Chapter Sixteen
Two weeks later, Seattle, Washington
The scent of death was heavy in the air. The horror of what had happened in the alley hung so heavily that not even the cicadas would dare sing their songs. The heavy air and silence at the scene made the men and women working there confess to feeling as if they were being watched by something dark, something far more evil than anything they’d ever seen before. But the thirteen young women who had died in that alley deserved justice and answers, and it was up to the detectives of the Seattle Police Department to ensure they received just that.
“What do you make of this, Detective?” one of the men in blue asked the detective who was approaching. “It almost looks like someone was making a list.”
“It is a list.” Detective Bloom opened his notebook and took the names down. “It almost looks like a hit list. See these names marked off?”
“But why the Greek gods’ names?” the uniformed officer asked.
“I have no idea,” Bloom said as he copied the names down. “Make sure that CSI takes images as well. I’ll run these names and see if I can get any hits.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer said.
As Bloom walked back to where the body had been found, the officer read the names again. There were five female names and twelve male names. It was a little disconcerting that the last female name on the list was Xd out.
Descendants
Artemis, Camilla Berry
Apollo, Kasper St John
Ares, Rachael Dunfries
Aceso, Hailey Davenport
Aphrodite, Brooklyn Anderson
Zeus, XXXXX
Scions
Apollo, Gareth Gruffyd
Ares, Mikhail Rossov
Artemis, James Ashton
Hera, Victor Dudayev
Aceso, Dieter Adler-Faust
Morpheus, Wyatt Aragon
Hephaestus, Nolan Vedius
Demeter, Antonio Morales
Dionysus, Thomas Gordon
Hermes, Owen Lueger
Hestia, Stefan Patras
Poseidon, Lincoln Jamison
“I hope that whoever wrote this just made these names up. Although Brooklyn Anderson, isn’t she that movie star? She’s the biggest hit out there right now.” Bloom stood up once more. He looked over to the lab tech and nodded. “We need to get images of all of these names. Then you can run the blood that they were written in. Hopefully, it’s from the victim.”
“On it, sir.” He took several shots at different angles. Then he pulled swabs from his kit and took samples from various names while making notations of where each came from. Once he was finished, he packed up to head to his vehicle.
Settling in behind the wheel, the officer pulled out his phone to place a call that was going to raise hell, maybe in more ways than one. “Ares, it’s Hermes. Your boys just landed themselves on a hit list of some sort. I’m sending you a couple of photos now of a crime scene the Seattle PD just caught. You’re not going to fucking believe this.” Pressing send on the laptop he’d wired to his digital camera, he let out a breath. “Coming to you now.”
“What in the name of fuck is this?” Ares’ voice came loud and clear through the phone. “How the hell did this happen? Why is Zeus’s descendant crossed out? Is she dead? Have you contacted her watcher as of yet?”
“No, I called you first. I have no clue what the Xs mean, but I intend to find out. I’m a little more concerned with the fact the cops are all over this. They think it’s a hit list of a different sort. They plan on running all the names down, Ares. We have to ensure that not a one of them flags anywhere. I’m also now concerned that we now know who the other women are before their time.”
“I’ll take care of it. I will bury them in their own red tape.” Ares’s voice was a low and deadly growl. “How the fuck could they have known about the men? We’ve kept them secret. They were born to be the protectors of the descendants and born to be paired with them and kept just as shielded. Do you think that those fucking Fates are playing with us again?”
“No, they’ve been MIA from Olympus. Last I heard, they were off visiting the Primordials for a time to stay off of Zeus’s radar. Rumor is they went and pissed him off, again. Like that’s a surprise.” Throwing a look around, Hermes made sure he was alone. “They aren’t one to directly say anything, we all know that. This doesn’t feel like them, Ares. This feels vengeful, angry, and like a setup of epic proportions.”
“No shit. Fucking hell. Get Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite, and I will grab Apollo and Hephaestus. We’ll rendezvous in a half hour at the meeting zone.” Hermes didn’t miss that Ares hadn’t mentioned Zeus or Hera, but everyone steered clear of those two. “We have to figure out how the fuck the Scions were listed as well and if we tell them or not. If we don’t tell them now and it comes out in the end, they will be beyond pissed. I’ve lived around them enough to know that they will do whatever they can to make life hell for all of us, and that’s not acceptable. Especially not as close as I am to my descendant and the one I watched over as well.”
“I told you from the start that not telling them about their backgrounds would eventually bite you in the ass. My vote stays the same—full fucking disclosure. They have a right to know there’s a lot more at stake than what’s been revealed so far. I’ll get the others as soon as I check a couple of things. Let’s meet in an hour. On the off chance I need to do something drastic to protect them from my end.”
“One hour. We all have to come to a consensus, and you know it. If we all agree then, it will be full disclosure, nothing less. I’m going to check on the other ladies who are still without the protection of their Scions to ensure they are safe. Travel safely, my friend,” Ares stated before he hung up on Hermes.
Hermes muttered under his breath. He had a funny feeling Ares was in for one hell of a huge shock at that vote. After doing up his seat belt, because getting a ticket wasn’t an option, he put his eco-friendly car into gear and headed off to attend to business.
****
“So does anyone know why we have all been gathered in the war room?” Rachael asked as she took a seat on Wyatt’s lap.
“Not the first clue.” Camilla was already settled on Mikhail’s lap, Gareth toying with one of her long, curly strands of hair.
Stefan sat forward suddenly and pointed at Mikhail. “He knows something. I saw something on his face shift. Mik knows something.”
Mikhail shrugged and gave the room one of his lazy smirks.
“He definitely knows something,” Owen said. “That’s not a genuine smile. That’s his I know something you assholes don’t grin. I don’t like that grin.”
“Come on, brother, tell us.” This came from Kasper. “You know you want to tell us, so out with it. Whatever it is, you can talk to us.”
“Actually, no, he can’t,” Ares said as he phased into the room. “We’re just waiting for a couple more…” Ares trailed off as the other gods phased into view. “You all know Artemis, Apollo, and Athena. This is Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Morpheus, Poseidon, Dionysus, Demeter, and Hestia.” Each god bowed their head in turn.
Rachael’s eyes widened as she gazed upon each of the gods and goddesses. Well, this wasn’t going to be good if they had all of them together in one space with all of them. Worried, she bit her lower lip in reaction to seeing the way that her uncle Adam—Apollo—shifted on his feet. It was a sign to her that he was nervous.
“We come to give you full and complete disclosure. At least where the Scions are concerned. We can’t break the vow of the Descendants, and for that, we are very sorry.” This came from Hestia.
“Hestia is correct,” Apollo stated from where he stood slightly behind Kasper.
“We can give you a little more information. Our hope is by giving you this knowledge that you’ll perhaps finally fully open yourselves up to the possibilities and maybe see things in a different light,” Morpheus said in a deep baritone.
Hermes rolled his eyes. “You guys are way too fucking dramatic,” he muttered. “Look, kids, here’s the gist of it. Everyone in this room is related to one of us. And yeah, boys, I’m looking at all of you. Mikhail’s related to Ares.”
“Son of a bitch!” Wyatt and Dieter blurted out in unison.
“Gareth is related to Apollo, James to Artemis, Victor to Hera. Sorry, buddy, that one seriously sucks ass. Dieter, you’re related to Aceso, Wyatt to Morpheus, thus explaining how you helped Rachael in her dreams; we know about that. Nolan, you’re related to Hephaestus, Antonio to Demeter, Thomas to Dionysus, and Owen, you and I are related. Stefan, you’re a descendant to Hestia, and Lincoln, you’re related to Gills over there, Poseidon.”
“Watch it, Hermes,” Poseidon growled.
Waving the words away, Hermes leaned on the back of Owen’s chair. “You all have abilities of the gods. These will have been amped way the fuck up when you went to Olympus for your training. Unfortunately, not all of you have tapped into them yet, but they are there. I have to say, though, Mikhail’s the only one that’s really gotten deep with working his. Wyatt’s a close runner-up. Good show with putting Hades in his place, by the way.”
“I was happy that he was there to put him in his place,” Rach said softly. “If not, you would have been down a key and I would have lost the best things to ever have happened to me. Not something I ever want to happen, by the way. The look on Hades’ face when Wyatt pulled me away from him was priceless.”
“I wish I’d seen it,” Dieter said. “But I’m pretty sure it matched mine when Wyatt tugged you out of the dream. Of course, now that we know he’s related to Morpheus, it makes a lot more sense how he was able to do it.”
“For the most part, the abilities you inherit likely won’t activate until you need them,” Apollo told them. “No idea why, and absolutely no clue what any of your abilities might be. The educated conclusion we’ve all come to is you’ll have the strongest ability of the god you are related to, in a slightly lesser form. Except for Mikhail who we all know—and accept—to be a freak. Seems to write his own rulebook given what we’ve seen of late. You’ll likely have more than one ability since we all do, but it’s only an educated guess.”
That had everyone laughing. “Well, Mikhail is certainly one of a kind.” Camilla smiled and nuzzled in closer to Mikhail when she spoke. “He’s an amazing man in his own right. Doesn’t matter who he’s descended from because he’s a god in my mind.”
Groans went up around the table. Even a couple of the gods got in on it, too. Wyatt made gagging noises that quickly turned into laughter when Mik threw him a warning look. “Just busting your chops, old man,” Wyatt said with a grin.
“I know where you sleep,” Mik said. “With someone related to me, no less. We’ll be chatting later, you two.”
“You had to rile him up,” Dieter muttered. Reaching around Rachael, the man smacked Wyatt upside the head. “Good going, asshole.”
Rachael snickered and then began to giggle. “You guys really shouldn’t have mentioned that. Now he has two women relatives who hooked up with his friends, and that means four men he gets to practice his hidden sniper moves on. If I were you guys, I would be very, very careful for a time. Silly men.”
Wyatt snorted softly. “Morpheus, my man, you and I need to have a talk after this. I need to get a few pointers, if you don’t mind.”
A slow smile lifted the god’s lips. It didn’t soften his cold and uncaring appearance in the least. Giving a nod, he crossed his arms over his chest. “You up for a crash course?”
“I’ve survived everything else thrown at me. I’m up for a little more, I think.”
Morpheus let out a low, distinctly evil-sounding chuckle. “We’ll see about that.”
“All righty, then,” Hermes said. Clearing his throat, he shifted on his feet. “Now that I’m incredibly creeped out, we should wrap this up since we have a few things to attend to. Ares, got anything else we need to add to this little powwow?”
“There was a list found.” Ares got serious now. “The reason we’re coming out in full disclosure now is that there was a list found in Seattle. It was written in blood on an alley wall. It listed all of the descendants as well as you, the Scions. There was one that we haven’t figured out, however.” Ares looked at each god in turn and then took a deep breath. “The final key, the one that none of us can look in on, her name was stricken from the wall with Xs. We don’t know yet what to make of it. She’s alive or Hades would be free, but that’s all we know.”
“So you guys really don’t know who the final key is?” Gareth asked. “I thought this was all prophesied and whatnot so you should be aware who they are. I get not telling us until it’s the right time, but are you actually trying to tell us not a one of you knows the name of the final key?”
“No, we are aware who she is, but we aren’t able to watch over or interact with her. The one who’s watching over her refuses to allow us to see her life. It’s beyond frustrating,” Ares stated gruffly. “She’s alive, healthy, and well, but that’s all that we know.”
“Can we see the list minus the names of those not yet at the table?” Mikhail asked.
All eyes snapped to him.
Rolling his own, he gave them all a droll look. “Handwriting analysis, for one, might be helpful. Yes, it’s blood on a wall, but there are likely to be some points we could find. You are all seriously suspicious.”
Hermes looked to Ares and shrugged. “Might not be a bad idea. They may see something we won’t or can’t. We all know the gods are blinded to a lot of little details. It’s why we have these guys working on the ground. I can edit out the other two names so that they can’t get them back. It’ll take me maybe five minutes, tops.”
“Why can’t we know who the other two are?” Rachael asked with a frown. “Wouldn’t it be better if we knew so that they could go get them and ensure their safety?”
“Things are meant to happen in order. There’s a reason for the sequence of keys. Trust us, we don’t like it anymore than you do, but even we gods have our limits. We have those that keep us in line as well,” Ares stated simply.
“So, out of curiosity and all, what happens if we somehow figure out who the others are before even you guys get the memo?” Thomas asked. “I’m not talking about anything nefarious or whatever, but you know if we have a moment of brilliance and put all the pieces together. Would this be a problem?”
Apollo snorted. “All the more power to you if you do. If you did, it would unlock us from having to be careful about what we can and cannot tell you. As it stands, because they aren’t in a place to have to meet you for any reason, we’re bound by the rules to not say the names. We can’t even think them when we’re around you so none of you can potentially pick up on them.”
“But if the guys could figure out who they were first, it would be safe enough for them to go for the women?” Rachael asked bluntly. “I like that idea. Now we just have to figure out who they are and where they are. In the meantime, you’re watching over them, right? Like Apollo watched over me, the others have one of you in their lives as well?”
“If you can figure out who they are, you can go to them. Not sure how that conversation would go,” Hermes said. “Hey there, we’re here to protect you from the God of the Underworld. Oh, no, the Gods are real. No, I’m not crazy, why would you suggest that? Why are there guys with those funny white jackets here? Yup, I so want to be there when you do that. Text me, will you?”
“I think we might be a little smarter than that,” Nolan said with a grin. “But thank you for the how-not-the-fuck-to-do-it guide there, Hermes.”
“No problem, it’s why I’m here.”
“Jesus. I see it now. The resemblance. The men all take after you gods. It’s actually funny. The smartassery, the seriousness, and the way you all hold yourselves. I’m truly amazed,” Rachael said with a grin. “Seriously, it’s too cute.” Well, cute was the wrong word, but it was the one she had at the moment.
Artemis burst out laughing as the male gods all puffed up and glared at Rachael. “Oh, dearest, you do know how to prick a man’s ego. Well done, very well done indeed. All right, you peacocks, let’s get out of here. We all have things to attend to. Hermes, let’s talk for a moment before you get those photos all fixed up.”
“Can’t believe she called us cute. So damn disrespectful,” Dionysus muttered as he followed the others out of the war room. “Apollo, did you not teach that child right?”
“I taught her perfectly,” Apollo said, and dropped a kiss on the top of Rachael’s head before following Dionysus.
“Morpheus, please go easy on Wyatt when you decide to begin to train him? I need him to keep me safe when I’m sleeping. Hades is getting more and more persistent,” Rachael admitted. Wyatt and Dieter knew just how much more persistent and were aware that was why Wyatt wanted Morpheus to give him tips.
“I will treat him as if he was my own child. Which, in a manner of speaking, he is—several times removed, of course. He will return better armed to deal with that prick Hades. Come along, Wyatt. It’s time to dip your toes into the real dark side.”
“Seriously rethinking this,” Wyatt whispered for her ears alone. He pressed a kiss to her lips and then got up. “Send out a search party if I’m not back by dinner. Mik’s cooking, so I damn well want to be here.”