Omega (16 page)

He hugged me to him hard. “Then I will do as
you ask, Lyssa.”

“
Thank you.” My eyes were
brimming with tears. We both knew my hope wasn’t founded in
reality, but I wasn’t yet able to admit how far gone my comfortable
world was. I needed him to buy into my dream, however crazy it was.
“Now go, before someone figures out what happened.” I pulled
away.

“
I will make it out of
here,” he assured me. “And I know who to ask for help. I just have
to find them.”

“
Sounds good.” I gave him
the pass card and boots then sat on the prison bed. With a long,
final look at one another, Herakles pulled on his mask and left. I
closed the prison door behind him and sat down on the bed,
suspecting Adonis was going to figure out what I had done soon
enough.

As I waited, I struggled
not to doubt my guardian. He had given me no real reason to.
Except lying to me my whole life.
It was too quiet in the tiny cell, too small for
me to exercise or work off some of my apprehension and
worry.

The guards came to the door and opened it an
hour later.

Ugh.
I was hoping not to deal with Adonis directly. He stepped
into the room. I lifted my head from the wall behind me and waited
to hear what he had to say. A man this striking should speak in
rainbows and puppies, not be in charge of the organization that
suppressed humanity and tortured people.

“
You had the chance to
leave,” he noted and studied me. “Why didn’t you take
it?”

“
You have information I
want, Adonis.” The subtle draw was back like an itch I couldn’t
reach. It left me warm and agitated. “You can leave me here, by the
way. I’m happy in a cell.”

“
Far be it from me to make
you unhappy, but since I’m the only one you can’t outsmart or
outrun, you’ll stay with me,” he replied with cool
sarcasm.

The reminder of how unnatural his skills
were didn’t help my irritation. He motioned me out of the cell. I
went, mostly because I was afraid to push him when I was trapped in
a room that small. The nearness of Adonis made my instincts so
sensitive, everything agitated me. A guard escorted us out of the
prison building.

I couldn’t take the thick silence between us
or the fear I was in the kind of trouble I didn’t know how to get
out of. I kept telling myself that Herakles was free and would come
for me. I just had to survive on my own here a day or two, and I
could do that.

But
this …
I stared at the back of his
head, not understanding how I was dutifully following him down the
corridor like a puppy when I knew I should at least
try
to run.

Because he knows me.
I wanted to learn more about being an Oracle and
my past, and this man claimed to have that knowledge, if I could
survive him long enough to learn.

“
On a scale of one to ten,
one being stuck on the couch again tonight and ten being flayed
alive, where am I in terms of trouble?” I asked finally.

“
Three.”

I invented the scale and
had no idea what that meant. What alarmed me: his response
wasn’t
one
. “So
you are upset about Herakles leaving?”

“
Not at all. He served his
purpose. I didn’t impede his escape.”

Holy Zeus.
Adonis knew all along. He was toying with me,
once more the predator.

“
Then why a three?” I
demanded.

“
You moved slower than I
expected. I’m a little disappointed.”

I almost choked to keep
from speaking.
Stop falling for it, Lyssa!
He’s playing games with you!
It was
unnerving. I had to stop folding to my discomfort and just shut up,
as Niko had ordered me.

So I did. I said nothing all the way back to
his apartment.

He left me there. Alone. No guard. No
handcuffs.

This was the part of his game where I
cringed – and admitted he was right. I was blindly volunteering to
stay in the hopes he at least enlightened me about who I was before
he did whatever they did to Oracles.

I had the distinct feeling I’d one day look
back on this moment and wish with all my heart that I’d run.

But for now, I was staying put.

Rustling came from the direction of his
bedroom. I started towards the open door but stopped.

I’m not alone.
This instinct was the worst.

Turning, I spotted someone in a military
urban camouflage uniform dropping onto the balcony from the
direction of the roof. He was followed by four more men, all armed
to the teeth. They entered the open space.

“
Sorry, kid. Boss wants
you back now.” Niko pulled off his mask. “You gonna come quietly?
Help Uncle Niko get a second bonus?”

“
Whatever I can do to help
you pay your child support,” I retorted. I was really starting to
hate him.

He held up a pair of handcuffs. “Well then
come on, you little shit.”

He was an asshole, and Herakles believed
Adonis was bad news. I needed to know who my parents were but at
what cost? No one I’d met yet seemed remotely trustworthy. The
weapons of his men were trained on me. He wasn’t taking chances
this time.

“
Let me get something
first,” I replied and strode into the bedroom before he could
object.

A man like Adonis had to have some sort of
weapons around. He was always lightly armed compared to the other
SISA members and the military guys with Niko, but there had to be
something.

The teddy bear on his bed made me look
twice. If I had time, I’d have laughed at the idea that a demigod
slept with a teddy bear.

I ransacked his closet and chest of drawers
without finding anything but clothing. He had the personnel here
needed to secure a prison with one occupant – Herakles – and a
single doctor to run a DNA scan. The only markings on the walls
were for the prison, the only offices in use for the doctor and one
government employee, and no armory was anywhere in the compound I
could find.

If it weren’t so improbable, I’d have
thought this place was a trap for one person. I was beginning to
suspect that poor idiot was me.

“
C’mon, Lisa,” Niko
called.

I possessed nothing to use as a weapon, not
even my lucky knife.

With no real options before me, I decided to
go with Niko and wait for an opportunity to escape. The odds were
better facing him and his men than Adonis. I emerged from the
bedroom.

Niko and his military guard weren’t alone.
Four men in dark purple – the color of the Royal Guard, the
security arm of the Silent Queen – stood behind Dosy. This time,
the High Priestess was dressed for a fight, well armed and wearing
fatigues like her men.

Before I could figure out what was
happening, the door to the apartment opened. Adonis entered,
flanked by two of his own men. Not that he needed them. If he
showed up alone, it was enough for the others to be uneasy.

SISA. Military. Royal
Guard.
It didn’t take Leandra explaining
what was happening for me to understand what was going on. This was
a Triumvirate turf war – over me.

Adonis was the first to act. He launched at
Niko and smashed him into the men with him before he kicked Dosy
back. Settling into a fighting stance, he waited.

“
I’m not picking a fight
with you, Adonis,” Dosy said.

“
You entered a SISA
property without permission. I call that picking a fight,” Adonis
replied.

“
Agreed. Whereas I was
invited,” Niko said.

“
You were not invited,”
Adonis replied in the same tone. “I’ve already alerted the Supreme
Priest who will ensure the Silent Queen and Magistrate are
aware.”

“
This was authorized,”
Niko replied. His preference for the military over SISA began to
make sense. Niko was one of them.

“
Same,” Dosy said and
stretched for the knives at her back. “By all rights, protocol,
custom and tradition, she was supposed to come to us first. I was
authorized to use lethal force. How about you boys?”

Niko glared at her.

“
Thought so. May Ares
bless your weapons like Artemis has mine.” Dosy drew her weapons
and lowered into a fighting stance. “The usual rules. No firearms.
Let’s get this over with.”

Mesmerized by the three of
them, I could deduce several pieces of information. The first: they
all knew each other well enough to tell me this type of
politics
happened often.
Second: if they were messing with each other, their leaders weren’t
all on the same page like the news claimed they were. Third … Dosy
could fight.

And that made me extremely happy after being
told by the nymphs and priests at school fighting wasn’t a proper
womanly pursuit.

The three all drew weapons and began
circling one another. Their companions stood back. I assessed my
situation. The fastest – and safest – exit strategy was probably
going to be the balcony and the ropes Niko’s men had used to drop
onto the balcony. I couldn’t see whether the rest of Adonis’ forces
were outside the closed entrance door of the apartment. Three of
Niko’s men were between me and the balcony. With their attention on
their fighting leaders, I just had to time this right.

Sparks flew off the weapons smashing into
each other. Dosy had started – and Niko joined in. The three began
a deadly dance as skillful as it was scary. Adonis was unmatched as
far as speed, but Niko and Dosy managed to team up on him between
taking swipes at each other. The two of them were amazing, and the
dynamic of all three of them locked into a battle to the death held
me in place.

Until I realized the others were equally
entranced, and no one seemed to think I was capable of anything
like I planned. For once, I wasn’t upset about being
underestimated. I inched closer to the men in my direct path, eyes
on the three warriors holding nothing back. I was secretly rooting
for Dosy, hoping Adonis didn’t get killed and not at all concerned
about Niko.

Their fight moved away from the balcony,
pulling one of the military members with him. With two between me
and escape, I didn’t wait.

Snagging a knife from the nearest, I smashed
him over the back of the head with both hands then sprang forward
to knock the other off balance as he turned to see what the noise
was. Herakles had taught me to disable rather than use lethal
force, though I knew how to kill as well.

But I didn’t. I smashed an elbow into the
second man’s nose then punched him in the throat. He bent over,
gagging. I slid the hilt of the knife between my teeth and darted
to the nearest rope. The courtyard below held five of Adonis’
men.

“
Up it is,” I murmured.
With a quick tug, I confirmed it’d hold and began to half pull,
half walk my way up the side of the wall. I was close to the roof
when I heard someone shout to alert the three fighting.

The sound of them pounding into one another
ceased. I focused hard on moving as quickly as possible, not caring
about my burning arms and thighs as I neared my destination.

“
Kid!” Niko shouted and
grabbed the rope I was on, wrenching it back from the wall. Dosy
was scaling her way up a second rope. Adonis had
disappeared.

I’m not a kid!
Clamping down on the knife so hard it hurt my
jaw, I hauled myself the rest of the way up with upper body
strength and reached the top. I dragged myself over the top and
dropped, panting from the effort. Not about to give someone like
Adonis the time to take the stairs to the roof, I decoupled five of
the ropes rapidly before starting to cut Dosy’s free.

“
Go back, Dosy!” I called,
sawing through it.

“
Not on your
life!”

She was as stubborn as Niko. I didn’t bother
to check and see if she was okay after the rope snapped free but
stood back and looked around wildly. Niko’s men had gotten up here
somehow; I could escape the same way.

My gaze settled on the grappling equipment
on the far side of the roof. I dashed towards it and caught myself
on the wall, leaning over to see the rope dangling into another of
the plentiful courtyards. This one butted up against the wall of
the compound. With any luck, I could scale that wall too or find my
way back to the exit I’d found earlier for Herakles.

People were shouting from somewhere in the
buildings. I wasn’t sticking around to find out which of the
security forces was going to win and grab me. I slung one leg over
the edge of the roof and gripped the rope.

A throwing knife grazed my calf, and I
glanced down. It pinned my pant’s leg to the wall behind me. There
was only one man I’d bet money on to make that shot, and I wasn’t
about to let him near me. I bent over to pull at the knife only to
find it was too sleek to grip. Dropping the cable rope, I strained
to wriggle the knife free frantically.

“
Stop now, Alessandra!”
Adonis warned.

“
Gods dammit!” I
straightened and wrenched back.

The knife didn’t give on the first try, so I
yanked again.

This time, it did, and I toppled backward,
clutching at the rope. A rush of adrenaline flooded me as I began
to fall. A sense of déjà vu swept over me, and I was once more in
my dream, falling … falling … waiting for Herakles to catch me.