Chapter 11
Seth
Aiden stared up at the body of the woman. “How…how can they do this to someone?”
Sickened, I stepped forward and lifted my arm. I couldn’t leave her up there like that. “We need to get her down.”
“Agreed,” he growled.
“I’ll get the stakes out. She’ll fall once it happens,” I warned.
Shoulders tense, Aiden nodded. “Ready when you are.”
I summoned the air element, pulling the stakes free. Her body immediately fell forward, but I slowed her descent. Aiden caught her limp body and then laid her carefully on the ground. I could see her face better.
Gods, she was young—younger than Josie.
Aiden folded her arms over her chest and then rose. “There’s at least fifty bodies out here, and these communities have several hundred residents, if not more.”
Scanning all the homes, I feared what lay beyond those closed doors was going to be just as bad as what is in the streets. “They probably took some when they—”
A musky, heavy, damp smell suddenly permeated the air. Aiden and I turned at the same time.
Two Sentinels stood in the center of the street, among the dead bodies.
Well, they used to be Sentinels.
Based on the inky blackness seeping into the whites of their eyes, whoever those Sentinels used to be, they were dead now.
“Shades,” Aiden growled, unleashing the titanium daggers at his thighs.
“Why do they smell so badly?” I asked.
Aiden smirked. “That’s a question I probably never want an answer to.”
“True.” A slow grin tugged at my lips.
One of the shades smiled. “Didn’t like our handiwork? I don’t think she liked it either.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Oh, you’re going to be a talkative one? Great.”
Aiden shot forward, slamming into the shade. He shoved his blades deep into its midsection. The shade roared, knocking Aiden to the side. He hit the wall of a bookstore with a grunt. Chunks of cement gave way under his impact.
I arched a brow as he slowly picked himself up. “That didn’t work out well, did it?”
Rising to his feet, Aiden flipped me off.
I grinned as I unhooked the daggers I hadn’t forgotten to bring. Needing to work out the violent anger whirling inside me, I started toward the chatty shade. Adrenaline kicked my senses alive as it whirled on me. It cocked its head to the side, sniffing the air. I saw the moment the shade recognized who and what I was.
“You aren’t going to throw me around, buddy,” I said.
Charging the shade, I came up short with a curse when it simply vanished and then reappeared behind me. I spun around. Blood bled through two puncture holes in the Sentinel’s shirt.
“What the hell?” I’d never seen a shade do that before. Then again, I knew the older the shade, the more powerful they were when it came to manipulating the body it possessed and the environment around it.
I swung on the shade. It popped out of existence, reappearing a few steps to my left. Dropping down, I went for the legs of the creature, but before my kick could connect, the shade vanished.
The sound of its deep, throaty chuckle alerted me to where the shade now stood. Jumping to my feet, I aimed the blade for the midsection again. Over his shoulder, I saw Aiden rushing toward us.
Moving disturbingly fast, it spun and caught Aiden’s blade, breaking it off. Then it had its hand around Aiden’s throat, lifting him off the ground. Its body vibrated as it eyed Aiden. “Do you know what we’d do to boys like you in the pits? Spread those—”
Gripping the meaty wrists, Aiden pulled his legs up and used the shade’s chest as a springboard. The action broke the creature’s hold, and Aiden rolled into the fall, springing back to his feet.
I shot forward, jumping over a bike rack. I hit the stunned shade in the back, knocking it down. We both hit the hard cement sidewalk and rolled, coming close to the edge of a drop-off and the small creek below.
I could have easily tapped into akasha and ended this, but I wanted—no, I needed to feel the brutal savagery of a fight. I needed to get my hands dirty after seeing what they’d done to this place, to these people.
Flipping the shade onto its back, I slammed my fist into the shade’s jaw, knocking its head to the side. I swung my other hand, the one holding the dagger, prepared to wedge the dagger deep in the fucker’s skull.
The shade popped out, and I hit the ground, catching myself at the last minute. “That is getting really annoying.”
Reappearing above me, the shade grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, lifting my heavy ass clear off the ground in a surprising display of strength.
This shade thought it was a badass.
Arching my back, I swung my legs back, locking them around the shade’s waist as I used both arms to break the shade’s hold. I swung down, planting both hands on the dirtied floor. Using momentum and the shade’s weight, I flipped the dumb son of a bitch head over heels.
Popping up, I saw Aiden engage the other shade that must’ve gotten tired of standing around.
I turned around, focusing on the hyped-up shade. “How about you stand still for about five seconds?”
“You’re a god,” it said, its voice deep and guttural. “Why don’t you just take me out?”
“Good point.” Snapping forward, I ducked under the shade’s arm and wrapped my arm around its neck. “I guess I’m enjoying it.” I squeezed as a horn blasted off in the distance.
The shade laughed. “You know what I enjoyed?”
“No,” I grunted as it struggled in my hold. “And I don’t really care.”
“Oh, but I think you will.” It laughed again. “I watched Hyperion drag your bitch across a field of bodies. How’s that for enjoyment?”
What he said caught me off-guard.
The shade swooped down, tossing my ass right over his shoulder. “Dumbass,” it hissed.
I hit the edge of a low brick wall hip first. Pain exploded through me, momentarily stunning me. In an instant, the shade was standing above me. Its hoofed foot landed a direct hit to my midsection, and before I could catch myself, I toppled over the edge.
The fall was only about four feet, but the landing still hurt like hell. For a moment I didn’t move. Apparently I had been relying way too much on my godly abilities, because I was letting this shade get the upper hand.
Not anymore.
Springing to my feet, I ignored the pain and pushed up. Flying through the air, I landed on the retaining wall.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The shade was heading for Aiden. “I thought we were going to play.”
I briefly caught sight of Aiden moving behind the other shade, shoving his blade into its back. Dark, oily blood gushed from the shade’s chest as a hole formed where the heart was.
The shade’s roar of agony told me that blow had hurt.
Aiden yanked the dagger out and the Sentinel threw its head back. Its mouth dropped open as black smoke poured out of it. The Sentinel’s body collapsed to the ground in a heap of useless muscles and bones, leaving only the scent of damp earth behind.
Where in the hell was a furie when you needed one? They liked to eat those things.
Aiden lifted his head, seeing me. “Are you still messing with that one?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged, jumping off the brick wall. “We’re working a few things out.”
The shade looked between us. “I was just telling him how Hyperion used to beat the shit out of his bitch of a girlfriend.”
Clutching the dagger, I stalked toward it. “You really do not know when to keep your mouth shut.”
“You know what’s going to happen?” The shade turned its back on Aiden. “You’re going to lose this war and Cronus is going to make sure you’re alive long enough to watch as he rips the intestines from her body.”
The shade then disappeared.
“Behind you!” Aiden shouted as it reappeared.
I whirled around and swung, so damn done with this bastard and its taunts. Rage, potent and lethal, rolled through me in poisonous waves. “Fuck you.”
I stopped thinking.
Launching forward, I gripped the shade’s shoulder. I bent at the waist, pulling the shade close as I kicked out, my boot catching the creature just below the chin. Its neck snapped back with a sickening crunch. I spun around, feeling my face twist in a mask of rage as I slammed the blade through the neck first, just to hear its guttural scream, and then through the chest.
It, too, opened its mouth, but this one was not escaping to climb down the throat of some other innocent. Fuck no. Tapping into akasha, I hit the black cloud with the deadliest energy out there, utterly obliterating it.
“Fucker,” I muttered, stepping back.
“Do you think there’s—” Aiden’s words were cut off by a grunt.
Spinning around, I caught sight of Aiden flying backward as if the Hulk had just punched him. He flew into the windshield of a SUV and then through it.
Shit.
I spun back, scanning the street. I didn’t see anything and I didn’t wait. Darting over to the SUV, I yanked the passenger door open, finding Aiden sprawled across the front seats.
He wasn’t moving.
Double shit.
Grabbing Aiden under his arms, I hauled his heavy-ass body out of the SUV and into the street. I was about to get the hell out of there when a surge of power rippled along my skin. Glyphs appeared on my skin, and my head jerked around.
Air warped in front of me, and someone suddenly appeared in a crackle of spitting energy. A tall, lean son of a bitch, rocking a blue Mohawk and leather pants. Nothing else.
I dropped Aiden.
He’d be okay.
Eventually.
The Titan stood staring at me, saying nothing as I straightened. Our gazes connected over the distance. I knew who this was based on the way he looked. Oceanus. He hadn’t fed on Josie, but he’d done worse to the other demigod they had.
Much, much worse.
I tamped down my anger. “Nice hair.”
Oceanus smirked. “I didn’t think you’d come, but Cronus was right when he said you would.”
“Now why would you think I wouldn’t?”
The Titan’s pitch-black eyes glimmered. “Do you know how long it took the Olympians to get the balls to face us?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.”
His head tilted to the side. “You’re going to care.”
“Is that so?”
He nodded. “You’re not going to win this war.”
“You sound confident in this,” I said, catching movement out of the corner of my eye. A black mist crept between the buildings, coming from both sides of the street. It curled over the sidewalk, thin and wispy as tendrils flowed off the curb.
Shades.
Lots of shades.
“The Olympians are weakened,” Oceanus said. “Without Ares, they have no hope.”
“We don’t need them.”
Oceanus chuckled darkly. “The young demigods will stand no chance against us.”
The shades were up to something.
They licked at the bodies, slipping over them. It was like a fog of shadows rolling over the still bodies, and that fog seeped into their bodies through the open mouths still frozen in horror.
“Like I said, you will not win this war. Not again.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself of this?” I saw the finger on the nearest body twitch. A leg spasmed on another body.
“I’m not trying to convince you of anything.” The freaky bastard didn’t blink, not once. “I am here to make a deal.”