Goddess in the Middle

by Stephanie Julian

  “What you probably don’t know,” Nortia continued, “is what happened to Lucy.”

  Amity and Kari exchanged a brief glance before they returned their full attention to Nortia.

  “Tell us.” Their perfectly synchronized response made Nortia shake her head.

  “I sometimes forget you two are identical,” Nortia muttered before shaking her head. “And then you do that. It is kind of creepy.”

  “Nortia.” Amity tapped her desk with one finger. “Focus, love.”

  No one ordered the Goddess of Fate to do anything. Not if they wanted to continue breathing without the help of a ventilator. Not even her sister goddesses pushed her. But Amity was feeling more than a little brave this morning.

  Nortia merely rolled her eyes. “Fine. Lucy transferred her goddess powers to Cat. She no longer holds the mantle of Goddess of the Moon. Charun sent a demon after her and, for the safety of everyone involved, she decided it was time to relinquish her duties.”

  Amity’s mouth dropped open in shock, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Kari do the same.

  Nortia pinned Amity with her gaze before doing the same to Kari. “You two need to be on your toes. We think Charun has targeted one of you next.”

  Chapter 3

  She’d been warned.

  If anyone asked, Amity would freely acknowledge the fact that she should have heeded Nortia’s warning and taken just a little more care.

  But had she listened?

  Of course not. She hadn’t believed Charun would come after her. She was such a minor goddess in comparison to Lucy and Tessa. Even when she’d been in full command of her powers, all those millennia ago, she’d never been what most people might call popular.

  Sure, she’d had followers, but mostly, she’d been worshipped only when someone was gravely ill. That made for a lot of weeping people and though she was always glad to help, it was slightly depressing.

  Before Paris Hilton, before Marie Antoinette… hell, before Cleopatra, she and Kari had been the original party girls, drinks in one hand and a man, or two, on the other.

  And really, who could blame them? It’d been their way of decompressing from the death and destruction inherent in their duties. Amity may have lost some of the joy in life that Kari retained, but that didn’t mean she was ready to hand herself on a platter to Charun.

  The night sky held no glow from the moon, and clouds obscured the stars as she ran along the trail past the Reading Museum. The creek to her left babbled cheerfully, swollen after a full day of rain, concealing the sound of the demon chasing behind her.

  It was late, yes, and she should’ve stayed inside the hospital but she’d sensed no danger when she’d walked across the street to the park. She’d just needed a respite. After her unsettling meeting with Nortia, she’d spent the entire day working with her patients. She’d needed a few minutes by herself to gather her thoughts before she met Remy and Rom for a late dinner. Remy had called to say they’d be late to pick her up and asked her to wait for them at the hospital.

  Since she’d had a few minutes, she’d decided to take a walk on the beautiful grounds of the museum. Yes, the overcast sky made it darker than normal at seven o’clock on an early May night. And the air held a chill from the earlier rain.

  But she’d never imagined she’d be running for her life from a wiry blue demon.

  With her heart pounding in her chest and her lungs burning, she ran faster than she ever thought possible, considering she’d never been much for exercise. A goddess just didn’t have to worry about gaining a few pounds or losing muscle tone. She was as she’d always be.

  Since she happened to be five-foot-three and 130 pounds, she had curves other goddesses didn’t. Which meant she lost points for maneuverability.

  Still, the demon didn’t appear to be gaining on her. And that didn’t make sense.

  Charun’s enforcer must be playing with her.

  She wanted to call the thing nasty names but bitch and bastard were gender specific and tukhulkha demons were gender neutral. No one knew why. That’s just the way it was.

  And didn’t mean a damn thing at all to her situation right now.

  She needed to get back to the safety of the hospital, where the demon wouldn’t dare enter for fear of being seen by the eteri, those humans without magical powers. Screams would be sure to follow if an eteri caught sight of the nightmarish creature.

  Of course, she’d begun to run in the wrong direction, and if she tried to double back now, the demon would be that much closer.

  “Stupid. How could I be so stupid?”

  Pretty freaking stupid, apparently, for all she thought of herself as a levelheaded person.

  Luckily, she hadn’t changed into the heels she’d brought for her dinner date. She still wore the comfy red running shoes she favored for long days at the hospital. They’d never gotten a workout like this before, though.

  “Amity.” The demon called her name, drawing out the three syllables to creepy lengths. “You know you can’t outrun me. You’re just not built for speed, dear. But please, keep running. This is so much fun.”

  Ooh, that blue bastard-bitch. How dare it taunt her?

  What she wouldn’t give for the ability to conjure a thunderbolt or two. She’d blast the demon’s ass back to Aitás.

  Barring that, she needed to use her brain. She’d walked these trails so many times, she knew them like the back of her hand.

  The tiny bridge at Trudy’s Garden. If she could get there and get over it before the demon, maybe she could outrun it back to the next bridge. Then, if she could make it up the small hill, she might be able to get to the emergency room entrance where she could alert the guard.

  Not that she could actually tell him what was after her. Chet, the nearly eighty-year-old man who stood at the door in a uniform and directed people, would think she’d lost her senses. But at least he could call the police.

  Or maybe she’d get lucky and there’d be a police car there. It wasn’t unlikely—

  She tripped and nearly fell, a short, startled cry falling from her lips before she could bite it back and right herself. Luckily, she didn’t go down but she lost precious ground. She swore she heard the sound of the demon’s feet pounding behind her.

  “Oh, dear. Are you okay, Amity? Hope you didn’t hurt yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon, and all this exertion will be at an end.”

  Her lungs burned, as did her thighs and calves. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep up this pace.

  Above the din of the creek, she heard the ringing of the chimes that hung from trees in the pretty little garden near the end of the park. She was so close, she thought she could smell freshly turned earth. Just a few more feet before she reached the bridge—

  The demon brushed a hand down her back, causing Amity to scream.

  Sweet Mother Goddess, this was it. The demon would take her back to Aitás for Charun to consume her soul.

  She did trip then. Her feet tangled together and she hit the ground hard. The air rushed from her lungs and starbursts flashed before her eyes as her head bounced off the paved surface of the trail.

  Pain flared seconds later, beginning in her temples and radiating throughout her entire body. Still, she tried to scramble to her feet but only got to her knees when she felt a hand grab her shoulder.

  “Steady there.”

  The masculine voice made her head snap up. She realized someone stood in front of her. A tall, masculine shadow whose face she couldn’t make out in the darkness of the park but whose voice sounded so familiar.

  “Are you ok—”

  Amity pushed away the hand he’d extended toward her, terror making her shake. “You’ve got to run. Go now or you’ll be killed.”

  His hand didn’t move. “No, I don’t think I will.”

  The certainty in his tone made Amity blink up at him in astonishment as she realized the man standing above her was Rom.

  She opened her mouth to yell
at him but felt a chill seep into her body that had nothing to do with the air temperature. Her time was up. The negative energy of the demon began to suck at her positive force, the energy that allowed her to heal those who needed it. If she lost too much of it, she would be no good to anybody.

  “Well now, it looks like you’ve found a hero,” the demon taunted. “How nice for you. He’ll make a tasty snack for later, won’t you, lucani?”

  Lucani. She blinked up at Rom, standing so tall above her. He was an Etruscan wolf shifter? Why hadn’t she realized that last night? Was Remy too?

  How had she missed it?

  Reaching down, Rom wrapped a strong hand around her arm and pulled her to her feet then drew her behind him.

  “You’ll have to break me first, demon.” Rom’s deep voice was filled with palpable menace. “And, trust me, you won’t get the chance.”

  Peeking out from around his shoulder, Amity watched the demon emerge from the shadows, close enough now for her to see the whites of its eyes. Its body was nothing more than another dark shadow sliding through the night.

  She shivered, the demon’s menace surrounding them like a force field. Blessed Mother Goddess, this was no rank-and-file demon, she realized. This was no minion.

  This demon had the blue skin and black hair as all tukhulkha demons did, but it also had small black horns erupting from its temples and curving back along its head. And she was sure, if it turned, she’d see the demon’s black wings tucked behind it.

  It was one of the few generals in Charun’s army. A demon didn’t earn horns or wings until it’d proven itself to Charun’s exacting standards of pain and torment.

  This situation became stranger every second.

  Why would Charun risk sending one of his high-ranking demons to track her? She couldn’t have fended off an attack from a regular demon, much less one with so much power. And how had Rom known she’d needed help?

  “So cocky for a lowly dog.” The demon’s voice dripped with disdain, ripping across Amity’s empathy like claws, making her breath catch at the pain. “But you’ll bleed just like the rest.”

  Rom laughed and she detected absolutely no amusement in the sound. Or fear, for that matter. “I may bleed a little but you’re the one who’s going down. When I rip your throat out, you’ll cry just like all those you’ve killed before.”

  The demon’s head cocked to the side, its expression visible now that Amity’s eyesight had adjusted. It looked contemplative and when a demon got that look on its face, you really should run the other way. Because it was either thinking about eating you or tearing you into little bits in preparation to do so.

  “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” The demon put its hands on its hips in a strangely feminine pose, making the hair on Amity’s neck rise. “Have I eaten your loved ones? Possibly maimed a friend? How awful for you.”

  “All of the above, actually. And now you’re going to pay.”

  The demon’s eyes rounded in mocking wonder. “Is your name Inigo by any stretch of the imagination? You know that would just make my day.”

  “My name’s Romulus Cangelosi.”

  The demon rolled its eyes as if the name meant nothing. “Pity. I’m a huge fan of The Princess Bride. So”—the demon crossed its arms over its chest—“what’ll it be, Romulus? A fight to the death—yours, of course—then I’ll take the lovely little goddess anyway. Or should we make it more interesting and I could kill the goddess while you watch and then kill you? Which would you prefer?”

  “Actually I prefer the version where I take your head off.”

  “You don’t actually think that’s going to happen, do you?”

  “There’s always a first time.”

  The demon smiled, a mouth full of sharp teeth that made Amity grow faint at the sight. Blessed Goddess, she did not want to be on the receiving end of those.

  But neither did she want to see Rom ripped to shreds before her.

  She laid her hand on his shoulder, feeling the bunch of warm, hard muscle. “Please don’t get yourself killed on my account.”

  He didn’t take his eyes off the demon. “I don’t intend to, Lady Amity.”

  The demon actually laughed, sounding so human it was eerie. “Such a brave boy.”

  “I’m no longer a boy and I’ve been a little focused on you.”

  “Much as I appreciate your focus, I think we’ve delayed this long enough.”

  The demon leaped, causing Amity to scream and fall backward even as Rom held his ground.

  It all happened so fast, she wasn’t sure what came next. From her vantage point on her ass behind Rom, all she saw was the demon suddenly fly to the side as if a gust of wind had taken it off its feet and thrown it away.

  Then she realized a huge dark shadow crouched over the demon, growling like a wild beast.

  Or a lucani wolf.

  Remy.

  With a high-pitched screech, the demon tossed the wolf aside, scrambled to its feet, and shot straight for Amity.

  She barely had time to gather breath to scream again before Rom drew a sword from the sheath on his back and slashed at the oncoming demon.

  Amazingly, the demon avoided being cut by the huge blade and the wolf set on it with another attack.

  “Run, Amity!” Rom shouted at her. “We’ll take care of this. Go!”

  Scrambling to stand, Amity managed to hold her knees steady when they wanted to fold under her. Proximity to the demon sapped her strength at an alarming rate.

  She tried to run but could barely manage to walk. And when she heard the wolf yelp in pain, she couldn’t help herself.

  She stopped and turned back to the fight.

  Remy’s wolf lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving as the man cried out, raising the sword above his head. He looked wild, his expression grief-stricken. And he’d left himself wide open to attack.

  The demon smirked, sensing an opening, and tensed to leap.

  “No!” Her cry made no impression on the demon but Rom flashed her a quick look.

  And in that second, the demon saw its opening.

  Rom had no chance to save himself from the demon’s attack and took the full brunt of its charge. Demon claws caught him in the side, and Rom cried out in pain as the sword fell from his hands. But he managed to get his hands up and around the demon’s neck to keep its teeth and, more important, the deadly venom those teeth produced away from his throat.

  The demon hissed, his clawed hands readying for another slash as Amity, reacting on pure instinct, scrambled for the sword.

  She’d just wrapped both hands around the hilt when she heard the wolf snarl. The wolf moved so fast, he looked like a passing cloud as he shot to his feet and jumped on the demon’s back.

  The wolf’s jaws opened, aiming for the demon’s neck. As if anticipating the move, the demon wrenched hard to the right, trying to roll onto his back and bring Rom on top of him.

  She realized then that Rom and the wolf had played the demon but she’d messed up their plan.

  “Amity! Leave the sword. Run.”

  No, she couldn’t run. If the lucani defeated the demon, they would need her help to heal because they were taking a beating. And if the demon won, well…

  She wouldn’t get far enough away for it to matter. The demon would run her down.

  Instead, she struggled to lift the sword. It weighed a ton. She should run, get far, far away. She couldn’t.

  Adrenaline pumping, muscles straining, she lifted the sword as far as she could, only a couple of inches from the ground. It would have to be enough. She just hoped like hell she didn’t hit Rom or the wolf.

  The tangle of bodies rolled again and the wolf lost its grip on the demon. The demon shoved at the wolf, raking its claws along its flank.

  This time, Remy’s wolf wasn’t faking the injury. He struggled to maintain his feet but he couldn’t get his left back leg to move properly.

  Still, the wolf went back at the demon, biting down on its arm and trying t
o drag it away from Rom. Which only caused Rom to cry out in pain, because the demon had its claws sunk in his side.

  Seeing her opening, she pointed the sword at the demon’s back. Ignoring the fact that she was about to cause mortal injury to another living creature, something that went against every cell of her being, she stabbed the demon as hard as she could with the pointed end of the weapon.

  The demon roared as it lashed out, grabbing the sword and trying to rip it from her hands. Stupidly, she held on and was tossed to the ground along with the sword.

  The demon howled, the evil sound cutting through the night like a siren. Surely someone had heard that and would come to investigate.

  Would they believe what their eyes were seeing? Maybe it wouldn’t matter.

  “The sword. Lady, get me… the sword.”

  Rom’s voice sounded strained and weak but he reached out to her with one hand. The other barely held the demon’s snapping jaws at bay.

  As fast as she could, she got to her knees and crawled toward him, pulling the sword along with her. It seemed to have gained a hundred pounds since she’d first picked it up.

  Remy’s wolf made another lunge for the demon, catching onto one of its legs with his teeth and holding on, even as the demon kicked and flailed.

  A scream ripped from the demon’s throat as Rom grabbed the sword from her hand and maneuvered it until he got the point stuck into the demon’s side. Skewered, it thrashed as Rom forced the blade farther into its body.

  With a grunt, Rom shoved the demon onto its back, keeping one hand firmly on its throat and the sword buried in its side.

  Amity heard only the sound of her own breathing echoing in her ears as the demon weakened from blood loss until finally it lay still on the ground.

  With a hard sigh, Rom rose to his feet.

  As Rom stood over the creature, she turned toward the wolf, lying on its side and panting heavily. Though her healing skills worked best on humans, she could extend them to all living things.