How to Love a Blue Demon (42 page)

“Wait for me,” said Cinque.

“An excellent idea, my dear,” said Eyoen, and between one breath and the next Cass found herself naked in the bath in their suite.

Eyoen sighed in relief when he was submerged up to his neck. He turned and rubbed his back against the sides of the pool.

“So. What have you been up to today, my dear?”

“Concert at an elementary school.”

Eyoen chuc
kled as she rolled her eyes. “What happened?”

“Well, I was knee deep in blue ankle biters.
We were sitting around a circle in the gym, or whatever it’s called, and I was singing Old McDonald.”

“A favorite.”

“Yeah. So, they’re all rocking in their seats and bopping their heads, and one little girl jumps up and throws herself at my legs. Well, she started a riot. All the other little kids jumped me. And I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced it, but try having 20 kids knee high hit you at once. I went down like a ton of bricks.” She showed him a scrape on her elbow, which he cooed over, kissed, and promptly vanished.

“So I hit the ground,
and they’re all sitting on top of me. I can’t breathe, I can’t sing, and they start crying. “
Peeshu! Peeshu! Peeshu!
But I couldn’t ‘cause they’d knocked the air out of me. Anyway, your mother cut the show short, everyone was upset, it was a mess. I was just glad to get out of there.”

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that, my dear. Are you alright?”

“Sure. I just felt sorry for those poor kids. They were so upset, poor wee blue things,” she said.

Eyoen laughed long and hard before he pulled her into his arms. They sat in the pool for quite awhile, not making love – for once – barely touchi
ng, but Cass felt a deep contentment.

“There was one other thing,” she said thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Well, there was a worker. A janitor or something. He hated my singing. When I started he ran from the room with his hands over his ears. The chancellor apologized. Said something about him not being from the star.”

“Ah, he must be an immigrant. There are certain castes of demons that abjure sound. They hate it. We have many such demons here. They like Cyanus because there is no music, which hurts their ears.”

“Really? The tone deaf thing was bad enough. But now you’re telling me there are demons who don’t like sound at all.”

“That’s right, my dear. It’s hard to believe, I know. But it is true.”

Cass frowned. “Hmmph.”

“Does that disgust you, my dear?”

“Disgust? No. I
t’s just,” she paused. “It’s just so different. If I hadn’t seen him run away like his heels were on fire with my own eyes, I don’t think I’d have believed it.”

“You can sing for me anytime,”
he whispered, nuzzling her neck.

Cass wrapped her arms and legs around him. “I will sing for you anytime,” she promised.
“How does your back feel?”

“Better, now you’re in my arms.”

“Did your daddy say when your wings would come in?”

He hesitated. He’d omitted that part of the conversation with his father, not wanting to worry her needlessly.

“He did.”

Eyoen looked at her helplessly.

“Whatever you’re hiding, tell me!” She surged from the water, stepping from the pool gloriously nude to confront him with hands on hips.

Eyoen honestly couldn’t remember his own name as he stared at her. She was magnificent. Slender and full breasted, her long brown limbs gleaming with healt
h, each curve magnificently delineated thanks to the all natural Cyani diet and multiple trips to the spa where unnecessary fat was literally massaged from her body.

“My dear,” he began, rising slowly from the pool.

She shook her head. “Nuh, huh, buddy. No dissembling, no distraction.” She gestured at his tall, perfect blue body with its prominent erection. “Answer me.”

Eyo
en opened his mouth, but what he had to say was so contentious, so potentially horrible. He barely wanted to think about it, let alone articulate how it might affect them, how it might affect her.

“The wings are related to the war.
”

He hung his head.
Well, he’d never once doubted her intelligence.

Cass sighed
, her eyes closing briefly. “Jesus,” she whispered, and walked out.

Eyoen
did not immediately follow. What could he say? He did not want to confront the reality of war, to consider danger or the idea that something might happen to Cass, his brothers, or Goddess forbid, the King.

His back began to itch again, and figuring it wouldn’t hurt to give her a bit of space, he went back into the pool
for awhile.

When he got out he found Cass abed.
Thinking her asleep, he tip toed over and slid in. As was his custom he reached over and pulled her into his arms. She resisted.

“Stop.”

“You resist my touch?” He was shocked.

“Answer my question, Eyoen. I don’t need you to protect me from the truth. I need you to trust me with it. I’m no shrinking violet. I need to know what’s going on so I can prepare
myself for it. Maybe there’s something I can do to help.”

“No,” he said firmly. “You will do nothing. Should war break out on the star you will remain safely behind the palace walls with my mother and sisters.
That is non-negotiable.”

Cass turned on him so fiercely he actually shrank back at the look on her face. “You,” she stabbed a finger into his chest. “Don’t get to tell me what to do. We ain’t married yet. I still run me, got it?
And I already know your momma ain’t stayin’ nowhere but by your daddy’s side if some shit go down, and that’s where I’m gonna be, right by you.

“And I don’t care nothin’
about you scowling and looking crazy either. If my safety, if my life, is in jeopardy, I’m at least gonna keep a ring side seat so I know who wins.”

“Cass,” he began.

“Save it, man. Focus your energy on growing those wings. That way, if something jumps off you can fly us both right out of the mix.”

Mouth open, he watched as she left their suite, pulling one of his state robes over her naked body as she went. He moved to follow but she held up her traffic cop hand, and he subsided
, pouting.

Cass had been walking around the palace for more than an hour, occasionally muttering to herself as she peeked in doors and examined the portraits and family pictures that decorated the walls.

“You sound angry, my dear.”

She spun around and found the Queen.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you,
Gegi
.”

“You didn’t. I can’t sleep either.”

Cass smiled at her. “What’s wrong? The King getting on your nerves?”

The Queen laughed heartily. “Yes. And I assume by the uncanny accuracy of your assessment, and the fact that you too are walking the halls whilst the house sleeps peacefully, that my son is getting on your nerves.”

Cass sighed, rubbing a brow wrinkled with worry. “He means well,
Gegi
, but he’s got some terribly old-fashioned notions about a woman’s place. I just don’t understand him sometimes. He’s told me how close you and his father are, how much you’ve accomplished, how much you’ve helped since this shit heel demon Unjel, pardon me, ma’am, jumped crazy on everybody. But he doesn’t even want to discuss it with me. He’ll barely acknowledge the word war.”

“His father was the same.”

Cass hurrumphed. “Was? What did you do to straighten him out?”

“
I saved his life.”

Cass eyebrows flew toward her hairline. “How? When? Does Eyoen know?”

“My son does not know. No one does, except the King. And I expect you to keep this conversation between us.”

Cass nodded emphatically, not liking the suddenly royal, don’t-even-think-about-crossing-me look that had come over her future mother-in-law’s face.

“Have you seen the painting of my husband killing the dragon?”

Cass nodded. The mural was beautiful. It was a monument on the star. Visitors came and took pictures in front of it.

“He did not kill that dragon. I did.”

Cass thought her eyes would pop out of her head. “How?”

“I flew up and stabbed it in the neck with a spear.”

Cass blinked. Then she frowned.
“I thought only the King, Eyoen and his brothers had wings.”

“That’s true. But I don’t need wings to fly. I discovered the ability that day.
It was like one of those scenarios that happen occasionally on Earth where a human gains uncanny strength for a moment in order to save a life, to lift a car off a man, say.”

“So, to save the King’s life, you flew?”

The Queen nodded. “Not only did I fly, I manifested a spear and threw it more than 50 fit to hit a moving target covered with spiked armor.”

The woman sounded terr
ibly matter of fact, but Cass detected a hint of pride as the Queen recounted the tale.

“Tell me,” Cass said
, simply.

“You’ve been told by the servant Rierdane that mated couples can adopt each others
’ powers.”

Cass nodded.

“Well, as the years pass you too will grow stronger and adopt some of the royal traits. I am no royal by blood – there is only one family of aristocrats on the star – only by marriage, but as the years have passed I’ve developed the ability to do magic, my intuition has grown, as has my healing ability, and in that instant, to prevent my wounded husband from being crushed like a bug under the heel of a monster, I flew and took on the manner of a warrior. I suppose my spirit knew I could not take becoming a widow or having my children grow up without a father.”

“Wow. Can you still do it? Fly, I mean?”

The Queen rose into the air as gracefully as a bird taking flight, floated over to where Cass stood in front of a portrait of the family when the children were young, and plucked a flower from behind her ear.

Cass laughed softly at the display of magic and shook her head, amazed as the Queen continued t
o hover.

“Carlow
convinced me that we had to tell the tale with him in the lead role to preserve my safety. The King thinks if someone knew that I had these abilities my life would be in danger.”

“That someone might kidnap you, or hold you for ransom.”

“Yes, my dear. I take it Eyoen has already expressed his fears for you in that regard?”

Cass nodded, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know why. I can’t fly, and I damn sure can’t make a flower come out of your ear. Pardon my French. The only thing
I can do that’s in the least impressive is sing and play my guitar. And that’s only special to a select few.”

“More than a select few, I think.”

“Still, it ain’t magic. I just gave Eyoen a hard time for not letting me in, told him it was silly to keep me in the dark when there might be something I could do to help. But who am I kidding? I’m only human.” She threw her hands up. “I can’t believe I just used that cliché, and I meant it!” She shook her head.

“I have another trait that I inherited from my husband.”

“Oh?”

The Queen nodded once. “I have the sight, my dear. That I hav
e not even shared with the King.”

Cass laughed and pantomimed locking her lips
with a key. “I know why you keep that a secret.”

The Queen smiled mysteriously. “Why?”

“So you can keep tabs on everybody and see what’s going on without giving away your edge.”

“Bingo, as they say on Earth. And I’ll
tell you something else, my dear. You will have a major role to play in the upcoming war.”

“Doing what?”

The Queen frowned. “That I do not know, Cass. I wish I did.”

Cass sighed deeply. “I wish you did too.”

“My eldest daughter can also fly,” the Queen revealed.

“Yeah?”

“Yes. I discovered it after her baby tumbled over a cliff. She dove over the side after him, and the next thing I knew they were floating back up to where I stood.”

“No one knows, I take it.”

“That is correct. Another secret you must keep.”

“Don’t you worry
,” Cass promised. “I understand perfectly the need to keep ones’ cards close to the chest.”

When she crept back into bed that night, Eyoen woke from a fitful sleep
, if the state of the bed clothes was any indication, and asked, “Where were you?”

“Talking to your mother.”

There was silence. He hadn’t expected that.

“Where did you think I was?”

Again, silence.

Cass laughed. “Did you really think I was up to no good? In your palace? Who was I supposed to frolic with, pray tell? One of your incredibly loyal, would die before they hurt you, servants? I kno
w! One of your brothers, right?”