Omega (7 page)

“
I don’t know where to go,
Niko.”

“
Just … pick a place. It
won’t matter so long as it’s away from here.”

“
Washington
DC.”

“
Worst place to be when
the government is after you. Although …” He drifted off, gaze going
to the west, as if he could see DC from here. “It might also be the
best place to be. SISA won’t expect us to go there.”

I didn’t care what reasoning he found in it.
I was going to find Herakles, the only man in the universe who
wouldn’t abandon me at the first sign of trouble like the priests
did. The cracking of tree trunks sounded behind us, followed by the
faint tremble of the earth.

“
Won’t matter if we don’t
get out of here. I hope you can run as far as you can fast. We need
to move.” Niko took off running towards another thatch of forest
lining the opposite side of the lake.

I followed, unable to shake the sense of
guilt, unease and fear churning in my belly. The destruction of our
home was all my fault. Maybe that was the real reason why the
priests abandoned me – because I destroyed everything they
loved.

Not even the gods fight
against necessity.

–
Simonides

“
What have your prisoners
revealed?”

I glanced up at my master and friend as he
entered the isolated apartment where I lived on a compound in
central DC. The compound housed little else than my quarters; there
were too many secrets for me to live among normal humans.

“
Nothing.” Washing my
bloodied fists in the sink at the bar, I dried them and poured him
his favorite drink. Unlike most men, the Supreme Priest preferred
fruity drinks with umbrellas to shots of hard liquor. “They won’t
say what’s in the forest.”

“
But you felt
something.”

“
I did.” Something …
familiar.

“
It bothers
you.”

My hands paused as I finished his drink.

Lantos sat on a stool at the bar. He removed
the mask he wore in public to reveal the face of a man in his
thirties with sparkling green eyes and a smile that seemed out of
place for someone with such a stately position as the gods’
advocate to humanity.

“
I know you, Adonis,”
Lantos chided gently. “Better than you know yourself. What did you
sense?”

It was unlike me to hesitate to share any
thought with the man who saved my life, yet something about what
I’d experienced made me balk at the idea. I closed my eyes and
tilted my head, bringing up the memory from the night before, of
the calm lake reflecting starlight, the scent of pine and other
trees in the air, and the peace that always came with leaving the
confines of the city to hunt.

Beyond the pleasures of nature, I’d sensed …
a flicker of awareness, an instinct buried so deeply, it shocked me
to feel it. What I’d experienced had nothing to do with the lake or
what might’ve been present. Something inside me was awakening, and
I wasn’t accustomed to such mysteries or surprises about
myself.

“
I don’t know,” I said.
“Whatever they hide there, it’s familiar to me on a level I should
know.”

“
Your memories have begun
to return?”

Opening my eyes, I shook my head. “Not at
all. There is nothing before the night you saved my life.”

“
Your beast
instincts?”

“
Baffled.”

Rustling from below me drew a smile. The
tiny creature at my feet – an animated stuffed koala bear – was
pawing my leg like she did every time I returned to the apartment.
I had no memory of obtaining the toy, no idea how she’d come to
life. I only recalled waking twelve years ago to find her and
Lantos hovering over me in worry and the life-threatening wound in
my side healed by the magic of Lantos’ Titan father.

“
Hello Mrs. Nettles,” I
greeted the toy and picked her up. I didn’t remember how she came
by that name either, but she insisted I call her this.

Pink.
She said and shuffled over to the Supreme Priest. At times
uncannily wise beyond her years, she was at other times nothing
more than a moth drawn to sparkly or bright things. She was
currently fascinated by the umbrella in his drink.

“
For you, Mrs. Nettles.”
Lantos handed her the umbrella. “How are you today?”

I shook my head at his look. She was too
bedazzled to respond. No one heard her but me.

“
Any luck on figuring out
if the Silent Queen or Magistrate are involved?” Lantos
asked.

“
They’re keeping things
tightly held.” I mentally went over the reports and activities of
the day. “We destroyed the forest and found these everywhere.” I
lifted a gym bag onto the counter and withdrew a red
cord.

Lantos’ eyes lit up. He picked up one and
held it over his forearm then lowered it. The rope cord turned to
something resembling smoke. His body absorbed it.

“
Part of your power,” I
observed. “What is it?”

“
These, Adonis, keep gods
and men and everyone but my father from seeing what they protect.”
He lifted another and dropped it into his forearm. “I gave these to
someone around the time I rescued you, under orders from my
father.”

“
Who isn’t about to tell
you what he was protecting.”

Lantos grimaced. A demigod, he was the
disowned son of a Titan, marooned on earth when he disobeyed his
father and cut off from everything and everyone but his own
eclectic mix of powers. “No, but I can guess. The men downstairs in
prison. What are their names?”

“
Herakles and
Thiebauld.”

Lantos grinned. He stood and paced, his step
energized. “Adonis, you are incredible! One tiny instinct gave way
to all this! We only need Herakles. Send the others to the House or
wherever you make men disappear. And … go back to the forest
tonight. We need to know what happened to Herakles’ charge.”

Alessandra,
said Mrs. Nettles. She was gazing at me. At
times, I considered the notion my toy was possessed even more so
than usual. Her voice was different when she said the name, and the
gleam of intelligence was in her eyes. The umbrella was forgotten
at her side.

An image I’d never seen before flashed into
my thoughts, that of a little girl clutching a blue gem. Just as
quickly, it vanished. “His charge? You think that’s what the forest
and cords were hiding?”

“
I know it is. I gave
these to Herakles and a priest twelve years ago. The last order of
my father’s I obeyed was to hide the new Oracle.”

“
Oracle,” I repeated.
“Finally. We’ll be able to start Phase Two soon.”

“
Exactly. But we need to
beat the Queen and Magistrate to her. The gods are too busy to
prepare her trials. I’ve maneuvered them into letting the
Triumvirate determine what challenges she must overcome before her
power manifests fully, as is customary. Each member of the
Triumvirate gets to task her once.”

I listened. Lantos was a man of shadows and
secrets buried beneath a brilliant smile. That he’d been planning
for an event no one knew was coming didn’t surprise me. “You have a
trial in mind already.”

“
I do.” He smiled. “And it
has to do with Phase Two.”

Lantos’ sole motivation in life was to carry
out his father’s revenge in the hopes of being granted asylum with
the rest of the Titans. His single act of disobedience – saving my
life – had seen him cut off. Together we’d risen in power with a
combination of my unusually strong adeptness at political
maneuvering and his magic and ambition. Despite my skill at
obtaining power, I had no desire for it. I would always bend my
will to Lantos.

“
We will get to her
first.” I considered. “You said Herakles is her
guardian?”

Lantos nodded.

“
I’ll let word leak that
he’s here and post a reward in the online boards of the Merc Guild
for capturing her. If she’s got a fraction of the power of a
goddess, she won’t hesitate to unleash it to find her guardian.
Someone will notice.” I placed Mrs. Nettles on the ground and moved
out from behind the counter. It was almost past sunset. I peeled
off my weapons and watch in anticipation of the change. “Tonight
I’ll return to the forest and look for any trace of where she
went.”

The image of the unknown girl flashed once
more and this time, brought a stab of pain.

“
Your nose is bleeding,”
Lantos said.

I touched my nostril and
gazed briefly at the drop of maroon on my fingertip. The pain
subsided and with it, the vision. “Just sinuses.”
Why did I say that?
It
wasn’t sinuses, and I knew it. The urge to lie to the man to whom I
owed my life had been instinctive.

Alessandra,
Mrs. Nettles said once more.

Lantos was gazing at me closely, a flicker
of something dark in his gaze. Normally, Lantos was the moon and me
the night sky. His outgoing, optimistic personality sometimes
grated on others whereas my silence was usually taken with caution
if not fear. People were able to sense the predator I was without
seeing me in my secondary form. It helped that my reputation – well
earned – was nonetheless much larger than my deeds.

I cleaned up my nose and felt the trickle of
fire that went through me every time I was about to change. “How go
your Holy Wars?”

“
Exactly as planned. We’re
keeping the Magistrate’s men busy outside the wall and the gods in
disarray, fighting one another rather than us. I brokered another
truce today.”

“
Only you could do
something like this.”

“
Stop baiting me. It was
your idea. Divide and conquer.”

By nature, I tended to toy with the people
around me. It wasn’t malicious, more instinctual. I made every
effort not to do so around Lantos for the simple reason that he was
my friend.

“
Like a true war leader.
How do you come up with such ideas?” he asked, half in
jest.

I shrugged. “It made sense for the
situation.”

“
It’s tied to your past.
Your hunches are too … good for them to be just
hunches.”

“
And I told you I’m not
remembering anything yet. If I guess correctly, it’s not done
consciously.”

“
Any insight or hunches as
to what Artemis is up to?” Lantos asked casually.

Of all the gods stuck on earth, Artemis was
the only who hadn’t sought him out to help establish a territory or
broker deals with the Supreme Magistrate’s men. It was common
knowledge among the gods and goddesses that Lantos was one of them.
Crisis kept them from demanding his exact lineage or asking too
many questions that might reveal him to be the son of their enemy.
“None. The gods are your business, not mine.”

“
You’ve proven
frighteningly accurate in everything.”

“
If I knew, I’d tell you,”
I replied. “I hear nothing through the spy networks and no
indication your fellow Triumvirate members have any insight
either.”

Lantos nodded.

“
I’m about to change,” I
said and pushed off my boots. “See you in the morning.”

“
Fly well.” Lantos’ smile
returned. He replaced his mask, bowed to Mrs. Nettles and left my
flat.

I went to my room and stripped out of my
clothing before heading to the balcony.

Mismatch.
Mrs. Nettles never called me by the name Adonis,
which I’d adopted after Lantos saved me. Mismatch was the name she
claimed was mine before Lantos. She was shuffling after me as fast
as her stubby legs would go.

“
What is it, Mrs.
Nettles?” I asked. “Quickly. It’s my time.”

Don’t hurt her.

“
You know what Phase Two
is. I must obey Lantos,” I replied gently.

You will see.

This was definitely one of her double
possession stages when she seemed to have knowledge beyond her or
my ability to access.

My attention shifted to the fire growing
inside me. The moment the sun dipped beneath the horizon, my body
began its nightly transformation. Black wings sprouted and spread
from my shoulders outward. The hair on my body disappeared, and my
head grew heavy, my features malformed and hideous, my body
thickening and growing half a foot taller. Talons sprouted from my
hands and toes followed soon after by a barbed, whip-like tail.

Not even Lantos knew how and why this
transformation occurred. I resembled the stone grotesques and
gargoyles perched on the temples of the gods. Beneath the dark gaze
of Nyx, I often flew and sat among them, waiting for any of them to
come to life and join me for my nightly hunt.

They never did and I was left with a sense
of loss to reinforce the knowledge I was alone.

Fly!
Mrs. Nettles clapped silently and watched my wings flare out.
The vacant look was back in her face. Whatever secondary possession
took hold of her, it was gone once more.

I wasn’t entirely alone. I had never met
another animated toy, either. We were different and unique, thrust
together by circumstances I didn’t recall.

I bowed my head to her and turned my
attention to the sky. My beast senses were strong even in human
form and completely unleashed when I was a creature. I swept into
the sky, barreling upward until I was above the city, then flinging
out my wings to catch an air current and hover. My heart raced from
the ascension, and my shoulders warmed from the exercise.