“Humans have such weak stomachs,” a male voice mused behind me.
I turned back around, sitting on the ground and leaning against the trash bin as I tried to pull my shirt back around my exposed chest. The smoke made it hard to see and my straining eyes couldn’t find who had spoken.
“Don’t worry about covering yourself,” he drawled. “I find you weak and helpless, qualities that are hardly attractive in a mate.”
“Wh-where are you?” I asked, pulling the cloth around me tighter anyway.
“Here.”
His form seemed to materialize out of the mist, a tall, muscular man holding two scythes in his hands. As he stepped forward, he sheathed them at his sides, his face finally coming into view in the darkness.
It was one of the men from the table that Stacy had warned me about, the more menacing of the two if I remembered correctly.
“Who are you?” I asked, fear and adrenaline still pumping through my system.
He may have saved me from the drunk, but he was also a killer. I could have been no safer than I was when pinned to the ground.
“Not who,” he said with a twisted grin, leaning down, his face coming so close that his hot, sticky breath slapped my sweaty skin. “What.”
In an instant, his features began to change, his skin seeming to age and burn slightly, eyes glowing black, and muscles turning to that of something beyond human strength.
I froze completely, captured by his morphing, my brain quickly trying to make sense of what was happening in front of me. Finally, I landed on the thought that it might be good time to run.
“Fear,” he said, inhaling deeply. “How I love the smell of it. Especially now, as it mixes with your adrenaline, fueling all of the darkest parts of your mind, urging you to flee from me.”
I pressed myself into the trash bin even harder, as if doing so would give me the space I so felt I needed to put between us.
“Are you. . . The Devil?” I asked shakily, watching the smoke around us swirl in patterns that seemed dictated by nothing other than his soulless eyes.
“Oh no,” he laughed, the sound barking from his throat. “I’m much older than that, my dear. The Devil wishes he was me.”
I swallowed hard, wrapping my arms tighter around my chest. How was I supposed to respond to that? Normally, I would think someone was messing with me, that I was the victim of a cruel prank. I’d only ever seen transformations like the one I’d just witnessed in the movies, though. I’m sure I reeked of the fear he was smelling by that point.
“What do you want?” I asked as calmly as I could.
“I knew you’d come around fast,” he said with a twisted grin, stepping right in front of me, kicking my assailant’s body out of the way as he did so, and squatting down to my level. “So many of the others I’ve watched cried for their mommies or tried to run for their lives. But you—you I knew would be strong enough.”
“Strong enough for what?”
I shifted uncomfortably, not liking how his eyes lacked a pupil. I couldn’t tell if his gaze ever left me, making it feel like he was boring right into my brain, digging around and looking through all of my secrets.
“You see, Katrina,” he said, his fingers drawing in the dirt as he continued to stare. “It’s not about what I want. It’s about what you want and need. I’m only here to help you out.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, frowning at his infuriating way of never really answering the questions I asked him.
“Humans never do.”
My mouth popped open in silence, a retort bit back as I tried to make sense of his words.
“What is it that I want?” I finally asked, giving up on trying to figure out what was happening.
“You already know.”
“Okay,” I said, my nerves finally getting the best of me. “I need to go now. My boss is going to be wondering where I am and I’m not too sure he’d handle coming out here and seeing . . . Whatever it is you are out here.”
“Barry thinks you’ve gone home for the evening,” he said, his white teeth sticking out sharply against the rest of his dark demeanor.
“Why would he think that?” I laughed nervously, trying to discretely slide away from him.
“Because you went inside and told him while you were being attacked out here,” he said, acting as if the statement made any sense.
“Okay, I’m sorry, Not Satan,” I said, scrambling to my feet, my back still facing away from him. “But I’m getting a little weirded out, so . . . You know. Get thee hence.”
Before my nerve ran out, I turned and made a break for the door. I hadn’t made it two steps before a form materialized out of the smoke and grabbed me.
“Sit down, now!”
I froze, eyes wide, as I looked at who had grabbed me.
It was me.
“What the hell?” I yelled, slapping the familiar hands off my arms as I stumbled back, tripping and falling into almost the exact space I’d just vacated.
The world started to spin as I looked at the form, a face and body that I’d seen every day in the mirror. There was something different about this version, though, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Whatever it was, it made my skin crawl and heart pound out of added fear.
“Who are you,” I whispered again, mouth going dry.
“My name is Erebos,” the man said, drawing my attention back to him, albeit somewhat difficultly.
“What are you?”
“Darkness,” he said coldly. “Born of Chaos, the nothingness that this world came from. I am the beginning, chased out by the light and hunger of my own kin, who were in turn destroyed by their own children. As fate would have it, even the children were, in turn, overtaken by the very gods that watch over the earth now.”
“Gods?” I asked, not being able to keep up with where he was going.
“You’ve heard of Greek mythology, I assume?” His eyes continued to bore into my being, never wavering from me despite my obvious fidgeting.
“What is that?” I asked, stealing a glance back at my copy.
“It is also darkness,” he said, a hint of annoyance in his tone. “A version of you made from your most secret desires and thoughts. Essentially, it is you, if you were to follow those urges.”
“It looks. . . Different.” I swallowed hard, closing my eyes for a minute, waiting to see if I would wake up and discover this was a weird dream.
“Greek mythology,” I finally said, trying to accept that this was my reality now. “You mean like Zeus and all that?”
“Yes, and all that,” he said snidely. “It’s not a myth though. If it were, I would not be here.”
“I got that,” I said, taking a deep breath to steady myself. “You never told me what you wanted from me.”
“That is because it’s about what you want, as I did say,” he spat out. “All of your thoughts, your desires, the darkness inside you, I see it all. That’s how I made this.” He motioned to the darker me. “I want you to have the things you really want, to fulfill the dark desires inside of yourself, to obtain true happiness at last.”
“I’m pretty sure I don’t have that many real dark desires,” I said hesitantly, feeling like I was about to be thrust into condemnation and hellfire or asked to murder someone.
“Your mother.”
It was all he said, but suddenly, I understood exactly what he meant.
“Being angry with my mom isn’t a dark desire,” I argued back, not liking how he could pick at me like that, without another thought.
“No, but wanting her to pay for what she did to your family is.”
“I don’t want her to die or anything,” I rushed to say.
“Wishing death on someone is not the only dark desire you can have,” he said impatiently. “You want her to pay, don’t you?”
I fell silent, contemplating his words. I was angry with her, yes. I wanted her to feel bad, just as I had. I wanted her to regret ever picking up a drop of alcohol. I want
ed her to feel the pain that she’d caused my father.
“Yes,” I finally whispered, afraid to let such a confession actually leave my lips.
“Then I will see to it. But only if you do something for me in return.”
“That’s what I thought,” I breathed out, waiting to hear what I would be asked to do.
“Learn all you can about Hades.”
“Wait, what?” I asked, confused. “That’s it?”
“I will come to collect the rest in the near future,” he said, finally standing back up and stepping away from me, my copy dissolving back into the smoke. “Beware the consequences if you haven’t done what I’ve asked.”
He started to disappear into the fog as well, the alley filling with the light he’d smothered during our odd discussion.
“What about my mom?” I called after him, another surge of anxiety and fear overtaking me as his form faded completely from my sight.
“Beware.”
It was like a whisper on the wind, chased out by the light bulb shining brightly by the door.
I remained seated by the trash, my arms wrapped around my blood covered body as I looked for signs of anything supernatural lurking around me. The body of my attacker lay on the ground next to me, the horrors of what he’d done still as real as when I’d been lying trapped underneath him.
Suddenly, my brain still struggling to come out of the fog it’d been wrapped in, it occurred to me that I was sitting next to a dead body. It was like a slap in the face.
I scurried to my feet, backing away from it until I hit the back wall of the alley. It seemed like I should run inside and say something, call the cops, do anything to take care of it, but I couldn’t move. In my mind, a tiny voice whispered to just leave and not say anything.
What if I was blamed for the murder? I had no proof it wasn’t me. Of course, I could claim self-defense. I looked the part for sure.
The voice whispered stronger, urging me to get out of there before someone found us. I swallowed hard, not knowing which way to go.
The door to Barry’s started to open slowly and I heard the noise from inside, someone tossing a bag out of the door as they stood in the entryway, their back to me as they laughed loudly at something someone. I could tell it was one of the servers, but not which one.
And then I made my decision.
By the time the screaming started, I’d already climbed over the wall and was running through the back parking lot, seeking the comfort of my own truck to hide me from prying eyes.
Chapter Four
I flopped back onto my bed, my laptop sliding off my crossed legs as I huffed in frustration.
How on earth was I supposed to learn all I could about Hades if there was virtually nothing to know about him? There were such a small amount of myths that I’d literally read them all in the space of an hour. A video search had turned up some interesting documentaries, but they didn’t offer a whole lot of new information either. The only other thing I could think of would be to start getting into the more fictitious stories that had come out recently, but I didn’t think that was what Erebos had intended for me to do.
The fact of the matter was the Greeks had feared Hades so much, they didn’t talk about him. Surely, Erebos would have known this. Why did he ask me to research someone with so little written history?
What I had found was somewhat disturbing though; stories of kidnap and rape, resentment, and the horrors of the Underworld. Hades did not sound like a good guy. What was even worse, if Erebos was real, then he must be too, including all of the horrible things he’d done during his existence.
It was still a mystery to me why I needed to know all of it.
There was a knock on my bedroom door and Daddy opened it a crack, peeking in.
“Are you decent?” he asked.
“Yeah, I just got out of the shower,” I said, smiling tightly. “Come on in.”
“Actually, there’s someone here to see you,” he said grimly, his mouth a tight line.
“Who is it?” I asked, recognizing his bad news face.
“The sheriff.”
“Oh.”
My heart began to beat faster, despite my brain urging me to continue on normally.
“I’ll be right down,” I said, successfully sounding like nothing was wrong. “Just let me run a brush through my hair.”
“Sounds good.”
The door shut quietly behind him and I let a quick breath of panic escape me. Something in my gut told me he was here to ask about my confrontation with the drunk in the bar.
I checked under my bed to make sure that my bloody clothes from the night before were still safely locked away in the box I’d put them in. I’d have to get rid of them soon it seemed. After that, I did run a brush through my hair, combing out any tangles I’d gained while lying down.
When I left my room, I could hear Daddy and the sheriff visiting together. The air in house seemed to be electrically charged somehow.
Maybe it was just me.
“Sheriff,” I said with a smile, announcing my entrance into the living room, which sat just off the front entry way.
“Katrina,” he said, standing as I entered the room. “I suspect you know why I’m here?”
“Not at all,” I fibbed. “Is something wrong?”
“Well,” he sighed, taking his seat again once I’d settled down next to Daddy. “There was a body found in the alley outside Barry’s last night.”
“You serious?” Daddy asked in surprise, his eyebrows rising high. “In our small town?”
“I’m afraid so,” the sheriff said grimly. “I’ve come to see if Katrina here might know anything about it.”
“Why would I?” I asked, hoping I didn’t appear as nervous as I felt.
“You had an altercation with the man a little while before,” he explained. “It resulted in you breaking his nose and Barry throwing him out.”
“Katrina,” Daddy chastised me.
“Yes, I know what you’re talking about,” I said, brushing off his angry look. “That was all that happened, though.”
“Barry says you took the trash out soon after and then came in asking to go home?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding quickly. “I felt somewhat sick after what had happened.”
“And what happened exactly to cause such a reaction in you?”
“You mean to tell me you came here to question my daughter and didn’t think you needed to run it by me first?” Daddy said angrily, looking between us with a near growl coming out of his mouth.
“It’s fine, Daddy,” I said, grabbing his hand.
“Katrina is an adult,” the sheriff said defensively. “And I thought you would appreciate a questioning here rather than taking her down to the station to do it.”
“You can’t take her down to the station,” Daddy said. “There’s no proof she did anything other than get in a fight at work.”
“Katrina is our only suspect so far.”
The words hung in the air, revitalizing the shock in the atmosphere I’d been feeling as soon as I’d come downstairs.
“Suspect?” My voice squeaked through my lips, the first sign of my terror to escape.
“I’m sorry, Hurricane,” the sheriff said sadly. “I don’t think you did it, but I have to follow the leads.”
“He grabbed me,” I said, clearing my throat to try and get a hold on the shakiness that was invading every sound coming from me. “Inappropriately. So I head butted him. That’s all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Katrina,” Daddy interrupted. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You already don’t like me working there,” I said, smiling at him weakly. “I figured this would just add fuel to your fire.”
“I know we had to come check on something before, when you punched a customer?” The sheriff leafed through the little book he’d been holding in his hands, checking off things and then looking at me for an answer.
“Another drunk doing
something he shouldn’t have,” I said grimly, knowing my helpful acts in the bar were now going to be held against me.
“Katrina,” Daddy said again, his voice angry. “Do you mean to tell me that you go to work and get in fights all night? I raised you better than that.”
“It’s not that,” I sighed in frustration, pushing myself up from the couch and walking over to the window. “Sometimes we get people who’ve had too much to drink. I don’t use force unless it’s necessary.”
“Katrina,” Daddy said again, a warning in his voice.
“I think that’s all the questions I have for now,” the sheriff said, interrupting us. “I’ll check back if I need anything else.”
He got up from his seat as well and headed toward the door on his own.
“Oh, and Katrina?” he said, stopping with his hand on the knob, using my given name once more. “You shouldn’t leave town for a while. Got it?”
I stared at him for a moment, chewing on the inside of my cheek before nodding curtly.
“All right then,” he said, letting himself out.
To his credit, Daddy stayed silent as I watched the officer get into his patrol car and drive away. A few of the hands watched him as well, looking over to the house curiously as the dust from the road followed him off the ranch.
“I didn’t do it,” I finally said quietly, needing him to know for some reason.
“I know,” he said, staying in his seat.
After a few more minutes of silence I left the window and headed to the front door.
“Where are you going?” he asked, watching me.
“You asked me to help muck out the stable this morning. Remember?”
I pulled on my boots and went outside, not waiting on his answer. It would be nice to get my mind off of what just happened with some good, hard work.
“Hey, Hurricane,” one of the hands, Rick, called out to me as I came down the front steps. “What did Sheriff Stevens want?”
“Nothing really,” I said, shrugging him off as he came over and threw an arm around my shoulder.
Hades (The God Chronicles #3) Page 3
