Free Daniel Taylor Between Two Worlds by Monica Davis Page A

“Then what happened?”
    “I was young and stupid, and I activated it on my own. This alerted the demons that the scepter had been found. A demon appeared before me, a lovely young woman with a baby in her arms. She warned me of the danger. We fled together and hid the scepter somewhere else. That was nineteen years ago. The Watchers’ Guild cast me out, but I didn’t care. I was so in love with Kitana that I scarcely had eyes for anything else around me.”
    Vanessa noticed that Anne had tensed up. “Kitana. Daniel’s mother?”
    James nodded. He stroked Anne’s arm gently. “I could tell you much more; it would take hours to fill you in on everything. For example, there’s a certain prophesy made by a demonic oracle. Kitana said that one day the scepter would save her child, and that’s why she hadn’t destroyed it. And I haven’t, either.”
    Anne sat up ramrod straight. “This scepter will save Daniel?”
    James nodded. “I think so. Kitana learned this from the oracle shortly before she fled from the other demons. She had just given birth to a daughter. Her husband wanted to kill the baby, because he didn’t want her to ascend to the throne one day. Her name was Marla.”
    “Marla?” Vanessa gasped. “I know her!”
    James’ mouth fell open. His face went as white as a sheet. “What?”
    Vanessa’s heart raced. “It’s true!”
    “Marla … She’s alive?!” he choked out.
    “Yes.” Vanessa nodded.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Completely sure. We’re … well, we were … not exactly friends, but I know her. If I had only known this all before … She was the one who tracked Danny down to bring him back to the underworld. Why didn’t I tell you this sooner? Danny told me that she was his half-sister!” Vanessa had been so fixated on Daniel that she had forgotten everything else.
    James jumped up. “Marla’s alive!” He paced through the room like a caged animal, running a hand through his hair. “I always thought they would have long ago …” He gave a deep sigh. “I just assumed that Marla was …” James’ voice broke and his eyes swam with tears as he looked at Vanessa. “I’m so happy she’s alive. Do you know where she is?”
    Vanessa frowned. “No, unfortunately. Since Danny’s been gone, she’s disappeared.”
    There was a brief silence until Anne finally cleared her throat. She looked at James, and he continued his story. Kitana’s demonic husband Obron had wanted a boy who could be heir to the throne, and therefore Marla had to go.
    “Her own father wanted Marla dead?” Vanessa interrupted. “Why is she still alive, then?” Something about this story didn’t add up.
    “That wasn’t the real reason. It actually had to do with the scepter and Kitana’s past.”
    Instead of explaining about the artifact, James pulled a silver chain he wore around his neck out from beneath his shirt and showed Anne and Vanessa the little oval-shaped amulet on it. There was a red stone in the middle that looked like an eye. “If I ever take this off,” James told them, “I’ll become visible to the demons. It’s the only reason I am able to be here with you at all right now. As long as I wear the eye of Horus, I see the creatures differently. They emit a kind of red aura. When I visited Daniel in the hospital for the blood transfusion, his aura was a light orange. He isn’t fully transformed …” James turned to Anne. “You weren’t allowed to tell Daniel that I wanted to see him because all the underworlders are mentally linked to one another. They would have been able to find me despite the amulet, and then they’d torture me to discover the scepter’s hiding place. The artifact must never fall into their hands.”
    “Torture?” Anne whispered, squeezing James’ hand.
    Vanessa would have liked to learn more about the magic amulet and the scepter — what made it so important for the demons, for instance — but James was moving on.
    “After we had once moved on,