Goddess in the Middle (14 page)

Amity sensed Kari’s surprise. “Well then, I’ll be right over.”

Remy and Rom shot Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide who went back to the house to get their gear.

Rom lost because Remy had long ago learned how his cousin thought. Brute force, all the time. Rom didn’t hold much stock in subtlety or trickery.

Those tactics had their times and places.

Not that Remy played dirty to win. He just couldn’t help knowing what Rom was going to throw before he threw it.

Of course, Rom might’ve lost because he didn’t want Remy to leave the relative safety of Amity’s home. In which case, Rom had played him.

Remy’s face screwed up in a frown as he lost all interest in the repeat of
The
Waltons
he was watching.

“Huh. That sneaky bas—”

“Remy, we’re about to have guests.”

Whipping his head around, he saw Amity standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She looked somewhat more relaxed than she had before she’d gone up for her bath. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her hair sat in a high ponytail and the form-fitting T-shirt and tight black yoga pants made his mouth hang open.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

When
the
hell—

“Wait. What did you just say?”

“I said we’re going to have visitors in a few minutes. Is Rom here?”

“No, he went back to the house to get our stuff.” He hopped off the couch and started toward her, trying to figure out how to tell a goddess there was no way in hell he was letting anyone enter her house.

“Amity, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing this isn’t your house.”

The male voice coming from behind him made Remy spin on his heel, his hand reaching for the
pugio
concealed in his pants pocket. The short Italian blade was perfectly weighted for his hand and lethal.

Shock stopped him from releasing the knife.

“Holy shit.”

Goat legs. The guy had goat legs. And little black horns on top of his perfectly human head. As a matter of fact, the guy looked totally human from the waist up. Except for those horns sticking out of the glossy black curls.

He looked to be in his late thirties. Definitely of Etruscan descent.

“Son,” the guy’s voice sound totally human with a thick New York accent, “trust me when I say you don’t want to throw that at me. You’ll miss and you won’t see it coming when I toss it back.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amity rush by, headed for the woman at the guy’s side. The woman who looked almost exactly like her. So close, in fact, they had to be twins.

Another goddess.
Crap
. Remy dropped into a belated bow as the women embraced, his stunned brain sifting through decades-old lessons from his mother.

Who the hell was she?

“This one doesn’t seem too bright now, does he?” The male’s voice held laughter. “That’s okay, kid. You’ve had a hard day, haven’t you?”

Remy bit back the obscenity-laden response on the tip of his tongue. At least some part of his brain still worked.

“Sal, don’t hassle the boy.” The new goddess gave him the once-over. “Uni’s ass, Amity. Where’d you find him?”

“This is one of the champions I was telling you about. Kari, this is Remy. Remy, this is my sister, Kari.”

He nodded, surprised he didn’t hear his brain rattle.

“And I’m Sal.” The goat man’s hooves made little snicks across the wooden floor; the sound was surreal. “What’s your last name, kid?”

Long-ingrained caution made Remy hesitate until finally Sal’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, isn’t that interesting.”

Salbinelli
. The connection finally clicked in Remy’s head. He remembered his mom teaching him about the
Fata
races as a child. The
Fata
were the elemental beings of the Etruscan races, descended from the three elemental races—the woodland
silvani
, the water-loving
aguane
, and the animal guardians, the
fauni
.

Remy had never met one of the
Fata
. They were like the
eteri
’s unicorns or dragons. Sure, they might actually exist, but no one had ever seen one in person.

“Are you really…”

Sal rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’m
salbinelli
. Don’t feed the animals, kid, unless you want your fingers bitten off. Now, Amity, why don’t you tell me why I’m sensing off-the-chart power from you. And why he’s got way too much of the wrong kind of magic for a
lucani
.”

Remy’s gaze skipped to Amity, whose expression held an apology.

Shit. Rom was going to have a heart attack. This was exactly what they’d been trying to avoid for years.

Remy swore he felt a noose tightening around his neck.

“Whoa, kid.” The
salbinelli
held his hand in the air, palms up. “Hey, I’m not gonna turn you over to the police for murder. But now I gotta know. What the hell’s going on?”

Definitely the end of the line for his and Rom’s anonymity.

“Sal.” Amity moved to Remy’s side, as if to lend him her support. “Maybe we should all take a seat before we start getting into particulars.”

Sal snorted. “I’ve got most of them figured out already.” He pointed at Amity. “You’re Charun’s latest target.
And
you had sex with him.” He pointed at Remy. “Which made you light up like an overdecorated Christmas tree. You called her,” he pointed at Kari, “because you’re worried she’s going to attract the same attention you’re getting from Charun. How’m I doing so far?”

Amity nodded as Remy felt the noose tighten a little more.

“Batting a thousand. Okay.” Sal slapped his hands together in front of him, the sharp sound stinging Remy’s sensitive ears. “Now, the only piece of the puzzle I’m missing is, where’s the second
lucani
I smell? And why the hell do you want to avoid the
lucani
den so badly I can practically taste it in the air?”

Yep. He was so screwed. Rom was gonna kill him if another demon didn’t get to him first.

He let his gaze connect with Amity’s, saw the worry in her eyes. Worry about how he was going to react.

Okay, he could handle this. No need to panic. He just needed to get the lay of the land.

And if Amity trusted this man, then maybe he could too. He and Rom had been on their own for so long, Remy had almost forgotten that not everyone was out to kill them.

Remy walked over to the
salbinelli
and held out his hand. “Remus Leone.”

He watched the guy’s gaze narrow for a brief second before he took hold of Remy’s hand and shook. Then Sal started to shake his head, his expression turning serious. “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re alive. And Romulus? Has he survived, as well?”

Remy froze, though his heart started to bang inside his chest like it was exploding. Shit. He knew who they were.

“Now, son, don’t pass out on me. But I think you might want to sit down.”

“Sal?” Amity’s tone held a question as she looked between Remy and the
salbinelli
, who ignored her, keeping his gaze locked to Remy’s.

“I know some people who’ve been looking for you both for a very long time.”

Slowly withdrawing his hand, Remy fought against the urge to run. To hide. That’s what they always did when someone got too close. But… he didn’t want to run this time.

“Maybe we haven’t wanted to be found.”

Sal nodded, his expression softening just the slightest bit. “I can understand that.”

“Then you also understand why the fewer people who know we’re here, the better.”

“Have you considered,” Sal stared up at him, totally not intimidated by their height difference, “that maybe there are people here who could help you?”

“People who try to help us tend to end up dead.” The edge in Remy’s tone could’ve cut glass.

Kari drew in a sharp gasp and Sal actually dropped his gaze for a second. Amity just stared at him with those warm, dark eyes.

“Your families.” Sal’s now laser-sharp gaze returned to his. “We thought—”

Remy sliced his hand in front of Sal, cutting him off. Definitely not going there. “All I’m saying is, we’ve had our reasons for being… for not wanting to spend a lot of time in one place.” There, that sounded somewhat diplomatic.

Sal’s gaze narrowed. “And yet, here you are, throwing down with Charun’s minions.”

“That was personal.”

Sal nodded. “Yeah, I’m beginning to get the picture.”

Remy was sure he was. Time to change the subject. “So, you’re here to help Amity with the Charun problem.”

For a few seconds, Remy wasn’t sure Sal was going to let him get away with the change of subject. Then the little
salbinelli
released a harsh breath and waved at the couch.

“Why don’t we get comfortable and see what’s what.”

It took only seconds for everyone to find a seat. He and Amity went back to the couch. Kari and Sal took the plush chairs directly opposite.

“All right, so tell me what happened tonight.” Sal’s hooves hung several inches off the floor, momentarily distracting Remy with a sudden bout of absurdity that made him almost burst out laughing.

He was sitting in a room with a
salbinelli
and two goddesses. Of course, he was a
lucani
stregone
, a werewolf witch who shouldn’t exist.

There had to be a joke in there involving a bar.

As Amity recounted the events of the previous night, Remy forced himself to listen for anything she hadn’t mentioned before, something they might have missed or that didn’t seem important before.

Nothing. All he got for the effort was the start of a tension headache, which Amity would probably insist on healing when she realized he was trying to hide it.

“So he sent Thufltha for Amity.” Sal pulled a cigar out his shirt pocket and stuck it in his mouth, though he didn’t light it up, just gnawed on the end as he stared at Remy. “And you and your cousin killed it. Gotta say, kid, Charun’s not gonna be real thrilled about that. I can’t honestly remember the last time he lost one of his Named.”

“Yeah, well, this one had it coming.”

Sal nodded, his gaze narrowing for a second. “I’m sure it did, kid. I’m sure it did. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about the
tukhulkha
moonlighting. The
Mal
have been contracting them for centuries, bribing the demons with whatever they wanted. But I’ve never heard of one so high up the ranks allowing the
Mal
to pull its strings.”

“Maybe the
Mal
held something over the demon’s head.” Remy shrugged. “I don’t really care. We killed it. We’re moving on.”

“To the
Mal
.”

Sal didn’t bother to make it a question so Remy didn’t bother to answer. The
salbinelli
was doing just fine coming to conclusions of his own.

“Maybe you wanna rethink that strategy, at least for the time being.” Sal’s mouth twisted in a rueful expression. “There’ve been some developments…”

When Sal didn’t continue, Remy pressed. “What kind of developments? Something that has to do with the
Mal
?”

Sal nodded. “And the
lucani
.”

Shit. That was… Shit. Sal shook his head and Rom knew whatever was going on, it wasn’t going to be anything he or Rom wanted to hear.

“Why don’t we wait for your cousin to get back to talk about that angle.” Sal let his gaze slide to Amity. “Right now, let’s figure out what we’re going to do to keep Amity safe.”

Remy thought the answer to that was pretty straightforward. He and Rom would stay until Charun decided to leave Amity alone.

Even
if
it
means
putting
off
your
pursuit
of
the
Mal? And alerting the
lucani
to
your
presence? And what if Charun doesn’t stop? How long do we stay? How long will she
let
us
stay?

“What do you suggest?”

Sal shrugged. “That’s the tricky part.”

“I’m not giving up my powers.”

It was the first time Amity had spoken in several minutes and Remy swore he saw Sal’s jaw tighten just a little.

“No one’s saying that’s even on the table.” Sal shook his head. “I’ve never suggested that and I never will. But Charun’s changing the rules.”

“This is no game.” Kari piped in, her tone razor-sharp and utterly serious. “Tessa nearly died. Lucy…” Kari exchanged a glance with Amity and didn’t continue her thought. “We need to stop Charun. For good this time.”

Amity shook her head. “And how do you propose we do that? We can’t kill him. The gate to Aitás will fall without him. We need to talk to him, find out why he’s doing this.”

“You can’t reason with Charun, sister. The man’s brain just isn’t wired for rational thought.”

“But there’s got to be a reason he wants out. After all this time, why now?”

Kari shook her head, her pretty face screwing up into a frown but not detracting at all from her beauty.

And yet, Kari raised no arousal at all in Remy, even though the goddesses were practically identical.

How weird was that?

“Who cares?” Kari said. “Seriously, Amity. It doesn’t matter. If Charun achieves his goal, who’s to say he’ll stop at goddesses. Will he go after everyone else? This entire plane could become Aitás if that happens.”

“But maybe if we find out what he wants,” Amity said, “we can give it to him and he’ll stop.”

Kari wore a dumbfounded expression. “Since when did you take on Tessa’s eternal optimism?”

Remy felt like he was at a tennis match, watching the ball bounce between the sisters. He noticed that Sal hadn’t stuck his nose in, either.

“And when did you become such a cynic?”

“I always have been.” Kari shrugged. “I just hide it well. Charun’s not going to stop after a few therapy sessions. We’ve got to find a way to block him from finding us. Or we need to kill his demons before they attack again.”