The Devil Inside (The Game of Gods Book 2)

by Lana Pecherczyk

  Roo’s eyes darted from side to side and a frown creased her brow. “Actually, I think you did mention the Archangel, but for some reason, I got stuck on the Egyptian mythology. Or was it Roman? I’m getting so confused.”

  “It’s all bloody the same, isn’t it, love? Different tales, same story.”

  “But we don’t know all that! You know that! Maybe if you told us exactly what happened all those years ago, you’d save us a lot of trouble. Why can’t you people all just write one book about what you did, instead of five million?”

  “No need to get snarky. And besides, we don’t write the books, our believers do.”

  “Why did you come here, Marc?” Cash asked, jaw clenched. “I can’t believe it was to screw everything up for me. There had to be another reason.”

  “Yes. That’s right. I came here to tell you I spoke with that witch”—I flinched at the word—“who helped you disappear in the first place. Rather ironic really.”

  “Does she know where my real body is?”

  “She said you split your soul by yourself.”

  “How does that help us?” Roo asked.

  I shrugged. I didn’t have all the answers.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be more invested in Players? Shouldn’t this be your job—to help him with this stuff?” Little Red’s temper flared, giving her an invigorating flush.

  “What do you think I’ve been doing, love, and besides, I was never charged with protecting Players. It’s my job to protect the Simons. Making sure Players don’t step out of line is part of that.”

  “So you don’t give a shit what happens to Cash?”

  “He’ll survive.”

  A strangled scream ripped from her lungs and shook the walls. She launched to her feet, fists clenching at her side. “Between the two of you, I don’t know why I bother. You’re both bloody arrogant assholes who only care about yourselves.”

  She stormed toward the door.

  “Where do you think you are going?” Cash snapped.

  “To the car. We’re late for a funeral,” she shot back.

  But when she opened the door, someone was waiting for her.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Cash

  FEAR EXPLODED WHEN I saw what waited on the other side of the door. James, or rather, what was left of James burst through with an inhuman growl. Roo yelped and jumped back in surprise, shielding herself behind the open door.

  The emaciated boy’s thin, gray skin had sunk below the hollows of his cheeks. His eyes were distant, focused inwards on something, yet flashed around the room with unfettered hunger. A sickly sweet and sour scent saturated the air. The same scent I had smelled back at the dorm. The boy stank of rotten, decaying flesh, like a witch.

  “Where is it?” James spat.

  “Where is what?” I positioned myself between James and Roo by bracing my hand on the edge of the door to hold it firm. The message was clear: Go through me to get to her.

  “You stole it. You took it from me. I need more.” James’s fingers clawed at my forearm but I deflected with my palm, like swatting a fly.

  He must have meant the vial found in the scarab.

  “It’s gone, James. There’s none left.”

  “You’re lying. I smell it on you.”

  The fact that he could smell something like that was a testament to new abilities he shouldn’t have as a human. Which posed the question, what was he becoming?

  “I had it, but it’s gone.”

  A wail ripped from him and he sunk to his knees, fingers raking down my front, cutting into me with new claws. “But I’m so hungry.”

  Roo ducked under my arm and knelt beside the boy. “It’s okay. I’ll get you some food.”

  “Roo, get back.”

  I made to grab her but James beat me to it. It happened so fast that all I registered was the whites of his eyes as his yellowed teeth latched onto Roo’s shoulder.

  “No!” I punched him in the temple, knocking him out. He fell in her arms, a dead weight.

  “No more!” Roo held her trembling hand in the air, too late. “He’s sick. I can fix him, stop. Please, no more.”

  At her words, I froze, my blood running cold. Those were the exact words the Queen had used in my memory. Her words. Something clicked inside me as ice cold recognition slammed down my spine. I met Marc’s blue eyes, hoping he’d allay my confusion.

  The god’s face turned white, and he held the same cocktail of expression: shock, recognition and fear, all rolled into one.

  “Fuck.” The word fell from my mouth.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, mate?” Marc murmured.

  My eyes bored into the smarmy god, trying to figure out if he indeed thought the same thing. He was there that day, he’d heard the Queen proclaim to be able to fix them.

  “How can we be sure?” I replied.

  Unaware of what conspired between Marc and I, Roo touched her palm on the poor boy’s chest, holding him steady. She met our gazes with defiant eyes.

  “He’s just a boy,” she whispered. “There’s something off with is aura. I can’t explain it, but, maybe it’s the book in me, maybe it’s something else. I think I can fix him. I know I can. He’s innocent.”

  She leant in to listen to James’s breath. “He’s breathing,” she mumbled, and kept checking for signs of health.

  Air rushed out of Marc’s flared nostrils, and when he returned his gaze to me, he spoke softly under his breath. “I know her true name.”

  “Say it.”

  In slow motion and with anticipation pulling the air thick, together, we studied Roo as Marc whispered one word: “Seraphina.”

  A wave of tremors tore over her body as she clearly felt the sensation caused by a Seraphim’s true name being called. Surprised at her body’s reaction, she was unaware the effect came from Marc’s whispered word. She strained to maintain control, to hide the sensation from both of us, and when it was over, she patted her throat, as though she’d nearly fainted, but we’d seen the truth.

  Rock solid affirmation gripped my heart.

  The Queen. Seraphina.

  Unaware, vulnerable, and trapped in a Nephilim body. It had to be.

  The knowledge brought every protective gene rushing to the surface of my body.

  Nobody can find out. Not even her.

  The room swayed and sweat trickled down my spine. I put my hand on Marc to steady myself, swallowing. “She mustn’t know.”

  Marc’s wide eyes blinked at him. The tendons in his jaw ticked as he clearly thought over something. “I don’t like lying to her,” he breathed.

  I gave him a reproachful look. “We have no choice. She’s a sitting duck.”

  It seemed like an age before either of us breathed, and it wasn’t until Roo snapped us out of our stasis that we moved. “Well, Marc, Cash? Did you hear what I said?”

  “Sorry, love, what did you say?”

  “Should we take him back to your clinic, Cash, or should I have a go at fixing him?”

  I snapped back into focus. “Yes, they might have formulated an antidote.”

  “Perfect,” Roo said. “Marc, you’ll be the quickest there. Why don’t you go and check?”

  “Yes, love. Right on it.” Marc held my arm and moved us both so our backs were to her. He lowered his voice for my ears only. “You may be right. She ca
n’t know until she’s in full control of her memories. I will have to go back and confirm her body is safe. Who knows what’s happened for her to turn up on this planet as a lowly Player. If there were any a time to resume her training, it is now. Remind her how powerful she is. Give her the tools to protect herself. It’s impertinent you watch her at all times.”

  “I won’t leave her side.”

  “If she takes a piss, I want you there.”

  My teeth ground. “I get it.”

  “Do you?” Marc’s eyes flashed. “Because if I’m not mistaken, hunter, you were about to quit. There is nothing more vital than protecting her. Without her, the Empire is in ruin. She’s the only thing holding the warring territories at bay. Her and this bloody game.” His eyes ran over my body, assessing. “How long do you have, again?”

  “Bertram is uncertain. A year, more or less.”

  “Right. I will be back long before then. Oh, and… there’s something else.”

  I tossed a glance over my shoulder to where Roo shifted James, trying to make him comfortable, checking his temperature with the back of her hand, of all things. “What is it?” My eyes returned to Marc.

  The god’s appearance flickered to his younger self with alarm painted over his face. “I was followed.”

  I stiffened. “Here?”

  “No. Earlier.”

  “I’m yet to see the relevance.”

  “It was when I took her with me to the bar—through the in-between.”

  Realization dawned on me. “They’ll know about her. Whoever it was following you, they’ll know. Well, at least that she’s not who she says she is.”

  Marc nodded solemnly. “I screwed up.”

  “Guys!” Roo urged, interrupting them.

  “Going, pet.” Marc gave me one last soulful look before dissolving into the atmosphere, granules of sandy dust falling to the ground in his wake.

  Frozen to the spot, I didn’t know what to do. Thoughts escaped me. My world had just been turned on its head. All that remained was residual awe. The naïve, innocent woman I wanted to indecently devour an hour ago was the almighty, all powerful Queen sitting in half-human body. The same reverence I’d felt in my dream seeped into my bones. No wonder I’d felt the way I had when around her. I’d loved her through eternity.

  Flashes of the people I killed flickered past my eyes and a grinding feeling twisted my gut. I’d loved her, but in the end, I’d hated who I had become for her.

  Today, I wasn’t the same person and neither was she.

  I could do things differently this time. I could speak my mind and hold my resolve. I wouldn’t let her put either of us in the position where we had to eradicate a world to erase a mistake.

  “Don’t just stand there looking like you’re trying to figure out the number brown, get over here and help me position him before he wakes. Let’s move him to the gym mat.”

  A quirk pulled at the side of my mouth. She was nothing like the woman I remembered.

  I picked the feather light boy up. Roo scurried to the black rubber mat that covered the floor of my in-house gym. She found a clean, rolled up towel and put it on the ground.

  “Here, put his head here.”

  I gently lowered the boy.

  “If there’s no antidote, then I’m going to make one,” she said with a firm set of her jaw.

  I met her eyes, they were full of confidence. A wave of shame washed over me about my decision to hide the boy’s condition from her these past few days. Not because she was the Queen, but because we were partners. We’d worked well together in Australia to defeat the witch, and we’d done that by trusting each other. Now she’s trusting my methods. She’ll wait for Marc before attempting a fix herself. Already things were different than the past. An apology was on the tip of my tongue.

  Then the boy’s body bowed into the air and his hands curled up, tight, seizing.

  “Shit, we can’t wait for Marc. He’s changing. Look at his skin.” It rippled with something underneath it. I remembered the way the Queen’s creations had looked in the end—more beast than man.

  Roo glanced at her palm. Within moments a bloody welt appeared as though by magic. And she held her dripping palm up to focus on it. “Get me a knife, and I’ll cut him.”

  My hand shot out and gripped her wrist. “No. Not your blood. You can’t mix yours with his.”

  She wrenched it out of the way. “I don’t care if we’ll be linked. Blood is more powerful than saliva, and I’m not kissing him. He’s basically a child.”

  “But, Roo…”

  “No. Get me a knife.”

  I shook my head.

  She made a frustrated sound and picked up the boy’s arm. She couldn’t open his seized fingers, so moved to his forearm where she ran a finger over his skin. A line of red appeared as she opened his flesh with her power, then she put her open palm over his wound and closed her eyes.

  “I can’t let you do that.” I captured her wrist again and pulled her back. Blood smeared on the boy’s arm.

  She growled at me with furious eyes and twisted out of me grip. “It’s not up to you.”

  “But this is bad for you. You’re risking your wellbeing for this boy. You’ll be infected with this disease and it could drag you down the evolutionary chain.” She had no idea, but it could be the shifting tide that cost her control of the Empire. In this world, a leader without power was useless.

  “I’m already doomed to devolve into nothing. Soul-Eater, remember?” She pointed an accusatory finger at herself.

  “I’ve told you before, you’re not a Soul-Eater.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “You should wait for Marc, he won’t be long.”

  “What do you care? You’re leaving!”

  “I’m not… I—” My words died in my throat.

  “Anyway, I refuse to believe helping someone in need will be a punishment. There’s no way the universe can look poorly on that!” With her last word, Roo turned her back on me and placed her hand gently on the boy’s wound.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Marc

  I RETRIEVED THE antidote from the hunter’s laboratory, wrapped it in a massive dose of my aura to contain it, and then returned to his abode, ready to save the day. I wasn’t prepared see the boy awake, lucid and apparently quite human looking. The color had returned to his skin, his eyes were clear and the dark residue that had oozed from his every orifice was gone.

  The three of them sat at the kitchen bench. Cash and Little Red—I mean Sephie… ah… my brain stalled. I wasn’t sure what to call her anymore. The overwhelming desire to have my old friend back here, lively and full of life was too much to handle, but it was wishful thinking. I both hummed with excitement and felt heavy with dread.

  I had to get back to the Empire and see for myself, because the last time I had seen the Queen, she’d been a husk of a woman. She’d sat in her throne room, holding court, with a veil over her face, barely moving as she listened to the petitions of her inner circle. Everything that made her real had faded away. She seemed other-worldly and foreign. People said she was evolving into something that none of us were capable of understanding, but I thought differently. I’d known Sephie since she was a child, and that was not normal. I thought she was withering, dying, and I’d told her so. I called her a coward and said I wouldn’t stick around to watch her fade. She didn’t even respond.<
br />
  So I sequestered myself on this planet, drowning my sorrows in her pets, pretending to be too busy with The Game and rumors of rebellion. I hadn’t returned. Not once. Perhaps that made me the coward, but she had broken my heart. Our life long friendship hadn’t been enough to bring her back. I hadn’t been enough.

  I walked up to the counter and held up the clear bubble of liquid I’d received from Bertram back at the clinic. The vial containing it had dissipated in the in-between, but I’d managed to keep it contained in my essence. I dropped it into an empty glass on the kitchen bench.

  “Then I guess you don’t need this?” I slid the glass at the hunter.

  Cash effortlessly stopped its momentum and inspected it. “This is what the lab gave you for an antidote?”

  “No, it’s not a cure. It’s something to treat the symptoms the poison created.”

  “We don’t need anything. I fixed him.” A proud grin broke out on Little Red’s face.

  I blinked. “I’m sorry, you what?”

  The youth slowed his eating and watched our exchange. Upon seeing the look of complete outrage on my face, he glanced to his new savior for guidance.

  “I purged his body of the… sludge, or whatever you want to call it.” She waved at the floor near the gym where the boy had been. There was a black puddle smeared across the ground. I didn’t know what to think. If that wasn’t the Queen standing in front of me, she was still bloody well something special.

  “We should probably clean it up,” she said. “Do you think it’s bio-hazardous, contagious I mean? I’ll be okay, of course, but what about you guys?” She squinted at us.

  “Are you checking my aura?” I asked.

  Caught in the act she widened and averted eyes.