The Demon's Game (The Guardian Series Book 4)

by Rain Oxford

  At least for a few hours.

  I could feel that Dylan was tired and using his magic strenuously long before his pain started affecting Rojan. Although it was more of an ache at first, I knew it was much worse for Dylan. This wasn’t a normal day at work for him; something must have happened at the hospital. Rojan landed.

  Why are you stopping? Dylan isn’t hurt, it’s just phantom pains from his healing, I thought to Rojan. As much as I wanted to help Dylan, I knew Rojan needed more time after being cooped up in the little apartment.

  And we can heal him. Instead of shifting back, Rojan took flight again and headed for the mountains. He changed the color and shade of our scales as we reached the outer limits of town, blending in with the grey clouds and dark sky. Luckily, Rojan was wise enough to land in the forest instead of actually trying to fly through town. It took some maneuvering with our long wingspan to land without tearing down trees. We then faced the predicament of finding clothes.

  Taylor had followed us from the gathering and landed behind us, though not nearly as easily. The wings of desert dragons were not as durable as those of a forest dragon, and without that advantage or Rojan’s experience, Taylor ended up with some major scratches for his effort. He shifted, which healed some of the damage, but the discomfort was evident on his face.

  “What’s wrong? Why did you leave?” he asked.

  “My brother needs help.”

  “Another dragon?”

  “No, he’s sago. He’s sort of my adopted brother and he’s my best friend.”

  “How do you know he needs help?”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Rojan said, taking over. Whereas Dylan loved to subject-hop until his opponent became confused and distracted, Rojan hated being delayed. Of course, this was a time when I had to agree with my dragon. Dylan may not have actually been injured, but he was in pain. The more time I wasted talking with Taylor, the longer Dylan had to hurt.

  “At least get dressed before prancing through town!” Taylor insisted.

  “With what?”

  As if on cue, one of the smaller forest dragons came soaring through the trees. She was black as the sky and kept low to the trees, but anyone with an interest in astronomy and a little luck could have seen her. She had long, sturdy legs and a short wing span that forest dragons were known for. When the dragoness landed, her scales lightened to a deep green, which matched her eyes perfectly. It was a primitive form of camouflage; unlike my bloodline, she couldn’t change the color of her scales, but she could darken them.

  After landing in front of me, she shifted. The bundle she clutched became conspicuous as her body shrunk and green scales became smooth, lightly tan skin. She was as beautiful a woman as she was a dragon; her wavy hair was dark brown and framed eyes as green as they were in her dragon form. She had a sleek, athletic figure with a sweet, youthful face.

  Rojan could just stare, for she looked almost identical to his mate.

  I scented her instinctually. She was about as far from Emiko in personality as she could get. Where Emiko was conniving and greedy, this woman was kind-hearted and giving. This was the kind of woman who volunteered her time to help others. Emiko, on the other hand, was absolutely innocent in appearance, but she has literally tried to stab me in the back.

  “I figured something was wrong so I grabbed your clothes,” she said, holding out the bundle.

  Rojan shivered, withdrawing further from my awareness. She even sounded like his mate and I felt his deep misery at her loss take its hold again. From previous events that reminded Rojan of his dead mate, I knew it would be days before Rojan would even talk again and my dreams would be full of memories.

  “Thank you,” I said, trying not to touch her as I did. Between Dylan being in serious pain from healing people and Rojan becoming depressed at such a vivid imitation of the lost love of his life, I was in for a long night.

  “I’m Sydney,” she said, pretending not to watch me dress.

  “I’m Mordon. You weren’t at the barbeque.”

  “I was late. I know you’re in a hurry, but do you want to get dinner sometime?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Rojan suddenly said without warning. The speed and ease with which he pushed my consciousness aside and took over my body was a little worrisome, but I trusted Rojan… I had to, actually. The eagerness in Rojan as he agreed to meet with this woman worried me even more; Rojan was never eager about anything but flying.

  Emiko isn’t going to be happy, I thought.

  What does Emiko matter? The relationship we have with her is hostile at best. If a stronger dragon existed, she would choose him instead. Furthermore, neither of us promised her anything and she expects nothing more from us.

  No, we’re not officially exclusive… but I feel like we’ll hurt her if we went out with someone. She may be a cold hearted, manipulative little slime, but she’s a woman, and they have preconceived notions about things like this.

  That is her problem.

  I didn’t agree, but Rojan was much older and wiser than me. Plus, he knew more about dragons and dragonesses. Besides, it was highly likely that Rojan would lose interest in Sydney, because there was no way she really acted like his mate.

  I was still pondering this as I started through the dark streets, ignoring Taylor and Sydney as they followed. While Rojan and I weren’t familiar with this town, I could always sense how to find Dylan. We made it back to the apartment and I entered to find Dylan asleep on the couch. He was so tired he hadn’t even locked the door.

  He grunted as I rolled him onto his back and sat beside him. As soon as I touched him, his magic flooded my system and my own fire responded by pouring into him. It wouldn’t burn him. For some reason, he couldn’t heal himself with his energy without cycling it through me, but my fire could heal him, too.

  His pain lessened enough for him to settle into a quiet sleep. I locked the door, got a blanket, and covered Dylan up before going to bed.

  * * *

  As soon as Dylan left the next day, I returned to the coffee shop to talk to Taylor. The atmosphere of the café was different, cautious even. Rojan bristled as everyone snuck glances at me if not ogled me outright.

  Adalia handed me a tea, but when I started getting out my wallet, she said, “On the house,” which was entirely confusing. It seemed to be a way of saying she didn’t want money, though, so I put my wallet away.

  “Good morning, Mordon,” Sydney said, appearing as if out of thin air by my side. Adalia gave her a scowl and walked back behind her counter.

  Rojan started his odd purr he used when Emiko did something he approved of, which I cut off fast enough to make it sound like a huff. I didn’t want her getting the wrong impression. “Good morning,” I said. Whatever Rojan would have replied with was better left unsaid.

  “Why are your eyes multi-colored in person form, but straight blue in your true form?” she asked.

  I wasn’t aware my eyes were blue in dragon form. My blue eye was from Rojan’s genetics and my purple eye was from my mother’s, so I guess it made a little sense. “It’s normal where I come from,” I lied.

  About this time, I realized Taylor was trying to sneak out the door. Since meeting him, he had acted honorable and trustworthy, so it made no sense for him to avoid me. “Stop!” Rojan barked with all the authority of a king. Taylor froze before turning slowly to face me. “Outside,” Rojan growled.

  I handed my tea to Sydney. Everyone else backed away from me, Taylor, and the door. Taylor darted out but waited obediently for me to join him outside. He wouldn’t look me in the face.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I know who you are… sir. I recognized your true form, so I went through some of my old books last night.”

  “I told you, my name is Mordon.”

  “If that is the name you go by now, Rojan, I won’t tell anyone. There is a little difference in your person form… I guess the artists portrayed you wrong, but there is no mistaking your dragon fo
rm. You even told me you were descended from Kaled. Besides, I could tell when you shifted that you were thousands of years old. You are the oldest and most powerful dragon alive on Earth or Duran.”

  I didn’t know if that was particularly true. Rojan’s childhood friend, Marnd, was probably still alive, and although Marnd was definitely less powerful than Rojan, surely some of the dragons from his day survived. We had killed Rojan’s sister when she proved to be a dangerous enemy to our family.

  It was no longer an option to have this man as a friend; he was now a threat. Rojan warned me time and time again that being half dragon would get us killed, for it was all about the bloodline to a dragon. If the dragon considered me a reincarnation of Rojan or even Rojan’s son, I would be regarded with honors. If they considered me half sago, half dragon, I would be regarded as inferior and would be hunted. The only way to protect myself now that Rojan’s identity was revealed was to scare the younger dragon into silence.

  “Very few people know who I am. If you start spreading this information, you and those you tell will die,” Rojan growled. My eyes shifted until I could see Taylor’s soul. He wasn’t perfectly innocent, but he was an honorable dragon who tried to never hurt anyone. I could see the fear churning in him, but no betrayal.

  “I won’t tell anyone who you are. I don’t know why you keep it a secret, but I won’t tell. Please, you can trust me.”

  I let my eyes shift back and took over again. As an added incentive, I stepped towards him and leaned my hand against the brick wall. This caused him to back into the wall, which I was currently charring. My fire wasn’t actually hot enough to damage the brick, only enough to leave a mark. The dragon’s eyes were huge. “Good. Then nothing unfortunate should happen to you.”

  He nodded and I turned to reenter the café. “Is your brother okay?” he asked. “You looked really worried last night.”

  Rojan released the mound of tension when Taylor showed concern for Dylan. “He is much better. He just had a bad day at work.”

  “Where does he work?”

  “He’s a doctor.”

  “He isn’t Dr. Yatunus, is he?”

  Rojan growled again and Taylor shrank back. “You know too much about me and my clutch.”

  “I just… it’s a small town. My deputy had to go to the ER two weeks ago because he got shot in the chest. They turned him over to the new doctor. I was worried, but they said Dr. Yatunus could work miracles. Everyone said he would have died otherwise. He’s at home, well into recovery because of the doctor. When I met him, I could tell he was a powerful wizard, but he seemed to have no idea I was a dragon.”

  “Why was your friend shot in the chest?”

  “I’m the sheriff. Can’t you tell?” he asked, pointing out his uniform.

  His shirt was sort of tan and his pants were dark green. There were badges on his shirt and a thick belt. Only then did I see the gun holstered in his belt. Still, it took me a few minutes to figure out what he meant by “sheriff.”

  “Oh, you’re a cop. You weren’t dressed like that yesterday.”

  “No, it was my day off yesterday.”

  “So if you’re working today, I guess that means you don’t want to go flying.”

  “I’m working late today, so I can’t. You can use the field, though. Or, you can take Sydney. Her father keeps that field clear of humans and she spends a lot of her time out there.”

  Once again, I had to prevent Rojan from making an overly approving sound. “I’ll probably do that. I should go back in; my tea is getting cold.” My tea that Sydney is holding for me. I went back inside and Taylor went to his car, probably heading off to work.

  Sydney and I sat in chairs facing each other and talked. I really couldn’t tell her anything about myself, but she had plenty to say about herself. Although I wasn’t actually listening the entire time, Rojan was. After an hour or so, she offered to drive me to the field to go flying with her. Obviously, I accepted.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening with Sydney. By the time I made it back to the apartment, everyone else was in bed.

  * * *

  I took the boys to the bookstore an hour and a half after Dylan left us to go back into work. Dylan had wanted to be here, but he took his responsibility seriously. As Ron ran off, the epitome of excitement, I considered telling Dylan he should get his son one of those tablets with books on them. The Guardian may have had trouble with electronics, but Ron seemed to manage just fine, judging by the computers he passed by in the bookstore.

  My first clue that something was wrong was the silence. Within a couple of minutes, the packed store cleared out. I went in search of the boys and when I found them, Rojan drew his hottest fire. The boys were both unconscious and being tied up by six guys in black leather clothes. I struck the first with fire and while he was screaming, I struck the next man with lightning. Although he quickly went down, the man on fire launched himself at me.

  He landed on top of me, but I pushed up with my legs so that he rolled right over. I pinned him and was about to finish the job when there was a sharp blow to my head. I rolled onto my back, disorientated, and started to shift.

  One of the men stood over me and held out his hand as if warding me off. A heavy pressure fell over me until my shifting was painful. Unsure whether to bear the pain and finish shifting or return to normal and try my hand at the training my father forced on me, I hesitated. That was the last I was aware of my surroundings for a while.

  * * *

  I woke in a weird sort of lab with dim lights. The air was cold and wet, which would have been comfortable to anyone who wasn’t a dragon. It was too clean to be a dungeon, yet too dingy and empty to be a medical facility. I was lying on a bed with my arms and legs spread, chained to the metal frame. I shivered violently enough to rattle the chains, but when I tried yanking on them, they wouldn’t break. Unlike Hail, I wasn’t much stronger than a regular sago. I couldn’t shift because contorting my body long enough to reach full dragon form would likely do more damage to me than the chains.

  I inhaled deeply to see if I could pick up anyone’s scent… and I shuddered in revulsion. Vinegar was all I smelled. It was the single worst smell I ever had to suffer through, and someone had thought to use it to prevent me from getting a fix on my location. Whoever my opponent was, he knew what I was.

  A man entered clothed in black leather and tacky jewelry. His hand was riddled with far too many rings as he reached out towards me.

  “Sleep, dragon,” he said.

  Lethargy tried to claw its way into my mind. Since Dylan was my best friend, all his friends were gods or Guardians, and his youngest son was a little devil in disguise, I should have been used to powerful men trying to control me. Rojan was furious. His roar burst from me as lightning leapt from my bound hands. The man hit the floor with severe convulsions, but the moment my lightning ceased, he rose to his feet.

  He wasn’t human. That was one bit of information I wished I had prior knowledge of.

  Four men, all much bigger than the leather clad guy, entered. They looked more like henchmen than anything else, and they felt like it, too, when they held me still.

  “You will regret that,” the man warned.

  It was pointless to ask why the man kidnapped me; either I was here because of Rojan or because of Dylan. Growing up, I tried to run from the Mokii throne. Since I met Dylan and was usually running with him, I realize how unimportant I was. Everything centered on Dylan or Rojan.

  One of the henchmen stabbed me in the arm with something sharp and my vision dimmed.

  * * *

  I shared dreams with Dylan all the time. While most of them were pleasant, like flying, or confusing, like when Dylan was solving mysteries in his subconscious, there was the occasional… or rather frequent fantasy of Divina. In fact, despite never so much as touching her if I could help it, I was very familiar with her body and lips. This was a very disturbing knowledge for me at first since I never felt s
exually attracted to her.

  When we first met, I thought something was very wrong with me because although I realized how beautiful she was, I wanted nothing physical with her. I felt Dylan’s thoughts and feelings for her in my dreams, so after the first few times this happened, I figured out the reason for my lack of interest and stopped trying to make sense of it. I knew if she wasn’t Dylan’s mate, I would be tripping over myself trying to win her for myself, but as it was, I couldn’t even betray Dylan on a subconscious level.

  Emiko was a different matter. Regardless of having been crowned prince of Mokii, I was never a promiscuous or experienced man. Emiko was actually my first, but still I knew that she was a selfish lover. This may have been why I so often shared Dylan’s dreams.

  I woke from what I thought was one such dream of Divina… but the lips on mine were very real, and very good. The body pressed against mine was even better than the lips.

  When I opened my eyes, it was to the close and lovely face of Sydney. My brain, slow with lust, took a few minutes before starting back up. Then I was startled, because she was the last person I expected to see after being captured by… a random stranger dressed in leather. It was at this point my brain reminded me I didn’t know who I was captured by or why. Rojan was no help, for he was still focused on Sydney’s lips and the heat of her body on top of mine.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m here to get you out. I was in town when I saw these guys take you and two little boys. I followed them here and then went back for the rest of the dragons. Everyone is waiting for my signal.” She leaned forward with innocent enthusiasm and consequently thrust against my much less innocent anatomy.

  “Get these chains off me,” Rojan said before I could ask her to get off.

  She reached over me to pick at the cuffs with some kind of lock pick. While it meant she was no longer sitting directly on my member, her chest was now a hair’s width from smothering me. Damn, that would be a pleasant way to go. Rojan purred and I couldn’t stop it. When the chains released, she wiggled her way down my body to release my legs. By the time she focused on her task, she was faced away from me on her hands and knees with her butt sticking up.