He itched with a need to take hold of her hand and kiss her like Ares was kissing Megan, but tamped it down. He couldn’t fall for her. Everyone he loved ended up dying.
It was the reason he kept things light, kept things easy and forgettable. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept with someone more than once, and he definitely couldn’t remember ever falling in love.
And life was better that way.
It was better that he left when people got too close to him. It was better if he ditched and ran if things got too serious.
He lowered his gaze to Marinda.
Wasn’t it?
He could still taste their kiss.
Couldn’t deny she had him tied in knots.
And that he wanted to kiss her again.
Ached to take things to the next level.
Even when he feared once would never be enough for him, and if he surrendered to the attraction that burned between them, she would be branded on him forever.
On his heart.
Someone shoved him in the back.
He jerked forwards and glared over his shoulder at Marek.
His brother’s earthy eyes sparkled with amusement. “Zoning out there, Cal. Wonder what you could be thinking about?”
Caterina tucked her wavy caramel hair behind her ear and her hazel eyes glimmered with mischief. “Bet I know what he is thinking about.”
She was a bad influence on Marek. He had been the solid, dependable and serious type before he had fallen in love with her. Now he was cracking jokes.
And it was freaking Cal out.
“Marek brought his girl-fiend with him.” Valen finally stopped kissing Eva and grinned at his brother, his golden eyes flashing as he shifted them to Caterina. “Hope he fed you properly.”
Caterina blushed hard but banked heat filled her eyes.
And every man in the room, including Cal, groaned as a sweet scent filled it. Cal’s head went a little fuzzy, warmth blooming in his veins, and that urge to kiss Marinda grew as Caterina’s succubus side rose to the fore.
“Tamp it down,” Ares grunted, levelling a glare on Caterina and then Marek. “Think she needs a top up. Clearly you failed in your task to satisfy her this time. I can give you some pointers.”
For a moment, Marek looked as if he was going to flip Ares off, but then his scowl eased and he wrapped an arm around Caterina’s shoulders and guided her past Cal, leading her across the golden tatami mats to the corridor beyond the TV area on the right of the long open-plan room.
That was them gone for a few minutes at least, as long as it took for Marek to satisfy Caterina’s unstable succubus nature and stop her from accidentally releasing pheromones designed to drug and lure all men in the vicinity into submission.
Cal avoided meeting Keras’s gaze as he appeared on the porch beside him and stepped back to give him room to pass. He glanced off to his left.
Daimon stood on the path to the house, flanked by two huge stone lanterns, running his gloved hand over the soft spikes of his white hair. His pale blue eyes held conflict that Cal could feel in him as he stared at the doorway.
What had his brother so reluctant to enter?
Daimon had been acting up for the last few weeks. Cal had asked if something was wrong, but he had brushed him off, so Cal had tried Esher instead. The two were close, shared a bond that was strong enough to pull Esher back from the brink whenever his other side tried to seize control.
But even Esher wasn’t sure what was wrong with Daimon.
Something was definitely bothering him though.
He had never been this distant.
Marek had put it down to Megan’s pregnancy and Cal could see why. Daimon had been drawing away from them ever since she had announced it, and Daimon shared Ares’s problem. His power had manifested when they had come to the mortal world, meaning he couldn’t have physical contact with anyone without potentially killing them with his ice.
Was seeing Ares able to touch Megan, to have a life with her, taking its toll on Daimon?
“Hey man.” Cal stepped onto the porch. “Been a while.”
Daimon noticed him and slipped his hands into the pockets of his black jeans, but Cal didn’t miss the frost that glittered on his leather gloves.
“You good?” Cal canted his head.
“As I’ve ever been,” Daimon muttered and walked towards him, kicked his boots off and eased around Cal, careful not to make contact with him.
Cal looked down at the frosty footprints on the path.
Good his arse.
Keras wasn’t the only one in a bad mood today.
Cal stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. Everyone had moved into the sitting area to his right, the two cream couches already full. Ares sat at one end of the couch that faced the enormous flat-screen television, Megan balanced on his lap. Next to him, Esher did the same with Aiko, holding her as she talked to Megan. Marinda had pulled up a footstool near them, nerves showing on her face as she spoke with them, but there was that glimmer of something akin to happiness too.
He figured it out as he looked at the room and thought about how things had been when they had arrived, and recalled what she had said to him in London.
She had always wanted to experience a real-life Friends scenario. His family were crazy, stuff was always happening, and the place was usually buzzing whenever they all came together.
He guessed to her, they were a wacky version of Friends.
The immortal edition.
Daimon slumped into the spot beside Esher, a weary sigh escaping him that pulled a concerned glance from Esher. Esher briefly touched Daimon’s knee and whispered something. Daimon nodded. Forced a smile.
Keras came to stand between the two couches. Thankfully, his brother had taken the time to dress before coming to Tokyo. Marinda had been seeing far too much of his brother’s body for Cal’s liking.
At the end of the second couch nearest him, Valen had Eva tucked close to him and was still kissing her. Caterina scurried out of the corridor beyond the couches, adjusting her dark sweater, and Marek casually followed on her heels, a hazy edge to his dark eyes that made Cal want to shudder. Too much information. He didn’t want to think about his brothers having sex, let alone about them having sex when he was only a few feet away in the same house as them. Caterina sat beside Eva, and Marek eased onto the seat beside her and set about hooking up his laptop to the television.
Cal rounded the couches to Marinda and nudged her so he could sit beside her. Their hips pressed together and he felt her nerves, saw it in her eyes as she glanced at him. This wasn’t going to be easy for her.
It wasn’t going to be easy for him either.
Not now that he knew the wraith had killed his sister.
He shut everyone out as he slipped his hand into hers and held it, focusing on her and only her. He didn’t need to see the looks his brothers would be exchanging. He was just offering her comfort, and stealing a little for himself as well.
The television flickered with an image. Marek muttered a curse, did something and the static cleared to reveal a garden.
Marinda’s hand tensed in his.
Cal squeezed it gently. “We’ll get them. I swear.”
She nodded, but it was stiff as she stared at the TV.
Sure enough, just as she had said, a car pulled up and two men got out. The quality of the image dipped, turning pixelated, but when it cleared up again, there was no mistaking one of the men.
“Well, there’s our answer,” Ares said. “It’s definitely the wraith.”
Cal’s blood burned as he stared at the wraith. It was him. Eli. The bastard who had been within his reach more than once and Cal hadn’t known how close he had been to Calindria’s killer. His pulse picked up pace as he glared at the screen, the darkness within him seething with a need to track him down and kill him.
Marinda was right.
Eli needed to pay for his sins.
And Cal was goi
ng to be the one to do it.
“The one in the long black coat. He never leaves. He can teleport like you?” She looked at him.
Cal shook his head.
“Eli can create portals,” Keras said for him. “We think there might be a limit to how many times he can do it, but we don’t know. He’s a dangerous daemon.”
“A daemon,” she whispered. “Like those ones I killed. Like the ones who were after me last night in Paris?”
“Sent by him.” Cal couldn’t take his eyes off the wretch. He had taken Calindria from him and now he wanted to take Marinda from him too. Well, it wasn’t going to happen.
Eli was as good as dead.
The next time Cal saw him, he was going to kill him.
He pulled back on the reins of his temper. He couldn’t let it control him. As much as he wanted Eli dead, he needed to know where he had put Calindria’s soul. Then, and only then, could he make Eli pay for what he had done.
“Wait,” Megan snapped and pushed forwards, onto Ares’s knees. “Go back.”
Marinda’s hand tensed so hard against Cal’s that his bones ached. He looked at her, watched the violet blooming in her eyes as they narrowed on the television, and swore he could feel the rage building inside her.
The same black need for revenge that was building inside him.
“No. More!” Megan pushed to her feet.
Ares grabbed her arm and shoved to the edge of the couch. “Calm down, sweetheart.”
“There.” Megan pointed at the screen and turned to look down at Ares. “I know him. I’ve seen him before. The gate. New York. The first time I saw it. He was there.”
A chill skated over Cal’s arms as he looked at her and the air in the room grew thick, heavy with silence that pressed down on him.
“You’re sure?” Keras said.
Megan nodded, her eyes never leaving Ares. “I’m sure. I remember everything about that night. The gate was so beautiful… amazing. When it opened, the one who stepped out… It was him. He had golden eyes and I remember thinking they were incredible.”
Ares growled.
She cuffed him around the head. “Not incredible like that. I just hadn’t seen anything like them.”
“So we’ve been letting this fuck in and out of the Underworld for the last six months?” Valen bit out.
“Try the last gods know how many years,” Daimon offered. “And who knows how many others are working with him. He might not be the only Hellspawn involved.”
“All this time, right under our noses.” Ares’s voice scraped low, a snarl to it as he scowled at the TV. “He’s probably been meeting with the daemons on this side of the gates, feeding them intelligence… or recruiting powerful people in the Underworld.”
“But at least we have a face to go on now.” Keras was the only one who didn’t sound ready to rip this guy apart. “And we know he’s in this world and stuck here thanks to Father closing the gates to all necromancer traffic. Assuming he is the necromancer. Father will be pleased to know he isn’t in the Underworld if it turns out he is one. We just need to find a way to confirm it. Any suggestions?”
“Other than hunting him down and butchering the fucker?” Valen snapped.
Keras gave him a look that said that wasn’t a helpful suggestion.
Cal looked at the screen, wanting to see his face too.
Froze.
Darkness hit him like a tidal wave and he erupted from the seat, tore the laptop from Marek’s hands and roared as he ripped it apart and hurled the pieces across the room.
He staggered around Marek as his brother stared at him in horror.
Collapsed to his knees on the other side of the couch as the pain blazing across his skull became too much.
The abyss beckoned.
Cal fought it, refusing to succumb to it. He stoked the rage, the raw fury that demanded vengeance, that screamed at him to unleash every drop of what he was feeling on the owner of those golden eyes.
“Cal.” Marinda was by his side in an instant.
Her knees hit the straw tatami mats beside his and her hand came down on his back as he curled forwards, fighting the abyss that wanted to devour him.
Something about her touch allowed him to hold on. It was as if she was drawing all of the pain out of him, but pouring it back into him too. It hit him in agonising waves, each weaker than the last as he breathed, as her voice swam in his ears, easing him.
“What’s wrong?” she murmured, genuine concern in her soft voice, spreading warmth through him that kept the cold at bay.
“The man.” His voice was hoarse, each word a pain to push out through his tight throat as those golden eyes mocked him, stared at him with contempt. He clutched his head and gritted his teeth, holding himself together, fearing that if he relented for even a moment that the darkness would claim him and he would forget everything.
Marinda gently rubbed his back in soothing circles, coaxing him away from the dark, back towards her light.
“You know him too?”
He wanted to sob, wanted to break down and thank her for sparing him from having to say that. He cursed how weak he felt, how easily he had been torn down and reduced to nothing. If he couldn’t look at a video of the bastard without being pushed to the verge of passing out, his strength stripped from him by pain and misery, how was he meant to face him?
Kill him?
“Seen him before,” he gritted, aware of the eyes on him, of his brothers surrounding him now as he sat in a foetal position, barely holding himself together, looking like the weak link he really was.
“Where?” Keras said, a demand in his voice that had Cal lifting his head, because he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
The bleak look that filled all of his brothers’ eyes said he didn’t need to say it for them to know.
“What do you remember?” Valen crouched in front of him, a hard look in his golden eyes.
Golden eyes that looked too much like that bastard’s had.
Cal shook his head. He wasn’t strong enough to delve, not right now. If he tried, he would end up losing consciousness. It would be too much for him.
“Give him room,” Marinda snapped, and whatever look his brothers saw in her eyes, it was deadly enough to have them all backing off a step. Her hand continued to stroke his spine, drawing the pain out of him, pouring strength into him.
How did she do that?
He wanted to know.
Because her touch was like black magic.
He closed his eyes, sighed as he finally felt on stable ground again.
When he opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at his brothers, Marek held a hand out to him. Cal took it and let his brother pull him onto his feet, and was grateful when Marinda remained close to him, slipped his arm around her shoulders to support him.
“You owe me a new laptop.” Marek’s light and teasing words were at odds with the worry in his dark eyes.
“I’m fine.” Cal cast all of his brothers a black look. “Quit looking at me like I’m gonna break or fall apart or something.”
“Gave us a scare, kid.” Valen rubbed his hand over Cal’s hair, wrecking it, but Cal didn’t call him on it or the fact he was treating him like he was a child again, because his brother was worried about him.
They all were.
“But, hey… little shit held it together this time. That’s progress, right?” Valen cast a look at everyone.
Daimon and Esher shrugged, but Ares, Marek and Keras nodded.
Cal was under no illusion that he would have held it together if Marinda hadn’t been beside him, working her magic on him, stealing his pain away. Whatever she was, she was powerful.
And the man who had tortured him and killed his sister wanted her.
To use her against him and his brothers?
Was that what her father had foreseen?
“I think we have our answer. This man is the necromancer we have been seeking. I will send word to Father. Keep Marinda in Londo
n,” Keras said, drawing his focus to him. “I will take care of Paris again.”
Keras stepped.
Even though the meeting wasn’t over.
“What’s with him recently?” Daimon muttered.
Cal wanted to know the same thing, but there was another more pressing thing he needed to know.
He turned to Ares.
“Keras is taking pills.”
Chapter 17
Ares didn’t look at all surprised when Cal told him about the pills, which seemed to set Cal on edge. Because he believed this was something else everyone had been keeping from him?
He relaxed when the one Marinda had learned was called Valen spoke.
“Pills?” Valen scuffed a hand over his bright violet hair, tousling the longer lengths before he scrubbed the choppy short sides. “What kind of pills?”
“I don’t know. I found them and he was fit to fly into one hell of a rage when he found me with them.” Cal looked from Valen to his other brothers as they gathered closer, exchanging worried glances.
“They help him contain his power.” Ares’s voice held a note of authority that had everyone looking at him, but none of them relaxed. “That’s all.”
His dark eyes gained flecks of fiery red as he stared at each of his brothers in turn, clearly not happy that they all still looked as if they wanted answers.
“Who doesn’t remember how close Keras had been to destroying this world when we first arrived here?” Ares looked at them each in turn again.
A few of them grumbled things under their breath about mass destruction, pandemonium and something about potential death tolls.
“But we were given limiters.” Cal flashed the two braided black bands that encircled his wrists.
Limiters? What did that mean?
“They weren’t enough to dial back Keras’s power.” Ares gave her the explanation she needed without her having to ask, his grim expression as he looked at the bands around his wrist telling her exactly what he thought about them.
In fact, none of the brothers looked as if they liked having their powers restrained.
“It was rough on him.” Ares mussed his tawny hair, a flare of sympathy in his eyes now. “He had a hard time of it, but he tried to deal with it. In the end, I convinced him to speak with Dad. I was glad when Keras was summoned back to the Underworld, and when he returned better… able to control his power.”
Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5 Page 17
