Prism (Awakened Chronicles Book 3)

by Harley Austin

  “And you won’t. The Seven are like a global oligarchy. They control everything, including the news media, communications, technology, all of it—everything except the gods. They’re way too powerful for the Seven to just attack.”

  “Attacking gods sounds like a stupid thing to do.” Brayden nodded.

  “But that’s exactly what the Seven were doing. There used to be an assassin of the gods,” Tyler chimed in. “He was the only thing the gods feared. The assassin drove all of them underground. Out of sight. Rumor is there’s only a few of the good gods left now.”

  “Sounds like a good reason for these Seven to want to keep us out of the way. They don’t want these gods making more of themselves using people like us.”

  “Exactly. You catch on quick, Parker.” Romero smiled.

  “What are they going to do with us?” Brayden asked. “We’re like gods in embryo then. We need to get out of here and find Carissa.”

  “That’s what Wynn was talking to us about. He knows a lot about the halfbloods and especially the Dark. He was with Lear when the two of them were captured by Seven agents.”

  “Lear,” Brayden began. “That tattoo she has, it’s really unusual.”

  “Lear isn’t like the rest of us, guys. I mean she is and she isn’t; she’s much more.” Tyler offered.

  “Define ‘much more’.”

  “The gods wrote down prophecies about us,” Romero continued. “The newbloods, the halfbloods, gods and demigods would eventually gather at the end of time for a cataclysmic battle.”

  “Who wins?” Parker asked.

  “No one seems to know the answer to that. The books of the gods don’t say, exactly. All we know is that the Earth, Aden it’s called …”

  “You mean Eden?” Brayden asked.

  “Same difference. At the end of the battle the books describe the Earth being all heavenly and at peace.”

  “It sounds like the good gods win then—” Brayden offered.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. There’s only a handful of humans left on the planet. Everyone else is gone. The demigods are nowhere to be found. The books never mention them again.”

  “It doesn’t mean they’re dead,” Brayden offered.

  “Guys, the halfbloods, the demigods are all through the books of the gods, until after the last battle where Ra and Ma-Ra enter into the war to end all wars. Somehow the Earth survives, but not much else. The prophecy has been in debate long before we were even born.”

  “But we’re some of these newbloods, right?” Brayden continued. “We’re part of these prophecies.”

  “We are,” Romero nodded. “What’s left of us. The Seven have been harvesting us, killing us for centuries. Only now it seems like they’ve figured out a way to use us, get us to join their side. Fat chance.”

  “Who are these Seven?” Parker asked.

  “The Seven Lords of Evil. I don’t know much about their history but the gods had two camps, one called the Sentinels, some called them the Guardians, and the other called the Seven. They went to war eons ago for reasons only they know. Some say they were fighting over Humans, some say it was to protect their knowledge from falling into the hands of Humans.”

  “Really?” Brayden raised his brow. “That sounds like when Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to the Humans. It’s what allowed us to advance—well, that’s the story anyway.”

  “A lot of Human mythology has roots in the conflicts of the gods,” Tyler assured. “The details might be convoluted, but the themes are the same. Some say that’s exactly what happened. The Sentinel gods gave Humans their knowledge to advance way beyond what Nature ever intended. The Seven wanted to put a stop to it. And now we’re stuck in the middle.”

  “It sounds like these Seven are winning, if they control everything all over the world.” Parker frowned.

  “The gods generally don’t interfere in the lives of Humans—at least not anymore. I don’t think they actually care about what the Seven do with us.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Carissa to me.” Parker corrected.

  “And Carissa Dark isn’t a goddess, Parker. The Dark are a clan of halfbloods, demigods. The halfbloods do care about the Humans. Thankfully someone does.”

  Parker nodded.

  “The Dark have been battling the Seven for millennia. They’ve been given the tools of the gods. The rings you say Carissa gave you? Trinkets of the gods. Those things are powerful—when you’re not taking them off and just handing them to your enemies.”

  Both Parker and Brayden scowled, sheepishly looking at each other.

  “We didn’t know, Cierra.” Parker felt stupid now.

  “No worries. Wynn and Lear both had one as well at one point. It didn’t help them either. The Seven’s one-trick pony is to torture and kill people in front of you, until you take it off.”

  “It’s effective. Believe me.” Parker and Brayden were nodding.

  “I hope I don’t ever find myself in that situation,” Romero commiserated. “Not much of a consolation prize, but, I’m glad you two are here.” She smiled.

  “Does Wynn have any idea what the Seven are going to do with us?” Brayden asked.

  “Wynn thinks they’re hiding us. Keeping us out of the hands of the Sentinel gods. Mostly he thinks they want Lear. Probably they want O’Brien back in service as well.”

  “Wynn and O’Brien seem to have some history.” Brayden observed.

  “It looked that way to me too,” Romero agreed. “But Bryn is definitely not hip on him being around her, or sleeping with her—attraction not withstanding. He slept with us last night. Bryn and Brooke took another room on the other side of the hotel.”

  “I wonder why she doesn’t like him?” Parker asked.

  “I agree. What does the empath know that we don’t?” Romero nodded.

  “Why don’t we just ask her?”

  “Who knows if you’ll get a straight answer?”

  “Well, after yesterday I don’t know that I’m that big on Wynn myself. He practically had all of you about to tar and feather Bray and I.”

  “He had good reasons, Parker. I’d cut the guy some slack. You don’t know what he’s been through over the past few years. You two have been really sheltered, more so than the rest of us. We’re a little more calloused than you are.”

  Both guys nodded.

  “In the mean time, I want all of us to get to know each other.”

  “I think Parker already knows Lear pretty well after this morning’s shower.” Brayden snarked, glaring.

  “That’s going to be another problem here, guys,” Romero warned. “I’ve never been around this many newbloods in one place before. We’re all really attracted, but we all still have very real feelings. Brayden, I can see you’re not big on Winter being around Brooke.”

  “I can think of better things for him to be doing.” Brayden glared at Parker.

  “You mean you instead of her?” Parker frowned.

  “This is what I mean,” Romero pointed at the both of them. “I think Wynn and Bryn have some similar hurt feelings, especially Bryn for some reason. We’re all in the same boat; all in the same danger. I don’t know if we can all become friends, but we need to become a team. If we let hormones run wild we’ll all degenerate into anarchy. That would be what the Seven would want. We’d be more easily manipulated that way.”

  “I agree,” Brayden nodded. “We’ll need to figure it out. We all will.”

  “Maybe as a team, we can put our heads together and try to figure a way out of here,” Tyler added.

  “That’s going to be easier said than done, Chase.” Parker agreed, but he wasn’t excited about the possibilities. “It’s like the perfect prison. We’re surrounded by hundreds of miles of snow and ice. In here we’re protected, the temperature is tolerable. Out there, it’s a death trap.”

  29

  P arker found Wynn in a room that looked like it was as far away from the others as physically possible in the small and see
mingly getting smaller ice hotel. His room was just as different as all of the others, resembling something out of ancient Greek architecture with fluted ice columns lining the space all the way back to a bed that looked more like a throne for sitting more than a bed for sleeping the way it had been lit with cold white light.

  “Nice digs,” Parker complimented.

  “Hey, Parker.”

  “Mind if I come in?” Wynn didn’t look like he was sleeping, even though he was lying on top of the covers.

  “I’m not exactly busy.”

  “I—can come back.”

  Wynn frowned. “Come in, Parker. What’s up?”

  “Just wanted to talk. It seems like you and I didn’t hit it off very well yesterday.”

  “Yea, that’s not your fault.”

  Parker noticed that he didn’t exactly apologize. Maybe that was as close as he was going to get to one with Wynn at the moment. Parker sat on one corner of his bed.

  “So what do you think?” Parker asked him.

  “About the team thing?”

  “Yea.”

  “It’s a good idea. Romero’s a leader; she’ll make it happen.”

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “You’re just as much of a leader as she is.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Dude, it’s written all over you. The way you carry yourself. How you talk to other people. You have some discipline. Were you in the military?”

  “Name, rank and serial number, Parker.”

  “Listen, you can’t be like this. If we’re going to be a team we need to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

  “Yea, well, I’m not exactly ready to go there.”

  “O’Brien says you spent some time with the Dark clan.”

  “Did she out my whole life history to you as well?” Wynn scowled.

  “She just said you spent some time with them. Did you?”

  “Why don’t you just ask her,” he glared.

  “I did. She told me to ask you.”

  “She did?”

  “Listen, I don’t know what’s up between the two of you, but whatever it is, it needs to be aired out; the both of you will jeopardize the team.”

  “Then maybe you need to ask her.”

  “I already did. She told me to ask you.”

  “So she’s blaming me?”

  “Blaming you for what?”

  Wynn groaned. “Bryn was already working for the Seven, Parker. They were using her, to find other newbloods. She’s a little attractive.”

  “I noticed.”

  “So did your buddy, Michaels.”

  Parker nodded. Wynn had some jealously issues. He let it go for now.

  “Bryn already has some empathic ability,” Wynn continued. “She’s not even awakened yet. They were using her to ferret out not just newbloods, but other halfbloods. The Seven were targeting the Dark clans.”

  “Let me guess. You got caught in the snare.”

  “The Dark were doing the same thing, Parker.”

  “Oh—using you.”

  “You’re quick,” Wynn’s sarcasm was off-putting, but at least he was getting somewhere.

  “How long did you two date?”

  “Just a few weeks,” Wynn frowned.

  “Oooh, dude, you fell hard.”

  “Ahhh,” Wynn groaned. “Parker, you’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

  “I’ve been shot at by the Seven. Dade, you calling me a pain in ass isn’t going to offend me.”

  “Shot at? Really.”

  He nodded. “The ring Carissa gave me probably kept us alive.”

  “No doubt,” Wynn agreed.

  “So tell me what happened with you two.”

  Wynn sighed. Parker was in the same boat he was at the moment. Carissa Dark was not a well-known name within the clan, but he’d heard about her brother more than once. If she was giving the guy a ring, then something was up. Parker could well be his ticket out of this mess. He didn’t know whom he could trust. But Romero had a point with her little pep-talk earlier in the day with all of them. They needed to be working together.

  “All right, Parker,” he nodded. “Yea. The Dark warn you about meeting other people, not just awakened but other people you find attractive. Bryn and I were attracted; just like all of us are. You’re right. That Irish girl hit me like a freight train. I’ve never wanted to fuck someone so hard in my life. She shared her feelings with me. It was a couple of weeks of whirlwind bliss. I was about to snag her into the Dark, but she pulled her trigger first. The Seven captured me before anyone knew what happened.”

  “Why is she here then?”

  “You’ll need to ask her that. She said she quit.”

  Parker nodded.

  “You don’t quit the Seven, Parker. That’s a one-way ticket to ending up dead.”

  “But she’s a newblood.”

  Wynn nodded. “Probably the only reason she’s not dead.”

  “What about Lear? You know her as well.”

  “I do. Brooke got snagged by another newblood for the Dark. I don’t know who found her. Maybe Bryn. But I’m not sure they knew what she was at first. By the time they figured it out, that bastard Rigel already had captured both her and me.”

  “What is she?”

  “She’s part of the prophecies somehow. Bryn knows. I’m sure Brooke knows as well what she is; then again, maybe she doesn’t. Bryn’s told me about her tattoo. I’ve actually never seen it.”

  “I saw it.”

  “That figures.” Wynn snarked. “You seem to get laid more than anyone in this group, Parker.”

  “I’m not trying to, Dade, it just happens. You’re just as attractive as any of us here. Maybe if you lightened up a little on the attitude people would warm up to you. None of us want to be here.”

  Wynn pursed his lips and nodded.

  Parker got up from the corner and moved over to the side his bed; he leaned in close to Wynn’s ear. Wynn felt Parker’s hand resting on his thick muscled thigh, his fingers moving between his thighs just inches from his groin. It gave him a nice sudden alluring twinge that emanated softly from between his legs and floated all the way through him. “If I was hung like you, I’d be getting laid a lot more than I am.”

  Wynn breathed a smile. “Jeeze, Parker. I’m not like you and Michaels. I’m not really into guys.”

  Parker stood up. “Yea, I didn’t think I was either until I met Brayden.”

  “So what are you going to do about your fiancé? You’re still engaged to Carissa Dark. She’s not going to like you doing Michaels.”

  “I wouldn’t bet any money on that if I were you.” Parker smiled. “Good night, Dade.”

  Wynn watched him turn and leave. He looked down at the growing bulge in his insulated tights. Parker had touched him once and he was already getting hard. Wynn rocked his hips as another fine tremor moved through his jewels filling-out his length even more.

  “God,” Wynn gripped his large firming cock through his pants trying to settle down his member. “Thanks a lot, Parker,” he grumbled. No, he wasn’t into guys, but that didn’t keep him from looking at nice builds in the gym. Maybe he did like guys. He wasn’t sure. One thing was for sure, he liked Bryn and Brooke. And he’d fuck Romero’s Latin ass in a heartbeat if she ever turned loose of that dweeb, Tyler, she was sleeping with. He didn’t know what she saw in the guy. It definitely wasn’t his slim body. Tyler had some cuts, but nothing like the rest of them.

  Maybe Parker was right. It was going to be a tough gig getting the hell out of this place. Somehow they needed to contact the clan, but how? They certainly weren’t going to be trekking out of here on foot. They did need to be a team, and no, Parker was right, he wasn’t helping. The others seemed to be able to share with each other pretty easily. What was his problem?

  Wynn already knew.

  He’d seen the demigods in action. Some were married; most weren’t. Even the
married ones had other people in their lives. But he’d been raised in the Dominion synagogues and that upbringing wasn’t who he was taught to be. Still he wasn’t exactly following the Church anymore. Now that he knew there were real live gods behind the Church, he’d been re-thinking his whole understanding of the culture he’d been raised in.

  Nothing seemed concrete anymore. The only thing that did feel concrete at the moment was the thick tall rod under his pants after Parker had merely touched him. This attraction thing was powerful. God, what a mess. Nothing he’d been raised to believe was turning out to be even remotely true. Well, it was half true, but the rest of the story that had been hidden from him was completely changing how he’d been raised to look at things.

  He wondered about Bryn. They’d had a couple of blow-ups; all of them centered around her leaving the Seven. They had her in their grasp. He just hoped Parker and the rest were smart enough to realize that.

  30

  B rayden cuddled now, with Irish loveliness tightly wrapped around him while their lips parted each other’s in a waning kiss.

  “God, Brayden,” her accent as beguiling as her lips while her body relaxed into a deep after glow. “I think I need to move in with you.”

  Brayden smiled, his lips leaving hers. “I don’t think my boyfriend would appreciate that.”

  “Neither would mine.”

  Brayden watched her in the dim light of one of the empty rooms they’d found. Both were warm and cozy in a single fluffy sleeping bag, their clothes pushed down and wadded up at the bottom of it. Brayden’s thick black pubic hair meshed with her auburn-red as she pressed herself against him feeling his lengthy thick hardness buried fully, deep inside her. Her hard clit still tingled pressed against his shaft. Only the second time the two of them had been together, she loved the way he filled and released her.

  “I didn’t know you still had one.”

  “I don’t. But he thinks I do.”

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work. Wynn’s a nice looking guy. That body of his, good God.”

  “He is nice looking. That wasn’t his problem.”

  “We don’t have to talk about this. I’m not meaning to pry.”