It leapt from the roof of our building to the roof of the next building over, a jump of about twenty feet. I spread my wings and took off after it, following it as it ran and leapt from roof to roof.
It was running out of places to leap, I realized. It was leaving midtown, and soon there would be nothing but regular houses and freeway. Just as it reached the last of the taller roofs in the neighborhood, I heard a sound, almost like the whir of a fan, and it rose into the air. Its armor, or whatever it was, powered up and it took off, quickly flying away from the building.
I thought at Nain, telling him what I was doing, giving him a view of what I was seeing.
Where do you want me, Molls? He thought at me.
Stay put for now. If I need you, I’ll let you know. I focused on chasing it, not letting it out of my sight.
It seems to be slowing down, I thought at Nain. It came in for a landing, lowering its speed, and I floated down to the ground as well. We were on top of one of the parking structures near Wayne State. It landed, turned, and studied me.
Its armor was the same bronze-green of the robots we’d picked up the other day. And now that I could see it better, I could see that its skin was definitely green, but it had an almost velvety look to it. Its head was shaped like that of a wolf, ears standing straight up as it looked at me with its glowing green eyes.
I took a step toward it, and in the next instant, a force field went up around me, exactly like the one that had been shielding the AntiTheists in Greece.
I pulled my sword out and took a swing at it, and all I managed to do was jar my shoulder as my blade met the shield. I inspected it. Not a scratch.
Uh. I appear to be trapped, I thought at Nain. I sensed humor along with worry through our bond. Come to me, but stay back unless I look like I’m in trouble. I want to see what I can learn.
Brennan, Heph, Athena, and I are on the way, he thought at me. I studied the creature on the other side of the shield.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” I asked it. It continued to watch me, still, silent. “Do you make these?” I asked it, gesturing toward the little robot things that powered the shield. He’d led me here. He knew exactly what he was doing. At least, I assumed it was a he. Either way, he’d had those little machines ready to make a prison, and I’d walked right into it.
“Or are you just a servant? You work for that big ugly thing I saw the other day?”
It didn’t answer, so I switched tactics. If nice doesn’t work, be infuriating.
“Though you’re not exactly pretty either. Are all the beings from wherever you are about as attractive as a hemorrhoid?” It continued to watch me, and I waved it off. “Forget it. Probably don’t even understand English,” I muttered. I could feel Nain and the others nearby. Not too close, but close enough to be able to see whatever was going on.
“I understand English just fine, Mollis Eth-Hades,” the creature said. Its voice was almost robotic in nature, like a tape recording, and not a good one. “You have not said anything worth responding to.”
“What are we waiting here for?” I asked it. It gave me a look that I interpreted as a smile.
Get me out of here now, I thought at Nain. The last thing I wanted was to be trapped here when whatever it was waiting for arrived. The next second, Brennan and Hephaestus were both destroying the shield while Nain and Athena surrounded the little armored creature.
“Who sent you?” I asked, nodding my thanks to Heph and Brennan as the shield fell. The creature didn’t answer. I prodded at it, realizing all of a sudden why I felt so completely ill at ease around it: I couldn’t see its sins, and I couldn’t sense its emotions.
If I needed any further confirmation that it wasn’t from our world, that was it. I hefted my flamesword and advanced on it as Nain and Athena looked on. I felt Heph and Brennan behind me. The creature raised its hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Where are you from?” I asked, still trying to sense for it. Nothing. “Who sent you?”
It just continued to stand there with its hands up. Every once in a while, its gaze would flick past me, into the distance, as if it was waiting for something. It was impossible to tell, though, because I still couldn’t get a read on it.
Okay. Fine.
I slammed my way into the creature’s mind and heard it make a sudden, sharp sound. The instant I was in its mind, I wanted to leave again. The giant demon-thing from before was there.
As if he’d been waiting for me.
It smiled, a glint of sharp black teeth, and I tried to pull myself out of the creature’s mind. Nothing happened. I stayed right where I was, despite how easy it usually was for me to enter and leave minds at will. I tried again and went nowhere. I felt bile rise in my throat, then focused on trying to calm myself. Nain would figure out what was happening. If he killed the thing in the armor, I’d be out of here. I forced myself to breathe.
“We meet again, Mollis Eth-Hades,” the demon on steroids said in his low smooth voice. Its eyes were on me as it reclined in what looked to be a large white throne.
“Can’t say I’m super excited about it,” I said, determined not to lose my shit trapped here with this thing.
The demon let out a low, rumbling laugh. “I will have to work harder, then. Our conversation before was much too short, little one.”
I just stared at it, ignoring the pet name. No one in my world dared to call me shit like that. I mean, yeah, I’m all of five foot two and about a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. Size doesn’t always matter.
Usually. But not always.
“Who are you?” I finally asked.
“My name is Volodhal.”
I nodded, slowly. “What the fuck are you?”
“This form is rarely seen by those not of my kind. I expect your ties to certain… beings… makes it so.”
“Yeah? And how do you usually look?”
He seemed to shimmer in front of me, and instead of the enormous demon, a man sat on the throne. He was dressed in dark pants and a dark gray button-down shirt. Not exactly like the ones men wore in my world. Little details were different, but close enough to not be too alien. He had a somewhat pale complexion, a jawline marked by dark stubble. Full, sensuous lips (that was honestly the only way to describe them, and not a term I used often in general) and arresting blue eyes framed by thick dark lashes. His dark hair fell to his shoulders.
Was this the same asshole I’d seen in Persephone’s memories of the night she’d showed up in my world again? His other form, the demonic-looking one, was big and bulky enough to be. I felt my pulse start racing.
“I wonder which form you prefer, little one,” he murmured.
“I hardly think it matters,” I said.
“Oh, it matters. Because there’s a choice to make, Mollis Eth-Hades.”
“And that is?” I thought hard at Nain to get me the hell out of here. I couldn’t feel him anymore, as if we were no longer in the same place, and I felt panic rise within me.
“Do not be afraid,” Volodhal said smoothly. “You will return home. I just wanted us to have a bit of privacy. No meddling demons or shifters. Or gods,” he said with a smile.
“Where is Nyx?”
His smile faltered, and then returned. “How should I know? And Nyx is not the one I want to talk about right now.”
Panic clawed at me. I felt like I could barely breathe. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been afraid, but I was making up for that now.
“Calm. I would not hurt you. Not yet, anyway,” Volodhal said.
“Is that a threat?” I asked.
“A fact, Mollis,” he answered. “I said there is a choice to be made, and one way or another, you will make it.”
“And that is?”
“Join with me. Bond with me and live the life Nyx should have, at my side.”
Oh, fuck.
Nyx had warned Eunomia about a former lover, one who was much more terrifying than she was, who wanted revenge, who’d
refused to let go. She’d created, then strengthened, the shield around our world to protect and hide it from him. Her greatest fear was that he was still trying to find a way into our realm, that he’d do what it took to take it as punishment for her rejection.
So, basically, a stalker asshole.
She could have told us a little more about him before disappearing again. She’d explained to E that there are many worlds, many realms, many possibilities, often branching off from our own. Similar in many ways. In our world, beings once known as the Greek gods held court. In others, the Egyptian gods still reigned supreme, or the Norse gods, or the Fae. It was too much to wrap my mind around when E had explained it to me, but here it was, staring me in the face. These things appeared to be some kind of demon, I guessed. Not like our demons, but not totally unlike them either.
I needed to learn more.
“And if I don’t do that?” I asked quietly.
“Then your world will be taken by force, and it will burn. Everything you love, everything you’ve built there, destroyed.” He said it as calmly, as easily as if he was discussing the weather.
“Why?” I asked.
“Why, what?”
“I’m not Nyx. You don’t even know me.”
He smiled. “Little one, I’ve been watching you for a long time. You have every bit of Nyx’s power but a hell of a lot more spirit. You would be a worthy mate for me, and I have been waiting a very, very long time.”
“How long?”
His gaze met mine. “Forever.”
Volodhal’s words washed over me, around me, caressing me.
I swallowed. Closed my eyes, fought to get free of whatever he was doing to me.
“It would not be a hardship, being bonded to me. And think of how much you stand to lose, should you make the wrong choice.”
I opened my eyes and looked at him again. Just as achingly beautiful as before, and I hated that I thought that.
“You are a demon?”
He smiled again. “Of a sort, I suppose. My cohorts and I are not like the weak demons who generally inhabit your world.”
“I know a demon or two who would hardly be considered weak.”
He nodded. “Your mate. He’ll have to be let go, by the way. Despite his superior lineage, he just cannot be allowed.”
“Lineage…whatever. Look, asshole, I didn’t say yes,” I said, finally snapping out of whatever spell he’d wound around me.
“Oh, but you want to,” he said. “Of course, I expected you to resist. It’s in your nature to be difficult.”
I stared at him, and his gaze locked onto mine.
“I know you, Mollis Eth-Hades. You will fight it. You actually crave war with me, and that, in its own way, will be a form of foreplay between us. You’ll win a little, and I’ll win a little, and eventually you’ll come to see how hopeless it is to resist me.”
“Nyx did,” I said. Anything to knock this dickhead down a peg or ten.
“Nyx was never the real prize. I have foreseen you. Had Nyx not kept herself and your world away from me, it simply would have made it easier for me to have you. Instead, I’m finding that I’m looking forward to the challenge of making you mine.”
“You are a creepy motherfucker,” I said. I tried to free myself again, and he refused to let go.
“Can’t you see it?” he asked in a low tone. “Fighting me is futile. I will have what I want, and you will rule at my side for eternity.”
“Delusional,” I spat. He smiled, and then I felt something. There was the sense of something prodding at my mind. It didn’t feel the way it felt when Nain had once tried to break past my shields. This felt like fire and ice at the same time, seductive and terrifying.
“Stop,” I said hoarsely.
“I’ll leave a little something for you to think about before I see you again.” He continued to probe, prodding my mind, and I tried my hardest to strengthen my mental shields. “Because next time I see you, little one, it will be face to face.”
I struggled harder, panicking as I felt my mental shields breaking. He tried to soothe me as he started chipping away at my mind, telling me that there was no reason to fear him as he tried to corrupt my mind.
And I could feel my mental shields slipping a little at a time, weakening under the onslaught. All I knew was that whatever he was trying to force into my mind, I didn’t want it. I was terrified of it.
I fought, and he continued to give me honeyed words about how I didn’t need to fight him, that he was the one being in existence who truly knew me. The longer he probed my mind, the weaker I became. It hurt.
He was almost in. His presence was strong, and he kept promising me I had no reason to fear him.
I started believing him. Why was I fighting so hard?
I started to let go, unable to maintain the fight even if I wanted to, but all of a sudden, I didn’t really want to anymore.
I’ve got you, my Prison, Nether said, rising in my mind. Volodhal, recognizing that he was about to lose whatever grip he was gaining in my mind, tried to make it happen faster, all semblance of patience and gentleness gone. Nether sent out what could only be described as a blast of energy, reinforcing my shields and throwing him completely and absolutely out of my mind.
The power of whatever Nether had done had me on the verge of passing out. I looked at Volodhal, still sitting on his throne, a look of calm on his face that didn’t belong there after what had just happened.
“You expect me to be angry,” he said. “All this proves is that I’m right. You are meant for me, little one. Until I see you again,” he said, giving me a low bow. And then I was shoved out of the creature’s mind and the next thing I knew, I was in Nain’s arms. Everyone was staring at me.
“What happened?” Nain asked. I slammed my mental shields into place.
“Later,” I told him.
Hephaestus was inspecting the creature. “It’s dead,” Heph said.
“Like before,” Brennan said, watching me, and I nodded.
“Was it him again?” Bren asked.
“Yeah.” I did not want to talk about this now. My stomach was turning, and I could still feel the effects of Volodhal probing my mind. It had felt so different from what I was used to, almost mechanical or sterile rather than the raw power I felt from other telepaths. It made me feel sick and wrong. I felt like all I wanted to do was sleep for a very, very long time. I’d mentally just gone ten rounds with the equivalent of Muhammad Ali and had my ass handed to me. If Nether hadn’t been there…
I closed my eyes. Thank you, Nether. You saved me again, I thought at her, pushing a sense of love and gratitude toward her, hoping she could feel how much I appreciated what she’d done for me. As a being who had been hated for almost her entire existence (through no real fault of her own) I knew that Nether had that need to be affirmed and loved.
Always, my Prison, Nether said quietly, and then I felt her settle back down to sleep in the corner of my chaotic, black soul that she’d claimed as her own.
“I want to inspect this armor some more,” Hephaestus said, and I nodded. He and Athena worked together to get it off the small creature, and once they’d removed it, the little green guy was lying there in black pants and a black shirt, the armor like a bronze-green shell they’d removed from his body.
“What should we do with it?” Athena asked.
I gave the creature one final look, then raised my hand and aimed a blast of white-hot flames at it. It disintegrated in an instant, and we stood, looking at the small pile of ashes where it had once been, the wind already scattering them.
“Let’s go home,” I said, finally dragging my gaze away.
Chapter Seven
Nain and I parted ways with Brennan and the others, going to our house. I could sense worry from Nain, anger that there was obviously something upsetting me. Confusion, too.
We rematerialized in our living room. It was pitch black. I knew it was around ten or so when I’d been standing the roof o
f the loft. My confrontation with the little green guy, and then with Volodhal… I had no idea how long I’d been talking to Volodhal.
I clicked a lamp on and let myself fall back onto the couch. Nain sat beside me, arm slung over the back of the couch.
“You’re not talking,” he said after a while. “Not even swearing, which I would have expected.” The humor that usually accompanied a statement like that was missing. I glanced up at his face. “Which tells me it was bad.”
I looked away. “How long was I in that thing’s mind?”
“A few seconds, tops. Why?”
I looked back up at Nain.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his worry and rage both spiking at my obvious confusion.
“You’re sure?” I asked, my voice shakier than I’d have liked it to be.
“Yeah.”
“It felt a lot longer,” I said quietly. “I was starting to think you wouldn’t be able to get me out.”
“What do you mean—”
“I couldn’t get out once he had me,” I said quietly, an icy shiver going down my spine. “It felt like hours.”
Nain was studying me. I knew he could feel my fear through our bond. “It scared the fuck out of you,” he murmured, and I nodded. “What did it say?”
I looked away, and Nain picked me up and turned me, settling me on his lap so I was facing him. “Molls,” he rumbled.
“He said I belonged to him. That my choice is to agree to be his mate and rule at his side, or our world would burn.”
I felt Nain’s rage spike immediately. “No.” Alongside his rage, something so much worse. Fear.
Fear that I would even consider it. “He can’t have you.”
“Obviously,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I’m a self-sacrificing asshole sometimes, but even I have my fucking limits. Which means it’s coming down to a fight, and I think we both know we’re not going to find them first, no matter how amazing E is at finding things. They’re about a thousand steps ahead of us. He’s been planning this for a long time,” I added, glancing away, unable to shake the feel of Volodhal’s eyes on me.
Godkiller (Hidden: Godkiller Saga Book 1) Page 6
