“What do you need?” he asked Camulus.
“Did you find out about the woman? Does Talon know she’s his wife reincarnated?”
Yes, he did, but Styxx refrained from sharing that. He wasn’t sure why. Just that the hopeful delight in Camulus’s tone made him wary. Besides, he understood the pain of losing the woman he loved. He wasn’t callous enough to torture another man with something like that.
Not even for his own freedom and sanity.
“I don’t know,” he lied.
Camulus cursed. “Find out!” He hung up.
“You look like you’re about to splinter that thing.”
Styxx glanced up to see Nick Gautier in front of his table. He’d bumped into the kid a few days ago while he’d been helping to set up one of the Dark-Hunters. This man was a Squire—modern day servant or employee, rather—to Talon, the Dark-Hunter Camulus wanted to torture most. Apparently, Talon had killed Camulus’s son in battle, back in the Dark Ages, and the god ached for vengeance over it.
And yet they all thought that Styxx should be willing to forgive Apollo for all his transgressions that had cost Styxx’s son his life.…
Yeah.
“Hey, kid.” Styxx slid the phone into his pocket. Standing at six foot four, Nick was physically older than Styxx and yet he seemed like an infant to him. There was an innocence to the Cajun boy that Styxx wasn’t sure he’d ever possessed. If he had, he must have still been in a pana.
Nick took the chair in front of him, turned it around, and straddled it. “Are you sure you’re all right? You seem a little off.”
There was an understatement. Nick was the only one in town who really concerned him when it came to discovering he wasn’t Acheron. Apparently, his brother had a tight-knit relationship with Nick that Acheron didn’t have with other people.
“It’s the Daimons. Too much shit going on.”
Nick laughed. “I hear you. And on top of everything else, school is kicking my a-s-s. I wish I could pay one of you to take my finals and write my papers. I don’t know what it is about them, but every time I have to sit down to a test, I choke and can’t remember how to do anything right.”
Styxx snorted at his words. “So what you’re telling me is that you’re having performance anxiety issues?”
“What…? No! Hell to the no!”
Styxx laughed at Nick’s righteous indignation. He could see why Acheron took a liking to Nick, and it went a long way in explaining why Galen had befriended him.
There’s a fire inside you, boy. Even though you walk around like Atlas with the weight of the world on your young shoulders, you do it and still hold on to your dignity.
He’d never understood those words until he met this kid. It was a perfect description of Nick Gautier. And Styxx admired the way the boy watched after his mother and protected her. Theirs was a very special bond, and he liked to think that had his son Galen grown up, he’d be a lot like Nick.
“Ah, crap.” Nick dug his phone out.
Styxx held his breath, hoping that wasn’t his brother on the phone. If it was, he was busted.
“Hey, Ma. Nah, I’m sitting with Ash at the Cafe P. You need something?” He pulled a pen out of his pants pocket and grabbed a napkin. “Skim milk. Sliced cheese. Bread.” He paused and frowned. “Ah, Ma … do I got to?” He absolutely cringed. “Fine. Girly things I don’t want to know about. Gah! No, Ma, don’t go there. I am your son, you know? I don’t want to know that, either. Love you. Bye.” He hung up the phone and sighed. “You don’t know how lucky you are that you were born before women had tampons. I swear they were invented for no other purpose than to cause endless hours of shame, humiliation, and torture to men. ’Cause nothing says whipped better than a man in the grocery store holding a giant pink flowered shrink wrapped monstrosity. Least they could do is put them in a plain brown wrapper or unmarked black box or something ubiquitous.”
Styxx had no idea what tampons were, but the expression on Nick’s face told him that he better not ask. Chalk it up to another thing Dionysus had forgotten to give him the definition to.
Nick shoved the paper into his pocket while he continued to rant. “And why do they always wait until they’re down to the last one before they restock? Not like they don’t get it once a month on a fairly regular schedule … If I did that with the toilet paper, she’d slaughter me in my sleep.” He growled then got up. “I’ve gotta make an emergency run. See you later.”
Laughing as he ascertained the definition of “tampon,” Styxx inclined his head to Nick and watched as the kid disappeared into the crowd. He got up and left a twenty-dollar bill on the table as a tip then headed out.
Nick had no idea how lucky he was to have a mother who loved him the way his did. It was all too rare in the world.
Styxx wandered back to the hotel where they were staying. He’d barely closed the door to their room before Camulus appeared and backhanded him so hard, he broke the sunglasses Styxx had been wearing.
Pain exploded through his head. “What the hell?”
“You lie to me again and I will gut you.”
Styxx wiped the blood away with the back of his hand. “You’ll have to pick a better threat. I’ve already had a god gut me. Really don’t give a shit about it now.”
“Fine. I’ll geld you.”
He laughed. “Been there and done that, too. Want to try three for three?”
Camulus scowled at him. “You’re insane, aren’t you?”
At this point, it was a good bet.
But he didn’t speak. Rather, he pushed his way past the god and went to get another bottle of beer from the small fridge. He popped the top and sat down on the couch to silently wait for his next assignment.
Something that was growing harder by the day. He was tired of screwing with people’s lives. His own had been toyed with enough by the gods that he was getting more and more resentful of what Camulus and Dionysus wanted of him. At the rate they were going, he was about to demand to be returned to his island.
Apollo or no Apollo.
February 21, 2004
Styxx gaped as Camulus appeared with an unconscious, bleeding woman draped over his shoulder. He recognized her as Sunshine Runningwolf, the woman who was Talon’s reincarnated wife.
“What did you do?”
Camulus didn’t respond as he tossed her down on the bed then used his powers to heal her bullet wound. Next, he tied her, spread-eagle, to the bed.
Fury ripped through Styxx at the sight. “What are you doing.” It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.
“Making sure she doesn’t leave.”
“You don’t have to tie her up like that.”
“Why not?”
It’s degrading. But Styxx couldn’t say that as memories shredded him. It set off a panic within him so ragged that he could barely breathe for it. He remembered the way he’d been tortured and violated, over and over, while tied down like that.
Unable to stand it, he jerked the knife out of his boot and cut her loose.
Camulus arched a brow. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“She won’t escape.”
“You are overstepping your place, human.”
Styxx curled his lip. Apparently he couldn’t learn his lesson with the gods, because the next words out of his mouth were extremely stupid. “Fine, Apollo. Do your worst to me.”
“What’s going on here?” Dionysus asked as he joined them.
Camulus glared at Styxx. “Your pet was about to get his ass kicked.”
Styxx snorted. “And yours was about to have his ass handed to him.”
Dion made a sound of disgust deep in his throat. “I’m really getting tired of separating you two. Now stop it!” He turned his attention to the unconscious woman on the bed. “Why is she here?” he asked Camulus.
With smug satisfaction, the Gallic war god folded his arms over his chest. “To torture Talon. He has no idea what we’re doing to her and it will make him crazy. I literal
ly ripped her out of his arms while he was powerless to stop me.”
Styxx could only imagine how nasty the expression was on his own face. Because the minute those words were out of Camulus’s mouth, Dionysus zapped him out of the room and into his bedroom so that he couldn’t hear their conversation.
Or so they thought.
“Now that’s he’s gone, Cam, explain yourself. What have you done?”
“I broke in and took her from Talon so that he’d know who holds her. You wanted him out of commission. I assure you, he’s going insane from the fear of what I might be doing to her. I’m sure by now he’s contacted Acheron. We need them as riled as possible, is that not right?”
“It is. So what are we going to do with her?”
“Rape the shit out of her.”
Styxx’s sanity told him to stay out of it, but he couldn’t. The thought of Camulus doing that to her or anyone …
He wanted the god’s heart in his fist. Before his common sense could prevail, he barged back into the room. “Touch her and I’ll tear both your arms off and beat you with them.”
Dionysus caught the Gaul before he could attack, and glared at Styxx. “Do I have to put you back in Hades?”
Styxx held Camulus’s gaze with his. If he didn’t come up with an alternate plan, fast, that bastard would have his way, and as Styxx knew firsthand, while Dionysus might not participate in raping someone, he damn sure wouldn’t stop it. He’d merely walk away and leave the human to the perversity of their captor.
No matter what, he wouldn’t stand for it.
“I have another idea.”
Camulus started for Styxx, but Dionysus caught him again and pushed him back.
“Stay in your corner, Gaul. Let’s hear him out.” He turned his attention back to Styxx. “Go on.”
Styxx forced himself to stay calm. “You want to mind-fuck all of them. Right? That is why I’m here?”
“Yes.”
Styxx hesitated. It was the last thing he wanted to do to anyone. But if he didn’t, something a lot worse would happen to the woman. “There’s a chest in my hut that contains Eycharistisi.”
Dionysus’s jaw went slack. “How the hell did you get that?”
“It was a gift.” Those words stuck in his craw. Estes had left it as a reminder of what he could do to Styxx whenever he wanted and Styxx had kept it to remember why he’d been justified in killing his uncle in cold blood.
Dionysus narrowed his gaze on him in disbelief. “Why do you still have it?”
“I was on a deserted island for the last eleven thousand years. Unless I wanted to screw a wild goat, there wasn’t a lot of use for it. And unlike you gods, screwing animals doesn’t appeal to me.”
Indignant, Dionysus straightened. “For the record, I never did that.”
Yeah, right. “Ampelos?”
“Satyrs are half human.”
Styxx let out a bitter laugh at Dionysus’s answer. “And why are they half human?”
“Fine, it was just the one time, and I was really tore up drunk when it happened, and Phobos dared me into it.”
One time? Really?
“Ismarius?” Styxx taunted with another famous reminder of the Olympian’s perversity.
“What are you? My effing biographer?”
Camulus laughed. “So the goat remark hit a little close to home, huh?”
“Shut up.” Dionysus turned back to Styxx. “If you don’t want her raped, why give her a potent aphrodisiac?”
Because you leave me with no choice. If I don’t do this, the other bastard will hurt her for real. Better to make her horny than have her violated by a pig.
But he knew better than to give them the real reason. “Mess with their heads. It will stress out Talon to know it was given to her, but most of all, it will send Acheron a potent message that I’m here, and it will upset him to a level you can’t even begin to imagine.”
“Why would he care?” Camulus asked.
“I’m the only one alive who knows all his secrets and every detail of his past. Trust me, he doesn’t want me to share any of it with his friends. Fear of what I might expose will paralyze him. And he’ll be after me with his thoughts so scrambled he won’t know if he’s coming or going.”
Dionysus glared at him. “This had better work.”
“Believe me. No one knows my twin better than I do. Now, we need to take her somewhere to give it to her then let them find her under its influence.” And make damn sure Talon is the one who finds her and the Gallic pig keeps his hands to himself.
Dionysus nodded. “I’ll get some Daimons to set up a distraction and to protect her until the Dark-Hunters get to her.”
* * *
After returning Styxx to the spartan hole that had been his home for centuries, Dionysus frowned at him. “You made this place?”
Nodding, Styxx hesitated in the doorway of his hut. “I originally had a stone cottage here, but after a few centuries, it crumbled to dust.”
“Couldn’t you fix it?”
He gave the Olympian a droll stare. “Too time intensive to find the stones and make mortar by hand. I was dropped here with no tools or any supplies. I had to make everything I needed to survive, including weapons and tools, and kill or gather whatever I ate and wore.” Had Styxx not been a war veteran who’d been forced to scrounge with his army when supplies ran low, and a boy whose father had demanded he work the hardest, most menial jobs he could find, he’d have been completely shit out of luck here.
Dionysus scowled. “I thought you had caretakers?”
A tic started in Styxx’s jaw at the memory. “For a little while people would bring some food, from time to time. Maybe a hundred years or so. Then never again.”
“How did you not go insane from the solitude?”
“Who says I didn’t?” Styxx glanced around and winced at the animal pelts on the sand floor where he’d slept for thousands of years. The stone tools he’d had to make to survive—something twice as hard as usual since his right hand had been left partially paralyzed from the Thracian attack on his return to Greece after the Atlantean war.
There had been nothing comfortable or comforting about his stark, harsh existence.
Had he not hated Acheron before Dionysus had freed him, he would definitely hate him now, having seen the luxury his brother had lived in all these centuries past. The friends who surrounded Acheron and loved him like family.
Styxx still didn’t understand how the selfish bastard couldn’t have bothered to check in on him. Just once. Brought him a burger.
One effing pillow or blanket. Really? Would that have been so much for Mr. Atlantean God?
Disgusted, Styxx went to his chest and picked it up. “I’m ready.”
“Yeah. I imagine you’ve seen enough of this place.”
You have no idea. Styxx didn’t say anything, but he was glad Dionysus didn’t drag his feet leaving.
At least that was the thought until they returned to the hotel suite and Apollo was there, waiting for them.
What the hell?
A slow smile spread across the Olympian’s face as he saw Styxx, while Styxx’s stomach shrank with each additional heartbeat.
Camulus slid his gaze to Dionysus. “He came here looking for you. I hope you don’t mind. I told him to wait.”
That was what his mouth said, but Styxx could hear that Camulus had done it intentionally to get back at him. And all because of Styxx’s slip …
Damn it. He knew better than to ever expose a nerve to anyone, for any reason. Especially a vengeful god. Total misery and pain consumed every molecule of his body. Honestly, he’d rather be back on the island than subjected to that bastard’s custody.
He turned on Dionysus. “Our deal’s off. Send me back.”
Dionysus actually had pity in his eyes as he shook his head at Styxx. “It won’t matter. He knows you’re alive now. He can track you there the same way I did.”
Of course he could. And on that island, Styxx
would be at Apollo’s mercy any time, day or night. It would be even worse than it’d been in Didymos.
Apollo wouldn’t have to worry about anyone disturbing them or …
Styxx slammed the chest down on the table. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m out.” He stormed to Sunshine’s room and opened the door.
Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him. Fury spurring him, he pulled out his knife and went to free her.
Roaring, Camulus shoved him away from the bed.
Styxx turned on him with a feral gleam in his eye. He’d had enough of them all. “Bring it, bitch!”
Camulus lunged at him and Styxx feinted to the left then shot back right and buried his dagger into the god’s side. The Gaul bellowed with fury.
Styxx caught him and flipped him to the floor. Camulus shot a bolt at him, but he dodged it and slammed Camulus’s head down to stun the older being.
“Stop!” Dionysus ordered.
Styxx ignored him.
“I’ll kill the woman if you don’t stop. I mean it, Styxx.”
He hesitated in debate. On the one hand, why should he care? But as he glanced at her and the terror in her dark eyes, he knew he couldn’t hurt her. He’d seen too many innocents pay. Even though he didn’t know her at all, he didn’t want her or Talon to live with the nightmares he knew so intimately.
No one should bury his wife …
Never mind do it twice in one lifetime.
Furious, Styxx drove the knife into the floor next to Camulus’s head then got up and left the room.
“I should have let him kill you,” Dionysus sneered to Camulus, unaware that Styxx could hear them.
“I didn’t know he could do that.”
Apollo laughed. “You have no idea. For a human, he has incredible skills … in more than one event.”
“Stop it!” Dionysus snapped at his brother. “Haven’t you tormented him enough? Really?”
Styxx grabbed his coat and left the hotel. He had no destination in mind, he just had to get some fresh air as a thousand emotions ripped him apart. He should have known better than to agree to this.
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