“I really want to know what’s in that envelope,” Badb said.
Cameron nodded and tore open the top, pulling out a thick sheet of neatly stacked white papers.
“What is it?” Selena asked weakly. She felt sick just thinking about information regarding her ex in Cameron’s hands and wanted to ask him to set the entire stack on fire so she could spit on the ashes. Badb put an arm around her and took a deep breath.
“Ukko’s right. We need to get out of Houston,” Badb said softly.
Cameron nodded and shoved the papers back in the envelope.
“What’s in there?” Selena cried. Her nausea worsened and she looked around the room for a trash can… just in case.
“Address,” Cameron answered. “And he lives nearby.”
“How could Ukko not have known that?” Selena asked.
Cameron shrugged and tucked the envelope in his jeans behind his back. “Because Alan Forester Broussard was never on his radar. He didn’t care about him. And he had no reason to suspect that Alan cared about him or any of the people he was tracking down.”
“What is going on?” Selena shouted.
“We’re leaving to deal with someone else right now,” Cameron answered. “And if I see that bastard, I’m killing him right away.”
Selena turned to Badb with a helpless expression, knowing now that the war goddess could hear her thoughts, so she silently pleaded with her to explain what the hell was going on. Badb’s eyes had turned a steely gray and she gripped Selena’s hand and kept her focus on Cameron. “Where do you want to go?”
Cameron inhaled slowly and Selena felt Badb’s fingers twitch. “We don’t have a choice. We have to confront them. So I guess we’re going back to Baton Rouge.”
Chapter Eighteen
Selena had never been to Quinn’s apartment so she didn’t recognize the buildings at first, the rows of red brick rectangular structures situated neatly around a covered pool. Brown and red leaves lay scattered across the green tarp that protected the complex’s pool from Louisiana’s pitiful excuse for fall and winter weather. The slight chill in the air hardly seemed fitting for a November morning, yet despite the tepid temperature, Selena shivered and wrapped her arms around her body.
Cameron noticed, since he always carefully watched her, and assured her, “They can’t hurt you, Selena. I won’t let them get near you.”
“What makes you think any of your former colleagues are still here? They’ve probably taken off with their Norse gods.”
Badb shook her head and pulled a ponytail holder from her pocket so she could tie her long blonde hair back. She never went into battle with her hair down. “They’re here. I can sense Quinn. And Avery knows we’re here.”
“Oh, God,” Selena whispered. “This is a mistake. I don’t care if they were working with Alan. I don’t care what they were up to. We shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t just kill people for retribution!”
“This isn’t about retribution, Selena,” Cameron insisted. “This is about your safety. Your life. Quinn lied to me. They went after you when Alan failed not because they were trying to keep you out of the hands of the New Pantheon but because they were trying to succeed where Alan couldn’t. Or maybe Alan’s been directing this whole thing the entire time. I don’t know who’s in charge. I haven’t had a chance to read everything Ukko found, but when you met him, he was already working with Quinn and part of this group and they’re being paid by someone to bring in a powerful healer. Quinn’s mistake was that he didn’t realize who I am.”
“You didn’t know who you are,” Selena retorted.
Cameron grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “When we met, you kept saying the situation felt just like what happened with Alan and you were right. I think that’s exactly what they wanted.”
“But why?” Selena whispered. “Who’s paying them? Look in the packet. Didn’t Ukko find out?”
“No,” Badb breathed. “You don’t need to look in the packet. He just arrived here.”
Badb stepped in front of Selena as the door to Quinn’s first floor apartment opened and Quinn’s large frame stepped out, his ruddy face both amused and annoyed.
“Can’t say I ever thought I’d see you again, Cameron,” he said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants as if he weren’t at all concerned about the powerful new sun god who had appeared at his door.
“Really?” Cameron replied. “Because I was certain I’d see you again so I could kill you.”
Quinn snorted and glanced over his shoulder. “Even the almighty Irish sun god has his limits. And his weaknesses.”
“Oh, I have plenty of weaknesses. Soybeans, snakes, the thought of Badb copulating…”
“Selena,” an icy, familiar voice cooed.
Selena backed away from the apartment but Badb wouldn’t let her get far. She held onto her arm and murmured in her ear that they would protect her, but nothing could protect her from her past; nothing could save her from the pain of her own memories.
Alan’s tall, handsome frame appeared in the doorway and he stepped onto the walkway, his chestnut hair and hazel eyes and soft, almost delicate, features exactly as Selena remembered in every nightmare and every tormented memory. But the love and compassion she once thought she saw in his eyes had been replaced by something far more sinister and contemptuous.
“Selena, my darling,” he cooed again.
“Don’t,” Cameron hissed, “talk to her like that again. I don’t care who’s protecting you, I will burn this goddamn building to the ground.”
Alan shrugged and taunted him. “Go ahead and try.”
“Cameron,” Badb whispered. “Let’s leave.”
“Yes,” Alan sneered, “the Irish are good at running and hiding, aren’t they? Too bad there are no sidhe around here.”
Cameron’s fists unfurled and flames leapt from his fingertips, but neither Quinn nor Alan seemed concern about raising the ire of the sun god. Selena’s skin prickled as an unnerving sensation washed over her and she gasped, “Impossible.”
“I killed that son of a bitch!” Cameron yelled.
“It’s not him,” Badb said quietly. “Cameron, let’s go. Now.”
Alan smiled at Selena and looked her over slowly. “What a sacrifice you will eventually make.”
Fire burst from Cameron’s body and Selena fell to the ground, more out of instinct than necessity because the flames never came near her. She squinted through the haze to glimpse the bodies of the demigods and wondered if it were only an illusion, a mind-trick some god was playing that allowed her to think the demigods remained as unharmed by Cameron’s flames as her.
But there were no questions or thoughts of optical illusions when Cameron was hurled across the complex’s lawn, narrowly missing the tarp that covered the pool. Selena flinched as he landed on the hard ground and was certain she could feel the pain in her own back from the impact. She spun around to see how Alan and Quinn, these demigods, these mortals, had hurt the most powerful god in the world.
Selena stood up slowly and Badb immediately pushed her behind her back. The war goddess held her sword in her hand and warily eyed the Aztec god who had joined the two demigods on the walkway.
“Cameron killed you,” Selena whispered. “We all saw it. How…?”
“His brother,” Badb whispered back.
Selena’s body felt cold and hollow as she stared at the Aztec god who hadn’t taken his coal black eyes off of her. “But you’re supposed to be dead…”
The attractive god with copper skin and sleek black hair who looked so much like Quetzalcoatl smiled at her and tilted his head as he studied her, his eyes resting on her chest, her heart.
“You cannot kill what is immortal,” he answered. “You cannot weaken when your veins are filled with the blood of the mighty. Once you become a goddess, I will rule the world.”
Selena shook her head slowly and backed away from the god who continued to smile at her like she would willingly offer her heart as a
sacrifice for his immortality and power. She bumped into Cameron who put his arms around her and whispered, “I’m getting you and Badb out of here. I can’t fight him.”
Selena couldn’t look away from the god who had been planning her murder for almost three years, who had sent Alan to befriend her then pretend he had fallen in love with her; the god who had bought Quinn’s allegiance to search for demigods that were suitable candidates for his sacrifices.
“Who are you?” she hissed.
The Aztec god bowed his head, a condescending gesture of acknowledgment, and in a voice that slithered answered, “I am Huitzilopochtli.”
Battle of the Gods, Book Four of The Unbreakable Sword series
Also by S.M. Schmitz
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Other titles by S.M. Schmitz
The Resurrected trilogy, a science-fiction romance (also available in The Complete Resurrected Trilogy Box Set)
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And a company that wants her dead for existing.
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The Chosen, a Resurrected series novel
They promised her happily ever after. Instead, they gave her Hell. Now, she's getting revenge.
When Bella agreed to travel to Earth to start a new life with the man she loved, she’d been promised two things: healing dead human bodies so they could live on this planet always worked, and they could have the happily ever after forbidden to them at home.
But soon after arriving on her new planet, she discovers both of those promises were lies. And the consequences for trusting the wrong people are deadly.
After six years of hiding from the company that helped her cross over, she is approached by a beautiful but mysterious stranger who offers her a different kind of promise: the chance for revenge. And Bella’s journey to end her own nightmare and to seek justice for the man she’d once loved is finally able to begin.
Genesis Rising (The Genesis Project, a science-fiction series)
I am not a man. I am not human.
When Drake awakens in an unfamiliar room with no memories, Dr. Mike Parker reveals the answer to Drake’s puzzling existence through a silent directive sent to the microchips in his brain intended to control his thoughts and behavior. The Genesis Project created him to be the perfect special operations soldier, but as the product of advanced genetic engineering, the lines are immediately drawn in his mind: he is not human. He is the property of the Project, incapable of free will, and he shouldn't have his own thoughts or reservations.
Five years later, those codes that made him believe he’s not really a man and that he’s not really human are tested when he meets Saige, the first woman who’s ever made him reconsider what it means to be human. Not only will he finally begin to question what he is, but he will discover that the transformative powers of falling in love are stronger than the fears that have kept him tethered to the Project for years.
But his love for her will have far more dangerous consequences than he could have imagined, and their only chance for survival may lie in Drake’s own ability to overcome the beliefs that have been so deeply ingrained within him.
The Immortals series, a fantasy & mythology series (also available in The Complete Immortals Series Box Set)
When demons refuse to play by the rules, all Hell will break loose.
Colin and Anna are sent to Baton Rouge by the Angel with only one directive: keep their past a secret, including their relationship. Believing their new mission would be short-lived, Colin agrees, but as the months pass and the demons they’ve grown accustomed to fighting defy every rule of war between Heaven and Hell, it seems more and more likely that the city has nothing to do with the unusual behavior of these demons and everything to do with this couple.
Connected by a gift from the Angel, Colin and Anna have long shared a bond she promised was unbreakable, but when Anna disappears from him, Colin will discover that the demons he’d agreed to fight on behalf of Heaven are far from the most terrifying creatures to walk the Earth.
The Golden Eagle, a romantic suspense
After a vicious second civil war in the U.S., the states that seceded are occupied, and the people there live by different rules.
Jon is the highest-ranking officer in an elite Task Force whose purpose is shrouded in mystery. Ava is just trying to survive the occupation after two years of brutal war. After meeting unexpectedly, they discover they are both willing to risk everything for the chance to love one another. But what those risks entail may be far greater than anything either could have imagined.
Dreamwalkers, a paranormal psychological suspense
My father used to tell me our pasts shaped our presents and our presents shaped our futures and that we could never really get rid of our pasts. The deeds of our fathers and grandfathers and their fathers before them lived on forever, and we would have to live with the choices they made as well as our own so he would warn me to choose wisely. But I never understood my father. Not until my thirtieth birthday. And then everything changed.
After losing his father to suicide, Gavyn Cooper becomes convinced that his dad’s odd ramblings were nothing more than the product of mental illness. But on his thirtieth birthday, Gavyn begins having vivid dreams that transport him into the world of Caleb Ellis, a young man who lived on a sugar plantation in 1835, and he is forced to question not only his own experiences but his father’s as well. Now, Gavyn will have to make a choice between following in his father’s footsteps or writing his own future.
The Cambria Code series, a science-fiction romance
When a mysterious spaceship appears above Cambria, Zoe remains skeptical that it’s anything but an elaborate hoax. By the time the first spaceship is joined by two others, Zoe reluctantly admits that Earth has been invaded, even though it’s a pretty lame invasion: the aliens look remarkably human and keep to themselves. From what humans are able to learn about them, they seem incredibly arrogant and boring anyway.
After meeting Peyton, one of Earth’s newest residents, Zoe feels an immediate attraction to him although she is reluctant to become involved with someone who isn’t even human. But she soon discovers that these aliens are far more dangerous than they’ve led everyone to believe, and the secrets they are hiding may signal the destruction of her entire planet.
Sample Chapter from Battle of the Gods
Chapter 1
Battle of the Gods, Book Four of The Unbreakable Sword series
Cameron paced the length of the Dagda’s hall and Selena watched him carefully for any sign that his nervousness would transform into that deadly anger he couldn’t control. So far, he only seemed agitated and worried because Huitzilopochtli posed a challenge no one had been prepared for. The gods, even the other Aztec gods, had thought he was dead, and yet, he’d been quietly and
secretly harvesting the hearts of weaker gods and powerful demigods for years.
And most alarming to everyone in the room now, Cameron hadn’t known how to combat him at Quinn’s apartment. If the most powerful god among the Tuatha Dé couldn’t fight him, what chance did the others have?
Selena grabbed his hand as he passed by her again and stopped him. She’d heard voices in the hallway and recognized some of them as their Greek allies. She kissed him quickly and looked into his dark brown eyes, whispering, “It’s not over, Cameron. We have each other, which means we still have hope.”
“Selena,” he whispered back, pushing some of her blonde hair behind an ear. “I can’t fight the entire world. We were only told about this war with the Norse, but now it’s Mithra and Huitzilopochtli and God knows how many demigods he’s recruited to work for him.”
“Well, this god doesn’t know,” Badb answered.
Selena looked over her shoulder at her friend who had been joined by Athena and Ares. The Dagda and Poseidon stood behind them, each wearing such grave expressions that the momentary confidence she’d felt in trying to lift Cameron’s spirits evaporated.
But Selena hadn’t survived this long to allow some asshole Aztec heart-stealing god to take away her future home and, worse, everyone she loved.
“I get it,” she said. “We’re facing what looks like impossible odds. But we’re not necessarily outnumbered. We have our own allies…”
“And we’ll never abandon any of you,” Athena interrupted. “But Selena, this isn’t one battle. We’re divided by different threats, which means we’re being pulled in different directions.”
Treasures of the Gods (The Unbreakable Sword Series Book 3) Page 18