“This will likely make her even stronger,” he said. “Which is a good thing, considering.”
“Does my blood make people stronger?” I asked, thinking of how I’d healed Nain.
“Probably. I know mine does. The same is true of the Furies, though theirs seems to have less of an effect than mine does.”
“It makes like zero sense that the god of death has healing blood,” I said, trying to stay calm, focus on anything other than my rage and the way my stomach still twisted, watching Shanti slowly but surely healing.
“All of the immortals have it in one way or another. That’s why we can heal ourselves. Zeus, Poseidon, and I have the most potent blood, from what we know.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said, and he nodded as he moved on to another of Shanti’s wounds. He was starting to look pale. He’d sliced himself at least four times.
“Do you need a break?” I asked him, and he shook his head.
“I’ll be fine. And I want you to stay strong.”
Shanti’s wounds had all closed. Hades sat down, and I settled next to him on the cold pavement.
“Now all we can do is wait. There was a lot of internal damage because of the effects of silver. As my blood works its way through her body, it will repair that. She’ll likely be quite hungry when she revives.”
“Thanks for doing that, dad,” I said, bumping my shoulder against his.
“I know you love this one,” he said, shrugging. “It’s really the least I can do considering what a mess I’ve made of your life.”
I looked over at him. “Well, considering I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you, I think that’s being a bit harsh.”
He smiled. “Are you truly happy to be alive?” he asked me.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, rested my chin on them. “I am. For a long time, I wasn’t. But I’m needed and that’s reason enough to be happy to be alive.”
“I am sorry about the whole mess with my helmet. And several other things, obviously,” he said, and I smiled at him.
“Any word from Persephone yet?”
He shook his head.
“Do you want her back?”
He didn’t answer, and I was about to tell him it wasn’t any of my business. Then, finally, he said “things are different now. I think our time was up a long time ago. I love her and she loves me. Or, at least she did.” He paused, looked up into the sky. “I don’t know how she feels now. But your being here and being the way you are proves that so many of the things we were told were wrong. Maybe I have a chance at something else.”
I watched him. I wanted to press him, but I sensed that he really didn’t feel like talking about it.
“And whether I want her back is irrelevant. If she is working against you, then we’re so far beyond done there is no going back,” he said.
“I still don’t think it was her,” I told him.
“I hope you’re right,” he said after a few moments. “Are things okay between you and the demon? You were less than pleased with one another when you left me the other day.”
I shrugged. “They’re fine. Just weird.”
“If he hurts you again, I’ll make him rue the day he was spawned,” Hades said. And I totally believed him.
“Thanks dad.” I smiled a little. I was feeling better. Shanti was healing up, and her power signature was getting stronger the longer we sat there. “I’m just trying not to rush into anything with him this time. Things are intense when we’re together, and I’m just not sure I can deal with that right now.”
He nodded. “Your mother says there is no doubt about how much he loves you. That she can feel it, and it’s absolute.”
“It is. I know it too. But there’s a lot of shit in the past between us. He’s mine, and I’m his. We both know it. I’m just not ready to move forward yet.”
“You need to put that poor demon out of his misery. Give the man a break,” Shanti said weakly, and I jumped up and knelt over her. I was crying again (damn it) but this time they were tears of relief. I bent down and hugged her. She hugged me back, wrapping her arms around me tightly.
“I’m sorry, Shanti. I am so sorry sweetie,” I said, hugging her tighter.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this,” she said, pulling back and meeting my eyes. “Understand? They caught me by surprise. I thought I was saving someone and it was a trap. This is on me, and on them.” She smiled. “This is the second time you’ve answered my prayers and saved me, Angel.”
I shook my head. “I am so glad you’re okay. If you’d died…”
She took my hand, held it tightly. “But I didn’t. Which one of you healed me?”
I pointed at my dad, who was standing just behind me, and Shanti smiled up at him.
“Thank you,” she said to him.
“You are very welcome. Though I have to admit I did it mostly for my daughter.”
“Of course,” she said, nodding. “But thanks anyway.”
“Are you hungry?” I asked her, and she nodded, her fangs lengthening. I held my wrist up to her.
“Are you sure? I know this makes you kind of queasy.”
“It’s you. It’s fine,” I told her.
“I feel so special,” she said, taking my wrist in her hands. I barely felt it when she bit into my wrist, looked away as she fed.
“She is going to be bouncing off the walls with all of this immortal blood flowing through her body,” Hades said, and I nodded.
“Can you call Nain and tell him everything is okay?” I asked my father, handing him my phone. I sat and let Shanti feed, ran my hands through her hair. He took it, and I heard him talking to Nain, his voice low. Answering questions, assuring Nain we’d be back soon. Telling him he didn’t need to come to us, that we had everything under control. Shanti and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
She finished feeding. “Thank you,” she said. “Um. Your blood is really really good. That rumor is totally true.”
“Great. I’ll put that on my resume,” I said, and she laughed.
“I need a shower so bad right now,” Shanti said, and we stood up. Hades handed my phone back to me.
“You’re driving home?” he asked me, and I nodded.
“I’ll fly overhead and keep watch. Just to make sure,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. Then I stood on tiptoe and kissed my dad on the cheek. I felt a jolt of surprise from him, and then he smiled a little.
“Thanks, Mr. Lord of the Dead, sir,” Shanti said as she climbed into her car. Hades shook his head and rose into the air, and I climbed into the passenger seat of Shanti’s car.
She started driving toward the loft.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked her.
“I’m fine. Your dad was right. I feel like I could do just about anything right now. I feel like I could fly. Like I could kick the ass of at least a dozen vampires without any effort at all.”
I laughed. “Great. Except that the only thing you’re doing now is coming home and relaxing for a while.”
“Fine,” she said, grinning.
“What was it?” I asked her, not really wanting to talk about her attack but needing to know. “Was it vampires?”
She shook her head. “Two witches and three demons. The witches were kind of the bait. I thought they were being attacked by two of the demons. And when I was focused on saving them, the third demon snuck up on me and stabbed me in the back. It was a stupid rookie mistake on my part. I should have been more careful, especially with all of the craziness going on now.”
“You’re like me in that way. You don’t think of yourself until it’s too late.”
She glanced over at me. “That may be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me.”
“I didn’t mean it in a good way,” I said. “We’re both reckless.”
“You know what you are, Molly? You’re a damn hero. What else do you call someone who rushes in without any regard for their own safety? So cra
m that whole idea that the way we are is a bad thing. If I’m anything at all like you, then I’m damn proud of it.”
I stared at her. “You almost just died, Shanti. I can’t die. There’s no risk to me if I rush in to save someone.”
“I’m pretty damn hard to kill too. And you can still be hurt and tortured and all that. So don’t pretend there’s no danger for you.”
“It’s not the same,” I said, looking out the window at the passing landscape. Shanti had even more of a lead foot than I did.
“No. It’s not. You have a hell of a lot more at stake than I do. If you get captured or whatever, look at how many people will suffer. Look at the way things fell apart when you died last time. And the only thing that’s ever mattered to you is keeping everyone safe. We lose you, and none of us are safe.”
“Thanks. I needed that additional pressure, kiddo,” I said, and she laughed.
“You know what I’m saying. You blame yourself for every single person you can’t save. That’s worse than death, as far as you’re concerned, and that’s why you still risk everything when you go out and save someone, even if it means you’ll live.”
A thought kept coming through as she was talking, the same thing I’d heard from her before. Zero.
“Can I ask you something unrelated to this?” I asked her, and she glanced at me.
“Sure.”
“Who’s Zero? That name comes through fairly often when I’m talking to you.”
She glanced at me again. Uncomfortable. Embarrassed. If she could have blushed, she would have been.
“Oh. He’s this guy I know,” she said, and the emotions coming from her let me know exactly how she felt about this guy.
I smiled. “Is he a vampire?”
“No. Normal. Which is why I haven’t talked about him a lot. I kind of figure that the fewer people who know about him the better. And I don’t want to get into it with Levitt and I’m kind of thinking you’re about to tell me how stupid it is to put a Normal in danger by being involved with him.”
I laughed. “I am not going to tell you that. You’re a grown woman and you know the risks and I have no doubt you’re doing what you can to keep him safe. I can put an imp or two on him if you want, just for an added bit of protection.”
“Are they gonna report back to you with details about us?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to know.”
“Good. Thank you then.”
“Anytime.”
We drove in silence for a few minutes. “How did you know something happened to me?” Shanti asked after a while.
“Strife called to taunt me about it,” I said, just the memory of her smug voice enough to make me want to destroy something.
“Shit. So it was her people?”
I nodded. Clenched my hands in my lap.
“Calm down. Don’t get all ragey now,” Shanti said.
“I know. I need to find this bitch. She’s spent too much time taunting me. And this was a sign that she’s getting braver, coming at my own people. She’s getting stronger, because all the chaos and fighting going on now is adding to her power.”
“Well maybe she’ll get cocky then. That’s when people tend to make mistakes,” Shanti said. She pulled into the parking garage under the loft and we got out of the car.
“Yeah, but who else is she going to hurt before I can get to her?” I asked. “This has to stop, and we still have no goddamn sign of her. How can she be hiding so well? The imps can’t even get a read on her, and that’s never happened.”
We got into the elevator and Shanti reached over and took my hand. “We’ll find her, Molly. And we’ll all just have to be more careful in the meantime. Right?”
I nodded, took another deep breath. I took a moment to see who I could sense in the loft. It felt like our team was all there.
“You have a welcome wagon. I think I feel Rayna and Ronan up there,” I said with some surprise.
“They are very protective of their people. She’s probably not happy at all right now,” Shanti said. The elevator stopped and we walked into the loft. The first few minutes of our arrival were taken up by just about everyone hugging Shanti and expressing varying degrees of “we’re gonna kick their asses.” Relief and love flowed through the loft, and I had to smile a little as I stood back and watched. Nain came over to me and wrapped me in his arms, and I rested my face against his chest, needing him. Needing the calm that only he could bring me. I put my arms around his waist and hid my face and just breathed.
“We can go somewhere else if you need to,” he said quietly and I shook my head.
“I want to talk to Rayna first,” I said, and he squeezed me to him for a moment, then let me go. I looked up at him, and our eyes met.
It amazed me how much this angry, powerful man could soothe me.
Thanks, I thought at him and then I started to walk away.
I’d give you a hell of a lot more if you needed it, he thought at me, and I shook my head. The bad thing (or was it maybe not such a bad thing?) was that all I really wanted to do was stay in his arms and let myself relax. But I had things to do. Rayna and Ronan were talking to Shanti in one corner of the loft, and the rest of the team had started to disperse once they’d seen her. Levitt, Heph, and E left for patrol. Brennan took Sean up to their rooms, and Ada and Stone headed to their room, tired after having been up early with Sean.
Rayna and Ronan both turned and looked at me.
“I’m going to go get cleaned up,” Shanti said. “And then I think I’m going to sleep. The rush your blood gave me is starting to fade a little.”
I nodded and hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I said against her hair, and she squeezed me harder.
“Of course I am. Sometimes prayers get answered,” she said, smiling. The four of us (Rayna, Ronan, Nain, and I) watched her climb the stairs to her room. Then I glanced at Rayna, who was watching me.
“That kind of attack cannot stand,” Rayna snarled, and I felt the anger rolling off of her. One of her family had been attacked. And she genuinely liked Shanti.
“It won’t,” I said, turning and heading toward the couch. Nain sat beside me and Rayna and Ronan each took one of the chairs. “This was Strife. She called and taunted me with Shanti’s death.”
“How did you find her?” Ronan asked. “We started scouring the city the second I got off the phone with Nain.”
“I know the route she takes from your place to the loft. I started with that, and my father joined me. We found her car in an alley and started looking around there.” I filled them in on the details of the attack, of Hades healing her.
When I’d described Shanti’s wounds, I felt rage rolling off of both of them. They both wanted a piece of Strife. I could feel that very clearly.
“We’re in,” Rayna said. “We’ll work with you. We will avenge this attack on one of our own. This will be paid for in blood.”
Ronan nodded, determined. I felt shock from Nain.
I nodded back at Rayna. “I agree. And it will be repaid. We’re very pleased to join forces with you.”
We spent about an hour filling Rayna in on what we knew about Strife and her team. Brought her up to date on the attacks, including the way we’d been ambushed. She and Ronan both listened intently, Ronan asking questions every once in a while. We discussed how we’d coordinate our teams. By the time they left, it was clear that our group of allies had grown in size and deadliness.
That could only be a good thing.
Chapter Fifteen
Once Rayna and Ronan were gone, I was about ready to fall over, but I also knew I was too wired to sleep. Nain went into his office to talk to Jones to fill him in on everything that had happened, and I went to our room and stepped into the shower.
I was alone, and I wanted to cry, wanted to let out all of the emotions the night had caused. But I knew I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have the luxury of letting myself feel everything, of letting myself rage against it. Neth
er had been fighting me all evening, and it had been a constant battle to keep control.
I stood under the searing hot water and scrubbed myself much harder than I needed to, my stress only feeding my already-insane habit of trying to get rid of filth that wasn’t there. Nether raged, and soon the stress of trying to fight her back exhausted me, and I fell to my knees in the shower.
The water rained down over me and I pressed my face up against the tiles, gritted my teeth, fighting her for control.
So weak, little Fury. Just give in. You have no hope of controlling me forever, she hissed at me. I shook my head, focused harder. I was trembling.
I just grow stronger, Nether taunted. Your time is limited, godling. And you will pay for every moment you’ve imprisoned me.
I groaned at the effort of trying to keep her in control. My head was pounding, aching, and I whimpered and gripped my head with my hands.
I stayed that way, trying to fight her down, trying to keep in control. I felt myself starting to black out a time or two, and fought harder. The water went from searing to ice cold by the time I felt able to stand again. This had been her worst assault on me, her strongest attempt to take control, and she’d been so close.
This wasn’t a battle I could keep winning.
When I was able to stand again, I stood up and turned the water off, and I tossed on some jeans and a top. Nain wasn’t in the room, and there was no way in hell I was going to let myself fall asleep now without him nearby.
I went out into the living room, which was deserted. There was a lamp on in one corner, but other than that it was dark. I went into the kitchen and made myself eat a banana. It tasted like sawdust.
Nain wasn’t in his office, and I wondered where he’d gone. I heard a door open upstairs, and glanced up. E was coming out of the room she was sharing with Shanti. She came down the stairs and smiled when she saw me.
“You should be resting, demon girl,” she said, coming over to me and giving me a hug. I hugged her back, and we stood there. I felt tears come to my eyes, held back a sob, everything that had happened that night hitting me as I stood in my friend’s arms.
Strife: Hidden Book Four Page 18