CHAPTER 18
Ares glared and stoked his mood, keeping it at a rolling boil as he sat on the dark red couch in the cream living room of his apartment, twisted at an angle and hunched over towards Megan where she sat beside him, her knees touching his and his hand in hers.
At her mercy.
He set his jaw, refusing to let his mood even out like it wanted to as she focused on what she was doing to him.
“Remind me again why I’m doing this?” he growled low, showing her just what he thought about what she was doing to him.
Her soulful brown eyes left her work to meet his, shining with amusement over what she was doing, and a lot of warmth and love.
Gods, he loved her.
Maybe that was the reason he was putting himself through this.
He would do anything for her, a trait that had earned his brothers calling him everything from sentimental prick to lovesick idiot. He didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was Megan looking at him like this, her eyes bright and smile quick to come as she pushed her rich brown shoulder-length hair behind her ear and went back to work.
He raked his eyes over her, down her fitted teal jumper to the dark blue jeans that hugged her lean legs, to her pink-tipped toes. Like candy. He wanted to kneel before her and suck on them.
“You lost a bet, remember?” Her words had him forgetting worshipping her and going back to glaring at her.
He grumbled at that little reminder. It had been a stupid bet, and he hadn’t imagined this would be the forfeit for losing it.
“I’m being nice to you, and you only have to wear it for a week.” She moved, angling her body away from him as she reloaded her weapon, and he scowled at his nails as she turned back to him and painted another one with a second coat of black lacquer. “I could have chosen pink.”
He dropped his eyes to her toes and shuddered.
He supposed she could have, but he still wasn’t amused by his plight. A week. His beautiful vixen knew how to torture him.
She was good at painting nails though, hadn’t got a speck on his skin yet.
He cocked his head to his right.
And the black did look pretty good on him.
A swirling sensation went through him.
“Wait!” She swatted his hand when he grabbed the brush from her, clumsily put it into the fiddly pot, and stood.
“Time to go, Sweetheart.” He held his hand out, his holster whipping into it as he pulled Megan against him, and pictured Central Park and the gate there.
“Fucking daemons,” Megan snapped as she clung to him, her words echoing in the brief flicker of darkness as he connected with the Underworld and bounced back out again, landing on the dewy grass in the middle of the dark park.
His thoughts exactly, but he was pissed at the disturbance and the fact a daemon was daring to near the gate, and she was pissed about his nails.
He focused on them as he released her and tossed his guns to her, releasing just enough control over his power to allow his heat to dry them. It was second nature to control it around Megan now, but it still slipped beyond his grasp from time to time. He’d had to buy her a lot of new clothes since she had moved in.
Megan slipped her arms into the black leather holster and drew one of the silver guns, checked it was loaded like a damn expert and eyed the darkness.
It was quiet, too quiet.
“You sure you sensed—” She cut off with a squeak as he pushed her behind him and slammed his fist into the daemon that had suddenly appeared behind her, sending the male sprawling out on the grass.
The male crab-crawled backwards, trying to gain some space.
Ares stalked towards him and cracked his knuckles.
“You be careful of that polish!”
He wasn’t sure whether Megan aimed that order at him, or at the daemon. The male popped to his feet, turned tail and ran. Ares huffed. He hated it when they ran.
Why attack his damned gate and then run?
Daemons needed to learn to have a little backbone and follow through with a plan when faced with him. It would make it quicker to deal with them.
He took a step forwards, intending to chase the male, and frowned as he slowly turned his head to his left.
Another daemon sauntered across the grass towards him, a female with blonde hair tied in a mass of waves at the back of her head, a dark gold metal bikini that was all swirls and spikes, and eyes that glowed gold in the dim light from the streetlamps.
A valkyrie?
Wings erupted from her back as she launched at him, hitting him at the speed of a train, sending him flying through the air with her. Gunshots snapped through the still night, bullets whizzing past the valkyrie’s half-leather half-feather wings as her clawed talons closed around his throat.
He growled and unleashed more of his power, and she hissed through sharp teeth and dropped him as she recoiled.
He stepped, disappearing and reappearing next to Megan, who didn’t take her eyes off the winged bitch.
“What the fuck is that?” She fired again. Once. Twice. A third time as the valkyrie swooped.
The bitch shrieked as the bullet tore through her bare calf and went down, hitting the grass and skidding across it. Bullets wouldn’t kill this one. They would only piss her off.
“Valkyrie.” He risked a glance at Megan, taking his eyes off the female for only a split-second. She was gone when he looked back though, and he turned in a circle, keeping Megan in his line of sight so the female couldn’t target her. “A daemon. One of the powerful sort. Think of them as a sort of mash-up between immortal angel, demon and a harpy. She’s not a true harpy, just an off-shoot from that species, but she’s just as dangerous. She’ll have a charm, an enchantment that protects her. We’ll need to break it.”
Easier said than done.
The valkyrie proved that by swooping out of nowhere, grabbing him by the throat and lifting off with him again, taking him high into the night sky.
He growled and grabbed her arms, and unleashed more of his power, letting flames lick over his hands. The smell of scorched flesh filled his nostrils, and she screamed like a banshee, but didn’t let go this time. Resilient bitch.
“Ares!” Megan called and he could feel her fear, her need to see he was alright.
So he unleashed a little more of his power.
Might have gone supernova and lit up the whole fucking sky for her.
Flames licked over every inch of him, and over the valkyrie too. The second they touched the gold feathered tops of her wings, she released him.
He didn’t release her.
He dug his nails into her flesh and growled as he sent all the flames covering him rushing down his arms and over her body.
She cried out and lashed out at him like a wild thing, slashing with her talons. Fire seared him, blazing along each slash, but he held on, stoked the flames and grinned as she unleashed another long ear-splitting shriek as her flesh charred beneath his hands.
“You picked the wrong brother to fuck with.”
Her golden eyes snapped down to him, all the fires of the Underworld raging in them.
She got her feet against his stomach and kicked hard.
He didn’t have a chance to teleport.
He hit the grass like a meteor, carving a groove in it and ending up in a crater in the dirt, earth showered all over him. Every inch of him burned, a combination of pain from the impact and the heat of his own flames.
Flames that he loved but that had consequences when he unleashed them like that.
Not even the best fire-retardant material could withstand them.
He grunted as he hauled his naked ass out of the crater just as Megan came stumbling to a halt near the pushed up dirt around its edges. He looked up at her as she stared down at his body.
“You doing a Superman sort of thing?” She held her hand out to him, but he didn’t risk taking it, afraid that in his current state he might hurt her.
“Ha ha.” He dragged himself out of the pit. “Superman came to Earth as a naked baby.”
“That’s what I’m seeing. A big, naked, baby. One who cried over getting his nails painted.” She ignored him when he tried to stop her from taking hold of his hand, resisting his attempts to gently swat her away. “At least they’re still in one piece.”
Which was more than she could say for him.
He huffed and brushed the dirt off himself. “Any idea what part of her I need to break?”
He knew Megan had been searching the valkyrie for the charm while he had been fighting.
“I’ll break her eyes if she sees you like this.” Megan scowled at his lack of clothing. “Can you at least fall back to regroup in your apartment for like, five seconds, long enough to put some clothes on?”
He grinned down at her. “Sweetheart, I do believe you’re jealous.”
She turned that pretty glare on him. “Just don’t let your better parts touch her.”
“It’s all yours, Baby.” He stepped before she could roll her eyes and appeared in the air in front of the valkyrie, cutting off the blonde as she arrowed towards Megan.
He caught the female by her neck, twisted in the air and hurled her with all of his strength, sending her slamming into the dirt hard enough that she made her own crater.
He liked to give what he got. He was nice like that.
He dropped to his feet as she did some gardening, landing on the grass a few metres from Megan.
Light shone from behind him, a bright dazzling burst of violet followed by a multitude of colours as the gate awakened, the rings that hovered like a disc above the earth spinning in opposite directions as they expanded.
Valkyrie stared at it as if it was precious and she wanted it, needed it more than life in her breast.
Movement on the edges of his senses had him glancing towards Megan, a desire to pull her to him and shield her bursting to life inside him, but she moved too, raised her gun and pulled the trigger.
Nailed the other daemon between his eyes.
The male slumped and twitched on the ground like someone had pumped fifty thousand volts into him.
Megan put another two rounds in his skull. “That’s for trying to ruin his nails.”
Damn, she was going to be pissy with him if he had scuffed them.
Valkyrie staggered onto her feet and stumbled towards the gate, not seeming to notice he stood between her and it as her eyes remained locked on it. She reached a hand up, stretching towards it, and he felt a little cruel as he held it open, luring her to her doom.
Her skin began to heal as she took each laboured step, her eyes glowing brighter the closer she came to the gate.
“Her metal wrist band thingies.” Megan never had been good with her words. When he slid her a sideways look, she pulled a face at him, as if she knew his thoughts. “Cuffs. Her cuffs.”
“Vambraces,” he corrected, mostly to provoke another glare, because sometimes her scowling at him stoked the fire in him in a good way.
Ares looked at the ones the valkyrie wore, gold in colour and covering her forearms from wrist to elbow. There were markings on them that weren’t valkyrie. It was worth a shot.
He launched towards her.
Her eyes focused, but it wasn’t him they snapped to, they shot to her left.
A patch of violet fog grew there, swirling outwards and growing rapidly, and a sensation of dread went through Ares. He changed course, heading towards Megan, and reached her just as a pale hand emerged from the portal and a disembodied voice spilled from it.
“You are needed elsewhere.” The male hand gripped the valkyrie by her wrist and pulled her into the violet smoke as she opened her mouth to protest, and then the portal disappeared.
Ares didn’t let his guard down. He scanned the park as the gate slowly shrank to his right, keeping Megan tucked close to him, his heart pounding and adrenaline surging through him as he waited.
Waited.
When nothing moved for close to ten minutes, he let out a long slow breath and loosened his grip on Megan.
“You think she’s the one after your brother?” Megan moved forwards, just a step so she was level with him, but it was enough to have his heart lodging in his throat and a need to pull her back racing through him.
He swallowed and nodded, because it made sense to him in a way, but not in others.
“I need to speak with my brothers.” He stepped with Megan, landing in their apartment above Central Park, and caught the phone she tossed at his back as he paced towards the bedroom, using his power to bend it around to his hand.
She had started playing keeper-of-the-phone when he had melted his last one during a fight. It eased him to know she had it too, that she could contact his brothers for help if he needed it, or if she needed it.
He fired off a message calling a meeting in ten minutes, and even that short span of time felt like an eternity as he washed off and dressed in a fresh pair of black jeans and a matching t-shirt, and found another pair of boots.
When he was ready, he held his hand out to Megan.
She placed hers into it, stepped into his embrace and kissed him as he teleported with her, soothing his temper and easing his fear.
She was safe.
But gods, he had been so afraid the wraith would target her.
It wouldn’t take much for such a powerful daemon to kill her.
They landed in Seville, in warm morning sunshine on the broad paved deck outside a sprawling white villa with a ribbed terracotta roof that stood on a hill above sweeping plains that seemed to stretch forever around him. The air was thick with the scent of the nearby olive groves that lined the sides of the hill and dry earth, and the buzzing of busy insects.
Keras paced the length of the white wall of the villa, his pressed tailored black slacks and shirt out of place in such a remote, wild and desert-like place. His older brother worried his black hair, raking his hands over it again and again, not noticing him. He had been on edge since getting Aiko to read his mind, as if he feared the tiny human.
Or maybe he feared what she might tell them.
Whatever his brother was hiding, it would come out eventually, whether he liked it or not. Things had a way of happening like that. Keras couldn’t control everything in the way he controlled himself, even if he liked to think he could.
Marek lounged on a wooden recliner in the dappled shade of one of the larger trees to the left of the villa, yawning as he stretched, his pale linen shirt and earthy brown trousers far more suitable clothing for the climate.
Cal sat in the recliner next to him, dressed in cargo shorts and a black tank that fitted to his athletic frame and revealed packed muscle, his bare feet on the padded seat and his eyes concealed behind sunglasses as he sipped icy fruit juice like he was on vacation.
Daimon appeared, looking worn down as he slumped into a chair on the covered area of patio to Ares’s right, next to the wooden table. “Nothing up at the Tokyo gate yet.”
That was good news at least.
“Did Aiko go home?” Keras finally stopped pacing.
Daimon nodded. “A day late, but she’s home now. Esher isn’t happy. He not-so-politely kicked me out when I went to see him.”
Ares could understand that, but he had a feeling they would be disturbing him again soon enough, even when he didn’t want to worry his brother when he had enough on his plate coping with the sway of the moon.
It was strange having a meeting without him. It wasn’t the first time they had done it, and Esher never really said much during the meetings he did attend, but Ares still felt his absence. He felt for his brother too, stuck in the mansion, wrestling with himself because of the damned moon, and unable to be around his woman.
Gods, it was weird to think that.
Esher with a mortal?
Unthinkable. Insane.
But then love often picked the craziest of choices or made people do the craziest of things.
Valen became a case in point as he appeared, still tugging his black t-shirt on and smoothing it over his combat trousers.
His hair a neon shade of violet.
“What happened?” Daimon jerked his chin towards Valen when Valen looked at him, his eyes on his hair.
Valen rubbed a hand over the long lengths that swept over the top and hung down to his jaw on his right side and scrubbed it around the chopped sides and back. “Eva did it. Pretty cool, huh? She said it suited me.”
He didn’t look sure.
Everyone stared at him.
It was strange seeing Valen so happy, and so damned colourful. Ares shrugged. It did suit him though.
“You look like a pansy.” He grinned at Valen.
Valen glared at him, and then it melted away as he looked down, and a slow smile curved his lips. “You’re one to talk.”
Ares hiked his broad shoulders again, raised his hand and admired his black nails. “I lost a bet and this is my forfeit, and I sort of like them.”
Valen chuckled at that. Keras looked unimpressed, as if a change in hair colour and painting of nails was a sign the entire group was unravelling and going to lose against the daemons.
Keras never really had figured out how to live a little.
“So, what’s this meeting about?” Valen looked to Keras, who pointed at Ares.
“New York just got hit, and we’re not talking regular daemon this time. We’re talking our enemy.” He shifted foot to foot as everyone looked at him, a silence settling over them and all light draining from the air around him as they all turned serious. “A valkyrie. It’s been a while since I fought one, and longer since I killed one.”
“Longer, meaning you didn’t kill this one.” Keras’s green eyes darkened a full shade. “What happened?”
“Our wraith showed up, dragged her kicking and screaming through a portal before I could break the enchantment that protected her. Said she was wanted elsewhere.” Ares fielded a few scowls and some of his brothers muttered things.
But it was Daimon who spoke. “You think she’s the one meant to go after Esher?”
He nodded, and then shook his head. “It’s possible, but I don’t know. Why would she be in New York playing with me if she was meant to go after Esher?”
“Because of the moon?” Calistos offered, and when Ares peered over Megan’s head at him, his younger brother pushed his sunglasses up his forehead. “Esher is more dangerous right now.”
“It wouldn’t hold her back.” Keras this time. “The female is meant to make Esher her pet, according to the wraith and the intel Eva gave us. That means the female is prepared to tackle his darker side, and somehow bring it to heel.”
“Which means, fighting him when he’s under the sway of the moon wouldn’t bother her, because it would probably make it easier for her to achieve her goal.” Marek sat up, placing his feet down on either side of the recliner, his earthy eyes dark with concern. “But right now he’s protected.”
“Maybe that’s the reason she decided to play with your ugly arse?” Valen grinned at Ares when he glared at him. “She can’t mess with Esher.”
Which was a relief.
The wards around the mansion would keep him safe, as long as he stayed within them.
“Any more ideas on the nightclub attack in Tokyo?” He looked to Marek, who nodded.
“It was crude, and clearly unplanned. I’ve gone over everything, all of our accounts, and we’ve never been hit when we’ve all been together.” Marek pushed to his feet and paced towards Keras. “The daemons must have realised we were all together and hastily took advantage of that.”
“Which means it isn’t our enemy, because they want us alive to open the gates.” Valen looked between them all when no one agreed.
A cold feeling went through Ares, and he looked down at Megan.
“Not necessarily,” Daimon said. “The enemy must know that we would be able to protect ourselves from such a pathetic attack, even without warning. We wouldn’t have been killed if the explosion had reached us. Injured yes, but not killed. So if they were behind it, what were they doing?”
Ares stared at Megan, that cold feeling growing, forming ice around his heart. “They were trying to provoke a response.”
“Esher,” Keras bit out, a snarl edging his voice. “But they failed.”
“Esher would have flipped his shit if one of us had been hurt.” Cal looked to Keras. “Wouldn’t he?”
Keras shook his head at the same time as Ares. “Not if we were hurt. He’s proven he can hold it together when we’re wounded.”
“Aiko.” Ares didn’t take his eyes off Megan as ice chased over his skin and he felt the weight of everyone’s gazes on him. “They’re targeting Aiko.”
“Aiko mentioned her father ran a clinic in the Sugamo district.” Megan quickly took hold of his arm, and he stepped to that part of Tokyo.
He swept Megan up into his arms and ran as fast as he could around the streets, looking for any clinics, his heart thundering. He had to find her before their enemy did.
A bright light washed across him and he glanced down at Megan where he cradled her against his chest.
She flashed the phone screen at him, revealing a map marked with red dots. “Marek sent it.”
There were only three clinics in the area.
He stepped to the first one and banged down the door. A kind looking gentlemen answered.
“Aiko?” he said, and the male shook his head.
Fuck.
He kicked off, running out of sight before teleporting to the next one, where he met the same end, which meant the last one had to be Aiko’s house.
He landed outside of it, dropped Megan to her feet, and hastily pounded his fist against the glass door.
A middle-aged woman answered.
“Aiko?” he breathed, struggling for air as he panted.
The woman shook her head, and he thought he was shit out of luck and was going to have to kill Marek for missing a clinic.
“She went… with her… boyfriend. Foreigner.” The woman didn’t look happy about it either.
Had to be Esher.
He nodded to thank her, swept Megan back up into his arms and sprinted away from the clinic, waiting until he was out of sight before he stepped.
He landed in the mansion grounds, heart labouring from the exertion of using his power so much and the anger stirring in his veins.
He was going to kill Esher instead.
He couldn’t believe his brother had been idiot enough to leave the mansion when the moon was full, not after what had happened last time. Or that he was willing to risk Aiko by keeping her around him when he was easily influenced by his power and his darker side.
He didn’t bother to remove his boots, just shoved the door open and stormed inside, ready to give Esher a piece of his mind.
Only his brother looked miserable as he sat on the cream couch to Ares’s right, staring at his phone.
That cold feeling returned.
Aiko wasn’t here.
Ares hesitated, knowing it was a bad move, but he couldn’t not tell Esher.
His brother lifted sombre eyes to land on him, the phone light making them eerily blue, but they quickly darkened, black emerging around the edges of his irises as he rose onto his feet.
“What are you doing here… with her…” Esher snarled, pinning black eyes on Megan.
Gods, he was really going to do this, wasn’t he?
He couldn’t not tell him. Esher would never forgive him.
“Aiko—” Ares cut himself off when Esher fell to his knees, his phone tumbling from his hand, his face going slack as he stared up at him. It killed him to hurt his brother, to push him like this knowing it would probably send him right over the edge, but Esher needed to know. “Aiko is missing. Someone looking like you showed up and took her.”
Red emerged in Esher’s eyes and he bared fangs at Ares.
“No!” He surged to his feet, and outside, the rain fell in a thick sheet that sluiced off the roof and hammered like a waterfall into the courtyard garden to Ares’s left, disturbing the gravel as it pummelled it.
Shapeshifters were rare, a daemon more legend than real, but it was the only explanation Ares had. Someone wearing his brother’s appearance had shown up, and Aiko had gone with them.
“She’s in danger, Esher, you need to focus.”
“No, no… no!” Esher’s fingers dug into the pale yellow mats and Ares backed off a step as his nails transformed into short obsidian claws that scraped long grooves in the straw.
Daimon appeared. “What the fuck did you do?”
Ares flinched and gritted out, “They have Aiko. I had to tell him.”
“Fuck.” Daimon instantly moved to Esher’s side. “Ty—”
Esher didn’t give Daimon a chance to use the word on him. He swept his right arm out, hitting Daimon in the chest with his forearm and sending him flying through the paper panels and into the courtyard.
Black swirled around Esher’s bare arms.
Before Ares could stop him, he disappeared.
Outside, the rain fell so fast that the courtyard was already an inch deep in water, pooling around Daimon as he struggled onto his feet.
The scenery flickered to the otherworld, where the rain fell as streams of white-hot fire, devouring the buildings, a product of Esher’s rage.
Gods help the world.
Because if Esher didn’t find Aiko in time, if he couldn’t save her, it was doomed.
His brother would see to that.