Strife: Hidden Book Four (23 page)

Ronan answered. “Angel!” he said, smiling.

“Please tell me Shanti is here,” I said, hoping it had been a cruel joke.

His face sobered immediately. “She left right after sunset to see you.”

I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t say what was happening. “Call Nain and he’ll tell you what’s going on,” I said, and then I took to the air, kicking off from the ground and rising into the sky. I flew lower than I would have liked, tracing the route Shanti would have taken between Rayna’s house and the loft.

She had to be out there. She had to be alive.

And even if she wasn’t, I had to know for sure that Strife wasn’t holding her somewhere.

Chapter Fourteen

I knew Shanti sometimes took a more leisurely route through the city on her way from Rayna’s, so I looked along that route first. As I was flying, I felt my father’s presence somewhere nearby, and glanced around. I saw him to my left, flying toward me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, still flying, looking down at the streets and buildings below.

“The demon told me what was going on. We’ll find her, Mollis.” We split, me looking at the buildings and alleys on one side of the route, Hades doing the same on the other.

I couldn’t answer him. I felt like I was going to puke. Felt like I wanted to scream.

This. Exactly this. This is why I shouldn’t have people in my life. They get targeted because of me. The assholes who are my enemies know they can’t actually hurt me physically, so they go after the people in my life. Every. Damn. Time.

I gritted my teeth and blinked the tears back from my eyes. My girl. The strong, gorgeous young woman who’d come to me because she’d feared herself and ended up being one of the most steadfast, disciplined supernaturals I’d ever known.

And I did scream then, unable to contain my fear and anger any longer. It echoed over the city, and I didn’t even care.

Hades came to me and took my hand. Trying to calm me down.

“Mollis. This is not the time to lose it. Losing control now won’t help you find her,” he said softly. “Calm down.”

I nodded, swiped my hands over my eyes. After a moment, we moved on, flying further along the route.

“Is that her car?” Hades asked after a couple of minutes. I flew toward him and looked in the direction he was.

And then I flew as fast as I could into the alley where the car was parked. A glance at the license plate told me it was definitely Shanti’s little red convertible.

It was still running, the headlights illuminating the alley.

Hades landed beside me, and we started looking through the alley. There were several dumpsters. This strip had several small stores, a few restaurants.

“Please be here. Please be alive,” I whispered as I opened the nearest dumpster. Hades was doing the same thing further down the alley. I swore I could feel her presence, or at least some vampire’s presence nearby, but it was weak.

I checked another dumpster, then another. Hades started looking through the windows of the buildings, rose into the air to look at the area from up above.

I was losing hope. Her car was there, but they’d taken her. If they had, I had zero chance of finding her right away. The imps were looking already, but we were likely already too late, based on what Strife had said.

I was crying again, my fear overtaking me, the feeling of helplessness in this situation nearly overwhelming me. All I wanted to do was fall into a heap and wail.

I opened the last dumpster along that strip of alley, and the first thing I saw was a high-heeled black boot.

I rose into the air and opened the dumpster the rest of the way.

Jeans.

White top.

So much blood.

Shanti.

Still alive, I realized, but not for long.

“Dad,” I called, and Hades came to me. I pulled Shanti into my arms and flew her out of the dumpster. I laid her on the ground as gently as I could.

She’d been stabbed several times, and the burnt look of the wounds made it clear they’d used a silver blade. She had to be in agony. Her eyes were closed. Unconscious.

“Will my blood work on her?” I asked Hades, getting ready to slice my wrist. Hades put a hand on mine, stopping me.

“It will. Mine will work even better. And you need to stay strong. Let me.”

I nodded, prayed to I don’t even know what as I watched Hades slice his wrist with my knife, letting his blood flow into first one of Shanti’s wounds, then another.

They had definitely tried to make sure they killed her. They’d gone for the chest, the stomach. The throat. She was close. She’d likely lost consciousness from the torture the silver had caused to her system, and they’d left her for dead.

“They were careless. Thankfully,” Hades murmured as he sliced his wrist again. “And she is strong.”

“Stupid of them not to make sure,” I said. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“They were likely afraid of you appearing before they were finished,” he said.

“I am going to find them. I am going to rip their guts out and make them watch. I am going to—“

“Mollis,” my dad said.

“What?”

“Calm. Remember what you’re supposed to be doing.” His gaze met mine, and I took a deep breath. He was right. Me getting all berserker now would be a bad thing. I was tired. Stressed out. Pissed off. Perfect conditions for Nether, who was already fighting me again, sensing my weakness.

“You’ll get your chance,” Hades said.

I watched as he let more of his blood into Shanti’s wounds, watched as they started closing up, as the burnt skin around the injuries started repairing itself.

“This will likely make her even stronger,” he said. “Which is a good thing, considering.”

“Does my blood make people stronger?” I asked, thinking of how I’d healed Nain.

“Probably. I know mine does. The same is true of the Furies, though theirs seems to have less of an effect than mine does.”

“It makes like zero sense that the god of death has healing blood,” I said, trying to stay calm, focus on anything other than my rage and the way my stomach still twisted, watching Shanti slowly but surely healing.

“All of the immortals have it in one way or another. That’s why we can heal ourselves. Zeus, Poseidon, and I have the most potent blood, from what we know.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said, and he nodded as he moved on to another of Shanti’s wounds. He was starting to look pale. He’d sliced himself at least four times.

“Do you need a break?” I asked him, and he shook his head.

“I’ll be fine. And I want you to stay strong.”

Shanti’s wounds had all closed. Hades sat down, and I settled next to him on the cold pavement.

“Now all we can do is wait. There was a lot of internal damage because of the effects of silver. As my blood works its way through her body, it will repair that. She’ll likely be quite hungry when she revives.”

“Thanks for doing that, dad,” I said, bumping my shoulder against his.

“I know you love this one,” he said, shrugging. “It’s really the least I can do considering what a mess I’ve made of your life.”

I looked over at him. “Well, considering I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you, I think that’s being a bit harsh.”

He smiled. “Are you truly happy to be alive?” he asked me.

I wrapped my arms around my knees, rested my chin on them. “I am. For a long time, I wasn’t. But I’m needed and that’s reason enough to be happy to be alive.”

“I am sorry about the whole mess with my helmet. And several other things, obviously,” he said, and I smiled at him.

“Any word from Persephone yet?”

He shook his head.

“Do you want her back?”

He didn’t answer, and I was about to tell him it wasn’t any of my business. Then, finally, he said “things are different now. I think our time was up a long time ago. I love her and she loves me. Or, at least she did.” He paused, looked up into the sky. “I don’t know how she feels now. But your being here and being the way you are proves that so many of the things we were told were wrong. Maybe I have a chance at something else.”

I watched him. I wanted to press him, but I sensed that he really didn’t feel like talking about it.

“And whether I want her back is irrelevant. If she is working against you, then we’re so far beyond done there is no going back,” he said.

“I still don’t think it was her,” I told him.

“I hope you’re right,” he said after a few moments. “Are things okay between you and the demon? You were less than pleased with one another when you left me the other day.”

I shrugged. “They’re fine. Just weird.”

“If he hurts you again, I’ll make him rue the day he was spawned,” Hades said. And I totally believed him.

“Thanks dad.” I smiled a little. I was feeling better. Shanti was healing up, and her power signature was getting stronger the longer we sat there. “I’m just trying not to rush into anything with him this time. Things are intense when we’re together, and I’m just not sure I can deal with that right now.”

He nodded. “Your mother says there is no doubt about how much he loves you. That she can feel it, and it’s absolute.”

“It is. I know it too. But there’s a lot of shit in the past between us. He’s mine, and I’m his. We both know it. I’m just not ready to move forward yet.”

“You need to put that poor demon out of his misery. Give the man a break,” Shanti said weakly, and I jumped up and knelt over her. I was crying again (damn it) but this time they were tears of relief. I bent down and hugged her. She hugged me back, wrapping her arms around me tightly.

“I’m sorry, Shanti. I am so sorry sweetie,” I said, hugging her tighter.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this,” she said, pulling back and meeting my eyes. “Understand? They caught me by surprise. I thought I was saving someone and it was a trap. This is on me, and on them.” She smiled. “This is the second time you’ve answered my prayers and saved me, Angel.”

I shook my head. “I am so glad you’re okay. If you’d died…”

She took my hand, held it tightly. “But I didn’t. Which one of you healed me?”

I pointed at my dad, who was standing just behind me, and Shanti smiled up at him.

“Thank you,” she said to him.

“You are very welcome. Though I have to admit I did it mostly for my daughter.”

“Of course,” she said, nodding. “But thanks anyway.”

“Are you hungry?” I asked her, and she nodded, her fangs lengthening. I held my wrist up to her.

“Are you sure? I know this makes you kind of queasy.”

“It’s you. It’s fine,” I told her.

“I feel so special,” she said, taking my wrist in her hands. I barely felt it when she bit into my wrist, looked away as she fed.

“She is going to be bouncing off the walls with all of this immortal blood flowing through her body,” Hades said, and I nodded.

“Can you call Nain and tell him everything is okay?” I asked my father, handing him my phone. I sat and let Shanti feed, ran my hands through her hair. He took it, and I heard him talking to Nain, his voice low. Answering questions, assuring Nain we’d be back soon. Telling him he didn’t need to come to us, that we had everything under control. Shanti and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

She finished feeding. “Thank you,” she said. “Um. Your blood is really really good. That rumor is totally true.”

“Great. I’ll put that on my resume,” I said, and she laughed.

“I need a shower so bad right now,” Shanti said, and we stood up. Hades handed my phone back to me.

“You’re driving home?” he asked me, and I nodded.

“I’ll fly overhead and keep watch. Just to make sure,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said. Then I stood on tiptoe and kissed my dad on the cheek. I felt a jolt of surprise from him, and then he smiled a little.

“Thanks, Mr. Lord of the Dead, sir,” Shanti said as she climbed into her car. Hades shook his head and rose into the air, and I climbed into the passenger seat of Shanti’s car.

She started driving toward the loft.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked her.

“I’m fine. Your dad was right. I feel like I could do just about anything right now. I feel like I could fly. Like I could kick the ass of at least a dozen vampires without any effort at all.”

I laughed. “Great. Except that the only thing you’re doing now is coming home and relaxing for a while.”

“Fine,” she said, grinning.

“What was it?” I asked her, not really wanting to talk about her attack but needing to know. “Was it vampires?”

She shook her head. “Two witches and three demons. The witches were kind of the bait. I thought they were being attacked by two of the demons. And when I was focused on saving them, the third demon snuck up on me and stabbed me in the back. It was a stupid rookie mistake on my part. I should have been more careful, especially with all of the craziness going on now.”

“You’re like me in that way. You don’t think of yourself until it’s too late.”

She glanced over at me. “That may be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me.”

“I didn’t mean it in a good way,” I said. “We’re both reckless.”

“You know what you are, Molly? You’re a damn hero. What else do you call someone who rushes in without any regard for their own safety? So cram that whole idea that the way we are is a bad thing. If I’m anything at all like you, then I’m damn proud of it.”