Rival Demons (9 page)

"I know what you mean," she said. "This place is
nice and all, but it's starting to feel a bit like prison."

I nodded, picking at a hangnail on my index
finger. "So I guess the question is what are we going to do about
it?"

Mary Anne shrugged. "I guess we should talk to
Lea or Jackson next time they come by," she said. "See if they have
any ideas."

I sighed and sat up. "And how long before they
come back?" I asked. "We haven't seen Jackson in days, and Lea only
comes home crazy late at night. We're lucky to see her at all most
days."

"I know," she said. "But what choice do we
have?"

I looked toward the counter where Jericho's red
stone sat against the white tile. "What if we contacted Jericho?" I
asked, standing to retrieve the stone. "How do you think this thing
works anyway?"

She shook her head. "I don't think that's such a
good idea," she said. "He left that stone for Lea, not for us."

I sighed again and put the stone back down on
the counter. "I'm going to go insane."

Then, as if he'd been listening to us, Jackson
walked through the door of the suite.

My stomach fluttered at the sight of him,
followed by an immediate twinge of pain in my heart. I returned to
the couch and tried to act like his presence didn't affect me.

"Hey," he said, coming to lean against the back
of the couch. "How are you two holding up in here?"

"We're bored out of our minds," I said.

"We were just talking about wishing we could get
out of these rooms for a while," Mary Anne said.

"Well, that's sort of what I came to talk
about," he said. "Andros has asked you to join us for dinner."

My I-don't-care act went flying out the window
at his announcement. I sat up, crossing my legs under me and
practically bouncing up and down. "When?" I asked.

"A real dinner out?" Mary Anne asked. Her face
lit up and her eyes sparkled at the thought.

"Yes, a real dinner out." Jackson smiled, making
my stomach flip again. But when he turned to meet my gaze, I
stopped smiling and looked away. "Tonight," he said, disappointment
in his tone. "If you're up for it."

"Oh, we're definitely up for it," Mary Anne said
with a giggle. She hopped up from the couch and ran toward her
room, all traces of her injury gone from her step. "I just have to
figure out what to wear."

She disappeared into her bedroom, leaving me
alone with Jackson for the first time in a week. His hand lingered
on the back of the couch, just inches from my own. Even though we
weren't touching, I could feel the heat of him near me. My entire
body was still tuned to him like some kind of hyper-sensitive
magnet.

No one was watching, yet we couldn't touch.

Could he feel it too? The tension between us?
The desire? Or had his feelings changed now that he was home and
with his own people again?

His hand inched closer to mine, but I quickly
stood and moved away.

"I'll go get ready too," I said.

As casually as I could, I walked by him toward
my room. I wanted him to reach out to me, grab me and pull me into
his arms and tell me he was wrong to think he could be apart from
me. But he didn't move except to turn and watch me go.

We entered the Grand Hall and Jackson led us
down the staircase, through a couple rows of shops, and finally to
a small restaurant at the far end of the hall. Rather than a tent
like I had expected, this place was carved into the solid rock. A
few tables were occupied outside, but Jackson led us through the
rounded entrance and straight up to the hostess.

I was amazed at how much things here were
similar to my world. Sure, we were deep underground and the
restaurant was carved into thick black rock. But there was still a
hostess and tables and chairs just like any normal restaurant.

"We're here to see Andros," Jackson said.

The hostess raised an eyebrow, then looked at
Mary Anne and I with curiosity. "Follow me," she said. "We have a
private room set up for you in the back."

She stepped out from the podium and passed by
me, her judgmental gaze lingering just a bit too long on my
face.

We followed obediently to the back of the
restaurant. As we walked by, I took in the rich smells of the food.
I couldn't catch any specific smells that I recognized, but
everything smelled so delicious it made my mouth water. I don't
think I'd ever been so hungry in my life.

The hostess disappeared through an archway at
the very back of the restaurant. Inside was a small room with one
large round table. She motioned for us to take our seats, then
disappeared back the way she'd come.

Sitting down at the table were three demons.
Andros, for one. Beside him sat a woman with short, pixie-cut
blonde hair. She was small and had pale skin, almost as if she were
designed to be her partner's exact opposite. Instead of black eyes
like Andros, hers were almost snow white.

The final guest at the table was a young girl
who looked no older than four or five years old. Of course, I had
no idea how old that was in demon years. After all, Jackson only
looked eighteen, but in truth he was over two hundred years
old.

I smiled at the young girl and she smiled back.
Her face was sweet and beautiful and her smile was happy and
genuine. My heart warmed. This little girl was the first demon who
had truly welcomed me since I first got here.

Andros stood and held his hand out to me.
Tentatively, I took it, amazed at how much his view of us had
seemed to change in the past week.

Jackson greeted the blonde woman, then took a
seat next to her. Even though there was an empty chair by his, I
stepped to the side and took the seat next to the child instead,
leaving two empty chairs between he and I. The little girl
immediately took my hand in hers as if we'd always been best
friends. I couldn't help but smile, thankful to be treated so
nicely among strangers.

Mary Anne sat next to me, leaving one seat still
open.

Lea came in just moments behind us, looking as
beautiful as ever in her leather ensemble with her long black hair
free-flowing down her back.

"Hope I'm not late," she said, smiling. She
embraced both Andros and the blonde woman, then took the seat next
to Mary Anne and Jackson in the circle.

"I am sorry you've been locked away in your room
for so long," Andros said. "Many were concerned you were spies who
might report back to the Order. It took some time to convince the
council to allow you all to stay here long term under our
protection."

"Does that mean a decision has been made?" I
asked.

Andros laughed, taken aback by my honesty.
"Right to the point," he said. "Yes, as a matter of fact just this
afternoon the council voted to accept you into our community.
Jackson and Lea have been telling us a lot about your struggles
against the Order."

I noticed Andros had called him Jackson instead
of his demon name.

"It's definitely our pleasure to have you here
with us," the blonde woman at his side said in a very sweet voice.
"It isn't every day that we hear of a witch who wants to fight back
against the Order. And from what I hear, you are quite a powerful
witch for someone so young."

I bowed my head and stared at the scarred wood
of the circular table. I didn't know how to respond. Was I
powerful? I certainly hadn't felt that way lately.

"And you must be Mary Anne?" Andros asked,
turning his attention to her. "I don't sense any kind of connection
to the Order within you, is that right?"

Mary Anne cleared her throat. "Yes," she said
nervously.

"Jackson and Lea have told us a lot about you,"
the blonde demon said. "I felt awful knowing you were in those
rooms all alone with nothing to do. As soon as the council's vote
came in, I made sure to arrange this dinner right away.

"Thank you," I said. "The rooms are very
beautiful, but it's still been a little bit boring, if you'll
forgive me for saying so. We are very thankful for a place to stay,
though."

"Yes," Mary Anne said. "Thank you."

"You are most welcome," the blonde said. "My
name is Ourelia, I am Andros' mate. And of course, you have met our
daughter Sasha. I hope we'll be seeing much more of each other now
that we've sort of broken the ice."

"It's nice to meet you," I said.

The conversation around the table continued on
in this very polite way, no one really saying anything important or
deep. Mostly, Andros wanted to know about Peachville and how life
was different in the human world. We avoided topics like demon
slavery and the fact that almost every demon down here hated
humans.

More than once, I caught Jackson's eyes on me,
but I quickly looked away.

A waitress in a silky blue dress entered the
room and poured glasses of wine for everyone. I hesitated as Andros
raised his glass in a toast. The only wine I'd ever had was with
Jackson that day in the pecan orchard and it had made my head swim.
I didn't think now was the right time for me to be clouding my own
judgment. Still, it would be rude to refuse when these demons were
obviously going out of their way to serve us.

I raised my glass.

"To old friends," Andros said. "And new
ones."

Everyone leaned in to the center of the round
table to knock our silver cups together. At first, I drank only a
sip, not intending to have much of the wine. But it was
surprisingly sweet and bubbly, and I was so thirsty.

The wine seemed to loosen everyone up. By the
time the food arrived, Jackson and Andros were sharing funny
stories of their childhood.

"Remember the time you and Aerden slipped past
the castle's guards and set off those homemade fireworks from the
east tower?" Andros said, laughing so hard there were tears in his
eyes. "I will never forget the look on your father's face when he
caught up with you two."

"Oh man, that was such a long time ago," Jackson
said.

I watched as they talked, an outsider gazing in.
Their childhood didn't seem all that different from a normal human
experience except for their stories of magic and castles and kings.
And the fact that their childhoods lasted for about a hundred
years.

I think I would have laughed with them and
enjoyed their stories except for the way that Lea kept smiling and
talking about how much time she used to spend with Jackson and his
brother. I knew they had a past together, but I never realized that
it was a hang-out-everyday-best-friends kind of past. I willed
myself not to care, but it didn't work.

Thankfully, once the dessert came – a beautiful
pie with some kind of sweet blue fruit inside – Andros turned the
conversation back to the present.

"You wouldn't believe the changes in the Kingdom
since you left, my friends," he said, shaking his head. "The
laughter has been replaced by fear."

Ourelia sighed, a dark sadness in her eyes.
"Especially after what happened in Genestra. Nothing was every the
same after that."

"Genestra?" Jackson asked, sitting up
straighter. "The king's northernmost city?"

"A few years after you left, a group of citizens
in Genestra decided to set up watch against the hunters," Andros
said. "They patrolled the city streets, waiting. One night, a demon
on watch set off the alarms. One of the hunters had come for an
innocent girl, the new mate of the city's head guard. Many rose up
against the hunter, and even though they weren't strong enough to
kill her, they did manage to wound her and banish her from the
city. At first, they considered it a great victory, sure they had
scared the Order away from their city."

"What happened?" Lea said. The earlier smiles
had been wiped from her face and replaced with worry.

"It was horrible," Ourelia said, her voice
shaking. "The Order of Shadows brought an army into Genestra about
a week later. Human witches and hunters both. In a matter of hours,
every single demon in the town was either dead or captured and sent
to the human world to be a slave."

Jackson's eyes grew wide. "How could that happen
to such a large city?" he asked. "I mean, Genestra had what? Three
thousand demons living there? There's no way the Order was strong
enough to take them all."

"Never underestimate their power," Andros said.
"Their darkest magic is enough to kill us all, especially when
their attack is a surprise. The city was helpless against the power
of the Order of Shadows."

"Who did this horrible thing?" Lea asked. "What
was the name of the head witch? Do you know?"

Andros shook his head. "No one survived to give
any specific details of what happened there that night."

I shivered and glanced at Lea. Her eyes met
mine, and I know we were both thinking of the memory she'd shown me
of Aldeen, Kansas. The Order had killed everyone in the blink of an
eye. We knew what they were capable of, but how were we supposed to
fight back?

"This happens in the human world too," I said.
For most of the night I had sat back and been a spectator, but this
was a conversation I was passionate about. "The Order gets rid of
anyone who opposes them, even if it's their own people."

Andros looked confused. "You mean they kill
their own witches?"

"Yes," I said. "Entire cities of them. I've seen
it with my own eyes."

"Why don't your people fight back?" Ourelia
asked. "Are they also afraid?"

"Well, fear is part of it, but it's also
misinformation," I said. "The Order doesn't exactly go around
advertising the fact that they killed one of their own covens.
Instead, they find an enemy to blame it on, making sure the other
towns hate whoever it is they think really did the killing."

"Very smart," Andros said, rubbing his forehead.
"They build loyalty through their lies, using it to take out any
groups who oppose them."