The Demon King (13 page)

In the wake of their abrupt silence, Dahlia
dropped to her knees, overcome with a dizzying wave of absolute
weakness. Through vision that rapidly shifted out of its battle
tones and blurred with sudden exhaustion, she saw the dark
electrical fire dwindle like some kind of incredible CGI effect,
leaving behind it a trail of swirling, wafting smoke and five
unmoving bodies.

The smoke faded, revealing a lone figure
standing amidst his fallen men. It was his blue glowing eyes Dahlia
could make out first. They cut through the foggy gloom like search
lights, and Dahlia frowned.

How
? She wondered numbly.
How could he
be completely untouched by that?

The sound of sirens drawing nearer sliced
through the spell’s silent aftermath. It was followed by the sound
of growling. Dahlia’s frown deepened and she blinked. From where
she was kneeling on the dusty floor of the warehouse, she turned
her head to find the relatively small brown form of the dog she’d
met earlier. It had somehow managed to find a way inside the
warehouse. The animal’s teeth were bared menacingly, her hackles
raised. She crouched in an offensive and threatening stance,
growling low and loud at the man with blue eyes.

“
Bowie?” Dahlia called
softly. Suddenly, she was scared for the animal. The solid
realization that the man might hurt the dog settled like lead in
her gut, and Dahlia shook her head, trying to clear it.
Come on, Doll. Stand up.
Beat
this blue eyed fucker before
it’s too late.

With strength she truly hadn’t known she
possessed, Dahlia found herself getting to her feet. She couldn’t
even feel the ground beneath them. She felt lighter than air,
completely empty. It made no sense. She’d eaten so much food at
Evie’s cave….

But that was just it. She’d
eaten
food
. And
that was the night before. She hadn’t
fed
. Not last night, not this night.
And for all she knew, that magic food of Evie’s might not even
exist in the real world. The moment she’d left the cavern, she
might have been hungry again and just not realized it yet. She was
using magic she’d never used before on an empty stomach. No wonder
she was weak.

Concentrate. Get another
one going,
she told herself fiercely as
she reached out mentally for her power and attempted to pull it in.
She needed to prep another spell, get some kind of shield covering
the dog. But her enemy’s blue eyes were boring into her, and her
thoughts were going into a jumble. She was having trouble
concentrating.

Her fangs throbbed. A burgeoning need was
uncoiling in her belly and wisping its inky way through her
bloodstream. That’s when she heard the low, rolling rumble. It was
so much deeper, so much louder than the dog’s growl, it filled the
entirety of the warehouse and caused the cement beneath her feet to
vibrate.

Dahlia pulled her gaze from the blue-eyed
man’s and followed the source of the rumbling to the circle at the
center of the giant room. The red, swirling, caging magic of the
half dozen robed figures was gone now. The circle had been broken
both figuratively and literally; the paint that had been used to
draw the circle was smeared and separated, most likely melted and
erased by the magic spell she’d cast at the summoners.

The demon they’d drawn to this dimension was
free now, but he remained in the warehouse, eyes burning, black fur
raised like the hackles on the dog. His growl, and his red burning
gaze, were directed at the blue eyed man.

As if he was only now realizing the
situation, the man with blue eyes glanced from her to the broken
circle and its inhabitant. A slow smile curled his lips. He spoke a
few words that Dahlia barely heard and barely recognized, and
vanished. There was no swirling portal, no signs of transportation.
He was simply there one moment, and gone the next, leaving behind
his fallen comrades.

Dahlia waited a moment, blinking a few times
to make certain she was really seeing what she was seeing. No magic
she knew of worked that way. But the monster’s low rumble drew her
attention again. It had turned to look at her now, and the menacing
growl was gone. Instead, it seemed to gaze at her almost
questioningly, reminding her of the dog.

The dog!

Dahlia turned to where the dog had made an
entrance. The pit bull mix seemed to look at her at the same time,
its gaze sliding between her and the beast at the center of the
room. Her hackles were no longer raised, however, which said
something for the wisdom of the animal. It knew who its real
enemies were.

The beast in the circle was so tall, it
reminded her of a polar bear on its hind legs, but was not at all
bear-like. Rather, it was humanoid in shape and covered in dense,
soft-looking black fur. It had a massive tail that was also covered
in fur and ended in a series of red-tipped spikes. Its hands bore
claws, but they honestly looked a little short for a beast of its
size. Its mouth reminded her of some of Damon Chroi’s goblins,
filled with teeth that rose up over the top lip as well as down
over the bottom lip. It was the monster’s eyes that impressed
Dahlia the most, as they seemed to crackle with an inner fire.

Dahlia swallowed hard and summoned more
strength she didn’t have. The blood in the veins of the fallen men
several feet away called to her. She could hear a few of their
hearts beating; they were still alive.

And she was so hungry.

But she ignored them and focused on the
beast, getting to her feet so she could approach the giant. As she
took the first step, something behind the furry monster shifted
into view. She stopped. The monster turned slightly and looked down
at whatever was behind it. Dahlia watched as the beast then nodded
reassuringly – and a person slowly moved into view.

What the hell?
The beast had been so large, and its frightening
visage had commanded so much attention, she hadn’t even noticed
that there was something else in the circle with it! It was a young
girl! She was maybe fifteen to eighteen years of age, dark skinned
and dressed all in black. Her hair cascaded in long, tight ringlets
that were black, highlighted with dark auburn. Her fingertips were
a lighter color where she placed her hand lovingly on the arm of
the monster beside her and ran her fingers through his fur. “It’s
okay, Omran. I’m okay. We need to go home now.”

She had never taken her eyes off Dahlia,
though. And now they narrowed. “You’re Akyri?” she asked, her voice
that sultry deep that told Dahlia the girl was not human. In fact,
she was guessing she knew what she was.

Dahlia shook her head. “No,” she said. “But
you are, aren’t you?”

The girl nodded. “I’m Amira. That man
summoned me here when Omran and I were out walking.” The Akyri girl
looked from Dahlia to the pit mix dog, who was now trotting toward
Dahlia and whining low as if she were worried. Dahlia knelt and
reached her hand down reassuringly. The dog licked it a few times
and sat down at her feet.

“
I see you have an animal
companion who is as loyal to you as Omran is to me,” the Akyri
said.

Dahlia looked back up. She didn’t know what
to say to that. She’d only just met the animal… but she had to
admit the dog was showing some gumption being so close to Dahlia at
that juncture. She knew dogs had amazing instincts, and right now
Dahlia was betting that she was emitting some pretty dangerous
vibes. Her hunger was beginning to distract her to a painful
degree. Her fangs were extremely obvious in her mouth, and her
vision was starting to shift into hunting mode.

So she was definitely impressed. And she was
also… touched, for lack of a better word. Did it mean the dog
trusted her? Did she know somehow that Dahlia would never harm
her?

But she had countless questions. Why had
those men gone to all the trouble to summon an Akyri? Something
that was strictly off limits to any warlock? Warlocks and Akyri had
a symbiotic relationship, and Akyri chose to join a warlock – not
the other way around. Jason Alberich would be furious if he knew
what one of his kind was doing.

But then again, Dahlia
wasn’t so sure any of those men had been warlocks. Warlocks used
dark magic, and this magic was not dark, it was forbidden. As she’d
surmised before, it was just plain
wrong
. Plus, that man had used a
kind of magic she’d never come across before: A spell meant to hurt
rather than harm, and a transport spell that allowed him to simply
vanish. What kind of magic
was
that?

“
Who were those men?” she
asked, hoping the Akyri could give her some answers.

“
I know not,” said Amira.
“They spoke in a language I don’t understand. But….” She hesitated,
licking her lips and blinking, clearly trying to recall something.
“One of the phrases their leader spoke sounded
familiar.”

The sirens that had been in the distance a
minute earlier were now much, much closer. Dahlia was beginning to
feel anxious on top of hungry. The dog at her side shuffled a bit
where she sat, and looked up at Dahlia as if waiting to see what
she would do.

“
What was the phrase?”
Dahlia asked. Her voice was changing. She’d noticed since becoming
a vampire that when she really needed to feed, when the call for
blood burned inside her the greatest, her voice would deepen. It
would become more sultry, raspier. Some would no doubt find it
incredibly sexy – and she was guessing that was the point. What
better way to lure in your lunch?

“
I believe it was something
about a demon lord,” said Amira. “Or a demon king. Maybe queen. I’m
sorry I can’t tell you more. What is your name?”

“
You should go,” said
Dahlia suddenly. The bodies on the ground were stirring now – three
of the four who’d fallen had survived Dahlia’s dark force spell.
Their hearts beat temptingly. Dahlia had plans for them, and for
some reason she didn’t want Amira to see those plans.

“
Very well,” said the
Akyri. “Thank you for helping me, whoever you are.” She looked up
at the beast beside her, and the monster roared something
completely unintelligible. When it did, a portal began to swirl to
life between the pair and Dahlia.

Dahlia waited until the pair stepped into
the portal and it closed behind them before she left her place
beside the dog and made her way to the nearest hooded figure. She
knelt at his side and rolled him over. He was young, no older than
twenty-five, perhaps. His cheeks had that baby-fat look to them
that sometimes never went away on a man, even into adulthood. His
eyes fluttered a little and then opened and focused on her.

Fear gripped him at once. Whether it was her
vampiric influence on him that caused him to stiffen with that fear
or he was just smart enough to understand what was about to happen,
Dahlia couldn’t know. She didn’t care.

“
You may as well just close
your eyes again, sweetheart,” she said in her sultry tones. “It’s
beddy-bye time.”

With that, she lifted him with swift and
inhuman strength, exposed his throat, and sank her fangs into his
pulsing vein.

Chapter Fifteen

Laz was certainly not the closest cop to
Dorchester that night. A lot of other people could have been called
in on this, not the least of which were the officers actually
stationed in Dorchester on a nightly basis. But the text he’d
received wasn’t from an ordinary cop – or at least, not a human one
anyway. And this wasn’t an ordinary disturbance. The area he was
traveling to was not strictly known as the safest area in Boston.
Just the opposite was more likely true. But it wasn’t the human
population he was worrying about at the moment. The text was from
Draecus, an Akyri soldier. When Laz had become the Akyri King, one
of the first things he’d done was realize he was outmatched by the
requirements of him in what he literally felt of as two different
worlds. Here, in the human world as a detective for the Boston City
Police. And in the Akyri world as their sovereign.

Fortunately for him the
Shifter King, Darius, had instantly taken a liking to him, and
proved as much when he had his own people come out of the shifter
closet to Lazarus. All this time, Laz had been assuming that the
redheaded Baxter sometimes made his cat allergies act up because
the man owned a cat – when in fact, he’d
been
one himself. A cheetah, to be
exact. Laz had to laugh at that. No wonder his partner was so fast
on his feet.

Still, there were no Akyri in place in
Lazarus’s network, so he’d acted quickly, making certain to arm
himself with help. One of the best choices he’d made was to make
certain Draecus was hired on the force and that he’d have easy
access to Laz. Now Draecus wasn’t the only Akyri on the force, or
around it. There were others in the precinct, in the fire
department, working as emergency response technicians, and there
were even a few manning the 9-1-1 lines. It was amazing how much
easier it was to keep a lid on the goings-on of the various
supernatural worlds when their arteries into the mortal world were
headed-off by agents who knew what was going on and knew how to
handle it.

Now Laz looked once over both shoulders as
he ducked into a shadowy recess beside a brownstone and called up a
portal. As an Akyri, he could use the magic of warlocks. However,
unlike warlocks, it didn’t come naturally. It was borrowed – or
taken, rather. It wasn’t like it could be given back. Lucky for
him, as the king of the Akyri Laz didn’t have to make any promises
or deals with anyone for his sustenance. He didn’t have to wait
around for a warlock to take pity on him in order to use the dark
magic they wielded so easily. Rather, he could take it from anyone
he wanted at any time he wanted. And he’d just stocked up good and
strong.