The Goblin King (3 page)

Just as she was moving around the desk to head for th
e windows, movement to her left brought her to a halt and had her spinning in her tracks.

A very little girl stood in front of the desk, her head a g
ood four inches shorter than the desk’s height. Her mocha colored skin was clear and healthy, her black hair fell in tight ringlets around her beautiful face and over her shoulders, and her big brown eyes were framed with the longest lashes Diana had ever seen. It made her jealous.

The girl watched
Diana with silent interest.

“Kayla!”
Diana exclaimed, more than a little surprised to find a human being in her office just then. Kayla Branson was the “almost five years old” owner of Gus the retriever, which Gus proved just then by trotting over to Kayla and nudging the back of her hand with his head.

As he licked the tiny girl’s palm, Kayla stared up at
Diana. “You fixed him,” she said.

“Well,” said
Diana cautiously, “he wasn’t very sick after all. He should be fine now; all he needed was some medicine.”
Magic
medicine, she added mentally.

“
Can I take him home?”

“Absolutely. Is Nonna in the car?”

Kayla Branson had lost both her parents in a building fire shortly after she’d been born and was now being raised by her great aunt, whom Kayla referred to as her “Nonna.” But her aunt was elderly, diabetic, and arthritic and had trouble even getting from the car to the front door of the office.

“Yeah,” said Kayla.

“Then I’ll help you get Gus settled. Sound good?”

Kayla nodded, took Gus gently by his collar, and led the dog to the front door.
Diana watched as the girl tried to pull the door open, but it was so heavy that she struggled. Diana took it from her and held it while they all exited the office.

That explains the lack of a bell
, thought Diana. Kayla had probably inched it open so slowly, the bell couldn’t sound.

The Branson car was parked right up at the front, and
“Nonna” Branson was watching them both draw near, her eyes never wavering from where they rested on her niece. She rolled down her window as they came around to her side, and Diana leaned over so the woman wouldn’t have to strain.

“I’m so sorry I’
m late, Doc,” said Branson, her brown brow lined and beaded with sweat. Her features were pinched. Diana could detect the sickness around her –
inside
of her. She could almost feel the pain herself. It could have been a million things that had kept them from getting to the veterinary office before it had officially closed, but Diana was willing to bet that whatever it was, Branson’s sickness had played a heavy part.

It would be so easy
, Diana thought for the billionth time in her life. She could just reach over, slide her hand through the window, press it to Branson’s chest, and…. And that would be it. Either way, things would be different after that – for the both of them.

And that was why she didn’t do it. That was why she never did it
, not in public. Almost never,
period
. Not to humans. Humans talked, and when they did, they spoke a language other humans understood. And that was very, very dangerous.

Ani
mals were so much easier. While they most certainly had as much a language amongst themselves as did their bipedal “masters,” humans were too dense as of yet to understand it, so she was safe. Cat and dog rumors wouldn’t be bringing danger to her door any time soon. And helping them was at least
something
. It wasn’t enough most days, admittedly. The stress of knowing that she could be doing so much more, the pain of watching the world suffer around her while she possessed the means to end so much of it – little by little… it was killing her.

She’d already lost two-thirds of her hair. It was a good thing she’d had a fair amount to begin with. The balding was only barely beginning to be noticeable now, and
she wore it parted heavily to the side to hide much of it. She’d had a cortisone shot that was supposed to help too, but it hadn’t seemed to stop her from pulling a
tribble
out of her hair in the shower that morning.

She’d never been good at handling stress. When she was younger, she’d put on weight because of it. T
hen there had been the endless stomach aches that took the weight right back off again. And now she was channeling it into her hair follicles, which just kind of chewed monkey dicks.

“It’s no problem at all, Mrs. Branson,”
Diana assured the old woman. “I’m here late most days catching up on work anyway. Gus is all set. I gave him a fast acting antibiotic, and that seemed to do the trick.”

Mrs. Branson’s brows raised a bit. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing!”

“Oh I’ve got all kinds of tricks up my sleeves,” Diana joked. “I’m magic.” She smiled an award-winning smile and winked. Nothing like telling the truth about something supernatural to make people not believe in it.

Branson laughed an
d strained to look over the head rest at her niece in the back, who was just buckling into her child’s car seat. Gus sat beside her, patient and silent, breathing happily along as if he hadn’t been at death’s door that morning.

What he didn’t know, what none of them knew, was that there was no medicine on Earth that could have saved him that day.
If he hadn’t been brought to specifically to Diana, little Kayla Branson would be crying right now rather than kicking her feet in pleased impatience as she waited to get back home and play Skylanders with Gus sitting beside her on the couch.

Gus was
one lucky dog.

And Kayla one lucky little girl.

“What do I owe you, Doc?” Branson asked as she reached for her purse.

“Not a thing, Mrs. Branson. Just promise me you’ll bring Gus back by in three weeks for a check-up and we’ll call it even.”

Branson shook her head and unzipped her handbag, but Diana placed her hand over the old woman’s and squeezed gently. “I mean it,” she insisted. “Bring him back by.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “And get some rest yourself. Okay?”

Mrs. Branson’s eyes met hers, and
Diana could feel the woman’s spirit brush her own. After a few quiet moments, the old woman nodded and put her purse back in the passenger seat. “Thank you, angel,” she said. “You’re a good one.”

“It’s all an act,”
Diana teased, grinning broadly. She straightened and tapped the top of the car. “I’ll see you in three weeks.” She turned to Kayla, who was already waving goodbye. “Take good care of him, Kayla, and not too many treats!”

The
Branson’s drove away, leaving Doctor Diana Piper standing alone in the parking lot. She stared out after them, realizing eventually that she was the last person in the strip mall; all of the other shop owners had left for the night. Diana’s blue Toyota FJ Cruiser was the last vehicle left in the lot. It sat alone under a flickering street light.

Diana
thought of Mrs. Branson and the pain she endured every day. She thought of the people with critical diseases in hospitals who would probably die that night. She thought of the injured, the raped, the bleeding and alone in the darkness of alleys and unclean bathrooms and at the ends of hallways that had no windows.

She
closed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair.

Long strawberry blonde strands
wrapped around her fingers like the fine filaments of a spider’s web. Diana sighed softly and flicked her hand as she always did, allowing the golden strands to cascade to the ground.

The light above her car buzzed loudly and finally popped, leaving her in darkness.
Diana hugged herself, went back into the office to grab her handbag and keys, and finally locked up to go home.

Chapter Three

It was a decidedly uncomfortable sensation, especially given recent circumstances. Something was
wrong
– and Roman could not for the life of him put his finger on what it was.

His stride was long as he made his way back to his quarters. He’d just finished speaking with Lalura, and the old witch had retur
ned to her cottage. Roman wanted to quickly touch bases with his men and then transport to the cave and check on Evie. She’d seemed so stricken after the battle at the meeting….

Roman stopped in his tracks as the sensation that something was amiss deepened greatly. Rather than return to his quarters to speak with the guards, he conjured up the transportation spell then and there.

The hall warped around him, shimmering slightly as he was sent through space and time. A moment later, the world darkened and solidified around him, and he felt the cold stone beneath the leather soles of his shoes. The distant rush of the waterfall filled the massive underground space with a gentle static noise, and the trickle of the various rock-cut streams lent the cave a cozy feel. The gas lights of the wooden bridges spanning the streams flickered warmly, their combined light aided by the glow of the multi-colored moss and lichen that clung to the ceiling a hundred feet above.

Smoke curled as usual from the cottage chimney, inviting and picturesque.

But all was too still.

Something is wrong.

Roman blurred into motion, entering the cottage within nanoseconds, a cold wind following his movement.

There was no sign of Evie. In fact, now that Roman took heed of his surroundings, noticing the steadily burning fire in the hearth, the uneaten food on the table, the steaming pot of tea that yet remained
un-poured, Roman realized that he didn’t even smell her.

And that had been what was wrong all along.

Like
all
beings, Evie had a scent. It was cherry blossoms – and the sweetest blood on the planet. It was a heady scent for a vampire, dizzyingly intoxicating, and one that called to him like a siren song even as he lay in his deepest slumber.

But at the meeting, just after the battle… there had been no scent. Evie had not only appeared empty and hollow to the eyes – she had been that way to
every
sense.

He’d been fooled.

That had not been his wife.

A single, small piece of paper on the table rustled in a left-over breeze, drawing Roman’s attention. The breeze died down and the fire crackled loudly. Roman moved to the table and lifted the sheet, reading the three words that had been so cruelly, so beautifully penned across it.

Made you blink.

*****

Lily Kane looked up at the swirling mass of dark, terrible storm clouds and shot an uncertain glance toward her companion. “I didn’t know vampires could control the weather,” she said.

“Normally, they can’t,” replied Dannai Caige
, a practiced witch and werewolf. “Or at least, they choose not to. But remember Roman D’Angelo is also a magic user, part Akyri and part warlock.” Dannai ducked down as lightning split the sky nearby and thunder crashed hard into the earth after it. Once the cacophony rolled over and away, she added with a touch more volume, “There are spells for this kind of thing, for those strong enough to wield them.”

“And he’s
strong enough,” Lily said.

“That’s
a massive understatement,” said Dannai. “In fact, whatever D’Angelo is doing, in this case, he’s not even doing it on purpose.” She looked up as the sky boiled. “This here,” she said, “is just a reflection of his mood.”

Dannai could tell that
Lily really wanted to mutter a curse right then. If she felt anything like Dannai, her insides were freezing up and squirming around at the same time. She personally felt a little sick.

“Evie writes about angels who can control the weather,” Lily said as she placed her hand to her thr
oat in an unconscious gesture. “I wonder if this is where she got the idea.”

Angels?
Dannai thought.
Not even close.
She couldn’t help but picture a great big blood sucking demon speeding like quick silver through the dark nights of countless eons. “I’ve got news for you,” she said. “The fact that something has wings doesn’t make it an angel.”

Roman D’Angelo
was a complicated, dangerous man. He certainly looked like an angel. He
sounded
like an angel and even carried himself like an angel. But he was a master vampire unlike any other. He sat at the head of the table of the 13 Kings and more than possessed the power to keep that position.

Someone had taken D’Angelo’
s wife, Evelynne. Evie to her friends.

Roman
wanted audience with Lily Kane because she was the
Seer,
and he wanted her to “see” where they’d taken Evie.
They
most likely being the ka’s and their ruling god, Kamon.

Unfortunately, Dannai knew that Lily’s
visions didn’t work that way. Not normally. In this case however, she had a sinking feeling that the Vampire King would find a way to
make
them work that way.