I ran my fingertip over the delicate work, the black metal. "Thanks, Mom and Dad," I said, stupidly on the verge of bawling again. I hugged my mom, then kissed my dad on the cheek. I held the box out to Nain, and he fastened the thread-like chain around my neck. The charm fell just to the hollow of my throat.
Oh. He liked the way it looked. I glanced at my husband, my body instantly aware of how he was looking at me. You get turned on by the weirdest things, I thought at him.
Nope. Just you, he thought back, and I felt my entire body warm.
Just then, Hephaestus boomed, "Cake. Now!"
They sang an absolutely horrid rendition of the birthday song to me, and we demolished the chocolate cake in minutes. We sat and laughed and talked and it was the most relaxed I'd felt in forever. Slowly but surely, our company started trickling away, leaving my parents, Heph and Meghan, E, Nain and me. At some point, Nain had taken Zoe out of my arms, and he was walking back and forth across the kitchen with her. My mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table with E, and I headed back in there after I saw Shanti out.
My mom set a plainly-wrapped package down on the table and held her hands out for Zoe. Nain handed her over, and it made me ache, how tender he was, how careful he was when he was with her.
Something must have flowed through our connection, because he met my eyes at that instant. Okay. You were right. She's worth saving, and we'll do whatever it takes to keep our baby girl sane, he said in my mind, and I smiled.
I'm always right, I thought back at him, and he shook his head, but not before I detected a tiny smile on his lips.
"Look at you, you gorgeous angel," Tisiphone was cooing at Zoe. "We are going to teach you how to swing a sword and disembowel your enemies and—"
"Mom," I said.
"What?"
"She's six weeks old. No disemboweling of enemies until she's in kindergarten."
"Fine," my mom said, turning back to Zoe. "And you will learn every song Cyndi Lauper ever recorded and when you're old enough, I will share with you the glory that is Richard Marx."
Nain made a gagging sound as my mom sat down at the kitchen table, cradling Zoe in her arms. She nodded toward the box, then looked at Nain.
"It occurred to me that I never properly welcomed you to the family, demon," she said. "That's for you."
Nain and I exchanged a glance, and Nain stepped over to the table and lifted the lid off the box. I was beside him, peering around his body to see what it was.
There was an ax in the box. Long handle, wicked crescent-shaped blade. The whole thing was about the size of a steak knife.
"Uh. Thanks." Nain said. "It'll… look nice in our living room." It was cute, watching him trying to be polite to my mom.
"Pick it up, you jackass," Heph said, and Nain flipped him the bird. He reached into the box and picked it up. Nothing happened.
"Okay," Nain said, hefting it.
"Focus, demon," my mom said. "This is your weapon, made only for you by the most talented craftsperson in this age or any other. Think of it as your weapon, and it will become all it was meant to be."
Nain looked at me again, then down at his hand. He closed his eyes, and, as I watched, the ax changed, from something that was small enough to be a toy, to an ax with a handle almost as tall as Nain, a razor edge to the rounded blade. The carvings I'd seen on the head were easier to see now. It was the crest of the Furies, the scales of justice ringed in flame.
"Wow," I breathed. "It's gorgeous, Heph."
"Thanks, Queenie. It'll look a lot prettier stained with the blood of our enemies."
"Boys," my mom muttered.
Nain had opened his eyes gain, and his gaze traveled the weapon. "I've never used one of these before," he said, still studying it.
"This is similar to the flamesword the Furies have," Heph explained. "It's instinctive. Molly had never held a sword until the day her flamesword appeared, right?" he said, this last directed at me.
I nodded, unable to take my eyes off of my husband and his great big… ax.
Nain looked down, a little a smirk forming on his lips. Such impure emotions, baby, he said in my mind.
As soon as Zoe's asleep, I'm showing you just how impure, I thought at him.
"So I'll be able to use it right away," Nain said to Heph after clearing his throat.
"Gods, the hormones flowing through this place," my mother crooned at Zoe. "Like rabid sprites, these two."
"Mom!"
"Rabid sprites in heat," Heph corrected.
"Oh, Christ," I said, plopping down into one of the other chairs.
"Okay, so now that we've got that settled…" Nain said.
"Yeah, you can use it right away. It should do a little something extra, if our theory is correct," Heph said.
"Theory?" I asked.
"Just hold it like you're about to take a swing at something," Heph said to Nain.
Frowning a little, Nain took the ax in both hands and moved, swinging the ax in a close arc.
As soon as he moved, black flames, like the ones on my flamesword, began to dance along the edges of his blade.
"Black flames, of course," my mom said. "It would be."
"Just like Queenie's," Heph agreed.
Nain was staring at his ax with an almost reverent look on his face. "I don't get it," he said after a moment, still watching the flames dance.
"All of that lovely blood you've exchanged with my daughter," my mom explained. "She already told me you have healing abilities now. We can safely assume your lifespan is much, much longer than is natural for your kind, thanks, again, to her blood and power flowing through you. This is just another sign of how your powers have joined with hers. Our powers are usually passed on to our children. I've never even imagined it would happen via mating before," she finished.
"He's worthy of it," Heph said.
"Yes, he'd better be," my mom said mildly. Then she handed Zoe to me and stood up.
"Thank you, Tisiphone," Nain said, bowing his head to her.
"You're very welcome. Now, here is the rest of my welcome to you. If you hurt my daughter, ever, in any way, I will rip your testicles off and make you watch as I feed them to Cerberus. Understand?"
Nain cleared his throat. "Perfectly. What is it with you Fury women threatening my balls?"
"We're experts at effective torture methods," my mom said with a smile.
"Right," Nain said. "You know I'm never going to hurt her."
"Keep it that way, demon," she said. Then she came over to me, kissed my cheek, and bent down and pressed a series of kisses to Zoe's head. "I need to get back to Megaera."
"Bye, Mom," I said, then I hugged my dad, and they winked out of sight. After a hug for me and a handshake for Nain, Heph and Meaghan followed suit.
Nain and I looked at the ax still flaming in his hand. "I think your mom likes me," he said finally.
"Of course. She has excellent taste," I replied.
He lowered the ax, and it stopped flaming. He seemed to focus, and it shrank back to the size of a knife.
"Handy," I said.
"Very," he agreed.
Chapter Thirteen
I was heading in for my semi-regular press conference, which, to my surprise, no one had cancelled in light of that mess on Thanksgiving. I had asked Bren multiple times if he was sure it hadn't been cancelled, and he said that as far as he knew, it was still on. He still hadn't managed to get Petersen on the phone but he hadn't heard otherwise. I left Nain and Zoe, and drove (like a normal person) to downtown Detroit.
Sitting in the driver's seat of my Barracuda felt like being home. I'd nearly forgotten how much I liked to drive; the scent of leather and exhaust, the feel of the engine rumbling. Being out and about among regular people doing regular things was soothing. I needed to give myself time to drive more often. Flying and rematerializing were convenient, but they weren't nearly as comforting.
Of course, getting from the street to the office I needed to be in was anoth
er matter. Rematerializing was the lazy girl's way to deal with that, so I did, focusing on appearing at the Fisher Building.
When I appeared in my usual place, I was surrounded by guns.
I stared. A ring of men in black uniforms surrounded me, guns raised, aimed at my head.
My heart pounded. I wasn't afraid. Not really. It hurt like hell to get shot, and I wasn't looking forward to it. It was more rage than anything else. I tried to tamp it down.
I raised my hands, palms out. "Where's Director Matthews?" I asked.
"Matthews never should have been put in charge," one of the gun-toting men said. I recognized him. He was one of the guys who'd been in the SUV with Ross the day the supernatural affairs division had approached me at my house.
"I'll ask again, then," I said. "Where is Matthews?"
"Here," Brennan said. I looked toward the exterior door of the office I had rematerialized in, and Brennan was there, a gun at his head as well, held by none other than former Director Ross.
I laughed. I couldn't help it.
"What are you laughing at?" Ross shouted. He kept his gun trained on Brennan. "I swear I'll kill him, you crazy bitch. I lost everything because the two of you showed me up."
"You pathetic little excuse for a man," I said, aware of the snarl, the slight hiss in my voice. The fear level in the room rose significantly. "Of all the shit I'm dealing with right now, you are about the least terrifying. And you're fucking stupid to boot."
I focused, and, half a second later, I rematerialized behind Brennan, and pulled him to just outside the office.
"Are we leaving this alone or kicking ass, Director?" I asked.
He was already stripping, getting ready to shift. Shouting erupted from the other side of the door, angry voices.
Brennan shifted, tall, blond man to humongous black panther with the same blue eyes.
"Ready?" I asked quietly, and the panther gave an almost-human nod.
"Should I be scary?"
I felt humor from Brennan, and I grinned and released a blast of energy. One of the men screamed, and then the gunfire started. I brought out my flamesword, started slicing out at our attackers, rage and instinct guiding me. I could hear Brennan snarling, and caught the sight of him with his jaws around Ross's throat. We'd done this dozens of times: he'd hold the one who knew the most for me to question while I took out my aggressions on the others.
In this case, it was mostly about crowd control. I used the sword to knock the guns out of their hands. It wasn't hard. Without their guns, eventually every one of the men surrendered, sinking to their knees and raising their hands. It took some time, but I broke into their minds and made them forget everything about what they'd been involved in with Ross. I may have also made them piss themselves, but considering that they'd just had their guns pointed at my head, I thought I was being pretty merciful. I watched them leave, all looking confused and kind of lost.
Then I turned to Brennan, who was still holding Ross down, huge teeth clamped around the man's throat. I grabbed the pile of clothing Brennan had shed in the hallway and closed the door, which was hanging crookedly on its hinges after the way I'd blasted it in.
Oops.
"Okay, let him up," I said. Brennan did, with a final growl, then shifted back. Ross lay on the floor, shaking, glaring at Brennan. I tossed Brennan his clothes.
"You're lucky I didn't bite down," Brennan told Ross as he started pulling on his pants. "Move, just a little. Give me an excuse to rip your throat out. Please," he added.
"Where's Petersen, Ross?" I asked.
Ross just glared at me. Brennan and I exchanged a look, and he stepped over to where he'd knocked Ross's gun out of his hand, picked it up and hefted it in his hand.
"It's been a long time since I've shot anybody," he said conversationally.
"I bet. You usually go for the ripping and slashing," I said.
"Something satisfying about blowing off kneecaps, though," Brennan mused. "And considering you set up one of my best friends just now — stupidly, by the way. Did you even pay attention to all the times she hasn't been taken down by gunfire? — I'll be more than happy to hobble you permanently."
It really was heartwarming, when my friends threatened to maim someone on my behalf.
"So let's try again," I said. "Where's Petersen?"
"There are shallow graves all over this city, Angel," Ross said with a sneer. "You know about at least a few of those, don't you?"
"Why?" I asked. "Why go after him?"
Ross just smirked at us… and Brennan lost his patience. He shot Ross in the foot, a shot that barely grazed the side of his big toe, but scared him enough that he screamed like a little girl.
"That was a warning shot," Bren said, aiming again. "Answer her question."
"She's so big and bad, why doesn't she take care of me? Why does she need you?"
"Oh, she doesn't need me. I've just been looking forward to making you bleed," Brennan said.
I had to turn away then. As insane as this was, I had to try not to laugh. I could feel how much Brennan was enjoying this. He was enraged, sure, but I could tell this had been a long time coming.
"But if you really piss me off, I'll step aside and let her do her thing. Believe me, you'll wish you'd been shot. Answer her question."
For a minute, Ross just cradled his wounded foot. Then he muttered, "He was working on smoothing things over with the city, reassuring the mayor and the police department that you're not nearly the menace that gold guy claimed you were. And he was getting through."
Now it made sense. Fewer articles and news reports lately about what a menace I was. That was thanks to Petersen.
And now I was really pissed at Ross.
"And because he demoted you," I said.
Ross clamped his mouth shut.
"We can't kill him now," I said to Bren. "He has crimes to answer for, and Petersen's family deserves to know what happened."
Bren nodded and took his phone out of his pocket. I could tell from his end of the conversation that he was talking to someone in the DPD's supernatural division.
He hung up, still keeping the gun on Ross. "DPD's on the way," he said.
"I'm sorry about Petersen. I know you liked him," I told him.
His voice was subdued as he said, "He was a good guy. He got it. He saw the big picture. And he understood that we should all be kissing your feet instead of making your life harder."
I grimaced. "Ew, feet," I said, and he let out a short laugh.
"This is so disgusting," Ross said.
Neither of us looked at him. Bren squeezed the trigger again, grazing the side of Ross's other foot, and I shot just a teensy bit of flame. Just enough to singe his eyebrows and eyelashes. He shouted a bunch of profanity at us, and Bren rolled his eyes.
"If you need me to make a statement or whatever, let me know," I said, and Brennan nodded his thanks.
DPD showed up a little bit later, four officers altogether. They cuffed Ross, greeted me. There was no weirdness, no fear, and for that I was grateful.
Brennan and I followed them out and watched them load Ross into one of the cars.
"I should have known something was up when I couldn't get Petersen," Brennan said finally. "I'm sorry, Molly."
"Actually, that was kind of satisfying."
His gaze landed on my car. "You mean you actually drove?" he asked, and I nodded. We walked to my car, and he ran his hand over the hood, then looked back at me. "You're changing."
"Nothing stays the same," I replied. "Hopefully once this current mess is finished, I'll have some time to figure it all out."
I glanced around, noting that, unfortunately, I was being recognized. Passersby had their phones raised, and the emotions coming from them were mostly fear and uncertainty.
"You should try not to be seen with me too much," I said.
"Am I supposed to be ashamed to be your friend?"
"It might complicate things with your job."
; "Molly, my job is watching you, remember?"
I opened my car door. "Believe me, I'm trying to forget. Do you need a ride?"
He shook his head and pointed a few cars down, where his SUV was parked.
"Okay. Um. Is it weird to say that was kind of fun?"
He chuckled softly. "I'm glad it's not just me."
He started walking away, and I shook my head again and got into my car. I made sure he got into his and drove away without any issues, and then I left as well, heading toward the Netherwoods to pick up Zoe and Sean.
Chapter Fourteen
I was on my way to Delray and the Netherwoods when my phone rang. I dug it out of my pocket, glanced at it. Nain's number.
"Hey," I said.
"Where are you?" he sounded stressed. Pissed.
"On my way to pick up Zoe and Sean. I'll be there in about ten minutes. Why?"
"You need to get there now," he said, and my stomach twisted.
"What's going on?"
"Hyperion's attacking. The whole fucking thing is burning."
I pulled over to the curb and slammed the Barracuda into park. I focused, rematerializing just outside of the Netherwoods, where I usually dropped Zoe off with my parents. Nain was there.
The Netherwoods were on fire.
I ran toward the woods, and Nain caught up with me and grabbed my arm.
"Wait," he said, and I struggled, trying to get in, trying to get to our daughter.
"Zoe," I said, pulling harder.
"You know this is a fucking trap. You know it. Everyone else is coming. Just wait a second."
I stopped struggling, staring at the woods. Nain was tense, worried. Angrier than he'd been in a long time.
"She's in there, Nain," I said.
There was a loud series of "crack" sounds behind us.
"Then let's go get her, Queenie," Heph said, striding forward with Athena, Asclepias, E, Hestia, Persephone, and Gaia.
I nodded, started walking forward.
Nether: Hidden Book Five Page 18