Red Moon Demon (Demon Lord) (36 page)

“Robbing the cradle?” I said.

He shrugged. “It’s not like he’s real, or like there’s anyone around here
that will
arrest me. Besides, I became
a
bad guy so I could do what I want
.
”

“Just don’t do anything that will kill my appetite.”
Someone brought a pizza box over and set it in front of me. I opened it and studied a three-meat pizza with mushrooms and peppers. It even smelled real.

“Speaking of killing, you do realize that my oath prevents me from harming you, but doesn’t require that I actively defend you in anyway, right.”

With a slice of pizza halfway to my mouth, I answered. “Yeah, so?”

He smiled in huge anticipation. “So we have some entertainment to look forward to.”

I glowered at him. “What have you done?”

He smiled
;
a look of innocence that was almost as good as my own. His eyes were wide as he shook his head, hands up, showing me his empty palms.
“Why, I’ve only arranged for a little floorshow. I thought a little dancing might be nice.”

I tensed. Dancing meant many things; recreational dancing, sure, but it was also a
street
term
for fighting.

He stared straight up.

I stared straight up, at a high, vaulting ceiling set with
more
blood
-
red stained glass, each irregular pane separated by black
, lead
fretting. There were shadows on the glass
—
winged
shadows—until the glass burst, a
nd
the gargoyles crashed the party.

THIRTY-SIX

“
Marriage? Oh, the horror
!”

—
Caine Deathwalker

The attack was
not as
disquieting
as t
he
surreal
responses
; t
he
ensemble played on, the
shadow guests stayed seated,
passed
pizza boxes around
,
laughing
,
mumbl
ing
banter
as they fulfilled
the role they’d been created for. Salem grabbed the wrist of the pretty boy next to him. The
youth
became more solid, more real, at the touch, drawing life from the warlock. Salem dragged the boy under the table as shards of glass splintered into smaller pieces on top of it.

I covered my head, trusting my sturdy apocalypse suit to weather the abuse. I had no swords, my guns were empty,
my bayonets
and the field knife in my boot
were
n’t going to do more than scratch a gargoyle’s stony skin. That left my tats, but they were acting unpredictably in this altered space. They could save me, or get me killed.

I could always scream for the Red Lady to come and save my ass, but then I’d owe her, and besides, a man has his warrior’s pride. I wondered though, how all this was going on without her doing anything. Was Salem shielding the gargoyles from her perception in some way? Or had he convinced her this was normal for a bachelor party, some kind of rite of courage for a groom to prove his worth?

Never mind. Fight now, figure out the answers later.

The shower o
f
glass
ended
. I dropped my hands, one of them still clutching a slice of pizza, and lo
o
ked up again. The
jet black
gargoyles were in the chamber,
ribbed
wings slicing the air as the
y
wheeled in tight circles,
slowly
spiraling down. There seemed to be some
question
as to which of them would tear my he
a
d off
and who got to eat my heart and liver.

Okay, time
to
improvise.

I held the pizza slice in front of me, ignoring the sounds of sexual activity coming from under the table. I focused on what I wanted to see
. T
he pizza
slice
darkened to shadow, loosing its warm greasy scent. The shadow
flowed
.
A second later, I
had
spare
clips of
ammo. I loaded my guns, put
two
back in thigh holster
s
, and kept two guns in my hand
s
.

I used laser sight
s
to lock onto the lowest of the gargoyles, and tapped the trigger
s
to get single shot
s
with the a
utomatic weapon
s
. Holding down the trigger would have
empted the clip
, and that would have
waste
d
too much
ammo, assuming of course the phantom rounds function
ed
as I
imagin
ed.

The gun
s
bucked in my grip, muzzle
s
spitting flame as red as the eyes of the shadow guests at my party
. I was irritated. Here I was—
bold as hell, heroic
, and awesome—
and not one of them bothered to even look my way.

The
mercury
round
s
punched four-inch hole
s
in
gargoyle
chest
s
which proved
to be
hollow. The creatures
’
back
s
sprayed away from ten-inch exit wound
s. Their
wings were blown loose. Inorganic heart
s
shredded
.
W
ingless,
they
plunged to the floor
,
face
s
display
ing
comical expression
s
of disbelief
.
They
crashed headlong into the floor, breaking
into
pieces.

That got the attention of the other gargoyles. They broke of
f from the
wheeling formation and streaked toward
me
from all sides
.

I spun, emptying the clips.
Half
the gargoyles had head
s
or heart
s
that
exploded
to gravel
,
causing them to drop like—well,
stones. The rest of those I’d hit managed to block shot
s
with their arms.
Though armless, waving stone stumps in fury, they were still a threat,
dropp
ing
toward
my head like
rogue
meteor
s
.

As I holstered
my
empty guns
and drew the fresh one
s
, I focused on the floor. A sheet of carpeting
,
and the stone beneath it
,
curled up to catch and deflect them. Though many were shunted aside, a few gargoyles broke through my barrier.
I was clubbed off my feet, and
sprawled in the rubble.
The
spell-reinforced
suit took the brunt of the force. I’d be wearing deep dark bruises for weeks, but I hadn’t broken anything.

From the floor, I tapped the trigger of
a
PPK, sending single rounds sizzling into the obsidian skulls of the gargoyles still trying to move. Soon, they we
r
e all inert.
M
y left
glove torn, my
hand bled from the broken glass scattered about. I picked out a few shards, and carefully climbed to my feet. From the sounds under the table, Salem was finishing up a
party
game of his own. The party guests were still carrying on like nothing had happened.

And I was incredibly pissed.

I went to the table, arriving as Salem surfaced, adjusting his pants. He looked surprised to see me. “You’re not dead yet?” he asked.

I’d saved one round for him. I put the muzzle against his forehead. He winced from the heat. “Move a muscle,” I said, “and you die.”

Though drunk, enough reason glimmered in his eyes for him to
hold himself very still.

I said, “You set them on me.”

“No, not at all.”

“Explain it to me,” I said.

“I told them about your up
-
coming wedding, and emphatically warned them not to come and cause trouble because you wouldn’t like it.”

“Yet they knew where to come to.”

“I told them specifically to avoid the room with the red stained-glass ceiling, but they didn’t listen.” He giggled. “Not
my
fault.”

“No, of course not. Tell me, did you have a good time there under the table?”

His eyes widened. “Oh, yes, thank you for asking.”

I smiled. “Good, everyone should have a happy memory to take with them to hell.” I blew the top of his head away, flinching back from brain and blood
splatter
.
His body
toppled
to the floor, also ignored by the
party guests.

He can’t be the only
magic
-
user out there with knowledge about the
necklace
. I should probably have checked with Red Fang right off anyway.

With my bl
oo
d
y
hand, I grabbed a bottle of vodka from a
n ice
bucket
, f
or medicinal purposes of course
, an
d staggered
a
cross the room to the library. Swigging from the bottle as I went, I almost passed the loveseats without noticing who
lounged there in a red chiffon gown with silk slippers on her feet.

The Red Lady held up a fluted glass the color of garnets.

I stopped and poured her a drink.

“Having fun?” she asked.

I thought about it a second and nodded. “Oddly, I am.”

“But you don’t want to stay.” It wasn’t a question. She knew my answer.

I thought of Haruka, dead, folded up in my freezer, her father’s heart all but ripped out by grief. “It’s nothing personal, but I’ve got too many unresolved issues that need my attention.”

“I see her in your thoughts.”

“You weren’t supposed to look in there, remember.”

She swung her feet to the floor and patted the place next to her. “Sit a moment.”

I did. Leaning back, I took another pull off my bottle, savoring a starchy burn that was right on the edge of pain.

The Red Lady swirled her glass, not yet tasting what it held.
Turning toward me, she pulled a knee onto the loveseat, wedging it between us. She peered into my eyes. “If I let you go, will yo
u promise to return to me, some
day?”

I stalled. “You just met me. I know that I’m sexy as hell, a real man, and all that, but aren’t you moving a little fast?”

“You don’t understand. I’m the real thing, not some fantasy novel
goddess
. Time is omni-directional to me. I’ve known you in my heart since before you were born. I’ve known we would one day be together. And I know—much as I want to hide it from myself—that your love for me is yet to awaken. In time, I will love you for a thousand years. I wanted that to be longer. I wanted to start us now, knowing all
-
the
-
while it wasn’t going to happen.
A goddess can do anything, even lie to herself.”

“Okay, that deserves another swig.”

But I couldn’t take a drink. I sensed she was telling the truth. She didn’t need to lie to keep me here. She didn’t need the tears in her eyes either. A teardrop fell into the glass she held. Instead of melding with the vodka, the tear became a red pearl, the symbol of her sorrow. The glass and vodka melted into the air
,
a cascade of red sparks
that left
the pearl alone in he
r
hand.

She offered it to me.

I set the bottle of vodka down by my feet and leaned toward her, my hand sliding under hers. She tipped the creamy red pearl into my palm. My fingers closed over the gift. Such things were rare, and usually powerful. This might well become the greatest treasure in my collection.

“Think of me when you wear it,” she said, “and remember I loved you enough to let you go.”

“Thank you.”

“You won’t need the necklace now.” She smiled, blinking back the rest of her tears. “Go. Go quickly, before I change my mind.”

“I need the crystal—”

“—Lotus. I know.” She ran her fingers along my right forearm. The sleeve vanished. The underlying skin chilled, then warmed, then
throbb
ed with magic.

I looked down and saw the
lotus-
dragon tattoo back where it needed to be.

She said, “The lotus has taken the requiescat soul. You can open the gate, if this world will let you.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

This reality is a reflection of me. I don’t want you to go, so the very walls of space will fight you
r
leaving.”

I shrugged. “Why should anything ever go easy for
me?
There’s one thing I want to know.”
I rested my hand on her thigh.

She smiled briefly, tenderly.
“Just one?”

“What is it about me that you love so deeply? There are those
who’d
say I’m a total jerk
,
who ought to be flayed alive.”

She said, “I wasn’t always a goddess. Like most of us, I had to ascend to that level. I was once a dragon.” She stopped, as if that explained it all.

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“
I’ve never found lady dragons to swoon at my approach.
”

“
It might just be me
.”
With great deliberation, s
he stood
and
head
ed
for the
party
room.

“You’re going in there?” I said. “
The p
art
y
’s over.”

I thought I heard her sob quietly to herself. She paused in the doorway, her back to me. “I know. You’ve made quite a mess. Someone needs to clean
it
up.”

I felt a heavy deadness in my chest. If I didn’t know better,