A Tale of Two Demon Slayers (3 page)

I braced myself as the plane sped down the runway and took off with a lurch.

the obvious intelligence behind its stare make this creature

“Ohhhh…Lizzie,” I heard from the bag at my feet.

“It’s okay, baby dog,” I said, wishing I could do more.

The bag suddenly became very bumpy. “You said flying. Right. Okay. Well, I don’t like this kind of flying. Did you feel that? It’s like a rattle. Oh, and now a jiggle. I don’t think the bolts are tight on this airplane, and ooh biscuits…”

“Think of it like a Harley,” I said, resisting the urge to unzip him. We didn’t need a dog loose on the plane, even if FAA regulations didn’t strictly forbid it.

“I can’t, Lizzie. I just can’t. It’s not natural,” Pirate protested, as I reached down into the bag and found a wet snout.

The plane jolted and Pirate retreated to the far end of his bag, muttering under his breath. I was going to owe him a trip to Burger King for this one.

Dimitri touched my shoulder. “Lizzie.”

I leaned back into my seat. “It breaks my heart to do this to him,” I said, eyeing the bag. He was better off in it. I knew he was. Still it would make me feel better to hold him.

“Lizzie,” Dimitri said. “I need to tell you something while it’s loud in here.”

He looked as intense as I’ve ever seen him. “You know what you were asking before? About my business? Well, the situation didn’t unfold as I’d hoped. I’m sorry I have to explain it so quickly, but—”

We both cringed as we hit an air pocket and the plane dropped sharply.

“When I needed to find a demon slayer—you,” he corrected. “When I needed to find you, I used old griffin magic. I don’t have time to explain it all now, but basically, I traced a thread of your power and I used it to find the rest of you.”

I tried to digest that. “Wait. Before I was even a true slayer?” Dimitri had been the first one to find me.

“Yes,” he said.

My stomach twinged. I knew he was powerful, but it still humbled me every time.

“It’s a form of protective magic that I used for my own purposes. And I’m sorry.”

Oh no. “What do you have to be sorry about?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

He looked guilty. “When protective magic is used to expose instead of to guard, it makes the subject particularly vulnerable.”

“You mean me. It makes me vulnerable.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I was desperate,” he said quickly. “I needed to find you.”

Wonderful it had worked out for him. But what about me?

“And now?” I asked.

“Someone else could use it too,” he said. “I’ve kept the thread well protected, hidden in something we griffins call a light box. It never leaves my study. Only someone tried to break in last night. Diana drove the creature off.”

“Creature?” As if we hadn’t run into enough creatures. “What kind?” I demanded. “Is the magic safe?”

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Diana didn’t get a good look. And she hasn’t been able to inspect my office. My wards are too strong for her.”

“Great. Nice work.”

“I made inquiries today. All day. There were a few who knew I was using the thread to find you.”

“Like Grandma?”

“No. I never told her. Although she suspected when JR blew into town.”

“What? So now you’re calling in the werewolves?” Sure, JR was Dimitri’s friend, but his pack had also tried to kill me. If I was somehow exposed, I’d rather keep it to ourselves.

“Lizzie, it’s not like that.”

“Well, what is it like?”

“I’m trying to explain,” he insisted. “We don’t have much more time.”

He was right. The plane had started to level out.

Dimitri noticed it too. “I only told trusted allies. JR. Max.”

“Max?” Dimitri despised Max.

“We used the thread to help track you down when you went missing in Las Vegas. Besides, as a hunter, he’s sensitive to your energies. I needed the help. Now, do you want to hear how it went?”

“Of course.” And I would have appreciated knowing before now.

“From what I found today, I don’t think you’re compromised. Yet.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He ignored my sarcasm. “We’ll know for sure once we get to my home. I’ll take you to my study, show you the light box, and then you can watch me destroy it.”

“You didn’t have any right to create it in the first place.”

“I know,” he said softly. “Do you want apologies or information?”

“Both are overdue.”

“We couldn’t do anything about it before now. It
would have only fed into your fears. You were feeling weak already.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Here I was, worried about visions of danger, when he had my rear end out there for the world to see.

Then I asked him the worst question of all. “So what happens if somebody did steal it?”

Dimitri swallowed hard. “The possibilities for destruction are limitless.”

I spent the rest of the flight lavishing attention on Pirate and ignoring Dimitri. Once the plane leveled off, we couldn’t discuss the risk Dimitri had taken with me. We didn’t know who could be listening. And I certainly didn’t feel like talking to him about anything else.

Pirate nudged my wrist with his cold nose. “Lizzie. Did you hear me, Lizzie? I said B-five.”

I tried to shake off my dark thoughts and focus on the travel-size game of Battleship on the tray table in front of us. A weak overhead light shone down on our game, while the rest of first class slumbered in the pockets of black that was night on board an airplane.

Inhaling, I flicked my eyes to the expectant Jack Russell terrier making swirls on the window with his stubby tail.

“Hit,” I said, trying not to smile. One must not grin when losing the battle.

“Ha!” He danced in place. “I knew it. I knew you liked to play ’em high. You’ve been playing ’em high all night.”

“Now that you’ve got most of my ships—” I began.

“Again,” he added with no small amount of glee.

I threw one hand up in a mock gesture of surrender and placed a round red peg into my largest battleship. “We should really be getting some sleep.”

“Oh no. No way I’m sleeping when I’m winning. Besides, I’m not going to shut one eye with that weaselly looking thingamabob ready to jump us.”

I followed Pirate’s narrowing eyes past the sleeping Dimitri to the gremlin, legs splayed and snoring on the seat across the aisle. “I think he’s out.”

Pirate twitched his ears like he did when he was thinking hard. “He could be faking. A watchdog can never be too careful.”

Times like this, I wished I could borrow some of Pirate’s energy. “I could have sworn I wore you out before the flight.”

“Um-hum,” Pirate said. “Good for you I can power-nap.” He studied the flip-up game board in front of him. “B-six.”

“Hit.”

I let Pirate obliterate the rest of my fleet before I leaned my seat back and closed my eyes, satisfied. Pirate had adapted rather well to air travel. My job, at least in that department, was done.

As far as the rest of it?

There was nothing I could do at the moment about my mother’s invisible bar or the supernatural risk Dimitri had taken—or for that matter, my sunken battleships.
Tomorrow.
I needed to be fresh for tomorrow.

It took me a while to fall asleep, and I doubted Pirate closed his eyes at all. From time to time, I’d wake and listen to him sniffing at the stale cabin air and feel him quiver as he watched the gremlin.

We landed in Athens and then boarded a puddle jumper bound for the island of Santorini. The Aegean Sea swirled
like a rich blue cloud below us. White waves crested over the surface and streaked out from under the ferries and pleasure boats crisscrossing the Cyclades islands. All told, there were more than two hundred spots of land dotting the Aegean.

As we passed over the lush green islands, I tried to guess which might be inhabited, and if there were homes, what kind of people lived in the middle of a small ocean. Most of all, I wanted to be down there, under the hot sun. I wanted to dip my fingers into the churning waters. I wanted, for once, to be free.

I brushed my fingertips against the cold glass of the window and glanced back at Dimitri. We’d moved on to the polite stage, which was worse than being mad.

The issue of the stolen magic hung in the air between us and would until we had the privacy to talk it out. Even then, things wouldn’t be completely resolved until we reached his study to learn once and for all if we had a problem on our hands.

Pirate had curled up in his Port-A-Pooch once he was convinced the gremlin was no longer a threat—at least not to us. Shortly after we began our descent, the thing had given an explosive fart before it began squeezing into the overhead bins. I could hear it as it moved its way down the plane, shifting luggage.

I ignored the banging and focused on the beauty outside my window. The islands looked so peaceful from twenty thousand feet.

Maybe my life would finally make sense here in Greece.

Things could be simple if I let them. First, we’d make sure the magic Dimitri used to find me was safe and then
destroyed. Then I’d put away my mother’s box. Grandma would be here soon enough with an instructor who understood that sort of thing. At long last I’d have the time and the guidance to learn about my new powers. In the meantime, I could relax.

After the pilot turned off the “fasten seat belt” sign and bid us good-bye, Dimitri took the bag with my sleeping dog and wrapped his other hand in mine. I adjusted my sunglasses as we made our way down the staircase of the plane and onto the tarmac below.

“I feel like a visiting dignitary,” I told him jokingly, giving a presidential wave for effect.

He squeezed my hand. “You are,” he said, ushering me toward a pair of brunettes inside the glass terminal. They wore matching coral necklaces and expressions of excitement.

They sprung upon us in a flurry of hugs, cheek kisses and olive blossoms.

“For your hair.” A willowy sister with an upturned nose and a yellow sundress slipped a spray of tiny white flowers behind my ear. I inhaled the scent of unfolding buds and freshly cut grass. She admired her handiwork before throwing her arms around me. “Oh I am so glad to finally meet you!”

“That’s Diana,” Dimitri said with obvious pleasure as he gripped his other sister and held her tight. He squeezed his eyes shut and I stopped to enjoy the moment vicariously.

When Dimitri left Greece, he didn’t know whether he’d see his sisters again. Now he was home.

I hugged Diana and marvelled at the fact that this was
the woman who’d ridden a monstrous horse named Zeus through a raging thunderstorm and straight into the family dining room.

“Diana.” Her square-jawed sister laughed, her bronze-coin earrings jingling. “Give Lizzie some air.”

Diana giggled and launched herself at Dimitri.

“I’m Dyonne,” said the sister in the bronze-coin earrings and khaki shorts. She offered me a hand and then dragged me into another hug, my neck pressed against her chunky necklace. “Oh who cares? You’re family now, right?”

I wasn’t so sure but found myself grinning anyway. Who could be polite and detached around these two?

According to Dimitri, they’d always been a little wild. I didn’t blame them a bit. They’d lived their lives under a demon’s curse, knowing they’d fall into a coma when they reached the age of twenty-eight, and die twenty-eight days later. Dimitri and I had saved them.

Diana broke away from Dimitri, admiration and a few unshed tears shining in her eyes. “Our rescuer, in the flesh. You’re officially forgiven for using my Han Solo lunch box for target practice.”

Dimitri’s mouth quirked into a sideways grin. “You said you’d forgive me if I rescued Princess Leia from the carob tree.”

“Bah.” Dyonne took a playful swipe that Dimitri deftly avoided. “You only did it because Princess Leia was wearing a slave-girl bikini.”

Dyonne turned to me, her short-cropped hair falling in layers around her eyes. “Good thing for us, our brother’s taste has improved.” She winked.

“I don’t know about that,” I said, feeling the color creep up my cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she touched my arm. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” Her face glowed with pleasure. “I’m just so glad to have you both here. You don’t know how long we’ve waited to have him back, to be a nice, normal family, you know?”

I nodded. I did know. I was still looking for that.

“A dog!” Diana lifted a yawning Pirate out of his carrier and ruffled him thoroughly.

“Aw, that’s nice.” Pirate soaked up every pet. “Oh hold it. That tickles.”

Dimitri pulled Dyonne aside, but I heard each word he said. “Are there any new developments regarding the item in my study?”

Dyonne sobered at once. “Not that I can tell. I ran a few tests. So far, they look good. But you’re the only one who’ll know for sure.” She caught my eye and I detected a flash of worry, or perhaps guilt, before she broke away.

“The car’s waiting around front,” she said to everyone. “We’ll grab your luggage and head out. Christolo made your favorite, Dimitri. Pastitsio, with a cucumber and feta salad.”

Dimitri’s eyes lit up. He took my hand and picked up the pace. “Once you’ve had Christolo’s cooking, you’ll never want to leave.” He squeezed my hand.

“Ohh…” Pirate licked his chops. “I could go for some noodles right about now.”

I’d tell him later about the twenty-pound bag of Healthy Lite dog chow I’d shipped with our luggage.

On the way to and from baggage claim, the sisters informed me that my handsome Greek lover was allergic to broccoli, defended the entire family from a werewolf attack at age sixteen and had a habit of going out in rainstorms to rescue worms from the sidewalks. I also discovered the magic Dimitri used to find me could be very, very dangerous in the wrong hands.

“It’s okay. Dimitri can fix it,” Dyonne said, as if she was trying to convince herself too.

Dimitri slipped his arm around me as we sat in the backseat of his sister’s battered old Mercedes. I didn’t have to be strong all the time, did I? At least that’s what I told myself as I relaxed into the nook of his shoulder.

We passed olive groves and vineyards growing in endless rows along the side of the road, their flat green leaves turned up toward the sun. Meanwhile Diana pointed out landmarks, as Dyonne, with her Mona Lisa smile, focused on the road. This had to be the most naturally bright and beautiful place I’d ever seen. The radiant blue sky went on for miles. The air itself smelled sweet. No wonder Dimitri had been so anxious to return.

In addition to the rustic splendor, he had a family on Santorini, a home. I understood more than anyone the value of a place to call your own, probably because I didn’t have one.

I’d spent my time in Atlanta trying to fit in, be normal. And then I’d lived my first month as a demon slayer trying to do things the way others said they had to be done. I wanted to learn. There was nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, I wondered if I’d finally turned a corner. I wanted to live on my own terms. I wanted to decide for myself who I needed to be. And as I took stock of
Pirate with his head out the window, I realized my true home might not be anything like I’d imagined.

Diana held her arm out to the breeze as we passed olive farms and small stone houses that looked as if they’d been there as long as the island.

Dimitri took my hand and I eased closer into his embrace. “Diana, why don’t you tell Lizzie what you saw in my study?”

Diana shot me an anxious look in the rearview mirror before she said, “Dyonne and I were returning from the stable when we saw green glowing slime pouring from the windows.”

Dyonne nodded, her hands on the wheel of the ancient white Mercedes. “Dimitri’s private little joke, since he’d green-slime Diana and me whenever we’d try to snoop through his record collection.”

Dimitri shook his head at the memory. “You two never did learn.” He sobered. “Just because someone attempted to break in doesn’t mean they succeeded. At any rate, I hope they used more magic, rather than less. The lock on that door is good, but no match for an expert thief.”

“Less magic?” I pondered the thought. If we didn’t have a magical creature on our tail, I didn’t know what it could be.

Dimitri tipped my chin up. He looked at me intently. “I’ve kept the magic well protected. You know that, don’t you?”

“Sure,” I said, not convincing anybody.

His jaw flexed, even though he tried not to look affected. “Our big problem—the one I tried to address before we left—is that someone learned the magic existed. I wanted to know who. Since we didn’t have time to
complete a thorough investigation, I’ll be just as glad to destroy it.”

He should have done it before now. Of course, we’d been busy saving Las Vegas from a demon invasion.

“You shouldn’t have created it in the first place,” I said.

He watched the narrow two-lane road ahead. “I know.” He didn’t say what we were both thinking—if he hadn’t, he never would have found me. And if he hadn’t found me, his sisters would be dead.

Through the rearview mirror, I could see Dyonne chewing at her lip. Great. I’d made her feel guilty about something she couldn’t control. “Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I’m glad he did everything he could, it’s just—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dyonne said. “Believe me, I’d be ticked too. Thank goodness the study is warded”—she eyed Dimitri through the mirror—“very well, to keep things out.”

“Exactly.” Diana braced an arm on the seat and twisted around. “He doesn’t even get ants on the windowsill. Sure, somebody might have tripped the slime, but that doesn’t mean they were able to make it past the door. Dyonne and I couldn’t even slip inside to see what was going on. We could only take pictures of the tracks in the slime outside the door.”

“Tracks?” I asked. “What kind of tracks?”

Dimitri looked guilty. “It’s difficult to say.”

Diana pulled an envelope out of her purse and handed me a stack of photos shot from various places in a long hallway. All showed a large wooden door from different angles, and around it, a moat of slime.

“The goop doesn’t hold shapes well.” Diana steadied herself as Dyonne steered us around a sharp curve. “It gives off a sharp electric charge. I don’t know how anybody could have gotten past it.”

“I do,” Dyonne muttered. “It had to be someone with more ability than you or I. That’s not hard.”

I winced. The sisters hadn’t exactly been given the opportunity to practice offensive magic. From what Dimitri had explained, they’d spent their entire lives trying, hoping, failing to defend themselves from the curse that would kill them.

The wind whipped through the open windows of the car as we passed the remains of an old fort. The weathered stones rose high on two sides, collapsing into a kaleidoscope of flowering brush. Vivid pinks, yellows and purples gave the sun-bleached ruins an enticing air. It was as if colors burned more intensely in this part of the world.

“It’s going to be okay, Lizzie,” Diana said. “We wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Not after you saved us. And thank you. I know I told you on the phone after I woke up. Still…” She paused, as if the two words weren’t enough. “Thank you.”