“That’s not a dead body,” Andrew said in a low voice as they approached Greg’s office door.
“What the hell is it, then?” Ben asked, holding his sleeve to his nose. “That’s awful.”
“That’s the smell of thousands of years of decay being released at once,” the god replied. “The portal collapsed on itself.”
“How do you know?” Ben asked as he touched the handle to the office door. The door was slightly ajar, the top hinge broken, but it was still intact.
“I’ve seen it before,” Andrew replied. “Too much power was fed into it and it gave out. Whatever we hoped to use or find in here, access has been cut off.”
Ben let out a sigh, still pressing his sleeve to his nose, and he pushed the door open. Oddly, the smell wasn’t as bad once they walked into the office. A window was open, and one of the officers had set up a fan to try and circulate the air.
Still, it wasn’t pleasant in the room. The crime scene crew hadn’t begun the official clean-up, and although the body had been removed, there was blood and gore everywhere. Ben winced as he scanned the room, taking in the spatter along the walls, and what he was sure were chunks of flesh at the floor in a massive, brownish pile of old, sticky blood.
The smell was heavy, and pressing, and the feeling in the room was nearly overwhelming. Greg hadn’t just been murdered, he’d been completely destroyed. Nike had tortured him, for whatever reason, and it had probably gone on for hours.
Bile rose into Ben’s throat and it took all of his self-control to contain himself. Tearing his eyes away from the desk, he looked over at the bookshelf, which had been wrenched aside, pulled from the hinges, and the room to the portal lay open.
The candles, which had seemed to burn eternally, had all gone out and the light from the office showed the walls inside battered, the caduceus symbols that had been carved into the alter and walls had been chipped away, and all that was left was hot wax on the floor and granite chunks scattered all across the room.
Ben watched as Andrew approached the room, took a step forward, and froze. After a very long pause, Andrew turned to Ben, his face set in a deep frown. “There’s a barrier,” he said slowly, running his hand up and down in the doorway to the room. “I can’t get through.”
Ben walked forward, moving past Andrew, and without resistance, stepped through the doorway and into the dead portal. He’d been in the room before, and felt the sort of humming power, but now, inside, he felt absolutely nothing.
“Nike,” Andrew said with a sigh. “Whatever she put up, it won’t last long, but it doesn’t exactly matter, does it? The portal is gone.”
“So is Greg,” came a voice from behind Ben.
Startled, Ben whipped around, grabbing his gun, and he stared at the figure standing just beyond the wrecked altar. He was tall, broad, and he sort of shimmered as his image flickered. As Ben took a step forward, the image solidified.
“Asclepius?” Ben asked.
The god grinned and spread his hands wide. “There’s enough residual energy left for me to keep my form for now. Nike’s put up a barrier to keep me in here, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to last.”
“So you’re stuck?” Ben asked, taking in the god’s appearance. He looked a lot like Greg, truth be told. The same sort of greying hair, though his face was years younger, without a wrinkle to be seen. But they shared the same narrowed eyes and stretched grin. Ben felt another wave of regret and grief pass over him and his hands began to tremble a little.
“It was terrible, you know,” Asclepius said. “She just ripped and tore him apart until his body finally gave out. She made me watch, listening to his screaming and begging.”
Ben swallowed the lump forming in his throat and gave a loud cough. “What did she want?”
“Who are you talking to?” came Andrew’s muffled voice from the outside.
Ben looked back and saw the foggy form of Andrew pressed against the barrier. It was visible from inside the room, much like a distorted, old window looking out. Ben approached the entrance and shouted as he spoke, “It’s Asclepius, and he’s trapped.”
“He can’t hear you,” Asclepius said morosely. “I was screaming at Greg where I’d hidden the gun in the desk, but he couldn’t hear me.”
Ben sighed and stuck his head out of the portal doorway where everything became clear again. “Asclepius is in here,” he told Andrew, who looked concerned and irritated. “He’s trapped, but I’m trying to get information out of him.”
Andrew gave a nod. “I’m going to look around and see if Nike left anything behind.”
Ben gave him a curt nod and then returned to the darkened room. Asclepius was sitting on top of the altar now, his legs crossed, chin resting on his hand. “I don’t think she knew about Greg’s security cameras,” he said to the detective as Ben began to pace the floor. “You remember how to access them from the computer, right?”
Ben gave a nod, his heart giving a leap. “I completely forgot about those. Thank you.”
“She wanted me to tell her where the nearest portal was,” Asclepius said, ignoring Ben’s thanks. He sounded beside himself, unlike the smarmy god he’d been when he and Ben last met. “I didn’t know, of course, but she thought I did. She had that girl with her, too, the one Thor had been occupying. Something was wrong with her; she was babbling about god and worship and bringing in a new era of light. She had immense power about her, and Nike forced her to push it all into the portal. It opened wide and something tried to come through.”
“What tried to come through?” Ben asked, his eyes wide, fear coursing through him.
“Something new, and massive. Something that would devour us all if it enters this realm. I’d never seen anything like it, it was too large and too powerful to fathom. It managed to give a good shove onto this plane, but the portal collapsed and nearly killed the poor girl. Nike fled after that, angry and screaming at the top of her lungs.”
Ben rubbed his face, trying desperately to figure out what Nike was up to. Why would she want something that strong, that capable of destruction to come through? What would the point be? And the girl, it was obviously Olivia, but how could she have obtained powers? Was it possible they’d found a more powerful, willing god to possess her? Did she have something about her the way Ben did?
“I believe she was possessed by Mark’s power,” Asclepius said, answering one of Ben’s unspoken questions.
“Not possible,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Everything he wrote was destroyed.”
“Well apparently not, because believe me, this girl didn’t possess the power of any god I’ve ever seen. You boys might want to check your inventory again, because I’m betting there’s a page missing.”
Ben threw up his hands, not sure what to do. Mark had checked everything over thoroughly and they had watched the pages burn to ashes. He turned back to Asclepius and said, “Apparently we’re fucked, then. Any idea if Nike knows where to go?”
“Ah, well that I’m not sure. I’ve been kind of stuck in this cave, and until her power runs out, I’m not going anywhere.”
“What is your plan if you do get out?” Ben asked, approaching the subject of taking Nike out with some delicacy.
“I know what you’re asking,” Asclepius said, his arms crossed over his chest. “And in fact, I’d love to help you all out, I really would, but I’m willing to bet that by the time I get out of here, Nike will have found a strong enough portal.”
“Let me see if Andrew or Alex can do something about this,” Ben said as he ran his hand over the empty doorway. He could feel the power humming in his fingertips, shooting up through his arm and into the center of his chest. It startled him, but he didn’t pull his hand away.
“Look at you, Mr. Superpower,” Asclepius said as he watched Ben run his hand through the barrier. “Not screaming about schizophrenics anymore, are you?”
Ben gave a slight eye roll, but it was hard to be sarcastic about Asclepius’s absolute truth
. A year ago, he would have laughed in their faces. A year ago, he was a completely different man. “We need someone who can take Nike through the portal and pull her all the way through.”
“The only other God who has spoken to me in a manner which didn’t involve brutally murdering my kin,” Asclepius said with bitterness clouding his voice, “is Hades, and considering he’s still gunning for your girlfriend, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he probably won’t want to give up the mortal realm quite yet. Not until Persephone is ready to leave, anyway.”
Ben frowned at the god, crossing his arms over his chest. “Gunning for my girlfriend?”
“Tell me that she came clean,” Asclepius said with his eyebrows raised. “Is she still playing the whole Stella-the-Detective game?”
Ben gave a slight shrug. “Look, Stella told me about the god inside of her, and we’re not entirely sure we trust this Persephone character, but she doesn’t come around a lot.”
Asclepius threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Are you serious? You do realize that the raging, man-hating, militant feminist hunkering down inside of that form you’re sleeping with is Stella, right? The hard-nosed, but slightly squishy on the inside cop—that’s Persephone.”
Ben’s ears began to ring, covering up Asclepius’s fading chuckles and he realized he was shaking his head involuntarily. “No. No, she’s… no,” he stammered.
Asclepius hopped off of the altar and walked toward Ben. He wasn’t corporeal, but he looked impossibly solid, only the slight shimmer giving away that he wasn’t part of that world. “I’m sorry to be the one to burst your bubble, and I can’t believe those Viking assholes would let you go on this long without the actual truth. If you don’t believe me, go and ask Hades. He’s in the building right now, waiting to have a word with you.”
“Where?” Ben asked, his shock so severe that he was only registering half of what Asclepius was saying.
“Well he’s probably in the front lobby,” he said with a shrug. “He’s got some deal with her on the side, Benny boy. Not sure what it is, but I know it involved you, and he’s probably here to try and collect. He popped by for a quick chat, though he wouldn’t come through the barrier. Said since Persephone didn’t hold up her end of the bargain, he was going to try and persuade you to assist him.”
Ben’s face was drawn, pale, and he felt dizzy suddenly. He knew there was something going on with Stella, something he didn’t understand and something she was keeping from him, but never did he expect this. Never did he expect that the woman he’d fallen for had been one of them. “I, um…” he said, his voice sounding far off.
“Yeah, you’d better go,” Asclepius said. He tried to give Ben a shove on the shoulder, but his hand passed right though him. It shot a violent tingle straight through Ben, nearly knocking him off his feet, and when he looked up, Asclepius’s expression had changed drastically. “Oh, Benny, oh dear,” he said.
“What was that?” Ben asked with wide eyes as he tried to slow his heart rate.
“Be careful, kiddo,” the god said, his voice low and full of warning. “You’ve changed and you’re vulnerable now. You’ve got power behind you, too, Ben, and if any of them figure that out, you could be in serious danger.”
Ben swallowed thickly and turned to look toward the portal door. He could see Andrew in front of the computer, clicking on the mouse furiously, and he turned back to the watchful god. “I need to go.”
“Don’t tell them, not even the Vikings,” Asclepius warned. “If they can get me out of here, I’ll take Nike down. I swear it. Keep your guard up, okay. I always liked you Ben, even if I wish we’d never met.”
Still shocked, Ben didn’t smile, but he gave Asclepius a parting nod as he slipped through the barrier, feeling the heavy power wash over him. The room was calmer now, but Ben was not. His hands were shaking as he realized that Andrew, Alex, and likely Mark and Jude all knew Stella’s secret. They all knew and had chosen to keep it from him.
Andrew looked up from the computer, saw the expression on Ben’s face, and sighed. “He told you.”
“How long did you know?” Ben asked, his voice calm but dangerously low.
“From the moment I laid eyes on her,” Andrew answered honestly.
“Why,” Ben said slowly, though clenched teeth, “didn’t anyone tell me? You all knew that I had no idea who she really was.”
“Per her request, we kept it a secret,” Andrew said with a shrug. He fell silent for a moment as he clicked the mouse a few times, and then bent down to retrieve a CD from the computer. “We encouraged her to tell you who she was, however she made a fair point. You learning she had lied all this time, combined with your prejudices against her our kind, the Greeks in particular, would distract you from the mission and possibly compromise your position within the group.” Andrew paused, looking Ben in the eye, and finished with, “I’m paraphrasing, of course.”
Ben ran his hand over his face, his body humming with frustration. “Do you know what deal she has with Hades?”
“Ah, you know about him too,” Andrew said, more of a statement than a question. “Unfortunately not. She’s been fairly closed on that subject. She’s assured us it involves only her.”
“And you believe her?” Ben asked, his voice rising with his anger. “She’s done nothing but lie and manipulate me, and the rest of you, from the moment she set foot in my life, and you believe her?” He gave a hysterical laugh, throwing his hands in the air and he paced across the floor. “You’re supposed to be smarter than her, better than her, and for some reason you trust her. Nike’s been one step ahead of us the entire time, and the only weak link is Stella… or well…Persephone,” he said, spitting her name like a curse. “And somehow you feel her assurance that ‘it involves only her,’ is reason enough to believe her.”
“She’s not strong enough to hurt us, Ben,” Andrew said patiently. He sat back in Greg’s still-bloody chair and kicked one foot up on the desk. “We could destroy her with the snap of our finger. Alex alone could simply wish for her mortal form to expire and it would. We’ve showed you a fraction of what we’re capable of, Ben. A fraction. We don’t use our abilities against humans because we choose not to, it’s not in our nature, and it’s not necessary.”
“If you’re so goddamn strong, why can’t you take Nike down?” Ben shouted. “Why haven’t you located her, expelled that bitch and saved my sister?”
“Because no one believes your sister is in there anymore,” Andrew blurted out. His cheeks immediately pinked and he looked down. “Truthfully, you’re the only one harboring that delusion, but far be it from any of us to take that away from you. You needed motivation, and Abby was as good as anything. As for why we haven’t taken her down, I think you know as well as any of us that Nike’s vessel is different. She’s bested us once, and we’d like to do this smart, end it for good.”
Ben deflated almost instantly. Andrew had spoken Ben’s absolute and ultimate fear. Abby was gone. There was nothing worth saving in that body because there was nothing of hers left. Ben had resuscitated the body, and the reason Nike was still walking the earth was because Ben couldn’t let the idea of Abby go.
“Hades is in the lobby,” Ben said after a moment, his tone completely flat and tired. “He wants to speak with me.”
Andrew’s eyebrow raised, and Ben realized how strange it was that he still looked like Andrew to him now, even inside of an entirely different body. “And?”
“He wants to speak with me about his deal with Stella…er…Persephone.”
Andrew’s face fell into a frown and he dropped his legs from the desk, leaning forward slightly. “That’s not a good idea. Hades, while a Greek, is powerful and can be a very dangerous being.”
Ben let out a small laugh and threw up his hands. “I don’t care. I don’t care, Andrew! If he wants Persephone, he can have her. I’m through with her lies.”
Andrew stood up, reaching his hand out in Ben’s direction as Ben moved to
ward the office door. “We need her,” he said in a hurried voice. “You may hate her, and none of us completely trust her, but we need her. She’s the only one who knows where the portals are.”
Ben froze with his hand poised above the door handle and he turned is head. “Is she really, though? Is she honest-to-god the only being right now that we know of who can find a portal?”
“Any one of us can find them,” Andrew said, “but she’s the only one who knows where they are. Nike doesn’t have that, and even if she’s in league with her, we still have Persephone in our grasp. If Hades is coming to collect her, ask him for a little more time. I’m going to go and find Alex and see if we can free Asclepius. If we can, we have almost everything we need. We’ll just need to lure Nike to the portal and we can take her out.”
Ben lowered his head, but gave a sigh and knew that no matter what his gut was telling him, Andrew was right. They needed the creature inside of Stella’s body, it was the only way they were going to be able to stay ahead of Nike. “Fine,” he muttered. “Fine. But don’t let her out of your sight, and when I see her, it’s not going to be pretty.”
With that, Ben turned the handle on the door and walked out. The hallway was darker than it had been when he had come through, and in the dim light of the lobby, he could see a pacing shadow moving across the floor.
He tried to keep silent as he entered the larger space, wanting to get a glimpse of the notorious god before Hades had a chance to speak. He was standing by the nurse’s desk when Ben saw him in full view. He was tall and thin, his face seemingly without flaw or wrinkle, and his piercing eyes lit up when Ben entered the room.
He was dressed impeccably, in a designer suit, his hair wavy, black, and resting loosely just above his ears. He looked like something out of a movie, too perfect to be real, his charisma almost glowing from every pore as he smiled and extended his long-fingered hand toward the detective.
“Benjamin Stanford, I have been looking forward to this moment for a long, long time,” he said in an almost southern drawl.
Ben half-expected his hand to pass through Hades; he looked far too perfect to be a true, mortal form, but his grasp was firm, warm and almost comforting. Ben cleared his throat and said, “Hades, correct?”
Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse) Page 8
