The Demon's Game (39 page)

This time, when Mordon spread his wings, I realized
what was happening.
“Mordon, wait!”
I shouted. Unfortunately, he was too
far gone. Mordon tried to take flight, but his wings were long and designed for
wide spaces. From tip to tip, there was no way he could stretch them out let
alone flap them unimpeded.

Realizing this, my brother let out a roar of
frustration. That startled my cat, who took it as a threat. I yowled and
hissed, but when he turned his angry glare on me, I lowered myself to the
ground and perked my ears up to say, “just kidding.” He snorted out a puff of
smoke, closed his wings, and turned to make his way through the trees. I would
have rolled my eyes if I knew how; Mordon wouldn’t have any of the jungle
instincts I had.

I yowled, but it wasn’t my angry yowl, and I knew the
dragon would understand my intent. After all, dragons were incredibly
intelligent beings. He stopped, deliberately not looking at me, so I darted out
in front of him. We both knew which way was out of the forest and when nothing
attacked us for an hour, I became bored.

A small mammal skittered over some leaves and my ears
perked. Every instinct to chase activated at once. I didn’t run but lowered
myself into a prowl, ready to sneak up on and ambush my meal.

Mordon flattened me with one of his sharp-clawed paws
and I hissed. He couldn’t retract his claws like I could. His gentle means of
stopping me turned into a rough admonishment when he blew hot smoke over me. He
didn’t like me hissing at him. Unfortunately, I didn’t like being admonished.
He lifted his paw and I bit his front leg, barely digging into the scales even
though I gave it all my force. The dragon suddenly roared with pain and
instincts stronger than the cat took over. I let him go instantly.

Mordon once again tried to burn me, and this time I
didn’t get away unscathed. I realized I had made a mistake in coming here.
Mordon couldn’t make it out without me, but we would kill each other before the
Ajaskakara was over.

I kept my distance from him, which only made it
harder to detect any danger. Mordon became testier and testier so that I had to
keep further and further away. If I came too close, he would snarl a warning.

About three hours later, when Mordon was out of
sight, I felt another male cat approach. Instead of challenging him, I tried to
be quiet and sneak out of his territory. I didn’t make it. The cat was faster
than the other male and I was tired from dodging Mordon. He struck me in my
injured shoulder and I went down. Whatever fight that might have been left in
me fled and I just rested on the ground, waiting for the final blow. The cat
knew it and went for the kill.

Before I felt his teeth sink into my neck, Mordon
attacked the cat with the raging force of a bull elephant. The cat didn’t know
what hit him. All that was left of my foe when Mordon was done was scraps of
blood, flesh, and bones. More reason seeped into me enough that I became sick.
All these beasts we fought were also people, and everyone we injured was a
walking corpse.
“Mordon, we have to stop. You need to flash us home.”

He snarled at me and blew flames again. I took it
this time, because I couldn’t run from my brother any longer. Thankfully, his
fire recognized me even if his mind was too far gone, for his fire was only
very painful, not mortally agonizing. He tried to pass me and I sank my teeth
into his wing. His roar of pain was cut off suddenly as the woods around us surged
with blinding light.

*          *          *

Pain erupted throughout my body as it conformed once
again. Bones snapped and reformed, muscle stretch, built, and shrunk. Receding
fur was the strangest feeling. Finally, once it was over and I lay panting on
the floor, I realized it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been changing into a
cat.

Actually… that makes a great comparison. Sure, my
leg was chopped off, but it wasn’t as bad as that time I was turned into a cat.
God, my life is weird.

I opened my eyes to my apartment and found myself
surrounded by Divina, Xul, Ghidorah, and the boys. Mordon was lying next to me
having also shifted back, and Alyssa was next to him, asleep but breathing. I
checked my arms and legs, then touched my ears, just to be sure I was
completely me again. Assured, I rolled over and shook Mordon gently. He opened
his eyes with a groan.

“Are you alright?” I asked. He closed his eyes and
nodded. I slapped him. “You tried to burn me!” I yelled.

He opened his eyes, sat up, and hugged me. I tried to
slap him again, but he had my arms pinned. “You tried to claw my heart out,” he
answered.

I stopped trying to fight him off and leaned my head
against his shoulder. I didn’t realize until then how upset I really was. It
wasn’t just that he tried to hurt me, but the fact that I tried to hurt him.
Throughout everything we faced, all the times when we were in danger, Mordon
and I always had each other’s backs. The cat saved my life over and over in a
few short hours, but it turned me against my brother.

Mordon slapped me in the back of the head. “Stop
thinking like that. I’m alive because you came to save me and the cat saved us
both. I have no idea where the rage towards your cat came from, because I knew
it was you the entire time. I didn’t want to hurt you, but it was like my
dragon wanted to tear your cat apart.”

“It was the Ajaskakara,” Ghidorah supplied. Although
we both nodded, agreeing, neither of us believed it. While the Ajakakara may
have caused the violent desire to kill anything weaker, his dragon and my
newfound cat could never exist together. He was Mordon and I was Dylan, and if
anything changed that, we were both in trouble.

The children had been taken home by Sydney, who told
us to call her when Mordon returned. Apparently, Divina had told her that
Mordon suddenly had to go visit his father and that was it. Ghidorah took
Alyssa home while Divina… she wasn’t feeling good. She was the one to pull us
out of Skrev and it took a small toll on her to do so. I ran her a bath, rubbed
her shoulders, and we both pretty much passed out from exhaustion.

*          *          *

Mordon called me and the boys out sick and growled at
me when I tried to protest. I slept in until about nine and then spent over an
hour in the shower. I nearly had a fit when I had to wash dried blood out of my
ears from the blood rain. It was everywhere.

I heard a knocking on the bathroom door over the
sound of the water. “Yes?” I asked, wrapping a towel around me and opening the
door.

“Ron said breakfast is ready and he’ll never forgive
us if we let it go cold.

I leaned out of the bathroom doorway to see Divina
still asleep. “What happened to her? I know she got struck with her own magic,
but this feels like more than that.”

“I don’t know. She conceals herself pretty well. I’ll
leave you to get ready,” he said, closing the bedroom door behind him.

I held out my arm, breathed deeply, and concentrated
carefully on the thoughts of the cat, who seemed to wake slowly in the back of
my mind. I could feel the presence of the powerful animal come alive again as
black fur sprouted across my arm. I shook my arm and cleared my head, forcing
the cat away.

“That’s a pretty powerful weapon,” Divina said.

Perhaps a reassuring smile would have been
appropriate here, but that seemed too much like a lie. I looked at her and back
at my arm, which was fur-free. “I know.” After getting dressed quickly, I went
into the kitchen, where Ron was making a late breakfast. Xul was reading a
novel at the table. Curious, I snagged the paperback from him, marked the page
with my finger, and turned it so I could see the cover.

Xul’s face flushed bright red before he dived to take
the book from me, but by then I had seen his secret. “Oh my god, you read
romance novels?!”

Startled, Ron set his pan down and looked
questioningly between us. Perceiving Xul’s embarrassment, the nine-year-old
scowled. “Daddy, are you making fun of the books he reads? Mordon can’t even
read English.”

I felt properly scolded and kissed Ron’s head as he
handed Xul a plate of eggs, bacon, and hash browns. “You’re right, sweetheart,
that wasn’t nice of me. I’m sorry, demon,” I said.

Xul reluctantly nodded his acceptance and put his
book away to eat.

I need to spend more time teaching Mordon how to
read.
He picked up speaking the language easily, but English writing was
too different from any of the three Duran languages. It took nearly a year for
him to understand that one letter could make different sounds.

Hail entered the room and hugged Ron fiercely before
taking a seat. Ron gave him a plate piled way too high with vanilla-walnut
pancakes and bacon.

“How do you eat so much sweet food?” Mordon asked,
walking in. Ron handed him a plate of eggs, ham, and toast, which he promptly
made into a sandwich.

I stayed standing. After a few minutes, Divina came
in, paused in front of me to kiss me, and then sat at the table. Ron handed her
a bowl of noodles in a reddish brown sauce with bits of beef and vegetables in
it. Still I remained standing.

Divina’s hair was very orange, which made her look
younger and more Asian than Caucasian. “You should change your hair back.”

“You don’t like it?”

“I love it. That’s why, if you want me to keep my
hands to myself, you should change your hair back.”

She grinned. “If I wanted you to keep your hands to
yourself, I wouldn’t have married you and we wouldn’t have two kids.”

Xul laughed while Ron gagged.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door,
so I answered it. The man who was more like a father to me than anyone else in
my life, my mentor in magic and adulthood, gave me that warm smile that told me
he was proud of me. I hugged Edward with everything I had, for I had missed him
more than I knew. He hugged me back, walked me out of the doorway, and shut the
door behind us. “I take it you missed me?” he asked.

“I did, Dad,” I said, and felt his breath hitch. “I
thought you would be back before now.” I let him go reluctantly.

“It just took longer than I had intended. Why are you
wearing that?” he asked, holding my arm up to see the bracelet.

“It’s a long story. Basically, it’s been modified so
that only someone acting on behalf of the balance can remove it. Come eat some
breakfast and I’ll tell you about the mess we’re in now. Divina is cooking.”

He froze halfway through the living room. “Divina is
cooking Earth food? Actually, I think I’m not hungry.”

I laughed. “I’m kidding. Come on, Ron is cooking.” We
entered the kitchen and had to get some chairs from the living room to squeeze
around our small, four-person table.

When Ron tried to hand Edward a plate, I realized the
Guardian was staring at Divina. “Your hair is orange,” he said helpfully. She
ignored him.

Ron gave Edward some steak chops with bread and me a
very interesting version of breakfast lasagna made with eggs, cheese, ham, hash
browns, and a tomato sauce. “How did you cook all of this?” I asked. He managed
to cook everyone’s perfect breakfast, including Edward’s, as if he knew the man
was returning.

“I like cooking,” Ron shrugged. He himself just
shared some of Hail’s breakfast.

“That reminds me, I need to talk to Shiloh about
getting something special for Hell. I found Ron a gift the other day and I
couldn’t just get something for him and not both of them.”

“What is the occasion?”
Mordon asked.

“Nothing, I just saw something I thought Ron would
like. I couldn’t
not
get it. So I have an idea for something for
Hell---”

The child’s head jerked up. “A pool? Did somebody say
we’re getting a pool?”

Ron rolled his eyes. “It’s about to be winter, stupid,
nobody is getting you a pool.” Hail’s bottom lip wobbled and his eyes pleaded
with Ron to change his verdict, as if my younger son could make it suddenly…

“Don’t you dare tamper with the weather,” I growled
when Ron looked ready to give in to his brother. “Nobody is getting a pool
until March at the earliest.” At least, that was when our apartment complex was
scheduled to have one built.

“So what are we doing today? Not that I want to go to
school or anything,” Ron said quickly.

“Well, what we need to do is figure out what those
demons had planned. I mean, they kidnapped the children for blood sacrifices?
Why?” I asked.

Xul looked thoughtful, but Edward scowled. “I think
you need to update me on what exactly is going on around here. Do demons actually
need a reason to sacrifice children?”

“Excuse me!” Xul was outraged.

“Like you never hurt anyone before,” Edward said.

“Leave Zeb alone,” Ron said. “He’s a good demon now.
Dad’s right; I think kidnapping people was a way to get us there. What I want
to know is how they knew were coming to this town.” His no-nonsense tone was
adorable.

“They were just way too prepared,” I agreed. “They
could have ambushed me when it was just Mordon and me here, but they waited
until they could get the kids. What about the school? How long have they been
there, because Rebecca said the outsider demons moved in three months ago. That
was two months before me. They waited until I arrived before they started kidnapping
kids.”

Xul leaned his elbows on the table and sighed. “Four
teachers moved here and were hired on at the school three months ago.
Apparently, four teachers quit suddenly and without warning, and nobody else
would take their place, so the school board had no choice. There were already
several demons, wizards, and fae there, however.”

“Hail’s science teacher…” Ron began. “He said she
smelled weird, like dirt. I assumed she was a demon, but demons, according to
Tatum, smell like blood. Tatum said that the fake Alyssa smelled like dirt.
Mrs. Sharp smelled like a graveyard. That being said, I can’t smell things like
Mordon can, so I might be wrong.”