A Demon's Duty (The Demon Guardian Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  “No. When I was followed from here this afternoon, I allowed myself to be caught. It was Belit herself who came to me for some conversation. She claimed ownership of the beasts you destroyed. I found her record in here and confirmed what I had thought. Her father was one of Uruk’s allies. Uruk was the one who orchestrated my abrupt departure from the clan.” He sat down again and reopened the book, black eyes skimming over the text recording her birth and the page after it. “After I left, there was an unsuccessful coup attempt, and those involved were killed, either in the fighting or afterwards as examples to discourage other attempts, Belit’s father included. She is trying to regain her position in the clan by breeding these hounds to give as gifts to influential leaders and to sell to wealthy collectors. She seeks prestige and thus power, as most demons do.”

  “She approached you?” May gasped and her eyes widened. “You talked to her?”

  “She began following me very soon after I left here, so I felt it would be wise to avoid leading her back to you. She pretended that it had been simple chance that had let her find me, but I doubt it.” Michael pocketed the book again, tipping May’s tidy stack of papers to flutter back onto the floor and steered her back out the door towards the stairs. “She wants my help protecting her last pack from you and your Guardians.” He added, amused.

  “She asked you to join forces with her?” May’s voice was flat.

  “It seems that the loss of this pack has made her nervous. I would guess that the other teams that fought them did a fair amount of damage as well, even though they were defeated in the end. I think that Belit only has the one pack left and plans to breed more for her stock from it. She implied that they were not yet fully grown, though how big that may be I don’t know. She called them glorious, so I would assume fairly large.” He shrugged. “Belit seems to think that returning me to my father would go still further than gifting him with these hounds, and would cement her advancement now that those who forced me to leave have been removed.”

  “What?” May stopped dead on the stairs. The corners of Michael’s lips twitched in amusement and he was glad that her vision was so poor in the dark. May’s voice did nothing to hide her thoughts even if she didn’t put them to words. “You’re going back? To the Demon Realm?”

  “I admitted my interest in her hounds, and I told that her proposal deserved some consideration, but I wasn’t prepared to make any bargains at that moment, no.” Michael took her elbow and helped her down the last few steps and back toward the door she’d entered by. “I feel that I should now point out that you are also interested in her hounds. Extremely interested. And so are Paula and Lee, and the rest of the Temple. And you should agree that the proposal deserves a great deal of thought. It tells us a number of things, after all.”

  “It does?” May’s brow furrowed.

  “Indeed. It tells us, for one thing, that there is a fairly significant power vacuum in the clan. I was never of any particular interest before I left, why should I now be eagerly welcomed? The answer is because the clan leaders need to refill their ranks and as my father’s son I am well placed to do that whether they like me or not. I would presumably be willing to ally myself against those who engineered my exile and therefor support those who are rebuilding their power, and likely they think they could control me easily enough since I have been away for so long.” Michael stopped them before they reached the door. “It reveals a few other things as well and we will have to discuss it in some detail, but right now there’s someone outside and heading this way.” He pulled her to the side and behind the remains of a partition, into the deep shadows of the wall. “I will see him well enough, but it’s unlikely he will be able see us should he look this way. Just stay quiet.”

  They heard the door open and a circle of light swept in along the floor back the way they had come. A man in filthy jeans and a loose hooded jacket tracked the path towards the stairs, flashlight in one hand and a shabby backpack slung over his shoulder. Michael was glad they hadn’t stayed there any longer discussing his lineage— clearly this man was familiar with the place and knew exactly where he wished to go. Probably Belit’s human servant.

  He wondered how she had come to have a human running her errands in the first place. It wasn’t unheard of, but even those trained to fight creatures from the demon realm had been quickly overwhelmed by her hounds, so why this man? And just one? Why not several servants from her own household? Michael didn’t know the answer to those questions, but he felt that they would go a long way to understanding the bigger situation if he could find out. The man swore loudly when he found the doorknob broken and the office open, but was now rummaging in the office, pulling out file drawers and sorting through the papers.

  The jacket wasn’t the only thing he’d grabbed from his wardrobe— he’d kept the small silver knife in his office as a sort of souvenir, but it’s larger mate had been in his sanctum with the rest of his cast off wardrobe, far too large to pretend it was a letter opener.The blade hung at his side, sheathed in black leather that seemed somehow even darker than the lightless warehouse corner, but the hilt still glittered bright silver hidden under his scruffy coat. He put his hand on it now, ready to draw on it’s edge or it’s enchantment if necessary. The man finished stuffing papers into the backpack he’d brought and started back down the stairs. Something else rang out in Michael’s awareness and he hissed in the dark. He snarled briefly and shrugged out of the coat. May sucked in her breath at the sudden movement and he shoved the long flapping coat at her, partially wrapping her with it.

  “Stay here.” He breathed into her ear, “Do not move, do not make a sound. And stay in the coat, understood?” May nodded, reflexively clutching at the material and reacting as much to the tone of his voice as to the words. Michael stepped out of the corner and directly in front of the man’s light.

  “I trust you found whatever it was you were looking for?” Michael asked. “I didn’t see anything particularly interesting, but then I have the advantage of having had more time to study the subject.”

  “Gods!” The circle of light swung wildly as man stumbled backwards. Michael merely stood there, hand still resting on the hilt of his short sword.

  “Who the fuck’re you? What’re you doing here?” the man demanded once he’d regained his footing. Michael saw his eyes dart to the weapon and back.

  “Rather hypocritical of you to call upon the divine considering who you work for, I’d say.”

  “Oh fuck. You’re him, aren’t you? That Gibil guy she’s been looking for?”

  “And how long has she been looking for me, I wonder?” Michael’s voice grew smoother with every word. He never moved, but the barest shimmer passed over his features and the man’s face turned sheet white as the glamour dropped.

  “A while. Like a year maybe? Since she got me to help her find places like this to keep those damn monsters at least. I heard her say that she’d be rewarded for bringing you back. I don’t care, I just want out. Tell her I quit, it’s not worth it.” The man slung the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “I just came for the notes I took, then I’ll figure the rest out myself as far the fuck from here as I can get.” He shifted his weight and glanced back over his shoulder.

  “You should go quickly then.”

  Michael smiled and the flashlight started to shake in the man’s hand. He took a step back and looked over his shoulder again. The loading dock’s huge roll door was still open, but there was the whole warehouse between them and it.

  “There’s no fucking way I’m going near those things again. There’s no magic lesson’s going to get me back there. She can’t teach me shit that’s worth that.”

  “Consider the lesson a larger one then.” Belit hissed from behind him. The man’s flashlight clattered to the floor and rolled away, its circle of light swinging wildly till it came to rest on one of the old cages. She let his corpse drop to the floor and smiled at Michael, white teeth gleaming faintly in the dark as she licked the blood
from her claw tipped finger.

  “Belit.” He said.

  “Gibil,” she purred. “You didn’t need to come back here. I would have welcomed you gladly at my own chambers. Come with me now, I will show you my pack!” Michael’s expression never changed.

  “Take me there.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Michael looked at the plain front of the building. Belit had led him the length of the River Trail cooing about her hounds and complaining bitterly about the Human Realm the whole way. Michael followed her in silence, striding along briskly so that she had to hurry to stay ahead. He hoped that May would be smart enough to call Paula. She was injured and still not at full strength for a battle, new spells or no.

  This warehouse was on the older end of the waterfront on the opposite side of town from where the other pack had been kept. Here the brick buildings had once served as both shipping warehouse and the center of business, and we're now being considered for gentrification projects. Windows perforated the building, finding that balance between structural integrity and adequate lighting that had been so important for builders of some two hundred years earlier. This building was slightly older than Michael himself, a fact he found strangely comforting. The smell of the river was thick here, and he could hear it splashing around against pilings beneath the far side of the building as the wind picked up and stirred the current. The faint tingle of a shabbily constructed ward confirmed to him that Belit wasn’t lying now and this was the correct place. The ward was barely even worth his effort, but he knew she had set it up as a test, so he went ahead and brushed the spell aside. Beside him Belit shivered, a smile flickering over her lips. He wondered if she was simply that unskilled at warding her properties. That would explain how easily the hounds escaped her.

  He stretched out his awareness again, mentally sighing as he noted the presence of not only Belit, but May as well. Why hadn’t she just stayed safely behind? There were some creatures inside also: the last pack. Belit used her key and opened a door set into the middle of the brick wall and entered an undecorated hallway. She had no reason to hide her true nature here so her brown hair tumbled over deep rose colored skin as she tipped her head back to smile at him. He raised an eyebrow at her and she backed in to allow him to enter.

  “You’re not being terribly cautious in your habits. It’s late, but there are still humans around.” He looked down at her.

  “And you are perhaps too cautious. Why should you need a blade for protection from mere humans? Or did you think I would threaten you?” The catlike smile crept back over her face as she reached out to fingers to trail down his arm.

  “I have no reason to trust you, so I feel it was natural to have armed myself before carrying out my investigations. And I don’t like to make decisions without gathering as much information as I can.” He stepped towards Belit, gently closed the door behind him and finally allowing his own glamour to fall away. “Tell me about your hounds. I have never much cared for the beasts, you know. Too difficult to train properly, and always leaving parts of their meals behind them. I dislike a mess. I would consider them far too much trouble for a pet.”

  “Oh, but these aren’t mere pets for fireside tricks, Gibil. These are for war! A bit of mess in the middle of a battle wouldn’t bother you, I’m sure. I had hoped to gift your father with a pair of them when they were grown, but with so few left thanks to those wretched Temple humans I may have to keep a breeding pair and only make a gift of one.” She pouted at him and tilted her head. “Come and have a drink with me. We can be more comfortable upstairs. It is only a shabby little place, but at least it is more comfortable than the hallway. And I can show you the pack from my private overlook.”

  Belit led the way down the unpainted sheetrock hallway and up some builder grade stairs. The second floor was meant to house the administrative offices but whoever had been renovating the place hadn’t gotten that far. Instead of smaller offices for inspectors and managers there was one large room that spanned the width of the building. The walls were covered in tapestries and hangings—Michael even recognized a few of them— except the inside wall which was two long rows of dusky blue curtains interrupted by a wooden door. A huge bed dominated the end of the room: a nightmarish Old Hollywood sultan’s harem of pillows and quilts and gauzy drapes. The near end of the room was more of a living space with an alchemical work table similar to his own that showed signs of recent use. In the middle of the room was a pair of elegant upholstered armchairs with a small table between them. On the table was a decanter and two glasses.

  “You really were confident I’d come to find you, Belit.” He said.

  “A man of your quality? I knew you wouldn’t have any trouble. Besides, I wasn’t hiding from you.” She slithered across the room and poured the scotch into a glass. “It’s not from home, sadly, but I think these human drinks are surprisingly fun. It’s really not too bad at all, I was quite pleased to discover this!” Michael watched her from eyes that gave nothing away. Her back showed lean and muscular through the thin silk of her sleeveless blouse, curving delicately as she poured the drinks. She moved confidently, making sure that he watched her the way she wanted him to. Michael obliged, enjoying the game. It had been some time since he’d last played it, after all, and she was certainly pleasant to look at. Outside, the breeze was now truly wind and blowing much stronger, beating against the brick and causing the windows to rattle and the wooden structure inside to creak sympathetically. Belit stirred the air over the drink with her finger, and the liquid inside the glass swirled in obedience, a frost rising up the outside.

  “I understand this is often served with ice, but I only just acquired it, and I have no ice here. Sit, Gibil, Let me make you comfortable. Much better to be inside tonight, warm and with company to enjoy.” She handed him the chilled glass and led him to one of the chairs. “Oh your father will be so satisfied to see you. And it will be good to have some balance in the leadership again.”

  “I haven’t said I would go anywhere with you. I said that I came here to learn more.” She curled onto the arm of the chair he lounged in. She ran her fingers through his hair, tracing over the ridge of boney knobs that slanted back from his brow.

  “Oh, but now that you have come to visit me here, I am certain that you will return home with me. Why would you possibly want to stay amongst these humans when you don’t need to? You don’t belong here, scrabbling to try to find a decent room amongst these creatures. They have their uses, I admit, and aren’t nearly as awful as I always thought they would be, but that’s no reason to live here. You poor thing, being trapped here for so long.” She put her drink down on the table beside them she slid into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can’t even imagine what you must have gone through this past century. But it’s over now. I’ve come to bring you home.” She nuzzled his shoulder, stretching slightly to kiss his neck. The door that nestled in the blue curtains creaked quietly. Michael put his own drink down beside hers and shifted her weight in his lap.

  “It hasn’t been so bad. It’s easy to be successful here, after all, if one is willing to be patient. I’ve been comfortable enough for the most part.” He reached his hand out and picked up a glass. “I usually have much better scotch for one thing.” He drank deeply, enjoying the warmth of the liquid despite his words.

  “You’ll have to share it with me then. Show me how to find comfort here, Gibil, while I finish my work. Perhaps we could even start importing some bottles as an exotic novelty!” She ran the sharp tip of one claw like nail up his chest. “I haven’t found much to take pleasure in while I have been here. I don’t like this place.” She started to play with the top button on his shirt. He reached up to take her hand.

  “I am quite comfortable here, I assure you.” He said.

  “If you want comfort, I’m sure my bed could provide that for you far better.” Belit’s smile held no humor, only promise as she stood, holding onto his hand. He let her tug him out of the chair a
nd lifted the still full glass in his free hand as he rose. He handed it to her and listened carefully. The wind whipping around the roof was all he heard.

  “At least don’t let me drink alone. That’s poor manners in either realm.” Belit’s smile almost reached her eyes as she drained the glass and set it back down.

  “We’re even now.” She reached up and cupped her hand around his face. “I do love a tall man.” She said, leaning in to him. The landing outside the door creaked again. He walked Belit backwards towards the bed, and she almost crowed at his eagerness. She found the edge of the mattress with her legs and pulled him down to land on top of her as she toppled backwards onto the soft surface. “Much better.” She said, her voice thick.

  “I certainly agree.” Michael answered, brushing the hair off her face to watch her eyelids flutter shut. His eyes narrowed, watching her face as her body relaxed beneath his, her arms sliding from around his neck as if pulled down by weights. “Though I suspect this wasn’t quite the outcome you were hoping for. Next time you should be careful to keep better track of which glass is your own.”

  He stood and grimaced at the white heat of the fire in his left shoulder. If this kept up, he really would have to cut the damned thing off.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Damn that man, locking the front door behind him! At least one of the side doors was unlocked, and May slipped in as quietly as she could. The wind whistled around the doorframe when she closed it behind her, but she still listened carefully, trying to find where the pair of High Demons had gone. She realized that she actually knew where Michael was, when she concentrated a little. She’d always been able to sense the presence of James and Pike, but only in the vague sort of way that one often can sense another living being in a room. Just with them it had been definite. Now, though, she knew, somehow, exactly which direction Michael was in the building, and the closer she got the more sure she was.