The Demon's Game (40 page)

“Mrs. Sevenstar is not a demon. She was also Drake’s
teacher, but I finally had him removed from her class for ‘repeated allergic
reactions.’ By the way, Dylan, I forged your signature on a few doctor notes.
She was endangering the kid’s life.”

“So she’s a threat to Hail?” Ron asked.

“No, she’s afraid of Hail.”

“But she isn’t demon?”

“She’s elven,” Xul explained.

Edward choked on the water he was drinking. I handed
him a napkin while Ron and Hail stared at him like they couldn’t understand his
reaction. “Okay. Someone really needs to catch me up.”

*          *          *

We spent two hours talking about everything that
happened since we moved here, but we didn’t come to any profound conclusions.
Divina took more food for Nila and his bodyguard. The boys went outside to play
at the apartment playground with Drake and Xul volunteered to watch over them.
Mordon and I cleared the kitchen table and then I pulled out a few children’s
books to try to teach Mordon to read. He was improving quickly.

After a while, I looked over to see Edward staring at
us. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head slowly. “I was just thinking. You
have always seemed so at home on Duran. After Ron was born, I never thought you
would move back here. I hoped you thought of Duran as your home.”

Mordon stared at me, waiting for my answer. I knew my
family wouldn’t want to stay here. I was born on this world, but all my best
memories were on Duran after Edward found me. To everyone else, Duran was their
world. As much as I wanted them to experience this world and have a normal life
here, I had never intended on it being permanent.

“I like this town. I like the people here,” I said.
Mordon stifled a sigh, so I ignored him. “Everyone here is lost or lonely or
ostracized. They can’t be with their families because they’re different, half
human, or stranded. This town is like a home for refugees, and no demons are
going to come in and invade. Duran is my home but this is the only home left
for these people, and I will not let it be overrun.”

Edward frowned. “You remind me of someone sometimes.”
He stood. “There is one thing this world has that makes enduring my loss of
energy worth it.”

“What’s that?”

“A shower. I trust you have one.”

I pointed him to the hallway bathroom. “I’ll be
back,” I told Mordon as I got up. I went into my room, shut the door, and
flopped down on the bed.

As I stared up at the tiled ceiling, I reminisced
over the day I found the book in my yard. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had any
of this. My life was crazy, hectic, and dangerous. The adrenaline alone should
have killed me by now. Plus, between Xul and Vretial, I should have had serious
issues with trust. Every day was either a struggle to give my kids a normal
life, a battle to survive the day, or a race against the clock to save my
world… And I didn’t want it any other way. This was my life, this was me, and I
loved it.

*          *          *

I didn’t realize I had closed my eyes until I felt an
odd urgency sensation, like a memory that was vital for me to remember. I
opened my eyes to find myself at a small river, similar to the haunted springs…
peaceful. Across from the river were mountains and behind me there were cherry
trees in full bloom. The petals were swept up by the gentle winds to spill
across the ground as if to make a flowery bed.

A girl stood in front of me, maybe fourteen. Her hair
was raven-black and framed the porcelain skin of her soft face. Her eyes were
like emeralds that glittered despite the fact that she faced away from the sun.
She wore a green silk dress and had no shoes, but when her eyes followed mine
to her bare feet, she laughed.

“I’m always losing them,” she explained. “I like
walking in the grass barefoot.”

I knew this girl. I had seen her before. My heart
hammered in my chest with both happiness and fear.

As the wind began to pick up, her cheerful grin faded
into the same sad smile that Divina gave me when she knew everything was about
to go wrong. “You have to wake up, Daddy. You have a battle to win.”

“Is this real? Are you real?” I finally asked.

“There are many different paths. Some of them will
end in happiness for everyone. Some of them will twist into dark traps that no
one can survive. Follow your instincts, trust your heart, and listen to your
head.”

*          *          *

I shot up on the bed feeling like I had been jolted
with electricity. My heart pounded out of control and I panted like I had been
running.

I fell asleep?

I got up and stepped into the bathroom to wash my
face. The cold water calmed me enough to breathe, so I returned to my room,
trying desperately to remember what I had dreamed. It was important, I could
feel that much.

I stood in front of the mirror on the back of the
door and scrutinized my own face. I didn’t look thirty-five. In fact, it seemed
unfair that I didn’t even look remotely tired. Maybe people on Earth would
think I was a normal human because I looked like one. I used to be one.

A sound by the bed drew my eye to it in the mirror.
Seeing the succubus who had accosted me at work lying on my bed, I jerked
around. The bed was empty. I nearly sighed and wrote off, but instead I turned
back to the mirror. There she was, as clear as day, smirking at me.

“What are you doing here?”

“I think you know exactly what I’m doing here.” Her
voice was smooth, but definitely not in my head.

“Get out of my room.” Once again, I twisted around to
see her, but she was gone. When I looked back in the mirror, she was right
behind me. “This is an illusion. You’re not really here.”

“Is it?”

In the mirror, I could see her slip her hands under
my arms to clutch at my chest… and I felt it. As if she was really there,
entirely solid, I could feel the heat of her body and the sweet pressure as she
pressed herself against my back. Her fingers slowly unbuttoned my shirt, but my
body was a few steps behind my mind. By the time I made any attempt to stop
her, my shirt was already wide open.

“Mordon, Linda’s back,”
I said.

I stepped away and turned to try to stop her, but
since I couldn’t see her, I didn’t know where exactly to put my hands. My
mistake was to try anyway, as it backfired badly when I grasped her large, soft
breast instead of a firm shoulder.

“How bold!” she said, delighted, and then pushed me
unresisting into the wall.

“Mordon, get in here now!”

I felt her naked chest against mine as her quick
fingers started on my pants. Her scent hit me like a ton of bricks; sweet, but
with a kick like wine. My heart thudded loudly as my fingers began to feel
tingly. I reached out to push her away again, only to clutch her waist weakly,
as if my strength was gone. Her small, warm fingers closed around my member and
I started to tell her to get off when her wet lips closed over my throat and
the only thing I could utter was a moan.

My brain was no longer working, though my eyes finally
were, because I saw her when I opened them. She was naked and gorgeous.

I am married.

Her lips left my neck and met mine. All the while,
her fingers were working my body like she had known me forever. My heart was
beating too fast and I was becoming very dizzy, yet it didn’t matter. I was
suddenly on the bed, naked, with her lovely little body squirming on top. I
knew this wasn’t right, but what was left of my mind was completely
disconnected with my body. Even as my brain was trying desperately to dredge up
enough blood to function, my hands were pulling her closer.

“Can you see me?” she asked breathlessly.

Her voice scrambled whatever semblance of thought I
had left. “Yes, of course.”

“Then you’re all mine.” Her grin was devilish as she
held me still and started to lower herself…

And the door burst open. Linda shrieked with outrage
as Mordon pulled her off me. Instead of shoving her away, however, he snapped
one of the two metal bracelets around her wrist. When he let her go, she tried
to dart out the door, only to find Edward standing there with all the
intimidation factor of a wolf on a baby sheep.

She halted and looked from Mordon to Edward with a
panic. Realizing she couldn’t vanish and being intelligent enough to know the
cause, she started trying to tear the bracelet off.

“Dylan,” she whimpered in a soft, desperate voice.
“Help me, Dylan.”

“Your magic will no longer work on anyone,” Mordon
growled.

I tried to get up and managed to get my legs over the
side before nausea and lethargy hit me hard enough to cause black spots to swim
in my eyes. My moan this time was in pain and I somehow ended up on the floor
trying not to throw up. I felt less sick the last time I died.

“Why didn’t you come the first time I called you?”
I asked Mordon as he helped me get up.

His expression was really guilty when I sat back on
the bed. “I fell asleep. Now, what do you want me to do with this troll?” he
asked.

Said trolled shrieked at his insult loud enough that
I squinted in pain.
“Interrogate her, gag her, and hand her over to
Ghidorah. Find out why Sardis hired her and if she knows how much information
they have on us.”

They brought a kitchen chair into the bedroom, tied
her to it, and gagged her. Then Mordon got me a glass of water while Edward
collected “supplies.” The Guardian gave me some Wigknot bark and patted my
shoulder. “Maybe you should wait outside for this,” he said somberly.

I knew he wasn’t serious because they brought the
chair into my room so that I could be a part of it. He was just trying to scare
Linda. “Don’t hurt her too badly. I heard that succubi feed on sex energy. If
you tear off her nails and stuff, no one would want her and she’ll starve to death.”

“So?” he asked.

When she froze, I smiled widely at her. “Don’t worry,
he doesn’t do that often. They usually cooperate by the time he starts to cut
their tongue out.” I was feeling better, especially when she started shaking.

“Let’s get started. Linda, right?” Mordon asked. She
nodded. “Okay. I’m going to ask you some questions. You will not speak until I
have asked you a question. You will then give me the complete and honest truth
immediately or I will have Kiro here extract the answer by force. If at any
time you feel uncomfortable with this questioning session and would like to
stop, you can decline to answer, in which case my brother here will banish you
to the void.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard all about it from the demons,”
I chimed in.

“You may ask for water once, and I may allow it
depending on how forthcoming you are. Are you ready?” She nodded, shaking like
a leaf, and he took the gag out of her mouth. “First question; what do you know
of the one the demons call the goddess?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you know of Ilea?”

“Absolutely nothing.”

“What do you know about Dleso Atos?” I asked.

She looked at me. “Who?”

“She’s being truthful,”
Mordon said. “What do
you know,” he asked.

“All I know is that Sardis hired me.”

“What are the demons planning?”

“Demons? What does any of this have to do with those
creeps?”

Mordon scowled. “Sardis is a demon.”

The succubus scoffed. “No, he’s not. I know demons,
and they stink. This guy was a badass and had more power than any wizard I
know, but he wasn’t a demon. He didn’t tell me anything about his plans, he
just told me he wanted me to seduce Dylan and keep him distracted for a few
days.”

“You’re sure he was Sardis.”

“That’s what he said his name was.”

“Did he look like a vampire reject from Hollywood?”

She frowned. “Not even close. He had shoulder-length
hair… kind of a red with silver highlights maybe… it was odd. And he had
grayish eyes. Maybe they were blue, but they were dull. I wasn’t paying
attention to how he looked.”

“Did he have a bag at his side? Like this one?” I
asked, indicating my book bag.

“Yeah, but it was leather.”

“Unreliable witness,”
I said to Mordon. He
rolled his eyes.
“No, seriously. A person’s memory for details is often
flaky at best. Especially when someone is trying to be helpful by describing an
event or person, their mind will try to fill in blanks with details that are
untrue. Unfortunately, once those details are in their heads, the witness can
be absolutely one-hundred percent sure of it. Nine times out of ten, if I
suggest a detail, like that the perpetrator was wearing a coat, the witness
will picture that person with a coat and be able to tell me the color and
fabric of the nonexistent coat with absolute certainty.”

“So you are suggesting she just happened to think
up someone who looks exactly like Rilryn.”

“No. I’m suggesting she vaguely described a man’s
hair and eye color and we both instantly put those details into our suspect
database. Rilryn was my father’s friend. Ronez trusted him.”

“Rilryn has also attacked you under the supposed
control of another. Sounds like a great excuse to me. I’m not saying we hunt
down the Guardian with pitchforks, I just think we might want to distract him
from finding that weapon.”

“What are you going to do with me?” Linda asked.

“How much did this guy pay you to seduce me?” I
asked.

She glared at me. “I’m not a prostitute. He told me
you were the most powerful man on this world and I wanted your energy.”

“Take her to Ghidorah,” I told Mordon. Edward untied
her and Mordon took her by the arm out of the room.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked me.

I nodded. “It’s just my pride that she wounded.”