The Demon King (17 page)

Dahlia’s eyes widened. She’d heard of a
spell that could do such a thing. It was one of those spells that
was forbidden, like so much warlock or “wrong” magic, because once
a portal was closed off on both ends, it was possible for it to do
one of several bad things. It could implode. It could also slip
into a dimensional pocket and disappear for thousands of years. At
the very least, it was difficult enough to open the portal back up
again that people trapped inside often went insane from the
swirling colors and confinement, even before they died of
dehydration.

And that was when it only took a few days to
get them out.

Dahlia didn’t hesitate. At once, she was
calling up what power she had left and focusing it on the portal.
She opened her mouth and took a breath, preparing to speak the
words of a transport spell – but the king’s hand slid firmly over
her mouth.

“
No
,” he warned. “That’s one of the worst things you can
do.”

Dahlia froze, her eyes feeling huge in her
face. The king hesitated, then released her, removing his hand and
stepping back. She was almost sorry for the return of her personal
space.

“
Using transport magic from
inside an already existing portal is a very bad idea. It’s like…”
he shook his head. “Ripping a hole in the fabric of time and
space.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Or something
like that. William could probably explain it better than I could.
But take my word for it, it would be bad.” He turned and paced
away, giving her the slightly dizzying impression of movement
within movement.

She closed her eyes against the confusion. A
new sensation was joining the anger and worry that were already
riding Dahlia’s system. She recognized it for what it was because
this wasn’t her first rodeo. It was panic. But at least now she
knew the king in the portal with her wasn’t William Balthazar, the
Time King. That’s who she assumed he was talking about, anyway.

One king down, four to
go
. “To trap someone in a portal, you have
to use magic as strong as the magic of the one you trap,” she told
him, repeating what she recalled reading. She didn’t think it was
necessary to point out that the two of them were quite magical,
indeed. “Who would have that kind of power?”

The king stopped pacing and turned toward
her, eyeing her closely. “Pissed anyone off recently?”

She blinked.
“
Me?
”

“
Yes,
you
. He walked toward her again.
“What’s your name, anyway?”

Without thinking, she replied, “Dahlia.”

The king’s head cocked a
little to the side. His gaze narrowed in something like
recognition. “Dahlia
Kellen
?”

She considered denying it for half a second.
And then she nodded. “Yeah, so?”

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but
a smile and laughter wasn’t it. He grinned, flashing beautiful
white teeth, then shook his head, chuckling. “Small world.”

Chapter Twenty

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?” she asked, and he could feel her irritation like tiny
electric zaps in the air of the portal.

He raised his hands defensively. “Nothing,”
he said reassuringly. “It’s not important.” What it meant was that
he was the luckiest bastard sitting at the Table of the Thirteen.
Dahlia Kellen was a Tuath fae whose beauty was legendary. The woman
before him definitely fit the bill. But there was so much more to
Dahlia Kellen than looks.

She was a warlock, which made her ultra rare
alone. Add to that the fact that she’d betrayed her nation, and you
had a woman making the fae history books. Her people all but
banished her. Not that it mattered, because the Entity took her
then.

She suffered in his possession, but survived
long enough to glean information that would help her people fight
the Entity. Finally, she’d been repaid for her efforts with the
curse of vampirism. She’d made what many would consider the
ultimate sacrifice for a people who had all but forsaken her, and
yet she continued to live her life, to move from day to day – or
night to night, as it were. It took immense strength just to keep
going, sometimes. Dahlia Kellen was basically built out of the
stuff. A Tuath warlock vampire hero with the face of a goddess.

And now she was here, with him, and like
he’d never known anything before in his life, he knew he was
talking to the woman destined to be his queen.

“
You’re right, it isn’t,”
she said, waving her hand as if whatever he’d been thinking was
inconsequential. “We need to concentrate on getting out of here.”
She turned away from him, and now she was the one
pacing.

He was instantly sorry for
having done it himself; watching her step a few feet away was
dizzying in the extreme. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge
of his nose. It would really help if he had any idea who would
bother to trap them there in that portal. If it wasn’t someone out
to get Dahlia, then it had to be someone out to get
him
.

Right?

“
So, who did
you
piss off?” Dahlia
asked as if she’d been reading his mind. He opened his eyes to find
she had stopped in the portal a few feet away and was now facing
him again with her hands on her hips. The dog had followed her and
sat loyally at her feet.

“
I’m a king. So… the
Entity? A number of people working for him? Hell, it could be
anyone, including the traitor.”

“
The traitor….” Dahlia
muttered as if she were remembering now. “The king who is
supposedly working for the Entity and feeding him your
secrets.”

“
That would be the
one.”

There was a pause of pregnant silence before
Dahlia sighed and asked, “So, you gonna answer my question?”

“
About who I pissed off? I
did.”

“
No, the first question,”
she reiterated. “Which king are you?”

He felt a hint of sardonic cruelty edging
his words when he replied, “The Demon King.” Technically, it was
true. The Akyri were often referred to as demons. But according to
Bael, it was his father who was the true demon king.

His father!
Bael!

“
Shit,” he suddenly said,
before Dahlia had a chance to react to his previous statement. “I
can’t believe I forgot about him.”

“
Who?” she
asked.

“
The messenger,” he told
her. “He said if I needed anything to call his name.”

“
What
messenger?” Dahlia asked, clearly very confused at this
point. The dog gave a soft whine and tilted its head, which to Laz
had always been one of the top ten cutest things on Earth – the
head tilt of a dog.

Laz had never felt more conspicuous, but
desperate times…. He cleared his throat and spoke loudly, letting
his magic lace his voice. “Bael, I call you.”

Dahlia stepped forward. “Who the hell is
Bae-”

Just then, a ripple appeared in the side of
the portal, and a hole opened up. Through that hole poked a man’s
head, as if he were a ghost poking his head through a mansion
wall.

“
What the –” Dahlia
back-pedaled, and the dog barked.

“
It’s okay,” assured Laz.
“He’s on our side. I think.”

“
My lord, are you in need
of my assistance?” asked the man. Or rather, the head. He looked
from Laz to Dahlia and seemed to recognize how strange he must
appear. “Oh, my apologies.” He backed out, disappearing for a
moment. Then the ripple was back, but this time an entire person
stepped through and into the portal.

Laz was at once concerned. Wouldn’t that
just trap him too?

“
Not to worry, my lord. Our
kind have innate transporting abilities that far surpass those of
the every day magic user. This spell is rudimentary at best. If you
wish, I can have you out of here immediately.” He waited, glanced
at Dahlia, and then bowed. “My lady. It is most definitely a
pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Bael of the Blood Moon
Valley, messenger of the Grand Tenebrous Court. I am forever at
your service.”

Laz’s eyebrows hit his hairline. He glanced
at Dahlia to see her reaction, and was rewarded with the most
adorably lost expression. He smiled. “Bael, get us out of
here.”

“
At once,” Bael responded,
nodding. “Though I’m surprised you didn’t do so yourself, my lord.
You do possess the ability.” He then said something Laz almost
recognized, and the swirling colors around them began to fade.
Darkness moved in, as if Laz were losing his sight.

Everything went black, and Laz experienced a
brief moment of panic. Was he alone? Where was Dahlia? Would he be
trapped here in this darkness forever? Was Bael working for the
traitor?

These are the kinds of thoughts that
infiltrate a person’s mind in those moments of panic. But it lasted
less than a second before light again flooded his vision, and he
found himself standing in a grand receiving room of what was very
obviously a palace. The others were there as well. Including the
dog.

“
My lord, welcome to Castle
Tenebrom, the stronghold of the Demon World.”

Tapestries hung on walls that seemed to be
built of ruby bricks and gold mortar. An enormous fire crackled in
a massive hearth on one end of the giant room. Dim light filtered
in from gigantic floor to ceiling stained glass windows depicting
scenes of magical battles and epic landscapes. Laz turned when he
saw Dahlia raise her arm to shield her eyes.

“
Is that sunlight?” she
asked quietly. Her voice was much softer than it had been
earlier.

“
Yes, my lady. It is the
first of the two suns and three moons of our realm,” said
Bael.

“
She can’t be in the sun,”
Laz told him quickly as he moved to Dahlia, shielding her body from
the light. She lowered her arm and looked up at him with a new
expression, one he hadn’t seen on her beautiful face until now.
Innocent, gut-real gratitude. “She’s a vampire,” he explained,
looking over his shoulder at the messenger. “We need to get her
some place dark.”

“
I’m so tired….”

Her voice was suddenly soft as a whisper, as
if most of the life had been drained from her in the last few short
seconds. He turned back to face her – and just as she began to
fall, he bent and lifted her easily into his arms.

She was out like a light. He’d heard about
this; the type of vampire she’d been turned into was exceedingly
susceptible to sunlight, even more so than Roman’s kind of
vampires. However…. “I thought she had some kind of spell on her
that protected her from the sun,” he voiced aloud.

“
It is perhaps that we have
two suns rather than one, my lord. Perhaps she would need two
spells protecting her. It may simply not be enough.”

Laz turned to face the messenger, who bowed
his head solemnly. “I am so very sorry, my prince.” He raised his
head and moved quickly across the room, motioning for Laz to follow
him.

“
Time moves differently in
each dimension, which brought an early end to her night. I did not
know her situation, or I would have chosen another location,” said
Bael even as he rushed to lead Laz through a set of massive double
doors. They entered a long corridor that thankfully had no windows.
From there, Bael directed him to a door that led to a winding
staircase leading down.

Laz began to descend, feeling the precious
weight of his future queen in his arms. He was thinking so many
things in that moment. Someone had tried to kill him. Or her. Or
both of them. The messenger Bael really had come to his rescue when
Laz had called him. And that probably meant that Laz really was the
son of the Demon King. Bael had called him “prince,” after all.

He had a boat load of questions and his mind
was spinning.

As they reached the landing and turned right
to find themselves in what honestly appeared to be a dungeon, Laz
came to a complete and sudden stop. There were four alcoves along
the walls, barricaded by thick metal bars. In the center of the
room was a fire pit. “No way in hell am I leaving her down
here.”

“
Of course not, my lord.
Not as it is in
this
state. But it is definitely safer from the rays of our suns.
Please, allow me and my colleagues to properly tidy up the quarters
for you.”

Laz turned around at the sound of further
footfalls on the stairwell. A few seconds later, half a dozen
others reached the landing, all strangers, a mix of women and men.
They stopped before Lazarus and bent low in respectful bows. Then
they turned to Bael. Bael nodded at them, and they raised their
arms in unison. Magic caused their palms to glow, and Laz stepped
back, hugging Dahlia’s unconscious form closer to his chest and
turning slightly as if to shield her from whatever might
transpire.

The lights from their hands grew brighter,
spread into balls of expanding illumination, and then streamed out
into the dungeon. All around him, the room began to change….

Chapter Twenty-One

When he’d first opened the portal out of the
warehouse, he’d been planning on taking her to the Akyri castle. It
was a place the Akyri never talked about it, practically no one
knew existed, and one that Laz therefore felt was a little safer
and more private than, well, anywhere else. It wouldn’t have been
appropriate to take someone as powerful as Dahlia Kellen anywhere
else. Especially not a place like his cop-salary apartment. If
she’d decided to attack him there, her magic would have ripped
holes in its infrastructure and destroyed its foundations like
tissue paper, and consequently put innocent bystanders in
danger.