The Game of Gods: Series Box Set

by Lana Pecherczyk

  “Yes. I promise.”

  “Don’t promise, because that’s not working. Just try really really hard, okay?”

  “You got it, sister.”

  We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. Morning sun streamed through the large arched windows, and the snowy landscape cast a bluish hue. The weather was cooling down in Australia, but it was still icy cold here. I shivered and hugged myself. What was I thinking? It would never be warm in Budapest, but it was good enough for me to continue my training. Cash said to take my time, but…

  Four weeks.

  Sure. Plenty of time.

  I eyed off the bottle of Chateau Margaux, on the bedside table. Maybe Kitty had a point. I picked up the bottle and turned it idly around.

  The door opened and I startled.

  “Just me,” Cash said, coming inside and closing the door behind him. “You ready to see Lena?”

  I hastily put the bottle down.

  “Everything okay?” Cash asked, a wary eye on the bottle. “You dropped that like it was on fire.”

  “Nope. All good.” I smirked. Couldn’t help it. Already I imagined getting drunk with him. It would take our immortal bodies something massive to get there, though. Gallons of alcohol. Suddenly, the task seemed impossible. Perhaps Lena would know of something that worked for us better.

  “Roo,” Cash said, eyes narrowing. “You look like the cat who’s caught the mouse.”

  “It’s nothing. I swear.”

  “And Kitty, how is she?” He gave me a sidelong glance as he collected my coat from the rack.

  Now it was my turn to be wary. There was something about that look.

  “As a matter of fact, she’s pregnant.” I grinned, coming up to him as he held the jacket out for me to slip into. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

  If I had taken a second longer to sheath myself in my jacket, I would’ve missed the flicker of horror dance across his features before he settled into a more forgiving surprise. When I faced him again, warm in my puffer cocoon, I studied him. With Cash, there was no way of telling if he lied, even if I did have my full strength abilities. Unlike every other soul on this planet, the only way I sensed any emotion from him was when we kissed.

  He flashed his eyebrows. “Pregnant?”

  “I know it’s not ideal given her situation.”

  He gulped. “Situation?”

  “Why are you looking so weird? I meant the situation about her possibly being hexed.”

  “Right. Yes. That was what I was thinking too.”

  “Right.”

  “Did you tell her? About the hex?”

  “No. Not yet. I couldn’t worry her needlessly when we aren’t even sure ourselves. It could still all be a hoax. A careless word from us could have catastrophic consequences to the unborn child. She might freak out and terminate. I don’t want that.” I clenched his shirt, pulling the fabric at his chest into my fists. Determination pulled my face tight and I nodded to myself. “I’m going to get better, learn to use my abilities properly, and then I’ll find a way to test her more thoroughly. There has to be a way. I have four weeks to find out, then I promised we’d be at the wedding with her in Margaret River.”

  He went quiet.

  “Don’t worry, Cash. I can do it. I’m going to work hard, and before you know it, we’ll be back in sync.”

  “Yes, in sync.” The faraway look in his eyes betrayed his thoughts.

  “And then we’ll be going at it like hoppity bunnies,” I tested.

  “Yes, bunnies.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And we’ll have a million bunny babies and maybe even adopt a few whales.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Cash!” I slapped him on the shoulder.

  “What?” He flinched, then met my gaze, clouds dissipating from his irises.

  “For someone with superhuman hearing, you sure are deaf.”

  “Sorry, what were you saying?”

  “Never mind.” I took a few deep calming breaths, closed my eyes and centered myself. The peace I sought came easier each time I made my mental exercises. When I opened my eyes, Cash was staring off into space again. “C’mon. I’m ready to go,” I said.

  “Where’s your phone?” he asked. “I’ll keep an eye on it while you’re in therapy.”

  “Good idea,” I said, giving him the handset. “Lena doesn’t like me bringing it in.”

  As we left the warm comfort of my room, I took once last glance at the bottle of red. Four weeks. I was willing to try anything.

  Chapter 21

  Cash dropped me off at the basement lab where Lena and Jesop worked, then he made his excuses and went to deal with something enforcementy. It felt odd visiting as a patient when I’d spent the first portion of my stay here purging the dark serum from infected Players and Watchers. I’d had it all sorted then. My powers were well within my control and I knew exactly where my limits laid. Now, I was on the opposite end.

  As I walked through the stone arched entrance, I took a moment to take in the scenery before me. The room was split into a few examination areas with reclining chairs and curtains, and a lab area with microscopes and other technical pieces of equipment. Lena, with her long flowing silver hair and gauze blindfold, had her hands running over a person who laid back on a reclined chair. The privacy curtain wasn’t drawn, so I guessed it was an informal visit.

  Jesop sat in the lab area some feet away, twirling something liquid in a test tube. His gift of alchemy meant he could change the structure of matter at an atomic level. Because he was in Corvus House with Lena, he dedicated his skill to prolonging life and for the best intentions of our race. He was a Player, though, which meant he could return to the Empire at any moment if he was fired upon by other Players and killed. Lena was a Watcher, meaning she was Seraphim and stuck on Earth. If she died, it would be permanent. No returning to the Empire for her. The chilling reminder skittered down my spine. The Game wasn’t over, and I was the only one who could do anything about it. Nobody would listen to me, though, unless I could control myself.

  So far Marc had rounded up many of the Player stragglers and returned their souls to the Empire. According to the Ludus records, there were thirty-two Players left with tracking chips still activated. Like Jesop, these had decided to stay on Earth to help us at the refuge. There were almost two hundred Nephilim unaccounted for. These were most likely turned into darklings, making their bio-signature not recognizable to the tracking system we had inserted at our registration for the Game. The traitorous Watchers had no trackers in them, so we had no idea how many were gone. We just had to estimate based on the amount that went missing when Urser attacked Luduses and infected many with the dark serum.

  “Roo, you’re here.” Lena’s head lifted from her task and tilted my way. She couldn’t see through the blindfold covering her empty eye sockets, but her senses saw for her. She probably picked up on my guilt. “I’ll be with you in a moment,” she said.

  “No rush,” I replied. “I’ll just go and say hi to Jesop.”

  I walked through the cold, stone room and made it to Jesop’s side. He leaned in to the ocular end of a microscope, inspecting the slide beneath. He sat with his hoodie pooled around his shoulders. The Corvus House logo spread across his broad back. It was the symbol of a blindfolded crow, wings spread. The motto of Corvus House was about crows never pecking the eyes out of another crow. Of course, in Latin it sounded more romantic. It was supposed to represent a sort of Hippocratic oath, similar to the ones human doctors took.

  Jesop kept his head and jaw shaved, a style that forced his sharp features into focus. From the profile, the angles of his face stood out, making him a clear biological descendant of Lena. Strong, determined and steady. Where Lena imbued a calming, no-nonsense confidence, Jesop came with the impetuous temperament of a teenager. Except he was well over six-foot tall and in his mid-twenties.

  “Hey, mate, how are you?” I asked. He was also brought up in Australia so had a slight Aussie twang to
his accent. Every time we spoke, our local vernacular had a way of resurfacing.

  He tilted his head toward me to let me know he was aware, then went back to his study. After a minute of silence, he stated simply, “Roo.”

  He never liked me at the start, I was sure. But I liked to hope I’d grown on him. I sometimes wondered if the Players I clashed with had a problem with me back in the Empire and, unknowingly, they carried the innate feeling forward into this world.

  “What you looking at?” I asked after a while.

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Try me.”

  He sighed and sat back. “I’m testing the effect of receptor binding specificity on the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a darkling virus vaccine.”

  I stared for a few seconds, letting the big words soak into my little brain.

  “You don’t know what I said, do you?” he asked.

  “Sure I do. You’re creating a vaccine.” He said the word vaccine, so that must be it. Then the gravity of it hit me. “Wow. You’re creating a vaccine. Really?”

  “Don’t get too excited. Nothing is working yet.”

  I leaned on the counter to get closer to the microscope, as if I could determine whether the sample was effective by staring at it. Jesop raised an eyebrow as I moved into his personal space. He slid the scope an inch away from me.

  “So,” I said, “what’s not working? Is it because it originates from Urser and the dark serum might be different every time?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “I saw him kill a plant with a drop of blood. Then he touched Wren and black things sprouted on her face. Was crazy scary.”

  He scrubbed a hand down his face and checked over his shoulder. “Don’t you have therapy to start?”

  “You mean the therapy to return me to my rightful power as Queen of all living things?”

  “Do you want a medal or something?”

  “I’ll give you a medal in a minute.”

  “Yeah, real mature, Roo.”

  We scowled at each other. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious. I wasn’t. Then he grinned, shook his head and returned to his work.

  “Go bug the Gamekeeper with your childishness,” he grunted. “You two are peas in a pod.”

  “I’m childish!” I scoffed playfully, then seriousness stole over me. I leaned on the bench with my elbow, chin in my palm, pouting. “I would, but he’s not back from his trip to the Empire.”

  Jesop’s eyes met mine. “Yeah he is. Got back last night. Maybe you stink or something. Must have been all that crawling in the mud you did in the Amazon.”

  “Because I like you, I’m going to ignore that. He’s back. Really?”

  “Yep. Saw him in the kitchen on his way to the Tribunal meeting. He was pestering the cook for some honey cakes.”

  “Huh.” It seemed everyone was invited to that meeting, except me. Then a thought hit me. “So, the vaccine… Urser said it was never a serum in the first place, but I figured whatever he’s done to his blood to make its poison transmittable must be a serum, right? My memory is a little hazy, but I think he said it took him some time to work out how to make it work with Seraphim and Nephilim, as opposed to the easier infection of humans. Nephilim were the perfect bridge between the two species.”

  Jesop straightened like he’d been electrically shocked. “His blood. Oh my God, Roo, you’re a genius.”

  “I am? Yeah I am. What did I say?”

  “I’m ready now, Roo,” Lena called. The person she’d been examining was gone, freeing up the reclining seat. “Come and sit down. Let’s talk.”

  I turned back to Jesop. “I think you’re doing a stellar job, by the way. And…” I paused after taking a step away. “I never thanked you properly for helping me recover back in the Amazon, so thank you. I’m really glad you’re here.”

  Before he could complain, I hugged him. His lanky frame stiffened beneath me and I laughed. His cheeks went red.

  “Peace-out, Jesop,” I said.

  “Whatever, Roo,” he mumbled with a grin, and went back to work.

  Chapter 22

  “Okay, Your Majesty, please lie down so I can assess your condition.” Lena gestured to the long patent leather recliner. It was a pale, dusty blue thing and had come straight out of one of the Librarian’s Ludus chamber. And that gave me the jitters—remembering what happened to me when the Librarian had her fingers in my temple always made me cringe. But that was months ago and I’d been here many times. Plastic squeaked as I eased myself on. I don’t know why Lena couldn’t just put me on a chair, or a normal gurney. This was way too clinical and a contradiction to the manner of her examination. Her skills were emotion based. Reclining on a comfy couch would feel more like a therapist’s office. I’m sure I’d be more forthcoming.

  “For the hundredth time, please call me Roo.”

  A derisive snort came from the back of the room where Jesop worked.

  I shot a withering glare laced with humor and then made myself comfortable. For the past three weeks I’d come here daily. Each time Lena called me Your Majesty and I’d said to call me Roo. Every time Lena ignored me, and Jesop snorted, and I shot the stare his way. That’s why I smiled. Routine bred complacency and comfort. Everything was going to be okay.

  Her cool palm pressed to my forehead. “How have you been feeling?”

  “Um, okay I guess.”

  “Headaches, pain?”

  “Not too much.”

  “Anything out of the ordinary?”

  “There was one episode when”—I glanced at Jesop warily and lowered my voice—“I kissed Cash. His essence was too much and, well, you know.”

  Another snort from Jesop and I could’ve sworn I heard a mumbled, His essence was too much, before a second snort and, That’s what she said.

  Lena’s brow furrowed but she ignored him. “I thought you weren’t being intimate until we had this under wraps.”

  “That’s what Cash said too. I thought I could handle it. Seriously I did. I’ve been doing really well and… it was just a kiss. Needless to say I was proven wrong. It hurt like hell.”

  “But you got on top of it easily?” Lena’s hands hovered down to my chest area, sensing my inner energy. “You used our techniques and the pain receded?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, that’s good. And are there any other side-effects of the conversion, or other abilities surfacing that we need to prepare for?”

  “You mean besides the pain of all living things and the sporadic teleporting to strange places in my sleep? No. Not yet.” We had been over these questions repetitively, and so far, the answers were basically the same. “Same deal. Then again, I haven’t been out of the grounds much or exposed myself to multiple energies at one time.”

  Her palms moved to my stomach. “So just to clarify, the teleporting, better, worse, same?”

  “Well, Cash found me asleep in the bathroom last night. In an empty tub. I was wearing a nightie before bed, and turned up nude, so definitely wasn’t sleepwalking.”

  Jesop laughed.

  “Excuse me Mr. Nosey,” I called over. “If you can’t be professional about this, you can leave.”

  “My sentiments exactly,” Lena said. “Jesop? First and final warning.”

  “Sorry,” he mumbled and hunched over his scope.

  “As I was saying, it’s still on the grounds and mainly happens only when I’m asleep.”

  Lena made a sound of discernment, similar to a hum, but she didn’t elaborate. Made me think she knew something she wasn’t ready to reveal.

  “Well,” Lena said, “your readings are good. Stable. I think everything you’ve explained can still be gauged well within the normal limits and expectations of your current situation. We can start the second part of your therapy session.”

  I pulled myself up into a seated position, legs dangling over the side of the chair while Lena felt around the nearby table for her notebook. She uncapped the pen
that had been sitting in its folds and held it out in Jesop’s direction.

  “Jesop, honey, can you please take some notes?”

  “I can do it if you like,” I offered, thinking it must be hard to do that without the function of her eyes.

  “That’s not necessary. Jesop understands my shorthand and knows what details I need recorded. You just relax and worry about yourself.”

  Jesop was on a wheelie stool and instead of walking over, he pushed off the bench with his foot. The sound of plastic wheels skittering across stone filled the room. Then he hit the bench next to Lena and hopped off. He offered the seat to Lena. She graciously took it. I watched for a minute as they relocated to a stainless steel table next to me and quietly discussed her readings of my aura while he quickly scribbled. Lena said something and Jesop’s tall lanky frame leaned down to confer with her as he flicked through some recent pages of the notebook. Softly spoken words and little nods of approval gave me a sudden sense of déjà vu. From the way they moved—excited, thoughtful and pensive at the same time—I felt drawn to them. Every day for the last few weeks I’d watched them during moments like those with a sense of affinity.

  “Did we work together?” I asked, swinging my feet so they moved idly beneath my recliner.

  Lena’s head tilted my way and she paused. She said nothing, only frowned.

  “I meant,” I added, “did we work together when I was originally here as the queen—in the beginning. You seem like the kind of person I would have worked with to get this”—I waved around the room—“science experiment off the ground.”

  “Did you have a memory?” she asked, interested.

  “No… just a feeling.”

  “If you’re alluding to creating life on this planet, then yes. We did. Sometimes very closely.”

  “Were we friends?”

  Lena’s mouth twisted and, without full access to my aura sensing abilities, I couldn’t decipher her meaning. The collar still blocked a large portion of my skills.

  Her naked expression of sadness hit me in the chest. She’d suffered so much. She lost her eyes because an original darkling (created by my apparent son and/or brother in law) scratched them out. And that wasn’t the worst thing the queen and her family had done to her. What I had done to her. I’d let them suffer, and then condemned all Seraphim to be Watchers, despite their loyalty to me or not. I must have been unable to discern if they were traitors so banished them all and Lena had been stuck right in the middle of that decree.