Me and My Shadow

  “I will ask the questions around here, slave,” Magoth snarled, marching over to stand in between the wrath demon and me. He got right in the demon’s face, shouting, “Answer me, you watery scum on the underbelly of a toad.”

  “I do not seek to question my lord’s commands,” the demon said, treating Magoth as if he were invisible. “I simply carry them out. He has commanded your presence, and we have been through three countries to find you. You hide your trail well, dragon. You will come with us now.”

  “Argh!” Magoth screamed, his hands waving wildly. “I will not be treated this way!”

  I considered the two wrath demons, wondering how long Gabriel and Kostya would be getting the shard. “And if I choose not to?”

  The penis-watching demon shrugged. “You will come with us. The Lord Bael commands.”

  “The Lord Bael commands, the Lord Bael commands,” Magoth parroted in a snide voice. “Well, the Lord Magoth commands, too!”

  “The difference being, of course, that you’re no longer a reigning prince,” Savian said.

  Magoth spun around and sent him a look of pure poison. Savian flinched.

  I had a feeling that if I didn’t give in to Bael’s demands, there would be trouble for everyone.

  “All right,” I said slowly as I got to my feet. I slid Cyrene a meaningful look. “Please tell Gabriel what’s happened, and where I am. I will try to return as quickly as possible.”

  Cyrene’s face looked pinched as she glanced between the demons and a now nearly hysterical Magoth, who was ranting about the good old days. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I should be. Even Bael thinks twice about tangling with a wyvern’s mate,” I said with a lot more confidence than I felt. “Jim, you may come with me, although I want you to mind your tongue in Bael’s presence.”

  Released from the command to be silent, Jim staggered a little with the strain of holding in its comments. It cocked an eyebrow at the wrath demons. “Hiyas. Long time no see, Sori. How they hangin’, Tachan? Been forever since I’ve seen you guys. You still got a thing for rams?”

  The penis watcher shot Jim an outraged look that nearly set the demon’s coat smoking.

  The sound of a man’s singing grew louder as the bar-keep evidently found Magoth’s champagne.

  “You guys stay here. I’ll take care of whatever Bael wants and be back as quickly as I can. Don’t forget to tell Gabriel I went willingly,” I said hurriedly, one eye watching the storeroom door. “He doesn’t need to come rescue me.”

  “That you know,” Savian said, just adding that little extra dollop of worry that I needed to make my misery complete.

  The demon named Sori grabbed my arm in preparation for yanking me through the fabric of being to Bael’s presence, but before it could do more than slash an opening, Magoth screamed a battle cry and threw himself on me. Jim leaped up at the same time, intent on intercepting the attack, but was too late. Magoth hit me, sending me careening into Sori as it was pulling me through the opening, with the end result that all four of us went down in a tangle of arms, legs, and furry black tail.

  “I assure you that such a dramatic entrance is not necessary,” a cool, almost bored voice said as I tried to pull my limbs from the pile of others. Jim clunked its head on mine, making me see stars for a second.

  I sat up, rubbing it, glaring at Jim for a second before Magoth used my head as a support to lever himself to his feet. “Well! You might have had your servants show a little more respect,” he said, making a great show of brushing his naked self off. He made a brief bow to Bael. “Lord Bael.”

  Unlike Magoth, whose appearance never changed from his original, once-mortal form, Bael changed his at a whim. Today he was tall and thin, with a long Ben Affleck-type face, complete with stubble, and world-weary eyes. Those eyes turned on Magoth with extreme unction.

  “Why did you bring him?” he snarled at his two wrath demons.

  Both men bowed low, in a way that implied they were groveling without their actually doing so. “It was an accident, Your Greatness. He flung himself on the dragon as we were escorting her through.”

  “I did not fling myself on May. I have never flung myself on anyone in my life. I am a demon lord—if there is any flinging to be done, it will be of minions!” Magoth snapped.

  Bael rolled his eyes for a moment before dismissing the demons, turning his attention to me. His gaze landed on Jim. He frowned. “Have not I seen you before, demon?”

  I swear Jim curtsied. “That you have, your most infernal of all infernal beings. I’m Jim. Effrijim, really, but you being stuck with your alternate names of Beelze bub and Baalzuvuv know how it is—short and punchy is definitely the key to success.”

  Bael continued to frown, obviously not remembering who Jim was.

  “I was here a few months ago with May. We kicked some wrathy ass, not that you probably want to hear that, but you know, if one sixth-class demon and a doppelganger can do that, you might want to up your standards a smidgen,” it said with a helpful air.

  I punched it in the shoulder.

  “I’m just sayin’!”

  “Well, stop it!” I said, waving my fist at it.

  “If one of my wrath demons allowed you to get the better of it, then I can assure you it was not due to inef fectiveness,” Bael said dryly as he moved around to sit behind a large, ebony desk.

  “Yeah? Then why would . . . shutting up,” Jim said, having accurately read the look in Bael’s eyes.

  “And about time, too,” Magoth said, grumpily shoving the demon aside to stand before his boss.

  Bael, without looking up, waved a hand toward me. I took the chair he indicated. Magoth waited a moment, but no such nicety was extended to him. With audible grinding of his teeth, he hauled over a chair from against the wall to sit in front of the desk, plopping down into it with a rude noise caused by bare flesh on glossy leather.

  Bael, in the process of opening a drawer, froze for a moment, but he pulled out a laptop and set it in the exact center of his desk without comment.

  I glanced at Magoth. He had a testy look on his face, his legs mercifully crossed, his fingers drumming out an annoying tattoo on the chair’s arm.

  “You go ahead. Evidently my business is not nearly so important as that of my slave, my minion, my consort.” His lips were tight as he answered the question in my eyes.

  My curiosity prodded me to ask Bael, “I don’t mean to harp on a subject you probably would like to forget, but are you saying your wrath demon held itself back when I was here a few months ago?”

  I hesitated to bring up the reason why Jim and I had been in Abaddon, lest it rub a raw spot.

  Bael flipped open the top of the laptop, and punched a couple of keys with laconic pokes of his long fingers. “That is correct.”

  “Why?” I asked, remembering the scene well. The wrath demon Jim and I had disarmed sure didn’t seem to have been holding back anything.

  “You are a dragon,” Bael answered, his eyes on the laptop screen.

  Magoth snorted and said something rude under his breath.

  “And?”

  Bael heaved a sigh, as if my questions were too tiresome to answer. “I find it best to adhere to a policy of noninvolvement with members of the weyr.”

  “And yet that doesn’t stop you from holding a wyvern prisoner,” I pointed out.

  He waved a graceful hand toward me. “That was different. I did not seek to control the wyvern—she was sent to Abaddon, sent to my palace specifically. I merely provided her with . . . accommodations.”

  I forbore to point out the obvious.

  “Until, that is, you released her.” His eyes pinned me back, and I was very aware for a moment that he had enough power to squash me like a particularly ineffective bug. Then the dragon shard kicked in, filling me with dragon fire and a matching fierceness.

  Bael’s gaze dropped, and I was possessed with the sudden knowledge that what he s
aid was true—he might hold Chuan Ren prisoner when she had been thrown into his lap, but he did not want to tangle with any of the dragons. It was the dragon shard he was wary of, not me, but that knowledge gave me a little kernel of reassurance.

  “Without my knowledge or express consent, I hasten to point out,” Magoth said quickly. “I did not, as you have claimed, order her to go against your wishes. I would never do that. I would never risk expulsion. It was all May’s doing. If anyone should be expulsed, it is she.”

  “Oh, you did so tell me to do whatever I needed to do,” I said, unable to keep from arguing with him. The dragon shard made me feel cocky, as if Magoth posed no threat to my borrowed strength. “You said, and I quote, ‘I’m too busy to bother with your unimportant concerns. Feel free to do whatever you need to do, so long as it’s without me.’ And if that’s not consent, I don’t know what is.”

  Magoth bristled, the temperature of the room dropping by a couple of degrees. “How can you lie like that in front of Lord Bael!”

  “I don’t lie. You know that. And so does he.”

  “I never—”

  Bael held up a hand, which thankfully shut up Magoth.

  “This discussion bores me. You have been judged and sentenced, Magoth. Your punishment has been duly bound upon you.”

  “Not properly!” Magoth said, shooting me a couple of really nasty looks. I thought for a moment of setting his toes on fire, but managed to keep from doing so. He would probably consider it foreplay. “My rightful powers have not yet been restored.”

  “It is for that reason I’ve had you brought here,” Bael said to me.

  “Really? I assumed it was to chew me out for releasing Chuan Ren,” I said calmly, embracing the dragon heart’s strength. I felt particularly dragonish at that moment, allowing my fingers to change into curved, wickedly sharp claws as I tapped on the round-headed tacks pounded into the arms of the leather chair on which I sat. “It goes against my nature, but if you want me to beg you not to give Magoth back his powers, I am fully prepared to do so.”

  “May!” Magoth gasped.

  Jim snickered softly to itself.

  Bael’s eyes lit with interest for a moment. “That might be . . . no. I suppose it would be best not to pursue that train of thought, tempting as it is. As you know, the Doctrine of Unending Conscious allows for a period of time before an expulsion is made permanent, a time during which the expulsed person may petition the princes for reinstatement.”

  Magoth lifted his chin. “Which I have done. You rejected my petition. Therefore, according to the laws set down in the Doctrine, you must restore to me all the honors due me, including my full powers.”

  I moved uneasily in the chair, the dragon shard filling my mind with all sorts of unlikely actions that were intended to keep Bael from doing just that.

  Bael’s gaze flickered to me for a few moments before returning to his laptop. “The law states that powers must be given to their rightful owner, yes.”

  “Fine, then,” Magoth said, standing up, one hand on his naked hip. “I don’t like it, but I will accept the expulsion. So long as I have my powers, I will simply turn my attention to ruling the mortal world. You can have my seat with my blessings.”

  “I don’t need your—”

  Bael’s terse response was interrupted by a whirlwind that suddenly burst through the door.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late! I got held up disciplining one of my legions. You wouldn’t believe how insubordinate they were. I don’t know what the last demon lord was thinking, but she totally messed up my minions. Do you know that all they want to do is write software? But that’s a subject for another day. Did I miss it? Did I miss seeing you tell him? May, sugar! How lovely to see you again! And Magoth. Goodness! You’re starkers!”

  A giggling pink-frilled whirlwind, that is. One named Sally, who appeared to be accompanied by two nearly naked bodybuilders.

  She stopped next to me, air-kissing the spaces about four inches from either side of my face. “You look simply scrumptious in that black leather waist cincher. It’s amazing what that can do for your figure, isn’t it? Magoth, my dear boy, is that your curse, or are you just happy to see me?” Having dealt with the niceties, Sally squealed her way over to Magoth and stroked a hand down his bare chest. “Still so yummy, even though a bath would probably be the best thing right now. Is that mouse droppings in your hair? Oooh. Kinky.”

  Magoth simpered at her. I kept my eye rolling to merely a desire, and greeted her politely. “Hello, Sally. I wondered what happened to you, since we haven’t seen you in a few months. It looks like you’ve taken up coaching Chippendales dancers.”

  The nearest wrath demon flexed its zebra-striped thong at me.

  “You mean Vincenzo and Gunter? Aren’t they the most scrumptious things you’ve ever seen?” Sally blew them a kiss.

  “Er . . . they’re definitely something,” I said, avoiding eye contact with them.

  “Sugar, jealousy just doesn’t look good on you. I’ll send them away, since you know how much I value our friendship. Well, that and they’re naughty little boys who don’t like it when Mumsy pays attention to other men.” She kissed Magoth’s ear and made an elaborate gesture in the air. The two nearly naked demons disappeared.

  “I wonder how I’d look in a thong,” Jim said thoughtfully, squinting at the spot in which the two demons had been standing.

  “Ridiculous,”I told it before turning to Sally.“You look hale and hearty. I take it you’re still apprenticing?”

  “Gracious, no!” She looked crestfallen for a moment. “You didn’t get the invitation for the ceremony? Hell-fire! I knew I should have gone with Crane and Co. to do my announcements rather than having one of the minions handcraft paper from Yankee money. I’m sorry about that, May. It was a beautiful ceremony, truly moving when Bael sacrificed an entire legion to mark the occasion of my ascension to the throne. You would have loved it.”

  Somehow, I doubted that. Still, my eyes widened at the thought of Sally ruling Abaddon. “You took the throne?”

  “You little backstabber,” Magoth told her fondly, using the arm he had around her waist to give her a squeeze. “You used my banishment to forward your own cause. What a superbly self-serving thing to do.”

  She bit his chin. “I knew you’d approve.”

  “So long as it wasn’t my seat, yes.”

  “To answer your question, May, I took over the seat left vacant by that demon lord who is now all dragonny,” she said, giggling a little as Magoth goosed her. “You know her, don’t you? I’d appreciate it if you could give her a piece of my mind. She’s absolutely ruined all of my minions. You wouldn’t believe the lax attitudes they have, not to mention a flat-out refusal to do anything truly evil. I mean, seriously, what’s the use of having minions if they won’t go forth and spread debauchery, depravity, and suffering in your name?”

  “Shocking,” Magoth murmured, both hands on her butt now.

  I said simply, “What a disappointment that must be to you. I will be sure to pass along your complaint to Aisling.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be heartbroken,” Jim said, snickering just a little.

  Sally, who had been whispering and giggling to Magoth, suddenly froze, her head snapping around to pierce Jim with a look that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Who dares to speak to me without permission? What is your name, demon?”

  “This is Jim,” I said quickly as Jim backed up until it was pressed against my legs. “It’s Aisling’s demon, actually, although it’s out on loan to me.”

  “It is impertinent,” Sally said, and with a negligent hand drew a symbol in the air.

  “Hey, all I said—” Jim disappeared, just flat-out disappeared.

  Fury roared to life within me. “What did you do?” I almost yelled, stomping forward toward her.

  She had the gall to look surprised. “Why, banished it to the Akasha, of course. I know you’re not a demon lord, May, but rea
lly, your time here in Abaddon should have taught you that the only way to maintain control is to never allow impertinence in minions. It can only lead to worse things, like insubordination and outright mutiny.”

  “She’s right,” Magoth said, nodding. “I prefer torture, myself, since it entertains and is a good demonstration for other demons, but the idea is sound.”

  “Bring it back,” I said, my voice a low growl that I didn’t recognize.

  “Don’t be silly—it’s just a sixth-class demon,” Sally said, dismissing my concern to turn her head and nuzzle Magoth’s filthy neck. She plucked a fern from behind his ear and proceeded to tickle his penis with it.

  I slid a glance toward Bael. He was leaning back in his chair, watching me with an anticipatory light in his eyes.

  “Bring. It. Back,” I said again, my body elongating and shifting into that of a silver-covered dragon. I drew back my lips, sending fire through my clenched teeth.

  Sally’s eyes widened as I took a step toward her, sending fire to the very tips of her sparkly pink plastic shoes. “May! This is how you thank me?”

  Magoth shoved Sally aside, his arms held wide as he welcomed me. “May! My own sweet, scaly May! You want to play? Right here? Right now? In front of Bael? I question your sense of timing, and yet, I am strangely excited by the thought. Let’s go for it. Give me a piece of that sweet tail!”

  The air cracked. A large whump followed as Magoth hit the far wall of the room, sliding down the wood paneling with a squeak of flesh against highly polished wood.

  Sally watched him for a moment before turning back to me, her eyes thoughtful, her lips pursed. “I see.”

  “Do you?” I walked toward her, slowly, little compression tremors shaking the ground as I did so. “Do you, really?”

  “Perhaps I was a little hasty in banishing your servant,” she said quickly, backing up a couple of steps. “I don’t want there to be bad feelings between us, sugar. What if I bring the demon back? Would that make you happy again?”

  I let a slow smile curve my lips before I forced the dragon shard back into obedience, my body changing back to its normal shape. “That would make me very happy, indeed.”