Again, own nothing, belongs solely to Kim Harrison.
I sat there in a daze, wondering if maybe I didn't completely wake up. I even pinched myself for good measure. Nope, this is actually happening.
I looked at Al for more information, surely he's kidding. I mean really, demon and baseball? I practically looked around the room for a camera and a banner saying, "You Just Got Punked!" Hearing nothing but silence from Al I decided to ask him directly for a change.
"Why did you ask me if I had a talent in baseball Al?" I asked in a nonchalant tone, hiding my growing curiosity.
"Because I obviously wanted to know the answer to it, itchy-witch," he drawled.
I wanted to hit him for being such a smartass.
"You know what I mean," I snapped.
"What did Dali tell you?" I asked instead.
Al took a seat that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and sighed, looking ready to explain something to the ignorant witch, AKA, me, yet again.
"On your side of the lines I expect that certain companies have annual events every once in a while," he started to explain.
I thought of the FIB's annual picnic. I nodded my head at him to continue.
"It is the same concept here, but as you have observed personally", he gave me wry smile and continued, "Demons have a more competitive nature."
Well that's an understatement. I don't know how many demons have competed to get me as their possession. They live forever and yet all they ever do is make power plays and saying, "This is mine and you can't have it." It's like dealing with five-year-olds.
I made a motion for him to continue.
"We demons have jobs," I made a face just to tell him how I felt about those "jobs".
He ignored it and continued anyway, "And every hundred years or so we have a little game against the other demon company to see who's better at something besides just selling familiars."
"Wait, there's another demon company that sells familiars?" I asked, surprised.
"Yes, there is. Although we employees can have free reign all over the world there are still two demons that are in charge of the northern part of the world and the southern part. Dali controls the Northern part."
I tried to process this information. Another demon is as strong and collected as Dali? Shit.
"And that game changes every hundred years. Last century was basketball. This year is baseball. Dali called this afternoon saying that the game will be tonight and that he wanted you to join." He finished and looked at me expectantly.
I just tried my hardest to keep from bursting out laughing at the image of demons playing baseball for fun. I couldn't see it. It's like leprechauns having fool's gold. It's impossible to even imagine it.
"So, what? You want me to be your cheerleader?" I asked, wishing I could do the one eyebrow trick.
He gave me a huge smile and said, "Oh, now wouldn't that be delightful."
He licked his lips and snapped his fingers and suddenly I was in a cheerleader uniform.
I had on a red shirt made of silk that was cut down from the neck very low, a very short black skirt, and, the turn take me, horns on my head, and I also had on a red, spiky tail. I looked at my shirt and saw that it said, "Team Al" on it. And to make it worse, I blushed to make the whole ensemble go together perfectly. I looked like a freaking' demon blow-up doll.
I looked at Al to see that his face was a mixture of amusement and lust. Only he could've made the two different emotions fit on his face at the same time.
"Al" I growled warningly.
"Yes, Rachel?" He asked a bit distractively. I don't even want to know what's going on in his sick little demon head, probably some sinister reverie about me cheering him on after the game.
I shivered, not completely repulsed at the idea. Crap on toast, something's wrong with me.
"Take this off me," I said, irritated.
I swear his eyes lit up like supernovas and he said huskily, "I thought you'd never ask itchy-witch."
My eyes widened at his intention and without thinking I jumped at him, yelling "No!"
We both went down, me on top of him. We both froze. Then Al said, "My, my you're such in a hurry itchy-witch." I couldn't move. My head kept screaming "Get your witch butt up!" but my legs wouldn't listen. Then without any warning, he kissed me. I gasped and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue in. Then my senses started working again and I jumped up like a frightened kitten. I was cowering in the corner breathing heavily. He looked like he was about to come at me then and there when, thank the turn, his line ringed. He made a disapproving face and picked up with an irritating, "What?"
He looked at me regrettably and said, "We're coming, old man."
He hung up and looked at me, face unreadable.
I didn't know what the hell to say so I said shakily, "Ready to go?"
He nodded and he jumped us to a field shaped like a pentagram. Well, these are demons after all. It still had the three bases and home plate though.
"Why's the field shaped like a pentagram?" I asked Al.
"You see, itchy-witch, our nature in games is…aggressive, you could say, so some of us used to die at the end of the games, sore losers and all. Since five thousand years ago, when the birth rates were so low, however, they created a pentagram on every court we play in. it prevents anyone from killing each other", he explained in his school-teacher tone.
It figures that demons need something like that to keep them in check. To them, losing is worse than death.
He clapped his hands and said, "As delicious as that other outfit was you will be in this uniform."
Before I could protest I was already in a black and red uniform. I looked at my shirt and it read: Blood-Soaked Sox. I looked at Al and he had the same uniform on.
"What the hell Al?" I said hysterically. He really likes dressing me too much.
"You really didn't think you were going to be on the sidelines did you? Dali said you have to play, like it or not."
"But I'm not a demon!" I practically screamed.
He rolled his eyes and said, "So you keep saying."
I looked at the stands to see familiars; I guess they aren't privileged enough to play. Lucky them.
"What's the other team's name?" I asked curiously.
He smiled and said, "The Demonbacks, itchy-witch."
I looked at him and said sarcastically, "You demons are really original when it comes to names of teams."
I know demons steal everything they can, but come on. The Demonbacks? The Blood-Soaked Sox? I will never view baseball the same way again.
"Come along, itchy-witch, Dali's waiting," he said impatiently.
I tried to remember my days in high school. I was a track star but I was pretty good at all the other sports I tried, including baseball.
"Ah, Rachel, I should warn you that we play a little differently on this side of the lines."
Why am I not surprised?
"Yeah, I bet you guys cheat like a car salesman."
He shook his head, "Actually, there is no cheating, everything's fair game, that is, if no one sees it."
Swell.
"And the ball we play with is ever-after."
I just looked at him.
He clarified, "You build up line energy in your hand and throw it."
Recognition dawned on me. Just like how I blew up that building in the ever-after and flung Ivy away.
"How the hell do I hit that?"
"You make a bat out of ever-after so you could hit the ball made of ever-after. You fight fire with fire, itchy-witch."
"How do you make a bat?" I asked.
He sighed, exasperated at my lack of knowledge.
"You already know how to put ever-after in your hands, just visualize it as a stick shape, not a round sphere."
That seems easy enough.
We arrived at the dugout and saw that Dali was our coach, complete with a silver whistle around his neck. Al isn't the only one who likes to be dramatic.
Then I saw something that made my blood freeze. The umpire was-
"NEWT!" I screeched.
Al put a hand over my mouth before anyone could've heard me.
"The only one suitable enough to be the umpire is the craziest demon in the ever-after?" I asked into his hand.
"She is the only one demons won't cross or question when she makes calls, or they will forfeit their life."
I yanked his hand away and nodded in understanding. It did make sense; the demons would kill any other umpire then Newt. Newt has the power to keep them in line, but does she have enough sanity to make good calls? That is the real question.
Dali came up and greeted us.
"I'm glad you could make it here, Rachel, Al."
Like we had a choice.
"We are in the outfield first, so be ready to win." He said pleasantly enough.
But I saw through it, he may have sounded easy-going but you could see the look in his eyes that said "We better win or else." Yeah, demons really had a superiority complex.
I looked at Al and said, "Where do you want me?"
He licked his lips and I swear his eyes glowed.
"In the shower, on the floor, in my room tied to my bed-"
I cut him off there, my head spinning and face matching the color of my hair.
"You perverted son of a bitch, I mean what position am I in?"
Then he had that face that promised anything but innocent and I covered his mouth with my hand before he could say anything else I didn't want to hear. Could his head be out of the gutter for one simple conversation?
"If you don't tell me anything useful then maybe I'll just go ask Dali. Maybe his head can stay out of the sewer for one sentence."
In response Al did something I really didn't expect.
He
licked
my
hand.
And it wasn't the little kid's lick to say 'get your hand off my mouth' either. It was more like a 'imagine what other places I could lick with my tongue' lick. Despite the disgusting factor that I should of thought I shivered, and not from repulsion either.
What in the turn is happening to me?
I released my hand and wiped it on the uniform.
Al looked at me, eyes full of hunger.
"Shouldn't you be more focused on the game Al?" I asked trying to change the subject.
His eyes twinkled with amusement and said, "Why, itchy-witch I've always been focused on our little game."
Something tells me he wasn't talking about baseball.
Before I could reply Dali came up and put a glove in my hand and said, "You will be the catcher, Rachel." He then turned to Al and said, "And you will be the pitcher as usual."
Dali left and Al leaned closer to whisper, "He probably knows you're good with receiving balls, to make you the catcher."
Of course he had to put in one final lewd comment before the game.
Despite that I'll probably regret it I asked him anyway, "Why did he put you as pitcher?"
He smiled his with his big blocky teeth and said," I'm the best one at handling balls."
I shook my head and sighed. I guess that was his final lewd comment before the game, well let's hope so.
We took our positions and Al said, "Good luck, itchy-witch."
I smiled. Yeah, I'll probably need all the help I can get.
A demon stepped up to bat; his body looked like a professional baseball player. He probably used a spell to get an advantage. And I thought using steroids wasn't fair in sports.
Al was in a pitching stance. He threw the ball of ever-after and it…disappeared? Then I felt something in my glove. I looked and saw it was the ball. I looked at Al, dumbfounded. He smiled and said, "Remember Rachel, you have to give my ball back." I'm glad the catcher's mask shielded my face. I did not need other demons to see me blush. I began to throw the ball, but when I touched it my body let out an involuntary shiver. I looked at Al and saw that he knew my reaction to his aura by the look in his eyes. I threw the ball at him, hard. So what if his aura felt good? It doesn't mean anything, right?
I figured out his little trick. He made the ball invisible. If he made it simply disappear it would have been too obvious, what with the ever-after smoke it would leave behind. You could cheat but not show off. That's such a demon rule.
The demons didn't get a single hit off of Al, now it was our turn up.
A familiar read an announcement that said, "First one up to bat, #1, Algaliarept. On deck is #1/2, Rachel Morgan."
It really figures Al chose to be number one. Wait a minute, I'm number half? What the hell?
I looked at Al for an explanation I probably won't like.
He shrugged and said, "You're half demon itchy-witch."
I wanted to kill him in that moment.
Al strode up to the plate like he owned it. He made a big show of taking a practice swing and tapping the plate with his ever-after bat.
He finally was ready and, he actually materialized a blindfold around his head. Cocky bastard. What's he going to do now that he can't see?
He smiled like he knew exactly what I was thinking and took a swing. The thing flew. It was out of reach of the pentagram. A freaking home run. It really figures that he'd be the first one up, get an awesome hit, and make the rest of us look like crap. That is so Al. He didn't even run. In fact, he materialized a crown on his head and red robes. He even got a damn staff to complete the king look. He walked elegantly all around first, second, third, and finally home plate. The Demonbacks looked positively pissed off. I didn't blame them. On the first pitch they got completely humiliated by Al. The score was: us 1, them 0.
He was back in the dugout in his regular uniform. He winked at me and said, "I can score on and off the field, Rachel."
I just rolled my eyes and approached the plate. I brought energy into my hands and visualized a bat. It worked. The pitcher began to wind up and threw the ball. The ball kept spinning and spinning and I found myself looking at a tornado of ever-after. I swung and missed.
Newt screamed, "STRIKE!"
I looked at her and wanted to say, "No shit", but I kept my mouth closed. I valued my life more than a sarcastic comment, I think.
I heard people in the dugout saying, "I hope she scores better in bed then she does on the field or else I feel sorry for Al."
I ground my teeth together and tried again.
I swung and missed again. Damn it. It'd be better if this was a regular game. Before I could take another swing Al called a time-out. Could he do that? I looked at Dali and saw that he couldn't but was doing it anyway, that's Al for you.
Al came up to me and whispered, "Come now, itchy-witch, I know you can do better than this."
I looked at him irritated and whispered back, "It's kind of hard when I see balls are coming at me in tornados."
Al huffed. "Then don't see them, use your second sight."
My eyes widened in realization. He used the blindfold to hide that he was using his second sight. I should have expected nothing less of Al.
I smiled evilly. Time for payback. Seeing my smile, Al nodded approvingly. I looked at him and said, "Thanks, Al."
"You can thank me when we are alone in my rooms later."
I shook my head. He is relentless.
"In your dreams Al."
He turned and walked back to the dugout but I thought I heard him say, "For now."
I tucked my red helmet lower to hide my eyes and took up my batting stance.
I closed my eyes and I saw everything, no wonder Al got a home run. This time when the ball came I was ready. I wasn't going to get a home run, that would make the demons even more pissed, but I had something else in mind. I even said a spell for a little redirection and hit the ball of ever-after right between the pitcher's legs. He went down screaming like a banshee.
I didn't hesitate. I ran. Running is my specialty and it showed in that moment. A cheetah couldn't have caught me. The demon at short stop went after the ball when I was rounding second base. The pitcher was still on the ground whimpering. It almost made me feel sorry for him. Yeah, right. Before I could stop myself, I was running home. To hell with not pissing off the other demons. When has that ever stopped me before? The demon playing short stop threw the ball to the catcher right when I slid home. He touched me in a very inappropriate place above the belt. I didn't care. I was as safe as condoms. We got another run, because of me. I smiled, until I realized I was still lying there with the demon's hand still on my chest. I was about to remove it when Al intervened. He lifted the demon up, malice in his eyes and said, "Keep your hand off things that aren't yours."
I'm glad he didn't phrase it, "Keep your hand off things that are mine." That really would've gotten me pissed off.
The demon nodded up and down, fear clear in his eyes.
Dali came over and said, "That's enough, Al. Let's continue with the game."
Al dropped the demon and turned to me and leered. "I didn't know you could hit so eloquently hard, Rachel, I find that I quite like it."
I hit him on the arm.
"Better watch it or you'll find out how much, just like the other pitcher did." I warned him.
Al looked at the other pitcher and gulped audibly. Probably thinking that he was lucky that wasn't him.
The other pitcher looked at me with ice cold eyes. He looked like he wanted to kill me. Well that's not good.
Nevertheless I stuck my tongue out at him and gave a vampire kiss-kiss gesture.
His eyes were practically on fire with hatred burning in the center.
I never was good at making new friends.
In the first inning we got three runs, me, Al, and some other demon.
The rest up to the ninth inning were kind of slow.
The ninth inning is where the intense moments were. In the ninth inning the score was five-to-five. We were the last ones up and it was two outs. In this epic showdown of course Al was up. Al hit the ball to third base. He rounded all the way to second. I was the next one up with two outs and a man on second. The demons looked at me with eyes that said, 'screw this up and you'll never be seen on the other side of the lines again'. Peer pressure. I was never too fond of it in high school and I'm not appreciating it now. I looked at Al and saw that he was actually smiling. If I didn't know any better I would've thought that he set this up. But he didn't, right? I swallowed and tried to bring up the courage to do this. It's just a game, after all.
I closed my eyes again and when I was about to swing, the ball of ever-after hit me in the head, but not before the ball hit the bat, the hit still counted. I fell to the ground, pretending to be unconscious. I twitch my hand to let Al know I'm conscious. I hear Al start to run to third base. While the demons are distracted with Al I start running to first base. They didn't tag me or the base so all of this still counts. When Al was safely on third, the third basemen threw the ball to first, but I already made it there before the first basemen tagged first base. I was safe. Al took advantage of the Demonbacks's attention on me and decided to go straight to home. It was going to be close. The first basemen threw the ball to the catcher and the catcher had the ball, bracing for Al. Al had to knock the ball out of the catcher's mitt to be safe. Al collided with the catcher like an elephant stampede. The ball came out of the catcher's mitt and hit the ground. We won.
Al dusted himself off and stood like the proud demon he is. Of course we had to win in the most dramatic way. That was Al's style. He made himself the hero of the game. He basically said, 'you couldn't have won without me'. Arrogant bastard.
Dali patted Al on the back and said, "Good job as always Al."
"Would you expect any less?" Al replied.
The announcer declared, "Blood-Soaked Sox win!"
The Demonbacks looked like they were about to slaughter a village. The coach on that team said, "There will be ten times the amount of paperwork you usually get for the next 50 years!"
Ouch. That has got to suck.
Al grabbed me and pulled me into his rooms saying, "Let's celebrate, itchy-witch."
I look around and see that there is a large banner saying, "I Won Like Always" on the wall. I also noticed we were back in our normal cloths.
I rolled my eyes, conceited bastard.
He sat down on an overly-stuffed chair.
"Weren't you impressed with my skills on the field?" he asked.
"Sorry Al, jocks aren't my type. Especially those who plan the whole thing to make themselves look like some baseball god."
"Ah, you caught me, but you have to admit, it was executed perfectly."
Even though it was a perfect ending play I just shook my head at him.
I could see he saw through me though if the big smile on his face was any indication.
He patted his lap saying, "Celebrate with me, Rachel."
"Hell. No." I said firmly.
He got up and gave me a glass of champagne.
"Come on itchy-witch, at least a sip."
He's worst then the devil and the forbidden fruit. What the hell, we did win. I need to celebrate and I also need it to deal with him.
I accepted it with a large gulp. It tasted very sweet.
Like reading my thoughts Al said, "Victory is sweet, it's only natural the champagne mirrors that fact."
A couch appeared and Al led me to it. It was so comfortable. Better then a tempur-pedic mattress. I felt so relaxed. Al was next to me and everything was going in slow motion. Suddenly Al leaned toward me and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with no restraint. His fingers started to go under my shirt and I felt a familiar tingle. I pulled back and started sneezing. Al let out a curse and, "One of these days I am going to kill that annoying pixy and vamp. He leaned in close and gave me a parting kiss.
He licked his lips. "The game was enjoyable, Rachel. You can play again anytime you want. I will always look forward to any time you win."
He looked me up and down, "For many reasons."
That was the last thing I heard from him when the next sight I see is my church and a worried looking pixy and vamp.
"You were late again," Ivy said, trying to mask her worry and failing.
"Tink's dildo Rache! This is the second time we had to pull you out! What were you doing? Now that I was sobered up I wondered the same thing. If Ivy and Jenks didn't pull me out, what would have happened? I shook my head at that thought. I don't want to go there.
I shrugged and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Which was true, I doubt that they would believe me that demons play baseball. Hell, I still couldn't believe it and I was there.
Ivy shook her head and said, "Whatever you did I hope it was worth it."
I looked at her, confused.
Jenks laughed. "You gotta pay more attention to your wardrobe Rache."
I immediately looked at my shit, scared of what I would find.
It read: Victory Tastes Sweet But Al Tastes Sweeter"
I groaned. I am going to kill that demon if it's the last thing I do.
Whew! I was reading these books called Eve of Darkness, Eve of Destruction, and Eve of Chaos by S.J. Day. I'm so pissed there isn't going to be another one and there was a huge cliff-hanger at the end! So I was kind of distracted. Thanks for reading. I hoped you liked it and I hope the explanations in the baseball plays were okay. Al keeps getting so close and then Rachel gets ripped away from his grasp. Poor Al! Please leave reviews and tell me what you think!
