Shadow Born: A Joseph Hunter Novel: Book 1 (Joseph Hunter Series)

by Alex Gates

  Hephaestus nodded, finally showing some sign that he was paying attention.

  “That’s my sad story. Did it tickle your pickle? Can I go, now? Can I go find my daughter?” I uncrossed my legs and stood. My body’s aches hadn’t abated, and my headache had only increased in intensity.

  Hephaestus opened his eyes and scowled at me. “Circumstances never excuse the crime,” he said, completely reversing what he had spouted thirteen seconds ago. “The Nephil Council will hold me responsible, if I do not hold you responsible.”

  I nodded, biting my cheeks. It took all my willpower not to attack him again. I would have died, but in that moment, I didn’t really care.

  “After hearing the full story, though, I do feel for your losses.” The giant Nephil limped to the workbench portioned near his forge and sat. “You may choose your punishment,” he said. “But you will still be punished.”

  “What?” I asked, confused at his offer. I could choose my punishment? Was he serious? “I can… like make up what happens? Or you’re giving me options to choose from?”

  “Options,” he said. “You have the right the decide your fate, I believe. I can strip you of your powers, here and now—for you have abandoned them and your pact, used them for personal gain, and then to attack me. You are not worthy of possessing such abilities. I will allow you until sunrise to save your daughter. When sun rises, I will come for you. And not only me, but the entire Nephilim Council, because if I allow you back into the world, you might just destroy it.”

  “What the shit-stick? Are you kidding me? Sunrise in a few hours. You expect me to find Mel and defeat Hecate without any magic in that time? You’re fucking insane.” That couldn’t happen. I needed the magic to fight Hecate. She stood at a power level near Hephaestus, so there was no way I could defeat her without it.

  “Your second option,” Hephaestus continued, “it to never leave this shop. As I said, and as you should know, you pose a great threat to this world’s survival. If you stay here, you will serve me eternally, helping with any creations and repairs for paying customers—but the Earth will remain safe.”

  What the hell was he talking about? I knew that Hephaestus used his cursed servants—Automatons—to work in perpetuity for him. If I chose that option, I would spend the rest of eternity away from Mel, away from Xander, away from life, to serve my patron. It would be a death and a hell in and of itself. But…

  “What do you mean I’m a danger to the world? That you’ll send the entire Nephilim Council after me to protect Earth, or that by staying here, so it will remain safe?”

  “What will it be?” he asked, crossing his arms and frowning.

  I rolled my head and cracked my neck, ignoring his cryptic warning and focusing on what mattered—my daughter. I couldn’t allow him to strip me of magic with Mel missing. How would I find her? How would I defeat Hecate and her Empousa? But serving Hephaestus in his shop forever as one of his cursed allowed no opportunity whatsoever at getting Mel back.

  I really had no choice in the matter. If leaving the shop—even for few hours—meant losing my magic, then I would have to find my daughter Taken style.

  “I have to go after her,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Well, keep in mind,” Hephaestus said, standing from the workbench and hobbling toward me, “there’s no happily ever after for you and your daughter.” He grabbed the manacles that dangled loosely from my arms and legs, breaking them free. “Remember, you have until the sunrise.” He touched my shoulder and the power he had imbued within me drained from my body. I fell to my knees and heaved, vomiting liquid. “Then the entire Nephilim Council and I will send everything we have at you. And, in the end, you will die, along with your daughter anyway.”

  “Go shit yourself,” I coughed, planting my hands on the ground, struggling to stay on all fours without collapsing. When he drained my power, he had sapped what remained of my measly reserves of strength and energy. “Could you drop me off in front of the Snake Head Lounge? I have a lead to follow-up on.”

  Hephaestus towered over me, his presence like a furnace. “Joseph,” he said, pausing to take a deep breath. “Be careful. Hecate… she is an extremely powerful Nephil. And I prefer to kill you myself.”

  A thick cloud of smoke wrapped around me, as it had earlier. The fog settled tight around my body, pressed against my skin, filled my lungs, and darkened my vision.

  11

  The smoke dispersed from around my body. I sat on the curb and faced the sleepy, Thursday morning street. Rain lacquered the road, and the streetlights created a bright reflection on the dark ground.

  I stood, grimacing from the lingering pains spreading throughout my body. I reached into my pocket to grab my cell phone and call Xander and check the time, but it wasn’t there. I checked my other pockets and found nothing. Thinking back, I cursed. The deputy had removed all my belongings before the interrogation. They rested inside a plastic bag somewhere at the jail.

  I wiped my face, trying not to scream. Instead, I turned from the street and faced the Snake Head Lounge. The lights were off and the bouncer gone. After shuffling to the door, I pulled on the handle, but it didn’t budge.

  “Holy shit,” I said, wondering how the night could get any worse. I dared not speak the question aloud and tempt fate.

  “Joseph,” said a chirpy voice from behind me. The woman sounded way too excited, and I wanted no part in matching that kind of energy.

  I dropped my forehead on the cool glass of the lounge’s window and closed my eyes. “Wrong person,” I grumbled, hoping whoever had identified me moved along.

  “Joseph,” she said again. “I waited for you, but you never showed.”

  What? I thought. I lifted my forehead off the window and turned to see… “Dakota?” I asked.

  She curtsied, grinning. “In the flesh.” She craned her neck forward and squinted at me. “What happened to your face? Did I get more sober, or did you get uglier?”

  I chuckled involuntarily, and it hurt every part of me. “The two probably go hand in hand, don’t you think?”

  “Usually,” she said, stepping toward me and inspecting my battered face. “What’s the other guy look like?”

  “Guys,” I said. “Plural. And all prettier than me.”

  “I believe it. You don’t much look like the fighting type. More of a poet. You have soft eyes and easy features.”

  That amused me. Not much of the fighting type. Well, hopefully she didn’t ask too many questions and shatter that illusion. “Do you know the time?”

  Dakota glanced at her watch. “A little after three,” she said.

  I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. That meant I had until three hours to save Mel before Hephaestus came after me. Speaking of the Nephil douchebag… I thought it strange that Dakota had randomly bumped into me right after he sent me back here.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, not bothering to flower my tone.

  She tilted her head like an interested puppy. “To find you,” she said.

  “How did you know I’d be here?”

  “I didn’t, weirdo,” she said. “After the friendly bouncer saw me out, I crossed the street and waited at the bar next door. I thought I made it pretty clear to meet me over there and return my credit card to me. Remember that?” She held out her hand, palm up.

  I cursed under my breath, tired of getting caught up in these situations—the altercation, the arrest, Hephaestus’ shop. Why couldn’t I just get to Elizabeth, torture her a little until she revealed how to find Hecate and Mel, then save my daughter?

  “I don’t have it,” I said.

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “It’s a long story, but it’s at the county jail.”

  “You were arrested?” she asked. “Wow. What did you do? Credit card theft?” She smirked.

  I shook my head. “Yeah, they arrested me for stealing your credit card,” I said. “Have you seen Xander?”

  “Who?”

  Had
I introduced her to Xander? I couldn’t remember. “Black guy. Bald. He was in the lounge earlier.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Can I borrow your phone?”

  Dakota pursed her lips and shook her head. Then, without warning, she veered off the sidewalk and stepped onto the street. Once in the middle, she lay on damp asphalt and stared up at the cloudy sky. “Come join me,” she said. “I hate The Notebook, but I always wanted to try this. Come on.”

  I pulled on the locked door again, rattling it. “Shit.” I walked toward the corner of the building, planning to look for another entrance down the side alley or around the back.

  “Did the bartender turn out to be your Elizabeth?” she called from the road.

  “I think so,” I said, turning the corner and shambling down the alley. I didn’t see any windows or doors, but I followed the side street around to the back of the establishment. A door stood atop a couple of steps and a ramp shot to the side. I figured I had found the loading dock. Using the railing, I ascended the two stairs, then tried the heavy, metal door. The handle didn’t even turn a little.

  “You trying to break in?” Dakota asked.

  I about jumped from my skin. “What the hell?” I asked, planting my hands on the door to find calmness.

  “Didn’t mean to scare you,” she said, hopping up the two steps. She made me tired just watching her move. Dakota opened her purse and dug through her bag, fishing out a skinny box filled with picks. “Move over.” She shoved her shoulder into me, pushing me down the ramp.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Helping you out. Again.” Her blonde hair fell into her face as she leaned over and went to work on the door. She tried to blow it from her vision, but the strands fluttered up and fell back over her eyes. “You mind helping me out?”

  For a moment, I couldn’t respond or move.

  She glanced at me from behind her veil of hair. “You standing in cement?”

  “What?” I shook my head. “No.” I stepped toward her, reaching out my hand to sweep her hair from her face, then paused. I hadn’t really touched another woman since Callie’s death. My fingers trembled in midair, more from anticipation than fatigue. I gulped back a wad of nerves. I could throw a fireball at Hephaestus and kill Empousa without batting an eye, but when it came to touching a woman, I froze like a damn Popsicle.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  “Sorry,” I said, shooting my hand forward, a little too fast and eager. My finger jammed against her forehead before curling around her hair and peeling it away.

  “Shit,” she said. “You trying to poke my eye out?”

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered, hot with embarrassment. Yet, I had her soft hair in my quivering hands—and once again, I was way too aware of how cold they were. “You okay?”

  Dakota fiddled with the picks and the lock, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, biting it. The door clicked. She turned to me and beamed. “You can let go now.”

  “Yeah,” I said, dropping her hair back into her face.

  Running her fingers through it and pushing it back, she asked, “You want the honor?” She stepped aside, allowing me the chance to open the door.

  “What if there’s an alarm?”

  She shrugged. “Don’t know. You just wanted in, and I obliged. You robbing it?”

  “No,” I said. I hoped to break in and find any files on Elizabeth the Bartender, hopefully one with a last name—or better yet, a home address. Then I would pay her a visit. A crude plan, but I had three hours and nothing else to work off of. “I’m going to use their phone, since you won’t let me use yours.”

  Dakota snickered. “What a drama queen. Here.” She reached into her back pocket and tossed me her cell phone. “That’s three, though.”

  “Three what?” I asked, clicking her phone’s screen on. It required a code. “What’s your password?”

  She told me, then said, “Three times I’ve saved you today. I found Elizabeth for you. I bought you some drinks. I unlocked this door.” She frowned. “Four. You’re using my phone, now. You owe me four times over.”

  I scratched my eyebrow. “Do I?” I asked, tapping the dial pad. I typed in Xander’s number, hoping he hadn’t changed it over the past five years.

  “You do. Big time. I’m thinking—”

  I held up a finger, cutting her off, as I put the phone to my ear. Turning my back to her, I gripped the ramp’s railing and shuffled away.

  “Joey?” Xander answered, his voice quiet.

  “What the fuck, Cumberbatch?” Like Benedict Cumberbatch, à la Benedict Arnold. I can’t keep explaining my jokes to you. Try to keep up, please. “You told the detective to send a squad car over? You allowed me to get arrested? Do you want Mel dead?” My tone was far from quiet.

  “Joey,” he said.

  “No, fuck you.” I pulled the phone from my ear and hung up on him, then I attempted to destroy it in my grip. I could feel Dakota’s inquisitive eyes staring at me, and I almost placed my fury on her and asked what the hell she was looking at. Instead, the phone buzzed in my hand.

  I answered. “What do you want?”

  “I followed Elizabeth to her home,” Xander said. “I’m sitting a couple blocks from her house, watching her front door as we speak.” He hesitated, and I was at a loss for words. After a beat, he said, “They let you go?”

  “What?”

  “The detective, he let you go?”

  “No,” I said.

  “No? Did you escape?”

  “Why do you fucking care? Going to call them again, tell them where I’m at?” I glanced at Dakota. She shrugged at me. I shook my head and turned away.

  “I had no other choice,” he said, sounding remorseful and confirming my hunch that he had turned me in. “I swear. I told them where you were, that you were drunk and upset. I was vague with them on purpose. It felt slimy for me to lie.” He sighed. “You know I can’t lie. It goes against my pact.”

  Choir boy would rather shove his teeny-weeny into a meat grinder than lie, so he had told the truth and tattled. He took spiritual torment to Job levels. “Why did you do it, then?”

  “To protect you,” he said. “I had to keep my involvement out of it. Especially after the incident at the lounge. If they brought us both in for questioning, neither of us could have continued looking for Mel. But if they just had you, I could still follow Elizabeth to her house. I could surprise her later tonight to retrieve the information we need.”

  I gripped my pounding forehead and massaged my temples. He had killed some of the Empousa the investigators had found in my burnt-down home. He had been present during the fire. If the detective had detained us both, that wouldn’t have done Mel any good. “I guess… you saved my ass again.”

  “What was that? Service isn’t too strong here.”

  “Not going to work,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Listen. While detained, Hephaestus wrapped me in some smoke and teleported me to one of his shops. He lectured to me about the Nephil Laws and the Nephil Council. Said he chose me for a reason, blah, blah, blah. But I had broken too many rules to avoid punishment and I was too dangerous to leave out in the world—whatever the hell that means. Not only that, but I sort of attacked him.”

  “You attacked him? By ‘him,’ you mean Hephaestus?”

  “Yup.” I glanced over my shoulder at Dakota.

  She sat against the gray door, staring at me. What’s going on, she mouthed.

  I shrugged and shook my head, turning away.

  “And you’re still alive?” Xander asked. “What were you thinking?”

  Lowering my voice, I said, “Apparently the magic he imbued me with doesn’t necessarily affect him. So, there was that moment. Quite embarrassing, I might add.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” Xander said. “So, what happened? You just… get to keep your powers? You get a second chance?”

  I scoffed. “No. Not at all. I told him my sob story. He gave me a choice—get my power stripped, find Mel
before sunrise, then die. Or he said I could serve him blindly forever. But I’ll get to live.”

  “So, I take it we have until sunrise to find Mel?”

  I grinned. “You take it right… which I think isn’t the first time I’ve said that to you.”

  “So, you plan to fight the Priestess and Hecate without your magic?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll figure it out. Elizabeth is this Priestess right? She knows how to find Hecate?”

  “That’s what we’re betting the house on.”

  I exhaled. Having never been the greatest gambler, I didn’t like my odds.

  “Your daughter,” Xander said, “your call. What do I do?”

  “With three hours, we have to scramble. You mind approaching Elizabeth now to try and talk with her?” If she really was this Priestess the Empousa had mentioned—Hecate’s right-hand woman—than she would have some oomph behind her magic. It might take more than Xander’s pact with capital-G God to get him through this encounter.

  “I can do that,” he said.

  “Send her address to this phone. I’ll be over there as soon as I can.” Before hanging up, I added, “Thank you. For everything.”

  “You have a car?” I asked Dakota after ending the call with Xander.

  “Who was that? Sounded serious.” She bounced to her feet and ambled toward me.

  “Very serious,” I said. “You have a car?”

  She stood a foot in front of me, both hands planted on her hips. “Are you asking for me to bail you out a fifth time? If I consent to that amount of assistance, I’ll definitely need a few favors in return.”

  “Do you have a car?” I asked again, growing impatient.

  “No,” she said, raising a hand from her hip and wrapping her fingers around the back of my neck, caressing my skin. Chills screamed down my spine from the warmth of her touch. “Unless,” she bit her lip and stared at me with cartoonish eyes. “Unless you agree to owe me.”

  I felt hot and cold at the same time. My tongue cemented to the roof of my mouth. “Okay,” I said. “Fine.”