The Pandora Principle: A Paranormal Romance Novel (Divine Resonanace Book 1)

by Noree Cosper

  Police officers stood at the edges of the yellow tape that surrounded the building with stern, blank expressions. Their compatriots were inside, investigating the scene of the accident. A bitter laugh burst from my lips. A crime had happened here, but the police would never know that. This was just another tragic suicide to be closed by the end of the night.

  "Miss Wayne?" A detective looked down at me with a concerned frown in his hazel eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss, but I have a few questions, then you are free to go."

  I licked my dry lips and nodded to him. "Sure."

  "You were friends with Miss Hayes?" He pulled out a small notepad and a pen.

  "Yeah, we hung out," I said.

  "Was she acting any different? Do you know of anything that could have triggered this?"

  The dryness moved to my throat, and I trembled. "She's been attacked on a date. I tried to get her to report it, but..."

  His brow furrowed, and he frowned at his pad. "I see. Did she tell you the name of her assailant?"

  "What difference does it make? There's no one to speak against him."

  "I'm just trying to gather all the information available."

  "Marcus Baxter." I sighed. "But he'll never admit it."

  "Unfortunately, you're probably right." A brief touch of sympathy entered his tone. "I understand you were present for the suicide of James Thorne?"

  I nodded, staring at the sidewalk as my chest squeezed. Another death at the daimon's hand that I failed to stop. I pressed my finger into my tattoo, trying to revive the burning, hell even the tingling, any sort of indication. Nothing happened. The burning had disappeared soon after I'd entered the auditorium, too quickly for me to narrow it down. The tingling had faded when Mercer—no, Hermes—and Serenity had left a short time ago. My interview was one of the last ones the police were conducting.

  "Were you present when this one happened?"

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Uh, no. I was speaking with Mr. Chaplin in another room. We heard the gunshot."

  "What were you discussing?"

  I glanced up at him with narrowed eyes. "What does that have to do with anything?"

  He gave me a bland smile and brushed a lock of brown hair back from his face with the hand holding his pen. "I'm just trying to get all the facts, ma'am."

  "We were talking about aspects of the project," I said.

  "And what is your role?"

  My jaw tightened. Did he treat all these interviews with these questions? Maybe my paranoia was overblown. After all, the police would still mark this as a suicide case. Sheridan had shot herself, and there was no physical evidence that would say otherwise.

  "I'm the journalist assigned to the project," I said.

  "Do journalists often speak privately with Mr. Chaplin?"

  I gave a harsh chuckle. "Well, he is funding and heading this project. He's the man to go to for the best story. I really don't see what this has to do with Sheridan."

  He leaned closer and studied me with a hard gaze. "You have extraordinary hair. Interesting color."

  I stiffened. "Oh, that's not weird at all. Look, do you have any more questions? I'm ready to go now."

  He pulled out a card and handed it to me. "That's all for now, though we may be in touch."

  I pocketed the card and headed to the tape. After a wave from the detective's hand, the policeman lifted it up for me to duck under. I hurried into the parking lot and to my car, squinting in the glare of the flashing lights. The few police milling about spared me a small glance before going back to their surveillance.

  I slid in my car and drove to the parking lot on the other side of campus. It was deserted, as I thought it would be. One or two cars were parked with a sea of spaces between them. I sighed and gazed at the buildings then down at my wrist. Only my pulse answered my silent question. Why was I even here? The daimon had probably long left the school altogether.

  Despite this, I climbed out of my car and walked to toward the dorms. A group of students gathered around the stoop and talked quietly with each other. They glanced my way and continued whispering as I trudged by them. As I passed another dorm, my wrist began to tingle, like tiny pinpricks uncoiling. Another murmur of voices floated on the air from my left. I pivoted and marched the direction with quick, determined steps.

  Hermes's voice drifted from around the corner of the building. "This would have happened if I came here or not."

  The gritty bricks dug into my back as I pressed against the dorm and peeked around the corner. Serenity stood in front of Hermes with her shoulders stiff and her fists clenched while he stared down at her with an almost sad, pitying look. Once again, I had walked in on another argument between the two of them. I sighed and stepped out from the building, clearing my throat. Serenity spun around, and her already stormy expression darkened.

  "Great," she said. "Now the two of you are going to start making out or something."

  I frowned as a guilty feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. "What are you doing out here?"

  She jabbed her finger in the direction of Hermes. "Ask him. He's the one who dragged me out here."

  Hermes rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I was hoping we could trace the thing responsible. I thought if Serenity witnessed it, she could vouch for me."

  I crossed my arms with a smirk. "She already has, in a way."

  Serenity shot me a death glare and I shrugged. Hermes looked between the two of us with raised eyebrows.

  "Really?" he asked Serenity.

  I gave a soft snort of a laugh. "Anyway, if you're out here chasing it, then you know who the daimon is."

  He gave me a mysterious smile. "Maybe."

  "Who is it?" I kept my eyes from his lips and pushed the memory of them on my skin away.

  "What will you give me?"

  "I won't kill you."

  He yawned and tilted his head at me. "You weren't going to anyway."

  Serenity threw up her hands. "Oh, just tell her. I'd like to go home instead of standing here in the dark looking for something I can't find."

  "What exactly are you?" I asked. "I thought any god should be able to sense others."

  "I'm Serenity." A sarcastic smile formed on her lips.

  "That's not any god I've heard of," I said.

  "You also took two months to figure out him." Serenity jabbed her thumb in Hermes's direction. "Honestly, you need to brush up on your mythology or something."

  "I don't need to memorize it," I muttered. "That's what Google is for."

  Hermes chuckled. "Serenity is my daughter."

  My jaw damn near hit the pavement. "No way."

  Serenity sighed and crossed her arms. "Unfortunately."

  I studied the two of them with narrowed eyes. They both had dark hair, but his was almost black and hers had hints of brown and gold in it. Her face was more rounded at the cheek in comparison to his angular bone structure.

  "I'm failing to see the resemblance," I said.

  Serenity rolled her eyes. "He took this form so he could try to win me over as a friend or something."

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "How else could I do it? You refuse to accept me as your father."

  She turned his direction and balled her fists up again. "You ignored me for seventeen years. What kind of father does that?"

  He let out a long sigh and took a patronizing tone. "We've been over this before."

  "Not knowing I existed is a shitty excuse," she said. "You go around fucking whoever you want, even my best friend here, and you don't give a damn to what happens to them afterwards."

  His hot gaze locked me in my spot before he looked back to her. "This really isn't the time to talk about this."

  She laughed bitterly. "It never is."

  Yeah, this was getting weird. I glanced behind me, trying to resist the urge to back away from this little drama slowly. My stomach churned and flip flopped as my emotions went to war inside of me. It felt wrong to want him on so many levels, especiall
y with Serenity here yelling at him for being a bad father. Yet, when I looked at him, my heart squeezed in my chest and my body craved his warmth.

  I shook my head. This is what happened when gods became involved in mortals. And beneath it all was the empty hole that Sheridan once filled. I swallowed the lump in my throat as the reality of it hit me. She was really gone. I had failed her.

  I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop the sobs from coming out and spun away from the both of them. Their continued arguing faded into the background as I stumbled back to the parking lot. I slammed my fist on my trunk and leaned over as a muffled cry left my throat. My breath came out in strangled gasps as tears streamed down my cheeks.

  And in my moment of another emotional breakdown, my tattoo burned. A figured stepped out of the shadows and under one of the street lamps.

  James's pale, dead eyes stared at me, and his lips curled in a twisted, predatory grin.

  24

  My blood froze in my veins, and an ill feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Beyond the murkiness of James's eyes lay a squirming darkness filled with a never-ending hunger. If any human had seen him, they would have screamed zombie. I knew better.

  A ker stood before me. When Pandora opened the jar, the keres, the daimons of violent deaths, escaped in droves. They enjoyed trolling battlefields and preyed upon the dying. I don't know what the ancient Greeks were thinking when they spun stories of the keres all those centuries ago. Maybe they wanted to sleep safe in their beds with the belief that everything served a purpose, so they told their children that keres sent the dying souls to the underworld before feeding on their blood. The keres never cared about blood.

  "Another pretty pandoran." James's vocal cords strained under its words and came out in a wheeze.

  "Oh, you've met us." I gulped down the bile in my throat and stepped back in a defensive stance. "I guess the last one didn't give you a big enough ass whooping."

  He gave a rippling laugh as he darted to the side. "He wanted you saved for last, but why should I listen? He's ignored us for so long. I want to taste your soul."

  Yep, the keres fed on the souls of people who died violently.

  "Who is he?" I asked.

  He smiled, a pale resemblance of what it had been when James had lived, causing my chest to tighten. "You're a little slow. I hope you fight better than you think."

  "I guess you'll find out soon enough." I brought my hands up. "But James's will be your last meal."

  "You're doomed either way. You should just let this happen. It'll be quicker." He laughed and, with the flick of his wrists, his fingernails grew into jagged claws.

  He gave a dry screech and flew at me. As if a switch had been flipped in me, all the sorrow and tears boiled up inside me and became something scorching. I would rip this thing from James's corpse and drain it until it was nothing but a memory. His claws slashed at my face. I stepped to the side and brought my knee up into the creature's abdomen and was rewarded with a dull thud. I hopped back, sucking the air between my teeth and shaking my hand.

  He laughed, a rattling of phlegm in lungs that shouldn't work, and patted his chest. "You'll have to hit harder than that for me to feel anything."

  My rage boiled over, filling my veins, and flames sparked from my fingers until my hands were two balls of fire. It was my own, a part of me and my resonance, and unlike my aunt's fire, I felt no heat. He would, though. He'd scream until there was nothing but ashes.

  He smirked. "The other one thought fire would help her, too. Then I drove my claws into her stomach and pulled out her innards. Let's have a repeat performance."

  "You talk too damn much," I said.

  I came in with my fiery fist raised to strike his head. He ducked to the side, like I knew he would. He watched my hands when he should have been watching all of me. I spun around and kicked his legs out from under him. He flopped on the ground with his eyes wide with surprise. I brought my fist down to his chest, but he rolled out of the way, and it slammed into the concrete instead.

  A jolt erupted from my knuckles and traveled up my arm. The ker jumped to his feet with surprising spryness for a dead body.

  "Go ahead and burn me up." He cackled. "I'll just find a new one. This soul is all but gone anyway."

  I swallowed and let the flames die down. As much as I wanted this thing gone, frying James's corpse wouldn't do it. I had to suck it up. I flexed my fingers, trying to get rid of the tingling sting, and brought my hands up. His grin stretched wider, revealing pointy jagged teeth.

  In a blur of motion, he rushed at me, his claws aimed at my abdomen. I batted his arm to the side and jabbed two knuckles in the side of his throat. He grabbed my wrist and twisted, yanking me forward. My whole arm went numb, and I was forced to my knees as it was pulled behind my back. The ker leaned down so his mouth was close to my ear. The stench of rot and death gagged me.

  "Do you think the Fates will tell me the future from your entrails?" he asked. "Either way, it'll be a fun night for me."

  He raised his hand, his claws yellow in the street light. I slammed the palm of my free hand into his face and let the fire roar. His screamed echoed through the night as the flames licked his flesh. He threw me away from him as if I was a pebble and not a hundred-and-something pound girl.

  I flew through the air and hit the pavement on my shoulder, forcing my breath out of me in a rush. I wheezed and gaped in shock as I pulled myself to my knees. The ker was holding my car with one hand. With a sneer filled with malice on its melted face, it tossed my freaking car at me. Metal groaned as it came rocketing my direction.

  There was no way I was dodging this one.

  25

  The wind battered against me, filled with the scent of patchouli and olives, and the world blurred into an array of colors. When everything came into focus, I found myself in Hermes’s arms on the other side of the parking lot. My car crashed into the pavement where I had been with a boom that shook the foundation.

  The screeching of crunching metal reverberated through the night, drowning out all other sounds. Fire bloomed in the air and eclipsed the pale light of the streetlamp. I winced and pressed my face into Hermes's shoulder. As his arms tightened around me, my pulse sped up faster than it had with an evil spirit possessing my dead ex-boyfriend and trying to kill me. His emerald gaze pulled me in, and I felt like I was falling.

  "Can you stand?" he asked.

  "Yeah," I yelled and winced. "Sorry."

  He set me down with his hands resting on my hips as he held me close to the length of his body. I took a deep breath to calm the pounding my heart and spun away to face the ker, or should I say where the ker had stood. Flames ate away at the corpse that lay in the asphalt.

  I glanced at Hermes with a raised eyebrow. "Was that you?"

  He stared at the space beyond the wreck of my car. "No."

  Serenity hovered near the sidewalk leading to the dorms with her arms crossed. She looked from the car to me with wide eyes as the color drained from her face. My aunt wheeled herself into the light near one of the undamaged cars in the back of the parking lot and glared at both of us. A small ball of flame formed in her right hand as her jaw tightened as her gazed locked on Hermes.

  "Move, girl," she said. "I need to clean up ya mess."

  Hermes held his hands out. "I haven't done anything to you."

  "Yet," she said.

  I stepped in between them and spread my arms. "Hold up. He just saved me from being crushed by my own car. I don't think he's doing this."

  "Were ya listenin'?" Aunt Jo snapped. "It practically said it was workin' for him."

  "The ker mentioned a he, but he never said who." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Just how long were you listening in?"

  She snorted. "Long enough to see how out of practice ya are. Now move so I can finish this."

  I crossed my arms. "And you really didn't feel the need to, I don't know, step in and help?"

  "I was tryin' to see how good you were." She shook
her head. "Piss poor."

  Hermes cleared his throat and put a hand on my shoulder. "As much as I appreciate it, I don't need you to block me."

  I turned my glare to him and held a finger up. "Just go. Take Serenity and get out of here. I'll deal with you later."

  "I look forward to it." He smirked and gave a small bow to my aunt. "Take your time with your argument. No one is going to come investigate."

  In a rush of wind filled with the scent of olives, he vanished, leaving behind a chill in the warm fall air. I wrapped my arms around myself and walked to the remains of my Honda. Glass crunched with every step I took, shredding the little control I had. My car lay upside down with the roof crushed to where the whole top bent backward. The front bumper was smashed into the car with the entire nose twisted upward.

  My fingernails sliced into my palms as I tightened my hands into fists. "How in Tartarus am I going to explain this?"

  "That's the least of ya worries." My aunt wheeled up behind me. "Ya let both of them get away. All three if ya count the girl."

  I spun around. "I wasn't the one who burned the body. Don't put that on me."

  "What was I supposed to do? Least now it has to find a new one."

  "Yeah, about that. You said that we were being hunted."

  She sat up straighter. "Well, ya can see that now."

  "Whose body did the ker use to chase you?" A cold pit settled in my stomach. "Was it one of my cousins?"

  She snorted and waved her hand. "Like the Pyrrha would let that happen to her children. It was one of the Millers from up North."

  "So, you knew. You intentionally brought that thing here and didn't tell me."

  "I wanted to see how skilled ya were." She shook her head with a grimace of disgust. "We're gonna have to start all over with yer trainin'."

  My hand shot out and slammed into her face. Her head flew back with a look of astonishment coming over her face, and the wheelchair toppled to the side as her whole body jerked from the force of my blow. My rage overcame the flash of guilt that bit at me for hitting a disabled woman. Fuck her. She deserved this one.