Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse)

by Angella Graff

  Chapter Twenty

  The fresh air hit him full on as he stood on the balcony. They were fairly far from the water, but he could still smell the sea in the heavy breeze whipping his hair around his eyes. Hunkering against the corner of the wall, it took him several tries to light his cigarette, but that first rush of nicotine in the heavy smoke was almost soothing. Worst habit ever, he thought as he slowly sank into the chair near the terrace railing.

  Alex and Andrew were still in the living room with Persephone, as he was now able to call her without stuttering. She had been dragged out of the room and persuaded to talk, but until Ben offered his forgiveness for her lies, she refused to speak a word.

  The funny thing was, he could have lied. He could have just told her he forgave her to get her to talk, but for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He was so damn angry with her, so betrayed, and the truth was, she probably would have known it was a lie. Ben was a great liar, except when it actually meant something to him, and he’d nearly fallen in love with her.

  He took a deep pull of the cigarette and let the smoke slither from his mouth, floating up until it was caught by one of the heavy wind gusts. He could see clouds rolling in, in the distance. A storm was likely brewing, which was typical for the season. The air was heavy and filled with the piercing sounds of the gulls as they flew through the streets, the coastal city’s pigeons, vermin, but it’s part of what made the place home.

  A small tapping on the glass startled Ben, but he didn’t show it as he turned his head and saw Mark standing, his hand poised on the handle. He gave a nonchalant nod, not willing to begrudge the tired immortal some time outside. Seeing Jude’s condition slowly deteriorating, Ben felt sorry for the guy, especially since no one knew what to do and Persephone wasn’t in the mood for chatting.

  “Any change?” Ben asked as Mark hooked the leg of a chair with his foot and dragged it over to sit against the railing.

  Mark shook his head and laid his forehead against the cool metal rail. He closed his eyes and let out a very deep, very slow breath. “Everything seems the same for now. Which I suppose is good, since he’s not getting any worse.”

  “She’s going to talk,” Ben said after a moment of silence. “Trust me, we’re going to make her talk.”

  Mark sighed and laid his head against the back of the chair. “I know. I know she will and just like it always does, it’s probably going to work out in the end. I’m just so damn tired, Benjamin. I’m so damn tired of having to be tortured and scarred, and I keep telling myself it’s no big deal because eventually it’ll stop and we’ll walk away from it, but when is enough enough? When do we get just a little reprieve from the human race trying to strip us down to our bare bones?”

  Ben didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t have an answer. From the moment he met Mark, it seemed to be a non-stop barrage of kidnapping and torture, near death experiences, and a body count that Ben was just impossibly uncomfortable with. He had no idea they’d made it two millennia without something going terribly awry, although from Mark’s story it stood to reason that many times it actually had gone completely upside down not only for Mark, but for religion and a good part of the world.

  “Hades has been under Persephone’s spell since he met her,” Ben finally said. It probably wasn’t the right thing to say, but he had to tell Mark. He had yet to tell Hades’s full story to them, and the truth was, based on what Hades had told him, there might not be a cure for Jude. Not until Apollo was gone from this world, and that wasn’t going to be as easy as taking Persephone out.

  Mark gave a long, slow nod. “I…I had a feeling,” he admitted.

  “I’m not telling you that to upset you,” Ben said quickly. He reached forward and snubbed out his cigarette, and then watched as the orange filter fell down to the ground below. He rubbed his hands over his face with a groan and stretched his back a little. “We just need to take into consideration—”

  “There is no cure,” Mark finished for him. “I realized that the moment I saw him. He may be able to come out of it and live with it, but it’s possible we’re going to be in a situation very like that of your friend Hades.”

  Ben kicked his foot up on the railing and looked at Mark for a long time. He still had trouble wrapping his mind around how he could be that old. It was only the moments when Mark showed his true self, those moments when his eyes looked like those of an immortal, that Ben was able to get it. Most of the time, however, Mark was just some guy Ben’s age, tired but doing okay for himself. Some guy that Ben might have known and had weekly pub nights with, sharing a beer, watching some game on the TV that neither of them really cared about, talking about their crappy co-workers and terrible schedules. Yes, Mark could have definitely been one of those guys.

  He ached for Mark and Jude, he realized as he sat there and stared at the tired immortal. He didn’t really like them. Mark wasn’t very likable, and Jude was just bizarre, but no one deserved to hurt like this. No one deserved to constantly run, to never feel at home. To be haunted by immortality, never being able to connect to anyone, because who wants to watch a loved one age and decay the way Mark and Jude never would?

  Ben looked out at the city, and from their high perch he could just barely make out the coastline, and the faint glint of the sun on the blue waters of the Pacific. It was easy to feel connected to everything from way up there, apart from the chaos down below. Not just the chaos of their supernatural situation, either, but of everyday life.

  Glancing back through the window, he could see Alex talking rapidly to Andrew, gesturing at Jude who still lay on the couch, while Persephone sat in the chair with her head hanging down, hair a dark waterfall over her face. He thought in a different life he might feel sorry for her. She didn’t seem like a bad person, just…stupid. Ill-informed, selfish and true to her nature, as all of the Greeks seemed to be unable to grasp empathy or emotions outside of their own.

  Ben completely believed that Persephone thought she was doing him a favor. What was one mortal life to save someone she loved? Some humans would have gladly sacrificed any human, family member or not, to save their own life. It wasn’t unreasonable; human self-preservation was strong and powerful. Ben had seen it a thousand times in murder cases, from both murderer and victim alike. But unfortunately, Persephone had chosen poorly. Ben would have given up any and everything for his sister, and that choice had been taken from him without his knowledge or consent.

  “Are you going to hurt her?” Mark asked suddenly, breaking Ben’s train of thought.

  “Sorry?” Ben asked with a frown, startled by the question.

  “Persephone,” Mark said. “Are you going to hurt her? To make her talk?”

  Ben let out a breath and leaned forward on his knees, his eyes fixed on the dark ash smear from his discarded cigarette. He wanted another, but he wasn’t going to let himself give in right now. “I, uh, I don’t know,” he said after a moment. “If I have to, I suppose I will.”

  “Doesn’t seem logical, does it?” Mark said with a small, sad smile. “Hurting her to get her to tell you that there is no cure for Jude? Most likely she’ll lie, and we don’t have much time to screw around with this. We’ve got to make our move with Nike and worry about Jude later.”

  “She took out one of our best men, though,” Ben said, his voice low and frustrated. “I think Alex and Andrew forget how strong he is, how capable. He’s a healer, he’s strong, and he’s immortal. You both are, and having you on the front lines is probably some of our best hope. Alex and Andrew seem to forget that they’re vulnerable. Powerful, yes, but their human form can die. Alex was popped out of that poor girl like a damn tick and we had to face Nike on our own. The only two who weren’t in mortal danger were you and Jude, and now we’ve lost him. Apollo taking out Jude was no coincidence.”

  “So you think Nike sent him on purpose,” Mark asked, “because Alex seemed to think he had his own agenda.”

  “Well, after talking to H
ades, I’m willing to believe Apollo may have. However, I think taking out Jude was deliberate. Maybe it was petty though,” Ben mused. “Maybe…maybe he was just trying to get revenge for the woman he loved because Jude’s powers nearly castrated Nike’s vessel. I just…I just can’t be sure.”

  What Ben really needed to do was sit down and tell Alex and Mark the entire story Hades had relayed to him. As much of it as he could recall, and most of all, decide if the offer he made was worth it. Mark was right. They didn’t have a lot of time, and the longer they stalled, the stronger Nike was getting. Ben was absolutely positive that whatever mojo Jude had worked on Abby’s body wasn’t going to last forever, and they needed to draw her to the exit portal while she was at her weakest. It was the only way they were going to be victorious.

  Ben rose from the chair and glanced at Mark before pushing the door open and walking inside. Persephone’s head snapped up and Ben could see her regret and desperation deep inside of her eyes. She hadn’t meant harm, but that was no excuse. There wasn’t a drop of forgiveness in his body, not when he closed his eyes and saw the tortured face of his sister, her burnt and scarred body. He could only pray that she’d moved on from that existence because he didn’t want to imagine what it was like if she was in the body with Nike.

  His hands were trembling by the time he took a seat on the sofa near Jude’s feet. Absently, he reached out and laid his palm on Jude’s exposed calf. The skin was still burning hot to the touch, and Jude gave a slight moan from the contact.

  Mark , who had followed him inside, dropped down to the floor beside the sofa and began to bathe Jude’s head with a cool cloth again. Ben turned his attention to Persephone, who hadn’t taken her eyes off of the detective. Clearing his throat, Ben leaned forward on his knees, letting his hands hang loosely between his thighs.

  “I think we should start again,” he said, pulling out his good-cop voice. She likely knew what he was up to, but Ben hoped that she was too distraught to remember typical interrogation techniques. “We all got heated and no one is going to get any straight information out of anyone else unless we remain calm.”

  “Who’s playing bad cop?” she asked, her face twisting into a sardonic smile. “I might be a mess, Ben, but I’m still me. I built Stella, from the ground up. She’s not a cop, she’s not really much of anything. So cut the crap, okay?”

  It was the first time Ben heard the old Stella, the Stella he’d fallen in love with, in so long. Gone was the simpering jealous wreck, and now sitting before him was the hard-nosed cop who put him in this situation to begin with. It was a tactic of hers, and Ben knew it. It stung, but could live with that pain.

  “Fine,” he said, holding out his hands in surrender. “No good cop routine, no playing to your sympathies—mostly because I’m not sure you have any—but we need to get real here.”

  “Do we?” she asked with a harsh laugh. “Look, I was doing what I thought was right, and I’m about to be crucified for it.”

  “So dramatic,” Ben replied with a smile, shaking his head.

  “Am I?” Persephone asked, leaning back despite Andrew’s firm grip on her, and she crossed her arms. “I’m stuck in this body. I’ve tried a thousand ways, exhausted every ounce of power I have, but I can’t get out. I can’t send out a distress signal thanks to Rain Man here,” she said and gave Andrew’s hand a pat, “and I know what Hades wants you to do.”

  “Do you?” Ben asked casually, but inside he was somewhat afraid. He could not have all the cards on the table.

  “He wants me dead,” she said simply. “If you think you’re special, if you think you’re the first lover of mine he’s tracked down and asked to kill me, you’re sadly and pathetically mistaken.”

  Ben’s face didn’t betray an ounce of his surprise. Mostly because he was angry at himself for thinking he had been the first, that he had been someone special. “Hades said a lot of things to me last night,” Ben continued, appearing unfazed. “He told me you were working with Nike. He said you’ve been feeding her information.”

  Persephone gave a chuckle. “Do you know what happened to the others he asked to kill me?”

  “Oh, let me guess,” Ben said, sounding as bored as he could, “you let your inner serial killer out, she had her fun, and you later disposed of the bodies.”

  Persephone’s grin widened. “He killed them.”

  Ben quirked an eyebrow and gave her a skeptical look. “Oh? Did he?”

  Persephone all-out laughed this time, her head falling to the side and she swiped at a tear of mirth in the corner of her eye. “You’re such an idiot.”

  “Am I?”

  “You’re like this big puppy who thinks you’re the biggest, smartest, most special puppy ever. The puppy who thinks it’s part human because the owners let it eat and drink at the table, but then you go and shit on the floor and you get chained to the tree outside in the rain.” She shook her head again and crossed her arms. “You’re just a human, Ben. You might be a better breed than most, but you’re just a human. I thought you were cute, but that’s it. You’re not special.”

  It all clicked, and Ben had to physically restrain himself from laughter. She was utterly and completely terrified. He believed her that he wasn’t the only one that had been asked to kill her, and he would be a fool to think he was her only lover outside of Hades in all these millennia. But no, no there was more to it, because he could see beyond her sarcasm, and he could see she was absolutely petrified.

  He didn’t want to let on, though, not just yet. She was smart, and she could read him. She knew all of the cop-tricks and that was fine. He didn’t need those. He just needed her to go Bond-Villain on them and start spilling all of her secrets, thinking she’d won.

  “He seemed to think I was,” Ben finally answered. “He seemed to think that I would be the only one able to take up the task of ending you.”

  Persephone snorted and raised one eyebrow. “Oh yeah, did he now?” She leaned forward and met his eyes with a fierce gaze. “Did he sell you his little sob story about how he was a poor, mistreated little butterfly? How he saved me from the big, bad temple only to have us run out of Greece and forced to live in a cave in the freezing cold? How the big, mean Persephone put her little whammy on him and he was stuck with me forever?”

  Ben sat back and steepled his fingers. “That isn’t how it happened?”

  Persephone smirked and shook her head. “Oh, Ben, oh Benny boy, how quick you are to crucify me the moment someone decides to validate your fears. Do you know what Hades did to the men who tried to kill me? Did he tell you about that? How he rejected me, told me to stay away from him, stalked my lovers and begged them to rid the world of me. Then he tortured them, flayed them alive, and begging and bleeding, he finally ended their suffering, claiming he just couldn’t let anyone hurt me. He thought that would matter, somehow that would vindicate his actions, because they were all borne out of love. And you think you’re any different?”

  Ben pursed his lips, saying nothing. He didn’t doubt her for a moment. He didn’t doubt that Hades was capable of such a feat, and he was willing to bet if he had Hades right there in front of him, the strange Angel-like creature would gladly admit to those things. But there was something different this time, Ben could just feel it, and he was willing to stake his life and the safety of the planet on it.

  Still, he could see the desperation in her eyes. He could see the way they shifted, searching, trying to find his sore spot, his weakness to dig into. He would have been vulnerable, too, had it not been for everything he’d been through in the last eight months. If he’d not felt Abby’s loss over and over and experienced things he still couldn’t wrap his mind around, Persephone would have been able to hurt him. Ben didn’t love easily, or lightly, but right now he was just so broken.

  “I need to take a break,” Ben finally said, letting the exhaustion he felt cause his voice to tremble. Persephone grinned triumphantly and cast him a sneer as Andrew hoisted her up and dragged
her back down to her room.

  “Are you okay?” Alex asked as soon as Persephone was out of earshot.

  Ben let out a small laugh. “I’m fine. She’s playing me, but it won’t last long. I need her to think she’s won for a bit. We may actually get the information out of her on Nike, and how to shake Jude out of his state.”

  Alex’s eyes flickered over to where Mark was still bathing Jude’s forehead and het let out a sigh. “That really threw a huge wrench in our plans.”

  Ben hummed his agreement and followed Alex to the kitchen where he started to throw together a plate of sandwiches for the household. “How is Andrew doing, by the way? He hasn’t said two words in days, and we haven’t discussed the impact this is having on the human he’s invading.”

  Alex’s face darkened. “I know you have a problem with it…”

  “Problem with it?” Ben asked, his voice getting tense. “I realize that sacrifices have to be made, but I heard that kid’s terror. Tell me you both have some sort of plan to set him right when Andrew’s done with him.”

  “I promise, it’s going to be taken care of,” Alex vowed.

  Ben gave a slight nod and accepted some of the food, but he wasn’t satisfied with the answer. He didn’t trust Alex as much as he wanted to. The more Ben was around these gods, even the Norse ones, he was beginning to see the detachment they had from humanity. The Norse gods may have respected the humans more, but even Alex, who professed to love and adore them, treated them like cattle when push came to shove.

  He began to think about Hades’s story, and how he had related his experience with the human soul. They were stronger than the gods, Hades had said, more enlightened and more powerful. Before they were even organized in a civilized society they’d outgrown the need for divine guidance, and it was only the manipulation of history and spirituality that the humans still believed they needed it in their lives.