Chapter 32
Chapter
Thirty-Two
MAL
Mal ran after Clayton once he realized his man wasn’t going to pay attention to how cool he looked after killing Zane.
Zane had been an old demon, and Mal was delighted to have gotten a chance at him, because the bastard usually hid the second he got wind Mal was around. Zane had been just as delicious as Mal had hoped, and he would have savored the experience if they weren’t in a hurry.
It wouldn’t have killed Clayton to look at him for just a second, though.
Mal leapt onto the boat, easily scaling the slanted deck, but before he reached Clayton’s side, he was assaulted by a small bundle of tears and snot. Only his lightning reflexes allowed him to catch Tommy before he smeared his face all over Mal’s clothes.
“You were gone!” Tommy howled. “You left and we were all alone and then the bad guys came!” He hung in Mal’s grasp like a wet sock, crying his tiny heart out.
Sigh. Mal’s clothes were only a mental construct anyway. He cradled the crying boy in his arms and said, “I’m sorry. I’m here now, and I won’t let this happen again.”
Tommy responded by crying even harder and burying his face in Mal’s armpit.
It was possible that Mal had made a mistake by not rescuing everyone as soon as he’d found them.
Mortal logic and emotions were tricky things. Mal needed to start working on figuring it all out since his entire family was full of mortals.
Mal looked to Clayton for advice but saw that he was consoling Holly and Merry while Eira stood close by looking a lot like she might need to be consoled next.
Mal carried Tommy over to join them. He didn’t know what to do, but they might as well freak out together as one big, happy, traumatized family.
“I must be the dumbest person alive for following you,” Holly sniffled, shooting daggers at Mal with her eyes.
“No one told you to follow me.” Mal thought that was pretty clear to everyone involved, but he said it anyway because people could be pretty dumb even under the best circumstances. “Once we get everyone out of here, you can take off and never look back,” he offered.
Eira snapped, “Bite your tongue.”
Tommy shouted “Don’t take Holly away!” into Mal’s armpit.
“He didn’t mean it, Holly. Please don’t go,” Merry said, tugging on Holly's shirt.
Well, shit. Mal had clearly missed a lot while they were gone.
Clayton didn’t seem to need a recap at all and patted her shoulder gently, saying, “No one is going to make you stay, Holly, but we’d love to have you. You definitely fit in with us.”
“Because I’m an absolute freakshow?”
Mal, not being a dumbass, read the room and added his own two cents. “This is a strictly freakshows-only kind of family, kid. You seem like a relatively tolerable person, so I’m fine with it. Whether you stay or not is up to you.”
“Relatively tolerable? What a terrible thing to say,” Eira smacked the back of Mal’s head and then froze, likely realizing who she’d just hit.
Mal merely snorted and ruffled her hair.
Like a tiny swat from a kirian was going to do something to him. Please.
Eira glared at him through her messy hair and sniffed haughtily. “You have to handle children gently. Especially their emotions.”
Mal was of the opinion that kids were tougher than they looked and shouldn’t be coddled so much that they couldn’t develop necessary survival skills, but they were still in the middle of a rescue, so that conversation would have to wait.
As if on cue, a fae man, covered in scars, strode confidently out of the shadows, bracketed on both sides by four demons.
It was more than Mal had counted during his recon. Nice.
“Even if you have a dreamwalker with you, Elena, we still have you trapped. You may have been able to take out one of my demons, but I have an infinite number at my disposal. You’ve interrupted their food supply chain, and they’re not happy about that.”
“You’re feeding our children to demons, Kendric?! You absolute shit-eating monster.” Elena popped up from where she and Naerith had been keeping watch and began openly firing on the man, peppering him with shot after shot.
“The king and queen will have you flayed alive for this,” Naerith snarled, leaping up to stand protectively next to his wife, holding a flaming sword with both hands.
“My brother and sister-in-law will be too busy fighting off the entire demon realm to worry about me. After my demons feast on your children’s souls, we’ll burn down Astraea’s stupid tree and take the capital. Then my friends can eat as much as they want.”
“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 a schlork, 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 shit out of Clayton, Mal kept the answer to himself. But regarding dealing with demons and nightmares, the answer was simple.
Infinitely.
Mal was infinitely more powerful than them because they had no defense against him, and he had no weakness they could exploit. Mal was a dark and vengeful god among the worst monsters reality had to offer, and he loved his job.
Especially on a day like today, when he got to show Clayton how amazing he was. He posed in a heroic stance, doing his best not to look like he was posing, and held out a hand to draw the essence of the demon into him.
He didn’t need to do that. He could have just hoovered the demon up like a gluttonous pig, but that aesthetic wasn’t something he could deal with. Even if no one was watching, Mal would still pose at least a little.
Mal heard Kendric shouting the inane command, “He’s only a dreamwalker. Just eat him!”
Mal shot Kendric a grin filled with extra malice and teeth.
He shot out a tentacle to grab a demon heading toward Clayton’s parents, then shot out another to grab a demon making its way toward the boat.
After that, he got distracted from Kendric because the final demon decided it didn’t want to be in the battle anymore.
Mal made a tentacle for it too and drained it dry before it had a chance to portal out.
Once the area was clear of demons, Mal realized he felt different. Disoriented.
How many demons had he eaten so far? Whatever it was, it was far more than he’d ever gotten his hands on at one time.
He put a hand on his stomach and patted it. He felt oddly over-full. Had he finally found his limit?
“What the hell are you?!” Kendric shouted as he frantically opened three more portals behind him. Two of them were filled with fae warriors, but the last one gave the telltale flash of white from the demon realm.
Mal’s essence gave what could only be described as a hiccup. He’d gone to an all-you-can-eat buffet and put the restaurant out of business, only to discover it had a sister store next door.
He was about to find out if he could get indigestion from overeating.
What fun.
Mal snatched demons up as soon as they stepped out of the portal.
They didn’t exit fast enough for his liking, so after snarfing down five of them, he began to reach into the portal to drag them out to him.
He threw out tentacle after tentacle, draining the life of demons, each one faster than the last. What would once be a grand meal for him was now little more than a drop in a rainstorm.
Instead of growing overfull, Mal grew larger. Each demon added to his own essence, and he could only condense it so far, so his physical form had to compensate. Mal was only vaguely aware of this fact because he’d discovered something absolutely lovely.
The portal Kendric opened hadn’t been to a handful of demons waiting on standby. It had been a direct line to the demon army.
All worries of aesthetics fell away as Mal worked his way deeper and deeper into the demon realm, devouring demon after demon like a greedy beast. He’d never had a chance to go because it was a tightly kept secret.
People thought it was due to dreamwalkers, but Mal knew it was because of him.
If he ever entered the demon realm, Mal would become an unstoppable god, and even a creature like Jack would fear him.
He’d never cared enough to find the demon realm, because he didn’t need the hassle of being a god, but the experience of feeding on endless demons was far beyond his wildest dreams. A guy could get used to such luxury.
Mal threw out more tentacles and continued to feast.