“And what do you get out of this? There won’t be a kingdom left for you to steal if you give it to the demons.” Elena continued to fire as she spoke, filling Kendric with holes and visibly growing more annoyed when he seemed to take no damage from her attacks.
Her arrows weren’t exploding, either. When they hit Kendric they became inert matter, as if all the magic was sucked out of them on impact.
Kendric scoffed and removed several arrows from his chest and dropped them. “Money, obviously. Why would I want the hassle of running a kingdom when I could be rich?”
“You’re selling your people to demons for money? Fuck him up, babe. I’ve got your back.” Naerith’s sword grew even brighter, causing the demon closest to him to wince.
“Excuse me, Red. I need to go save your parents. I think they’re about to get themselves killed.”
“Yes, please, if you wouldn’t mind. I’d like to know them for more than five minutes.” Clayton said, still stroking Holly’s hair.
“Take care of the dreamwalker first,” Kendric told three of his demons. “The rest of us will take care of these poor idiots. Have you ever seen a child eaten alive by a demon, dear Elena? You’re about to find out. It’s fascinating.”
“Dreamwalker?” Mal snarled. “Is he talking about me?”
“That’s the problem you had with that monologue?” Clayton hissed. “He’s feeding children to demons to power them up, and you’re upset someone thinks you’re a dreamwalker?”
“I have my priorities.”
“You need to have your head examined.”
“I’ll show them who’s a dreamwalker,” Mal grumbled before launching himself off the deck.
“That doesn’t make any sense linguistically!” Clayton’s irritated voice followed him, causing Mal to smile.
Mal didn’t have a plan, but he didn’t really need one. He’d reunited Clayton with their family, and now Mal was going to kill every last fucker responsible for separating them while his lover watched. Hopefully properly awed and grateful.
Mal would also make sure Elena and Naerith didn’t die either. It was a lot to have on his plate. Mortals were intensely danger-friendly individuals. If they had a chance between doing something smart or doing something moronic and guaranteed to get them killed, they always chose the stupid way.
Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
“Why do you have such a grudge against us, Kendric? Why go so far as to hunt down multi-racial children specifically? We’ve never done anything to you.” Elena had given up wasting arrows on Kendric and had her sights on the demons. She was lining up a shot that Mal knew would do jack shit, and he rolled his eyes.
“I don’t care about you one way or another, Elena, but the demons get more bang for their buck when eating children with heritage from the Real and the fae realm. If you and your husband were younger, they’d be happy to eat you, too.”
Clayton was still quite young by fae standards. Would the demons still want Clayton?
Mal’s eyes flashed at the thought. He’d never give them a chance to find out.
He landed directly on the head of the demon closest to Elena, not bothering to wait for Kendric to give the kill order. It was coming, and everyone knew it, so Mal was just getting in early to beat traffic.
Mal’s boots sank into the demon’s bald, squishy head with aschlork, and he made his weight increase by a hundred-fold to bring the disgusting bastard down.
He hopped off his perch and said, “There’s no point bowing to me, though the attempt is appreciated. I’ve got to make this look good for the in-laws.” Mal tipped an invisible hat toward Elena and Naerith, both of whom seemed torn between amusement and rage.
The rage inevitably won out, and they went back to shouting at Kendric, but Mal didn’t pay attention to their chatter. He had a feast to attend.
“I haven’t met you before, but I won’t bother asking your name. You won’t be alive long enough for me to need it.” Mal normally would have played with his food for a bit, but he had a time crunch, so he didn’t let the demon bluster or make foolish threats. Mal simply got down to work.
Demons were so easy that it was ridiculous. Unlike mortals, he didn’t need to use a trigger word to connect with a demon’s essence. Technically, he didn’t have to use one for mortals either, but it made things easier, and it always scared the shit out of everyone in the vicinity.
Feeding on demons, however, was as simple as breathing. They were pure fear energy. Being next to a demon was like hanging out with a tasty, defenseless steak.
He was created by them. Their worst fear come to life. The only nightmare spawned by nightmares.
Clayton kept asking Mal how powerful he was, and since it was a complicated question and not answering it bugged the shitout of Clayton, Mal kept the answer to himself. But regarding dealing with demons and nightmares, the answer was simple.
Infinitely.
