How Beauty Saved the Beast (Tales of the Underlight)

by Garren, Jax

  And yet the doctor traced a design on his skin right where it had been as he kept talking. “The color’s fading, but when you know where to look, you can see how the scars form the shape.”

  Scars had formed in the shape of his old tattoo? How was that possible?

  Ashley spoke up. “Wh-what does that mean?”

  The doctor sounded thoughtful. “It means…” He snapped his fingers. “It all makes sense. It’s the mark of Odin.”

  “Odin? The mythological god? How does that make sense?” Ashley’s panic was turning strangely argumentative for a prisoner. “I know Wesley’s Pagan and all—or, I mean, he was when we were in high school. But you’re talking crazy.”

  “Heathen,” Hauk choked out. “I’m not Pagan, I’m Heathen.”

  He got ignored. “Don’t you see? It’s the legend of the einherjar, Odin’s chosen warriors,” the doctor sa ktheem">

  Although he had a sinking feeling he knew at least some of what the man would say. The thought had crossed his mind long ago, and he’d ignored it like he’d tried to ignore everything else he couldn’t explain since the fire. Everything that smacked of magic.

  The doctor kept talking. “Ananke can’t control him because Odin, the head god of Northern tribal Europe, has staked a prior claim. Their mythology is full of stories of men who fight in an altered state, who come out of battles unscathed and

  have a hard time telling friend from foe. It was said that Odin possessed them in a battle frenzy, urging them to violent victory. They were the most feared fighters of the Viking era.”

  Hauk didn’t feel like much of a feared warrior as he struggled to sit upright. But the doctor clapped his hands gleefully with that creepy, manic joy he never lost.

  “Even the releasing of the shackles—it’s a galdr, a rune spell known only by Odin’s special forces. I would guess the language he used was Norse. Gentlemen, Wesley Haukon is a barbarian myth come to life. You have at your feet a modern berserker.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jolie stared at the same wall she and Hauk had climbed two months ago to rescue her niece. Tally had even given her a copy of Hauk’s nifty rope launcher for this very purpose. Beyond the wall and up the hill, a shining white temple, patterned after the Parthenon, gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. It looked so pristine, so glorious. But underneath was a darker temple dedicated to a goddess who was both whimsical and unrelenting.

  Last time she’d been here, even with über-warrior Hauk, things hadn’t gone exactly swimmingly. Hauk was shot. Magic went wonky. It was a lucky hunch on her part that got them out. But for Hauk, she’d go back in.

  A snick sounded as Mercy checked the clip of her gun. “You ready?” She looked like a total badass, standing so cool with her black hair in a tight French braid and two guns in unconcealed shoulder holsters. They’d decided a small team sneaking in was a better bet than a large-scale assault. Jolie was infinitely glad Mercy had agreed to be her partner. Neither of them was great muscle exactly, but Mercy was a crack shot and at least didn’t cower in a fight. After Hauk, she might be The Underlight’s next best line of defense.

  She was risking her job with the Austin Police Department if they got caught, though.

  Once more Jolie reviewed the precisely drawn maps Catrina and somebody else had provided then stuffed them in back her pocket. Catrina hadn’t come with them; breaking and entering was not her scene. She was, however, a kick-ass marketing professional who’d been courted by Ananke before they’d made her choose between their promises of success and her dual identities of Carlton and Catrina. Before she’d left them (of her own free will, unlike Hauk), she’d been in the temple complex on the other side of the wall several times. Jolie didn’t know the other mapmaker’s story but was thankful for whatever it was.

  She took a deep breath. “Ready or not, we should go. We don’t know what they’re doing to him in there.” And if they were too late? What then? What if Hauk was already Atropos?

  She’d never get to tell him how much he meant to her. She had big feelings of, oh, some type she wasn’t ready to define yet. But she had to get in t n*aulthere and get him out so she could tell him she wanted to be more than friends.

  With thoughts of Hauk spurring her courage, she shot the rope up. Mercy climbed over first to scout the grounds, and at her signal Jolie followed. Manicured lawns and perfectly aligned rows of olive trees extended out to the temple and federal-style complex beyond. Everything from the buildings to the plants had been arranged in a precise symmetry that reminded Jolie of her immaculately ordered home growing up.

  She wrinkled her nose. Some people thought smooth perfection like that was beautiful. She found it stifling. A little rough-and-tumble, a little dirt, made everything feel alive.

  Just like Hauk.

  She took stock of their location and pointed the closest way in to the science wing. “That’s where they’ll have him if they’re studying his blackouts.”

  “Did Catrina know what sort of guards they have?” Mercy asked as they walked. The grounds were fortunately free of people this far from any regular sidewalks or driveways. A bunch of orderly and rule-abiding assassins, those Hands of Atropos were.

  “She said they’re mostly just at the front gates and each entrance to the building. Once you’re in, key cards keep the wrong people out of the wrong places. But most of the regulars know each other, so they’d notice strangers wandering about.” Jolie wrinkled her nose. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few of them knew my face. We should stay out of sight as much as possible.”

  They reached the edge of an olive grove. A hundred yards in front of them, limestone steps led up to a formal entrance with wooden double doors.

  “Just inside there is a guard station. Catrina predicted there would be three or four Atropos manning it. They check IDs and help with any problems within entering groups.”

  Mercy quirked an eyebrow. “Like dragging kidnapping victims in?”

  “Yes, like that.”

  Mercy nodded. “I can take two out pretty quickly. More than that, and they’ll have time to raise an alarm. You think you can handle one?”

  “What if there’re four?” Jolie asked.

  Mercy shrugged. “Got a better idea?”

  Jolie scanned the white stone walls. On the second floor, somebody stared listlessly out the window.

  Somebody with tumbling waves of blond hair.

  Jolie wove her way through the trees until she could get a better view.

  “Where are you going!” Mercy stage-whispered after her.

  Ashley’s forehead rested against the glass. Tears tracked down her cheeks, marring the newscaster-perfect makeup.

  Jolie waved at Mercy to join her.

  Once at her side, Mercy stiffened. “Is that that little puta who turned on him?”

  “Yup,” Jolie answered.

  She pulled out her gun.

  Somewhat reluctantly, Jolie put a hand on it. “Hauk wouldn’t want that. Even after the shit she pulled.” She nodded up. “I’m going to get her attention. This is going to go really well or really badly, depending.”

  “Depending on what?”

  “On whether she’s the good person Hauk thinks she is or a bett s isJolie aser actor than I am.” Jolie picked a couple of stones off the ground. “Stay hidden. If she turns on me, too, then I vote shoot her.” She made her way to the window, murmuring, “Please, may Hauk be right.”

  It only took one pebble against the glass for Ashley to look down. Startled, she cranked the window open. “What are you doing here?”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes. What are you—”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” Jolie shot the rope up to the window, and the claw missed Ashley’s hands by inches. The girl yipped and yanked back, giving Jolie a moment of satisfaction. A few seconds of climbing, and Jolie was in an empty office facing the person she hated most. “I’m here risking my ass to fix your fuck-up.”

  Stric
ken, Ashley collapsed into a chair. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

  “Have they ‘cured’ the rages?”

  “No.”

  Relief washed through Jolie so strongly her knees nearly buckled. “Thank God.” She shot Ashley a stern look. “You gonna turn me in?”

  Ashley’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “You can’t get him back by yourself. There are too many guards. And he’s…he’s really…”

  Jolie leaned out the window, motioning for Mercy to follow her. “I’m not doing it by myself.” Her voice lowered to a growl. “And Hauk’s really what?”

  Ashley gulped. “He’s in really bad shape. I can’t believe they did that to him. They said they needed to start a rage and they didn’t know how, but…” She smashed tears off her cheek. “They said they could fix it. They didn’t tell me they didn’t know how. They didn’t say what they were going to do. I didn’t know.”

  Mercy appeared over the sill and her gun popped up.

  Jolie held out a hand to stop her from shooting and looked back at Ashley. “Question is, then, are you coming with us?”

  “What?” Mercy asked, appalled.

  Jolie stared hard at Ashley. “I pretty much hate you. A lot. But I also believe you didn’t know what they were doing or what these assholes are really about. Now that you know the truth, you have a choice. So which side are you on? Underlight? Or Ananke?”

  Ashley blinked furiously, as if she hadn’t been expecting that.

  “But make up your mind fast, because we need to get to Hauk and my patience with you is thin.”

  Ashley shook her head. “They’re not all like this. This isn’t what Ananke is about. These people—”

  “Are exactly what Ananke is about.”

  Her little chin shot up in defiance. “I don’t believe that. That’s not what I experienced before I got to this hellhole of a city.”

  Jolie hissed out a breath.

  Ashley clenched her jaw. “And if I’ve been that naïve, I need to see it for myself.”

  With a terse nod, Jolie headed for the door. “Don’t turn us in. We’re here for Hauk. Nothing else. I believe saving him might be the only thing we can agree on.”

  Ashley pulled something from her pocket and shoved it at Jolie.

  Mercy raised her gun. Jolie hopped ba sliey pck. Then looked down.

  Ashley was holding out her key card. “First basement. Third door on the left after you exit the stairwell.”

  Jolie’s eyebrows shot up, but she took the card. “Can’t they trace this to you?”

  Ashley shrugged. “I’ll say you took it from me. Maybe one of you should give me a bruise or a—”

  Mercy cocked a fist back. “No problem.”

  One punch, and Ashley dropped to the floor, holding her jaw. She glared up at the two of them, venom pumping off of her. “You people are all completely crazy.” As Jolie and Mercy headed for the door, she called after them. “I want Hauk safe because of what we once had. That doesn’t make what he’s doing now right. He’s a killer and a thief.”

  Jolie turned back at the doorway as Mercy checked outside. “He’s not a killer, he’s

  a soldier. And sometimes doing the right thing requires breaking the rules.” She shook Ashley’s key card at her. “Apparently some part of you knows that. When the rest of you figures it out…” She wrinkled her nose. “I’ll still hate you. But at least we’ll be on the same team.”

  Mercy nodded the go-ahead and they dashed down the hall and two flights of stairs then stopped before the third door on their right.

  Jolie slid the card into the reader. The lock clicked open. “Ready?” she mouthed.

  Mercy gave a thumbs-up and raised her gun.

  Jolie opened the door.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Blood slithered down Hauk’s back in a gruesome cascade as three men dragged him to a table. His head was down, unmoving. Jolie couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not.

  The men turned to face them.

  Mercy took a shot, dropping one guard before they could react.

  Jolie ran into the room, heading for the left guard. She plowed into him and caught his ankle with her own. He went down.

  Hauk started to fall. She scooped an arm around him as his dead weight dropped into her. She braced herself to hold him upright. “Hauk! Hauk!”

  He turned a blurry expression toward her, his mouth parting as if to speak.

  Jolie was yanked backward by her hair, forcing her to let Hauk go. He collapsed to the ground beside her. Arms locked around her as the hot metal of an oversized muzzle pressed against her temple.

  Another shot boomed; another Hand of Atropos fell.

  “Put the gun down,” the man said calmly.

  Mercy hesitated as the strange barrel waved in front of Jolie’s face.

  “Don’t,” Jolie said. “You can hit him.” It was a crazy-hard shot three inches from her head, but they were in a win or lose here. And Mercy was damn good.

  Mercy hesitated. Then shook her head as she lowered her weapon. “That’s a mini-flamethrower. I could blow you up.”

  Jolie sucked in a furious breath and studied Hauk. He’d been tortured, that was clear, but so far she only saw bleeding wounds, no new burns. The fact that they’d brought fire to taunt him with made her seethe inside. Not that there was jack she could do about it at the moment.

  Four more Atropos marched into the room. Mercy was disarmed, slammed into a wall and frisked. Jolie closed her eyes slowly and opened them again to find Hauk’s weary blue eyes looking up at her. He’d struggled up to sitting, but his skin was a greenish gray. His shoulders hunched and his muscles shook like he might fall over at any moment.

  And something was deeply wrong with his hand.

  “I’m sorry,” she mouthed. She didn’t know how, but these guys were so gonna pay for what they’d done.

  * * *

  Pissed or not, Jolie had come for him. Despite the pain and the location and every shit part of a shitty day, Hauk wanted to smile.

  “Sit them down,” the doctor ordered. “Put him back on the table.”

  Mercy was dragged to a chair. The fire-wielding torturer kept a tight hold on Jolie, continuing to threaten Hauk with her even though sitting upright caused waves of pain and dizziness to rattle through him like a pinball game of knives.

  In a rage, he might still be able to take them all. If the doctor was right and Hauk now knew where the rages came from, could he cause one?

  Two Atropos lifted him by the shoulders. The knife wound ripped open and gushed a fresh pulse of blood as he sucked back a scream. Raging would knit it closed again.

  But was he putting Jolie and Mercy at more of a risk from himself than from Ananke? Ananke might leave them unhurt. Jolie was the daughter of a member, and Mercy was police. The Order would have to think carefully before doing permanent harm to either of them.

  As if she could read his thoughts, Jolie said, “I asked Travis to take another look at the video from Afghanistan.”

  “Quick talking, now,” the torturer said.

  Hauk put weight on his feet. He would fight without a rage. They weren’t some godly blessing—they were a chemical bomb going off in his head, turning him into a nightmare and endangering everyone around him. That video proved it.

  But Jolie didn’t quit talking. “You already had a mark of Atropos. It was hidden inside a tattoo on your forearm.”

  Hauk studied her eyes to see if she was telling the truth. Her statement sounded crazy, but he supposed it was possible. The simple lines of an Atropos tattoo could easily be hidden inside the tribal-style art he preferred, and he wouldn’t have known to look for it.

  “Your squad had tattoos, too.”

  The torturer shook her. “I said shut up!” He threw his free arm across her throat, cutting off her air.

  Jolie scrabbled at his fingers, trying to breathe as shock and pain filled her features. With the last of his strength, Hauk flung himself fo
rward and threw a punch.

  Blood exploded from the torturer’s nose. He released Jolie.

  She dropped down out of his arms.

  Hauk collapsed beside her, his face slamming to the cold ground. His wounds screamed from the fresh assault, but still he forced his fingers to scratch at the etched floor as he tried to find some purchase, some way to get back on his feet.

  “Asshole,” the torturer said. The flamethrower hissed in ignition, and Hauk braced for the burn.

  Jolie yelled, “No!” Her weight landed on his back and {his>

  He struggled to knock her off, but she held firm and he was so damn weak.

  Flame scorched the air above them. She screamed.

  He twisted, trying to get her beneath him.

  “Not her!” the doctor yelled.

  The fire went out.

  This time she didn’t resist as Hauk rolled them over and pushed Jolie’s back to the ground, smothering any fire that might’ve caught on her clothing or hair. “What the hell were you doing?” he yelled. He couldn’t see any damage to her front, but her face contorted in pain.

  She ignored the question and spit out rapidly, “They were trying to activate your tattoo. Before the fire. You didn’t just murder your squad. You need to know that.”

  “Separate them,” the doctor said.

  Gorgeous green eyes stared up at him in pain and fear. And faith.

  Jolie had faith in him, both versions of him. So much that she’d taken a fire blast to tell him so.

  Guards grabbed him by the shoulders to pry them apart, but her hands still clung to him.

  Hauk loved this woman. Would do anything for her.

  He turned his eyes to the sky and quit running from magic. “Allfather Odin, if that’s really you…come and get me.”

  He felt it this time, like a spirit invading him, burning from the inside out. He wanted to kick it out, to stay in control, but he thought of Jolie and let go.