The Demon's Game (36 page)

Sydney screamed behind me, not because of the
creature, but the third demon. I tried desperately to turn and help the
dragoness, but I couldn’t look away.

I heard a scuffle behind me and suddenly the sword
was taken out of my useless hands. Dylan stabbed the demon through the heart
and pulled back the blade. The beast dropped easily, and that only made me feel
weaker for my fear. Dylan handed me back the sword and braced me with both
hands on my shoulders.
“Everybody needs help sometimes, and everyone has a
weakness,”
Dylan said.

Although my brother could be ridiculously goofy, he
was sometimes very serious and wise.

Sydney was alright, thanks to Dylan. I pulled her
into my arms as Dylan checked the prisoners over. “Where are the missing kids?”
he asked them.

The women looked terrified while Jeffery shook his
head. “There was an attack a few days ago,” one of the women finally said. “The
kids were taken somewhere and we haven’t seen them since.”

Dylan looked at me. “I’ve been all over this place
and haven’t found anyone but demons who wanted their butts kicked. When you
told me they were invisible, I used magic, and that was how I found some demons
that were trying to ambush me.”

“Next time you go left,” Xul said, approaching from
the other end of the hall. “I don’t think I had to fight that many demons in
the void.” Following Xul were six more people, and they all looked hesitant to
follow the Ancient. Two of them were men and the rest were women. Before they
could get too close, I scented them.

“They are demons,”
I warned Dylan.

“Did you find more innocent bystanders?” he asked
Xul.

“I did. The demons here decided that any demon that
doesn’t stand against you is to be captured and tortured.”

“Other than being demons, do they smell okay?”

That seemed very contradictory, but I scented them
again. There was no anger towards Dylan or even suspicion. I just smelled fear.
“They’re okay.”

Dylan reached out to shake the hand of the nearest
woman. She took it hesitantly. “I’m Dylan Yatunus. You’re safe now; we’re
getting you out. However, I need you to tell me if you know where the missing
kids are.”

She glanced at the others that we rescued, but her
hand tightened around Dylan’s as she subconsciously clutched him for support.
“You wouldn’t hurt them, right?” she asked, her voice dry and cracked.

“Never. We came to save everyone that was kidnapped.”

“I’m a demon.”

“I’m aware. Can I know your name or do you not have
one?” Since she was a minor demon and not an Ancient, we knew she had a true
name, but Dylan was trying to be polite.

“I have a human name I go by,” she said defensively,
as if Dylan was asking to enslave her.

“I could call you ‘lady’ if you would prefer.”

“My name is Rebecca Sharp. I’m a teacher at the
middle school. The kids aren’t here. My husband, me, and some of our friends
got together and caused a diversion a few days ago. We got the kids out, and
Keigan Cardigan.”

“These guys wanted to use the children as blood
sacrifices. They were especially looking for children that were stranded here
from their home worlds,” one of the men said.

“I heard about you, Dr. Yatunus,” Rebecca said. “I
heard that you are the enemy of demons, the destroyer of our kind.”

“I’m not a destroyer of any kind.”

“I realized that already. You are not the enemy of
demons but of darkness.”

“Shit,” Xul said suddenly. Before anyone could
question him, he vanished.

I grabbed Dylan’s arm and poured my fire into him to
calm his energy, because we both knew Xul was being pulled away in order to
save the boys. “Let him do his job. We need to get these people out.”

The rumble from above came suddenly and expectedly. I
pulled Dylan and Sydney closer in order to cover them, but Dylan put a shield
over all of us. Debris bounced off his shield and harmlessly fell away, but the
dragon that came through the new hole in the roof tore through the shield.
Taylor roared, which echoed across the walls and boxes.

“They found your car,” I translated. “They’re on
their way to the house where it was found.”

I made a hand signal and the dragon took to the sky.
The hallway we had converged in was now a large clearing of melted and bent
metal and flattened cardboard boxes. About two dozen demons emerged to surround
us, but none made a move to attack. The ten people we rescued all moved at once
to stand behind Dylan, both in a show of support and for his protection. Sydney
stood to my right and Dylan to my left. One of the demons stepped forward.

“Hello, Sardis. I thought all the fun would be over
before you showed up,” Dylan taunted.

“We already have what we need,” Sardis responded.

“You mean Ron?” Divina asked, appearing to the left
of Dylan with Ron in her arms.

“Divina!” he shouted in shock. “How could you betray
us?!”

I was more shocked than he was, although it wasn’t
because of her arrival. Divina’s hair, normally long and black, was now
shoulder-length, vibrant orange with vivid pink streaks in it. That one
alteration transformed her appearance from mysterious and exotic to sweet and
innocent.

She laughed and let Ron down before pressing herself
against Dylan’s chest and kissing him deeply. Dylan wrapped his arms around her
and deepened the kiss. When Sardis’s face turned red, Divina stepped away from
Dylan. “Because I’m his wife, you fool. I am Tiamat, goddess of Earth, and you
can’t expect to get away with kidnapping my son.” Dylan picked Ron up and
Divina focused her attention on him. “You were very good in waiting for me to
come and get you.”

“They hit Hail, Mommy. Kill them,” the nine-year-old
said.

“You hit my baby?” Dylan growled.

Sardis’s eyes widened as he realized he made a
mistake, but before Dylan could react, a new person appeared. She was
definitely beautiful, with long dark brown hair and deep red eyes. The demon
wore a simple black dress with no sleeves and spike-heeled boots that went to
her knees. She managed to look strict and flirty at the same time, but her face
was all anger.

“You had
one
job!” she shrieked, pushing
Sardis away. Then she vanished, as simple as that.

“Which one?”
I asked.

He searched the faces of each demon and settled on
Sardis. The demon stared at him, not with anger or fear, but with disbelief and
resignation. Dylan set Ron back down.
“Him,”
he said, pulling the lotus
wand from his bag. He created a shield around Sardis before anyone could move.

Sydney shifted and with the help of those we rescued,
we easily disposed of the other demons, all except for the female who
disappeared and Sardis.

Dylan calmly approached the demon trapped by his
power and we were both shocked when Sardis got on his knees. “I can use you,”
Dylan said.

“It would be an honor to serve you, but that would
mean betraying the goddess.”

“What do you mean? The only goddess is Tiamat and she
is on my side.”

Instead of answering Dylan, he saluted the Guardian
with his right hand and pulled a dagger from his boot with his left. Before
Dylan could stop him, he stabbed himself in the heart. Dylan let his shield go
and reached for the demon to heal his wound… but it was too late.

All that was left of him was black ash. All around
us, the demons had turned to ash.

“What the hell is this?!” Dylan asked, too loudly.

“The Ancients steal bodies for a reason. Even the
feeblest demon has a body outside of the void, but the Ancients prefer to take
them over creating them. One reason is that they are more difficult to destroy
if they take a life, but the other is pride. Demon bodies are made of the ash
of the dead,” Divina said.

“What?!” Dylan shouted.

“Why did he say he would betray the goddess? I
thought you were the only female god,” I said. I could feel Dylan shutting down
on me and I had to keep everyone else from knowing it. I couldn’t allow them to
doubt his strength when his heart was hurting.

There is always death everywhere I go. No matter
how many people I try to heal, there will always be death. I could have helped
this demon, but he chose to sacrifice himself. His death and the death of the
other demons were my fault. Even the ones Mordon killed, he only did it for me.

He wasn’t talking to me, but I could hear the
thoughts that tore at him.
“Dylan, you didn’t cause this.”

My enemies would rather sacrifice themselves than
be caught by me. I am in the middle of some kind of war I didn’t realize even
existed, and both people and demons are dying in my name… and in the name of
the “goddess.”

“I am the only female god. I don’t know who those
demons were, but I’m sure they were just trying to cause mistrust. Demons lie,
Dylan,” she said, taking a step towards him as if to steady him.

It wasn’t her he needed, though, so I very slyly
intercepted her and put my arm around him. He didn’t need it physically, but I
knew what he needed better than he did, so he would trust me to help him. What
he needed was to save more people. I let him go for just a moment to approach
Rebecca, who was fine after the battle, but winded.

“Where are the children? I think it’s time to get
them home.”

Before the words were entirely out of my mouth, the
demon queen reappeared next to Dylan. Still shocked over the suicide of Sardis,
my brother didn’t respond fast enough. She snapped a metal bracelet on Dylan’s
wrist and backed out of his reach. He looked at it, startled, and I realized it
was one of the two bracelets we got from Vretial.

“Ron, get this off of me. How did you get this?” he
asked Ilea.

Ron immediately tried to pull the bracelet off, but
it wouldn’t budge.

Ilea laughed. “How else would I get it? Your son gave
it to me.”

Everyone looked at Ron and his eyes widened. He
looked from the bracelet to his father in a panic. “I didn’t do it, Daddy. The
balance took over last night.”

Dylan put his hand on Ron’s cheek. “You’re not in
trouble, sweetheart. You should have told me, though. Why can’t you get it
off?”

“He modified it, so that only someone acting on
behalf of the balance can remove it.”

Since it was still in his hand, Dylan waved the lotus
wand at the demon in a stabbing motion. His eyes widened when nothing happened.
“The wand has always been stronger than the bracelet.”

“Not after Ron strengthened it. You have lost,
Zalaznius, give up.”

“Lost?” Dylan laughed. “You haven’t even leveled the
playing field yet.”

Divina raised her hand to the demon and a burst of
black lightning shot out. Ilea calmly created a small circular shield in front
of her. Instead of striking its intended target, the black lightning struck the
shield and rebounded into the goddess. Divina fell to her knees in pain. Dylan
was instantly by her side, but he couldn’t heal her.

I was about to shift when Xul appeared and locked
eyes with Ilea, who simply smirked and vanished.

“Where is Hell?” Dylan asked as he picked Divina up
in his arms. He face was expressionless, which he must have learned from
Edward, but his pain and worry pulsed through our bond like a bleeding wound.

“He’s safe. I sent him to Vivian. They boys had run
into a shape-changer, but Hail is fine and Ron… obviously is too.”

“Go get him and take him home.” Xul did as he was
told and Dylan turned to me. “I can’t flash us home.”

“I’m okay,” Divina gasped, obviously not.

“I’ll take Mom home, Daddy, and I’ll heal her,” Ron
volunteered. “I’m sorry I caused this.”

“You didn’t cause this, sweetheart.” Ron flashed
himself and his mother home. “Let’s go get the children home.” He fiddled with
the bracelet before tugging his shirt sleeve over it.

Sydney changed back into her person form and
redressed before we left the warehouse. All of those we rescued except for
Rebecca and her husband split up to return to their homes. Taylor shifted and
went back to the station to call off the search for Ron and Hail. Sydney,
Dylan, and I sat in the back of the SUV while Rebecca drove and her husband
rode in the passenger seat.

“Was Divina’s hair orange?” Dylan asked after a few
moments of silence.

I laughed.

*          *          *

To our confusion, the demon drove us to the hospital.
“Why are we here?” I asked.

“Keigan was nearly killed when Alisha Sterling
decided to get him out of the way. He figured out that children were being
taken. He also heard that they wanted Ron, so he tried to protect him. She
didn’t finish the job though, and he ended up in the hospital. Brent and I
saved him and we made the morgue our base of operations. When we got the kids
out, we took them there.”

Dylan nodded to the nurse behind the counter and she
just smiled and let us go through.

“Then we met your son last night. He came to the
warehouse and argued with some of the demons, and your wife. From what we could
hear while locked in that room, he killed Alisha. The demons were talking about
how much blood there was.”

“How long have you lived in this town?” I asked.
These two didn’t sound like the demons we just faced.

“I’ve been here my whole life.”

“How does that work?”

“My mother was human, and my father was a demon. I
was born here, with a flesh body and mortality, but I have the abilities of a
demon. Brent grew up right next door. There are maybe two dozen of us here who
were born on Earth and found ourselves living in this town. Those demons at the
warehouse? They all moved in about three months ago.”

“Maybe that’s why they’re here; you were their
passage to this world. Now, why you all came here is a mystery,” Dylan said.