Fruit of Misfortune (28 page)

“And David? What happened to my brother?”
Galen’s anxious glance bounced between Galilea and me.

“I didn’t leave Athens with David.” I looked
away from their stares. “I left with Eros. Galilea and I went back
to the gasoline station because we had left him there with the
Turpis.”

Eryx shook his head and turned away from me,
toward the front windshield. Galen’s jaw was tight, his stare
burning through me.

“Well, aren’t you the little hypocrite?”
Galen spat. “And quite the common whore.”

His words felt like a kick to the stomach. My
eyes burned from the tears I was trying to hold back.

“I—I…” As much as I wanted to explain that I
was doing it all for David, the knot in my throat wouldn’t let me
speak.

“Eryx, we’re done here.” Galen sized me up.
“Let’s find our brother.”

“Can we do anything to help?” Galilea
asked.

“I think you’ve both done enough,” Eryx said
and stepped out of the car.

When I turned to look back at Galen, he had
already disappeared into the shadows of the forest. Galilea twisted
her neck to look at me in the backseat.

“Get out of the car,” she said.

DAVID
CHIOS

“David—you know that I love you, right?”

I kissed her knuckles.

“Yes. And I love
you
.”

If I had to die for her, I would. There was
no doubt in my mind that she was meant for me. I loved Isis more
than I ever thought possible. I hated leaving her. But if I didn’t
attend the meeting of the Clergy, the Council would show up at my
front door. And who knows what horrible things they would do to
her?

With effort, I opened the dimensional portal
and prepared to step into Caelum. I let it envelop me and pull me
through the shimmering wall where one dimension ends and the other
begins. When I felt the ground under my feet again, I stepped
forward and out of the portal, expecting to see the doors of the
main conference hall. Instead, I saw the driveway. I was in front
of my home in Athens. It was official. The change was taking over
and faster than I thought. I wouldn’t have minded that I couldn’t
travel between dimensions on any other day, but today was the worst
possible day that it could’ve taken effect. So much for attending
the meeting. I’d have to confront the Council, and our fates would
be in their hands.

As I turned to walk toward the front door, I
found myself staring at the back of two heads. I took a step
back.

“May I help you?” I asked.

Startled, the men turned to look at me. One
of them reached in his coat and pulled out a badge. He held it out
for me to see.

“Interpol,” he said. “We’re looking for
Tobias Gunn.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know anyone by that
name.”

“Sir,” the second man said, “We have evidence
that proves you do know him. You’re considered an accomplice in the
charges placed against him. You’ll have to come with us for further
questioning.”

“An accomplice? I don’t even know who...”
There was something familiar about the second man. Where had I seen
him before? “Wait a minute. Have we met?”

“I told you he’d recognize you,” the first
man said, glancing at the second.

“Well,” the second man said, “I guess we’re
doing this the hard way, buddy.”

The image of the man’s face came to me in
flashes. He was one of Gio Carboné’s men. Before I could react, I
felt a sharp pain in my neck. The world around me spun, and I fell
to my knees.

“Dammit! Where’s the Taser?” the man I had
recognized said.

I saw the other man’s blurred silhouette
moving toward me. “I told you that tranquilizer wasn’t going to be
enough.”

I reached for my neck to pull out the object
that I had been stabbed with. Just as I found it, an intense shock
of electricity surged through me like lighting. Explosions of white
filled my head, and then nothing.

***

In a far corner of the outstretched room, a
tiffany lamp illuminated the small table it was sitting on. There
were three chairs set around the table, two of them occupied.

“At last, sleeping beauty awakens from his
slumber,” a man’s voice said. His face was hidden behind a
shadow.

I tried to stand, but I toppled over and hit
the ground, taking the IV attached to my arm down with me. Whatever
they were drugging me with was strong—stronger than my own
sedative. Or maybe I had lost all of my abilities already.

“The ankle shackles seem to be working,” the
man said as he walked toward me. He pulled the string on a lamp
beside the chair I had been sitting on. Gio Carboné looked down at
me with a smug smile. “Carlo!” Carboné yelled, and one of his thugs
appeared at the door.

“Yes, Mr. Carboné?”

“Get him off the floor. And be careful. I
don’t want more damage on him.”

“Yes, sir,” Carlo said, reaching for my arms.
That’s when I noticed the cuffs on my wrists. “Up ya go, pretty
boy.”

“What do you want from me?” I tried to focus
my gaze as Carlo lifted me to the chair. “If it’s money you’re
looking for…”

Carboné laughed as he clipped off the end of
a cigar.

“Take a good look around this room, Mr.
Chios,” Carboné said. “Do you think this is about money?”

I glanced at my surroundings. Paintings,
ancient vases, statues, large and small animals—some alive and some
stuffed—and other objects I couldn’t identify were spread around
the quarters.

“What’s this about then? Why am I here?”

“You’re very special, Mr. Chios. And I like
special things.” He walked to a table and picked up a box. “I’ve
read your file, courtesy of Dr. Tobias Gunn, our mutual
acquaintance. In it, I found astounding facts about you: superhuman
strength, above average intelligence—and your age. Well,
approximate age. I bet you didn’t know Dr. Gunn did a carbon dating
test on your dead skin cells. That genius is one sneaky little
bastard.”

“Those tests were inaccurate,” I told him.
“I’m as human as you.”

“Are you, now?” He opened the box and showed
me a small blade. “Then explain to me why I had to have some
instruments, including those shackles and handcuffs you’re in, made
out of the same material as this razor I found in your file.”

If I survived this, Gunn was as good as
fired… and dead.
That idiot!

“So you’re planning to keep me here, like
those caged animals.” I glanced at an odd looking bird.

“Not forever,” he said, and then sucked at
the end of his cigar. “I’ll explain it over tea. My mother will be
joining us. I hope you don’t mind. She’s always wanted to meet a
Greek god.”

“Greek gods don’t exist.”

“Oh, yes they do. I’m looking at one now.” He
put out his cigar on a spotless ashtray. “I never rule out myths
and legends. They make for great treasure hunts. And getting tips
from other sources—loyal sources, unlike Gunn—certainly helps my
hobby. Pays well, too.”

Well, this was a surprise. Carboné wasn’t
working alone. Someone was giving him information.

“I thought you said it wasn’t about the
money.”

“I didn’t say how I was getting paid, Mr.
Chios. You’re jumping to conclusions.” Carboné motioned to Carlo.
“We’re ready for tea.”

“Right away, boss.”

Carboné took an object from a table and
pressed a button. The chair I was sitting in started to roll
forward.

“Mamma, we have a special guest today,” he
said to the person sitting at the table.

Slowly, the chair rolled to the other end of
the long room. As I came closer to the table, I noticed black and
white curls of hair peeking through from under the lavender hat the
woman wore. Carboné maneuvered my chair until it stopped across the
table from his mother. A thin black veil covered the woman’s eyes
and nose.

“Mamma, meet David Chios, a Greek god.” He
motioned to me. “The real deal.”

I stared at the woman, expecting her to reply
to her son.

“What’s that?” Carboné lowered his ear to his
mother’s face. “Oh yes. I’ll tell him. She says she’s happy to meet
you, but she can’t see you very well.” Carboné kissed his mother’s
cheek and lifted her veil. “There you go, Mamma. Is that
better?”

The old woman looked at me, unblinking. Her
face had a slight smile on it. Then I noticed how stiff she seemed.
A bit
too
stiff.

“You’re a sick man,” I said, looking at the
stuffed casing of his deceased mother.

“What you consider sick, I consider art,”
Carboné said. “I’m a collector of rare and special things—rare and
special, like you, Mr. Chios.”

***

How many days had passed, I didn’t know. But
I knew it had to have been several. I tried to open the dimensional
portal to escape, but it only made me weaker.

One of Carboné’s men delivered a plate of
food to me. He got close enough that I caught him in a headlock and
demanded I be let free. That earned me several blows on the side of
the head and stomach with a metal glove. At some point, while I was
unconscious, I was transferred to a room that had no windows. It
may have been the strong effects of the drugs, but I could have
sworn that I was in a dungeon.

After I awoke, I saw Isis at my side. She
knelt before me.

“I found you,” she said. “I’ve been so
worried.”

“Isis… Isis, we have to get out of here.”

“There’s only one way out.”

“Which way?”

She leaned into my ear and whispered, “Kill.
Me.”

“
No!
”

“You might regret that decision.” The tips of
her fingers touched my neck. “Would you really die for me,
David?”

“Yes.”

Her pupils transformed to reveal the Creatura
within her. It was just a matter of time before the transformation
was complete. As I saw her pupils dilate, the beat of my pulse
quickened. In one swift move, she leapt forward. Her teeth dug into
the side of my face, ripping off a piece of flesh. I screamed in
pain and horror.

“I’ll give you something to scream about, if
ya don’t shut up,” said one of Carboné’s minions.

I shook against the stone floor. The
hallucinations were getting worse. Taking in ragged breaths, I
turned my head to view him.

“You want some more of this?” He showed me a
steel whip.

I raised my index finger and moved it back
and forth, daring him to come closer. He flipped me off
instead.

At times, the drugs they were injecting into
me made it almost impossible to decipher between what was real and
what wasn’t. Having no food in my system made the substances all
the more potent.

Footsteps echoed off the stone walls.
Carboné’s fuzzy silhouette rounded the corner, and then came to a
stop next to his minion.

“Is he eating?” Carboné asked the man.

“No, sir. Every time we go near him, he tries
to take us out.”

“You better not use that whip again unless
it’s necessary, you hear me? Look at him. How am I supposed to
exhibit an immortal Greek god that looks like that?”

“He doesn’t look all that immortal to me,
boss.”

“No, not anymore. Lucky for you. It’s made
your job a whole lot easier.” From his coat pocket, he fished out a
syringe.

“Another round of cocktails for me?” I
asked.

“Not quite,” Carboné said. “This one is a
little more like—well, like poison. It’ll start to immobilize your
muscles—prepare you for the next phase.”

He reached for the IV bag and began to inject
the substance in it. I jerked my arms back, and the needle
connected to the bag burrowed itself deeper into my vein. The bag
flew out of Carboné’s hand, landing next to my face. I ignored the
pain in my arm and grabbed it. I secured it against my chest with
both hands.

“That wasn’t very nice, Mr. Chios. Now, toss
that bag back to me.”

“Come and get it.”

“Hand over the bag, or you’re going to see a
side of me that you won’t like.”

“Who says I like you now?”

His jaw grew tight. “Toss me the bag, young
man.”

“Or. What?”

“Bruno,” he called for his thug.

“Sir?”

“Let me have that whip.”