Immortal Fire (3 page)

Chapter Five

“So what do you plan to do about
Donovan?” Mitzi asked Kai.

Kai shrugged. “I’m letting him
stew a little.” She grinned. “He called me last night after I got home. Don’t
look at me like that. I know, and I didn’t give him my phone number. That
worries me. My number isn’t listed.”

Mitzi held up a blouse with
feathery fluff around the collar. Kai didn’t know why the girl dragged her to
the mall. Mitzi had no sense of style, and when Kai tried to help, Mitzi ended
up not buying a thing. She wore the same old bland black clothes, which managed
to wash out her pale features. What Mitzi lacked in style, she made up for in
spunk. “What does it matter? You can’t even get a call into your house if it’s
from evil meaning you harm.”

Kai laughed and shook her head.
“No, sweetie, that blouse would make your head look small. I know, but I can’t
be too careful.
Ove’s
witch friend may have cast a
protection spell around my mother’s house, but that doesn’t mean something out
there isn’t more powerful.”

“Your father knows better than
that, I’m sure.”

“Yeah well . . .”

“So what did you two talk about?”
Mitzi’s yellow eyes were almost round. “Did you have phone sex?”

Kai grinned. “I’m not telling.
Okay, yeah we did. It’s not really my thing, but I wanted to work him up, get
him all hard and ready. Turns out he had me flying. And then my mother bangs on
the bathroom door to find out why I was screaming.”

Mitzi’s face pinked. “That’s so
wrong.”

“Yeah it was.” Kai burst out
laughing. “Okay, you know me. I have zero respect for men. How can I help it
with a father like
Ove
? But Donovan might be—and I do
mean might be so don’t get excited—he might be a little more than expected.
I’ll wait and see, and I’m not holding my breath on it.”

“So you’ll blame
Ove
for the rest of your life, never find true love. You’ll
die an old maid with no children, no one to carry on your legacy.”

“Spare me. Die? And further more,
I don’t want kids. I don’t want love. I want sex—wild hot sex.”

Something from the corner of
Kai’s eye caught her attention. She turned to find Bevin fighting with some
type of being. Its black skin was so dark, it almost glistened. A dark elf if
she didn’t miss her guess. Glancing around the store they were in, she noted
that the humans were all still occupied with their shopping. Two of them were
chitchatting right next to the fight, oblivious of what was happening on
another dimension, one Kai had always been able to see into being half demon.
There her abilities were limited. She couldn’t be sure of anything when the
person was fully in the physical realm, which made her depend on Mitzi and
Bevin to spot immortals.

Mitzi spun around too and caught
the fight. She rolled her eyes. “Guess we better go. Another idiot who wants to
get to your father through you.” She crooked an arm through Kai’s. “How about
ice cream?”

Kai didn’t take her eyes off her
bodyguard. He had transformed to his natural body, crimson skin, glowing red
eyes and a long pointed tail with matching horns. The elf cast a freeze spell
on Bevin who shook the ice off like it was nothing. He blew fire at his
opponent’s head, and the elf yelped in pain.

“We can’t leave poor Bevin.” She
chuckled. “Besides, he—”

Mitzi jerked her sideways, and
she fell on the floor. Kai was aware of someone asking if she was okay, but she
was more interested in the other elf Mitzi faced. To attack Kai’s physical
body, the attacker had to appear in the physical realm. Some of them didn’t
care if they were seen, despite the fact that they were breaking immortal laws
for doing so.

The second dark elf trying to get
at Kai was visible, holding a sword which he had intended to plunge into Kai.
Humans began screaming, running from the store. Mitzi, seeing no humans nearby
shape-shifted into a lion and bared sharp teeth and claws to the enemy. Kai
glanced around for something to fight with. If she didn’t help Mitzi, she would
be killed. She had no power, which meant if the elf cast a spell, she was
finished.

Kai searched the floor and
checkout counter for a weapon and found a long pole in the corner with a hook
on the end of it. She recognized the tool for grabbing clothes from high places
along the walls. Brandishing it, she whirled to go after the elf who was
already muttering words to cast a spell against Mitzi. His arms were bleeding,
and Mitzi moved in for the kill.

With determination, Kai leaped
forward to run him through, but the elf disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
She glanced this way and that for him, but didn’t spot him. Mitzi screamed.
“Kai look out!”

Something hot and sharp like a
knife pierced Kai’s back. The pain was excruciating. She dropped the pole and sank
to her knees, working her lips, but unable to speak.

Mitzi let out a roar and ran to disarm
the elf behind Kai. Kai grabbed onto her friend with trembling fingers,
darkness closing in around the edges of her sight.

“My . . . body,” Kai managed to say.

Kai noted the rage in Bevin’s
eyes when he saw what had happened to her. He attacked the elf he was fighting with
a vengeance, and soon it fell to the floor dead. A few seconds later, a green
flame shot up where its body lay, and it was gone.

The second elf cast a freeze
spell on Mitzi. Bevin rushed to go after him, but he was gone in a flash.
Frustrated, Bevin blew out a breath of fire at Mitzi, and the ice around her
small body shattered. She shrieked, kneeling at Kai’s side.

Kai tried to speak, but Mitzi
shushed her. “No, don’t say anything. I know the drill, unfortunately. Take
care of your body until you come back.”

Closing her eyes, Kai gave into
death, as she’d done too many times before. She hadn’t planned on visiting her
father this way, but at least she could ask him about Donovan. Somewhere in the
darkness that surrounded her, her heartbeat slowed and then stopped.

* * * *

“Hello,
Ove
.”
Kai stood in his office doorway, watching the man who had sired her, the man
she told herself often enough that she hated. After he left her mother and her,
she had cut him out of her heart, refusing to give into a desire to see him,
but somehow she missed him.

Her father glanced up. The
continuous scowl on his face deepened at the sight of her. Had she been
expecting anything warmer, like holding his arms out in welcome? She rolled her
eyes.

“Kai, what are you doing here?”

She knew she got her looks from
him. His long black hair was as long as
hers,
and
their dark eyes matched. The crescent moon shaped birthmark behind one knee was
the only claim her mother had on her.

Kai drifted across the room and resisted
the impulse to hug the evil beast. She moved out of reach of temptation and sat
down. Or hovered. Visiting this underworld was not her favorite pastime, so she
had not learned to fashion and hold a sort of solid body here.

Her father noticed the blood on
her blouse, mimicking her physical appearance back in the human world. If
possible, his dark mood dropped another few notches. “What the hell happened? I
will kill that demon for not protecting you! Where is he, Kai? You can’t interfere
with me sending him into the abyss this time.”

“I’m not,
Ove
.
I just—”

“I said he will die! And don’t
call me
Ove
. I’m your father, damn it. Call me Father
or Dad, even Pop.”

Kai suppressed a laugh, but
warmed in spite of his gruff manner. “
Father
,
I’m here to discuss someone with you.”

“After I deal with Bevin.” The
demon lord, who had gone red with flames shooting up from his fingertips, held
out his hand. “Bevin!” Her bodyguard appeared with his neck between
Ove’s
thick fingers.

Bevin tried to bow but couldn’t
free himself from
Ove’s
hold. “My lord. I can
explain.”

“You can’t!”
Ove
continued to bellow. “My flesh and blood, my only vulnerability sits here
having been murdered for the third time on your watch, and you think you can
explain that to me?” Kai flinched. Whatever she had felt before was snatched
back with the way
Ove
described her. His
vulnerability. Not his daughter, not the most important person in his life.

Kai sighed. When would she learn
not to let him get to her? “
Ove
—Father—I regenerate.
It’s not a big deal. Painful, but not a big deal.”

“Don’t defend him, Kai! I expect
my orders to be obeyed to the letter. Nothing less will be tolerated.” Of
course, it was about his orders.

She surged to her feet. “Excuse
me, Father, but we had a deal!” Resting her hands on her hips and hoping they
didn’t pass through taking the steam out of her argument, she glared at her
evil parent. “The deal was if I allowed you to assign a demon to guard me, I
got to choose who it was. I chose Bevin, and I have not changed my mind. Do you
want to break our deal?”

He sneered. “It’s in my nature
to—”

“Bull. You break it, and I’ll not
register with you if I am killed again.”

Some of the heat went out of her
father’s expression. If she checked in with any other demon lord in the
underworld, it was tantamount to a slap in her father’s face and sending a
message to one and all that she considered another demon lord more powerful and
more deserving of her respect. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t I?”

“Fine!” He threw Bevin away so
hard,
the demon rolled across the floor and took some time
to orient himself enough to rise. Kai watched Bevin bow over and over as he
backed from the room. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her father.

Ove
settled behind his massive desk, the backdrop of his vast library making him
look more studious than she knew him to be.
Ove
cared
nothing of what other leaders did in the past or in other areas of the
underworld. His way was best, and anyone who didn’t agree would be killed. Or
alienated as in Kai’s case.

“What do you know of Donovan
Karey
?” While she awaited his answer, she concentrated on
remaining in her chair. Her father pointed a finger at her, and Kai’s rear
suctioned to her seat. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Never heard the name. Who is
he?”

She waved her hand. “No one of
consequence, but I’d like you to see if you can dig up anything on him. I want
to be careful of who I associate with, especially after today. Being killed is
no picnic, and it takes me forever to blend with my body again.”

Her father studied her face, and
Kai did her best not to somehow give the impression that she was in the market
for a new lover.
Ove
wouldn’t care. He’d bedded women
of all kinds with no discrimination on whether they were human, demon or other
immortal. Some of them had been during his relationship with her mother. But
she didn’t want him in her personal business.

He grumbled. “He’s no one
important, but you want a background check on him? Did you check topside?”

“I will. I have lunch with Mother
tomorrow.”

“Will you be regenerated in
time?”

She sighed. “Damn it. I don’t
know. Why does this happen to me? I want a normal life,
Ove
!
I just want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask?” She fought to stand up
and glared at him when she couldn’t. He waved a hand. She popped free.

“You are half-demon, Kai. That
cannot be changed. Your father is the most powerful demon in the
underworld,
some say the most powerful being period.”

“In his mind,” she muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” She strolled to the
door. “Father, send me the message of what you find out. I will not be visiting
this place again any time soon.”

“And how am I to see my only
child?”

She spun around figuring she was
hearing things. The man didn’t care one bit about her. He sat straight-faced
and uninterested.

“If you want to see me, you could
always possess someone.”

He didn’t answer, and she walked
out, holding her head high.