Instinct (16 page)

No one could be trusted.

He didn't know what was what anymore. Everything and everyone around him seemed like a lie. His head spun from it all. Truthfully? He just wanted to feel grounded again. To have some kind of anchor he could count on that wouldn't leave him feeling lost and adrift.

“Am I even Cajun?”

Menyara laughed. “Yes, Nicholas. That you are. Your real grandmother was a true blue zydeco-playing backwoods Cajun that would have made you proud.”

Well, at least he still had that. Thank goodness. He wasn't sure he could have handled learning he was something weird like the grandson of millionaire mining tycoon.

Thunder clapped and the lights blinked as they tried to come on.

Sadly, the darkness returned and reminded him what he needed to do. “I have to find the Eye of Ananke to straighten this mess out. Has anyone heard of it?”

Four pairs of eyes glanced around aimlessly and refused to meet his gaze, letting him know that as usual he, alone, was the idiot in the room. “What?”

“Where did you hear that term?” Mennie asked.

Nick started not to answer her. He really didn't owe her any answers given how many lies she'd told him over the years. But at this point …

Why bother? He was worn out by the lies and tired of playing games. “Ambrose told me to find it.”

Mennie scowled. “Ambrose?”

“Yeah. Future me. Apparently, centuries from now, after I get pimp-slapped with a Dark-Hunter bow on my face—really wish Artemis had chosen a better location on my body to mark me with that—and I'm on the brink of morphing into the full soulless Malachai who's bent on binge-punishing humanity, I eat a demon that has time-traveling abilities. Sad to say, they don't last long, and I just used the last of it to come here and tell me to get the Eye, and use it to reset whatever it is we screwed up.” He glanced to Kody. “So what is this thing and where is it?”

Giddy with excitement, Simi raised her hand. “Ooo, ooo, ooo, the Simi finally knows an answer! It in that scary, scary room, in that scary temple in the lowest level of Hades's domain. Least it used to be and I doubts anybody's moved it 'cause that ugly, snarly dogs thing with all them heads gets really nasty whenever someone goes down there. And them dragons and snake-headed people not real happy 'bout it neither.”

Kody nodded. “Uh, yeah, that would be correct. Cerberus and the gorgons can be a little territorial whenever someone ventures into Tartarus to disturb it.”

It was her turn to be gaped at.

“What?” She blinked innocently. “I played hide-and-seek there as a kid. Uncle Hades holds great Halloween parties. But … I can't exactly go waltzing in there right now as no one knows who I am, since I won't be born for another few hundred years.”

Menyara sighed. “I'm definitely not welcomed there. During my tenure as the Egyptian goddess Ma'at, my pantheon was at war with the Olympians. They would know the instant I stepped foot in their realm, and attack me full-on.”

Xev crossed his arms over his chest. “The one thing my childhood taught me was how to hide my powers and pass through realms where I wasn't wanted. It was how I was able to visit my wife undetected beneath the noses of the Sephirii, who were well trained to hunt and kill my kind.”

He locked gazes with Kody. “While I know what it is, I don't know what it looks like. If someone can tell me what I'm looking for and where it's located, I can retrieve it.”

Menyara scoffed at his offer. “It's not that simple. Only a god of fate can touch it without being destroyed by it.”

Kody chewed her lip. “I share your bloodline through my mother. Can I touch it?”

“Given your father's blood, I don't know. Especially since he once shared a womb with Acheron. You're also no longer in your true body.… I have no idea what would happen to you should you touch it. It's not worth the chance of finding out.”

Nick let out a nervous laugh. “Personally, I vote Girlfriend stays here with Simi to watch over my mother in the event whatever nabbed her before comes back for Round Two.”

Xev shook his head. “Either Girlfriend or Charonte will be needed to lead us both in to retrieve it, since I know nothing of Hades.” He arched a brow at Menyara. “What is this Hades, anyway?”

“The Olympians were children of the Titans, who became Greek gods after you were cursed and banished.”

Kody passed an irritated smirk to Nick. “Why can't Simi and I both go?”

Nick gestured at the non-working lights. “Hello? Unnatural storm? We have Yrre on the loose. Memitims at the windows.
Zeitj
ä
gers
in the corners. Now Tiamat. A spewing Caleb. Unconscious Mom. Zavid's AWOL, and I don't know what to think about Livia. Anyone else want to add anything to my growing super-sized ulcer?”

A sudden knock on the door made Nick jump with an undignifying sound he really wished Kody hadn't heard. For that matter, he hated that anyone had witnessed it. Disgusted with himself, he glared up at the ceiling. “Hello, up there? That was
not
meant as a personal challenge.”

Cringing, he went to open the door, forgetting about the peephole. A mistake he realized too late when he opened the door and learned that yeah, evil did, in fact, knock politely.

And a whole lot of it stood in his hallway, engulfed by flames, glaring straight at him.

 

CHAPTER 9

“Holy mother of God!” Nick staggered back and furiously crossed himself as he faced who knew what that thing was in his hallway.

It wasn't so much that the male entity had a couple of inches on him in height—which was impressive, as few beings topped his six-foot-four stance—as it was the muscled girth of him. And the aura of absolute malevolent blood-thirst that said he was here to make Nick-McNuggets.

Long, jet-black hair was pulled back into a ponytail from sharp, perfectly chiseled features that belonged to some ancient Asian warlord who should be leading a conquering army of some kind. Bloodred eyes glared at Nick from beneath an irate glower that would make Kyrian proud.

Nick screamed and tried to shut the door.

Quicker than Nick could blink, he reached over his shoulder and unsheathed a curved, flaming sword. He swung it so fast, he would have taken Nick's head had Xev not caught the blade with his own sword and forced the demon back.

The demon's eyes widened with recognition. “I don't want to hurt you, Dar. Either get out of my way or I'm going through you.” That was one serious accent on him. Unlike anything Nick had ever heard before. It was fluid and musical, and filled with murderous intent.

“Why are you here?”

He answered by becoming a shadow that swept through and around Xev to rematerialize behind him. He moved toward the couch where Nick's mom slept.

Xev became a multicolored wisp of smoke that wrapped around the newcomer's face and neck. The newcomer dissolved to re-form into the warrior so that he could fight Xev. They faced off to battle like the ancient gods they were. Nick put himself between Kody and his mother while Simi and Menyara formed a wall in front of him.

Nick had a bad feeling they weren't a lot of protection, but it was better than nothing.

Xev spun with his sword. The other god ducked and caught him a hard blow to his jaw. Unfazed, Xev knocked him to the side. Instead of moving, he dissolved to stab Xev, who vanished only to reappear behind him. It was a crazy, impressive fight as they fought as clouds of smoke, men and beasts that gave Nick a whole new appreciation for the kind of warfare they must have used in battle during the Primus Bellum.

The kind of tactics he'd one day use as the Malachai against Kody and her army.

“Who is that?” Nick asked Mennie.

“Dagon.” Menyara sighed wearily.

He mouthed the name to Kody, who shrugged to let him know she had no idea, either. “Could you expand a few details?” he tried again.

“Son of Noir and Hekate.”

Kody scowled. “
My
Hekate?”

“Yes.”

Nick wasn't sure why that name rang his bell, but something about Dagon's mother was familiar to him. “Why do I know her name?”

Instead of Menyara, it was Kody who answered while Simi cheered Xev on and even offered him her bottle of barbecue sauce should he need it. “Tabitha Devereaux and her sisters talk about her, and Kyrian has a couple of her statues in his house. Hekate's a good friend of my cousin Katra, and Persephone. She's the Greek goddess of necromancy, magic, spirits, and the night.”

Ah … now he remembered seeing those statues littered around Kyrian's mansion. She was one of the goddesses Kyrian would occasionally swear upon whenever Nick really ticked him off about something.

But one thing struck him as odd about a Greek goddess.… “And she hooked up with the lord of all darkness whose name I can't say without empowering him and sending out a homing signal for him to come kill me? The same malevolent creature who happens to be your”—he glared at Menyara—“brother?”

Menyara nodded. “Believe it or not, he can be quite charming when he's not psychotic. And Hekate has always had a thing for bad boys.”

Yeah, but getting it on with the original source of all evil and then spawning with him? That took it to a whole new I-need-some-serious-therapy level. He really didn't want to know about her daddy issues.

Nick rubbed at his throbbing temples as he watched Xev and Dagon crash into his mother's prized curio and shatter it. Ugh, he was in so much trouble for this. He was going to be grounded for all eternity.

And given the fact he could conceivably live that long, the threat actually had merit.

“How do we break this up before they destroy my mom's entire house and I get grounded until I'm decrepit?”

Menyara sighed. “Not sure.”

Mazel tov! His ulcer just had a baby. And it was quickly mutating to the size of nuclear Godzilla. “Do they even know why they're fighting?”

“I don't think it matters.”

Simi let out an ear-splitting whistle. Xev and Dagon paused to frown at her. “Hello? Ancient annoying ones? You are stressing out the Simi's good quality friend and making Akri-Nick very sad, and that makes the Simi very sad. Could you please find an old field to fight in where you don't break his mama's things and get him grounded? He don't like when that happens. And it make Akra-Kody sad, too, 'cause then she has to sneak in to see him and risk getting into trouble if his mama be hearing them in his room, and they shouldn't be doing that, and they both know it. Bad, bad, bad.”

His breathing ragged, Dagon wiped at the blood on his lips as he finally noticed their small group. He scowled in disbelief. “Is that a Charonte?” he asked Xev.

“It is.”

“Alone?”

“Not exactly.”

He arched a brow at that before he looked to Menyara. “Apollymi's free?”

She shook her head. “She's still in captivity, but her son remains alive and free, and protects Simi as his child.”

His gaze went to Kody before his jaw dropped. “Bethany?” She was the Atlantean goddess of wrath.

“No. I'm her daughter.”

Appearing even more confused, Dagon sheathed his sword and straightened his clothes. His expression said he was struggling to make sense of everything, and not quite able to do so.

Xev sheathed his sword and wiped at the blood on his own face. “How long have
you
been held, brother?”

Dagon rubbed at his scarred wrist. “Since the reign of Etana.”

Menyara sucked her breath in sharply.

By her reaction, Nick knew it had to be a long time ago, but unfortunately, history wasn't one of his better subjects. Though, to be honest, he was quickly learning. “When was that?”

Menyara sighed heavily. “Almost five thousand years ago.”

Wow! Nick wheezed at the realization while Dagon winced. “Dude! What'd you do? That takes being grounded to a whole new level! Jeez, I'm so glad my mama can't hear that one. She might get ideas I don't need her to.”

Simi's eyes widened. She made a sharp squeak as if she finally put two and two together. “That was
you
what done that with Zeus and them Arcadians and gots into all that trouble? Ooo, I remember that. That was so bad for you, but so nice for you to do! You the Simi's hero.”

Nick arched his brow. “You, what? What'd he do?”

It was Menyara who answered. “He's the one who taught the ancient king Lycaon how to save his cursed sons and use sorcery to merge their blood with that of animals and create the race of Were-Hunters.”

Shocked to the core of his being, Nick stared at Dagon. He'd always wondered how Lycaon had learned to do something that powerful.

Back during the human lifetime of Acheron, the Greek god Apollo had become enraged at the race of beings he'd created and named after himself—the Apollites—for their queen ordering the death of his mistress and child. To retaliate for it, Apollo had cursed everyone born of the Apollite race to die horribly at age twenty-seven, the same age his mistress had been when they slaughtered her.

The Atlantean goddess Apollymi had stepped in and showed a handful of Apollites how to survive the curse by taking human souls into their bodies and using them to artificially elongate their lives. Once those so-called Daimons had begun preying on humanity, and to protect mankind, Apollo's twin sister Artemis had created the Dark-Hunters to hunt them down and kill them before the human soul inside them died, and free it so that it could go on to its eternal resting place.

For thousands of years, that had been the order of things. A small number of rogue Apollites became Daimons and were put down for their murderous needs by Dark-Hunters like Kyrian and Acheron.

Until an innocent Arcadian king, Lycaon, had unknowingly taken an Apollite bride. She'd given him two sons before she died tragically on her twenty-seventh birthday, per Apollo's curse.