The Guardian (23 page)

Seth looked down at her.

“We’l get through this. Trust me.”

“I do trust you.” And he did. But then he cut a glare to Maahes. “That son of a bitch is another story. I don’t

trust anyone who serves a god, and especial y not one whose most celebrated epithet was Lord of the

Massacre.”

She widened her eyes at that. Her face pale, she met Maahes’s smug look. “Is that true?”

“It is.”

“Do I want to know why they cal you that?”

Seth answered for him. “He’s the hand of retribution. Ma’at’s personal slayer for anyone she wants

punished.”

It didn’t have the effect on her that he’d hoped for. Instead of being angry at his enemy, she was rational

with him.

Seth hated rational.

“So he’s kind of like you, then. I would think you two would get along.”

The taunting smirk on Maahes’s face was definitely not helping his mood. “I’m also the one invoked by the

innocent to protect them.”

Lydia sucked her breath in as Seth’s eyes darkened in a way that let her know Maahes was about to

bleed.

When he spoke, his tone was deadly calm and razor sharp. “But only when it suits you.”

There was so much buried rage in those words that it made the hair on her arms stand up. When Seth

had been wounded and in pain, he’d been scary.

Whole, even without his powers …

He gave the ful god in front of him a run for his money and Maahes knew it.

The cocky went straight out of Maahes as he caught Seth’s meaning. “Are you saying you cal ed for me

and I ignored you?”

Seth didn’t answer.

Instead, he brushed past him, driving his shoulder in to Maahes’s and headed for the street.

Maahes frowned at her. “What didn’t he tel me just now?”

Lydia sighed as part of her wished she was stil as ignorant about Seth’s past as he was. “When he was

a smal child, his mother,” she choked on using that title for the bitch, “took him into the desert, broke his

legs, and left him there to die. From what I’ve heard, I’m pretty sure he cal ed on al of you to help him and

not one of you could be bothered.”

Horror played across his face as he thought through what she told him. “Why did she do something like

that?”

“Set thought he was pathetic and worthless. He insulted the mother for bearing him, and most of al for

giving Seth his name.”

Maahes cursed. “So she took him into the heart of Set’s domain to die in front of him. No wonder we

didn’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he ran after Seth and pul ed him to a stop. “Before you continue to hate us, let me explain

something. Set was the god of the desert. That was
his
domain, not ours. We were never al owed to venture

there unless he invited us. He would violently attack any god who dared to encroach on his territory and

need I remind you what he did to Osiris and Horus? Your mother took you into the desert not just to hurt you

in front of your father, but to keep us from finding out about it. Because I can promise you that had any of us

learned of her cruelty, we’d have kil ed the bitch for it.”

Seth fel silent as he digested those words. Honestly, he’d never expected an apology from any member

of his family. As a rule, the gods never admitted to any kind of fault.

Now both Ma’at and Maahes had offered him one.

But in the end …

“It changes nothing.”

Maahes nodded. “You’re right. It doesn’t change whatever happened to you, and that is a tragedy.

However, it should comfort you to know that we would have helped you had we known.”

Oh yeah, that was great comfort to him. Especial y given how many times he’d cal ed them, for what was it

again…?

Forty-five hundred years? Oh wait, he hadn’t cal ed for them quite that long. He’d probably given up after a

thousand or so years of them ignoring him.

He sneered at Maahes. “You offer me empty words that mean nothing. It’s easy to say what you would

have done, if only. But neither of us real y knows what action you’d have taken. Believe me, the one thing I’ve

learned about the gods is how fickle al of you are. Praising a person one moment, and then damning them

in the next. So don’t try to al eviate your guilt by offering me what you think wil make me feel better. I want

nothing from any of you except to be left alone.” Seth turned and continued down the street.

Lydia patted Maahes on the shoulder. “I know how you feel. He’s kicked me like that, too.”

“Yeah, but you probably didn’t deserve it.”

“And neither did he deserve what was done to him. Unlike you, I’ve seen the horror of his existence. He’s

entitled to his hatred.”

“Then I wil stay behind you two and try not to offend him with my presence.”

Lydia started to respond, until she realized that Seth had stopped on the sidewalk about a block from

them.

That wasn’t what concerned her.

Rather it was the tal , skinny puta pawing at him that made her blood boil. Her vision turned dark as she

quickly closed the distance between them. Why wasn’t Seth sending her away?
Look at her, Lydia. She’s

gorgeous.
Which only made her ache al the more.

The blonde ran her tongue around her index finger while she looked up at Seth from beneath her long,

over-mascaraed eyelashes, then bit and sucked it in a suggestive manner. She continued to run it around

her lips as she spoke. “So you’re visiting, huh? How long wil you be here and where are you staying?”

Lydia wrapped her arms around his and glared at the woman. “He’s staying with me. Right, pookie?”

Seth wasn’t sure what to say. Lydia’s voice was sweet and at the same time brittle … like her eyes as

she stared up at him. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he had a bad feeling he was in trouble for

it.

Lydia turned her gaze back to the woman who’d stopped to ask him directions. “Now if you don’t mind,

we’re late for a meeting with his ‘special’ doctor. We have to make sure he doesn’t run out of cream for his

genital rash. After al , it’s highly contagious, and burns like crazy when left untreated.”

The blonde rushed off.

Seth kept opening and closing his mouth as he mental y ran through what she’d just done. He was

stunned, appal ed, and at the same time, oddly amused. And he had no idea which emotion was strongest.

Had she real y just said that about him? To a perfect stranger?

Why?

Lydia snarled as she moved away from him. “You are such a man!”

He wouldn’t have thought that was a particularly bad thing, except for the tone of her voice, which said it

was. “What did I do?”

She raked him with a glare. “Chasing after the first piece of skank you see? Real y?”

Thanks to Maahes, he understood the words. But her fury left him completely lost. “Why are you angry at

me?”

“Why do you think?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

She rol ed her eyes. “Yeah, right. You al but drooled on her.”

“At no time did I drool.” His mouth was completely dry and had been the whole time he conversed with the

woman.

“Your eyes drooled. I saw them.”

He was total y perplexed by this argument. Was he not al owed to speak to anyone? “I’m wearing dark

sunglasses. How can you see my eyes?”

“She’s jealous, Seth.”

He looked at Maahes for an explanation. “Why?”

Lydia broke off into her hand gestures.

“Are you yel ing at me, now?”

Maahes laughed. “Oh yeah, kid. She’s cal ing you a lot of names.”

That surprised him. “You understand her?”

Maahes gestured back at Lydia in the same language.

For some reason, it angered and hurt him that they’d cut him out of the conversation. “Are you mocking

me?”

Lydia flicked her nails at him, then turned and stormed off.

Seth had no idea what he should do. He didn’t understand human emotions or relations. Not real y. It’d

been too long since he had any.

Maahes let out a heavy sigh. “You hurt her feelings, boy. You need to go apologize.”

“How did I hurt them?”

“Think about it, Seth. She risked her life to bring you here, to save you from hel , and what do you do the

first minute she leaves you alone? You let another woman flirt with you.”

That was flirting? Real y?

He’d thought the woman attractive, but she was nothing compared to Lydia. She hadn’t made his blood

race or given him thoughts of her draped over his body.

Only Lydia did that. She was the only woman he was wil ing to bleed for. How could she not know that?

Seth ran to catch up with her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you if I did. She asked me for directions, and I told her I

couldn’t help her. That’s al that happened.”

“I don’t care.”

“Then why are you mad at me?”

Lydia didn’t have a rational explanation. She knew she was overreacting and behaving badly. Yet …

“I don’t know, okay? I just know it hurts inside.”

His features tortured, he cupped her face in his hands. “You are the one person I would never hurt.”

Lydia went to kiss him, but he snapped his head back before she could touch his lips with hers. His

rejection cut her so deep, it felt like her soul was bleeding. “I don’t understand you, Seth.”

And the sad truth was, she wasn’t sure if she ever would. Her heart aching, she walked back to where

Maahes waited for them.

Seth sighed as he tried to understand what had just happened.
You should have let her kiss you
.

But he liked the fact that, for the first time since he was a boy, his lips didn’t hurt or sting or bleed.

Idiot.
Women liked it. He knew that. He wasn’t sure what pleasure they got from biting him so hard, but …

I suck at this world, too
. And in that moment, he realized the sad truth he’d never wanted to face.

He didn’t belong anywhere. Especial y not in this world.

It was just as wel . She wasn’t his anyway. She could never be his.

Once his powers returned, he’d leave her and go …

He had no idea. There was no home for him here. No one to cal friend. Suddenly this world was even

more terrifying to him than Azmodea.

Why are you panicking? Either there or here, the results are the same.

He’d be alone. At least here, he wouldn’t have to worry about Azura and Noir.

But as he went back to where Lydia stood and she refused to look at him, he discovered a pain even

worse than their torture.

Seeing the hurt in her eyes and knowing he was the one who’d given it to her.

* * *

nothing.

Madoc paced behind him. “You’re not accomplishing anything.”

“It makes me feel better and it keeps me from beating the shit out of you. So you ought to be grateful that

I’m banging on it and not your head.”

“Whatever.”

Ignoring him, Solin looked around at the smal group that was caged with him. In addition to Madoc were

Deimos, Phobos, Zeth, and Delphine. It seemed as if they’d been locked in this pit for days.

Like him and Madoc, Zeth had black hair and blue eyes. Phobos and Deimos were twins and, until they

were locked in here, were the leaders of the Dolophoni who were now in pursuit of Lydia.

Delphine was one of the rare Dream-Hunters who had blond hair. “We need to figure out who betrayed

us,” she repeated for the mil ionth time.

Solin growled. “We’ve been over it and over it again. I don’t care about your traitor. What we need to find

is a way out of here. Preferably before they kil Lydia.”

But at least he took comfort in knowing none of the people in this room had betrayed him. Hence why they

were his jail buddies.

But who had? What god would be so stupid?

Deimos patted him on the back. “We’l get to her in time.”

“What if we don’t?” Solin couldn’t bear the pain of the thought of losing her. She was everything in his

world. “The Guardian said he’d kil her today if I didn’t get back to him.”

Phobos, who was sitting on the floor with his head on his legs, looked up. “Maybe he’l suck you back to

Azmodea and then you can locate her.”

“Yeah,” Deimos agreed. “How did he nab you last time?”

“Through my dreams. He sent a lure in to trap me.”

Deimos cursed. So long as they were imprisoned here, none of them had any powers. Not even the

ability to travel in dreams.

They were total y screwed.

“Look on the bright side,” Phobos said with a cocky grin as he cut his gaze to Delphine. “Sooner probably

than later, Jericho wil notice his wife’s not around and he’l find us and kick the door down.”

“He’s right. My baby won’t play.”

Yeah and as the son of Warcraft and Hate, Jericho was a formidable god.

Stil , Solin had looked into the painted face of hel and seen what it was capable of.

And right now, that beast had his daughter, and he had no idea what the Guardian was doing to her.

Hold on, baby. I’ll get to you. I swear it.

Solin only hoped that his enemies didn’t kil him first.

Lydia stood in her newly adopted bedroom in Maahes’s impressive home, staring out the floor-to-ceiling

windows at one of the most beautiful views in the world. When he’d said his house was isolated, he hadn’t

been joking.

What he’d failed to mention was that his home was in the middle of an island he owned. She’d always