Strife: Hidden Book Four (11 page)

I shook my head. “Never mind. Let’s talk about Nether,” I said, and my mom laughed.

“We do actually have to discuss that. I think Asclepias gave you some good advice, and do not hesitate to call on me or your father if you need to rest. We will come, if it’s at all possible.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

She glanced at me, shook her head. “You don’t need this right now.”

“Spill it, mom.”

She smiled, took my hand. “I love hearing you call me that.”

I squeezed her hand. “Stop stalling,” I said, smiling.

“Your father asked about the realm, the Nether, getting weaker as well,” she said.

I nodded. “I remember. And you said it would be bad.”

“Yes. It is beginning. We’ve been back there more often than either of us would like. We’re seeing more escapes from Tartarus. Even the cells Megaera and I hold the damned in are weakening. We lost two souls recently. That has never, ever happened.” Frustration rolled off of her, and I squeezed her hand again, trying to comfort her.

“Can I do anything?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “I think we both know that you setting foot in the Nether again would be a bad idea.”

“I was wondering about that, if it would try to trap me again.”

“I don’t know. But I don’t particularly want to risk it. And I know you don’t either.”

“Still, if you need me…” I said, trailing off.

She smiled. “You have enough to handle, my darling girl. If anything happens that will affect your realm, we will let you know. So far, the gateway has continued to be well-guarded.”

I filled her in on what I’d learned about Strife, and she listened, not saying a word, just focusing on what I was saying.

“I think you’re right. I think she is biding her time and building her power. The more chaos she causes, the stronger she will be.”

“And when she’s strong enough, that’s when she’ll come after me.”

“Yes.”

I took a deep breath. “How am I going to do this? How am I going to keep everyone safe from the mess I’ve made?”

She looked over at me and smiled. “The same way you do everything, Mollis. Through sheer rage and determination and sacrificing yourself for everyone else. I am so proud of the woman you’ve become.”

I looked down at my feet, shook my head. “Mom. My world is in danger again because of my screw-ups,” I said.

She patted my hand. “Nobody’s perfect, my dear. But if your world knew what you’ve done for it, and knew the cost of having you, I still believe it would rather have you than not. These humans have no idea how lucky they are to have a champion in you.”

I didn’t answer. Maybe someday I’d feel like the woman my mother sees when she looks at me.

“I need to leave for patrol soon,” I said. She stood up and folded me into her arms.

“You’ll be fine. It isn’t in you to be otherwise,” she said, smiling. I shook my head and watched as she winked out of sight.

Chapter Seven

After two weeks of practicing what Asclepias had taught me, I was starting to feel a little better about my ability to keep Nether under control. It still freaked me out if I let myself think about it too much. The idea of an ancient, angry being who held a grudge toward not just me and my entire family, but also Brennan (who’d really only been brought to her attention because I’d been so stupidly goo-goo eyed over him) was nearly too insane to wrap my mind around. But she was there, and I was trying to get used to the idea of her being there. Sure, it was possible that Asclepias was wrong and everything would be fine if she became free. I wasn’t willing to risk it, and the healer had never steered me wrong before.

It was after dark, and I had my team in my car. The radio was blaring “Back in Black” and we were each trying to get into our ass-kicking mindset in our own ways. I listened to music and tried to envision everything that could go wrong. I knew that Levitt was running through attack strategies in his mind. Heph was looking forward to cracking some skulls, and was enjoying this kind of work more and more as time went on. E was calm, as always. She was very good with a tiny knife she kept strapped to her waist. Shanti was deadly serious. These lost girl jobs always put her in this mood. She was going in looking to hurt somebody and make sure the girls got out safe.

We’d gotten a lead from the imps about three young women who’d gone missing from different parts of the city. The authorities hadn’t tied the three disappearances together, but we know better. There aren’t many beings out there doing shit like kidnapping or killing. Even in a city that’s considered “violent” as Detroit usually is, most incidents can be explained. A boyfriend, a stalker, someone you looked at the wrong way. It’s when these mysterious, nonsensical incidents take place that we can safely bet a supernatural is involved.

The bad thing about when supernaturals do this shit is that if we’re not fast enough, the women never make it home.

The good thing is that my team is goddamn relentless. And so is Nain’s, and between our two teams and Queen Rayna (even if she wasn’t technically cooperating with us) and Brennan’s shifter coalition, we were saving almost everyone we got a lead on.

We drove through a quiet neighborhood near the Grosse Pointe border. Nice, big old houses. I leaned forward and snapped the stereo off.

“Okay. Let’s go over it again. From what the imps say, the three of them are being held by a group of demons.”

“Strife’s work,” Heph said, and I nodded.

“We think so. The imps are still frustrated, because they’re not actually seeing Strife herself, but these demons are acting like the other groups we’ve come up against.”

“Wrong area of the city though,” Shanti said, shaking her head. “So this is either a copycat group or Strife’s influence is expanding.”

“Let’s hope it’s the first,” Levitt said from his usual place beside Shanti. Everyone nodded at that.

“Let’s hope. But we still go in assuming this is Strife’s doing. Same as last time. Levitt and Shanti, secure the women. Heph, E, and I start hurting people.”

“You three got to hurt people last time,” Levitt grumbled, and Heph laughed. “No, seriously. Shanti and I like hurting assholes just as much as you three do.”

“Which beings here are immortal, and which aren’t?” Shanti asked him, taking the words right out of my mouth. “And which two, even if they aren’t immortal, are still strong and fast enough to protect the women if one of the demons comes at them?” I glanced in the rearview, saw her giving Levitt an irritated, yet understanding look. I saw him glance up at her and give a small nod.

I took a small breath, let it go. The two of them seemed to be past most of their weirdness. Levitt still wanted Shanti. I could feel it from him every time they were together. But he seemed to be accepting that it was over, and they were sliding into a comfortable friendship.

It made me hope Brennan and I could do the same thing someday. Things were still weird between us, still tense. He was polite to me, and I’d stopped avoiding him (taking Nain and my father’s advice, finally) but we were definitely not comfortable around each other. And that was fine. At least we didn’t hate one another. I think maybe that’s the best I can hope for as far as the two of us.

Nain was something else. As I drove to our location, my mind wandered. Brennan hadn’t been wrong when he’d been pissed about me talking to Nain every day. We did. A day didn’t go by without me talking to my ex and as much as it irritated me, I actually enjoyed talking to him. We’d be all business, filling each other in on what was going on, and eventually slip into talking about nothing, usually talking as one of us was driving to a call or home from dealing with some bullshit or another. It wasn’t the Nain I knew. We’d never just talked about nothing. Not like that. We’d never had time, before. And we really didn’t now either, but we were doing it anyway. It was almost like we were getting to know one another again, but really, it was like getting to know someone for the first time. He was the same, yet different, and I knew the same could be said for me.

I hated the way his deep voice soothed me as soon as I heard him on my phone.

I pushed thoughts of him out of my mind.

“So yeah. Grab the women. We’ll bust heads, and then we’ll look around for Strife’s sign. I’m almost hoping it’s not there.”

The team nodded in agreement. If Strife was expanding her territory, that was bad for us, for so many reasons. We were already run ragged trying to keep up with the shit she was stirring in her current territory at Seven and Kelly.

We found the area we were looking for, and I pulled up to the curb a block or so down from where the imps said the women were being held. I tossed my keys to Levitt. There wouldn’t be room in the car for all of us once we had the women, so Levitt, Heph, and Shanti would drive them home and E and I would fly off once they’d gone. As I got out of the car, I just felt more pissed off. All of this, the taking of women, holding them captive, was Strife taunting me. She knew it was my thing, to rescue women, so she’d started playing this game, taking women off the street, using demons and witches to hold them. And we’d get there and fight and save the women and find Strife’s mark and be pissed off because we still didn’t have her.

Really, it felt like she was just trying to keep us busy. I hadn’t shared that concern with my team, because I was wondering how paranoid I was. That, and like she was trying to learn about us, the way we worked, and I feared that she was learning more with each rescue. I never felt her around, and we always destroyed all of her little minions, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have someone lurking in the shadows, watching us and reporting back.

Christ, am I paranoid.

The simple explanation would be that she’s Strife, better known as Eris, the spirit of chaos and discord, and snatching innocent women off the street causes all kinds of chaos as everyone scrambles to try to figure out what’s happening, as they become afraid, which only causes more chaos.

But nothing is ever simple, and Strife has a bone to pick with me over the death of her buddy Enyo and my imprisonment of Ares, her other best friend.

I don’t like her much, either.

My team and I started walking down the street. There was no need to try to sneak or hide. They’d be able to feel us coming, especially Heph, E, and I.

“Destroy immediately,” I muttered. “They won’t answer questions, so don’t bother. I’ll grab whichever one seems like the leader and see what I can learn from him or her.”

They nodded, and Heph led the charge, sprinting up the front steps and bashing the oak door in with one slam of his shoulder.

“After you, my Lady,” he said to me, and I grinned. Shouts erupted within the house. My imps were already there with us, and they ran through the house, scoping it out, bringing info back for the rest of us.

“Demons in the kitchen and basement. Women tied up downstairs,” Bash said. “One more demon upstairs with a Normal,” he said, eyes blazing. Heph had heard.

“Okay. They’re splitting us up. Stay with them. I’ll go after the asshole upstairs.”

“You know that’s a trap, yeah?” Heph said. “For you or us.”

I nodded. “I’m trusting you and E to keep them safe until I get back down here.”

He nodded, then patted my shoulder and stalked toward the kitchen, where we could already hear the snarls and crashes that told us a fight had broken out.

I wanted to follow him. I wanted to make sure my team was okay, that the trap hadn’t been laid for them instead of me. I shook it off. They were a bunch of badasses. I had my job to do, and so did they. I wasn’t their mom.

As the fighting got louder on the first floor and in the basement, I sprinted up the stairs. All of the doors along the long hallway were closed, except for one at the very end. A lamp was lit inside it. I headed toward that, listening, opening my mind for the thoughts or emotions of anyone else nearby. I concentrated, and smiled a little when I picked it up.

Definitely a trap for me.

There was a Normal in the room at the end of the hall. I could hear her frenzied, terrified thoughts, feel her fear rolling through the house. She was tied to a bed, and the demons had threatened all kinds of sick things, but hadn’t followed through on them yet.

I had to give Strife that. She did keep her demons on a tight leash. They’d kill if we didn’t reach them fast enough, if we didn’t play the game, but she didn’t let them do the kinds of things I would have expected, the kinds of things demons want to do. Nain had said it before: before he’d changed his ways, he’d acted like a typical demon, causing pain, killing without remorse. Worse. He’d admitted that with absolute disgust. And I knew that was what most demons were like. They fed off of pain and fear, and were strong enough to do anything they wanted against even the strongest human. My own demons, Elsoloth and the gang, would be doing the same things if they hadn’t sworn themselves to me, if I hadn’t made it absolutely clear that they could hurt all the bad guys they wanted, but if they ever harmed an innocent I’d hunt them down. They were like Nain. They saw a better way and wanted it. They wanted to be better, to be noble. To use their strength for something good instead of destruction and pain. As I thought of them, I reminded myself that I really needed to check in with them. It had been weeks since I’d last touched base with Elsoloth. I had to be better about that.