Moonstone Shifter (Demon Lord Book 8)

by Morgan Blayde

  “You’re exactly right. I think you need a dollar-an-hour raise. Keep up the good work.”

  She smiled happily. “Oh, thank you.”

  It takes so little to put heart back in employees. Just gotta wave some cash around. Money fixes everything. Or magic. Or death. Killing things cleans up a lot of messes. Note to self: now that the Dragon Emperor has given me a license to kill, go have some words with the Silver Dragon Clan. Find out how deep their corruption has grown.

  And ravish Vivian while I’m at it. I still can’t believe she’s skipping the wedding to work for my Grandfather.

  I left the desk, entered the lobby, and turned to the side, returning to the elevators. Pressing the call button, I waited.

  Running amok on the Dragon World will have to wait until after the Old Man’s wedding to Kinsey. My godless soul! That’s tomorrow, isn’t it? How time flies…

  The doors opened. I stepped on.

  “Hold the elevator!” The shout came from behind me, Cleo’s voice.

  I turned and caught the door, stopping it from closing. Cleo jumped on, and I let go. The doors closed. I punched the floor I wanted, and Cleo did the same. She held half a dozen packages, and assorted bags. The floor jerked a little as we were lifted. Her ears were normal, not cat ears, and if she had a tail, it was well concealed by the lavender dress she wore.

  “Out shopping?” I asked.

  “Yeah, and I met my mom for dinner. We caught up on a lot of stuff.” Cleo suddenly looked sad. “She says she forgives me for running off, and she’s glad my friends are helping her out, but it’s not the same between us. I’m not human anymore, not the little girl she remembers, and she’s changed, too.”

  Normally, other people’s problems only annoy me, but the ride wasn’t going to last forever, so there was no reason not to encourage her to deflate. “She’s still your mom, so she probably still loves you.” At least, that’s what most people think. Never having had a mother, I wasn’t an expert. “Maybe she just needs time to see her little girl inside you still.”

  Cleo’s face brightened. “Yeah, that’s probably it. There were moments, when she almost seemed like someone I didn’t know.”

  “You’re looking at her as an adult now, not the immature teenager you used to be. And she’s seeing an adult she’s not familiar with.”

  Not mine of course, but some parents struggle with giving up their kids.

  “Hey, if you’ve been gone, you haven’t met Zahra yet. She’s a little girl, a cat shifter. You and the were-kitties are going to be looking after her for a while. By that, I mean seriously guarding her. She has the Eyes of Bastet. She can help us with the second skin-walker. We killed one of them, by the way.”

  “Oh, okay. I guess I’ll go and make friends with the girl.”

  The door opened for my floor. I stepped off, feeling relief that I no longer had to channel Dr. Phil. Cleo stayed on, heading up. “Thanks,” she called. “You’ve helped me a lot.”

  “Probably just an accident. I see my role in life more as the chaos-bringer than anything else.”

  Nothing else is quite so fun.

  The elevator doors closed. I wandered down the hall, following the numbers, until I found the suite I wanted. What surprised me was that there were two fey there in silver chainmail with swords at their sides. Izumi had reached out to some of our people in Fairy to provide herself with a personal guard. It was a calculated slap in the face, her way of saying she wasn’t safe with my demon clan soldiers.

  My inner dragon stirred in darkness, scales rubbing. His eyes were gold stars in the back shadows of my mind. She has a point. She almost died under your protection.

  “Yeah, but I saved her, didn’t I?”

  My dragon rippled his length in a kind of dragon-shrug.

  Eyebrows crinkling in confusion, the guards stared, probably wondering who I was talking to.

  “You may announce me to my queen,” I said.

  One of the fey bowed. “If you will give us a moment first to assure ourselves of your identity…”

  I waited. I knew they needed to do this, what with skin-walkers running around. One guard slid a pair of antique-looking glasses on his face that could have dated from revolutionary times. That was about the technological level of Fairy. I suspected the lenses were enchanted, a magical way of piercing glamour’s and magical disguises.

  The guard nodded. “I see your magical affinities: gold dragon magic and shadow magic—but not the death magic of a walker.”

  “So, you’re not really looking at me, but at my magic.”

  “True, my lord. If we see death magic, we have orders to sound an alarm and to attack the offender. The same applies if we do not find magic that matches the outward form being shown.”

  “Cool. I’ll have to see about having some of these glasses made up for me.”

  One of the guards rapped on the door, announcing his intention to open the door. That told me there were more guards stationed inside. The guard who’d knocked opened the door and half-entered the suite. He spoke in low tones, announcing me, then returned. “Her majesty has left word you are to go in, straight away.”

  I did, passing between two more armed guards, one of which looked me over with magic glasses. They said nothing as I went on across the suite, one not too different from the one I’d been using, though this one had a navy, ochre, and white palette. I scanned the white leather furniture in the sitting area.

  No Izumi.

  I took a turn through the bedroom doors, closing them behind me, and heard the shower running.

  There were red and white rose petals on the bed. The patio curtains were drawn, cutting off the balcony, dimming the light in the room, but the windows faced west. The sunset threw a bestial shadow on the curtains. I went over and peeked between them.

  An ice griffin stared back. It took up half the balcony, its front a snowy feathered eagle, the rest an albino lion’s body with a flicking tail.

  I pulled back and closed the curtains.

  Given what Izumi had just been through, it was hard to call this level of security overkill. Especially since there was still a skin-walker out there that could become a prehistoric giant sloth. Well, for once, I’d trust my people to do their jobs. I was taking the night off.

  In the adjoining en suite, the shower fell silent. Taking my cue from that, I quickly stripped off my clothes. The sound of bare feet padded closer. My cock engorged itself in anticipation of pleasures that were long overdue.

  A naked Imari entered the room, beads of water on her obsidian skin. She stopped to stare. “Caine!” Her gaze dropped to my engorged Monster. “Put that away before it goes off.”

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Playing bait. One skin-walker targeted Izumi already. I figure the other might do the same.”

  “Where’s the real Izumi? Under the bed? In the closet?”

  “She got your message at the desk. She portalled out of here, going somewhere to meet you for a night on the town.”

  I felt a flutter of alarm in my guts. “I left no message!”

  I ran for the door. I had Izumi’s phone so I couldn’t call her. I needed to catch her fast, or I might never track her down.

  “Wait,” Imari called. “Your clothes.”

  “Keep them! No time…”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “When things go to hell, they ride a bullet.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  I had a feeling Selene was keeping an eye on me; she was the one who’d sent me to find Izumi and save her life the last time. Entering the sitting room of the suite, I called out: “Selene, clothes!” A white, puffy sleeved, pirate shirt suddenly covered my upper torso. Black spandex pants with a red sash ghosted onto me with the next step. The third step brought me knee-high, black leather boots. All I was missing was a Spanish rapier and maybe a mask, and I’d be Zorro.

  Thanks, I can always count on you to dress me funny.

  The fey gu
ards by the door stared as I ran at them. “Izumi’s not here. She portalled away a while ago and I think she’s walking into trouble.” I stopped because—reflexively—they’d half-drawn their swords.

  I have that effect on people.

  “Do you have any magical way of contacting her?” I demanded.

  “N-no, my Lord!” one said.

  “Then I need the message that was left at the desk. Open that door!”

  “Yes, my lord.” The other one opened the door. I entered the hall. The two inside guards tried to follow me. I spun back and stopped them. “You need to stay in case she portals back and needs protection.” I turned to the outside guards. “I’m going after Izumi. She’s in trouble. Coming?”

  The inside guards nodded to them.

  They clenched the hilts of their silver swords. One said, “Lead on, my lord!”

  I ran for the elevator. The two fey kept pace. I pressed the call button and fumed over every second it took the car to arrive. The doors dinged open and we jumped in. The ride down was equally torturous. The doors opened. I raced around to the front desk. The clerk was there, checking out some customers that didn’t want to stay in a hotel where a serial killer was running amok. Luggage in hand, they hurried toward the lobby.

  The clerk stared with some alarm until she recognized me in the new outfit. “Mr. Deathwalker? Is everything all right?”

  “Izumi got a message from you and went out.”

  “Yes, sir. A little while ago.”

  “Do you still have the message?”

  “No, sir. Your friend took it with her when she went up to her room.”

  Damn.

  “Think carefully. Do you remember what the message said?” I asked.

  “Something about a night club. She didn’t know where it was. I looked it up on my computer for her.”

  Relief flushed through me. “Do you remember the name of that nightclub?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t.”

  I glared at her.

  Her face brightened. “Oh, but I’m still on the internet. I can back the history up and get it for you.”

  She went to her keypad and tapped madly, staring at her monitor. After a moment, she looked up at me. “It’s just off the strip, a place called Noctum.”

  Latin for Nightfall. I knew the place. It was where we’d given the Old Man his bachelor party earlier in the week. Thaddeus King owned it, the local vampire that fancied himself Master of the City.

  “Thanks.” I spun toward the lobby and found myself almost falling over Colt as he popped in between the fey guards.

  They spotted him and leaped back a step, half-drawing swords, stopping themselves. Realizing the kid was mine, they relaxed.

  The fools.

  “Hi, Dad. I’m going with you. Mom said it was all right.”

  I put hands on Colt’s shoulders. “Your Aunt Izumi’s heading into trouble. I need a portal.”

  “To where?” he asked.

  “A nightclub. Look in my thoughts.” I closed my eyes and pulled up my memories of it, the outside first. Brown bricks, a six-story building with regularly spaced double windows… A disk-shaped sign near the door, a crescent moon painted on both sides, and the word Noctum. The entrance was a set of blood red, double doors. I shifted to memories of the inside: a stage for scantily clad dancers, and an area for a DJ to work, scaffolding loaded with stage lights...laser projectors in geodesic balls of chrome with midnight-purple…a sprawling dance floor...

  “Wow,” Colt said. Cool place.”

  “But can you get us there?”

  Red-copper light blotted out the hotel surroundings. I felt the universe come unmoored and swing wildly. This wasn’t portaling from one place to another so much as kicking reality while staying still so the desired location was brought near. The scary part wasn’t his level of power, but the fact that he used it so thoughtlessly. Though not without purpose.

  I really hope I don’t get stuck in a wall.

  The light thinned and we were on the edge of the dance floor, the club entrance behind us. The bar and balcony seating lay on the right. The place was still filling, recently opened. A hip-hop song pulsed the air. On the dance floor, couples gyrated, paying little attention to our arrival.

  The last time I was here, there’d been a riot. A silver dragon had attacked, and I’d had to change into a fully formed dragon, no half measures. The building had been damaged. There was no sign of that now. Everything looked as it had been before the trouble. I was seriously thinking of changing the wedding location to here. The hotel had been infiltrated way too often by the skin-walkers. But with all the arrangements to be changed—it wasn’t feasible.

  Or was it? I had an idea, something I needed to talk to Selene about.

  I lifted my gaze to the raised stage. Wearing metallic body stockings and black boots, four dancers swayed and grinded on the stage. The outfits looked nearly sprayed on, hiding little as the girls went from the floor, into the air on poles, but they weren’t stripping; nothing came off. It wasn’t that kind of club.

  The fey guards looked around, taking in the scene as they searched for Izumi.

  I said, “There’s a skin-walker after her. We’ll stay in pairs as we search. If at any time you get separated, then reunite, don’t take it for granted your companion is still who they look like. Their skin could have been highjacked. Demand a code word as ID. After each use, each pair changes the password. At any hesitation, attack.”

  The fey nodded grimly. One of them leaned into the other and whispered an Elven word.

  Colt looked up at me, grinning. “Mustang!”

  “Too obvious,” I told him. “Let’s get more specific. Shelby.”

  He nodded. “Got it.”

  I looked at the fey. “You guys check the dance floor and the tables. We’ll check everything else, starting with the bouncer. He might remember letting Izumi in.”

  Colt followed me to the front doors. Couples filed in past a big guy in a black suit. He stared at us and frowned. “Kid’s underage.”

  “He’s in the custody of his Father, he’s not drinking, and it will hurt if stab you in the eye.” I found my wallet in a back pocket. I pulled it out and peeled off a fifty. “Has an Asian woman come through recently, lowering the air temperature like she brought in a cold breeze?”

  His eyes widened in recognition. “Her? Hell yeah!” He snatched the fifty from my hand. “She just about gave me frostbite.”

  Great! “Was she alone?”

  “Yeah. She was eyeing the room, seemed to be looking for someone.”

  Me. Let’s hope she doesn’t find the skin-walker first.

  I pulled Colt away. We headed toward the bar. “You getting a lock on her?”

  “Aunt Izumi is always hard to nail down. Her glamour deflects me until I’m close. Playing hide-and-seek with her has always been hard.”

  I walked up to the bar and stood between stools, waving for the bartender. The guy was thin with slicked-back hair and an attempt at a mustache on his face. “What can I get you?”

  “I’m looking for a friend. Asian, big rack, the cold type. Have you seen her?”

  He pointed up. “She went to the balcony a few minutes ago.”

  I nodded. “Get word to King that Deathwalker is in the house. Tell him he’s got trouble. There’s a skin-walker hunting.”

  “A skin-walker? What the hell’s that?”

  “Pray you never find out.” I love being ominous. “Just get that message to him, now!”

  Colt followed me to the stairs that led to the overhanging balcony above us. We ran up them, the little guy lagging.

  He needs to hit the gym a little more; do some cross-country running. Depending on raw power has developed him unevenly.

  I made a mental note to fix that.

  He groaned behind me on the stairs, as if reading my thoughts.

  I came off the stairs and glanced across an area of scattered tables, a row of them along the balcony’s edge, le
tting customers look down on the rest of the club. There weren’t that many people, so Izumi was easy to pick up. She’d taken a table at the balcony’s edge and there was a guy standing near her.

  Casual, walking toward her, I tried not to give away the fact that anything was wrong. If the guy was the skin-walker, I wanted to be close enough to pounce before suspicion developed. I strained my dragon hearing, trying to filter out the background noise and hear Izumi’s conversation. Music from the speakers made this difficult.

  Izumi saw me. Her face brightened. Then her gaze fell on Colt. She frowned, no doubt thinking she was being stuck with babysitting tonight.

  Colt muttered behind me. “I’m not a baby.”

  “I know.”

  The guy talking to her, turned to see who’d grabbed her attention, his expression one of irritation. He must have thought his chances were pretty good with Izumi.

  “Lady’s with me,” I said. “Get lost.”

  His smile soured. Anger glinted in his eyes as the muscles of his jaw knotted. He trembled like an epileptic having a seizure, looking for a place to fall down. Only he didn’t fall. The clothing he wore, and the skin underneath, burst off him as if he’d exploded. He zoomed up, a dark, fuzzy mass of fur. Rearing on hind legs, balanced by a stubby log of a tail, he’d have towered twenty feet except the ceiling made him bow his head and shoulders. The prehistoric giant sloth opened its pointy snout and shrilled its rage, a sound that cut through the hip-hop music like a chainsaw. An improvement actually. It hunched over me, eyes red coals, freaky claws slashing.

  I braced myself and caught the descending arm, getting under it. The blow was heavy, threatening to break my back. A human would have been bludgeoned to the floor. My dragon strength let me take the hit, stopping his swing cold. I had no time to go full dragon and I couldn’t retreat until I knew Izumi was out of danger. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the running type. I knew she’d stubbornly stand and fight alongside me no matter what I said.