Nether: Hidden Book Five

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  "Gaia was imprisoned in Tartarus with her fellow Titans. She helped the Titans, and when Zeus found out, he imprisoned Gaia along with them. He is a damned monster, and always has been," Father Balester snarled.

  "It was war, right? War isn't pretty." I said. Then I groaned. "I didn't seriously just defend Zeus, did I?"

  Father Balester was studying me closely. "Watch yourself, Angel. You're already finding yourself ensconced in questions of loyalty, believing the story fed to you by those you call a family. History is always written by the victors, have you noticed that? Don't believe everything you've heard."

  "The Titans are dangerous," I said.

  "Yes, indeed they are. Especially after an eternity of being imprisoned by your people." He paused. "I like you, Angel. I believe in you. But if you try to harm Gaia, I will help destroy you."

  "She can't keep doing shit like this," Nain said, cutting in before things got heated. "This is a mess."

  "She's doing what Gaia does," Father Balester explained with a shrug. "She arrives here and sees the Earth she loves filthy, littered, polluted. Of course she's going to try to fix it. Don't try to pretend the world was better with that facility here."

  "She could have seriously hurt someone. People are without power and water—" I started, and Father Balester laughed.

  "Do you seriously think she'd hurt any of them? Water and power can be restored. She'd never harm another living creature. Even those who deserve it. She will, however, get her revenge as only she can. Of course, this isn't exactly what she planned for this area, I suppose," he added.

  "No, I got that," I said.

  "She has returned," he repeated, as if he couldn't quite believe it.

  Nain and I exchanged another glance. I detected movement to my right, then my left.

  "My brothers and sisters are arriving. We will celebrate tonight," Balester said. "Remember what I said, Angel. I am on your side until you give me reason not to be."

  As we watched, several more Earth Guardians arrived and greeted each other. Then, as one, the air shimmered around them, and their bodies transformed, from flesh to rich, dark tree bark, leaves and branches sprouting as they grew ever higher into the sky, creating a grove of oaks and maples just outside the black trees of the newly-formed Nether. Soon, it was just Nain and me again, and we stood in silence. It was easy for me to feel the joy emanating from the Earth Guardians, even stronger now that they were in their tree forms. Excitement, wonder flowed from them.

  "I am not going in there," I said.

  "Your family already went," Nain pointed out.

  "That doesn't surprise me at all. They can get back to work, doing their judging and punishing thing."

  "E didn't go, though," he added.

  He was right. E was standing off to the side, arms crossed, looking at the Nether woods as if she was trying to make a decision.

  "I think she wants to be alone right now," I murmured. Of all the Nether beings, E was the one whose life wasn't really changed by having a home to go back to. She was the last of her kind, and the crows had long since taken over her previous job of collecting the souls of the dead. Now, they'd be able to bring them to my father again. But E was still finding her place, and I knew all too well how hard that was. I pulled Nain toward the truck.

  "At least our life is never boring," he said, following me.

  "I could take a little boring, I think," I answered.

  When we got back to where we had parked, we both stood and watched the chaos around us. Workers from the water and electric departments had arrived, and were mostly standing around watching Hephaestus do his thing. He'd already managed to make the water stop gushing, and he was currently intent on his work on one of the electrical poles. Even though I knew better, I still worried bout him hurting himself. I couldn't even quite explain what he was doing. He was eliminating excess cable, somehow managing to cut off and reroute the power as he worked, and, slowly but surely, we started seeing the lights turn back on again.

  "You have the most handy friends I've ever seen," one of the power company guys said as he walked past me, and I grinned. "This would have taken us weeks to repair. This is just crazy," he said and we both laughed.

  We made our way back toward Brennan, and I saw that Jamie had also arrived.

  "Hey," I said, and she greeted me with a hug. "I heard you joined up, too. Your dad would have been proud."

  She smiled. "He would have. When Brennan asked me to join his little government team, I had about a second's worth of hesitation before saying yes."

  I sensed for her. A bit of embarrassment, but, mostly, focus. She'd toned down her appearance a little since taking the job working with Brennan on the government's supernatural relations team. Gone was the bubblegum pink hair. She'd gone back to her natural dark brown, but with a streak of blue here and there. It worked on her. She was still dressed in her clothes from the wedding as well, a light blue strapless dress that accentuated her thin frame perfectly. She'd thrown her usual leather jacket over it to ward off the cool weather.

  "So, did you find out anything?" Bren asked me.

  I took a deep breath. "Titans," I said.

  "Huh?"

  I explained about Gaia and the Earth Guardians, about the Netherwoods and the fact that my family and any demons in the vicinity had already gone in. Brennan and Jamie both stood there and listened, surprise, then worry rolling off of them.

  I asked Brennan, "What are the odds we can keep this whole Gaia development between us for now?"

  "I'll tell them we're not sure."

  "Good. I don't want anyone getting in the way of this. This is my mess to clean up, and I'll handle it."

  "We'll handle it," Heph said, approaching the group. "The immortals are to blame for locking her up in the first place. We'll help clean up our fuckin' mess for once."

  I smiled at him. "You are a very weird immortal, with your desire to take responsibility and shit like that."

  "Thank you, Queenie. You always know just the right thing to say."

  He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed, and I leaned into him. The burly god had proven, over and over again, to be an absolute rock. Protective, encouraging, and just enough of a pain in the ass to keep me entertained. I didn't have any idea if that was really what it was like having an older brother around, but either way, I found I liked it. And he beat Nain at cards all the time, which pissed my husband off, and my husband is happiest when he's pissed, so it just worked all around.

  "I don't know what will happen if the Normals try to enter the Netherwoods," I said.

  "A few of them have gone toward it. They get within a few feet or so and end up deciding to turn around. It's almost like something is warning them off of it," Brennan told me.

  "So, kind of how it was with the gateway," Nain said, thinking, and I nodded.

  We all stuck around a little while longer, making sure things were as back to normal as possible. As the sky started getting brighter in the east, Nain and Brennan convinced me to get back in the truck and go home. "We still have boxes to pack," Nain reminded me.

  "And I promised Ada and Stone I'd take them to the airport at seven," Brennan said, yawning.

  "Yeah, okay," I said, stealing another glance toward the forest, the Nether, that hadn't been there a few hours ago. "I wonder how it's being powered. Before it was by Nether. I mean, it was dying without Nether's energy. How can this even be?"

  "We'll figure it out. Just not tonight," Nain said, opening the truck door for me. I got in, and it took every bit of energy I had to stay awake long enough to walk myself into the loft and fall into bed with Nain.

  The next morning, I woke up the way I always wake up, the way I want to wake up every morning for the rest of my life: with Nain's hands on my body, his lips trailing over my skin.

  "We should just stay in bed all day," Nain said as he trailed kisses over my shoulder.

  "We should, but we can't," I said. I glanced at the alarm clock. "Fuck. And
I'm already late for today's stupid press conference."

  "So you're just gonna leave me suffering like this?" he asked with a smirk as I pulled myself out of his arms. I glanced down at the "this" he was referring to. How did he still manage to make me blush so easily, after all the time we'd spent together, all the things we'd done to one another? I leaned down and kissed him, and he immediately tangled his fingers in my hair and pulled me closer. I groaned and forced myself to pull away from him again.

  "I'll make it up to you later," I murmured.

  He ran his hands through my hair. "You will," he said. "It's enough for now knowing how bad you want it." There was that smirk again, the one that still made my heart pound.

  "Pretty sure of yourself, huh, demon?" I asked, getting out of the bed.

  He stood up, climbing out of our bed in all of his naked, muscled glory, and my mouth went dry while other parts of me did the exact opposite.

  "I have every reason to be, baby," he said.

  "Tonight," I promised him.

  "Tonight," he said. He pulled on a pair of jeans, walked around the bed and pulled me into his arms. He kissed me tenderly, and I let myself melt against him.

  "Thanks for trying to distract me, though," I murmured against him.

  "Anytime. I know how much you hate this press bullshit." He rested his chin on the top of my head as he held me. "You want coffee before you go?"

  "You know I do. Where will you be today?"

  "I have a meeting with the shifter coalition and Rayna's people about what happened in Delray to bring them all up to speed. Then Heph and I are hunting down those shifters who were causing trouble near Hamtramck."

  I nodded. "We need a vacation."

  "On a deserted tropical island where no one else can find us," he agreed, and I laughed. "I love you, Molls," he said before he pulled away.

  "I love you too," I said.

  He released me and went out into the kitchen to make coffee while I finished getting ready. I could hear him talking to Artemis, who was there babysitting Sean. I got dressed and cleaned up as quickly as I could, and when I walked out into the kitchen, there was my favorite milk glass coffee cup full of coffee waiting for me on the counter. I greeted Artemis, listened to Sean babble for a minute about the toy truck he was holding at the time. I fed the dogs, patted them both and told them how awesome they were. I gulped the coffee down and put my cup in the sink.

  "Okay. See you tonight," I said to Nain.

  "Kick ass, baby," he said, leaning down to kiss me.

  "Always," I said, and he smiled. He kissed me again, and I focused.

  I rematerialized in the entryway of the Fisher Building, which seemed to be the place we were holding all of my press conferences. After what had happened in Delray, I'd been deluged with phone calls from just about everyone, from Ross with the feds to the new Detroit police chief. Even though he was a Normal, he actually seemed to be a decent guy and at least he wasn't terrified of me. I was lucky I had Meaghan to deal with most of the phone calls and emails, or I would have already been fed up with all of it.

  I looked down at myself again. The usual. Black, black, black.

  I pushed the door open, watching as the assembled media turned and stared at me.

  I hated this. Every second of it. And I felt like slugging Brennan every time I had to do one of these. He was already there, standing in his dark suit near the podium where I'd be speaking.

  It was the same every time. The reporters watched me walk toward them with a mix of fear and awe. Adoration, in some cases. When I'd first agreed to this, I'd pictured being skewered by the media, being called a menace or a monster. For the most part, what I had instead were more fans in my corner. Of course there were a few who despised and feared me. I was just surprised there weren't more.

  "Hi, guys," I said as I walked toward the podium. Several of them answered back.

  "Okay?" Brennan asked quietly.

  I nodded.

  "All right, Angel. We're on in thirty seconds," the field producer from the local ABC affiliate told me.

  I nodded. Sarah, I thought to myself, remembering her name. She was a friendly, businesslike woman. She was also a witch, and one of the many supernaturals who were calling themselves "The Angel's Army," going around helping and re-building after the battles between the supers that we'd gone through in recent months. They kept themselves anonymous. For the most part, they worked with Heph, who was proving himself invaluable during this rebuilding phase.

  I tried to settle my nerves.

  "Ten," Sarah said, and I looked at the cameras, at the rows of reporters.

  Never in a million years would I have ever considered this being part of my life.

  Sarah gave the signal that we were on the air, and I looked toward the cameras.

  "As you've undoubtedly heard, we had a situation in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit last night," I began, trying to keep my nerves under control. "Initial reports were that the entire neighborhood just vanished. What we found when we investigated was quite different." I paused. "The good news, first, is that we had no deaths or injuries. All residents of the neighborhood have been accounted for, and they've all come through it unscathed. Whatever happened, it appears that it ensured that living things, including people, pets, and wild animals, were spared."

  I looked around, made note of a few of the faces in the crowd. "As for the damages… It was not the entire neighborhood. Whatever this was, it seems to have gone after two types of structures: facilities that cause pollution, namely, the large factory and incinerator there in Delray. What we found when we checked it all out was that those areas seem to have been turned back into wilderness in the blink of an eye. Where factories were yesterday, we now have what looks like a several hundred year old forest.

  "We had damages to infrastructure, of course. Some roads, especially near areas that were destroyed, are gone, which means we have several roads that just kind of end in that neighborhood now. Power and phone and cable lines were destroyed in some cases, and providers are working right now to restore those services.

  "And I know what it is that you really want to know: what did this? I don't have an answer for you yet. Obviously, we're dealing with a being with an insane amount of power. We're seeing something the world has never seen before. Right now, I'm just relieved that whatever it is, it is obviously making an effort not to harm people. But this needs to stop, and I'm hoping we can apprehend whoever it was before they do anything like this again. I'll take questions now," I said, dreading what came next.

  "Was there any warning?" the reporter from the local NBC affiliate asked.

  "No, Susan. We received a call around midnight that the neighborhood had disappeared, and when we got there, we found what I described. When I asked around, none of the residents had noticed anything strange that day, and there were no threats or anything like that made to any government agencies. Yes?" I said, pointing to the CBS reporter.

  "Are there plans in place to prevent this from happening again?"

  "Before we can come up with a plan, we need to figure out what exactly it is that we're dealing with," I said. "Until we know that, there is no way to plan. That's the frustrating thing. We're working on it, but until we know that, all we can do is keep our eyes open and hope it doesn't happen again."

  I paused, looked at the camera. "I know that isn't very reassuring. I'm not good at this PR crap. I'm not going to stand up here and tell everyone it's going to be okay. We're working on it, but none of us is omniscient or all-powerful. All I'm asking is that you not panic now. From what we know, this thing doesn't want to hurt you. Please keep that in mind, as terrifying as it all seems."

  I took a few more questions, and then Brennan told them we were done. I walked into one of the private offices with Brennan and Ross. After a few terse words, Ross left and it was just me and Bren, and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I could hear Brennan pouring coffee, and he pressed a cup into my hands. I laughed a litt
le and opened my eyes.

  "You did a good job. That's why they love you, you know," he said.

  "What?"

  "You empathize. That's what we keep hearing, anyway. They love you for that."

  I shook my head. "They should be annoyed as hell with me. I lied to them. I'm clueless, and I promised them I'd protect them."

  "You are protecting them. They know that."

  I didn't know what to say to that.

  "Someone's going to get beat up now, aren't they?" he asked, and I nodded.

  "There's a spirit daemon that's been causing trouble along the riverfront the past few days."

  "I heard about that. Which one is it?"

  "From the reports we've gotten, Heph and my dad both figure it's Dolos, who's like a trickster spirit. He's mostly just messing with people, but he did toss that guy into the river yesterday, so it's getting out of hand now."

  Brennan bit back a laugh, and then he failed and ended up laughing out loud. "God, our life is one giant freak show," he said, shaking his head.

  "Seriously," I agreed. I dumped my untouched coffee in the sink and tossed the paper cup into the trash. "I'll see you later. Are you going back to the loft now?" I asked him, and he shook his head.

  "I'm leaving early, but I have some reports and crap I have to finish first."

  I nodded and focused, ready to rematerialize near Hart Plaza.

  Chapter Three

  Finding and threatening Dolos wasn't all that hard. I found the fair-haired spirit daemon lounging on one of the benches in Hart Plaza. Spotting him was easy: ridiculously beautiful, a swirl of power. He reminded me a bit of how I'd always envisioned Peter Pan. Maybe it was the mischievous smirk. When he saw me coming across the plaza, he gave a deep sigh of resignation.

  "Dolos," I said.

  "Fury," he replied, looking down.

  "No more throwing humans into the river."

  "Yes, Fury," he said with another sigh, sounding even more like a bratty child.

  "You really, really don't want to come to my attention again. Really," I said, leaving him with a few ideas of what I'd do to him if he caused any more trouble. He walked away with a muttered "this sucks," and I shook my head. There wasn't much point in actually killing the spirit daemon. He'd just appear again in a new form and continue doing what he did. He was trapped here, just like the rest of the immortals, and we'd all have to learn to deal with it. They'd also all have to learn that messing with the Normals was a definite no-no from now on.