I nodded to return her greeting. “What kind of gun are you packing?”
She opened her coat and drew the weapon to show me. It had a rose-gold finish and a distinctive, roughly triangular barrel. A Desert Eagle semi-automatic, loaded with .50 caliber bullets. The weapon was one of the most powerful handguns in the world. I wanted to keep it, but handed it back since I didn’t want to see the girl cry.
I asked, “Isn’t the recoil a little hard on your wrists?”
She gave me a crooked smile. “I can handle it. My magical affinity lets me draw strength from the earth, as long as I’m not too high up in a building. With my bare feet planted in soil, I can lift a car.”
“Good to know.” I walked on.
The girls fell in behind me. I wondered if the shift to female guards was Imari’s way of encouraging me not to slip my guards. The First Sword could be devious at times, a fire demon after my own heart.
I went down to the Old Man’s suite, and found Colt standing out in the hall, as if he’d been left there in a time out. I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Some reason you’re not going in?”
He looked from the door to me. “She’s in there.”
“Who? Kinsey?”
“No, Julia.”
“So?”
Colt frowned at me as if I’d said something stupid. His hands were jammed in his hoodie pocket. “This will be her first time seeing me, not the baby me that hasn’t been born yet.”
“Again, so? What’s the problem?”
“It’s my chance to make a better first impression. After I’m born, this me will still be in her mind. I can change the way she sees me. The way she treats me.”
“And exactly how does she see you?”
“Like a stupid younger brother who she needs to boss around all the time.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed at him.
He glared back. “It’s not funny.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, if I weren’t laughing so hard, I’d feel your pain. You’re her younger brother in the future. She will always have a fifteen-year head start from when you’re born. With you coming back in time at age nine, she still has six years on you. Being younger isn’t going to change. And women are bossy by nature with the men in their lives. It’s how they get pandered to. You’d have to make a hell of a new first impression to change that.”
He drew his hands from his hoodie pocket and made a small throwing gesture, holding them in the air. “Finally! You see the problem.”
“Why do you care so much what she thinks of you?” I asked. “If I concerned myself with other people’s feelings, I couldn’t be half the miscreant I am. Too much empathy is a weakness. Forget all that PC crap about playing well with others. People exist to serve a demon lord, or to get stepped on.” For conformation, I turned to Leah behind me. “Right, beautiful?”
“Right,” she said.
“True enough,” Jada added.
I turned back to Colt. “Once more, I am proved right.”
It’s good to be the boss.
He crossed his arms over his shallow chest. “You’re not seeing the big picture.”
“So, what am I missing?” I asked.
“I like her, so I want her to like me.”
Jada leaned in and whispered in my ear. “He means as in a romantic liaison.”
I looked at Jada and scowled. “But she’s his sister.”
Colt scowled at all of us. “She’s adopted. That makes it all right. We’re not blood related.”
I was rocked. This, I had not foreseen. Though, come to think of it, a boy growing up with a hot “not-really” sister probably would develop these kinds of feelings. In hindsight, it looked both natural and inevitable.
The question is: what do I do about it? I nodded to myself. When in doubt, pass the buck.
I asked, “Have you mentioned any of this to your mother?”
“Mom says when I’m ready for a real relationship, she’ll build me the perfect woman in her lab, using some of her own DNA. I’m almost positive she was joking.”
I remembered the giant mutant hell-beasts she’d magically gene-spliced to use against the Villager dimension.
Probably not. Maybe I should handle this after all.
I put a hand on Colt’s shoulder. “Look, one step at a time, and we’ll see how things go, right?”
Colt looked at me. “You’re going to help me? Do I have to pay you?”
“Well, in a perfect world…”
His eyes grew huge.
I relented, “Nah. Look, it’s not up to you who gets her heart. It’s her decision. All you can do is show her you’re cool, and never let her know your heart is her chew toy. Trust me, it will get mangled.”
“So, how do I show her I’m cool?” he asked.
“Show no interest in her at all. Make her do the work of coming after you. A girl gets a whiff of desperation on a guy; it’s the kiss of death. Oh, and I would definitely not tell her you’ve already got a start on your harem.”
“He’s starting a harem?” Leah said.
“Well, he is my son,” I said. “But it’s not what you think.”
“It’s not a pool of women to attend to his every need?” Jada asked.
“Okay, so it is what you think, but he’s nine. His needs right now are anime, grilled cheese sandwiches, and collecting treasure—which is a holy quest for us dragon types.”
“Ah, I see what you mean,” Jada said.
“Does it pay good?” Leah said. “I wouldn’t mind a little extra income.”
“Sorry,” I said, “No salary. Just occasional perks. And the likelihood of getting caught up in danger is even higher than being demon clan security.”
“Never mind,” Leah said.
“Let’s get on with things.” I knocked on the door. We waited. It opened. Julia was there. Her expression lit up. She shrieked. “Caine! There you are. Come in.”
Leah and Jada took up positions in the hall, to either side of the door. Julia ignored them, grabbing my hand, pulling me inside. She never gave Colt a second look. He followed after me, closing the door.
“Where’s the Old Man?” I asked.
“He portalled back to L.A. for a minute.” She led the way across a suite that was easily twice the size of mine. The floors were hard wood, there was a dining room table I didn’t have, a full kitchen, and the color scheme used a palette of chocolate brown, burnt peach, and dusky mauve. There was even a padded corner where some free weights had been brought in with a weight bench.
The big screen TV on the wall was connected to a game console on the floor, and a pair of controllers lay there, forsaken for the moment. Somehow, I couldn’t see the Old Man playing Grand Theft Auto: Zombie Apocalypse with Julia. I walked over to see the case on the floor. Funbellina and Friends on the Magic Island of Rainbow’s End. There was beach, surf, and gem-toned dolphins on the cover.
Lame. All of Julia’s gun skills are going to waste.
I strolled to the couch and sat down. Julia took the chair to my left. Colt took the chair at my right, opposite Julia, but he stared at the coffee table, rather than her. The coffee table caught my interest too. There was a magic artifact sitting there, a ceramic feather painted white with its stem curving upward. In the curve, rested the largest round-cut amethyst I’d ever seen. It was about a third the size of my palm and had deep purple tones that suggested an African origin. Such stones were believed to purify thought, and had been a favorite of ancient kings and queens. The feather base reminded me of the feather of truth used for weighing souls by Osiris, Egyptian god of the dead.
In the back shadows of my mind, dragon scales slithered over each other. A great head lifted and golden eyes opened. My inner dragon used my eyes to take a good look at the relic. His lustful interest was a warm wave radiating from my core.
Mine!
No, it’s the Old Man’s. Can you tell what it does? I could have invoked a spell to unravel the magic and define it, but it was simpler for my inner
dragon to use his natural assaying power.
The dragon’s eyes narrowed. It’s an interrogation tool. There seems to be a compulsion spell involved. When the jewel is awakened, only the truth can be spoken.
I considered. There are ways to beat that. The Fey cannot lie, but are skillful enough with words to utterly mislead. This must have come to the Old Man’s mind after we discussed using a compulsion spell earlier today with the were-cats.
“You know what this is?” I asked the kids.
Colt gave a shrug, still playing the strong, silent broody type.
Julia said, “It makes you tell the truth.”
Colt shrugged again. “It probably works fine on mere humans.”
Julia held her breath a moment. I looked at her. There was an angry fire in her eyes. She was, after all, half-blood. Part of her was mere human.
I winced in sympathy for Colt. His first words, and he steps on a landmine.
The air in the middle of the suite flared with an ocean blue light that started as a star point, then swelled into a ten-foot disk. The core of the light darkened, becoming a tunnel outside time and space. The Old Man appeared, stepping out of the portal, a dusty old book in his pale blue hands. It was black leather with gilt hieroglyphics on the cover. Round reading glasses perched on his nose. He looked up as the portal closed behind him. He smiled. “Caine, Colt, glad you could join us.”
“What in fudge’s name are you doing?” I asked.
I saw the calculation in his eyes as he decided that fudge wasn’t really a cuss word, so he couldn’t in fairness smack the back of my head for it with one of his magical, floating shadow hands. I smiled, intended to frustrate him for quite a while with near misses.
Walking over to the coffee table, still holding the book up at chest level, he answered my question. “Our discussion earlier with the cats got me thinking how something like this could be useful, so I dug it up out of the various treasures in my secret vault. Then I had to go get the grimoire that contained the activating spell.”
“Show me how it works, Grandfather.” Julia’s voice contained such concentrated sweetness, I knew she was up to something.
“That’s why I brought the book.” The Old Man cleared his throat and spoke a form of high Egyptian older than the pyramids. I didn’t quite follow all of it, but a word here and there told me he invoked the blessings of Osiris and forty-something other Judges of the Dead. On the white feather, the amethyst brightened, its core turning lilac. Beams of purple stabbed outward, fanning the air like a laser light show.
Discretion having saved me many times in the past, I stood and got clear of the relic, going to the bar.
When a man’s thirsty, he’s got to drink.
The light show ended, but the crystal still glowed. The Old Man said, “The feather of truth is ready.”
“Good. I’ve got a question.” Julia looked straight at Colt. “Why did you come here if all you’re going to do is stick your snobby nose in the air and look down on others?”
A half smile twitched his lips, which told me he didn’t believe Egyptian magic would work on a demigod. Then, wide-eyed, he said: “Because I love you.” Colt’s face turned the reddest I’d ever seen.
An explosion of red-copper light swallowed him, filling the room, fading. And he was gone. Maybe from the whole universe.
I walked back to the couch and sat down. Sampling the bourbon, I sighed with pleasure. Top drawer stuff.
Silent, the Old Man closed the book, his eyes on the empty space where Colt had been.
I took another sip and I slanted Julia a look. “By the way, that’s your new brother Colt. He worships the ground you walk on. And I think you just dropkicked his heart. Hey, want to go look at some antique cars with me?”
A sharp rap sounded from the door. It opened. Jada stuck her ash-blonde head into the room. Her eyes were as hard as the Desert Eagle semi-automatic clenched in her fist. “Stay here, my lords, my lady. There’s trouble down the hall. I will let you know when the situation has been handled.”
Julia stood, facing the door. There was a star-struck expression on her face. She spun toward me. “What kind of gun was that! I think I’m in love.”
THIRTEEN
“You can keep your apology, and this bullet.”
—Caine Deathwalker
I called out, “Jada, my love, come in here and explain with a smidgeon more detail please.”
Her head retreated into the hall. I heard a flurry of whispers.
Leah’s face appeared next. She held onto the edge of the door. “Imari said she’d handle it, and not to tell you anything.”
“A little late for that.” I stood and held my hand out to Julia. She stared, then reached out and took my hand. One of her best qualities was her blind trust; she’d follow me to hell, never asking for more than extra ammunition.
By then I had golden dragon magic flowing up my back, to my shoulders. The Demon Wings tattoo warmed to life with a tingle. Having been made by demon magic, it had stayed when I’d lost most of the others. Ghost heat ignited the nerves of my face, as if it were melting. I gagged and choked as the sensation spread to my tongue. The sensations vanished, leaving no actual damage. Pain was simply the cost of the You-Don’t-See-Me spell that wrapped around me—and Julia, since she held my hand. We were essentially unscented, invisible and inaudible to others.
“You have your .22 on you?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Good. Maybe you’ll get to use it.”
The Old Man had lost track of me, but knew I could still hear him. He boomed, “Don’t get my granddaughter killed. It would be a dark cloud over my wedding.”
The door opened wider. Leah and Jada both stared in. Leah asked, “Hey, where did he go?”
I didn’t answer since they couldn’t have heard anyway. I dragged Julia around the couch, toward the door.
The Old Man said, “Maybe he’s out on the balcony, taking the long way around. You know my boy; never does what anyone else wants him to.”
“Oh, fuck!” Leah ran into the room, Jada right behind her. They streaked past Julia and me, heading for the sliding French doors. I walked Julia out into the hallway.
“She said a bad word,” Julia said.
“Yes, she did. Though to be fair, I did provoke her.”
We continued down the hall toward a knot of my demon warriors. Imari was at their center, poised to spring through an open door.
I recognized our location: we were outside the suite where the were-kitties stayed. This was more serious than I’d supposed.
“Julia, jump on my back and hang on.”
She did as I asked.
I threw a mental switch that shifted me into combat mode, removing all irrelevancies from my focus, all mercy from my soul. Shadow magic immediately pooled in my right hand. The darkness flattened into my palm, forming the pattern for my Dragon Voice spell.
Imari stood with her back to me, her bald, black head fully wreathed with orange flame. She wore Kevlar body armor. Her hands were flame-wrapped as well. She called into the room. “Jamison, don’t make things any worse for yourself. We can settle this peacefully.”
Not likely. If they’ve got his balls, he can’t use his dick. If he can’t use his dick, he’s got nothing to live for. That makes him dangerous. If he still has his balls, the punk’s going to do something stupid. Again, we’re back to dangerous. It’s a lose-lose situation. To win, we’ve got to be bolder than bold. Stupider than stupid.
Launching myself through my people, I scattered them out of my way. Dragon strength and dragon speed got me deep inside the were-kitties’ suite. The area had the same layout as mine, but mirror-reversed. The colors were mint, tea, and rust. I scanned the seating area but didn’t see him. That left the bedroom since I didn’t think they were all hiding in the minibar.
Julia’s grip tightened on my neck and her weight on my back let me know she hadn’t fallen off during the plunge. I said, “When you have a clear
shot, take it.”
Inside my spell-zone she was safely invisible. Loosening her grip, sliding down to the floor, she kept a hand on me to stay that way. Moving to my right, she slid her left hand into my coat pocket.
I’d have preferred her on my left, away from my dominant hand, but I understood that she was right handed and needed that hand free to shoot.
Jamison yelled from the bedroom doorway. “No one better try coming in here. We have hostages.”
I placed his position as just behind one of the bedroom’s double doors.
We? He has idiots willing to get their balls lopped off, too? Now that’s friendship.
My dragon-hearing picked up Imari whispering from the hallway. “Caine, is that you being an idiot again? When are you going to let me do my job?”
I didn’t mind if Jamison—with his were-cat-hearing—picked up on the fact I might be in the hall. My deflection spell would keep him from seeing, scenting, or hearing me as I crept up on him. I just needed a little more time. What I wished I knew was how many of the girls were here, in danger, and how many guys Jamison had brought with him.
An old demon proverb came to mind: Best way out of the fire is always through its heart.
I stepped with moderate speed, Julia keeping pace. We moved into their line of sight, right up to the door, and angled ourselves through since one door was wide open, the other almost closed, being used as a shield. A quick scan of the bedroom told me two important things: Only Cleo was here, tied up on the bed, and he’d lied about having friends for back up.
The task became dirt-simple. Cleo was out of the line of fire, and I’d told Julia to take a shot when she had it. It didn’t surprise me that her .22 popped off a couple shots. The bullets went into Jamison’s crotch.
It was then that I remembered Julia had once been kidnapped, her finger bitten off by an abductor. Apparently, she still had issues with men preying on women. She took it personally, and punished the same way.
Moonstone Shifter (Demon Lord Book 8) Page 10
