Mystics 3-Book Collection (53 page)

His eyes were completely black.

The man with the black eyes grinned. Zoey
could see his pointy yellow teeth. He leaned forward in his
chair.

“Welcome, agents, to our humble home.”

“You’re not human,” blurted Zoey. “What are
you?”

The man pointed to himself. “No? I’m not
human?”

He looked to his cronies and laughed a sick,
wet laugh. “Humans are
so
overrated. What’s so special about
being
human
? They multiply like a virus. They get old, sick,
and then they die. Humans are useless, pathetic creatures whose
sole purpose is to serve as sustenance for the principal species.
Why would I want to be human when I can be so much more? So much
better. So much more powerful.”

“Now we know why some animals eat their own
children,” said Simon under his breath.

The rotten egg smell was making Zoey’s head
spin.

“You still haven’t answered my question.
What are you? Because obviously you’re
not
Alphas.”

The man sneered. “Are you giving orders now,
little Agent?”

He hesitated and then snapped his fingers.
“Show them, boys.”

Immediately, Zoey felt the pressure of the
blade in her back vanish. She turned to Tristan and Simon, and they
all looked behind them.

Their kidnappers’ skin started to bubble.
Large blisters and boils rose on their skin like third degree
burns. Vapors coiled above their bodies. They howled and thrashed
around like animals, just as their fingers and toes began to
transform into gleaming black talons. And there, where the three
men had stood moments before, stood five-foot creatures with
soulless black eyes. They had large, misshapen heads, droopy ears,
large bulbous noses, and protruding foreheads. They had wisps of
black hair on the tops of their heads, and their skin was brown and
thick, like leather. They looked like their fairy mothers had given
birth to cavemen.

“FYI—that was
totally
gross,” said
Simon, holding his stomach. “I’ll never look at onion soup the same
way ever again.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “
I've come across rotting bodies that are less offensive than
you are.”

Zoey wrinkled her nose and looked at the
leader. “Why aren’t
you
changing, if you hate humans so
much? Why not shed that costume and show your true ugly self, like
the rest of your stinky friends?”

The man leaned back into his chair. “My
friends here are
changelings
. But I’m not a mere skin fairy,
little Agent.”

“No?” said Simon, who was now pinching his
nose. “You sure
smell
like one. Do you stinkers believe in
hygiene? It’s not that complicated. It’s called soap.”

“What are you, then?” said Tristan, through
gritted teeth. “You’re something else, aren’t you?”

The leader grinned. “I am
Mysterian
.”

Tristan flinched, but he didn’t respond. He
still had that wild look in his eye, like an untamable beast that
might charge at any moment.

The man with the black eyes raised his voice
and said very proudly, “I’m Lord Xenor, lord of the Tantu realm in
the Nexus. I’m the most powerful demon lord in my world; killer
extraordinaire, master combatant, and murderer of
thousands
.
You’ve probably heard of me. I’m very, very dangerous.”

“Never heard of you,” said Simon, and
shrugged. “Don’t think you’ve made our list of bad guys.”

Xenor’s face fell. “Of course I’m
on
your list. Are you sure you’ve never heard of me before?”

“Nope.”

Xenor frowned. “That’s impossible. I’m
notorious in the Nexus as
the
most dangerous demon there is.
You probably just forgot - you’re very young. Young minds are
feeble.”

Simon shook his head. “Trust me, Xena, I
know all the bad guys, and you didn’t cut it. You’re not on the
list.”

“It’s Xenor.”

“Right,” said Simon, “Never heard of either
of you.”

Xenor’s face darkened, and he twitched
nervously in his chair. He didn’t seem to want to elaborate on the
matter further, and he looked at Tristan instead.

“I’ve fought against
your
kind for
many years. You are álfar. I’ve always appreciated the strength of
you blue-skinned warriors. You know, we’re practically
related.”

Tristan’s face was cold. “No, we’re
not
.”

He watched the mystic lord without blinking.
Tristan’s expression was gloomy, and he began to tremble.

“You call yourself a lord, but here you are
— hiding. You should be helping the mystics out there. You’ve seen
what the Alphas are doing to them. They’re torturing and killing
them!” His voice rose in rage. “Why aren’t you
doing
anything?”

Xenor crossed his legs lazily, with a bored
expression. “That’s not my problem—”

“It
should
be your problem,” growled
Tristan, and even Simon took a step back, feeling his wrath. “It’s
all
of our problem. Those beings are from
your
world.
How can you just sit here like this and not care?”

“It’s simple. Because I
don’t
care,”
said Xenor. “I have my own problems to deal with, and they require
my full attention. And if you don’t want me to throw you out there
to join your
kind
—I suggest you stop talking.”

He scowled. Black veins appeared in his skin
like spider webs. They spread slowly over his face and his arms
until his body was covered in a network of moving black lines. Zoey
had never seen anything like it, and her gut told her it was
bad.

“You want us to kill them, chief?” smiled
the changeling next to Zoey. His large nose drooped down his gaunt
face like a sock, and his uniform hung loosely on his thin frame.
He waved his dagger in front of Zoey’s eyes. His rancid breath
burned her nose. “Oh, please say yes! I really feel the
need
to kill something. Let me cut her pretty face—”

“Yeah, Gall’s right,” said the changeling
near Tristan. He was the largest of the three kidnappers and the
most like a caveman. “Let’s kill them and
change
into them,
yeah! We can take their places and finally get out of here. What do
you say, chief?”

“Stop calling me that, Grugg.” Xenor looked
annoyed, “
I’m
your
Lord
.”

“I hate it here. There’s nothing to eat,”
whined the changeling near Tristan. He was short, with a great big
belly protruding from the front of his red uniform, like a very
ugly Santa.

“Can we eat them? I’ve got some special
spices that I brought from the Nexus. This one’s got a lot of meat
on his bones…”

“We can’t eat them yet, Gorb,” said the
changeling named Gall.

He started to juggle two daggers like a
circus performance. “The chief has plans for them first. Maybe we
can eat them after.”

“What plans?” questioned Grugg. “I don’t
know of any plans. Why don’t
I
know of the plans? I’m first
in command of this regiment!”

Gall scowled. “No, you’re not. I am!”

“No, I am!” said Gorb, and he stuck out his
large abdomen. “Everyone knows that, I’ve got our mother’s
brains—”

“Shut up! You useless changelings!” cried
Xenor.

He jumped up from his seat. “I swear, if I
hear one more word about eating them—”

“Sorry, chief,” the three changelings echoed
together.

Xenor stomped his foot. “Stop calling me
that!”

Zoey remembered something. “Are you the
demon lord who crossed over into our world recently with the help
of the interlopers? Is that you?”

Xenor’s black eyes lit up. “Ah! You see -
you
do
know who I am! I knew it! I told you, I’m
famous—”

“The
great
demon lord and his…” Zoey
looked at the ugly changelings and frowned, “…and his cavalry.
That’s you?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” said Xenor impatiently, and
he lowered himself into his chair.

“All of it is true. I
am
this demon
lord. I’m the only one who got through.”

Zoey examined their captors. If this was the
powerful demon lord and the army she had heard so much about, then
why were they hiding in the Alpha village? Why were they
hiding
at all? Something was definitely off.

She stepped towards Xenor and said, “What do
you want from us?”

The demon lord eyed her carefully.
Gradually, the black veins retreated and his skin returned to its
natural beige color.

“We have no fight with you,” she pressed.
“Let us go, and we won’t say a word to anyone. I promise.”

The demon’s eyes widened and his face looked
even more sinister. “We both know that’s not true, little
Agent
.”

“If you haven’t noticed, O mighty Stinker,”
said Simon, as he raised the shoulders on his jacket, “we’re not
agents. We’re Alphas—the true and only nation. Those
agents—pfff—don’t confuse us with those
losers
. Yeah, that’s
right, we’re the mean-Alpha-team. So you’d better let us go. It’s
only a matter of time before our brothers and sisters come looking
for us. And when they do—because they
will
—it’ll be
adios, amigos
.”

Xenor raised his eyebrows, then began
applauding. “Very funny, but you don’t fool me. I know you’re
not
Alphas.”

“Who says we’re not?” Zoey argued.

Xenor pointed a talon at them. “I know
you’re not Alphas because Alphas don’t
mirror-port
. Yes. And
I can see by your expressions that you know I’m telling the
truth.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You see,
little agents, my spies saw you mirror-port from inside the forest.
Which was hard to believe, because I know that all the Agency
borders and mirrors have been infected with the black oil. So I
asked myself, how can this be? How can three little agents
mirror-port without their precious devices? And then it came to
me—”

“What? That you’re delusional? We’re Alphas
through and through,” said Simon.

The demon lord ignored him.

“I told myself, these three must be very
valuable
indeed since they can appear out of thin air
without their instruments. I had my doubts, you see, when my spies
told me what they saw. But here you stand, in front of me. I know
now that my spies were speaking the truth.”

A satisfied smile materialized on his face.
“So what I want from you is simple—I’m going to use you as leverage
with Mrs. Dupont.”

“What?” exclaimed Zoey. She stared in shock
at the man with the black eyes.

“You see,” continued Xenor, “the witch
tricked me. She promised me power; complete control of this world
if I helped her acquire a
virus
from my world. The virus
that destroyed all the Agencies’ mirrors was mine.”

Xenor looked at Zoey proudly. “I’ve always
had a deep loathing for you
agents
, always standing in our
way and making it difficult to conquer your world. So I decided to
help her. But did she keep her promise? No. As soon as I gave her
the virus, she commanded her red army to kill us. Naturally, I
escaped before she could finish me. And now we are reduced to
hiding from the same humans who promised us glory. It’s quite a
story, really.”

“Fascinating,” grumbled Simon. “A real
blockbuster.”

Tristan and Zoey shared a worried look.

“We will make a trade with the wretched
queen,” continued Xenor. “You three,” he pointed a sharp talon,
“for what she had promised - for a place at the head of her red
army.”

Sweat trickled down Zoey’s temples. Her
nerves squeezed her stomach into a ball. She felt she was going to
be sick. This was all wrong. This wasn’t how she had planned to get
the sample. They were trapped, and they were running out of time.
She wondered how long until the headless horsemen came back to
annihilate the Agency. Could she make it back on time? Could they
even
get
back?

“Where’s the virus now? Do you still have it
with you?”

Zoey knew that she sounded too eager, as
soon as she spoke. She saw that Xenor noticed it, too.

“No,” he growled, “the wretched woman has
it. But never mind that; now that we have the three of you, things
are going to change for me. And once I’m powerful again, I’m going
to enjoy ripping the beating heart out of that despicable
human—”

“Can I eat it?” asked Gorb, hopefully, but
then he lowered his eyes when he saw the scowl on Xenor’s face.

“Your plan will never work,” said Zoey, her
voice steady. “We’re nothing special. Why would she be interested
in the three of us? We’re nobodies. I’m sorry to tell you, but
you’re wrong about us. So why not let us go?”

The demon lord eyed her. “I’m not wrong. I
know you’re
very
valuable, especially to her.”

“And why’s that?” said Simon. “Because we
bathe
?”

“Because one of you is very
different,
” answered Xenor. “One of you mirror-ported on
their own.”

He measured them for a moment. Then he
pointed a long talon at Zoey and grinned. “You’re the one. I can
smell
it on you.”

Zoey’s heart stopped. From the corners of
her eyes she saw both Simon and Tristan looking at her, but she did
her best to act calmly.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said
defiantly. “I think you’ve been cooped up in here for too long,
it’s affecting your brain—that’s
if
your kind even have
brains. I’m sorry to tell you, but your spies lied to you.”

Xenor continued to smile.

“They didn’t lie. Only a very special being
can manipulate the energies that separate our worlds. Only a very
special being can open and close portals simply by using her mind.
It’s a trick I’ve always admired. I’ve only seen it done once
before, a thousand years ago. I’ve always desired it. And that’s
how I recognize it in you.”