Darkest Night: Mercenaries and Magic: A scorching enemies to lovers romance

by Alessa Thorn

  They walked in tense silence for another twenty minutes before they found a ladder. Kon passed the flashlight to Athena before he climbed up and unlocked the metal door. The smell of the sea and rotting bait hit him first. They were behind a set of restaurants at the docks, near the Eminönü ferry stop.

  "We are clear," he called down to Athena. He reached a hand down to help her, but she ignored it. Even covered in blood and sewer slime, she looked like the vengeful goddess she was named after.

  "Where to now?" she asked.

  Kon slammed the sewer hatch down. "Six blocks that way."

  "I suppose it's pointless asking whether or not I should go back to the hotel for my things?" she said, falling into step alongside him.

  "If Liddell can plan a stunt like this just on the off chance to catch me out, I don't think anywhere is going to be safe for you except by my side."

  Athena let out a bark of laughter. "I highly doubt that."

  Kon's hands clasped into fists. "Give me the night to convince you."

  "I'll give you two hours to explain everything," she replied

  "Good enough."

  Athena didn't seem to like his triumphant smile, so she added, "And no trying to get out of answers by seducing me."

  "You are just no fun tonight," he complained.

  Kon had known that one day he would be forced to run, and he had prepared for it. He always thought it would be after he killed Liddell, not before.

  Kon had bought the small warehouse in Eminönü when he was still working for the gangs. He had always made sure to cover his tracks whenever he visited. He only ever stayed there long enough to make sure the food was still in date, place a new item amongst his collection, and double-check that his alarms and cameras hadn't been tampered with.

  After checking the streets around them, Kon went to the heavy metal door and typed in the alarm codes. Athena watched him silently, and he knew she had seen the numbers.

  "I hope you have hot water in here," she said and followed him inside.

  Kon switched on the overhead lights and had the unexpected pleasure of seeing her expression. She grinned at him, her first real smile of the night that hit him in the chest. "Well, aren't you full of surprises?"

  "What did you expect? A dirty shipping shed?"

  "Actually, yes."

  "Then the exterior camouflage is working, isn't it?"

  Kon watched Athena take in the open plan two-story interior decorated with artifacts, art, and ancient weapons. One wall was covered in his guns and knives, next to a basic gym and punching bag. There was a kitchen and two spare rooms, a small bathroom, and a toilet. All around them were shelves of books and interesting things he had picked up on his travels.

  This was the side of him Kon didn't show anyone, the man he kept locked away. It was like letting her walk around in his head, and it didn't make him nearly as uncomfortable as it should have.

  "Shower is this way. Keep your hands in your pockets," Kon said, with mocking severity. Athena slid her hands in her pants with a wink.

  "Can't wait to see what you have up here," she said, following him to the upper level.

  "It's not that exciting. I try and keep all the business downstairs." Kon turned on the lights and let her into his sprawling bedroom and bathroom. He knew it was extreme to have a whole level just for it, but he didn't like to be in enclosed spaces unless he had no choice.

  "I don't suppose you kept any of that underwear you stole from me?" Athena asked.

  "What do you take me for? Some kind of pervert?" Kon said, saw her expression, and shook his head. "I stole them to annoy you, not sniff them and jerk off over." He went into his walk-in wardrobe and found a pair of silk pajama pants and a black cotton t-shirt. "You can take these."

  "I always thought you were a sleep naked kind of guy," she teased.

  "I am. It doesn't mean I don't like loungewear."

  Athena began to laugh but then saw the wall at the back of his closet. She slowly pushed the clothes back, eyes going wide as they followed the photos, the maps, the research he had done. He didn't say anything, just let her look.

  Athena finally looked up at him. "Kon? What the fuck is going on?"

  8

  Kon's bathroom was big and luxurious with matte black tiles, dark wooden cupboards, and a decorative climbing vine that lived off the vase of water its roots were submerged in. Athena stripped off her dirty boots, wincing in pain when she was finally barefoot. That was the last time she wore heeled boots anywhere.

  "Here, you're going to need this," Kon said, going into the cupboards and producing wrapped sandalwood soap and small bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

  "You going to just stand there like a creeper?" Athena asked, peeling off her sweaty, ruined blazer.

  "I can't let you leave after everything you just saw, so I'll be sticking close until I can convince you to help me," he said.

  "Help you? I almost got my ass shot off because of you," she said, tossing her bloody shirt at him. Kon caught it and dropped it into a hamper.

  "I also saved it," he replied. "It would have been a tragedy to lose it."

  Athena wriggled out of her pants, pretending he wasn't there, staring at her all sexy and glowering. She turned on the hot water and sighed when it came out straight away.

  Pulling out what remained of her hairpins, she unraveled her braid and stuck her head under the spray. Blood and dirt pooled at her feet, and she tried not to think of the centuries of dried shit she had on her from the cistern.

  "I'm sorry."

  Athena turned. Kon was standing at the edge of the shower spray, still fully clothed. He looked like his world had imploded.

  "Excuse me?"

  Kon stared her down. "I'm sorry for involving you in this. For you getting shot at. For getting you on Liddell's radar. For stealing that fucking codex from you three years ago."

  Athena had expected her night to go a lot of ways, but never did she think she would be getting apologies out of Konstantius Zalam. She didn't know what to say, so she tossed him the shampoo bottle.

  "You can prove it by helping me get the blood out of my hair," she said and turned her back to him. She unwrapped the soap and began to lather herself down. A minute later, Kon's long fingers slipped into her hair.

  "Now is your chance to tell me about your wall of crazy in there," Athena said, tilting her head back for him.

  "It's what I know about Liddell," he replied, hands working the shampoo into her filthy locks.

  "But you work for him, don't you know…well, everything?"

  "Not even close." Kon tilted her face towards him. "Before I tell you anything else, I need to ask you something."

  Athena nodded. She had seen him fake, angry, charming, sexy… She had never seen him so quietly intense.

  "Do you believe in magic?" he finally asked.

  Instantly, Athena tasted snow and blood. Heard the screams of the mad and dying. Felt the heat of the flames as buildings burned around her. At the center of it, there was a faceless man made of shadows.

  Athena swallowed hard, forcing the images back. "Yes."

  Kon turned her, cupped her cheek. "You've seen something to convince you?"

  "Yes," she said again, unable to lie.

  "Good. It will make what I tell you easier to believe," Kon said. He moved her back under the spray to rinse the shampoo out. "My parents were practitioners. They could use magic. Liddell killed them when I was a kid, and I still don't know why. I was locked in a cupboard, saw my mother die, and I had to break out of a burning house so I didn't die too. I got these in the process."

  Kon took her hand and ran it over the tattoos on his lower back. Athena knew they covered scars but had never taken the time to really study them. She turned him, ran her fingers over the sad-faced Byzantine saints that had been tattooed over them. They would have been horrific on a child's body. Athena pressed her palm to them.

  "Kon…" Athena struggled to find what to say. He wouldn't a
ccept pity, so she swallowed the lump in her throat and asked, "Why did you cover them?"

  "Liddell. He didn't know I existed, still has no idea. Any evidence of me died in that fire, and I wanted to keep it that way. I got the tattoos so no one would have questions, and with my reputation, no one has ever been game enough to ask me."

  "You've been trying to get to him since you were a kid?" Athena realized what the night's events really meant to him. "And I've fucked it up for you."

  "Yes. He doesn't trust me anymore. He'll have a hit out on us because even though I know fuck all about who he really is or where he lives, I still know too much."

  Athena looked up at him. "I'm kind of surprised you haven't killed me."

  Kon put his hands on the tiles on either side of her, caging her in. Athena's heart rate leaped as his gaze turned molten. "If killing you were so easy, I would've done it years ago."

  "Stop it. I told you no trying to seduce me," she said, poking him in his rock-hard abs. She looked down further and realized it wasn't the only thing hard. "Tell your dick to behave itself too."

  "Around you? Impossible. You're just going to have to tolerate it."

  Athena dragged her attention back to his face. "So you want revenge on Liddell and have worked for the asshole for years. Why haven't you killed him yet?"

  "As I said, I don't know where he is or who he really is. Liddell could very well be a fake name he uses to honor one of the founding members of Golden Dawn." Kon finished washing the soap off his body and turned off the shower. He took a towel and passed it to Athena.

  Athena frowned. "The political party or the occult society?"

  "Occult society. They were established in the late nineteenth century and were primarily interested in magic, metaphysics, and the paranormal," Kon replied, drying himself off and getting out of the shower.

  "I thought they disbanded way back," Athena said.

  "Not exactly." Kon pulled on another pair of pajama pants. "I need something to drink. Did you eat tonight?"

  "Does a bag of nuts from the hotel mini-bar count?" Athena asked. She slipped into the t-shirt and pants Kon had given her.

  "Fuck," Kon growled, making her glance up at his burning eyes.

  "What?" Athena asked, drying her hair roughly.

  "I like you in my clothes."

  Athena threw the wet towel at him. "Focus, Konstantius. I still hate you."

  "You say that like it's ever been an issue between us," Kon replied.

  "Golden Dawn?" she prompted, her lady parts getting way too excited.

  Kon gestured with his head. "Drink first."

  Downstairs, Athena perched on one of the tall barstools by the kitchen counter and watched Kon pull out a bottle of whiskey.

  "I don't have any cobra blood to mix it with. Is that going to be a problem?" he teased.

  "I'll make do," Athena replied. "You know this relaxed Kon is starting to scare me more than the homicidal one."

  "One and the same, güzelim."

  "I suppose you've never stuck around long enough for me to see it," she replied, trying to sound like she didn't care he always left while she was sleeping.

  "It always seemed safer to not be there when you woke up," Kon admitted and slid a glass of whiskey in front of her. "Also, I have nightmares. Bad ones. I find it hard to sleep with anyone because of it."

  Athena lifted her glass. "Me too."

  Kon frowned. "I've never seen you have a nightmare, and I've seen you asleep."

  "Who knows," she said, looking away. She didn't want to think about why that was.

  Kon leaned forward, so his elbows rested on the counter opposite her. "Golden Dawn, or the Aurora Aurea, technically dissolved in 1903. Publicly, they never gained momentum again."

  "But that's bullshit?" Athena guessed.

  "In a manner of speaking, it is true. There are no official members or anything anymore. What remains call themselves the Secret Chiefs or just Aurora. A small cabal of men and women who still practice magic and use it to manipulate the world for their own gain," Kon explained. "Liddell is one of them. One of the Aurora Aurea founding members was named Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, which is why I think it's a title as opposed to his real name."

  Athena huffed out a breath. "Just so I've got this straight, you know he's a member of a very secret powerful group, have no idea who he really is, and your whole plan was what? Wait until he invited you over for tea?"

  "Pretty much. I've been trying to gain his trust to let me in. I didn't just want him. I wanted his whole fucking little club. And now I won't get a chance," Kon replied and drained his glass.

  "I have to ask why you are telling me all this," Athena said after a moment of silence.

  "My years of planning have now gone to shit, and I need another way to find him and end this." Kon gnawed his bottom lip. "I think if anyone could help me now, it's you."

  Athena snorted. "And why would I do that after you continually screwed me over for this asshole?"

  "Because you are on his shit list, which means you’re a dead woman walking and probably anyone you know. Don't you get it? Liddell thinks we have been working together. He suspects you know about him and will start doing damage control. We have a mutual threat. We should put aside our shit and work together. Then once Liddell is dead, we can go back to fighting each other," Kon snapped in frustration.

  Athena hadn't heard past 'damage control.' She got up off the chair. "I need a fucking phone right now."

  "Why?"

  "Because I have people I care about, asshole! Phone!" she demanded.

  Kon rummaged in a cupboard and pulled out a new cheap burner phone from its box. "I hope you know their numbers off by heart."

  "Fuck you." Athena snatched it off and hoped she wasn't too late. She rang Izabella first because she was the most vulnerable one.

  "Silver Lady is in and listening to your request," a robotic voice answered.

  "Iz, take me off your screening. It's Athena!"

  There was a series of dial tones before Izabella said, "What fucking mess have you got yourself into now?"

  "No time to explain. It's a code zero. Pack your shit and get out of your place right now. I think the crew is compromised. Try and get a hold of Dante and then give Julian a heads up. I doubt he'll leave his townhouse unless it becomes dire but he should know someone is gunning for us. I'll try Silas. Call me back when you are out," Athena replied. She hung up without waiting for a reply and dialed her father's number.

  No response. Athena took a deep breath and texted him: Code Zero. Call me on this number. She collapsed on a nearby sofa, her foot bouncing impatiently.

  "I'm ordering some food. You need to eat," Kon said.

  "Don't boss me around."

  Kon was suddenly in front of her, lifting her chin with one finger. "I will if you refuse to look after yourself. You're no use to anyone hungry and unable to think straight."

  Athena was about to break his finger when her phone rang. "Silas?!"

  "Athena, what the fuck is going on?" Silas answered, a club beat thumping in the background.

  "We probably all have hits out on us. I need you to bail on your job and get to a safe house," she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

  "How did this happen? Was it fucking Zalam?" Silas demanded. Kon raised a brow at her, hearing every word.

  "Yes, actually, it is his fault. His ex-employer tried to kill us tonight."

  "Us. Athena Edgeworth, if you tell me you are casually hanging with that motherfucker, I swear I will kill you myself."

  "I was trying to get the staff of Moses! He just happened to turn up," she said, exasperated.

  "You're in Istanbul? For fuck's sake, you know it's his turf. What's the deal with his ex-boss?"

  "It's a long story, but he's a part of something called Aurora and—"

  "Shut up. Stop talking. Don't say another word over the phone," Silas demanded, his voice dropping in a deadly cold whisper. "You got yourself in
to some shit. I'm coming to Istanbul, and I'm telling Izabella and Dante to come as well because we are going to need them. Where are you?"

  "Hiding out. I'll text you the address when you land."

  Silas growled. "Are you safe with the Basty?"

  Athena glanced up at Kon, who was looking irritable. "Yeah, I am. He wants our help."

  "Sure, I'll help him right into his very own body bag. I'll text you flight details when I have them," Silas replied. After a long beat, he said, "Be safe, Cub. I love you."

  "Love you too," Athena said, feeling like she had been kicked in the guts as he hung up. She looked up at Kon and gave him a tired smile. "My dad can't wait to meet you."

  9

  Kon followed Athena's example and sent a heads-up message to Leo and one to Frederica. They all kept their business private, so he didn't have the same worries for their safety that Athena did. Her distress was palpable, and it upset him more than he was willing to show.

  "And you're sure I can't go back to the hotel for my stuff?" Athena asked. "I can't keep wearing your clothes, and I need a passport."

  If Kon had his way, she would never wear anything but his clothes ever again. He was still trying not to look at her for too long because having an erection for hours was painful. Especially when he doubted Athena would be in the mood to put it into her mouth after his two hours were up.

  "Silas can bring you clothes. As for your passport, follow me," Kon said, forcing himself to stop thinking about her mouth. He went to the other side of the warehouse and opened the door to his study. He unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and stepped out of the way. "Take your pick. They are all yours."

  Athena bent down and went through the drawer. "I thought you would have gotten rid of these and burned the aliases."

  "No, just started a collection for fun. I was going to send a box of them to you as a gift one day." Kon's smile slipped when one of the daggers he had bought flashed at the bottom.

  "What is this?" Athena said, pulling it out and standing up. She was holding it as if it was as delicate as a feather, turning it this way and that.

  "It was also going to go in the box. I saw it and thought you might like it. I figured I'd have to offer you something nice one day to stop you from killing me," Kon said, talking way too much.