Guardian (Daughters Of The Gods, Book 2)

by Tamara Gill

  “Admit what?” she asked, the smallest smile forming on her lips.

  “That you like me a little too.” Lelantos grinned.

  Cat sighed but pulled the knife away from his neck and sheathed it. “I think you’ve forgotten that you’re a Titan. A divine being of monumental strength. with the added bonus of having the ability to go unseen. We’re enemies, Lelantos. I’m supposed to kill you today and all you end up doing is to make me fall more in love with you.”

  “So you do like me?” Lelantos pulled her up against his body and kissed her. Hard. Her tongue instantly sought his and he hardened. Even here, in the middle of an ancient battleground, love conquered hate, revenge, even family duty.

  “More than it is safe to do so.” She shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Come away with me. Live with me.”

  She smiled, yet the joy he heard in her voice didn’t reach her eyes. “You know I would love nothing more but I cannot. To leave everything I’ve ever known is inconceivable. To be banished from Mount Olympus is incomprehensible to me.” She sighed and dropped her gaze. “But then, so is living without you.” Cat raised her hand to his jaw, her fingers idly stroking his unshaven cheek. “What are we going to do?”

  “There is nothing to be done.”

  Cat whirled to find Hermes standing behind them, in full armor and with sword drawn. Were he not the enemy, he’d look magnificent, but the deadly gleam in his eyes was pinned on Lelantos and her stomach crunched with fear.

  By his attire her brother had arrived to complete a job she’d found impossible and he had little patience. Lelantos pulled her behind him, but she reappeared before him once more. While Lelantos stood behind her he was safe, anywhere else and he was fair game.

  “You’ve betrayed our kind, sister. Father is not pleased.”

  The sky rumbled and Cat knew Zeus watched from above. “I’ll not let you harm Lelantos. No matter that the blood in our veins is shared.”

  Hermes laughed, the sound ominous. “He’s immortal. How much harm can I do him? If I kill him he’ll only heal and live again, unless I use the golden sword that you, my dear sister carry and then he’d be dead. For good.” Hermes paced before them and smiled. “Or perhaps Father has changed his mind and wishes for your Titan to live out his days in Tartarus...with you.”

  A shiver of repulsion ran down her spine. Tartarus! To be imprisoned there would mean eternal agony, ridicule and pain. Most of the beings held there were incarcerated because of her. She couldn’t allow it.

  Cat watched her brother. What the fuck should she do? Never had she been termed an enemy by her fellow gods, and the feeling wasn’t pleasant. To know your own family hunted you, thought dishonorably of you, left a sour taste in her mouth. She’d always been the daughter who played by the rules. Followed decrees to the letter.

  But not anymore.

  “I won’t let you win,” she said.

  “So be it.” Her brother lifted his sword and swung.

  Cat ducked and felt the air above her head swoosh past. On her brother’s upswing, she ran at him knocking him over. He quickly recovered and moved before her fist connected with his nose. She threw a dagger to Lelantos and watched as he deftly caught it mid-air.

  Cat unsheathed her sword, keeping her gaze fixed on her brother as they circled each other. Not since learning as young gods had they done battle against each other, and never for such high stakes. The grin on his lips said he was enjoying their bout as much as she.

  Hermes swung again. The fight was on. His strikes were fast and powerful, sending pain ricocheting up her arm. It didn’t matter she hadn’t practiced for some weeks, Cat held fast and brought forth all the power she had to equal her foe.

  “Help me, Lelantos?” she yelled, keeping her focus on her brother.

  “I can’t seem to move,” he said, and out of the corner of her eye, she noted Lelantos struggling to move as if fighting an unseen enemy.

  Her brother laughed. “I couldn’t have him stepping in to ruin our fun. I will fight you first, little sister, then I shall imprison him.”

  Cat snarled when a blow connected with her forearm. Hermes was strong and rarely lost a fight. The ground shook as two more gods landed behind him and unsheathed their swords.

  “Give up, Caitlin. Lelantos is to be imprisoned and so are you.” He rolled his head. “You never know, perhaps in a thousand years, Zeus may forgive you and grant you your freedom.”

  “I will never give up and you know it.”

  “Yes you will.”

  Cat stepped back as her father appeared. His dull, grey robes looked like an extension of his beard. Today he favored the appearance of an old man, frail and weak. Yet he was anything but. Never was there a more powerful god and never again would there ever be.

  “You have lost, Caitlin. Your Titan is already incapable of helping you and it’s time you realized your fate is sealed.”

  “Why must you be so cruel? Lelantos may have helped Chloe, but if you’d only allowed her to live the life she wished, his assistance in keeping Cian alive would not have been necessary.” Cat gestured to Lelantos who stood watching her, a longing in his gaze that she shared. “I’ve been a true and faithful servant. A hunter for the gods for millennia. I deserve to live with and love the one I choose.”

  “No.” At her father’s words, lightning shot across the sky and the ground rumbled beneath her feet. “I do not feel inclined to agree.”

  Cat gasped as Zeus slashed the air with his arm and her sword flew out of her grasp. Before she could will another weapon into her hands the two guards flanking her brother grabbed her arms, their hold like vices of steel.

  “You cannot put me in Tartarus. I’ll be in danger there. Most of the prisoners in your mountainous hold I placed there.” Cat tested the guard’s strength and feeling no hope of escape saved her energy. “Father! Release me.”

  “I cannot. It does not please me to do so.”

  Fear crept across her skin chilling her body. Then without warning, the guards hold dissipated and within a second, both flew over Zeus’s head. Cat turned, her eyes wide with wonder. Lelantos stood behind her, his body twice the height of hers. The bulging muscles and wild look in his eyes made the god in her quiver with fear.

  “Lelantos?”

  “Cat,” he said, in acknowledgement before turning his attention toward her father. “Leave her or face me.”

  Zeus snarled but didn’t move to raise his thunderbolt. Instead he studied Lelantos as if he were a bizarre apparition. Cat supposed this was true to some point; not for thousands of years had Zeus faced a Titan in natural form. Even she was surprised by his size, despite having faced Titans of similar caliber during the war of the gods. Beholding Lelantos as he now was filled her with awe and a stirring of lust. Even with the changes to his features (which were anything but complimentary), his body structure and strength, beneath it all was the man she loved. A Titan with a heart of gold, who’d protect her and risk his life in doing so.

  He was divine.

  “You do not scare me, you traitorous blight on the divine world. You escaped me once; I’ll not let you escape me again,” roared Zeus.

  Lelantos laughed. “You have no choice. I won’t be imprisoned.”

  Lelantos grasped Cat’s arm and pulled her from Zeus’s reach. “And you’ll not touch Caitlin again. Ever.”

  The words reverberated around the mountain and sounded as solid as the rock on which they stood. Cat’s lips lifted in a half smile. He’d told her he loved her and now was trying to protect her from the most powerful being in the cosmos. He was too sweet.

  “Lelantos,” she said, watching as he turned toward her, his face softening as he did so. “I didn’t say this before and I should have. You just caught me off guard.” She smiled. “I love you too.”

  Zeus roared and grew to a height that matched that of Lelantos. He lifted his thunderbolt and lightning shot toward them. Even Cat had been unaware of the ex
tent of Lelantos’ power as he raised his hand and blocked her father’s powerful strike. Zeus’ eyes widened in shock before another punishing blow from his weapon arced toward them.

  There were many things gods could do. Some gods wielded magic, others changed forms, orbed and travelled through time. Cat for instance could find people, hone in on their auric field and locate them. Quite a handy ability for a hunter. She could transport herself via thought to any destination. If she thought she could get them away from here and safe forever she would. But Zeus would only find them. Hunt them down and mete out his intended punishment.

  The time for running was over. Now they had to stand and fight.

  Fight for the life they wanted.

  Together.

  CHAPTER

  Ten

  Lelantos kept blocking the endless attacks from Zeus. He knew the father of the gods was furious that another of his daughters had decided to leave behind the ways of the gods. No longer to remain in the hallowed halls of Mount Olympus, but to dwell below on Earth. With a Titan.

  He smiled, savoring the joy that flowed through his veins at Cat’s declaration of love. She loved him. He loved her.

  Who’d have thought?

  There was no time to bask in the joy of her pronouncement. Instead he fought with all the might and forgotten strength he harbored against the father of the love of his existence.

  The ground shook and the clouds above them churned with wind and rain. Zeus’s temper was visible for all to see. The full force of his power unleashed upon Lelantos.

  And he was winning.

  Fuck!

  “Get out of here, Cat. I can’t hold him much longer.”

  “No, I won’t leave you.” She screamed over the storm that raged down on them.

  Another arc of lightning barreled toward Lelantos. Thousands of years away from the battlefield was taking its toll and he barely managed to block the deadly bolt. He was weakening against the most powerful divine being in existence.

  “Please Cat. I won’t survive if I know you’re in Tartarus at the mercy of your enemies. Please. Go.”

  He met her gaze and willed her to understand what he was saying. If his fate was imprisonment in Tartarus then so be it. But if he thought she was being hurt, tortured and used by the other immortal beings who were held there as well, he would never survive mentally. It would drive him mad.

  “Cat.” She still refused to leave him. “Go.”

  The two hunters Zeus had dispatched across the mountain reappeared and flanked the father of the gods. With a bone rattling thud, three more hunters landed beside them.

  Lelantos took a calming breath and stepped back. He could not win this fight. For too long he’d lived a normal way of life – he was no longer battle hardened. To fight against fighters highly trained and skilled would not end in his favor.

  He’d lost.

  A feathered touch ran down his back and he turned to find Cat beside him. Tears streamed down her beautiful face, her hair, golden locks that would forever remind him of warmth and sunlight sat nestled over her armor. Lelantos transformed into the man he’d been for a millennium, and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  Her arms encircled his neck and her grip was fierce. She kissed him with a fervor that matched his own. Lelantos pulled back and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the first time I kissed you on this very battle field all those years ago.”

  She grinned and his chest ached. “That kiss threw me as well.” Her expression turned serious. “It’s not working.”

  “What isn’t?” he asked, watching as panic assailed her features.

  “I’m trying to take you with me. To get us out of here. It’s not working, Lelantos.”

  “Try it on your own, Cat and see if you can escape.” A tear ran down her cheek and he swiped it away. “I want you to go.”

  “If it works, and I escape, I will find you again, Lelantos. I promise.”

  “I do not doubt it,” he said, kissing her once more, before pain sliced through his side and he dropped to his knees. Cat disappeared and he sighed with relief as he stemmed the bleeding from the blow they had inflicted on his hand.

  “She will never find you, Lelantos, for Tartarus is not where I will hold you. You will be imprisoned on Mount Olympus and when my daughter comes looking for you, I will ensure she can never leave. You will be enslaved. Your endless days will be spent watching and loving her from afar, while she is married to another. After I forgive her, of course, which may take many years,” Zeus said, as an afterthought. “Caitlin will be unreachable and untouchable to you.” He laughed and the other gods followed his lead, too scared to do otherwise. Zeus held out his arm and twisted his hand into a fist. A severing pain tore through Lelantos and he doubled over, knowing his divine gift as the God of the Unseen was torn from him. “I always win, Lelantos. One way or another.”

  Lelantos stood and faced the god. “Your biggest downfall is that you underestimate your daughters, Zeus. First Chloe and now Caitlin. And I look forward to the day you realize the error of your ways.”

  Hermes walked toward him with a snarl. “With what we have planned for you, Titan, you may just live long enough to see it.”

  Lelantos glared as Cat’s brother. “Bastard,” he said.

  Before everything went black.

  CHAPTER

  Eleven

  Cat looked up at the imposing Castle Cree in the Scottish town of Durness and wondered if Chloe would help her. It irked the hunter in her to be in need of aid, but the thought of where Lelantos had been taken soon pushed that feeling aside. Images of him being tortured, beaten and starved haunted her dreams when she succumbed to sleep, which was not often.

  For two weeks she’d wrestled with ideas of how to free him. It wouldn’t be an easy task. The guards were as big as the Titans - some bigger. And Zeus would be watching, waiting for her to strike so he could claim her as well. And she couldn’t let that happen. She was Lelantos’ only hope of freedom.

  Taking a fortifying breath Cat rang the bell beside the imposing castle door. People milled about the bailey, taking pictures, touching the old stone and marveling at its grandeur. She absently watched the tourists take in the old building and the surrounding view of Durness and wondered what they’d think of her home, should they ever see it.

  Mount Olympus would certainly have the cameras going on overdrive.

  The door opened and she turned to find a man as imposing as the castle itself. She felt her mouth open and she shut it quickly. Holy shit, any wonder Chloe had defied the gods to live with this man. He was a god and a friggin’ hot one as well!

  “I understand that Chloe lives here.” She watched as the Highlander raised a brow and studied her like a wolf studied its prey.

  “Who are ye?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Cat felt her mouth dry.

  “Cat? Is that you?”

  She looked past the Highlander’s broad shoulders and smiled as Chloe hurried down the last of the foyer stairs. Cat pushed past her sister’s husband and pulled her into a hug. “It’s been so long. Too long.”

  Chloe hugged her back. “I’ve missed you.” She pulled back and laughed. “I see you’ve met my husband, Cian.”

  Cat looked to where the imposing man stood quietly watching them and eyed him with wariness. She doubted he’d want to know her when he found out who she was.

  “Cian, this is my sister, Caitlin. She’s a hunter for the gods. But–” Chloe paused, frowning. “I’m assuming by the fact you can see us that you’re no longer in alliance with Zeus.”

  “You are one of the famous Hunters or Guardians of the gods?”

  Cat inwardly smiled when he pulled Chloe protectively beside him. “Yes. I have been for thousands of years.” The disgust that spread across Cian’s face irritated her and she glared. “In the hallowed halls of Mount Olympus, one does anything one is ordered and without question.”

  “Did you h
ave anything to do with Chloe being banished?”

  She met her sister’s gaze before looking back at the Highlander and his less than welcoming visage. “I was in the throne room the day she was banished. There was nothing I could have done to save her and looking back, I’m glad I did not. The woman you know now wouldn’t be here had she remained a goddess. We’re fickle, Cian. Chloe’s humanity has enabled her to care for you far more than she ever would have had she remained a god.”

  “Don’t say that, Cat. We’re blood, I grant you, but I haven’t seen nor heard from you since the day I was turned mortal. And immortal or not, I would never tire of Cian. He’s everything to me.”

  Cat shrugged. “I’m not here to rehash what happened in the past. I couldn’t help Chloe then and I refused to hunt her for Father when he asked. Instead I offered to kill the one who had helped her to hide.” Cat paused. “Father agreed.”

  “No,” Chloe said, her face paling.

  “I’m afraid so.” Cat took a steadying breath, the thought of killing Lelantos making her stomach turn. “I fought him once, too many years ago to count and Father, knowing of our previous encounter, thought I would be perfect for the assignment. You know only too well how he likes to play with us.”

  “When did you fight, Lelantos?” Cian asked, raising his brows.

  “During the Battle of the Gods. As you’re well aware, Lelantos is the God of the Unseen. He’s the only one of his kind who can disappear at will. We fought before he fled, but not before he’d kissed me. I could’ve killed him during the embrace and Zeus knew it. I suppose he wished to make killing Lelantos that little bit more challenging by hoping I harbored some feelings for the Titan.”

  “And do you?” Chloe asked, her eyes bright with expectation.

  “The kiss threw me, granted. But it wasn’t until I met him in New York that I started to know the Titan hidden in human form. I like him.” Far too much to lose him now. Pain threatened to cripple her that he could be killed, tortured by her own kind. She swallowed the nausea that rose in her throat and strove for calm.