Bill swallowed a chuckle and decided to have another sip of his drink before asking, “So what was it you threw at him then? A chair? Or an entire desk this time?”
“Just a chair,” Kari grumbled, then grinned herself. Bill always had a way of calming her down. She didn’t know if it was blood speaking to blood, since he was demokin himself, or if it was just his easy-going manner; but things were never as bad as she first thought, when he was around. Easy-going was a phrase rarely associated with a demokin, as they were usually so highly-strung they went on a rampaging murder at the mildest slight.
“Seems like I picked the right day to have off then!” Bill Dawkins was not only Kari’s friend but her lieutenant and one of the best on the Watch.
At that moment her stomach growled loudly, and she did have the chagrin to look embarrassed. She had just eaten a large meal, but Rosie, Bill’s wife and mother to his six children, ladled some more of the stew onto her plate and then gave Kari a look. This particular look had been practised over the many years they had known each other and quite blatantly said “you’re not eating enough”.
“Kari, he is new and you’re going to have to make some allowances until he gets settled,” Bill said, always the diplomat.
“Allowances! He is the rudest, most ungrateful person I have ever met, and I grew up in hell!” She exclaimed.
Bill just sighed and glanced at his wife, who was trying really hard to smother a smile. They had heard this a hundred times before from Kari, something always firing up her temper. After having known her for ten years, he knew the difference between her being angry and her complaining. When she was complaining, you laughed as the chair or desk hit the wall and smashed into tiny pieces. When she was angry you ran very quickly away and that still wouldn’t be enough. He had only seen her angry once. He didn’t want to see it again.
“I don’t understand what elves have to do with demons anyway,” she said sulkily, her temper winding down now she was soothed by food and friends.
“The demons killed the heir to the Elvish throne, you know that.” He looked at her, seeing her clear blue eyes had lost all traces of gold.
“That was two hundred years ago, surely they can let it go now, it’s not like Princess Seelarul is going to come back from it.” Kari moved the last dumpling around on her plate, trying to absorb the last of the gravy.
“Princess Selaruil, Kari, and because of the attack the elves now have devoted two hundred years of study to anti-demon magic. They have some of the best anti-demon mages in the world and this elf they have assigned to us is apparently one of the best. He also has connections to the Elvish royals apparently and the high council so you probably should make some allowances.” It was his turn to give her the look now. This particular look was also a regular, and said “stop being so obstinate you wilful child, and do as I say”. “And before you ask, Captain Trollock and I were told yesterday about this, and I did some checking up on it today.”
“You knew? Of course you knew, you always know. Well, I will say my goodbyes and leave then,” she said and huffed out of the room.
Dawkins heard noises and giggles upstairs and turned to his wife with a smile, “Do you think she’s getting better at controlling it? Her demon side? Something like this would have really upset her a few years ago.”
Rosie considered for a while then smiled and shook her head. Bill and Kari were two peas in a pod to her, with sometimes a brother-sister attitude and sometimes a father-daughter. She had known Kari since she was in her early teens; Bill had found her in street gang when he was newly married to Rosie and had adopted her into their little family.
“Remember when you first brought her home? Fresh from the street and still smelling of sulphur? She was so angry and I wondered how she would ever fit in with us, until I saw her with Lewis. He was bawling his eyes out and she calmed him right down just by being near him. That’s when I knew she was special, that the demon wasn’t all she was. It seems to get less every year.
“I just wished she still lived with us. I could keep a better eye on her then. She turns up here with fresh cuts and bruises every day, they can’t all be from patrolling on the beat! I think she’s going out at night again.” Rosie sighed, she didn’t know what Kari did, but it definitely wasn’t good. When Kari had lived with them and snuck out, Bill had tried to follow her, but she had a way with losing unwanted eyes. The most he had ever managed to find out was that she went where there were known demokin populations or portals sites. Of course where demons were you could also find every kind of vice and corruption known to man.
“If she was going to tell us about that she would have ten years ago when we took her in, and I don’t think it’s anything we should be worried about anyway. She’s a demokin, it’s different in each of us and I think she feels a need to go out and do whatever it is she does.” Bill wrapped his arms around his wife and leant in to kiss her neck. “But with us around I don’t think she feels it as much.”
Kari came back in then, one child balanced on each hip with another four trailing after, Lewis, now taller than his adopted auntie at only ten years old, bringing up the rear. She kissed them all once more, and Bill and Rosie too, then left for her own rooms a few streets away.
She wandered idly along the streets that were considered friendly by day and menacing by night. The City was a centre of commerce and as such, parts of it were ludicrously expensive even with a depressed housing market. This had been caused by the great banking crisis three years ago. It had turned out that ‘The Friendlye Banke’ had in fact been run by unscrupulous humans who had lent money to some very irresponsible people who had no intention of returning it. They had then disappeared, thereby unable to return the vast amounts of now stolen cash. This had caused that bank to collapse and the monarchy to buy it out, raising taxes and making life miserable for the general populace. Kari always thought that if you named something as being friendly then you were asking to be swindled. It should really have been named the ‘Big Fucking Scary Banke’.
She lived on the edge of the cheap part, in a large house, but only two streets away from the small, squalid ones. It would have probably only cost an arm and a leg these days, instead of mortgaging her first-born like a few years ago. The problem was she didn’t have any money to spare, or not enough for a house anyway, though she probably could lay her hands on an arm and leg, if only that was an actual currency they would accept! Unfortunately, she didn’t have much money, and most of that went on replacing bits of furniture she inevitably smashed anyway.
Something wasn’t quite right, though.
The streets were empty, which meant the people round here could smell trouble. Since most of the locals were the underbelly of society they had an ear to the ground where trouble was concerned and knew when to stay in, no matter how many tricks they lost that night.
But wait, they weren’t totally empty. There was one man walking slowing towards her. No, not towards her, actually, his eyes were focused on the Palace that rested like a giant glittering butterfly on the hill behind her. His eyes seemed to reflect the glowing light of it. They were still glinting when he glanced down to take a knife out of his pocket. Only one thing went through her mind in that moment. Demon.
Present time.
Shit. Shit. The Prince and demons were dealing together. Which Prince, though, Piron or Kevan? Please not Kevan. Drac-Shemal was serious business, one of the top demons in hell, the Prince of Dragons. If he was involved someone was going to die, and Kari was not around all the time to keep demons from killing everyone in the Palace. Speaking of the Palace, she was smack bang leaning over a dead demon with her knife dripping blood, in the Queen’s Courtyard without any sort of authorisation. This was not good.
For a human, carrying the body of a dead demon was difficult, as they were big and heavy. Some