The queen of level six sputtered, “You…you won. You found a way in even if it was by my own offspring’s gullibility.” She grabbed Vik’s arm and pulled him to the side. “I don’t blame you, son. You are your father’s child and bound to fuck up bygenetics.”
“What are you talking about? Dad’s a genius at evil! He caused the housingcollapse.”
His mother placed a hand on Vik’s cheek. “The housing crisis of 2008? He was trying to goose building sales. His schemebackfired.”
“What? How about what he’s doing right now to the US economy?” It couldn’t be true. Dad had to be a pure demon-at-heart. Head and horns above therest.
His mother’s lips twisted into something resembling a wordless apology. “That happened when he tried to solve the deficit. I’m sorry, son, I never wanted you to find out, but your father… Well, your father has good intentions! I know, we can’t all be perfect. His plans always go horribly wrong, you see. Holland should have beentheworld power of the seventeenth century,but…”
“Good intentions?” No! It couldn’t be! Not Dad! He couldn’t be abumbler.
“And I have another confession to make. Please don’t think less of me, but I… I love him anyway.” Eyes that could fire flames from ten feet stared down at the floor. “And I raised you as best I could to overcome the goodness in your genes.” She glanced up, taking in first Vik, and then Dillon. The iciness returned to her tone. “Even if you can’t be evil, looks like you managed to attract plenty. Your goodness and misplaced trust has cost us our realm. I was right! Diomede was bad foryou!”
“You knew about me and Diomede?” Vik stared at his mother with wide eyes. He cast a nervous gaze at Dillon standing a few yards away. Now who was the one with the ex? If Chandra was Dillon’s mother, then Dillon and Diomede must be brothers. But Dillon had said he was human. Hadn’the?
“Knew? Of course I knew! It’s hard to ignore two rampaging demons! Do you have any idea how many earthquakes you caused? Volcanic eruptions? Do you? Word spread that if the two of you united, you’d conquer all the realms. Why do you think I forced you apart?” She placed both hands on Vik’s cheeks. “I know you, the decency within, and was afraid that he’d use you and discard you once he’d gotten what hewanted.”
All those years he’d pined over his former lover. Had Vik only been a plaything? A means to an end? His horns wilted a bit. Damn. “He usedme?”
“Don’t be so quick to judge.” Chandra marched up to stand nose to nose with her rival. “You’re the one who never gave my son a chance, breaking his and your own son’s hearts. Then you placed runes in the passageways, declaring whoever found a way past the safeguards laid claim to both levels. As if any one of your ilk stood a chance against the stealth of the shadowwarriors.”
“Shadow warriors?” Vik scratched the spot between his horns where it itched when he thought too hard. Why did that soundfamiliar?
Dillon finally spoke, directly to Vik. “Ninja is a human term for a shadow warrior. Although I wore a costume, I didn’t lie about what I am. It started out as a hookup. I’d no intention of helping you as Ralph asked me to. After all, our tribes are at war. All these years I believed what someone”—he shot a look of pure loathing at Vik’s mother—“told me. That you’d come to your senses and didn’t want to see meanymore.”
“Dillon, what are you talking about? I didn’t even know you until lastnight!”
“You know me, allright.”
Vik really would have liked Dillon’s sheepish grin, if he weren’t questioning whether or not the man was laughingwithhim orathim.
“You talk in your sleep, did you know that?” A flush of color crept up Dillon’scheeks.
No, Vik didn’t. One of many things he apparently didn’t know. “What did Isay?”
“Aname.”
Oh Home. He’d called someone else’s name after a night of sex with Dillon? It’s a wonder Dillon hadn’t murdered him in his sleep. “What name?” Vik’s heart hammered a frantic beat. Please, no. Let him not havesaid…
“Mine.”
“Dillon?” Whew. Thankbadness!
“In a way. You called out, ‘Diomede.’ No matter how much time has passed, I never forgot you. Hearing my name fall from your lips cemented my resolve. I’d have you, if I had to storm the sixth level single-handed.”
“Diomede?” Dillon looked nothing like Vik’s first love—his onlylove.
“No!” the BFD screeched. “My realm is one thing, my son is another. I vowed that he’d have only the finest mate. One equal to his station. And a female, to give himchildren.”
“That old prejudice?” Chandra buffed her talons against her velvet lapel. “That’s how this war started to begin with, remember? Haven’t you learned your lessonyet?”
“Tazlina!” The BFD lifted her chin, eyes beginning tosmolder.
“Yes, Your Wickedness?” The warrior appeared in a puff of smoke, girded with daggers. A fearsome sword glittered in herhand.
“Kick this idiot’s ass to Home and back.” A leering smile lifted the edges of the queen’s redlips.
Tazlina faked a left, then slashed at Dillon. Dillon vanished into shadow to reappear behindTazlina.
