by Anna Argent
She still had a hold of his hand, her grip tight enough to hurt. Her voice was panicked. “What did she say after I left?”
“Not much,” he lied, saving Eden the details.
“Are you okay?”
Stygian nodded. He was still shaken from his visit with the bitch in his head, but he’d get over it. “You?”
“I really hate her. I don’t like being pushed around like that. At least we know why she wants Echo now—why they all do. They want Echo as a baby mama.”
“It’s not going to happen,” Stygian said.
“I’ve seen the way you touched Echo, the way you look at her. You should probably stock up on condoms, just in case.”
Stygian gave her a hard stare. “This is the very last time you will mention my sex life. Is that clear?”
Eden sighed. “So uptight. You know what would fix that, right?”
“Eden,” he said in a warning tone.
She held up her dark hands. “Fine. I give. I’ll leave you alone. I’m supposed to be studying, anyway. If Argo knows I’m slacking, he’ll change my Netflix password.” She hopped up from the couch. “You should go, but before you do there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Did you notice that some of your shards were missing?”
“There seemed to be fewer, but I thought that was impossible.”
“They’re not missing as in gone, but missing as in not present. They weren’t in the arena.”
“Then where were they?”
Eden shook her head. “I don’t know. But it worries me. The only ones missing were the good guys. Maybe Hazel has found a way to subdue them, or cage them.”
“How do I fix it?”
“I don’t know if you can, but you should be on your guard. If she’s somehow diminishing the light shards in you, then she may have more influence over you than you think. Your balance of light and dark is already pretty precarious as it is. We don’t want anything tipping the scales.”
He nodded. “I’ll be careful.”
“Come back and check in with me soon, okay? We need to keep an eye on this.”
“I will.”
He was shaking as he left.
Had Hazel caged some of his light shards without him even realizing? Was she gaining power over him without him being aware of the shift?
Was he becoming dangerous?
His feet brought him to the main hall before he’d even considered the pros and cons of being close to Echo right now. She was still inside the glass confines of the computer room, safely out of reach.
He stared at her for a moment, wondering if she had any idea what the sliver of Hazel she possessed wanted from her.
A child—one who would be unlucky enough to be host to an evil bitch like Hazel. One day, after his parents were dead and no longer able to guide and help him.
Not only no, but hell no. Stygian couldn’t let it happen. He had to get Echo out of his life for good, because if she stayed in it much longer, he might be tempted to give in and sleep with her.
That could never happen.
The innocent baby he’d held in his arms might have been a figment of Hazel’s imagination, but he’d still made Stygian feel something profound.
He understood now why, all those years ago, a stranger had begged him to kill her to protect her children, why she’d been willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the mere chance of protecting her babies.
He couldn’t remember that night without shaking, so he shoved it down deeper, next to the memories of his grandfather, of being raised by a man who despised him for a sin someone else had committed. He pushed and folded and contorted those memories until they were small enough he could cover them up with the here and now.
The primary role of a parent was to protect his child, and for Stygian, that meant never letting him be conceived.
He would not give Hazel a baby—his baby—as a plaything.
Chapter Nine
Echo had no trouble locating the area her Mom had depicted in the map. She could not, however, seem to draw any of the details so that someone else could understand them. And without those details, without being able to figure out what all the little symbols meant, there was no way anyone was going to find whatever treasure this map led to.
“Nope,” Marvel said, shaking her head. “Still a bunch of squiggly lines.”
“I swear I’m drawing them straight.”
“Not even close.”
Echo sighed in frustration and pulled a clean sheet of paper from the printer to try again. This time she found a hardback book to use as a straight edge.
A buzzer sounded, and a second later, the pressure in the room changed as someone came in. Before Echo lifted her head, she knew it was Stygian. She could feel his presence and smell the intoxicating scent of his skin, above that of disinfectant and electronics running hot.
He’d kissed her in the hallway. She’d kissed him back. She’d been ready to do more than kiss. If not for Eden’s interruption, she was sure she would have known what it was like to be taken against a wall by a man who made her body sing.
Even thinking about him made her insides tremble with need.
In this bright light he was even more handsome than she remembered. Bigger, somehow. His broad shoulders seemed to fill the room. His hands were shoved deep in his pockets, but she could still remember the way they’d felt gliding over her body, cupping her ass and making her soar as he lifted her onto his hips.
Even now, with plenty of space between them, she could still feel the raging heat of his skin and the way it made her shiver.
His thick lashes shadowed his indigo eyes, but even so, she could see something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked. “What did Eden say?”
His gaze met hers and the intensity of it drove the air from her lungs. There was something new there that hadn’t been there before. An added heat. A worry.
A secret.
“Nothing important,” he said, though his eyes called him a liar. “How goes the map project?”
Marvel handed him the first two maps Echo had sketched. “This is how it goes.”
Stygian winced. “Not much of an artist, are we?”
“I’m trying. For some reason everything I draw turns into garbage. It’s like the map doesn’t want to be translated for others to read.”
“Have you at least figured out the general vicinity?”
“Sure. That part was easy. I thought it might be Tennessee, but it’s just outside of Bricktown in Oklahoma City. We lived there for most of a year. It’s where we found Hedy.”
Poor, wild Hedy. She’d had too much passion and energy for her life to have been cut so short.
“Who’s Hedy,” Marvel asked.
“She was a girl a little younger than me who was living alone on the streets. Mom realized right away that she was infected, so she took her in and raised her as one of us.”
Marvel’s face blanched. “Infected?”
“That’s what mom called having shards. She said it was like an infection that couldn’t be cured.”
“It fits,” Stygian muttered.
“Where is Hedy now?” Marvel asked.
Echo swallowed twice to clear the lump in her throat that formed every time she thought about her family. “She died with my mom and sister.”
“I’m sorry.”
Stygian put his hand on her shoulder in a show of comfort. His warm strength felt so good.
Too good.
If Echo wasn’t careful, she could get used to leaning on a man like him for support. And in her world, that was a mistake. She couldn’t make ties with anyone. She had to keep moving.
Besides, if she was going to make friends, it would be with someone who wasn’t infected with shards. At least they would have an average chance of survival—just car crashes and cancer to worry about, no magical shard bullshit or rat men trailing their every move.
There was no sense in fooling herself. S
he wasn’t going to make friends with anyone. The risk was too high. She couldn’t go through loving and losing another family—blood or not. She was on her own and was going to stay that way until she or the rat man finally won.
Marvel handed her a shiny new cell phone. “Here you go. All programmed with the phone numbers of everyone at Asgard. I put photos by them to help you remember who’s who.”
Echo took the phone and stared at it. Marvel’s face was there, along with Garrick, Argo, Eden and Stygian. There were several others she hadn’t yet met, and every one of them was a tie binding her to this place.
“I can’t accept this,” Echo said, handing the phone back to Marvel like it was a venomous spider.
“It’s just a phone. Not even an expensive one. It’s no big deal to add a line to our corporate plan, and with that, we’ll be able to help you if you need us.”
She went through a roller coaster ride of emotion in the space of a few seconds—a steady climb of fear, a swooping circle of gratitude and harsh plummet of grief. While she was touched by Marvel’s generosity, she didn’t want to like these people. She didn’t want to depend on them. She didn’t want to lose them one by one as the Vires killed them for their shards.
And she sure as hell didn’t want to fall for one of them, no matter how good his kiss was, or how wet he made her panties. Sex—even fantastic sex—was not worth what she’d have to go through if she was forced to watch a lover die.
“Marvel, would you give us a second?” Stygian asked.
“Okay, fine. But you’re not allowed to sneeze in here. If you need to, take it outside, got it?”
Stygian nodded. Marvel slipped out through the airlock with a hissing change of air pressure marking her passing.
He took the phone from Echo’s extended hand and set it down on the desk. “You’re still grieving for your family and don’t want to do it again. I get that.”
“You can’t know what I’m feeling,” Echo said.
“I do. We all do. We’ve all lost people we loved. We’ve all been to that place where it feels a lot safer to simply decide never to love again, never get close to anyone. But I’m telling you that you can’t survive like that.”
“You don’t know me well enough to guess what I can and can’t survive.”
He took her hands in his and pulled her to her feet. “There’s no shame in accepting help from people who know what it’s like to be in your shoes.”
The warmth of his body wrapped around her, warding off the artificial chill of the room. It felt so good, she could almost pretend that everything was okay, that these people actually cared if she lived or died.
“It’s only a phone,” he said. “Just in case of an emergency. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.”
Was he right, or was this just the first step down a path she couldn’t bear to follow? What if she came to care for these people and then had to lose them all?
She couldn’t stand it. Not after Mom, Melody and Hedy.
But the rat man was still out there. Echo didn’t know why he wanted her back, but he did. He hadn’t stopped looking for her in eight years, chances were he wouldn’t stop now, either. If she got in a bind, she could call for help.
Maybe see Stygian again.
That was the thought that made up her mind. Better to leave him as a hot guy she met once than to let him become more.
And it would be so easy for him to mean more to her. They’d only known each other for a few hours, but that’s not how it seemed. They were connected by shards, but it felt more like fate. Destiny.
That was exactly the kind of thing she was trying to avoid. Destiny was not now, nor had it ever been, her friend. It was that popular, mean girl on the playground who wanted to make her think they were friends so she could get close enough pull Echo’s pants down while she hung from the monkey bars. Everyone would laugh and point at the stupid girl who actually believed destiny was on her side.
She didn’t bother to argue about the phone. She’d simply leave it behind when she took off. “I’m going to finish this map, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
He let go of her hands and took a step back. There was sadness in his eyes, but he gave her a resigned nod. “I understand. I’ll go make you some food while you finish. At least you can leave with a hot meal in your stomach.”
***
Hedy Milo was tortured and killed every day for five years, only to wake up alive again each morning to be tortured all over again. Until one day, an avenging angel with flaming hair saved her, and ever since then, every day when she woke, the first thing she thought about was the perfect face of vengeance.
Phoenix LaRoux was the most stunningly beautiful woman Hedy had ever seen, with fiery hair flowing down her back and bright amber eyes. The strands went from a vibrant blue at the ends, to yellow, to orange, giving the impression of flames whipping around her head as she moved. She was tall, with the strong, broad build of an Amazon warrior queen. Everyone who saw her wanted her or wanted to be like her.
Hedy was lucky to have been claimed as a student by such a powerful woman as Phoenix. Not only had she saved Hedy’s life and nursed her back to health, she’d also spent the last year teaching her how to use her power, rather than shoving it into a tight box the way she’d always been taught to do by her adoptive mother.
Now, years after waking up in the embrace of her new family, Hedy was stronger than she’d ever been. Her powers were under her control, even if the voices in her head weren’t. She took the drugs she was given to quiet them, allowing her to focus on what mattered most—pleasing Phoenix.
Hedy stared into the still water in the ancient silver bowl. The mirror-like surface played out the scene as clearly as any HDTV screen.
As she watched Echo tell the enemy about the death of her family, a hot ache of betrayal swelled in her chest.
Phoenix stroked Hedy’s straight brown hair in a soothing, maternal fashion. “Echo didn’t even bother to look for you. She simply assumed you were dead. You were her sister and she didn’t try to find you.”
Hedy thumped the side of the bowl so she wouldn’t have to witness more of Echo’s betrayal. Ripples spread out over the surface and broke the connection to the woman who had once pretended to be her sister. “She was always jealous of what Mom and I shared. I think she was glad to be rid of me. In fact, she might have even been responsible for getting Mom killed.”
Phoenix crooned in sympathy. “Poor, sweet girl. You still can’t remember that night?”
Hedy had searched her memory every day since she’d woken, and all she saw was a black chasm of nothingness staring back at her. “Sorry. I keep trying.”
“I want to find and punish the person responsible for hurting you.”
“And my family.”
“Of course. But you are my primary concern, as you always have been.”
Hedy backed away from the intricately carved altar. It sat in the center of a round room that served as a place of quiet meditation. The floor was inlaid with a detailed map of the constellations made from tiny chips of precious stones in a rainbow of colors. The night sky was a swirling array of onyx, obsidian and a matte black stone that Hedy didn’t recognize.
While not Phoenix’s private place of worship, where no one, including Hedy had ever been allowed, this room served as the center of the mansion where they lived, along with at least a dozen other Vires. Every room was just as lavish, with tons of dark, hand carved wood, twisting passages lined with marble and stone, and glints of gold and crystal sparkling under heavy chandeliers.
Phoenix stood in the center of the altar room, on top of an amber and citrine sun. She glowed with her own inner light that put the gemstones to shame. Her voice was a soft mix of concern and curiosity. “How are the voices today?”
“Quiet. Your potion helped,” Hedy replied.
Phoenix’s smile made her so lovely it was hard to look straight at her. “Good. My voice is the only one I want you to
hear. Besides your own, of course.”
Hedy wished she had even one tenth of the potent beauty Phoenix possessed. Every man who saw her wanted her, many women as well. She was incredibly smart, outrageously generous, and as the leader of the Vires, Phoenix had access to a deep well of power that Hedy could only dream about.
Still, she wasn’t jealous. One day all of this—the mansion and the power—would be hers. Phoenix had promised.
“Do you think you’re strong enough to do something for me?” Phoenix asked.
A sense of pride and loyalty winged through Hedy, exciting her. “Anything.”
Phoenix beamed. “Good girl. Come, let’s get you ready for a little trip.”
“Where am I going?”
“To see your sister. It’s time she knows that you’re alive and just how unhappy we are that she betrayed you.”
“I thought you sent Bernard to find her.”
“I did, but he has failed me for the last time. He’ll keep trying, but I’m sure your methods will be much more effective.”
“What methods?”
Phoenix slid a glossy red fingernail down Hedy’s cheek. “Don’t worry, my sweet girl. I’ll tell you exactly what to do.”
***
Stygian didn’t want Echo to leave Asgard. He knew putting some distance between them was the only way to keep her out of Hazel’s grasp, but the idea of Echo out there on her own alone…it terrified him.
“She’s not going to take the phone,” he told Marvel as he joined her in the kitchen.
She was eating leftover Chinese with Garrick’s name scrawled across the side of the box.
“Why the hell not?” she asked.
“She’s used to being alone.”
“And a phone would fix that. She could be part of the club.”
“It’s not going to happen. Some people aren’t joiners.”
Marvel sighed and scooped up a bite of noodles on her chopsticks. “I would have done anything to be one of the cool kids. It makes no sense that she shuns my tech like that. What has it ever done to her?”
“Don’t take it personally. It’s not your tech she’s shunning.”
