Worth Your While

by Connie Suttle

"I can do this," Gemma offered, lowering the hand towel. "I ah, needed to borrow one of them—that's why I came here in the first place. Chet beat me to the box."

  I forced myself not to stare at the deep scars on her face. This was what she'd been hiding all along. "Oh, honey," I said, heading for the bathroom where I'd hidden the box of tampons. "Take as many as you need. I'll clean this up."

  At least the box was still intact, as were more than a dozen tampons on the bathroom floor. Scooping those up, I handed them to Gemma. "If you need more, let me know."

  "Thanks. The grocery order won't come until tomorrow, and it sorta couldn't wait."

  I lifted the large box that Chet had opened, and felt the weight of the pyramid inside it—except now it felt heavier than it had before. Gemma turned to leave.

  A flash of understanding came the moment I reached inside the box to check on the pyramid itself.

  Themselves, I corrected myself.

  "Gemma?" I called out to her.

  "Is there something else?" She came back to ask.

  "Who attacked you? It was Doyle Hicks, wasn't it?"

  Her face blanched at the mention of his name. "After you take care of business, I'll get you set up with Doc Chalmers," I told her. "He's in the proper mood to help you, I think."

  "But," she began.

  "No—you need this. So does he, okay? They just buried his assistant, and he needs to help somebody. By the way, Jinx Hicks, Doyle's brother, is the one who killed Doctor Chalmers' assistant. Jinx is dead, too, if nobody thought to tell you. I think I can guarantee that you'll never hear from Doyle or anyone connected to him ever again."

  "I try not to watch the news," she whispered.

  "Go take care of yourself. I'll let Doctor Chalmers know you're seeing him this afternoon."

  "Thank you."

  After she left the suite, I carefully pulled out four, perfectly-formed pyramids from the tampon box. I found I could read all of them.

  Because they all had my name written in runes at their tops.

  It took you long enough to check on your pyramid, the voice I didn't recognize teased.

  Who are you? I demanded.

  Somebody who will be there to help you tonight. I'll bring a couple of friends with me—you need us.

  No—I refuse to accept that. I need your name.

  All right. Denevik Lith, dear lady. High Demon, at your service.

  If the pyramids hadn't started humming gently, urging me to accept the offered help, I'd have spent the rest of the day fretting. Something was definitely going on, and we were in more danger than we realized.

  Parke

  "Everything ready to go for tonight?" I pulled up an empty lawn chair beside Cliff's. I'd found him on the back porch with Doctor Chalmers. Both were talking and having glasses of sweet tea.

  "Yeah. Just the waiting is all that's left," Cliff drawled.

  "Have you seen Cassie?" I was considering asking her to spend some time with me, but wasn't sure it was a good idea. We hadn't had sex even once since she'd returned from the dead.

  I guess we were both different people, now, and I wasn't sure how to explain that.

  "Chet made a mess of some kind," Cliff said. "Gemma came to tell Cassie and both left in a hurry."

  "Must be upstairs, then," I said.

  "Want something to drink? We have more tea, beer and soda in the cooler."

  "I'll take a soda. Beer sounds good, but I need to stay sharp."

  "My thoughts exactly."

  Cassie

  Once I had everything picked up and tossed in the trash, I studied the four pyramids on the counter in the bathroom. Chet walked back in, wound himself around my legs and purred loudly.

  As if he were proud of himself.

  We're having a meeting, the one who called himself Denevik Lith informed me. We need your input.

  Right. Where and when?

  When is now. I tried to shriek—the sound never left my mouth, I was transported away so quickly. Instead, I made an embarrassing squeak after landing inside a room with a large table—where several people sat, waiting.

  Beside me, someone stood.

  Someone nine feet tall.

  And blue.

  "I am Zarigar," he informed me with a brilliant smile. "Welcome to BlackWing X."

  Dalton King

  I'd changed my mind about leaving—my curiosity was unsatisfied regarding Ver'Dak and what he wanted. Attaching myself as the thinnest sheet of ice on the ceiling, I turned back to follow him.

  Therefore, I heard quite clearly what his intentions were regarding demons, Shakkor Agdah and every other creature roaming the planet.

  Cage fights? That didn't sound good in any vocabulary. Where was the money and power we'd been promised by Ruudann? These fools sounded as if they wanted to subjugate all of us, Shakkor Agdah included.

  Fuck that.

  As for demon killers and slaves in the military who were set to kill those opposing Ver'Dak? I wasn't giving the Chancellor's odds of survival much thought, because even he and his fire demon couldn't stand against that.

  Where the hell had these armored pigs come from? I was beginning to think that the Earth I knew wasn't the only inhabited planet after all. Fuck you, Ruudann, I cursed silently. Fuck you and all your lies.

  Cassie

  Too much information swam in my head, so much so that I almost felt dizzy from it.

  "You need something to eat," the man sitting beside me said. "I'm Denevik Lith, by the way."

  "You said you were High Demon," I frowned at him. "I've never heard of that before."

  "They're not local." One of a set of identical Asian twins peered around Denevik with a grin.

  "Trent, stop scaring her," Denevik snorted.

  Wait, was that smoke coming from his nostrils? Holy cow patties.

  "Come on, I'll take you to the galley," Denevik took my elbow, ignoring the one he'd called Trent.

  "Did you just breathe smoke?" I asked, feeling stunned. I'd breathed smoke once, but it was around the time I was fire demon, so I hadn't thought much about it.

  "It's something that happens when they're annoyed," the second Asian twin informed me. "Don't worry—nothing he can do will harm you—we've all seen the vids of your recent exploits."

  "What do you do?" I asked.

  "I turn Thifilathi. Full Thifilathi is seventeen feet, in your measurements. Smaller Thifilathi is around seven or eight feet."

  "You have two forms?"

  "As do you, if I understand correctly. Mine look the same, only the size is different. Yours are quite different, or so Zarigar says."

  "Is Zarigar—uh," I hesitated.

  "He is Larentii. He is the reason we were able to come here—to Earth IV. Earth III is on our plane of existence, so we needed Zarigar's abilities to make the transfer into another universe."

  "Uh, I think I'm into information overload, now," I confessed.

  "You'll feel better when you eat something. Come on, I'll skip us to the galley."

  Whatever he did got us to the galley right away, and felt similar to my new talent of teleportation. When I gazed out the windows along one side of the galley, I realized why the dining room and kitchen area was called a galley.

  We were aboard a ship, and far in the distance, I could see the Earth below us. "The sun will be setting on your part of the planet very soon," Denevik said.

  "I have to get back," I began.

  "We have Zarigar. He can bend time if it's necessary. I hope you like steak—it's on the menu and fresh-cooked to your specifications."

  He took me to a small table and pulled out a chair for me. "How do you like your steak? I'll order for both of us."

  "Uh, medium rare, please."

  "Coming right up."

  He was back in a few minutes, with two plates of food. Our steaks were still sizzling when he set them down. "Save room for dessert—we have gishi fruit and you don't want to miss that."

  My steak was perfectly done, and t
asted wonderful, as did the vegetables that came with it. But nothing I'd ever eaten before compared to the gishi fruit. It was heaven from a tree.

  "Gishi trees are the most expensive trees in either Alliance," Denevik informed me after we'd finished. "They only grow in certain climates and in specific soils. Only two worlds can grow gishi fruit like this."

  "So, you've been hunting this—Krelk—is that right? For how long?"

  "We've been after him for over a year. He showed up after we managed to save Earth III from his brother. We almost had him, too, until he disappeared. Zarigar's mother was the one to suggest that we search the planets in this pod, which are in six different universes."

  There was something he was holding back, but I let it go for the moment. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this," I confessed. "Will said something about Earth III and below, but I didn't really understand what he was saying."

  "Zarigar will have to answer your questions about the wizards you're referring to. He says they're an unusual lot and born for a specific purpose."

  "Their purpose is to blow up fire demons, because they can't contain Shakkor Agdah any other way," I grumped.

  "That wasn't always true," Zarigar appeared as if called and shortened himself to sit with us. "Once, the wizards who came from Earth VI were powerful enough to keep their more mundane brothers in check. As those wizards were killed or destroyed themselves because they became tired of living, their power dwindled. Only a few centuries ago did they discover that they could no longer battle the traitors who'd traveled from V to IV. VI and V are completely devoid of life; I don't believe the wizard has told you that, yet," he added.

  "Shakkor Agdah destroyed those worlds?" I blinked at the blue-skinned man.

  "Yes. With enough of them going unchecked, the wizards were outnumbered. When they crossed the world bridge from V to IV, they knew something needed to be done. Shakkor Agdah hold a power of their own, and wielded together, they can become quite destructive. That's why the pyramids were built."

  "The Egyptian ones, or the smaller ones in my bathroom?"

  "The smaller ones came first," Zarigar smiled. "The larger ones may have been built as a reference to the others, as they held a great deal of power. The last of the most powerful wizards from Earth VI placed their power inside all four pyramids, leaving their bodies behind as dead husks. Immediately, the pyramids worked to hold the power held by Shakkor Agdah at bay. All was well for a while, until Shakkor Agdah learned of their existence and began to hunt them."

  "One was destroyed, and maybe a second one, too. A third was damaged. Now they're all whole and sitting on my bathroom sink. With my name on them," I frowned at Zarigar.

  "Because things have changed. You have changed. My mother says you are the key, now, and the power that resides in the pyramids know this. She only had to Change What Was a little, to bring everything back to where it should be."

  "Which is?"

  "You've heard already that Ver'Dak has taken prisoners from the military and turned them into his slaves. They also have weapons that none on your world can combat. That's why the crew of this ship will do battle beside you tonight. We have the same kind of weapons, and Ver'Dak won't be expecting us."

  "We need your help to convince those who stand with you to accept our help when it comes. The Shakkor Agdah who asked for the meeting are fleeing for their lives. We ask that you honor their courage in coming to you and offer asylum. They can be quite useful to you in the coming days, I think."

  "You say that Ver'Dak is the enemy. What does he want with us and Shakkor Agdah?"

  "He wanted Shakkor Agdah to destroy the human population, leaving only demons, shifters and such. Shakkor Agdah were mere tools to accomplish this much of the plan for him, so we wouldn't be alerted to his hand in this. He intends to take demons and large shifters for the Krelk version of cage fights, where opponents are required to fight to the death. What the wizards began by destroying fire demons, was taken as a viable solution to removing the only known threat to Shakkor Agdah and to Ver'Dak's army."

  "Without you, all the demons you know could end up in Ver'Dak's cages, waiting for their death match while Krelk bet on which one will survive," Denevik snorted. "Socially, they're still in the dark ages, as you'd say. Technologically, they're far advanced, thanks to interference from others who only wished to cause chaos and death.

  "It's like giving a caveman a machine gun," Denevik sighed. "No good will come of that, you can be sure."

  "How many of Ver'Dak's troops are we facing—Black Myth and Krelk?" I asked.

  "A conservative estimate is ten thousand," Denevik replied. "Plus they'll have tanks, helicopters and who knows what else. We're trying to get a message to someone in your Pentagon about those who've been conscripted by Ver'Dak, but they may not pay attention until it's too late."

  "Trey can get to them," I breathed. Why don't you come back with me? Don't we need to coordinate?'

  "We do. What we need to know is whether your friends will accept us, or if other methods will be needed to insure their cooperation."

  "I'll make sure they understand," I said.

  "Good enough. I'll bend time to deliver the crew to your home," Zarigar said. "Be safe. This is a very real battle, and none can predict the outcome."

  Parke

  "Parke?" Cassie appeared before me as if called, shortly after I'd asked Cliff if he'd seen her.

  "What is it?" I stood, puzzled by the expression on her face.

  "We're going to need allies for tonight," she said. "I found out what has changed in the dynamic. It isn't just Shakkor Agdah, anymore. If it were only them, I think we could take them on ourselves."

  "What's changed? Who's in this with them?" Cliff stood, then, sounding worried.

  "The ones who gave Black Myth the demon killers. The ones who convinced them that killing all humans was a good idea. The same ones who think that sticking demons in cages so they can fight to the death is fun to watch."

  "What the hell are you talking about?" I demanded.

  "Cassie, what do you know?" Cliff waved off my annoyance.

  "A lot more than I did. I know that if we don't have help, we'll lose this fight. That's what I know."

  "Who will help us? Even the military won't get involved without a lot of red tape, and time is running out," I complained.

  "The other side already has some of the military on their side," Cassie snapped at me. "They're nothing but slaves, now, and their tanks and helicopters will be fitted with bigger, more powerful versions of demon killers. There's a new despot in town, Parke, and he's way more dangerous that Shakkor Agdah ever was."

  "You know somebody who can help us?" Cliff asked her.

  "I do, but I have to have reassurances that we'll cooperate with them. They don't have time to make nice and be sure everybody has a feel-good session. They need to tell you what they know, and when Trey wakes, he needs to tell Director Logan about the theft of military vehicles and personnel. We're running out of time, and this requires a joint effort."

  "Who are they?" Cliff asked. I let him talk, because everything I said appeared to upset Cassie.

  "Friends." I stepped backward when three dozen people appeared behind the house at Cassie's announcement. The tallest was nine feet and blue. The rest looked human enough, but could be anything, I realized, when one of them became a dark, scaled creature with wings and curved horns. He snorted smoke with his breath while his eyes, with flames at their depths, narrowed in my direction. Arms crossed over his chest as he studied me, then snorted another cloud of smoke that obscured his image for a few moments.

  What the fuck was he?

  Chapter 17

  Cassie

  "You won't believe what's on the front lawn," Daniel burst through the French doors, followed by Jerry and Pete. The three of them skidded to a stop when they saw what was on the back lawn.

  Or in this case, who.

  "What's on the front lawn?" Parke asked, the anger in his vo
ice barely controlled.

  "Stuff from sci-fi movies," Daniel sounded out of breath.

  "Most of the stuff in sci-fi movies doesn't work," a tall, dark-haired man stepped forward. "What's on the front lawn does."

  "He's a wolf," Cliff turned toward me with wonder in his eyes.

  "I'm William Winkler—originally from Texas on Earth III," he introduced himself. "Zaria figured you people might need some help in the diplomacy department, so here I am."

  "Who is Zaria?" Parke asked, still sounding as if he were about to go rock demon and smash a few things.

  "My mother," Zarigar replied. "One will refrain from insulting her, or any other of my kin."

  "Texas, eh?" Cliff stepped forward and offered his hand to Mr. Winkler.

  "Yep." They shook; Cliff asked Winkler if he wanted tea, soda or a beer. Winkler grinned and accepted a beer.

  "This is Denevik Lith, a High Demon," I introduced Denevik, the one who'd changed and now glared at Parke. "This is Captain Travis and his brother Captain Trent," I went on. "Denevik, will you introduce the others? I don't know all the names."

  That required Denevik to change his appearance so he looked human again, but he did so, then dipped his head in my direction before pointing out his companions and naming all of them.

  Even I drew in a breath when Denevik introduced Darzi, the lion snake shapeshifter. I'd never met a snake shifter before.

  "I bite, even Shakkor Agdah die," Darzi informed us.

  "That sounds useful," Jerry mumbled.

  "We'd like to coordinate tonight's battle with you," Travis said. "With your permission, Chancellor."

  "What the hell," Parke flung out a hand. What have you gotten us into? he growled at me in mindspeak.

  We're outnumbered. We need the help. When you hear about Ver'Dak, you're gonna want the help, too.

  "Come inside," Parke snapped. "Tell me what you think I should know."

  Will, Yosuke and the sprites joined us for the meeting. If I hadn't been worried that Parke wouldn't be civil or mind his manners, I'd have sneaked out for a few minutes of calm before rejoining the group.