Chapter 15 #2
Dorian laughed and kissed my hand, sending a shaft of happiness through me. “Baseball, my heart. Let’s go to the baseball game. There will be hot dogs.”
“Dogs?” Wilkie said, looking interested. “They throw dogs?”
“They eat dogs, but only hot ones. We can all go together.” Dorian grabbed Wilkie around the shoulders, one enormously terrifying demon to another.
Wilkie blinked at me with big eyes, uncertain what was going on there. Me too, but like I’d turn down a family outing, even if I was the only one who knew that’s what it was.
“Could we?” A bright bubble of hope welled up in my chest as I gazed at Dorian.
He nodded, glance falling to my lips for a moment.
And that’s how we came to be sitting in the stands above the baseball game, in the good seats.
“Wasn’t there a zombies vs. vampires war here?” Mixl asked, peering at the baseball diamond before turning to look at me. “I’m pretty sure that’s what Straldi said. Why isn’t he or Regis sitting with us? Isn’t Regis supposed to be your bodyguard? It’s not good that he’s five rows back.”
Dorian took my hand, sliding his fingers over mine. “You don’t think you can be an effective bodyguard for our queen?”
Mixl rolled his eyes and shifted, leaning over to see the dugouts.
“Against humans, sure, but that isn’t what keeps you working so hard.
A demon court in this world? It’s ridiculous, and yet here we are.
The Queen isn’t going to let that go. She’ll challenge you, steal your soft human, and eradicate everyone that trusts you. You should go home where it’s safe.”
Wilkie sounded terrifyingly confident in the abilities of the Zombie Queen.
Dorian laughed, rubbing my shoulder and tugging me until I was against his side. Strong, warm, safe. “Paranoia is the hallmark of an excellent bodyguard. The rest will come in time. Watch the game. We’re going to play catch afterwards.”
Wilkie shot him a look like you’d give a psychopath, but Dorian only stroked the back of my hand with his thumb.
It was basically the best day of my life.
The weather was perfect. Wilkie eventually got into the play and started yelling at the players for being so slow.
Every once in awhile Dorian would explain a rule or two while I beamed at him and soaked up the beautiful life I’d stumbled into.
Family. Dorian was trying to give me the normal family existence, because I’d always said that’s what I’d wanted.
If I really was a demon-angel, normal hadn’t ever been in the cards for me. This felt so right, surrounded by my demons, Regis a few rows back, all of us eating more hot dogs than was humanly possible while the sun soaked into my skin, but not warming as much as the demons beside me.
It was dark when the game ended and we left along with the throngs of people, spilling out of the stadium and into the streets towards our car.
Wilkie jabbered about the game, reciting every play like it might be life or death later.
He was so cute. I beamed up at Dorian who gave me a slow smile. Everything was just perfect.
We were a block from the car when the shadows came alive, and then a rotting creature with fetid breath lurched in front of me, grabbing my arm and ripped my red cardigan.
Zombies weren’t real. Someone must have dressed up like a… Dorian slashed the zombie’s head off with one hand, sending it rolling down the street away from us while Wilkie shoved his clawed hand into his chest and yanked out a crystalline heart.
Oh. Right. Zombies were real. Really real.
And we were in the middle of a literal horde.
Although what was the specific definition of a horde?
Was there a numerical amount, or did it just translate to—A dozen zombies attacked at once, and Wilkie pulled me back and spun me behind him so I was pinned between him and Dorian.
“And the batter’s at the base. His current record is…
” He was still talking, reciting the game while he danced with the demons.
He was fast, graceful, and never hesitated even when one of them kind of exploded yuck all over me.
A deluge of yuck. I was burning my sweater.
And my hair. It got in my mouth. I sputtered and spat while Wilkie and Dorian continued their fighting.
There were so many of them. The darkness seethed as far as I could see. How could we not get swept under the undead rotting tide?
Was there any way to compel them to swear fealty to Dorian without biting them?
I couldn’t intentionally put my mouth on one of those rotting things.
The Zombie Queen had eaten them, leaving them with no energy to siphon.
Was there any way to reverse that? I was demon.
I couldn’t get infected. Unless that was all just the White Rabbit spinning lies.
I shoved my forearm into a zombie’s mouth as it opened to chomp on Wilkie. It’s jaws clamped down, and then I was in its head.
So tired. Hungry. Hopeless. The Queen will let us go home. No she won’t. She never lets anyone go home. Except for sometimes.
The pain from his teeth made me forget what I was doing for a second, but then Dorian roared, and I remembered. Right. He was going to take the head off the zombie, but what if…
“Kneel to your king,” I whispered, like the moans and growls wouldn’t keep anyone from hearing me.
The zombie exploded.
Right in my face, just exploded, and then there was Regis, and the sky was full of demons. It didn’t take five minutes for the world to be perfectly free of zombies.
Dorian’s hand came around my arm, cutting off the blood and pain. His eyes flickered with rage as he swept me into his arms, his very large arms, leaving me feeling so deliciously small and delicate. Although he was just so big, of course I felt small. Also covered, absolutely covered in demon ick.
I shuddered. All of that had been a big bad end, and I was starting to feel kind of weird.
Maybe because Dorian shot up into the air like a rocket, leaving me curling up into him while he tucked me under his chin and the world rushed around us.
He landed on my roof and then walked off the edge, curling his clawed feet and swinging upside down before dropping inside my bathroom window.
He turned on the water in my shower without putting me down. With a rumble in his throat, he ran his massive hand over my hair, leaving a trickle of delicious heat over me.
“Queen of my heart, it seemed to me that you intentionally put your arm in the zombie’s mouth,” he rumbled, molten lines flaring brighter in his dark red skin.
I swallowed hard. “Did it? Why would I do something that crazy? I’m such a stable, normal, boring person who wouldn’t ever…
” I squeaked as he dropped me, then caught me by the waist so my legs swung down and I was standing in my bathroom looking up at the enormous creature of darkness.
Steam came off him in evocative swirls, like this was really and truly the end of the world.
He touched my cheek, his hand silky soft with a side of velvet that had me shivering. “Why did you put your arm in the zombie’s mouth?” His eyes flickered steady, bright, so super bright, and I sighed heavily, slumping my shoulders.
“I thought maybe I could get in his head so he’d swear fealty, you know, like Frisco.”
“Frisco bit you?” His dark brow rose over glowing eyes. That gleam was positively scary.
“No, of course not. I bit him. I just thought that zombies it might work the same but opposite.”
He frowned as he studied me. “You bit Frisco to get into his head, and then you thought it would be the same if you let a zombie bite you?” He knelt on the floor of my bathroom, which was actually a fairly large room, but when Dorian knelt with his wings out, it seemed very small.
He touched my face with the back of his hand, just a brush, but it sent a shiver through me.
“I’m so sorry that everything’s been so overwhelming for you. Please, please don’t intentionally let a zombie bite you. I’m going to shower you and then I’m taking you to the Grand Master, the Vampire King, Hazen. He should be able to stop the infection, keep it from spreading.”
He was giving me a shower? I was covered in zombie ick.
Surely that was the most logical next step, except that if he was in my shower, no way I’d be able to resist him, particularly the way I was starting to panic.
I wasn’t supposed to let anyone know I was an angel.
The White Rabbit had been very clear, but wouldn’t the Grand Master know what I was if he started treating me for a zombie infection?
I was almost positive I couldn’t get infected, but Dorian didn’t know that.
He didn’t have to know. I could just drown in the shower with him and forget about everything else.
No, he wouldn’t let me turning into a zombie slide. And if I didn’t tell him what I was, wouldn’t that make me as bad as he’d been back when he let me fall in love with a demon who had no intentions of keeping me or telling me why he was so wrong for me?
I grabbed his king spikes, the ones over his silky hair. Maybe he’d kill me with them.
“Dorian, I’m an angel,” I said. “I don’t think I can get infected.”
His brow furrowed as he studied me and my heart stopped beating. “Doing an angel with the demon for your Halloween display will be nice, add a little forbidden romance to it. We’ll talk about it later.”
He ushered me into the shower and then proceeded to wash me with my clothes still on. He washed those too, and the next thing I knew, we were out of the shower, and then he ran his hands over me and the water was gone, clothes, hair, everything.
I blinked at him while he picked me up and carried me into my bedroom, then down the winding circular stairs to the main floor. My duchess display was so grand.