Power of the Fae (6 page)

“Those guys were demons. When they first came to you they used glamour so that you wouldn’t suspect what they were. They were able to create a cloak around you where no one could see or hear you cry out. Almost making you invisible. So basically, no one even knew you were still on the dance floor. They probably erased your friends’ memory of you being there so no one would know you were missing. I’m sure your friends don’t even remember you being there,” I explain as gently as I could.

“Why was her car found near here?” Tina questions.

“I’m not sure. Once your eyes closed, there is nothing else that I can witness. I see everything in first person, meaning that I was seeing everything that you saw that night. So when your eyes closed, the connection broke.”

“Are you sure they were demons?” Colin asks with his arms crossed across his chest. His infamous scowl has returned to his face.

“I didn’t think that demons were allowed in the human realm,” Alec comments looking confused.

“I know what I saw and they were definitely demons! We need to go to my grandmother and tell her everything. Something is definitely going on and she will know how to find the answers. Tina, is there anyone who you can stay with? I don’t think it’s safe for you to stay here. They’ve seen you and I’m not sure if they will come back for you.”

She nods. “I can go stay on the pack’s compound. I’ll text Marcus and let him know I need a place to crash.” She grabs her cell phone and sends a quick text.

“That would be best and safest.” Colin grabs his cell phone and starts texting someone.

“Do you need someone to stay with you and take you?” I ask her.

“I just texted Devyn, he’s going to send Reed and Dante to escort Tina to her pack’s compound. They will be here in about fifteen minutes. They aren’t that far from here.” Colin puts his phone back in his pocket.

“Tina we can stay with you until the other guys get here—” She cuts me off with a small wave.

“No, I’ll be fine. It’s been months since she was taken, so I think I should be fine for another fifteen minutes. If they were going to get me, I think that they would have done so by now. I’ll go to the pack’s compound for a few days, if you guys really think I might be in danger. If the guys who are going to escort me are close by, that should be fine. I don’t want to hold you up. I need to make a few phone calls.” She stands up and brushes her hands on her pants.

“Are you sure, Tina?” I stand next to her with Colin behind me.

“I’m sure,” she says with a small smile. We make sure that she has all of our contact numbers and Colin agrees to call her Alpha, Marcus, to let him know what is going on.

T
he elevator door
opens on the first floor and immediately the three of us pause before getting out of the elevator. Something is not right. Colin and Alec’s bodies are tense and they try to sense what’s wrong. It’s too quiet in the lobby. Colin sniffs the air, looking out the elevator. Colin gets off first pushing me behind him. Alec steps in front of me and steps out with me following. They both sniff the air again.

They don’t say a word and Colin uses hand signals, gesturing for Alec to check out the front of the building while he heads towards the back. They motion for me to stay where I am. Really? They must have forgot who I am. No way am I missing out on anything. Alec heads towards the front door of the lobby and Colin heads towards the back door of the apartment building. I take a big deep breath and barely catch the faint smell of sulfur.

Demons
!

I pull Dawn’s Light from her sheath that is strapped to my back. I hold her in my right hand with the blade pointing at the ground. I quietly follow Colin out the back door. He stops to glare at me but doesn’t say anything. We walk out the back door into the parking lot that is behind the building. It’s a small parking lot that the apartment must offer for off street parking. There are a few cars parked there. The sun is high in the sky shining brightly. Since it’s the middle of the day, most people are at work.

We turn to go back in the building but the sounds of beating wings causes us both to pause. Something lands softly behind us.

“Princess,” a hoarse voice strains to get the word out.

I turn and standing before me is a large dark-skinned creature. He has a loincloth covering his genitals but other than that he is quite naked. He has dark leathery skin with matching black wings. He has a flat nose with slits and golden eyes that stare at us in contempt. He has no hair and a gold hoop in each ear. His hands are wide with claw-like fingers. His chest is sculpted with muscles and he is breathing fast and hard as if ready to attack. The smell of sulfur is extremely strong now.

Demon.

Colin growls and moves to stand in front of me. I look around sensing another demon dropping from the sky and then a few more land on the ground. Before I know it, there are five demons standing in the parking lot surrounding us. Five on two odds, not too bad for my first demon fight in the human realm. I’m ready for this. I haven’t worked out since I got to the human realm and my muscles had been screaming to be worked out.

“What are you doing here demon?” I ask the one who spoke, stepping from behind Colin to stand next to him. I’m eyeballing the ones closest to me trying to decide which one I’m going to behead first. Colin growls loudly again and places his arm on my abdomen as if to push me behind. I stay his arm.

“He wants you, Princess,” the first demon says. This time Colin growls even louder but I can’t look at him because I don’t want to take my eyes off of the demons. I can feel his Alpha power shooting off of him in waves. He’s close to shifting.

“Who wants me?” I need more information. I need to keep him talking. The demons live in the Underworld, which is ruled by Hades, but the Demon King rules the demons. Hades is the ruler of all in the Underworld and the Demon King is Hades second in command. But for the last millennium or so, Hades has disappeared leaving the Demon King in charge of the Underworld. There are different creatures of the Underworld that the Demon King rules.

The other demons begin moving closer causing Colin and I to shift our stance so that we are standing back to back and the Demons now have us surrounded. Where is Alec? I tighten my grip on Dawn.

“Melomouzor, the Demon King, wants you princess,” the demon replied stepping closer. He’s going to be the first that will meet my sword. My eyes connect with the dark-skinned leader whose red eyes are locked on me.

“For what?” I ask, trying to draw out more information. I shift my body getting in a defensive position. This is definitely not good if the Demon King is after me. I am completely lost on why he would want me.

“It is not my place to question the King, Princess. He wants you. We are to bring you to him.” The demon lets loose a low growl as he takes another step closer.

“Over my dead body,” Colin snarls. His hands have shifted to his wolf claws. His forearms are now covered with midnight black hair. His power is radiating from his body.

“That can be arranged!” another demon says as they attack. I sidestep the first demon and was able to flash behind him swinging my sword. His head rolls away from his body. His body instantly begins to disintegrate. Detaching a demon’s head is one way to ensure that it is dead. Colin is engaged with fighting two of the demons.

Using my Fae power, flashing in and out, swinging my sword gracefully as if I were dancing, the demons are no match for me. All the years of training have definitely paid off. Colin swipes at the second demon he is fighting and with one powerful swipe of his claws, he was able to sever the head from the body. He turns slightly watching me finish off the last demon with a quick slash of my katana to separate the head from the body.

The higher-level the demon the longer it takes for its body to turn to ash. These are not taking that long meaning that these are lower-level demons. The back of my neck tingles, I turn to see Colin staring at me. I’m not sure who has more blood on them, him or me. He’s breathing hard. He stares at me for a second, his gaze traveling from my head to my toes, before speaking.

“Those are some skills you got there.” He nods, respect showing in his eyes.

“Guardians aren’t to be fucked with,” I respond proudly. I can feel my mouth turn up in a lopsided grin. I place my sword in its sheath on my back. The heat of his lust-filled gaze hits me. He blinks when he notices that I’ve caught him staring, his guard goes back up. A fluttery feeling passes in my stomach. There may be hope for me!

“We need to find Alec.” He turns jogging towards the front of the building. I don’t mind following, I get a good view of his ass.

W
e find
Alec coming from across the street. He ran into some demon action of his own. He followed a demon across the street that he had spotted lurking near the building watching Tina’s apartment. He wasn’t able to get much out of him before he beheaded him. The demon got in one good swipe on Alec’s leg. He came from across the street limping and grimacing. Colin ran up to check on Tina and she is doing fine. Upon hearing how we were attacked outside her building, she promises she will definitely go stay with her pack.

The other Legion members, Dante and Reed, show up when we are getting in the car. Colin speaks to them for a few minutes, giving them a rundown on everything that is going on. I guess it’s a requirement for the Legion to be huge, gorgeous males with muscles for days. Dante looks of Italian descent with his black hair, and Reed has bright red hair, I can’t tell if he’s Irish or Scottish. Dante goes in the apartment building and Reed stays by their black Tahoe.

Colin gets in the driver’s seat, starts the car and pulls off. Silence fills the truck. That’s fine by me. Why would Melomouzor want
me?
Enough to where he would send five demons to catch me. How are the demons able to come to the human realm so freely? We were told bedtime stories when we were children about the Demon King, Melomouzor, and how he tried to take over the human realm centuries ago. I don’t remember all of the details of the story. Plus parents usually tweaked the real tale to make it less violent so children would not have nightmares.

“Why does Melomouzor want you?” Colin asks, finally breaking the silence in the car, looking at me in the rearview mirror.

“What?” Alec exclaims.

“I don’t know.”

“You have got to be shitting me!” Alec shakes his head.

“I’m not sure what Melomouzor wants with me.” I shake my head, not knowing the answer. I’m still in shock at the fact.

“We need to know why the demons are able to come to the human realm. They shouldn’t be coming here. If Melomouzor is starting to send demons back to our realm, something is going on. He’s trying to start something. Why did someone open the portals to allow the demons to cross over?” Colin pulls up to my grandparent’s home. He shuts off the engine and turns to me. “We need to find out why he wants you and if it’s related to the missing supernaturals.”

“Don’t you think I want to know why he’s after me? I prefer not to have my name added to the victim list!” I scoff at the thought of that! “Look, do you guys want to get cleaned up? We might have some extra clothes for you.” I motion to the blood all over their clothes.

“We keep a spare set of clothes in the truck, just in case we have to shift without taking our clothes off.” Alec hops out, limping to the back of the truck and grabs a black duffle bag.

We walk up to the house and I let us in. I call out to Henry to tell my grandmother to meet us in her study. I show them to the closest bathroom with the instructions of how to get to the study. I don’t feel like walking to my bedroom so I flash there. Pulling my hair in a high bun I jump in the shower for a five-minute scrub down to get the dried blood off. I dry off and grab a pair of yoga pants and a pink t-shirt with a Disney princess on it and some tennis shoes. Ironic, I know, since I’m a real life Princess. Everyone needs to feel young sometimes. I flash to my grandmother’s study at the same time my grandmother walks through the door and startle both Alec and Colin.

“How many times do we have to tell you to walk around the house and not flash? You’re going to give someone a heart attack, Lina!” My grandmother scolds me with her hands on her hips. I roll my eyes as she walks all the way in the study.

We sit around her study and inform her of the memories I retrieved from Tina and the demon attack. My grandmother actually looks shocked and disturbed. She jumps up and quickly walks over to one of the smaller bookcases against the wall and pulls a book out. The bookcase slides to the left and built into the wall is a hidden safe. She places her finger on the fingerprint scanner and a series of three green lights blink. She brings out an ancient book that has a dark cover with silver engraved words written in an ancient language that hasn’t been spoken in over a thousand years.

She places the book on the table. We gather around her. The book has some strange locked device that is keeping the book from being opened. There is a latch that is attached to the back of the book and it wraps around the front cover. In the middle of the latch there is a small keyhole. My grandmother pricks the tip of her finger with a small dagger and squeezes a large drop of blood into the little hole that is part of the ancient security. There is a click when the blood disappears into the keyhole. The book is open. She turns to a page and she begins speaking.

“This is the Black Book of the Ancients. It holds the history of the ancients of the supernatural world. I have guarded this book since my mother bestowed it upon me.” She looks at me. “It was supposed to be passed to my first-born daughter, but since your mother is no longer with us, the responsibility will fall to you next. Lina, since you are my descendent your blood will open the lock.” I’m shocked, I’ve never even heard of this book.

“Grandmother, why have I never heard of this book?”

“Because it was not time for you to learn of it. The Black Book of Ancients can be a dangerous book. It has the written history from the past and sometimes will dictate what is to come in the future.”

“Who wrote the book?” Colin asks, trying to get a closer look at the book.

“No mortal or immortal has written in this book. The book is said to be alive and history writes itself in the book. As time goes on and history is made the stories will appear in the book. Our family has guarded this book for centuries. Colin, I am trusting that you and Alec will not share with anyone that this book exists.” They both nod. She looks at the page she paused on, then flicks to another page. She holds her right hand up and uses the ancient language of Fesau, “
Usape proteti norelipi
”. A hologram appears over the table, showing the ancient world. As she speaks, we begin to witness her story unfold.

“The Demons used to have access to the human realm. They were allowed to roam the lands on Earth as long as they abided by the laws that were set. Melomouzor, the Demon King, always tested those boundaries. Hades has never kept a tight leash on Melomouzor. Melomouzor felt that he could do what he wanted and he wanted to take over the human realm. He was power hungry and felt that the humans were better off as slaves to the demons. The demons became more aggressive and more dangerous. They began disobeying the laws. The first law stated that no human should be killed for sport or pleasure.

“Melomouzor loved to torture the humans and animals of this world. The amount of humans he would kill started to increase. He allowed his demons to use humans as toys and would allow the unnecessary killings of humans. He began to get tired of torturing and experimenting on the humans. He realized that his demons were not the strongest beings. Even humans, when they fought back, could kill a demon and he didn’t like that.

“So he moved on to capturing supernaturals, studying them, torturing them and killing them. He wanted to create a stronger demon, stronger than any other supernatural creature. He wanted to try to take the strongest aspect of each supernatural and make a super demon. With an army of super demons, he would conquer our realm. When word got out on what he was attempting to do, our ancestors realized that he had to be stopped.

“Ten of the strongest ruling supernatural families from around the realms sent a representative for a secret meeting in Ingora to try to determine the best way to stop Melomouzor. The Fae, the Witches, the Werewolves and the Vampires, all were represented at this meeting. After many hours of debating on the best course of action to defeat Melomouzor, they knew the only way to protect mankind and all supernaturals was to permanently send him back to the Underworld. Banishing him where he could not come back to the human realm and his demons would have to stay in the Underworld as well.