He didn’t respond, even when I shook him by the shoulders.
“If you’re done discussing it, perhaps we could get on?” Styx said, as if bored with the whole thing. “I’m afraid dear Jacob is about to expire.”
“Take him, then.” Apollo’s face was bleak.
Styx drew closer to the riverbank in a swirl of dark water. “He must come to me voluntarily. I can’t take him.”
“For fuck’s sake, he’s unconscious, you crazy bitch!” I screamed. “Take him before he dies or I’ll jump in there and wring your scrawny neck.”
Her dark eyes glittered with malevolence. “You were involved in the bargain. You can give him to me.”
Syl crouched down beside me, her hand a reassuring weight on my shoulder. “Let me help you. Hurry.”
She took his legs and I grabbed him under the armpits. Together, we heaved him into the river, though I could barely see what I was doing through the tears of rage in my eyes. The splash as his legs hit the water nearly broke my heart. I would get him back. I would. And I’d make this pointy-toothed bitch sorry she’d ever been born.
Styx jerked him from my grasp, giving me a smile of poisonous sweetness. “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” She bent her head and fastened her bloodless lips to his. As if someone had flicked a switch, Jake came alive in her arms and began to struggle. “Relax, handsome. I promise I’ll take good care of you.”
She pulled him down into the depths, and the last thing I saw of Jake was the terror in his eyes as the black water closed over his head.
20
I stepped out of the elevator with a heavy heart, Syl on my heels, and the doors whispered closed behind us. Apollo had headed straight back to Crosston to administer a divine smack-down to the Ruby Council, leaving Charon to ferry the two of us and Cerberus back to the wharf near the main entry. Charon hadn’t said anything about my knocking him out and stealing his ferry, but his silence had spoken volumes. That was okay—I was in no mood for talking anyway.
I couldn’t get that look on Jake’s face out of my mind. He hated water, and now he was trapped in the scariest damn river I’d ever seen, relying on that lying bitch to keep him alive. It was a nightmare, and it made me sick with horror. I wanted to smash something, but there was nothing to do and no action I could take to save him. So I sat helpless, fists clenched, and brooded all the way back to the wharf.
From there, it had been a short trudge back through the laughing clown gate and across the misty Plains of Asphodel to Hades’ palace. Cerberus had been unhappy at being left behind again, and six mournful eyes had watched pleadingly until the elevator doors had closed on him, but I was adamant. Sleepy Berkley’s Bay wasn’t ready to meet the hellhound. Until I could find someone to unleash him on, he was better off where he was.
The lights were on when we opened the door into the bar, though there were no customers. Someone was whistling out the back, but otherwise we had the big room to ourselves. I eased the door to Alberto’s private quarters shut behind us, then Syl and I moved quietly towards the outer doors.
We were almost there when Harry came in from the kitchen. He gave a small shriek at the sight of us, and clutched a hand dramatically to his chest.
“Holy hell, girls, you shouldn’t sneak up on a man like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Sorry, Harry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
He smoothed his hair back carefully. “What are you doing in here, anyway? You know we don’t open until midday.”
“Just … ah … looking for Alberto. You haven’t seen him, have you?”
One perfectly plucked eyebrow rose. “Not much point looking for him at ten o’clock in the morning, darling. Even if he was here, he wouldn’t be up and about in daylight.”
Damn. That was a bad slip-up. “So he hasn’t been back?”
Harry sighed and slumped onto one of the bar stools. “Haven’t seen him in days. I don’t know what we’re going to do if he doesn’t come back soon. Can’t keep this place running indefinitely. I mean, who’s going to pay the wages?”
“I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” I’d certainly be doing my damnedest to find him.
“You’re doing a great job,” Syl said bracingly, and Harry sat a little taller.
“You think so?”
“I’m sure Alberto will be very grateful, when he gets back.”
“Let us know if you hear anything, okay?” I said. Harry nodded and I gave him a little wave before pushing through the double doors to the outside world.
God, it was glary. I’d forgotten how bright real sunlight could be—it seemed like years since I’d seen it.
It might be years before Jake saw it again.
The warmth went right out of the day with that cheerful thought, and I followed Syl across the street to our apartment lost in gloom again. We didn’t make it all the way, though. Tegan saw us through the window of her shop and burst out into the street, still clutching her scissors.
“Lexi! Where the hell have you been?” She enveloped me in a bear hug—or tiger hug, I suppose. Either way, I could barely breathe, as she seemed determined to crush all the air out of my lungs. Just when I thought I was about to expire, she let me go. “And who’s this?”
“Syl,” I said. She’d never actually seen Syl in human form before—or if she had caught a glimpse of her in the big showdown with Anders, Hades must have wiped it when he stole her memories of that battle.
Syl immediately got the same hug, then Tegan thrust her out to arm’s length, beaming joyfully. “Oh, let me look at you—aren’t you gorgeous? I was starting to think something awful had happened to you two. You won’t believe what’s been going on around here while you’ve been gone.” She punctuated her sentences with wild gestures of the hand holding the scissors, and I stepped back smartly.
“You’re going to cut somebody’s head off with those things if you’re not careful,” I said.
“Oh.” She looked at the scissors as if she’d forgotten she had them, then shoved them in the pocket of her apron. Little snippets of hair clung to the long white sleeves of her low-cut blouse. You could usually follow Tegan by the trail of bits of hair she left behind her—it was an occupational hazard of being a hairdresser. “There’ve been shapers all over the town, looking for you. The Master of the North himself turned up with a warrant for the arrest of that gorgeous local councillor of ours.” She dropped her voice in a conspiratorial way—which, with Tegan, only meant she went from a loud roar to a slightly softer one. “I have no idea what he’d done, but the fireshapers were in a lather over it. You two wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Should we tell her? Tegan was absolutely useless at keeping secrets, but I had a feeling Apollo wasn’t going to be too discreet about cleaning out the nest of vipers currently inhabiting the Ruby Palace. Everyone would soon know that the gods were still alive and kicking—most of them, anyway. And the ones who were in danger, like Hades and Zeus, wouldn’t be helped by our silence. I looked at Syl and she shrugged, as if to say, What difference does it make now?
“Why don’t you come upstairs with us?” I said. “We probably shouldn’t be discussing this in the middle of the street.”
Tegan’s eyes positively glowed—she could sense a juicy story coming. She hustled us up the stairs faster than you could say “gossip time”. Hopefully, none of those haircuts were urgent.
We made so much noise that Joe and Holly’s door opened as we reached the landing.
“I thought that was you!” Joe cried. “Honey, Lexi and Syl are back.”
Obviously, he still had most of his memories intact. Probably Hades had only removed the part where he’d revealed his true identity. He dragged us into another round of hugs and a baby began to cry in the apartment behind him.
“For goodness’ sake, Joe, you’ve woken the baby,” Holly scolded, but she was smiling as she came to the door. “Come in, come in. We’ve been so worried about you—especia
lly since Lucas arrived. What on earth was all that sneaking around the pub in the middle of the night about?”
She opened the door wider, practically dragging us inside. Lucas rose from the couch as we entered, putting a mug of coffee down. It looked like they’d been eating breakfast together.
“Hello again,” he said. “Did you get wherever you were going in time?”
I smiled at him over Holly’s shoulder. When she’d finished hugging and exclaiming over us, I dragged Syl over to meet him. I’d already told her about the part Lucas had played in getting the star-metal to the underworld. “Yes, I did. This is my friend, Syl. Syl, this is Lucas, Joe’s little brother.”
She craned her neck to look up at him and grinned. “Not so little. Nice to meet you.”
The big werewolf looked down at the tiny cat shifter and smiled a slow, warm smile. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“I hear you ride a bike. What make?”
His eyes lit up at her interest, and they started talking bikes, so I left them to it.
With six of us in it, the little room felt super crowded, but Holly ordered people around with her usual ruthless efficiency, and soon everyone was settled on couches, though I noticed Lucas had managed to manoeuvre things so that he was sitting next to Syl. Joe was dispatched to the nursery to retrieve his wailing daughter.
“Would you like a coffee or tea?” Holly asked, filling the kettle in the tiny kitchen area. “Or something stronger?”
“Sit down,” Tegan ordered her. “I’ll do that. You feed Mireille.”
“You called her Mireille?” I asked. “That’s such a pretty name.”
“It means miracle,” Joe said, walking back in with a tiny bundle. “Because her birth was a bloody miracle.”
“Her middle name’s Alexis, after you,” Holly added, a little shyly, “since she wouldn’t even be here without you.”
Oh, my gosh. I put a hand to my heart, tears pricking at my eyes. “I don’t know what to say. I’m honoured.”
I didn’t tell them my full name was actually Alexia. That didn’t matter at all—it was the intention that counted. I was so touched I could hardly speak.
“Meet Mireille Alexis,” Joe said. “Mireille, this is your Auntie Lexi.”
Mireille’s red face was scrunched up as she focused on demonstrating just how much noise such a small person could make.
“She’ll be more sociable when she’s had a feed,” Holly said, laughing as she took the baby from Joe. “Come here, my darling. Don’t worry, Mama knows exactly what you need.”
Holly settled in the armchair with the screaming baby in the crook of one arm. She pulled up her top, and the minute Mireille found her breast, all noise stopped, as if someone had flicked a switch. One little arm waved aimlessly in the air until Holly caught the tiny fist in her own and kissed it. She gazed down at her contented daughter with such love in her eyes that it nearly melted my heart.
“She’s a good eater,” Joe said, watching his wife and daughter with a fond smile. “She’ll make a fine, strong wolf.”
“I’m surprised you’re home,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”
Joe laughed. “It’s Saturday. You must have been on a real bender if you can’t remember what day of the week it is. Tegan, you’d better make her coffee a strong one.”
Tegan handed out coffees, then settled herself on the couch next to Joe. “All right, start talking. What have you two been up to?”
I took a sip of coffee and launched into the story, leaving nothing out. Well, almost nothing. There were a couple of kissing parts that I kept to myself. I figured nobody needed to hear about my love life, even if Tegan probably would have liked that part the best.
I did feel a little guilty at blowing Hades’ cover after all these years, but secrecy did nothing to help him now. We needed all the help we could get. If he was really pissed with me over it, he could always zap their memories when this was over.
Hmm. I paused for a sip of coffee. It looked kind of suspicious that there were all these gods around with holes in their memories—not to mention my own situation—and there was Hades, with his convenient river of forgetting. But no, I wasn’t going down that path—I’d go mad if I had to suspect everyone around me. Besides, Cerberus wouldn’t be so convinced that his master had met foul play if he was the evil mastermind behind this whole mess. The hellhound was incapable of deceit. That thought cheered me up immeasurably.
By the time I’d finished, my voice was hoarse and my coffee had gone cold. Little Mireille had long since finished her feed, been burped, and gone back to sleep again. Everyone else looked stunned.
“Wow,” said Tegan. “You have been busy.”
“I can’t believe the gods are actually real,” Holly said. “Even though Lucas told us what you’d said to him at the pub. I mean, I always just thought of them as some kind of spirits watching over us, not actual people who bicker with each other like we do.”
“And serve beer at my local pub,” Tegan added.
“Your story explains one thing, at least,” Joe said.
“What?” I asked.
“Why a brand-new four-wheel drive turned up on my doorstep this week. The guy who delivered it said that Jake Steele had paid for it, but that was all he could tell me.”
“Really? When would Jake have had time to order a new car?”
“Maybe the night he went topside with Hades,” Syl said. “The night before you two took off looking for Hephaistos.”
“That was the night that Hades disappeared. Did any of you see him that night?”
They all shook their heads. “Rosie saw him, but they only chatted for a moment and then he left,” Joe said. Rosie was his ex. “He never came back, because Lisa was complaining the next day about being the only one behind the bar all night.”
“What did he and Rosie talk about?” Maybe their conversation would give me some clue.
Joe shrugged. “She didn’t say.”
I let my head fall back against the couch as I cradled my cold coffee. What could have happened to Hades? Where had he gone? Most likely, he’d been caught by the shadow shapers—and if he’d had his avatar on him at the time, that meant he was already dead. What a depressing thought. Surely Charon would have mentioned it if he’d given his boss a ride lately. It was kind of important, even if he was pissed with me about the ferry.
I had no idea what Hades’ avatar was; I’d never asked him, which seemed a stupid oversight now. I missed him—and besides which, if he were here, he could put that bitch Styx in her place and get Jake back.
I sighed. How did the damn shadow shapers keep getting close enough to kidnap gods, anyway? I could understand it at first, maybe, but surely the gods were all on their guard now? Whatever the killers were doing must be pretty damn sneaky.
“What are you going to do now?” Holly asked.
Good question. I refused to abandon Jake—and I couldn’t have gone back to work at the bookshop as if nothing had happened anyway, since my employer was missing. But I was kind of stumped. I had to find Hades—but where did I start looking?
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I’ll have a talk to Rosie, and see if she can shed any light on Hades’ disappearance. I need to find him. Or Zeus. Either of them could force Styx to free Jake.” And there was also my personal interest in discovering what had happened to my friend, of course, and saving him if he needed help. I couldn’t abandon Hades. Plus, finding those two would put a powerful crimp in the plans of the shadow shapers, which was definitely a bonus. As far as I was concerned, the shadow shapers’ little war on the gods had become personal. “I guess I’m basically mounting a one-woman campaign to stop the shadow shapers.”
“No, you’re not,” Syl said. “Not a one-woman campaign. Definitely at least two.”
“This might be a good time to find yourself a less dangerous friend.”
“Ha! As if you’d get anywhere without me.”
I smiled gratefully at her. S
he’d always had my back.
“I know a few werewolves you can count on, too,” Joe said.
“And a tiger.” Tegan never wanted to be left out of anything. “I’m not letting you lot have all the fun without me.”
I looked around at their earnest faces, and all of a sudden, I wanted to cry. Again? Clearly, I needed more sleep. It wasn’t like me to be so weepy. “Guys, I really appreciate this.” More than I could ever say. “But this is serious stuff. It’s dangerous. I can’t let you risk yourselves for me.”
“Oh, get over yourself,” Syl said cheerfully. “You know they don’t even like you, right? They just put up with you for my sake.”
“And for Hades’,” Holly added, straight-faced. “We like him.”
“That Jake’s a pretty stand-up guy, too,” Joe said. “He bought me a new car!”
Then they all burst out laughing. They made so much noise that the baby woke up and started fussing again.
“You should see the look on your face,” Syl said.
I sighed in contentment, happy to be back among my friends. If only Jake were here with me.
“Tomorrow.” Holly was still grinning as she jiggled little Mireille and patted her soothingly. “Think about it tomorrow. You can’t save anyone until you’ve had some rest. You look like you’re dead on your feet.”
I felt it, too. “I reckon I could sleep for a week.”
Tegan stood up. “Then go home and sleep. I’d better get back to work.” She gave Joe a sly look. “Some of us have to work on Saturdays.”
Lucas rose, too. “I’m staying at Mum and Dad’s. I might hang around for a while in case you need another ride.”
He might have been talking to me, but he was looking at Syl as he spoke. And she was smiling an enigmatic smile that I recognised, even though I hadn’t seen it for a while. Uh-oh. Lucas’s life was about to get very interesting.
Syl and I said goodnight, even though it was the middle of the day. I had every intention of sleeping the clock around. I’d been running for so long on so little sleep, and now the bill was coming due. I staggered into my bedroom and collapsed onto the bed, fully clothed.
Rivers of Hell (Shadows of the Immortals Book 3) Page 21