The Demon's Game (45 page)

“Food poisoning,”
I responded lovingly.

Nano and Vivian left and Mordon let Ronez in. I
hadn’t even realized he was keeping traffic control, but it made sense. Ronez
looked exactly as I had seen him the last time he came back from the dead.
Actually, it seemed the spirit realm was doing good for him… which was a very
morbid thought.

“I thought it would be forever before I had a chance
to talk to you,” he said.

“Sorry, my dragon is a horrible secretary on account
of him being illiterate. I think he got your name mixed up with ‘Ronda’ or
something.”

“I am seriously going to eat you,”
Mordon
said.

“Ronda Ballard, the fire-user from Malta?” Ronez
asked. “I met her outside. Gorgeous.”

“Leave her alone. I just found her husband who she
had been separated from for more than a decade.”

“Yeah, I met him, too. Shame they weren’t interested
in a more modern arrangement. Do you know that when I found out your mother was
pregnant, I started making plans? It was always my intention to raise you
myself. I would have taught you magic, how to play guitar, how to catch women…
I wanted to help you do your homework late at night and smack you when you said
something stupid, like that four times three is---”

“Four times three is seven, obviously,” I
interrupted. He smacked me lightly on the back of the head. “I know. Growing
up, there wasn’t a day in my life I didn’t think about what it would be like to
have a father. Between Mother and her boyfriends, I usually thought I was
better off without one. And then there was Kiro.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. If anything, I
get it now that the balance is inside Ron. You couldn’t stay because I wouldn’t
have had a chance. I also know that’s why you gave up in the end. What I don’t
understand is why you made a decoy of the book.”

“Vretial came to me and asked me to do three things;
to hide a sword, to create an enchanted chest, and to create the decoy book. He
never told me why, only that I owed him a favor.”

“Because he helped you create the time map. It sucks
that we couldn’t have that life you planned, and we can never have that… but
you can stay now. You’re like a demon, now, right? You can stay.”

“No, he can’t,” Ron growled. “He isn’t a demon, he is
the Guardian of Earth, and there cannot be two of you. You with a powerful
demon is fine, but two Guardians of Earth is impossible.”

My father sighed. “He’s right. Demons are very
different from a dead soul. It’s more like I’m using demon magic to create a
body that can sustain me for about a week. However, I can’t stay that long. My
power was destroyed when I gave up the book, and I’m using the resources of the
universe. That means I must obey the balance. For the same reason your nursery
burst into flames when you were a baby, I would be compelled to kill you.”

“I would never let you hurt Dylan,” Divina said,
appearing beside me.

“Can all gods overhear us?”

“Yes, but most of them don’t bother. I’m just nosey.”

“Or, you just couldn’t stand to spend a minute away
from me,” Ronez said. “I bet you lie awake at night, missing me.”

This was the Ronez I was used to. “Dad, stop flirting
with Divina. Hell, you’re her father-in-law.”

Ronez and Divina both scowled. “Okay, that’s gross,”
Ronez said.

*          *          *

Dream meetings with Vretial were always a bit
surreal, but I preferred it for some reason to actually being in the Land of
the Iadnah.

“You knew Sydney would die. You knew everything that
would happen. You had it all planned from the very beginning. Hell, you set it
all up in the first place,” I accused the god.

Vretial frowned from his boulder. “My, I have been
busy.” Then he shrugged. “I tried to prepare for whatever might happen. That
was why I asked your father all those years ago to protect the sword.”

“Why didn’t the sword kill me? The boys said Xul
stabbed me in the chest, yet I have no wound.”

“It is a magic sword, designed to kill the gods.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually powerful enough to destroy Zero. It has no
impact whatsoever on a mortal or even on flesh. In fact, you could stab a
regular person with it and they wouldn’t even feel it.”

“So you knew I wouldn’t die? Why the hell did you
have to go and scare my kids then?!”

“Oh, no, I really thought you would die. As it
stands, I’m relieved you didn’t. You may not like me, you may even want me
dead, but I’m not your enemy right now. Zero will return, and when that
happens, the real war will begin.”

“There is also the one they called ‘the goddess.’ Not
to mention Nila’s father.”

“As I said; you have enemies now. And I think you
will find that life is chaos.”

“I hate chaos. Everything you say is twisted around.
You told my Ancient that Sydney would die, but you made it sound like she would
live if he did as you commanded.”

“Did I? That wasn’t very kind of me. I do hope he
will forgive me. The dragoness had to die. She had the unique gift that all
those around her would experience good fortune.”

“So you did kill her.”

“Good heavens, no. That would have been terribly
cruel of me. I believe it was your son who caused her death, or rather, the
balance in him. I did try to warn your demon that she would die. He needs to
learn to listen better.”

“You should have told me. I could have saved her.”

“Yes, you could have, and you very nearly did. What
stopped you?” he asked.

Divina.
Divina had stopped me from saving
Mordon’s mate. Vretial knew this; he probably knew what would happen all along.
I refused to let him cause me to distrust my wife. “Give me back my book now.”

He pulled it from inside his jacket, as if it had
been in an interior pocket. “Are you sure you don’t want me to hold onto it
longer? You were real hesitant to hand the decoy book over to that Ancient.”

“If I hadn’t been, he would have suspected
something.” The book shot through the air into my hand and I slipped it into my
bag. “Is that why you had Ronez make the book?”

“I had to give him a lot of my power for him to make
it. Exactly why I told him to make it, I didn’t know. Sometimes, having a decoy
or distraction is a good idea, and sometimes you can’t make one in the middle
of battle. Just remember that you owe me a favor now.”

“You are my wife’s brother. By human culture, that
makes us brother-in-laws. We’re practically family, and family helps each other
out. How did you know Sydney was going to die?”

He stood and approached me, not with anger or
amusement. Oddly, he seemed resigned. “When a decision has been made that leads
to a person’s death, when that person’s fate is sealed, I only see them as a
walking corpse.” He stopped right in front of me and ran his fingers through my
hair.

“Am I dead?” I asked.

*          *          *

I was awoken by Divina’s thrashing first. It was
really just a light kicking and tossing, but her whimpers grew louder.
What
do gods fear enough to have nightmares about?
When I shook her shoulders
gently to wake her, her whimpers only intensified. “Divina, wake up. Divina,
you’re just dreaming. Divina!” I finally had to yell when she didn’t wake.

She sat up with a shrill scream, a sound I never
wanted to hear from my wife’s mouth again… only she didn’t stop. She kept
screaming until Mordon opened the door. I put my arms around hers and she
settled a little, but her screams turned into a harsh crying.

“Is she okay?” Mordon asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

“I made a mistake,” she cried breathlessly. I turned
her face so I could see her and she clutched my arm weakly. “I made a terrible
mistake.”

The look in her eyes was so lost and horrified that I
couldn’t see anymore. I pulled her closer and leaned her head against my chest.

“I made a mistake.”

She repeated that over and other so that my concern
grew, even though her cries gradually lessened.

Xul

A human’s concept of Hell is a place where sinners
are tortured for their crimes. While I was interested in the lore, I couldn’t
understand the viewpoint. The spirit world was more like the Greek underworld.
The void, however, was something truly hellish.

It has always been pretty standard information that
the void was around before there was a universe, but time doesn’t exist in the
void, so that is fairly pointless knowledge. While it was quite possible that I
was created before any of the Iadnah, there was no way to know. What I did know
was that I was older than any of the twelve remaining Iadnah, but so were all
the Ancients

The Iadnah are creatures of life. They first began in
the small sector of universe that was the Land of the Iadnah. This was before
there was a spirit world, since there were no dead. Death wasn’t even a concept
then. However, the Iadnah were proud and greedy, thus it became a game to them
to create more universes. I wasn’t sure if they actually created them, or it
they just widened the tiny blips that were already there. To create a soul for
them was child’s play, but to dispose of them, the spirit world was created.
Eventually, their greed for power made their growing empire come crashing down
around them until only one universe and thirteen Iadnah remained. It was no
mystery that one of them killed another, so then there were twelve.

Since the Iadnah could only exist in the universe and
we could only exist in the abyss, there was really no problem between us. There
were fifteen of us that I could remember. Janus was the oldest, the most
mysterious. The rest of us paired off according to our strength. Somehow, Ilea
and I got mixed up with two others. I don’t remember how it happened exactly,
but I was the most powerful male and Ilea was
not
the most powerful
female. It didn’t matter so much since we were the only creatures of the void.

Only we weren’t.

While I only remembered the Ancients, I knew there
had been something else. There was a species before us, far more powerful than
us, but the memory had been purposely erased from my memory and the others’.
There were obvious gaps in my memories up until the end of the Iadnah war.

What we experienced was essentially how a human would
feel trapped in a room with white walls, a white ceiling, a white floor, and no
door, from birth to death. The only thing we had was each other. Although one
may assume we didn’t suffer because we had no sense of time, that was not the
case. Time did not exist for us, so there was no end to our sentence.

We discovered how to spy on other universes and
change the reality of the void before there were other demons. At first, we
tried to recreate the universes we admired, yet we didn’t understand the
concept of time, so we didn’t understand why we were so unsuccessful.

We learned how to interact with the spirit world and
that was how we discovered what we didn’t have. We adjusted, but not by
creating our own image of the universe. No, what we had was the dead. We
learned to take the nightmares of the dead souls into the void. It made the
void a living Hell; however, it was a blessing to us. One thing we were very
curious about was fighting and death. To experiment, we killed the two weakest
Ancients. This was rather difficult, but we were eventually successful. We
killed another one just for fun.

Then there were more demons. They ran around like
pests and we commanded them like pets. There were twelve gateways between the
worlds, which were weak points between the void and universe. When we learned to
escape the void through the twelve gates, the minor demons thought they could
go wild. The gods closed the gates and Janus took on the responsibility of
guarding the passage of demons to and from the universe.

By then, we realized there was a balance in the
universe and that we were mildly compelled to obey it. The minor demons
absolutely couldn’t resist it.

That was when the Ancients started considering an
alternative to the void. One of us slipped passed Janus and entered the
universe, only to discover that we could possess the living, so the rest of us
tried it. The fact that the person we possessed died meant nothing to us
compared to the thrill of feeling life for ourselves. No longer did we have to
watch from a distance.

Unfortunately, I was greedy; I wanted a permanent
life. It was the balance that pushed me to seek the little immortal child.
After being fooled into believing he was my salvation, I realized Samhail was
not compatible right before Dylan pulled me into himself. When I possessed Dylan
for about five seconds, I knew I had made a terrible mistake, for I had crossed
someone far more powerful than any creature I had ever encountered. And he
didn’t have a clue.

So he banished me to the void and I considered myself
grateful he didn’t destroy me altogether… at first. By the time the gates tried
to reopen, I knew I would return to Dylan. I had to take the chance, because
either he would allow me to stay in the universe, or he would destroy me, and I
was happy with either outcome.

*          *          *

I was disappointed when Dylan told me to get out of
his sight, not that I thought I deserved better, but because I felt like I
deserved a little mercy. After all, Sydney’s death was a loss to me as well. I
realized by the end of the day, however, that it was mercy he was showing me.

Everything changed for me once Dylan gave me a body
to live in. I had moods, emotions, and needs that I had to discover on my own…
but I would take it over the void any day. Therefore, when Dylan told me to
leave him, I got a motel room.

It was a week later, when they boys started back at
school, that he called me back. I wasn’t offended one bit that he only wanted
me to protect Ron and Hail, especially since I was actually very fond of them.
If only Ron would stop trying to train me like a dog, everything would have
been perfect. In fact, I got an apartment two doors down from Dylan and became
the official free babysitter.

While a girlfriend would have been nice, I didn’t
hold my breath. I never told Dylan about Sydney and I, but he seemed to think I
needed to grieve along with the dragon. Therefore, it was my intention to be as
nonchalant about it until he dropped the whole matter…

Maybe then he would stop saying her name.

I was surprised when Mordon knocked on my door one
day after school. For an incredibly powerful dragon and not-too-shabby wizard,
it was peculiar to see him look so subdued, which could only mean he was about
to ask a favor of me.

“Hello, Mordon? What can I do you for?”

“Taylor, the sheriff, has asked me to be his deputy.
I accepted.”

“Oh… You didn’t think that through, did you?” I
asked. He glared. “If he’s the sheriff and you’re the deputy, it means you work
for him. Can you take orders from a younger dragon?”

“We have already discussed it. For public appearances,
he will be in charge. In private, he knows I am far more powerful and that
Rojan knows best. I haven’t told him I’m only half dragon, but it doesn’t seem
to be necessary. In fact, being the deputy works out perfectly because I have
the say most of the time, but I don’t have any leadership responsibilities.”

Wise my ass.
Rojan may have been wise, but
Mordon was still a kid. Neither seemed to know much about human culture.

“The problem is, I have to be able to drive to do the
job. Dylan taught me enough English writing to pass the written test… but I
need someone to teach me how to drive and Dylan flat out refused.”

“Did you offer him a Jolly Crunch?”

“Ron did, and he said to bring him a snowball from
Hell. Hail proceeded to use Ron’s power to make it snow in the kitchen, which
pissed Divina off because she was making potions.”

I grabbed my jacket and keys by the door. “Alright
then, I guess we’re going to Hell.”

Mordon was a deplorable driver. If anyone could kill
an Ancient via traffic accident, it was this dragon. I tried to be patient, but
we didn’t make it to the end of the road without magic on my part. Fortunately,
my determination paid off and, six hours later, Mordon could drive in a circle
in a parking lot without hitting the security light-post more than twice.

At school, the boys developed a little fan club of
misfit crime-solvers. Ghidorah finally returned to Skrev, but not before
gaining Dylan’s eternal gratitude by curing Drake’s illness with Skrev
medicine… which Mordon was allergic to. Also, Stacy was pregnant.

Blue Jay and Phoenix became the new wardens since
Janus was missing and presumably dead, but Dylan had Ronez watch over them and
teach them. He put together another search party to look for Janus and any
remaining gatekeepers.

The boys got early Christmas presents when Shiloh
dropped off a specially made bow and set of arrows for Hail. Dylan got it in
his head that the eleven-year-old needed a bow made especially for him with
azurath metal. To my shock (not) Ron could yield it as well as Hail, while for
everyone else including Dylan, the string couldn’t be pulled back. The arrows
included in the gift could slice through diamond. The boy couldn’t have been
more thrilled.

Ron got a very nice violin. Having never seen a
violin before, he fiddled with it and tested out sounds awkwardly. Within an
hour, he figured out how to hold it and make all the notes. After dinner that
night, it sounded like he had been playing professionally for thirty years.

I was sitting at the table in Dylan’s apartment, way
late into the night. In fact, I was just about to head back to my own place
when Divina walked in, dressed only in a white tank top and Dylan’s boxers. Her
hair splayed out over her shoulders in beautiful, messy tresses, and it was obvious
she had been woken from sleep by more nightmares. She sat across from me.

“Are you going to tell Dylan your secret?” I asked.

“How did you know?”

“That you were pregnant? I think it was pretty
obvious.”

She snorted. “Not to Dylan. I think I’m happier than
I have ever been that he didn’t figure it out.”

“How did you lose the baby?” I asked. “Was it the
lightning attack on Ilea?”

“No, it was when I pulled him and Mordon from Skrev.
How can I tell him? It would break his heart.”

“Yes, it would.” She had to have been very stressed
out, for she didn’t see Mordon standing in the doorway. The look on his face
said he had heard it all. Divina lost Dylan’s baby saving Mordon. “Was it
Alice?” I asked.

She put her face in her hands. “I don’t know.”