Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) (6 page)

“And after?”

“And after, you may go about your days until I need you a
gain.” She smiled sweetly.
“Ta-ta,
guardian.”

She turned her back on him and the light that came with her slowly started to fold around her, retreating into the night.
“Wait, what
about my fam
ily? Where shall I find them?” h
e called after
her.

With her back still to him, she called over her shoulder, “Oh,
they’re…around,”
she laughed, then
she disappeared completely
,
leaving him in total, absolute
darkness.

Erias jolted out of bed, panting, covered in a cold sweat that soaked through his clothes leaving them matted and clinging to his body. The last words he heard, “…they’re…around” repeated in his mind as if on a record player, its needle skipping across the vinyl until he felt like tearing his hair from the roots.

Oh they had been around alright. After fumbling around the
grounds,
he had come across a hand with long, dainty fingers, nails broken and dirtied
,
the owner of which would have been unknown if it wasn’t
for the hand
crafted bronze ring still circling one of the fingers. He knew it well, for it was his hands
who
had crafted it. Three thin strands of metal, woven together to create a braid as fine as the one she often wore in her hair. It clutched a much smaller hand. Erias swallowed compulsively, biting back tears at the knowledge that, could he
see; the
tiny hand would surely
bear
the same birth mark on
its wrist that he bore on his—
magenta and in the shape of a dragonfly.
Em
i
le.

Even now, a roar was building in his throat, a cry so great it threatened to raise the bui
lding he stood in if u
n
leashed.
Balling his hands into fists, Erias stormed into the bathroom, tearing at his
sweat-soaked 
clothing. Flipping the handles on the shower, he stepped into the stall and u
n
der the hot
spray.

He groaned, soaking up the heat, feeling his mu
s
cles bunch and relax as he tried to summon calm. Bracing his hands against the wall, he allowed his chin to fall to his chest and the water to sheet down his back. “Bitch,” he muttered, still reeling from the emotions the dream brought upon him.

“Tsk—
tsk. I must say, I am truly hurt
,
Erias. And here I thought the centuries of camaraderie had finally so
f
tened you to me.”

He knew that female voice all too well, one spoken so sickly sweet it was like candy, guaranteed to rot you from the inside out. “What brings you to my humble abode, Goddess?” He asked, forcing pleasantries in a cold, distant voice. Palming a bar of soap, he began rubbing it over his finely tuned muscles. He knew she was watching his every move. “I asked what brought you?” he repeated.

She cleared her throat a few times before respon
d
ing
. Nervous was she?
“I,
um—
y
es.” S
he stiffened her po
s
ture, flipping her long blond hair over her shoulder. “I came to tell you that your services are once again needed.” He
nodded. It
went without saying. She only ever appeared when she wanted something from him. “There is a small team gathering to ascend the mountain. They are on some sort of
fact-finding mission.
I want you to make sure they do not find any…facts.”

Turning around, giving her a full frontal, Erias just stared at her. “I fail to see the problem here. Plenty of r
e
searchers, scientists and the like have been to the summit and back again searching for “facts” and have never come close to finding anything more than speculation. What makes now so important?”

Her eyes were glued to his groin he’d
noticed; his
question left unanswered. A small smile crooked the corner of his mouth as he decided to play a little game with the goddess. Slowly, he moved the soap lower, lathering it across his stomach. Her eyes followed the tiny circles he made lower, lower, until he rested on the sweet spot. He used two hands, lifting, massaging, nearly laughing when her tongue darted from her mouth, wetting her lips. Heated desire sparked behind those heavy
lids,
and though he had no
discernible
interest in the woman, he was still a
man,
and her undeniable interest never failed to send a tremor of unwanted need coursing through
him.

“See something you like, Goddess?” he purred, dropping his voice to a low, sensuous rumble.

She
blinked, then
blinked again. “No.” Her pale lids squeezed tightly together, long lashes spiking over her freckled cheeks as she tried to banish the erotic thoughts swimming through her head. Erias was one of her tastier creations and it really twisted her panties to know that she could look but never touch. Angel would sooner slice open her gut and hang her from her entrails before he allowed that to happen. Who would have thought the man born of sin and lies would uphold the vows of marriage to such an honorable degree? “
Never mind
the details. J
—
just get it done. They are not to reach the gates.
Especially,
the
f
e
male.”

In a blink, she was gone. “Fu-uck,” he moaned, pressing the heel of his hand against his erection. Not that he wanted the woman. Not in a million
years, but
damn him to hell, Persephone seemed to have some gravitational pull when it came to that
thing,
and he could control its r
e
action no more than he could control a
hurricane.

Turning off the water, Erias wrapped himself in a towel and stepped out of the shower. It had been nearly one hundred years since the last time his services had been called to order. He hated that he would have to do it again. Another job. And not the kind he preferred. Nine to five at least came with a paycheck. No, this kind generally came with cuts, bruises, broken bones and the occasional concu
s
sion. Once, he even had to regenerate a limb. Not the best week he’d ever spent in bed
,
that’s for sure.

Glancing down at his raised appendage straining against the fabric of the towel, he realized he had one more job to finish before he could focus on the next one. This one simply couldn’t wait.

Chapter 4

“There!” Tabby exclaimed. “Just over that ridge, I see it!” She looked to Tim for confirmation. “I’m right aren’t I? That’s it?”

Tim nodded as his jaw fell slack. “Yeah, that’s it all right.”

“Boys and g
irls
,
welcome to Hell’s Gate,” Harold said in awe as Hadley and Sebastian mirrored his expre
s
sion.

Kris and Cheyenne shared a look of excitement b
e
fore running full on toward their discovery. It was right where the history books and scholars said it would be; ne
s
tled into the northwestern wall and sheltered from the el
e
ments stood the ancient stone structure.

Towering arches made of glistening black marble supported the heavy ceiling every twenty feet as far as the eyes could see before being swal
lowed by the looming darkness, forming
a sort of hall with small alcoves
where
Cheyenne imagined candles or oil lanterns once stood to light the ancient Vikings way as they tunneled deeper into the mountainside. At
night,
the polished marble would have glistened under the dull illumination like pools of black w
a
ter.

Even more expertly crafted arches lined the eastern wall opposite the mountain creating
a
massive
pass-through
that overlooked the snowcapped ranges as far as the eye could see and allowing slashes of warm sunlight to filter through, easing the heavy shadows
blanketing
the
hall.

Harold was lecturing on the use and construction of the design to the rest of the team while Kris and Cheyenne explored the structure more scientifically. “Civilizations used the arches in a lot of their building designs because it was a structurally sound, efficient method. With the deve
l
opment of the keystone, the weight was evenly distributed eliminating the need for things like mortar. It was inge
n
ious. The old way was definitely the best way. Think about it, two thousand years later
,
and they’re still standing. Then you look at the shit we make, doesn’t even last one hundred years in most cases.”

“Hey, Harold,” Sebastian called over his shoulder as he left the group to join Cheyenne and Kris, “would you
two
like some time alone?” He laughed at Harold’s puzzled expression before indicating the hand Harold had
been res
t
ing
against the marble column, absently caressing
it.

Harold let out a low growl of annoyance before snatching his hand away and continuing on with his lecture.

While the group was held rapt by their find and Harold’s history lesson, Cheyenne pulled out her field journal and began jotting down notes about their findings while Kris snapped endless pictures with his digital camera.

Cheyenne noted the appearance of the building,
the approximate age
and where they found it in relation to the map
,
complete with coordinates so they could register their find.

“We are going to grace the cover of Geography magazine, mark my words
,
Chy. This is the find of the ce
n
tury,” Kris said excitedly, snapping another series of ph
o
tos.

“Absolutely. This is going to make history books.” Sebastian crouched down behind her creating a V with his legs on either side of hers
,
and peered over her shoulder to see what she was writing.

Cheyenne tried her best to ignore it when his hands “accidentally” found their way to her
knees,
and his head “innocently” rested on her
shoulder,
so they were cheek to cheek. She knew Sebastian had a crush on
her
by
the way
he had been slowly wheedling his way closer to her over the past few months. And though he was
a very attractive guy in a frat
–
boy
–
gone
–surfer sort of way, she couldn’t ever see him as anything more than a
friend.

Not wanting to hurt his feelings, she’s decided it was a matter best left ignored for the time being, but the fact that he would have to be let down soon was becoming painfully evident by the increasing amount of touch time he had been making lately.

“Sebastian,”
Kris said irritably over his shoulde
r as he snapped another picture, “d
on’t you have better things to do?”

Cheyenne noted the fire burning in his eyes when he glanced over at the two of them and couldn’t help but wonder where his anger was coming from.

“Actually, no, I don’t,” Sebastian said his usual cool tone.

Spinning around, Kris slung his pack across the floor where it landed at their feet. He stared pointedly at Sebastian. “Now you do. In the
left-side  pocket,
there’s a new battery pack and flash equipment.”

With a disgusted grunt, Sebastian rose to his feet and snatched the pack from the floor
,
then walked over to join
Kris. “Yes, Master. Right away, M
aster. Anything you say, Master,” he grumbled as he went.

Not knowing
, or caring about
exactly what just went down in front of her, Cheyenne concentrated on her writings
,
leaving the squabble for the boys to handle, alone.

“Next year after all the media coverage and inte
r
views and photo shoots, I say we make a trek back to the Bahamas and see what we can do about pr
oving that Atla
n
tean myth right.
” Hadley stopped beside
her; her
face lit up like a Christ
mas tree
.

Cheyenne peered up from her notebook and gave her an indulgent smile. “I think you’re just looking for a good excuse to work on your tan.”