Blackhearted Betrayal (26 page)

“Okay, so let’s take a step back.” He didn’t seem in a rush to attack, and the others appeared just as unhurried in breaking through his blocking spell. “Are you saying you had no clue that these—scientists—you were working for were behind all the arcane abductions the past few years?”

He shook his head emphatically. “I may have been …naïve …by buying into what they told me, but as far as
I knew, the medical experiments I volunteered for were meant to help the less fertile arcane races by crossing their genes with those arcanes who have no such problems, like Hounds and Cats. The whole reason I cooperated with them to begin with was because one of Anubis’s priests asked me to. He
did
tell me the scientists had some Sidhe they were using, but that all their Sidhe had been created in the lab from frozen DNA captured during the War.”

If by frozen DNA they meant the several dozen Sidhe they held in captivity over the decades following the Peace Accord, until one by one those last Trueborn Sidhe became too dangerous to hold against their will any longer. Stacia’s mortal pawns—the scientists who apparently recruited Sean to their cause—had successfully bred full-blooded Sidhe children off their more independent-minded parents, then started an illegal cloning project where they crossbred and genetically manipulated other arcane races with Sidhe DNA. All in an attempt to breed their own supernaturally enhanced army so they could subjugate the arcanes they viewed as enemy infiltrators. Of course, Stacia had planned to double-cross them, claim the army for her own, and divide and conquer the mortals instead.

Yeah, arcanes could be just as bad as the average Jerry Springer guest.

“So how did you find out about”—I only shuddered on the inside—“your little girl, then?”

His gaze softened. “When I saw you holding her outside the compound, I just knew she had to be mine. Once your brother and Vanessa’s sister adopted Olivia, there was no doubt. She is
mine
. Just like you should be.”

Okay, so one step forward with him, two steps back.
I clenched my fists and turned the full force of a Rage-fueled scowl his way, glowing green eyes and all. “Since you seem determined not to pick up on my subtle and even not-so-subtle hints, let me say this straight up. I am not now, nor will I ever be,
yours
. I am my own, and I am in love with Scott. You know, your brother. Where’s that Warhound loyalty I’m always hearing about?”

“I’m plenty loyal to those who matter. Like my Lord Anubis. Like, just as importantly,
you
. And I didn’t risk pissing Anubis off just to see you again. I came to warn you.”

I ran a hand along Nike’s scales and attempted to funnel off the remaining dregs of Rage. Hearing that he was willing to anger his deity in order to pass along a warning indicated he might not be completely lost to us. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I know you came to Duat as Nemesis obviously.” He gestured to my black leather and serpent. “And Anubis knows you’re headed to the Hall. He’s waiting for you, and you don’t stand a chance against him. He’s also taken out insurance that you won’t
want
to stand against him even if you could.”

Well,
that
lack of confidence in my abilities stung a little, especially coming from someone who usually acted like I’d hung the moon. “Forgive me if I don’t exactly rush to take advice from one of his lapdogs, especially one who seems so willing to betray his family by allowing them all to believe him
missing
or
dead
all this time. Your mother has been worried out of her mind for you.”

His fists clenched, but he merely nodded. “Fair enough, I should have let at least Mom know I’m all right, but she of all people would understand what I’m doing for our lord.”

I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “What?” My gesture to
his
body was contemptuous. “Helping him abduct the bodies of his law-abiding opponents, kicking them out of their rightful bodies and breaking a dozen immortal precepts in the process? Yeah, I’m sure she’d be
real
proud.”

“You don’t under—”

Rage flooded my body, and I strode forward, putting my face right into his. “I understand right versus wrong, good versus evil; and, honey, you’re
definitely
playing for Team Evil right now. Pretty it up any way you see fit, but it comes down to this: Anubis has murdered innocents with magic and broken more than one immortal law.
I
have been chosen to act as Nemesis in bringing him to justice, and I
will not rest
until that has been done. His power-hungry ass is going down, and so help me gods, Sean, if you stand in my way, I will take
your
pretty little ass down right along with him.”

“Please calm down, Riss; I’m not here to challenge you. I just want your safety.” His right hand dipped inside his pocket and fiddled with something. “I want safety for you both.”

I tensed. “What’s that inside your pocket?” He gave a casual shrug, and Rage stirred again. I let it change my eyes to silver-rimmed, Rage-enhanced green. “You don’t want to fuck around with me right now, Sean. Trust me on that. Now, take it out slowly.”

He did as I asked, withdrawing his hand one careful inch at a time.

I kept my body loose and ready—for a weapon, his wallet, loose change—anything but what actually emerged. A wrinkled but perfectly clear picture showing two of the people I loved most: Cori and her adopted
sister, Olivia, biological daughter to not only Vanessa, but apparently the cocky young man standing in front of me. Cori lay on a blanket outside the family home in Salem helping her infant sister sit up, both girls all sunshine and smiles and in perfect focus. Sean had to have gotten fairly up close and personal to take the picture. The fact he let me see this meant something critical: He wanted me to know that he—and thus Anubis—could get close to his daughter anytime he wanted.

A growl passed my lips, and I danced the hair-trigger edge separating Fury from Harpy, wanting nothing more in that moment than to go ballistic on his ass. Scott’s baby brother or not; capable of being saved from Anubis’s brainwashing or not; having risked his own safety to come and warn me or not. He
dared
show that picture to me when I was already keyed up? He
had
to know the Fury in me would see it as a threat and react accordingly. Young Sean might be, but he was not stupid.

Or was he? The light in his eyes grew bolder, almost …excited. Yes, that was it exactly. He
wanted
to see me all hot and bothered. Judging by the way his breath came in quicker pants and he licked his lips, seeing me like this was getting
him
hot and bothered in another way entirely. My gaze made the inevitable drop downward and discovered proof positive that Sean was turned on in a big way. Rage burned even hotter, but I fought it back—or at least, I tried.

My hand snapped up and back so fast the slap to his cheek rang out before I consciously realized what I was doing. Blood flooded to the spot I’d hit, revealing the bright red outline of fingers. Sean grabbed my hands and squeezed, but not in vengeance. He used his superior strength as a full-blown immortal to try to force my arms
around him in an unwanted embrace. Magic responded to my call and washed along my skin, granting me enough strength to yank my hands away from his. Sean’s wince when newly formed talons pierced his skin made me smile. The bastard deserved so much worse.

“Final warning, puppy boy. Hijacked immortal powers or not, stay
away
from me
and
mine. If you
ever
dare touch me without permission again, I’ll forget my promise to spare you for your family’s sake.” I dug my claws into his skin a little deeper. “Fuck with my nieces or me one more time, and I’ll see you tortured in the afterlife as well, which won’t be too hard once the Triad takes down your Jackal-Assed god and finds out what
you’ve
done in his name.”

He choked out a protest, but I lashed out with my dominant foot and kicked for all I was worth. He hit the rock with a sharp
thunk
, head cracking against solid stone soon after his back did, and he went out like a light. His expression was comically surprised as his silver-rimmed eyes fluttered shut, and he slid to the ground in a heap. Useful to know that immortals
could
be knocked out if one applied sufficient force.

Nike slithered along my arms, forked tongue flicking in Sean’s direction. I caressed the serpent while I wrestled Rage back to manageable levels.

Are you
sure
we can’t just kill him now?

Laughter burst out without my intending it, and I patted her again.
I’m sure. Besides, we
can’t
kill him while he’s still possessing Imseti’s body
.

Oh yeah.
She sounded disappointed.
What are you going to do with him, then? He’ll just go back to Anubis when he wakes up. And if Scott sees him here like that …

Ugh.
That
would devastate Scott even more than it had me. The others—especially Jeserit—would neither care that Sean was Scott’s brother nor want to risk his coming back later to betray us still further. All Jeserit would see is someone who helped Anubis kill her husband and the interloper responsible for ousting her god. Both true, as far as that went, but life was never as black and white as mundanes liked to pretend it was. I
couldn’t
kill Sean unless in self-defense: Doing
that
would seal the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with Scott. I might have come to terms with the thought of sacrificing Scott’s life if necessary to complete my mission, but damned if I would kill his love for me with my own two hands.

Cursing under my breath all the while, I dragged Sean’s inert body behind a rock outcropping a couple of dozen feet away. Once convinced nobody would be able to see him from a distance, I scurried back to the cavern entrance and put my hand out warily—only to have it grabbed and myself hauled outside.

Scott pulled me into his arms and practically squeezed the breath out of me. “Gods damn it, Riss, what were you
doing
in there? You scared us all out of our minds.”

I accepted his burst of overprotectiveness gracefully since it reassured me I’d just made the right choice, both to break free of Sean’s manipulation and to hide his ill-gotten body until I figured out how to safely switch him and Imseti back. The others crowded in and reassured themselves I was safe. While their concern was flattering, I had no clue how long Sean would be out cold—considering his current immortality, probably not long—and needed to sneak everyone past him like five minutes
ago. Especially since he’d been so kind as to confirm we
were
on the right path to the Hall of Two Truths.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. And that—whatever
that
was—didn’t come from me. I was trapped inside the same as you were out here. It could have been some sort of latent defense mechanism”—not a lie, it
could
have been—“but it wore off. I suggest we step through two at a time so no one’s trapped alone, and make it snappy. No telling if it will happen again.”

Predictably, Scott insisted on going through with me, and
I
insisted we be first. It took every ounce of willpower I could muster to resist glancing at the spot where I’d stashed Sean, but Scott made it easier by hurrying forward to investigate the tunnel from which his brother had originally appeared. We scouted a short way ahead of the others but learned nothing particularly useful other than the fact the DayGlo lichen grew along the tunnel’s walls, too. Within minutes we had all congregated inside the tunnel, and Jeserit confirmed our path via the scrying stone, which pointed the way deeper into the earth.

The tunnel remained wide enough for us to proceed in pairs though I itched to order Scott to the rear of the pack even though that was a stupid urge. First of all, nothing said he’d be any safer back there—especially not if Sean caught up to us before we reached our destination. Secondly, I had no chance of convincing him to go, not after that blocking-spell fiasco and not without a better reason than “I’m immortal, and I said so.”

I must have snickered out loud because he tilted his head questioningly. “Oh, I was just thinking how I was stupid enough to think cleaning up the Sisterhood’s problems would somehow be less stressful than that serial-killer case. And yet, here we are.”

He managed a small smile. “Yeah, making our way through another underground tunnel—which creep you out—with several dozen renegade deities and their flunkies on our trail, hoping we can make it to Ma’at’s Feather before
they
make it to us. Suddenly hunting down one measly murderer doesn’t seem so bad.”

One of the things I loved about Scott was his humor in dark situations because it so mirrored my own. If you couldn’t laugh in the face of danger—especially when 85 percent of your life
was
danger—then you’d flash and burn out, no longer able to find joy in life and making you that much closer to becoming a bad guy yourself. Or turn into someone like my old
pal
, Tony Zalawski, who took pleasure in other people’s pain and fit in perfectly with the drug dealers his new undercover gig with Narcotics pitted him against. There was a difference between laughing
with
the world and laughing
at
it.

I’d prepared myself for another lengthy subterranean voyage through meandering tunnels, so was surprised when we reached a dead end a mere half hour later. The corridor we’d been traversing opened out into a cavern the size of a soccer field, but that was it. No further tunnels to take, no adjoining caverns to explore, just a chamber lined with rocky outcroppings and the interminable glowing lichen.