Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  “Tell me Lehela gave you some wild and crazy plan that’s going to save the day.” Carter rubbed his hands across his face.

  “I wish I could, but we both know that that’s not the way she works. All this time I have wished that there was some quick fix to this, that there was some easy way out, but there isn’t. We have to fight Carter there’s nothing more to it. We have to fight.”

  “Okay, so let’s take a beat. We need to think this through. Ares has a weakness, everyone does whether they are a god or not. What is his?” He paused. “You were close to him once, you have to know something. Think, what would it take to get Ares off his square?”

  “Aphrodite.” Asa laughed.

  “What?”

  “Ares, has a weakness. God of war is a big softy and Aphrodite is the biggest Achilles heel he could have.” For the first time, speaking the words, she felt no jealously, just anger, hatred. It was refreshing, not wanting Ares for herself anymore. Despite everything he’d don’t to her, there was still a part of her that existed that wanted him for herself. That had changed. She couldn’t want him, not after everything she’d learned, not after Carter.

  “You’re right.” Carter looked almost too happy with her response.

  “What?”

  “We need to get to Aphrodite.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he started tapping on the screen.

  “What do you mean?” Asa moved from her seat to stand by him. “What do you know, Carter?”

  “She isn’t with Ares, not yet.”

  “What?”

  “We have eyes on her. For whatever reason, she has not joined him yet.”

  “That makes no sense.” Why would they wait to be together? They were stronger together.

  “Actually, it makes perfect sense. Ares doesn’t want us to know where she is. He wants to keep her safe. Just as he cloaked himself he cloaked her. The beacon that you felt for her was not her. It was some clerk at a flower shop, which fooled us for a bit, but we found her. Magic has come a very long way since the times of the gods.”

  “So, you mean to tell me that you think he has her locked away somewhere?”

  “I’m telling you I know exactly where he has her. She is waiting for him to give word.”

  “Where is she?”

  “New York.”

  Thirteen

  “What are we doing here?” Standing on the streets outside of a hidden bar, Asa looked to Jax who’d carried her on his back across the night sky.

  “What do you mean? Do you know this place?” Inda dropped her wings, flames becoming flesh again. Asa would never get tired of seeing her as a phoenix.

  “Yes, I do know this place. What the hell are we doing here? Is this some kind of joke?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is exactly where Carter told us to come. I know it’s odd, but this is the place where Aphrodite is.”

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “You mind cluing us in on whatever the hell is going on in your head right now, Asa?” Jax stretched his arms and legs. The shift back to his human form had left him feeling off balance, which happened when he did quick changes.

  “Let’s just get this over with.” Asa walked away, leaving Jax and Inda to exchange a questioning gaze before following her.

  The inside of the bar was dark; only one light in the back corner flickered. The usual mellow yet somehow upbeat atmosphere was diminished, darkened by something sinister. For the God of Love, she sure has a way of sucking all the joy out of the room.

  Asa stood in the doorway, assessing the empty space. The seat that once was her own sat empty—it was where she shared puzzling conversations with a bartender who cared just a touch too much about her. The bar that was usually crowded with music flowing softly from speakers. She remembered the playlist that consisted of a mixture of tunes from jazz to R&B, hip hop to pop, something to please everyone who came into the establishment. Instead of a collection of music, the speaker gave off a series of pops and fizzles, dead air.

  “Asa, what are you doing here?” The older gentleman stood by corner of the bar, appearing from the door that led to the backroom.

  “Sunny! I’m so glad you’re okay.” Asa smiled and walked farther into the bar, approaching the bartender.

  “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” He grinned and looked over her shoulder to the friends she hadn’t thought to introduce.

  “I just got a really bad feeling when I came in, that’s all.” She motioned around the empty bar. “It’s not exactly thriving in here right now. How have things been?”

  “I could complain, but I won’t. Business is business.” Smiling, he placed the towel in his hand on the bar. “What brings you back here after all this time?”

  “What can I say, I missed you.”

  “Well it’s good to be missed.”

  “Do we get an introduction?” Inda interrupted the reunion.

  “I’m sorry, where are my manners? Sunny, this is Inda and Jax. New friends that I made while in Chicago.”

  “Always nice to meet friends of Asa’s.”

  “I didn’t realize she had so many friends,” Jax joked.

  “That’s because I don’t.” Asa looked Sunny square in the eye and saw it, that flicker behind the iris. The man she once knew was a shell of himself, his body no more than a vessel for the goddess inhabiting him.

  Sunny turned to run, but his old body was too slow. Asa cut him off, beating him to the exit. “Where are you going, Sunny?”

  “What the hell?” Following her lead, Inda hopped over the table in front of her.

  “This isn’t Sunny. This isn’t the man I knew.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, Sunny never called me by my name, and he damned sure didn’t know any of my friends.”

  The back door burst open and two large men came barreling through. Joining Inda, Jax slammed body into the first man; both tumbled to the ground but Jax quickly returned to his feet. Inda grabbed the first man, pinning him down with her knee in his throat. It was a technique she’d picked up while in the Netherlands by a sexy tour guide who gave her physical instructions. Within moments, the man stopped his struggle and fell unconscious. Jax had his own man in a headlock, a sleeper hold following the same idea of Inda. They weren’t out for blood. And killing them would likely send their godly spirits—if they had any—back to Ares to sound the alarm. Once both men were out, Jax and Inda joined Asa to secure Aphrodite who screamed for help. Inda took a cloth out of her back pocket and held it over the tired old face. Soon the shrill calls for her rescue ended.

  Even if she didn’t call for help, those who were tasked to protect Aphrodite would come soon. The two men who were easily subdued wouldn’t be all Ares would entrust to keep his love safe. More than likely they were only there to keep watch. If there was another he would be well on his way with message of her endangerment.

  “Tie her up and get her out of here, I know a place nearby.” Asa looked away from the unconscious body of the man she once called friend. Ares had chosen the perfect capsule for his love, one of the few people Asa allowed close to her. He knew that it would be difficult for her to do what it took to take out Aphrodite, especially knowing that it would kill someone she cared for. Sunny’s soul was gone, the moment hers took hold of his body, but it still hurt to have to think of being the one to take the life from his body.

  “Asa? Are you okay? It’s done, we need to go,” Jax called, pulling her away from somber thoughts.

  “Yes, sorry. Let’s go.”

  “I always knew it was you. Ever since that witch started spouting off tales of the siren who was so bad that Zeus himself felt the need to intervene. He saw you as a challenge. If he could bed you and walk away, he felt that somehow meant him more of a god. I thought he’d done it, let you be, but I had come to realize not long after, what he’d done to you. He wanted you so bad that he couldn’t let you go. He couldn’t fathom the idea of someone el
se having you. I had convinced myself that I was the only one he would ever feel that way about. And all this time later, he is still hung up on a lowly siren!” Aphrodite spit at Asa.

  They’d relocated her to an abandoned apartment complex, one that Asa often used as her hideouts when shit got too sketchy to go home. The place had been empty for nearly a decade with the same “Remodel Coming Soon!” sign on the front of the building. She knew there would be no remodel. It was originally purchased to be a vampire hideout … that was until she sucked the life from the leader of that clan. He was a very naughty boy, and she was very hungry. Lucky for her, the property was paid in full, and it would be another few years before the city took it back due to lack of payment on the property taxes.

  “Excuse me?” Though the words came from the lips of someone she called friend, Asa had to remind herself that inside was the sore lover of a man who’d broken her. Asa stood by the open window, the cool air bringing her comfort as she stared on at her captor. Jax and Inda were keeping watch while she interrogated Aphrodite. Soon they would head back to Chicago, but they had to be sure they were in the clear to go.

  “Why do you think all of this is happening? Ares has been walking around the Earth for years! He could have infiltrated Oikos long ago. Hell, he has his bastard son to give him full access and yet, he waited. He knew you were still out there, roaming the Earth. He waited until he found you, and because you had freed yourself from him, he sought to punish you. Because of that ridiculous infatuation, and his need to toy with you, everything we have worked for is in jeopardy!” The bindings used to tie Aphrodite were made of a thick plastic reinforced with steel fibers. The more she struggled against the hold, the tighter the bindings became. “Let me out of this!”

  “Son? Ares has a son?” Asa stepped away from the window. Ares had a child out in the world, someone who had access to Oikos. If it were true, she needed to warn Carter. Lehela had mentioned another demigod, was this the same person?

  “What is it about you? What draws him to you in such an intense and indescribable way?”

  “Answer my question!” Asa grabbed the withered old face, holding it to face her. “What son?”

  “Yes, Ares has a child. Always the wanderer, I’ve lost count now of how many there are. That one, he was special, intentional. You know him, the one who abandoned his home … I believe you two have become quite acquainted with one another.” The sadistic smile, the glint of evil in her eyes, the news was meant to destroy Asa, to cut down a part of her she had only just begun to rebuild. It did exactly that.

  As if pulled by a vacuum, the air evacuated the room leaving Asa lightheaded. It couldn’t be. She removed her hand from Aphrodite’s face. It made sense, though, as much as she wanted to deny it. He’d felt so familiar, like a piece of her home returned to her. Her stomach tightened as she barely managed to choke out the name. “Carter?”

  “Carter, yes, that is the name his mortal mother gave him. Another bastard child of my love. I was against it, you know, him bedding that woman. When he found her, reeking of the pure land, he made it his new obsession, just like he did with you. I refused him. I wanted him to leave it be. We were happy, here on Earth, living unassuming yet oh so delicious lives. It was enough for me, but I knew it would never satisfy him. First, he wanted her because she was different. Then it was because of the secrets she told of her home. When she became pregnant, she left him and returned to Oikos, taking his child with her and giving him something much more than a son. She gave him hope. She gave him fuel. Ares is a smart man, and it didn’t take long for him to realize that if his seed could cross, there would be a way for him to do so as well. He went from obsession about a lost woman, to plotting his return to the god he once was.”

  “Asa, we need to get out of here.” Ida returned to the room of the old building. “We ditched them, but it won’t be long before they find us. If we are going to leave, we need to do it now.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Asa turned to the window, letting the breeze dry her eyes of the tears that threatened to fall. “We’re taking her with us.”

  “What? That wasn’t the plan.” Inda closed the door, hoping Jax wouldn’t hear the conversation. “What is this about?”

  “Things have changed. We need to take her back. Trust me, please.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll go let Jax know.” Inda turned the doorknob. “Are you okay, Asa?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Let me know when we’re ready.”

  Asa looked up to the sky where the opening appeared. Oikos, glowing like heaven from above, shone above them. Ares had done it, he’d found a way to break the barrier spell that would keep him and the other gods out. Soon he would enter the parallel realm and his power would once again be limitless. The opening was exactly where Iris said it would be, right above the Bean that had become so famous.

  In front of her, the battle waged on. They’d been away for too long. Millennium Park, at the center of downtown Chicago, was a battleground. Humans ran and screamed as vampires and shifters fought alongside faeries against beings she’d never laid eyes on. Ares had his own army and they were no gods. They were monsters, disposable. All the horrible beings that she had spent so much time taking down. Jackals, demons, goblins, and even a few bogles, hideous spirits that she hadn’t seen in so long. They were known to show up on the battlefield, the perfect weapon against an enemy.

  Dee and Madelyn led their people with strength and focus. Though they were up against horrible beasts, they held their own. The faeries were prepared, knowledgeable of the monsters they fought, and quickly taught the others how to take down their foes. Magical nets were thrown over the bogles, trapping them inside and turning their confusion on themselves. They fought to get out, and when their mind games started to backlash, they let out shrills that became the soundtrack to the battle that played out.

  Asa landed on the ground, jumping off the back of Jax who’d given her a ride to New York. When they arrived, the battle was already underway. He dropped the old body of Sunny, currently inhabited by Aphrodite, to the ground and flew off to join the other dragons in the sky. Inda landed softly on the ground next to Asa. The dark sky was lit with flames—birds of fire spread their wings, burning all who came near, and dragons breathed streams of fire onto the enemy. This was not a kind battle. Around them, the park was aflame; trees and grass lit up, giving a fiery backdrop to the fight.

  Asa ducked down when a dragon was slung by a gryphon into the side of the tall building. The blue “Prudential” sign dislodged and came crashing to the ground, killing humans and monsters alike.

  “We need to move!” Inda yelled.

  Another stream of fire touched the ground, Jax lighting up the demonic enemy.

  “Carter, I have to find him!” Asa searched the area but saw no sign of him.

  “I’ll be back.” Inda took to the sky, sweeping the area. On her return flight, a goblin, flung by two others, landed on her back. She fell to the ground screaming while his claws dug into her. Back to her feet, she let out a shriek of anger as her entire body lit into a blaze. Inda’s frame was engulfed by the flames, and the goblin attached to her, and anyone in the immediate vicinity was set aflame. Free of the pest she returned to Asa. “He’s over there, by the Pavilion!”

  “Keep an eye on her! Let no one come near!” Asa instructed Inda as she ran off.

  “Carter!” she yelled as she approached the place where they’d listened to jazz. The memory had no time to register as she was attacked head on by an ogre. Twice her size and skin melted from the side of his face, a previous encounter with a phoenix gone wrong, the monster pummeled the ground beside her, barely missing her with its fists. Asa dodged him easily, simultaneously pulling the harpe from its hidden sheath. She swung the sword around high above her head before landing on one knee. The beast fell, the pain of his death a muted thud of his head against the burned ground as she ran on.

  She ran forward, her sword at the ready for any who charged. Carter was figh
ting his own demons, nearly overtaken. She had to get to him. Ares had reached far outside of his usual means. From the grounds below, she could see them, rising and taking over the bodies of the humans who tried to flee. Evil spirits, wendigos! Victims turned into predators, switching from running to attacking, and quickly losing their lives against stronger beings. She spotted a group running up behind him, and no one was there to cover him. Reaching forward with her free hand, she pushed her power at them. Their bodies caved in, eyes bursting from the pressure.

  Carter turned to see Asa running for him, the distraction causing him to miss the ogre running at him. The behemoth speared Carter, the impact strong enough to cause blood to fall from his lips.

  “No!” Asa yelled. She wouldn’t make it in time. The ogre reared back, hands high above its head; it was going to crush him. Asa kept running, and just before she used her magic again she saw the bear, three times the size of any she’d seen before. Brown fur crashed into the ogre, claws ripping into its chest. The sound of growls blended with the curdling call of death.

  “Dee,” Asa breathed as she reached them. The bear nodded and took off running. “Thank you!” she called after him before turninh to Carter.

  “You’re back.” He took her offered hand to help him stand. “Damn, that thing really got me.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, are you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Ares, he is here.” He turned and pointed to the Bean. “There. Just beneath. There isn’t much time.”

  “The doors are open. How?”

  “I don’t know. We’re just trying to hold them off.”

  “Okay, we need to go.” She looked to where she last saw Inda; Sunny was there tied up and blindfolded. Others had joined Inda in keeping the enemy at bay. “There!” Asa directed Carter with her hand, and they ran back to Inda. As they ran, they saw Madelyn, dancing a magical tango of death and she worked like a chameleon blending into the scene and reappearing just long enough to deliver her death blow. It was the way of the faeries. Each of them confusion, delusion, mind games. The opponent would launch in one direction only to be cut down from another. Madelyn smiled as she ripped the head from a goblin and tossed it over her shoulder before vanishing again.