by Bonnie Lamer
To my surprise, it is Kallen who shocks them both out of tears. “Enough already!” His voice booms around the kitchen, echoing off the walls and making the pots and pans hanging from a rack swing in the sonic breeze. “This is exactly what the Demon was trying to do! Yes, Dagda and Julienne were once attracted to each other. Yes, if things had been different, maybe they would have been together. But things were not different. Dagda wanted to be back here with Tana and Julienne found love with Jim. Get the hell over it already so we can move on!”
I stare at him in awe. He’s honestly annoyed by how they’re behaving. But did my husband just say get the hell over it already? Because I know for a fact that he would not be able to get the hell over it if he found me with someone else. Not right away, anyway. Then again, I’ve never been with anyone but him so there were no old boyfriends…or lovers as the case may be for Mom and Dagda. And the only other Fairy with any claims on Kallen, real or not, was Xenia. So, the Demon didn’t really have this option when it came to us, even though he did give it a valiant effort by bringing in Xenia. But, if we did have pasts with other people and were thrown into them under the Demon’s spell, Kallen is right. We would have to suck it up and get the hell over it right away so we could come up with a solution.
“Kallen is correct,” Isla concurs with my mental ramblings. “I am certain, given enough time, the Demon would have found a way to drive wedges between all of us. If you four let the Demons be so successful this early in the game, then what hope do we have? Is your love for each other not strong enough to weather something so absurd as the illogical possibility that life could have turned out differently for the four of you?”
Love advice from Isla seems kind of weird. After all, look at how long it took her to admit she loved Garren. Then, look at the fact that she loves Garren. Not exactly the cream of the crop. But, I am not going to point out either of these things because she seems to have helped knock some sense into the four of them. Tears are dried, hugs between spouses are given. Dirty looks and sharp insults are temporarily packed away for the possibility of further use later.
“I’m going to vomit,” Taz chokes, trying not to inhale the love in the air.
“Shut up,” I admonish.
“No, seriously, he is going to vomit,” Felix informs me, rushing to his friend’s side.
He’s right. Taz wasn’t just being snarky like I thought. He starts making these sounds like he’s about to hack up a hairball. I am off my stool and by his side in an instant. “Did you eat something?” I demand, wondering if he’s choking on a scrap of food and I need to figure out how to give the Heimlich to a Tasmanian devil.
“No,” Taz rasps.
His little chest is racked with coughs. After a particularly long coughing spell, he finally vomits. What comes up is a combination of bile and blood. Nasty. Pulling him into my lap, I run a soothing hand through his fur as I pull magic. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I suspect whatever is happening to him is Demon related. The others in the kitchen have gathered around.
“What is wrong?” Kallen asks, kneeling next to me but keeping a safe distance from me and my magic. And the bloody vomit on the floor.
“I don’t know.” Sending my magic out to my Familiar, I assess him for injury. My magic can’t sense anything physical that is causing his illness. It can, however, sense dark magic trying to weave its slimy tentacles around him. My eyes fly around the room in search of the Demon attacking Taz. I don’t see anyone. Not a surprise. I didn’t see the other Demon for days while it was wreaking havoc on my life. Not until I called it forth. Glancing around at the others, I warn, “There’s a Demon close by.”
All eyes suddenly shift from me to everywhere else. They are scanning the area, searching for the invisible Demon. Someone goes outside to look around but I don’t pay attention as to who. I keep my attention focused on Taz. I need to disentangle him from this dark magic which is trying to kill him. It dawns on me that we should have spent less time talking about my parents’ sex lives and more time figuring out how Demon magic works. Because I don’t have the first clue. Which could mean the difference between keeping Taz alive and watching him die.
19 Chapter
Taz is not going to die. My head whips toward Felix. “Do you know anything about Demons?” He often knows things about dark magic that none of the rest of us do. It’s sometimes handy that my doppelganger in his universe was evil. Well, it’s handy for me, of course, not for him. It sucked for him.
“Demons were a thing of the past in our universe, as well,” Felix informs me, dashing my hope. My optimism returns when his little eyes light up. “You used the dark magic of the archives to capture the Demon.”
I’m not following. “Yes, I did,” I say slowly, hoping to catch up. I don’t. I still don’t know what he’s implying. Losing patience when he doesn’t say anything else, I growl down at him, “Just spell it out, Felix. Don’t make me guess.”
“We are made from dark magic.”
By spell it out, I guess what I really meant was draw me a picture of exactly what he wants me to do. I open my mouth to tell him this when I realize I may not be as slow as I think I am. “You want me to use the dark magic within Taz to fight the dark magic of the Demon attacking him?”
If Tasmanian devils could grin maniacally, Felix would be doing so right now. “Exactly,” he says with an excited bob of his head. Felix never gives excited bobs of his head. He must really believe this will work.
Latching onto his enthusiasm, I give it a shot. The others in the room have taken up defensive stances around us, magic pulled and ready for a fight. “You guys should give me some space,” I warn, my attention still on Taz.
Kallen sends me a worried look. “What are you about to do?” He must not have been following my conversation with Felix. He is on hyper alert for a Demon presence, after all. Or, he was following my conversation with Felix and that’s why he’s worried. Yeah, it’s probably the latter.
“Something that is probably dangerous and stupid,” I reply honestly. To my surprise, Kallen doesn’t argue. He just gives me a nod and moves back. He knows how important Taz is to me, even if I do spend most of my time complaining about him.
Taking a deep breath, I let the words to a spell form in my mind. “Darkness buried deep inside, swirl up now like an ocean’s tide. Fight a battle with magic akin, be the yang to its yin. External forces seek to destroy, this life given by darkness’ octroy. Our magic entwined we oust this foe, possession of you it will never know.”
I squeeze my eyes closed against the tearing and pulling of magic as it is sucked through me and combines with my Familiar’s. Taz’s body bucks and twists. He howls and coughs and spits out more blood. But under it all, I feel him fighting. Not just him. I feel the magic that holds him together. The magic that binds us. I feel it curling and twisting, melding with mine. But, the Demon magic is strong. It’s hold on Taz considerable. And I’m not certain we can break through it.
There is a new pressure on my leg. A tiny paw pressing against me. I glance down as Felix flings his other front paw onto Taz. As soon as contact with both of us is made, his grunts of pain join ours. But, when his magic mingles with ours, bolstering it, making it stronger, I know we’ve won. The hold the Demons have on Taz begins to slip. Like prying fingers from a ledge, the three of us fight to send the Demon magic spiraling back down to the hell from which it was spawned. When the last of it is finally ripped away, the three of us slump to the floor in a furry heap. Not that I’ve suddenly grown fur, I’m just covered in Tasmanian devil at the moment.
“Xandra!” Kallen is next to me again, his hands on my cheeks. “Are you okay? Are you conscious?”
Those questions probably should have been asked in the reverse order, but he’s so worried at the moment I’m not going to point that out. “I’m fine,” I mumble through Felix’s fur.
Reaching out, Kallen gently lifts Felix away from my face so I can speak. “Better?” he asks.
I nod. “Thanks. How are they?”
Now that he knows I’m fine, Kallen looks my Familiars over. “Out cold, but breathing.”
Extending a hand, I say, “Help me up, please.” Kallen helps me into a sitting position. He keeps an arm around me to prevent me from falling back down. “That is some wicked stuff,” I mutter.
Kallen chuckles softly. “No pun intended?”
“Oh no, definitely pun intended.” I put a hand to my stomach. “I’m kind of nauseous myself now.”
Quirking a brow, Kallen asks, “Are you going to vomit?”
I consider his question a second before shaking my head. “No.” There is a considerable amount of relief in my charming husband’s eyes at the moment. So much so, I’m tempted to tell him I changed my mind to tease him. That would be cruel after just scaring the hell out of him for the umpteenth time, though. Okay, we are probably way past even that nonsensical number.
Peering down at me with an expression as worried as Kallen’s, Dagda asks, “Are they gone?”
“As far as I can tell,” I assure him. He doesn’t appear assured. In fact, he narrows his eyes at me, ready to demand that I be more reassuring.
“If she can no longer sense the Demon magic, they must be gone,” Kallen insists. Aw, he’s so cute when he’s defending me. I reach a hand up and lay it against his cheek and smile.
“I appreciate your loyalty, but I do not necessarily believe one absolutely follows the other,” Dagda retorts. He is not cute when he is doubting me.
Rising slowly to my feet, I glower at my father. “Well, that’s the best I can tell you. If you want a better answer, scan for the magic yourself.”
Is that a blush blooming on the Fairy King’s face? Why, I do believe it is. I understand why when he says, “I could not feel any magic except yours.”
I must not have heard him properly. “What?”
“Neither did I,” Garren admits. No surprise there. He’s often not in tune with what is going on. Maybe all the years he spent around the stench of the Dragons and the Goblins dulled his senses to everything else. The latter were particularly odiferous.
When Isla and Tana add that they were not able to sense the magic, either, I begin to get worried. Did I imagine it? I glance down at my unconscious Familiars. Nope, I did not imagine it. We were definitely fighting evil magic a few minutes ago. Unless I am still in some alternate reality and the Demons are playing a trick on me and it was really my own magic going haywire. Did the Demons somehow trick me into harming Taz and Felix with my magic? Panic begins to bubble inside me at the thought.
“I felt it.” His voice is low and soothing, meant to calm my growing hysteria.
My eyes fly to Kallen. I search his face, his green eyes, for the truth in his words. I let my magical lie detecting skills do their thing. I sigh a great sigh of relief when I am certain he is telling the truth. He did feel it. He’s not just placating me.
Isla is scowling. I think the idea of this being another reality altered by the Demons is going through her mind, as well. “How is it the two of you could feel the Demon magic when the rest of us could not?”
Fortunately, Kallen has a theory. Good thing, because I don’t have a clue. “Exposure,” he says simply. “Xandra and I spent every day in those other realities immersed in the magic. Perhaps we are more attune to it now.”
Dagda nods. “It is a reasonable theory.”
Tana concurs. “Dark magic, especially the darkest magic, is meant to be masked. I used spells myself that only the Familiars were able to sense.” That’s right, she did. Not that I like to be reminded of the days she wanted me dead, but sometimes useful tidbits of information arise from that time.
“I know this will not be a popular suggestion,” Kallen begins and all eyes snap to him in dread. “But, I believe we need to return to the archives. Xandra and the rest of us need to be armed with as much information as possible if we are going to fight the Demons. I suspect if her Familiars had not been here, she would not have been as successful as she was in beating the Demon magic back.” His eyes find Taz and Felix on the floor and I believe he has a new appreciation for my Familiars. “And they are not prepared to launch another counterattack any time soon.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t say that out loud,” I gripe. “No sense in calling the Demons’ attention to the fact that they are passed out on the kitchen floor.”
Chagrined, Kallen nods. “You are right. I was assuming that they are watching us and would know this, but they may not be.”
Watching us? He’s right. They could be watching us right now like they made the others watch as Kallen and I struggled through the realities. A shiver runs down my spine. Demons watching us like we’re on a reality show. Now, that’s creepy. And if it’s true, how long have they been watching us? I suspect that, unlike the Angels who could be watching at any given time, the Demons do not respect private moments. For that matter, was everyone watching Kallen and me when we made love in those other realities? I am definitely back to feeling nauseated again.
Thinking of Angels, my head whips around like I’m suddenly going to find a pair hiding in the corner of the kitchen. When I obviously don’t find them, I ask the room in general, “Where are Raziel and Adriel?”
Isla’s expression is grim. “I was wondering the same thing.” Good thing she brought it earlier up, then.
“Have any of you seen them?” I ask. “Were they watching with you?”
“No. They have not been around for days,” Garren says, confirming my worst fears.
My eyes fly back to Isla and her lips are pressed together. So tight, her nostrils are flaring a bit. She’s not saying something. Something I suspect is important. “Spit it out,” I demand through gritted teeth.
“Xandra, I do not know…”
Ire flashes through me and I inadvertently pull enough magic to make the house shake a little. “Tell me what you think has happened to them.”
With a long suffering sigh, Isla says, “Angels and Demons are natural enemies. It is unlikely that the Demons would not take advantage of finding Fallen Angels in our midst.”
I am going to punch her in the face if she doesn’t just spit it out like I demanded a minute ago. Everyone here knows I am short on patience. Why do they make me pull information out of them so slowly that my precarious hold on my magic begins to slip? If it’s because they think it will help me gain control they have seriously misguided hopes and dreams. “Meaning…” I growl.
Kallen puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. He finishes for Isla. “The Demons may have wanted to cause them greater harm than the rest of us.”
I whirl to face him, knocking his hand away in the process. “Did you already figure that out and decided not to tell me?”
He is surprised enough by my accusation for me to know that he had not figured it out until Isla began speaking. “No,” he hurries to say. “Honestly, I was so distracted by other events that I am only now realizing they are gone.” His face turns an interesting shade of red when he realizes how awful it sounds that he just now figured out two friends are still missing.
I can’t chastise him for it. I am only now asking about them myself. I should have done a roll call or something when we got home. Something I will definitely do during future catastrophes. I did briefly wonder where they were before Mom began sobbing in my arms, but then I was distracted. I am a terrible friend. “We need to figure out what happened to them. Before the Demons decide to kill them.”
Tana, the never optimistic harbinger of doom, asks, “How can you be certain they are not already dead?”
Grabbing my arm before I can stalk across the room and slap her, Kallen scowls at his aunt. “Because the Demons are not stupid. Killing Angels, even Fallen Angels, would immediately start a war with the Angels. They are alive.”
“Not to mention, they would want as much leverage as possible,” Dagda adds. He moves closer to his wife because he’s afraid he may need to defend her from
me. Yeah, I wish him good luck with that if she continues to piss me off.
“I should check with the Angels.” Maybe they can tell me where my friends are.
Kallen is the voice of reason. “I am certain they already know about the Demons. It is probably a better use of our time to revisit the archives right now.”
I glower up at him. “Going to Angel time doesn’t affect time in this reality,” I point out snarkily.
“Demons and Angel have the same ability to move through time and space,” Isla informs me.
Oh, so going to Angel time could be wasting precious time if the Demons experience time like I do. A sickening thought hits me. “If they can move in and out of Angel and realm time, does that mean they know the future like the Angels do?” If that’s the case, maybe they attacked now because they already know they can win.
Isla shakes her head and my rising panic begins to ebb. “From what I understand, and mind you, my knowledge is limited, Demon abilities when it comes to such things is more akin to your ability than the Angels’.” I may have just been insulted about my ineptitude there, but I am so relieved that the Demons don’t know the future that I don’t even care.
My relief is soon edged out by anger. “Wait a minute.” I turn to Dagda. “Didn’t the Demon say everything would be returned to normal?”
“I was having the same thought myself,” he admits. “If a Demon must keep his word, why are they not present?”
I know why. “Because I was probably rash when deciding on the spur of the moment to trust a Demon,” I chastise myself aloud. Might as well let everyone know I freely admit to what they are inevitably thinking.
“You did what was needed at the time,” Dagda soothes.
Kallen wraps his arms around me. “We needed to be free of the other realities to focus on fighting the Demons. You accomplished that the best way you could at the time. Now, we can focus on rescuing our friends and vanquishing the Demons back to hell.”