Demon Queen: Summoner Trilogy, #3

By M.L. Devereaux

Secrets are revealed and alliances tested as a dark power rises

 

All over the world vampires are falling ill. Worse, they're dying! Scientists and doctors alike are baffled. There is no cure. When both Alexey and Sam fall ill, and Cassandra learns that her own daughter has cast a curse on the vampires, she does something no one has yet to live and tell the tale: she travels to the demon world.

 

Along with Aitvaras and an unexpected ally, she visits her daughter on a journey that also provides new insights into her own past.

 

Then an ancient evil stirs again...

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Demon Queen is the final installment in the Summoner Trilogy

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.L. Devereaux
• Release date: Jun 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215341599

Book preview

Chapter 1

Alexey was a study in white: white sheets, pale skin, blond hair. In the hospital bed, he looked smaller than I remembered him to be. My heart squeezed shut. He lay there all alone. No one was allowed to come closer.

Alexey’s hospital room was in the hospital’s basement, right next to the morgue. Not that with vampires there would be a body to embalm and lay out. Vampires didn’t end up in morgues. They turned to dust and ash when they died. No, the reason the hospital chose the basement as an impromptu vampire infirmary was because it was the only place where the rooms don’t have windows.

The doctors are giving him blood plasma through an IV, Sam said. He’d appeared behind me as if out of nowhere.

I bit my lip. Has anyone recovered from this disease yet? I asked, my heart hanging onto its next beat until Sam spoke again.

The doctors say they’re giving full priority to the vampires. Medical faculties across the country are pitching in to help find the cause and solution.

He’d avoided answering my question directly. That was not a good sign.

When did this start?

A few weeks ago.

I lowered my head. Alexey and I hadn’t been on the best of terms since he’d kissed me unsolicited in front of my—at the time almost—boyfriend, but he didn’t deserve this.

Less than three hours ago—it felt like another lifetime—Ruben and I arrived at what should have been a normal Christmas dinner. Sam had erected a behemoth of a Christmas tree that took up about half of the living room. It boasted hundreds of lights, candy canes, and felt gnomes with plump noses and red pointy hats. It even had real apples in it. And on its peak sparkled a giant gold star. It was a true and traditional Christmas at the Layne residence. The way I’d celebrated it for years. The way it should be celebrated, in my opinion.

My mind drifted further to the festively decorated table, the smell of cinnamon that drifted from the kitchen, where the piparkakut, Finnish ginger-cinnamon biscuits, were baking in the oven.

Alexey, healthy and sound, came up to Ruben and me with a roaring ‘S rozhdjestvom!‘, which means ‘Merry Christmas’. After shaking our hands, he kissed me on the cheeks three times. They were modest kisses. There had been no trace of an ulterior motive.

Uncle Francis had been there, too. The vampire—who wasn’t my real uncle, but whom six-year-old me had bestowed this honorary title to when I’d been introduced to him—hugged me tightly upon seeing me. He had even shaken Ruben’s hand. It looked like Christmas was a time of forgiveness and friendship for everyone. In fact, all the vampires present had readily accepted Ruben being there. I still remembered how relieved I’d felt at that. My greatest fear—that Sam’s invitation to his Christmas dinner was actually a veiled ambush for Ruben—had been wholly dispelled at their warm welcome.

We raised glasses and toasted together to this time of light in the dark. To fun, family and friendship. Ruben and I drank champagne, and the vampires drank bloodagne, a chemical mix of alcohol and blood plasma.

Even then, the conversation had soon turned to the subject of the sick vampires. As territory leader, Sam had been one of the first to be brought up to speed on the disease.

Like a movie, the scene replayed before my mind’s eye.

I’d hoped to contain the news, Sam sighed. But once the rumor mill starts… But yes, some vampires are sick. We don’t yet know what it is. They’re in a special ward in the hospital.

They’re getting the best care money can provide, Alexey added. But up till now, the doctors haven’t discovered the cause. According to their labs, they’re in perfect health.

Vampires don’t get sick, do they? I asked. I’d lived almost my entire life with the vampires in Kansas City, and I’d never even heard one so much as sneeze.

"Verno, Alexey said. That’s right. This mysterious disease is turning science on its head."

So it’s not a flesh-eating super-bacteria? Uncle Francis asked. I thought I heard someone say that.

No. Not as far as we know, Sam said. There are no anomalies in their blood. There’s also no apparent connection between the blood that the sick vampires drank or where they live.

How do you protect yourself from something that isn’t there?

Sam had no answer to that. For now, precautions were limited to vigilance and no food sharing. Which meant that you couldn’t take turns drinking from the same person. Any bottled blood the patients had drunk before they’d fallen ill had also been examined, but as far as the tests could tell, no viruses or bacteria had been present. So the doctors still deemed it safe to drink bottled blood. Perhaps even safer, in case it was the humans carrying a germ of some sort that had suddenly mutated into a vampire-infecting superbug.

A bell dinged in the kitchen.

Starters are ready. Sam got up. Everyone, take a seat.

The starters in question were scallops au gratin, and they were only for Ruben and me. The vampires didn’t eat solid food. They simply continued to drink the bloodagne, sometimes switching between that and regular blood. Bloodagne could get you drunk, and alcohol checks didn’t distinguish between vampires and humans.

Will Riika come over for New Year’s Eve? I asked.

The answer to that question never came.

From across the table a moan sounded. Alexey reached for his head.

Alexey? Sam asked. He put down his glass, the ocher liquid sloshing over the edge. What’s wrong?

I… he stuttered. Blood dripped from his nose. His skin looked even paler than usual. Grayish almost. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Only a grunt. A thick wad of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth down over his chin. He wiped a hand over his mouth and looked at the blood as if seeing it for the first time. Then he collapsed.

Sam put a hand around my shoulders and pulled me close, back to the present.

You look tired. Go home and get some sleep. I’ll call you as soon as I find out more.

I wanted to protest, but Sam beat me to it.

Go, he commanded. Ruben is waiting upstairs.

And after a quick peck on my forehead, he pushed me towards the exit.

A nurse holding a mountain of bloody sheets in her arms passed me, the soles of her pristine shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor. The flickering fluorescent lights reflected the whites of her eyes. Her mouth was hidden behind a mouth mask.

When she was out of the hallway and her squeaky footsteps died away, there was only silence. Other than moans or gagging noises, I heard nothing at all. The typical beeping you always hear in movies during hospital scenes was missing. Vampires don’t have heartbeats, so they hadn’t been hooked up to a heart monitor.

All around me, IVs dripped white and yellow liquids into pale arms. The vampires’ faces were sunken; their lips thin and crusty.

A large plexiglass wall cut the space in two. One side was for visitors, the other for patients. This way, healthy people were kept separate from the sick. As far as we knew, this mysterious disease ‌limited itself to vampires and didn’t spread to humans. But no one wanted to take any chances. Another disadvantage of ever-healthy patients: the doctors had no idea what they were in for. Why study the anatomy of these mysterious creatures in medical school if you were never going to see them in your office, anyway?

But until there was more certainty about how this epidemic was spreading, the vampires were quarantined. No direct contact was allowed. Not even by humans. The nursing staff was tested daily for possible diseases. Not because they could get infected. But to check that they weren’t already sick, and perhaps unconsciously carrying whatever was making the vampires sick.

The patient area was provisionally divided into separate ‘rooms’ by movable partitions and curtains fastened to the ceiling with thumb tacks. I continued my way on the healthy side of the plastic wall. In the maze of fabric and steel, I caught glimpses of beds. Almost all of them were occupied. How many sick vampires were there? This was just one hospital. In one city. Was this a global phenomenon? Or was the disease limited to Kansas City?

I heard gagging sounds and looked up. Someone was throwing up blood. Bile made its way up my esophagus into my throat. I swallowed and picked up my pace before that scene got burned into my retina.

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The drive home passed by on me. Ruben tried to strike up a conversation, but gave up when he noticed I wasn’t responding to his questions.

Are you coming to bed? he asked when we got home.

In a moment. I need some fresh air.

He hugged me. They’ll find something, Cass, he said. Don’t despair.

I hope so, I replied with a lump in my throat. I feel guilty. It’s like this is happening to Alexey because I’m mad at him.

Don’t do that to yourself. He pulled me closer, and I snuggled into his embrace. This has nothing to do with you. Sometimes people get sick.

People, yes. But not vampires.

Alexey isn’t the only one. Were you mad at all those vampires who are now quarantined? He didn’t wait for an answer. Of course not. It’s a coincidence. You didn’t cause this.

My mind knew that. But the knot in my stomach wouldn’t loosen.

I’m going to sit outside for a while, I said. I’ll see you soon. Ruben only let me go after a last kiss and a big hug

I sat down on one of the lounge chairs next to the pool with a blanket draped over me and a cup of hot chocolate that I had heated up in the microwave. In the freezing cold, my breath danced a vapory two-step with the steam of the chocolate milk. I pulled up my legs and tucked the ends of the blanket under me. My mind kept wandering to the hospital. What kind of superbug could kill vampires? Was this a result of antibiotics abuse? A flu virus that had mutated? A zombie bacteria?

Surely there had to be someone out there who knew what was going on?

A brief cough interrupted my train of thought.

I’ll be right there, honey, I said without looking up.

That’s sweet of you, but I’m pretty sure we’re not compatible.

Now I did look up. I knew that voice. And it wasn’t Ruben’s.

A black cat jumped onto the table before me.

Aitvaras!

Alive and kicking, even if it’s on four paws… again, the demon replied with a sigh.

Why are you in cat form? I asked.

He hung his head. It was all the info I needed.

Ashmedai. The name of my scourge slipped between my lips like the serpent he was.

A blessing in disguise, I suppose. Aitvaras tried to make light of it, but I hadn’t missed the tension in his voice. This way, I don’t need someone to summon me in order to get here. There’s a lovely little feline around here somewhere who more than appreciates my company. Seeing the look on my face, he added. I’m also here to inform you.

Inform me of what?

The most recent power shift among the demons.

So Nysrogh got kicked off the throne already? That’s fast. I couldn’t quite keep the irony out of my voice. Nysrogh used to be Ashmedai’s general. When he grew tired of playing second fiddle, he devised a scheme to dethrone his king and rule over the demons himself. He succeeded, but apparently his success was short-lived. How long had it been? A few months at most. I didn’t take the news to heart. The demon king—or former demon king, if Aitvaras was to be believed—hadn’t exactly scrambled all over himself to help me a few weeks ago. So why would I care about his fate now?

Yes, Aitvaras confirmed. Unlike me, he did care, which was understandable. He and Nysrogh were partners. Comrades in arms in their ploy against Ashmedai. But it will probably interest you to know that there’s a link between our current monarch and the sick vampires.

My heart squeezed together. Again, I saw the pale, frail figure of Alexey lying in the hospital bed. I suppressed the image by concentrating on the current conversation.

It’s not Ashmedai who’s back in power, is it? I asked, my voice not quite steady.

Hah, he wishes!

A faint meow sounded in the distance. There actually was another cat? Aitvaras’s ears perked up. He lifted a front leg and licked his belly with long strokes. I waited for more to come. When that wasn’t the case, I asked, Then who is?

He put his paw back down and looked at me without blinking even once. I suppressed the urge to tuck myself deeper under the blanket, away from his X-ray glare.

I thought you weren’t interested?

I sank deeper into the chair and tried to look uninterested. That’s true. The demons can handle themselves for a change. I’m done with them.

And with your daughter?

What a stupid question. Of course I’m not done with her!

Good, Aitvaras said. Because it’s your daughter who cast a curse on the world.

Ha ha, very funny. My daughter is three months old. I slumped back in my chair and took a sip of my now lukewarm chocolate milk. Was this a demon’s way of a good time? Try to upset me with stories about my kidnapped daughter? Aitvaras must have overheard me say how I felt guilty about Alexey’s illness, and thought it funny to blame me indirectly.

Time runs differently in the demon realm, Aitvaras explained with the patience of a schoolmaster. Your daughter just celebrated her tenth birthday.

I spit out my chocolate milk.

What? I blurted. Now I was sure he was pulling my leg.

She’s ten years old and a very independent girl, it turns out. She’s dethroned Nysrogh, and now rules over hundreds of demons.

I got goosebumps and pulled the blanket tighter around me. Not that it helped. This cold came from deep inside me, not from my surroundings.

My daughter had been the unexpected result after Ashmedai raped me last summer, when he’d taken possession of Ruben’s body. During my pregnancy, I had grasped at straws and hoped that—although I was pregnant with a demon child—I would still give birth to a human baby. That hope had burst like a bubble when I learned that I myself was one of Ashmedai’s children. Just like my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother. Four generations of women had preceded me. I was number five, and my daughter number six. That made our gene pool as black as soot.

However, the reason for Ashmedai’s actions was still a mystery to me. What had he wanted to achieve by impregnating six generations of women? We were genetic miracles. But not of the divine kind.

What curse? I finally asked.

The demons call it ‘Lilith’s Revenge’.

Lilith. The name vaguely rang a bell, but I couldn’t place it right away.

You may have noticed that very healthy vampires are dropping like flies? That’s Lilith’s Revenge.

This isn’t funny, Aitvaras, I said.

No, I don’t think so either. Or do you think I enjoy spitting up hairballs?

That was Ashmedai’s fault, wasn’t it?

Aitvaras tapped the tip of his tail on the table.

Yes, but if Merihim had behaved herself, he would have left me alone, and I’d now be getting a tan on the Côte d’Azur along with the Baywatch cast. The women, obviously. Although… the men aren’t too bad, either.

I didn’t want to dwell too long on the picture he painted, and focused on the first part of Aitvaras’s story. Merihim? Was that her name? For the past three months, Ruben had been looking for a way to bring back my daughter. My baby daughter! To rescue her from the clutches of the former demon king. To do so, he was using the same method I had when I’d tried to free my parents. Every night, he summoned a random demon. The similarities were disturbing. The difference being that Ruben knew a lot more demons by name and therefore knew perfectly well which demons to summon to gather his knowledge. I hadn’t had that advantage, ‌so for the longest long time I’d thought I could still save my parents. Which turned out to be false. My parents had been long dead. In the past few months, I’d feared many times that the same fate had befallen my daughter.

I consoled myself with the one thought that made sense: that Ashmedai wouldn’t harm her. He had gone to too great lengths to get her, having worked towards creating something like her for over a century.

Now, it seemed, I was right. She was indeed alright. And although the demons that Ruben summoned had said something of the sorts, they had kept quiet about the fact that the baby Ashmedai had kidnapped was now a young girl. Summoned demons couldn’t lie, so they must have talked their way around it.

Bastards.

Aitvaras tilted his head and looked at me with his yellow cat eyes as if I had turned into a tasty-looking mackerel.

What? I asked as I shuffled in my seat.

Your face just completely contorted.

I shrugged. Why did he name her Merihim?

Aitvaras hesitated.

Tell me! Ashmedai does nothing without a reason. What does her name mean?

It means ‘harbinger of the plague’.

I jumped up. Is that what the vampires have? The Black Plague?

I don’t know, the demon-cat admitted. What I do know is that it works fast. Your precious Alexey has a few days at most.

Aitvaras’s words were like nails driven deep into my heart. I clenched my hands tighter around my already cooling cup of chocolate milk. Like a shot of tequila, I drank the now almost cold liquid in one gulp.

The chill remained.

Is there a cure? I asked, though I was afraid of the answer.

Aitvaras looked around. He took his time. He turned his head to the left, blinked, stood up, spun on his axis, and then sat down again with his tail draped around him. My leg bobbed up and down with impatience.

No, he finally said.

You can heal people, can’t you? I suggested.

Human ailments, yes. Not an epidemic on an eschatonic scale. He must have seen the confusion on my face as he added: You know: eschaton, as in Armageddon, the end of the world. That kind of stuff.

My daughter is not the anti-Christ, I said, more to convince myself than Aitvaras. He ignored my claim.

The only way to stop this disease from spreading any further is to stop Merihim.

And how do I fit into all of this?

Come with me to the demon world and talk to her.

I smirked. "You know as well as I do that’s impossible. People can’t just go to the demon world."

My knowledge about this came from A History of Summoners, a book I’d bought years ago at a flea market. I remembered reading that the air was pure sulfur. The poor souls who were captured by a demon and taken to their world were either doomed or placed in a special oxygen cell that allowed the demon to keep his captives alive as long as they pleased him. Those were the book’s words, not mine.

People can’t. But people with demon blood… He let the implications hang in the air.

My breath caught. Could it be? Was it possible? If so, I could go to my daughter! I would finally get to see her. My heart skipped a beat, then dropped into a deep ravine. If Aitvaras was telling the truth, and she was ten years old, Ashmedai would have had ten years to tell her all kinds of lies about me. The look of pure anger she’d given me when she was born still haunted my nightmares. I balled my hands into fists. Maybe I could come out victorious for once? If I could talk to my daughter, convince her to heal the vampires, I’d win this battle. There was one last thing that bothered me.

Ashmedai isn’t going to just let me leave with her, I said.

You’ll be pleased to hear that she’s also kicked Ashmedai out.

My eyes widened. What?

Daddy and daughter didn’t see eye to eye on the approach, so she threw him out of the palace. I believe our paths crossed shortly afterwards. He gestured to himself. With all of its lovely consequences.

That was probably when you felt the need to enlist my help? I guessed.

The cat grinned. I rolled my eyes.

Where is Ashmedai now?

In his old hideout. He won’t bother you.

How can you be so sure?

He has every interest in Merihim stopping her childish tantrum. Only when she relents can he be king again.

So daddy dear couldn’t control his own daughter anymore? How powerful did that make her?

Didn’t he want her to rule? I remembered Ashmedai’s words when he suggested I come with him and rule over the demons alongside him until our daughter would be old enough to rule herself. As his queen. Just thinking about it made me nauseous.

Yes, but not right now. He thought he still had a few years—or centuries—to go.

That sounded like Ashmedai indeed. But to go to the same world where he dwelt of my own volition. Where he could reach me? Was that a good idea?

On the other hand, it would be my first real shot at seeing Merihim. Maybe I could convince her to come with me? Back to the human world. A daughter takes to her mother, doesn’t she? If she was indeed on bad terms with Ashmedai, now was the ideal time to go see her.

Aitvaras got up and jumped off the table.

Run it by your boy toy and let me know your decision tomorrow.

Then he disappeared. Probably to chase after that feline of his.

I went inside. The transition from the cold outside to the warmth inside made my skin tingle almost painfully.

Run it by your boy toy. Could he sound more derogatory? I put the empty cup on the counter with a thud. But he was right. I couldn’t just leave without talking to Ruben.

Chapter 2

For a moment there, I was sure you were trying to turn into an ice sculpture, Ruben said, a crooked smile playing across his lips as I crawled into bed next to him. When I didn’t respond to his joke, the smile turned into a frown. Honey? What’s the matter? I snuggled close to him and he put an arm around my shoulders. Cass? he tried again.

We’ve got a problem, I began, not sure how to get this message across without too much damage. Ruben waited for me to continue. He knew not to push me. I heaved a deep sigh. Aitvaras was here.

What? He shot up. I only just managed to dodge his elbow as he threw off the blankets and got out of bed. That lice hotel on four paws has no business here. Nobody summoned him. Where is he? I’ll blow his balls off! No! I’ll set the entire business below on fire! That’ll teach him to use a priceless grimoire as a litter box.

I bit my lower lip, doing my best not to laugh. A few months ago, Aitvaras had accidentally been turned into a kitten and had relieved himself on one of Ruben’s books. A rather rare copy, as it turned out. Ever since, Ruben swore he still had a bone to pick with the demon. It surprised me he hadn’t summoned Aitvaras these past months. I voiced my question out loud.

I tried, but he didn’t show up, Ruben said.

I thought only the king had that kind of power?

Ruben shrugged as he put on some jogging pants. I assumed he was under some sort of protection offered by Nysrogh, which would allow him to ignore a summons as well.

Honey, get back in bed, I said, patting the empty, still warm spot next to me. He already left.

Ruben grumbled, but did as I asked. Lucky for him.

Again, I nestled into his arms. The cold had penetrated my bones and I couldn’t get warm.

You’re shivering like a reed, Ruben said, pulling me even closer. What did he say?

I took a deep breath and started to tell him. As I progressed, Ruben’s eyes widened. And towards the end he was frantically shaking his head.

No. No, no, no and no. You are not going with him.

I sat up straight. And what if he’s right? What if I can talk to my daughter? If I can make sure no vampire gets sick again?

I can’t believe you’re considering this?

"And I can’t believe you’re not considering it! I said, louder than intended. Ruben opened his mouth, but I held up a hand in defense. Aitvaras said it was going to get worse. That this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Ruben took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. I put my hand on his cheek and turned his head towards me.

What’s the worst that could happen? I asked.

He ticked off all the scenarios on his fingers. Ashmedai could kidnap you, or worse, rape you. As far as I know, Nysrogh doesn’t really have warm feelings for you anymore, either.

He no longer sits on the throne, I pointed out.

Ruben ignored me. It could also be a ruse by Aitvaras. Payback for feeding him bad cat food.

I crossed my arms over my chest. Now you’re just grasping at straws.

Then the fifth finger went up. We don’t even know how Merihim will react when she sees her mother for the first time. Remember, to her, you’ve been the absent parent for ten years. Who knows what lies Ashmedai has told her about your absence?

He had a point there. Knowing Ashmedai, it wasn’t much good. I’d already thought