How to Love a Blue Demon (41 page)

For a long moment he stared at her.
“How could you think such a thing?”

“You’ve been so distracted these past few
days, and,” she paused. “Last night I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“I was not with a
female demon, my dear. I was with my mother,” he said firmly, immediately, to banish any notions she might have about infidelity. “I thought you knew how I feel about you, but apparently, you don’t believe me.” He made no effort to hide his hurt.

Cass scrambled across the bed and threw herself into his arms. “I’m sorry, baby,” she said into his neck. She pulled back to look into his face. “But something’s up. And if you won’t tell me what it
is, all I can do is imagine. There are only a few reasons why a man leaves his bed in the middle of the night, and you weren’t in the bathroom or the kitchen.”

Eyoen burst out laughing. “Oh, my darling,” he crooned, chuckling into her neck. “Sit down,” he said, patting the bed beside him.

He was gratified when she was reluctant to abandon his lap, but he didn’t want to be distracted by the warmth and weight of her sweet body. What he had to say was serious. Potentially life threatening.

“I have been distracted lately. But it has nothing to do with you. At least, not directly. I have been worrying that I should send you home, but not because I want to part from you. I should send you home because it may be dangerous for you to be here soon, and I would not
risk your safety for any reason. Except that, somehow, even knowing what’s at stake, I can’t bear to let you go.”

“What’s wrong? What’s happening? Are you in danger?”

Eyoen sighed. “Yes, my dear. Though not me in particular, my family. If my father were to lose control of his throne, the entire star could be in peril.”

Cass eyes grew big. “Is there s
ome sort of political coup brewing?”

“In a word, yes.”

Then he told her everything. About his father’s silent battles, about Unjel and his mother in the past, and finally, he told her about his budding wings. Of all things he thought that freak her out the most, but Cass surprised him by taking everything in stride.

“
I was wondering about that mean looking rash. Does it hurt?”

“No, not really. But it itches. What does it look like?”

“Like someone ran a sheaf of poison ivy down your back, one on each side. It’s localized like you’ve had an allergic reaction to something you touched. Can the healer do anything for you, baby?”

“No, s
adly.” And he told her about a meeting he had with his father the day before.

He
’d actually been on his way to the healer. The itching had become tiresome, and it was in such a strange place that it was hard for him to scratch. When the waters in his bath failed to provide more than temporary relief, he figured he’d need a professional assessment. But he never made it. His father met him in the hall a few corridors away from his rooms…

His heart hurt to see his sire looking so worn and thin, tired and – Eyoen gulped – old.
But he quickly banished these thoughts, not wanting the King to read them in his mind.

“Father.”

“Let me see.”

Eyoen vanished his tunic and turned his back.

The King cursed softly.

“What is it?”

When the King didn’t speak immediately, Eyoen spun to face him.

“What? Is it a parasite?” D
emons lived in fear of parasites. The tiny, horrid little creatures were so difficult to kill, and before you could destroy them, they’d eaten and poisoned everything in sight.

“No,” the King said quietly.
“You are growing wings.”

Eyoen gaped at him incredulously. “What?”
Who had ever heard of a winged Cyani demon?

There was a rending of fabric and a pained expression crossed his sires face
right before huge, leathery black wings stretched toward the ceiling.

Eyoen’s jaw nearly hit the floor as he stared.
They were beautiful. Stretching from his sire’s knees to nearly six feet above his head, upon closer inspection they weren’t completely black but a dark, iridescent grey shot through with strands of gold, black and cobalt blue. They were thin but textured, and at the very tips there were tiny, down-like feathers.

Eyoen reached out to touch and his eyes met his father’s before the King gently nodded his permission.
They were warm like skin, rough, yet smooth at the same time, like good leather.

“Goddess,” he breathed. “Can you feel with them?”

The King laughed. “Of course. They are part of me. They grew during the Sithian wars 318 years ago. The elders say it has happened twice before in recorded history. Each time to the King when the star was in peril. They speculate it’s the Goddess way of giving the Cyani people an edge. Most times they lie dormant within me. I knew what was happening to you when I saw you scratching a few days ago.”

“What? I mean, is there – ” Eyoen sputtered to a stop, a dozen questions tumbling over one another in his head.

“You already know that your royal blood gives you special powers other demons don’t have.”

Eyoen nodded.

“You are stronger, faster and quicker to defend as is the right of your birth and your responsibility to our people. You can read minds, and you can fly, but your most powerful weapon is not a sword, nor is it magic.”

Carlow smiled seeing his son’s confusion.
Eyoen’s magic had always been the source of his power.

“That is true,” he admitted
, sliding easily into his child’s mind. “But to vanquish our enemy you must accept that it is not enough. Unjel is also magically skilled. And he is clever. He has been scouring every star near and far to Cyanus looking for weapons and collecting stratagems to use against me in his quest for my throne and our star. It’s why I am so worn. I’ve been battling against foes I’ve never fought before, creatures he has either bound to his will or bargained with to get them to fight against me.

“The galaxy is vast, and Unjel has chosen allies I
know nothing about. At first, nothing I did worked. My magic was useless as anything more than an offensive distraction. I was only able to win battles because I threw myself into the fray by instinct and providence alone. I was battered unmercifully before my instinct showed me how to conquer each challenge.”

The King opened his mind freely then
, and Eyoen read his thoughts in awe and disbelief. He saw his father stand alone in a field filled with a squadron of squat, spotted brown demons the likes of which he’d never seen before. At first glance they appeared too fat to pose much of a threat, but then a shrill horn blew and as one they advanced, breaking apart into smaller formations, but attacking as a group.

The squat
brown bodies were horribly flexible, stretching easily to maneuver around each other to dodge the arrows the King slung at them before they slithered back together in a wave of destruction. Some of the arrows landed, and when the creatures were hit they popped like disgusting, fleshy balloons, but the viscera left behind sprayed like acid, and Eyoen saw his fathers’ flesh sizzle and pop before he poofed himself out of range.

H
e bit back a cry of rage when his sire hissed in pain as he was assaulted by thick arrows of fire from one of the creatures’ eyes. This started a barrage of fire torpedoes, some of which struck the King glancing, but painful blows that turned his blue skin black as his flesh bubbled beneath the burns.

Each time his sire managed to dodge the fire arrows and the death acid, to land more killing blows of his own, but at great personal cost, and he was a
lone, battling against 100 or more demons who moved in the well synchronized formation of trained soldiers.

The King laughed softly, pulling Eyoen from his thoughts. “My son, I was just glad there weren’t more.”

His sire allowed him to see other skirmishes. He watched as his father battled a huge creature with a head like a dragon, filled with razor sharp teeth, and skin covered with equally deadly spikes. He’d been stabbed in the side before he vanquished it with a clever blow to the neck.

“I had to sneak in past all the spikes to land that kill shot.”

Eyoen shook his head in shock and disbelief. “And you fought these creatures alone. Why?”

The King raised a brow. “I didn’t know how to fight them. W
hat could the guard do? After Ovbec died at my side I could not allow anyone else to interfere. I will not risk any demon’s life needlessly.”

Eyoen
recalled his father’s old friend’s death. He’d thought it strange how suddenly the demon had died, but had not had an opportunity to question anyone because he was already en route to Earth to be with Cass. Now he bowed in respect. “No one knows what has taken place.”

The King shook his head. “Your mother and your brother Cinque have seen the aftermath. The Queen came upon me in the throne room after a skirmish and healed me.
After I fought the demon army your brother scented my blood as he passed by. He lent his energy to hers to heal me after those rotund spawn of the under realm crisped me like your American bacon.”

That explained why his mother had
been so busy lately; she’d been doing his father’s work while he healed or rested or both.

“
Wait a minute,” Eyoen said slowly. “If my shoulders are itching, it means my wings are coming in,” he realized. “If history tells true that means we are being actively attacked, which means that –”

“It’s almost time.”

Father and son stared at each other solemnly. Eyoen drew himself up, watching as his father’s majestic wings folded neatly behind his back and disappeared into his flesh.

“What of Cass?”
He asked softly, instinctively stealing himself against a truth he would have given nearly anything to avoid.

Now the King looked pained
, and Eyoen felt his heart skip a beat. “I do not like it one bit, but I sense that she too has a role to play in the coming battle. But what the role is I cannot say.”

“Have you,” Eyoen paused, swallowed. “Have you seen anything?”

His father had the sight. Earthlings who believed in such things called it precognition. On many occasions the King had seen trouble ahead and been able to prevent catastrophes, even deaths on the star. On others he was too late to do anything more than clean up the mess.

“No.”

Eyoen stared deep into his father’s eyes, gold to gold. “Would you tell me if you did?”

The King smiled. “No, my son. Because the future can always, always change
.”

******

“So you see, my dear, my distraction recently is not, and could never be, a desire to part from you.” He rubbed her soft cheek, traced her full lips with his thumb. He sighed. “Although, I would be a piss poor demon had I not actually been thinking of –”

“Sending me home,” she finished, scowling.

“Yes, my darling. I think it would be best.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” she repeated, louder. “Hell, no. If you think for one fucking second that I’m gonna go home and leave you to face an uncertain future as the savior of your star, you’re bat shit crazy. I’m going to be here, by your side, where I belong.”

“But, Cass. If we fall, you could be taken from me. You could end up a prisoner of war, a, a slave to my enemy.”

She nodded uncertainly. “That did occur to me, but I can’t leave. Surely you can understand that.”

Eyoen crushed her to him, so hard she squeaked and thumped his shoulders. “I love you,” he whispered. “More than anything. More than anyone. You mean the world to me. I could never let you –”

For a long moment there was silence. Only their rhythmic breaths broke the peace.

“Will you kill me,” she whispered. “Like your father said he would your mother?”

Eyoen pulled back to look at her. “Yes, my dear. I would.”

Cass saw in his eyes that he was telling the truth. She grunted. She supposed that was love, of a sort. Her man was willing to end her life rather than allow her to be made a slave. But shit. “Well, let’s pray it doesn’t come to that.”

“Scratch harder, can’t you?” Materen cried.

“If I do you’ll bleed, fool,” Cinque said, turning abr
uptly. “Now me. Hurry! This infernal itching is driving me mad! I don’t know why the bloody wings don’t just come in already.”

“Ah!” said Eyoen entering the throne room. He poofed away his tunic and presented his
own itchy back to his brother. “Scratch me while he scratches you, will you?”

Cinque obliged
, and for several minutes there was only the rasping sound of claws on skin.

“This is some weird looking shit,” said Cass, laughing.

The brothers turned and the circle was broken.

“I go to the baths in my harem. It’s the only thing that gives me any relief,” Materen announced.