The Demon King and I (12 page)

Holy crap. Note to self: Do not get on Arath’s bad side.
Weird that he could go demon so quickly. I would have bet money that when he shared his power with me it was nothing but golden goodness. Now he looked very much like what I’d imagined the devil might when I was a child.

His actions seemed extreme, and yet I’d seen more than one demon lose its head in court. Nothing new there, but it bothered me that Arath had been the one to execute the traitor.

You think of him as a man. Never underestimate your opponent, Gilly. No matter what he seems to be, he’s still a monster.

The crowd cheered.
Gruesome bunch.

Arath banged the staff to the ground. “Those who betray the king—betray our world—die.” The crowed hushed again. “Clede, remove the ashes and send them to his family as a reminder of what happens to traitors.”

I’d met many a demon king, but never had I been afraid of one. Frustrated, angry, but never afraid. There was more to this guy than anyone might have imagined. In my early years as a Guardian I read every book on magical creatures available, and I’d never seen anything written about something like Arath.

The king returned to his natural state and sat on his throne. Several dignitaries drew his attention. I wanted answers but they would have to wait. Now that the portals were closed, my job here was done. I hadn’t slept in two days and I needed to rest. That would be the easiest way to heal my body. Though I had to admit Arath’s magic had done wonders. I could open and close my hand without pain, and my shoulder no longer ached. Even my ribs had healed.

Careful not to touch anyone, I slipped through the crowd. I was almost to the door when a female Colei stood in front of me. She had one horn shooting out of her forehead and she looked a bit like a mule standing on two legs. “The king has not dismissed the court. You may not leave.” She crossed her sword against her chest.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m sure you’re right, but I need to go. I mean no disrespect, your
king
knows this.”

“You challenge me?” she screamed, and everyone in the crowd turned.

Yikes.
Instinct had my hand on the sword at my back before she finished her sentence. “No, I do not challenge you. I need to go.” Many pins could have been heard dropping in the silence that followed.

“Draw your weapon,” she screeched. The crowd around us moved back.

Oh, great.
I couldn’t risk a glance back at Arath for fear of losing my head to the Colei’s weapon.
Step in any time, Mr. King.
Then it dawned on me. He couldn’t show favoritism to a Guardian. And if I thought about it I wouldn’t want him to. I didn’t want to kill the Colei, but I had no choice.

She stepped forward, her saber in one hand, claws growing out of the other.
Lovely.
I moved into fighting stance, holding the sword front and to the left. She was so fast I didn’t even see her blade hit mine.

I ducked and threw out a kick to keep the weapon from slicing open my chest. I’d fought Colei on Earth, but their speed was much faster on their own planet. Of course, I was no slouch in the speed department.

I heard my mother’s voice in the back of my head. “Don’t think. Fight.”

Jumping to the left, I crouched to miss another swing of her sword but the claws that came right behind it caught my neck and chest. She’d come dangerously close to hitting an artery.

The coppery smell of my own blood kicked my tired instincts into gear. I fought without thinking and moved as fast as the demon. I wasn’t aware of the crowd or my surroundings, only of the will to survive. Only when she was on the ground, my sword in her chest, did I stop to think.

She was dead.

Another Colei demon jumped forward. This one was a male, and probably the mate of the other.

“Enough!” Arath roared. He stood near his throne. “She won the challenge.”

The Colei hissed at me but didn’t draw a weapon. He reached down and picked up the other demon and slung her over his shoulder. Those around him gave him a wide berth as he huffed out the castle door.

I wanted to say, “Um, you didn’t ask the king’s permission to leave,” but it didn’t seem appropriate.

Her claws had dug deep into my chest and blood poured from the leather. I needed one of our healers fast. I knew my body and it wouldn’t be long before I passed out.

“King Arath, please forgive my haste in trying to depart. I meant no harm or disrespect to you or your people, but I must go. I have business in my world.”

An odd expression came over his face and he gave a strange smile. The devil was back.

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, Guardian.”

CHAPTER 13

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t fight the demon
king in front of his subjects. “King Arath, may I request a private meeting? I promise I won’t take much of your time.”

He looked around the room in a way that said, “Forgive me, I must deal with the crazy demon slayer again.”

“Certainly.” Rising from his throne, he handed Clede the staff. The crowd parted to make room for him. I followed him down the corridor toward the door where I’d seen the ocean.

Using his hand to wave the door shut, he then motioned me to a table. “I will explain while I heal your wounds.”

I acquiesced only because my energy was flowing out of my body by the second. Leaning back in the chair, I glanced down at my chest. There was little skin left just above my left breast, the bones exposed.

“Close your eyes,” Arath whispered.

I did what he asked, and tried to relax. Once again I could see the golden glow through my lids. My chest burned, and at one point if felt as if my heart might explode.

“Take a deep breath,” he whispered.

I did and inhaled a calming eucalyptus mist that made my shoulders drop and pulled the fire from my chest. I wanted to see how he’d done this, but the glow was still bright and I didn’t want to risk blindness.

“You shut and locked all of the portals with our magic.” Arath pulled his hand from my chest and moved to my right thigh, which had seen the wrong edge of the Colei’s blade. “If we open one for you to travel home, we risk disrupting the spell and opening them again. The spell will grow in strength as time passes and will protect the portals from the darkness, but as I said, it will take time and you must stay on Maunra.”

Panic rose inside of me. I couldn’t be stuck on Maunra. I had to tell my family about the dark magic, and goodness only knew what had jumped through those portals before we closed them. Earth might be experiencing a plague of demons. I also wanted to talk to my mother about Arath. I didn’t know what he might be, but I was more curious than ever to find out.

I’d just seen him reduce a demon to a pile of ash, and he’d healed me almost as good as new, even though I’d been near death. At the very least near passing out.

“You will come to no harm here,” Arath’s voice soothed. “When it is safe, I can take you home through a portal by adding my magic for protection, but it will be twenty-four of Earth’s hours before I can do this. That’s when the magic will be at its strongest.”

I shook my head. “We are in the middle of a battle on Earth. I can’t leave my family wondering what has happened to me.”

“I can send a message, that you are safe and will return soon.” He moved his hand from my thigh. “This is how it must be done. There is no other way.”

I chewed on my lip.

“I told you before that your planet was not the only one under siege. There are rumors of war here on Maunra.”

Before I could say there were always wars on Maunra, he held up a hand.

“We are in a time of peace. You see how the clans respond. Many have agreed to disagree, because they understand that we must band together to fight this new foe. The same enemy who wishes to destroy your planet.”

I leaned to the side and put my arm on the table. “Do you have any idea who is doing this?”

“No, but it is more than one person. We’ve had several robberies, as have you, and they all take place at the same time. This tells me it is a group, one that has dark magic at its disposal.”

“But the demons I killed were from here, and you said that the dog thing had conspired to set up the raids. You executed him for it.”

Arath leaned back and crossed his arms against his chest. “I gave him peace because his mind was no longer his own. An outside force controlled him. One that was able to manipulate him. The darkness you saw as we closed the portals is seeping into all of our worlds. I know we have more traitors here, as I am certain there are human traitors on Earth. It is only through them we will be able to trace the darkness. It fills them, controls them. My guess is the same thing is happening not just here, but throughout the universe.”

I made a motorboat sound with my lips. Being a Guardian meant always being ready for the weirdness to happen, but this was beyond anything I’d come across before. Fighting a bad guy we couldn’t see would be no easy task.

My mother and Aunt Juliet had been with the council for weeks now, which meant they were well aware of what was going on. When she had mentioned that things were going downhill fast, I believed her, but I didn’t realize at the time just how serious the threat had become.

“So, what do I do for the next twenty-four hours?”

Arath stood. “I have arranged quarters for you so that you may rest.”

I wondered when he’d done this, but with Arath, obviously surprises were the name of the game. A short nap didn’t sound like a bad idea. I didn’t need as much sleep as most people but I’d been going all out for more than forty-eight hours. I’d fought battles here and on Earth, and I honestly needed a little downtime.

We didn’t go back out into the hall, but through a side door and up three flights of stairs. I saw several sets of double doors.

The nearest doors swung open before we even reached them, and I knew Arath had something to do with that. As we entered, I caught my breath. It was different from anything I’d seen in the castle. It looked like a hotel suite at the W, with modern furnishings. Everything was in a combination of creams, browns, and soft blues.

“It’s beautiful.”

He nodded as I followed him in. “I saw a room similar at a resting house on Chndre. It was done by Fae who were known for their artistic ability, and I had it re-created here.” He pointed toward a doorway. “There is a bathing room through there, and leathers that are close to your size in the chest at the end of your bed. This will be a restful place for you?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He turned toward me and put a hand on my shoulder. “You fought well today, Guardian.”

I didn’t know what to say. “Thanks.”

As he walked back to the door he gave me final instructions. “There are locks on this door controlled by my magic, once you slip in this key.” He handed me a small key that looked as if it were made of diamonds. “No one will be able to enter. I give you my word.”

The doors shut behind him and I put the key in. A series of unseen bolts slid into place. The demon king had given his word, but I kept my sword within reach the entire time I readied for bed, and as I fell asleep, my hand slipped to the handle.

 
 
I woke eight hours later feeling as though I’d slept
for days.
That was one long nap.
My body hummed with energy, and hunger gnawed at my stomach. I found the “leathers” Arath had mentioned. There was a soft, loose-fitting blouse with a drawstring at the neck, a leather vest, and a pair of leather pants I might have found at a cute boutique in SoHo.

I slipped the key from the door and the locks opened.

There at the doorstep was a sandwich and tea set. There was no one in the hallway. I picked up the tray and put the key back in the lock. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, I pulled the pieces of bread apart and discovered peanut butter and honey. It was exactly what I wanted. I took two bites and it tasted just like it would have at home.
Peanut butter on Maunra; the universe really is whack.

I poured the tea into the cup and wafts of cinnamon and vanilla goodness steamed toward me. I appreciated the fact that Arath had gone to great pains to make me feel at home.

I thought about all that had transpired the last few days and I missed my sisters and Bailey. I was so used to running troubles past them and making them my sounding board. This universal shift, whatever it was, would affect us all. From the way we’d been kept busy, that was more than obvious.

The Caruthers sisters could handle it, no matter what. We’d been groomed for this our entire lives: to protect our world from others who would do it harm. It seemed funny that I might soon long for the days of catching and killing the occasional jumper.

A knock on the door tore me away from my thoughts.

“Yes,” I said as I moved to the door.

“It is me,” Arath announced from the other side.

I slid the key out.

“You are refreshed?” He was dressed in his jeans again, and this time wore a long white shirt made the way mine was. The smell of cloves was strong on him, and I wondered if that was his natural scent.

I hated that I was so drawn to him. “Yes.” I tried my best to pretend my traitorous body wasn’t hot for him.

“You have something here.” His thumb caressed the top of my lip, sending warm sensations down to parts of my body that heated instantly. As he licked the small bit of peanut butter from his thumb, my heart beat faster. “This is good.”

I backed away and turned toward the bed. My heart raced and I took a calming breath. “I’m curious how you happen to have peanut butter on hand, and where do you find Levi’s?”
Especially ones that hug your incredible butt like they do.

“The markets here have many things from other worlds.” He moved closer to me. “My favorite Earth food is honey. As a treat my father would give it to my brother and me. The color reminds me of your hair.” His voice was whisper soft.

“Are you flirting with me?” I couldn’t keep from smiling as I turned to face him.

He shrugged. Touching my shoulder, he drew me closer. “You have a power that pulls me to you, and I find it difficult to stay angry even when I know I should. I thought of you in here. I wanted to watch you sleep.”