by Setta Jay
This was bad, very fucking bad. Jerric’s neck was sliced almost all the way through, and he’d been shot in the head and bled out through the cut. He was chained down and alive, barely. Conn healed the cut as best as he could, it would have to be enough until Sirena could get free of the fighting. He and Hagen both grabbed the metal chains and yanked them free of the cement moorings. Hagen lifted his brother.
Dorian showed up before Drake and used his power to pull water and douse all the flames that were flowing up the walls and moving to the middle of the damned place.
Drake teleported in and roared with enough fury to set the place back on fucking fire.
He broadcast the image of the SUVs and the airport hangar to all his brethren through the Guardian link. Drake partially shifted so that huge iridescent green wings grew from his back, and then he was gone.
“I’ll check for surveillance. Go,” Dorian said and hauled ass to an office at the side. Other brothers ported in all around him, their stunned expressions melting into rage at the God’s stench still lingering in the air. Conn couldn’t allow himself to get caught up in his brothers’ frenzy, he needed to get Jerric to safety and start some healing.
“Breathe,” Conn instructed Hagen, who was funneling personal energy to Jerric.
He teleported them to the side of the manor, and Hagen refused to let go of his broken brother, determination and strength set the wolf’s shoulders. Hagen’s arms shook, but he wouldn’t relinquish Jerric.
Conn slammed the side door open and ported down the stairs to find the first available subterranean room. They all needed energies, and he needed to try to heal some more damage. It would be a long recovery for the younger wolf. “He’ll live, but my healing isn’t as fast or thorough as Sirena, and she might still be a while.”
“My sisters and Gunn are coming. We have some ability, stronger if we combine it.” Hagen’s jaw was clenched as he lay Jerric down on the bed. “Thank you,” Hagen said with feeling, and Conn saw in his eyes how much the male meant it.
Conn nodded and went about healing what he could. Jerric’s fucking wrists were cut too. It was a damned mess. Conn looked over the rest of the body: he was in jeans and a long-sleeve black tee, and his hair was a little longer than Hagen’s, but no other wounds. Conn worked on closing the neck, but the bullet wound to the head was going to take a lot more juice than he had. Hagen was trying a wrist, but the male didn’t have a lot of ability, and the process was slow. Hagen was sweating, pulling any power he could.
“I’m here,” Sirena said, running in. She tossed down a sword and quickly washed her hands before setting them to work on Jerric’s head. That was likely the first hit. Down him, chain him, and then bleed him out. There were several hack marks in his neck where they’d tried to sever his head and almost had. The fire would have finished him if they’d started with his body instead of the building. He reeked of accelerant, smoke and blood. He was fucking lucky.
He felt her the second she stumbled in with her siblings. Tears flowed down her face when she saw her brother. He’d been hoping to spare her that sight when he’d taken the other entrance.
He brought her into his arms and kissed her hair. “He’ll be fine. It won’t be an easy recovery, but he’ll live,” he whispered. He hated his next words. “I have to go help Drake.” There was too much going on, and fuck, all he wanted to do was love her, comfort her. His heart twisted, but this was who he was, and what had happened in that warehouse was big. Too big.
Chapter 37
Earth Realm
Conn teleported back to the hangar and his brothers.
“What’s going on?” he asked Gregoire.
“Drake and P are following the SUVs, waiting for them to stop before we go in.” Both males had wings, and in the night, Cynthia probably wouldn’t even know they were up there.
Bastian tossed Conn some cuffs, which was good. They couldn’t harm the Mageia unless they wanted tenfold the pain, but Cynthia had no qualms about using missiles, guns and bombs on them. He wondered what they were heading into. The metal cuffs tended to dull elemental power.
Uri was looking around at all the blood. “What the hell did they use to make this shit happen?” He was furious.
“I don’t know,” Conn said. They could all smell the power from Apollo’s confinement chamber. It was mixed with the God’s own scent, and it was there not long ago.
“I can’t believe this shit. This has to be Elizabeth’s doing. How the fuck did she get Apollo?” Sander, the most hotheaded asshole of the Guardians, bellowed furiously.
Come now, Drake growled in the link before any of them could say anything. Drake gave them the mental image of a secluded farmhouse. Simple, nothing like Cynthia’s other homes.
Conn teleported into gunfire and used his power to disable the males’ weapons while Drake swooped down out of the sky and plucked up Cynthia, her shrieks echoed into the night. P flew down and snagged another Mageia, as the other Guardians moved in. Conn held the weapons and bastards on his side of the vehicles immobile. He couldn’t get to the ones on the other side of the vehicles, but that didn’t stop Jax and Bastian. Conn saw the garage burning and so were areas surrounding the three vehicles. Drake had blocked them in with fire, and now Dorian was dousing the flames with water he pulled from the home’s irrigation systems.
Uri, I want her memories! Earth Compound, now! Drake roared through the link and ported Cynthia away.
On my way. Uri said.
P and Sander used the cuffs, making fast work of the Mageia.
“I’ll go through the house,” Gregoire said before heading in that direction. Conn, Bastian and Jax started going through the cars while the others took the trussed Mageia to holding cells for Uri to interrogate.
Conn found the box. It was in the back of one of the SUVs and when he opened it fury and shock filled him. Fuck! It’s the Deleastis Rod. Fucking bitch. Even with the box open, without the Rod being activated, he felt the pull. The box had to be spelled, because he didn’t feel shit when the lid was closed.
I thought the Rod was destroyed when the Creators eradicated the Doulos cuffs Apollo used to imprison us, Gregoire snarled through the link.
It must not be made of the same metal the Creators destroyed. Son of a bitch. The Deleastis Rod was a magical staff with the power to lure Immortals to it. That had been how Apollo had taken the Immortals all those centuries ago. Fuck, it was used on him when he went in after Brianne. He’d never forget the red serpent’s eyes shining from the gold rod. It was in the shape of a twisting dragon. The damn thing had to be activated to work, but his skin still crawled at the power wafting from it.
Elizabeth had to have known where to fucking find it. In thousands of years we’ve never come across it. Hadn’t thought it was still in existence. They went through the rest of the cars and took anything they found. Registration, insurance fucking cards.
The house only had some luggage. I already took it to the Earth Compound, Gregoire said.
They’d fucking failed. They lost a damned God.
Chapter 38
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
His dick was killing him, but there was nothing he could fucking do about it. They’d worked all damned night and gotten nowhere fast, and it looked like things were about as bad as shit could get. At least they knew what all the distractions had been for a month ago.
All the Guardians, their mates, and Erik and Sam sat around the big table in the war room. He’d given Dacia the option to rest, but she’d been determined to come now that her brother’s healing was taking effect.
Her chair was pulled up next to his, and her scent was wrapped around him, inside him.
He rubbed the back of Dacia’s neck. Though touching her was probably a bad idea, he didn’t fucking care. Everything was going to hell, and he was already hard as fuck.
“In Cynthia’s blood memories I found everything Elizabeth had her do,” Uri growled. “The hell beast and demon-possessed attacks
last month were when Elizabeth had Cynthia searching for the Deleastis Rod. Elizabeth was Apollo’s damned pet, so it makes sense she’d known where it was, but to get the spell to work, she also had to know there was a descendant of Apollo in fucking Earth Realm. So Apollo must have known when Dacia’s mother escaped and Elizabeth knew she wasn’t exiled to Tetartos. That’s a lot of thought and planning on Elizabeth’s part.”
Drake was standing at the end of the table, seething in fury. Smoke filtered from his lips to the exhaust fans above.
“A scary amount,” P agreed.
Uri continued with the information he’d taken. “The bitch had Cynthia use the Rod to lure Dacia’s brother, took him down, and the Rod itself was used in the spell with all his blood to call Apollo to that warehouse. Once Cynthia had him she was able to do the normal teleport spell with all her asshole Mageia and send fucking Apollo to Elizabeth in Tetartos.”
Conn felt like shit having this be Dacia’s first Guardian meeting. She was getting tossed into the deep end at the worst time. Tensions were high; one of the worst things that could have happened, had. They’d failed in their duty, and she got to sit through it all with him.
“The place they teleported him to was a desert, and there was no sign of Elizabeth or the God, and she managed to somehow cover all traces of a port out,” Bastian said, clenching his jaw in anger. He or Sacha could have traced a teleport that was within an hour old, but not if Elizabeth had something to block it. She was proving so much smarter than any of them thought.
“Did anyone try using the same spell Cynthia used to locate Apollo?” Rain asked.
“Yes. I used my blood,” Sirena said, and everyone looked at her.
Conn glanced around and saw Dacia’s over bright eyes shift to Sirena and the dawning understanding there. His sister had just said something out loud that she never admitted. The Guardians knew, but not some of the others, like Erik and Sam. He watched anger and hatred flash on Sirena’s beautiful face. His sister hated her father and would have gladly put him in the ground if the Creators would have let her. Her entire existence was devoted to fixing the horrors he’d set into motion during his time. “My blood has a higher concentration, so I didn’t need as much to know it wouldn’t work,” Sirena said with disgust. “Elizabeth found a way to shield him, preventing it from working a second time.”
Dacia was tense next to him; he could smell her arousal. They were both in the fucking frenzy, and it was well past time to meet their needs. It didn’t matter that shit was falling apart around them.
“What other knowledge does the sick bitch have? That’s the part that makes my skin crawl,” Jax added. No one gave her credit for intelligence, but maybe she was Apollo and Hermes’s pet for more than her sadistic tastes.
“Good damned question,” Sander snapped. All the Guardians were snapping and snarling now.
He couldn’t wait for the fucking meeting to end. He needed a reprieve and to be buried in his mate’s wet pussy. His muscles were tense, and the need was escalating for both of them. Partly from the frenzy, and partly because of everything that had happened. Her anguished voice was still imprinted in his mind. He knew she was okay. Worried for her brother, relieved. Bastian had gone and picked up the other two brothers after the fighting and cleanup at the cities, so they were all helping Jerric replenish his energies and heal.
“Do we think she can do anything with him?” Conn asked. Elizabeth had just turned into a much bigger nightmare.
More smoke filtered up from Drake’s lips, and power flowed around him. His rage was barely contained. “The Creators gave me the only fucking key, so she shouldn’t be able to do anything with him, but I still want that fucking asshole back, now!” The whole damn place shook with Drake’s wrath, and Dacia tensed beside him. This was Drake as they rarely saw him; this was their dragon in all his pent-up, dangerous-as-shit glory.
Everyone waited for the shaking to stop. Sacha said they’d finished the hell beast cleanup. At least there were no casualties from that mess.
A minute later Dacia’s hand dug into his leg. Her need had been getting more intense, and he knew she was holding on by a thread like he was.
This is horrible, she groaned inside his head. Your scent is killing me even with all that’s happening around us. How is that even possible? Drake’s anger might take the building down around our heads. My brother almost died! The sight of how broken he was is burned in my mind, yet all I can think of is having you inside me making this ache go away. She snarled in the link. Frustrated and angry at her own body’s response.
I know. Soon. He clamped his jaw tight and tried to fucking focus. How did Dorian hold out so long after touching Rain? His muscles were tense, and the need to fuck and to comfort his mate was driving him wild. Everyone was ignoring it, thank fuck, he didn’t want her embarrassed, but he knew they all were very aware of what was happening between them. Even Jax kept his mouth shut, which was a happy damned surprise and probably just showed how out of control it was.
“Elizabeth will be trying to find a way to wake him now,” Uri said, sitting at the other side of the table with an arm over Alex’s chair, touching her neck. She looked furious and frustrated, her goddess blue eyes were flashing, pissed that her ability hadn’t given her any indication of what Elizabeth was doing, or compelled her to stop it. The problem was, no one knew how Alex’s power worked, what the triggers were. It wasn’t something she could control, and he knew she hated that.
“She might have thought he’d wake up with the blood they used to find him,” Dorian offered.
“The problem is that we don’t know what she has at her disposal and whether she’ll be able to find a way around Drake’s key. Cyril loved his experiments, and she has his helpers to do her bidding. No one outside this room even knows there is a key to waking a God. So what does that leave us with? We don’t know where she is, what she knows, or how she’s hiding him,” Sirena said. Tensions were running high with all the unknowns.
“We have the Rod now. We can find any remaining Immortals in Earth, and you’ve already set new safeguards on the remaining Gods. Maybe we can use it to find Elizabeth’s hideout?” Rain offered.
“Not if her people stay inside a spelled location. It only worked for Apollo when we were caught outside the protections. Apollo had other tricks to get us out,” Conn added through clenched teeth, remembering the pull when he’d left Hades’ walls.
“Even then, I don’t think it’s a good idea to use it here. If the Immortals knew it still existed, there would be a huge uproar, and I wouldn’t fucking blame them,” Uri said.
“We could use it in the outlying areas away from the cities,” Erik suggested, from his seat next to his sister, Alex.
“Yes,” Drake said.
“Do we even know what Immortals are hiding in Earth, Dacia?” Alyssa asked. They all knew now that her parents had escaped with others, and that her family had never found them.
“Kairos,” she said. There were a lot of nods, and Conn noticed Bastian and Sacha looked more stoic than normal. Not that most would even see the difference, but he did. Dacia looked at them too and blew out a breath. He doubted the missing Immortals had direct family or there would be mental links, but that didn’t mean that the two Guardians weren’t wondering like Conn would have been. The possibility of having lost family wouldn’t be a good damned feeling. That’s why he’d asked her in the beginning. He still needed to spank her ass for not telling him sooner, whether she’d known where the Immortals were or not. He mentally groaned. He just wanted to spank that tight ass for any damned reason he could come up with. He shook his head at how truly fucked it was to be stuck in such an important damned meeting and only want to bend her over the table and take what they both needed. Fuck the meeting, fuck the missing God, and fuck anything that got in his way of screwing his mate into delirium.
Her fingers dug into his thigh again, and a sexy groan came through the link.
“And you two are fucki
ng doing your damned mating ceremony tomorrow! Fucking around time is over! Finish it! And, Conn… if your damned wolves tell anyone about Havoc, it’s your ass. I don’t give a shit how it worked out. You have your own damned pack now, and they’re your responsibility! They fuck up, and I rain hell on your ass,” Drake snarled, and Conn nodded tightly. He’d known it was coming, he accepted the responsibility as his due, but Dacia went tense, and he watched her beautiful eyes flash with her animal until she narrowed them at Drake. “My family would never be so dishonorable. Conn gave them, us, our brother’s life.” He felt her hand shaking with emotion, she was offended as shit, and Conn was just sending her soothing thoughts through the link when Drake pissed him the fuck off.
“Good, because you’re just as responsible as your mate if your family fucks up.”
“Drake!” Conn growled. The dragon had gone too far for Conn’s animal.
“Gladly,” she snarled and dug her nails into Conn’s jeans, holding him, grounding some of his fury.
The tension in the room was thick as Drake gave Dacia a nod and then ordered them all to get their asses rested and refueled for the ceremony and the hunt. Conn clenched his teeth at the reminder that the damned dragon had just ordered him to mate. He didn’t give a shit that they’d already planned to. His beast was riding a fine line of fury and lust, and rational thought was beyond him. Dacia leapt out of her chair for the door, and his entire being focused only on her soaking panties. The ones he was about to rip off with his teeth.
Chapter 39
Mountain Temple, Tetartos Realm
Dacia’s sisters wouldn’t stop fussing with her hair and the fall of the gorgeous mating gown Alyssa had managed to make within hours. Her sisters stood back finally and looked at her with happy teary smiles. She was just as amazed by the sight of herself in the mirror. She couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked in the deep red silk. The dress hugged her breasts and flowed to the ground, elegant and stunning.