Anything but Ordinary by Nicola Rhodes

along with The Director and a gaggle of scientists were crowded outside the holding room talking excitedly. 
    ‘Oh, Tamar, there you are,’ said Melissa, her eyes shining. ‘It’s so exciting. We’ve caught a demon.’
    ‘ Probable demon,’ corrected The Director.
    ‘A demon?’ said Tamar, her eyes narrowed. She thought it extremely unlikely that they had caught a demon. Many of the people here had bite and scratch marks on them, but, interestingly enough, there were no scorch or burn marks on anyone. Demon indeed?
    ‘What kind of demon?’ she asked.
    ‘We don’t know,’ said The Director. ‘We were hoping you might identify it.’
    ‘There are fourteen million demons in hell,’ said Tamar. ‘I’ve been there, but I didn’t meet them all personally. There wasn’t time.’
    This remark drew surprised gasps from the onlookers crowded around the door to the holding room.
    ‘I meant, identify the species,’ said The Director calmly.  ‘Shall we go in?’
    Tamar shrugged. All this excitement over a demon, what was the big deal?’ 
    As she entered the room, she almost laughed out loud. Of course, she could see where they might have been confused. The horns, the cloven feet, the tail.  However, she suppressed her amusement. To laugh now would be to escalate what was already shaping up to be a diplomatic incident. She just hoped she could sort this out.
    She bowed low before the figure on the chair. ‘Your Highness.’ she said to astonished gasps from behind her.  She ignored these.
    ‘It’s your Majesty now,’ said the figure on the chair in a high squeaky voice. ‘The old one passed away in the fight against the Sidhe. Is that Tamar Black?’
    ‘It is your Majesty,’ said Tamar keeping her voice carefully respectful. ‘Please allow me to apologise for this terrible misunderstanding …’
    ‘They called me a demon ,’ said the figure indignantly.’
    Tamar whirled. ‘You called him a demon?’ she asked in horrified tones. ‘To his face ? This, as any person might know, is Slev, Prince …’
    ‘King!’
    ‘ King of the Satyrs.’ she turned to King Slev. ‘Please forgive the ignorati over there,’ she said. ‘They didn’t know any better.
    Slev twisted his face into what might have been a smile. Ignorati ! That was typical Tamar.  
    Tamar turned round to the Director. ‘I suggest you let him go immediately, unless you want a diplomatic incident that I doubt very much you are equipped to handle.’ she leaned in a whispered. ‘Let me talk to him alone, they’re very touchy, and calling him a demon was the worst thing you could have done. But I think I can handle it.’
    The Director nodded in a bemused fashion. ‘Whatever you think,’ he said. Clearly, this had got beyond him. He signalled a guard to release the Satyr King and said loudly. ‘Everybody out,’
     
     ‘What are you doing here, Tamar Black?’ said Slev when they were alone. 
    ‘Long story,’ said Tamar. ‘And I might ask you the same thing.’
    ‘I was captured,’ said Slev.
    ‘There’s a lot of it about,’ said Tamar vaguely. 
    ‘Not you too?’Slev was astonished.
    ‘ Were you hanging around outside the complex?’ said Tamar, who did not believe it for a second.
    ‘I don’t think so. I was in my forest when suddenly … ‘D’you know, I’m not sure …’
    ‘Hmm,’ was Tamar’s only response.
    ‘Is that how they got you too?’ asked Slev shrewdly. ‘Are they going to let me go?’ he asked when she did not answer this.
    ‘Yes,’ said Tamar.
    ‘I think you should get out of here too,’ he said. ‘This is not a good place Tamar Black. And that Director man, I know a wolf in an alpaca wool suit when I see one, or rather smell one.’
    ‘Wolf?’ snapped Tamar. ‘As in …?’
    ‘As in a wolf , Tamar Black. As I think you know.’
    ‘Oh shit,’ said Tamar. ‘You don’t mean a werewolf do you?’
    ‘No I do not. I mean a wolf disguised as a human, a very dangerous