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

by Rain Oxford

The demon who was currently trying to squeeze the marrow from my bones finally let me go, as if he expected me to run into my traitorous husband’s arms.

  Only, we weren’t married; I had never given him that last piece of me. I had given him my entire heart, my soul, but I haven’t said the words. Why I hadn’t told him, I didn’t know. Yes, I still loved Dylan and always would. However, there was enough love in my heart for Nano that his every word crushed me.

  “Would you still kill Dylan?”

  “I will not be the one to kill him; that would anger the gods. Instead, I can give the demons vital information about Dylan and the gods so that Nila’s father can easily kill Dylan. Dylan left you without telling you anything, whereas I found you and explained everything to you. Come with me.”

  I tried to swallow down the pain in my throat. “Go to Hell.”

  The demon grabbed my arm again, but he was expecting compliance, so when I jerked my elbow back and up, I connected solidly with his nose and felt a very satisfying crunch. Three other demons restrained me as my victim vanished.

  Nano rolled his eyes.

  “What do you want us to do with her?” one of the demons asked.

  “You can take her and leave,” Nila’s father offered. The man shrugged. “We could use your help more, but we should be able to destroy Dylan now. If you want to take this human woman and run off to safety, now is your chance.”

  There was hope in my heart as well as horror.

  The stare Nano gave me was so cold, so empty that I couldn’t breathe, but his answer left me feeling like I was punched in the gut. “Getting Dylan out of the way is more important, and his allies are our enemies. Kill her.”

  Nila started screaming insults at his uncle and thrashing against the shield around him while I just stood there, stunned. The ground suddenly shook violently and a blinding filled the room from some unknown source. When I could see again, Ghidorah stood between me and my mate. Demons scattered like cockroaches when the light turned on.

  Nila’s father grinned, but he vanished when Ghidorah honed in on him. Nano didn’t even look at Ghidorah; he just stared at me with a disappointed expression, as if I had ruined all of his grand plans. He was the last to disappear.

  “Are you okay?” Nila asked beside me. I hadn’t noticed that the shield broke down.

  How could I be okay? “Maybe that wasn’t Nano. When the gates were opening, Rilryn was possessed. No one ever found out what happened to Nano when he was missing. Maybe it’s like that.”

  “I’m sorry, Vivian, but with my power, I can detect that,” Ghidorah said. “Nano was in full control over himself.”

  The strength in my legs left and Nila barely caught me before I hit the ground. I didn’t really care. Breaking both my legs would have been a relief over the pain in my chest. He told them to kill me.

  “What happened?” Ghidorah asked.

  “She hasn’t fully recovered,” Nila told him. “Kseve and I rescued her from the slavers. They experimented on her, but I don’t know what they were trying to do or how successful they were. Also, there are slavers all over this city.”

  “I have already driven them off,” Ghidorah said, kneeling in front of me and taking my face in his hands. “You called to Tiamat, but she and Dylan were busy, so she sent me. I cannot tell what they were trying to accomplish, but I believe they have failed. There is bad news and good news, Vivian. The bad news is that whatever they did to you, it has made you barren.”

  “Don’t tell her that now! She can’t take anything else right now!”

  The Guardian ignored him. “The good news is that your soul is pure and I have not yet judged you. My magic can cure you of their damage.”

  “Wait. What if I don’t want kids?” I asked.

  “That is a choice you must make on your own. I can only be sure of this judgment the first time I see you, because otherwise something else could happen and the judgment would change. Take a moment and think very hard about this.”

  Without a flash or a sound, Sammy appeared right behind Ghidorah.

  “Mom?”

  Chapter 12

  Mordon

  “Hammocks are nice,” Sydney said, breaking the silence.

  We were in her back yard, very near the shifting field. So far away from the sleepy town and its light pollution, the stars were beautiful. It wasn’t as stunning as Shomodii’s sky, but the company in my arms more than made up for it. Sydney was cuddled closer against my chest in a hammock meant for one person and a thick blanket tied us together. It was warm, even with the fall chill on our faces, for every time the wind picked up, she snuggled tighter into my arms.

  I nodded my agreement.

  I spent Sunday evening and most of Monday with Sydney, but I couldn’t get enough of her. She could make me laugh when I was irritated and for a dragon, that was no small feat. It wasn’t like with Emiko, who I shared a passionate affection for. I could enjoy my time with Emiko for as long as I was the most powerful dragon on Duran. Sydney truly didn’t care how powerful I was… at least I hoped not.

  “I need to tell you something.”

  “Oh, god, don’t tell me you’re married,” she said with an absolute seriousness. I laughed until my stomach hurt and tried several times to speak only to crack up again. “You better not be making fun of me, buster.”

  “I wouldn’t dare.” I finally stopped laughing. “You are definitely the only woman I want.” I could really see myself starting a life with Sydney after only a few days. It didn’t matter if we lived here or on Duran. “There is a woman back on Duran, but I really don’t like her.”

  “I trust you not to cheat, Mordon. You can tell me whatever it is.”

  “I have two souls and I’m not a full dragon,” I blurted. She waited patiently with no scorn or judgment in her eyes. “There is a dragon named Rojan who is one of the oldest and most powerful dragons of Duran. He is over three thousand years. His mate and children were killed by a hunter a few days before I was born.

  “My mother died giving birth to me and I was about to die too when… my father summoned Rojan to our home. He asked Rojan to give up his life to save mine. With nothing left to live for, Rojan agreed. My mother was a seer, though, and placed an ancient spell on me. It was supposed to give me her strength when she died, but it wasn’t enough. What it did instead was bonded mine and Rojan’s souls. I am both dragon and sago. I can use my dragon and wizard abilities in person form and unlike other dragons, this is my natural form. The green dragon I can change into is Rojan.”

  She put her hand on my chest and eased into a sitting position. Of course, it meant she was sitting on my groin. “So does that mean you and Rojan have different personalities and identities?”

  “Mostly. I mean, we hear each other’s thoughts. We can both control speech and body movements at different times. Rojan is over three-thousand-years-old, while I am only thirty-two. If our ages were closer, maybe things would have been different.”

  “But I’m twenty-six. What if Rojan doesn’t like me?”

  Rojan took control, but instead of saying anything, he pulled her back down and leaned up to kiss her. She kissed back hesitantly until he released her. Rojan was careful not to shift his eyes so that he wouldn’t scare her. She looked deeply into my eyes until I was sure she could see both of us, and then she smiled.

  “Nice to finally meet you, Rojan. Is this going to work between the three of us?”

  “For you to be with us, you must love both of us,” Rojan answered. “I believed that we would never find someone… until you chased after us at that barbeque. If you can accept both of us, it will not be an unequal relationship. Mordon and I will never be jealous over each other for you, and spending time with one of us is spending time with both of us. We are both always aware.”

  I took over. “Unless one of us is sleeping. We do that sometimes,” I added.

  “That’s neat. Your purple eye is a little more vibrant when you’re in control and your blue eye is
a little darker when Rojan is,” she said. I looked back up at the stars to shield my eyes without being obvious about it, but she took my face in her hands and forced me to look at her. “I love your eyes. I think the contrast not only makes you look mysterious and sexy, but they’re also so pretty. They have to each be the prettiest color of eyes I have ever seen, so the fact that you have both is just a cherry on the cookie.”

  “I thought it was cake.”

  “I don’t like cake. I like you. And cookies, obviously.”

  “You like cookies… this will never work. I hate cookies.”

  “People hate what they fear; therefore, I can only conclude that you fear cookies. Don’t worry.” She smoothly slid up my chest to give me a small kiss on the lips. “I’ll protect you from the evil cookies.”

  “You do that. I’ll protect you from everything else.”

  She smiled and stared at me oddly, like she was deep in thought. “I feel like I’ve known you for much more than a few days.”

  I stroked my hand up her back and then combed her hair back slowly, letting each silky lock slip through my fingers. “I do, too.” I had known her for so little time, but she was exactly like Arazel.

  * * *

  Rojan taught the others an old war formation from before the dragons of Duran were hunted. Back then, others of their kind were the only threat a dragon had to fear, and so they would sometimes band together to chase off dragons that were encroaching on their territories. Dragon territories were very large and far apart, so if a dragon tried to move in between two territories, they were usually met with fierce aggression from the other dragons, who assumed the intruder would take too much land as theirs.

  That was how clans formed, which were allying groups of clutches. They were actually only allies when they faced another opponent, as they would frequently duel with each other over petty squabbles. Then arranged matings became a fashion, which complicated our culture in some aspects and simplified them in others.

  Dragons of Rojan’s day were taught the formation of their clan in case they ever had to go to war, but Rojan never taught his children the procedure. When he mated and branched off with his own clutch, they moved far away from his parents and clan. Yet for some reason, the dragons of this town were fascinated by the old Duran culture and were ecstatic to learn what Rojan tried to forget.

  I had to say, it was fun making the choreographed dives, swoops, and twirls. Rojan may have added a few special moves that his parents hadn’t taught him, but I didn’t argue. As the first one to perfect the performance, Taylor was the last one I would have expected to hit a tree. The sheriff made one wrong twitch of his wing and crashed head-first into the only tree in the field. I landed gracefully behind him and shifted.

  “What’s going on with you?” I asked. He rested on the ground in an awkward heap with one leg sticking up and a wing bent at an odd angle. It made my neck hurt just looking at him. “Shift.”

  He shifted as I instructed and climbed to his feet. “I’m okay,” he said.

  “You wouldn’t have crashed if you were okay. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I’m just distracted. There are people going missing. It was children at first, but Jeffery hasn’t come into work today. I went to his home and he wasn’t there.”

  Jeffery, his deputy, was a human who was aware he worked for a dragon. The man was pretty average as far as humans went; decent without being selfless. What I learned from Dylan about law enforcement was that too many humans that became police officers were bullies and thugs. He also said that corruption was especially rampant in small towns like this. With my dragon senses, I could safely tell Dylan that the police force and firemen here were at least respectable people.

  “Why didn’t you say anything before we went flying?” I made a motion with my arms that the Rojan had taught them. Every dragon landed and waited for further instruction. Sydney instantly came to my side and wrapped her arms around mine.

  A blunder on my account, because now I had a terribly beautiful and naked dragoness expecting me to talk when I suddenly had trouble remembering to breathe. If this is what Dylan feels all the time, it’s a wonder he gets anything done ever.

  Children are missing, Rojan reminded me.

  “Do you have any leads?” I asked.

  Taylor shook his head. “All I know is that demons took him, which is why I haven’t sent for outside help.”

  “Dylan will know. He always knows these kinds of things. Taylor, you need to drive us to my apartment. The rest of you, be ready. We don’t want any casualties, so hold off until we know what we’re up against.”

  “I can come with you, right?” Sydney asked.

  My first instinct was to tell her no; that I wouldn’t let her anywhere near the danger. Rojan stopped me from saying it, however. The safest place for her is right between us and Dylan. Even if we’re in the middle of battle, we can protect her. If we leave her behind…

  Rojan’s mate was killed while he wasn’t there to protect her, so of course he would want to keep Sydney close. “Yes, you can come, but you have to stay with me.”

  “Where’s the superglue?”

  Sydney was in no way submissive, but she certainly didn’t give me the trouble Emiko did. Emiko was pretty and would make the perfect queen in my father’s eyes. In fact, had she been sago, my father would have married me to her before I was twenty-two. Luckily my father hated dragons as much as he hated the common man. Of course, since I ran from the throne and discovered Rojan, it made sense to me why my father always seemed to despise me; I was both a dragon and a common man.

  Taylor dressed in the time it took Sydney and me to find our clothes, after which we piled into Taylor’s SUV and headed over the mountain to town. Sydney distracted me through most of the trip because she had a surprisingly difficult time getting dressed. Then she made it difficult for me to get dressed, since I couldn’t pull my shirt on while kissing her. It definitely didn’t help that she pulled it back off twice.

  “Dylan? You have to leave work,” I said when we finally settled down.

  “I’ll let the nurses know now,” he answered.

  He didn’t even ask why, he just instantly agreed. Taylor drove quickly so we made it to the hospital in less time than I had expected. On the way to pick Dylan up, I explained everything to him so he was ready and waiting outside for us when we arrived. I opened the back door and he slid in.

  “Hello, Sydney,” he said. “I guess you were out flying.”

  “Oh, shit,” she cursed. The dragoness had put her blouse on inside out, so she quickly whipped it back off. Dylan didn’t bat an eye as she fixed her clothes.

  “I assume you know where to find the missing people?”

  “Divina told me about the demons having a warehouse. If your guy’s been abducted by demons, they should be there.” He gave directions to Taylor.

  “If there are demons kidnapping people, shouldn’t we check on the boys?” I asked.

  “Zeb is watching them. They should be getting out of school any minute now, anyway. Zeb will take them home and keep them out of trouble. We don’t want to draw any attention to them if we can help it. Besides, Ron and Hail would want to help us. Here, in case anyone needs to shift.” He handed me a backpack full of spare clothes. “I remembered to grab this out of my locker.”

  We pulled up at the warehouse where three demons guarded the entrance and didn’t even wait for the guards to advance. Each of us exited the car and stood side-by-side while the demons assessed us. Finally, they all saw Dylan at once and froze. They were not exactly impressive figures; they were skinny, dressed in black leather, and had grease slicking their hair back.

  “So, we meet again,” Dylan said with a cruel lilt to his voice. Sydney looked at him with shock. “Nice vampire coven you have here. Won’t you invite us in?”

  “They’re demons,” I corrected him privately.

  “No shit. More specifically, they are the demons who introduced themselves as v
ampires to me earlier.”

  “So they weren’t vampires?”

  “Of course not, that would be silly; everyone knows vampires don’t exist,” he said aloud.

  “Then why did they say they were vampires?”

  “Think about it,” Xul said, appearing between us and our opponents. Taylor snarled, but the demon ignored him. “They are afraid of Dylan. For some reason, they must have believed they were safer pretending to be vampires than they were if you knew they are demons. You have a reputation in the spirit world; they may fear that if you know who they are, you would just send them straight back.”

  Sydney turned away from him as if she wanted to run back to the car. I didn’t know what history they had together, but I really hoped it wasn’t an affectionate affair. Although I wanted to know everything about her, I couldn’t bear to hear that she loved someone else… so I would never ask. If she gives me a chance, I will give her every ounce of love I can manage until she can’t see anything else.

  “That’s sweet, but this isn’t the time.”

  “Get out of my head,” I said to my brother. I should have been irritated or embarrassed, but I wasn’t.

  “I totally approve of your relationship with Sydney. Kick Emiko to the curb.”

  “I don’t want your approval; I can choose for myself.”

  “What are you doing here?” Dylan asked the Ancient.

  “The boys didn’t go to their last class. They’re missing.”

  Dylan’s expression didn’t show his anger, but the energy that pulsed from him was furious. Rojan’s roar was from Dylan’s rage, not his own. Every single demon near as well as Taylor and Sydney collapsed in pain from the Iadnah energy.

  I fought against Rojan’s instincts and turned Dylan’s face to look at me. I focused on my breathing and pushed the calmest thoughts I could. There were many times Rojan spent napping in a flower garden, which was the most peaceful memory I could recall. “We’ll find them. Dylan, you need to calm down. Use your head.”

  “I’ll kill them all if they hurt by babies.”