“He’s not there and there’s no sign he’s been there recently. Bed is made. Everything is clean. No blood. The place is immaculate.”
Cass threw a glance at his brothers. “Where can he be?”
Cal slowly stood, coming to face her, and she wanted to lash out at him when he murmured thoughtfully, “What if he never came back?”
“Not possible.” Esher was quick to speak before she could, his eyes darkening to navy as he turned on Cal. “Daimon went to pay penitence for me. Maybe it was more punishment than usual. Maybe he’s still there.”
“For twenty-four hours?” she bit out, her temper fraying as she hugged Milos to her chest.
“It’s possible,” Esher retorted.
The rest of his brothers looked as if it wasn’t. They looked as if they felt the same way as she did.
He was grasping at straws, clinging to hope that Cass couldn’t feel as she stared at the garden, as that unsettled feeling condensed inside her into full blown fear.
Something had happened to Daimon.
She looked at each of his brothers in turn.
Keras’s eyes verged on black as he twisted the silver band around his thumb, his jet eyebrows knitted hard and his lips compressed into a thin line.
Ares looked equally as troubled, sparks of gold and red lighting his brown irises.
Valen looked ready to rip someone apart.
“You think the enemy might have managed to…” She didn’t want to finish that sentence.
“I think the enemy has been in our sights all this time,” Ares growled, his face grim and fire raging in his eyes.
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that until Calistos spoke.
“Nemesis wouldn’t turn against Father… would she?” He didn’t look sure about that, his blue eyes turning stormy as he looked between Ares and Keras.
Keras snarled, “Anything is possible.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Marek put in. “We need to send a Messenger to Father to ask whether he can feel Daimon in the Underworld. While that’s happening, we need to search for him. If he’s not in Hong Kong, and he’s not here, maybe they took him to one of the old safehouses. We could check there.”
“They took him to New York.” Keras sounded certain of that.
Everyone looked at Keras. Valen and Eva rose to their feet, giving him the whole of their attention, and Mari pushed to hers at the same time as Caterina stood and went to Marek.
“The enemy attacked Hong Kong when Esher was absent. They know which gate is bound to each of us.” Keras looked at Ares, Marek and then Valen. “We head to New York.”
“I’m coming too.” Esher broke away from Aiko and outside the rain grew heavier again, pelting the earth and filling the air with the scent of it.
“No.” That single word fell hard in the room, spoken in a commanding tone that had Esher’s shoulders stiffening as he levelled a glare on Keras. Keras didn’t give him a chance to argue. “You are in no fit state to step there, let alone fight. On a battlefield, you are a liability right now. I will not risk you.”
All of the fight fled from Esher’s eyes as the last five words hit him, uttered in a soft tone that had her, and everyone else in the room judging by their faces, aware of the depth of Keras’s feelings for his brother.
Keras went to Esher, placed his hands on his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes.
“I know you need to be there, Esher, because it’s Daimon… but you are still recovering. You need to sit this one out.”
Esher’s black eyebrows furrowed, pain dancing in his dark blue eyes as they darted between Keras’s.
A need to do something to ease him filled her, had her moving towards him to touch his back. The moment she made contact with him, he turned his face towards her.
“I’ll go with them,” she said in a low voice, one filled with the compassion she felt inside as she looked into Esher’s eyes and saw the conflict in them—the need. The thought of sitting this one out was killing him. Keras was right though. Esher was a liability. He couldn’t go into battle, but she could, and she would do it for both of them. “I’ll make sure he comes home.”
Esher nodded stiffly.
“We’ll take care of the ladies,” Cal said and came to Esher, slapped him on the back and nodded when Esher looked at him. “Got to keep Megan and the others safe, right?”
Esher’s eyes rapidly darkened and he growled as he nodded. “The babe.”
Gods help the world if Aiko ever fell pregnant. The beast would probably coddle her to death and kill anyone who so much as looked in her direction.
Ares looked as if he wanted to hug his brother for being so concerned about Megan and the baby, but settled for saying, “Thanks. She’ll feel better knowing you’re both here.”
“I’ll kill any bastard who sets foot near here.” Eva checked her gun was loaded, her sapphire eyes bright as she stared lovingly at it and then at Valen. “You give them hell.”
Valen swept her up into his arms and kissed her. “Always do.”
Something deep inside Cass ached, the need to see Daimon was safe and alive burning more fiercely and flooding her with impatience.
“Let us go.” Cass walked to Aiko and handed Milos to her.
Her bastard cat continued purring contentedly as Aiko petted him, evidently uncaring about the change of hands. Traitor.
Cass began to form the incantation in her mind.
Stopped when Ares towered over her. “You stay here.”
She scowled at him. “I will not.”
A few of his brothers looked as if they wanted to voice an objection too, so she glared at them all, making sure they knew she was serious. It didn’t matter that the enemy wanted to get their hands on her. All that mattered was bringing Daimon home safe.
“I know the risks, but none of you get a say. This is my decision and no one can stop me from going.” She planted her hands on her hips, digging her fingertips into her black leather trousers, and dared them all to speak.
Calistos and Esher both looked as if they wanted her to go, probably for different reasons. Mari looked concerned but unlikely to say something. Valen looked bored.
Marek and Ares looked ready to argue with her about this.
Keras.
Well, he looked as if he was considering tossing her into the cage.
So Cass played her trump card.
She tipped her chin up. “I can use a spell to locate Daimon.”
Marek glanced at Ares. Ares huffed.
“You want to find Daimon quickly, you’re going to need me.” She glared at them all, stoked her magic so it shone in her eyes, making sure they were aware of the hell she would unleash on them if they tried to bench her this time.
Keras’s black eyebrows drew down. “The first sign of trouble, and you are off the field.”
“I can live with that.” She swept her fall of black hair over her shoulder and then held her hand out to Marek. “Shall we go?”
“Wait.” Ares looked at Esher as Cal went to the porch, grabbed everyone’s shoes and tossed them at them. Ares shoved his feet into his boots. “Summon a Messenger and send it to Father. Tell him to dispatch a legion to Nemesis’s domain and secure her. Just in case our hunch is right. We know she can’t come here with the gates closed to traffic, so she has to be somewhere in the Underworld. I’d rather she didn’t get the chance to run.”
The moment Esher nodded, Ares and Keras disappeared. Valen followed them.
Marek took hold of her arm as she finished zipping up her calf-height leather boots and stepped with her, darkness embracing them for a heartbeat before it parted to reveal a shady corner of Central Park.
The humans jogging along the pathway that cut through the enormous park in the heart of New York gave her and the gods at her back strange looks as they stepped out of the trees.
She scowled at them all.
She hadn’t been up to any funny business in the bushes with four men if that was wh
at they were thinking.
A few of the female joggers slowed, and one almost tripped over her feet as Keras stepped into the fading light, lifting a hand above his green eyes to shield them as he assessed the position of the sun.
Ares shook his head.
Valen sighed. “I can practically see their panties melting away as they run past him.”
Cass looked at Keras. He was beautiful, but only on the surface. Beneath that perfect exterior beat a black, dead heart that was twisted with a need for pain.
He would probably destroy any woman he came in contact with, sucking the light right out of them.
“The light is fading fast. We have perhaps an hour at most before the daemons can walk in it.” Keras turned his back on the women, apparently not noticing, or uncaring of, the way they gawped at him.
She supposed he had probably had females fawning over him his entire life, first in the Underworld and now in the mortal one.
“We could wait until it gets dark,” Valen put in as he raked his fingers through the longer lengths of his violet hair, pushing it back from his face. “The enemy is bound to want to hit the gate and bring Daimon with them.”
He drew a few glances from the women too, ones that rapidly turned to fear as they noticed the scar tissue that ran from the left side of his jaw down his neck. He glared at them, golden eyes dangerously bright.
“Might I remind you that enemy can also draw the power to do just that from his blood?” Cass snapped, fear getting the better of her again.
“She’s right.” Ares folded his arms, his biceps flexing beneath his tight black T-shirt as fire blazed in his dark eyes. “We’re not waiting, leaving Daimon at their mercy.”
“If the enemy even has him. Might be a wild goose chase.” Valen hiked his shoulders, lifting the hem of his own black T-shirt to flash a toned strip of stomach.
Cass shut them out as they argued about what to do, pressed the fingers of her right hand to her chest and focused as she breathed. Each slow inhale and steady exhale cleared her mind, allowing her magic to come to the fore. It ran in her blood, a comforting presence, power at her fingertips.
The power to save the man she loved.
She focused on that, on him, letting the magic rise inside her and latch onto that desire. It grew stronger, a heady sensation that had her swaying as it began to twine down her legs, twisting around them beneath her skin.
The moment it connected with the grass beneath her boots, she tensed.
Pain bloomed in her heart and she gasped.
“Something is wrong.” She flicked her eyes open and looked at Ares, Keras and then Marek and Valen, that bad feeling growing inside her as her magic began to seep outwards, fingers of it stretching in all directions. “I can feel it. I need to find Daimon now.”
Keras nodded. “It’s best we don’t wait for the enemy to approach the gate. If we can get our hands on Daimon, we might be able to avoid the gate coming under fire.”
He looked at her.
“Can you sense him?”
She blinked and nodded. “I think so. I’ll try a spell.”
Cass pieced together the incantation, knitting several different locator spells together in an attempt to make the strongest one she could manage. All the while, the connection between her and nature grew, and the fear she felt grew stronger with it. She could sense the four gods around her so clearly, and sense that Daimon was in deep trouble. She wasn’t sure how. She had never experienced anything like this.
Was it because they were born of Persephone’s blood and therefore linked to nature? Their powers were all elemental after all. It had to be the reason she could sense a disturbance where Daimon was concerned, felt as if something was terribly wrong. The whole balance of nature felt off in this area and somehow she knew it was because something had happened to him.
“You think the enemy is going to try to use Daimon’s blood to open the gate?” Valen muttered.
“Most likely,” Keras answered.
“What happens if they want his blood for more than just opening the gate? What if they intend to use him as a sacrifice?” Marek’s voice speared her mind, fracturing her focus and scattering the pieces of the spell.
Her gaze snapped to Keras.
His green eyes slid to her and then back to his brothers. “That would be bad. If they kill him, I doubt we would be able to seal the gate. There is a chance it would remain open… and the two worlds—”
“This isn’t helping,” Cass barked and glared at them all. “Just shut up and let me work.”
Her hands trembled and she shook them, trying to stop them. They continued to quiver as nerves rose inside her, fear at the helm, shaking her to her soul. Daimon had to be all right. He just had to be.
She couldn’t lose him.
She closed her eyes and built the incantation again, forming the tracking spell as silence fell around her and she banished her fears once more. Fear would only slow her down and Daimon needed her.
As the spell completed, she was instantly connected to everything around her, aware of the world in a way she had never felt before. Every living thing was outlined in the darkness of her mind, a strange echo of each natural object and person built by traces of light. Trees were glittering green silhouettes. Water rippled blue. Rocks shone grey. Humans moving past her were flickering pink outlines.
The four gods watching her shimmered with different colours. Red. Brown. Purple. Black.
Cass pressed her hand to her heart and sought white.
Her eyes scanned the darkness, seeking that absence of colour.
Seeking ice.
She walked forwards with her eyes closed, the spell revealing everything to her in flickers and bolts of light.
“We following her?” Valen’s voice warbled in her ears, a distant watery sound.
Cass sensed the power of the four gods buffeting her as they tracked her, keeping a few steps behind her. Their impatience washed over her, mingling with her own to keep her moving forwards.
Seeking the white.
The sensation that something was wrong grew stronger, beating within her, and then weaker again. She backtracked, almost bumping into Ares. His heat washed over her as she moved around him, studying the feeling. It grew stronger again.
Cass tracked it through glittering green fields and around shimmering blue water.
When she neared the other side of the park, she slowed her steps, her eyes lifting to scan the sky beyond the ancient trees.
“He somewhere up there?” Ares’s deep voice echoed in her ears.
She nodded. Whispered, “Somewhere.”
But all she could see were humans, floating in the air. No shape of buildings.
She moved beyond the park.
Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back as a car horn blasted.
“You crazy?” Valen barked at her.
Cass opened her eyes and they widened as she saw the steady stream of vehicles darting across the route ahead of her.
“They don’t show up,” she bit out defensively. “I can see natural things. Nothing more.”
Valen dragged her to the nearest crossing. “Now I know that, I’ll keep a better bloody eye on you. Daimon would kill us if anything happened to you.”
“He’s probably going to kill us for letting her come with us anyway,” Ares muttered.
She frowned at him. “No one let me come.”
He just shrugged at that.
She crossed the road and shirked free of Valen’s grip, and closed her eyes again. The spell burst back to life, outlining everything for her. She focused on Daimon again, following that feeling in her heart down a side street.
She lifted her head and scanned the buildings around her.
Desperately hoping to see white.
But all she saw was pink humans.
“This place looks familiar,” Keras muttered.
“Whole damned world looks familiar these days,” Valen grumbled back at him. “Been here way t
oo long.”
She frowned and stopped, backtracked a few steps and looked up at the building to her right.
“That’s strange.” She canted her head at the shimmering forms.
“What’s strange?” Keras asked.
“Nothing. Just… those people have two colours.” She pointed at them where they hovered high in the air, the only two people in the building.
“Two colours.” Ares’s gruff voice and the heat of him close to her had her looking at him. “Fucking tell me they’re not green and blue.”
A shiver chased down her spine and arms.
She nodded.
Ares growled, flashing short fangs, his eyes rapidly darkening. “Bastards.”
She wasn’t following. She looked at the others.
Shock danced in Valen’s golden eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
Marek and Keras didn’t look at all happy.
When she looked back at Ares for an explanation, he bit out, “Messengers.”
“Maybe Dad found Daimon before us and sent them to save him?” Valen didn’t sound like he believed that.
“Fucking traitors,” Ares barked and turned fiery eyes on her. “Is Daimon there?”
Cass shook her head. “I only saw…”
Cold washed through her.
She closed her eyes and looked through the spell again.
Looked more closely this time.
Her heart hitched.
Blood turned to sludge in her veins.
There just beyond the two shimmering blue-green forms was the faintest hint of white, a towering rectangular block of it.
Ice.
“No.”
She flicked her eyes open and summoned the spell.
Transported herself before the brothers could stop her.
Chapter 34
Rage poured through Cass as she landed in a musty empty loft apartment, fed by despair as her gaze landed on the block of pale blue ice before her.
Daimon knelt in the middle of it, his arms bound behind his back.
“What the—”
The male didn’t get a chance to finish that question.
Cass turned on him and screamed as her entire body tensed up, magic sweeping through her in a black blaze. She splayed her fingers into talons and launched them forwards, kept on screaming out her fury as twin twisting orbs of darkness shot from her palms.
Daimon: Guardians of Hades Series Book 6 Page 30
