How to Love a Blue Demon (44 page)

The King had looked drawn and old, Cass recalled, wo
rriedly. Eyoen had confided that the look was an unnerving new development in his father. He’d been fighting hard, using up vast stores of energy to battle their enemy and his militant demon forces on other planes to avoid bringing the fight to Cyani shores. For all the good it had done.

Despite battle victories at great cost to himself, in the end,
all the King managed to do was delay things a little. Worse, he was weakened from weeks of fighting, and he, Cass knew, like many great generals before him, was a key piece of the star’s defenses.

“Peeshu
,” said an adorable blue toddler whose name Cass had forgotten.

The child helped herself to Cass’ knee, scrambling up to sit and stare at her expectantly.

“Yes, my dear,” said the Queen. “Would you favor us with a song? I think we could all use a distraction, and your lovely voice will be just the thing.”

So Cass began to croon Giving Up by Donny Hathaway. She’d found early
on that Cyani demons had a thing for old school R&B. Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Billie Holiday were favorites. Instinctively knowing she had to feed her musical obsession, Eyoen had found her an old demon named Bunsh who knew how to play a demonic version of the piano called a rail, a cross between a small keyboard and a xylophone. Once Bunsh acclimated himself to the grand piano Eyoen had poofed in for her, she’d started taking lessons in between making love, holding concerts and soaking up star culture. She’d been amazed how quickly she learned, and couldn’t wait to show her fans her new skills back on Earth.

She adored her old teacher
. He was a terrible flirt with a frightening memory, when he was there. Sometimes he drifted away from reality, became almost childlike. She was told these spells would come more frequently until the old demon just faded away. His essence would be absorbed back into the star, part of an endless cycle of energy distribution and birth.

Cass like
d the idea of being redistributed. It seemed more kind than the Earth version of death where your body was given back to the earth symbolically, but essentially left to wither and rot in a box.

“Peeshu!” the child said, and Cass jumped, realizing she’d stopped singing. Pushing back her morbid thoughts she
asked the Queen to poof in her piano and sang Aretha’s Don’t Play That Song For Me. When that song ended she immediately launched into another and then another. She pounded the keys and sang until her voice began to crack.

She didn’t realized she was crying until the Queen appeared at her elbow and shooed her little audience away.

“That’s enough, my dear.”

Cass calmed slightly at the feel of that soft, warm hand on her shoulder. “
What’s happening,
Gegi
? Have you seen, do you know, anything?”

“Come with me, my dear,” the Queen said cryptically nodding at her eldest daughter.

“What’s going on?”

The Queen just shook her head, her hand pulling Cass’ arm now, her stride lengthening, quickening as they strode down a hall.

They walked for another five minutes before the Queen spoke.

“This door leads to the outside.” The Queen gestured
at the narrow portal before them.

“Why is it so small?”

Everything on Cyanus was oversized because most of the male demons were quite tall.

“To ensure it stays hidden.
Very few demons know this door even exists. Now, I’m going out. Stay here. If I don’t come back, go and tell the others. Understand?”

Fear clenched Cass’ insides. “Let me go with you.”

“Not yet. Let me scout things out. There’s no need for us to give away our advantage just yet. You will stay put. Agreed?”

Cass nodded
reluctantly. “Please hurry back.”

“I will only be a moment,” the Queen promised. “If nothing goes wrong.”

Great,
Cass thought. Some super demon powers would seriously come in handy right now. Like how to poof horrible, shitty little qualifiers out of existence.

“Have faith, my dear,” said the Queen, and winked before she vanished through the little door.

Faith. Her demon was out there somewhere fighting for their lives. All she knew was that he wasn’t dead. What else could she have?

While she waited for the Queen
Cass almost wore a groove in the floor pacing. She must have touched the door knob a million times to stick her head out and take a look around. But each time she talked herself out of it.

Forcing her thoughts away from her errant future mother-in-law, her thoughts turned naturally to Eyoen.
He’d been so sweet before he left. He’d teased her until her belly ached with laughter. She nearly forgot he was about to go off to war until he pulled her into his arms. Then she felt it. The uncertainty he would never admit to. He was confident that he and his brothers, that the King would triumph over their enemies, but there was always a chance.

A chance that he might not. A chance that
he might not come back to her. He’d quietly told her that Rierdane would ferry her home to Earth, if need be. There would be no difficulty there, he promised. She was to leave everything to his faithful servant, and she had whispered her promise to do so even as she attached herself to his front.

He helped, wrapping her so tight
in his arms she could barely breathe. One of his brothers had knocked on the suite door then, shouting out that it was time.

“Whatever the hell that means,” Cass teased
shakily.

Eyoen had grinned at her, but it faded as he tugged her skirt aside and pushed his way inside her. Her body obligingly eased his way, though arousal was not what she felt right then.
But they weren’t after sex with that quick, rough loving. There was no driving need to orgasm. Eyoen simply wanted to be inside her, and she wanted him to be there. Wanted him to stay there. She clenched around him, instinctively trying to hold him when he slowly, reluctantly pulled away.

The
n they just laid there in each other’s arms. Neither moved nor said a word. He’d rubbed every inch of her body, his face buried in her neck when he wasn’t kissing her breathless. Up and down, clutching hand fulls of her ass, her back, her sides. He buried his face in her breasts, rubbing his cheeks against her curves and sucking gently on her nipples like a baby.

She
did the same. Her eyes and hands were feverish on his body. Shaping his shoulders and back, the hard curves of his ass, the corded length of his strong legs. She ran her fingers through his hair dozens of times, shaping his ears and rubbing her cheeks against his when she wasn’t sniffing out her favorite spots on his body. Behind his ear, in the bend of his elbow, she rubbed her nose and mouth all over his face and neck, kissing him until she was sobbing, her breath coming in ragged gasps until she felt him deliberately unleash his pheromones to calm her.

“I love you,” she whispered. “Come back to me soon.”

“I love you, more,” he whispered back. “I will, my love.”

T
hey both knew it was a promise he might not be able to keep.

And now she was pacing.
Pacing and wondering and muttering under her breath like a crazy person. Or like a person whose love was somewhere unknown, potentially in danger, while she was here, pacing.

Cass
never wore a watch, and her cell phone was turned off in Eyoen’s suite. Time meant something else on the star, anyway. She never had got the hang of it, and had no need to. There was always someone to take her to and from different appointments. But now every minute, every second, seemed like an hour.

“Well,” said the Queen.

Cass spun around and threw herself at the woman, who staggered but patted her back laughing.

“Thank, Christ,” she whispered.

“Who is this Christ?” the Queen asked curiously. “A friend of yours?”

Cass burst out laughing. “Never mind. What took you so long? I almost went after you!”

The Queen sobered. “I’m glad you didn’t, my dear. It’s war out there.”

“Eyoen? The King?”

“Fine, for now. Fighting for all they’re worth,” the Queen said proudly. “But now I know how to save us.”

“How? Who told you? Tell me!”

The Queen smiled cryptically. “It’s just as I said, my dear. You will have your role to play. Come with me.”

Cass stared at the dainty hand the Queen offered, and without another thought, put hers into it and vanished.

The carnage was severe. Cass had never seen anything like it outside the fake battlefields in movies; this was appallingly real. There was a strong smell of blood and burning flesh, and bodies littered the ground, some foreign, others heartbreakingly familiar. She recognized the lovely blue and green uniforms of the Cyani guard, now filthy with mud and dirt and the brackish yellow of demon blood.

She remembered how proud they’d all been sta
nding at attention in neat rows. Eyoen, his brothers and the King had stood before them. One had even winked at her, and she’d winked back, stifling a laugh because the gesture was so undemonlike. So irreverent. She’d turned away from that innocent charm. It brought home how young some of these soldiers were. How young they would be if, when, they died, as these had.

“Do not fret, my dear,” the Queen whispered. “We will take care of our dead. They and their families will be honored and protected.”

Cass shook her head. She was shaking with upset, and she had never felt more helpless. “What can I do?” she whispered, eyes wide and swimming with tears.

The Queen looked impassive. “What else? You will sing.”

Cass looked appalled. “You want me to hold a concert now?”

The Queen shook her head and smiled mirthlessly. “
Actually, yes. Our enemy Unjel has chosen a breed of demon called
Nynte
from which to make up the majority of his army. Do you recall the demon who ran from your last aborted concert at the elementary school?”

Cass nodded.

“These
Nynte
demons are like him. They abjure sound. Revile it even.”

“That’s why they wear those funny helmets,” Cass breathed,
recalling the enemy fallen scatted amidst the guard. Her heart thrummed with excitement as she realized where the Queen’s plan would take them.

“Exactly. I’ll handle the helmets, my dear. You just sing your heart out, and this should be over before we know it.
”

She had a feeling the Queen was exaggerating how easy their victory would come, but Cass was more than game to do her part.

“You know what’ll really make these fuckers run?” She said thoughtfully. “Get me my guitar.”

The Queen laughed gleefully, all but clapping her hands together in excitement. “Excellent. Now you’re thinking strategically, my dear.” She poofed in the guitar.

“What about my amp? I need juice.”

The Queen shook her head. “I’ll take care of the juice, my dear. Are you ready?”

Cass nodded. She swallowed, tried to ignore her madly skipping heartbeat. That and the fact that she felt like puking in her own mouth. “Let’s do it. I want my baby home safe.”

The Queen moved in back of Cass and touched her shoulder. “I have to
be in constant contact with you or you’ll fall. Do you understand? My magic is not strong to levitate us both without touch.”

“I’m gonna be moving around while I play.”

“Just don’t move too far away from me, and we’ll be fine,” the Queen advised. “Now things are going to happen fast once you start singing. If I know the King and my sons, they’ll be on us almost immediately. They’ll try to get us out of the line of fire, and there will be fire,” she warned. “But we have to resist. And under no circumstances can you stop singing. Do you understand?”

Cass nodded.
She was already putting together a fast set list in her head. She’d start out with some Jimi Hendrix. These demons didn’t like sound? They’d fucking hate this rock and roll she was about to put on their asses.

“Ready?”

“Yup,” she told the Queen, and began to play Wild Thing.

It
felt like she was in a video game. The Queen took her up fast, and they kept moving even faster. They were noticed immediately. Then there was a huge, loud pop. The Queen had done something to the enemy helmets. Cass saw some of them crack down the front like egg shells.

The din around them grew exponentially as demons began to scream in agony
from her music. Some ran away, others ran toward her shooting arrows of fire and blasts of light so hot it felt like she was being baked alive. But her voice never faltered, and her guitar seemed to take on a life of its own. Her heart was pumping like crazy, but her fingers flew over her strings as smooth as if she stood alone in her studio at home.

She knew the moment the King realized what was happening.
She’d barely gotten into the song when she felt the energy of the battle shift. He, Eyoen and his brothers were flying above the battle on the ground strategically directing their troops and taking out those enemies they could without endangering themselves. At least, she hoped that’s what they were doing. A few times it looked like they might charge right into the thick of things, but the King usually stepped in to redirect Eyoen or to fly in front of Cinque and block one of the hot, blue light blasts from the enemy guns.