Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  I didn’t even realize I closed my eyes. I obey his command, drowning in his beautiful gray-and-blues, my body liquefying into a mass of pure tranquility. I’m being hit by an overdose of straight-up, unfiltered, Grade-A peace.

  “Zen . . .” I trail off on a gasp, taking in the fact that he’s wearing what is obviously his war demon armor, and his physical markings are still visible.

  But there’s no denying it. He’s calming me.

  “Yeah, baby. It’s me. And I need you to focus on just me for a bit, okay?”

  No problem. I’m already there. I’m so there.

  “I see all of it, too. Actually I see more, but you know what’s keeping me steady?” He lowers his head and rubs his nose against mine in a way that makes me whimper. “You are. You’re helping me.”

  Unable to stop myself, I pull his head down and mesh our lips together, everything forgotten except for that gnawing hunger that demands a part of him.

  Zen lets me kiss him, but he keeps a tight leash on it. Which makes perfect sense. I may be on the verge of forgetting about the battle, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Or any less pressing.

  “You need to concentrate and stay steady. Filter out the images.” He’s purposely using both sides of his powers to command me. Tranquility and Vengeance rise up in his voice, and my emotional-psychological infrastructure hits the ground, submissive-style. “I need to know that you are going to be okay. I cannot fight if—”

  “Yes.” I stare into his eyes, nailing him with the same steadiness that he just instilled in me. My powers rise, this time reaching out to the male before me instead of the battle below. So I let them answer him, feeling the rightness of it settling over me. “Yes.”

  His full lips part into a brilliant, pleased smile. His hold on my chin tightens momentarily, then he steps away, his eyes morphing. Even though it’s daylight outside, his red irises glow bright within his black eyes. His stare travels the length of my body, a laser-like focus to it that’s almost sexual.

  My clothes are overtaken. As his eyes trail a hot path down the lines of my body, a tight, red and black amalgam version of his armor appears on my form.

  He claimed me before, but this is more than I can process for a few seconds. The urge to mate is an inconvenient, rude, and blaring signal going off inside me. Frozen by it, I can only stare down at myself as energy and armor trickle down my limbs.

  “Fucking gorgeous.” Zen bows his head, and although his eyes never leave mine, it’s the kind of show of respect that robs me of breath and makes me want to prove myself to my male. My inner warrior is ready to show our mate what I’m capable of.

  “I need you to return the favor now.” He looks out over the battle below, obviously worried. “There are humans working with the Aviraji.”

  I don’t need to look. Now that I’m calmer, I close my eyes and simply hone in on what my powers are trying to show me. A single word bangs around my head, slamming into me harder than any other.

  Holy . . . “Maeltzkon?” Damn it! They are involved!

  Zen hisses out a breath. “They were supposed to be eradicated centuries ago. Apparently, they’re alive and very, very well.”

  Yes, I can see that. The humans of note are in battle suits, most of their faces masked. They’re wielding their own version of molecule destabilizers, and suddenly I remember what Nylicia mentioned about the old terets being stolen and replicated.

  Instead of firing pure, white energy, however, these guns fire those vile, black beams I remember so well. The kind that incapacitates anyone who has an atom’s worth of good inside them.

  I open my eyes. “They’ve been lied to. They’ve been tricked into believing we’re the bad guys.”

  Zen nods, closing his eyes tight. “You need to tell me who I can punish. Please.”

  I reach into myself, securing the thrumming energy of Justice. “Not our friends. Any of them. And not the humans. They’ve been tricked. Lied to. Everyone else . . . destroy them.”

  He opens his eyes, exhaling in relief, just as a loud cry makes us both jump around.

  “Nooo!”

  A girl is running across the rooftop towards us. Her long, platinum blond, nearly white hair flows behind her. The sight of it pricks something in my neural pathways and I blink hard.

  I know that hair.

  “You can’t punish him!” the girl screams, her eyes—dark brown, and way too big—are desperate.

  Shit. I know those eyes, too. And the face. It’s the same, but older.

  Man, apparently, WTF moments are a permanent part of my life now. Even taking that into consideration, my brain threatens to throw up the white flag, pack its shit, and desert me entirely if I can’t figure out a way to stop all the crap, or buffer it.

  “You can’t hurt Enteax. Please! He’s the only one I can’t stand to see suffer. Everyone else, I . . . I enjoy it. But not him. Please, not him.”

  As that girl comes to a stop in front of Zen, her teary eyes frantic and pleading, two things go through my mind.

  One, this has to be the holder of Suffering. What she just said wouldn’t make sense in any other context. The power is already inside her.

  And two, I definitely know her. I would never, ever forget her.

  Holy shit. The world feels way too small. Like it’ll zip itself up and close in on me.

  I just can’t believe it, not even when I hear my own voice utter the girl’s name. “Makayla?”

  CHAPTER 39

  EVESSE

  T he blonde’s expression gives me a whole new insight into the many levels of shock. She’s obviously gone down the rabbit hole along with me, her frozen face near catatonic.

  “It’s . . . fuck. Evesse, it really is you.”

  That cinches it. And it’s sad that my mind was actually holding onto a little bit of doubt. Just a dash of hope. After all, the girl I knew years ago suffered enough with her past and her split personality disorder, and—

  But, shit. That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Who better than Makayla Robertson to carry the powers of Suffering?

  “He told me you’d come.” Makayla literally shakes herself out of her daze and moves closer. “He told me you would protect me. The . . . things that control him, they want to force me to go with them.”

  The things that control him? Is she talking about the Aviraji? Well, of course they want her. The power of Suffering under their command? It would be like handing a kid a grenade launcher and setting them loose.

  An image of Nylicia comes to mind.

  Fudge. That’s exactly what we’re about to do by bringing Makayla and her powers into the fold. But we need as much ammo on our side as we can get.

  There’s also no way I’m not going to protect my old friend. Regardless of how much time has passed.

  “Zen?” I can’t believe that, after what occurred almost a month-and-a-half ago, I’m going to do this. “Don’t punish Enteax.” There’s a flash of that vortex replaying in my mind as I say it.

  The relieved look in Makayla’s eyes almost makes up for it.

  Zeniel doesn’t look too gleeful about it, but he nods. The shimmer of a Gnetica pulsing to life fills the sky around the rooftop. It settles in place in a sphere before blending into everything around us, becoming invisible.

  I will my own energy to merge with Zen’s inside the shield, strengthening it. Then, I turn to stare out at the streets below, just in time to see six huge wolves jumping into the chaos. Three are dark brown, almost black, one is navy blue with very familiar cuffs around its front legs, and two are completely black.

  I recognize them by their auras. Cy, Zex, Keiros, Ianthen, Crius, and—

  No way.

  Even as my brain refuses to believe it, my powers recognize who the last one is. I’ve never met him, yet my instincts are flashing one word in bold red letters behind my eyes.

  Zen comes to a stop next to me. “Hades. He’s actually here.”

  “The Greek God of the Underworld?” I br
eathe.

  “He’s not really Greek,” Zen replies with a half-distracted smirk.

  Makayla stops on the other side of me.

  “He’s considered a friend?” I need to make sure. After all . . . Mavrak.

  “Even if he wasn’t . . .”

  I squint, zooming in on the black wolf with its black sparkling eyes. The information download is instant and just as invasive as before. Details playing at breakneck speeds. There shouldn’t be any way for my brain to catch all of that, but it does. The story plays out behind a red lens, and in less than a second, I see it all.

  Hades’ crimes, and what was done to him because of Crius.

  The latter is worse than the former.

  “I don’t want to punish him, Eve. He’s been through enough.”

  Hearing the God of Vengeance say that is a revelation in and of itself. Looking away, I turn to Zen. “Don’t punish him. Or anyone fighting on our side. Everyone else is fair game.”

  Zen spares one last glance at me and Makayla, then disappears.

  I shoot Makayla a look. “Listen, when this is all over, I’m going to need to hear how you ended up here.”

  Makayla’s lips twist into a wry smirk. “Yeah, I know. Same goes to you.”

  A portal spirals open on the sidewalk to our left, three blocks down, and a wave of ceFtuts rushes out, followed by seven-foot tall hulking beings with beige skin that resemble rotten leather.

  No mouths. Just red slits for eyes. They are almost as wide as they are tall. Their heads, hands, and feet are disproportionately large.

  Then they start running, breaking the sound barrier effortlessly.

  The Sesengts, I realize. They’re targeting the guardians.

  There are almost a thousand of them, maybe more, all wearing the same armor Xreak is wearing. Spread out all over the battle, they take on ceFtuts and other beings that resemble Enteax and Lisrn. The tall-as-fuck monsters run so fast, they slice up the concrete beneath them, their bodies a blur that cuts through the air so hard my ears pick up on it.

  One Sesengt almost gets run over. A female. She jumps into the air, her long purple hair flowing behind her. The creature manages to grab her and the sound of her body and armor being crushed seems to echo above the sounds of battle.

  “Wait here!” I scream at Makayla, frantic to get down there. “Don’t fucking leave this Gnetica!”

  “I got it! Just go!”

  I don’t need to be told twice. I jump off the rooftop and break my molecules apart. A blink of an eye later, I’m crouched on the shoulders of that thing, materializing two swords and sliding both into its head.

  It drops the female guardian, its back arching into a deep C and its wide hands coming at me.

  I push my boots into its shoulders, pull back on the blades, and dangle my upper body out of reach. The fact that the drag helps my swords slice through half of the creature’s head is just a nice bonus.

  Blood gushes as I jump back down to the ground. My combat boots hit the cement at the same time the large creature’s body does. Even with half its head sliced open, and its brains spilling out in a wet slushy mess, it flops around, its hand grasping for me.

  A war cry sounds in my ears just as a large blade comes down in an arc, slicing through the creature’s arm. It doesn’t stop there, either. The blade glints in the light, twirling rapidly and coming down on the monster’s neck. One slice, two. That neck is chopped up like a thick roll of sushi, until the head is disconnected and promptly kicked, like a football, out of sight.

  The purple-haired Sesengt turns and gives me a smile, her gray eyes crinkling at the corners. “You’re the new Goddess of Justice, right?”

  “Yeah,” I call out over the noise, watching as the female’s armor repairs itself, the cracks and dents in it disappearing.

  “Cool. I’m Seraphi. These nasty things are the Refluths. Killing them is super simple. Take the head off entirely and get it away from the body. Thanks by the way.” With that, she’s gone, taking off and jumping into the air.

  Another Refluth comes to a stop before me, blasting me with air in the face. Fucking hell. Huffing, I push my hair out of my face, and meet that red-eyed stare head on. “What? You got a problem, you piece of shit?”

  Its nostrils flare. Grotesquely large fingers flex, curling into fists.

  I allow my senses to expand. The play-by-play I get is just as nasty and wrong as I expect. And exactly what I need to get my powers in gear.

  The creature slides one leg back, getting into position, looking like a bull ready to go.

  I don’t give it a chance, letting loose my powers, condemning it. “You’re going to pay. You’re going to die.” My swords slice up into the air, ready to finish what my words started.

  Black-and-red mist collides into the creature. The wraiths were lying in wait inside it, and at the moment of contact, they begin to shred.

  Zeniel.

  I flip around, trying to find him, trying to see above the flying debris and smoke. He’s nowhere to be seen, but when I turn back around, the Refluth is falling backwards, its skin being ripped off by the wraiths, and the mist swirling around it like a typhoon.

  There’s another one right behind it, running straight at me. I raise my sword, pointing at its head. “Die.”

  This time, when the mist hits, the wraiths sink their shadowy claws into the creature’s back and pull so hard its legs go up with the momentum. Its entire body is suspended in the air for a brief moment, its gigantic feet pointing toe-up towards the sky, before all eight-hundred pounds of it meet the concrete with the kind of bang that shakes whole buildings.

  Then the wraiths go happily to work, and I realize those fuckers are growing on me. Hell, anything that rushes to obey my commands happily deserves a pat on the head, at the very least.

  I dodge out of the way of a two-foot wide piece of asphalt that comes gunning for my head. Looking for my mate in the middle of all this is probably a bad idea, but I can’t control it.

  One of the wolves lands lightly on its paws behind me. It’s large, golden eyes stare at the Refluths being torn apart by the wraiths and—

  He pops out of his wolf-form, naked as the day he was fucking born.

  My mouth falls wide open, my eyes getting a good gander at the fact that the male has tattoos in places I really don’t want to know about, and that, obviously, all gods are way too well-endowed.

  Cy gives a happy whoop, fist-pumping the air.

  “Ever heard of that little thing called Ying and Yang?” He yells at everyone and everything, throwing his head back and giving an almost maniacal laugh. “Yeah, well, it’s about to blow up in your faces, motherfuckers!”

  He’s lost his fucking mind.

  And his dick is flapping around in my face!

  He whoops one more time, then takes off, morphing back into his wolf-form and going teeth-first for the head of another Refluth. The thing tries to grab at him, but Cy ducks, snapping his teeth around its leg. Yet another comes at him, but Cy moves faster than they can, ducking, biting, clawing—almost as if he knows what they’re going to do before they do it.

  Then it hits me. That’s exactly what he’s doing. He has the power of Divination. That motherflower doesn’t simply predict the future; he can see it as it’s going to unfold seconds before it happens.

  And though his powers seemed to have taken a leave lately, they’re clearly back and working just fine.

  Cyake chomps down on the leg of a ceFtut, using his big body to build up one hell of a torque, then flings the mutt into the air.

  I barely flash out of the way in time.

  A blast of dark energy comes for me next. Splaying my legs, I slide straight down to the ground, and hey, perfect moment to realize that I can now do splits.

  Another blast almost hits my foot, and I dematerialize two feet to the left, reforming in a crouch. I tilt my head up, locking eyes with an armored human who looks like something out of Halo.

  His face is maske
d, hidden by the huge black helmet he’s wearing, but his eyes are visible.

  I bare my teeth; a warning he doesn’t heed. He raises his damn gun again. Fuck that. I materialize my new-and-improved teret, placing my thumb on the sensor as I aim it at his face.

  He stops all movement. Smart boy. I’m holding a three-foot gun that’s lighting up with the colors of my aura, and the buttons on the side are as good as a visual display. “Level eight, motherfucker. Now, you were saying?”

  The man steps back.

  Dimithinia appears behind him, and she has him in a backwards choke-hold before he can blink. One of her small hands comes around and rips the armor off his neck. She shoves her hand into the gaping hole, pressing against his carotid sinuses until his eyes roll back and his body goes limp as he passes out.

  Dimi drops him to the ground, her wide eyes jumping from the gun to my face. “Have you lost your wits? These humans have been tricked! You were going to disintegrate one?”

  “I was just scaring him!”

  “Some Goddess of Justice you are.”

  “Hey!”

  “What if it had gone off? You have gone mad.”

  “I just saw Cy naked. Don’t blame me,” I mumble.

  Dimithinia materializes her own teret, brows rising high on her forehead. She’s dressed in what looks like leather, and a black metal corset covers her from chest to hips. On top of it all, she’s wearing that black trench coat again. “Oh, be quiet. That must have been a magnificent sight.”

  It was, but I’ll never admit it aloud. My R’mann would destroy Cy.

  Dimithinia aims her weapon at a ceFtut, turning it into a big pile of nothing. I place my thumb back on the sensor, willing the gun back to almost full power and take aim at another.

  I shoot my fifth frankenmutt as three portals spiral open, one to the north, another on the south, and the last one hitting the east.

  Worst part? The three rapidly expanding black holes are less than ten feet away from Dimithinia and I, which means we’re now surrounded on three sides by inter-dimensional doorways spewing colossal amounts of shit out of them.