Page 26 of Monsters of Midlife

“I need to find out who is after the rings,” I grumbled. “It’s the closest entrance to Undirheim.”

Ratchet sucked in his cheeks. “And you think walking into Set’s domain is the answer.”

“No,” I said. “Set distracted us but I have a sneaking suspicion he’s not the one trying to get the metal. For all his darkness, he’s not a fan of monsters so why would he want to unleash monsters on the world. It doesn’t make sense. He would just as easily unleash demons against earth if he could get away with it.”

“Good point,” Ratchet nodded. “But I don’t understand what your actual plan is. We’re going to walk into Undirheim and talk to Thrain? Find out what his demons are doing?”

“Something like that.” I turned away from the window and toward Ratchet. “By the way, don’t ever speak the demon tongue in front of Caroline again. You could have condemned her.”

“They’re not going to condemn a human who has heard a couple of words in the mother tongue,” Ratchet argued.

“You don’t know what the DGC is capable of. They’re doing all sorts of crazy shit, lately,” I said. “It’s hard to know who to trust.”

“Well, I hope you still trust me.” Ratchet looked at me quizzically.

“As if that was ever in doubt.”

“Didn’t you ever think of telling her before now?” Ratchet asked.

“No,” I said, but I was lying. I had thought about telling her. A lot. But it had been for selfish means. So, I could be better understood or feel closer to her. It didn’t seem fair to burden a human with all the horrors that existed around them; they already were aware of science and space and the fact there was only a thin veil of blue between them and certain death. How could I take away her innocence? How could I remove it and make every breath she took potentially be her last? She was living on the edge of a dark and dangerous world, and the only thing protecting her was me. There were monsters around every corner ready to pounce on humans and kill them and yet most humans went through their lives completely unaware of this. They naïvely believed their greatest fear was the dark universe outside of their protective bubble.

“So, this is your plan?” Ratchet asked. “Keeping Caroline locked in your Alameda home until the world is a safe place for her?”

“Based on her house being consumed by a sink hole into Undirheim, I think it’s clear the world isn’t safe for her right now,” I grumbled. “And Set has something to do with it.”

“That does not answer the question I asked,” Ratchet countered.

“She’s there as long as I say she’s there,” I spoke bluntly. “Last time I checked it was my house and she is my ex-wife.”

“Emphasis on the ‘ex,’ maybe?” Ratchet raised an eyebrow at my curiously.

I glared at him. “This isn’t the time.” I didn’t need to be goaded. I was close enough to blowing up regardless. Chaos rippled just beneath the surface.

“No problem,” Ratchet shrugged. “It’s none of my business anyhow.”

“Damn right it’s not any of your fucking business,” I grumbled. The last thing I needed was anyone, even Ratchet, to know exactly how much I still felt for Caroline. The more people who understood my true love for her, the more danger she was in. Of that, I was sure.

It wasn’t long before we were in the small town of Clayton, which marked the demon entrance to Mount Diablo, a portal to Undirheim. The demon guarding the portal looked unimpressed when we pulled up in the limousine and I stepped out. Demons tended to not like demigods very much because we operated on different wave lengths. Demigods wanted to preserve human life and demons just liked them when they were dead. I wasn’t a newcomer to demons though, considering my best friend was one.

When Ratchet stepped out at the limousine the demon guarding the portal lowered his stance a bit. He knew Ratchet was on demigod business, but still he was a demon. It made our entrance a little more reasonable.

“I want to speak to Thrain,” I said.

“What makes you think Thrain wants to see you?” The demon was irreverent of my demigod status.

“I don’t remember asking if he wanted to see me or not,” I said with a grunt. Thrain was the demon overlord, but the demons only got access to earth because of the demigods and the Fae who ruled sections of the earth. This section, New Attica, what humans called North America, was ruled by the demigods. There was no way he would refuse a direct request by a demigod to come and speak. Just in case he felt like it, I shifted into my monster self, complete with horns, fangs, and tail. And then I spoke in the demonic tongue.

“Hrl dlaeji rmwl fllj fglmcnjv hrl bm. Lnhrlg Thrgmnj dlmbi nhr al je eg rl dlmbi nhr hrl dlanved segwegmhnej dnglshbo. Oep hlbb rna hrmh nz rl rmi m wgefbla nhr seanjv he hmbc he al.” I ground the words out translating them in my head. “The demons have been breaking the law. Either Thrain deals with me now or he deals with the Demigod Corporation directly. You tell him that if he has a problem with coming to talk to me.”

I could feel Ratchet’s gaze on me. The threat of bringing the DGC down upon Thrain wasn’t idle but it was harsh. The DGC were in control of New Attica, but they weren’t very popular. They made laws people hated and then insisted people abide by them. I personally didn’t mind so much because I had one job as far as the DGC was concerned: to keep monsters away from Earth. My most important job, though, that trumped even what the DGC needed of me, was to keep demons away from Caroline.

We didn’t have to wait long for Thrain to show up.

He stared at me in my monster form. As the demon overlord it hardly impacted him. When he stood in his demonic form with fire flying off of his shoulders and hair, he was probably just as gruesome if not more so than me.

We were two alphas ready to clash.

“Why are your demons breaking the law?” I asked without introduction. Thrain and I knew each other. Our paths had crossed in Cougar Creek and various other cross-species incidents.

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