by Helen Scott
“Hey there, angel.” Knox grinned.
I shoved one of the bagels sitting on the small side table in my face and started eating. Apparently, having a five-some made a girl hungrier than normal the next day. “What’s got you all smiley?” I asked between mouthfuls.
“You should take a look outside.” Emmett smiled. The two of them this happy could only mean that something unexpected had happened. Something that meant we were finally on the right track.
I took a few steps to the window and opened the curtains. The ground was covered in a lush green carpet, and the trees were in full bloom. “It didn’t look like that outside yesterday,” I said, concern lacing my voice.
“Exactly. You did that. The power of your orgasm gave the ground around us renewed life.”
I knew it had been spring and everything was growing again, but it had still been in the somewhat early stages. What I could see now looked like the middle of summer. “I did that?” I whispered the question more to myself than to anyone else.
“Yep. Welcome to being the descendant of a god. One of Persephone’s duties, or powers, depending on who you talk to, was to bring spring back after winter. Congratulations on your achievement, my queen,” Emmett said, toasting me from the bed with a piece of bagel.
I sat down heavily. Nothing like that had ever happened before, even when I had been with Emmett and Knox together. Although, my orgasm the previous night was something I’d never experienced before, either. “So, Persephone isn’t responsible for spring anymore?”
“She is, but you have part of her power, so you can bring it on as well. The simple fact that you are a part human descendant is why it’s only a localized event,” Knox said just before he shoveled some eggs into his mouth.
There were so many questions, so much I didn’t yet understand about this whole thing, that it made me nervous. Was anything else going to spontaneously happen? When I sneezed, would it turn to autumn? If we had sex in the Underworld, could that make the rest of it more livable instead of just the garden area they had told me about? Would this happen every time I had an orgasm from now on? In the end, none of the questions were asked, because I couldn’t decide which ones were more important.
I took a deep breath. “So, do you want to know what I found yesterday?”
All the humor in the room evaporated like the morning dew once the sun rises. They both nodded, and I grabbed my phone, swiping until I found my screenshots from the day before as I moved toward them.
“This is the building I saw, and this is the location.” It was practically on the other side of the country from where we were, but the guys looked at it, and a strange silence descended. “What?”
“If we drive there, it will take us a few days, but we could use the darkness and travel there in just a few moments,” Knox said. He was being cautious about something, and I wasn’t sure what.
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
“We can each only take one other person, so if I take you, then Knox could either take Nolan or Cass. The problem is that if we bring you, plus another person then we won’t have anyone who can bring Derek, or whoever, back. Plus, we only have so much energy. We can’t just hop from one place to another, to another. Eventually, our ability to finesse traveling through the darkness, and especially arriving undetected, would get sloppy, which could leave us exposed,” Emmett said.
“Can’t Nolan and Cass travel the same way?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing as I tried to separate out the things confusing me.
“Sure, but in all honesty, they don’t have the finesse to arrive somewhere undetected. You could use the darkness to travel, too, but you’d probably just appear, and that can be a bitch to cover up if the humans realize that someone just popped in out of nowhere.”
“If Hunter wasn’t in the Underworld, we could use him to transport one of them, but the likelihood that whoever we find will be able to transport themselves immediately is basically zero, so one of us needs to remain open for that,” Knox added.
I felt along the bond between us and could feel the nervous energy pulsing through from both of them.
“You should stay behind,” Emmett blurted. “Knox and I will go, and we’ll take Nolan with us, rescue the judge, and bring him back here.”
“No.” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall. “That is most definitely not how this is going to happen. I know what Derek looks like. I know the building. It was my vision, so I’m going.”
“We can just go without you,” Knox added, casually examining his fingernails as though he hadn’t just completely insulted my capabilities.
“You do that, and I won’t be here when you get back,” I snarled at him. My temper was getting the better of me.
They both looked at me as though I’d lost my mind.
“I’m coming with you and that’s the end of the discussion. If you have to, consider it an order as your queen,” I said, pulling out the big guns.
They glowered at me, and Emmett stood, pacing to the window. “You could die. Don’t you see that’s what we are trying to prevent?”
“Yeah? Well, I guess one of you will just have to keep an eye on me, then, huh?” I sighed, trying to expel the anger that had built up inside me with my breath. “Look, I don’t want to get hurt, and I don’t want to die, but I won’t be left behind. Besides, in my vision, there was just the one woman.”
“But we weren’t there in your vision, either,” Knox added.
“True. Maybe that was because I hadn’t told you yet. I don’t know how these things work.”
“Fine,” Knox said. His face looked like a storm cloud about to burst. Clearly his grumpy pants were on. “Go get ready. We’re going to change, and then we’re leaving.”
I nodded and disappeared through the doorway to rummage through my bag. I pulled on jeans and a black T-shirt as quickly as possible, as well as the one pair of decent shoes I had with me. At the last second, I grabbed Knox’s leather jacket and slung it on. The thing the guys didn’t realize was that I was good in a fight. Scrappy. Underhanded. I played dirty, and I usually won. It was knowledge I’d gained over the years working at less than reputable places.
By the time I was ready to go, Emmett and Knox were waking Nolan and Cass to let them know what was going on. There was an immediate backlash, which was precisely why I hadn’t woken them in the first place. They wanted to help.
“If you can move undetected to the other room, then you can come,” Knox said, drawing a line in the sand.
Nolan and Cass looked at each other for a moment before Cass backed off and said, “Go ahead.” A second later, it was as if the sun dipped behind a cloud and the whole room went slightly dark. Nolan disappeared in front of me, and the next thing I heard was him cursing in the other room.
“Why would you leave a suitcase there?” he asked as he stormed back through the open doors.
“Cass?” Emmett asked.
A similar thing occurred. The corner of the room where Cass was standing seemed to be swallowed by shadow, and when it lightened again, he wasn’t there. There was no cursing or sounds of any kind coming from the other room, and when Knox poked his head through the doorway, he pulled it back with a confused look. When a knock came at the door, Nolan opened it to reveal a red-faced Cass.
“I overshot,” he muttered.
“Was there anyone around where you landed?” Knox asked.
He shook his head.
“Well, that’s something, at least.” Knox took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he turned to us all and said, “Cass and Nolan will stay here as emergency backup. We will text you guys if things go sideways. If that happens, I don’t care whether you show up in the middle of Main Street or the local grocery store. Your primary objective is to find Poppy and get her somewhere safe, preferably this hotel room, but don’t push yourself. The main thing is to get her out of there. I will transport Poppy there, and Emmett will bring her back if all goes to plan.” Emmett nodd
ed alongside Knox’s statement, and it reminded me exactly how long they had been working together. “We’ll use the darkness to travel to the closest possible location and then make our way to the storefront. If Poppy’s vision was accurate, then the door to the shop will be open, and we can run in and grab Derek, or whoever she feels drawn to when we arrive. Hopefully, we will be able to avoid any bloodshed and get in and out without any fisticuffs.”
I smirked at the use of the unusual word, but then I realized that he’d probably used it as he was growing up, or at least, within his first lifetime if he was as old as he said. The thought floored me, but I didn’t have time to stop and ponder everything the three heads of Cerberus must have seen during their lifetimes.
“Ready?” Knox asked as he turned to face me. Gone was the tender lover, the naughty gentleman who I knew would care for me through anything, and in his place was the warrior who inhabited the hellhound. The one who would never let anything happen to me.
I nodded and stepped into his waiting arms. The dark and the shadows that resided therein rose up and swallowed us whole.
Chapter Fourteen
Poppy
The shadows swirled around us as we moved, and within seconds, they were fading, revealing the world to us once more. Knox’s arms loosened, and I stepped back. My eyes darted around, taking in my surroundings as Emmett and Knox turned into silent warriors.
“Head up the alley and turn right. The shop should only be a few storefronts down,” Emmett said as he tapped away on his phone screen, presumably prepping the “Oh, Shit” message to send to Cass and Nolan.
The three of us formed a loose triangle, with me at the rear and the two of them in front. It wasn’t quite as suspicious as walking in a single file line, which was what they had originally wanted. The bright sun pierced the shadows of the alley as we neared the road and made me squint.
It felt so good to be warm, to have the sunlight on my face, but now wasn’t the time to relish it. I followed dutifully behind the guys as we walked. We had almost passed it when I recognized the door handle. I tapped them on the shoulders and gestured to the store. They nodded, and I tried the handle. The old door swung open silently, and as we padded inside, a sense of déjà vu passed over me. The floors looked exactly as they had in my vision. There was just one startling difference.
A smear of blood ran parallel to where I walked. Part of me couldn’t make sense of the amount of blood lost. Whoever had been injured had to, at the very least, be unconscious. The edges of my vision clouded with white, but the grunts that reached my ears made my head snap up. It wasn’t white because I was about to faint; it was agents of Hel. They swarmed out of the back, surrounding the guys, who had pulled weapons from somewhere and were promptly lopping off as many heads as they could.
We needed Nolan now. His venomous saliva could at least bring these creatures down. I could have kicked the two of them for not bringing him and Cass along. As they fought, I realized that none of the agents were paying any attention to me, which I found odd. I backed up, a wall coming up behind me sooner than I had anticipated.
I had two options—dive into the fray and try to help the guys, although they didn’t particularly look as if they needed it now that they had a good method for stopping the creatures. Or, I could try to find Derek. As soon as I decided to find the judge, a ball of magic hit me in the gut. Not literally, but it might as well have. I needed to find him, and I needed to do it now while they were all distracted. At least then, if I could get him up and moving, we could use the darkness and teleport out of there whether the fight was over or not.
The trail of blood led to the back of the store, and my gut was in agreement with it. I followed, just like in the vision. There was no one there, though. No Derek tied to a chair. Not a single thing. My gut still tugged at me, though, so I kept following it. First, it was into an office, and then through a small doorway I found at the back. Finally, I could feel myself getting closer. The tugging sensation turned into nausea, and as I burst through the last door, my eyes locked on Derek, and I felt relief wash over me. He was awake and, for the most part, looked mobile.
There was a deep gash on his cheek, and blood crusted around it on his skin. Bruises covered almost every available square inch of him that wasn’t covered by clothes. He looked as if he’d had some awful plastic surgery and was still recovering or was beaten half to death. My money was on the latter.
His eye that wasn’t completely swollen shut looked at me, and he shook his head slightly as though to warn me off as the recognition of finding one of my judges made my magic hum through me. I knew what came next, thanks to my vision. Instead of going to him as I had before, I backed up so I would be hidden by the door when it opened again and shrugged off the leather jacket, not wanting to damage something that belonged to Knox. My only wish was that I had a weapon of some kind. Anything would have been better than nothing. Still, I prepped my body for a fight as the adrenaline surged through me.
“Where is she?” the woman’s voice rang out as the door almost smacked me in the face.
The woman from the bathroom strode through the door toward Derek, her perfectly curled blonde hair swinging behind her, shining like the sun itself against the black leather jacket and the deep teal-green of her silky jumpsuit. Without even seeing her face, I knew her makeup would be perfect, flawless foundation and immaculate penciled-in eyebrows.
I couldn’t watch her hit him just because he hadn’t given away my position yet, so I took two steps and lunged. At the last moment, the floor creaked, and I wanted to scream in frustration. I was always the one who threw popcorn at the TV or movie screen when the kick-ass heroine completely gave away their position because of their need to have a snappy comeback or something similar. Sure, I could have said, “I’m right here, bitch,” before I lunged, but then she would have had even more time to block my attack, which was exactly the opposite of what I wanted.
While she might have prevented most of my initial attack, she hadn’t expected me to stomp down on the bridge of her foot. It left her howling in pain for a split second before she seemed to cast aside any pretense of having emotions and prepared to launch her attack on me.
“Derek is mine,” I all but growled at the woman.
“Of course he is, sweetie, but you can’t have him until I have enough of your blood to secure the Underworld,” she said the same way she had in my vision.
“If you want my blood, you’ll have to come and take it,” I said. Apparently, part of me refused to give in and play the stealthy assassin and insisted on being the witty action hero.
A peal of laughter ripped from her. “What is this? A bad action movie?” She paused and tilted her head to the side just as I knew she would. “If that’s the way you want it . . .” She trailed off with a sigh.
I watched as she kicked off her heels and shrugged out of her jacket just as she had in my vision, and the same as before, she took a stance as if she were Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.
Waiting for someone else to start an inevitable fight wasn’t my style, though, so before she could launch herself at me as I knew she wanted to do, I sent tendrils of darkness to wrap around her, swallowing her as they moved through the room. They were gone in a matter of moments, and I could see her making a blowing motion with her mouth. I tried to mask my surprise as we began circling each other.
“Did you think that would stop me?” She smiled, and there was a glint in her eyes that sent a shiver down my spine. I knew in that moment she would do anything to win, and I couldn’t let that happen.
Her fists flew at me, and I no longer had time to think. My body was reacting purely on instinct. When I kicked my leg out and caught her knee, I was surprised, having not expected to make the connection. I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity, though, so I lashed out, grabbing a handful of her blonde hair and pulling while my fist connected with her jaw. It wasn’t quite where I meant to hit, but it was close enough to make her grunt with pain.
I was on the ground a second later. My face had been crushed into the floor, and I knew if I didn’t move, she would be on top of me and I would lose the fight. I rolled away, pulling the darkness with me so that I could hide myself from her, disguise my movements. My back smacked into the chair, and I heard Derek grunt as the whole thing shook with the force of my impact. The rough wood of the floor scraped across my skin, and as I scooted around the chair to the other side, I found one of the ropes holding Derek’s arms down.
It didn’t matter that blood was streaming from my nose. All that mattered was getting him out of there. Without a second thought, I tugged at the end, trying to undo the knot as quickly as possible. I didn’t get far before she was in front of me again. Her foot came up in a vicious kick and connected with my chin. My head snapped back, and I felt as if it were about to pop off as if I were a doll and not an actual human being. I slid over the floor and felt one of the split pieces of floorboard slice through my jeans into my hip and thigh. I knew I was bleeding from the warmth that covered my chilled skin, but I also knew I couldn’t give up.
I tried not to show it as I glanced past her to where Derek sat. His hand was working at the loosened ropes that bound it to the chair. As soon as he was able to get one hand free, he could get the rest of himself free as well. I couldn’t let on what was happening behind her, so I sneered at the blonde bitch and pulled myself up to my full height before charging at her.
The pain that exploded through my leg almost took me down before I reached my goal, and as soon as I connected with her, I let my full body weight fall on her, and we both landed on the floor. I slammed my fist into her face, and her nose spurted with blood. It didn’t stop her, though. She grabbed my legs and squeezed one painfully while her hand dug into the wound on the other. A scream tore from me as she wiggled her fingertips into the injury, poking at the tender skin and spreading the cut wider.