Chapter Two
“I have a job for you,” Ares said to the men gathered at the large table. “My descendant was nearly killed. If not for Apollo, she would be dead now. He did things best not to speak of to keep her alive before medical help could arrive. Will you accept this job?”
“You know you don’t need to ask,” Gareth said. “Especially since it’s your family. We consider you part of our dysfunctional family, so we’re there for yours.”
The other men nodded.
“What details do you have?” Nolan asked. “Do we know who tried to kill her?”
Ares nodded and took a deep breath. “Thank you. All of you.” He bowed his head with his fist to his heart, a warrior’s sign of thanks. “What I’ve learned from Apollo and looking in on the police case is that when she went into her home, someone was waiting for her. She was shot at close range by a .357. Before you ask, she’s only alive because Apollo got antsy she’d missed their lunch meeting and popped in. When he found her in a pool of her own blood, he did something he shouldn’t, and she’s alive now. So, the danger is going to be two-fold: The human that shot her, and the beings that saw her when she passed into the underworld. Questions?”
“Good thing he got antsy,” Wyatt said. “But I must ask, what exactly do you mean when you’re talking about the underworld? I vaguely remember my high school mythology courses, and the brush up you gave us during training helped, but could we be a little more specific here? Lay it out for us, Ares. What shit’s coming our way on this one?”
“As in where Hades is held prisoner.” Ares cut to the chase. “He’ll send his big guns after her. Because he saw her, he thinks that she’s the final key, the one that will let her out of his prison. He thinks so because she was able to walk in and then out of his realm. She’s not, but she is important to me, and therefore I’m coming to the only men I know who will move heaven and earth to keep her safe. The lot of you.”
Ares took a seat and sighed. Running his hands through his hair, he continued. “The Morae have said that because her soul was in Tartarus, she’s now able to be pulled there by Hades in her dreams until she gets the protection of her bonded mates. No, I don’t know which of the two of you are hers, but whoever it is, you will damn well take care of her.”
Mikhail snorted, and Gareth let out a laugh. Victor and James just grinned. The others shared looks among themselves. “Whoever happens to be hers, may hell have mercy on your soul, because the gods won’t if he’s leading the assault,” James said. He laughed when Nolan punched him in the arm. “Come on, you guys, show a little humor here. The God of War will be someone’s in-law. If you ever need a problem taken care of, you can have him wipe them from the face of the planet. Doubt it would even be a strain.”
“Except I have rules I abide by as well. If not, the little fucker who shot her would be dead in the worst of possible ways. As it is, his identity is being held secret from us. And neither Apollo nor I know why. Even Artemis, who watched her be shot, doesn’t know who the shooter was. It’s not a good situation. It almost sounds to us as if he’s an acolyte of Hades. If that’s the case, it means he’s going to be able to hide in plain fucking sight.
“What pisses me off the most is Hades has somehow figured out who we’re watching in this lifetime and has hidden his minions from us. We still haven’t figured out how, and before you even ask, no, I can’t share anything with you—yet.”
“From the gods, maybe,” Gareth said. When everyone looked his way, he shrugged. “What? Like Ares said, the gods have rules they have to abide by so all of humanity doesn’t get wiped out. I think those rules went into place sometime after Ares went on his temper tantrum around the world, though.”
Mikhail chuckled at that, and Ares sent him a murderous look. Fucker was too cocky for his own good. They all were.
“My point is that the gods may not be able to see the guy coming, but that’s why you recruited us. We were pretty damn good before your training session—now we’re damn badass,” said Gareth.
“I was already badass, thank you very much.”
“Yes, Mik, you were.” Gareth rolled his eyes. “What the gods have hidden from their view won’t be from us. While there may be forces at play trying to keep this on the DL, it’s only for the gods. This guy comes for her, we see him coming, and we nail his ass to the wall. But I do have another question for you, Ares. If this guy is an acolyte of Hades, is he still human? In other words, does he have any tricks up his sleeve that will end up fucking us over because we’re behind the eight-ball?”
Ares tilted his head. “He has a few tricks, but he’s like you. He was trained by Hades and given enhanced abilities as you all were. He’s still human, just more. At least that’s our summation since we can’t see the man.”
“Okay, so we go in with the assumption he’s like us, if not more depending on how much training he got from Hades,” Nolan said. “We don’t let our guard down. Can we move her, get her somewhere we deem secure, and hole up until the threat is gone?”
“Yes. She’s being released from the hospital tomorrow. Apollo already told her she can’t go home, so she knows she’s going into protective custody. She doesn’t realize the only reason she’s alive and able to be moved is because he poured a shitload of power into her. Another thing we still don’t know is how it will affect her. He couldn’t let her die, though. I would have done the same for Camilla.”
“We know you would, Ares,” Mikhail said. “You gods might be pains in the ass to us, but you do what needs to be done for one of your own. We’ll arrange for the safe house and go from there. We need everything on her as well. No detail is insignificant.”
Ares nodded and began to tell them all about Rachael. “She works for the U.S. Government. You see.” He shifted nervously—the God of fucking War, and he was nervous! He stood and looked at every man in turn. “The woman I got pregnant was the daughter of Hephaestus. So, because of that, Rach is able to create the most beautiful and deadly of weapons. Your government loves her. They vie for her attention often, and she works for them simply because she needed a job and they recruited her right out of MIT at seventeen.” The combined power of two bloodlines in her veins was likely why Hades thought Rach was the final key, Great. Yep, Ares had fucked up when he’d screwed the demi-goddess, but damn, she’d been worth it.
Mouths gaped as they all stared at him. He knew when they started to process what he’d told them, because they went back to making their notes. Wyatt, though, shook his head slowly. “Unreal,” he muttered. “You do realize the likelihood this has something to do with her skills and that just made this mess even bigger, right? As soon as competitors catch wind of her being injured, they’re going to do everything to keep her out of the game. Don’t even get me started on what foreign governments might already be plotting since she’s out of commission.”
“Owen, put out the word to all your contacts. We need them to keep an eye on their respective governments, and all coded messages. If one of them sends someone to either kidnap or kill her, we need to be aware,” Gareth said. “Jesus, this keeps getting better and better.”
“I know. Trust me, I know. The DOD has sent men to watch over her, but Apollo killed one of the men because he tried to push an air bubble into her IV line after surgery. It’s a clusterfuck, and you all need to think about bringing her here sooner rather than later.” His gaze turned to Mikhail. “I know that this is your home and you don’t want any unknowns here, but I wouldn’t put Camilla in danger if I didn’t trust this girl. I do. Not just because she’s my blood, but because she’s something more. I don’t know how to explain it. You’ll see, though.”
It was strange. The girl created weapons as deadly as Ares, but she had an innocent air about her that made people want to pull her close and protect her. Then again, it could have something to do with how small she was. The girl was like a pixie.
“Another thing. The last thing, I hope.” Ares saw those gazes swing to him in disbelief once more. “She’s severely anemic. It’s because of the ability she inherited from me. She’s never been trained on how to release it from her body. She can make the smallest of wounds gape and bleed out. She is like a Siren’s call to blood. That ability turns on her more often than not and attacks her own blood cells. Once she’s been trained, the anemia should blow over, but we have to ensure she’s trained first.”
Mikhail was staring at him when he finished, so were most of the others, but it was Mik’s gaze he met. He couldn’t read the other man: Mik was an oddity among humans in the stillness he could bring over himself. Not just of body, but of mind, too. “We’ll take her to the safe house until she’s ready to travel. Then we’ll bring her here,” Mik said finally. All eyes shifted to him in shock. “It’s the safest place for her to be, and somewhere we know better than anything on this rock.”
“Again, my thanks to you,” Ares said. “Now, do you all need anything more of me? If not, I’m going to go and hunt down Camilla so I can give her a hug. I need a feminine hug, and not of the sexual nature, either, Mikhail, so pull your head out of your ass.”
“Considering she sees you as her goofy uncle, I know exactly what it is,” he said with a smirk. “She was cleaning up a room for our new guest. We’re putting her in the east wing on the third floor.” Mik lifted a brow, and Ares tried to figure out how the hell they could have even known what was coming.
“Damn, if I didn’t know better, I would swear you had an Oracle in you.” Ares shook his head and laughed.
Mikhail stepped forward finally. “You all know what you need to do. Get to it. We leave in four hours, so we need to know as much as possible before then. Dig, and dig deep. Owen, get us into her files with the DOD, but do it nice and smooth. No need to get their fucking backs up any more than they likely are. We’re conducting this like a black op. No one outside this room knows anything. Anyone we need to use, or borrow, is only told exactly what is necessary to play their parts. I want everyone in full gear when we get there, so pack appropriately. We’ll be going in under our military covers since they fit the situation best. Ares, update Apollo so he doesn’t try to cook our asses when we show up at the hospital.”
“Don’t worry. He knows your team and is waiting for you.
“Let him know our timetable, and you’d better go find the ladies. They’ll be antsy as soon as they know we’re heading out. Get a move on, guys. We have shit to do and places to go. We’re also under the gun on time.”
Mikhail leaned into Gareth and said something even Ares couldn’t pick up. The other man gave a nod and left the room ahead of the others already filing out. “Ares, you’ll keep an eye on them for us?” Mikhail asked as he filed out last, as was usual for him.