Legacy of the Demon

  Fortunately, everyone else seemed content to let the vehicles come to complete stops before unloading.

  Turek bounded off toward his favorite sprinkler. Szerain swung Ashava down from the APC then gave Jill a hand. Bryce busied himself with helping Sonny out of the truck, and tried not to be obvious about his quick glances toward Jill and Ashava.

  “Uncle Bryce!” Ashava dashed up to him. “Uncle Sonny told me lots and lots about you, and he was right! You were soooooo amazing at the rift.”

  Bryce startled but recovered quickly and smiled down at her. “You can’t trust a single thing Sonny says. He’s kooky in the head.” He twirled one finger at his temple.

  Ashava giggled. “He said you were funny and nice, too!” She turned her blue eyes on me. “Auntie Kara? Is it okay if Mom and I cook dinner?”

  I heaved a dramatic sigh. “Gee, I dunno. Everyone really loves my cooking, especially my macaroni and ketchup casserole.”

  Bryce shuddered. “As the security chief of this compound, and for everyone’s gastrointestinal safety, I’m putting Ashava and Jill in charge of tonight’s dinner.”

  She let out a delighted little girl squeal. “Hurray!” With eager exuberance, she hustled a smiling Jill toward the house.

  Bryce watched the pair until they disappeared inside then turned to Sonny. “Wanna see the security setup we have here?”

  Sonny’s face lit up. “You know it!”

  The two men headed toward the outbuildings, already chattering like magpies about rotations and training and equipment.

  I watched them go, truly glad that Bryce had Sonny here with him. Bryce had been Sonny’s rock of support during their murderous years with Farouche, and right now Bryce needed an old friend.

  And all the chicks are back in the nest. Everyone was here and safe and slipping into comfortable routine. It all felt like a little piece of normal, something each of us craved after the trauma of the day. Didn’t matter that we knew it was only temporary.

  I glanced at Szerain. “You want to check out the pods with me?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” he said with a smile.

  Michael burst from the house, his face twisted in distress. “Two kitties are gone, Kara! There’s Fuzzykins and Bumper and Cake and Granger and Dire but but but no Fillion no Squig anywhere!”

  “You know how mischievous those two are,” I said, keeping my tone light and comforting. “I bet they found a super secret hidey hole. Didn’t Lilith stay behind to look for them? She’ll bring them home when they get hungry and come out.”

  He didn’t seem the least bit convinced. “But I already looked in and out and everywhere.” He wrung his hands. “They’re gone for real.”

  Bryce turned, already halfway to the security office. “Hey, Michael?” he called. “Could you help me with something over here?”

  Michael frowned, reluctant to be distracted from his kitten quest, but headed his way. I shot Bryce a grateful smile. Always paying attention. Always taking care of the business at hand.

  Szerain and I continued inside, where the pods dominated the front room. They definitely weren’t black with red veins anymore. Like huge opal spheres, they shone milky white with gorgeous rainbow colors.

  Szerain whistled low. “I didn’t have time to check them out earlier.” He crouched between the pods and placed a hand lightly against each. “They’ll emerge very soon.”

  A nervous flutter of worry started up in my stomach. “Do you know what Marco and Cory will end up like? And what’s going to happen to the two ilius that went in with them? Will they stay around?” I couldn’t quite see Detective Marco Knight and his sidekick Li’l Ilius making a big splash with the New Orleans PD.

  Szerain gave me the side eye. “If all has gone according to demon plan, there are no ilius anymore. I mean, not in that form. They’re absorbed to guide the mutation.”

  I gulped. “Absorbed like used up? Or absorbed to be diabolical little masterminds in control?” I clearly remembered Earl Chris, the violent, tentacle-handed mutant I’d tangled with in Fed Central’s medical wing.

  “More like silent partners,” he said. “Unless something went wrong, Marco and Cory will still be Marco and Cory. With a little added perspective.”

  “But they didn’t choose that,” I said, scowling.

  “In a way, they did. Not on a conscious level, but back when they first made contact with the mutagen at ground zero, something in them attracted the attention of the guide-ilius. There has to be a compatibility match, or the ilius won’t latch on.”

  I made a face. “That’s still wrong,” I grumbled, though the concept gave me hope for the two men. Before he mutated, Earl Chris had been a repeat offender criminal, with an existing tendency toward violence.

  Szerain shrugged. “So much is.”

  “Speaking of wrong,” I said conversationally, “I picked up some stuff from Zack when he merged with you.”

  “I did too. A little. Before he withdrew into stasis.” He went quiet.

  I dropped to sit cross-legged before him. “Are we going to talk about it, or shall we continue to ignore the elephant in the room?”

  Szerain gave me a long look then sketched a privacy sigil and set it spinning above our heads. “I’m weary of secrets.”

  He knew I held at least one secret from him, since I hadn’t allowed him to read me after the summoning. But this wasn’t a good time for me to blurt out, Oh, by the way, I need you to give up your essence blade.

  Instead I said, “You lords are the children of the demahnk—the Ekiri—and they fucking used you.”

  Grief and anger swam through his eyes. “Yes. They used and enslaved their own children. They were charged by the main body of the Ekiri to rebalance the worlds, and we were their fucking tools, able to manipulate the core potency that they couldn’t tolerate. They stripped our memories and crippled our abilities to keep us from rebelling.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Then, because that felt insufficient, I took his hand and added in demon, “Tah sesekur di lahn.” I hold sorrow for you.

  “Dak lahn,” he murmured and didn’t pull away. After a moment he took a deeper breath and managed a light smile. “There was something about Xharbek, too. Did you pick up on that?”

  “Some,” I said. “There’s still a lot to unpack that I haven’t processed yet. But I got that Zack thinks part of why Xharbek went off the deep end was because he didn’t have a kid.”

  Szerain nodded. “He was picked to stay on as the overseer for that very reason, but it bit him in the ass. The Ekiri are all connected, and it’s that parental link to the offspring that helps the other demahnk-Ekiri stay relatively sane, despite the rakkuhr poisoning.”

  “The bond Xharbek made with you after Rho did his planetary tree thing wasn’t as effective for him as a true ptarl-parental bond.”

  “Yes, though he lasted a lot longer than he would have without it,” he said.

  We fell into an easy silence. Voices drifted down the hallway from the kitchen, over a background of soft classical music. Jill and Ashava. Happy.

  It was lovely, yet I couldn’t relax and enjoy it. Instead I struggled to grasp a concept that had been floating just beyond my reach this entire time. The more I focused on it, the more it evaded me.

  Fine. I didn’t want that stupid ol’ concept anyway. There were plenty of other interesting things for me to waste brain space on. Opal pods. Missing kittens. A young girl’s musical laugh. My desperate need for a shower.

  The concept wandered into my head and made itself comfortable. Not all of it, and there was plenty I still couldn’t get a handle on it, but it was enough.

  “The Ekiri are returning,” I said before it could slip away again.

  “Ah. I’ve been trying to tease that out.” Szerain’s brows drew together. “That was the ticking clock that drove Xharbek to his fi
nal rash actions. They’re coming back to reassess the situation.”

  “What does that mean for the rest of the demahnk?” I asked. “Or, for that matter, the lords, demons, and humanity?”

  “It’s an unknown that we have yet to face.”

  I offered him a crooked smile. “Around here, that’s a typical Monday.”

  Szerain chuckled then quickly dispelled the privacy sigil as Giovanni rushed in, bearing a laptop and a worried expression.

  “Kara, you must view this news clip of import.” Giovanni placed the laptop on the coffee table and clicked play on the video.

  The clip was a fairly mundane report that showed Senator Olson speaking to an elementary school auditorium full of parents and press about his education initiative.

  I was about to ask Giovanni why he’d brought this to me when the camera panned over a cluster of smiling first and second graders sitting cross-legged on the stage.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed. The view was brief, but it was enough. Kadir crouched in the midst of the children, his hands on the shoulders of the boy and girl on either side of him. He leaned over and spoke in the girl’s ear, eliciting a giggle from her. Behind the group stood Pellini, wearing a men-in-black suit and sunglasses. Right beside him was Paul Ortiz, fingers moving rapidly over a tablet screen.

  I exchanged a telling look with Szerain. What the hell was Lord Creepy playing at?

  Giovanni stopped the playback. “I recognized Lord Kadir and thought you needed to see.”

  “You’re right. I did. Good catch.” Kadir’s hand on shoulder thing was an unpleasant echo of Xharbek and Ilana’s position when influencing Mzatal. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. Surely Pellini and Paul wouldn’t go along with anything potentially harmful to the kids. But damn. Time to add “Keep tabs on sneaky lord” to my to-do list. “Thanks, Giovanni. Could you please leave the laptop? I’d like to have another look at the video in a few.”

  Proud of his discovery, he headed back toward the war room with a spring in his step.

  “Thoughts?” I asked Szerain.

  He shook his head slowly. “Kadir has always been an enigma, impossible to predict apart from his fastidious potency management . . . and his sadistic predilections.”

  Knight’s sphere rocked, putting a stop to my speculations. “Is it time?” I asked, scrambling to my feet.

  Szerain placed a hand on the surface then pulled it away. “This one’s ready.”

  “Can you read them? Do they know what’s happened?”

  “With the human-demon mix, I can only get impressions. But they seem to be aware of the circumstances.”

  I fidgeted, ridiculously nervous about the outcome.

  Knight’s pod shimmered then dissolved into a cloud of mist with a sound like a thousand tiny bells. He lay naked, curled in a fetal position, and covered with a thin layer of clear mucus stuff. Nothing about him seemed different from before, except for a very un-Knight-like tranquil smile.

  “Marco?” I said as Szerain ducked out of the room.

  “Yeah, Kara?” he replied, voice not at all muffled by the mucus.

  “You . . . okay?”

  “I think I just might be.”

  Szerain returned with a couple of sheets and a stack of towels. I breathed a thanks then grabbed a sheet and draped it over Knight. He pushed up to sit then scrubbed the gunk off his face with a towel. His irises were a shimmery amber color ringed with gold, and a hint of rakkuhr flickered deep in the pupils. But other than the unearthly and compelling eyes, he looked normal. Unchanged.

  He lowered the towel, stunned surprise on his face. “I can’t see anything,” he breathed.

  Sick dread flooded me. “You’re blind?” I waved my hand in front of his eyes.

  Grinning, he batted my hand away. “Not like that. I don’t see . . . stuff.”

  Comprehension kicked in. He wasn’t getting unwanted peeks into other people’s lives anymore. He was finally free of that burden. “Dude, that’s awesome!”

  “The sight isn’t gone,” he said. “In fact, it’s probably better than before. But I have an on-off switch for it now.” He let out a long, relaxed sigh. “And I don’t ever have to turn it on.”

  After the loner life he’d led because of his ability, it wouldn’t surprise me if he never activated it again. I had no idea what the demons got out of the process, which worried me, but so far Knight seemed to be okay.

  “Your eye color is a little odd,” I told him. “I mean, it’s really cool and all, but you’ll need to wear colored contacts at work if you want to keep this to yourself.”

  He gave a genuine laugh. “Are you kidding? I’ve been the freak of the NOPD for no reason anyone could nail down. This would be a cake walk.” He pulled at the gunk stuck in his hair. “But you’re right. Best to play it cool.”

  “Good plan.” I grinned. “You hungry?”

  “Starving. But I could really use a shower first, if you don’t mind.”

  I sent him off with a promise of a loaner t-shirt and fatigue pants, unspeakably relieved that he’d emerged oriented and accepting and calm.

  As soon as he left, Cory’s pod vibrated.

  “He was waiting,” Szerain said.

  “I suppose I can understand wanting a little privacy for unpodding,” I said with a shaky laugh. Marco had come through all right, but . . . yeah. Demons. Pods. Mutations. I grabbed a sheet.

  The sphere dispersed to mist, but I stood gaping rather than draping. Like Knight, Cory lay in a fetal position, but unlike Knight, he was definitely . . . different.

  No way would we be hiding this with a pair of contacts. Though Cory remained quite human-shaped, and his right leg still ended mid-thigh, the skin of his shoulders and upper arms was alive with slowly shifting colors, rich and bright like impossibly flawless tattooing. His hair hung to his shoulders in perfect waves, with each strand a vibrant hue—hysterically ironic considering that the man had always avoided anything brighter than brown.

  But the clincher was the trio of tails that curled around him. Bright and furry tails as thick as Ashava’s wrist and who-the-hell-knew how long.

  Cory shifted, tails moving with sinuous grace to help him push up to a sit. I snapped out of my shock and thrust the sheet around him.

  “Welcome back!” I grabbed a towel and held it out.

  He took it with a smile and wiped off his face. “Glad to be back,” he said. A bright blue tail snaked out to better arrange the sheet over his privates. Cory cocked his head at the tail and laughed. “Ain’t that some shit?”

  “Um. Yeah. That’s one way to put it.”

  His mustache was gone, and the rest of his face held zero hint of stubble. When he ran his hand over his hair, it seemed to move of its own accord. Like Knight, his pupils held a flicker of rakkuhr, but Cory’s irises gradually shifted from one rich color to another. Turquoise to amber to violet and more. Mesmerizing.

  “I’ve been dying to try this!” Using the tails as support, he stood and got his balance on his one leg, then walked several steps—slowly, cautiously, and bit awkwardly—but most certainly attaining ambulation.

  “Nice!” I said in genuine awe. “The basement shower is open if you think you can make it down the steps, or you can wait for Marco to finish up in the bathroom down the hall.” This was surreal as hell, but at least the changes seemed to suit both men.

  “I’ll give the stairs a try.” Cory retucked the sheet around his waist then pointed a tail at the laptop. “Someone’s trying to get your attention.”

  “Huh?” The camera light was blinking erratically. “Oh. I’ll get our tech to check it out.”

  “No. It’s Morse code. It’s repeating ‘Kara’ over and over.”

  “What the . . .” I had no reason to doubt Cory, considering his ham radio skills. And there was only one person I knew who could and
would hack into our system—into any system.

  “A new pattern started as soon as you looked over,” Cory said then watched it closely until the light stopped blinking. “It says, ‘Thought you would want to see this. Paul.’”

  Not only was Paul watching us, he knew Cory was a ham radio operator and would know Morse code. Damn, the kid was scary sharp—as tapped in to electronic “flows” as I was to the arcane ones back when I could get all lordy on the nexus.

  The screen went dark, then a single picture appeared. Perhaps from the camera of a laptop, judging by the angle. Paul had eyes everywhere.

  I leaned in close to get a better view. Tessa was seated, half-facing the camera. Rhyzkahl stood behind her, hands gripping her shoulders, and expression dark. She looked haggard and worn. Not at all like the Tessa I knew. Her typically wild and curly blond hair was cropped short, and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. In the background, Angus McDunn stood in profile. His expression and raised fist led me to believe he was arguing with someone off camera.

  Ten seconds later, the image vanished, and the screen returned to the paused Kadir video. I pushed down the powerful urge to slap duct tape over the camera—mostly because it would be pointless considering how easily he could spy on us through the many security cameras we had around the place.

  “What was that all about?” Cory asked.

  “Just a jokester friend,” I said lightly. “He probably thought he’d have me stumped with the Morse code. Nothing to worry about.” I gave a little laugh. No need to drag Cory any deeper without reason.

  “Lucky I was here.” He smiled, but the shrewd look in his eye reminded me that he’d been a cop for over fifteen years. He wasn’t fooled. “Shower time,” he said then tail-stumped off, balance and coordination improving with every odd step.

  As soon as he was gone, Szerain shoved the lid of the laptop closed. “Shit.”

  “My sentiments, exactly.”

  “You have a plan?”

  “Not right now, I don’t. We’ll come up with something after the debrief tomorrow.” I gazed down at the crushed sofa-bed and the puddles of goo, the only remaining evidence of the two pods. “If Tessa needs help, we’ll help her. If she’s an enemy, we’ll capture her. Either way, we need to root her out along with whatever crew she’s hanging with.” I tugged both hands through my hair. “I think Boudreaux may know more about McDunn’s whereabouts than he’s letting on. And maybe this overture from Paul means he’ll be more accessible. But I need to eat and sleep before I can deal with any of it.”