Chapter 23
And Now The Athanatos Was Coming For Me
Theo left me to dress in my room. He'd attempted to lighten the mood with little teases and his now familiar touch, but although I'd tried my best to hide my unease at what lay ahead, I was sure he'd sensed it. That didn't stop him from kissing me mindless before he left the room.
In a perfect world, Theo Peters would be perfect. But my world was far from being as good as it could possibly be. There were still too many unanswered questions. Still too many people wanting me either gone from Auckland or just wanting me. Who were the trees whispering about? Who meant me harm? The Pyrkagia Rigas? The Gi? Or the Alchemists?
And underlying all the uncertainty was the one question that meant everything. Why had I become what I am now? Why?
I sat down on the bed once I'd donned my borrowed clothes and stared numbly at the floor. Aktor had been in the room while we showered and taken my dress. No doubt to wash it for me. It was a lovely gesture, but it also meant he'd been aware I was showering in Theo's bathroom and not the attached ensuite. Strangely, I didn't have it in me to react to that revealing thought.
Fear encased my heart and sent icy tendrils throughout my body. But there were no answers to quell the angst. Only more questions to fuel that dread. And to top it all off, the palms outside were restless. Their whispered words of warning making no sense at all. I couldn't even depict a language anymore, just nonsensical sounds that left me feeling raw with apprehension and alarm. I wrapped my arms around my body and stood up from the bed, heading out to the main part of the house.
Aktor had the fire roaring and Theo stood resting an arm along the top of the hearth. Despite the feeling of impending separation, I immediately crossed the space and tucked myself into the front of his body, making him wrap his arms around my frame so we could both stare at the flames. I heard him chuckle behind me, clearly amused at my sudden boldness. But if time was running out, I sure as hell was going to take every opportunity I could to touch the man, to be in his embrace.
"You smell of vanilla and raspberry," Theo murmured in my ear.
"So do you," I whispered back.
"We make a fine pair," he murmured, making my heart flip over painfully and my eyes sting with wretched tears. He couldn't see them and the fire soon burned them away, but I wondered if he knew they had been there anyway. Theo seemed to be able to see right through me, to the deepest parts of my heart and soul.
"Ah, Cassandra," Aktor announced. "You look refreshed."
I smiled at the old butler and watched as he brought a tray of dishes into the room. He set them down on the table, which was just off to the side of the fireplace where Theo and I stood. The scent of roast pork, tomatoes and tzatziki reached my nose. Aktor returned to the kitchen and then reappeared with a plate of toasted pita bread.
"Gyros," he announced. "One of Theodoros' favourites."
"Don't tell me you cooked this especially for me, Aktor," Theo announced, pulling me closer to the table. "You just want to see if Cassandra likes the same foods." He leaned down and nuzzled my ear to whisper, "He's such a matchmaker."
I huffed out a laugh and took the offered chair he pulled out for me to sit in.
"I'm sure it's lovely," I said, looking at Aktor, who was giving Theo a dark look.
"Now she'll never give an honest response," Aktor muttered, serving up the Gyros and offering me a pita from the plate.
I couldn't help smiling at their little dispute. I could imagine they continually teased each other, probably had done for centuries, both men so relaxed in each other's company. A part of me wondered what it was like, to be alive for so long. Aktor had hinted at the weight of so many memories. But this affable atmosphere hinted to something else as well. Something precious, yet familiar. They were family, these two, and even the stretch of millennia did little to hinder that.
I wanted to ask, but I wasn't sure I was ready to accept the eternity, or near eternity, of an immortal life. Asking seemed like that line in the sand again. If I did it, I crossed it, and there was no going back. I realised I wasn't ready to place myself in that category yet. Maybe once I had some answers to the bigger questions, the immediate questions, then I could work on admitting I was one of them.
Instead I said, around a mouthful, "Mmmm, delicious."
Aktor huffed, clearly not believing me, and Theo just outright laughed. It didn't take long for me to join him, despite my efforts to insist the meal was lovely. In the end we were all laughing, enjoying our food, sipping good wine and just forgetting, for a moment, that we were fugitives.
When Aktor served up a Baklava for dessert and we retired to the fireplace with after dinner drinks, the mood shifted. The brief reprieve was over. We had serious things to discuss.
"Have you decided your next move?" Aktor asked, sipping a clear anise-flavoured drink. I was sticking with my wine.
Theo's eyes shifted from the fire to my face, he just gazed at me for a moment, making my cheeks heat in a different manner than the flames had been doing.
"My first instinct is to try diplomacy again, but in my heart I know it would fail," Theo finally admitted.
"We can get you both out of the country," Aktor suggested. "It wouldn't be easy, but not impossible either."
I let a disgruntled breath of air out. This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid, being bullied out of my home, my life. What would I tell Sonya? My family? Could I even tell them anything, or would that put them all at risk? Sonya must have been wondering where I was, I hadn't been in touch since asking her to run the shop for a few days. My family could go a week without contact, busy with their own lives. But Sonya was different. She was my best friend, my colleague. She knew I had been trying to work out what had happened to me, but she didn't know the latest. I wanted to phone her, I desperately wanted to hear her voice, to know she existed and confirm that she had been my friend for ten years. Even if I denied the accusations, I still needed to prove my side of the story - to myself.
But part of me was too scared to pull her further into this. The less she knew the better. And if I disappeared, Sonya would still be cared for. The building was on a lease, and there was money owing on the business, but I'd made sure that Sonya's name was on everything as well. She'd be OK, she'd still have a job and she'd get on with her life. Even if she cried a tear or two for me in the process, Sonya was a survivor. More so than I had ever been.
The conversation went around and around in circles, we ended up in the lounge, sitting on more comfortable chairs. And at some point, I drifted off to sleep, my head resting on Theo's chest.
I'm surprised he didn't shift me to the bedroom, but I woke some time later, my head in his lap, my body covered in a blanket and the television on, volume down low. I blinked a couple of times to bring the screen into focus and sucked in a breath of air at what I saw.
"You're awake," Theo said in a flat voice. "I wanted you to get some rest before you faced this."
I sat upright and shifted to look at the TV. Aktor was sitting in an armchair, the bottle of Ouzo empty at his side, a glass still hanging between his legs in his hands as he leaned forward to catch the announcer's words.
"Turn it up," I whispered and Theo reached over and hit the button on the remote to bring the volume up.
The announcer was halfway through a news report, Breaking News, scrolling across the bottom of the screen.
"The fires seem random, but evidence suggests they are the work of arson. The Fire Service is at a loss to explain how they have started, but in some situations there were witnesses who have suggested the flames erupted from out of nowhere."
"Oh no," I whispered, my fingers pressing into my lips, one arm wrapped around my middle.
"Pyrkagia," Theo said evenly. "Fighting for their lives."
Oh no.
"The largest concentration has been in the Eastern suburbs near Howick," the announcer calmly explained. Pyrgos, it had to be the Rigas' home. My head turned so I coul
d look at Theo, his face was set, jaw firm, lips in a thin tight line.
"Not only have fires been reported, but minor earthquakes have been felt throughout the city, making several large trees on Mountain Road in Epsom, collapse in on themselves."
I stood up from my seat and clenched my fists. My trees. Theo's forest on his property. The ones who have my blood. I felt sick to my stomach. The Pyrkagia were fighting the Gi. There was no other explanation for it. Fire against Earth. Because of me.
"What do we do?" I whispered and felt Theo smoothly glide to his feet at my back. He didn't reach for me, he didn't offer to hold me. No soft touch to soothe my ragged nerves.
"I'm heading back in to see what I can do to help. You'll remain here with Aktor." Aktor looked pained at that suggestion, no doubt wanting to be there to defend Pyrkagia as much as Theo did, but he didn't offer up an alternate plan.
"But I can help," I argued and received a chilling stare in return.
"You will be safer here," Theo said, already walking toward the front door.
"Theo," I said, taking a step after him and inordinately relieved when he stopped at the sound of my voice. "This is because of me, I need to help."
His eyes scanned my face for several seconds, but there was no softening in his.
"We don't know how many there are, Cassandra. If it is the full Gi scout regiment or even more. If I take you with me and they get you, then what point is the sacrifice my people have made?"
"But that's..."
"No! You will stay here, I will find out what we are up against. Await my call." The last was said to Aktor, effectively dismissing me even before he'd left the room.
I watched stunned and I believe, infuriated, as he walked out the door.
The news presenter kept on speaking in the background about the fact that luckily no lives had been reported lost, but that even as he speaks more and more fires were erupting and a rumble could be heard through the earth.
"Aktor," I said, but he shook his head, returning his now empty glass to the table.
"He has given me an order, Miss Eden," the old man said. I was beginning to understand when he used my surname and not called me Cassandra. That realisation was not well received.
"Well, I'm still going to talk to the Earth," I said through gritted teeth and headed to the door.
"Do you think that is wise?" Aktor replied, making me turn around to look at him. He was standing, several feet closer, as though he was getting ready to launch himself at me to keep me inside.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"If the Gi are controlling the Earth here in Auckland, then communing with your Stoicheio could give your whereabouts away."
Oh freaking hell. He had a point. My shoulders slumped and I started to breathe too quickly, feeling trapped and helpless and full of guilt.
"Perhaps a fresh bottle," Aktor said softly, walking across the room to the a drinks trolley in the corner. He picked up another full bottle of Ouzo and a clean glass and returned to the lounge, pouring the liquid as he walked. Then holding it out to me.
"I'm not sure I like aniseed," I admitted.
"This will change your mind," the old man promised.
I took the offered glass and sat back on the couch feeling a little defeated. The first sip was jarring, but the heat that rolled down my throat and made me feel anything but numb, was welcomed. So I took another. And by the time I'd had half a dozen sips I found Aktor was indeed correct. Ouzo, and aniseed, rocked.
The TV report became more and more alarming. Lives were now being rumoured as lost. Aktor looked devastated at the news, downing a full glass in one shot when a particular location was mentioned where unidentifiable bodies were allegedly found.
"If they're Athanatos then they won't be dead," I pointed out.
"If they are fighting another branch of Ekmetalleftis then their heads will undoubtedly be lost." He turned his saddened eyes to mine. "You learn to use a killing blow from an early age, because your opponent will do the same. Aim for the neck, Cassandra. Sever the head before they sever yours. Do you understand?"
I nodded. What else could I do?
We sat in silence as fires burned out of control and trees toppled over and crushed houses and cars and anything else that happened to be in their way. And just when I couldn't take it any longer and I was about to risk everything to talk to the Earth, there was a loud banging on the door. I jumped up, but not as quickly as Aktor, who was already sparking the odd flame from his fingertips.
"Theo wouldn't knock," I whispered and Aktor shook his head, showing his agreement.
"Stay back," he ordered quietly, straightening his shoulders and adjusting his uniform. The flames had retreated, but I felt a heat roll off his body as he walked stiffly passed.
There were no pot plants in the house, nothing for me to reach out and calm my nerves with a soothing touch. Aktor may have maintained the outside of the property, but I was guessing he paid someone to do that and didn't actually come here often. In which case, indoor plants would not survive. I understood their absence, but I cursed it all-the-same.
One look over his shoulder at me and then Aktor reached for the door, just as the banging started up again. He pulled it open swiftly, his hand behind his back already alight. I couldn't see who stood across the threshold, but the fire on Aktor's fingertips snuffed out just as the old man muttered, "You could have announced yourself."
"The less of a scene I make the better, right now. Trust me," Nico said, pushing past Aktor without an invitation and immediately letting his eyes connect with mine. "Theo's OK," he added, making me collapse to my seat on the couch.
I hadn't realised I needed to know that, and yet I couldn't form the words to thank Nico right then.
"At least he was when I left him last." Well, small mercy I didn't make a fool of myself by gushing my thanks out loud.
"What's happening?" Aktor said, glancing out into the darkness of the night and then closing the door and locking it. That simple motion of flicking the deadbolt seemed ridiculous to me, when the Gi could make the house crumble to the ground with a single thought and the Pyrkagia could send a bolt of Fire to burn us to the ground instead.
"It started unexpectedly," Nico said, walking straight across the lounge to grab a clean glass from the trolley and pour himself a Scotch. "We were in peaceful negations and they gave no warning at all. Hell," he muttered, downing most of the glass in one go, "their ambassador was still in a room with the Rigas. Clearly they intended to sacrifice him all along. They have always been heartless bastards."
Great, not only am I one of Theo's enemies, but the type of enemy I am is apparently heartless in the eyes of Pyrkagia or, at least, Nico. I glanced across the room at Aktor and saw him frowning. A look of confusion on his face that I was sure he would normally never wear. Something wasn't right.
"Who exactly are you talking about, Nicodromos?" he asked. "We were under the impression it was the Gi."
Nico scoffed. "If only. No it's much worse than just the Gi, although their involvement is a foregone conclusion now."
I had a sinking feeling about all of this, and the way Nico looked at me, as though what he was about to say would harm me most, didn't help at all.
"No, Aktor. It's not the Gi, not yet. It's the Alchemists."
Aktor swore a litany in Greek, Nico smiled tightly in response.
"Just how bad are the Alchemists?" I asked, wanting to clarify that question with an in compared to the Gi tagged on the end.
Nico downed the last of his drink and grimaced.
"Alone, they are bad enough, but threatening to bring in another Ekmetalleftis branch makes them an enemy we have little hope of beating."
"Surely you've come up against them in the past?" I asked, my throat incredibly tight making swallowing painful right then.
"They've threatened to bring in the Gi?" Aktor asked, interrupting any answer Nico may have had to my question. "What have they got that the Gi would want?"
Nico's eyes flicked to mine. I knew the answer, but it still didn't make any sense. They didn't have me, I was here, not in the Alchemists' clutches. They could bluff, but would the Gi go to war without proof?
It happened so quickly I didn't even get a breath in to scream. Nico's hand flicked up and a ball of fire shot from his fingertips, incinerating a wooden beam above Aktor's head. The house shook, even as Aktor fired a bolt back at Nico, who deflected it easily. And then the ceiling collapsed on top of the old man's head, burying him in rubble.
I fell sideways to avoid flying debris, but couldn't quite miss being hit in the shoulder by a sharpened end of the beam. I felt the tip pierce my skin and the pain radiate through my body, as the air got punched from my lungs. I was pinned and the weight was crushing my chest and I was frantic to make sure Aktor's head was still attached. I hadn't seen if the falling beam had made clean work of it, but it was obvious Nico had been going for a killing shot.
Just as Aktor had said; Nico had aimed for the neck, severing Aktor's head before Aktor could sever his. And now the Athanatos was coming for me.
Chapter 24
Sometimes You Just Knew
I pushed against the weight above me, but I couldn't get any leverage from where I lay. One hand was across my chest, crushed by part of the beam that had impaled me, the other was uselessly tucked under my side. I could still feel my toes and my fingers. I could feel everything. The pain made it hard to concentrate, but the Earth was calling, whispering encouragements, pushing me to keep trying harder before Nico made it to my side.
If I was lucky, he'd been caught by the fallout of the ceiling collapsing. If I wasn't, this was going to be over soon and I'd at least be able to get a full breath of air in my lungs.
I tried to wriggle on my back, but that pulled at the spot where the sharpened piece of wood pierced me. I felt blood well below my shoulder on my chest. A trickle of it held my attention and blocked out the pain for a suspended moment.
The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) Page 23