Authors: Marilu Mann
“Yes.” The drawn out word seemed to be dragged from him. Though she hadn’t ordered him to tell her the truth, she knew he wasn’t lying to her now.
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“So, this isn’t what you look like when you’re at home?”
“No.”
His return to terse answers after the amazing sex they’d just shared pissed her off.
Mari yanked her hand out from under his and stared at Ros until he met her eyes. “I command you to show me your true form.”
“No!”
The shock on his face might have amused her at one time, but this wasn’t it. Jerking to his feet, Ros seemed to grow another foot or so. His hair lengthened, falling well below his shoulders to mid-back, the ebony strands curling slightly at the ends. His skin turned a blue the color of a good sapphire, and his eyes turned red. Small black horns sprouted from the top of his head and massive black wings suddenly sprang from his back. When he opened his mouth she could see fangs, both upper and lower, like the massive teeth of a tiger. Sparks seemed to fly from his eyes as he stared at her.
“Woman, what have you done?” His voice took on a timbre deeper and harsher than she’d ever heard. Falling to his knees, wings spreading to keep him from falling on his face, Ros glared at her. Mari threw the sheet back and made a move toward hm. Ros held up a hand, stopping her in her tracks. “Allow me to take back my human form, Mari.”
“Yes, yes of course.” She hadn’t meant to hurt him, that definitely hadn’t been her intention, but Ros was obviously in pain. Throwing his head back, his hair and wings brushing the floor, he shouted as his entire body shuddered and he shrank back to the form she’d seen him in until now. Panting again, his breath feathered across her knees.
“Ros, I didn’t mean to hurt…”
“Not now, Mari.” Getting gingerly to his feet, Ros vanished.
Mari ran to the door of her bedroom, throwing it open, and raced down the hall to his room. Knocking on that door didn’t gain her anything and Mari pressed her ear against the door hoping to hear Ros moving around, hoping to hear his music come on, anything. There was no sound from the room. Though she knew he couldn’t leave the 62
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house without her, Mari had no idea where to start looking for him. Shouting seemed to be her only logical recourse. “Ros? Ros, I’m sorry. Please come back so we can talk about this. I know you can hear me, please!”
Silence greeted her, then she felt him behind her. Whirling around, Mari reached for him but Ros moved back a step. Letting her hand fall, she swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry. Really, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I’m not hurt.” The coolness was back in his voice and Mari bit her lip. “I will tell you good night, Mari. You need to get some rest so that we can find the next key from your father.”
Nodding, she decided to let him get away with this—for now—but there would be a reckoning, and the sooner the better. Maybe a good night’s sleep would do them both good. “Good night, Ros.”
Letting him pass her in the hallway, Mari went into the master bedroom and quietly shut the door behind her. She shrugged into her robe and tied the belt securely.
Staring at the rumpled bed, Mari knew there was no way she would be able to sleep where Ros had just rocked her world. To get her mind off what had happened between them, Mari moved to a chair near the window.
As she sat, she felt something hard under the cushion. Mari dropped to her knees, reached under the cushion and pulled out a small blue leather-bound book. Opening it to the first page, she saw her father’s spidery handwriting. Could this be another key?
The other journal she’d found on the bedside table had turned out to be mostly empty, just a few notes written in it, but nothing important.
Sinking down cross-legged on the floor, Mari turned the page. It appeared to be mundane, a list of bills paid, a shopping list, some addresses, including the lawyer’s.
Mari sat up with a start. “Shit! I was supposed to contact Mr. Burns today!”
With a sigh, Mari propped her head on a fisted hand. “I wonder why he didn’t call me when I didn’t make an appointment?”
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Idly turning the page, Mari sat up straight again. “Well that’s just great, Dad. Why don’t you leave me cryptic videos and then write in secret codes. What is this?
Dwarvish?”
Laughing at her own joke, she slipped into yoga pants and a t-shirt. She moved quietly to the door and stepped out into the hallway. A throbbing bass beat came from under Ros’ door, but she couldn’t hear any other noise or movement. Slipping down the hallway she treaded softly down the stairs. She would go to her father’s library to see if he had any books in this language. Maybe she could figure out what he wanted her to find.
Chilled air caressed her face when she cracked open the doors. The soft touch reminded her of Ros’ fingers against her cheek. Who knew a man of his size could possess such a delicate touch? Mari wrinkled her forehead. She had not thought when she’d asked, no commanded, him to show his true form.
He’d been awesome and awful at the same time. Even as grotesque as she should have found him, his body had still thrilled her. She searched her memory of his transformation.
“Oh God.” She sank back against the door frame. “That old myth isn’t true. He only had one penis.”
Laughing at herself for that fear, Mari pushed away from the door to enter the library. Since returning here, she’d only been in this room to watch the video. Taking a moment, she looked around. A memory of a time she’d held perfect as a child floated to the forefront of her brain. Her father reading to her from some ancient book. At the time she had not realized what it was he read—only that Penelope’s love for Odysseus had swept her little girl heart into romantic raptures.
It had been a college professor who had reintroduced her to the classics. Bittersweet tears stung her eyes, overflowing to streak down her cheeks. It had been one of those moments when she’d regretted not keeping in touch with her father. Her mother had 64
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never remarried. Mari wondered if she had never stopped loving the man. Too late now to know.
A sparkle of light danced on the desk. Intrigued, Mari crossed to see what it was. A crystal—quartz from the look of it—shimmered in the middle of the clean desk. It hadn’t been there before. She looked for a light source, moving closer to the window where the quarter moon hung in the sky. Not enough to illuminate the stone. Mari picked it up and a bell chimed.
She nearly dropped the rock.
“What the heck?” Whirling, Mari glanced around for the source. A piece of fabric fluttered in the breeze her movement made. She yanked the cloth aside revealing an antique mirror she definitely didn’t remember from her childhood.
“AH!”
Her shriek was matched by the blue Demonae looking back at her.
“You! You are Rosier’s sister, aren’t you?”
The female nodded but did not speak. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the room.
“He’s not here. He’s in his room.”
She only inclined her head. Mari pursed her lips as she pushed a heavy breath through her nose.
“I know what my father did. I am going to try to help your brother. I’m just not sure that I can. “
Wishing the other woman would speak, but grateful she hadn’t disappeared into a puff of blue smoke, Mari plunged on. This might be her chance to get information she needed to help Ros.
“I’m sorry about what my father did…about all of this. I need to know something.
Is it normal for your kind to turn blue after…after…” Mari stumbled over the words.
How could she say this? She firmly reminded herself that if this woman was Ros’ sister then she was a sex demon as well, right?
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“After coming?”
Suddenly the woman was right up to the mirror. She spoke in a low, soft voice as if she didn’t want to be heard by others. When she glanced over her shoulder, Mari remembered Ros warning his sister about not getting caught. “What? Ros turned blue?
That’s not good. That is not good at all.”
Worried now, Mari leaned toward her, echoing her need to be quiet. “What do you mean that’s not good? I thought he needed release—or my release with his release.
Does it have to be this complicated?”
“Iss. You can call me Iss. That is not my true name, witch. I do not trust you.
However if my brother has shown you his colors, then we must talk. Are you sure he turned blue?”
Irritated, Mari crossed her arms over her chest, clutching the crystal firmly. “No, I’m not sure. I’m colorblind. Yes, I’m sure! He turned blue for a moment and then it went away.”
Iss’ shoulders sagged visibly. “So it was only a moment? That is good. I thought he might be losing control and that would be bad. Very bad.”
Focusing only on the “bad, very bad part” of the conversation, Mari let the other woman continue to talk. Ros had lost control? Her mind raced back to the conversation with LaPierre. A demon had raged out of control and killed his parents. Was she in danger from Rosier? Then a familiar name from Iss jerked her attention front and center again.
“LaPierre? How do you know him? Did you just say he sent a human into your world? Does Ros know about this?”
Iss started to speak again then stopped. Looking up, Mari saw the female demon pale. “Ros’ behind me isn’t he?”
Iss nodded. The look on her face sent a shiver racing down Mari’s spine. His own sister was afraid of him? How dangerous was he?
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“What by all the gods on this plane and all others do you think you are doing?” The crack of anger in his voice made her jump along with his sister. “Iss, leave now. You know if you are caught what the consequences would be. Go. Do not return unless I call for you.”
“But Ros!”
He rumbled in response. “Go! I will not have you turned criminal on my behalf, my sister. I mean what I say. Now go. Love well. Be free.”
Mari nearly wept at the pain in the other woman’s face as she shimmered into that puff of teal smoke. Whirling on Ros, she attacked him.
“Oh how dare you? We were just talking! What is the harm in that? You hurt your sister’s feelings! Talking to a human can’t be a criminal offense in your world. That’s censorship.”
His tone deepened further. “If all she has are hurt feelings, so much the better. My sister is reckless with her freedom. It is forbidden for the Demonae to speak freely to a human. The only way we are allowed to do so is if we are trapped by one of your kind’s foul magicks. You may call it censorship, but the laws exist to protect us from the cruelty of becoming humanity’s slaves. Had she been caught, her punishment could have been death at the best.”
“You mean at the worst. Death is the worst punishment.”
Rosier closed the distance between them to grasp her chin in his hand. A sudden wave of dizziness caught her off guard and she had to concentrate hard to pay attention to what he was saying. He shook her head back and forth without force. “No, Miss Greenlea, I did not. Death would be welcome compared to the torture the Demonae Tribunal would inflict on my sister or any Demonae who was caught breaking that law.
Your worst nightmares do not even come close to the horrors they have access to. There are legions of demons under the command of the Tribunal and they delight in nothing more than inflicting pain and torture. I would not have my sister subjected to their not-so-tender mercies.”
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Mari opened her mouth then closed it. Lines tightened across his forehead as he closed his eyes for a moment. She accepted that he was not exaggerating. How was she to know?
“How am I supposed to know all of this? Where’s Marcus when I need him? He was always so interested in other cultures, other people. He should be here, he should be dealing with all of this, not me. Your sister said LaPierre sent a human over there…somewhere. Do you think? No—” Mari cursed low under her breath.
“What did you say?” Ros let go of her to move back. His eyebrows were raised now, the surprise evident on his face. “Mari, what did you say?”
She repeated the curse then realized it wasn’t in English. She also felt the room stop spinning now that his skin wasn’t burning into hers. “What language was that?”
“Demonae. You just spoke Demonae.” His eyes scanned the room. “Have you found another key already?”
Mari looked down at the stone in her hand, knowing that Ros’ gaze followed hers.
He nodded even as he sank to his knees in front of her. She looked down into his face and wondered if that was a trace of pride she saw there?
“You have found another key. That is a piece of the Crystal of Tolenthia. As with most quartz crystals, it promotes healing and balance. It also allows its wielder to translate other languages. Not only can you speak them, you can understand what you’re saying. You are fortunate to have found that, Mari. Keep it safe.”
“Why would my father have this? Why did he need it?” Mari turned the small piece of rock over, still amazed by the glow that emanated from it. “Where did it come from?”
“It came from my plane of existence, Mari. Your father earned it somehow. I don’t know all the details, but I do know it is rightfully his. There are others who would use magick to obtain such an item, and for them it would not work properly. For it to have worked for your father the way it did, it has to be legitimate.”
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“Other than allowing me to speak your language, Ros, what will this crystal do for me?”
“It will increase your energy flow and assist you in seeking and retaining knowledge. If you use it as a tool during meditation, it will let you travel on the ethereal plane much more easily. Do you feel any different? Other than being able to speak my native tongue, do you feel anything else?”
“Well, when I’m holding it in my left hand, I feel a tingle that I don’t feel in my right hand.”
Ros cupped his hands over first her right hand and then her left. “Yes, I feel it as well. It must be connected to your father’s ring. When you hold the crystal in your left hand, it reacts to the ring. The keys your father left…they’re unlocking your power.”