A Birthday Surprise

As darkness descended, the human's stratagem of power began. The leader grabbed his bag of unearthly devices and stalked through the haunted house he had chosen for their mutiny. Demons may be all powerful but with what his mind had just concocted the humans would soon use them for slaves and every last one of them would be under his mercy. His fingertips slid down the walls as he made his way deeper underneath the rickety old mansion. It had been abandoned years ago and the locals called it a ghost house and it only proved more so with the victim that he held trapped a hostage down in the wine cellar. Her tortured screams fueling the terror that the people already endured for the house.

The previous owner had apparently been a wine fanatic. The entire basement was filled with shelves of spirits and various other alcohols and liquor. He cleared the stuffy old room of its beverages creating a kind of dungeon, where the woman's eerie screams could be heard on a nightly basis. The scheme to destroy the kingdom of Demon Paradise that resided in the human world developed into immediate action the moment he proceeded with the kidnapping of the demon's queen. Dana arrived a couple days prior and he rarely left the demonic woman alone other than to eat and sleep. Which, he didn't require much of either.

He arrived in the cellar smiling at the frightened eyes of the once beautiful demon queen. Yes, he would enjoy tonight more immensely than anything he already achieved. The woman pulled away from him, her dull brown eyes wide with terror. The dress she adorned when she arrived was battered, hanging in rags around her ailing and frail form. He bared shiny human teeth to her and laughed as she spit at him. It had taken him an entire night to break the feisty queen of her spirit but he eventually succeeded and now it appeared some of her earlier spunk had returned after the brief hiatus. Too bad it wouldn't last when she was forced to face her newly acquired mate in the hands and mercy of a meek human male.

Lifting the once beautiful woman roughly from the concrete cellar, he grasped hold of her hands then forced her out in front of him. He would take no chances with her even though he knew she was powerless. Holding her with one hand he let his fingers trail along the length of fine black leather that encircled tightly around her delicate neck but not enough to incapacitate. She had proven a deadly adversary when she was able to use her powers and shift into the fantastic beast of a leopard that nearly destroyed all his men. Now, she was a docile little creature that could not harm anyone, let alone a trained mercenary.

He specifically created a collar for the demons. It eliminated every possible threat making a demon, mere human and vulnerable. She wasn't his first test run, there were many others that he played with before snatching her but she by far had been the most fun to engage with. Everything he did was for the greater good of the world, to extract the demons that lived their lives in another world and use them for slaves. They may thrive in another world that the humans would never witness but they had invaded their home and began to prosper in the human's world and that was unforgivable. Demons should be in hell rotting, not mating humans and creating hybrid offspring. It disgusted him to the point that he would destroy the powers they had been given and collect them for his own rather than be rid of the hellions all together.

Shoving Dana forward roughly, he reached the foyer where all his men waited to continue their plans of annihilation. He watched the sparkle in their eyes as they took in the sight of the damned queen. This would be a new era for the human's one of power and total control. He took in the sight of his men as he threw Dana to the floor, her arms instinctively reaching out to catch her decent. He turned his back on her to address his second in command, apparently a mistake. The woman was quick as lightening even in her apparent defenseless state. She wrapped her lithe arms around his neck before a word even left his lips and tightened to the point of breaking his windpipes but the others relieved him of her within seconds. He gasped for air as he fell to the floor clutching his burning and oxygen deprived throat.

His men held the woman as she screeched and kicked, screaming bloody murder. He turned furious hazel eyes to her and slapped her full across the face. Her head snapped sideways as he grabbed her from his men and pulled her face a bare breath away from his. His thumb and pointer finger digging into her delicate and dirt stained chin.

“Don't you ever attack your master!” he seethed and realized then that if he were a demon, his eyes would be bleeding red and she would understand the ferocity that currently raged in his veins. “You are nothing now but a vile slave to do my bidding. You will not live till morning, so take your last breaths and give thanks that you are allowed to see your mate a final time.” He dragged his free hand through his pocket, reaching for the long cloth placed there specifically for Dana and wrapped it around her mouth, gagging her from speaking.

The woman glared never giving away the fear that surged through her but he saw her eyes darken and smiled more evilly than ever before. This would be fun. She would pay and so would her mate. The king would soon understand the power that humans could control or create even without being able to summon elemental powers, special abilities and shape shifting.

He listened as his men finished their conniving conversations and finally with the moon high and bright in the night sky they headed out. He dragged Dana behind him, her feisty attitude thriving as she growled beneath her gag and tried to force herself away from him. He only tugged her closer to unnerve her even more. He could not believe that she refused to start crying, even demons cried.  Shrugging, he infiltrated the king’s castle that resided on Earth. He pulled the queen closer yet as he forced a knife under the young demons throat, just inside the demons' grounds.

“King Gin, bring yourself forth to protect the mate that has been taken from you." The human's voice carried through the air and within a second he was faced by a worthy challenge with furious and dark intent. Too bad the woman he held was only bait and would die the moment a collar was fastened to her husband or as the demons liked, mate's neck. The largely toned man stood frozen in place as he watched him handle his woman. A slow smile, yes, this would be fun.

Wary spectators gathered around as his voice brought forth the others that were within the confines of the castle grounds. His men spread out keeping the demons at bay as he continued to provoke the king of demons that stood before him. His face was contorted into obvious rage and pain. The king's stormy grey-blue eyes looked like a hurricane brewing out at sea. His short brown hair a massive mess, never had he seen the king look so disheveled and unkempt as a common pauper but that was exactly what he resembled.

“Give her to me.” his voice hoarse and dry as he watched the man stand before his mate, the blade resting painfully against her delicate neck.

“Then let me put this on you.” the man smiled as he tossed a leather collar to one of his subordinates and watched as the queen shook her head furiously and the kings eyes turned to slits. King Gin had no understanding of what the object did but he knew it would end in misery. The collars had not been advertised as of yet, exactly for this purpose of getting the king in this predicament. His head lowered in defeat and the queen screeched in warning beneath her gag, her words inaudible but extremely explosive as she began thrashing in fear. The subordinate who slithered over to the demon king waited impatiently for the man's answer and within seconds he had the collar clasped around his throat. The human laughed pulling the knife hard against the woman's throat. King Gin watched his mates eyes widen in shocked pain as she suddenly slid from the male's arms to the ground. A scream of absolute rage and terror tore through King Gin, his eyes bleeding pure red.

Soaked in sweat and confusion Gin launched out of bed at the dark shadow that stood hovering over him and slammed the human figure hard into the opposite wall. His thoughts still hazy from sleep on the death of his first queen and the murderer, who now stared at him through a woman's fearful pale green eyes. A woman? Shit! He released the female and she let her frame slide down the wall, her body frozen, limp with fear. He gazed down at her and with a grimace of pure guilt, kneeled down next to her, pulling her deep into his arms. His wife, his mate of forty years stared back at him solemnly.

He murmured heartfelt apologies as he caressed her, Gin heard her sigh as she pushed away from him. The dream had plagued him for the second time this week, it also happened to be his youngest son’s birthday tomorrow, the tyke was turning seven and he promised his youngest a big bash. His oldest two were in charge but it would probably be his daughter that took care of the celebration, decorations and theme. The past couple weeks his eldest son permitted nothing but hardcore training to harness his element. The teenager would be taking over the throne in three years' time at the age of nineteen and his now sixteen year old son concentrated on absolutely nothing but battle training lately, thanks to his wife's meddling.

The dream of Dana's memories continually plagued him for years' following the decimation of his mate. After he killed the subordinate men and let their leader suffer through a slow torturous death he searched into the man’s mind just before the life left him and extracted the memories of what the bastard forcefully subjected his mate through. Yes, apparently he was a masochist but he needed to see through the fiends plans and find out how many more damned collars existed. He had destroyed the collar with a single electric wave when the man snapped it around his neck rendering it nothing but a Gothic accessory. His only problem had been that the man had given one of his dead subjects the collars for safekeeping and they were long lost and hopefully destroyed after hundreds of years.

The fury searing through him that night was enough to destroy all living humans on earth, but Gin held back his deadly and catastrophic emotions and instead, decided not to harm the innocents. Without harming any except the trespassers, Gin sucked all magic from the earth and giving a lifelong ban, he forced every magical creature from unicorns to merpeople to vampires into Demon Paradise. All magical beings now forbidden to go into the human's world; forever isolating them from the wonders of magic.

That was over five hundred years ago. Now, all demons lived together peacefully and without having to endure the pollution of the humans’ earth, the demons thrived in a world where anything was possible.

A bright flare of red light startled him, rushing to the window Gin's face paled in fear. Looking to his wife with regretful eyes, he hissed for her to take the children and get as far away as possible. She hesitated but when he growled out an Alpha warning, she quickly fled. They were under attack, and he knew with certainty that his reign was coming to an early end. He managed easily with the humans back than when war and famine were plentiful but this new foe, Jared, was more powerful than any had seen in hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Even with all his power, Jared was a coward. Never fighting a fair fight, for years Gin attempted to discover the jaguar demons main mission but he never succeeded. But he knew what tonight's plan was. It was painstakingly obvious as the demon advanced upon him from somewhere unseen. Eradicate the king and take the royal children hostage. Because if they all fell, then the world that had been created eons ago by the first demons would turn into a giant black hole, sucking all creatures that lived inside Demon Paradise into the void for eternity, immediately killing anything and everyone who was within.

The magic was in the kings crown, originally there were four but with the downfall of the other three kingdoms thousands of years ago, only one crown remained. If his children were slaughtered, demons would cease to exist. Now, their only hope in surviving this never ending nightmare of Jared’s control, was a single girl whose powers had yet to manifest. His wife did the unthinkable and distanced the teenager in fear of the unknown but he knew better, he recognized the signs that she was their only hope. Powers like hers only came about when they were needed. 

Once the scent of jaguar flooded his senses, he turned from the window and out of his memories to face the demon once and for all. He did not know if he could defeat the man but he would gain enough time for his wife and children to make a getaway and find asylum. Something sizzled up Gin's back as he combined all the magic within his body, hoping it to be a force to be reckoned with. He sent out a wave of electricity towards the man standing with a look of immense pleasure as sharp talons speared its way through Gins back, slicing into his chest. He blinked in astonishment as his element disappeared and staggered forward slightly, looking behind him as much as possible, he noticed a man with red dragon scales running along his arm, leading straight through his chest. Gin's eyes closed in pain as the dragon demon pulled the sharp, clawed hand from his destroyed and mangled chest.

Gin coughed in reflex, feeling the liquid warmth of fresh blood crawling down his jaw and onto his neck. His surprise turned to fear, they managed to conquer him in only a few minutes, he knew there was no hope for his life when he reached for the link to the emergency center but could not feel the tug of teleportation from the hospital itself. It appeared the dragon ripped away most of his vital organs in his punch. Gin's last thoughts before the red sparkles of death engulfed him, taking him towards peace, was that he bought enough time for his family to escape and that the two powerful demons had not discovered the girl.