by Nina Bangs
Ganymede flattened his ears and whipped his tail back and forth. “Who’s your friend? And here I always thought you hated boats. Last time I took you out on one you puked your guts up.”
Sparkle’s smile turned wicked. “This is Wade. He’s a demon. And I didn’t get sick on Wade’s boat.”
“Probably because we didn’t leave the dock.” Wade shifted uneasily. The winds of war blowing gale force back and forth across the table must be buffeting him.
“You don’t deserve someone as cultured and refined as Ganymede, Sparkle.” Asima must’ve decided Ganymede needed some backup. “Find someone who rips beer caps off with his teeth and farts in time with the marching band at halftime.” She leaned into Ganymede. “Ganymede enjoys fine wine, opera, and Shakespeare.”
Sparkle looked set to throw herself across the table onto Asima.
“I don’t mean to interrupt this really fine fight, but did anyone else catch that Wade is a demon?” Conall glared at Wade. “Not that I’d accuse you of sleeping with the enemy, Sparkle, but we need to find out which side of the fence old Wade is on.”
Brynn decided this was as good a time as any to get the discussion back on track. “Feel free to take personal disagreements somewhere else, because right now we have important decisions to make.” He glanced at Wade. “You want to tell everyone a little about yourself?”
Wade shrugged. “What’s to tell? I’m a eudemon. One of the good guys. Eudemons are pretty laid back. I don’t answer to any archdemon. I do my own thing, and that’s fishing. Okay, maybe I cheat a little when I fish, but that’s the extent of my demonic activities.” He glanced around the room. “Looks like you have a big problem, though, if a bunch of cacodemons are trying to take over. They’re typical A-type personalities, really motivated to do as many bad things as they can in the shortest amount of time. And if an archdemon is doing the organizing, you’re in a world of shit.”
Kim leaned toward Brynn. “Wade is a demon? Did you know he was a demon?” Her whispered question was a quiet hiss of anger.
He was tempted to lie. That’s what demons did.
He told the truth. “Yeah, but he’s not your stereotypical evil entity. He’s not a danger to anyone.”
“Well, he was sure a danger to Fo. Did he purposely try to destroy her so she couldn’t identify him?” Kim’s voice was a little louder.
“He was just trying to protect himself. Wade was afraid if Fo identified him as a demon, you’d try to destroy him.” He raised his own voice.
“Yo, folks, I can talk for myself.” Wade rested his elbows on the table and speared Kim with his gaze. “I’m sorry for trying to stomp on Fo, but you have to admit the Vaughns have a reputation for kicking demon ass.”
Kim frowned. “Yes, but—”
“I sort of like my existence, so I did what I needed to do. And Brynn didn’t know you well enough to predict how you’d react to having a demon for a neighbor. He couldn’t tell you the truth.” The demon shifted his gaze to Fo. “I’m sorry for causing you trouble, little lady. Am I forgiven?” He offered Fo his best good old boy grin.
Fo looked uncertain. She still wasn’t used to being treated as a sentient being. “I guess so. Just don’t do it again. Brynn had to work really hard to put me back together.”
Wade looked around the room. “By the way, who’s the idiot responsible for putting a demon right across the hall from a demon hunter? Don’t tell me it was a coincidence, because I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Eric rubbed the back of his neck. He looked weary, and the meeting had hardly begun. “The owner always checks out the reservations a few days in advance. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. I seem to remember that the owner told Holgarth to change your room to the one across from Kim’s.”
“Pretty hands-on owner, wouldn’t you say?” Wade’s eyes began to glow, hinting at the power hidden behind his easygoing facade. “Maybe I need to have a little chat with this owner.”
Eric shrugged. “If you find out the owner’s name, let us all know. We haven’t a clue who owns the park. Holgarth—”
The pounding of the gavel captured everyone’s attention. Holgarth held his wooden attention-getter ready to bring it down again. “As fascinating as all these glimpses into your personal lives are, we have a city to save.”
Wade nodded. “I won’t do any hand-to-hand stuff with the cacodemons, but I can act as your demon consultant. Sort of give you some insight into how they think.” He paused. “Of course, except for the archdemon, they don’t do too much in the way of thinking at all.”
Holgarth nodded. “We wouldn’t ask a guest to put himself in harm’s way.”
“Dirk is calling as many of the Vaughns as he can reach. They should start arriving tomorrow. They’ll need places to stay.” Kim looked expectantly at Holgarth.
Kim seemed focused on the demons, but Brynn had no doubt she’d have a few words to say about Wade once they were alone.
“If we don’t have enough rooms here, we’ll find places nearby. With so many spring breakers in Galveston, it won’t be easy, though.” Holgarth straightened his pointed hat and smoothed his blue robe, signaling he was up to the challenge.
“We have to find the archdemon, get rid of him, and then close the portal. Otherwise demons will keep coming through to replace the ones the Vaughns destroy.” Sounded pretty simple, but Brynn knew lots of things could go wrong. The demons they’d seen today hadn’t seemed particularly dangerous, but once night fell, true evil came out to play.
Kim nodded her agreement. “Finding the archdemon will be tough. I remember reading that an archdemon has the ability to completely cloak his presence. Our detectors won’t be able to spot him. And I assume if he’s that powerful, he’ll also be able to shield his thoughts from you guys.” She lifted her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Where do we start looking?”
Conall offered her a wolfish grin. “Catch one of those suckers outside a human body, and I’ll make it talk.”
Brynn shook his head. “That’s the problem. We can’t harm the humans they’re possessing, and I don’t think any of them will manifest in their true forms just to help us. We also have to take care of the humans after we destroy the demons. Eric will have to run around changing memories like crazy. We don’t need a panic in the city.”
After throwing ideas back and forth for almost an hour, Holgarth finally rapped his gavel for silence. “I think we’ve agreed that finding the archdemon and the portal are of paramount importance. We’ll conduct an ongoing search while we wait for the Vaughns to arrive. They can destroy the demon hordes while we deal with the archdemon. I’d suggest we travel together, since none of us has ever dealt with a demon as powerful as we assume the archdemon is.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
Holgarth took a deep breath. “It’s time to wake the gargoyles.”
Kim looked at Brynn. “Wake the gargoyles? What’s that about?”
Brynn frowned. “Gargoyles guard the four corners of the fence surrounding the park as well as all the doors. They’re more than just decorations.”
“This is one of the ‘wizardy things’ I do, Ms. Vaughn.” Holgarth gestured imperiously, and everyone rose obediently to follow him. “Conall, please have someone reroute people away from the entrance to the great hall until I’m finished.”
Conall nodded and left. Holgarth led them into the courtyard, and then he turned to face the two massive gargoyles guarding each side of the great hall doors. Grotesque faces with huge bulging eyes and fanged mouths open in silent screams were enough to make Brynn think twice about waking them. They were scary enough asleep.
Holgarth smiled at Kim, a slight lifting of his lips that was his official token smile. “You once asked what my job description was. In my own tacky way, I protect the park.”
Kim sighed as she looked at Brynn. “He never forgets an insult, does he?”
“Never. He can tell you the exact date Napoleon called him a useless
old pretender who couldn’t conjure horse shit. That’s the day Holgarth left his employ and the day before Napoleon got his butt kicked at Waterloo. Wizard vengeance isn’t pretty.”
Brynn was trying to concentrate on what Holgarth was doing, but Kim’s closeness was raising hell with his attention. His close encounter of the scary kind with the piano demon hadn’t done a thing to dampen his anticipation of spending more quality time with Kim. Maybe after Holgarth finished with his gargoyles.
“I will now call forth the power of all the gargoyles in the park through these dominant two.” Holgarth raised his arms and chanted in a language Brynn didn’t recognize.
Kim moved closer to Brynn. “What will happen now?”
“I don’t know. He’s never had to call on them before.” He did know what was happening to his body with her so near.
Suddenly, Holgarth flung his arms wide and shouted one final word. Like well-rehearsed special effects, lightning flashed across the clear night sky followed immediately by booming thunder that shook the ground.
He cast his audience a sly glance. “I don’t actually need the lightning and thunder, but I so enjoy the drama of the whole thing.” Holgarth turned back to the gargoyles and spoke to them in English. “We call on you and yours to protect those within this park from all—”
Brynn held up his hand. “Whoa. Don’t forget to stick in an exception there, or else they’ll kick me out, too.” The hope-springs-eternal part of him wanted to see whether the gargoyles would keep him out if Holgarth made a blanket demon statement. The ignorance-is-bliss part of him thought that was a stupid idea. Since meeting Kim, he’d wrested a sliver of hope from his centuries of hopelessness. He’d guard that sliver fiercely.
Wade tapped Holgarth on the shoulder and whispered. “Cacodemons. If you say all demons, your watch-gargoyles will toss me out. And I’m here for the whole week.” He slid a considering glance Brynn’s way. “You’re a demon, too? Could’ve fooled me. Never got a hint.” His gaze shifted to Kim. He smiled. “A demon and a demon hunter. Whatta you know.”
Holgarth glared at Wade. “Cacodemons.” His gaze moved to Brynn. “Brynn will be allowed to dwell within the park.”
Deep rumbling growls echoed from all sides of the park. The eyes of the two gargoyles guarding the great hall glowed yellow, and their huge mouths stretched wide in terrifying roars. They then grew silent, but their eyes still glowed in the darkness.
“Well, hell.” Eric’s soft expletive said it for everyone.
Holgarth turned once more to his audience. Lines of weariness creased his face. “These kinds of rituals take more out of me as the centuries pass.”
He took off his tall conical hat and ran his fingers through his gray hair. It was the first time Brynn had ever seen him without the hat.
“Any demons within the park when the gargoyles took over protection duties will be expelled along with their human hosts. Any new demons trying to enter will be unable to do so.” He put his hat back on. “I think I’ll retire early tonight to renew my energies for the coming battle.”
Brynn watched Holgarth leave, and then he looked down at Kim. “Looks like we have a few hours to kill.” Spend them with me.
She reached up to touch his head where the demon’s bullet had skimmed him. “Almost healed. Amazing.” She smiled. “Eric promised me one of his designer fantasies. After the day we’ve had, we deserve a good fantasy.”
15
Sparkle paced behind her counter, the sharp click-click of her heels punctuating her rising fury. “You slime-sucking, cheating worm. I gave you sex like you’ve never had it before, and what do you do? You slither around behind my back with that tight-ass bitch.”
Mede watched warily from his perch on top of her chocolate covered cherry display. “Hey, the cheating street runs both ways. I’ve taken you on some of the best adventures of your life, and you run off with a demon fisherman. What’s that all about? Big deal, he drops a hook in the water and then waits all day to catch a fish he could’ve bought in the nearest supermarket. Woohoo, Mr. Excitement. Besides, you hate boats.”
Sparkle narrowed her eyes to vengeance-filled slits. It was a good thing she’d put a Closed sign on her door. She didn’t want any customers walking in on the carnage. And there would be carnage. “Don’t you dare try to justify what you did. I only toured his stupid boat, while you . . .” Her lips wouldn’t form the words to express what she thought he’d done, so she let her hands do the talking.
Reaching into her glass display case, she grabbed two fistfuls of jelly beans and flung them at him.
With a startled hiss, Mede crouched as jelly beans rained down on him and bounced off the walls and floor. “Whoa, getting a little emotional, sugar tart.”
“I’ll sugar tart you.” Sparkle shrieked her rage as she scooped up handfuls of liquid-center chocolates. She heaved them at him. One made a direct hit on his forehead, while the rest went splat against the wall and sort of oozed down to the floor. “I gave you the best centuries of my existence, you toad.”
“Okay, okay, maybe I made a mistake going off with Asima.” He pawed at his face and only managed to spread the sticky goo to his feet.
“You had sex with the one woman in the universe who drives me ab—”
Incoming fudge bombs. Mede covered his head with his paws.
“so—”
Hailing peanut clusters. “Ouch, that hurt.”
“lute—”
Chocolate buttercream missile attack. “Losing my patience here, babe.”
“ly—”
Lethal truffle twister at twelve o’clock. Mede jumped aside just in time.
“crazy!”
Mede had evidently had enough. He leaped to the floor and hid under the display. “Don’t make me use my power, Sparkle. Put the nougats down.”
Sparkle had exhausted her anger. The only thing left was sadness. She dropped the nougats onto the counter.
“Now step away from the nougats.” Mede peeked out from under the display.
She walked around to the front of the counter and sat on the floor amid the destruction. “We had lots of good times, Mede. Why wasn’t that enough?” Stupid question. They were cosmic troublemakers, and cosmic troublemakers didn’t form emotional ties. He had a right to be with any woman he chose. But why the hell did he choose Asima?
Mede emerged cautiously and then padded over to sit beside her. “I didn’t have sex with Asima.”
“Ha. I bet you busted your butt trying, though.” But she brightened marginally. “Why bother with her at all when we were planning a good time of our own?”
Mede made another attempt to clean some of the sweet goop from his paws, face, and whiskers. “I don’t know. Maybe I wanted to see what kind of woman could piss you off like that. And maybe I got tired of you only calling me when you needed something. It would be kinda nice if you just wanted me for a change, with no strings attached. It’s like I always have to earn my good times. That does a job on a guy’s pride.”
Sparkle frowned. Okay, now she was starting to feel a little guilty. Not much, just a little. She glanced at her nails. She’d broken one of them while she was flinging candy. And for probably the first time in her existence, she didn’t care.
“Wade’s a lot of fun, but he’s not you.” That was as close to an apology as he was going to get.
Mede gave up on his face. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Asima was driving me crazy with her operas and plays. Funny thing, when she was telling you to get a guy who ripped the caps off beer bottles with his teeth, I was saying, ‘Hey, that’s me.’ ”
Sparkle smiled. “Really?”
He chuckled. “It’s true. I kept missing your fire, your passion, your temper.” Mede frowned. “Maybe not the temper so much.”
She looked around her. “When I lose it, I lose it big-time. Jeez, Deimos and I will have to clean this mess up before I open tomorrow.”
Mede moved a little closer. “Forget about the mess. How about if I c
hange to human form and spend the night creating some serious heat?”
She thought about that. Was she ready to forgive him completely? Probably not. She’d make him pay in little ways for a long time, but tonight she wanted the great sex only he could deliver. A full-blown screaming rage always made her horny.
Sparkle nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. Oh, have you decided what you want to do with Brynn?”
Mede glanced away. “You were right. He hates what he is. But I’ve got a problem. I tried to reverse everything, and it didn’t work. I always get this tingle when I make something happen. No tingle this time.” He frowned. “For thousands of years I’ve been a do-it kind of guy. I don’t know how to undo it.”
“What about the demons? Should we care?” The only truly important word in her vocabulary was me. And demons couldn’t harm a cosmic troublemaker.
“I sort of like Brynn.” Mede looked a little uncertain.
Interesting. Mede was never uncertain. “Yeah, Kim has possibilities. She looked great in my outfit. And I wouldn’t like to see demon scum wipe out Eric, Donna, Conall, or Holgarth.” Asima? She’d stand on the sidelines and cheer for the demons.
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t give a damn about anyone but us, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to help.” His narrowed eyes suggested that helping others wasn’t at the top of his to-do list. “If we weren’t doing anything else, I mean.”
“Sure. Like if I was trying on a new pair of Jimmy Choos, the demons would have to wait.” She didn’t want Mede to think she was getting soft.
“Right. I’m glad we got that straight.” He still didn’t look comfortable with the concept of joining the goodness-and-light team. “Have to be careful, though, and not be too helpful. Wouldn’t want to tarnish my reputation for being a badass.”
Sparkle sighed. She’d used up all her emotion for tonight. She’d have to worry about Brynn tomorrow. “Maybe we’ll think of a way to get rid of Brynn’s compulsion after a good night’s sleep.”
