Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4

by Heaton, Felicity

  When his brothers learned what she had done, they would want to hurt her. Could he let them do that, when he honestly couldn’t say whether she had betrayed him or not? It felt like a betrayal, but he was jaded, his view coloured by his past.

  The darkness he had managed to push back and contain rose within him again as he looked at her, as his shoulder burned and the shackles around his wrists weighed them down. It condensed into a malevolent force, a hunger that wouldn’t be denied.

  Marek turned away from Caterina, exited the cell and closed the door. He slid the bolts across, sealing her in the dark room, and peered through the small window of bars at her where she lay on her back, every inch of her shaking.

  She was safer in there, away from him.

  At least until he was back in control of himself.

  Although regaining that control was going to take her telling him everything. Only then would he be able to even begin believing her.

  He trudged away from her, his feet heavy as the darker part of him grew restless, filling him with a need to turn back and watch over her. Not because he didn’t trust her this time.

  She was sick.

  Weak.

  And he feared she wouldn’t last the day.

  He moved up through the castle, forcing himself to place some distance between them as he fought to untangle what he really wanted. The darkness within him wanted to hurt her, but it also wanted to take away her pain.

  It wanted her to suffer.

  And wanted to protect her.

  He laughed mirthlessly as he shoved his hands through his hair.

  What was wrong with him?

  He gripped the rail of the thick mahogany banister on the main staircase and followed it up to the first floor, where he and his brothers had their rooms. His gaze strayed to the arched windows that lined the grey stone wall to his left as he passed along the corridor. Sunlight rippled across the loch, lapping against the rocks that formed the shoreline around the castle. Beyond the deep water that surrounded the island, mountains rose, golden and pale green, laced with patches of pink where the heathers bloomed.

  How long had it been since he had visited this place?

  He and his brothers kept it as a safehouse now, a place only they knew about and one they could escape to if everything went wrong and they lost their stronghold in Tokyo.

  Sometimes, Marek came here to enjoy the solitude.

  He pushed the wooden door to his room open and headed for the bathroom, stopping in front of the cream marble sink. He turned the tap on and waited. A few minutes passed before the system kicked in. Air hissed and gurgled from the tap and then water. A trickle at first.

  He ran his hand under it and shuddered at the icy coldness of it.

  He would need to fire up the boiler if he wanted it warm. A shower was out of the question until then. He was lucky the electricity hadn’t gone out like it had the last time he had visited. It had taken him a day to fix the wiring once he had found where the local creatures had chewed through it.

  They had eaten their way through half the contents of the larder too.

  Marek filled the basin and splashed the water on his face. He hissed as he washed his shoulder, the cold water stinging the cut. He was going to need Keras to remove the ward for him, before the wound healed and it kicked back to life.

  Keras was not going to be happy.

  His focus drifted to Caterina as he washed himself off, shuddering whenever the cold became too much. How was he going to keep his brothers from killing her once they discovered what had happened?

  He had been missing for days. By now, they would be frantic, and he didn’t want to think about how Esher was handling it.

  He needed to get word to his brothers and ask them to meet him, Esher excluded. He couldn’t risk his brother coming to the island and realising that he had Caterina locked in the basement.

  He might be able to talk reason into the others, convincing them that she was a valuable source of information but was too weak for any rough interrogation tactics they might have in mind. Talking reason into Esher wasn’t going to be an option.

  His brother would kill her on sight.

  He tensed when noise sounded below him, grabbed a pair of dark grey sweats from the dresser in his bedroom and pulled them on. He moved stealthily from the room, easing along the corridor, straining to hear who it was.

  The daemons?

  The wraith could use portals, but there was no way he could have tracked Marek to this location, or entered the building without triggering the wards.

  “You here, old man?” Ares’s voice boomed up the stairs, tugging a smile from Marek.

  “That’s my nickname for you.” Marek looked over the banister at the top of the stairs.

  Ares tilted his head back and relief filled his dark eyes.

  “Thought it might get a response.” All the light and warmth left his older brother’s eyes. “Where the fuck have you been?”

  “Are you alone?” Marek knew an opportunity when he saw it.

  Out of all of his brothers, and regardless of what many people who knew them thought, Ares was the most liable to keep his head in any given situation.

  Even one like this.

  Ares nodded. “So, you want to explain yourself before the rest arrive? I’m getting the feeling you weren’t off on vacation with your girlfriend.”

  Marek didn’t even bother to correct him, because it was going to become blindingly apparent Caterina was anything but his girlfriend when he explained what had happened to him.

  He made his way down the stairs, to the turn that brought him face to face with Ares where he hadn’t moved off the bottom step. He sank to his backside on the landing there.

  And sighed.

  Where to begin?

  “I found Caterina in Barcelona. We had a little confrontation. She thought I was going to kill her brother.”

  “Why? He a daemon too?” Ares frowned and gold sparks lit his eyes, an indicator that his mood was heading south.

  Marek cringed inside. He shouldn’t have brought the brother up, but he knew Caterina would when she came around and his brothers all spoke to her, so there was little point in trying to pretend he didn’t exist.

  Or that he wasn’t a vampire.

  Ares didn’t know about Marek’s habit of hunting vampires, so the fact her brother was one wouldn’t matter in his brother’s eyes. Although, there was a chance he might draw the same rash conclusion that Marek had and believe he was the Hellspawn involved with their enemy.

  Marek didn’t get a chance to see what Ares would say.

  Keras appeared beyond him, swiftly followed by Calistos.

  “Shit, it’s been a while since I came to this gloomy place.” Valen’s voice echoed along the corridor from the vestibule.

  Daimon’s deep voice joined him. “Never did like it here either. Except in winter. It’s nice in winter.”

  “You would think that.” The third male voice made Marek freeze up faster than a touch from Daimon.

  Esher.

  Marek launched from the stairs.

  His first mistake.

  Esher took one look at him, at the lines of the mark that reached the top of his left shoulder, and his eyes blackened.

  Narrowed as he drew down a deep breath and snarled.

  “Where’s the fucking daemon I can smell?”

  Chapter 19

  Keras seized Esher before Marek could reach him, holding him in place and weathering vicious snarls as Esher tried to break free of him. Crimson ringed Esher’s deep blue irises, a warning sign that Marek wasn’t going to take lightly.

  “Get him the fuck away from here,” he snapped at Keras, because if he didn’t, Esher was going to rip Caterina to shreds.

  Marek couldn’t let that happen.

  “A fucking daemon.” Esher bared fangs at Keras, the scarlet band in his irises growing as he kicked at Keras’s legs, leaving marks on his black slacks. “She hurt him. She hurt—”
<
br />   Keras and Esher disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.

  All of the tension that had been building inside Marek flooded out of him and he reached out to his left and gripped the newel post next to Ares to keep himself upright.

  Ares just looked at him, giving him the same one that Daimon, Calistos and Valen were levelling on him.

  “She has information.” It was a reasonable excuse for Marek wanting to keep her out of Esher’s claws. “He would have torn her apart.”

  “She in the basement?” Daimon looked beyond him, to the junction in the corridor that led down to it.

  Marek nodded. “She’s out cold.”

  “I’ll wake her up.” Valen cracked his knuckles.

  Ares tossed him a black look. “No violence. She isn’t liable to talk if we’re rough with her.”

  “She isn’t liable to talk at all. You don’t understand.” Marek moved into the corridor to block the way to the basement, because he needed his brothers to know what they were dealing with, he needed to see they understood everything.

  Not just the fact Caterina was sick.

  But that pushing him right now was dangerous.

  He wanted to hurt her, but he needed to keep her safe. Right now, he was torn in two directions by the same instinct. He wasn’t sure what he might do if his brothers laid a hand on her, and he didn’t want to find out.

  “I think she’s infected with daemon blood. I still don’t get the feeling that she’s a daemon. It just isn’t there. My gut doesn’t react to her as it does with daemons, but sometimes my instincts kick in when I’m near her. When father’s blood in my veins is at the helm, I can feel the daemon in her.” Marek looked between his brothers, and Daimon and Valen exchanged a look.

  Calistos leaned against the wooden wall. “I don’t feel it either. If you told me there was a daemon in the basement, I wouldn’t believe you.”

  “Esher would say otherwise,” Daimon put in.

  “Esher reacted because he saw I was hurt and because the darkness is always at the helm with him.” Marek was confident of that. “You told him about Caterina, didn’t you?”

  Daimon gave him a sheepish look. Ares huffed. Valen shook his head.

  “There was a reason I didn’t want him to know, Daimon. Not yet.” Not until he had figured out the truth anyway.

  He still wasn’t sure what he would do if it turned out she had been telling him the truth all along. She was becoming a daemon. Fraternising with a daemon was a huge no-no in his father’s eyes.

  Falling in love with one might just see him banished from the Underworld and exiled from his family forever.

  Although the warmth and understanding in Ares’s eyes said he might not lose everyone if he did lose his heart to Caterina.

  “You want to tell us about that mark on your back?” Ares nodded towards it, his dark eyebrows dipping low as his lips compressed. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like a ward.”

  Marek tried to look at it. “It is a ward. The wraith carved the damned thing on me with that blade of his. The illusionist seemed pretty pleased to have me as her guest, with a ward scrawled into my skin.”

  Daimon moved closer and peered at his back. “If that is a ward and it was written by the wraith, then we need it off you. Esher can feel the wraith when he’s close because of what happened to him, and I’m guessing that means you’ll probably experience the same pain as he does now whenever the wraith is nearby. I also have a theory that it works both ways.”

  “The wraith will know when he’s close to Marek?” Ares looked as if he was chewing a wasp as he said that, and the gold and red in his irises blazed like the fire he commanded as he glared at the mark on Marek’s shoulder.

  “It’s just a theory,” Daimon said, his voice level but not enough to hide the note of concern in it.

  Marek wasn’t going to dance around the subject. “If the wraith can feel me and possibly the ward, and let’s just agree he probably can, then I need it off me as soon as possible.”

  Because the wards around the castle were strong, but they weren’t designed to repel daemons, making it impossible for them not to enter the grounds. They were designed to weaken daemons and alert him and his brothers when the wards were penetrated, giving them a heads up so they were ready for a fight.

  He looked at Ares as something hit him. “You knew I was here.”

  His big brother shrugged. “I felt the wards trigger.”

  “We all did.” Valen leaned his right shoulder against the wall. “Figure it was because you brought your girlfriend here for a dirty weekend.”

  Marek levelled him with a black look. He was getting tired of Valen constantly poking that sore spot.

  “She isn’t my girlfriend.” His black look became a full-blown glare when Valen just shrugged that off, and he wanted to punch him for it. “She still doesn’t feel like a daemon to me. There’s daemon blood in her for sure, but I’m beginning to… well… I’m not really sure what I believe anymore.”

  He went in circles about it, and it was getting tiring.

  “The wards on the cells are still in place?” Ares sounded worried.

  Marek could understand why. He had brought Caterina to this place, one he and his brothers hadn’t visited as a group in a long time, one they had thought the enemy didn’t know about.

  And now there was a potential enemy in the basement.

  Gods, he hoped she wasn’t one of them, but what did he know? He couldn’t trust her. She had helped him escape, but it could have all been an act, one designed to bring them closer together or make him trust her, or do something to endanger everyone.

  Like bringing her to a stronghold where all of his brothers would come to see him.

  A stronghold that didn’t have the defences of the Tokyo mansion.

  “Valen, Cal, we need to shore up the wards here.” He looked at both of them, making sure they were listening because both of them had a tendency to misread the gravity of a situation and treat it lightly.

  Daimon sighed. “I’ll go with them.”

  “Thanks.” Marek watched them go, listening to them teasing each other about who could make the best wards.

  When their voices disappeared, and he was alone with Ares, Marek’s focus shifted to the floor beneath his feet, and beyond it to the basement. Was Caterina all right? She was weak enough already, and the thought of the wards draining her strength further because of her daemon blood had his gut churning, heart aching with a need to check on her.

  He hardened it.

  For all he knew, she was the enemy, and this was an attempt to infiltrate their ranks.

  “We need to get that off you.” Ares moved around behind him and Marek could feel the heat of him as he leaned closer to get a better look at the ward.

  Marek nodded. “I can feel it healing again, dampening my powers. Damned thing will stop me from teleporting soon. I might need to rely on you guys if anything goes down.”

  Ares nodded. “Valen and Cal will have your back. If it’s an emergency, I’ll step with you.”

  Marek wanted to say something about taking Caterina too, but held his tongue. Ares wouldn’t agree to that. His brother had heart, and clearly understood what Marek was going through, but there was no way he would allow any threat to come with them to somewhere else where they might be tracked again because of her.

  “When Keras returns, I’ll have him draw the power out of it and undo it.” He reached over his shoulder and pulled on it as he twisted his head, trying to see the extent of the damage. He scowled when he saw several of the curving slashes had cut through his favour mark, into the dusky branches of the circle of trees. “Bastards.”

  “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Ares gave him a tight smile. “It will heal up nicely once we get rid of the ward. There is another less elegant way of doing it. I can burn it out.”

  Marek’s stomach turned at just the thought of his brother searing his flesh deeply enough to destroy the ward. It would do
the job, and Marek would heal from it, but he was damned if he was going to pick it over waiting for Keras. What Keras would do would hurt enough. What Ares proposed would be agony that would last for hours, and would probably have him waking in a cold sweat each day for months after reliving it in his sleep.

  Ares had burned something off him before, ink that he’d had done on his right forearm in the heat of the moment, before the vampire bitch had betrayed him.

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to go through that hell again, feeling as if his entire body was about to catch fire and burn to ashes, smelling the stench of his own burning flesh, seeing the guilt on Ares’s face as he hurt him.

  “I can wait.” Marek turned to face him and smiled, hoping his brother would see that he didn’t want to put him through that again.

  “How did you break the ward to get here?”

  He sighed and his focus slipped to the basement again. “Caterina came to me. She had a knife. I didn’t trust her at first, but she seemed… I don’t know. I don’t know whether I’m meant to trust her or treat her like the enemy.”

  And it was tearing him apart.

  “Had she really wanted to help me or is this all another lie?” He looked to his brother, needed him to answer that question for him because whenever he tried, his answer kept changing.

  Ares lifted his hand and looked as if he wanted to lay it on Marek’s bare shoulder, and then his face crumpled and he scrubbed his hand over his tawny hair instead, tugging some of the overlong strands from the thong that held it tied back.

  “I don’t have the answer to that question. I wish I did. The one who can answer it for you is dealing with Esher.”

  Marek frowned and then his eyes slowly widened. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Keras could read Caterina’s mind.

  But Keras was also the only thing standing between Caterina and certain death right now.

  As much as Marek wanted him here, to look into her memories and to remove the ward on his back, he needed his brother in Tokyo more. Keras could stop any of them from teleporting with nothing more than a touch and a flex of his powers, and he was the only one who possessed that ability.