family,
but he’s important to my dad. I was hoping you would help him.”

“No. Dios and everyone on it belong to Zer. I may not
agree with my brother, but unless he makes a mistake that would devastate his
entire population… again… I will not interfere. One person starving to end slavery
means nothing to me. Hell, every world has its martyrs.”

“You can save him, though.”

“Of course I could. I could end the slavery without a
second thought. However, I’m not going to.”

“This is why I don’t want you to talk to me or my
brother.” With those last words, I strained every effort to force myself to
wake up.

*          *          *

Monday morning, I was excited to go back to school.

Being grounded didn’t mean that I couldn’t leave the
house so much as that I had to do work. Well, it was actually Ron who was
ordered to work, but I couldn’t make him do it alone. We would start cleaning
and then Ron would get grossed out over something and give me his puppy eyes
until I did it for him. He would break a nail and need to recover, spend three
hours looking for a pair of rubber gloves, or need an emergency soak in the tub
because his muscles hurt. He had a headache, allergies, or “low blood sugar.”
He couldn’t lift anything or reach anything.

By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted.

I walked into the kitchen as Ron set down a plate of
pancakes piled high with syrup and a glass of orange juice. Dad and Xul
trickled in a few minutes later. After working all day on Sunday, Mordon went
with his followers back to the dragon cave and hadn’t returned. Ron sat next to
me and scooted his chair closer. It occurred to me he was about to ask me to do
something else for him, but I couldn’t even manage to feel irritated. I would
do whatever Ron asked of me.

“Don’t be mad at me,”
he said, startling me.

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because you had to do all my work this weekend.
I’m the one who got us in trouble.”

He had gotten us in trouble, but I followed him
willingly. If we had to do it again, Ron would not change. Ron would forever
get us in trouble just as I would forever follow. He needed someone to watch
his back as he dived head first into any danger he could possibly find. I could
try to convince him that something was dangerous, but he would do it anyway
because he had faith in his power. Then when we got out of it unscathed, he
would be even more proud of his abilities.

I knew the only way he was going to survive until he
was old enough to understand the danger he put himself in was to let him fall
on his face or spend the rest of our lives protecting him from everything.
Unfortunately, I could never let him fall. The only thing I was truly good at
was being Ron’s brother.

Ron was a true god, born from love and hope. I was
merely born to make his life easier. In fact, the only reason Dylan even
adopted me was because I couldn’t be away from Ron. While I was technically
Vretial’s son, I was biologically the child of a Guardian and a human. The
strength I inherited from my father was the same as that of any other dile. I
was a mortal with a small sample of a god’s power; able to do enough magic to
get me by, but it usually did more harm than good.

Any magic I could do to protect myself and Ron, Ron
could do better and faster. Unfortunately, so could the enemy. I couldn’t flash
unless it was to Ron. I could pick up languages easily, but they became jumbled
until sometimes I didn’t know what I was speaking. I wasn’t an idiot, but I
wasn’t a genius like my brother or Dad. Most of the time, the only magic I
could do involved quick and thoughtless acts of violence when someone I cared
about was attacked.

When I didn’t say anything, he took my hand in his. “
Try
the pancakes. I made them special. If you don’t like them, I’ll try something
else.”

It was difficult sometimes to remember that my
brother was only two years younger than me. I took a bite of the pancake and
had to hold back a moan. They were amazing pancakes. I wasn’t a food critique,
but the combination of vanilla and walnuts was wonderful.

*          *          *

Over the weekend, we had no time to visit with Drake.
As it turned out, the only reason Drake missed school was because he had doctor
appointments, not because he was feeling ill. Since Xul was driving us to
school in the Charger, Stacy allowed Drake to go with us. Of course, it took
ten minutes for his mother to force him to leave. I could understand Drake’s
fear of leaving his mother, but I could also empathize with Stacy. I loved my
brother unconditionally.

Xul kept a gentle tone with Drake the entire way to
school, as if he could sense Drake’s illness.
“He probably can,”
Ron
said, reading my thoughts. I shrugged.

Ron was quiet when we got to school, but I really
didn’t know what to say. He was feeling guilty for making me do all his work
over the weekend, yet he would turn around and do it again the next weekend,
and every weekend after that until he wasn’t grounded any more. I didn’t really
care; it was a new day. I wasn’t going to be irritated at him for something in
the past.

Ron would always walk all over me, and that was okay.
He wasn’t trying to be malicious; he was just spoiled and too clever for his
own good. To him, knowing that he was smarter and more powerful than everyone
else gave him the right to manipulate them. Everyone who was less clever or
less powerful was a tool for him to use. That included me, though I knew he
really did love me anyway. He would often manipulate me into doing what he
thought was right for me.

I preferred to leave him with the demon instead of
leaving him to his own devices, especially knowing we had enemies in the
school. And if we didn’t have enemies because our father, we had them because
of Ron.

Wrestling was a test of strength, not because the
other boys were strong but because I had to work so hard at holding back my
strength. I met Ron after class and walked him to his math class, then was late
for science. It was regrettable, but my teacher just sighed when I walked in. I
had told her the first day of school that I would be tardy every day because I
walked my brother to his class. I also told her she could take whatever disciplinary
steps she felt was necessary, but it wouldn’t change.

All of the teachers looked at me differently after I
got suspended for fighting, but that didn’t matter. Unlike Ron, I wouldn’t be
trying to skip. In fact, if he wasn’t allowed to skip sixth grade, I would have
to find a way to be held back. My one purpose in life was to protect Ron and we
were not going to be separated by a school building every day. That was the
promise I made the day Ron invoked the balance of the universe.

Although I was glad Mrs. Sevenstar was back, I was
worried about Ron’s math teacher, who hadn’t returned. My science teacher
seemed weird to me. After Xul told us that several of our teachers were demons,
I assumed that was it. During class, however, something was definitely off
about her. More off than usual, and it wasn’t that she was a demon.

At lunch, the twins walked with Ron and I to lunch,
where Luca and Logan waited for us. Both appeared a little disheartened, while
the twins just seemed really weird. It was a good weird, though. Tatum was a
sweet girl, but I had to watch her to make sure she didn’t develop a crush on
Ron. Taper seemed a little more likely to switch to the dark side and go on a
psycho killing spree. I definitely wouldn’t leave him alone with my brother.

“So what did you discover this weekend?” Ron asked.

Taper shrugged. “Nothing. All of the cops were
working on other cases on Saturday. Sunday, they were all working on a house.”

“Some of the teachers truly enjoy making us
miserable. Others are really caring. Several of the teachers are worried and
Mr. Lao was really afraid when Mrs. Sharp came into his room to get Drake,”
Luca said.

“Mrs. Sharp got Drake?” Ron asked, standing.

I pulled him back down in his seat. “You have class
with him in fifteen minutes.” Ron barely said a word as he waited impatiently
for the bell to ring. When it finally did, he took off without waiting for me
to walk him to class. Xul would have chewed me out for it, but I felt like Ron
needed his freedom.

Ron’s mood was a delicate balance. He didn’t like to
be babied or told what to do, and his way of retaliating was to do things he
shouldn’t to prove his power and independence. If he wanted space, anyone
foolish enough to chase after him was going to get bit. On the other hand, Ron
wanted attention. If anyone didn’t give him the positive attention he needed,
he felt absolutely abandoned and unloved.

My math teacher was shocked when I arrived on time.

“Drake was in class doing work,”
Ron informed
me. “He’s fine. He said Mrs. Sharp pulled him out to get caught up on his
work.”

Despite the fact that it rained that morning, we
still had archery outside. I got all kinds of muddy, which just made me enjoy
it even more. There was something about the bow that felt right, and it was
even better when I felt like I was really outside.

The bell was about to ring when Tatum suggested we
visit the other houses of the other kids who were missing. I could argue about
it until I was blue in the face, but this was a mystery, and Ron could never resist
a mystery.

*          *          *

We planned to meet at four-thirty, so I decided to
take a shower a few minutes before four. Ron said he had a headache and was
going to lie down until I was done, but he wasn’t in the room when I got out.
Instead, there was a letter on my pillow.

Hey, something was bugging me. I’m going to check
it out, so cover for me. Don’t worry about the others. I’ll be home before Dad
is. Do NOT follow me!

Love you,

Ron

I sighed and tore the letter into pieces before
throwing it away.
“You could have just told me instead of leaving a letter,”
I said mentally. When there was no response, I grew worried.
“Ron? Can you
hear me?”
I felt for my brother’s mind and instead hit a mental brick wall.
Ron was blocking himself from me.

I waited in my room until Dad came home a little
after seven. Before his car pulled in, I knew something was wrong. Ron had told
me not to follow him and I was afraid if I did, I could put him in danger.
Besides, Xul would know if he was in trouble.

“Hi, honey,” Dad said when I met him in the living
room. “How was school?”

“Boring,” I answered.

He ran his fingers through my hair. “That’s because
you’re smarter than everyone else. Speaking of, where’s your brother?”

“Taking a bath.”

He nodded, distracted. “Has your mother not come
home?”

Hence the reason he was distracted. “No.”

I got enough food out of the kitchen for Ron and
myself to throw off suspicion, but nobody asked any more questions. Luckily, Mordon
didn’t come back, or he would have smelled Ron’s absence.

I tried to sleep for no other reason than to speak
with Ron in our dreams. However, I didn’t sleep for more than a few minutes at
a time, and Ron didn’t return. By morning, my skin was crawling and my stomach
was churning with panic. Something was wrong and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Ignoring his request not to follow him, I flashed to Ron.

The flash was slower for me and the light was very
irritating, but my mind and heart were on finding my brother. What I found when
the bright light cleared was horrifying.

Ron was at the school in his history teacher’s
classroom. It was too early for the sun, so it was difficult to spot him
huddled in the corner behind the teacher’s desk. He wasn’t just huddled; he was
shaking like a leaf. Worse still was that he was covered in blood.

I approached him cautiously, expecting something to
jump out and attack us, and knelt beside him. “Ron?” I called to him. He didn’t
respond. I reached out, hesitated, and touched the only spot on his arm that
wasn’t covered in blood. He raised his arms to hide his face and smeared more
blood in his hair. “Ron, what happened?”

He slowly lowered his arms and his eyes darted to
look at me without moving his head. His eyes weren’t focused, but at least he
was somewhat acknowledging me. I took his hand to pull him to his feet. He
didn’t seem to notice me as he shook violently and stared vacantly at nothing.
The only emotions I felt from him were fear and confusion. His mind was still
blocked to me so I couldn’t hear his thoughts or see what happened.