Invision (24 page)

Not really … he still felt odd. “Weird feeling just went through me.”

“Weird feeling how?”

Before Nick could speak, a searing pain exploded inside him and drove him to his knees.

 

CHAPTER 14

Jaden fell back as he manifested near Noir's main bank of “special” rooms where he kept his most hated guests. He was rather sure his name was engraved on the door of the room at the far end of the hall.

As was Seth's.

Guilt wrenched his gut as he paused by
that
door and he did his best not to think of the horrors that were visited daily upon its occupant. And the fact that there was nothing he could do to spare the demigod his eternal suffering.

All because of Adarian Malachai.

And because of
him
.

He had so much to atone for. Wrongs made against others for things he'd thought were the right reasons at the time. But with perspective of age and distance …

Jaden regretted so much of his existence. Yet nothing weighed on him as much as the gulf that divided him from his own children and the wretched fates that were theirs because of his own failure to protect them.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried. That was the bitterest pill of all. Like his sister Apollymi, he'd done everything he could to spare them from the cruelty of others. Sacrificed everyone he'd ever loved and everything he'd ever cherished, and what had it gotten him?

Hated.

Condemned to hell.

Imprisoned and tortured for untold centuries.

He'd once been a primary power of the earth, a fierce, feared primordial god. And now he was reduced to being nothing more than the punch line of jokes bandied about by slug demons or worse. A broker for lesser beings to summon so that they could commune with the brother and sister he hated beyond tolerance or measure.

A brother and sister he'd done his best to destroy the moment they'd been spat out of the farting abyss of darkness itself.

Life was never what you planned for. Never what you thought.

And he was so tired of being sucker-punched by it.

But this wasn't about him and his weary, eternal journey. He'd let his children down enough. For once, he would be there for them.

As he moved forward, he felt a powerful presence behind him.

Jaden turned, ready to battle. Yet to his utmost shock, it wasn't one of the revolting, shattered, and twisted souls that called this infernal realm home.

It was Kaziel.

“What are you doing here?”

“I'm your reinforcement, like.”

“Did they not trust me?”

Kaziel snorted at his question. “They were worried.” And with that, he changed into his dire wolf form.

Much more touched than he wanted to admit, Jaden took a moment to savor the miracle that had sent the wolf to him. All he ever remembered was fighting against his children. Hurtful, bitter words that cut straight through the heart and seared their very souls.

He was as guilty of it as they were.

Whatever fool had penned the nonsense that words could do no harm should be condemned to Tophet's lowest fiery pit. For they did far more damage than mere broken bones that eventually healed.

Furious, hate-filled words spoken by a loved one left bleeding gashes that no amount of time or apology ever masked. The slightest frown or look could rip the scabs open and begin the bleeding anew as if no amount of time had passed at all from the initial injury.

Yet the most amazing thing about love was how willing you could be to let the very one who hurt you the most, who cut you deeper than anyone ever had, back into your life to do it again.

That blind, stupid trust was what he hated most.

For his sons, alone, he was willing to be the greatest fool ever spawned.

Even when they hated him.

I am pathetic slug.

Sighing, he headed for the cell most likely to contain Noir's latest catch.

Kaziel veered off unexpectedly.

“What are you doing?” Jaden asked between clenched teeth.

He shot fire from his snout as he lifted it to sniff at the air.

Bemused, Jaden watched as the wolf turned around to sniff at several different corridors. “Kaziel?”

Aeron isn't here alone.

Those whispered words in his head gave him pause. “What do you mean? Are you talking about Zavid or Menyara?”

He shook his head.

Too late, Jaden realized who else was here …

Gwrach y Rhibyn—the hag of the robin. Better known as Noir's alarm system. His number-one tattletale who lived to report everything to the old bastard.

Crap!

Tall and thin, she was a ghostlike wraith who functioned like an Irish bean-sidhe. Dressed in black rags, she had long, stringy red hair and dark eyes and lips. As with Kaziel, she had a tattoo in the center of her forehead, only hers was more of a dark, elongated star than the open sun symbol that marked his brow.

And just as she opened her mouth to let fly her banshee scream, Kaziel launched himself at her, transforming from wolf to man. He wrapped his arms around her and slapped his hand over her mouth to keep her from making that horrendous sound she was known for.

“Shh.” He breathed calmly in her ear to hold her tight against his chest. “You let fly yours, love. I'll let fly mine and we'll both have bleeding ears. And I know you don't be wanting any of that, now do you?”

“Kaziel?” she whispered in her deep husky voice.

“Aye.”

“What the bloody
cythral
are you doing here?”

“I've come to fetch Aeron. You're not going to be getting in me way now are you, boyo? I'd hate to be hurting you after what all we've been through together, like. But I won't be letting sentimentals stop me from protecting me penlord. You get me way, like, and I will be hurting you. Friendship be damned.”

“Aeron here? Are you
moithered
or drunk?”

“Neither.”

Jaden was having the hardest time following this bizarre exchange. Never mind the fact that their Welsh accents were thick, and they were technically speaking English, which up until now he would have sworn he was fluent in.

But …

“You two know each other?”

And that got Rhibyn's attention on him, which turned out to be a bad, bad thing as she started for him like Cujo after fresh meat.

Kaziel picked her up and swung her about. “None of that. He be friendly, like.”

“Now you're all coggy-headed, for sure! You're as addled as me da, after Cordelia's feast! Now put me down, you brute, or I'll take from your hide and be making meself new white, furry boots.”

“Nae, I won't having none of it, now. Stop your fussing, Vawn! I mean it!”

Rhibyn bared her jagged gray, bony fangs.

“Really?” Kaziel laughed in a mocking tone. “You think to be scaring me with that patheticness o'yours? What? You going to wash your clothes at the creek, now, and cry 'bout it, too?”

“You're such a bleeding arse!”

“I come by it honestly, I do.”

Rhibyn pointed at Jaden. “He'll be the one what turns you in. Mark me words on that. He's a low-lying, worthless piece-o-work what can't be trusted no further than what you can toss him, and you can't even pick his giant arse up.”

“Be that as it may, I was sent here to protect him, and you know I will.”

“
Och, Duw!
You were ever half-soaked, boyo! From your first breath to your last. Never be changing your ways.”

“Most likely not. Now will you be helping or are we to keep talking?”

She spoke in fast, furious, demonic Welsh that questioned Jaden's parentage, as well as Kaziel's, and all his sense, both common and otherwise.

Finally, Rhibyn calmed. “Of course, I'll be helping you. What kind of monster do you be thinking I am? But swear you'll be getting me out of here, too.”

Kaziel scowled. “How is it you're here, even?”

“Was captured and traded.”

Tilting his head, Kaziel looked at Jaden. “Can I be taking him from here? Would that be allowed?”

“Why do you keep calling her a him?”

He looked at Jaden as if he were the daft one. “What are you? Blind? Rhibyn's a man.”

Jaden swept a skeptical glance over the lush curves of her body. While he'd never seen her naked … “You sure about that?”

Rhibyn rolled
her
eyes?

Kaziel bit back a laugh. “Aye, indeed. He was cursed into that body after he broke the heart of a woman, and she killed herself for him. Now he's forever damned to walk the earth in her very image, and cry out for the souls of those about to die to warn others that they will lose what they hold dearest.”

“Oh, that's harsh.”

Rhibyn ground his teeth. “You've no idea. It weren't even me fault.
She
preyed upon me until I was near mad with her attentions. The lass was unhinged.” Gesturing at himself, he sighed. “And this was her final vengeance upon me. To make sure I'd never have another woman. Ever. I'd have rather she turned me to a goat, to be honest.” He turned to Kaziel. “And one smart word from you, man, and you'll be getting it kicked from a woman, you hear me?”

He held his hands up in surrender. But his eyes twinkled with unspoken humor.

“So I take it then that the Robin is short for Robert?”

“Rhyvawn Ddu,” they said in unison.

Jaden felt the urge to say
bless you
. But he refrained from saying more as he led them toward the room where Aeron should be found. “You know, Kaziel … for someone who couldn't talk, you sure found your tongue.”

Kaziel returned to his wolf form.

“He's only silent around those he doesn't know or trust.”

“Apparently.” Jaden didn't miss the way Rhibyn kept one hand buried in Kaziel's white fur as if afraid the Cŵn Annwn would leave him.

They stopped as Jaden passed a door, and heard the sound of Noir's voice coming from inside the dungeon room.

“How can I be weakening? We know who the Malachai is. I sent my siphon. How can I be
weaker
?”

“It must be something Cam did to protect him. She's been soft toward their bloodline since the day we demanded the life of Kissare for his sacrilege.”

Noir snorted. “Longer than that. She's wanted our deaths since the hour of birth. But for Braith, we'd have never survived the other three gods, and well you know it. They'd have wiped us out centuries ago.”

Someone stumbled and hit the ground.

“Kadar!”

Jaden froze as Azura used Noir's oldest name. It had to be bad for her to make that slip.

And for Noir to allow her to get away with it. No one was allowed to call him Kadar. To call the dark ones by name gave you power over them. It allowed you to bind them.

Most importantly, it allowed you to banish them. Hence why Noir and Azura were currently imprisoned in the Azmodea—a Nether Realm that existed between dimensions. Forever held out of time and place by Xev's blood.

There had been a time when this plane had been readily accessible by regular portals. But that was long ago. Before war and punishments.

“I need you to summon Thorn,” Noir groaned.

“He won't feed you. You know that.”

“Yes, he will. Or we will war. More to the point, I will war against his child. And that he won't tolerate. Tell him, he has one hour before I open my gates on Cadegan.”

Jaden's mind spun over what Noir revealed. Noir, like Nick, was weakened. Drained.

Could it be from the same source?

A Malachai would strengthen Noir. Not weaken him. He always got a huge boost whenever a new Malachai rose to power. Those raw, untapped powers added to his.

Nothing should be able to drain them both. Simultaneously. It made
no
logical sense. There was no such creature or device that would do that.

No sooner had that thought gone through his head than a phantom wind whistled down the hallway with enough force that it slammed him into the wall and pinned him there.

Kaziel and Rhibyn were slammed and held across from him. That was Azura leaving this area to carry out her orders.

And it allowed him a chance to see Noir's condition firsthand.

Pale and shaking, the ancient god was on his back, flat on the ground. Jaden had never seen him like this. Not even in battle.

Azura was right to be terrified. This
was
abnormal. The things that could do this to a god of their magnitude were few and far between.

The Malachai was one of them and he wasn't here. Nor would Nick know how to do that without being shown.

Jared would be the other, and he wasn't here, either. The two of them had specific weapons that they wielded with their powers that could lay low the primals. But those had either been destroyed or were well hidden in the world of man so long ago that no one had seen them in centuries.

Provided they still existed.

And Jaden ought to know as he'd been searching for them as a way to gain his freedom. They were some of the few things he'd give a demon anything for. Break any rule to possess.

But so far …

Demons were a worthless lot.

“What are
you
staring at?”

The doors slammed shut in his face, and Jaden and his companions were instantly freed from whatever was holding them immobile.

Thankfully, Azura was preoccupied and didn't consider them enough of a threat to think them behind this. That, alone, saved their lives.

Jaden straightened his clothes with a tug as he met Kaziel's gaze. “This is bad. If Grim and Laguerre have found a way to kill Noir…”

They could unravel the fabric of the universe.
Kaziel sent that thought to Jaden.

Jaden nodded. In anyone's hands that kind of power was scary in and of itself. But what truly terrified him was the fact that those two creatures were stupid enough to actually do it, and not care about the consequences.