by Nikki Frank
Table of Contents
THE DEMON LORD
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
THE DEMON LORD
Borderland Legacy Book One
NIKKI FRANK
SOUL MATE PUBLISHING
New York
THE DEMON LORD
Copyright©2018
NIKKI FRANK
Cover Design by Fiona Jayde
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Published in the United States of America by
Soul Mate Publishing
P.O. Box 24
Macedon, New York, 14502
ISBN: 978-1-68291-636-0
www.SoulMatePublishing.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
For Brewer and Briley who keep me young.
Acknowledgements
Much love and gratitude for my husband, Richard Walker, without whom my characters would be snarkless and demure. Thank you for believing in me and my writing, even when my own faith flickered. You listened and read and gave me time to work in peace, a rare commodity with small children. I couldn’t have done this without you.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my mentor, fellow writer, William Greenleaf. You found me at my rawest as a writer and still saw my potential. For taking me under your wing and teaching me, you have my thanks. Your advice and friendship has meant so much to me.
My heartfelt thanks to my faithful beta readers and critique partners. Foremost to Joan Walker for hours spent reading and hashing out details. Your insights and unfailing support has been invaluable. I’m honored to have you in my life.
Thank you to all my friends and family who rallied around me as I undertook the adventure of becoming a published author. My parents and siblings, who love me unconditionally. My sister-in-law, who has never read a book, but will read mine. My nephews and nieces who think it’s cool that I write. That’s high praise from teenagers. Nicole, Heather, and Joy, busy moms who are never too busy to offer a hand, an ear, or a shoulder. You have waited years, sharing my joys and anxiousness. I’m so happy you’ve all stuck around on my journey, and I hope to continue on this path with you for many years to come.
Of course, my editor, Cheryl Yeko, for picking up both me and this story and dusting us both off. Thank you for helping us shine. And I couldn’t forget the rest of the talented staff and artists at Soul Mate Publishing who have helped turn this dream of mine into a reality.
Chapter 1
534,478,961 children worldwide wished their brothers or sisters would disappear last year. I had to take some of those children. I am a kidnapper. Sometimes I work as an assassin, when my schedule allows. I don’t have much free time for such things, though. Like most seniors, my life is starting to get really busy.
As hard as I try to be a normal teen, sometimes I feel like there’s not really anything interesting about me. I have mediocre grades and flat brown hair which hangs in my face. My eyes are brown. I have olive skin. My height’s average. My ears are slightly pointy, same with my third teeth, top and bottom. And oh yes, I happen to be an imp. That’s a secret.
No one at school has ever mentioned the various points on my features. But then again, they’re not really noticeable unless I’m hunting children. This may sound cruel, but as an imp it’s something I need to do, like a hawk hunting its prey.
“Hey, Olivia,” my friend Emmett called to me. He and I have been inseparable since third grade when he moved to my school. He’d be eighteen in two months. I’m not sure where the time went, and I hated to see it go. Imps tend not to make many friends. I dreaded not being accepted to the same college.
“You wanna come out for pizza and video games? I’ll drive you home after.”
I shook my head. Riding the bus would give me a little quiet time to mentally prepare for hunting later. I needed to center myself because I don’t like what I do. But kidnapping is not a choice for me. I send the wished-away children to the Goblin Kingdom in exchange for a ration of magic, something like plugging in for a recharge. If I don’t get the magic, I’ll die.
Emmett caught and held my hand until the bus door closed, and it started to roll forward. He grinned at me knowing I could no longer worm out of going home with him. Hitching his backpack higher onto his shoulder, he turned toward the student lot. He kept my hand until I tugged it back, falling into step beside him.
I plopped into the passenger seat of his black coupe. Inside smelled homey, like used car and Emmett. I had to admit, riding with a friend beat being on the bus.
He pulled into the driveway at my house, a blue bungalow with no outstanding features. My home fit me perfectly in that respect: average.
“Are you sure you don’t want to hang out?” Emmett gave me brown, puppy eyes and I wavered.
“I can’t.”
I grabbed my bag and got out of his car before I caved. I’d do pretty much anything for Emmett. Receiving such devotion was part of being special to an imp. But if I played before I hunted I wouldn’t get any sleep. Going to bed early kept a late night from being even later. Tomorrow would suck if I didn’t rest.
“I always want to hang out, but I have to do this. Don’t make me feel guilty. I thought you wanted us to move toward being more adult. Following through with obligations should be important, right?” I gave him a superior, but teasing look.
He grinned widely in return and waved on his way out of the drive. Inside the front door, I kicked my shoes into the hall closet. I walked the creaky hardwood hall to the kitchen where Mom and Dad sat at the table, papers spread in front of them. They must have work. They only planned this way before they left for an assassination.
“Oh, Olivia. You’re home.” Mom smiled up at me. “Here’s the name and address of tonight’s job. You’ll be fine if you go after 10:30. Your dad and I are going to be gone a couple days on this assignment, so I selected an older child for you. The capture ought to be worth enough to tide you over until we get back.”
I took the slip of pape
r she held out. “When do you guys leave?”
“This hit is important, so we head out tonight,” my dad said.
“Wow, that’s fast. What’s the assignment?”
“Political elimination. Seems there’s an alpha dispute in a pack of arctic werewolves. We’re taking out the superfluous one. Pays in diamonds, though. Getting to the northern reaches of Siberia is going to be the real beast.”
I shook my head. Sometimes my dad was a little too glib. Assassinating a werewolf . . . no biggie compared to getting from Redding, California to Siberia. My parents are also imps and assassins. Killing is how they made a living. Even an imp has a mortgage to pay. Rarely did we ever take a hit on humans. Mostly we eliminated magic folk. Hey, we can’t all be born fairy princesses. Coming to terms with the fact that imps are considered less . . . savory . . . magic folk had taken work on my part.
I went through a rebellious phase a few years ago where I languished over the injustice of not having been born something everyone loved, like a mermaid. But I’d eventually gotten over my feeling of being crapped on by fate. Life became much easier when I accepted what I was. I took all my negative feelings and put the energy to work making myself as good a person as I could be, for an imp.
“You be careful,” I told Mom. “I don’t want to get a box of pieces in the return mail.”
Mom stood and pulled me into a hug. “We’re always careful. You know we love you, right?"
My dad chuckled. “We’ll be fine. You just look out for yourself, all right? You’ll be good tonight?”
I waved the paper in his direction. “Piece of cake.”
Halfway to the stairs, I thought of something and turned to go back to the kitchen. I paused. My parents were deep in discussion.
“What about taking the silver daggers?” my mom asked. “Furduk has a reputation for being ruthless.”
“Probably not a bad idea. But don’t pack too much. I don’t want to haul around the luggage. Besides, it’s only one werewolf.”
My mom let out a low growl. “And however many of the pack support him. You need to take this mission seriously.”
“We can pause time if we get cornered.”
My mom’s chair screamed against the floor before toppling over. Angry footsteps crossed the room. Though she kept her voice low, every word rang clear. “Don’t you ever suggest that magic. You know using a time pause is a death sentence. There’s no way I could get you sufficient magic fast enough to save you.”
“If you were in danger, I wouldn’t care what happened to me.” My dad’s voice was low and full of emotion. “I’d do anything to protect you.”
Mom growled again. “Do you think I could live without you?”
I turned to go. My question could wait. I understood the emotion in Mom’s voice. Imps may not make very many friends but the few we do we’re fiercely loyal to. The connection is even stronger between partners, and I couldn’t scratch the surface yet of what a pair-bonded couple might feel.
I dashed up the stairs to the attic bedroom, my favorite place in the house. The room took up the whole attic and had windows looking out on all four sides. Polished wood floors smelled aged and cozy. I’d decorated the whole thing in my favorite yellow and spring green. Ever since I was tiny I’d always been happiest when surrounded by those colors.
Plopping on the bed, I unfolded the paper and did a doubletake at the name. Poppy Stedman. Oh no. Poppy was the eleven-year-old little sister of the hottest guy in my class, Cory Stedman. Why would he want her gone? What if I bumped into him on the job?
He would know me if he saw me. We had Biology class together. As far as datable females went, I doubted I registered on his radar. Cory would never look twice at a girl as plain as me. I spent a good deal too much time looking at him. You have to be special to find a place in an imp’s heart and I had Emmett, who left me perfectly satisfied. I had never thought I had the need for other friends or boyfriends. But in the last few months when I stole glances at Cory I found myself wondering what it would be like to be asked out.
The buzz of my alarm woke me at ten. Outside the door to my room everything sat in silent darkness. My parents had obviously already left. I pulled on yoga pants and a specially made chameleon fleece. Pricier than human designer clothing the expense was well worth it. To humans the wearer looked like a shadow. My parents had shelled out for the fleece as soon as I’d started hunting for myself.
I pulled on my Hermes shoes: an awesome gift from my parents for my birthday last winter. The shoes allowed me to move in utter silence and with nearly blinding speed. They resembled something like black ballet slippers. I loved the way they hugged my feet and promised freedom.
Fully dressed, I looked like any of the shadows wavering in the moonlight beyond my front door. I slipped outside and took a deep breath of the warm, fresh air. Mid-August nights in Redding had yet to cool for autumn and the air still smelled of summer and freedom. We’d only been back in school for a week.
Poppy’s address took me all the way across town but with the Hermes shoes, I didn’t care. At the edge of my sidewalk, I crouched like a sprinter at the starting line and took off. The wind made my eyes water and tore at my ponytail. I loved the feeling of nearly flying and the freedom I had while I hunted. The trip to the Stedman’s house took only a few minutes. All the windows were dark, like my parents had said they would be. According to the slip of paper, Poppy slept upstairs on the south-facing side. I found her window, crouched and used the Hermes shoes to leap with total silence onto the roof beside her dormer.
A bit of magic undid the lock and I slid the window open. Poppy lay completely unaware in her bed, a host of stuffed animals along the wall next to her. From here, kidnapping offered little challenge. I pulled out a small bag of goblin-dust and sprinkled a pinch over her head. Then I blew a kiss at her. She vanished from her bed, a new captive of the Goblin Kingdom.
I paused for a moment as the fresh rush of power surged through me. Obtaining magic had no comparison with any of my more mundane, humanish needs. The flow left me tingly and refreshed and invigorated. Feeling a bit high, I crept to the window and leapt lightly back to the ground. I didn’t worry about closing the window. Who cared how they thought she got out? Brushing the dust off my hands I put the bag back in my pocket and raced home. Mission accomplished.
~ ~ ~
I wasn’t surprised at all the next morning to arrive and find the school buzzing about the disappearance of Cory’s little sister. I took a jab in the sides by two fingers, nearly toppling the books I’d been stacking in my locker. Emmett tucked a stray wisp of my hair behind my ear then leaned casually next to me, shooting me a toothy grin.
“Too bad you can’t comfort poor Cory,” he teased.
Poor Cory, yeah right. The jerk had wished his sister away in the first place. I found him much less attractive knowing he willingly asked to be rid of her.
“Some things were never meant to be.” I pulled out my books for first period. “I―”
“Would Olivia Skotadi please report to the principal’s office.”
Emmett gave me a wide-eyed look and I shrugged. Like I knew what they wanted. Eyes followed me as I trudged through the hall to the office. On my way in I passed the new girl, Buraee Iyer, on her way out. She’d just transferred to our school. She turned her head away as I passed, a sheet of long black hair hiding her face. As if I wanted to talk to her either. She struck me as the stuck-up, prissy sort.
The secretary jumped when she saw me and ushered me into the principal’s office. Inside sat a man in a navy polo and khaki slacks with a badge on his chest. The principal, a middle-aged woman with over-dyed blond hair and a pinched face, stood and pointed me toward a chair.
“Olivia, this is Detective Parks. He’d like to talk to you for a moment.”
“About?” My vo
ice came out squeaky.
The detective cleared his throat. “We’ve been trying to contact your parents. You wouldn’t know where to reach them, would you?”
I shook my head. Cell reception in Siberia was unlikely. “My parents are gone on a business trip right now and will be unavailable for a few days.”
The detective frowned. “Do you have a guardian while they’re gone?”
“Um. I’m staying at my house alone but the Keelers are my emergency contacts.”
The principal pushed the intercom. “Lynette, will you get Mrs. Keeler on the phone for me? Let me know when you have her.”
“Did something happen to my parents?” Worry scratched at my stomach. After all, they were hunting a werewolf.
“I assume they’re fine, but can you tell us your whereabouts last night?” Detective Parks asked.
My heart gave a funny flop. “At home.”
He nodded. “Did you happen to visit the Stedman’s last night?”
“No.” My throat tightened. How could they possibly have information on that? I should have been all but invisible to humans.
“Someone seems to have seen you there around ten-thirty last night.” Detective Parks shifted in the chair. “You’re going to be turned over to the custody of the Keelers. We’re not sure at this point if you’re a witness or a person of interest, but you’ll be under house arrest until your parents return and take responsibility for you. When do you expect them back?”
“A couple days at most. May I go home and get a change of clothes first?” I needed to get my chameleon fleece and shoes. Then if I had to hunt or run for any reason I’d be prepared.
“Yes. We can get your things.”
I blinked at gathering tears as I listened to the phone conversation with Emmett’s mom. The detective asked if she was willing to care for me. If she said no, I’d be placed in state care until my parents claimed me.