The Demon's Game (44 page)

Dad struck his opponent with a bolt of pure white
energy and the demon burst into ash… only to instantly reform. Mom struck
repeatedly at the demon that was trying to get at Mordon, but the Ancient was
protected by his own invisible barrier, so Divina focused her fire on Dad’s
foe. The shield shattered from the efforts of Divina trying to get at the
Ancient.

After a quick glance at the other demon, he vanished,
as did his accomplice. It was a divide and conquer trick; they wanted to get
Mordon and Dylan apart. Only it wasn’t Mordon who lay dead on the ground but
Sydney, who had jumped in front of him.

Mordon had her head in his lap and was shaking. His
fire lit her body, not hot but healing. It was too late. Xul, having returned
in the middle of the battle, stared at her with a numb expression.

“The demon sent her soul to the void,” Mom said. “I
didn’t see it in time to stop her.”

From the agony on my father’s face, I knew he could
feel Mordon’s despair. The love Mordon felt for her was not proportional to the
time they spent together, and I knew my father shared Mordon’s grief.

“Go after her,” he demanded of Xul, failing to keep
his voice from cracking.

“That is not part of our contract,” Xul said. “I will
fight for you, I will save the boys, I will even work with Ghidorah, but I will
not go back to the void. If you feel betrayed, you can banish me to the void,
but I still will not bring her back.”

Dad didn’t know that Xul had already chosen to
forfeit his life for Sydney’s.
Why is he refusing now?
I realized then
that Xul was concealing his own heartbreak.

Mordon was listening even as tears dripped. He leaned
down and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Get out of my sight,” Dad said. Xul obediently
disappeared.

Dad used Mordon’s pain to dig his proverbial claws
into the fabric of the universe. I could feel Earth’s power waver. Just a little
more and the gates would reopen. Earth would be destroyed, but Dad couldn’t
think over his brother’s pain.

Sunlight dimmed, the nominal energy recoiled, and
bright light filled the air around us. I broke mine and Ron’s shield and
grabbed my brother, trying to hold back the darkness in him. Suddenly, Mom was
at Dad’s side, snapping the metal bracelet around his wrist. He had enough time
to turn to her before her magic flooded his defenseless system and he passed
out.

Mom caught Dylan and turned to Mordon, who still held
his dead girlfriend. “I’m sorry, Mordon, but I couldn’t let him do it. He would
tear the universe apart for you and I won’t let that happen.”

The man was the epitome of misery, and I felt
sympathy, but not enough to disagree with Mom. Ronez picked Dad up and Ron
flashed them back to the apartment.

“I know. But you pulled me out of the void.” There
was hope in Mordon’s voice, nearly drowned by tears.

I had never seen the dragon cry before.

“I pulled you out of the Land of the Dead, and I
can’t do it again. I would have lost Dylan without you. Most likely, Sydney
wasn’t as lucky as you to make it through.”

“She was Rojan’s mate.”

“Yes, she was, and yours as well.”

“But how?”

“You’ve never heard of reincarnation? Sometimes the
souls in the spirit world are released to be reborn into a new life. She was
one of those blessed few.”

“Then she can come back to me again?”

There was guilt in Mom’s eyes as she realized that
she was only giving him more hope. “I’m sorry. It only ever happens once. The
gods have no control over it.”

Thank goodness.

“Why do I still remember her? Dylan said that those
who are sucked into the void without protection were never born.”

“You have Dylan’s energy in you. You can remember her
for as long as you hold onto it.”

Mortals are a surprising bunch
, I heard in
Ron’s head.
They each react to love and loss differently, and most of the
time it makes no sense at all. Heartbreak is so horribly painful to them, yet
they go into love knowing full well that their hearts are probably going to be
broken.

Ron’s thoughts made me feel like one of the mortals.
I knew Ron loved me, but I had to wonder if he was too much like his mother. To
the gods, love was a weakness.

“If I can’t have her back… I don’t want to remember.
I don’t want to hurt like this. I don’t want Rojan to hurt like this. Please
make me forget. I can’t… I can’t take it.”

This Mom understood, and she was about to grant his
wish when I felt the darkness in Ron fire up. His eyes were milky-green; a
telltale sign that the balance was in control. He shot white light at Sydney
and I suddenly felt the magic of Earth settle. Ron wasn’t trying to heal her,
he only prevented a paradox.

“Now it will be as if she had died instead of as if
she was never born.”

“Can you save her?” Mom asked Ron.

“No. I have no power over the void. You could go
after her, assuming there is anything left of her, but you would likely be
destroyed.” He wasn’t my brother right now.

I knew that between Mordon’s girlfriend and her own
life, she would not be going after the dragoness.

Dylan

I woke to Mordon laying a cold wet cloth on my
forehead. We were back in the apartment, I was on my bed, and the lights were
dimmed. Even then I could see the tear stains on his cheeks. They were those
tears a person just couldn’t stop. There was nothing to say, and I couldn’t ask
if he was okay because I knew he wasn’t. I could only hope he would be okay
eventually.

“You can’t take a risk for me like that again,” he
said.

“Oh, shut up. You would have done the same thing if I
lost Divina. How is Rojan holding up?”

“He hasn’t said a word since she…” he choked. “She
was his mate.”

“I know.” The look he gave me made me roll my eyes.
“I’m not new to the concept, and it was pretty obvious when you disappear for
days to be with a woman you just met. Besides, I’ve seen your dreams of the
woman, and Sydney was almost identical.”

As if the pain weighed too heavily in his chest, he
settled down beside me. I took the wet rag off my head and put it on his.

“Ew. It’s warm,” he said. I laughed.

*          *          *

I woke to the sound of arguing.
That’s odd. You’re
supposed to be quiet around the nearly dead.
Divina’s voice was the
loudest, so I tried to focus on her words.

“Dylan should be at home, where he can rest without
interruption.”

“He will want to get right back to work when he
wakes. Doctor work at the hospital will be more restful than chopping firewood
on Duran.” That was Mordon arguing, calmer.

“You are just worried about what he’ll do when he
wakes up.”

“Of course I am. He’s less likely to destroy Earth
than Duran when he finds out… He’s awake.”

Ratted out, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry,
but at least the room was dim. When I rubbed my eyes in attempt to clear them,
shiny metal caught my attention. “Why is this still on me?” I asked, tugging on
the neutralizing bracelet.

“We were afraid of what you might do… when you found
out that…” Divina couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Edward is missing. Otherwise he would be in the
room. So if Ghidorah couldn’t find him, when did he find?”

As if on cue, Meri walked in through the open bedroom
door. “Kiro was attacked by some shadow creature.”

“Get this off me,” I said, getting out of bed. Mordon
moved to help me, but I pushed him away. “Get this off me so I can find
Edward.”

“What are you going to do if you can’t find him?”

“I can find him! Get this off me now!”

“You know I can’t.”

“Then get Ghidorah in here!”

“Settle down, kid.” Edward was suddenly standing in
the doorway behind Meri. He looked like he had been in a bad fight; his black
shirt and pants were torn, he had bruises on his knuckles, and his lip was
busted.

“What happened?”

“Rasik attacked me and tried to strand me on Kahún. I
made it back here only to be attacked by the demons and locked in a rundown
lab. Fortunately, Ron and Hail have some young allies that distracted the
demons long enough for me to get the upper hand.”

“Who?”

He moved aside and I peered into the living room,
where four children as well as Drake were speaking with Ron and Hail. Two of
the strangers were blond, clearly siblings. “Apparently, they were trying to
rescue Ron and Hail, but found me instead,” Edward explained.

*          *          *

We took the rest of the week off of work and school
to grieve and deal with our new “army” against the demons and Zero. Every man,
woman, and creature who was willing to fight with us against the demons
deserved at least a welcoming dinner. Ghidorah, Nano, and Araxi had been
planning for days to get these people here, and being popped back and forth
wasn’t easy on anyone.

Many of them had never been to Earth before, like
Nila and the horde of Dios warriors we suddenly had the support of. A cluster
from each tribe of Malta wanted to assist us as well, so the gods helped
arrange meetings on Earth and we tried to make their visits pleasant and not
frightening. The dragons were a huge help in hosting the visitors, since our
apartment wasn’t appropriate.

My mother was the most shocking person to see, but I
was more than a little upset by how she constantly eyed Ishte-mor, who demanded
to stay and help Mordon through his grief. I thought telling him that Mordon’s
dead lover was a dragon would scare the king off, but he was faithful in his
support. Although I was happy that he was showing his son love, the last thing
on Earth or Duran anyone needed was for my mother to hook up with Mordon’s
father.

Mordon was concerned that Ishte-mor was using a cane.
The dragon wanted to confront Emiko, assuming the injury must have been caused
by whatever Emiko did to the king before she imprisoned him, but Ishte-more
shrugged it off. After some heavy arguing between father and son, the king
admitted that it was Rojan’s sister, Isera, who attacked him in dragon form.

Krael and Tomie made an interesting addition,
especially since the little girl tried to kill me. Of course, she wasn’t a
little girl anymore. When Taylor made a pass at her, I thought Krael was going
to burn the town.

It turns out that the people of Dayo were mortal
enemies of the people of Kahún. If that wasn’t bad enough, keeping Emrys from
killing Samorde proved more difficult than keeping the fire users of Malta from
building an alliance with the dragons. It wasn’t that I didn’t want the fire
tribe and the dragons being friends, it was just that they were trying to build
an alliance against the water tribe. I hadn’t even realized there was an
animosity between them, but Mordon rolled his eyes when I voiced my thoughts.
Finally, there was the problem between Vivian and Nano.

As much as I loved Divina and would never betray her,
I couldn’t sit by and let my ex-girlfriend be miserable. I took her and Nano to
the apartment for some privacy. “Explain to Vivian that you love her and would
never betray her,” I said to Nano as I shut the front door.

“You can’t be serious,” Vivian said.

“I will support you, Dylan, but I cannot spill my
soul to you,” Nano said.

Nano was not as tough as Mordon emotionally.
Unfortunately, Vivian had the kind of personality that could kick a man where
it hurt most. She was an extremely giving and loving person, but it was
sometimes difficult to see. Vivian had one of the strongest personalities I
knew, which could be a wonderful and terrible thing. Luckily, I knew exactly
where she was coming from.

I shrugged. “Okay. If you don’t want her, I’ll take
her back. She deserves someone who will love her, and I do.” I just didn’t love
her the same way I loved Divina.

His jaw dropped.

“Dylan!” she shrieked.

“You said you loved me. We can try this again,” I
said. “I’ve always loved you, and I always will.” I knew her well enough to
know that she had to be coerced into confessing her feelings. Her self-doubt
will make her push and push Nano to test his love for her. I also knew her love
for him was strong enough to overcome her fear as long as he was strong enough
to handle her.

She slapped me on the chest. “Of course I love you,
you asshole, but not like that! Not anymore. I love Nano like that.”

“Then why haven’t you married him?”

“For the same reason I didn’t marry you! I was never
enough for you. You wanted kids with me, and I didn’t. You wanted adventure,
and I didn’t. We would never have worked. All I ever wanted was to be free; I
never wanted to be someone’s wife. All my life, I was someone’s girl, sister,
daughter, mother… I just want to be me for a while. I don’t know what that is
because nobody has ever let me figure it out.”

She started crying and hung her head. This was not
the moment for me to hug her, as she expected me to. Instead, I gave Nano an
obvious glare until he took her in his arms.

“I just don’t want to be alone,” she said.

“Now, Nano, I think it’s your turn to explain to
Vivian that you didn’t betray her.”

He swallowed. “Nila tells me everything. When he told
me that his father was back from the dead using demon magic, that he was out to
kill Dylan, I had to do something. Dylan is one of the Guardians and if we
don’t help each other, we are just servants to the gods. I spoke to Zer and
found out from him that Janus was missing. That meant this realm was
vulnerable. I tracked down some of the other void guardians and discovered
there was an uprising against Dylan. I knew the best way to help Dylan was to
do what I do best; get information. And the best way to get that information
was directly from the source.”

“But… you said…”

“I knew Ghidorah was close. Ghidorah and I were in
touch the entire time.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Vivian asked.

“Because you would have run straight for Dylan. I
knew you loved him, but it wasn’t about jealousy.” He shot me a guilty look.
“People around Dylan are going to die. Not everyone and not every day, but it
happens. It happened with his father, with Sydney, and it’s going to get worse.
People will die for him and because of him. It’s the consequence of being as
powerful as he is. I’m not letting you be another victim.”

“You don’t have the right to tell me who I can and
cannot help.”

“So you’re fine with it if I die trying to help
Dylan?” he asked.

She punched him hard in the shoulder. “Don’t you dare
say that! If you die, I will drag you outa Hell and beat the shit out of you!”
He pulled her tighter into his arms and I suspected it was to keep her from
hitting him again.

“I had to keep the information from Nila, too. By the
time you found out, I was too deep undercover and exposing myself would mean
the certain death of everyone close to me. I did get a lot of information.
Nila’s father is not a demon exactly, more like Ronez at this point, and
they’ve both been busy. In the spirit world, they have been spreading your
name. Ronez has you as the defender of all and more powerful than the gods
themselves. Demons and dead souls alike who listen to him think you are the
greatest hero this universe has ever seen. Even the living talk about you; children
want to do good things to be like you, while the sinful fear to sin because you
could be watching.”

“Damn, no wonder I’m having so much trouble. I’m just
a lazy idiot who gets into more trouble than I should.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t have the following
you do. At the same time, Nila’s father has something sinister up his sleeve.
The man has been getting the demons riled up about you; particularly the
Ancients. He says you are a trickster who has fooled the gods into protecting
you. He says you have little power of your own, but you get more powerful
beings to do your bidding. Also, he talks heavily of your pet demon.”

“He isn’t a pet.”

“He certainly looked like one to me.”

“He came to me of his own free will to make a
bargain. He has to protect my sons and Mordon to atone for dragging Mordon into
the void and hunting Hell. In exchange, I don’t send him back to the void. As
far as making people do my bidding… I can’t even get Shinobu to come when I
call her. Besides, that isn’t the important information you have for me.”

“No, it isn’t. Ilea and Nila’s father don’t have two
different armies; they were leading the same army. More importantly, there is a
third person leading the uprising, known as ‘the goddess.’ I know nothing else
about her.”

“I’ve heard of her.”

“Is there another female god?” Vivian asked.

“Not that we know of, but I trust Divina.”

“And they call you something,” Nano continued. “I
forgot what it was. I think it was in Enochian.”

“If you remember, tell me. Any little thing can be
important, especially if it has to do with the Enochian language. Now, I have a
more important question. Why don’t you want Sammy?”

“I love my son.”

“I know you love him, otherwise I would have asked
why you don’t love him. Instead, I asked why you don’t want him. Or is that
why? You don’t want him because you love him. That makes sense if you were
trying to do what’s best for him. On the other hand, I’m thirty-five whereas
you’re over fifteen hundred, so why do you think you’re so bad for him?”

“Drop it, Dylan.”

“Oh, but you know me better than that. I never drop
anything. I have to know. Mysteries are problems for me, even if they are
personal problems or embarrassing… especially when they involve
my
son.”

Vivian took Nano’s hand. “Nano had a mate before me.
Back when the people of Dios lived above ground, he married his first love, who
became pregnant.”

“Vivian, please,” Nano whispered.

She turned to him. “We left our son to him. He’s the
one you should trust more than anyone else.”

“Kiro doesn’t even know.”

Vivian looked at me. “Azenoth and Zer told him that
his son was going to be the Guardian of Kahún and that Nano needed to teach his
son to be a good Guardian.”

“One of the Guardians that Azenoth retired,” I said.
It wasn’t a question so much as a horrified statement.

“The first Guardian of Kahún, who Azenoth killed,”
Nano corrected. “So please drop it.”

There was a knock on the door and then Mordon stuck
his head through. “Hey, I know it’s private council time, but there’s going to
be a riot in about five minutes if the chef doesn’t get started on dinner.”

“Well, by all means.”

He opened the door and Ron squeezed passed him with
Hail in tow. They darted straight into the kitchen and tried to be quiet.

“We can finish this later,” Nano said. “Thank you
for…”

“Love Vivian as hard as you can and love her harder
when she’s pissed at you. If you don’t, I’ll sic my dragon on you.”

“Dylan, your next appointment is here.”
“I will
bite you,”
he said privately.