Moonstone Shifter (Demon Lord Book 8) Read online

  She smiled and waved back, losing the smile as her hidden stare returned to me. “I think we need to talk.”

  Staring at her 34C-cup breasts, I smiled. “Okay.”

  TWO

  “It’s not that I mind being a father,

  I just don’t know how to do it.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  We selected our food, paid for it, and found a corner booth where we’d draw little attention—at least, that was the plan. Sitting between me and the wall, Colt munched happily on his meatball sub, a drink and bag of bar-b-q flavored chips in front of him. I had an energy drink and three raspberry-cheesecake cookies. Across the plastic table from me, the woman with the moonstone necklace studied me with equally cold eyes. Her hands were folded in front of her, resting on the tabletop.

  Her two friends were at the table directly behind her, close enough to hear and interfere if they thought they needed to. Both were muscle-bound, putting out a dangerous feral air even in human form. Being on duty, they’d only purchased drinks, leaving them neglected on their table.

  I yelled at my inner dragon to wake him up. Hey, bone-head, look at the pretty necklace. It must be pretty valuable.

  Golden eyes opened in the back shadows of my mind. I heard the rustle of scales as he roused. He used my eyes to see the necklace. Mine! I saw the piddly thing first.

  Hers. She’s wearing it. This isn’t something we just tripped over while raiding a tomb.

  Spoil-sport. My inner dragon continued to study the piece. I sensed his mystical accessing skill activate. Moonstone isn’t expensive. Even with the silver chain, I wouldn’t give more than Sixty dollars for it. Still, hmmmm. I sense a strong concentration of magic. There are multiple high-end spells embedded there.

  I nodded to myself. Thanks. Good to know.

  Smiling at the woman, I held out a cookie.

  She held up a palm. “Thank you, no.”

  I shrugged and bit the cookie in the ass.

  She said, “I need to know if you are a friend of my enemy.”

  I spoke around the cookie fragments in my mouth. “Because the friend of an enemy is also an enemy, but the enemy of an enemy might be a friend.”

  Colt slanted me a look, his eyebrows lifting. “That’s deep.”

  I slanted him a look of my own. “Everything I say is wisdom tested in the flames of hell. Take notes if you need to.”

  He nodded and went back to his sandwich.

  The woman stared at Colt a moment. “He’s your son?”

  “He is. This is Colt.”

  Colt said, “Colt Deathwalker.”

  The last name hung out there, gripping the shifters so they didn’t even breathe. After a few seconds, they started breathing again. The woman stared at me, her pupils dilating in fear. “You are Caine Deathwalker? Hub Master of L.A.?”

  One of the guys behind her said, “Bullshit! No one seriously believes that old urban legend. It’s a useful myth made up by the demon clans to make themselves seem stronger.” Despite his professed disbelief, there a nervous tremor remained in his tone.

  Interesting. I haven’t heard that story. Vampires must be making up crap again.

  I said, “Watch your language or I’ll kick your fucking ass. There’s a child present.”

  Colt looked around. “Where?”

  I looked him in the face. “I meant you.”

  “My apologies,” the woman murmured. “I’m Gemma Dawne, Queen of the Southwestern Prides.” She didn’t introduce her backup. They didn’t volunteer their names.

  “Let’s deal with the obvious questions first,” I said. “Are you guys involved in the vandalism and murders on the property where I found you?”

  One of the men echoed me. “Murders?”

  Gemma’s eyes slitted. “There were murders there, too? We’d just arrived and hadn’t had a chance to look around yet.”

  “And the vandalism over the last month?” I asked.

  Gemma said, “I ordered it.”

  Colt said, “That’s just mean. What did Aunt Cleo do to you?”

  Gemma shifted her stare to Colt. “Sometimes, adults have to do things they don’t like, for good reasons and…Aunt Cleo…?”

  I said, “The property in question belongs to her mother. I’m sorting this out as a personal favor.”

  “Aunt Cleo’s in his harem,” Colt said. “One of his were-kitties.”

  The two men guarding Gemma stood and loomed in a menacing fashion. One of them said, “Just how many of our people have you imprisoned to satisfy your demonic lust?”

  “The official number is seven, three of them were-cats, but it would be grossly unfair to the hot women of the world to deny them equal access to the monster in my pants.” Caine studied Gemma’s breasts once more. “Should I notify you the next time I have try-outs?”

  “You have enough already,” Colt said. “Leave some for future generations.”

  Gemma smiled at Colt. “You’re what? Eight? What are you going to do with a harem?”

  “I’m nine…and a half…and I know what a harem is for; sleep-overs, watching anime on TV, and for making me grilled cheese sandwiches in the middle of the night. I already asked Mom about starting my own harem. She said she’s fine with it.”

  I looked at my son. “Really?”

  He nodded. “She calls it free babysitting.” He glowered suddenly. “I hate that word. I’m not a baby. I’m a time-travelling dragon-born demi-god, Gosh-darn it!”

  “Language,” I reminded him.

  “Sorry.” His expression brightened with a smile as he looked up at Gemma. “So, want to be in my harem? You’ll be my first.”

  “Second woman he’s asked.” I looked at Gemma. “Let him down easy. He’s already been rejected by an insane hell-dimension goddess of living darkness.”

  Gemma smiled wickedly. “Why would I turn him down, such a handsome little guy.”

  Colt’s jaw dropped. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Really?”

  The guys behind her said “Shit!” and “What the fuck!”

  I focused my shadow magic, causing a spell circle to form on the palm of my right hand. A channel through the cosmic ether opened and I felt all the weapons in my Malibu armory, any one of them now only a thought away. “Language, asshole, I won’t warn you again.”

  “You’re cussin’, too,” one of them objected.

  “That privilege comes with my license to kill,” I said.

  Gemma held up a hand to cut her people off. “He’s activated a spell. I would not argue further, if I were you.”

  “Spell?” Colt looked at me. “I thought we were going to keep things friendly.”

  I smiled at him. “I will have you know that I am quite capable of killing without malice.”

  “That’s supposed to make it better?” one of the muscle men asked.

  Colt frowned. “They belong to her, and she belongs to me now. You heard her. Hands off.”

  “Fine.” I sighed and bit into another cookie. “You want to run the show, go ahead. Take over.”

  “Fine. I will.” He studied Gemma. “Your enemy, who are you fighting, and why?”

  Damn good questions. I held up a thumb to encourage Colt.

  Gemma said, “I don’t know exactly who, other than he’s got a pet monster and knows how to use it. I suspect he’s searching for the same thing our prides are: The Eyes of Bastet.”

  I choked on my cookie. A drink from Colt’s soda cleared my throat. “Those vanished at least a hundred years ago. I should know; I’ve got a standing offer on the underground market to purchase them, no questions asked, price not an issue.”

  Gemma glared at me. “Go back to shutting up. The Eyes belong to the prides. We’ll get them back. Our survival as a species depends on it.”

  My inner dragon said: Interesting. That increases their ransom value quite a bit.

  Gemma smiled sweetly at Colt. “The next question is mine. If you are half-dragon and half-god, then how can your fathe
r be a demon? You only get two halves.”

  Realizing I still had it, Colt snatched his soda back from me, and answered Gemma. “He’s not a demon at all. Grandpa Lauphram adopted him into the demon clan when he was baby.”

  “True enough,” I said. “I am actually the heir to the throne of the Dragon World through my full-dragon mother.”

  “Fuck!” one of the muscle guys said. His eyes widened. “Sorry,” he said. “It just jumped out.”

  “Okay,” I said. “We’ll make allowances for shocked utterances.”

  Colt said, “Gemma, why are you picking on Aunt Cleo and her mom?”

  “New cats in our territory are supposed to petition for permission to remain and are supposed to take an oath of fealty. And if they’ve been turned from human, we need to know who did it. Random conversions are a violation of pride law. Your Aunt Cleo has apparently broken a number of our rules.”

  “She’s under demon-clan protection,” I reminded them. “Further action against Cleo, her mom—against any of my were-kitties—will be considered an act of war.”

  Gemma’s eyes narrowed again. “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

  My inner dragon humphed. Cats aren’t good eating, too stringy. Last time I had cat-ka-bobs, I regretted it. I was sick for days.

  Why don’t I remember that? I asked.

  Selene and I were having fun. You weren’t invited. She kept your awareness suppressed.

  Fuck you both, I told him.

  I answered Gemma. “You ought to be afraid. You’ve heard of the extra-dimensional Villagers, right?”

  She nodded.

  “The Villagers weren’t impressed by me at first. I destroyed their world. And two silver dragons as well.”

  My dragon said, I helped.

  Go back to sleep, I told him.

  I jabbed a cookie at Gemma. “Even if you can match my personal magic, I’m a lord of Fairy; can you withstand the magic of a fey army if I bring one through here?”

  “And then there’s my Mom,” Colt said. “She’s scarier than Dad is. And Grandpa—he sunk Atlantis!” This last was said with great family pride.

  Gemma sighed. “I at least need to meet your were-kitties and get their story. And when they’re in my territory, they must observe pride protocols. It’s a matter of respect.”

  Colt looked at me.

  I nodded. “That’s reasonable.”

  Gemma said, “And if they know anything about the Eyes of Bastet, they must surrender that knowledge immediately!”

  “Deal,” I said. “I have no problem with you recovering the Eyes.”

  That way, I’ll know who to steal them from later.

  Gemma slumped, bleeding off tension. “Deal. And if you need help with this monster, call on me. Such open preternatural transgressions endanger us all. Humans need to be kept in the dark about certain things.”

  I smiled. “I guess we have a meeting of the minds.”

  “One last question.” Colt’s stare bored into Gemma’s eyes.

  “What is it,” she asked.

  “You do know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, right?”

  She smiled. “Do cats like cream?”

  I told her, “I may need a little time to round up the were-kitties. You and the boys can swing by the Mykonos Hotel in Vegas tomorrow, around noon. We’ll get your pride business disposed of so we can focus on monster hunting.”

  Colt leaned into me and whispered loudly. “Dad, that harem business; do I need to get her to sign a contract in blood or something?”

  I whispered back. “I think a simple handshake should cover it.”

  “Oh, okay.” He pushed up in the booth, getting his feet in the seat so he could lean out across the table. He extended his small hand toward Gemma.

  She reached across the table and shook with him.

  One of her guys said, “I’m not sure if that’s legally binding.”

  Colt gave the man a hard, red-copper stare. “You either have honor, or you don’t.”

  I looked up at the ceiling and rubbed a thumb across my chin. “Honor. I had some of that once. Whatever did I do with it?”

  No one answered the question.

  Gemma stood, staring down at Colt and me. “Tomorrow, then.”

  Kneeling on the seat, Colt leaned against the edge of the table. “Hey, how about your phone number? I’ll call you sometime. You can drive my Mustang.”

  “My number is confidential and unlisted. You can have it only if you promise not to give it to that awful man who’s your father.”

  I lifted my eyebrows and touched fingers to my chest. “Me?”

  Colt made a solemn vow. “I’ll guard it with my life.”

  I slid out of the booth and stood, looking back at Colt. “Why don’t you just go with her now, and get a start on breaking her in. I wouldn’t want to force you to stay with your horrible father.”

  A huge smile in place, Colt looked at Gemma. “Can I?”

  Damn! He never even thought twice about it.

  She said, “Wait! Hold on a second!”

  “Great idea,” I said. “Later.” I sauntered toward the front door.

  “What kind of a parent are you?” Gemma yelled.

  I called back over my shoulder. “What part of demon lord didn’t you get?”

  Far be it from me to stand between my son and grilled cheese bliss. And it gives me a spy in the feline camp. There’s no telling what interesting things might come to light.

  I went outside to my vehicle and deactivated the security so it wouldn’t kill me getting in. Seated, I revved my Mustang to life and roared away without looking back. Gemma probably thought I was insane, leaving my son with complete strangers, but she didn’t know that he could portal himself across time and space to go anywhere, any time he wanted. Besides, since Colt was a child, these particular shifters would fight to the death to protect him. They worshipped Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess. She was goddess of the moon, fertility, and a protector of children.

  Colt would have fun hanging out with his new friends. And I could concentrate on tasks at hand. I needed to research the monster tracks I’d found, and see if there were any records in the demon clan archives of sloth demons that eat flesh. I also needed to get hold of my were-kitties so I could debrief Cleo, getting her story so I could edit it if necessary before passing it along to Gemma’s people.

  New friends shouldn’t be burdened with too much of the truth.

  THREE

  “Playing with shadows is better than

  eating them. Empty calories.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  A few hours later, I reached my hotel and breezed into the lobby, scanning the scattered islands of furniture and the people hanging out. I took note of eight of my demon clansmen, passing for human with magical disguises. Their gazes pinned me. I collected a number of friendly nods, after which, they ignored me. This was part of our security, keeping an eye out for any trouble that might come calling. There would be more of them posing as hotel staff. Guards would be posted upstairs outside our suites.

  I stopped short of the elevator, my gaze catching familiar faces at the front desk. My long-time friend Red stood there, signing himself and Julia in. The red dragon was passing for human, a spell making his weird pigmentation a normal Caucasian flesh tone. His real coloration—due to years of spellcasting in his tattoo work—gave him a crimson front and blue-green sides. That was all hidden, but not the snow-white hair hanging halfway down his back. If not for the jeans and black tee-shirt, he might have been mistaken for an elf from a Lord of the Rings movie.

  Thin, and very tall, he made his ward Julia look even tinier. She waited next to him, looked up as I approached. Her eyes were bright emerald with black-diamond pupils. She wore a cobalt dress. Her shoes were glossy black. Barely poking out, her ankle-high white socks were only slightly visible. Her long black hair fanned like raven wings as she burst toward me at a run.

  “Onii-san, there you are!” Tak
ing flight, she threw her teenage body into the air, trusting I’d catch her, which I did. Her arms wrapped around my neck. Concealed by magic, I felt a leather harness on her chest and knew she was packing her .22 Colt revolver. She snuggled her face against mine. She was a sweet kid, and had never forgotten that I’d gotten her off the street when her family had been killed.

  Red had taken her in because she was half dragon—half red dragon like he was. He’d fought his people to finally get her accepted by his clan despite the taint of human blood in her. She looked fourteen, and had an addiction to Japanese Anime, which was why she called me Onii-san: big brother. It was time to stop that.

  I let her slide down onto her feet, and settled my hands on her shoulders. “Julia. Calling me that is going to cause confusion. You are officially listed now on the Gold Clan Register as my daughter.” Such an official registration was more than Red had managed for her. Hearing my words, a hiss of surprise escaped him.

  “You’re kidding me?” he rumbled.

  “Nope. Official status.” I’d had my cousin Kinsey handle it. The stiff-necks at the Imperial Registry had balked at first, I’d been told. She’d had to remind them that I was now the Dragon Emperor’s Chief Executioner. They’d suddenly seen the value in cooperation.

  Julia bounced up and down in excitement. “Oooo, I can’t wait to tell my classmates; they’re always so full of themselves, damn purebloods.”

  Red smacked the back of her head. “Hey, I resemble that remark.”

  “I won’t hold it against you,” I promised. “Anyway, Julia, you need to get used to the fact that I’ll be introducing you to other people as my daughter. Some people will respect you for this; my demon clan will love you. Others will be indifferent. Some might hate your guts because they hate me. Those, you have permission to kill—as long as no bodies are found and you’re discreet.

  “Don’t go giving her no ideas,” Red said. “It’s going to be hard enough finding a dragon husband for her without a reputation for murder.”

  Julia spun toward him. “I’ve told you, I’m never getting married!”

  “You say that now,” I said, “but give it a few centuries. So, are you guys checked in?”