Page 14 of April's Fool
Dad drew Mom away from us, clearly seeing that she wanted to protest waiting for Cody and Toth to come to them. It was too much to expect the young couple to deal with grandparents they had never met only days after Cody had unlocked both his demon and witch heritage and completed their bond. They needed honeymoon time like humans did. Shifters had their heats, after which they could be guaranteed some peace for a day or two. No, my parents needed to be patient. Something Mom struggled with.
They returned to us, Mom with a resigned look. “Fine. We will wait, but only for a week. And we’ll come with you to petition. Our words will have more weight. Plus, your dad is owed a favor in court.”
I knew it cost Mom a lot to give me that, so I wrapped her in a hug, my wings folding around us. “Cody’s perfect, Mom. Just wait and see. You’ll be glad you waited for when he’s not utterly terrified and overwhelmed.”
She squeezed me tightly. At her height, she came to my shoulder, so it was easy for her to rest her head there without damaging me with her horns. “Thank you. I’m so happy he’s free now. I just want—“
“I know.”
Gregoris continued his quiet stalking as we entered the courthouse portion of the palace of the demonkin kings and queens. I feared that I’d offended him, but shrugged it off. While I cared for my guard, and he was the closest thing I had to a best friend, we needed better lines drawn. I knew his feelings for me were an issue. I couldn’t return them and didn’t want to hurt him.
Walking behind us, he stayed silent. Dad gave me more than one questioning look, but I shook my head minutely. That chat would have to wait until another day.
Court was busy. All kinds of demonkin, incubi, hellhounds, elementals, all waited in line for their chance to address one, or more, of the royalty within the main chamber. Not all would go in front of the kings and queens. Some would put their case to theheirs, demonkin much higher in the line of succession than I was.
Our turn came a couple of hours after we arrived; it would have been rude to jump the queue. As it was, the staff served us refreshments, which I made sure to share with the people I had made friends with in the line as we waited. Some had amazing stories to tell, and I wanted to go in with each to offer them the moral support they needed. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn’t allow me to help where I could. They were kind in their rebuffs, reminding me, and my friends, that I needed to stay on task.
When each returned to the waiting chamber, I either celebrated or commiserated with them before they went on their way. Then it was our turn.
I had to admit to being a little cowed by the court. The main chamber was vast, allowing many of the royals to be in attendance. There was no actual count of how many kings and queens we had, though it was rumored that there were a pair to represent each sub-species of demonkin. Not knowing which were which offered them another layer of safety from anyone that would attempt to take their lives.
About a dozen of them stood in front of us. Again, like in the outer chamber, there were elementals sitting next to hellhounds. They were a wonder to behold. The power that they radiated replenished myown levels beyond anything I could have expected. We demonkin got our powers from the very air around us, but here, in their presence, it was like the air was supercharged with energy. It buzzed along my nerves and pulled at my control.
Vaguely, I could feel the concern from Gregoris as I twitched and reacted to how quickly my magic was being restored. Despite being almost as depleted as I was, he remained by my side without making a movement.
“Speak,” several voices ordered as one.
As before, I told the story of my son, beginning at his conception, then the forced binding of his powers and my inability to see him grow up or offer him refuge with his people. I spoke of the binding in more detail, about all the failsafe I had put into the magic, to the point where I was nearly drained as I offered my son the only safety net I could manage. While I hadn’t known that the witches planned to bind his witch powers too, my spell had broken both bindings thanks to the contact with Toth.
My new son-in-law was harder to talk about. There were many parallels in our stories, as with a lot of demons forced into contracts with witches. This brought back a lot of unpleasant memories for me, some of which the royals could probably see. Therewere demonkin there that I couldn’t classify at a glance.
Once finished, I fell silent, waiting for the judgment to come. Finally, it did. The sound echoed through the chamber. One voice as before.
“Petition granted.”
Cody and Toth were now princes and safe from this, at least. Basil was still an issue. As was the human, though he was the hitman’s problem now.
A Hitman's Work is Never Done
Damon
As I walked awayfrom my best friend and his mate, I brought my phone to my ear, already dialing the only other number saved.
“‘Bout fucking time you called! Where the hell have you been?” Parker’s voice was a low, rumbling growl of agitation. “You’ve been gone for hours! I’ve not heard from you since that last text.”
“You know where. Don’t tell me you haven’t been keeping tabs on me. Or did I find the last tracer you put on me, hmm?”
“Fuck you, Damon, you know you got them all. So I’ve been wondering where the fuck you disappeared off to for hours. All I knew was that you needed my help to track down Basil.” Parker spat the name out. “Then it was radio silence for literal hours. Not even a thank you, Parks.”
“I’m sorry… it was… Parks, I was so helpless. There were all these witches and other shifters. The situation was a mess.”
Silence fell between us before he spoke. “Damon… I get it, okay? I worried, but you needed your focus on what was happening. What do we do now?”
“Well, Basil is in the wind. That’s going to take some time and careful digging to scare him out of hiding.”
“I can practically sense the mental cogs turning. Do you have a plan?”
“How do you feel about ending Austin?”
