Demon’s Test (Demon Mates #4)

Chapter Eight

Quirion looked out of the huge window in the dining room, humming a happy tune and watching Mildred, who was again busy moving the silt in the moat. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought maybe her belly looked a little swollen, though it could totally be the lighting, and a gentlemen never asked about a woman’s soft bits, especially considering the female in question wouldn’t be able to understand him, not to mention answer.

Almost two weeks had passed since they’d sent Milo’s documents to Beverly and Rasputin, and he should be hearing back from the SBW any day now. Quirion was in high spirits because he knew Milo would get the funding. When he had helped him with the report about the state of his research, Quirion had almost burst with pride at how far Milo already was. And once he got the funding from SBW, he could finally incorporate magic into his work, which would make it go that much faster. Quirion had already prepared a few books that might be of interest to Milo, especially regarding hive minds under the influence of low-key magic. Maybe Milo would even be able to find a way to use the Earth’s own ambient magic to operate his nanobots, thus making them marketable for human use. The possibilities were endless and Quirion couldn’t wait to accompany Milo on his quest to unlock them all—for purely scientific reasons, of course. It wasn’t that he was thinking of the young man more and more in a romantic setting, no, not at all. Strictly professional, that was him.

Mildred seemed to be satisfied with her work, because she settled in, lowering her front until the water of the moat engulfed her and only her eyes and nostrils were visible. It was an eerie sight, especially when she winked, the grayish haw a stark contrast to her brownish coloring. Quirion shook his head. Why was he contemplating the colors on his toad friend when he could be visiting Milo and asking him if there was anything new from SBW? He got his claws out to slice space and time, walking through the rip as soon as it appeared.

Milo was in his lab, his head bowed over some papers strewn across his desk. The man was chaotic in his research, the one thing about him Quirion couldn’t fathom. His own workplace was always immaculate, because neat surroundings guaranteed neat thinking processes. Then again, Milo’s research wasn’t neat or straightforward. It required a lot of flexibility of the mind, which seemed to transfer to his surroundings. A topic that could be interesting to research one day, when Quirion wasn’t busy getting closer to his…young man? Friend? Protégé? None of this sounded right. The one word that would sound absolutely right was unfortunately the one he didn’t want to think. Mate .

“Oh, hey, Quirion. It’s nice to see you.” Milo smiled broadly, looking up from whatever he’d been reading.

“Hey, Milo. I’m here to ask if you’ve heard anything from SBW? There should be some kind of response by now.”

A concerned expression fell like a shadow over Milo’s face. “Yes. I did hear from them just an hour ago. An email.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. You said once they see my credentials, they should approve me for the funding, but in the email, it says they want me to do some kind of test?”

“What? That’s new. Show me what they sent.”

Milo turned back to the desk, shoved scattered papers aside to get to the keyboard for his desktop and clicked a few times until the email was on screen. He gestured to it and Quirion leaned forward to read it.

Dear Dr. Abber, we are happy to inform you that you’ve completed the next step and have been approved to undertake the test we ask our prospective funding recipients to do. It will take place in four weeks via Teams. The details and fields we will be testing are listed below.

Sincerely, Beverly Nyx

Quirion felt anger bubbling up. There never had been a test to get funding from SBW. He knew because he had researched the last fifty years of funding grants to make sure Milo was perfectly prepared for anything they might throw at him. The next step should have been a personal meeting where Milo got the chance to present his work and field questions the board might have. Then things should have been settled. He scanned down to the list of fields they were going to test and narrowly avoided skewering the table and keyboard with his claws.

“Are you kidding me? The History of Elves on the Irish Isles ? Biology, seen from a Magical Perspective ? Evolution and the Ambient Magic Fields ? Microorganisms and Mutations during the Middle Ages ? Have they gone nuts?”

“I don’t know. I thought the fields were quite specific, but then again except for the first one, it all has to do with my research, even though in a broad sense. Perhaps they just want to see if I know where I’m coming from?”

Milo sounded so lost and small, Quirion wanted to rip the entire board of the SBW to tiny little pieces. Since his father wouldn’t look favorably upon such behavior, he had to find other ways to make them suffer. But first things first. He drew a deep breath, retracted his claws, and turned to Milo with a broad smile. “Don’t you worry, min Liechtbrunn . We’ve got this. I won’t leave you hanging. You wrap up here and I’ll get you in, say, an hour? Then we go to the library to strategize and work.”

Milo nodded, a small, hopeful smile on his face. It only made Quirion’s rage burn hotter, but he kept his lethal instincts under tight wraps. No need to worry Milo any more than he already was.

“I’ll get you in an hour. How about pizza from Napoli for dinner?”

“The original?”

“What else?” Quirion arched his eyebrows. It had the desired effect. Milo chuckled softly.

“Yes. Always.” He touched the back of Quirion’s hand where it was still resting on the desk. “Thank you. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”

“Oh, you would. But Sammy isn’t as good a help as me.” Quirion winked, reminding Milo that he had quite a few people in his corner.

“Yeah, don’t tell him I said that, but it’s true.”

“That’s my boy.” Quirion realized what he’d just said and before things could get awkward, he sliced space and time and fled the lab.

He reemerged in his brother Barion’s home in the Carpathians. Of course, the idiot wasn’t home. Quirion then traveled to Jon’s apartment under Sammy’s bookstore and there he found the two snuggling on the couch watching a biped with a bull’s head bang a human. His brother and his mate were beyond weird.

Jon made a sound like a trapped mouse and Barion jumped up to go into a defensive stance in front of his mate.

“Relax, it’s just me.”

“Have you ever heard of doorbells?” Barion’s claws were still out, though Quirion wasn’t worried. His youngest brother relied on warning while Dre would have already taken the first swing. He’d always been the hothead.

“I have, but this is urgent.” There, that should be sufficient.

“And have you ever researched how to use them?” Barion’s claws were retracting, but slowly. Behind him, Jon had left the couch and was now looking past his mate to Quirion.

“Oh, hi, Quirion. You startled me.”

“Hi, Jon. I didn’t mean to. And as for your question, Barion, I do know how to use them, but why should I when there’s so much on the line?”

Barion opened his mouth to reply but no sound came out because there was another rip in space and time and Corrywin jumped through, claws out, ready to kill, behind him Jon’s Grann, his mate, whose aura was brimming with accumulated magic. Jon snuggled close to Barion while Corrywin looked around the room with glowing eyes.

“ Bele leve , I can’t find the enemy.”

“I guess that’s because there is no enemy here, bote nob ,” Grann replied. The magic around her receded while she patted her mate’s side. “Though we absolutely have to revisit this whole going into battle thing. I can see the appeal.” Her eyes sparkled. “Adrenaline all high, my ye gason bélj ready to kill, enemies cowering before his might…”

“Oh, bwa sovaj mwen . You make me all hot and bothered.” Corrywin leaned forward to kiss Grann, which Jon thankfully interrupted before Quirion was scarred for life. He liked his uncle well enough, and he respected Grann as the most powerful voodoo queen New Orleans—and the world—had ever seen, but he liked to do it from afar, exactly for this reason. Neither his uncle nor his—aunt? Through marriage?—had any idea what the word restraint meant. Perhaps because they were both rich in years. Then again, Quirion was rich in years as well and he didn’t act like a teenager crazy with hormones.

“Grann, as nice as it is to see you, what are you doing here?”

Grann turned in Corrywin’s arms, looking at her grandson with a mixture of adoration and aggravation because he had just interrupted their…their…whatever it was the voodoo queen of New Orleans and his uncle got up to. “The ancestors said you were startled.”

Jon raised an eyebrow.

Grann raised right back.

Jon held the brow.

Grann as well.

It was the strangest stare-off Quirion had ever witnessed and that was counting that one time where the Sphinx he had been meeting to discuss some history had tried to outstare her own reflection. Sphinxes might be wise, but there was enough cat in them to interfere with their rational thinking. Warning, never point that out to them!

Corrywin cleared his throat. He clearly was the weak link. Barion must have sensed it, too, because he pinned their uncle with a glare. “Well, Uncle? Since when do you come running whenever the ancestors report about Jon? Usually there’s a phone call first.”

Corrywin glanced at his mate, who was still staring at Jon. Two zombies in a staring match. Somewhere in there had to be a joke, if only Quirion could find it.

“Uhm, you see, we were worried…” Corrywin trailed off.

Barion sensed blood and relentlessly pushed forward. “You were worried because Jon was startled in his own home, with me by his side?”

“If you put it like that—”

“Duh, I do.”

Corrywin lifted his arms. “Fine, we were a tiny bit bored by the meeting with the heads of all the old families from New Orleans and being alerted by the ancestors gave my mezane the chance to show off a bit and me to demonstrate how dangerous demons are and why it’s a good idea to fall in line and we were able to escape without being rude.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Jon was still staring at his Grann, but his brow had lowered.

“Congratulate me and my demontre for our quick thinking.” Grann winked and Jon started to laugh.

“Fine, you were cunning and outsmarted a ruthless and dangerous enemy. You can clap yourself on your shoulders.” Jon was leaning back into Barion. When Grann’s eyes started to twinkle, he was quick to add, “But do it somewhere else. Perhaps in Corrywin’s house in Antigua? You could have a nice romantic time there before returning to New Orleans and reporting how successfully you saved me from whatever horror Quirion was about to unleash.”

If there was a hint of sarcasm in Jon’s voice, neither Grann nor Corrywin acknowledged it. On the contrary, Grann patted Jon’s cheek, smiling indulgently at him. “You, ti gason mwen , are such a bright young man. Papa Legba was very wise to resurrect you.” She turned her stare at Quirion. “Don’t make me come back, demontre .”

Quirion straightened to his full height. “ M pa ta reve l onorab .” I wouldn’t dream of it, honorable leader . He could see that he’d gotten her with his flawless Haitian Creole. And people said gaining knowledge was boring and useless. Ha!

Grann nodded, for a moment there was something in her expression that made Quirion a bit nervous, but then the adventurous gleam he had learned to associate with impending sexy times worth an entire porno collection was back in her eyes. Thankfully, Corrywin decided it was time to take his mate to wherever they went to give in to their urges and the two vanished as fast as they had arrived.

“ Lanfè ak dinamasyon , hell and damnation,” Jon cursed. “That was already more action than I needed for this entire month!”

“It’s fine, iubit , I’m sure Quirion is going to leave as well.” Barion shot him a warning glare, which Quirion ignored. If he were considerate of others all the time, nothing would ever get done.

“I’ll be on my way as soon as you’ve helped me out.”

Barion wanted to say something, but Jon held up a hand. “Does helping you out involve my demon going out tonight?”

“No. He can sit back down on the couch and even have you on his lap. I only need his talent for a moment then you can go back to watching your porn.”

Jon puffed up. “I have to inform you this is not porn. It’s a super sweet interspecies love story my gorgeous mate and I enjoy quite a lot.”

Quirion realized from the way Barion was tensing that this was a topic better left untouched, and nodded in acquiescence. “Of course. I do apologize for my error in judgment. I never meant to insult your taste in films.” There, that should be sufficient.

Jon narrowed his eyes, clearly not sure if Quirion was being condescending—he was, a tiny bit—and Barion, who obviously wanted to get this over with, chimed in. “What is it you need from me, brother?”

“I’m so glad you finally asked. I need you to show me something.”

Barion nodded. “Any specifics? Or just the entire history of Earth?”

Oh, the sarcasm was strong in his brother today.

“A discussion between Beverly Nyx and probably a few other members of the SBW. It most likely took place last week and it was about Milo and his application for the funding they offered him.”

“Oh, was there a problem?” Jon was no fool.

“Yes. They require a test from him, one he won’t have a chance of passing on his own. A test they have never done with any other prospective recipient. I want to know what’s going on.”

“You think they want to mess with Milo?” Now Barion’s tone had a dangerous edge. Milo was part of their family and Barion was highly protective of him, just like all the other paranormals in the group surrounding Sammy. Probably because as a human, Milo was the most vulnerable of them all.

“I very strongly suspect it.”

“Give me a sec.” Barion closed his eyes, flipping through the past like humans did through TV channels. Quirion knew his brother was able to see the weaves of time and manipulate them a certain degree. How he did that he still had no clue. It vexed him to no end, but so far, all his studies had led to the conclusion that Barion’s talent should be impossible. Knowing that pondering this specific topic would only distract him, Quirion put it very firmly out of his mind. He would find the answer one day, he had no doubts in that regard, but at the moment, he had bigger fish to fry. Or vampires and ice elves, if his assumptions were correct.

“Ah, got them.” Barion grinned, then waved his hands. Silvery streaks followed his fingers, floated in the air, then solidified to a picture. Beverly Nyx, the old bat, and Rasputin Icebringer, the insufferable ice elf who had once dared to suggest the scrolls about the wood elves’ secret rituals to create new plants, which Quirion had unearthed from a Mayan temple deep in the jungle, should go to his people because elves were much better suited to guard such knowledge. Well, the old wrinkle-skinned wannabe librarian had learned the very hard way to never mess with Quirion’s books. Idiot .

In the middle of the living room, Beverly and Rasputin stood frozen, waiting for Barion to animate them. Quirion nodded at his brother. It was Beverly who spoke first.

“Rasputin, dear friend, you look troubled.”

Dear friend? Since when? Last time Quirion had seen the two, they had been like two homopolar magnets, constantly rejecting each other.

“Well, I do have reason, my dear Beverly.” Rasputin stepped closer to her, lightly touching her hand. Quirion felt himself puking a little in his mouth, especially when Beverly smiled at Rasputin in a way that could only be described as alluring . Beverly , alluring!

“What seems to be the problem?”

Rasputin held out a paper, a print-out as it seemed. Beverly scanned it quickly.

“Do we know this Devon Merrybone?”

That jerk? What does he have to do with anything? Except for being a pain in Milo’s ass?

“Apparently he’s a scholar as well, just like Milo Abber, though lightyears away from his genius.”

Finally, something Rasputin got right. Had to be the first time.

“Is there any credence to his claim?” Beverly looked pensive.

“Initially I didn’t think so, but in order to uphold the SBW’s impeccable reputation, I decided to do some digging, just in case there was anything we should be aware of.”

“What did you find?” The impatience in Beverly’s voice was much more what Quirion was used to.

“Milo Abber is every bit the genius we definitely want in our society.” Rasputin hesitated.

“But?” Beverly’s eyebrows would have probably crawled right over the top of her head if she’d had that much skin to move around.

“But he did have help, nothing unseemly or substantial enough to accuse him of fraud, but the problem is more the person who helped him.”

“Rasputin, dear, I know we’re both very long-lived, but I do not wish to waste precious minutes on you building the drama.”

Yeah, that was Beverly through and through. Rasputin though didn’t get angry. He pouted. Pouted! Which looked ridiculous on his sharp face, which was dominated by his pointy ears. Beverly on the other hand smiled indulgently. And we’re back to what the fuck?

“I’m sorry. You know how much I love my drama. And this is juicy! And potentially alarming.”

“You’ve got me hooked, Ras. No need to draw it out.”

Gah . Quirion would have never, not in a million years and a trillion alternate universes have seen this coming. Beverly, with her aloof vampire lady persona and Rasputin, the arrogant ice elf whose heart had never melted once in all his years of existence as friends and very obviously in a courtship. Quirion just wasn’t sure if this was a miracle or the exact opposite of one. Well, if it makes them happy….

“His mysterious helper is Quirion.”

Rasputin blew the bomb short and to the point. Beverly’s eyes widened. Quirion cursed. How had they found that out?

“How did you find that out?” For once, he and Beverly seemed to be of one mind. Perhaps the apocalypse was upon them all.

“It took some serious digging. I grew suspicious after I contacted this Devon person, telling him outright that the SBW needed more than empty accusations to act. He described a man of considerable height and arrogance who often seemed to be ‘popping’ into Dr. Abber’s lab.” Rasputin made finger quotes around the word ‘popping’. “The height and the popping reference were my first clues. Then I remembered the perfect letter he sent in answer to our first contact. We did wonder how he knew to use the right paper and ink, not to mention he even had a seal. My suspicion was aroused and from there, it wasn’t difficult to follow the leads. Dr. Abber listed one Sammy Langhorn as one of his employers, which initially spoke for him, because this individuum is well known on the market for antique books, but it seems Dr. Abber is not only an employee but also a close acquaintance of Sammy, who is, as you know, the mate of Dresalantion.”

“Ah, Beaconville.” Beverly nodded. “We knew Dr. Abber was from there.”

“Yes, but we never dug deeper, which we probably should have done. The group of paranormals residing there is pure power, as you well know. And Dr. Abber has ties to them.”

“Yes. The changes the two uber alphas have made are still shaking shifter society.” The hint of a smile around Beverly’s lips indicated she wasn’t too sad about the shaking. Not because she was a great champion of equal rights, no, she would never lower herself to the mundanities of normal people’s lives, but because she generally liked it when those she viewed as beneath her got what they had coming for them. Since she saw practically nobody as her equal, there was an entire planet for her to sneer at.

“Dresalantion is Quirion’s brother, as you also know.” Rasputin tapped one of his long, spindly forefingers against his lower lip. “From there, it was easy to find the connection.”

“Do you think Quirion wants back into the society?” There was real worry in Beverly’s tone now. Worry Quirion didn’t understand. What would he want back in the stupid SBW? The reasons why he left were still valid. Judging from this interaction and what he could deduce, getting back into the society was now even less desirable than it had been all those years ago.

“Who can say with him? We didn’t part in a fight, which in hindsight might have been better. To be honest, I was so relieved when he just left without going full demon, putting the whole thing way behind us seemed like the best option.” Rasputin managed a delicate shudder at the ‘full demon’, which was simply ridiculous. First of all, Quirion knew exactly how many times Rasputin had gone all ice elf on people—and even though there usually wasn’t any blood, because those unlucky enough to incur his wrath were first frozen then shattered to tiny pieces, the sight was still as gruesome as any bloodbath left by a demon, just on a different level of yuck—not caring the least about decorum or manners or politeness and second, such pettiness was far beneath Quirion. There were other, more subtle ways to get back at the SBW, ways he had employed and which they had obviously never realized. Really, how had he ever thought working with them would be a good idea?

“Well, perhaps we should have been more attentive.” Beverly tapped her lower lip with her index finger, the blood-red nail polish not doing her complexion any favors. “It’s too late now. Dr. Abber’s research is interesting and could be a real feather in our cap.”

“You want to risk Quirion coming back?” Rasputin sounded hesitant.

Beverly did a complicated dance with her brows that made them look like underfed caterpillars trying to escape her face. “Not really. We don’t have a credible reason to reject Dr. Abber, though. The board is going to have questions if we don’t take him on.”

“May they be frozen for all eternity!” It was such a heartfelt curse, Quirion immediately liked the board. If whoever was on it could manage this level of helpless agitation from the ice elf, they had to be great.

“You’re right, but we need them. I may have an idea, though. If Dr. Abber does not meet the required standards, our hands are tied.”

“I’m entirely with you, though he does meet the standards, as you well know.”

The smile on Beverly’s face was everything Quirion had detested when he had been acquaintances with the woman. No way was he ever going back to that .

“Well, at the moment, he does. You remember this stipulation we had put in the statutes for granting funding to new scientists?”

A malicious smile graced Rasputin’s face. Quirion wasn’t sure what repelled him more, this or the syrupy sweet tone he suddenly adopted. “You, my dear Beverly, are a genius. By asking something of him he will surely fail at, we can tell the board everything is above reproach and keep that demon at arm’s length. What do you suggest?”

“A test. On subjects he won’t have a chance to become enough of an expert in to pass.”

“You are devious, my dear. I like it.” Rasputin reached for Beverly’s hand and when he lowered his head to actually kiss the back of it, Barion mercifully stopped the projection. Beverly and Rasputin and whatever they had gotten up to after this discussion vanished into nothingness.

“Are we going to show them why you don’t mess with demons?” Barion’s eyes had a red tint, and his claws were out. It warmed Quirion’s heart to see his brother getting all defensive on Milo’s behalf.

“Oh, we will, brother, just not the way you think. That we reserve for later. First, I’m going to crush them at their own petty little game.”

“You heard that despicable woman. She wants Milo to fail.” Jon’s usually calm demeanor was gone. “I think we should tell the others.”

Quirion imagined how that would go down. Of course, Sammy would be the first to hear about it and his huge, heterochromatic eyes would fill with sadness because somebody treated one of his friends wrong. Then the SBW would get a visit from an enraged Dre, who tended to shred first, ask questions never where his beloved mate was concerned, accompanied by an equally enraged Alerion, who loved Sammy like a son and also tended to go into destruction mode when the little human batted his lashes. With Alerion would be Declan and Troy, ready to stand by their mate, their uber wolves happy to defend a pack member. Which in turn would motivate the rest of the group to show their full destructive potential as not to be outdone or forgotten. It would totally be what the SBW deserved, but Quirion wanted them to eat their spitefulness first. There was something to be said about prolonging suffering compared to ending things too quickly. Well, quickly was relative since supernatural creatures were so much sturdier than humans, but still.

“Let’s wait with telling the family. I have this under control, and should I need help, I’ll tell you immediately.”

Jon opened his mouth to say something, but Barion stopped him by putting an arm around his shoulders. “We will keep it to us for the time being, brother, but if they fail Milo, we’ll have to tell Sammy. You know that.”

“I do. But Milo won’t fail. He has me as his teacher. Thank you for helping me here, Barion, Jon.” Quirion nodded at them, then opened space and time to get back to Milo.