Chapter 12 #2
“Oh.” I stared at him and then sat down on the floor when standing didn’t seem to be an option anymore. “You stole my baby and gave him to the Zombie Queen?”
“Not exactly. The Queen didn’t have time to raise him properly, so I trained him up in dancing and other aristocratic pleasures like boccé.
The Queen didn’t like that. No idea why, because a dancing demon is absolutely wonderfully quixotic, don’t you think?
So then I had to train him in fighting, killing, you know, tedious things that take absolutely no cleverness, and one thing your darling is, is clever. ”
I stared at him and started trembling while my stomach lurched. “How could you slaughter all those people? What kind of monster are you? You were so kind to me, but the whole time you were the one who stole my baby?”
“I am the White Rabbit.”
“What does that mean?”
He sighed heavily, studying me with something like pity. “Do you know what the angels were?”
“Demon’s mothers?”
“Where did they come from? Heaven. Where is heaven? The Queen’s castle is called heaven.
That’s right. You are shocked, or you would be if not for the vodka and your lack of comprehension.
The original angel was one of the Queen’s relatives thousands and thousands of years ago.
Mine too. I was slaughtering my own kind.
Why? Because they’re the only ones who can defeat the queen.
How did the original angel become that beautiful creature you apparently saw in Tom’s book?
By eating demon flesh. The Zombie Queen consumed her people, and the Demon Queens consumed theirs.
The angels enslaved the demons, the demons just didn’t realize it because the angels willed it so. ”
I shook my head. “That’s ridiculous.”
He shrugged. “You aren’t wrong. The ridiculousness of my existence often strikes me with a great deal of force.” He jangled his wrist manacles.
That was a lot of information that wasn’t sticking in my gluey head. One thing didn’t make sense. Okay, nothing made sense, but one thing bothered me. “What happened to the sorcerers who were going to sacrifice me?”
He raised a pale brow. “It seems that someone reported them to the international guild of protective arts. You’d call those the good guys.”
“And you know that because you called them. You are weird. Do you know how to stay on one side for longer than five minutes?”
He cocked his head, a curious smile on his lips. “It’s just that you were so adorable. Perhaps it was your natural compulsion coming out. How could I fight against that?”
“Yeah, sounds really hard. Oh. I, um, sort of ate a demon. Am I going to turn into one of those slug-wart-spike things?”
He tutted. “A demon a day for a thousand years, and you can start to worry. One or two should be fine. It’s a pity because they gave up mobility for their greater compulsion powers. They were actually quite pathetic once the Zombie Queen gave me the power over their compulsion.”
“They just laid there while you slaughtered them?”
“The oldest one, your mother, was twenty feet long and almost as wide. She tried to kill me when I was cutting you out, but she was already mostly dead. It was very messy though.”
“Thanks. It’s nice to know that my birth mother didn’t want to kill me.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Actually, you’re the kind of child that she would have killed once she saw you. You’re a threat, you see.”
I blinked at him while my heart dropped into my stomach. “You couldn’t just let me think that my mother loved me? Really? I’m going to need a serious therapist after all of this is over.”
He sighed heavily, pink eyes glinting. “Tell me about it. If you find a good therapist, let me know, because I am seriously emotionally scarred.”
“You should be. You go around slaughtering people’s mothers.”
“Mothers that would have killed you.”
“And kidnap people’s babies.”
“Babies that you were absolutely not equipped to raise.”
I scowled at him. “I beg your pardon? You don’t think I would be competent at raising my own child? If I’m an angel, why couldn’t I raise a demon?”
“You’re the wrong kind of angel. I told you that.”
“Because I’m a preemie?”
“Because you’re an original, like the Zombie Queen. Your kind are killed quickly by all the other originals. Do you know who the last original was? The Grand Master, and you see how that went.”
I shrugged and slumped down. “You sound like you’re making your last confession.”
“Well, I hope so. If the Grand Master doesn’t kill me, the Zombie Queen certainly will make me wish he had.”
“Because you didn’t kill me?”
“Because I didn’t kill you.”
“But you were supposed to keep the baby alive.”
“Yes. And I did.”
I stared at him for a long time. “Where is he?” This is what I really wanted to know, what I’d give my whole soul to know.
He sniffed and for one agonizing moment I knew that he’d never tell me.
“Drigo has him. One very notable thing about that particular demon is his hatred for angels. Hm. Do you smell that? Demon. Lots of demon. He must be here to break you out of the dungeon. Your love is so adorable. Your Wilkie was allowed to be taken by Drigo so that he could report to the queen. You see, your son thinks that she has you. She likes to play with love like that. Aren’t you glad I kept you out of the game?
She thinks you’re dead. If she stops thinking you’re dead, you’re dead. Do you understand? Nod three times.”
I nodded twice, frowned and then nodded again. “So, I shouldn’t mention that I’m an angel even though I ate Regis.”
“Exactly. Otherwise, you’ll have to be locked up somewhere like this to stay safe from the Zombie Queen. It could be worse,” he said, frowning down at his manacles before looking up at me with melancholy eyes. “But it could be better.”
“How do I get strong enough to defeat the Zombie Queen?”
“Survive for a few thousand years then defeat her on her own turf, or unite the Vampire King, the Demon King, and the Werewolf King. Oh, and the fairies, although that sounds beyond impossible. It wouldn’t hurt to have alliances with the sorcerers and necromancers as well.
Then you could do it in your lifetime. I mean, your human lifetime. ”
“I don’t understand what that—”
The dungeon door flew open and in stalked Dorian, flanked by demons I’d never seen before. All of them looked like they could rip off a head with their teeth, no problem.
“If you hurt my mate, you will die this day,” he rumbled, and the floor actually trembled along with his rage.
I mumbled, “The vodka did more harm than the rabbit. I think. There was a spark of purple. That might have done something.” I stared at my bare knees. Dorian’s shirt went down to them but didn’t quite cover. I should have worn a ninja outfit for all the climbing I’d been doing all over the place.
I looked up at Dorian as he dropped to his knees before me and took my face carefully in his massive claws.
“Tell me you are well.”
I stared into those madly flickering eyes. Ah. He cared because I was an angel and he was my slave. I smiled slightly. That was hilarious, right there. “I feel like I’m in the bottom of a well. I seem to be on the floor. Do you think you could pick me up in your strong arms and carry me to bed?”
“Your bed or mine?”
His bed where I’d woken up with a demon? Um… “Mine. I have to open the shop first thing in the morning.”
“It’s already first thing in the morning.”
I sighed heavily. “Do I look pulled together enough to open the shop?”
He glanced down at my body and his breathing hitched before he refocused on my face, the one he was still holding. “No, my beautiful mate. You look very drunk and bruised, and sliced up, and have blisters on your feet.”
“I’m not your mate.”
“As you like, my mate.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at the White Rabbit who had a slight smile on his mouth. “You see what I have to deal with? This guy, always with the denial.”
The White Rabbit said, “I am pleased that you have a demon king to protect you. They are very difficult to defeat.” Unless you slaughter all their angel mates and make them insanely suicidal.
Dorian scooped me into his arms, and stalked away from the White Rabbit, arms straining, but not from carrying me. More from not putting me down and reaching through those bars and ripping the White Rabbit apart.
I patted his chest. “You can kill him later.”
“Can I? I appreciate the vote of confidence. I’m starting to feel less than confident in my abilities. I have a great deal of false confidence that comes with king spikes, but you keep slipping through my fingers.”
“You’ll have to manacle me to the floor next time.”
“The manacles of love.”
“What?” I looked up at him and his eyes glimmered while he smiled the most dangerous smile I’d ever seen.
“It seems that I must convince you that you wish to stay by my side. I’m told I’m very cunning. If I can’t love you well enough, I’ll have no right to protect you.”
I blinked at him and then closed my eyes before I burst into tears. Dorian hated angels. That’s what the White Rabbit said. Oh well. He’d also said that I shouldn’t ever tell anyone what I was. I’d forget all about it.