by Rain Oxford
I wasn’t used to all the people. Despite growing up in Houston, Texas, I spent thirteen years living in Shomodii, where the closest neighbors were Mordon at half an hour and Edward at an hour away. I was lucky I still knew how to drive. Because of this, Mordon found me on the couch in the living room instead of outside.
He sat beside me with a sigh and put his feet up on the coffee table. “Ron will kill you,” I said. Ron had spent a good five minutes polishing the table before whining that the polish was seeping through his gloves.
He smirked. “I’m not a prince anymore; I can do what I want.”
There was no reason to ask if he regretted running from the throne. My friend loved his life. He loved being able to choose what he did, where he went, and who he married. I leaned against him and his dragon fire instantly came alive. I felt the heat in my blood, interacting with my energy as it healed my headache.
“I’m used to the crowd. You wouldn’t believe how many formal dinners I had to attend. This is nice.”
“It’s nice to see so many people pull together. This town is like one big family, which makes me really miss… Earth.”
“I thought that’s why we came here in the first place.”
“I missed humans, cars, and my cat, Dorian. I thought it was all the material things that I missed so much, like soda and cartoons, but now… I think I just wanted to meet people who couldn’t sense my power. And I wanted the boys to get to experience it. I don’t know. I think I love it here, but…”
“You’re not ready to settle down. Since the day you first left Earth, you were a Guardian. Home was a little cabin with your family. Everything else was work, so since you’re not in a little cabin on Shomodii, you feel like you’re here to work. Give it time; things will settle down.”
“What about you? This isn’t even your home world.”
“You’re my brother. Earth is my home as much as Duran is yours. I’ll go wherever you need to be. Everything else is secondary.”
I knew that. With everything in my soul, I knew Mordon was permanent. Divina could change her mind about me because, although she loved me, she was a goddess. My boys were going to grow up and live on another world, Shinobu would eventually die from old age, and Edward could drift away. All of that hurt… but Mordon couldn’t leave. It would be him and me until the end. I remembered the day we met. Oh, it had been coming since the moment he was born.
If I hadn’t snuck out of the room, if the sleeping draft he used on his father had worked better, if we hadn’t gotten on that particular ship… we would have met some other way. We were both kids then and we didn’t understand.
And if it weren’t for Vretial, he would never have been born.
“We owe him,” Mordon said, thinking the same as me. I nodded.
“That dragon from earlier… the one who didn’t say anything and just hung back, who is he?” Mordon got up and I followed after him outside, where he led me to the dragon who was sitting in a lawn chair by a tree, watching everyone with a scowl. The man was scruffy looking as if he didn’t care about his appearance.
“This is Marco. He’s a surly bastard, so don’t mind anything he says,” Mordon said when we got within hearing distance of the dragon. Even from a distance I could tell the stranger was broken, for the anger in his eyes masked something much deeper. Where there was anger, there was pain. He glared at us and got up to leave.
Perhaps it was instinct that caused me to reach out and take his arm. The instant I touched him, my energy soared and he had enough time to gasp before Mordon shoved him harshly away from me. The man’s skin changed, I heard the bones inside him crack, and his scream was horrifying, but as I tried to get to him, Mordon held me back.
Taylor kneeled beside Marco, who writhed on the ground. Everyone else just stared as Marco changed very slowly into a black dragon almost identical to Krayer. He even had a spiked tail.
The dragon panted on the grounds as if lifting his head was too much work and Taylor just soothed him with quiet words. Mordon finally let me go and I went to the dragon. A split second of scanning him with my magic told me he was absolutely fine. When I turned my back on the dragon to face Mordon, I assumed it was safe. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a two-ton dragon crouched over me. I rolled over onto my back to see that the dragon’s face was two inches from mine.
He roared in my face until my ears rang and then reared up on his hind legs, only to stomp his feet back down less than a foot away on either side of me. The wind was shocking and the ringing in my ears was painful. The dragon then took off with one flap of his wings. Mordon held out his hand to help me up.
“Since when do you let a dragon have at me?” I asked as he pulled me to my feet.
“He wasn’t trying to hurt you; he was thanking you. I thought you spoke dragon.”
“Yeah, that spell faded years ago. I understand you when you speak, but it takes magic to understand others. Are you going to tell me what happened? I assume that he had some sort of affliction that caused him to be unable to shift. When I touched him, my magic healed it and he shifted.”
“I think that covers it.”
“I’m glad you understand what just happened. Can you explain it to me now?” Jack asked.
“I am sure glad saving your life wasn’t part of our contract,” Xul said, finally returning just in time to see the action.
“Zeb?”
Absolute shock came over Xul as he turned to see Sydney. The dragoness was no less astounded to see the demon, right before she turned and ran out the back gate. It was apparent by Xul’s devastated expression that he desperately wanted to go after her, but he remained where he was.
“You know her?” Mordon asked incredulously.
“She lived in California before she moved here, but no, I don’t think I know her at all.”
Chapter 9
Xul
Five years ago
Lost on the streets of Anoshii, I was cold and hungry. I also was clumsy for the first few days of my newfound mortality. Discovering sleep was actually a pleasant experience; a way to pass time without realizing it. Though I thought my dreams were real at first, it was better than being awake constantly. The pain, lightheadedness, and weakness was not pleasant. I really thought I was sick and dying until I found someone’s leftover lunch and ate it.
I didn’t know Sudo and didn’t have my normal power. I knew right from the start that stealing food was the only way to survive, but I also had to go without hurting anyone, because it would break my contract. Perhaps I was fortunate that, even starving, I had the sense not to unbury trash to eat. At this point, stealing food was a challenge, but I was a fast learner.
About fifteen days into my sentence, I believed Dylan would discover my thieving and destroy me. By then, I didn’t care. From the most powerful of all demons, I was now the lowest of the mortal caste. I had nothing but the clothes on my back, including a cloak I stole, and a jar to collect rainwater in.
Despite all of this, I was hardly humbled and there was nothing about me worth compassion. I learned to be good at skirting the boundaries of my deal. Instead of causing havoc, I would simply look for it and enjoy the show. Instead of finding food nobody would miss, I became creative in my methods to steal only the best. I would not rest in abandoned building, but instead break into comfortable homes and enjoy the thrill of nearly getting caught.
I was on the move to rob a particularly wealthy woman after several days of careful observation when a man blocked my path. He was not a large man, but then, neither was I. In fact, he was very unmemorable. If not for the kindness in his light brown eyes, I would have pushed him aside.
“You look hungry,” he commented. I started to walk away when I realized that I actually understood his words. He held out a fruit I wasn’t familiar with; round, red, and smooth. I assumed it was a Duran food. “Have an apple.”
“Who are you?” I asked, not taking the food. Sago were not stingy people, but none had ever o
ffered me anything for free.
“Just someone who wants to help you. I can see that you are lost and cannot find what you need here. If you will accept my assistance, I can send you somewhere where you will have a better chance. Earth is a much easier world for someone like you to survive on.”
I believed him, for I found humans to be easier to kill than any other people. “Only the gods can transport people to other worlds.”
“So little faith. Trust me. What do you have to lose? Let me help you.”
“Why?”
“Because I like to help people.”
I had the power of a mortal, but I had no idea how to use it, so I couldn’t use those abilities to help me distinguish between honesty and manipulation. “And you don’t want money? What do you get out of this?”
“Let’s just say you will owe me a favor someday. That is, if we ever run into each other again.”
He held the apple further out and I took it, hesitantly. When my stomach grumbled angrily, I bit into the fruit, surprised by its firmness.
“Remember this, demon; never have anything you cannot bear to lose.”
* * *
I sat up, confused by the blaring noise. It was rather horrifying. One moment, I was talking to a strange man on the streets of Anoshii, and the next, I was lying on a hard surface, being glared at by a metal beast. I recognized it as a machine for transportation, but the two lights on the front of it were blinding, and seemed as if they were eyes.
“Oh my god, I almost hit you!” A woman ran to my side and kneeled. She gripped my face and patted my head in an intimate way, as if she had the right. “Are you okay?” she asked me.
I wondered how I could understand her words without magic. She was not offensive in appearance, but her dark brown hair and dark green eyes made her unremarkable. I was used to seeing a person’s power. Dylan, his dragon, his children, his mate… they were all distinguishable by their power. Without the ability to detect such, every single mortal looked nearly identical to me.
Still, her voice was pleasant, but that was possibly because of the note of panic in her tone. That breathless, shaky panic, as if she could barely force the air from her lungs… The way her hands shook as she tried to find any wounds on my scalp… I really liked it.
“Okay. You’re unresponsive, so I’m going to call an ambulance. Can you tell me your name?”
I didn’t know what an ambulance was, but I didn’t like where this was going. The few times I had possessed humans, I was trying to suppress their memories. Had I known I would someday be stranded on Earth, I would have been using them to get all the information I could have.
When the woman pulled out a small, black object of plastic and glass, it was instinct to reach out and take it from her. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t like it.
Instead of taking it back forcefully as I had expected her to do, she let it go. “I need to use that to call an ambulance. You might have a concussion or something. Do you know where you are?”
“Earth,” I managed.
“I mean, do you know what happened? You’re lying in the middle of the street.”
Does it matter where I am? Is the street significant? “You need not call an ambulance.” My head was throbbing painfully so I found it difficult to get my feet under me. I managed, but not without assistance. How disgusting, to be abetted by a mere mortal.
“At least let me help you until you can tell me what happened.”
Without waiting for my approval, she wrapped her arm around me, under my arms, and forced me into a small yard. I considered dismissing her and her aid up until the point where she helped me up the steps, at which time I realized I was in no condition to last the night alone.
Once inside the warm house, she sat me on a comfortable suede couch and adjusted my feet on the low table before it. She looked so pleased at her work that I wanted to put my feet down, but I couldn’t spare the energy.
“I’m Sydney,” she said.
I didn’t ask her name, nor did I care, but I ignored her instead of pointing it out. So far, it was my assessment that humans talked too much. Perhaps silence made them feel awkward. My stomach growled and I realized I never ate more than a bite of the apple. “I am hungry,” I said.
“I’ll get you something.” Obediently, she left the room.
It was a decent place, but not as lavish as some of the homes that I stayed in. The soft, tan padding on the floor was odd, though I had seen it while hunting Samhail. The suede couch was plush, dark brown, and matched the two chairs across from the low, wide, wooden table. Dark wooden walls made the room appear smaller, but more pleasant than the white walls I have seen on this world. There were three doors from this room, one of which I already knew as the exit.
Sydney returned with a plate of food and a strange, metal container. The food was a noodle dish with a thick red sauce. I prodded it with the provided fork experimentally. I didn’t care for noodles; I preferred meat.
“You don’t like spaghetti? I haven’t been to the store so all I have is leftovers.”
I considered explaining to her that I would not eat leftovers and demand that she buy me better quality food, but I was starving. Instead of answering her, I gathered the noodles onto the fork and tried it.
Yuck. It was spicy and acidic in an odd way. Still, as I started to put my fork down, I found myself eating more. Hunger was causing me to act like a plebian.
“I’m thirsty,” I finally said, only after I had eaten most of the food.
She frowned as if confused, to which I barely contained my snarl. When she took the metal can and pulled up a tab on the top, I growled as the can hissed. The scent was instantaneous, so I took the small container from her, raised it, and sniffed the new hole. It smelled cold and sweet, not like any water or juice I had tried.
“I take it you’ve never seen a can of soda before.” She moved slowly, as if afraid I would bite her, to place her hands upon mine. With a gentle grip, she encouraged my hand until my mouth was on the can. “Seal the hole with your mouth and tilt it back.”
I did as she instructed and was startled as a cold liquid poured into my mouth. It wasn’t the mechanism that was alien to me but the sweetness and bite of the drink. After a few sips, I felt an odd fizz that caused me to cough. Respectfully, Sydney took my plate and left me to finish the drink in private. She returned soon with more spaghetti.
It occurred to me to act appreciative of the woman for feeding me, though I didn’t trust her kindness. “Thank you,” I said, taking the plate from her. Her soft smile made me regret my decision.
“Will you tell me how you ended up on the street?”
“No,” I answered.
She sat in the chair across from me. “In that case, I believe you should eat quickly and leave. I was going to work when you appeared in front of my car.”
She was dismissing me, but I understood the concept of having a prior commitment. “You can go to your work,” I said patiently. Sydney raised her eyebrows, which was something I didn’t realized humans could do. It was irritating.
“And leave you here in my home alone? Where the hell do you come from? I don’t let strangers stay in my house.”
“Zeb.”
“Um… what?” she asked.
“My name. You asked for my name.” Of course I couldn’t give her the name Dylan gave me, as only he could share the name that held power over me. Zeb was the name of the last human I killed right before I left Earth, hunting for Samhail. It seemed fitting. “Zeb Carter.”
She sighed and rubbed her face, then stood. “I’m going to be late for my meeting if I don’t leave now. There is more food in the fridge. Just don’t break anything and lock the door when you leave.”
She walked out the exit and shut the door hard behind her. So then… a name was all she wanted. Interesting.
I finished off my food and repositioned myself until I was stretched out on the couch comfortably. It wasn’t a bed, but it would do for t
he night.
* * *
The slamming of a door and clunking of metal hitting the floor was an awful way to be awoken. I came awake with a start, sitting up and scanning my surroundings instantly. I was in the apartment, it was night, and Sydney was at the door. Ignoring me, she stomped into the other room. I followed into a large kitchen.
The kitchen was the epitome of cheery, which was revolting to say the least. The walls were some weird color between yellow and orange. Disrupting the rectangular room was a rounded nook of windows in the east wall with a white cushioned bench seat along the alcove. On the windows were curtains more yellow than anything I have ever seen, complete with blue flowers. The kitchen had the general furniture that I knew human houses had, including a fridge, a microwave, a sink, and a counter. Boring, really.
What I did find interesting was Sydney chugging a drink from a glass bottle. Though my knowledge of humans was limited, hard liquor had not escaped my attention. People were always more interesting when they drank the stuff. Some drank it because they were happy, some because they were sad, but the consequences were always amusing, and especially so if they were drinking for a strong reason.
Sydney was furious.
“What happened?” I asked, assuming this wasn’t a usual occurrence.
She slammed the bottle down and turned away from me. “Don’t get involved, Zeb. You don’t want the trouble.”
“Oh, but I love trouble. I have a chance at life now and I plan to get in as much trouble as possible. After all, what is life without conflict? So tell me.”
“I hate this city. I hate people who can’t keep their end of a deal.”
That I could definitely understand.
“I got to my meeting and the guy was an hour late. No call or anything, just an, ‘Oh, I forgot.’ And he didn’t even have all the damn money. I had to wait until the ass went to the bank and by then it was too late to drop off the order. Then on the way home, I was nearly mugged!”