She felt like hell. She’d never had the flu; the children of demi-Gods didn’t get human illnesses. But she’d watched classmates and coworkers succumb to it. They’d described body aches and chills, and that’s exactly how she felt. The demon had scratched her with his claws. His claws looked like human fingernails, but they were sharp, and they sliced right into her skin. A little more, and she might still be passed out. More than that, and she’d be dead.
She’d barely had time to process what had happened between her and Jackson during the drive to the fire. He hadn’t wanted her to fight, even as he’d been ready to walk into battle with a demon. Even though she was the one who had the experience.
Just the thought of it was asinine.
And he still hadn’t apologized for attempting to be a controlling jerk.
He couldn’t actually control her. But what if he could? If she were human, would he have prevented her from going after the demon? Would he have taken her choices away from her and shielded her from her duty?
It wasn’t something she would stand for. She wasn’t interested in having this argument each time they faced a demon. He would respect her decisions, or he would not be welcome in her life.
She’d clearly offended him or hurt his feelings by saying she couldn’t talk in front of him. But it was the truth. Ares would know if someone else was in the room. And he wouldn’t like it. He might even threaten Jackson’s life.
It just wasn’t possible.
But even as she made these rational decisions, her heart broke in half. He was the first person she’d cared about like this. She’d even fancied herself falling in love with him.
But he couldn’t come to terms with the most basic part of her. She was granddaughter to Ares, the Greek God of War. And she was an FBI agent, a damned good one. She was not meant to live a safe life.
She still hated to see him walk out the door. “Jackson,” she said again.
“Helena,” he said in reply. “Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need anything?”
Her heart broke a little more. They were parting ways, and he still wanted to take care of her. He was such a male in so many ways, but he obviously wanted to take care of her. No one had ever done that for her before.
Maybe she should have told him her whole story. How both her mother and father were killed by demons. How losing her father had destroyed her grandfather, how he’d never recovered. How none of them had. How the fight would never end for her, not as long as a single demon still existed in this realm.
She pushed herself up so that she was standing. “No.”
His mouth turned down. “Of course not. There’s nothing you need from me.”
“Jackson…” She was at a loss for words. She’d never fought with a man before that she wasn’t related to. She had to call her grandfather. She couldn’t waste any more time. “I’m sorry,” she said. She was apologizing for the end of their relationship, dying before it ever got started. “I have to make some calls now.”
She’d thought he might apologize too, but she was wrong. His eyes tightened, and he nodded. He closed the door behind him without another word.
Her knees buckled, and she sank back to the bed. A few tears escaped her eyes before she could stop them.
She picked up the phone, but before she could dial, her door flew open. For one hopeful second, she thought maybe Jackson had returned.
Her heart plunged as she saw her grandfather standing in the doorway.
“You let that one get too close,” he said.
What was the expression? No shit, Sherlock.
“I want you to come home with me.”
“Seattle?” she asked.
His face was stern, but his eyes were alight. “No. Olympus.”
She rubbed her face. Hell. She should have guessed. “Why?”
“The demons are gaining power. It’s time to get the rest of the family involved.”
The family? He’d never referred to them that way before. He made it sound like they were part of the mafia.
“Will they send help?” she asked.
“I don’t know. That’s why we’re going in person.”
Zeus had a tendency to ignore problems unless they directly affected him. He’d been enamored with the West Coast of America for a time during the 1850s, during the gold rush. But then he’d lost interest. The death of humans didn’t bother him either unless it was at the hands of one of his descendants. But he’d lived several millennia. He tended to take a long view of the world.
If the demons were attacking in hordes, or if they were near Greece or Macedonia, he might act. But just one demon, or even ten in Oregon, probably wouldn’t matter much to him.
And he didn’t always listen to Ares. It was a sore spot among them. Ares’ half-sister, Athena, was his favorite. He’d adopted many of her causes over the years, but he was slow to act on Ares’ requests.
What did she have to lose? She’d already lost Jackson. And she had some good leads to send to her boss. She sent her supervisor a text, telling her she was following a lead in Tacoma, Washington. It would buy her some time.
“What makes you think they’re going to listen this time?” she asked.
Ares had loved her father. He had been his favorite child. He’d been a captain in the Air Force, a gifted fighter pilot, murdered when he was only thirty years old. He could not be killed in a human war. But a demon had done it.
Zeus had not listened then. Nor had Hades or Poseidon. Athena had helped track down the demon who’d done it, but then she’d returned to the hallowed halls of Olympus, and Ares’ quest was forgotten.
Ares had raised Helena, never shielding her from the truth.
Helena could barely remember her father. And Ares never talked about him. Not to her.
“The demons are gaining power,” he said. “They will listen. Especially if they think they might make it to Greece.”
They were on the same page. “I’ll go with you. When do we leave?” she asked.
“Now. I’ve got the jet waiting.”
She picked up her bag. At least in Greece, she wouldn’t feel the loss of Jackson so severly.
15
Jackson
Fuck. Why had he tried to control her? He’d handled everything all wrong and he knew it. But he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
She was his mate.
Mine.
His dragon was not happy with him. His instinct was telling him he needed to be with her. She was injured, and she was upset, and he’d walked away.
He’d pushed aside the dragon and let the human man inside of him take over. He’d been pissed off that she’d rejected him, and he’d left her.
As he drove back to the station, he played it over in his head. He’d argued with her, and then she’d defeated the demon alone. He was going to do better. When he wasn’t working, he was going to hunt demons.
His first task was to find a witch that could enchant the weapons for him. He could ask the coven that was supposedly nearby, but that was a risky move. If they weren’t already aware of his clan, he didn’t want to be the one to alert them.
He called his cousin Garrett in Vegas and asked if Garrett’s friend would be willing to help. She was a powerful witch, the daughter of a female witch and a male wizard, something that he was told rarely happened. Her name was Nora, and Garrett promised to ask her if she’d help.
Jackson felt like it was a long shot, and it was definitely a lot to ask, but by some miracle, the witch from Ireland agreed to help them as much as she could.
Four hours later, Garrett appeared on his doorstep.
“Garrett. What are you doing here?” Jackson had made peace long ago with his cousin leaving their clan for good. He and his human mate lived in Vegas, and they enjoyed living among humans. Garrett loved being a rock star, and Jackson didn’t begrudge him that happiness.
He took one look at Jackson and hugged him. “What the hell happened? I know I’m not here all that oft
en, but I want to help.”
Jackson filled him in on everything that had happened. “You need to know all of this anyway, as a part of this clan.”
He squeezed Jackson’s shoulder. “Nora’s on her way now. I sent a jet.”
Jackson gaped at him for a moment. His throat burned. “Thank you.”
“This is still my clan,” Garrett said. “Like you, I grew up thinking we were invulnerable because we’re bulletproof. Then I met dragon shifters from other clans halfway across the world, and they burst our little bubble. Our clans are not impenetrable, and they never were.”
While Garrett went to visit his parents, Jackson went back to the sites of the last three fires. He wanted to spend time with his cousin, but there was no way he could smile and chat with his clan members. Every breath he took was a painful reminder of what he’d lost with Helena.
Each time he saw a shifter and his mate, he was reminded all over again that he’d let her walk away. He’d tried to keep her from fighting, and now she was gone.
If something happened to her, would he know?
He couldn’t bear the thought.
At the sites of the fires, he could immerse himself in his work. He took the time to really pay attention to his surroundings. He began to notice the sulphuric smell Helena had mentioned, along with the tar-like substance that the demons left behind.
He took photos and made notes, and then it was time for his shift at the fire station. There was no more odd activity. They had the usual calls, full of flat tires and broken arms and even an escaped pet snake.
Each of his crew members noticed that Jackson was off-kilter, although most were kind enough not to say anything. Not a single one seemed to realize that Helena was his mate, so they assumed that he was worried about the demons. He let them go right on assuming that was the problem.
By the time he finished his shift, Nora had arrived from Ireland. He remembered her from Garrett's wedding. She was a tiny person but apparently packed with power. She spoke softly and moved gracefully. She didn’t waste any time. As soon as they arrived, she asked for every weapon they had, reminding them that they could be harmed with them too.
They didn’t keep a lot of weapons; they’d never needed them. They used their teeth and their claws to hunt, and they’d never needed to fight. Even while hiking, a bear or a mountain lion would recognize that the dragon shifters were not to be challenged.
But in small groups, they fanned out and raided the local hardware stores, buying only enough that they wouldn’t trigger anyone’s notice. They brought her machetes, axes, hunting blades, and even kitchen knives. They bought a few pellet guns too, and she enchanted the bullets, as well as a bow and arrow set. She worked tirelessly, only stopping to eat and sleep.
His clan had embraced her thanks to her connection to Garrett, and she had clan members offering her their assistance almost constantly.
They set up targets and spent hours aiming at a cardboard cutout Eli had made. Once Jackson needed to sleep, his friend took over organizing the groups so that they all were familiar with fighting the demons. His crew even came in and described what they smelled like and what the dead demon’s remains had looked like.
Forty-eight hours after Nora had arrived, she left again.
Once he had a few weapons, he was ready to start tracking the demons. He tuned his police scanner so that he could hear about any fires in a one hundred mile radius. He called his shifter friend who worked in Portland and one who worked in Tacoma, Washington. They both agreed to call him if anything odd happened.
Twelve hours after Nora left, he got his first clue about where the demons would strike next.
A small fire had been set in a bank in Salem, Oregon. The blaze had begun overnight. But the bank had recently installed a sprinkler system. The flames were extinguished before the fire department even arrived.
A demon had been there. The ATM machine was covered in the black tar-like substance. Jackson broke into the surveillance system and saw the pale, white face of the demon.
He had missed him by only thirty minutes.
On day two, the same thing happened. A small fire was set at the University of Portland. The fire was in a dorm room, and the campus blamed it on a candle, which was definitely not allowed. The students all claimed a cigarette was the culprit.
These types of incidents went on for two weeks. Each night, he stopped by Helena’s hotel room. Like a stalker, he watched to see if she had come back. But the room remained empty. He tried to rent it, but they said it was occupied. He even tried calling the FBI office and asking for her, but that was a dead end too.
He continued to chase the demons too, but he hadn’t caught up with one yet.
That all changed on day fourteen.
His phone rang at 2:00 a.m. It was one of his crew. “Jackson,” his crew member yelled. “We’ve got a fire out at the Citgo on the Oregon Coast Highway.”
“Demons?” he asked.
“We think so. The gas station closed at midnight.”
“I’m on my way.” Fuck. A demon in a gas station. It could blow up the pumps. It could cause a massive explosion. He hopped in his truck and took off. He was close.
“We’re leaving the station now,” his crew member added.
He’d told them not to go in without backup, and they’d made him promise the same. He’d tried his best to stick to his promise.
He got there first, skidding to a stop so hard his tires screeched. Helena had said the demon would hear him coming. There was no point in trying to be sneaky.
He leapt out of his truck door. This was the first time the demon had still been in the building when he arrived. They’d tried to brainstorm a way to fight them as a dragon, but so far, they had all come up blank.
With the exception of his run-in with Helena, this would also be his first time to really fight. As a first responder, he’d had calls with violent humans. He’d even been punched, stabbed, and shot. But none of those things could hurt him. This was the first time he’d be up against a true enemy, one that could outmatch him.
He pried the glass door open. Inside, the demon stood behind the counter. It was hitting the keys on a computer that was paired with the cash register.
Holy shit, was it trying to turn the pumps on?
It hissed at him but made no move to leave. Helena had said they could speak, and even impersonate humans, but it took a lot of effort. Jackson gripped a dagger in each hand. He’d chosen the style of weapon Helena used because she’d been the one to show him how to fight them.
He was hoping he could imitate her skills good enough to prevail. “Get away from the computer.”
It stared at him with its black eyes. It hissed again, baring its teeth. “Dragon scum,” it said in a raspy voice.
Jackson ran forward and jumped, landing on the counter. He knocked off a display of honey buns and gift cards. He jumped down, this time landing in front of it.
The demon stepped back, crouching down. It bared its teeth and raised its arms, showing off wicked looking claws. It lunged forward, swiping at Jackson.
Jackson dodged it and slashed both daggers down, aiming for the demon's chest. Helena had advised stabbing it in the heart, which would slow it down until he could rip its head off.
His dagger made contact, sinking into the demon’s flesh. It had a tough hide, much like Jackson had when he was in his dragon form. The demon wailed a loud, hideous sound. Its skin tore and its goopy blood flowed out.
It slammed its head forward, knocking its skull into Jackson’s so hard his teeth rattled. Jackson grabbed its throat, but it was strong. It jerked forward and raked its teeth along Jackson’s neck.
Its teeth pierced his skin. The demon bit down, snagging his skin.
It burned worse than the blade Helena had stabbed him with. He’d never known what a burn felt like, not a burn from fire. But this must be how it felt to humans. A pain so intense every nerve ending seemed to light up. For a second, he couldn’t bre
athe.
Then it all came rushing back. He brought both blades down again, and then moved quickly, slicing into the demon’s neck. A few minutes later, it was all over. He had killed the demon and burned its body.
Once his crew arrived, he told them everything, hoping to prepare them in case they found one too.
But as he finished cleaning the gas station up, a sharp pain lanced his heart.
What was he doing? He was fighting demons, but his mate wasn’t there. He’d almost died without telling her he loved her and that she was his mate.
He was going after her.
Clan folklore said it was possible for one mate to track the other anywhere in the world.
He was going to put that to a test.
16
Helena
Back home, on Mount Olympus, Helena missed Jackson desperately. She regretted the way she’d allowed him to walk away.
As he’d predicted, Ares had been able to convince Zeus that he needed to send help to the West Coast of the United States. But negotiations had stalled. True to form, Ares wanted a legion of soldiers. He wanted to command his sister Athena to join forces with them. He wanted at least six demi-Gods to command a battalion.
Athena had no interest. “Demons are a natural occurrence,” she said from her place at the palace dining table. “We do not get involved in human affairs.”
“These are not just human affairs,” Helena said through gritted teeth. It was all she could do not to slam her fist down on the golden table. “It affects us too.” She had been granted permission to speak freely by Zeus, and she intended to make use of it.
She pressed her hand to her chest. Ever since she’d woken up that morning, she’d felt off. There was a stirring in her chest, and she couldn’t get Jackson out of her mind. It was only getting worse.
Ares, who was the most willfully unobservant being on the planet when it came to emotions, asked her if she was okay.
She had lied and said she was fine, but she most certainly was not fine.
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