“Let me go,” Andrew said, his voice heavy with warning.
“Make me,” Ben fired back. He felt it suddenly, a power shift, heat rising from the floor. Something was shifting, trying to move his hand, but it was in that moment Ben realized that he could stop it. It wasn’t physical and it wasn’t mental, but it was strong and he was in control of it. Andrew tried to shove Ben away, to take control, to manipulate matter as Alex had explained to him earlier, but Ben stopped it. He smiled when Andrew pulled it all back, defeated, and he slowly dropped his hand from Andrew’s throat.
“Enough is enough,” Ben said, ignoring Andrew’s absolutely petrified expression. “I’m not telling you to give up your vessel, or to tell him the truth. I’m merely telling you that you aren’t in control here. Not anymore.”
With that, Ben stormed out of the room and into his own. The moment the door shut, Ben fell to his knees, absolutely overwhelmed with what had happened. How? How had he done it? Why could he? He’d been controlled and manipulated by the gods before, so what had changed? Anger? Or was he merely beginning to understand now why they all knew he was different? Special. Not like the rest of them.
Hades’s words rang through his mind. The humans were stronger than the gods. They were more powerful, they had evolved, surpassed them, and they didn’t need them anymore. Ben took a few calming breaths right there on the floor, trying to get his adrenaline to stop firing. They still had work to do, and they had to do it soon.
His head began to clear after a few moments and as it did, he realized that he had a way to get Persephone to talk. He had something over her and it suddenly all made sense, because in that moment Ben realized why he was different than the rest of them, and it wasn’t his power. The truth was, she loved him.
~*~
Persephone was in the chair when Ben came strolling out into the living room. Alex and Andrew were on the sofa, both staring at him with some trepidation as he approached their goddess prisoner. Mark was in the kitchen now, watching from the table as he carefully helped himself to the food.
Ben could feel Jude in the back room, still unconscious, burning with fever and likely suffering an unimaginable hell in his own mind. Enough was enough. Ben was done with games, with gods and Angels, and he just wanted his life back. He wanted to mourn his sister and move on. He wanted to know that Jude and Mark would stop suffering, that Heimdall could go back to the elements, and Thor could go back to his advertising job and psychological studies of human behavior.
He wanted Nike gone from this realm, and he never wanted to hear the name Stella or Persephone again. He was completely and totally finished. Kneeling down in front of the chair, Ben put his hands over Persephone’s and looked into her eyes. He could see the fear in there, but beyond that the desire. She loved him and more than she had ever wanted anything else in the world, she wanted him to love her back. No one else had. They’d been forced to love her, coerced by the power her kiss brought, and Ben didn’t suffer under her spell.
“We need to finish this,” he said quietly. She snorted, opening her mouth to say something snarky, but he pressed a finger to her lips and kept his voice down. “As angry as you are, you can’t deny that we had something. Us, just you and me, and I realize what you did for me was out of love.”
Persephone swallowed thickly, her eyes shifting from anger to desperation. Her fingers gripped the arms of the chair tightly under her bonds, and she strained to feel his touch. “Ben, you have to understand, I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know,” he said in a near whisper, and that was true. He knew she never meant to hurt him. He knew she acted in what she thought was his best interest, an interest she didn’t fully understand because she wasn’t human, she had never been, and she didn’t understand self-sacrifice. She couldn’t. “I know, and we just need to make this right.”
“I don’t know how,” she sobbed.
“What have you told Nike? What did you give her?”
Persephone’s eyes darted over to the three who were watching intently, but Ben put a finger under her chin and redirected her eyes to him,
“Ignore them, this is us,” he said softly.
She cleared her throat and moved her head away from his hand. “She came to me while I was watching you,” she said in a soft voice, attempting to keep the others from hearing her. “I can see gods, just like I can see portals. I can find them, mostly in mirrors or sometimes pools of water. Reflections carry into the next realm. I don’t really know how to explain it, except that they touch the limbo, and that’s how the gods travel without vessels. Through limbo. She told me she knew I’d been watching you and that I was falling for you. She said that if I helped her get your sister as a vessel, she’d keep you from ever having to experience pain and death. She said that we were on the verge of a war, and it was the only way to keep you safe. She said that you were in bigger danger because of your bloodline, which was why she needed Abby, and it was the only way to protect you.”
Ben had to forcibly swallow back his rage at the thought of his sister being used as a bargaining chip. To hear it aloud was tough, but he was so close. “What happened next?” He squeezed her hands gently, prodding her to go on.
Persephone lowered her eyes to her lap and took a deep breath. “I’m not stupid. I’m the same woman, the detective, who helped you months ago rescue the others from the compound. I knew she was lying, but I also knew something big was brewing and your name was being whispered all over by so many gods. Not just the Greeks, but the beings so old they never took corporeal form. I was terrified, so I took her up on the offer. To sweeten the deal, she promised to take care of Hades for me, but he managed to cloak himself from her and he wouldn’t stop stalking me.”
Ben gave a slow nod. “So you gave her the information on how to take my sister?”
“I drugged Abby,” Persephone said in a whisper. “She swore it would be the only thing I had to do. I drugged her in the hotel, drugged her wine, and then sent her home with tea and that’s how Nike managed to take her body. She was strong though, and she fought me.”
Ben felt his breath hitch, but he didn’t give in. Not yet. “But Nike won.”
“Nike wouldn’t have stopped. If she couldn’t take your sister, she would have taken you, and I wasn’t strong enough to stop her.”
Ben sat back on his heels and looked at her. “What is she planning now?”
“I don’t know,” Persephone said, and when Ben frowned, she struggled to lean forward, her voice growing more desperate. “I swear, I don’t know! I was supposed to keep in contact with her. She wanted Mark and Jude at the portal. She thinks she can harness their powers with the woman she kidnapped.”
“Olivia,” Ben said, and Persephone flinched. “Did you give her Olivia?”
“She kissed you,” Persephone said, her voice growing dark. “She kissed you, and Ben, you don’t seem to realize it, but that’s my power. I can feel love, and I can feel where love will exist. If Olivia exists, I’m dead to you.”
“So you sacrificed her.”
“Never for a moment did I doubt that you would be able to stop Nike,” Persephone defended. “Sacrifices have to be made.”
“And you feel you have the right to choose them?” Ben asked. She said nothing, and slowly, he reached across the distance between them and undid her bonds. Alex and Andrew flinched, but Persephone merely drew her arms to her chest and began to rub her wrists. “You feel as a god, you get to choose who lives and who dies.”
“I couldn’t risk it.”
“Letting me love someone else?” Ben asked, letting just a hint of his anger seep into his voice. “Letting me love another human, since you could never offer me that?”
Persephone rose to her feet, and Ben followed. She reached out for him, but he flinched backwards and her hand barley missed grabbing the front of his shirt. “Please,” she begged.
Ben took a few steps to the side, his head shaking. “I’m sorry, but that’s why I could n
ever really love you. That’s why, and you know it. You knew if I found out what you were, I would discard you. You’ll never understand who I am, what I am, because you will never be human. You’ll never understand why I could and would have given my life in place of Abby’s, because you could never do that for anyone or anything. Selfish and useless, and I could never love you.”
Ben was unprepared for her as she rushed at him. With impossible strength she held on to him, one hand on his face, the other on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and she kissed him.
He was startled at first, and he could feel it, the gentle electrical tingle of her power behind her kiss. It brushed him, pushed against him, but like he had with Andrew, Ben willed it away. He felt anger surge through him that even after all of that she’d try and use it against him, but he wasn’t surprised by it.
After a moment, after letting her think she’d claimed her victory, Ben stepped back, his hand pressed to his lips. He stared at her, his eyes blank, and she stared right back, hope and anticipation dancing in her eyes. “Ben,” she whispered.
He blinked a few times, and then surprising everyone in the room, he threw his head back and laughed. “You are pathetic,” he spat. His anger came spilling out like a flood, coating every word with disdain and disgust. “You are and always will be less than human. Taking what you want, desperate and useless. Humans outgrew you before you grew into your powers, and you know it. You’re a gnat compared to us, and I feel sorry for you because you can never understand the beauty of sacrifice, what we’re willing to do for those we actually love. You think you understand it, but you don’t. I could never love a thing like you, and I never will. You will never have power over me, Persephone. You don’t deserve to exist here, and when this is finally over, you no longer will.”
He spoke the words quietly and calmly, but everyone in the room could feel his anger and hatred. She stood there, hearing it all, shocked and horrified. If she had fled, it was likely no one would have tried to stop her, but she didn’t. Deliberate, slow steps carried her to her room and the door shut with a soft click. She was defeated and she knew it now, she knew there was nothing else she could do.
“Ben,” Alex said quietly.
Ben held up a hand. “Not now. You obviously want to know what’s happening to me, and honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve always been able to do that, or if something else is happening. The only thing we need to worry about right now is getting Nike to that portal and ridding the world of her for good.” He turned and looked at Andrew, who was clearly terrified. “Asclepius?”
Andrew cleared his throat, his face returning to its normal, passive expression. “I couldn’t find him. I’m not sure if he’s cloaked, but I checked the portal and Hades was telling the truth. The barrier is gone and he’s nowhere to be found.”
“Is it possible that Nike shoved him through to the other side?” Mark asked, speaking for the first time since he’d come into the room.
“No, that portal is dead,” Andrew replied with a shrug. “When Nike attempted to open it, the power collapsed it on itself, and there’s not even a spark left. Asclepius is probably hiding.”
“Persephone said she can find them through mirrors, the gods without vessels,” Mark said. “We can have her look for him.”
“Let’s give her some time,” Alex said with a small sigh. They all stared at him in surprise, shocked by his sudden sympathy. “She just had her heart ripped out. I realize she deserved it, but if she’s going to be of any use to us, we need to give her a little while.”
“She knows she’s going to die,” Andrew said simply.
“That doesn’t mean Ben didn’t get through to her,” Mark argued. He had a glass of wine in his hand and he collapsed on the chair. “There’s still a chance we can find Asclepius, and there’s also a chance she’ll eventually tell us how to break Jude out of this…thing. Whatever it is.”
“We may be able to use the information as a bargaining chip,” Alex conceded. “So like I said, let’s just give her some time.”
Ben, who’d said nothing during this exchange, turned to look out the window, pressing his forehead to the glass. Unleashing on her had taken nearly everything out of him and he was fighting not to collapse on the spot. The truth was, behind his anger was heartbreak and sorrow because he had loved her. He had loved her and trusted her, and he had expected it to be her and him when it was finally over. This was the worst, most painful betrayal he had ever experienced and letting it surface was the most difficult thing he had ever done.
She needed some time to cope, and so did he. No one stopped him when he walked out of the living room and went to his own, shutting the door behind him with a loud click. The darkness encompassed him, the cool air from the vent above his bed soothing as he collapsed on the thick comforter and buried his face in the pillow. It was a different hurt, a different loss than he experienced with Abby. It was an ache that would heal over time, and though it was something he would never forget, he knew that this pain would make him stronger. When it came time to face down Nike and end it for good, Ben knew exactly what he could draw on to provide that final, fatal blow.
Chapter Twenty- Three
Mark wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. He could feel Jude’s aching presence no matter where he went, and knowing the torture his companion was feeling, he couldn’t rest. It was well into the morning hours, and the entire apartment was asleep.
Mark stood at the living room window overlooking the city, and he could see the sky off in the distance beginning to lighten with the dawn. He’d always loved this time, when things just began to wake. It always started with a slight breeze, a shift as the birds began to stir, and the crackle of the trees as they moved toward the oncoming rays of the sun. People were next, yawning, stretching, rising to greet the day, a momentary amnesia of the events that happened the day before, whether they were good or bad. It was a fresh beginning, the embodiment of the saying, “a clean slate,” until everything came rushing back and life set in once again.
Mark felt the ache in his bones, the weight of two-thousand years heavier than it had ever been. There was a climactic event looming on the horizon, a war with a goddess that would end with death and destruction, and Mark felt that hint of terror just behind his confidence that they would win.
They had already suffered so much, everyone under the roof of that apartment. Pain, loss, anguish, and the fear that they wouldn’t make it to see the next sunrise. There was no telling if they could actually win this, if they could actually defeat Nike. And what if she did win, then what? What would happen to Jude and Mark? Would this be the event to end their immortality, to bring about an end to everything? Maybe it would be worth it.
Mark pressed his palm to the glass and watched as a gentle fog surrounded his digits, his print clinging to the window for just a moment as he pulled his hand away. As he watched it fade into nothing, he felt a presence behind him and turned, surprised to see Persephone standing there.
Her face was stained with tears, her eyes swollen, and he could see her hands trembling as she hugged herself tightly. She looked absolutely terrified, and he felt a wash of pity for her, despite everything she’d done. After all, though she didn’t understand what it was like to be human, he did. Immortal, yes, but absolutely human and he couldn’t escape the mistakes he’d made in the past.
“There’s no real cure,” she said in the deep silence of the apartment. Her voice was hoarse and low, and she cleared her throat slightly. “I felt it when he came into the apartment, but I didn’t know what he was going to do. His, um…his powers work a little different than mine do. They’re stronger, hysterical. They drive people to suicide, and I think that’s why Jude is so ill.”
Mark swallowed heavily, giving a slight nod as he tried to form some words. “What do we do?”
“You have to find something to override his desire for Apollo,” she said. “I don’t know him, so I couldn’t even begin to suggest
what it could be, but if there’s something—anything—that you know of that could override this frenzied love he’s feeling for my father, you could use that. It wouldn’t erase it or stop it, but it would probably snap him out of it. He’s probably always going to think of my father, and there’s always going to be a risk if my father walks away from this battle alive and unharmed, but it’s worth a try.”
Mark wanted to thank her, but she was gone before he could find the words. It wasn’t a cure; it wasn’t much of anything, really, but it was something. It was a hint at a way to help Jude break out of this torture before they had to move again, because with Jude in this state, he was putting them all in more danger than they needed to be in.
His brain was spinning as he went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. If they could just get Jude to that place where things were manageable, they’d be okay. Jude had overcome more than any human, mortal or immortal, had rightfully ever should, so this little lovesick crush should be easy.
Then again, that’s where things got dangerous, because thinking anything was easy gave room for disappointment and spectacular failure. The coffee was done at what felt like lightning speed and Mark found himself in the kitchen pouring a cup for Ben.
The detective looked exhausted, but better than he had in days, and Mark was struck with a fresh wave of sympathy for the man. “How are you?” he ventured as Ben added a few spoons of sugar to the black brew.
Ben gave a small shrug and nod as he sipped on his mug, and with a sigh he said, “Fair to middling.”
Mark gave a chuckle at the blatantly honest answer and they moved to the sofa as the rest of the apartment’s occupants, save for Jude, of course, began to wake up. “So Persephone talked to me this morning.”
Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse) Page 19