Bound by Light (46 page)

What—they were into formal introductions with their dinner? They liked to know their food on a first-name basis, and its lineage, too?

Well, whatever.

Merilee didn’t know what else to do, so she cleared her throat and said in the strongest voice she could manage, "I am Merilee, daughter of Sibyls, granddaughter of Hecate. We have no further ties or designations. To our Motherhouse and triad we remain ever-bonded."

The thing that called herself Nosi gave a slight bow, then straightened and once more regarded Merilee with empty black eyes. "We have no love for creatures of light and life." She raised her hand as if to indicate the superiority of the dark mountain around them. "But we have common purpose with you this day, this time in the world."

The cold was getting to Merilee almost as much as her agony over not being able to help Cynda and Riana. Through her teeth, she said, "If you can’t help me save my triad sisters, we have no common purpose at all. Just eat me and get it over with."

The Keres remained silent, but Merilee could have sworn a few of them moved with what looked like laughter, or maybe even approval.

Clearly, they didn’t like weakness and preferred prey with a little spirit.

"We desire the destruction of the Leviathan," Nosi said, still speaking slowly like she was addressing a small child.

"A . . . Leviathan?" Merilee’s full attention riveted on the death spirit in front of her. "That’s what August is?"

Oh, fuck
. In her mind, Merilee saw an image of a massive, merciless sea serpent, large enough to swallow ships and destroy islands with a flick of its barbed tail. Mother Yana had been right. An Old One. Maybe the worst Old One ever known—and it had survived over the centuries, with the depths of the ocean for cover.

"He has crawled from his salty prison too often." Nosi produced an expression like disgust. "When he establishes the world he plans, there will be no humans remaining. No noble battles. No true wars and conflict."

Merilee eased her grip on the bow, her fingers throbbing with relief. "But won’t that make you happy?"

The chittering-screaming-shrieking started from the nine Keres surrounding Merilee and their elected speaker, but Nosi silenced them with a raised hand. "If the Leviathan succeeds, we would be . . . without."

Understanding dawned inside Merilee with a rush so hot it chased back a fraction of the cold. She shouldered her bow, then faced Nosi directly, hands at her sides. "Without human death from violence and battles, you’ll have nothing to feed you."

Nosi nodded. "A glut, and then nothing. We would pass into nonexistence."

"Starve and die." Merilee wasn’t sure that was a bad thing, and her face must have shown her thoughts because Nosi leaned in close and bared her fearsome fangs.

"We could kill you now, air Sibyl." The creature’s frigid breath seemed to stick to Merilee’s face like leftover gore. "You know very well that by our ancient treaty, you belong to us. You asked to come here of your own free will. Irrespective of your reasons for that request, you are ours. We are not bound to honor any terms with you, or accept any bargain."

Merilee tensed and clenched her fists so tightly she was surprised she didn’t draw blood in her palms.

No weakness.

No weakness.

"Right. Look, fuck off. If you were going to eat me, you’d have done it already, so what do you want from me?"

Nosi remained close for a moment, then backed away, lips parted.

Was she smiling?

The thought almost made Merilee physically ill.

The creature folded its arms in what looked like a gesture of defeat, or maybe just surrender. "We have a bargain of our own, air Sibyl."

Merilee kept her fists tight, and her rising anger heated her skin.

No weakness.

"Then spit it out, death spirit, because otherwise, you’re wasting my time."

"We will set you free to find your triad sisters and give you what aid we can." Nosi gestured to the ground beneath her bare, filthy feet. "In return, you will bring the Leviathan here to us before the next sunrise behind your home on Áno Ólimbos."

Merilee worked out the time difference quickly. When the Keres sent her back, she’d have until roughly midnight, New York time, to find Riana and Cynda, rescue them, then get August back here to Káto Ólimbos.

Seven hours.

Fucking impossible.

No way.

"I need more time."

"There is no more time, air Sibyl." Nosi shook her ugly head. "If you do not accomplish this task in these few hours, the Leviathan will set in motion destruction that none of us can stop, least of all those of us who are trapped here in body, on this mountain, for all eternity because of a treaty with
your
kind."

Merilee set her jaw and refused to show any panic. So it wasn’t their deadline, the seven hours. The Keres couldn’t change it. Merilee flexed her fingers, hoping to fend off frostbite. "And if I fail?"

"If you fail, your life is forfeit, as it will be in any case if the Leviathan succeeds. We will eat your flesh and enjoy what time we have left to us. Break the treaty and feed at will." Nosi turned her fierce face toward the hidden slope above her, to Motherhouse Greece. "Beginning with the nearest and closest."

Nosi gazed at Merilee again and a horrid, dark energy flowed forward, slamming into Merilee like a black wall of hate and despair.

The vision pummeled her with so much force it drove her to her knees.

In her mind, she saw the Keres descending on the Mothers and adepts, shredding them, eating them, spilling their blood across the crystal hallways.

Merilee pitched forward, her face striking the frozen earth as her body writhed from the force of the images. She shook and screamed as her body burned from the cold, throbbed from it, and she envisioned the death spirits moving outward like a black cloud of pestilence, consuming the City of Gods and all of Greece.

And more.

And forward.

Onward. All over the world.

Merilee screamed until she felt like her throat was tearing, shook until she thought her bones would come apart—but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t push it back, couldn’t help herself.

She was witnessing a contest between August and the Keres, to see who could kill more people, before the Leviathan established his new world order—and the only true losers were the people of the world. All of them. Oh, sweet Olympus, all. All!

Almost every human life-form on the planet’s surface.

No.

No!

Her soul started to come apart.

Her body started to die even as she fought for breath, for sanity.

The world shook.

Something exploded nearby, and Merilee feared it was her body, that she had frozen solid and shattered into a great mass of frozen blood and tissue, leaving only her consciousness behind to suffer and know how badly she had failed.

A loud, furious roar split the pictures in her mind, dividing them, shoving them sideways and restoring enough awareness for her to realize she had been lifted from the cold, cold mountain earth.

Warmth flooded over her skin.

Light blinded her.

The scent of spice drove the mountain’s suffocating miasma of death out of her nose, out of her mind, and she felt the slight sting of cool metal against her cheek and shoulder. A chain. A ring.

Something powerful and warm was cradling her, and the Keres were backing away, shielding their black-nothing eyes, hissing and spitting and snarling like a pack of rabid cats.

"Jake?" Merilee’s lips were numb. Her eyes clumped shut with melting ice. When she moved, she felt like needles jabbed her skin in a thousand places, but she managed to slip her arms around Jake’s neck.

Even with her eyes stuck shut, Merilee could tell Jake was glowing. He held her even closer, somehow giving her his heat. She felt it flow through her veins, strengthening her, rebuilding her as if his presence was an elixir. He breathed into her hair, pressed his lips against her head, and kissed her, melting away the cold and the frost until she felt almost herself again, able to stand, to fight if she had to.

Then his deep, demon-resonant voice said, "After we get out of here alive, and after we’ve rescued your triad and killed that fucker August, I swear to all your goddesses, I’m going to spank your ass for scaring the living shit out of me. And I’m going to spank it hard."

Merilee heated up even more and opened her eyes as Jake shouted, "She’s mine. This woman is
mine,
and she leaves this mountain with me. Whatever bargain she’s made, I take it for her. It’s mine, too. Which of you would challenge me?"

None of the Keres moved, but Merilee’s heart and mind lurched against Jake’s words.

"Jake. No!" She struggled to get out of his grasp, but he held her so tightly she couldn’t move no matter how hard she tried. "He doesn’t mean that. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know what he’s agreeing to!"

Jake shifted his grip until her mouth pressed into the rock of his muscled shoulder and her words became nothing but muffled garbage. She bit at his glowing skin, but he didn’t even twitch.

"I think the demon understands," Nosi said, still using that slow, deliberate voice. "I think he knows exactly the bargain he makes."

The death spirit repeated the terms of their deal, including the time limit, and once more, Jake accepted.

As Merilee did her best to free herself from Jake’s powerful embrace, she heard the Keres laughing together in a low, spine-clawing shriek.

Nosi’s voice rose above the din. "So be it. Now leave us and tend your bargain. Bring us the Leviathan. We can manage his death energies here. Deliver him, or pay the blood price at sunrise."

Before Merilee could twist against Jake one more time, they both jerked backward—and hurtled straight off the jagged edge of Káto Ólimbos.

Merilee screamed against Jake’s flesh as his arms tightened around her until she couldn’t breathe at all.

Her belly dropped as they plunged down, toward absolute oblivion—and even the darkness disappeared.

(34)

Jake’s mind fractured like brittle stone.

One second he was holding Merilee and falling. Fast. Too far.

The next second, his body jerked and stretched like he was being sucked through time and space itself. Like the projective mirror, only a lot worse.

Merilee!

Pressure jammed against every inch of his skin. Spikes of agony hammered into his muscles and bones.

He burst. Exploded. Came apart, lost his thread of thought—

In a screaming rush of wind, Jake came back together again.

More like pulled himself back together—head and legs, essence first.

Then slowly, the rest of his body, his form.

His . . . Astaroth form.

Aching. Freezing and burning at the same time.

But alive. Not falling anymore. No.

Standing.

He was standing on a stone floor, in a stone room, wearing a pair of jeans or something like jeans.

He wasn’t on the dark mountain anymore.

The townhouse?

Yes, he thought so.

The townhouse in the basement, and there were people in the room with them, but for the moment, Jake didn’t give a damn.

The only thing that mattered was that he still had Merilee in his arms.

Jake gazed down at her, his demon senses registering the flush in her cheeks, the scent of her fear, and her even, regular breathing. Her eyelids fluttered, and she groaned.

Thank whatever gods or goddesses give a damn.

Jake held her to him, buried his face in her hair. He felt the warmth of her life in his own flesh, his own heart, in the breath in his own lungs. For a moment, he didn’t care that she had left him and his talisman behind, that she likely didn’t feel the soul-level connection that bound him to her more firmly than any physical tie. He was Astaroth now, and he could tell he’d never find human form again, never have her again—but she was alive, alive and whole, and Jake had never been so grateful for anything in the history of his existence.

Light poured out of his skin, covering her, bathing her, stroking her, and Jake imagined the glow feeding his love directly into her body to soothe her. He’d give her anything she’d take, anything she’d accept.

Jake lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers, careful not to harm her with his fangs.

She gripped his neck fiercely, pulling him to her, holding his mouth against hers.

Demon or not, Jake’s entire body responded to her. Every bit of his mind, every bit of his flesh. He ached to take her, to make love to her here and now. If he hadn’t been scared to death he might harm her, he would have taken her to the stone floor and—her sweet smell of white tea and honey almost blocked the hints of burnt rubber and plastic and the odd remnant tang of melted metal, but not quite.