“She’s about to find out. But Mnemosyne will take care of blocking any memories when this is all over.”
“Where the hell is the protector Mars assigned to Emma?”
“Damned if I know.” Simon released a pent-up breath and his form began to coalesce as they prepared to emerge in Emma’s apartment.
Breath stuttered in Ben’s lungs when they broke through the barrier between the Hollow and the real world. Jagged tendrils of golden light adorned the door leading to the balcony. The French door was ajar, which it shouldn’t be. Ben was certain the ragged streams indicated a broken ward. His quick survey of the small room left him feeling gut-punched.
Emma cowered in one corner of her living room, arms extended. In her right hand, she held the small pistol he’d given her when she insisted on moving out on her own. When they materialized, her panicked gaze and the bore of the weapon swung their way.
“Emma, no!” he shouted.
Relief mixed with determination conquered her expression as she whipped the gun back toward its original target. The intruder’s fingers flexed and wiggled as if to pull her from the corner. She lurched forward and cringed away from the short, wiry man facing her. His voice was guttural as he repeated the same words over and over in a language Ben didn’t understand. As if Ben and Simon’s presence didn’t pose any sort of the threat, the man never turned his head toward them.
Lia had told him that no immortals would be able to penetrate the protective wards that had been placed around Emma’s residence. It stood to reason the guy was a mortal. But, the comedian at the club had temporarily housed an immortal being. Could this guy be possessed as well?
The man aggressively feinted like he was going to charge. Tears flowing freely down her face, Emma fired the gun. The bullet whizzed past Ben’s shoulder and burrowed into the doorframe behind him. Sweat beaded on Ben’s forehead at the near miss.
The being before him twisted briefly to look at the hole, an unholy laugh burbling from its warped mouth. Before Ben could draw back, the prowler flickered…as if something inside him was trying to force itself out. During the moment when the body shifted between one form and another, then back, Ben recognized the interloper. The huge wide-set eyes, the plaited beard and hair belonged to Abu. The deity shifted back inside the possessed mortal and returned its attention to Emma.
Ben twisted his head to the side, hoping Emma wouldn’t be distracted by trying to read his lips. “Simon?”
The partisan shifted his weight from one foot to another, as though trying to decide the best course of action. When Simon finally spoke, it was directly into Ben’s head. “You go right. I’ll take the left. As soon as we’re flanking him, I’ll throw out a thrall. Grab Emma and slip into the Hollow. Get to Lia’s and wait. Ready?”
Ben drew a deep breath and nodded.
Simon held up one hand. “Don’t take the gun into the Hollow and do not let go of Emma. Arms tight around her. Don’t want you to lose her in there.”
“Got it,” Ben replied, bracing himself to move fast as soon as Simon lunged.
Simon held up three fingers. A blue glow erupted from the partisan’s other hand as he shifted the count from three to two. He lifted his arm and aimed at Abu between two and one. When he pulled the last finger down, he pitched the orb like a fastball. The burst of pure energy caught Abu between the shoulder blades, stopping him mid-lunge toward Emma.
Ben raced past the frozen man to Emma’s side. His sister’s mouth opened into a large O, her eyes wide and filled with fright as she cringed farther back into her corner. None too gently, Ben grasped Emma’s chin and pulled her around to face him. Her eyes tracked his lips as he spoke. “We’re going now. Hold on to me, whatever happens.”
He took the gun from her and set it aside then braced his arms around her quivering body, wishing he could take away her fright. Their method of transportation might reduce her to a catatonic state. He summoned the mist within him and surrounded both of them with it in two seconds flat. Emma’s eyes went huge and she fisted her hands where his shirt would be as they slipped into the Hollow.
Seconds later, Ben felt Emma stiffen, then slump against him. He firmed his grip on her and carried her through the void to Lia’s kitchen. As he demisted, he carefully lifted her body in his arms and strode to the living room. Lowering her to the sofa and covering her with the blanket he found folded on the ottoman, he prayed for his sister to remain unconscious until Lia returned to help explain what the fuck had just happened to her.
During the ten minutes Lia had traveled through the Hollow to Norway, the temperature and pressure had dropped steadily. The partisans linked together to maintain a mask around the incoming crowd. First, they needed to determine if any people were around. The coast was mostly clear, due to the unconscious state of the few mortals present at their landing site. There were seven or eight men lying on the snow-packed ground near the concrete entrance to the vault. The gateway angled sharply downward, mimicking the angle of the surrounding mountains. The slope disappeared into the earth. It was dusk and the setting sun glinted off the icy crust of the snow.
As a group, they drifted to the ground, the partisans with hands aloft, energy orbs writhing in their hands. Lia strode forward, drawing abreast of Mars. Even though it was only the middle of September, ice crystals blew in circles around them, pelting and stinging her skin. She shivered and summoned a tiny bit of her power to warm her exposed flesh. Her skin glowed, as did her sisters’.
“I don’t see anything. Are we sure there’s been a breach?” she asked her godfather.
Mars pointed to a portion of the concrete structure. “See the golden glow?”
A miniscule corner near the top glimmered in the swirling snow. “Yeah.” The ward had been broken.
With a grunt, he snapped his fingers, drawing the attention of the guards. Using hand motions, he directed the troops to fan out.
Enlil and Zeus joined them. Enlil sniffed the air, then grunted. “Enki has been here. Might still be. The stench is strong.”
Lia inhaled sharply through her nose, but couldn’t detect any odor. But then, she wasn’t Enki’s half brother. “What’s the plan?”
Mars whipped around to face her. “We enter the building and search until we find the bastards.”
“Um, okay, I guess. Am I leading?” Because if she was, she was going to need to find a discreet rock to vomit behind before they began this part of their journey.
“My guards will venture in first,” Enlil mandated. “You and I, along with your specific partisans, will follow.”
Mars acquiesced. “Then Zeus and I, then your sisters. We will leave the demi-mortals here with a contingent of protectors. They will stand watch out here.”
Lia glanced to where the demi-mortals in question stood. Thomas blew on his hands and stomped his feet. Jax’s mouth trembled, as though trying to quell his chattering teeth. In general they both looked like really gorgeous popsicles. “Um, sounds good, but can you start a fire for the guys? It’s too cold, and I doubt anyone granted them inner fire to draw upon. Plus, someone should monitor the humans on the ground. That can’t be healthy for them.”
Mars grunted and marched over to the men. After a brief conversation, he drew them to a pile of rocks adjacent to the walkway into the vault. Mars extended his hands over the sandstone slabs. His palms glowed blue, then changed to purple as the pile heated to a glowing red. Thomas and Jax hurried to drag two of the vault employees toward the heat, while the partisans assigned to stay with them pulled the remaining unconscious men forward.
“Ready?” Mars asked as he rejoined them.
Hell, no. If this were her moment of truth, she’d happily delay it, for say, a hundred years. But the challenge didn’t work that way. She lifted one shoulder, held back her worried sigh, and simply swung her arm toward the doorway. “Let’s go kick some magpie ass. And Zeus? Not a word. I think I deserve to use some vulgarities at this stage.”
Zeus laughed. “F
ine, daughter. Whatever the fuck you wish to do, just fucking do it fast so we can return home. My balls are freezing. Let us go kick this mofo’s ass.”
Oh, jeez. Her father even threw down gang signs and dipped his upper body to the right. His brows arched high on his forehead.
Lia buried her head in her hands and bit back her groan.
Zeus and Mars giggled like schoolboys practicing saying dirty words when she looked up. She wagged her finger side to side in front of Zeus’s face. “Uh-uh. No. Dirty words out of your mouth sound too blasted stiff to be effective.” Lia shot her weight onto one hip. “If you insist on talking like that, I’ll quit swearing in protest.”
“My plan is working.” Zeus hit her with a tightly-wound grin.
“Let’s go, Enlil.” She gripped the god’s bicep and dragged him to the opening.
Lia inched forward along the dimly lit gateway. The guards preceding her moved with grace and stealth through the portal. Their silence surprised Lia. She’d assumed they’d make a ton of noise, especially in the confines of what looked like an airport jet way. But she didn’t hear a single footstep other than her own. Enlil gripped her hand, a grimace drawing his brows together. A powerful surge of energy flowed into her as he levitated them both and glided forward. Okay, the god didn’t like walking. Might explain the belly protruding over the gilded belt around his waist.
She glanced over her shoulder to find all the other immortals following suit and skimming above the concrete floor. With the absence of any other sound from the group, the rapid beat of Lia’s heart pounded in her ears. She slowed her breathing to control her rushing pulse.
With extreme caution, they advanced. Lia noted an upward slope to their movement. She tried to remember the basic layout of the vault. A long tunnel led to three vault rooms, warehouses really, burrowed deep inside the mountain. Each climate-controlled room would be lined with rows upon rows of shelving. Seeds from all flora, fauna and most importantly, crops were categorized and stored on those shelves. The facility was a treasure trove capable of feeding the world in the event of catastrophe. The banks had been nicknamed doomsday vaults. An apt name.
Before they’d enter the vestibule in front of the three vaults, they had to pass a control room. The operations center provided security and administrative control for the facility. Two of Enlil’s guards sprinted ahead of the rest, ducking into the first doorway they came to in the corridor that was the length of several football fields.
The lead guard lifted one arm, bent at the elbow, fist clenched. Every other centurion crouched immediately. Enlil halted her forward progress. After several more hand gestures Lia didn’t have a prayer of understanding, the second guard raced back to Enlil.
“My liege,” he began in a low gruff whisper. “Pierus has seized control of the operations center. Three technicians are unconscious at the rear of the room. A fourth is seated in front of a monitor and is being zapped with energy pulses. From the look of the map on the wall, the actual vaults remain secure.”
Lia resisted the urge to scratch her head. How in the world had Guard One gleaned all that with just hand gestures? They certainly hadn’t silently communicated. The energy signature from mental conversations was unsecured, and therefore, detectable. Using telepathy would alert other immortals to their presence. She and Enlil drifted down a few inches until her feet touched the ground.
While the centurion delivered the message, Mars and Zeus passed through the wall Stewart and Shelly created behind her and pulled even with Lia.
“Is there any sign of Hunger?” There was a tremble in her voice as she asked. If Hunger was there, this could be the final battle between them.
“She is perched on top of the security monitor. Her eyes are human.” The guard offered a sympathetic expression before trotting away.
“Something doesn’t feel right about this,” Zeus complained. “They managed to break through the warded front gate, but can’t get into the vaults. Why?”
“Mars, what’s the plan?” Enlil voiced Lia’s thought before she could.
Her uncle cast a speculative glance at Lia. “Feel like going in with guns blazing?”
“Hell yeah!” Lia dusted her hands together. Looks like the plan was going to be up to her. She beckoned her sisters forward. “There is one operations tech still conscious in the control room, and no telling how many others in the actual vaults. We can’t assume the people locked in the seed rooms are aware there’s trouble out here. Sisters, your job will be to thrall any mortals.” She looked to Aerie and Mel. “I’ll need you to be back up for me. I’m going to zap Hunger in her hillbilly and I want some extra fire power to do it.”
Mel tipped her head to the side. “What does that mean? Where’s her hillbilly?”
“Goddess, Mel. It’s just an expression. Just funnel your power into me. I’ll worry about the rest. Mars, can you and Zeus hold Pierus in place while I take care of Hunger?”
“With pleasure,” Zeus muttered. He scrubbed his fist over his sternum.
The action distracted Lia for an instant. She hated that her father wasn’t well, that the challenges were sickening him. They only had to keep him healthy through this one. And then five more.
Resolving to go to his next appointment with Asclepius, she refocused her energy on the task at hand. “Enlil, if you and your contingent would find Enki and Abu and subdue them, we’ll take care of the rest.”
“She is like a little general, your Muse daughter,” Enlil muttered to Zeus. At least he wore a tight smile.
“That she is,” her father agreed. Pride lit her father’s eyes.
“Ready?” Lia asked, levitating three inches off the floor.
Enlil issued quiet orders to his men. His nostrils flared, as if he were trying to sniff out Enki’s location. Wherever the god of mischief was they were sure to find his nurse, Abu.
Zeus grabbed Lia’s shoulders, halting her as she moved toward the operations center. He sidled around in front of her, holding her gaze as he pressed his forehead to hers. Her eyes misted with his gesture. Her dad was pushing some of his reserved energy into her. Normally his gifts came with words of encouragement and praise. In this situation, where they didn’t dare telepathically communicate, she knew what he’d say.
Keeping still under his touching gesture, she whispered softly, for his ears only. “Love you, my father. I have done so in all of my pasts. I do so in my present. And I will continue forevermore, even if every one of my futures is as a magpie.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Gaia would not be happy to hear you say such things. You are our resilient child. We both have confidence you will defeat Hunger and save the world. And laugh the entire time. You are our light, daughter.”
Zeus lifted his forehead from hers, pressed tender kisses on her cheeks. His expression was troubled as he stepped to the side, allowing her to pass.
Lia squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. Each of her sisters crowded around her and reached to touch her, until eight hands rested on her back, arms and shoulders. She hated the sensation they were bidding her adieu. She hated more that Ben wasn’t standing next to her as she met this challenge. But he was taking care of his sister, as it should be. A part of her wanted to open a link to him in her mind, to breathe words declaring her love for him directly into his soul.
But at the moment, that would endanger the entire mission. She prayed she was victorious in this round. Or would have time to project her final thoughts to him before she became a magpie for eternity, if that came to pass.
“That kind of defeatist attitude never accomplishes anything, you ignorant slut,” she muttered, drawing smiles from her sisters.
One by one, they removed their hands, Callie last of all of them. She leaned forward and hugged Lia hard before stepping away. Moisture lurked in the corners of her cranky older sister’s eyes.
Callie’s tears shocked Lia. She tapped her finger under Cal’s eye. “It’s not over, and I’m not becoming a magpie today, so
you should knock that shit off.”
With that, she spun toward the control room, and glided forward.
Stewart and Shelly flanked her as she lifted her hand, concentrated her power into her palm, and jabbed it toward the electronic lock on the wall next to the entry. Flinging her arm to the side, the panel short-circuited with a blaze of sparks. The door flew open and Lia dashed into the room.
Shelly took her right side and Stewart positioned himself on the left. Lia’s torso jolted forward as her sisters funneled energy straight to her core. Her shoulder blades stung where Mel and Aerie touched her. Body warming, her insides writhed until she imagined a lasso and seized control of the excess power. Zeus and Mars aimed their arms toward Pierus, who froze in a state of suspended animation. Zeus clenched his fist, as if he wished to choke the life out of his nemesis. Pierus’s eyes bulged under the pressure and his fingers flared wide. The operative in front of the monitor slumped forward as Pierus released his grip on the man.
Lia set her sights on Hunger. The bitch’s eyes glowed immortal blue in the center of her black feathers. Her legs looked fully human, but didn’t appear thick enough or strong enough to support her body weight. Her beak appeared softer than the last time Lia had seen her. Confidence that Hunger was going to succeed must be accelerating the bird’s shift. Lia hoped the shift back to being a bird would be harsh and painful.
Summoning the power of the Earth surrounding her, Lia drew a surge of ice from deep in the mountain. She centered the power in her chest, her heartbeat slowing under the cold. Mel and Aerie stepped forward, pressing against her back and adding enough warmth to ease her heart into a normal rhythm. Lia swirled the frost in her chest, shoving it along her arms and out the palms of her hands. The frigid bolt hit Hunger in the center of her breast. Glittering white crystals formed on the edges of her feathers.
Hunger’s outraged squawk pierced the air. She flapped her wings awkwardly, like the burden of the ice on them made movement slow and tortuous. A cracking sound filled the air as Hunger toppled from her perch to the ground at Lia’s feet.
Hunger: Goddesses of Delphi Page 14