The Demon's Game (30 page)

We eventually made it out of town and followed a dirt
road until we reached a warehouse. Although it had originally been painted to
look like a big barn, the paint was peeling and there was a window or two
busted out and boarded over. I actually thought it was purposefully neglected
to look like it was abandoned.

As soon as we pulled in, demons stepped out of the
building. When one of them approached the car and knocked on the window, Logan
opened the notebook and crawled over Ron and me to block Luca with it. Luca
rolled down the window and the demon narrowed in on the picture. There was no
sign of suspicion or hesitation before the demon nodded.

“Go around back. Yeno wants to see you when you get
in.”

All of us in the back seat scooted to the right to
let Logan sit behind the passenger seat as Luca pulled us around back. Logan
tore the pages from his book and handed each of us one. “Cover your face when
they look at you. Distinctive or familiar facial features can sometimes break
the spell,” Logan said.

I examined the picture he handed me. Although Logan
had no colors to work with, his power was strong. The paper I held had a
three-dimensional picture of a man I had never met. He looked real enough that
I should have been able to feel skin when I reached out, but all I felt was
paper. It was confusing because even though I knew it was an illusion, what my
fingers felt and my eyes saw where so completely different.

“Trade with me,” Ron whined. “Your guy looked better
than mine.”

“You don’t even need a disguise,” Taper groused.

“Why wouldn’t I need a disguise?”

“They let you walk right in last night.”

Everyone turned to us, but Ron didn’t argue. While he
may not have remembered what happened last night, he knew it was true. Whatever
he did under control of the balance, it had something to do with the demons.
That actually made sense since we knew the demons obeyed the balance.

Ron pulled the cat pendant out of his pocket and held
it out for Tatum. “What can you see from this?”

She ran her fingers over it and gasped. “This is
Alyssa’s. She… You took it from her. You were covered in blood.”

“Where were we? Were we at the warehouse?”

“No. The place is clean and dark at the same time.
It’s cold.” She gasped with fear and let go of the cat. “What did you do?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea what I did last night.”

“Were you possessed or something?” Luca asked.

“That would make sense,” Taper added.

“Not to me. I don’t get it,” Drake said. “Luca, stop
the car.” The driver instantly obeyed. “Nobody gets out until someone tells me
what’s going on. I know we’re here to save the missing people. Taper, tell me
who is in that building.”

“Demons.”

“Tell me everything you know about what we’re doing
here.”

Taper explained everything from the beginning as if
he couldn’t shut his mouth for a second. It seemed to me the guy couldn’t keep
a secret for longer than he could hold his breath. At least Drake was on our
side. Just because he was telling Drake everything, didn’t mean he would tell
the demons.

“Is this really the right time?” Tatum asked when
Taper was done.

“I couldn’t… what are you?” he asked. Taper stared at
Drake with fear, but I couldn’t imagine how anyone could fear someone so small
and defenseless. Drake was harmless.

“You haven’t figured it out yet? He’s fae,” Logan
said.

“What do you mean he’s fae?” I asked.

“Drake can make anyone do anything he tells them to,”
Ron explained.

I gaped at my small friend. Drake looked so innocent
in his dark purple wool hat and bright red jacket. The idea that he had so much
power was disquieting. How was I supposed to protect those I cared about when
they were all so much more powerful than me?
Why am I even here? Nobody
needs me.

Ron smacked me in the arm.
“I need you, stupid.
How dare you think like that?”

“I can’t help how I think.”

“You damn well better start. End of discussion.”
He glared at me and everyone else just looked confused. “Drake, do you think
your power will work on demons?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know any demons.”

“Mrs. Sharp is a demon.”

“Oh… Then yes, it does.”

“Fae magic is mostly defensive magic. The fae respect
the earth and nature and we appreciate what we are given. That is why our kind
is one of the strongest on Earth,” Logan said.

Taper scoffed. “My people can make trees grow. In
fact, every tribe except the water tribe comes to us for their shelter.”

“Your people? You were born here! This world is made
for our kind! You have no---”

Luca took both Logan and Taper’s arms, cutting their
argument off instantly. Their eyes closed and Taper slumped a little in his
seat as if about to fall asleep. Once Luca was sure they were calm, he let them
go.

“Thank you,” Ron said. “They’re so annoying.”

“Where do we start?” I asked.

“We’ll look for the missing people. We’ll use the
disguises, but if anyone stops us, Drake can tell them to let us pass. If that
doesn’t work, Luca, can you make them sleep?”

“I can calm them into almost being asleep.”

“Great. Luca and Drake are the first line of defense.
If they get passed the two of you, Hail can punch them into pulp and I’ll
vaporize their innards with my magic. Logan, be ready with some distractions
and a way to hide us. Taper and Tatum, stay behind Hail.”

“We’re not defenseless,” Tatum said.

“I assure you, if we need any trees, we will
absolutely rely on you.”

Ron really didn’t intend to be rude. In fact, he
seemed to honestly believe that people wanted to know their weaknesses.
Unfortunately, Ron’s criteria were less than conventional, so most people had
enormous flaws in his opinion… flaws he felt necessary to point out.

“You know who we need?”
Ron asked me.

“Seimei and Ikiru.”
I nodded.
“That’s
absolutely not an option. The last thing we need is them getting discovered by
humans and exposing our family.”

“This town is full of demons.”

“Dad would kill us. We would be grounded for the
rest of our immortal lives. I would much rather call Dad, Mom, Mordon, Xul,
Vretial, Regivus… I would rather call anyone in the entire universe than the
griffins or Hobble.”

“Krayer could probably---”

“No, Ron. We deal with this ourselves or we call
our parents. We are not going to accidentally expose our family.”

He stared at me hard, deciding if he could change my
mind. Finally he sighed and I knew I won. “We’re on our own here, but we will
work together. We all go in, and we all come out, got it?” Everyone nodded.
“Let’s go.”

“Luca, you can drive now,” Drake said.

Shaken, Luca put the car back into drive and
continued around the warehouse until we arrived at the back door. We got out of
the car and Luca handed Ron the key. With the artwork disguises at the ready,
we tried the door and found it unlocked. Inside was a hallway made of a wall on
one side and boxes on the other. Ron held out his hand to produce a small
sphere of soft light that hovered just a foot in front of us.

In order to find the prisoners, we had to check every
door. Unfortunately, the very first one we came to was full of demons. We froze
and stared, they froze and stared… nobody moved a muscle for nearly a minute.
Ron shut the door and swept his gaze over us. “They’re not in there,” he said
simply. We moved on.

The next door was to a storage room, which we
searched thoroughly and found nothing. Our exit was blocked by a demon, but he
didn’t see Luca right beside the door when he ducked his head in to discover
us. Luca struck like a snake, grabbing the demon by the neck and slamming him
back into the wall. The demon slumped to the ground, unconscious.

We stared at the vouxeng. Luca shrugged. “Sorry.
There’s a lot of anger here.”

A rattle sounded behind us and Tatum shrieked. Her
brother grabbed her and clapped his hand over her mouth as we all turned to the
junk pile that filled the storage room. The rattle came again, a box fell, and
Ron raised his hand. Electricity crackled between his fingers.

Suddenly something sprang from the clutter, pounced
off of Taper, and shot out the room. It was a cat. A large orange house cat.
Ron sighed and lowered his arm.

We searched numerous rooms and encountered many
demons, but they were all easily fooled by Logan’s magic. We did encounter one
man who saw through our magic, but Drake told him to leave and not say another
word for the rest of the day. He obeyed. Something about it felt too easy, but
Ron was the strategist. If Ron said everything was fine, I believed him…

I just couldn’t shake the feeling that we were
walking into a trap.

We finally came upon a room with a girl in it. The
door was unlocked and she wasn’t in chains, but she looked starved and was
covered in dirt. She had long, matted light brown hair with matching eyes. She
looked too skinny and too pale, but strangely… not all that scared. In fact,
she seemed relieved when we arrived, as if she instantly knew we were here to
save her, even though we were disguised as demons.

“I don’t like this,”
Ron said to me.
“This
was too easy, too predictable. Someone who has been kidnapped shouldn’t be
relieved to see anyone but her parents.”

“So what do we do?”

“Take her with us. We don’t have any choice. Keep
a close eye on her, though.”

Tatum immediately went to the girl and pulled her to
her feet. “Alyssa, how are you?” she asked. Everyone else rolled their eyes,
but that was Tatum.

“I’m alive, thanks to you.”

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“They were all taken somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Logan said. “We can go back
to my house; my parents won’t be home until tomorrow.”

With the plan in order, we made our way back out.
Once again, I was shocked and suspicious by how easy it was. There should have
been someone trying to stop us. If it was so easy, why hadn’t the girl tried to
escape before?

The drive to Logan’s was even more cramped, but we
made it in less time. Logan’s little two-story house was old and made of white
wood and brick. It needed a new paint job, but the porch wrapped around the
front and one side. The house itself looked sound; the garage we parked in
looked like a good wind would blow it down.

“Do we have to park in here? This car is going to be
mine someday and I don’t want it squished.”

“It’ll be fine,” Logan promised.

The living room was nice with cozy, old furniture.
The daisy yellow walls were a bit gaudy, and the couches could have done
without the rose patterns, but it was the kind of place where I expected to
visit a caring old grandmother. It was warm and had character, even if it
wasn’t very stylish.

“Oh, my, god, did people break into your house, take
your stuff, and leave their great-grandparents’ crap behind?” Ron asked rudely.

Logan blushed furiously and everyone else avoided eye
contact. I wanted to scold my brother, but I knew if I did, he would go into
more detail about how many fashion rules this place broke. Alyssa sat on the
couch and Logan went into the kitchen to heat up some leftovers for lunch. The
twins and Drake sat on the couch across from where Alyssa sat. Luca stayed
standing, his eyes darting between us and Alyssa.

Ron reached into his pocket and held the cat pendant
out for the girl. “Here, I found this. I thought you might like it.”

Alyssa took it and examined the necklace with no
recognition. “Thank you, it’s very pretty.”

“Hey, I think if you go help Logan with lunch, you
will be able to eat sooner. I guess you have to be starving,” Taper suggested.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” she said, getting up and going
into the kitchen.

As soon as the door closed, Luca turned to us.
“That’s not Alyssa. She looks just like her, but there’s no way. Her mood is
all wrong.”

“I’m friends with Alyssa,” Tatum said. “She normally
smells like apples and she likes watercolors. Now she smells like dirt.”

“Does she smell like the demons?” Ron asked.

“No, you smell like the demons. She smells like---”

“What do you mean I smell like demons?!” Ron
demanded. I shushed him, but he ignored me.

“You smell like blood. So do to the demons,” Taper
explained easily. “Whatever she is, we need to figure it out and save the
others.”

The door opened and Logan stuck his head through.
“Ron, could you come in here a minute?” he asked. Ron and I started for the
kitchen. “Only Ron,” Logan added. We both stopped.

“I go where Ron goes,” I said. “You can come out
here.”

“No, really, I just need to see Ron for a second
alone.”

“Ron goes nowhere alone,” Tatum said, suddenly
standing beside him. In response, Logan just shut the door. “Ron, you need to
be careful.”

“I’m not afraid of mortals and demons.”

Luckily, the others didn’t appear to take offense to
that. Ron was very narrow-minded when it came to people; he and I came first to
him, then our family, and then our allies. Everyone leftover was cannon fodder.
Anyone not useful to us or a friend of our parents was disposable in his mind.

There was a crash in the kitchen, Logan ran out, and
then he slammed the kitchen door closed.

“What happened?” Luca asked.

“I dropped a plate, that’s all.”

“That poor plate,” Tatum said.

I pushed passed him and Logan followed me into the
kitchen. When Taper tried to enter, the fae pushed him out and shut the door.
“It’s not safe with the broken glass!” Logan exclaimed.

I ignored him and surveyed the room. The kitchen was
warm and friendly like the rest of the house with a sliding glass door opening
onto a patio. There were several broken dishes on the floor and the table was
clear, as if someone had slammed into it. “Where is Alyssa?”