When I didn't keel over from anything I'd tasted, they dug in. Stan brought food directly to Isaiah, setting it up on the small table next to his chair. I was offered none. Nada. Nothing. The few tastes had gotten my hunger juices flowing. Hmmph. I hope my boss was prepared to listen to some serious stomach growling.
After a few moments of eating, during which no one spoke a word, Isaiah said. "I feel I should mention that whether you are related to me or not, when you come to my home without an invitation, you take your chances." He smiled at them politely. No one smiled back. Fun group. "So why are you actually here?"
"We insist on meeting her." Malben's tone was demanding.
"Whom?" He sounded like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.
"The cheetah. The one you have brought to our realm to help you take our territory and our riches using her foul magic."
Isaiah laughed, a loud bark. "I have no desire to take even one meter of your territory or one gold piece of your wealth."
Krannox stood. "Liar. Where are you keeping her? Is she in your dungeon? Have you taken her to your bed as your lover? Do you plan for her to have your child?"
"I have no cheetah."
"Liar," said Krannox.
"Call me a liar once more and I will cut out your tongue and toss you out on your ass."
"The Bassilissa..."
"The Bassilissa is my mother. If you speak against me she will roast you over the pit in her bedchamber and eat you piece by tiny piece in front of your family. Or perhaps feed you to her dogs. She is fond of dogs, did you know?"
"She is our father's sister."
"I don't believe she remembers who your father is, let alone that he has children."
Malben stood. "Of course she remembers him. He visits her twice a year."
"As long as he brings an offering, correct? What did he bring last year? A seelie fae? Oh no, I believe it was a gnome, wasn't that it? Only a side dish or an appetizer." Isaiah chuckled and the three visitors glowered.
"That servant is new." The slim male, the easygoing one, leaned to his left to get a better look at me, his braids flopping in his face. "How much do you want for her?" I looked at my feet, feeling queasy. "Look at me, wolf." I continued to stare at the floor.
"She's not for sale or barter." Isaiah sounded bored, acting like this wasn't anything out of the ordinary for demons.
"She disobeys."
"She never disobeys me. I'm her master."
"Five thousand in gold."
"Are you sticking hot coals in your ears again, Rulko? Do you need a hearing enhancing potion? I believe I might have one somewhere." He motioned toward Stan.
"Is this wolf your new toy or does she serve the cheetah shifter? Does your mother know about her?" Rulko's questions were delivered nonchalantly, but there was an underlying threat that none of us missed. Maybe I was wrong about who the leader of this group was.
"For the final time, there is no shifter in my compound." He turned toward me. "Salina is mine and serves only me. Your noses should tell you that." He beckoned to me with a crooked finger, snaking a possessive arm around my waist and pulling me closer.
The cousins were drinking quite a bit of the strong wine, their speech growing slurred. "I cannot imagine that she satisfies you for long. You will break her within the week."
Rat face, Krannox, grinned. "Isaiah has never been particular." The three inebriated demons continued to laugh.
"Long legs." Slim...er, Rulko seemed to like that attribute. His legs were like stilts.
"Enough about my taste in bed partners. Malben, what's the news concerning the coming war?"
The demon snorted and then spit on the floor. No one looked shocked. Ew. Stan waved his hand discreetly and the spittle was gone. "The coming war? That's a joke. The little shit grandchild is still training under the Bassilissa." He meant my sister Bridgett. I had no objection to the name he'd called her. "She pushes for an early attack, but the war is still years away."
"Has the Bassilissa amassed a large army?" Isaiah felt my body tense, so he withdrew his hand and motioned that I should serve him some food. Maybe he wanted to distract me. I took a small piece of bread, added meat and hot sauce then handed it to him. He smiled and opened his mouth as if I should hand feed him. What a tool. I did, and he swallowed it in two gulps, then grinned wickedly. Demon tongues and stomachs must be coated in steel.
"Encore." After a pointed glare, I got him another helping. We were so going to have a talk about this later.
Malben took a few swigs of his wine. His English was getting harder to understand. "The army is small, but the Bassilissa has a great deal of support. It will grow when the time is right. We will take down the Usurper." He lifted his goblet and some of the wine sloshed over the side. I was pretty sure that the usurper he referred to was my son.
Rulko looked at me with a different kind of hunger. "She heard us speaking about the next great war. You will have to kill her now so she doesn't talk. Or you can give her to me. I will kill her for you, in a week or so."
"She is mute. She will not be telling anyone anything."
"Truly?"
"She serves my purposes well." Isaiah gave me a whack on the butt and a gentle shove away from the others, making me stumble. I scowled in his direction before I took my original place behind his chair.
"She shows her anger. You should discipline her." Malben pointed out. "She is not awarding you proper respect."
"Later. I like to take my time to tame the angry ones." The four demons laughed softly, nodding in approval. Isaiah had told me he wasn't into violence against women, so I wasn't worried. Of course he could come up with some other irritating punishment. He loved to get a rise out of me.
The discussions went on for a while longer. We found out from Rulko that the rumor of my being here, the real me, was spreading like wildfire. Many demons would be seeking an audience so they could check "the cheetah" out personally. I trusted that Isaiah would quash the rumor and keep me safe, but it was disturbing to know that, despite my disguise, I was already drawing attention in the DR.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The table shook when Isaiah slammed his fist against it. "I have a fucking leak."
I leaned away from the table and kept my mouth shut. All evidence indicated that someone in his household had told someone outside the household that I was here. Isaiah was furious at the rat but also at himself for not taking more precautions. Although what he could have done differently was beyond me.
"Stan, I want to see the kitchen staff first. Get them here now." Stan disappeared. "You've spent more time with them than any of my other servants. One of them could have been spelled to see through your glamour. I didn't add more magical layers than I thought were necessary, since I know the capabilities of my servants, but if they were given a potion by someone on the outside..." He sunk into his chair. "I've been careless."
"This isn't your fault. Maybe someone got in from outside. Could someone bug the place?"
"No. I have alarms and traps all over the grounds, in every room, and even the roof. Anyone other than me, you, or one of my servants has to be given a temporary block to keep the alarms from going off. Each room is scanned daily for bugs." He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Damn. It has to be one of mine."
"What're you going to do?"
He watched me for a long moment. "I'm going to question each servant and then punish the person who betrayed me. The others will think he's being punished for spreading a false rumor."
"Punish how?"
"I'm going to kill him. Slowly."
"Why?" I thought about those sweet goblins who'd laughed with us during dinner last night. It couldn't be one of them. Please don't let it be them.
"It's necessary. You'll watch."
"No."
"If one of my staff has betrayed us, all of us, then I require the others to witness the execution."
I looked down at my hands. I wasn't sure I could stomach that kind
of violence. I mean, I'd killed people in self defense, but torture was... "I can't."
" If the wrong people learn the truth about you, then your life is in danger."
"I understand why they have to watch, but why do I?"
"Because they think you're one of them...a member of my staff. They don't know who you really are. If you don't watch, then they'll suspect that the rumor was true."
"You said I was safe here, that your security system was the best."
"No one can get in to attack us, but information can always find a way to get out if someone you trust is willing to betray you. Someone other than Stan must have observed your arrival. If I allow that person to live, they'll spread word that I'm weak. I'll be attacked in force. A security system is sufficient against small groups, but if an army arrives at the gate, we're vulnerable."
Stan and the five kitchen staff appeared a few moments later. Isaiah had them line up, then he spoke to them in his own tongue. Nil, Gillix, Rylee and Dilt seemed sincere when they answered, but the fifth, a larger goblin with gray-green skin, argued with Isaiah. Finally, the goblin spat on the floor by Isaiah's feet. Stan did his magical clean-up wave.
I was shocked when the goblin spoke in English. "The bitch befriends seelie fae. She and her son will be exterminated within the year."
Isaiah whipped his hand through the air and the goblin was frozen in place. To Stan he said, "Bring the rest of my staff."
A minute later, another eight goblins were lined up behind Stan and the four remaining kitchen servants.
Isaiah sent to my mind, "It is important for you to stay strong. Don't look away."
Over the course of the last five years, I'd discovered that being responsible for the death of any creature, even a sworn enemy, was not without deep regret. When you kill, you take away any chance they might have had to change, to grow, to evolve. As Isaiah tortured and killed his servant, I hoped with every ounce of my being that he felt that same sorrow at the ending of a life.
I managed to remain stoic throughout the ordeal. When it was over, I slipped away, returning to my room. I curled up on the bed and hugged myself, wishing that I could wake up in Garrett's arms. I'd only been here for twenty-four hours, but already it felt like a week. Closing my tear-filled eyes, I hoped that Garrett and Charlie weren't too worried about me.
When I woke up two hours later, Isaiah was sitting in the chair across from my bed, watching me. Someone had taken off my shoes and pulled a blanket over me as I slept. I pushed the bed-hair out of my face and sat up, leaning back against the headboard. He held a goblet containing the usual potion, but he remained silent, simply watching me.
After the death, Isaiah and his servants had shared the dead goblin's blood, drinking from a ceremonial cup. He hadn't offered me any. If he had I wouldn't have taken it. Perhaps he didn't offer it in order to save me from the awkwardness of my refusal.
"My potion?" I asked. He nodded. I reached for the cup, but he surprised me by putting it down on the desk. Then he began to speak.
"Around fifty human years ago, my mother asked me to find her a male cheetah shapeshifter so that she could have a child by him. As a cheetah, his bloodline would be pure and magically strong. It amused her to mix the two species, knowing that the Magicks were so different.
"I found Jonathan Heath in the wilds of North Dakota, a cowboy on a small ranch who tended cattle for his boss and hunted secretly in the nearby woods. He had a human wife who didn't know that he was a shapeshifter. As you know, it's fairly easy to keep secret until someone notices that you're not aging. But he was still young and so was she.
"I told Mother where he lived and she found him easily enough. She seduced him, visiting their small home when the wife was in town or off spending time with her family in Minnesota. She'd scrub his mind so he wouldn't remember her visits.
"After a few lust-filled excursions, my mother became pregnant. The child, your mother, was handed to me two weeks after her birth. I was told to 'find it a home and then occasionally report back to her on its progress.
"I found a childless shifter couple in Wyoming, the Fitzgeralds, and told them Adele was a cheetah who'd lost her parents in an accident. They were excited to take her in and ended up adopting her. I figured she'd be safe with them and checked on her a few times when she was young. She seemed happy.
"Her family moved to Tahoe the summer before she started high school because of her father's job. I think that's where she met your dad, Simon. During one visit, her parents told me that she'd been very upset about a boy who'd broken up with her. Apparently her eyes had turned orange.
I took Adele aside and told her the truth about her bloodline. I tried to reassure her by offering to train her the way I've been teaching you. She resisted, insisting that there must be a way to block her demon nature. When I told her it wasn't possible, she started looking for answers from other supes. First she tried witches, then blood witches then she moved on to sorcerers.
"I think she loved your dad, but when he couldn't help her either, she kept looking for answers. Then she found out she was pregnant. The last time I saw her, she was living with you and your sister in a bungalow behind her parent's house. She seemed happier than I'd ever seen her. Maybe being a Mom settled her down and made her see life differently.
"Her parents told me she hadn't been feeling well, so they'd taken the two of you into their house so that your mom could rest. There was an explosion around 2 AM and the bungalow burned down.
"It wasn't an accident, right? Grandmother said it was a fae who did it, but I don't think that makes any sense."
"It wasn't a fae. Your grandmother got angry that Adele wasn't embracing her demonic nature. She decided she'd given her long enough to come around. One of Mother's captains set off the bomb. Luckily, no one in the main house was hurt.
"Mother didn't know you or your twin existed. I'd never mentioned it. In fact I never reported to her about Adele at all, so I still don't know how she found out where your mom was living.
"Adele's parents contacted social services and made sure you and Bridgett were separated so that one of you'd have a better chance at survival in case my mother came looking. They didn't feel they could raise two more shifters with demon blood so they just moved away. I don't know where."
Isaiah stopped talking and stared out the window. Even though it had been hard to hear, I felt grateful to finally know the truth. "Thank you for telling me." I took two sips from the goblet, then replaced it and sat again on the bed.
He smiled at me, the warmth not reaching his eyes. "What I said about you being courageous like your mother was wrong. She wasn't brave at all. She let her fear destroy her. She could have protected herself if she'd learned what I was trying to teach her. You have true courage."
"I'm frightened for Charlie."
"As you should be," he whispered.
Isaiah seemed to have lost his usual energy. "Did you love my mother?"
He hesitated. "Demons rarely love. It makes us vulnerable to attack."
I took that as a yes. "Love makes everyone vulnerable. You learn to trust when you love someone. It's scary as shit."
This time his eyes were smiling too. "She loved you and your sister. Believe it." Another order, one I didn't mind following.
"The promise you talked about..."
"Adele asked me to look out for you. I'm afraid I let the ball drop on that score. At least until I came across you in Kennet's care. It was as if fate had dropped you into my arms at the perfect time."
"Ya know, sometimes you're almost sweet."
"Uch! My reputation will never recover."
A sharp pain attacked my temples. I covered my head instinctively with my hands. "Ow."
"Good, this might work."
"What do you mean?" I groaned.
"I added something to the potion."
"What?"
"My blood." He had the nerve to grin.
"Great."
"You've had my blood before
, and here in the DR it's much more potent."
Shit. My skin was all creepy crawly so I rubbed my arms in an attempt to make the sensation stop. Sweat beaded on my brow as my heart speeded up dramatically. I began to hyperventilate, panting in shallow gasps. This wasn't good. The room spun as if I was in a movie theatre with a wrap around screen, only all the scenes were flashing by ten times faster than normal. My arms instinctively clutched at my stomach to try and center myself, but it didn't help.
"Oh god, make it stop." Tears squeezed out of my tightly closed eyes.
Isaiah placed a hand on my forehead and another on my waist to hold me upright. "Finally." I felt his breath against my neck. "Don't panic. I'm taking down one more stubborn block that your cheetah has decided was necessary but isn't."
"Ow. You're such a..."
He whispered into my ear. "Shh. Open your eyes, Jackie." Reluctantly, I did.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
On the day that Liam had shared his fae magic so I could defeat Antoine, I'd seen magic flowing though his body. It had looked similar to blood cells under a microscope, yet more colorful, in varied shapes that continuously took on other shapes, forming patterns too intricate to follow.
This time I saw magic everywhere.
Isaiah was a rainbow of movement, vibrant violets, yellows and reds clumping and then splitting apart and reforming. A thick chord of orange ran through his veins like blood—the strength and brightness of his magical core incredible to see.
Rainbow hues made up the walls, the furniture, the bedding, all of it fitting together like a Chinese puzzle box. Outside the windows, the world moved in eddies of iridescent pigments, each one more beautiful than the last. Yet amidst all this movement, I could still make out the basic shape of the trees and doors, the floor and the sea. Isaiah's body and mine.
My eyes widened in awe as I lifted my hands to look at them. "Holy shit."
I ran to the mirror. My body was transparent and opaque, solid and ethereal all at the same time. I felt like one of those kid's books of the human body that had see-through overlays. When you lifted one page, more was revealed. Only I didn't see muscle and bone. I saw magic—golden orange demon magic, and yes—there it was. A green stream of cheetah magic. Although nowhere near as vibrant as Isaiah's, my currents were still strong, seeming to flow along different highways, adjacent but never touching.
rogue shifter 06 - torn apart Page 13
