Demons Amongst Us (The Book of Demons Saga #2) (20 page)

“
Balthazar,” Alex huffed breathlessly as she broke off the kiss,  “we can’t...”

“I know,” he said, resting his forehead against her
. 

“You should sleep,” Balthazar said,
pulling away from her with extreme reluctance. 

“You fool,” the Chief Magi hissed from behind the heavy hood of his cloak.  “How could you let the girl slip out of your hands?”

“Do not insult me,” Ashdad barked back at the
hideous creature.  “I delivered the girl to you on a platter and you could not complete the task.”

“You interfered prematurely,” the Magi snapped back.  “You sent her back to her own world.”

“Did you not see the bond?” Ashdad asked condescendingly, narrowing his eyes at the creature that sat across from him.  “That little brat Balthazar was going to save her, and we both know you wouldn’t be able to stop her powers if he had.”

“So you save her instead?” The Magi hissed.
  His bony fingers curled into a fist, trying to suppress the rage that burned in him.  They were so close to resurrecting their Master, to achieving ultimate domination, and this demon was destroying their carefully laid plans.

“I had a backup plan,” Ashdad said.
  He had never trusted the Magi to do their job properly, and so had prepared for the possibility of Alexandra getting the upper hand by instructing his daughter should she return.  He had never really liked the half-breed child much, but when Alex was returned to Devas Pani had redeemed herself in his eyes.

“And you have fouled that up as well,” the Magi challenged. 
“Now we do not know where she is.”

“I have an idea
,” Ashdad said, leaning away from his desk.  He was biding his time until he got what he wanted, and then he would do away with these pathetic creatures.  His search for true power had led him to the human world, and he had mated with one of the filthy creatures.  It had given him the ability to shift into human form, which tremendously augmented his power.  But his mate was nothing special, her blood was dirtied with years of less than ideal breeding.  He had searched for centuries for a pure blood like Alexandra to come along, carefully laying his plans along the way.  Her bloodline was a culmination of two ancient royal bloodlines, even more pure than her predecessor, someone the humans called Alexander the Great.  It was a simple matter for Ashdad to stage her parent’s death in a car accident, then endear himself to the ignorant aunt that he handed the girl off to.  He had put a lot of effort into hiding her from the sisterhood that would have typically trained her to use her powers.  He wanted her weak, and useless.  Easy to manipulate.  His plan had worked well, until Balthazar came along. 

“I suggest you find her, and quickly,” the Magi spat.  “This world is nearly drained.  There is nothing left to keep our Master alive.  We need her blood, all of it.”

“I told you, you should have drained her dry from the beginning,” Ashdad said.

“And I have told you,” the Magi said, “He must drink directly from the source.  From her still beating heart, or it will do no good.”

“I believe they have retreated to Asur,” Ashdad said bitterly.

“Another thing you were incapable of handling,” the Magi bit out.  Ashdad didn’t care about Krishna’s desire to have his daughter wed Balthazar.  He was hoping to flush him out with the possibility of completing the marriage.  It would have worked if they had not escaped.  He kicked himself for not removing Tavi from his position earlier. 

“There is still time,” Ashdad said, “I will find them.  I will get the girl.”

“You had
better,” the Magi said.  “Or we will all pay the price when the Master dies for good.”

“Relax,” Ashdad said
, a twisted smile on his face.  “I have a treat for your Master.”

Ashdad
motioned to a servant demon who scurried out of the room, returning a moment later with a gangly demon bloody and chained.

“My Lord Enchanter,” Ashdad said with a self-satisfied smirk.  “One thing I learned in my time in the human
world, the source of all magic is the blood of humans.  This demon is a very distant descendant of a human-demon mating.  There is human blood in his veins, though very diluted.”

“This is indeed a
useful treat,” the Magi said, leaning forward with interest.  “This will give the ancient enough power to affect the girl.”

“And that will lead us directly to her,” Ashdad said with a smile. 

The
blue skinned demon paled as he began to choke.  His mouth flapped open and closed, trying desperately to get air into his lungs.  His eyes looked across the table, shock and sadness swirling in them.  Blood began to ooze from his nose and the next cough spewed little red droplets across the worn wooden table.  He slumped forward, his head falling against the table.  His eyes remained open as the last vestiges of life drained from him. 

Alex shot up in the bed, her eyes wide
and the sweat dripping down her temples.  Her head snapped around her in the darkened room, looking for Balthazar.  The candles that once lit the small guest room had now died out, and she couldn’t see past the blackness.  She suddenly remembered everything.  All the dreams, the special dreams.  She knew where the recognition of Lord Krishna had come from.  It wasn’t him she had seen, but it was a demon of the same race.  It was the very first dream she had. 

“Balthazar,” Alex called out frantically into the darkness, still trying in vain to see
through the dark.  “He’s going to die.”

“I am here,” she heard his
baritone voice beside her.  A brief moment later, light flooded the room as Balthazar struck a match and lit another candle.  He sat on the bed beside Alex, seeing the distress on her face.  “Who is going to die?”

“Lord Krishna,” Alex said softly. 
“He’s going to die.”

“How?” Balthazar asked, his face unreadable as usual.

“I..I don’t know exactly,” Alex admitted.  “I just know that he is going to die.”

“When?” Balthazar asked
, his concern only barely discernable in his voice.

“I don’t know that either,” Alex said
, shaking her head.  “But I saw it.  He is going to die.”

“When did you see this?” Balthazar asked.

“Just now,” Alex said, “in my dream.”

“Alexandra,” Balthazar said, and Alex could hear the condescending in his voice, “it was just a dream.”

“No,” Alex said insistently.  “This was not just a dream.  I know the difference now.  I remember it all.”

“What are you talking about?” Balthazar asked. 

“The dreams,” Alex said.  “I’ve had them before, but I didn’t know it.”

“
They are just dreams,” Balthazar said, rising from the bed to light a few more candles.

“I saw your father,” Alex said softly
.  Balthazar stopped, his back turned to her. 

“Do not speak of my father,” Balthazar said harshly.  He didn’t really mean for the words to come out as mean as they did.  He just couldn’t really bear to talk about his father. 

“I know who it was,” Alex said, undeterred by the threat in his voice.  “I saw it all.  I saw him in his bed.  He was asleep…”

“Stop it,” Balthazar barked
.  Alex knew Balthazar would never hurt her.  He may get angry, but this was something he needed to hear.

“It was Jahan,” Alex said.  “I saw the Asuri demon, and I saw Jahan.”

Balthazar knew she was right, he had suspicions about the fat demon himself.  But he would not discuss the issue of his father with Alex further.

“What else have you seen?” Balthazar asked,
wanting to get off the subject.  Alex thought for a moment, trying to remember all the dreams she’d had.

“I saw you,” Alex said, further explaining when she got a ‘no-duh’ look from Balthazar.  “I saw y
ou before I met you.  That day in the hot spring.  I already knew your name.  I had heard it in a dream.”

“That is why your body reacted in such a way,” Balthazar said, remembering the pleasant moment when he first caught the hint of her arousal.

“Yeah,” Alex said, her cheeks heating up.  “But I saw other stuff too.  I saw when Baal was fighting you.  I thought you were going to die.”

“So your dreams are not entirely accurate
?” Balthazar asked.

“Well, yeah they are,”
Alex protested, not at all happy that Balthazar was questioning her.

“But I did not die, therefore your dream was incorrect,” Balthazar said.  He wasn’t really trying to contradict her, but if what she saw was going to come true, he needed to know the extent of the accuracy of her premonitions.

“Well, no,” Alex admitted with a huff.  “But still, I saw what was going to happen.”

“
Then tell me what you saw,” Balthazar said.

“I told you,” Alex bit out, her irritation rapidly reaching epic proportions.  “Lord Krishna died.”

“I know that, girl,” Balthazar said.  “Tell me in detail what you saw.”

“What difference does it make?” Alex said, narrowing her eye
s at Balthazar in a challenge.  “And don’t call me girl.”

“
I will call you as I please,” Balthazar said.  “Especially since that is what you are.”

“You,” Alex fumed as she pointed a finger at him, “you…”

She wanted to come up with some snappy comeback, but she came up short.  She was so enraged at his sudden digression into his typical alpha male displays she couldn’t even form an argument.  She was trying to warn him about something very serious and he was just not taking her serious.

“Very good,” Balthazar said,
his eyes pointing to her outstretched finger, “that is, in fact, I that you are pointing so rudely at.”

Alex growled, a feeble and awkward sound compared to the growl that followed from Balth
azar, making her jump as he appeared before her, pushing her back onto the bed.

“That is a growl,” he said, with a smirk as he noted the way it shut her up.  That’s when Alex realized it.  He was teasing her.  He was purposefully trying to annoy her
.  She narrowed his eyes at him, forming a plan in her mind. 

“Ok,” she said.  “If you want to play this little game with me, I’ll give you a game.”

“Oh is that so, girl,” Balthazar said, his black eyebrows arching. 

“Yeah,” Alex said.  “It’s called the silent treatment.  And you are so getting it.  Starting now.”

“And what, pray tell, is this silent treatment?” Balthazar asked.  Alex smiled sweetly up at him, and twisted onto her side without another word.

“Girl,” Balthazar said, slightly confused by her reaction
, “answer me.”

Alex just pulled the covers up over her shoulders
, ignoring the warning growl that echoed in Balthazar’s chest as she snuggled further into the bed.

“I said, answer me,”
Balthazar growled again, utterly confused by her reaction.  Alex smiled to herself when she heard the hint of confusion in his voice.  This was going to be fun.  She would teach the self-absorbed demon prince once and for all to not call her girl.

“I will not wed that heathen,” Princess Kali fumed as she stormed around her bedchambers.  “I do not understand what my father sees in him.”

“You
r father only wants the best,” Yashi said from the bed as he reached out for Kali, “for both you and the kingdom.”

“
My father’s mind is weakened with his body,” Kali said, her eyes swirling with rage. 

“Kali,” Yashi
said, “you should not speak so disrespectfully of your father.”

“I should be the one to succeed him,” Kali said bitterly.  She hated the world she was brought into.  She was more than equipped to handle the throne of her father.  But
her father would not allow her to succeed him, for the simple fact that she was a woman.  She resented her father for wanting to just pass her off to another male that would take the throne in her place.  It was her birthright that would give him the legitimacy to reign over the Asur, but she was not even allowed to choose who that would be.

“
Kali, my love,” Yashi said, trying to calm her down.  He hated to see her like this.  Not only because he simply didn’t want to see her upset, but because he knew how dangerous she could be when she got like this.  There was no telling what her mind was cooking up.  He could see the gears turning behind her eyes and he grew worried.

“I will not allow this to happen,” Kali said darkly.  “I will rule my father’s kingdom, and no one else.  Especially not that spoiled Devasi prince.”

“Kali,” Yashi said again, sliding off the bed and walking over to her.  He put his hands on her bare shoulders, massaging them softly.  She was so beautiful, especially when she had such fire in her eyes.