Let’s hope you’re right. Marduk’s voice sounded steady. Because I’m on my way toward Kenmore Square with a few of the guys to look for a blue vehicle. He’d ID’d the car for them, and it seemed to Huxley like none of the gods would be willingly contained any longer.
Huxley stopped at a light where Huntington met Mass Ave and jumped as Enlil wrenched open the door and leaned in. “Where is she?”
Huxley pointed ahead seven cars to the white rental Candy had been using.
“I’m going to go kill him now.” The golden-haired god stood up.
“No. Don’t,” Huxley cried, urging him back. He’d already worked this through. “If you hurt him, there’s no telling what Beletseri will do to the queen.” He swallowed hard. “And Dani.”
Enlil conceded the point, and although he continued to fume and sputter, he slid onto the seat and closed the car door. Huxley took off and followed the other vehicle onto Stuart Street.
“Where’s Nedu going?” Enlil groused.
“It looks like we’re headed toward South Station.” Huxley’s brain only partly stayed in the chase. He couldn’t keep his mind off Dani-Lee. He hoped to hear good news from Marduk at any minute, but the more time that ticked by, the less hope he harbored.
From Stuart Street to Kneeland, Nedu approached South Station and eventually stopped the car next to the sidewalk. Hux pulled over a good distance behind, headlights already off, and jiggled his earpiece.
“What?” Enlil noticed and wanted to know.
“I’m not sure. There’s a strange tapping…” Huxley paused to listen.
****
Candy came awake, lying sprawled on her side in the back seat and fighting nausea. She feigned unconsciousness, hoping to get the drop on the guy who Huxley had said through her headpiece was called Nedu. Great. Another fucking god. Her head spun.
She wanted to let Huxley—and someone with him who sounded suspiciously like that arrogant prick, Enlil—know that she was okay. So she resorted to old-fashioned communication. Morse Code. Damn, she hoped Hux had been a boy scout.
“It sounds intentional, but I’m not sure if it is,” Huxley pondered as Candy waited. He must have taken off his device and held it so that Enlil could hear.
“Morse Code,” the big lummox said assuredly.
Candy stifled a grunt. Good. Enlil had figured it out.
“I resided on Earth when the telegraph was the only means of long-distance communication,” he said.
Candy forced down puke urges from a possible concussion received when the god had clonked her on the head, and tapped out her message again.
“She says she’s awake and not too badly hurt,” Enlil told Huxley. “Okay, pint size,” Enlil spoke directly to her. Aware she couldn’t answer back without giving away her wakefulness, he clearly felt confident throwing in a little name calling. Candy made a mental note to pound the shit out of him when she got out of this.
“We’re right behind you,” he assured. “Play dead and we’ll fix Nedu as soon as he shows his hand.”
Scratch-scratch-scratch, pause, scratch-dot-scratch. She sent Enlil an “okay,” then added another bunch of stuff that spelled out “dickhead.” He barked a laugh. Good. He’d understood.
“Be nice, Candy— Hey, there’s movement.” His tone of voice completely changed.
Candy heard Nedu leave the car.
“He’s going to the trunk,” Enlil told her. Then a minute later, he added, “He’s taking out a big, square piece of metal.” Enlil grunted. “It looks like the bottom of a hand jack.”
Before Candy could respond, Nedu opened her door. Fuck it. Now was the time to fight. She steeled herself against the gorge rising in her throat and the dizziness that threatened, shoving her feet into her abductor.
“Fuck you, asshole.” She got in a few good kicks to his groin before he removed a thick leather thong from his hair and wrapped it around her feet. He tied them tightly despite her struggles, then attached the other end to the metal.
“Prick, cocksucker, asshole,” Candy screamed, and lashed out with her fists. But she couldn’t connect. Fuck. She probably sported a lousy concussion thanks to the immoral bastard.
Enlil gave her a running commentary. “Don’t worry, Candy. We don’t want to spook him into contacting Beletseri, but we won’t let anything happen to you. Just roll with whatever he does for now.”
Easy for the god to say. He wasn’t the one being manhandled. And Candy didn’t like it when someone had the upper hand over her.
When Nedu finally hiked Candy out of the car and up onto his shoulders, she couldn’t hold it any longer. She lost her lunch all down his broad, bare-assed back. Enlil must have seen it from the shadows behind them.
“Good one, Candy. If you can’t fight him, gross him out.”
Candy coughed and spit to clear her throat. Enlil was a total dead man when she got out of this.
Nedu hadn’t missed a beat when she’d upchucked all over him. He seemed to be on a mission. Candy struggled weakly, but she didn’t have anything left in her for a fight. Must have had something to do with the long day of surveillance. She was furious at herself for letting the god get the drop on her. Because of her fuckup, Dani’s life had been placed in danger. Unacceptable.
She noted with a detached kind of bleariness as the god who carried her used some kind of fucked up powers to douse all the street lights they approached
“Is he going to tie her to the tracks?” She heard Huxley whisper.
“I thought so, but the god of the gate just skipped right over the tracks,” Enlil clarified. “He’s moving to the right, around that large brick building. Oh fuck.”
Enlil’s voice held a note of panic. Candy couldn’t help herself. “What?” she muttered.
“Candy. As soon as you find yourself airborne, take a very deep breath,” he warned. “Nedu’s about to dump you into the Fort Point Channel.”
****
Enlil watched helplessly as Nedu heaved Candy out into the middle of the channel. Luckily, the god of the gate spent only a few seconds watching her sink before he misted out.
“I’ll get her.” Enlil sprinted across the parking lot, his heart beating hard. Shit. He remembered to call back to Hux, “Let Marduk know that Nedu is misting toward Beletseri’s location.”
He took a running dive and ended up close to where he figured Candy had been launched.
He kicked himself toward the bottom. The water assaulted him, cold and murky, and Enlil found it nearly impossible to see even with his super vision. He paused to look for any disturbance in the water, and that’s when he got a head full of it. A high-pitched squeal. Feedback. Gods dammit. Candy was one smart woman. She’d had the presence of mind to bring the earpiece close to her microphone to cause frigging feedback.
Enlil tuned his ears to the sound and followed it down, down, down, sixty feet to the bottom where Candy had sunk with the metal attached to her legs.
He found her. He felt her. Then he gathered her up in his arms, kicking frantically to the surface. Halfway up, he felt her go completely limp. Breaching the water, he called for Huxley.
“Come quick. She’s not breathing.” Enlil swam to the side and hoisted her up into Huxley’s waiting arms.
He hauled himself out of the water and dropped to his knees beside Candy, immediately clearing her mouth and throat of ocean before turning her head to the side and starting CPR. Chest compressions. Check. Breathing. More chest compressions.
He tilted her head back, cleared her airway and gave two breaths. Nothing. Back to chest compressions, more breaths…a sputter…a cough. Enlil turned her head to the side again and let the sea water drain out. She gagged and wretched and damned if it wasn’t the most magnificent sound Enlil had ever heard.
Candy’s eyes opened to focus beneath him. Enlil fancied that she smirked when she recognized who hovered over her.
“Really, dickhead?” her voice rasped. The petite agent had an innate urge to give him shit, e
ven at her lowest moment. “CPR?” She coughed out more water. “You couldn’t think of a better way to get your mouth on me?”
Yup. Enlil went back on his heels and grinned. She’d live.
Chapter Sixteen
“Who followed you?” Beletseri seemed to be playing nice. She was one intimidating goddess, but clearly she wanted Dani to be at ease, to pick her brains about everything that went on in the compound. She’d also told Dani she wouldn’t hurt her as long as she agreed to use her skills to aid those in her enclave.
“I’ve come to rely on both Matthew and Nedu,” she’d said. “I can’t afford to have anything happen to either one of them. Also, Matthew has recruited a handful of humans to join us, and Nedu is on the cusp of enlisting the help of some minor gods. You will tend to them all as well as my handful of ready demons.”
Dani hadn’t liked the sound of that, but she’d agreed. Anything so that Beletseri would relax her guard and put her in with the queen.
The present question haunted her. How did she explain Candy? “My friend, Candy.” Dani told the dark-haired goddess from where she sat in a straight-backed chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room. No one restrained her, but the chances of her escaping with the psycho Matthew and the goddess Beletseri leaning over her seemed remote.
“Yeah, right,” Matthew scoffed. “That chick had ‘cop’ written all over her.”
“Yes, she’s a cop.” Dani leaned back to distance herself from his leering face, and told the partial mistruth as she’d been coached. “Is there a rule that says I can’t be friends with a law enforcement officer?” She raised her eyebrows.
“Why did she wire you up if she’s just a friend?” Matthew would not let this go. “Most girl-buddies settle for painting each other’s nails.”
“I told you in the car. She didn’t trust the guys I lived with, and she didn’t like Huxley. When I called and told her I’d left that whole scene, she came to the hospital prepared to spring me from the whole mess. On my break, she put that listening stuff on me. She wanted to make sure I would be okay and that she would be able to follow me if they tried to grab me again. Candy clearly figured that you guys were part of the Blue Hills group attempting an abduction.”
Matthew backed down at a not-so-subtle indication he received from Beletseri. It clearly said that none of that mattered now. They had her, and that would be enough.
Nedu chose that moment to ghost in. “She’s been neutralized,” he said to the room in general.
“What?” Dani sat stunned. “Who’s been neutralized?” She shot to her feet. “Did you do something to Candy?” Hadn’t Huxley managed to keep the agent safe?
“Yeah.” Nedu strode forward and shoved her back into the chair. “And the same thing will happen to you if you don’t behave and do what we want.” The god crossed his arms over a massive chest. His dark eyes glowered.
“Nedu, my sweet. Don’t be so harsh with our guest.” Beletseri subtly told him to shut up. She turned to Dani. “What Nedu means is that we can make you quite comfortable if you cooperate with us. I’ll even compensate you for your time.” The goddess named a figure easily ten times more than she earned annually.
Dani set her mouth in a tight line, not in the least bit tempted. “I’ve just come from a place where I was used, thank you, and I didn’t particularly enjoy it.” Another lie, but Dani still worked with the script.
“I’ll tell you what,” her female captor continued. “I’ll double my offer.” She shushed Dani when the doctor started to speak.
“I have an idea. Why don’t you visit with Ereshkigal for the rest of the night, and you can give me your answer in the morning. I’m sure that, given her need for some TLC, you’ll come to the right decision.” Her eyes shone cold even though her smile showed all her perfect, white teeth.
Dani could only nod before being led from the room by Nedu. This was what she’d come for, after all. To see the queen and help her in any way possible.
They travelled down a short corridor, and then in through a door on the opposite side of the hall. Once inside, he flicked on the lights to reveal a clearly depleted Ereshkigal, reclining on a bed. She struggled upright as Dani was led in.
“What—wh—” she stuttered.
“You have company, Queen,” Nedu sneered.
Before either of the women could speak, Matthew entered with a fold-out cot, which he dropped just inside the room along with a pile of bedding. “Make yourself comfortable,” he said, as Nedu left the room. “You’ll be here for a while.” He looked narrowly at Dani-Lee as he turned to go. “If I were you, I’d take Beletseri up on her offer.” He laughed. “It’s a lot of money, and it’s better than being dead.” The door closed and locked behind him.
“My gods. You’re actually here.” Ereshkigal did a pretty good job of tamping down a whimper. “But where’s Huxley?” the queen whispered, recalling the plan her husband said he’d put into place.
“Things got messed up,” Dani assured the queen. “But we’ll be out of here soon. Are you all right?” Dani didn’t want to alarm the immortal, but she looked like hell.
“Other than being chained with osmium.” Ereshkigal held up an angry wrist, red and chafed, then also indicated her raw neck. “I’m okay.”
Dani quickly tripped to the pile of linens that Matthew had dropped, picked up a sheet and used her teeth to rip off a strip. She flew back to the bed, where she sat next to the queen, and wrapped the material around each of the metal cuffs.
“Is it safe to talk in here?” Dani looked around to locate any monitoring devices. None were apparent, but surveillance wasn’t something she knew very much about, so she couldn’t be sure.
The queen actually snorted. “Oh please. It took Beletseri two years to figure out how to operate a new computer system. Bugging is way beyond her capabilities. Now tell me what happened?”
Dani told the story as she understood it, and repeated Nedu’s ominous words of a “neutralization.” Ereshkigal had not met Candy, but together they lamented the woman’s probable fate. Nedu, even when pretending to be a loyal subject, had always been cruel. That part of him most likely appealed to Beletseri.
“So where does that leave us?” the queen asked.
“It leaves me to agree that I’ll be that horrible woman’s physician to buy us time for a rescue.” At the queen’s skeptical look, Dani patted her arm. “Believe me, your husband and the gods will not give up. It’s only a matter of time.”
It all remained conjecture at this point, but keeping themselves valuable to Beletseri certainly proved their best strategy. “Your husband wants you to make things up about your life to misdirect Beletseri as she mines you for information.”
The queen actually laughed. “Nergal and I have been together for a long time. We think alike. I’ve already been doing a lot of that. It actually helps put me to sleep at night, letting my mind wander to come up with new and twisted things to tell her. She thinks I had a pet komodo dragon as a teenager, and that I often let the green-mouthed demons in Hell go down on me. It’s been my way of having fun, seeing if I can shock her.”
Dani had a great deal of respect for Ereshkigal, but found herself liking the queen even more. She finished with the torn sheets.
“That should do it.” Dani patted Ereshkigal’s hand. She’d wrapped the queen’s restraints to keep them from chafing. Dani leaned back. She couldn’t stifle a yawn. “I know I shouldn’t want to sleep, but I’ve had a really long day in surgery.” She got to her feet and approached the other cot, unfolding it to have a look. It wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever slept on.
Dani excused herself to use the bathroom, then came back and talked as she made up her bed.
“Huxley may have an idea of our general vicinity. He followed right behind Candy when she got…stopped.” Dani refused to think that anything bad had happened to her new friend. “And Matthew didn’t drive much farther after that. I wish I’d gotten a look, but he pushed my head down on the
seat, and then covered it with a jacket before letting me out of the car.”
Dani pondered kicking off her sneakers, but thought better of it in case there arose a quick opportunity to flee. She padded over to the light switch. “You don’t mind if I turn this off, do you?”
“Nope. Fine with me,” the queen agreed. Dani made it dark then felt her way back to the cot and laid down.
“We have a pretty smart bunch looking for us,” Dani said, staring up at the pitch black ceiling. She wondered whether she tried to comfort herself or Ereshkigal. “Gods and goddesses, witches, a king, and a prince.”
“A prince?” She could hear the question in the queen’s voice.
Dani had completely forgotten that Ereshkigal hadn’t been there for Huxley’s elevation in status. She started to fill her in, but the queen’s chuckling interrupted her mid-explanation.
“I harbored my suspicions,” the royal said in the dark. “Tess has a family resemblance, but when I met Huxley, I knew for certain I had nieces and a nephew.” She paused for a moment. “Tell me. What is the name of my half-sister, do you recall?”
“Lahar said her name is Anna Kensilton,” Dani supplied. “And the uh, human, your father had an affair with, Anna’s mother, was Maddy Kensilton.”
If that bothered the queen, she kept it to herself. “Tell me, Dani. I gave something into Holly’s safekeeping that eventually needed to belong to Hux. Do you know if she gave him anything?” There bloomed an expectant pause.
“Do you mean the empty amulet?” Dani curled her toes inside her sneakers.
“You know of it?” The queen sounded surprised. “Did Holly or Huxley show it to you?”
“Holly came to me a few weeks ago and, well…she gave it to me.” Dani felt like she needed to explain at Ereshkigal’s audible intake of breath. “You see, the witches declared that Huxley couldn’t go anywhere without me. Odd enough, but shortly after that, Holly said the amulet started bugging her. Calling to her all day, telling her it wanted to be with me.”
“With you. Not Huxley.” Ereshkigal sounded stunned.
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