Red Moon Demon (Demon Lord) (18 page)

The
new-comer
radiated
excite
ment,
peer
ing
into Izumi’s face.
“
Sweetie
, I’m so glad you
’
r
e
back
.
I’ve
been
so worried
.
”

Tears glistened in Izumi’s eyes as she
melt
ed
into
the girl’s embrace
.
P
ull
ing
back
,
she
kept hold of Izumi’s hands. T
hey smiled at each other
.

Side doors in the hall exploded open and fresh guards rushed to converge on us. These were hard fey, scarred, mauled by past conflicts, with death in their eyes. Their weapon harnesses were worn and oiled, not the type put on to
i
mpress visiting dignitaries.
I
warmed with the
joyous
d
esire
to kill
them all. S
uch a challenge
! My hands stayed pressed to my thighs, ready to draw the automatic pistols holstered in that part of my gun harness.

The girl turned the full force of those icy, electric eyes on me, deadening my muscles like a killing frost.
“And what have you here
?
”
S
he smiled
; i
t was
n
’
t fake
. Th
at was really bad
. H
aving the attention of a fey with this much
random
power wasn
’t good.

I looked into her eyes and smiled.
“I am Caine Deathwalker
.
”
I forc
ed
my body to move,
making it look easy. I seized
the girl
’
s hand
,
kissing
it.
“
And
who would you be?”

Before I could
even make an obscene suggestion involving a feather bed and a trapeze, I
had four blades
at
my neck
,
coming from behind and both sides
.
I kept looking
into
the girl
’
s eyes
. P
rojecting enough confidence
for a legion of demons,
I waited
for an answer
.

She said,
“I am
Kellyn
,
the Heart of Winter,
ruler of the
Northern C
ourt,
Q
ueen of the
I
ce
F
ey
.
”

“My mo
m,
” Izumi
added
.

The queen waved the guards back.

The blades
at
my neck
withdrew
as
the guards
retreated.

Kellyn
stepped closer to me
. Her hand settled against my
chest
. She
studi
ed
me.
I
’d
had powerful fey do this before
;
they had a hard time
getting a
feel
for
what I was.

Kellyn
didn’t look away, but spoke to Izumi,
“Is this yours
,
my daughter?”

The hand on my chest beca
m
e
warmer
. She
pulled
it
away
and stared into her palm.

Before
Izumi answered,
the
middle
frost giant’s
vo
ice thundered in the hall.
“Enough of this
.
I demand my prize now
,
fey queen
.
”

Kellyn
turned to face him
.

Izumi looked angry as all hell
.

T
he queen
’
s guards didn
’
t move
,
but the faces I
saw
were masks of frozen rage
.

Kellyn
’s
face aged ten years as she spoke with imperial ice edging her words. All sign of the barely legal vixen fading away.
“In d
ue
time
, Aybran, we will discuss the matter.
”

Ayb
ran
, t
he frost realm
’s heir apparent?
W
hat the hell
have
I walk
ed
into?

“Izumi
,” I caught her eyes,
“what’
s going on?”

Izumi looked at the floor
as if she were avoiding me, but
whispered, “I
was named the prize
to stop
a
war
;
it was decided that we
sh
ould marry
. Not that I was ever asked.
”

“That’s why you
were
hiding in my territory?”

Kellyn
turned her attention back to me.
“
You
are something that has a
territory?”

“I really nice territory
,
” I said.
“I rule L.A. in the human world.”

“El
-
lay?”
Kellyn
’s face w
as
blank. Apparently, the human city didn’t mean much to her.
She gestured to the surrounding guards.
“
T
ake them to
Nieve’s old
room and
see to it she doesn’t wonder off again.”

Izumi grabbed my hand
as a heavy escort led us away.

Aybran didn
’
t look
happy, but was smart enough
to
swallow his protests.

I looked at the
frost
giant
prince,
and smile
d
in
contempt. “You will die before you ever touch her.”

I
shot
Kellyn
a glance as well, one that traveled down her hot fey body and back up
again. I
gave her a little
goodbye
wave
.

The queen looked surprised,
but gave up a little smile of her own.

We
were hustled across the hall, out a side door, and down a passage with
blue
crystal
orbs
set
halfway in
the
ice
walls every few feet
. Ice, ice, and more ice…
I was starting to see a theme here
. A
few minutes later we came to stairs made out of ivory
.
Izumi
still held
my hand
.
I
didn’t
think it was
for my benefit. S
he
smelled of fear, p
owerless
in the face of palace machinations.
Despair
darkened her eyes, robbing her face of animation.

I
t was a look
I
really enjoyed seeing on my enem
y’
s faces, but
not
on Izumi.
Maybe she was more to me than an accomplished fuck. Maybe.

The guard
s
stopped
us
in front of a white door with small handprints
melted into it. Each print was
bigger then the
next
,
each a deeper
blue as the print
s
got bigger.
I wondered if she’d marked her territory with each birthday.
Me, I preferred drunken orgies myself.

Izumi opened the door with a
wave.

T
he guards
follow
ed us in and stood
in a cluster like bowling pins,
watch
ing
us
like their lives depended on it. Maybe they did.

I looked Izumi in the eyes, and kept laughter out of my voice, “Well, should we just kill them all now and run for it, or would you prefer ripping my clothes off and having your way with me?

EIGHT
EEN

“You should tell me what you know.

I don’t
know
how
much
longer
I

can
keep my gun
from
killing you.”

—
Caine Deathwalker

“Don’t tease the guards,” Izumi
released
my hand
. “They might think you really mean it.”

As she drifted away,
I shrugged and took the opportunity to look around. The bedroom was a potential treasure trove of information on the person Izumi had once been, and who she still might be deep inside. B
right color
s
dominated
the hand-woven tapestries
that
hid
e
the ice walls.
T
he
Victorian
style
bed was
rich mahogany
with
sea foam
green sheets
, pillowcases
,
and an overhead canopy of leaf green trimmed in gold. Th
e
hope chest at the foot of the bed was
red cedar
, every surface carved with a forest scenes
of
running stags, wolves,
flying
geese
, and river swan
.

Izumi passed a
mahogany armoire with black quartz handles
, and settled on
a loveseat
framed in
cherry wood, its upholstery blood-red velvet, trimmed
with
gold
en
tacks.
She watched me intently as my gaze scanned each piece of opulent indulgence. I turned until I faced grape-colored curtains, a
room within a room
. An
alcove held a
miniature
a
n
tique
stove
,
something Ben Franklin might have cobbled
together
. An orange glower of burning coals could be seen through an ornate brass grillwork. A chimney conducted smoke up through the ceiling with no any indication the ice took notice. Fey magic at work.

O
ak
shelves
wrapped around three walls, well within reach of anyone sprawling on the
alcove’s
padded ledge with
its
numerous
tasseled cushions. The
pillows
were enormous and apple colored; red, gold, green.
A small, child’s harp lay among the
m
. Carved from rosewood, inlaid with gold vines, the strings looked like they’d been frozen and shattered by fey magic gone awry.
The space felt like the heart of Izumi’s domain. It suggested a solitary spirit hungry for beauty, music, poetry, and flights of imagination that were the only escape from the ever encroaching ice of the Winter Court.

Izumi’s voice overtook me from behind, “I cried for three days after destroying my harp, and I wouldn’t let them take it away. Not everything
sent
for repair
s
was
returned to me; n
ot all of my interests were considered
appropriate
for a princess of the realm.”

I shot a glance at the loitering guards, as if it had been their personal fault. “Bastards! Picking on a little girl.”

A few of the guards looked away, faces red with embarrassment. An older fey met my stare with icy dignity. His milk-white mustache bristled with indignation
, like an ice-glazed caterpillar
. He said, “The queen’s will is absolute.”

I considered whipping out a gun and placing a slug dead
-
between his eyes—but didn’t. I was here on a mission. Work first. Fun and games
later
. I had to come up with a plan that didn’t involve
start
ing
a war
. With both frost giants and
fey
,
it
would be a
very short war
…
for me.
The queen alone was
the greatest threat. Bonded to her kingdom so the very land obeyed her, drawing power from the fealty of her people, and already having a massive amount of power by birth, she could easily shrug off most of my dragon magic and crush me like an ice sculpture.

I had only one spell that could deal with her. The
kiss-my-ass-goodbye
spell
tattoo
ed
on my right ass cheek
. L
ooking like
the
three blades
and
hub of a fan
, t
he
tri-foil—the international symbol for radiation—
represented
my own
version
of Armageddon.
Problem was
, it was a one time only spell. Depleting all of my life-force, swallowing the life force of all living things within the kill-zone, it assured that anything able to put me down for good would also die. In fact, anything within fifteen miles would be vaporized toast.

If I had a religion outside of sex and booze, it would probably be vengeance. What can I say; though raised demon, I was still human at heart.

Breaking me from my mental abstraction,
Izumi rose and stalked toward me
as if drawn by an irresistible force—
damn this animal magnetism of mine.
She seemed
a new person; icy eyes alive with dancing passions, her white eyebrows arching delicately, her pointy ears longer than I remembered. She took my hand and dragged me to the alcove, shoving me toward the padded le
dge
and its mob of pillows. She pulled the purple curtains closed to give us privacy.

I heard one of the guards mutter, “Damn lucky round-ear.”

Yes, I am
.

She rushed up to me, placing a hand over my mouth before I could
say a word. She gestured down at the floor and a ring of
golden
light rippled outward, followed by several more. They faded at the edge of the curtain and the surround walls. I felt the carpet lurch under me as if turned to quicksand. Her hand muffled the
“
what-the-fuck!
”
that came automatically to my lips.

“Just a conveyance spell.” She wrapped both arms around me and held on as we sank to our knees, hips, chests, and then heads. If Izumi hadn’t been coming along, I might have suspected betrayal. What can I say? Just because I sleep with someone doesn’t mean I trust them.

We fell through a
hunter green mist, sliding down a tunnel made of
shimmer
ing
white-gold rings. As a carnival ride, it was pretty cool.
I didn’t think this ability of Izumi’s was common among the fey. It was no wonder they’d not been able to hold onto her once her powers kicked in.

The
conduit
s
pit
us out on
a
balcon
y clinging to a tower
.
A four foot ice wall separated the balcony from a sheer drop that would have landed someone’s mangled body outside the palace walls. A large, full moon glazed the ice with silver light, making it glow, giving us both blue shadows. Roses and thorny vines had been etched into the tiles underfoot. All we needed was an orchestra playing a waltz in the distance. Maybe in there…
The
adjoining
hall
of the tower
was a dark blue ice cave behind sheer white curtains that rippled in the wind like ghosts hung up to dry.

I went to the
balcony’s edge
and peered out at
a carpet of
dark-shadowed forest
laid over
rugged mountains
.
There were
l
ights
from
a few scatt
ered farms, but not much else.

Izumi spoke as if reading my thoughts.
“
This part of the castle face
s away from town. During one of the many remodels my ancestors made to the castle, access to this section of the tower was blocked, and later forgotten about. I played here as a child, and when it came time to escape without a trace, this was how I did it.”
She
pace
d
like
a caged animal
until she ran out of space and stopped, hiding her face from me. Her back was tight with tension
.
“
If
you want to go, and leave me to my fate, I can send you home from here.
I’d do that for you.”

I followed the wall up to her, took her shoulders, and turned her around. There were no tears in her eyes. They were dull white stones. She had the drained,
emotionless look
that comes to a person
shortly before
they give up their most cherished desire.

I sighed.
“So
,
your people sell the
i
r own
quite
easily
. B
lood
kin
is nothing more th
a
n a
bargain
ing chip.

I
f I
like
d
it,” Izumi said, “I wouldn’t have run away all those years ago, but
i
t’s not that simple
. We’d been at war with the frost giants for generations, on and off. The struggle was doing no one any good, but no one could afford to look weak by calling the whole thing off.
Peace through marriage seemed the only way. If my intended husband had been anyone but
Aybron
, I
c
ould have endured it for the sake of my people.”

“He’s especially bad as frost giants go?” I asked.

“He wanted me as his bride, desperately.”

Sure, Izumi is hot. “
I d
o
n’
t see the problem.
”

“Among the fey, thirteen is legal. I wasn’t even that old at the time. I’ve been kinda hoping he might not want me
,
now I’ve grown up. No such luck. I’m fey
; I
have glamour. I can be whatever he
desires
.”

I nodded in sympathy. “Yeah, sucks being you.”

“So, I’m sending you back?”

“
I need to know t
wo
things
: wh
ere is the treasure room and w
h
ere
is Aybran staying
?”

“Caine
,
what are you
going to do?
”

“
Once you ice me up, I’m g
oing for a walk
. Y
ou stay here
.
”

“Ice you up?”

I began stripping off my non-fey clothes and weapons, making a pile at Izumi’s feet.
“I’ve seen some of your people walking around with pieces of armor made from ice
. Give me chest and back plates, a helmet with
an
ice visor across the eyes, frost everything else over lightly, and give me an ice sword and shield
.
I’ll blend right in.”

“Wait, if any one finds you
skulking about they’ll…
”

“Make me more dead than they already intend to?”

“You have a point.” She smiled a little, her hand freely roaming over my body in rampant admiration.
The moisture in the air became a white mist settling on me.
I
was already cold. It got colder
as her hand caressed, leaving a trail of ice
.
She made a point not to ice up my joints, immobilizing me, and added little creative touches to the armor like the six-pack on the piece over my abs
, a map of the palace areas where I’d be going on the inside of my shield.
The extra weight and cold was a liability.

She saved the helmet for last, leaning in to kiss me as her hands spread ice over my hair. “You will be careful, right?”

“Sure, but where’s the fun in that?”
I hoped I didn’t have to break off the armor to kick ass. Naked combat wasn’t really my thing.

All that was left for her was to make the thin ice visor across the eyes. “Use your
Dragon’s Voice
spell if you need me,” she said. “I will hear you and come at once—with your weapons and clothing.” She waved a hand past my eyes and
translucent
ice formed,
add
ing a slight
distortion to everything I saw.

“Okay, pop me as close to the treasure room as you can without setting off magic
al
alarms.”

“If I haven’t heard from you in an hour, I’m coming after you,” she said.

I smiled. “Always great to have a backup plan.”

The hunter green fog returned with its white-gold tunnel of shimmering rings. A moment later, I stood in an empty hall lined with closed doors. I looked at the map inside my shield. A tiny flickering mote of azure light showed me my current position. Two other locations were color coded. The gold light seemed likely to be the treasure room. Knowing what Izumi thought of Aybran, I figured the black
dot would be him.