When she meant everything.
“I can’t,” Valen rasped and dragged his hands over his hair, clawing it back and digging his fingers into it. “You know that.”
The soft look in Eva’s blue eyes said that she did know. She knew how difficult this was for him, and she knew the risks, and she was still willing to do it.
For him.
And for herself too.
“How else are you going to get close to them? Benares is fast.”
“I’ll just have to be faster,” he said and she rolled her eyes, earning a growl from him. “I can outstrip that bastard, don’t worry.”
“And all the men he employs?” She scowled at him. “There are at least two dozen of them… and I get the feeling they aren’t human.”
“If their boss is a daemon, it stands to reason they are too,” Keras said, and Valen wanted to punch him.
Luckily for his brother, he was making sense, and so was Eva, and Valen wasn’t in the mood to lash out at people for no real reason tonight.
He looked down into Eva’s eyes, weighing his options, and finding both of them sucked. If he tried to go in alone, he would be facing at least two dozen daemons, their strength and age unknown factors that might lead him to his doom. He could be overpowered by less than ten strong daemons if they were coordinated, and of the right species. What sort of daemons would follow an incubus?
He didn’t know.
But the only other option was to let Eva do things her way. Jin would take her from his apartment, and he would track them to the villa. Once enough time had passed, he would walk right through the front door, a welcomed guest.
Although, he would probably end up taking out a few of the daemons along the way, and not only for show.
The thought of Eva being taken by Benares, a captive of a monster she feared, and held at his mercy had him wanting daemon blood on his hands already and he was only thinking about it.
If he did let Benares take her, then he would want more than daemon blood on his hands.
He would want a war.
He would want to tear apart the villa with his lightning until every damned daemon in it was dead.
He stared down at Eva.
Gods, he couldn’t do it.
Zeus had taken her to protect her, because the Moirai must have foreseen something bad happening to her.
Valen couldn’t stand by and let that happen, just so she could lure the daemons into a trap for him.
“Tell me where they live and we’ll launch an all out assault on the place,” Valen said, his voice a deep snarl that shocked even him, his darker side roused by the need to protect her at whatever cost.
She shook her head. “They’ll be expecting that from you. It’s your MO. I wouldn’t be surprised if Benares had increased security since I was last there. They have guns, Valen. If a knife can hurt your brother, I’m fairly certain bullets can hurt you.”
That wasn’t going to stop him.
“I’ll deal with them,” he snapped.
She folded her arms across her chest and her lips compressed in a mulish line. “It only takes one of them to raise the alarm and then Benares and Jin are gone. Is that what you want?”
He glared at her.
“She does have a point.”
Valen shot Keras another warning look but this time he didn’t back down. His brother narrowed green eyes on him that glowed in their centres, shining brightly around his pupils. He was testing Keras’s patience, but he couldn’t stop himself, not when the thought of putting Eva at risk was screwing with his head, making him want to step right now and obliterate the mansion so she didn’t have to do something crazy.
“Tell me where the mansion is.”
“No,” she barked and shook her head, making her black hair sway across her jaw. “I will not… because you aren’t listening to reason… you’ll go off and… and get yourself—”
Valen’s anger flatlined.
His shoulders sagged as it all drained out of him as if she had pulled a plug rather than simply cut herself off, stopping herself from saying something that she didn’t want to voice.
Something that told him everything.
She really did care about him.
And he was being a massive dick again.
He only wanted to protect her, but he hadn’t considered that he would end up hurting her by trying to do it. She wanted to help, because she was afraid that if she didn’t, he would get himself killed.
“Hey,” he murmured and she refused to look at him, kept her eyes fixed on his chest. He closed the distance between them, smoothed his right hand along her jaw, and brushed his thumb over her cheek. “It isn’t going to happen.”
She still wouldn’t look at him.
Keras’s gaze bore a deep hole in the side of his skull.
Fine.
“I won’t do it,” he muttered and she lifted her eyes to his, and gods, the relief in them hit him hard in the chest, punching a hole through it to his heart. “But answer this… what’s to say Benares isn’t already on to us?”
“All he knows is that I wasn’t at your apartment when he sent Jin there. I’ll check in and say things are going according to plan, and I’ll be ready to hand you over soon. He’s bound to send Jin to take me again if I say that I’m just waiting at your place while you deal with some business at something you called a gate.” Eva looked sure as shit that her plan was flawless.
Valen wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t say it, didn’t even let her see it in his eyes. If things went south, he would find a way to save her. He had told her not to expect him to be a hero, but it seemed he couldn’t help himself where she was concerned. It would always be this way. The second she got into trouble, he would be there like some cliché white knight to rescue her arse.
“You’ll feel the wards trigger, and then you’ll come after me, and they’ll welcome you with open arms.”
“When I go to them alone,” he said what she wouldn’t.
“No,” Keras snapped, a powerful command behind that word that made the air around Valen tremble.
Valen looked across at his older brother, shock rippling through him as he registered what had just happened.
Keras hated the idea of him walking into danger alone, and he hated it so much he had almost lost his temper.
Almost.
Valen had seen the things that happened when Keras lost his temper, and that widespread destruction was half of the reason he kept a lid on it. The other half? Valen didn’t know, but something held back his negative emotions and kept him mellow.
“So you’ll hang around at a distance as back up.” Valen grinned at him, aiming for his usual charming and cocky self to soothe his brother’s temper, because Esher would be pissed if he came around to find Keras had levelled half of Tokyo.
“We need one of them alive.” Keras curled his hands into fists and clenched them, and the vivid green-gold in his eyes faded to emerald as he got his emotions back under control. “Do you think you can manage that?”
He wasn’t sure. Just the thought of them hurting Eva had him close to the edge of losing control already. He couldn’t guarantee he would be able to keep his head when he knew they had her.
“I will have Marek come too. We will track you and wait in the shadows for a sign you need help.” Keras took his coat from the back of the couch and slipped it back on, the hem swaying around his ankles before it settled.
There was a lot Valen wanted to say in response to that—he didn’t need help, it was dangerous for Keras to use his command over the shadows to conceal him and Marek, and this was his moment and he would kill his brother if he stole his gig as white knight.
In the end, he settled for saying, “Thanks.”
Keras nodded and disappeared.
Calistos blew out his breath on a low whistle. “You really know how to push his buttons, Brother.”
Before Valen could respond, Calistos stepped. Little bastard.
But he w
as right.
Keras’s temper had flared. Only a little, but it had happened, and he couldn’t remember the last time their fearless leader had been affected by anything that happened to them, or anything they had proposed to do.
Esher must have shaken him deeper than everyone had thought.
Or he was finally reaching his limit, and everything he had bottled up during his time in the mortal world, every negative emotion he had contained, had him close to bursting.
Valen didn’t want to be around when that happened.
He fished his phone from his pocket, the handful of small innocuous charms that hung from it rattling, and sorted through them, searching for the right one.
“What are you doing?” Eva moved closer, peering at his phone.
“Sending a message.”
She frowned. “You do that with the screen, you know?”
He smiled. “Not this sort of message. There are no phones on Mount Olympus.”
He pressed the simple sword and shield metal charm against his palm and closed his fingers over it. It was warm. Metal of the gods.
Valen closed his eyes and sent the message.
He just hoped her brother didn’t pick it up.
He stuffed his phone back in his pocket, shutting out the voice at the back of his mind that whispered about how much he hated people meddling in his affairs and now he was doing it to others.
He shrugged that off.
It wasn’t meddling.
He liked to think of it as saving the world.
He held his right hand out to Eva.
“Walk with me?”
CHAPTER 30
Valen didn’t realise how much he needed to be alone with Eva, how fiercely he wanted to spend every last possible second with her before they kicked their plan into action, until she placed her hand into his.
He clutched it tightly. She frowned down at their joined hands, and then up into his eyes, and placed her other hand over his.
“I’ll be fine,” she said and he nodded.
But he didn’t believe it.
He couldn’t when every possible scenario was running through his head, weighing down his heart.
“Come on.” She tugged on his hand, leading him towards sliding wood-framed white panels that had been pushed back to reveal the covered wooden walkway that ran around the three sides of the building facing onto the courtyard. She looked back at him, a smile in her eyes. “You never told me you knew a place like this.”
Why did she look so fascinated?
He smiled when it hit him. The nightingale floors in her apartment.
“We don’t have any.” He shrugged when she looked disappointed. “We don’t really need them. The wards around the mansion stop anyone from entering.”
“You keep mentioning wards. Are they like a barrier?”
He nodded and took the lead as they stepped out onto the covered walkway. He tugged her to the right and followed it around a bend and along that wing of the ancient house.
“We all lived here once, so the barriers are strongest, reinforced by our father.” He stopped at the two decorated paper panels that formed a door to the room at the end of the wing, over the koi pond. “As the world developed, we all ended up leaving this place to be closer to our gates. Only Esher stays here now, but Daimon stops over from time to time.”
“They seem close,” she whispered and he nodded again.
“They share one hell of a bond.” He released her hand and carefully slid one of the doors back, revealing the room on the other side.
A single square paper lantern illuminated the almost naked space, situated on the tatami mat floor a few feet from his brother’s head.
Valen stepped into the room and kneeled beside Esher on the floor. He was still too pale, his breathing laboured as he fought to heal the wound. Valen drew the thick blue blanket down to reveal Esher’s bare chest and folded it over his hips. He leaned over and studied the wound.
Sank back on his heels as he saw it was healing and let out the breath he had been holding.
Esher would be fine.
Physically anyway.
He would have to wait to see what sort of mental shape his brother was in when he came around.
He closed his eyes, drew in another deep breath, and took hold of Esher’s hand, issuing a silent apology to his brother.
“Will he be okay?” Eva whispered and he let go of Esher’s hand, covered him again and rose back onto his feet.
She stood in the doorway, partially hidden behind it, and he couldn’t blame her for keeping her distance after the way Esher had reacted to her.
Valen nodded, stepped out of the room, and gently closed the sliding door. “He’ll be fine… up and around in no time and probably tearing us all new ones for walking around the house in our shoes.”
He took her hand again and led her to the broad stone step, and down into the courtyard, following the path that snaked through the gravel and the manicured small trees.
She stopped, forcing him to stop with her, and he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Will you?” she said, and when he frowned at her, added, “Be fine?”
Her blue gaze dropped to his chest.
He smiled to alleviate her worry and fingered the slashes in his black t-shirt. “Esher lost his temper when I arrived with you, but I’ll be fine. The cuts are healing and they’ll be gone in a few hours.”
“Incredible,” she murmured and lifted her eyes to meet his. “You healed quickly from the wounds you picked up in the bar fight in Rome too.”
He shrugged it off. “Perk of being a god.”
A hollow clacking sound echoed around the peaceful garden, sending a jolt down his spine, and he glared at the water feature responsible for that harrowing noise. He hated the damn thing.
It was nothing more than a simple construction involving a bamboo pipe and a water course that fed it, filling it up until it tipped on its axis and spilled its contents into the square pool of the thick stone disc on the gravel near the pond, but he hated it. He hated the sharp wooden sound it made when the empty bamboo pipe swung back the other way, the sealed base striking the stone.
It royally pissed him off whenever he stayed at the mansion, keeping him awake for hours.
Esher loved the damn thing though.
Valen stalked over to it, scooped up a handful of the spring water from the pool and used it to wash his chest. Shuddered. Fuck it was freezing. He scrubbed the blood from his body as quickly as he could and then stilled as moonlight shone down on him, allowing him to inspect the wounds. They were healing well now. A few more hours and they would be little more than pinkened skin.
Eva studied him, so fiercely he could almost feel her concern.
He shot her a smile over his shoulder. “All good. They’ll be gone before you know it.”
He held his hand out to her. She slipped hers back into it and he led her along the path past the water feature to the small bridge that arched over the pond.
Eva slowed at the apex of the curved red wooden bridge and he looked back at her.
Stopped.
Sweet gods, she was beautiful.
Moonlight bathed her skin, making it clear and milky white, and transformed her eyes, so they shone almost like his did at times, hers bright blue in the strong light.
She tensed and he swore a blush of colour rose onto her cheeks as she looked away, but then her eyes met his again, and the determined look in them almost swept his legs out from under him.
She hemmed him in against the arched wooden balustrade of the bridge, lifted her hand and touched his cheek.
His left one.
“Does this have something to do with your sister?”
He wanted to shut her out, bring up the barriers and not let her see that part of him, but he was tired of always hiding it from her. She would find out one day, and he would rather that day was now, when he was only falling in love with her.
In order to spare himself g
reater pain in the future, he had to put himself through the agony of telling her now.
“It wasn’t my finest moment.” He tipped his head back, looking up at the moon in the clear sky. Stars twinkled around it, faint but visible, struggling as their backdrop lightened. It would be dawn soon. He planted his hands on the balustrade and sighed. “When she died, I went off the rails… and I killed the goddesses who had sworn to protect her.”
He lowered his eyes back to Eva’s.
“I butchered the Moirai.”
Her eyes widened. “The Fates?”
He nodded and turned his cheek to her, watched the koi sleeping in the pond, peaceful and unaware of his pain.
Lucky bastards.
“I went after Zeus, blaming him for not stopping what happened to Calindria. Gods, I burned with that need for vengeance and it consumed me. I was so convinced I could both avenge her and get her back at the same time. I wanted to defeat Zeus so he would bring my sister back.” He closed his eyes and sighed again. “Even back then part of me knew it wasn’t possible… that Zeus could do fuck all for her without her soul.”
“What happened?” Eva pressed closer to him, her warmth chasing some of the cold away, and he draped his arms around her bare shoulders and pulled her closer still, needing the light weight of her body against his and the scent of her soothing him.
“Zeus defeated me and gave life back to the Moirai, and he would have killed me if my mother hadn’t shown up and pleaded for my life.” He gazed down at Eva and stroked her short hair behind her right ear. “Instead of killing me, Zeus banished me from Mount Olympus and decreed that I would no longer know the gods of that realm, and they would no longer know me. He took his favour from me.”
He brushed his fingers across his scar.
Her eyes fell there. “Favour?”
He nodded. “Each of us were blessed with the favour of a god or goddess when we were born. My brothers still bear the marks of those who favour them. You’ve probably noticed the writing on the underside of Cal’s forearm, and that stupid black heart below Keras’s eye.”
Valen (Guardians of Hades Romance Series Book 2) Page 33
