by Rain Oxford
“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 th
e 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.
“The only thing we know is that we like it here.”
We made our way through the hospital until we got to the morgue, where Rebecca pushed the door open. Inside was a creepy room with many metal cabinets and a metal bed in the center. There was one door against the far wall. It was freezing in here, so I immediately drew my fire to the surface and pulled Sydney into my arms.
Sitting on a stool beside the metal table was a middle-aged man dressed in a light business suit, who sprang to his feet when he saw us. I pushed Sydney and Dylan behind me, but Rebecca put her hands up calmly.
“It’s just us, Keigan.”
The man relaxed slightly. “I thought you were dead when you didn’t come back last night. Who are they?” he asked.
“This is Dylan Yatunus. He saved everyone at the warehouse. He’s Ron’s father.”
The man reached out his hand to shake Dylan’s, but I was in protective mode. I pushed Dylan back and growled at the man. I still had plenty of Dylan’s energy in me to use in an emergency. The man’s eyes narrowed angrily, but he didn’t make a move. Dylan sighed and nudged me out of the way before taking the man’s hand. “Forgive my brother; he shot and killed his manners.”
“Well, your son has fantastic manners, so I guess it’s alright. Your boy is a pleasure to have in class. Too bad there’s nothing I can teach him.”
“He’s a genius, I know. Just help him get into the same class as his brother and you’ll have one little angel on your hands. Now, about these kids. I’d like to get them home now.”
Keigan went to the door on the far side of the morgue and opened it to reveal a makeshift slumber party. Five children were huddled around a fake campfire with sleeping bags strewn about. One little girl was zipped up in the sleeping bag so deeply that I almost missed her, but she was shaking. I went to her and let Dylan handle the others.
“Hey, there, little cub. What’s your name?” I sat cross-legged next to her.
Gold eyes peaked up at me. “Alyssa.”
“Well, Alyssa, I’m Mordon. I’d like to get you home if you’ll let me.”
She shoved back the sleeping bag, practically jumped into my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck in an act of pure, innocent trust. Even as I wanted nothing more than to get her home, Rojan snarled fiercely.
The little girl had a power inside her that could hurt Dylan; a beast like Rojan. She wasn’t a dragon, though. I recognized the image Rojan gave me instantly; this little girl was one of those draxuni-looking creatures. She was from Skrev.
I wasn’t prepared for the bright light that filled the room. Furthermore, when we were suddenly in a dark jungle forest under a blood red sky, I knew we were in trouble.
Chapter 13
Nila
“What are you doing here, honey?” Vivian asked, her entire demeanor changing the moment she saw her son.
“Zeb sent me to keep me safe while he went to go help Dylan.”
“Who sent you here?”
“That was foolish of him. I will take you home and care for you there,” Ghidorah suggested. Vivian looked devastated.
“Excuse me, but I can take care of my son for five minutes.”
“Dylan trusts me with him.”
“That doesn’t mean I do. I only met you on Duran five years ago, for less than a day.”
“It was more than a day and I don’t particularly remember you doing as much mothering as Tiamat did.”
“Don’t talk to her like that!” the child growled.
“Hello, Sammy. Do you remember me?” I asked him, trying to distract him. I hadn’t seen him since his Dylan brought him and Ron to visit when Sammy was four.
“Hello, Nila! Of course I remember. You blew up the throne room and gave me chocolate. I always wanted to ask you… You are Nano’s nephew, and he’s my biological dad, so that makes you my cousin. However, Dylan is my adopted dad and your adopted brother, so that makes you my uncle. How can you be my uncle and my cousin at the same time?”
“Vivian?” I asked her. I wasn’t equipped to answer difficult parenting questions.
“Sammy, stop teasing Nila,” she told him. She knelt in front of him and pulled him close. “Now, Nila and I are working on something right now, so I need you to go with Ghidorah.”
“Why can’t I help you?”
“You already have. I love you, honey. Now go back with Ghidorah and when this is all over, I want you and Dylan to visit.”
“Have you made your decision?” Ghidorah asked.
“I have.”
* * *
Right before Ghidorah could take Sammy back to Earth, another demon appeared. He and Ghidorah instantly squared off and growled at each other. Sammy just rolled his eyes. “Zeb, chill out and just take me to my brother.”
“I can do it,” the Guardian snarled at the demon.
The demon scoffed. “I’m the babysitter. You just do your job and leave me to do mine.”
All three vanished, leaving me more than a little confused. “Do you know that demon?”
“No, but Sammy wasn’t afraid of him, so I assume he’s a friend of Dylan’s. Let’s get to the surface.”
“What is the point now that you know Nano has betrayed us? Also, why didn’t you tell Sammy that Nano is giving vital information to the enemy?” I asked.
Her expression was miserable. “Things have never been easy for Nano and me, but I still can’t believe he betrayed us. There has to be something we’re missing. I don’t want Sammy to hate his father when I’m sure this is some kind of misunderstanding.”
Vivian was in complete denial. Unfortunately, it seemed her trust in her mate was going to mean endangering Dylan.
“We need to stop this slave operation. If we can get to the man in charge, I can subdue him and Kseve can arrest him.”
“But Kseve isn’t here and neither of us have magic. What can we possibly do?”
“What do you mean? No, we don’t have magic, but that has nothing to do with slavery. We have to stop them from hurting our people. It doesn’t matter if they have magic and we don’t.
She nodded. “What’s your plan?”
“Follow me.” I led her back through the town which, fortunately, was empty of the slavers. When we arrived at the medical station, a small building with two examination rooms and a waiting room, she frowned with confusion. Although all of the drugs have been long since cleaned out by outlaws, nobody bothered with the actual equipment.
“Why are we here? I’m not hurt,” Vivian said.
She was a brave woman, but far too insecure. “That’s not why we’re here.” I searched boxes and desks until I found a case of trackers. Each chip was tubular, white, and as small as a grain of rice. “Kseve and I have hundreds of these, but they’re in our bag, which is with him.”
“What are they?”
“Trackers. I am High King, Vivian, so I have many faithful followers. Although I want as many of my people safe as possible, I know I cannot do this alone.”
“There’s a rebellion.”
“Yes. They go by the Kedgra, identify each other by speaking English, and are all highly trained wizards. If you don’t want to do
this, I understand. It will be dangerous, especially when you don’t have magic.”
“I’m going to do it, but explain to me what I’m doing.”
“I will put the tracker in you that will allow me to follow you and hear what you hear. My plan, if you agree to it, is to put you back in the slave ring, where you will get traded around. I will send goblins in each place after you are moved to a new one and rescue all the slaves. There is a priority target. We can use the trackers to overhear their plans, so we know that one person is in charge. Unfortunately, I know very little about him because those who hear him talk end up dead.
“You were experimented on, and you weren’t the only one. Whatever they were doing, they had left behind many dead bodies. I want to know what the physician was trying to do. Do you remember anything about him?”
She shook her head. “I just remember them bringing me into a room… everything after that was fuzzy and painful. Wire me up and let’s get this show on the road.”
I paused to stare at her. “My English is confused.”
She laughed, but her smile turned into a painful grunt as she clutched her ribs. “Struggling against a demon, okay… laughing, not so much. I’m saying that I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“You could die.”
“Yeah, or I could help save hundreds of people. It’s worth the risk.”
I worried that her choice had something to do with Nano’s betrayal, but Dylan had told me she was a selfless woman who cared about the greater good. I took the injector, placed one of the chips in it, and turned to Vivian. “It would hurt less in a fleshy area, but you don’t really have any fat on you, so pull up your sleeve.”
“Don’t you have anything to sanitize it with?”
“All of the medicine and sanitation stuff has been stolen.” I pressed the injector against her upper arm and pressed the trigger.
“Son of a biscuit!” she screamed. “Jesus, that hurt!”
There was barely a mark on her skin. I took a clean cloth from the drawer and held it to her wound, but it stopped bleeding within seconds, so I threw it in the trash.
