by Ponce, Jen
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
About the Author
Other Books by this Author
DEMON'S CRADLE
Jen Ponce
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s wild imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead or zombie, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Jen Ponce
Demon’s Cradle
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U. S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher/author Jen Ponce.
Visit Jen at:
Her website: www.JenniferPonce.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/JenPonceAuthor
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/JenPonceAuthor
For my boys: Emilio, Luc, and Miguel
You dudes rock. I can’t imagine my life without you!
ONE
The ragged spines of the mountains curled around the valley like a dragon guarding its hoard of gold. Tiny yellow flowers danced between blades of grass and the yellow leaves on the Golden Ash trees shushed in the breeze. There was even a burbling brook nearby with water so crystal clear I could see each individual minnow as it swam and darted upstream. Kroshtuka and I were in the middle of all that wonder.
You’d think we’d be doing something romantic like holding hands or kissing. Or something even more exciting like getting busy with our clothes off. Yeah, no.
“It’s my roll next.” He grinned as he tossed the dice onto the Monopoly board. Doubles.
“Damn it. Are you cheating?”
He arched his brow, his eyes gleaming. “Would I do that to you?”
“Probably,” I muttered. I was down to my last thousand dollars and he had piles of the fake stuff in front of him like drifted leaves. He also owned most of the properties on the board. How had that happened? I was never bringing Monopoly again.
He landed on Parking, of course, and raked in the money from the middle. If we played again—which we weren’t going to—we were going to go back to old school rules. The generosity I showed my children was being taken advantage of by my competitor.
“I can roll again.”
“Go for it.” Just prolonging the agony but that was all right. Soon it would be over and then we could do some of the romantic stuff. It was strange to think we hadn’t seen each other in person since I’d left Midia after the last confrontation between Amara, Ellison, Tytan, and me. Kroshtuka’s people could travel in dreams and I’d gotten good enough to help him construct this magnificent dream palace for us to frolic in.
And here we were playing Monopoly.
I rolled and landed on Boardwalk. “I lose.” I moved away from the board, stretching in what I hoped was an alluring way. In these dreams I looked more or less like myself, so I wasn’t sure how alluring I could be. It must have worked because his eyes darkened and he crawled right over the board to get to me, settling his weight over mine.
He kissed me, a long, leisurely kiss that made me shiver in pleasure. The things we did in our shared dream were real. We were worlds apart—literally—and yet we were able to connect to each other across the distances, facilitated by the ring he’d given me that I wore around my neck on a chain. Someday I would go back and see him in person, but with kids and the difference between Earth and Midia as far as how time moved, it was a hard thing to get done.
When he pulled back an inch, my eyes were more than half closed and I’m sure I had the doped look of a drug user after her first hit. “When will you come see me again?”
I snorted. “Were you in my head?”
“Yes. We’re both in each other’s head, remember?” He nuzzled my chin with his lips and I sighed.
“Soon?”
“You can bring your children. I would like to meet them.”
The idea of taking my kids anywhere near Midia made my skin crawl.
“Domar berries,” he reminded me.
“I know. It just seems dangerous. And they’re my kids.”
“Perhaps I should come to you then.”
I wished he’d just shut up and kiss me. That was rude. But I still wished it. I didn’t want to think about what I would say to Bethy and Liam if Kroshtuka came to Earth. Their dad had been murdered in front of them several months ago and I wasn’t sure if they were ready for me to have another man in my life now. “Perhaps.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to push you. Sometimes our time together feels like a dream. I just want to touch your body and know that you are real.”
I pulled him close to me, not wanting to let him go, wanting to give him an answer that would make him happy. Life was too damned complicated sometimes. I opened my mouth to say something, I don’t even know what it was, when our dream world glitched. It was a millisecond’s buzz. That twitch of sound between radio stations on the AM band. “Did you hear that?”
He was at my collarbone, his thumbs tracing circles on my belly. “Mmm?”
“That sound.” I pushed myself onto an elbow and stared hard at the mountains beyond, not sure what I was waiting for.
“Devany?”
The sky had darkened at the far end of the valley, where the dragon’s head met tail. It never darkened here. This was our Dreamscape, a place of idyllic perfection. “Do you see that?” A wind whipped up, tossing the money up into the air and swirling it like a mini million-dollar tornado.
Kroshtuka pulled me to my feet. “We need to get out of here. I’m not sure what’s going on but something is disturbing the Dream.” I think that’s what he said. Halfway through his speech, the glitch cut in, louder this time, with a hard burst of static that hurt my ears.
“Devany.”
The voice froze Kroshtuka, froze the wind. A yellow piece of Monopoly money was paused in midair about nose height between us. I spun a full circle and saw no one. “Who are you?”
“Who I am isn’t important. What I am might be. Pretty little place you have here. Too bad it’s going to rot.” As the intruder spoke, the mountains crumbled. The ground shook under me and almost knocked me off my feet. Kroshtuka still hadn’t moved. The money was airborne and frozen in place. The leaves began falling off the trees like a golden cascade of water, withering to brown as they fell. “It will all rot. Inside out.”
“What do you want?”
“To destroy you and everything you hold dear.” The voice tittered and the laughter set off landslides. The rumbling sound of rock rolled toward me, crescendoing until I covered my ears.
The ground shook and split, just like the movies, in a perfect line between Kroshtuka and me. I stepped over it before it could widen and wrapped my arms around his waist. He was rigid and though I tugged on him, he wouldn’t budge. “Wake up! Wake up and get out of here.” To my unseen tormentor I said, “Let him go!”
It mocked me
in my own voice. “’Let him go and I’ll do whatever you want!’” It laughed again and I held onto Kroshtuka to keep from falling. The crack widened. A gout of fart-smelling air belched out. “So 80’s thriller cliché. Do you know how I know that? I’ll tell you how I know that. I ride people. Get inside them when they are daydreaming or taking a piss. Whenever they’re distracted, that’s when I get in. I slither up into their brains and ride them, sinking my claws in deeper and deeper, whispering to them all the while, suggesting what they should do to that sweet, innocent child on the corner. What they should do to that dog tied up in front of the ice cream shop.”
The voice became more sibilant, insistent. I realized it was distracting me. I had to leave but I couldn’t go without Kroshtuka.
Already gone, said the spider assassin inside me. Kicked out of Dream. This is construct. Go!
I still hesitated. Neutria was smart in her own murderous way but I wouldn’t put it past her to sacrifice Kroshtuka for her own welfare. She was the type to eat her own mates after doing the dirty deed.
A piece of sky fell—a great big length of blue sky—and crashed like glass to the ground, spraying shards into the air. That decided me. I made a hook, a mental one instead of a real one, and stepped out of the Dream, slamming the doorway shut behind me.
***
I was in bed, staring at my ceiling.
The phone was ringing.
My heart pounding ninety miles an hour, I rolled to look at the clock. Three in the morning? I looked at the caller ID, saw that it was a blocked number, and debated whether or not to answer. I sighed. “Damn it. Hello?”
“Devany?”
The wobble in Danni’s voice made me sit up in bed. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Are you safe?”
Her ragged breathing told me she wasn’t okay. “I just got a phone call. From him.”
A sick thread of fear wound through my stomach like a diseased worm. “He’s in prison,” I said, stupidly. Because if he called her this early in the morning I could be assured he wasn’t in prison.
“I called the sheriff. He was released earlier today.”
“What? And they didn’t let you know? I thought he was in without parole for another twenty years?”
She broke down into sobs. I could hear Zech in the background, comforting her. Thank god Zech was with her. When she could speak again, she said, “That’s what the sheriff said too, only in less pretty words. Harrison got out with the help of an internet men’s rights group. They forged a release form and a judge’s signature.”
So many questions bloomed in my head but I held them back. The worst one, of course, was how had Harrison found her? And so quickly? Then I shut my eyes. Duh. The men’s group had probably helped him with that, too. “What are you going to do? How can I help?” I could take her where Harrison could never dream of going. Midia. Kroshtuka and his clan would care for her. If Kroshtuka was okay.
My gut clenched again.
“I’m going to stay.” A quiet argument ensued then Danni said, “I have to. You don’t understand, Zech. He isn’t an ordinary abuser. He’s a sociopath and he likes violence. A lot. Running will make it worse and damn it, I don’t want to run. I shouldn’t have to.”
God. Danni had never told me what Harrison had done to her during the ten years they were married and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. All I knew was I had a healthy fear of the guy and I’d never met him. “Zech just wants you to be safe.”
“This group he has working for him, he said that they could find me no matter where I went. Surveillance cameras. Security checks. Computer systems. Facial recognition software.”
He’d terrorized her so quickly and thoroughly. One phone call and she was once again certain of his god-like powers to know where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing. Worse, he had a group of jerks to help him prove his point.
My mind went to my spawn. I’d given them orders not to kill anyone but perhaps one of them would like to make an exception where Harrison was concerned. “I could take you somewhere he’d never get at you.” There was only silence on the other end. I waited, my tension ratcheting up. “Danni?” The word came out sharper than I intended.
“I’m here.”
“No way are you taking her anywhere near the Slip.” This from Zech with enough venom in his words to make me feel guilty and want to roll my eyes at the same time. After a while, having someone angry with you just gets old.
“Not the Slip. Midia.”
“I know you didn’t just say that,” he said and I covered my mouth before I laughed.
“Domar berries,” I said when I had control over my stupid sense of humor. I reminded him with more sarcasm in my voice than Kroshtuka had in his.
“What?”
I sighed. Had I really not told him about the berries? I hadn’t seen him in a long while, not since his hair had started to grow back. “The Wydlings have a cure for the hook sickness. They’ve been spreading the news along the borderlands. The witches aren’t really listening, but I get the feeling they look down their noses at a lot of things the Wydlings say or do.”
“Wydlings? You’re going to trust that bunch of animals with Danni’s life?”
Oh bigotry, why do you have to exist everywhere? “They aren’t animals, at least not in the derisive way you mean. And I’m not talking to you anyway, so shut up.” I hoped Danni had me on speaker, otherwise my spiel would sound tinny and unmagnificent.
“I-I’m not sure I know what to think about that. I just need time to figure out what to do. He said he called from Wyoming, but he’s wily. Probably more than halfway here, if not standing outside my door right now.”
My stomach swooped and nerves pricked my skin. The idea of Harrison lurking outside Danni’s door was too much, especially after what had happened in the Dreamscape. “I’m going to hook over.” I stumbled out of bed and grabbed my robe, belting it around my middle, the necklace with Krosh’s ring banging against my breastbone. I formed the hook, then remembered I hadn’t hidden my gills. They were a ‘gift’ from the now-deceased Fleshcrawler Queen and I hadn’t yet figured out how to get rid of them. My temporary solution was to hide them with magic, which I did now by flipping a switch in my imagination’s control room. I didn’t know why it didn’t stay flipped but it didn’t. I had to keep careful track or the switch would click off and expose the slashes on the sides of my neck for the whole world to see. Yeah. No thank you. I formed a hook again and stepped through into Danni’s living room, narrowly missing stepping on her cat, who hissed at me and ran. “Sorry.” She jumped up to hug me, her cheek cold as it pressed against mine, her hands ice. I held her tight, wishing I could just take her somewhere safe, whether she liked it or not. “Would you like to stay at my house while you decide what it is you want to do next?”
“No,” she said.
“Yes.” This from Zech and it surprised me. To Danni he said, “It would be better than sitting here waiting for him to show up. We could even ask Devany to take us somewhere far from here.” He held up a hand. “On Earth. He can’t track us through hooks.”
“Not unless he has his own Skriven taxi.” I sat on the upholstered chair by a bookshelf full of plants. “Do you think there’s still a bounty on your head in Midia, Zech?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been there since ... “ He waved at his head, at the scars from the burns he’d suffered when I’d dragged him to Midia to help me find my kids. I wished he’d let me help him fix them. I’d been practicing down in my mental control room and thought I could smooth his skin out for him, even if I wasn’t able to rid him completely of scars.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else.” Danni’s clenched fist hit her bare knee. “I’m so sick of being afraid. I never knew how sick of it until Zech came along and gave me a life without fear.”
I kept my mouth shut because what I wanted to say was, “You’re going to go. At least until this asshole is caught and put back in jail.” That type of bossiness had
no place in this situation, I well knew. As much as I wanted to whisk her away so she could be safe, I knew that the decision was hers and hers alone.
“We can put up barriers. Perhaps Devany can get us another lodestone or two.” Zech looked at me. “The one I had has bled out all its magic.”
“I could do that, get you as many as you think you’d need.”
He nodded then scooped up her hand. “If you don’t want to go, we won’t.”
She gazed up at him, the look on her face one of a person who has made up her mind. “I won’t go. But I think you need to.”
He shook his head.
“Harrison is coming for me. If you’re here, he will kill you. I could never live with myself if that happened.”
“I’m not going. Even if I have to camp outside and sleep in the doorway downstairs, I’m staying.”
“Zech,” she said, but he shook his head again.
“I know you want to protect me but I can take care of myself. And you, if you let me. Just ask her,” he said, head nodding in my direction. “I’m a hard S.O.B. to kill.”
Considering a death curse had been placed on him and he’d lived to tell the tale, I’d guess he was rather hard to kill at that.
Danni hid her face in her hands, pushing away from him when he reached for her. “I need to talk to Devany. Alone. Please?”
He, too, was biting his tongue to keep himself from insisting. I could see it in his face and the tight jump of his jaw but he stood and walked from the room.
When he was gone, Danni lowered her hands. She hadn’t been crying but her face was flushed. “I need to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth.”
“Okay.”
She took a breath. “I want him to stay. I want it so bad that the idea of him leaving makes my stomach hurt.”
I could tell. Wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but I could see that she felt physically ill at the idea of him leaving.
