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

by Rain Oxford

  I sighed and opened the door. “Divina, meet my mother.”

  For a few blessed seconds, my mother stared in shock. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay that way. “Is she your whore or your sugarbaby?” the woman asked.

  Divina laughed. “This is going to be fun.” She turned to me and wrapped her arms around mine with the same child-like joy she had when I first fell in love with her. “She’s all mine? I can do whatever I want?”

  I was counting on it.

  There was a collective cheer from the nurses and an undertone of celebration from the patients when Ms. Manning announced over the intercom that, “The wicked witch is dead!” Then she had to clarify that she wasn’t dead but gone, because somebody really had prepped the morgue. Who needed a padlock on a morgue shelf? Apparently my mother.

  The rest of my day consisted of DIY and DUI accidents. When I got home, Ron and Hail were cleaning the living room, Xul was reading a book on the couch with a glass of red wine, and Divina was cooking up a potion in the kitchen. My first thought was to ask what the boys did to get them on clean-up duty, but it occurred to me I didn’t want to know.

  I went into the kitchen, leaned over my wife’s shoulder, and kissed her. My heart skipped a beat as it always did when we kissed. When I let her go, her smile lit up her eyes. “Divina? Where’s my mother?”

  She smirked evilly. “Community service.”

  “Where?”

  “Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Don’t worry; she won’t die or get sick with something.”

  “She was injured. And how did you explain to her what you are?”

  “I didn’t explain. She figured it out herself when I made her see some of your memories. I’m a god, Dylan; I will not fear a mortal. I did make it so that she tries to reveal my identity, she will instantly become deaf, blind, and mute. Then I healed her and sent her to work.”

  “Have I told you how much I love you lately?”

  “Not since breakfast.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. My mind went blank as I was lost in her warmth. I pulled my mouth from hers and she kissed my chest. After checking that she didn’t have a potion in her hand, I picked her up, set her on the table, and unbuttoned her shirt to find she had gone bra-free. A very annoying throat cleared, so I gave the demon the one finger salute and kissed Divina again.

  “Dylan, I would love to leave you alone to snog your wife… in the kitchen… but you have a visitor at the door.”

  I took a step away and sighed. “Why can’t my life be easy? Like, ‘Dylan wakes up, goes to work, then picks up groceries on the way home, and has a nice night in with his wife and kids.’ Instead my life is, ‘Dylan wakes up to aliens pounding on his door, makes it to work just in time to be kidnapped by vampires, from which he has to be saved by the god of Earth.’ And that’s on a boring day.”

  Divina laughed and hopped off the table, causing her shirt to flap open. Damn. I buttoned her top, more as an excuse to keep touching her than to hide her beauty from Xul.

  “I’d be better off in the void,” the demon muttered as he left.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I asked Divina.

  “Xul is an Ancient; one of the most powerful demons and as old as the gods. He existed before humans were even an idea. His power was unmatched by any mortal. He was fooled by the balance into going after Hail and you crippled him for it. Powerless, he went to you and offered his life in servitude to you. He took what you gave him without asking for more, and instead of finding loopholes in your agreement he goes above and beyond to make up for what he did. Now he has to stay here with us because he lost his job and we sort of treat him like a dog. Demanding he keep watch over both boys every minute of every day is like asking him to herd cats with a water pistol. He wants to do well, but you’re demanding a lot from him. And at the end of the day, you have me and he has nobody. I think his ego might be stinging.”

  I thought about it as I went to the door. Before I could even reach for the handle, Hail gasped. His eyes glowed fierce purple and he fell onto the couch. Xul caught Ron before he collapsed. I sat down on the couch and settled Hail in my lap. I couldn’t interrupt the child’s visions, but he had told me before that he could feel what was happening to him during them.

  Divina opened the door and let Ghidorah in. “Good evening, Tiamat. Dylan? Are they okay?” he asked me.

  “They’re fine. What’s up?” I asked, wanting to get his focus off the boys.

  “Stacy and John have been kind enough to let me stay with them, but they make me leave every night for a few hours. I understand why, I just cannot stand to wander the town. There are so many in need of judgment that I am afraid to step outside. I sense sinister motives everywhere.”

  “There are demons everywhere,” Divina said.

  “What do you mean ‘everywhere’? I knew they were at the school, but just how many are we talking about?” I asked.

  “There are hundreds, and many hang around your hospital.”

  “And nobody notices?” I asked. Divina and Xul shared a look. “What?”

  Divina gave me a worried frown. “You didn’t realize that there are less than a hundred humans in this town? Everyone here is a supernatural creature, a wizard, from another world, or married to one of them. Stacy is fae. Mordon has been hanging out with a pack of dragons.”

  “The sheriff is a dragon,” Xul added.

  “Why didn’t anyone tell me this?!” I asked, frustrated.

  “We honestly thought you knew. You usually figure everything out before anyone else does.”

  When I just stared at her, Xul left for a moment, only to return with a Mountain Dew and a bagel. I turned my stare on the demon until he honestly looked nervous. “Maybe we should call Mordon,” he whispered.

  Divina sat beside me and took my hand in hers. “I really thought you knew.”

  “It can’t be,” I said, taking my hand back. “My patients are always human… except for Alyssa. I get plenty of wizards, but I never paid much attention to it.”

  “Well, humans are more likely to get hurt and more likely to go to the hospital when they are hurt. Besides, a lot of the families here that originated elsewhere have been here for several generations. I expect your magic would have trouble detecting it when you’re focused on healing them. If their innards are the same and work the same, what does it matter?”

  “Okay. I suppose it was my own fault; I should have been around more. I’ll push that aside for later. I want to know why demons are invading this town. We need to spy on the demons. Find out everything about them.”

  “I can do it,” Xul offered.

  “No. You’re needed to protect the boys. If anything happens, you will have whatever power you could possibly need at your disposal to protect them. Right now, that’s invaluable. Priority one is protecting the boys.”

  “I can go in as a spy,” Ghidorah volunteered. “I can disguise myself as a demon… only it would never work. Never mind. I would be unable to stop myself from judging every one of them.”

  Xul shuddered and edged away from Ghidorah, who snarled at the demon. I passed Hail into Divina’s lap and placed myself between Ghidorah and Xul. “Remember what I told you,” I warned the Guardian.

  “You don’t understand how painful it is to withhold judgment.”

  “I do. I also trust you to do so, because I promise you I make a better friend than foe.”

  “Daddy!” Ron cried. Everyone turned to him. He tried to run before he could steady himself, so Xul held him back. “Get him out of here!” he furiously gestured towards Ghidorah. Hail leapt from the couch and pushed Ghidorah away from me.

  Surprised by my son’s strength and sudden animosity, the huge Guardian stumbled against the door. Maybe I should have asked them what they saw, but their urgency spurred me to act first and ask questions later.

  “Ghidorah, just go. I’ll talk to you later.” Ghidorah nodded and turned to open the door. I pushed Hail back towards Divina and she got her arm around him just as th
e bright flash filled the room. When it cleared, my mother stood in the middle of the room and I heard the sharp growl from Ghidorah.

  She was my mother, and that was the only thought that crossed my mind as I stepped between her and Ghidorah. Unfortunately, the Guardian had begun his judgment the instant he saw her and couldn’t stop it. There was genuine shock and horror in his eyes as an agonizing pain ripped through my body.

  The boys were screaming, but a ringing drowned everything out. I could taste pain. I survived horrible agony many times in my life. Actually, I died a few times, but my heart was restarted each time. I have been burned, stabbed, and electrocuted. This felt like all of those things in one moment, all over my body. I wanted to claw my skin off, but the sting was even deeper than that. I felt like my bones were all simultaneously trying to break.

  My eyes opened of their own accord and my vision was nearly monochromatic. Everything had a weird sheen to it like it was reflecting light that wasn’t there. My arm flexed out, though I couldn’t feel it, and black fur sprouted over my skin. My fingers clinched uncontrollably as claws started to form. The first thing that occurred to me was that I had somehow got bitten by a werewolf. The second thing that occurred to me was that that was a ridiculous idea. It made much more sense that I was just losing my mind. I leaned towards the second conclusion when I squinted my eyes to find my arm back to normal.

  The only sensation other than agony was Mordon’s presence, and when the pain finally eased, I knew for sure that Mordon was with me, healing me with fire.

  “That’s better. Your temperature is coming down, your heart is slowing…” Mordon was trying to soothe me. “Can you open your eyes?”

  I did with a grunt because it hurt. Everything was a little bright and warped, but I could see in vague colors. After a few seconds, my vision slowly returned to normal. Mordon and Hail were on my right while Divina and Ron were on my left. I tried to sit up, but nausea threatened my stomach contents, so I gave up sitting.

  “Give him room,” Mordon ordered. Everyone but him backed up several steps.

  “What did you do?” I asked Ghidorah. My tone was fiercer than I had meant for it to be. The Guardian looked sicker to his stomach than I was.

  Mordon moved behind my head and lifted my shoulders slowly to help me sit up. I didn’t feel like I was about to lose my lunch this time, but I started sweating with the effort of keeping myself upright.

  “It didn’t happen like in our vision!” Hail said, astonished. Ron frowned at me as if he couldn’t understand how I was still alive.

  Ghidorah shot my mother a glare before giving me an apologetic look. It really didn’t help my confidence. Just because I was okay for the moment, didn’t mean I was out of hot water. Ron looked really worried and suspicious.

  “The woman is a spoiled, greedy snake. She demands the highest luxuries without lifting a finger for it. It was my judgment to make her learn the lessons my people live by. My judgment was to make her a beast and let her live her life without the luxuries she has learned to expect. She would have to hunt, find shelter, and fight for her life to survive.”

  “But in our vision, he struck you and you turned into a huge black cat!” Hail said. Ignoring Mordon’s earlier warning, he crawled into my lap to hug me, shaking like a leaf as he did. I hugged him back and he hid his face in my arms.

  My baby was scared. “A cat?” I asked thoughtfully. “I always thought I was more like a wolf. But hey,” I put my finger under his chin and tilted his head back to look at me. “I’m fine, see? Still your boring old dad.” Ron crawled into my lap as well and hugged me from the other side. “Are you okay with Ghidorah?” I asked Mordon.

  “He isn’t causing me to sneeze now that he has cleaned the plant matter off. However, not surprisingly, I don’t like his scent. Ghidorah is extremely powerful and, although he is very honorable, he will not hesitant to kill anyone who he deems unrepentant. His soul is abundantly bright, which I don’t understand because he’s not what I would call innocent.”

  “So why didn’t your judgment work on me?”

  “I don’t know. In almost two thousand years of being what I am, I have never missed before. I have never misjudged, either. I suspect that my judgment didn’t work on you because it was not yours; it was not meant for you.”

  “No, it is because Dylan’s power is superior to yours,” Divina told him. “I should strip you of your power for judging a Guardian.”

  “Araxi will do it himself when I return to Skrev.”

  “What will that do to you?”

  “As much as my soul is bonded to my book, my power is my soul. Therefore, it will be the same as losing the bond with my book.”

  “You would die,” I understood.

  “Yes. It is painful and usually impossible to resist judgment, and that means I can never love anyone. I see souls. I see the actions and thoughts of everyone I meet, so I can never take someone at their word. The only rule my power comes with is that I cannot judge a Guardian, as they are the protectors of their worlds. Guardians must do what they have to, to protect their world.”

  “I will have a talk with Araxi,” I said. I didn’t know Araxi as well as some of the others, but I knew he was reasonable and forgiving. He was one of the first to side with me when many of the gods wanted to kill me.

  “Dylan,” Divina warned. She often told me I was too quick to offer my assistance.

  But that’s what I did. I wasn’t a soldier, teacher, strategist, or wizard. I was a healer. I helped people. That was what I was good for and that’s what did. Mordon fought to protect me so I could help everyone I could, Divina was there for me when I needed her, and the boys were the joys of my life. I had a family to support me, not so I could be the best warrior Earth had or so I could be the best wizard.

  “I will explain to Araxi that I got in the way. I can convince him you are innocent in this, but that doesn’t mean I can convince him to spare your life. You’re not exactly the most respectful Guardian around and I think Araxi may be tired of you ignoring his orders.”

  “You must realize, Dylan, our gods picked us. That means that somewhere under his bickering and griping, Araxi must have wanted a Guardian with my disposition.”

  I looked at Divina and she shrugged. “I chose your father. The book chose you. I guess you could say that Earth chose you to defend it.”

  “But you did choose me, at least in marriage.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That I did. I will go and spy on the demons.”

  “What about my mother?”

  “I’m sure I can get one of my brothers to babysit Regina. I just haven’t decided on who; Vretial or Azenoth.”

  “Vretial is nuts. Leave her with Azenoth. You don’t think the demons can sense what you are?” I asked.

  “I kept my identity a secret from Kiro for many years until you came along. I am very good at making people believe what I want them to. The only problem I might have is the demon queen allowing another female near.”

  She told me about her trip, the conversation with Nila, and about the gate keeper of Skrev, but I felt like it was abridged. It explained why the food was missing. Then I told them what I went through the day the boys were kidnapped and glossed over the details about the fact that I stopped everyone in town.

  It only bothered me for a day before I realized what was so wrong with what happened, and it wasn’t that I stopped everyone with a mere subconscious thought. I froze everyone in the hospital, including the demons on Dios, but not Vretial and not Nila. When I touched Nila, any nominal or Iadnah energy should have been destroyed. Demon energy worked on less powerful demons, but not a void or an equally powerful god. On the other hand, since demon and void energy were the same, Nila’s blood wouldn’t negate demon energy.

  Therefore, there was only one reasonable, impossible explanation; I was using demon energy.

  * * *

  “Why do I always feel like a butler when you visit me?” Vretial asked.

&nbs
p; This was a dream; we were not actually in the Land of the Iadnah under the apple tree. I wanted to ask the god to show me what it looked like before the war, but this wasn’t the time. “I can’t imagine,” I answered.

  “What do you want this time, young Noquodi?”

  “You sound so bored. Are you tired of helping me?”

  “Of course not. I love being at your beck and call without so much as a ‘thank you’ for it. You will find that I only ever do things for my own benefit, but I had less work to do when I was your enemy. Don’t you have anyone else to ask for assistance from?”

  “I do. I just thought you might really want to help me this time. You know, a lot of people owe you a favor. How would you like for me to owe you one as well?”

  He grinned.

  * * *

  It was a quiet Saturday morning since the boys slept in. I didn’t bother with breakfast because Divina had already left to spy on the “demon movement.” I was happy Mordon was enjoying his time with the dragons since the only dragon he spent any time with was Emiko; however, it was a little unusual not having him around. Mordon and I lived on bordering territories on Duran and after I got the job on Earth, I was with him every day.

  The nurses were passing out cookies when I got to the hospital, but Ms. Manning actually brought me a homemade breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I thought it was nice of her, if not a little odd.

  It was a slow morning, which was a good morning. Saturdays were notorious around here for at-home accidents. After checking on my overnight patients, I had a boy who broke his hand when his brother “accidentally” mistook it for a nail.

  I was already heading to the nurse’s station when I was called. Ms. Manning handed me the file with a strange frown. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “It’s a waste of your time is all. We need to make it against the rules to request a certain doctor. Especially for a young girl to request a male doctor.”

  I scanned the chart, noting her name and her age. “She requested a male doctor? Where are her parents?”