Chapter 6
South America, Earth
Rykr reformed in near darkness, instantly scanning the entire area for magic or spells of any kind. He found nothing. He was aware of Pothos and Hades reforming somewhere nearby but above ground, not inside the cavern.
Telepathically, he described the cave to his father and grandfather. Mounted torches flickered a golden glow on ancient cave drawings he didn’t take time to study. The air was stale, as if the place had been completely sealed.
“I’m surprised you came alone,” David said as he appeared in front of Rykr. It took every ounce of control not to go for the male’s throat. The demons inside him seemed thrilled by the male’s presence. Their normal hatred and furious clawing felt entirely different now, and Rykr didn’t like it.
“I feel the same, David. You’re either very brave or very stupid.”
The male smirked. “I believe an apology is in order. I agree that my invitation was a bit on the dramatic side, but as I couldn’t locate you, I chose the next best thing.”
The male’s power was similar to that of the demons, but far stronger. It had a wild, potent quality he couldn’t fully decipher.
“What are you?”
“Tsk-tsk. I would have thought you’d know that by now.” The male’s sheer arrogance grated on Rykr’s nerves. The only reason he hadn’t moved to capture David yet was that he was studying him. He’d never come across power like his, and he already knew the asshole could teleport. The problem was that he didn’t know what else David could do. Or what his weaknesses were. Not yet.
Rykr’s own power flooded the room around him as he waited, violently suppressing his need for blood.
When Rykr continued to stare at him with a raised brow, David flashed a grin and answered, “I believe you call us demons. Or daemons, depending on the era, of course.”
“How? Demons can’t inhabit a body for decades, and they can’t teleport using one.”
“It’s fated, much like your matings. You get one true fated lover connected to your soul. David’s soul called to me, and now we are one.”
Rykr merely stared, showing no emotion. “Do you have a name?”
“You may address me as David.”
The male’s answer was a swift evasion.
“So the real David is in there somewhere? Or was his consciousness destroyed in favor of yours.”
“You certainly enjoy painting us as villains.” The male paused and tilted his head. “What is it humans like to say… something about a pot and a kettle? A rather fitting comparison, considering my family has been enslaved to the worst of your kind for millennia.” There was a hard glint in David’s black eyes. Something dangerous lurked beneath the surface.
“I didn’t enslave you.” He said the words pointedly before taunting, “Why were you taken by Artemis? Because of your nature?”
David went deathly still for a moment, and Rykr swore his eyes flickered with blue flames. The air grew thicker as the male’s power lashed out, flickering the flames of the torches. “Do not cast stones on things you know nothing about. Our nature was never that of your evil Gods.”
The male was trying to rein in his temper, and Rykr felt the sheer strength of power he’d been holding back.
“What is the point of this meeting, David?”
David appeared to regain his calm, but his attempt at resurrecting a charming façade seemed stilted. “I have been searching all these decades for the key to freeing my family. I believe you want that as well.”
Rykr studied the male closely. “What exactly have you been searching for?”
“Artemis had another medallion, much like the one that cursed you. They may even be linked in some way. Find the other artifact, and we’ll have what we both wish for.”
Rykr had wanted to be free of the demons for a decade. He still wanted that, but this felt wrong. The male was hiding something.
“What would your fiendish family do with that freedom?” Rykr taunted.
David’s eyes only flashed for a moment before he controlled his emotions. “We existed in this world before your Gods, before your Creators seeded the world with humanity. We were never evil. You have nothing to fear in their freedom.”
Were? That indicated that they were malevolent now.
“Do you have the location of the medallion?”
“I do not. Only that Artemis kept it well hidden in a place we can never go.” Rykr was surprised that the male was admitting a weakness.
“And where exactly can’t you go?”
“When I discover that, I will let you know. For now, it’s enough that we’re friends.”
With a flash of speed the other male wouldn’t be able to see, he gripped David’s neck, his fingers flexing on the male’s throat as he lifted him from the ground. Rykr’s power wrapped around him as he spoke. “You say we’re friends. Yet you went near my family.” He wanted the male’s blood badly.
David lifted his hands as if he were weak, but he didn’t look scared as he rasped, “That was bad of me, but my only choice, as I couldn’t find you.”
With a flash, the demon broke Rykr’s hold and was a few feet away. The male seemed completely unaffected as he smirked. “This place holds the history of my kind. We are not the enemy, Eirykr.” And then the male’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Unless you want us to be. I will be in touch.”
He disappeared faster than Rykr could move, which was telling in a way even more incredible than breaking free of Rykr’s powerful hold.
But Rykr had more important things to do right now than think of that. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on David’s teleport. There wasn’t any visible trail that he could detect.
He scanned the cavern for new traps, since it seemed the male’s power had been all over the place. Once he was sure it was safe, he called his father and grandfather in.
“Can you track the teleport?” he asked his grandfather. If anyone could find lingering threads to trace, the God could. Rykr paced, his body still boiling with barely leashed aggression. The demons were back to their clawing fury, and he rolled his neck as he ruthlessly suppressed the pain.
After a few long, tense moments, Hades shook his head in obvious disgust. “Nothing.”
That meant David was just as powerful as Rykr thought, and that begged the question of what else a demon could do once it found a body to hold it.
Rykr didn’t want to consider that there could be a very good reason for his curse. If he wasn’t controlling the fiends, what happened when there were more Davids out there?
His jaw clamped down tight as a sinking dread filled him.
He wasn’t thinking of anything but Lucy as he shared the details of the meeting with his family. He didn’t have a good feeling about any of it. The demons were still too excited inside him as he started studying the walls of the cave. The stories painted a conveniently pretty picture of demons millennia ago.
As the descendant of a God and Guardian of Earth, he could understand any language of the world, even the most primitive of cave drawings or hieroglyphs. So it wasn’t hard to decipher the zealous adoration these early humans felt for the ancient earthly entities. There were all kinds of images attributing an abundance in food and health to their presence. He scanned another wall with tales of a “spirit” who became flesh and bone, just like David and the nameless demon inside him. This powerful Deity ruled the shadow spirits. He was worshiped as the one who provided them with fire, until malevolent Gods descended and destroyed him. There was only death and blood from then on.
He drew a finger over some of the more faded markings as his father and grandfather did their own studies. They were all alert in case David decided to return, but Rykr doubted that would happen. He’d performed his show, and now they needed to figure out what it all meant.
“What is this?” his father growled. “This section here is gone, back at the start of the timeline, and even some areas in the middle have been destroyed.”
“Artemis and Ares claimed this part of the world as their own.” Hades sighed. “The mortals of this area were their playthings. They would have easily killed any competition to their rule.”
“Demons may have been ‘good’ at one time, but they were corrupted by Artemis and her fucked-up sons. The demons were just as big of assholes as the evil Deities that sent them out to possess humans.” Pothos was well versed in dealing with demons. The Guardians had dealt with human possession for millennia.
“What’s David’s endgame? If I find a way to get rid of the curse, then what? What would I unleash? They were silent during the small span of freedom they had from ‘the end’ to when I found the medallion. What were they doing in those two decades?” Rykr couldn’t stop pacing.
“It doesn’t matter,” Hades scoffed. “We’ll find a way to free you, and then we’ll deal with them. You should have let me come. I would have separated him from his body, and this would be done.”
Rykr pinned his grandfather with his irritated gaze. “And the medallion? Do you think David really gave us all the information he had?”
Rykr needed time to think and he needed to see the medallion again. Could it truly be linked to another, like David said? His Thulian uncle had done every magical spell he could think of on the thing, and it had led nowhere.
“We need pictures of this place. Maybe there are clues we’re missing in here. Niall’s tech shit might come up with something if he has images to scan.” He ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the short strands.
All he could do was stay busy and figure this out, because seeing Lucy tonight had set him on edge. If it was possible, he actually wanted her more. He fucking needed her more than he needed air. And he couldn’t have her. She’d never feel the sharp talons on her soul.
His father’s voice caught him before he teleported. “We’ll figure it out, Eirykr. I’ve sent a call to Alex and Uri. Her psychometry might find something in here.” The Demi-Goddess mate of a Guardian was powerful. She was sometimes able to get impressions from items, and she also had foresight skill that manifested at times of danger when something very bad was coming and they had the ability to prevent it.
Would this place trigger the daughter of Athena?