Surviving Demon Island Part 29

But looks could be deceiving and Derek didn't trust anything having to do with demons.

'Okay, so you know my name. Who are you?'

Gina tugged at Derek's gun, but he pulled it away from her grasp. He wasn't ready to kill this guy yet. He should be, but something was stopping him.

G.o.d, he was confused.

The man smiled, showing off even, white teeth, not at all like those snarling fangs the demons sported. 'Look again, Derek.'

What kind of game was this a.s.shole playing? 'I am looking. Still don't know who you are.'

'If you let your guard down I think you could figure it out.'

Derek studied the man and frowned. There was something familiar about him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe he and Lou had run into him before, but it wasn't likely. The Realm of Light was a close-knit organization. Derek had met them all, and he'd have remembered this guy.

'You want to tell me what's going on here?' Starting with who you are? Starting with who you are? It was driving him crazy. The familiarity, the niggling sense of awareness and foreboding. Gina moved to his side and he glanced down at her pale, tear-streaked face. She slipped her hand in his. It was driving him crazy. The familiarity, the niggling sense of awareness and foreboding. Gina moved to his side and he glanced down at her pale, tear-streaked face. She slipped her hand in his.

'You don't recognize me, do you?' The man paced slowly in front of Derek, studying him by tilting his head from side to side. 'We never did look alike. You always favored your mother's side of the family.'

Derek let his eyes drift closed for a fraction of a second, wanting this all to be a bad dream. Denial was a good thing, right? This man couldn't be who he was beginning to suspect he was. He was supposed to be dead, or in jail. Anywhere but here. Why here, and for what reason?

'You're not him.'

One corner of the man's mouth lifted, as if he were just letting Derek in on a private joke. 'Yes, I am.'

'You left. Or died.' He refused to believe it. It was some kind of trick, or illusion. h.e.l.l, it had been so long Derek didn't even remember his face anymore. And twenty-five years had changed him.

'Is that what your mother told you? That I died?' He stepped so close Derek felt the man's breath across his cheek. 'She was always afraid of me. That's why she took you and ran, hid you away so I couldn't find you. Because she was scared of me. But you never were. Then or now. You don't fear me at all, do you?'

'No.'

'Good. A boy should never be afraid of his father, Derek.'

Derek's heart crashed to his feet. Despite inner denial, he couldn't refute the truth.

He heard Gina's gasp, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from his father, Ben.

'What are you doing down here, withthem?'

'They are my brothers. I belong here.'

So what he suspected all along had really happened. All those years ago, when the demons had taken his brother, Dominic, they had also taken his father. He had asked his mother about it but she refused to talk about Ben.

Maybe the Sons of Darkness had taken his father be fore they'd taken Nic? Maybe he'd even been part of Nic's capture. Derek wished he could remember. He'd only seen the demons take Nic.

He had such vague memories of his dad, of the times before Nic disappeared.

Did his mother know? Was that why she'd been so obsessed with running after Nic had been taken?

'How are you a.s.sociated with these things?'

'We have a lot to talk about, Derek. Will you put your weapon down and listen?'

A dozen demons appeared, filling the outer room, standing behind Ben. He could take some of them down, but not all of them. And he had Gina to consider. 'Do I have a choice?'

'Not really,' his father said, amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

Derek tried not to shudder. 'Then I guess I'll just listen to what you have to say.' For starters. Then he'd think about what he had to do, what his options were.

'Derek!' Gina urged in a fervent whisper.

'It's okay,' he said, not even looking at her. He had it under control.

He'd listen, but no matter who the man claimed to be, these things were going down. And if Derek had to take himself and his father with them, so be it.

All demons had to die, no matter who they were.

He just had to get Gina out of here first. As soon as he figured out a plan.

'I don't suppose you'd care to hand over your weapons,' Ben suggested.

'No. I think I'll hang on to them for now.'

Ben nodded and motioned through the doorway. 'Then you and Gina can follow me.'

The demons parted and allowed them to pa.s.s. Derek didn't like it, but he and Gina were surrounded and they had little choice.

As they followed Ben, it occurred to him there were no light fixtures, but low-level light allowed him to see where they were going. And as they moved from room to room, the dirt walls became real walls. He ran his fingers across them. Real, painted walls. This wasn't at all like the other room. Solid floors and sterile, gray walls, like a laboratory, with computer gadgetry that belied his expectations about demons. He hadn't expected tech stuff. Who the h.e.l.l used these things?

'What is all this?'

'We'll get to that later,' Ben said, motioning him into yet another room, an expansive, elegant living area with sofa and table and chairs. Gleaming silver swords lined the walls over one sofa. 'Take a seat.'

Derek's eyes widened at hownormal this all seemed. If he didn't know better, he would think he was in somebody's house.

'How'd you get all this stuff down here?' he asked, he and Gina taking a seat on one of the love seats across from the sofa, noting as he did so that all the slimy muck had disappeared off his boots.

He looked to Gina, who appeared shocked. She had yet to say a word, just stared at Ben and then back at him as if she couldn't fathom it all, either.

'Think of it as wish fulfillment,' Ben said, slipping onto the sofa. 'Want something to drink? Beer? How about a cigar?'

In an instant an ice-cold bottled beer appeared on the table in front of him, along with a humidor. Derek lifted the lid, somehow not surprised to find it filled with his favorite Cuban cigars. He inhaled the sweet aroma, then shook his head, certain neither of those items had been there before. 'How'd you do that?'

'Like I said,' Ben said with a sly grin. 'Wish fulfillment. Anything you can think of, just wish for it and it can be yours.'

Uh-huh. He'd seen too many people sell their souls to the devil to fall for that s.h.i.+t. 'No, thanks.'

'How about you, Gina. Can I offer you something?'

'Our freedom,' she shot back.

He laughed. 'I'm afraid I can't do that.'

'Then you can go straight to h.e.l.l.'

Ben laughed. 'Interesting choice of words, my dear.'

'What are you doing down here?' Derek asked again.

Turning his attention back to Derek, Ben said, 'It's my home. At least for now. And soon it'll be yours.'

'I'm not going to become a demon.'

'We'll see. It's not as bad as you think.'

'Tell me how it happened, Da!Ben.' He couldn't bring himself to call him Dad. It just wasn't right. He didn't know exactly what his father was, but he didn't have that kind of familial feeling for this man. Ben was nothing more than a stranger now.

Ben quirked a brow. 'How what happened?'

'How the demons got you. Was it before they took Nic?'

His smile grew wider. 'You don't understand yet, do you?'

'I guess I don't. Why don't you explain it to me?' He hated playing games.

'I'm enjoying letting you figure it all out yourself.'

Derek scanned the room, conscious of demons lurking in the dark recesses surrounding them. He counted four so far. 'Well, while we're playing twenty questions, why don't you get rid of the Frankensteins. They give me the creeps.'

With one quick nod of his head, the demons vanished into the darkness. Ben leaned forward and clasped his hands together, staring at his fingers for a second before looking up at Derek. 'Ask and I'll tell you.'

'I want to know everything. And I want the truth.'

'The truth is, no demons captured me. Ever.'

Derek frowned and shook his head. 'I don't under stand.'

'Of course you don't, because you were too young to notice and I didn't want you to know until I was ready to fully a.s.similate you. I took your brother first, but your mother got smart and spirited you away before I could get to you. I should have taken you both at the same time, but I couldn't.'

'So I was right.' Ben had been turned before Nic. He had taken his own son.

But wait. The thing that took his brother had looked a lot like one of the hybrids. Huge, imposing, with red glowing eyes and scary as h.e.l.l. His father didn't look any thing like one of those.

s.h.i.+t. Now he was more confused than ever. Blood pounded in his temples. Derek scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to make sense of everything. Gina scooted closer and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

'Just spill it, Ben,' Gina interjected. 'Tell Derek the d.a.m.n truth.'

'Because I wasn't turned turned into a demon, Derek. I was born one. And when I took Dominic, I came to claim what was rightfully mine. You and Dominic are as much mine as you were your mother's. Half of my blood runs in both of you.' into a demon, Derek. I was born one. And when I took Dominic, I came to claim what was rightfully mine. You and Dominic are as much mine as you were your mother's. Half of my blood runs in both of you.'

Derek stared at Ben, not wanting to make that connection. 'That's not true.'

Ben smiled, looking so human Derek couldn't believe the words that spilled from his mouth. 'Yes, it is, son. I'm a demon. Not just a demon, but a demon Lord. Your friend Louis has told you all about the Sons of Darkness.'

A black haze filled his mind, every word Lou had told him about the Sons of Darkness slamming into his consciousness.

'I am am the Sons of Darkness, Derek. One of the twelve leaders. My blood is your blood. It's time for you to face what you are.' the Sons of Darkness, Derek. One of the twelve leaders. My blood is your blood. It's time for you to face what you are.'

Chapter Twenty-One.

G ina's heart stuttered, and if she could have taken Derek anywhere but here right now, she would have. ina's heart stuttered, and if she could have taken Derek anywhere but here right now, she would have.

She couldn't believe what Ben said, and yet she knew it was true. Her heart ached for Derek, yet she could do nothing to help him, just listen in horror and shock to Ben's words.

Derek's father was a demon Lord, one of the twelve leaders of the Sons of Darkness.

A descendant of the great evil.

What did that make Derek?

She didn't want to wrap her mind around it right now, couldn't fathom what Derek was thinking.

'You're lying,' Derek said, his voice laced with hatred. His entire body vibrated with violence.

'Why would I? Consider where you are, Derek. What I have shown you so far. I have no reason to lie, and in your soul you know it to be true.'

'I don't believe it.' Derek stood, his weapon falling to the floor, forgotten. He jammed his fingers through his hair and paced.

Gina picked up the discarded laser and trained it on Ben. Ben smirked as if he saw her as little threat.

Big mistake, a.s.shole.

'Derek,' Ben continued. 'Search yourself, the changes you have experienced within your body the past few months. Your strength, speed, your own psychic visions. You have abilities a normal human doesn't possess. Though you've fought against them, they have been over powering you.'

'Bulls.h.i.+t,' he said, his voice an accusation.

'What about control when you f.u.c.k this woman?' he asked, his glance flitting to Gina.

Gina's eyes widened at Ben's callous mention of what she and Derek shared. Derek looked to her, then back at Ben.

'Leave her out of this.'

Ben smirked. 'You know what I'm talking about. She's your chosen mate. That's why s.e.x with her is so powerful, why it's so hard to control. You have yet to unleash your full l.u.s.t on her. It will truly be something to behold when you do. You will tear each other apart like beasts when you fully realize what you are and make her one of us.'