I frowned in disappointment as Nosh straightened beside me. I released my cloak and frowned at him. “I think the fight is already over,” I said, pointing.
Nosh was quiet for a few moments and then he sighed. “That actually works for me,” he said letting out an exhausted sigh.
I arched an eyebrow at him. He’d hardly done anything tonight. Unless maintaining his skinwalker guise was taxing.
“There’s a dance back at the museum,” he said very slowly, “and there is a girl I’m thinking about asking. If we hurry.”
My heart skipped a beat and I smiled in relief. Izzy. He had forgiven Izzy—or at least he wanted to do so.
I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and jostled him lovingly. “Then let’s get this over with. To be honest, after five hundred years, I think this fight is over as well. They don’t even deserve the time and effort of a slow death. An unremarkable execution is more fitting. To let the other Olympians know that they are nothing special, and that they will be dealt with like pests.”
Justice, not vengeance.
My heart, although broken, was full. The cracks from Natalie and Victoria’s deaths were being held together by silver threads, rather than the golden threads that had healed my wounds from Artemis’ arrows.
Threads of moonlight, thanks to Aphrodite bringing me to Selene.
Thanks to Hades for bringing Selene to me.
55
I walked up to the Olympians. They stared at me, seeming unable to move. Or unwilling. Artemis had a massive hole in her side from the ricocheted sunlight, and Apollo had—
“Holy shit!” Nosh cursed, pointing at Apollo. “Wasn’t there a crucifix attached to that pedestal?” he hissed, pointing at the marble block Apollo was straddling. The Olympian’s face was red with both pain and embarrassment.
I nodded slowly, crouching down to assess the somewhat melted pole rising up from the pedestal. Golden blood was trickling down its length where it suspiciously disappeared near Apollo’s ass. I blinked.
Then I straightened with a grimace. “I’m pretty sure the crucifix is still there. We just can’t see it, because it’s…well, in there,” I said meaningfully, gesturing at Apollo.
“Holy shit,” Nosh repeated. Then he laughed. “Literally, as a matter of fact.”
I nodded. “Now we know what took the fight out of him,” I said, shrugging.
“Yeah,” Nosh chuckled. “He’s too full of the Holy Spirit to fight. Puts a whole new take on turning the other cheek.”
Apollo gritted his teeth furiously, doing his best not to move an inch in any direction, but especially not up or down. His firmly planted feet were the only thing saving him from further torture, but his legs were shaking and trembling as blood oozed down the pedestal.
“Your trinity is dead. You are finished.”
“A fact you should probably not bring up right now, given the circumstances,” Nosh suggested dryly.
Apollo moved only his eyes. “Hera will destroy you,” he rasped.
“I’m not hiding, so where is she?” I asked, snickering.
He pursed his lips. “You have no idea what you’ve done. All of Olympus will unite against you for this.”
I nodded. “That will make things easier. I’d hate to have to hunt them all down.”
Nosh nodded at my logistical assessment. “That is both taunting and factual.”
“I could turn you,” I told them, turning from one face to the other. “I’ve already bitten you once. Drink my blood and I can protect you from Hera. You could have a new chance, no longer forced to be her pawns. I turned the Nephilim,” I said with a shrug. “You could help me rebuild.”
“And we could help get that crucifix out of your ass. Not hands-on help,” he clarified with a grimace, “but we could cut the base off the pedestal and let you figure out the rest.”
A flicker of hope danced in Apollo’s eyes.
“We could work together to make Olympus what it always should have been.” I met his eyes, smiling gently. “Did you know Sorin means sun?” I asked, hoping to persuade him.
He gave a stiff nod. “Yes.” Then he spasmed at a fresh pain. “What do we need to do?”
“Tell me where the real Hazel and Benjamin are.”
He nodded. “The San Remo,” he said, rattling off the address, suddenly extremely helpful now that he had a chance to escape his torture. “The northern corner penthouse on the top floor.”
Nosh grunted. “You put them in one of the most expensive penthouses overlooking Central Park?” he blurted, baffled.
Artemis cleared her throat. She was holding a large portion of her stomach in place, looking like nothing more than a field-dressed animal, which was oddly poetic. “It is our penthouse. We moved into it when the humans fled the area after you brought your castle to the park,” she spoke softly. Obviously in great pain. “It let us keep a close eye on you, and we needed Hazel and Benjamin close so we could ask them questions to better our disguises.”
“A true son-of-a-bitch lived there,” Apollo grunted. “Prick named Shayne—with a y—the pretentious asshole.”
I cocked my head. “It’s not like he picked his own name. Who cares about the spelling?”
Apollo grimaced. “He offended me.”
“This I have to hear,” Nosh murmured. “Have you even met this man?”
“No. Or he would be dead,” Apollo said.
Artemis hissed in pain as she tried to shift her weight. Some of her organs slipped out and her face paled.
Nosh blanched. “Good lord. That is disgusting. Stop moving it!” he snapped.
She nodded weakly. “Shayne has a statue of my brother in the penthouse, and it is…defaced.”
Apollo licked his lips urgently. “I don’t want to talk about it. I agree to your terms,” he snapped, sounding desperate.
I turned to Artemis, arching an eyebrow.
“I never wanted to work for her in the first place,” she whispered, barely able to even breathe. “I agree.”
I nodded, studying their faces as I considered the potential. Turning them, I could make them obedient whether they wanted to be or not. I could use them—their contacts, their powers, their knowledge. I could get answers.
And…I would be just like the other Olympians.
A slow, devilish grin split across my cheeks. “They thought I was serious, Nosh,” I said softly. Because I had never intended to follow-through. I’d entertained the benefits, but more as an idle curiosity than anything else.
I burst out laughing at the shame on their faces. That I’d gotten them to openly admit how easily they would turn coat. I’d just destroyed their honor on top of everything else.
“How?” Apollo whispered.
I knew what he truly meant. “I got my soul back,” I said. “Even if you had won tonight, Dracula wouldn’t have been able to help you. My soul was safely tucked away, and none of you knew it.”
He blinked rapidly. “Hades,” he breathed. “He’s behind all of this?” he asked, his eyes darting behind me towards the church.
I shook my head. “No,” I lied. “He just helped me even the odds. Told me to do as I pleased, but that you two pieces of trash were tarnishing the family name.”
I turned to Artemis, recalling something all of a sudden. “You told me that you wanted me bleeding out at your feet, whimpering your name. And that you wanted Apollo to witness it all.”
She grimaced at my sudden smile.
“I think that’s a marvelous idea.” I calmly knelt down before her. Then I drew a claw down my finger and let my blood drip onto her toes. “Artemis!” I whimpered in mock terror. “Artemis, no! Artemis, please!”
I glanced back at Nosh to gauge his review of my performance. He had stepped up beside Apollo, draping an arm over the god’s shoulders. The added weight forcing Apollo down onto his implement of impalement had to be pure murder. Then Nosh patted him on the back forcefully, smiling at his fellow audience member’s gasp. “Who knew he could
act?” Nosh asked. Then he patted Apollo on the shoulders one last time, stepped away, and spun back to the God of the Sun.
His tomahawk severed Apollo’s head from his shoulders so fast that the head fell forwards, bumping into Artemis’ feet. She screamed. Apollo’s body slowly slid down the pole as his legs finally gave out. I turned away, not wanting to see what would eventually rise out of Apollo’s gaping neck. It definitely wouldn’t be a sunrise.
More like a son rise. I hadn’t noticed if a depiction of Jesus Christ had been on the crucifix.
I let Artemis’ scream continue for a few moments. Nosh finally bent down to scoop up Apollo’s head and shoved it into her arms. “Cut it out, would you? He gave you what you asked for, you ungrateful hag. You’ve done far worse to countless others, and all of them better than your brother. And that is before we begin to recount the atrocities you’ve directly and indirectly inflicted upon my own family.”
She held her brother’s head, unable to drop it for fear of the imagined consequence of dishonoring her brother, but also not wanting to hold such a macabre trophy.
Rather than drawing it out, I met Nosh’s eyes. He gave me a resolute nod. I turned back to the Goddess of the Hunt. Justice, not vengeance; I would not mention my devils or Selene. I’d already paid them for that by slicing off each of their hands—one for Natalie and one for Victoria.
“This is for Stevie.”
And I decapitated her, swinging my claws through her throat with a growl. The church fell peacefully silent as the two heads rolled, finally coming to a stop at my feet, their cheeks pressed together. I let out a sigh of relief. It…was done.
Everyone who had cursed me had paid for their efforts. Well, Hades had been protecting me.
But I had granted the twins the justice they deserved—Hades’ method of justice.
I scooped up both heads and met Nosh’s eyes. “Let’s go—Gah!”
My soulcatcher suddenly hummed against my thumb, instinctively making me clutch the heads to my chest. I stared down at my hand in alarm, only for the ring to suddenly calm.
Nosh was frowning at me. “Are you okay, father?” he asked nervously.
I nodded stiffly. “Felt like one of them moved,” I said quickly. “Startled me.”
Nosh nodded slowly. “Okay.
“That was a mercy killing. Trust me. I’ve fantasized about much worse.”
“I know. They deserved it.” He glanced back at his waiting spirit bear. “Guess I didn’t need him after all. Thought that was going to be a lot more difficult,” he said, waving a hand. The bear evaporated into fog, looking crestfallen.
“They are just gods, Nosh. Nothing to get worked up about.” I glanced at the destroyed church and sighed. With the fight over, I realized I had nothing to do. Natalie and Victoria were dead. No great victory waited for me, and I suddenly felt rudderless at my bitter win. “We have a long walk ahead of us.”
Nosh nodded wearily. Then he paused, glancing down at the ground. Two ornate bows rested there. The deadly silver bow Hades had warned me about, and Apollo’s thicker, sturdier bow. Nosh glanced up at me with a smile. “Mementos.”
I nodded, and he bent to scoop them up.
“How did Izzy get here?” he asked, slipping the weapons over his shoulder.
I slowly turned to look at him, frowning. “I don’t know. She drove, probably.”
Nosh grinned. “She has a hide-a-key!” He was already urging me towards the door. “And Nero took them back the fast way.”
I let out a breath of relief. “Let’s go check. We can send someone up to Shayne’s penthouse to collect Hazel and Benjamin.”
“Don’t you want to at least see the statue?” Nosh asked, smirking. “You know you do…”
I smiled, hefting Apollo’s head. “I think we’ve done enough defacing of Apollo, if beheading counts.” Nosh grinned, shrugging. “Now that the penthouse is vacant, maybe you and Izzy should check it out.”
That drew him up short.
But he was smiling.
56
We had made it back to the museum fairly quickly after successfully finding Izzy’s spare key.
I’d tucked the spare heads under my arms as we slipped into the back entrance of the museum so as not to crash the social mixer or be swamped with hundreds of questions. We made it down to the catacombs without encountering anyone, eager to find our party from the church, rather than attending the party raging above.
I had promised Nosh that I would send someone out to Trinity Church to collect the bodies we had left behind. Especially Bubbling Brook’s body. I wasn’t sure how no humans had noticed us destroying the place, but I was betting it was related to the odd repelling spell I’d initially felt outside the church that had seemed to keep bystanders back. I didn’t know how long that spell would last, so I wanted to get someone back there before anyone else found the murder scene.
Stevie had contacts to help with body removals and crime scene clean up, but Stevie had died. I was hoping that Benjamin could step up to help me. To help his new boss, Lucian.
We came to a stop outside my bedchambers to find Nero waiting for us. He opened his mouth, and then he noticed the severed heads under my arms for the first time. “Oh. That’s…pleasant,” he said.
“Can you put them on a shelf for me?” I asked, shoving them into his arms before he could say otherwise.
He watched me with a sad expression on his face, knowing the pain I was in. “Of course.”
“Where are they?” I asked softly.
He hung his head. “I will—”
“I will take my brother,” Aphrodite said, stepping up from behind me.
Nero nodded in understanding. “The real Dracula is nice and comfy in the prison, so you can interrogate him at your leisure.”
I nodded absently. “Some other time.” I turned to Aphrodite, waiting. She held out her hand and I took it, realizing that she was still bloody from battle, but that she wore one of my robes. She’d gotten the arrows taken out of her back, at least. She held a mug of some spicy tea in her other hand, and it seemed to be healing her. She noticed my attention and smiled. “Ambrosia.”
I grunted. Ambrosia was the nectar of the gods, and my namesake. “It healed you,” I said, taking her hand in mine, needing to feel hot flesh against mine, rather than the cold flesh of Apollo and Artemis’ heads.
“Yes. My Ambrogio is healing me,” she said with a gentle smile.
I returned the look with a smile of my own. She had said Ambrogio, not Ambrosia, indicating that I was healing her, not the drink.
“Let’s go grab a drink and compare notes,” Nosh told the necromancer, hefting the newly acquired bows over his shoulder. “You’re never going to believe what happened to Apollo, and we have a statue we need to steal for Sorin…” I smiled absently at the idea of them stealing the defaced statue of Apollo as they walked out of earshot.
Aphrodite watched them leave, eyeing the bows with a proud smile. “Much better in your hands, brother. Although you don’t need two.”
I nodded. “Want one?”
“No,” she said, smiling. “But thank you. Perhaps you will find someone worthy of it, some day,” she said thoughtfully.
We turned and made our way towards the storage rooms, of which there were hundreds. We walked in silence, both saddened and relieved. We had survived, but others had not.
“You’ve changed things,” she said softly. “I don’t see you like I saw you yesterday. I’ve never looked at a handsome man the same way I look at you. It is strange.”
I arched an eyebrow. “It is strange to see a man and not desire to have sex with him?” I asked.
She nodded seriously. “For me, yes.” She smiled. “But it is oddly fulfilling in a different way,” she admitted. She glanced down, indicating our joined hands. “This feels nice.”
I studied our hands for longer than I needed to, trying to formulate a serious answer. She was trying to have a meaningful conversation about somethi
ng she didn’t fully understand. Mocking her would be cruel.
“Family,” I said, thinking out loud. “Trust.” I met her eyes. “Love.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “I like them. Very much. They offer different, lasting pleasures.”
I absently stroked the soulcatcher around my thumb. I was almost entirely certain that it had consumed Apollo and Artemis’ souls, but I didn’t want to claim so until I spoke to Hades again. I had questions for him. Like, where the hell had my soul been the whole time, and how had I gotten it back? Adam had claimed sensing me at the gates to Castle Ambrogio right before he’d snatched my soul out of the air. But I’d briefly seen Hades and he’d punched me with his soulcatcher. So, had my soul been inside the Soul Spring at Castle Ambrogio or inside Hades’ soulcatcher? Or somewhere else.
I sighed and soon found myself catching her up on Artemis and Apollo’s final moments.
Aphrodite spewed her Ambrosia all over my face upon hearing about the crucifix impalement. She was also laughing too hard immediately after to apologize for it. I found my scowl fading and I began to laugh along with her. Before long, the two of us were coming up with inappropriate slogans and phrases to memorialize the occasion with a t-shirt or new coffee mugs.
When we’d exhausted our creative juices, I let out a sigh, realizing that we were now far removed from public halls where another vampire might have interrupted us.
“There will be repercussions for their deaths, but we will handle it together,” she said.
I nodded. “Thank you for coming to the church tonight.”
She smiled, squeezing my hand. “Of course.”
“You inspired me. Shoving me across the floor like that, even when the twins were taking shots at you.”
She smiled faintly, looking surprisingly shy. “Someone needed to do it.”
“Do what, exactly?” I asked, wondering if I would hear a solid answer.
She considered her response. “Hades told me that moonlight was your salvation.”
I watched my big sister. Her eyes were tight with pain, and glossy with tears. I could tell she was hurting inside, knowing my next words. The self-blame was obvious. “I know it wasn’t your fault, sister. Natalie and Victoria. But I want to know how you knew they would die. You knew back when we first met. Selene told me.”
Devil’s Blood: Shade of Devil Book 3 Page 35
