Revealed in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“I am in balance.”

Shivers covered my body. I didn’t want to know the darkness that clearly lurked within him.

Well…kind of didn’t, and kind of did. I just didn’t want it directed at me.

“Do you ever chase shifters around for sport?” I asked. He gave me a funny look, but I waved it away. “Never mind. It also should be noted that Lucifer would’ve rather gone to war to get what he wanted than take the obvious solution and send his son back to live in the human world.”

“A parent would move heaven and earth for their child. Lucifer is no different.”

I squinted, because yes, he was different. My mother had sacrificed big time to keep me safe, and Penny’s mother had done the same for her. Neither of them would have turned a blind eye if we’d started torturing people in our rooms. My dear old dad would not win any awards for father of the year, and I wouldn’t put it past him to torture me to bring me to heel. Clearly the practice was tolerated, and I knew for a fact that Lucifer’s power had a larger range than mine. If anyone could break me, I had every reason to believe it was him.

I sighed. “We still have not covered how elephants could possibly fit into all of this, since they also do not exist in the Realm.”

“Now your impatience is the problem. After I was released, I washed my hands of Julius. I left the Underworld and did not look back. I haven’t been there since.”

“You hold grudges. Got it.”

“Julius showed his displeasure by mutilating the elephants that roamed freely on my Brink property and delivering them to my doorstep. I’d saved those elephants from…what we’d call poachers now. They had refuge on my estate. They were the closest thing I had to family, as alone as I am in this life. It was like mutilating a pet, in a way, but more meaningful. I grieved heavily that I was the ultimate cause of their demise.”

“Hmm. So my using elephants was a pretty low blow.”

“Certainly not as low as punching me in the nut sack.”

“It’s lower, believe me. I’ll punch a dick any ol’ day and twice on Sunday. I do not care. Take that as a warning. But seeing me re-kill your not-pets must have been rough. My bad.”

“The memory has faded. My worry is less about seeing a fake elephant die than it is about an heir who would kill a defenseless animal out of spite. Those elephants represent my fear of what you may become.”

Two

I braced my hands on my hips. “That was quite a truth bomb. But not to worry—I don’t want to lord my power over people. I’m happy living in the Brink, and even though it seems like I have everything I could possibly want, it is at the expense of my freedom. I’d prefer to be left alone and get on with my life. You’re in no danger of losing not-pets. Not from me, anyway.”

“What is your freedom worth? Your friends’ lives? Your beloved’s?”

“Darius calls me his beloved, not the other way around. I’m not nearly old enough to use that term of endearment. But no, my freedom is not worth any of those things, which is why I went down into the Underworld rather than letting my father come find me up here.”

After being in Cahal’s company every day for the last couple of months, I could read the subtle nuances in his blank stares. I’d just answered a question.

“Surely you knew that those rumors were about me,” I said, turning and heading toward the others. It had taken a while, but my elephant question had been answered. Time to get back to being pampered in luxury. Man, my life was dull.

I couldn’t even go annoy other vampires, even though this place was a sort of refuge for them. Usually they’d bring a whole host of humans and eat and bang and do whatever else vampires got up to when the boss wasn’t around. Since I was being hidden here, however, the campus was closed for “renovations,” something Darius did every few years anyway. It was just me, him, a druid who didn’t know staring was rude, and now my mage friends. That was it. None of them would run if I chased them. What kind of sport was that?

“I could really go for a shifter bar right about now,” I murmured.

Everything okay? Darius thought as I neared.

Since I had demon magic that could pluck thoughts out of people’s heads (unless they knew how to shield me), we could speak telepathically, one-way radio style. The bond between us also allowed the sharing of emotion, and that seemed to provide Darius with all the guidance he needed to guess my thoughts. With anyone else, that would have made me nervous.