by Terry Spear
“He is worthy of being my son.”
Changing the subject, Hunter asked his father, “What’s my brother’s name?” He didn’t appreciate that anyone would say he’d take after his father because he’d abandoned his mother so cavalierly. And he didn’t care whether his father thought he was worthy or not.
“He hasn’t turned of age yet. He doesn’t know he’s half demon. Until he does, you have no need to see him.”
“You’ve been checking up on him?” Hunter asked, his voice raised, irritated that his father had never checked on him.
“I have revisited his mother from time to time.”
“And not mine?” His words echoing off the walls, Hunter couldn’t contain the heat in his voice.
“Your mother was too needy. Rolling’s mother is a witch, demanding and endearing.” Then Bentos frowned. “But do not think I don’t want the Kubiteron because of her.”
Treikal smiled intriguingly and motioned to a room.
“If she’s such a witch…,” Hunter said, remembering the comment his father had made earlier about Alana.
Bentos motioned to silence him. “The Kubiteron is…” He shook his head. “Forget it. I want her. Leave it at that.”
“You can’t have her.”
He laughed when Hunter glowered at him. “Today, we will fight as one.”
“Not in the hall of records,” Treikal warned.
A crowd of several different demon types gathered in a circle. Alana couldn’t be in the middle of it all.
When Hunter and his father reached the circle, the demons all politely moved away. Their actions made Hunter feel like a prince among his courtiers. He’d never seen more than a couple of demons together at one time and whenever he’d run into them, they’d always moved out of his path. But seeing a whole crowd of them part for him, he realized how much the lesser demons feared the Matusa. The idea was sobering.
Until he observed Alana seated at the monitor, her fingers tapping away at a keyboard, her spine tense. Jared saw Hunter first and gave him a worried look. Ferengus noticed him next, and his eyes flamed.
Alana glanced at Hunter last. Her green eyes widened and his heart skipped a couple of beats.
At first, her lips parted, and then his name slipped off them. Her gaze suddenly shifted to Bentos. Again her eyes rounded. Then she looked back at Hunter, leapt from her seat, and raced to close the gap between them, surprising him to the nth degree.
“Thank God you’re all right!” Her firm embrace started a white hot fire burning deep inside him. But then she quickly released him. “What took you so long?”
Before he could respond, she communicated privately to him. Now what do we do?
He had no idea. Every demon eye remained fixed on them. Even Bentos didn’t seem to care for Alana’s display of affection for Hunter. And he sure hadn’t expected it.
“Your uncle awaits you in my hospital room,” he said.
She groaned. “He will ground me forever.” She squeezed his hand. “I was afraid he’d kill you. He said he would.”
Hunter couldn’t contain his amusement. “He could have tried.”
She gave him an annoyed look, then turned to Treikal. “Thank you for allowing me to use your computers.”
“You’re welcome to use them anytime.” He bowed his head to her.
“Ohmigod, why didn’t I think of it?” Alana’s face brightened, and she tugged at Hunter’s hand. “Open the portal! I don’t know the spell, but you do. Call Jared with us, and we can go through the gateway. Only us.”
Hunter glanced at his father. Too bad he couldn’t get to know him a little better, but his father wanted Alana, and Hunter wasn’t about to let him have her. She was half human and belonged in the human’s world, now that he knew she hadn’t been kept in Earth world by maniacal summoners.
Hesitating a moment longer, he assumed his father would frown on Hunter’s cowardly way out, not fighting for the right to have Alana. But he couldn’t risk losing her to Ferengus, or any of the other demons waiting outside the records building, not even his father. Then he reconsidered. Maybe it wasn’t such a cowardly way, but a human way.
He opened the portal, summoned Jared to come with them, then yanked Alana through before Ferengus could stop them. None of them could follow, unless Hunter or Alana summoned them.
When they entered the hospital room, there was no sign of Alana’s uncle or the other men. Crissie was sobbing, wringing her hands.
Surmising the worse, Hunter asked, “Where’s Alana’s uncle? What’s happened?”
Chapter 12
As soon as Alana saw how distraught Hunter’s mother was, she assumed her uncle had come after her. “He hasn’t gone through the portal?” she quickly asked, her voice shaky. “Not to the demon world?”
“Yes. The gray-bearded man with him forced me to open the portal. He didn’t get physical, but somehow…” Crissie began sobbing again. “He… he just made me.”
“All of them went through?” Hunter asked.
“Alana’s uncle and four others, including the older man.”
“Yolan,” Alana said under her breath. She grabbed Hunter’s arm. “We have to go back.”
“No. You’re safe here. You stay.”
“No, Hunter, they’ll rip my uncle and his friends to shreds. I have to go back.”
“He made his own choice.”
“To save me, right? He wanted to help me! I… we can’t leave him… them alone there.”
Hunter yanked her hand away from his arm. “I’ll go back, but you will stay here. I don’t want to fight the whole male population of Matusa over you.”
“I can help.”
He gave a haughty laugh. “You didn’t even know which demon type you were or what demon powers you possess.”
“I’m not a very powerful witch either, but maybe I can draw on something that will help.” Telling non-magic users she was a witch was forbidden, though she figured since Hunter was a demon, he would understand it was something best left unsaid. But she hadn’t wanted his mother to hear.
Hunter stared at her, and she could tell he didn’t believe her.
Folding his arms, Jared cursed under his breath. “I told you she wasn’t human.”
She glared at him. “I am too human. I’m just a witch on top of it.”
Hunter growled. “There’s no such thing as witches.”
“Yeah, well, there is no such thing as demons, either. But we’re all in the myths and legends of every culture who bothered to write them down.” She headed for the portal.
Hunter seized her arm. “You stay here.”
“If you go back and force me to stay, I’ll have your mother open the portal and reenter the demon’s world alone. Wouldn’t it be better for us to stick together?”
Hunter’s eyes flared red. He turned to Jared. “This isn’t your fight. You stay here.”
“Not this time. I want to see what else a witch can do.” Jared gave her an evil grin. “I knew you weren’t human.”
“I’m a Matusa demon!” Hunter moved toward the portal like a warrior bent on a fight. “Lesser demons are supposed to listen to me, cower before me, obey my every wish.”
Alana grabbed his hand and Jared’s arm. “Right. Lead on, Dark One. Command us all you like.”
He glanced at her, his look truly demonic. “And you will obey.”
The trouble with demons was they had this rigid pecking order. But Alana didn’t believe she was beneath any demon, Matusa, or otherwise.
Not that she didn’t fear the Matusa. Most were evil to the core, and anyone who didn’t give them a wide berth would soon pay. But she still didn’t think she was beneath them, just didn’t have the strength of one, that was all.
For now though, she hoped her witch’s skills and a demon power of some sort would manifest itself, and she could help her uncle and his friends return to their world unscathed. Although she didn’t even want to think about what her uncle thought of her now. However
, this wasn’t exactly the way she wanted him to learn she was half demon.
At first when they entered the demon city, she didn’t see a soul, except for the shadows moving deeper into the alleys, but when she and Hunter and Jared approached the record’s building, blue sparks flew into the street and up toward the gray heavens.
The zigzagging lights looked like a bolt of lightning hit a power transformer. Uncle Stephen, Yolan, and three other bearded men she didn’t recognize, cast some kind of magic at several Matusa demons. Lesser demons peered through windows, not venturing forth into the melee. The Matusa fighting the warlocks, waved their hands, motioning in their direction, but didn’t seem to be having any effect. Though, the strained look on the warlocks’ faces didn’t look good.
“Uncle Stephen!” Alana screamed, running toward them. She had to get them through the portal before their strength dwindled and any of them were killed.
Everyone stopped and turned to watch her. Relief washed over her uncle’s face, then he furrowed his brows. “Get back!”
“You and the others must come with us through the portal. They can’t follow us there unless summoned. Hurry!” Alana responded.
The truce swiftly abated and the demons again attacked the warlocks. She hurriedly cast a protection spell around herself and Hunter and Jared, but wasn’t sure if it would work.
Uncle Stephen told the warlocks, “Fall back to the portal with Alana. Keep up the attack, but fall back.”
Ferengus rushed for Alana, but Hunter threw himself in front of her. As soon as Ferengus’s wicked claws extended, she hurtled her aggressive defense spell. He glanced at her and smiled. Her spell had had no effect, and she realized she’d only been able to throw Hunter from his bed when he tried to control her because he’d been so weak.
Ferengus slashed his claws at Hunter, who jumped out of his path.
Her uncle and the others were moving toward them, inching backwards.
“Can you open a portal here, closer to us?” she asked Hunter.
Hunter shook his head. “I can’t open two portals at once.” He kicked Ferengus on the side of his knee. Even over the noise of the bolts of electricity the warlocks cast, she heard Ferengus’s leg snap. His eyes blazing with fire, he cried out in pain. Bentos leaned against the stone building, arms folded across his broad chest, his gaze focused on his son. He nodded approvingly.
He wouldn’t lift a finger to help Hunter? Some father!
Jared was staying out of the fracas, but she couldn’t blame him. If his kind was less powerful than her kind, and she couldn’t handle a Matusa, Jared didn’t stand a chance.
She cast a bramble protection spell. The wicked thorns stretched across the street and up the sides of the buildings, but the demons didn’t seem to see them. The spell wouldn’t trouble the warlocks, but her spells seemed useless against the demons, too.
“Teach me an attack spell, Uncle Stephen! Let me help!”
“They’re not bothering you. Go back through the portal!”
“No! They want me! You have to let me help you!”
He didn’t say anything in response, and she fumed, trying to think of anything else in her simple witch’s repertoire. She’d never really cared about learning spells and potions, mainly because her mother had never been interested in teaching them to her. It always seemed like just more schooling. And the way that Uncle Stephen made her learn, constant levitation and other boring skills, none of it appealed.
Levitation? Would that work?
She cast the spell on Ferengus before he was able to claw Hunter again.
At first, Ferengus continued to hop around on one leg, trying to strike at Hunter, then dodged his swift kicks and deadly hand blows. Alana tried again, and Ferengus lifted slightly off the ground. For a moment, Hunter stared at him, then he jumped in for another kick. This time when he planted his sneaker into Ferengus’s chest, the demon sailed back against a glass building, crashing right through it.
Bentos let out a bark of dark laughter, then clapped his hands in slow action.
“Cathors, Relentus, Prickenen, Chorlantus,” Uncle Stephen told Alana.
She watched the way he twisted his hands, directing sparks of electricity toward two demons at once.
Hunter squeezed her hand. “We’ll never make it. You go, and I’ll help your people leave.”
“Close the portal! Reopen it here, hurry!” Alana ordered him.
Hunter gave her a sinister look, hesitated, then dashed off for the portal.
Without Hunter to protect her, when Ferengus climbed out of the broken window, she readied her first weapon attack and hoped it would work.
She spoke the words, but nothing happened. Watching the way her uncle and the other warlocks moved their fingers, she tried again. Nothing. “I can’t make it work!” she shouted to him.
He gave her another spell, and she tried it to no avail.
“What do the Kubiteron demons have in their arsenal of tricks?” she asked Jared.
He stared at her, probably trying to figure out how she’d gotten into his head.
“Jared! Snap out of it.”
Ferengus’s face and hands were bleeding from the glass he’d shattered, and he barely could walk on his injured leg, but he still crept toward her like a grim-faced zombie from a late-night horror movie.
“Jared! What can I do?”
“I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”
“Think, faster!”
Ferengus’s mouth inched up, and his eyes challenged hers. “You will come to me and be mine, as I have claimed you.”
“An image! You claimed an image, not me. Hunter Ross claimed me!” She only meant to show the demon she couldn’t belong to him, not submit to Hunter or any other.
But Jared shook his head at her words. “Hunter will love to hear this.”
She couldn’t tell from his sarcastic tone of voice if it was a good thing, or bad. Ferengus’s demonic pull attempted to control her mind, and she struggled to fight it. Though she couldn’t repel him like she could a human, or maybe lesser demons, he couldn’t rule her—maybe because of her witch’s abilities.
“Water? Do you have any power over water?” Jared quickly asked.
Remembering how her uncle had said she wouldn’t be any good as a water mage, she shook her head.
Jared punched up information on his computer. “Healing, the data bank says.”
“Won’t help here. And even with Hunter, it didn’t work. Besides, I need offensive or defensive spells.”
One of the warlocks sank to his knees, and Alana gasped, then tried to run to him. But Yolan caught her arm and shoved her back. “Stay out of this, Alana!”
“Wind,” Jared shouted, sounding proud of himself.
She stared at him. “What?”
“You can command the wind.”
“How?”
“How do I know? I’m an Elantus, not a Kubiteron.”
She raised her hands and tried to stir up the wind. A sickly breeze blew her hair into her eyes. “I can’t do it!”
“Certainly you can’t, if you’re going to think negatively.” Jared’s eyes flashed red.
She growled back at him, then turned and nearly had a heart attack when Ferengus snatched at her arm. She jumped back, stumbled over Jared, and fell on her butt. Commanding the wind, she felt like an utter fool. Of course, nothing happened.
“Are you even trying?”
“Of course I’m trying.”
“Apparently not very hard!”
Ferengus hovered over her and reached his hand out to her, his eyes willing her to agree. “Come now, Kubiteron! I command you.”
She jumped to her feet, stepped back, and levitated him again.
He screamed an ear-piercing racket, and she realized then, her simple act of levitation proved more powerful than an attack spell. The demon couldn’t fly, couldn’t move toward her.
Hunter grabbed her arm, and she let out a squeak, nearly dropping Ferengus. But then she conc
entrated on her spell again.
“Come on! The portal’s right behind you,” Hunter shouted at her.
“Uncle Stephen, Yolan! The portal’s here!” she hollered, finally feeling the wind from the gateway at her back.
“I summon you, Jared,” Hunter said, but before he could pull Alana through the portal, she raised Ferengus higher, then dropped him. He cried out in pain with murder in his eyes. So much for him wanting her for his lifemate.
Quickly, she levitated the fallen warlock, bringing his lifeless body with her as Hunter drew her into the swirling blue-green light, and the other wizards ran to join them.
“You are mine!” Ferengus screamed.
And Alana knew there was only one way out of this.
Chapter 13
Alana’s expression was stricken while she, her uncle, and the gray-bearded man crouched over their fallen comrade in the hospital room. Hunter noticed then, Alana was moving her hand over the unconscious man, like she’d done with Hunter when trying to heal him. He closed the portal, but before he could do anything else, his mother ran to him and hugged the breath from his chest. His human side couldn’t help but be cheered by her reaction, but his demon side was annoyed. He didn’t need to be coddled, particularly in front of a room full of people.
“The nursing staff was so upset when they found you missing. I said you were in the bathroom, but when they came back later, they checked it to make sure you weren’t any sicker. I didn’t know what to say about you not being there. Just acted dumb.”
She didn’t appear to be dumb in the least bit, just very caring and over sentimental about his demon father who didn’t deserve her love.
“What about him?” his mother asked, pointing at the prone man.
Alana hung close to the man. She moved her lips silently and wiggled her fingers slightly, but looked like she was trying not to let the other warlocks see her action.
Yolan raised his hands over the man’s chest and spoke strange words under his breath.
“One of the demons broke through Zoros’s defenses and stopped his heart,” Uncle Stephen said.
Yolan touched the man’s chest and spoke a different set of words, then moved his hands in a dissimilar path. Alana continued to do her own healing chant, but Yolan and the others ignored her.
