Inferno (29 page)

“So you are the Malachai.…” She sounded disappointed.

Good. Maybe she’d let him go. “Who are you?”

“Hel.”

Not quite afraid of her, but rather apprehensive, he arched a brow. “Isn’t it a little cold to be hell?”

She laughed at that. “Not your hell, moron. I am the goddess Hel and this is my realm,
Hel
heim.”

Helheim he knew from playing Dungeons and Dragons with Madaug and his friends. Hel … he’d never heard of before. But Madaug would probably be able to recite an entire dissertation on her, her family, and any insect she’d ever met. Even better, Madaug would most likely know what, if any, weakness she had.
Remind me to never make fun of him again for his bank of useless information.

Nick stood up to face her. “Why am I here and what have you done with my mother?”

“I know nothing of your mother. I care nothing about your mother. Just as I care nothing for you. You are only a means to an end for me. And as soon as I get what I want, I don’t care what they do to you.”

He threw one of his fireballs at her.

She stopped it with a blast of ice that shattered it midair. “Instead of attacking me, boy, you should be grateful.”

“Grateful for being locked in a cage?”

“Grateful you’re alive. According to my hound, you were almost dead when he pulled the harvester off you.”

Nick’s pulse quickened. Finally someone who knew what one was.… Though to be honest, he’d have rather found the definition online. “Harvester?”

“Soul-eaters. They are sent to destroy anyone who is born of evil.” She walked a small circle around his cage. “Hard to believe something as puny as you is worth the life of a captive god.”

Before he could respond to that, she vanished.

“I’m not puny!” Nick shouted after her. While he might be thin and gangly, he was over six feet tall. Not puny by any standards.…

Much.

Sitting down, he turned his attention to the passed-out wolf, who was still bleeding all over the place. So the thing that ate his best friend had saved his life.… Nick wasn’t sure what to think about that.

Not that he really cared. While he didn’t like the thought of Caleb being hurt or dead, the one thought that scared him the most was his mother. What had happened to her?

Maybe Kyrian had made it in time and was now keeping her safe. It was his only hope, and he intended to latch on to it with both hands.

And his teeth.

*   *   *

Hours went by as Nick tried every power he could to escape his cage. Nothing worked. As usual, the universe mocked his attempts with a dose of ineptitude that made him wonder why the heck he kept trying when he should just lie down and think of porn princesses like a normal teenage boy.

Dang you, Caleb, for your twisted pep talks.
They kept him going even when it was stupid.

Frustrated, he fire-blasted the door again with both hands. The flames hit it, then rebounded back and singed both the hair on his head and that on his arms.

Beautiful. I smell like a burned sewer rat.

Hey, Casey, want to go eat dinner with me now?

“You’re wasting your time.”

Nick jumped at the deep, heavily accented voice. Turning, he saw that the wolf was awake and staring at him with those luminescent purple eyes.

“I thought you were dead.”

Ignoring Nick’s comment, the wolf lifted up a corner of the thick, warm blue blanket that covered him. “You?”

“Yeah, I was going blind from the sight of your naked hairy butt.”

One corner of his mouth twitched as if he started to smile then caught himself. “And the pillow?”

Now it was Nick’s turn not to comment. No need in letting him know that even though he’d most likely eaten Caleb, Nick had felt sorry for him. Not to mention, the wolf was really lucky Nick’s powers had worked and not turned him into a goat or something.

But now that the wolf was awake, there was one question Nick was desperate to have an answer for. “Did you kill Caleb?”

“The daeve you were with?”

“Yeah.”

“He lives.”

Nick’s relief came out as a sharp burst of breath. He hadn’t realized just how upset he’d been at the thought of Caleb dying while protecting him until just this second. “Looks like he got a pretty good chunk of you.”

The wolf glanced away, then ran his hand through his dark, wavy hair. He grimaced as he saw the blood on his hand from an injury he must have had on his head. To his credit, he was handling the pain really well.

“I’m Nick, by the way.”

The wolf wiped the blood off on his leg. “I know.”

He waited for the wolf to offer his name in turn, but after a few minutes he realized that the wolf had no intention of it. “You have a name?” Nick prompted.

“I don’t remember it.”

Scowling, Nick snorted. “You’re joking, right?”

He shook his head, killing every last bit of Nick’s humor. Wow … Did he have amnesia or something else?

A really bad suspicion went through him. “How long have you been here?” Nick asked.

He cast an irritated frown in Nick’s direction. “Why do you talk so much?”

“I’m Southern.”

The deepened scowl on his face said that he had no idea what Nick was talking about. Which meant he’d been trapped here for a minimum of several hundred years.

“You don’t get out much, do you?”

That went right over the wolf’s head. Without a word, he dragged himself over to the wall and licked at the ice.

Yuck. Nick shuddered. “What are you doing?”

He licked for a few more seconds before he wiped his hand over his mouth. “I’m thirsty.”

“Dude, really? Couldn’t you have just waited until they brought us water?”

“They don’t bring water to us in here. You get what you scrounge for.”

Nick’s jaw went slack. “They don’t bring us food?”

He shook his head.

Uh-uh. No way … He refused to believe what the wolf was telling him. “Dude? Seriously?”

“We are immortal. We don’t have to eat.” The wolf’s rumbling stomach denied that. It was so loud, Nick could hear it from across the room.

It made his own stomach cramp for food. “Oh no, no, no, no. This ain’t gonna work. I have to have three squares a day.
Comprends
?”

“I don’t know that language.”

Nick frowned. It’d been English but for one word. “Food. I’m talking about food. What do we do when we’re hungry?”

“Sometimes animals wander in. If they get close enough, we have food.”

Nasty …

“Dude, why you live there, then? Tell you what … You get me out of here and I’ll buy you the best meal you’ve ever had. We’re talking etouffee, andouille, and gumbo so good you’ll slap ya mama for it.”

“Do you think I’d be here if I had a choice?” the wolf snarled viciously.

That baffled him. The wolf had been free in New Orleans and no one had been holding his chain when he came in here earlier. “You were out of here and free, why on earth would you come back?”

He scowled at Nick as if he didn’t understand the question.

But his confusion enlightened Nick, who finally understood. “Oh … you’re like Caleb. You’re enslaved.”

“No. Not enslaved. I made a bargain. I am here so that my sister is not.”

“Then get up and leave, and take my butt with you.… Please.”

The wolf shook his head. “My sister would have to serve in my stead, and she is not as strong. She wouldn’t last a week here.”

“While I admire your devotion, that is whacked, and it makes me really glad I’m an only child. But since you love her so much, then you’ll understand that I have to get out of here and find my mother, okay? I’m pretty sure she’s in bad danger.”

The look on his face said that he had no idea what Nick was talking about. It was like the concept of a mother was completely alien to him.

“Beast!”

A deep, frightening level of ferocity came over him at the male shout that cut through their cavern and rebounded off the walls. He immediately transformed back into the wolf. Crouching low, he backed up against the wall, ready to pounce on whatever was coming toward them.

“Where is he?” another male voice demanded.

Nick frowned as a giant man came storming into their corner. He drew up short the instant he saw Nick. “Who are you?”

“Nick. You?”

“Not Nick.”

“Balder? What’s taking so long? I have a wager to win.”

“Coming.” Balder went to the chain that held the wolf captive and jerked it from the wall.

The wolf went crazy, snarling and fighting against him as Balder jerked and dragged him toward the entrance. “Save your energy for the ring, dog.”

Nick wasn’t sure what they were about to do with him, but he had a pretty good idea. And judging from the way the wolf did everything he could not to be dragged out of here, he knew exactly what was waiting for him.

Poor guy. It had to be terrible.

But the one thing that event rammed home with vicious clarity was what would be done to Nick if Noir ever got ahold of him, and what Caleb’s fate could be in the hands of another master.

It was a sobering thought. And it spurred Nick to renew his fight to get out of this cage as fast as possible. These people were nuts and the last thing he wanted was to be a part of their sick, twisted world.

“I’ve got to get home…” Nick glanced around, then decided to go for broke. “Ambrose!” he shouted, trying to summon his future self. “Boy … answer me! I don’t care how crazy you are. I need your help and I need it now!”

Always in the past, Ambrose had come when he called. If not physically, he’d talked to Nick in his head. But Nick hadn’t heard from him in days.

What the heck was going on?

CHAPTER 18

Mount Olympus
The distant future

Terrified and shaking, Artemis hid in the same crevice she’d once used to play hide-and-seek with her brother Apollo, countless centuries ago, when they’d been young and naive.… Back when theirs had been the most powerful pantheon that ruled. Never in those long-ago days had she dreamed that she’d be hiding here to save her own life.

Her precious Nick was completely lost now. There was no part of him or Ambrose left. After all this time of his fighting his true nature, only the monster Malachai inhabited his beautiful body.

Tears streamed down her face as she fought for self-control. She couldn’t make a sound or he’d find her and kill her, just as he’d done the rest of her family.

Pressing her trembling hand to her lips to keep herself silent, she wanted to scream in horror and grief as her guilt mounted. She was a goddess. Why hadn’t she been able to help him maintain his control?

“Artemis?”

She gasped at the low whisper of someone she’d thought was long dead. She glanced behind her to see an ancient god of Order. “What are you doing here?”

“Trying to save the world.”

“You’re too late.”

“In the most hopeless of hells, there is always one thing that remains. One thing that cannot be killed unless
it
decides to die on its own and is surrendered by the one who possesses it.”

The indomitable human spirit. Mankind’s greatest gift and its worst curse.

It was the only thing that not even the gods could defeat.…

Order offered her a smile. “So long as one human has it, we can stop any evil. No matter how strong and powerful we think it is.”

Artemis wanted to believe that … she wanted to have hope again, but she knew better. “There are no humans left.”

“Never underestimate the survival of man or his capacity to sacrifice himself for what he loves most.” Order held a hand out to her. “We still have one small chance to stop the Malachai. Are you with me, little sister?”

Artemis hesitated. The one thing Acheron had taught her … Even the most minuscule of chances could be turned into a great victory. All you needed was to find the courage inside to try for it.

But she was so scared. What if she failed? Right now, she was alive. If she stuck her head out of this hole, she could die.

She could lose everything.

No, she’d already lost everything. What she had in this hole wasn’t living. And while survival had its place, sooner or later every creature deserved to have more than just meager, fearful survival.

They deserved to live.

If only it was as easy as it sounded, but life took courage.
And I am not courageous
. She’d never been such. Acheron had been right about that. She had always put her own well-being over those she loved. And what had it gotten her?

Misery. Solitude.

You are alive.

Yes, she had her life, but at what cost? She couldn’t even face herself in mirrors anymore, because every time she met her own gaze, she knew what she’d done, and she couldn’t hide from her conscience.

You can’t change the past.
But she could change the future. And she could change the present.

For the first time in her existence she found the one thing she’d never known she had.

Bravery.

Taking Order’s hand, she nodded. “Let us undo what has been done.”

*   *   *

Nick growled as he tried again to break free. “I won’t be held by you!” he screamed out, hoping Hel could hear him. And he meant every word.

Gautiers didn’t back down. They didn’t give in.

And no one would ever defeat him. Not even a goddess.

He kicked the bars even though it bruised his feet and legs and jarred every inch of him.

It’s hopeless
.

“Shut up,” he snarled at himself. “I don’t want your negative crap! If you can’t help, get out of my head.”

All of a sudden, he heard someone approaching. Crouching low, he prepared himself to fight who or whatever it was.

“Bring it, punk.”

A huge dark something lumbered slowly into his jail, casting a massive shadow on the wall. That was enough to make a half-grown demon wet his pants.

Nick backed up, tense and alert.

As quickly as it’d grown to the size of the Empire State Building, the shadow shrank down to show it was the wolf returning. Nick expected him to head for his post. Instead, he limped on three legs, dragging his forward left one, toward Nick’s cage.