A Shuffling of Planets (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 3) Read online

  "He seemed concerned about the time," Hardy said reluctantly. This was the best conversation I had with him so far. Last time they were extremely pushy.

  "We'll wait out here until you contact the boss," and there came his inner pest.

  "Fine. I'll call him before I go to sleep." I turned back to the house when a cough sounded behind me.

  Looking back, I saw Austin and Ryder standing politely by their car. I knew I had forgotten something.

  "Right, let's go over to the neighbors," I said as I trudged towards the back where I had set up the circle that brought Mat back to life. Sorta.

  It was now thoroughly dark. It didn't matter to me or the shifters, however when I snapped my fingers and pushed a bit of energy into the circle I had set up in the neighbors back yard, it lit the area in eerie luminescence.

  I turned to Ryder. "Go knock on the neighbor's front door and distract him. Last time I think the kid peed his pants when he saw us."

  Turning to Austin, I asked, "You have the tattoo Vatapi...er, Jin gave you on your buttocks like your friend?"

  "Sure do," he said hesitantly. "Ryder didn't go into details about how you did it..."

  I nodded, then reached over. I shifted my hands into spindly claws the size of a garbage can lids. My runic restrictions were loose enough that I barely felt a thing. Austin, however, screamed bloody murder as I jerked my claws and ripped him into two at the waist. The lower half I kicked out of the circle, while the upper half I let fall to the ground.

  By now I was familiar enough to the regeneration effect that I pretty much ignored the somewhat creepy sight of vertebrae growing from his truncated torso and sprouting into leg bones as red pulsating flesh grew to cover them.

  Of course, Hardy chose this moment to run into the yard. It took them a moment to register the scene. I am not sure exactly what he saw with their merely human night vision. It must have been enough because he started screaming bloody murder too.

  "Shut up!" I shouted over his screaming as I subtly changed my hands back to human proportions.

  "What the hell! What happened to him?"

  "Demon attack," I blithely responded as waved my hand and cleaned the blood off the grounds with a spell. He didn't see a thing. I had thought the implants enhanced a human's night vision but they didn't twitch. "Good thing I was able to drive it off. I think I saw them head that way." I gestured towards their car.

  By now Austin had spindly legs. I reached down and helped him up. He glared at me and whispered, "Bastard."

  Smiling I waved to Hardy, "Nothing to see here." I avoided looking at the set of legs that were starting to glow. Ah, I knew I forgot something. With a quick step, I reached the disembodied legs, reached down and threw them as high into the sky as I could. Seconds later they exploded with a flash that shook the neighborhood.

  "What was that!" Hardy screeched.

  "Demons left a bomb," I shook my head sadly. "Damn demons, always waking the neighbors."

  At this point, a small boy ran back to us from the front of the house. Behind him jogged his father and further back was Ryder. They were the squatters. Although I owned the entire block, as an emergency measure created by the damage and loss of living space caused by Vatapi's little apocalypse, the city had assigned them to live there. In one of my extra houses. Welcome neighbor.

  "Fireworks," I said with a smile. Paul and Erin Tonitis weren’t bad people. For squatters. "Looks like you missed it all though."

  "Why isn't he wearing pants?" The father asked.

  "Oh, he's just a streaker," I replied to Paul's question casually. This earned a smirk from Ryder and an angry growl from Austin. "I don't judge. However, it's pants time now so let's go inside and get dressed."

  "You are just some kind of damn freak," Hardy said with barely restrained hysteria. "I hope Kingston kills you."

  Kingston's man retreated towards their car, frantically looking around as if he expected demons to jump out and tear them to pieces. I can't say it could never happen. After all, it had to Matthew and wasn't that a pain in the butt to fix.

  "He seems kinda... edgy," Paul said uneasily as he looked after the retreating man. Turning towards Austin he continued, "Son, I don't want to judge people's lifestyles but please remember this is a family area. We have little eyes in the neighborhood. Erin, please go inside."

  I paused thoughtfully. This was a family neighborhood? I feeling of dread came over me. Exactly how many more people had moved in since that barbecue? It was already too many. Did I lose more houses?

  Jeremy was in France and Beth was in Gildorn. Could they access the right databases to check or would I have to figure out how to do it myself? Darn. This was going to weigh on my mind until I figured out exactly how many squatters I had.

  I led the two shifters inside the house as I contemplated how I could get my squatters not to touch my stuff and clean up after themselves.

  "Okay, you can take the helmet... and the bowl off your head now," I said to Austin as I looked around the house. It was neat and clean. Slightly different than I had left, which was understandable since Matt and Mei were still living here.

  I moved one of the vases over two centimeters to where it was supposed to be.

  "Professor, you said that you had a way to shield us from the contract Vatapi forced on us?" Ryder asked as I started to wipe down the counters. I paused a moment and then waved my hand, causing the surface to sparkle with a magical clean. I loved that spell.

  "It may protect you. I have never dealt with a demon contract. However, I believe that a conflicting contract enforced with equal or stronger magic with either prevent him from enforcing his will on you or..." I paused to move a bowl of bananas back to where it was supposed to be.

  "...your soul will explode in a delightfully technicolor display."

  "What the hell," shouted Austin in panic. Ryder's eyes widened but he seemed to take it in stride.

  "It's just an educated guess," I offered as I took the moment to open up the fridge and explore the options therein.

  "Yeah, that’s pretty much what you said before. Minus the technicolor bit," Ryder acknowledged. "You said you had something that could counteract it and you needed to get it. You have it now?"

  "Yes, I do," I mumbled as I got out fixings for several sandwiches. I fumbled in my coat pocket and grabbed the tooth on a golden chain. It had Norse runes of Truth and Finding carved into it. The tooth was literally mine.

  It was no longer in my body due to an unfortunate accident called Faramond. I would have looked pretty lopsided if I hadn't grown it back. I think Stella had her people carve the runes on it as an apology for not controlling her hound.

  I hadn't really noticed it before, but for a tooth that was as long as my human form forearm, it fit in my coat pocket oddly well. Perhaps this was similar to the time I lost track of Sebastian's rune knife that I had stolen from him. This was odd because it’s a hugely powerful artifact and I was keeping it in my magical storage bag. A bag I access and look into almost every day, and yet I had never noticed it had vanished. It likely had gone back to its owner.

  "Is that an elephant tusk?" Austin asked curiously.

  "How can you eat that after eating six pizza's," Ryder asked, watching me assemble the sandwich. I ignored him. After I reluctantly shared the pizza's with Ryder and Austin it was only five pizzas.

  "No," I replied shortly. Do I look like an elephant? "This object will enforce oaths. As minor supernaturals, you have no significant connection to the Firmament. Gods and demons have a connection that forces them to abide by promises and oaths. That’s why they hate giving them. This will bind you in such a way as to enforce your oaths. Like a geas more or less. I think it will enforce following the oath given to this," I thought for a moment. "Or it could just burn a hole through your forehead or do the technicolor thing. Either way, it's your best hope not to be a demon's sock puppet. So, up to you."

  Ryder and Austin huddled together in the living room and talked to
each other. The conversation occasionally got loud but I did my best to ignore it as I ate my sandwich.

  I was just finishing up my second sandwich when they came back. "We'll do it," Ryder bravely declared.

  "What do we need to do," asked Austin.

  "We need to figure out an oath that has the best chance of counter Jin's influence."

  "Jin is the demon lord Vatapi," Austin asked tentatively.

  "Jin was actually the wizard that Vatapi killed and took over his identity. He..." I paused. I had explained this so many times I was tired of it. I should just write it down on a card and hand it out. "Never mind. Let's just call him Vatapi. Just your average everyday rakshasa demon lord."

  "Can we just promise not to follow Jin's... er, Vatapi's instructions?" Austin asked.

  "I don't think..." I began. Ryder interrupted me.

  "What if he tells us not to kill anyone or something. Doing the opposite of what he tells us is pretty close to being under his control."

  "Right, so how about..." I began but was immediately interrupted again.

  "Okay, what if we promise to confirm all commands with the pack leader," Ryder offered.

  "Would you trust our pack leader with that? He doesn't even know what a demon is!" Austin countered. I looked at them in consternation as they started jabbering back and forth, completely ignoring my presence. After a minute of this, I retreated to the living room and turned on the terminal.

  I could still barely hear them arguing in the kitchen as flipped through the news. The main stations flipped from Mars attacks to the recovery efforts and lastly, the new contact with the next dimension over that President Carlos was in trade agreements with. There were also some human-interest interviews with family members of various people that lived on Mars.

  Since there was nothing of interest on, I was on the verge of calling Kingston when the shifters came up and interrupted me.

  "We have it!" exclaimed Ryder. He pulled out a piece of paper. Numerous scribbles and corrections covered the surface. "I hereby give my oath to follow you as my liege lord and pack lord forthwith. Under such compact, no other force or entity can enforce their will on me or give me conflicting commands. Any such commands are only valid if given by my sworn liege lord."

  "Great. Who do you want to be your liege lord? Call him over and we can do this."

  They stared at each other and then at me. "You!" muttered Ryder. I looked back at them blankly.

  "Why the heck would I want a couple of shifters following me around?"

  "Well, we wouldn't have to follow you around," began Ryder. "We don't hang around the pack leader, just when he tells us to do something. I suppose it could be the same."

  "Although we could," Austin said as looked complicated. "It seems like you're going to some cool places. That could be fun. On the other hand, you’re a dick."

  Chapter 9

  We ended up exchanging call IDs and I promised to call them when I needed any scut work done. I paraphrased it slightly differently but I think they knew I didn't really want them following me around.

  Sitting alone in my house with my feet up I heaved a sigh of contentment. Home at last. Then the living room terminal started flashing. When did it start doing that? It took me a moment to figure out it was an incoming call.

  Although Jeremy and I had watched a lot of old movies here, the terminal was purposefully an older model with minimal functions. As a magical entity with a significant aura, I tended to blow up the newer technology. I wasn't quite as destructive as the ley line floods but I had my moments. Also, my constant presence tended to wear on things. Although I had put an anti-magic ward on the living room terminal, I wasn't used to it actually working.

  Consequently, I stared at it for a few seconds before it finally registered that I had a call. I was a bit conflicted at this since I generally had no desire to talk to anyone who wasn't one of my people. Sighing in resignation I answered.

  "Pickup," I commanded.

  "Professor," the familiar confident voice came from the image at the end of the room. It was full size and it appeared he was actually in the room. Considering who it was I think I preferred the smaller image displayed on the wrist terminals.

  "Kingston." I acknowledged with a grunt.

  "Edward Prince now," he reminded me. I grunted again.

  "The idiots said you wanted to me to call you. I was just about to do that," I said as I waved my hand disinterestedly in the air. This conversation was such a mood killer.

  "I'm sure," he snorted skeptically. "I am calling in my marker I need my next wish."

  "I don't do wishes," I growled in irritation. "Do I look like a damn genie to you? What do you want? Another resurrection?"

  The last time he had called in one of his 'wishes' he had me resuscitate some people that had brain damage and were unable to be legally restored in the hospitals. There were laws in place to prevent various medical procedures of dubious morality. Frankly, I didn't care too much about the details. There was also a person that needed to be resurrected. Fully dead. Completely illegal.

  I could have used my regeneration circle and hoped his restless soul re-possessed his body but that didn't always work. Yes, it worked with Matt, but looking back on that, I may have been lucky that he had been torn into tiny bloody pieces while screaming in agony. That kind of death almost always generates restless souls. People that trip and die or have a similar 'peaceful' death generally don't have a convenient soul wandering around.

  "No. Although the Mars thing is slowing down recovery, the hospitals are finally getting enough free capacity to start resuscitating the people they put in cold storage and the newly dead."

  That was nice. I think Jeremy's parents were still out of luck since they were of the older generation that used nanites. Without the advanced supervision required by law to ensure that the nanites don't go wild a huge portion of the population was now stored in bulk stasis in various military warehouses. Despite the little apocalypse we suffered people still remembered the Australian Meltdown. They brought it up ad nauseum.

  "Well what do you want? Can I walk your dog?" That would be underutilizing my skill set a bit, however, I was starting to chafe under these obligations. I was meant to be a free hippie dragon.

  I coughed to myself. I may have gone too far with the imagery.

  "I called you because I see a business opportunity." His intense eyes looked out of place on his slightly middle-aged body. I think his pride prevented him from using the geriatric medicine that had replaced the nanites.

  "I see. You want to set up a dog walking business. I commend your business acumen."

  "Knock it off Professor," Kingston said with mounting annoyance. "I have a proposition and I am calling in my marker to ensure you follow through."

  "Well get to the point," I said irritably. Now we were both annoyed. Misery loves company.

  "I hear on the news that the UN is negotiating with the nation on the other side of the Paris portal. All ours has is vicious creatures, but there's an entire world over there. And they use magic."

  I grunted in agreement. It was all true.

  "I want to be a part of this," he said with a smile. "I also hear that President Carlos made you a diplomat." I nodded again. "I need you to introduce me."

  I stared at him. Opening my mouth, I thought for a minute and closed it. A moment later I tried again. "There is just so much wrong with that statement..."

  "Are you reneging on our agreement," he asked with a warning growl. I ignored it. I had made an agreement with him to give him a few 'wishes' in return for him ignoring the fact that I had stolen hundreds of millions from him and then left him in a coma for a week. While I wasn't afraid of him it was very annoying to have assassins nagging at me. Although it apparently livened up dates rather well.

  "No," I said dismissively. "However, I don't do wishes. The Paris gate is guarded... poorly... by the UN military. Do you want me to smuggle you in my pocket? Because it only works with ina
nimate and dead things."

  He looked confused for a second but shook his head and responded. "No. I can handle that side of it. I can get permission for one of my men to represent my business concerns. I can even get a hardened military transport to go with you. What I cannot do is get that person introduced to the local government head. I need you for that."

  I was a bit impressed. How did an underworld kingpin get that kind of pull with the UN? "How did you do that?"

  "You seem to think that all I do is lord over a few thugs and mug people for change..."

  "Well, yes."

  "I may have some interests that aren't completely legal, however, the vast majority of my holdings are perfectly legal. I have many military contracts and my companies are some of the main drivers in the rebuilding of our civilization."

  I looked at him with slightly more respect. When I had stolen everything he owned, it had been millions of credits. Seemingly, after his therapy and reconsolidation, he had come back far stronger than before.

  "I'm impressed," I admitted. "Why don't you just ask Carlos? If you can get authorization for a military transport through there I don't see why you need me."

  "The transport is nice," he nodded in agreement. "However, I read reports about the dragon on the other side of the portal and even a hydra. And that’s before you even get to what they call civilization. I want your investment in protecting my representative and your active help to form a relationship with the government."

  I suppose it was too much to hope that Maribel would eat them anyway. Kingston always surprised me. I constantly disregarded him as a common criminal and then he would shock me.

  "Naturally I also wouldn't mind being involved in things that our own government wouldn't consider exactly legal."

  And then he said something like that and my faith in him was restored. This did remind me of something. "I agree. One favor for protection while transporting to meet the government of West Noland and an introduction to the head of the council. I think its Durmont Sembling." I paused in thought. He was the new principal and I think he was elected the head of the council as well. If not, there was a good chance that Maribel ate the elected head and Durmont would be the new one.