She smiled with dry humor. “I think my people will all be happy with that. With your presence, it is have gained a shadow demon to replace a lost queen. A friend like you will take getting used to.” She paused. “Strange, the knowledge of the portal you ask for has just flowed into my mind.”
I nodded. “We are the land. Its changes us, as we change it.”
She gestured and a black disk hovered in the air. It grew from hand-sized to where a man could step into it. I walked to the shadow portal, calling back a warning. “Earn my trust, and rule well.”
“I will try … my friend. I will try.”
THIRTY-SIX
“There’s no one so stupid they
can’t learn from a bullet.”
—Caine Deathwalker
As I returned, stepping out of a dark hole in the air, I noticed the dead fey had been dragged out, and fresh furniture brought in. The blood stains on the carpet hadn’t yet been dealt with. Osamu served tea to Lysande and Izumi. Both of the woman looked upset. Osamu took all things in stride, but his face brightened seeing me. “Caine-sama, it is good you are back. We have a problem.”
Lysande leaped up, kicking back her chair. “They’re gone!”
“Who’s gone?” I asked.
“Teramantha and Julia,” Izumi said. “They were over at the treehouse, hanging out with Red and his charming wife. The next thing anyone knows, two of the caterers drag the girls across the mirror to Malibu. They had to be Storm Court fey because they held off pursuit by filling the mirror with electrical charges. Red waded into the attack and was hurt crossing over, but he got one of the kidnappers. Unfortunately, the second fey got away with the girls. Angie track the girls by scent. The trail led to the curb where a rusty old junker was parked.”
Autumn Court fey involved in this too. Storm fey couldn’t have driven off in a vehicle made of steel.
I was tired as hell and drained. I just wanted to sleep. That wasn’t going to happen now “Fuck! I go away on a little killing spree and everything falls apart around here.”
“What will they do to Tera?” Lysande asked.
“The fey have trouble conceiving. They protect children. Cherish them. They’ll use the girls as pawns, but will take good care of them. The fey will probably contact me soon to arrange a meeting, and use the opportunity to try and kill me. We should use the time we have to prepare some countermeasures.”
My eye was drawn to the crystal heart on the table, my tie to the land. It gave me an idea. I used my shadow brand to imprint the Demon Wings pattern on the core of the stone. This gave it the same power to be undetected that I had. Now I wouldn’t have to always be protecting the crystal from would be thieves.
I felt my face stretch with a very evil smile. “Osamu, track down Kinsey and Gloria. Ask them to join us here. Tell Kinsey I’m holding her to her promise.”
Izumi touched my arm with icy fingers. “Your hand?”
I held it up. Oh, the claw. Guess I don’t need that anymore. I let my inner dragon change the claw back to hand. He fixed the cauterized hole in my shoulder while he was at it. I pulled out a chair and sat down. “Lysande, I’ll get the girls back. Meanwhile, make yourself useful. Have some food and coffee brought in. I need to wake myself up a little so I can think better.”
Glad to have something to do, she hurried out of the door, into the hallway. The door closed behind her. Izumi sat and took my hand.
“You are going to be the key player in all this. It’s going to be rough.”
“I am your queen. The girls were under my protection as much as yours. I will wash out this insult with blood. Lots of it.”
“Just what I was hoping to hear.”
* * *
The next day, we were in my Malibu home, in the office/lounge. I’d laid my plans and gotten a few hours of sleep, but could have used more. There were boxes on the bar with a left over slices of gourmet pizza. Izumi, Gloria, and Kinsey were on the stools, watching as I mixed drinks behind the bar. Their stares shifted occasionally to the metallic sheathing I wore and the combat gear strapped on. The silk body-stocking I wore was gold-washed, an insulation that should give me some protection from the corrupting touch of Autumn Court fey. Gold doesn’t decay, rust, or age. It is my one true eternal love.
Osamu came in with a ransom note. It was still rolled around an arrow’s shaft. A drive-by shooter had left it embedded in the front door. I took the arrow, removed the note, and opened it. I was to come alone.
Yeah, that’s going to happen.
I passed the note to Gloria. She scanned it and passed it on to Kinsey who said, “They want to do this here in L.A.? What’s the advantage?”
“Rogue operation,” I said. “The Storm and Autumn Courts are busy recovering from the defeat we handed them. Strings are cut with the assassins in the field who want their payday. This is a last stab at finishing the mission they were assigned.”
“I see,” Izumi said. “These are the people that have been coming at you in L.A. for months now.”
“Those still alive. Can’t be that many,” I said.
“The choice of the old Griffith Park Zoo is genius,” Gloria said. “It’s been closed for years. With glamour to hide themselves from human explorers, and with the iron bars removed from the animal habitats and caves, the fey are surrounded by nature in the big city. Makes it comfortable for them.”
“Let’s go make it uncomfortable,” I said. “With one stop on the way.”
Izumi wore fey-style white leather bustier, pants, and boots. She wore no weapon except for a silver dagger. Ice was her weapon of choice. She slid off her stool, backed up a bit, and employed her special talent for creating portals. Her ability was unusual among the fey because she could go places she’d never seen using some special clairvoyant sense to achieve a safe landing. She shimmered with silvery-blue light. A round vortex opened behind her, a whirl of cold mists and light. The core was a dark Navy blue void.
Five-foot-four, a hundred and fifteen pounds of petite, ice-hearted terror, Gloria went to join her. The vampire princess wore a red leather bikini and a large number of knives strapped everywhere. Her broadsword occupied a sheath strapped to her back. The blade was nearly as tall as she was. Her eyes were flame red, her black hair—streaked with green highlights—was braided and pinned close to her head.
Kinsey followed, her ass swaying seductively in a black mini-dress. The many wide bracelets on her arms chinked as she moved. The rapier sheathed at her side was attached by gold chains. Her left hand caressed the jeweled, basket-style hilt. She turned and the silver and garnet buckle on her belt provided relief from all the black she wore. Her straw colored hair was also braided, her dragon-crown look. She stared at me with eyes the color of antique gold.
“Coming?”
I threw back a glass of Coke and rum, set the empty glass down, and came around the bar. “Sure. Kinsey, you protect Izumi as she holds the portal open. Gloria will go first to clear the way for me. Anyone sees an over-sized crystal, sing out.”
Gloria didn’t bother to answer, plunging into the silvery-blue portal. I went through next, Kinsey and Izumi on my heels. We passed through a vortex, coming out in a master bedroom, somewhere in the Storm Court. The room was opulent with hardwood paneling, tapestries, and hand-carved furniture with claw-feet. There was a four-poster king-sized bed with a wrinkled old fey male snoring away. Asleep, he wasn’t wasting glamour to make himself beautiful and desirable.
Gloria stood by the bed, peering down at him. She reached and seized his neck, crushing it in a moment. He woke up, eyes bulging, rasping for breath, and promptly did us the favor of dying. Gloria said, “I really hate people that pick on children. There’s so little innocence left anywhere anymore.”
Kinsey flushed, probably remembering the harsh words she’d said about half-breeds in front of Julia.
“Look around,” I said. “With the recent attacks against monarch-ties, the crystal for this court will be here where security and p
aranoia is strongest.”
Gloria reached past the dead fey and whipped aside the unused pillow next to his head. An amber crystal the size of a grapefruit was revealed. She scooped it up and tossed it to me. As soon as the stone touched my palm, I felt an electric tingle. Purple-white worms of fire crawled over the crystal, and I could hear the distant thunder of storm clouds.
This is definitely it.
We ran back into Izumi’s portal as the door to the room burst open and guards spilled in. Before they could reach us, we were back in L.A., on a gray road, facing a willow tree, and an embankment of stone with pockets inside for animals that were long-gone. I took a moment to activate my Dragon Vision tattoo and to warm up my Demon Wings and Dragon Stomp tattoos.
Pain came, my payment for the magic. As an icepick entered one ear, the other felt like it had been torn off. My tongue burned and throat burned like I’d guzzled bleach. The sensations ghosted away, and I noticed Izumi’s concerned look. She knew the price I paid for magic. I was just glad she didn’t comment on it in front of the others.
Making no effort to hide ourselves, we walked along the road, looking into the dark gaps of the rock bank as we went. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sang. “You guys want to kill me, right?”
A large enclave with a picnic table appeared out of what had seemed to be solid rock. I saw two fey in the red and brown colors of autumn, and three Storm Court fey in gold and purple livery. All were armed with silver words, and their assorted powers. The girls were seated at the picnic table. They’d been given crayons and coloring books. The remains of Mickey D happy meals were there as well.
Julia looked up, smiled, and waved. Huddled next to her, thin arms crossed over her chest, was Teramantha. She looked like she’d been crying, and her fuzzy mop of a hair style had seen better days. She looked at me, and for once, I didn’t see hatred. Her eyes pleaded. I’d saved her before, and she hoped I’d do it again.
One of the Autumn Court assassins said, “We told you to come alone.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but you knew that wasn’t going to happen.”
Laying aside a black crayon, Julia looked at the fey leader. “If you give up now, he won’t kill all of you.”
The fey assassin didn’t bother to look at her. He simply said, “Shut up,” in a soft, cold tone.
“Send the others away,” the leader said. “When we’re done with you, the children will be released unharmed. I give you my word.”
“That doesn’t sound so good for me,” I said. “I have another plan. Kinsey. Gloria. Go!”
Gloria picked Kinsey up and flung her so she passed over the table, missing the hostages, hitting the fey controlling the children. In a blur of vampire speed, Gloria reached the table, grabbed the kids, and returned with them.
The fey responded with a purple-white explosion of lightning that danced over Kinsey’s body. She stood under the assault and rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m a royal dragon. I breathe lightning. You’re not doing anything but making me stronger.”
The attack broke off.
Kinsey vaulted the table and rejoined our party.
Glaring at their Storm Court partners, one of the Autumn Court assassins muttered, “Worthless fucks.”
That wasn’t completely true. They had value to me; I intended to make use of them. I bobbed the stolen crystal in my hand, drawing everyone’s attention to it. I spoke to the Storm fey. “You ought to recognize this. We stole the tie to your kingdom on the way here. With my Dragon Stomp magic, I can very easily destroy this, and murder the soul of your land. It will become hostile to life. Tens of thousands will die, and it will be your fault.”
I saw by the stunned expressions that the storm fey did recognize what I held, what I could do.
The storm fey leader looked at me, defeat in his eyes. His shoulder slumped. “What do you want for it?”
“I will return this to you in exchange for a small favor.” I smiled, allowing a dramatic pause to draw out.
“What?” he asked.
I shifted my eyes to the autumn fey in the back of the stone pocket. “Kill them.” After all, why should I waste time here when I could just turn them against each other?
Attention on the storm fey, the autumn fey that had spoken earlier whipped out his sword. He said, “You wouldn’t dare!”
Blinding sheets of electric fire filled the pocket, burning the rock and the Autumn Court fey. The Storm Court fey stood there, impervious to their own power, deaf to the brief screams of the dying. The eye-searing intensity snapped out. The leader came out of the pocket and approached. Gloria blurred and rematerialized with her broadsword’s edge against the fey’s throat.
He remained calm. “We had a deal.”
“We still do,” I said. “Gloria is just being cautious. She doesn’t trust you.”
“Give us the stone-heart,” the leader demanded. “We did as you asked.”
“Sure.” I offered him my evil smile, and then used Dragon Stomp to shatter the stone into a drizzle of pebbles. The loud thump was followed by a shaft of light from the fallen stones, a beam that shot into space and thinned to nothing. I said, “Help yourself.”
Gloria and her sword returned to my side.
The storm fey collapsed to their knees like puppets with slashed strings. Their faces were white with shock. Their eyes wide with disbelief. The fey who’d been silent all this time screamed, “Why? We kept our part of the deal.”
“I said I’d give it back, and I have. I didn’t say it would be in one piece. You see, I need to send a message. You guys have pulled children into adult battles, you were also the first to go after an enemy heart-stone. Children are off limits. The land-ties are off limits. If not, I will see to it that I have the only surviving tie, the only kingdom. The rest of Fairy will be sent to hell.” I nodded at Izumi and she opened a portal to take us home. I finished what I needed to say. “The fey will live with me in the peace of good will, or the peace of the grave. Make your choice.”
I guided the children into the portal. Gloria and Kinsey came next. Izumi followed. The way behind us closed. The way ahead opened. We returned to my mansion in Malibu, to my office-bar. Trembling, Teramantha clung to my waist. Julia spotted the pizza boxes on the bar and went to investigate. Meanwhile, Kinsey scowled at Gloria. My cousin waved a finger in Gloria’s face, oblivious to the danger.
In a surprised voice, Gloria said, “I don’t see what the problem is.”
Kinsey shouted, “You picked me up and threw me!”
“Well, of course! That was the plan after all.”
“Whose plan?” Kinsey demanded.
“Mine,” I said. “Oh, did I forget to tell you that part?”
Kinsey swung toward me, her hand on her sword hilt. “You bastard half-breed son of a bitch!”
“Comments like that is why,” I said.
Teramantha lifted her face to see me. Her tear-streaked face was red and puffy. She croaked her words. “Thank you.”
I loosened her death grip on me and sank on one knee see we could see eye to eye. “You can thank me by growing up to be a beautiful young woman,” I said. “I don’t fuck ugly.
THIRTY-SEVEN
“Has anyone ever told you
you’d make a beautiful corpse?”
—Caine Deathwalker
This was my weekend back in Fairy, and I was out for a walk as the sun settled, and twilight approached, bringing cool winds. The Treehouse mansion with its surrounding garden was back in the central plains of my land, surrounded by endless fields of golden grain. At a respectful distance from my home, a dozen cottages had sprung up. It seems a number of my new subjects preferred this area over the mountain valley with its keep—and assorted were-critter tourists. The settlers had returned to their old homelands rather covertly to gather their immediate families and had brought them here.
Note to self: with all this grain, look into bread and beer production. Check with the dwarves. They know a thing or tw
o about brewing. It will give me something to trade to the other fey realms. Maybe I can start my own label. Howling Demon Beer! Buy it or else.
I’d made an adjustment to the terrain, pulling a new river down from the mountains, over to the growing village so they’d have water to drink. I also grew a small forest behind the village so there was a local supply of timber for construction. In the foot hills, at the edge of the plains, I’d pulled up deep veins of golden marble. This area reminded me so much of Kansas, I was determined to put in a yellow brick road for the main street of my growing city.
Note to self: get some masons to quarry and cut marble blocks. We can also put in a water wheel to mill the grain and get electricity at the same time. Also, we’re going to need a good Inn for the visiting fey that will be coming on diplomatic missions. So damn much to do, so little time. I’ve gotta look into getting a personal assistant. Speaking of diplomats…
I spied a small wagon train approaching, following the river to my little community. There were guards in plum-colored cloaks, wearing silver chainmail underneath accompanying the wagons. One of the outriders carried a pole with a standard attached. The flag was a mishmash of clashing colors: red, purple, green, and orange with a black eye in the middle.
Unless I miss my guess, these are Nightmare Court fey. It will be interesting to see what they want.
The wagons passed the village and crossed the stone and wood bridge over the river. I’d paid for that myself, importing dwarf labor. The locals had little by way of professional carpenters. I noticed that a solitary cottage on my side of the river was building a barn. They had a number of brown and white cows. I wondered if the brown cows gave chocolate milk. It didn’t work that way on Earth, but this was Fairy, so maybe…
I stopped and pulled up a granite outcropping from under the soil, fashioning an impromptu throne. I bracketed it with apple trees that quickly went from saplings to mature trees, providing me shade as I sat down. There was a shadow in the air that landed and solidified into Leona, my spirit leopard. “Visitors?” she said. “Can I eat them?”
Demon Lord 5: Silver Crown King Page 28
