Cass didn’t give her a chance. “Safe? With you? Out of all your brothers, you’re the one most likely to get her killed. All you want is to do wicked things to her. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been looking at her.”
She certainly noticed the way he looked at her when he glared at her, daring her to continue. He had been alive long enough to know when someone was setting him up for a fall, and they were enjoying being the one to tear him down.
“She isn’t a conquest like your little friends at the clubs and bars, something to scratch an itch with and then discard like yesterday’s newspaper.” Cass gathered Marinda closer to her. “You’re just a horny, weak-willed, no-good god with a bad death wish.”
“Yeah, well,” he spat, and then lost momentum. He wasn’t sure how to come back from that one.
Not when Marinda looked aghast.
He shoved to his feet and wanted to storm off, but settled for limping a short distance down the quiet road. He glanced back at Marinda. He couldn’t leave her. She kept staring at him, and he wanted to explain things, wanted to tell her that some of what her guardian was saying was true, and some of it was no longer the way he operated.
The moment she had walked into his life, he’d had eyes for only her.
She was all he thought about, filled his head in every waking moment and sleeping one, and it wasn’t lust driving him. He could see that now.
He was falling for her.
And for a moment, he had been sure she had been falling for him too.
She shifted her gaze to Cass, the stunned edge her blue eyes had gained when Cass had aired her laundry list of complaints about him growing as they settled on her.
“You don’t look a day older than you did a decade ago.” Marinda’s voice cut at him, soft and sweet.
It shredded his soul and his mood soured further when he sensed the distance between them, a crevasse caused by her guardian, one the woman would no doubt want to widen with more barbs.
Well, two could play at that game.
“Because she isn’t human, Marinda.” He felt like a dick as those words spilled from him and Marinda looked at him, shock rippling across her face. “Your father isn’t the only one who kept things from you.”
That was a low blow, and made him feel petty, but it had the desired effect.
Marinda pushed back from Cass. “Is he telling the truth?”
“Well, she made those daemons blow up.” He pointed to the mess and then waved a hand down himself, bringing her focus to the black blood that covered him. “I’m guessing that makes her something other than human.”
Cass looked as if she was chewing a wasp, and then regally said, “This is not the place to discuss this, Mari. We should move. I have accommodation here in London.”
“No.” Cal limped towards Marinda, his heart picking up pace, blood thundering in his ears as he thought about losing sight of Marinda. If he let this woman take her, he would never see her again.
And that terrified him.
“Marinda… we have to speak to my brothers. Remember? It’s important. We have to go to Tokyo.” He held his hand out to her.
She looked torn, her brow furrowing as she stared at it and then her guardian.
Cass snapped, “London, Paris, and then London again. I am sick and tired of having to flit back and forth. We are remaining here, Mari. I can protect you.”
Marinda sat in silence, her troubled expression drawing Cal to her as the need to comfort her, to check her over and make sure she was all right, grew stronger.
When her bleak blue eyes drifted back to him, he forced himself to relax and ease off the gas with her. Pushing her never ended well.
“Whatever you want, Marinda. It’s your choice.” He took a step back and pain danced in her eyes. “But I’m going to Tokyo. I have to tell my brothers what Thanatos told us.”
“You took her to the Underworld?” Cass shot to her feet and pivoted to face him, flecks of silver and lilac emerging in her eyes. “See. This is exactly what I mean. I’m sorry, Mari. Your father might have foreseen this god protecting you, but nothing I have seen tells me he is capable of that.”
“I’ve taken good care of her so far. Where were you when daemons attacked her in Paris?” he barked.
“In London, where she was meant to be! Someone stopped her from coming here. So then I had to find a route to Paris, and I get there and I can’t find her anywhere. Ring any bells? That’s right. Someone had taken her to London!” Cass’s Russian accent grew thicker and thicker as the sparks in her eyes grew brighter and brighter. “She stays here. Where Eric saw her.”
“She’s an adult. She can make her own choices. Besides, it’s her birthday today. Whatever her dad saw happening in London involving me, it probably already happened.” Cal wanted to grin when the look in her eyes revealed she hadn’t realised that it was Marinda’s birthday. He pushed the advantage. “London isn’t safe for her. She’s meant to trust me. I’m getting her out of here. In case you’ve already forgotten, daemons have put wards on my home. They’re setting traps for us. They can counter my wards.”
He flung his hand out and regretted it when air blasted a hole in the side of his townhouse.
He dialled back his temper, which took far too much effort. His side hurt and his leg burned, and it felt as if the daemons had broken every damned bone in his body. He wasn’t in the mood for standing in the open, waiting for another group of daemons to attack, having a shouting match that was starting to draw the attention of his neighbours.
When he pressed a hand to his side and tried to hide a grimace, worry washed over Marinda’s delicate features.
She hurried to him and pressed a hand to his chest to support him. “Are you all right?”
He swallowed hard and shut down the pain. He had already made a bad enough impression on Cass. Collapsing wasn’t going to do him any favours.
Not that he felt as if anything he did could change her dire opinion of him.
“Mari—” Cass started.
“Tokyo,” Marinda blurted, cutting her off. “I’m going to Tokyo with Cal. He’s right. We need to work together on this, and it’s safe for me in Tokyo.”
Cass looked as if she wanted to protest. Her stiff shoulders and rigid spine didn’t relax even an inch as she muttered, “Very well.”
She closed the gap between them and eyed him.
“If you lack the energy, I could find an appropriate spell to transport us.”
Spell. She was a witch then.
“Not a chance.” He stared her down. “I get the feeling that if I let you deal with the travel arrangements, I’ll be waking up somewhere in Antarctica.”
Her cold smile said he wasn’t wrong.
He took hold of Marinda’s hand and led her to beyond the edge of the wards. Relief flooded him as his powers came back online, his control over the air no longer limited, and his ability to teleport together with the power of his favour mark sparking back to life.
He held his hand out to Cass.
She curled a lip at it.
Huffed and placed hers into it.
“You even think about it, and I’ll have your balls as a necklace by the morning.” She smiled sweetly.
Cal shuddered and changed his mind about taking a brief detour via Antarctica.
He focused and willed the teleport.
Destination: Tokyo.
His brothers weren’t going to know what had hit them.
Chapter 23
The second they touched down outside of the white walls of the Tokyo mansion, Cass broke free of him and wiped her hand on her black dress, a disgusted look on her face. It was her fault he was covered in daemon blood. It only seemed fair she got a little dirty too.
She turned pale blue eyes on the broad wooden gate that filled the space beneath the elegant sweeping grey ribbed roof of the entrance to the mansion grounds.
“Complex. Interesting. Powerful.” Her gaze shifted away from the white wall t
hat stretched in both directions along the road, landing back on him. “I’m guessing you didn’t make these wards?”
“Cassandra,” Marinda snapped and the warning in her tone was apparently all it took for the witch to be on her best behaviour.
Or it might have had something to do with Daimon and Esher where they had just appeared behind him.
“Sorceress,” Esher snarled, voice as black as midnight. Apparently, Esher didn’t have a problem recognising Cassandra’s breed. He bared short fangs at her. “Leave this place.”
Marinda moved in front of her. “She’s with me.”
“Not an excuse.” Esher stepped towards Marinda and loomed over her. “Not good enough.”
“Dial it back, Esher.” Cal went to touch him and his black-haired brother bared fangs at him instead.
“Charming. Are you equally as delightful?” Cass looked beyond both of them.
To Daimon.
“Lady, you have no idea.” Daimon glared at her.
Or it might have been more of a stare.
Maybe it was shock.
After all, Cass’s cheeks had just pinkened.
“Daimon, I think you’re her Kryptonite or some shit man. Keep it up.” Cal grinned at him and waggled his eyebrows.
Daimon huffed, looked at Esher, and muttered, “Deal with her.”
With that, Daimon stepped.
Damn him.
Cal had hoped his brother could use the effect he had on her to smooth things over and make her less irritable and snarky towards him.
Esher stalked towards the witch.
“Come now, beast… we really have no need to quarrel.” The sweet smile she levelled on Esher did nothing to appease his brother, but he stopped dead when she added, “We are going to be working together after all.”
“Working together?” Cal said at the same time as Esher.
“Oh yes.” Cass preened her black nails, and flicked him a look that could kill. “And none of you get a say about it either.”
Esher growled in a way that said he was going to get a say whether she liked it or not.
The gate behind her swung open, revealing Daimon.
“In. Now,” he grunted. “She’s allowed in. His royal highness decreed it.”
Daimon didn’t look pleased that Keras had given her the greenlight.
“Before the neighbours start talking.” Daimon flicked a glance at the cube-shaped houses that lined the road that encircled the mansion walls.
Cass took hold of Marinda’s hand and led her into the grounds of the mansion, following Daimon as he stomped away from the gate.
Esher huffed and muttered black things, illustrating all the ways the witch would pay if she dared to step out of line.
Cal was right there with him. He wanted to give Cass a piece of his mind, but he couldn’t. Marinda wouldn’t be happy if he started a fight with her guardian. The two of them were obviously close.
He had a dreadful sinking feeling that Cass was going to do everything in her power to ensure that Cal was never close to Marinda again.
She proved his point as she finished removing her black stilettos and caught Marinda looking at him. She seized Marinda’s hand again, pulling her into the ancient single-storey mansion.
Marinda wasn’t a kid. She was an adult and she got to pick who she liked and didn’t like, and what she did or didn’t do. He had been treated in the same way Cass was treating Marinda, had spent centuries coddled by his brothers, long enough to spot the signs in Marinda.
If Cass kept on smothering her, Marinda was going to snap and lash out at the witch.
Cal kicked off his boots, shoved them with his foot towards the rack, and walked inside.
Cass took one look at him and said, “If you don’t mind, I wish to catch up with my ward… alone.”
That distance that had appeared between him and Marinda yawned wider, a cold chasm that chilled him to the bone as she meekly allowed Cass to pull her towards the dining side of the long room.
When it looked as if the two of them might venture deeper into the house, Esher stepped and appeared before Cass.
He planted a hand to her chest and growled, “No further. You stay where I can see you. I don’t trust you.”
“None of us do,” Ares growled. “We’ll get to you in a minute, so sit your arse down like a good little witch and be on your best behaviour.”
She tipped her chin up and huffed as she gestured to the low wooden dining table that was long enough to seat at least a dozen. “I was only going to sit here.”
Cal doubted that. The looks all his brothers gave her said they doubted it too.
She wanted Marinda as far away from him as she could get her.
He waited for Marinda to look at him as Cass guided her down onto one of the cushions.
She didn’t.
That impassable chasm yawned wider still.
The feel of Keras’s eyes on him had him shifting his focus to his oldest brother.
“We will speak with our new guest shortly.” Keras didn’t look at Cass as her pale blue eyes fixed on him, a mulish tilt to her lips as he added, “And we shall be speaking with her. She likes declaring people don’t get a say in something? Well, she doesn’t get a say in that. I make the rules here. Not her.”
It was weird seeing his brother like this, but then Cal supposed no one had been foolish enough to challenge Keras’s authority before.
Apparently, no one still had the balls to challenge Keras.
“Very well. We shall speak, as you wish.” Cass regally tilted her chin up, but for the first time, there was a glimmer of something in her eyes that looked a lot like nerves. “You really have nothing to worry about where I’m concerned.”
She smiled sweetly.
Cal glanced at Marinda. He had plenty to worry about where the witch was concerned. If she had her way, Marinda would hate him by the end of the day.
“Oh dear God.” Megan’s voice rang out in the room and his gaze leaped to her as she appeared from the corridor beyond Cass and Marinda, her hand resting on her stomach and her chocolate eyes wide as they locked on him. “Look at the state of you. Did something run you over? Never mind. Let me take a look at you.”
Ares moved to intercept her. “You were meant to be resting.”
She huffed and waved him away. “Remember what I said about being overbearing?”
His brother didn’t relent. “Cal can heal just fine without your help. It looks worse than it is, right?”
Ares tossed him a look as Megan bustled past him, on a direct course for Cal, one that he could easily decipher but one which also held a lot of concern, and not just for Megan’s wellbeing.
His brother was worried about the state of him too, but didn’t want Megan overdoing things.
Cal shrugged. “Sure. Just a few scrapes and bruises.”
Megan reached him and slapped him lightly on the arm, a scowl darkening her eyes. “Don’t go along with him just because he’s being a growly bear. I can still heal.”
“The babe—” Esher snapped his mouth shut when she turned a black look on him, daring him to say another word.
“Honestly,” she huffed. “All of you drive me mad.”
She threw her hands up in the air.
“Fine. Tell me you don’t want me healing you and I won’t, but I’m filing an official complaint to the Underworld about the way you’re all behaving.”
Marek and Daimon both chuckled softly. Esher huffed.
Ares grinned. “Dad won’t come down on us about this, sweetheart. He’ll be on our side. Keeping you and the baby well takes priority.”
She turned a slow smile on Ares. “Who said I was going to tell your father?”
Beneath her feet, meadow flowers bloomed from the golden tatami mats.
“Hey now, you can’t go calling in that sort of backup. That’s not fair,” Ares grumbled and scuffed his foot through the twisting brambles that sprouted around him. “We only have Dad on our side. He�
�s no match for Mum.”
Ares was right about that. As much as Persephone wouldn’t want Megan endangering herself or the baby by healing Cal or his brothers, she would be furious if any of them denied Megan’s help and ended up dead because of it. Persephone apparently trusted that her daughter-in-law knew her limits.
That didn’t mean Cal was going to let her get her way though.
“Honestly, Megan, I’m cool. I’m healing. Nothing a hot shower and a nap won’t fix.” Cal smiled when she glowered at him. He focused on his body, shutting down his pain and willing himself to heal faster so she would no longer have a reason to press him to accept her help.
She looked as if she wanted to say something and then stomped past him with Ares hot on her heels, mumbling sweet things that did nothing to brighten her mood.
“What happened to you?” Keras snagged his attention, pulling it away from Marinda as she began talking with Cass.
He kept one ear on their conversation as best he could, catching mentions of Eric, Marinda’s father, and stuff about spells and witchcraft, and Carriers. Cass was doing her best to show Marinda that she knew all about the Underworld, about what she was and about other things. A blatant attempt to make Marinda feel she didn’t need him as a source of information if she had any questions about their world or her powers.
Which really grinded his gears.
He adjusted his grip on his side as the wound there stung and his leg ached, souring his mood further. What he really wanted was to get clean, go to his room and sleep until he was healed, but if he took one step out of this room, Cass would use it to her advantage. The witch would probably make out he was already abandoning Marinda, failing in his duty to take care of her.
So rather than sleeping to regain his strength, he focused on telling his brothers everything that happened in order to keep his mind off his injuries as they slowly healed.
“We were ambushed in London after I used a portal to bring us back from the Underworld.” Before Keras could chew him out about the fact he had abused the power Hermes had bestowed upon him with his favour mark, Cal continued, “I went to speak with Thanatos about necromancers. I can’t just sit around on my hands, waiting for something to happen, Keras. It’s killing me knowing the bastard who murdered my sister… who is holding her soul… is out there and we’re doing nothing about it.”
Calistos: Guardians of Hades Series Book 5 Page 23
