The Demon's Game Read online

  “Your class schedules arrived yesterday,” I said to the boys. “I got you both in advanced classes, but they wouldn’t put Ron in sixth grade because he’s too young.” Luckily, the principal of the local middle school hadn’t seen Ron or he would have tried to put the child in fourth grade. I could have made his legal records show that he was ten, but we were lucky if people believed he was his actual age.

  My son was the epitome of “fine-boned.” I knew he would never be huge, but at this point he would be fortunate to reach his mother’s height. There was nothing wrong with him, he was just small. His hair was the same dark brown as mine and his eyes were the same green, but his features were soft at his age.

  “So we’re in fifth grade?” Hail asked.

  Hail was a different matter entirely. Although he wasn’t muscular or overweight, he was growing very quickly to the point that while he was only eleven, he could easily pass for thirteen. His hair was brown with deep red shading and was very shiny, while his purple eyes nearly glowed in the dark. Ron threw a fit the last time Hail asked me to cut his hair when it got too shaggy.

  “Sorry, honey, but the best I could do was get you in the same school. You’re in sixth grade and Ron is in fifth grade. Seventh graders are in a different building. This year, you’re going to have to be bear with it. Next year, you’ll go to seventh grade and Ron will skip sixth grade so the two of you can be in the same class. So, Ron…”

  “Show them all up so I can skip sixth grade? No problem. Thank you for getting us in the same school. I know it wasn’t easy.”

  Ron was an angel.

  “No! We have to be in the same class!” Hail cried. “Ron needs me! What if something happens?”

  Divina sighed.

  Ron had lived with the balance of the universe inside him for five years, and although nothing had gone wrong yet, we were always on guard. He tried to hide it, but sometimes when Mordon and I were separated for a few days, Ron would avoid me like the plague. I knew that he could always feel it. The balance constantly pushed Vretial to do things when it was inside him and we knew it was only a matter of time before it tried to force Ron. For all we knew, Hail was the only one who could help him if the balance ever tried to take control of Ron.

  If anything happened to Ron because I made them go to school…

  “We haven’t got the bus schedule yet, so somebody has to drop you off at school,” I said.

  “Not it!” Divina yelled.

  I laughed and kissed her. “Sorry, babe, but you can’t drive for shit. And Mordon hates being in the ‘metal cage.’ Our neighbor in one-oh-three is one of my coworkers. He has a son in fifth grade, so his wife is going to drive their kid to school. I already spoke with him and his wife is okay with taking two more.”

  We had two cars; my blue Jaguar C-X75 and a black Dodge Charger. My father had dozens of cars that were passed down to me. He didn’t even leave them in a will; he actually put the titles in my name. I wasn’t a car nut, but I couldn’t resist the Jaguar. We used the Charger as an emergency car.

  “Why doesn’t his son take the bus?” Ron asked.

  “His son, Drake, is in recovery from cancer. He’s been through the ringer and has problems leaving his mom.” I knew the boys didn’t understand mortal afflictions. Although they both understood injuries and even sickness, they’d never encountered something like cancer. I wanted them to see what Earth was all about, but it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.

  “Why didn’t you heal him?” Ron asked.

  “He’s never been to the ER. I’ve never met him or been near him.” I knew without a doubt what my son would say.

  “I’ll take care of him,” Ron said. Hail nodded his agreement.

  “Be careful. You can’t heal people on Earth like you can on Duran; you have to hide your magic from everyone. I’m not saying don’t help him, I’m just saying you need to be careful. Slow and gentle.” I’ve warned the boys they had to hide their magic on Earth, but I was still worried. They were both demigods and about to be set loose in a human middle school.

  Mordon entered the kitchen wearing only jeans as I poured my second cup of coffee. He was really trying to fit in on Earth. He hated jeans, but wore them anyway, and he cut his hair into an actual style instead of just tying it back. I was still getting used to it.

  “There’s plenty more coffee,” I offered.

  Mordon scowled at the eggs. “Between your coffee and your wife’s cooking, I think I’m going to starve on this primitive world.”

  At that point, I checked out the two plates of eggs on the table. Considering that the last time I asked her to make food, she presented a plate of dry, chocolate cereal, it was an improvement. She may have preferred Duran food, but pre-prepared food had its place in our house.

  “Excuse me, my world is not primitive!” Divina growled.

  “And there is nothing wrong with my wife’s cooking,” I added, taking her fork and stabbing some of the eggs before gathering it onto the fork. I took a bite, swallowed, and shuddered, trying desperately not to make a face. Oh, my, god, salt. Too much salt. “But I think Ron should take over the cooking from now on.” I took the plate and fork and scraped the eggs off into the trash before someone died, making a mental note to explain to my wife when we were in private what moderation was. “Now, I’ve got to get to work. Divina, take the boys over to one-oh-three in five minutes. Mordon, stay out of trouble. No sheep chasing or burning down villages.”

  “Dylan, I hate you.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “You’re not going to ask me to stay out of trouble?” Divina asked, putting her chin in her hand and smirking at me.

  My heart skipped a beat and I inadvertently swallowed. “I’d be wasting my breath.”

  “I was thinking of popping off to Venice for lunch.”

  She was taunting me. There was no way I could miss work to go to Italy with her… but I wanted to so badly. “Take Mordon with you.”

  She glared. “I tell you I’m going to our honeymoon place and you tell me to take another man.”

  I shrugged. “Mordon isn’t another man.” Mordon smacked me in the shoulder. “You’re not! You’re my brother. If there is anyone in the universe I trust my wife with, it’s you.” Even if the goddess was willing to cheat on me, Mordon was incapable of betraying me. “Now, I have to go. The boys’ schedules and backpacks are on the coffee table. Make sure they dress appropriately; it’s cold now but it’ll warm up. I’ll be home about six.” I kissed Divina once more and hugged the boys, deliberately not commenting on Hail’s outfit. I really wanted to see them off on the first day, but I just couldn’t be late.

  Mordon patted me on the arm as I headed out for work. He could feel my worry and frustration, but it was my choices that put us in this situation. I worked as a doctor for a month in this little town already, but it was the first day my boys were here, and it was their first day of school.

  While the town was large enough to have a decent school and a functioning hospital, it was pretty secluded. This was made pathetically obvious by the fact that only one highway, which passed about a quarter mile out of town, was our single link to the rest of the country. Aside from the school and hospital, we had a decent array of typical stores and establishments that conveniently lined our main street. Due to the later opening hours of the stores and the early hour of my shift, my drive to work was quick and relatively traffic-free.

  As usual, the small hospital was quiet, which was wonderful because it meant there weren’t many patients. Overnight shift in the ER was true Hell. As small as the hospital was, the staff here was dedicated and caring.

  I was changing into my scrubs when the overhead paged me, beginning a surge of patients that lasted all morning. By the end of the first month at the hospital, I was on to them; the nurses realized how good I was with the “no hope” patients, so they were sending the most intensive cases to me. Although it was honestly what I wanted, I wished they said something instead of try
ing to be secretive about it. Oh, the nurses felt guilty and tried to ease their guilt by feeding me home-cooked meals and ordering pizza, but they still never admitted anything.

  The worst case of the morning was a little boy, Ron’s age, who had been shot by his brother on accident. He was unconscious when they brought him in, which was a relief, since I couldn’t handle crying children. Because he was shot in the stomach, there was a lot of internal damage. I had to operate, but I used my magic efficiently and subtly enough that the many nurses around never suspected a thing. Most of it was instinct and before I knew it, an hour had gone by.

  Everyone was amazed that I managed to keep him from bleeding out. I was just amazed the power didn’t cut out in the middle of the operation. It seemed the more focused I was, the better chance the equipment had of not blowing out. What was most important was that the little boy would be fine.

  “Dr. Yatunus,” the head nurse called as I passed the nurse station.

  “Hey, Ms. Manning.” I changed direction and went to the counter. “How is your morning going?” I asked.

  The nurse was sweet, but very strict with the other nurses. Since I had only been at the hospital for a month, I assumed it was the normal culture of nurses. She was about my age, around five-six, with shoulder-length white-blond hair and light hazel eyes. Frown lines were just beginning to set in her face and she was on the verge of being too thin. I had heard other nurses say she was bitter and needed a husband, but I was of mind that people were usually happier when others weren’t talking behind their backs.

  “Better than some mornings.” She set a box of pizza down on the pristine white counter. “I saved you a few slices.”

  “Thank you,” I said. She opened the box to reveal half a large pepperoni pizza. I grabbed a piece and wolfed it down as fast as I could without being rude. Healing with magic took a lot of energy and usually left me starving and sore.

  “Doesn’t your wife ever feed you? Or is she one of those ‘woman power’ types who thinks the husband should cook?”

  I nearly choked and had to swallow carefully before laughing. “She’s definitely not a feminist. She’s not a housewife, either, and I don’t expect her to cook. The only one in the entire house who has an ounce of cooking talent is Ron. Did I show you the pictures of the boys?” I asked.

  “Only three times,” she laughed.

  “Sorry.” I didn’t mean to waste their time, as these nurses were ridiculously busy.

  “It’s okay. Men who care about their kids are sexy.”

  From a biological standpoint, that made a lot of sense. The nurse started to say something else when John walked in.

  Had I met the man in regular clothes, I would not have assumed he was a doctor. He was thirty-two, six-feet tall, and about as posh as they came. John was clean shaven with medium brown hair, clear blue eyes, and a sharp angular jaw. Although he moved to America when he was only ten, he still had a distinct English accent.

  John was one of the two emergency medicine doctors besides me who worked at this hospital. By some odd coincidence, he was also my next-door neighbor.

  “Hey, John. How’s Drake?” I asked. As much as I told Ron to be careful with his magic, it pained me to know there was a little boy who was suffering. I knew the first time John told me about his son’s cancer that I would heal him the moment I met the child.

  “He’s doing well today, thanks. Stacy took him and your boys to school. I told her to go ahead and pick them up, but said I would check with you. She said your brother brought Ron and Hail over, so I assumed they didn’t have a ride home.”

  I sighed, wondering if I was actually competent enough to last on my own damn home world. “Sorry. It’s been so long since I was in school; I just assumed there would be a bus.”

  He laughed. “There are about ten busses and only one goes by the apartments. Not very good odds. But don’t worry about it. Drake never takes the bus, so she wouldn’t mind at all taking Ron and Hail and picking them all up. Is your wife going to be home after school?”

  Divina always found something to keep herself busy with. Being mysterious, powerful, and manipulative helped her to feel like the goddess she needed to be, which meant she could be more of a mother to the boys whenever she was home, but it also meant she wasn’t at home a whole lot.

  “My brother will be. I really appreciate it.” That was the last moment of peace before all hell broke loose.

  There was a major car accident on the highway and patients were spilling in as fast as their blood was spilling out. People with broken arms and major injuries were sitting in the waiting room because the ER was full. Every nook and cranny of the hospital was crowded with screaming kids and blood. This small-town hospital wasn’t designed for any halfway major accident, so all sense of order went out the window.

  I directed Nurse Manning to call for reinforcements while I was busy holding a crying woman down. She had a metal bar through her leg and was moments from death. I knew I couldn’t help her if she didn’t stop moving, so I used my magic. To everyone else it looked like she passed out at the same time all the lights in the building flickered.

  Administering medicine was ridiculous because I didn’t have time to check the patients’ records to see if they were allergic to anything. Most of the patients couldn’t tell me their names and weren’t locals. Knowing full well the dangers of using medicine without even asking the patient’s medical history, I used magic instead.

  Machines and lights all over the hospital flickered and faltered, making it seem like we were working in a war zone. It took hours upon hours before people stopped flooding in and we could work on the patients that were waiting with terribly painful injuries. While I helped a number of people, there were three that I couldn’t save. Many were dead at the crash site, but three made it to the hospital just a little too late. Although other doctors were called in, we didn’t have the resources we needed. Some of the less severe cases were sent off to other hospitals, the closest of which was forty-five miles away.

  I was working on a man with a broken arm when they brought a little girl in. At first, I thought they brought me a corpse, until I realized she had very weak vital signs. Apparently, they thought she was dead at first, too, since she had no heartbeat for at least ten minutes. She was a little survivor, though.

  Her waist-length gold hair was matted with mud and blood and her light blue dress was torn and charred. Oddly, while her dress was burned and she had ash on her, there were no burns on her skin. In fact, there were no scratches, scrapes, or bruises, let alone an abrasion severe enough to kill her.

  After making sure the man was adequately seen to, I sent him out for the nurses to handle. Once alone with the little girl, I immediately directed my magic through her. My energy returned with the oddest image imaginable; she had three skeletal structures.

  I could only stare in shock for a moment before searching her again with my magic. This time, I focused on her human structure, her human muscles and organs. Despite the lack of any surface wounds, there was a lot of internal bleeding and damage; she should have been dead. It seemed as if her chest had been crushed, but her heart still beat and she wasn’t beyond help.

  My magic closed internal wounds to a point, because I didn’t know what anyone had seen. Obviously, they brought her in immediately, but I still had to be stealthy. I knew enough about my own magic to realize that if they did an x-ray, they would only have seen her human skeletal system.

  This was when things got weirder. My magic suddenly encountered her magic. It wasn’t nominal energy, but something much more powerful and primitive. As if my energy unleashed hers, her magic suddenly took over the healing process. I let go just in time as she unexpectedly changed. Her bones snapped and rejoined, her muscled shrunk and grew, and fur sprouted over her body until before me was a little wolf. By little, I meant at least as large as a regular wolf, but definitely still a pup. I knew what she was, and I knew that she was tiny compared to an adult wolf sh
ifter from Skrev. This little girl was very far from home.

  The door burst open and I instinctively placed myself between the alien child and whoever was coming in. Instead of a horde of nurses and doctors, it was a woman and man in street clothes. The woman looked at the wolf on the table and then me with panic and anger on her face. She growled at me, her eyes suddenly glowing red and her teeth sharpening into fangs. I needed no animal instincts to know this was a mother about to defend her baby.

  The man shut the door behind them and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to hold her back. They both had athletic builds and looked to be in their late twenties. The woman was about five-six with long golden blond hair and could have been the spokesman for any trophy-wife club. Around six-two, the man had a natural tan with chestnut brown hair and striking gold eyes. I could sense powerful survival and hunter instincts behind those eyes.

  “I wish you hadn’t seen that, doctor,” the man said with regret. He spoke in English, but with a thick accent.

  Obviously, this was their daughter and they thought they would have to kill me to protect their secret. I hoped to talk some sense into them before their daughter ended up an orphan. “You mean, see the child of Skrev shift into her beast?” I asked. I used my magic to speak in his language, whatever it was.

  Their eyes widened and they both sniffed me. “You are not from Skrev,” the woman insisted.

  “No, I’m from Duran; half human, half sago. I’m also the Noquodi of Earth and friends with Ghidorah of Skrev. My brother is a dragon. I am powerful enough to stop your hearts from beating in your chest where you stand and I’ve had a very bad day. Now, you want to tell me why your daughter was brought into a hospital full of humans or do you want to keep snarling like dogs?”

  “Ronez is the Guardian of Earth. We signed his book.”

  “Ronez was my father. He died thirteen years ago. I don’t care why you’re here, I want to know why your daughter is in the hospital where she could have shifted in front of any human doctor.”