With Sin, Condemn You

"King me!" I yelled as I jumped two more of Johnny's checkers, putting my piece at his end of the board.

"Fuck! I've only got one piece left!" Johnny whined as he put his last victim on top of my checker that took two of his pieces.

I smiled smugly at him. "Do you surrender, or will I have to teach your last pawn a lesson?"

Johnny chucked his last piece at me. "Just take the damn thing!"

I laughed and fell backwards. "You're such a sore loser, Johnny!" He stuck his tongue out at me and started laughing as hard as I was.

Our fun was ended when a pissed off Shadows entered the large living room Johnny and I were currently hanging out in. "Call the others in here," he ordered me.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Is that any way to speak to your queen?"

He growled. "You're not the queen yet, so do it."

I sighed in defeat and called the other three boys with my mind. We had started using telepathy to talk to each other when we weren't all in the same room. It definitely made things a hell of a lot easier considering the size of our living quarters.

A few minutes passed with Shadows pacing and muttering to himself angrily before the other three trudged in. "What was the urgent call for?" Zacky asked with a yawn.

I pointed at Shadows. "Ask Sir Pace-A-Lot over there."

The three newcomers turned to Shadows, who just handed me a piece of paper. "Read this."

I took it from him and saw it was a letter. I immediately looked down to the bottom and saw it was from Prince Alden. I read through the curly script writing in the letter. All the whole thing pretty much said was I was invited to dinner to celebrate my soon to take place power ritual and coronation with all the glittery words he managed to come up with.

"He wants me to have dinner with him," I told them monotonously.

Everyone's face contorted into one of disgust. "Why would that dick head want to do that?" Brian snarled.

I shrugged. "It says he wants to celebrate the power ritual and coronation. How is that so bad? Sounds like he's just being nice to me."

Shadows shook his head. "It does sound nice, but also suspicious. It said he wants only you alone. And besides, he's a cocky jerk anyway."

I snickered. "You guys really are my guards. But I think you're being a bit paranoid. He probably just wants to get in my pants or something. You saw how friendly he was being."

"We aren't being paranoid," the Rev interjected. "We're being cautious. This guy's a power-hungry prince. The law of the demon realms is that if you kill the current ruler," he glanced at me, "or in this case ruler to be, you become the new ruler of the realms."

"He doesn't seem power-hungry to me. Actually, he seemed pretty happy that I would be queen soon," I pointed out with a shrug.

"Oh my god. Do we have to draw you a map or something?" Brian asked impatiently.

I flipped him the bird as Shadows said, "That may or may not be true. He's good at hiding how he really feels about things. He may be bitter toward all this because once you become queen, he loses pretty much all his power in the demon realms."

"So you're saying I shouldn't go?"

Johnny finally spoke up. "I wouldn't want you to. If I were him and about to lose all my power, I might do something crazy too."

Everyone except Shadows nodded in agreement. He probably didn't even hear Johnny because he was so immersed in his own thoughts.

Suddenly, Shadows' thoughtful expression was replaced with an evil smirk. "No, I think you should go."

All of us gave him questioning looks. "Go on," I said, totally confused.

"This could be a chance for us to find out if he is plotting something against us. That way if we is, we'll have a jump on him," Shadows told us.

"Sounds dangerous," replied Johnny after a few minutes of silence, looking at me. I smiled to myself at how much he cared about me.

"But necessary," the Rev added. "I think she should go."

I think my mouth was agape at this point. I don't know why they think I could do this.

After a little more convincing, the others agreed. I stared at them. "Do I not get a say in this?"

The all knowing Shadows answered me. "No, sorry. But don't worry. We're not sending you alone. That'd just be stupid." He turned to Zacky. "I think you'll be good for this job. Alexandra will disguise you as a necklace or something and we'll go from there."

"Wait a minute...I can do that?" These powers are so confusing and I only have a few of them. Can't wait until I have them all.

"Yeah, it's the same concept as shape shifting, only you'll be concentrating on changing me instead," Zacky told me. "And I'll do it."

Brian jumped up from his seat on one of the armchairs. "Well, now that that's settled, I'm going back to sleep." Before anyone could protest, he was out of the room with Zacky and the Rev following.

Shadows took the letter out of my hands and tossed it into the fireplace. "You'll need to get ready soon," he informed me before walking out the door. Johnny gave me a half smile before leaving the room as well.

Well, this should be so much fun.