Demon Lost (20 page)

"May I see her?" Aurelius sounded lost, and as a four-thousand-year-old modified vampire, that didn't happen often.

"She's sleeping now, so it shouldn't be a problem." Lissa pulled Aurelius off the barstool in the palace kitchen and folded space, taking Aurelius and Gavin to the dungeon beneath their feet in less than a blink.

"She's not in pain." Renegar assured Aurelius as he went to his knees at the sight of Reah. She lay in a golden-scaled heap inside the largest cell in Lissa's dungeon.

"But she's lying on the cold floor," Aurelius buried his head in his hands.

"I will remedy that shortly, as soon as Karzac is done," Renegar assured the spawn hunter. Karzac, physician to the Saa Thalarr and the spawn hunters, was doing a last-minute inspection, making sure they'd missed no burns on Reah's naked flesh. The gold of her body and wings was scored with net burns, some overlapping others.

"The only other female High Demon that can turn is Glinda, and she's white when she's Thifilatha," Lissa murmured. "She keeps hoping her daughters will turn, but Jayd says that they haven't been angry or provoked enough to turn. Those husbands of theirs keep them happy and away from any stressful situations."

"Then I'm surprised that Reah didn't turn before now—she's had plenty of those things in her life," Aurelius sighed. Gavin pulled his vampire sire to his feet.

"Are you sure this cell will hold her?" Lissa looked up at Renegar. He towered over her at eight and a half feet. Lissa was only five feet tall.

"I have reinforced it with father's help. It will hold. I have also placed the command that she not turn back until given permission," Renegar nodded. Nodding was another human gesture he enjoyed using.

"How's the patient?" Garde, Jayd and Glinda appeared, using the High Demon ability to skip from one place to another.

"Sleeping—I have numbed the pain," Renegar turned to look at the fifteen-foot creature inside the cell.

"Jayd, how could you not tell she was female?" Glinda glared at her mate. Jaydevik Rath was King of the High Demons, while Gardevik, his brother, was Prime Minister under his brother's rule. Garde was also one of Lissa's mates.

"We were under the impression that it was a rogue we were chasing. Gender didn't enter into this."

"Glinda, there's something else you should know," Lissa offered.

"What's that?" Glinda turned to Lissa, the question on her lips. Glinda was beautiful, with long, white-blonde hair falling down her back, blue eyes and short in stature. Anyone not taking Glinda seriously might find themselves on the wrong end of a very sharp knife. Glinda had worked as a bodyguard for a very long time before returning to her homeworld and taking her place as Queen of the High Demons.

"Reah is related to you," Lissa said, putting an arm around Glinda's shoulders. "One of your brothers fathered Reah's mother, I think."

"How did I miss this?" Aurelius moaned. "Reah looks very much like Glinda in her humanoid form."

"She's related to the royal family?" Jayd was blowing smoke. Tendrils of it curled from his nostrils. "How did one of Glinda's brothers escape?"

"Jayd, calm down," Glinda glared at him. Jayd made an effort to get himself in hand.

"You should not expect this one to pay for her father's sins." Kifirin appeared next to Lissa and pulled her into an embrace. "Avilepha, I have missed you. You should have called me before now."

"But which brother was it?" Glinda had reason to despise her brothers—they'd killed her parents before her oldest brother took the throne for himself, as shouldn't have been. Glinda had been named heir and betrothed to Jaydevik Rath barely a month after her birth. Her oldest brother wanted the throne for himself. Female High Demons were extremely rare and one born to the High Demon King was destined to have the throne instead of one of the males.

"Your youngest brother, Denevik, fathered Reah," Kifirin replied. "And he left the others shortly after your parents were killed. He wanted no part of that and argued with your oldest brother before striking out on his own. Reah is his only remaining heir and grandchild."

"Denevik is still alive?" Glinda's voice was almost a whisper.

"Yes, little Queen. You are the youngest as you know, but Denevik is only five hundred turns older than you. I would have hunted him down if the crimes against your parents had been his responsibility. They were not. I have not prevented him from moving about freely. Should he commit any crimes, he will answer to me or one of mine. As it is, he feels he is outcast and does not attempt to return to my planet for that reason."

"You are sure he was not involved in the murder of my parents?"

"Little Queen, of course I am sure. Your eldest brother assured him it would be a peaceful takeover. As you know, it was not. Denevik was on the southern continent when the coup occurred." A bit of smoke curled from Kifirin's nostrils.

"Why did they lie to him?" Jayd muttered. He knew not to push Kifirin. The High Demon planet was named after the god who'd created not only that world, but all the dark realm. Sometimes they forgot who Kifirin was.

"Most likely so he wouldn't give them away," Lissa intervened. It was never wise to upset Kifirin too much.

"My mate is correct," Kifirin agreed. "What have you done to our youngest here?" He nodded toward the cell and Reah's body, still in full Thifilatha.

"We assumed she was rogue. We netted her." Gardevik offered, directing Kifirin's attention away from Jayd and Glinda. "If we had asked questions first, this would not have happened, High Lord." Gardevik bowed his head slightly toward Kifirin.

"How was the net removed?"

"Kiarra destroyed it." Aurelius also bowed his head slightly to Kifirin.

"She has enough power to do so," Kifirin agreed. "I will be watching how you treat our little one from now on. Be careful not to make too many mistakes." Kifirin disappeared swiftly.

"That's my great-niece." Glinda looked inside the enlarged cell at the winged, sleeping figure now lying on thick mattresses upon the floor. Her scored and burned wings drooped about her, her short white hair spiked and tousled upon her head as if she'd sweated while she'd burned under the net.

"I know not what to do," Garde sighed.

"What would you do, if someone netted your mate?" Aurelius was now displaying his anger—something that seldom happened.

"Kill, most likely," Garde nodded and skipped away.

"Aurelius, you know not to start this," Lissa crossed arms over her chest. Gardevik was hers, just as Gavin, Aurelius' oldest living vampire child was.

"Yes, I know not to start this," Aurelius muttered. "Yet Garde just said he would kill for you. How do you think I feel?" Aurelius folded away, leaving Lissa, Gavin, Jayd and Glinda behind. Renegar had stood by, watching the entire exchange.

"The next three days will be difficult. Something must be brought for her to eat when she wakes, but I do not think she will eat. That will make things worse." Renegar folded away.

"What do High Demons eat while they're Thifilathi? Or in this case, Thifilatha?" Lissa asked.

"What wolves and the others eat when changed," Jaydevik replied, raking a hand through his hair. "Raw meat. We do not have to kill it, but if we eat at all, it must be raw. The prisoners we have held in the past have been offered live cattle or sheep. Failing that, freshly butchered meat was brought. They usually consumed that if not the other."

"And if she doesn't eat?"

"She will be emaciated when she wakes," Glinda said. "What are we to do, Lissa? That is my kin." Glinda's face looked drawn and weary as she stared at the creature inside the cell. "I thought all my brothers dead. I have only vague recollections of Denevik. I have hated my brothers—all of them—for a very long time." Glinda skipped away, leaving Jayd behind.

"You know that all her needs will be provided by the crown of Kifirin," Jayd offered stiffly.

"I think all her needs will be provided by my sire," Gavin replied almost as stiffly.

"Nevertheless, the offer stands." Jayd skipped after his mate.

"Gavin, this is the worst mess," Lissa looked up at her first mate.

"Yes, and I have never seen Aurelius this upset. We must attempt to smooth things over, somehow. Let us go find Norian. He holds the records on our High Demon there," Gavin nodded in Reah's direction.

"Yes. Let's go find Norian," Lissa sighed.

* * *

A noise woke me. It took several ticks for me to realize that it was my own moaning. My body felt as if it were still on fire. I remembered that much—I'd been burned by a net of some sort. Two tall, dark creatures had tossed it over me, causing intense and immediate pain. My screaming I also remembered and Aris' shouting. He'd been using a language I didn't recognize. Had he ordered this done? When I'd become whatever it was that I had become in order to fight off the monster, this had happened. Oh, they'd waited until most of the enemy was down, but they'd done it.

Blinking my eyes open, I worked to get them to focus. What I found had me rising off several thick mattresses placed upon a stone floor. I knew what surrounded me—a cell to hold prisoners. A large cell, but I was now quite large as well. My prison had me swallowing with difficulty—my throat was dry and the sobs when they came were also dry—I had no moisture within my body to produce tears. Rising with difficulty, I crept toward the thick metal bars that prevented me from escaping—I tried them with my hands just to see.

Fear drove my sobbing now, and a loud keening came from my throat. All I could see was a bare white wall opposite my prison, with a washed stone floor extending from the back edge of my cell to the white wall. Nothing else lay down a long, brightly lit corridor. It did nothing to stay my fears—I'd been somewhat claustrophobic for as long as I could remember. Closed spaces had me worried if I wasn't sure I could escape my surroundings easily enough. My room at the military station had been windowless, but the door was near my bed and that led to a hallway and a simple escape if I needed it. The bars and walls of my prison kept me from escaping. My keening and my fright grew.

* * *

"What's that noise?" Lissa sat straight up in bed. Winkler, her werewolf mate had gone to bed with her and he sat up as well. "Oh, my gosh, it's coming from the dungeon." Lissa flipped covers aside and rose in a blink. Any vampire could move faster than sight and Lissa, as the Vampire Queen, could move faster than most. Winkler was right behind her, his sharp ears picking up the noise as well.

"Get Aurelius and call for a Larentii," Lissa shouted at Winkler as she took off at a run. Moments later Lissa was pressed as far against the white wall opposite Reah's cage as she could get—Reah, still in full Thifilatha, was beating her wings against the bars of her cage and when that failed to work, she hurled her body against the bars instead. Many of her burns had broken open and were now bleeding.

"Reah!" Aurelius shouted the moment he arrived. "Reah, stop! You're hurting yourself!" His words fell on temporarily deaf ears; Reah failed to notice anything or anyone.

"Little one." Renegar's father Pheligar appeared out of nothing, standing within arm's length of Reah as she continued to crash into the bars of her cage. He held out a hand while light formed around it. Reah blinked at this, stopping her assault against the bars for a moment—long enough for Pheligar to touch her forehead, sending her sliding to the floor, unconscious.

"I forgot to tell you, her records say she's slightly claustrophobic." Norian Keef appeared with Thurlow, another of Lissa's mates. Lissa had seventeen in all and occasionally had difficulty keeping them all sorted out.

"She's claustrophobic and we put her in a dungeon. That makes so much sense," Lissa muttered sarcastically and tossed up a hand.

"Your dungeon was one of the few places we could keep her confined," Gardevik appeared. Someone had called him—most likely Thurlow.

"I don't think she should wake up in a dungeon again," Aurelius moved to the bars and stared at Reah. Kneeling down, he peered at her face.

"Where can we move her? Any High Demon in full Thifilathi, or Thifilatha, in this case, is dangerous. You cannot depend on reasoning with them."

"Move her to my beach house. Surely Reemagar and Connegar can shield the entire place so she can't escape." Lissa named her two Larentii mates.

"And if she destroys the whole house?" Garde folded his arms.

"Then I'll build another," Lissa snapped. "If Reah hadn't been there, Aurelius would likely have become a snack for the Ra'Ak on Mandil. He's not Saa Thalarr and doesn't have enough power to fight off one of those things. He's only spawn hunter for them. The Ra'Ak were probably looking to kill him and a few other spawn hunters there, don't you think?" Lissa glared at her High Demon mate. "Reah recognized that piece of crap and killed him for us. Then she got netted—and by relatives on top of that."

"We're only in-laws," Gardevik huffed.

"We're only in-laws," Lissa mimicked, slapping Garde on the upper arm.

"Ow." Garde held his arm. Even a High Demon knew not to pick a fight with a vampire while in humanoid form. Garde knew not to pick a fight with Lissa, even while he was Full Thifilathi. Lissa had killed too many rogue High Demons. Garde knew better.