Carnage: Nate Temple Series Book 14

by Shayne Silvers

  Prometheus giving mankind the gift of fire. Damn. It kept coming back to the Titan. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? I was fairly certain he wanted to skin me alive.

  She nodded. “Hephaestus suffers a similar fate as Prometheus. Punishment for sneaking hope inside of Pandora’s Box.”

  I winced. “Hope. Like me.” She nodded. Was hope really a power? Like, an actual magic that I could somehow wield? I sure…hoped so.

  Badump, bump.

  “You inspired me to be a better step-mother to Pandora. I learned that love isn’t about blood. I refuse to let Zeus break the child worse than he already has. She was conceived in a placenta of guilt and shame and horror, born in a womb of embers and sparks from Hephaestus’ forge. Hephaestus did not put hope inside the box for mankind—he put hope inside the box for her. To protect Pandora from herself. Hope was to be her knight in shining armor.” I stared back at her, stunned. “And look who is now the Horseman of Hope. You, and only you, can save her.”

  My mind reeled with all the interwoven pieces, trying to connect them into a clear picture.

  She sighed, lifting her hands in a helpless gesture. “It is time to collect Carl and get you home. Unless you prefer to stay here?” she asked.

  I didn’t. Not at all. But I understood her point. Where would I be most effective? Going back home without powers wasn’t ideal, especially when I needed to beat Zeus on his mysterious treasure hunt. And…I couldn’t approach my friends directly. If I said or did anything contrary to Electro-Nate, they would know something was up, and could very likely assume that I was the doppelgänger.

  Or Zeus would just have them all killed.

  But I had a few ideas. “I must go home.” I took a breath, gathering my courage. “But not yet.” She cocked her head curiously. “Let’s get me back in my cell. I need a few minutes to think this through.”

  She nodded, climbing to her feet. Between one moment and the next, I was suddenly back in my cell. I had no idea how long I had been gone, but Carl was sleeping on his cot and I could see a crescent moon in the sky through the barred window. It might have been my imagination, but a drifting cloud resembled the shape of a heart, situated directly between the points of the moon.

  Just like the symbol Aphrodite had made with my fingers when she’d shown me how to use the godkiller ichor dagger.

  Carl must have sensed something, because he abruptly sat up, turning to stare at us with a wary frown. He narrowed his eyes to see Aphrodite escorting me. After a pointed silence, Carl glanced over at me with a grimace and flicked his tongue out, tasting the air. “You smell like a million dying souls. You had unhappy sex.”

  I gritted my teeth at Aphrodite’s sudden laugh. “Yeah. That sounds about right.”

  Carl shot an angry glare at Aphrodite. “This is not acceptable.”

  She laughed even harder. “Not my fault. Ask him.”

  I sighed. “Later, Carl.” I turned to Aphrodite and prepared for her to argue my sudden idea. “We cannot leave yet. I need one more visit from each of your brothers. It will buy me time. Otherwise they’ll be after me the moment you let me go.”

  She winced uncertainly. “That is risky…”

  “Just be ready with another bottle of your Ambrosia when you see they’re done.”

  She nodded. Then she lifted her hand and my chains snapped back onto my manacles. She appraised me thoughtfully. “You are not who I thought you were.”

  “I aim to disappoint,” I said with a smirk.

  She smiled. “Be ready for my return.” And with that, she disappeared.

  Carl watched me. “Did I just watch you turn away our escape?”

  “You did,” I admitted.

  He was silent.

  “It will make her think. Confuse her.”

  “Ah. This is punishment for your blue balls.”

  I coughed, shaking my head. “No. But thanks for reminding me,” I winced, gasping at a sudden flash of pain.

  “I hope this plan isn’t so clever that it kills us. Then again, it will show them you can’t be controlled,” he mused, the plan growing on him. He nodded proudly. “This is an honorable death. Not even blue balls can keep you from making a rational decision.”

  I sighed, not wanting to explain it. That only made things worse with Carl. My groin suffered a tsunami of pain with each step, and I found myself practically panting, taking short, sharp breaths, and even shorter, stiffer steps.

  Carl growled his displeasure. “Unacceptable. Orgasms are simple. I will talk to her for you.”

  I gritted my teeth, shaking my head. “No, Carl. For so many reasons.”

  He shook his head unhappily and then rolled over on his cot to resume his sleep. We’d need it for our next torture session, so I made my way over to my own cot. Strangely enough, I was looking forward to the brothers. Not the pain, but poisoning the Olympians and turning them on each other.

  Maybe it would bring them one step closer to the carnage.

  16

  I shifted back and forth in a realm of misty apparitions, meditating for clarity. Carl still slept, but I’d been unable to go back to sleep after waking from a truly baffling series of dreams involving Quinn MacKenna.

  Mainly because they’d seemed so real, yet I knew they were not. Because they had all been strange distortions of our memories, taking strange turns at climactic moments. Quinn got to see some of my distorted memories, and I had been able to see hers. Yet it had been closer to astral projecting, because we had been on the outside looking in…mostly.

  One thing I’d decided upon waking was that Quinn and I really needed to hang out more. Maybe I’d visit her in Boston for St. Patrick’s Day and then invite her down to St. Louis for Mardi Gras—see which city we could tally the most crimes in.

  It had been startling to learn how many mutual friends we shared and how often our individual choices had impacted the other—yet we had never spent any significant time together ourselves. Other than that one time when I broke into her place and picked a fight with her ex—who had been a demon, in my defense.

  But the most troubling aspect of the shared dream was the one where I’d been forced to relive that moment where Pan and I had fought…and he had died. That was pretty much the most painful memory I held in my heart, and it kept me awake many, many nights, although I never told anyone about it.

  Except…in this dream, Quinn had somehow changed history and saved the horned god. I’d woken up in a cold sweat, panting, wondering if it had somehow been real. If Quinn had somehow managed to save Pan, my number one father figure from my time in Fae—

  I was violently snapped out of my meditation by a boot hammering into my ribs, hard enough to elicit a cracking sound. My eyes shot wide open to see Ares looming over me, already rearing back for wake-up call number two. I gasped and grunted with each blow, protecting my vitals as best as I could—the pain of his kicks made all the worse when coupled with my aches from my night with Aphrodite. Throughout it all, I remembered my crazy plan.

  I was actually glad that Ares had visited us, first. He would be the easiest to manipulate.

  Ares finally grew annoyed with me, turning to Carl—

  Who stood inches away from him, staring him right in the eyes. The sounds of me getting my ass kicked must have woken him. Ares let out a startled sound, but not before Carl flicked his tongue out in a sucker-slither, hitting Ares directly in his right eyeball. The god of war punched Carl on reflex, stumbling back from the Elder. I heard ribs crunch as Carl also stumbled back a few steps, but Carl did not whimper or cry out. Ares wiped furiously at his eye, cursing under his breath.

  I wheezed out a pathetic laugh, but struggled to my feet before he could resume stomping me. I wouldn’t be able to trash-talk if he kicked my teeth down my throat or killed me prematurely.

  The two of us stood facing the god of war, waiting for his chosen form of entertainment.

  He saw the absent smile on my face and frowned, lowering his hand. His eye was red wh
ere Carl had tongued him, and I hoped it got an infection, if such a thing were possible. Elder pinkeye, or something. My smile stretched wider.

  “What the fuck are you smiling about? You think it’s funny that he licked me?”

  And with that, I initiated phase one of my plan to mentally break the god of war. I cleared my throat. “That was merely the icing on the cake that was me fucking your sister last night.”

  Carl’s eyes shot about as wide open as I’d ever seen, and Ares’ face instantly went slack and purpled before the hilt of his sword struck me in the gut, knocking the breath from my lungs. I doubled over, wheezing with agony, but I forced myself to press on. It was only going to get worse from here, but I had to set the hooks deeply if I wanted to guarantee a clean escape from this hellhole.

  “Sorry,” I croaked, and Ares held back his follow-up strike. “But I was still more out of breath after your sister did that thing with her—“

  The second blow struck me on the nose like a hammer, sending me crashing to the ground. I felt blood in my mouth, likely draining from my shattered nose. At least I hadn’t accidentally bitten off my own tongue. That would have made trash talking impossible. I could have trash-lisped him, I guess.

  I lifted my head to stare at Ares. “Let’s play charades.”

  He cocked his head in confusion, likely wondering if he’d knocked me senseless.

  I held up a finger. “One word. Here’s a hint.” Then I dramatically gathered the blood in my mouth and took my time spitting to the side, making sure that he couldn’t miss my impression. He frowned at me. “I think we can both agree that I’m not impersonating your sister.” And then I let a slow, wolfish grin split my cheeks as I flashed him a bloody smile and pointed at my spit. “That’s just not her style.”

  Carl burst out laughing and Ares reflexively flung his sword, stabbing the Elder in the chest—alarmingly close to the heart—and turning Carl’s laughter into a rasping, choking sound. I watched Carl’s eyes fluttering weakly as he began to die.

  Ares’ eyes shot wide and he reached for a flask of Ambrosia hanging from his hip, moving in stiff, frantic motions as he unstoppered the life-saving elixir.

  “You better not let him die or your father will utterly destroy you,” I said, forcing myself to chuckle despite my very real fear that he’d gone too far with Carl. “The Elders will never team up if he dies. Period. Although, I’m sure we’d have a grand old time as cell mates.”

  Ares cursed, pouring the Ambrosia down Carl’s throat in liberal doses, panting wildly.

  Which gave me plenty of time to finish him off. Ares shifted to pouring the Ambrosia directly onto Carl’s gaping wound, muttering under his breath as if praying for a miracle.

  “You know, out of all the gods of war I’ve encountered, you’re the most disappointing,” I drawled, capitalizing on his inability to shut me up. “Which is funny, because you’re one of the most well-known. I mean, I pretty much made all of the gods of war my bitch. Thor was a hot mess with hardcore daddy issues. He wasn’t even worth my time, but I got his hammer out of the deal, so it wasn’t a total waste, I guess,” I admitted. “And Odin was my butler. He was pretty damned good at it, too. Maybe you would make a good replacement butler when I’m finished with you,” I mused. “I could make you general of my kitchen cavalry. I’d even give you your own spoon if you showed some initiative. You could serve Aphrodite and me dinner before we retire for…well, you know.”

  I grinned madly at his furious curses and labored panting. He wanted nothing more than to get his hands on me, but he was too busy triaging Carl.

  “Athena was a joke, too, but you knew that. I showed her only a little bit of the pleasure I showed Aphrodite a few hours ago and her brain literally melted. Aphrodite was barely able to handle my foreplay herself, now that I think of it.”

  Ares snarled, dumping the liquid on Carl and reaching for another flask. With two flasks of the healing liquid, I knew Carl was going to survive. Time for me to put a bow on it.

  “The strangest thing was what she screamed when she climaxed. Well, the first three times, anyway. Number four was all NATE!” I crowed, cupping my hands around my mouth. “I really put my back into that round.” I saw Ares reaching for his sword and Carl sucking in a rasping breath. Time to hurry. “I hate to tell you this, champ, but it wasn’t your name she screamed the first three times. It was her husband’s name—and loud enough to make my ears pop—”

  His fiery sword stabbed me through the chest like a white-hot iron, cutting me off. He leaned over me, his face livid, his right eye red and irritated from Carl’s tongue, and he was drooling like a rabid dog. “YOU LIE! ADMIT IT!”

  I raggedly sucked in the deepest breath I could manage. I had one more thing to say, and it was a one-word answer. “HEPHAESTUS!” I screamed in my best falsetto impersonation of an Aphrodite-level climax.

  Ares twisted the blade with a furious snarl, shouting at the top of his lungs and coating me with his drool. My vision tunneled, and the last thing I saw before unconsciousness took me was a medical certainty. Ares’ rage had made him pop a blood vessel in one eye, and the other was most definitely going to be a nasty pinkeye.

  And that is why you just say no to incest.

  I WOKE UP WITH A GASP, clutching at my chest. It ached like I’d been in a car accident, and my nose felt swollen and broken like I’d been knocked out by an airbag, completing the analogy.

  Carl stared down at me with a look of awe. “This is an insane plan,” he whispered, shaking his head. “You amaze me.”

  I coughed. “Wait until we see his brother, Apollo.”

  Carl grunted. “I feared Ares more than Apollo. What can his sun do to me? It’s like a day at the spa.”

  I considered his words thoughtfully, and a dark smile soon crept over my face as I theorized how best to get under Apollo’s skin. Not just his fragile vanity…but his incompetence. “Thank you, Carl. You just found the last piece of the puzzle.” I spat to the side. “We have any more of that drink? I think he short-changed us.”

  Carl shook his head. “He gave us enough so that we would live but not heal much from our injuries.”

  I grunted. “What an asshole. Nothing like his sister.”

  Carl burst out laughing. “HEPHAESTUS!” he crowed, parroting my taunt to Ares.

  I grinned. “How long have I been out?”

  “Ten minutes. Once you were breathing again, he left. Well, he worked me over with his fists because I kept moaning Hephaestus’ name as he healed you up.”

  I grinned from ear-to-ear. “Way to go, Carl!”

  His smile faded, replaced by concern. “It took you ten minutes to come back to consciousness.”

  I nodded uneasily, hoping there were no lasting effects to this abuse. “Wake me up when sunshine gets here. I’m just going to rest my eyes for a minute—”

  The door burst open and Apollo stormed in, his eyes shining with fury.

  I sighed, slowly sitting up. Part of me was glad that I was closer to escaping.

  But the crazy look in Apollo’s eyes wasn’t very indicative of a good time. I cocked my head, studying Apollo pensively. Then I turned back to Carl. “Ares was right. Sometimes the creator writes the jokes for us. Life is a field sobriety test for some people.” Then I turned to Apollo with a faux innocent smile. “Good morning, sunshine.”

  17

  Apollo’s glare was dripping with disdain. He even turned his nose up at me and sniffed. “I don’t know what you said to my brother, but it seems you need to be put in your place.”

  I blinked, wondering if he was narcissistic enough to have totally missed the fact that my taunt had been directed at him. Was it possible to be so arrogant that snark was a foreign language? I’d have to be a little more on the nose with him.

  Between one moment and the next, we were outside on the edge of a cliff. Well, the sheared-off edge of a white marble floor, like one of the pavilions had broken off the mountain.

  The sudden
light was blinding, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Because Apollo was the god of the sun, it wasn’t a relaxing, tolerable heat; it was like standing too close to a bonfire when it flared up. My skin tightened and I hissed instinctively. Carl murmured appreciatively.

  Apollo tore my shirt off and then kicked the back of my knees until I crashed to the ground hard enough to possibly fracture my kneecaps. I hissed at the heat of the sun striking my unprotected back, flinching involuntarily.

  I glanced up to see Carl also on his knees and Apollo glaring at us with a satisfied smile.

  I frowned at Carl. “Well, I had a great time with Ares. Maybe he just overacted his part?”

  Carl shrugged. “You did tell him and Aphrodite to be convincing.”

  “What do you mean, convincing?” Apollo demanded, his bravado slipping. “And what does my sister have to do with it?”

  “Well, he didn’t torture me,” I said, as if it were obvious. “Ares asked if I was willing to work under him. Aphrodite was there as the honey to his stick, like she’d told Zeus. I told them I would agree if I was able to keep the Elders under my command.” Carl nodded, going along with my lie. I frowned at Apollo. “Why are you acting like you don’t know? They said they had already talked to you about it after they overheard Zeus’ concerns about your inability to subdue the Elders with your sunlight.”

  He glared at me. “You lie. Ares was furious. And he is the worst liar I’ve ever met. I would have seen through it.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. He is a pretty bad liar, but he said he would try his best. We agreed that it was safest until he had a chance to talk to Hermes about it. Something about sending a message to Zeus to tell him the good news.”

  Apollo looked deeply troubled, and I wondered what the hell kind of chaos I’d just stumbled upon. “Do you think it was when I told Ares about Zeus’ plan for the Elders?” I asked Carl.

  He shook his head. “You did not mention that. Zeus told you to keep it to yourself.”