We barely made it out the tent door before an energy ball came flying at us. I shoved Nate out of the way as soon as I felt the force come close. He was going to have to yell at me later about that move, because the power behind the energy ball was set a little higher than the ones we’d been facing.
My focus was completely on the demon who’d manifested fifty feet in front of us. I didn’t see any other fighting going on, and the demon looked singularly focused, which was good. We didn’t need any of his dark-haired, mangy friends showing up while I was pretty sure a third of our camp was still resting in their tents.
The demons I’d fought over the days had blended together, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure the man dressed in black with a long matching trench coat was someone I’d run into before. He stunk like all the other demons had, so I couldn’t even use smell as a gauge. It was like they spent hours of their days rolling around in a putrid sulfur-like substance, which led me to believe they lived close to where the troops from Orange City had been kept.
“I imagine you thought you’d catch me unaware. Is that why your side has been keeping such strict schedules? Eventually you thought we wouldn’t expect an early morning attack?” I asked as I manifested a large fireball and hurled it at him.
He ducked out of the way, but his coat felt the heat as part of his shoulder singed. It surprised me that he hadn’t worked a fireproof spell on his clothing. The fact that he hadn’t made me believe we hadn’t met in the previous days. Everyone that had crossed my path was completely fireproof.
“I’m just here to deliver a message and I thought I’d have a little fun.”
The demon righted himself as he spoke, but I sent another fireball at him to keep him on his toes. I really wanted to kill the demon, and I had a weapon that theoretically would. I didn’t remember whether the knife was a one-time thing, so I couldn’t just hurl it at the demon and be done with him.
I’d packed the knife away and sent it to my mother long before my reincarnation, so I should’ve remembered the spell I’d used on it, but it was just as hazy as the month of my memory I was still missing. I didn’t know if that was because I’d done something to finalize what it could do during that time or what. I just knew I wasn’t going to waste it driving it into a flunky demon’s flesh.
“I don’t like Malphas’ messages, so you’d just be wasting your breath.”
Nate had stood up and had made it back to my side, but he was letting me do the talking. He just growled a little, which I usually found cute. In that moment, I rolled my eyes because he was growling about me pushing him out of the way.
“I don’t know why he’s so obsessed with you, but I’m to let you know today is the day you die,” the demon paused and made a face like what he was about to say didn’t want to come out of his mouth. “Unless you decide to leave the life you know and settle in as Malphas’ consort.”
I could understand why he didn’t want to say those words. Even having the idea out in the air made me want to throw up. The growling by my side got louder, and it wasn’t directed at me.
“Did he seriously think there was any way I’d say yes to that?”
There were a lot of things I didn’t understand about Malphas, but how his brain worked had to be up at the top of the list. I was fairly certain I’d been clear with anyone who stood still long enough to listen that I was set on killing Malphas. Where in the world he got the idea I wanted to play house with him was something beyond my understanding.
“I don’t pretend to know what Malphas thinks. I just do what I’m told, and he would like you to reconsider the battle today.”
“Well you can go back to your ‘master’ or maker or whatever it is you call him and tell him I’d rather be a duck’s consort than spend a minute with him. Make that a second. I would rather hang out all day and play wife to a duck than spend a single second with him.”
The demon shrugged his shoulders. “You are a bird, so that doesn’t sound extremely odd. I’ll let him know that’s your answer and we can see what his next move is. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned into a duck and fulfilled your thought. I wasn’t joking about him being obsessed with you.”
The demon disappeared before I could alter my words to be something that included Malphas being dead. I hadn’t gotten the feeling Malphas was obsessed with me, so I wasn’t sure what the demon was talking about. There was his talk about watching years of my life and us being alike, but I hadn’t really thought he’d meant things romantically.
He knew I already had a soulmate, so he had to know he was barking up the wrong tree. I was a magnet for weirdoes.
“I thought we’d have more time before lunacy arrived on our doorstep. I hadn’t expected something quite that crazy.”
There was still a little growl in Nate’s voice. I reached over and grabbed his hand to calm him down a little. I predicted there would be plenty of time for him to get growly during the day if that was how we were starting things out.
“I have no idea what that was about, but I’m going to be on the lookout for ducks. I’ve only seen the man a few times and he seemed more interested in our babies, so I’m not sure where the idea of you being a consort came up. He does know that’s impossible, right?”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve made my view about Malphas’ mental capability clear. He’s an idiot with a lot of power, which means he needs to be dealt with. We can’t let someone crazy enough to know who and what I am think he could use me the way his minion just implied.”
“I agree with you there. I just don’t understand why he’d suddenly decide to switch from wanting our child to wanting you. I mean I get why a person would find you attractive, but you have off-limits written around you in blood.”
I liked his idea about me, but the thought that Malphas had changed his goal was a little disturbing. I knew he already knew about the kids, and even assumed one of the girls was the prophecy.
“Why don’t we go see if the plans for the day have changed any from the last few days?” I suggested. “We really don’t have time or the need to waste brain cells on trying to figure out what Malphas is up to.”
Standing around waiting to see if anything else appeared in the spot the demon vacated was a waste of time. I was fairly certain everything we’d been doing was a waste of time, but at least the demon had confirmed my suspicion that today was going to be the day. Malphas was going to finally be out of my hair.
“Sounds like a good idea. You might as well witness Rick laughing at you in person instead of having to listen to him from far away. I don’t know why he laughs when you get hit on all the time, but he has to have something to amuse him.”
“I think I liked him more before I remembered he was my brother. Although, back then he was trying to hit on me as well. There’s clearly a lot of problems running in my family.”
Nate and I both laughed as we walked to the main grouping of tents, holding hands, which we tended to do anytime we weren’t in the middle of a battle. Like a moment of déjà vu, we’d barely made it ten steps before an overwhelming energy felt like it was pressing me down into the ground.
I hadn’t ever been run over by a bulldozer, but I got the feeling I understood what it felt like. It was a little hard to describe, but I was sure I was going to look like a pancake once things were over.
“What is that?” I asked as I tried to push back against the energy.
“What’s what?” Nate replied. He looked around, trying to find whatever caught my attention.
“Are you telling me you don’t feel like someone is trying to turn you into a golf tee just before they teed up a ball?”
It was a little difficult to speak. My words all came out, at least I thought they did, but my tongue felt like it was swelling in my mouth. It wasn’t bad enough something was trying to squish me, it had to give me the worst case of dry mouth I’d ever felt.
“Mak, Elan, we need your help over here.” Nate yelled his words, but a wind that came out of nowhere drowned them m
ostly out.
I bit the inside of my lip to cause a little blood and spit in onto the ground. “Pressure and wind surrounds me, turn them around to bring the sender to his knee.”
I really didn’t have time to be creative, and I tended to make up some really stupid rhymes when I didn’t have an extra minute to figure out something good to say.
“Sorry, Yara, but I made sure you couldn’t do something like that. Plus, it’s my presence causing the way you feel, not a spell I sent your way, so a little spell won’t just take it away.”
I could hear Malphas, but a quick glance around didn’t reveal him anywhere. I hadn’t sheathed the knife since I’d trotted out of the tent, so I lifted it up to prepare for a fight. Knowing that Malphas would at some point attack made it prudent that I was ready for him.
“I’m currently all around you in a clear fog, so no one else can feel or hear me. I think it’s time we spent a little alone time before you request I turn myself into a duck. I’m not as bad as you think I am, and as I’ve said before, we are more alike than you think.”
I was starting to think the crazy man had found Carl, off in whatever institute they were keeping him. I really attracted strange men, and I couldn’t understand why that was. There had to be a website out there somewhere where they gathered and talked about me. When I got home I was going to shut the site down.
“I prefer that you just show yourself so we can be done with this. I have a very nice knife just waiting to pay you a visit. I’m sure it will only hurt for a second.”
“And as you know, I have the same for you. I’ve been watching you though, and I think the world still needs you in it, but things would have to change in order for that to be possible.”
I kept my vomit down hearing him say that he’d been watching me again. I’d had trouble getting a pinpoint on his location and he blocked me so much that it seemed a little odd that he’d have been peeking in my windows. I really wanted to believe I would’ve felt him that close to me.
“The problem with that plan is the fact that I’ve decided the world no longer needs you in it. I’m sure there’s nothing you can say that would change my mind as far as that’s concerned. You threatened my family, and if you know anything about me, you know I’m not going to let that stand.”
“Do I want to know what’s going on?” I heard Nate ask from far away. We were holding hands still, so I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t feeling what I did. After Malphas had blocked him out earlier, I wasn’t totally surprised, but that was just a conversation.
“I’m sure you do, but I doubt you’d like anything happening or being said. Malphas seems to think spending quality time together would help unique and demon relations. I’ve told him he’s nuts and I’m working on trying to get him to manifest so I can stab him a few times. As it stands right now, I don’t think stabbing the air around us would kill him.”
“You know, one of the reasons I’m so convinced you aren’t that different from me is because I’ve seen how your life would’ve been if you didn’t have him for a mate,” Malphas said, breaking up the conversation I cared more about.
“Why are you still talking? Either manifest or leave and come back when you’ve grown a pair.”
I heard a soft, almost comforting laugh in the wind. I tried to stab the knife in the air around me, hoping I was wrong and something would connect and get rid of him. I didn’t see anyone other than Nate watching, which was good because I was pretty sure I looked ridiculous.
“I think I’ll be leaving for now, but I’m going to take you with me so we can finish our talk and I can show you what I’m talking about. Tell your boy toy that you’ll be back and will remain unharmed. My forces won’t attack while we’re gone either, so maybe he can catch up on his reading or sleep. Whatever he does when you aren’t around.”
The sound of Malphas so cocky and confident was in no way comforting. I hadn’t seen any events when I was stuck spending time with Malphas, and I certainly didn’t want to find that becoming my reality.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
I hurried to try to say a spell, but Malphas was too fast and I was torn away from Nate as I traveled down some sort of vortex. I still scrambled to try to come up with something to fight back as the wind increased and light was blocked out, so all I could really see were occasionally flashes of neon green lights.
It wasn’t a way I’d traveled in the past, so I had no idea what to expect when I came out on the other end. I did hear Malphas relaying the message I hadn’t. I doubted Nate would be comforted one bit, but at least he had a general idea of where I’d disappeared to, which wasn’t going to make him feel very good about the situation.
CHAPTER 19
The delusions of a delusional man