Selena's Men (21 page)

Malcolm let out a battle cry and, jumping up, he kicked out with his right leg, connecting with the jaw of the one in front, then turned in midair, slashing with his swords in a double assault. He flipped over the body that now lay in three pieces and faced another creature.

He looked over and saw Max raise his hand, and lighting flashed out, incinerating another creature as another jumped on his back. Malcolm knew Max would be able to handle them and thanked the gods Selena still slept. Before leaving the room and sending her into a deep sleep they put up safeguards only Zeus himself could penetrate.

A hot blade sliced across his arm and he flashed away, disappearing only to reappear behind his newest assailant. His blades disappeared and he turned the man’s head around without the body moving. Another turn and the body slumped. He let the head go and stepped around him, stalking the two who were trying to get into the house.

“Excuse me, boys. Can I help you?” Malcolm flashed them a smile, and raising both hands, sent power surging into their bodies. He didn’t wait to see if they exploded, but heard the screams and felt their presence fade.

Flashing over to Max, they faced another half dozen of the beings, each one uglier than the next.

“What the fuck are they?” Malcolm asked.

“Ugly motherfuckers,” Max answered.

“That they are, bro. That they are for sure, but where did they come from?”

“I can answer that for you.”

They both turned and faced the being that got away from them in the alley outside of Selena’s club. Max made a movement of his hand behind his back and Malcolm mirrored his movements. They let their powers combine and incinerated the creatures behind them as they tried to sneak up on them. They didn’t usually combine their powers like that since it could either wear them down or lift them up. They prayed it would be the latter this time.

Malcolm knew the real threat was the strange half man, half beast standing tall in front of them. He nodded his head and gestured for the thing to continue.

“My name is Balky. I am here to get the girl.”

“Why do you want Selena? She’s a human,” Max, the calm one, asked.

“Cronus wants his granddaughter, and what Cronus wants I get him.” Balky shrugged.

Malcolm opened his mind and searched for answers in the mind of Balky who stood tall in front of them. He slammed into a wall and watched the other man stumble back as if he got hit. Interesting…

“Okay,” Max said slowly as if he were speaking to a child. “What does that have to do with Selena?”

“You can’t be that stupid.” Balky’s eyes flashed from red to blue, and back to that eerie red again.

Malcolm stumbled when he felt his and Max’s power surrounding Selena being ripped open by the force of a god. Looking over at Max, he saw his brother’s eyes widen in disbelief a moment before he disappeared, leaving Malcolm facing a threat they’d yet to figure out. He heard his brother scream and flashed to his side to find the bed where they left Selena empty and the aura of power still pulsing throughout the room.

“What the hell? Selena,” Max roared, shaking the thick walls of his estate.

Malcolm opened his senses and saw the faint trace of power that felt very similar to Zeus, and closed his eyes at what he knew it meant. He turned to Max and winced at the tortured look on his brother’s face. He laid a hand on Max’s arm and felt the heat pouring off his skin.

“We will find her, and get her back.”

Max jerked and seemed to slam back into his body, and that was when Malcolm realized his brother had let his essence follow the trail that was too faint for them to physically trace.

“What did you see, Max?”

“Shit, this can’t be real.”

Malcolm saw a bead of sweat form on Max’s brow and grimaced at the physical proof of the strain he felt. He scrubbed his hands over his face and through his hair, and gripped his neck in a tight vise.

“What did you see?”

“He saw Cronus with your Selena,” Balky said.

Both brothers spun on their feet and shot a blast of power toward the intruder, amazed when he only stumbled backward before he righted himself.

“What the fuck do you mean? And do we know you?” Malcolm snarled.

Balky shook his head like he was dealing with a couple children, and Malcolm lost it. He reached out with his right hand and slammed the being into the wall, making the room shake from the force. He felt a little satisfaction at the alarm reflected in the other man’s eyes.

“Don’t play with me, boy, or I’ll tear you into so many pieces, they won’t be able to make dog food out of you. Before you say anything else, I suggest you think about it, because I swear by the gods and goddesses, I can and I will kill you.” He waited a beat and squeezed the man’s throat with his hand and his heart with an unseen force.

Max stepped up beside him and added his power to the viselike grip he had on the lesser being. Just when they thought he would talk, a bright flash of light lit up the room and they released Balky, turning to face the newest threat.

Malcolm looked into the glowing silver orbs of the god he hadn’t seen in more years than he could remember. He swallowed and went down on one knee, showing his respect. Looking up, he saw Max staring at Zeus and realized they were communicating without him. He felt a little left out, and then Max blinked and shared the conversation with him.

The gods looked at speaking out loud as primitive behavior and seldom lowered themselves to the level of mortals. Malcolm was stunned when Zeus turned to him and focused his intense gaze on him. He tried not to squirm under the pressure of his stare, but seeing the twitch of the god’s lips, knew he failed.

“Where is my daughter?” the god asked out loud, shocking him and Max so much they both stumbled forward. He wrapped his big palms around both their throats and lifted them up to eye level with their feet hanging several feet from the ground.

Malcolm gripped the arm that held him and couldn’t reach around with both hands. He opened his mind and tried to communicate, and that was when he saw who Zeus was talking about. His daughter, the missing goddess and Selena were one and the same. He tried speaking, but the god didn’t seem to care what they had to say. He showed Max what he had just seen in the god’s mind, but received a shock when Max shared what the god had just done to him.

Malcolm hated the feeling of someone invading his mind and would have sworn nobody could have penetrated his brother’s blocks. But they weren’t dealing with a normal mortal, or even those humans with special gifts. They were dealing with the Lord of the Sky and a very pissed-off god at that. Malcolm felt his consciousness begin to fade as the god held them with a death grip.

Zeus released them as quickly as he snatched them up and seemed to shrink from the ten-foot, seething being to a larger-than-average man, but neither Malcolm nor Max could move. They both rubbed their throats, and Malcolm saw Max cough and spit blood onto his pristine floors.

He watched the god pace back and forth, if floating could be considered pacing, then he turned, and both men were lifted up and the severe pain he felt constricting his throat was gone.

“I am sorry. I may have overreacted,” Zeus said.

Malcolm, never the smart one according to his brother, just nodded. He may usually be the one who opened his mouth and inserted his foot, but this time he knew that foot could grow to unusual lengths and he liked his pretty-boy looks.
Thank you very fucking much
.

“Shut up, pup.” Zeus growled, pinning Malcolm with a look.

Malcolm swallowed and straightened to his full height, trying to imitate the military stance Max had.

“You have no reason to apologize, my Lord. I think you know we had no clue that our Selena was the same as the goddess of the moon.”

“Do not call her your anything,” Zeus said in a low tone.

“My Lord, you must understand what she means to us. I know you could see and feel what we felt. I’m sorry, Sir, but she completes us and without each other…” Max let his words sink in before he continued. “Now that we have completed the joining, to separate her from us will destroy her and us.”

“Silence,” he roared.

Malcolm couldn’t believe the god was speaking in the primitive way he so despised, but he saw when Zeus realized that Max spoke the truth. People thought the gods and goddesses didn’t need anyone, and he supposed that was true to an extent. What people didn’t realize was that just because they had unbelievable power and immortality, they also needed companionship and love, just like everyone else. When a god or goddess loved, it was stronger than a normal human. They hurt with more pain along with every other emotion the gods felt, everything so much more.

* * * *

Zeus especially had stronger emotions because the freedom of his people depended on his ability to rule them, and having lost his youngest child to his father he tried even harder to protect them. When he’d banished his father to Hell and stripped him of his godly powers, he had no clue the man could still somehow enter Olympus and slip away with his baby girl.

He saw the battle his Ravens had fought here on Earth and the recent attacks they endured protecting the woman they called their Fated, but Zeus couldn’t wrap his mind around his baby being mated to two men. Not that he had a problem with the prospect in itself, but he didn’t like the picture of the three of them completing their bond that made them whole. He could still picture her as a tiny thing with white-blonde, curly hair and liquid-silver eyes. Eyes so like his own.

He grimaced, and if he didn’t know better, he’d say he just threw up in his mouth, but that couldn’t be right, because he had never been sick a day in his extremely long life. He heard his wife’s amused laugh through their link. He sent her the image of him snapping his teeth that looked more like a wolf’s jaws into her mind.

“
Honey, you have to realize our baby has become a woman in the twenty-four years she has been hidden from us. You can’t blame Max and Malcolm for loving her. I mean did you see her? She is so beautiful and such a tiny thing.”

Zeus heard the catch in her throat and knew she was fighting her tears, trying to stay strong until they could finally hold their baby girl. He brought the picture he caught of her through the minds of his two enforcers up and smiled. She really was a tiny little thing. He then pictured her sandwiched between the two larger men and felt his temper flare up again.

With only a notion, he slammed the two men into the wall and heard a satisfying crack as their backs landed against the hard surface.

“
Sweetheart, stop it and fix what you just broke, and do not deny it,”
Hera said
.

Zeus sighed, releasing the two deflowerers of innocent baby girls. He heard the laugh of his wife and sent her a vivid fantasy of what he planned to do when he returned. Turning, he pinned the two men with a glare and waited for them to speak. As the silence lengthened he threw his hands up in the air, pleased to see the men didn’t flinch.

Zeus prided himself on his forgiving nature, sometimes. A burst of feminine laughter interrupted his thoughts. “
Shut up, Hera
.” His lips twitched at the continued merriment. Gods but he loved that woman.

“
I love you too, Oh Great One
.”

“
You need to work on your respect
,” Zeus said.

“
Yes, yes I should. I mean you are my elder and everything.” Hera laughed. “I’m just kidding. I’m worried about our girl and you know how I get
.”

“
Hera, sweetie, give me a minute to deal with these two and see if I can find her
.”

“
Be nice. If you have to kill someone just remember to be nice when you do it. Now, if you find your father, then you can be mean. In fact, I order you to be really mean.”

Zeus sent a mental hug to his wife, and feeling her arms wrap around him, he let himself bask in their love before he snapped the door closed on their communications. His wife didn’t understand you couldn’t always be nice even when you killed someone.

“My wife said I need to be nice,” Zeus snapped.

He watched the younger twin nod his head and his brother slapped him before snapping to attention. Grudgingly, he admired the way they stood facing him as a united front. He sighed and came to a quick decision.

“You two will find my daughter and you will do right by her.” He held up his hand. “Foolish one, do not open your mouth.”

“My Lord, I vow I will. No, I mean we will do everything to bring Selena home to you and to us,” Max said.

“Don’t test me, pup. Now here is what you need to do. Cronus is a god. When I defeated him, I stripped him of all his godly powers. How or who helped him get some back I do not know, but I can tell you he is not as powerful as me. The problem is that I cannot detect him or her. I do not admit this easily, and if you repeat this I will dismember you with a smile.”

Tired of all the speaking, he forced himself into their minds and yep, he threw up in his mouth at the memory of the two men and his daughter together. Good goddess, no father should ever have to see that. Surely there was enough bleach he could wipe the vision from his eyes?