Goddess in the Middle (20 page)

With Rom at her back, Amity opened the door to her home. Her lips parted to call out for Kari…

And gasped at the chaos spread out before her.

Remy had managed to get his blood pressure out of heart attack range only a few minutes ago.

The rocker dude, who Remy had since learned was none other than Tivr, God of the Moon and Lusna’s son, had scooped up Catene and swept her out of the room, all the while shooting daggers at Remy.

Not wanting to get himself impaled by a lightning bolt, Remy lowered his head, though the submissive gesture grated against his already on-edge nerves. He caught the gaze of the girl-goddess Catene just before she left the room though and apology shone so clear in those bright blue eyes, he couldn’t help but offer her a smile just before the door closed.

When it did, silence descended around the table. For about two seconds.

“So who wants cake?”

Remy turned to the surfer dude, who looked like he belonged on a SoCal beach, partying and picking up beach bunnies.

“For fuck’s sake, X, nobody wants your goddamn cake.”

Lady Tessa’s male reached out and smacked the surfer dude on the back of the head as Tessa allowed a bright grin to surface. “Don’t hit your brother, Cal. And I’d love some cake, X.” She turned that bright smile on Remy once again and he swore he felt the warmth of the sun in it.

Even though, according to Amity, Tessa had given up her powers. As had Lusna, who watched him with her steady gray gaze.

“X’s cake really is to die for,” Lusna said, completely throwing Remy out of his thoughts. “You should try it.”

Seriously. They wanted him to try the cake. He was beginning to think someone had spiked the Kool-Aid but he hadn’t seen anyone drinking anything.

“Hell, if X brought cake, count me in.” Lusna’s male leaned over to fist bump the surfer dude. “That lemon tart thing made my eyes cross, it was so damn good. The team wants you to make more of those dark chocolate raspberry cupcakes you brought to the last game. If you’re not careful, you’re gonna find yourself the love slave of some horny hockey player.”

Remy had the surreal feeling that he’d stepped onto the set of a TV sitcom in an alternate dimension. And when the guy everybody was calling X turned to him and grinned, Remy decided he wanted a little of whatever they were drinking.

“You look kinda like you just fell down the rabbit hole. Welcome to Wonderland. I’m Extasis, by the way.” He held his hand out over the table, and Remy leaned forward to shake it. “Just call me X. Wasn’t sure if you’d remember my name after all the drama.”

“Yeah, about that.” Remy looked at Cole then at Lusna and Tessa. “Maybe someone wants to tell me what’s going on now.”

X got up and walked toward the other end of the table, where a gorgeous white-frosted cake waited. “Everything goes down better with cake, I’ve found.”

Cal sighed, but Remy swore he saw pride in the guy’s eyes as he looked at his brother. “Unless that cake is laced with alcohol, you know my response to that.”

X started slicing. He made it look easy, and soon enough, Remy had a thick piece of white chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla icing with coconut shavings sitting in front of him.

The first bite practically melted on his tongue. The next made him groan in pleasure. By the fifth, he’d settled to letting his eyes roll back in his head in ecstasy.

“See?” X looked at him with a grin. “I told you.”

He finished the cake and realized, yeah, he did feel a little better. But he hadn’t come for a sugar rush. “If you all don’t mind, I’d really like to get some answers now.”

Lusna set aside her fork, her cake only half finished. Pushing it toward her male, she caught his gaze and held it before turning back to Remy. “The short version… Tessa and I gave up our goddess powers to live as mortals with our mates after Charun sent demons after us. Tessa nearly died. I transferred my powers to Catene.

“We know Charun seeks to be released from Aitás and we know he’s found a way to consume goddesses’ powers so he can do so. We’ve lost one goddess that we know of. Obviously Amity has been targeted next. We don’t know what Charun’s end game is. We only know that he cannot be allowed to leave Aitás. Without him, chaos would reign and the gates would open.”

And the souls of the dead would be able to leave Aitás.

Holy shit. No wonder no one had mentioned that. It was too scary to think about.

“We also know,” Tessa continued, “that you and your cousin Romulus—Great names, by the way.” Tessa beamed at him. “Romulus and Remus. Your parents certainly had a sense of history, didn’t they?”

“Tessa”—Lucy looked toward the ceiling for a brief second as if trying to hold onto her patience—“don’t get sidetracked.”

Tessa actually stuck her tongue out at Lucy before she continued. “Okay, okay. Anyway, you and your cousin are actually the heralds of the new order, though we didn’t realize that until Amity told us about you.”

Remy’s brain got stuck on the word heralds. “Wait. What new order? I’ve heard of the band but—”

“Hey, they had some good music,” Lucy’s mate, Brandon, broke in.

Lucy smiled at Brandon. “Yes, they did, and you and Remy can discuss that later. But first,” she turned back to Remy, “you and Rom were born to be the guardians of the new Goddess of the Moon. That’s what the prophecy has led us to believe. And it actually makes sense.”

Of course Lucy would know about the prophecy. That shouldn’t be a shock. And they’d get back to that in a minute. First things first. “How can we do that if we’re protecting Amity?”

Lucy’s brows quirked. “Well, that’s the dilemma, isn’t it?”

“Not to mention,” Cole injected, “there’s no way in hell Ty’ll let anyone close to Cat, least of all two
lucani
who’ve been AWOL from the den for years.” Cole raised his hand before Remy could defend his parents, which he would until the day he died. “That’s not a criticism. I completely understand why your parents took the measures they did. I’m just explaining why, for now, we would appreciate if you and Rom would stick as close as you can to Amity.”

His expression must have shown his surprise because Tessa started to laugh. “Not what you expected to hear, is it?”

“Actually, no, it wasn’t.”

Tessa turned to give the hard ass standing behind her a sweet smile that the guy actually returned. Remy hadn’t thought Cal had it in him. Except Remy totally understood how no one could refuse Tessa anything.

The goddess exuded warmth like she was a heat lamp. The same couldn’t be said for Lucy. Her cool, gray gaze watched him with an intensity that should’ve burned his skin.

Until she smiled, and Remy realized why she didn’t do it all the time. If she did, there’d be riots on the street. And the man sitting by her side, watching her every move, would have more than a black eye.

“Which brings us to why X is here,” Sal finally spoke up. “X thinks he has a way to talk to Charun that doesn’t include taking Amity to the gate to Aitás.”

“And that is…?”

X and Cal exchanged a glance before Cal nodded.

X’s expression had turned intense and Remy saw much more of a resemblance between the brothers. “Have you ever heard of Cimmeria?”

Something tickled at the back of Remy’s brain, but he couldn’t quite pull out the reference so he shook his head.

“No problem,” X said. “Cimmeria is the world between the planes. It’s where Cal and I grew up. And it’s the only access point to the other planes.”

Remy recalled a snippet of the story his mother had once told him about the land of mist and shadows where you could access the world of the gods. He remembered being fascinated by the thought. He never actually believed the damn place existed.

“Seriously?”

X gave a wry grin. “Yeah. Seriously. Look, we know Charun’s been contacting the goddesses through their dreams. I propose to take Amity into the dream plane and let her talk to him there. I think it’s safer than actually taking her to the gate.”

“No way does she go without us. And do you really think it’s safe to take her anywhere near Charun?”

Cal and Brandon nodded, as if he’d finally done something they approved of, even as Tessa and Lucy shook their heads.

“Amity is not without her strengths,” Lucy said. “To imply that she’s too weak to merely speak to Charun is an insult. And one I hope you won’t repeat to her.”

He knew he’d just been dressed down by the Goddess of the
lucani
and he bent his head once more in submission. “Forgive me, ladies. I meant no disrespect. I just don’t want anything to happen to her. She saved our lives. Rom and I will do everything in our power to make sure she’s safe.”

“Glad to hear it.” Cole’s quiet tone held a note of approval that inexplicably made Remy swell with pride. “Because you may not only be fighting off demons to keep Amity safe. We may be going to war against the
Mal
as well.”

***

“Kari! Kari, where are you?”

Rom took one look at the mess of Amity’s living room and had his gun in his hand a split second later.

With his free hand, he reached for Amity before she could run farther into the room and shoved her behind him.

“Close the door and put your back against it and don’t move.”

To his complete relief, she did exactly as he said. Then he stood in the middle of the room and took a deep breath, trying to scent anyone else in the house.

Damn it. Two men and one woman.

Kari. He knew her scent because it was so like Amity’s.

The men were
Malandante
.

Shit.

“Rom.” Amity’s voice trembled and that pissed him off. “What’s—”

He cut her off with a sharp hand gesture, trying to use his senses to pinpoint the men’s location.

Turned out he didn’t need to. They walked out of the kitchen, marching Kari between them like a prisoner. Kari’s expression promised furious retribution, but her mouth remained closed.

“Huh. I’ll be damned. There are two of them.”

The shorter of the two men looked through Rom as if he were no danger at all. Instead his gaze settled on Amity.

Which pissed Rom off.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

With his thinning brown hair, brown eyes, and nondescript looks, the guy could have walked down a city street and gone unnoticed. But Rom felt the force of his
arus
like a physical presence. The guy held powerful dark magic in that spare body.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” the guy said. “Where’s your cousin, Romulus?”

When he remained silent, the
Mal
merely shrugged. “Fine. I can sense he’s not here. Pity. I would have left the Ladies alone if you’d been prepared to come quietly. Now I guess we do this the hard way. Den, take Lady Kari. I’ll follow you in a few minutes.”

“No!” Amity cried out and tried to push past Rom, but he reached for her and shoved her back behind him.

“Amity, stop.” Rom didn’t take his eyes off the trio in front of him. He noticed how Kari didn’t look at all afraid, and how Den, whose sole purpose was probably to provide muscle and intimidation with the sheer bulk of his body, didn’t take his eyes off Rom.

“We won’t hurt your sister, Lady Amity. Ah, you’re surprised we know who you are, aren’t you? You shouldn’t be. The
Mal
continue to practice many of the old ways, though the deities wouldn’t know that, would they? Most of your kind abandoned the
Mal
many years ago.”

Amity huffed. “Only because you declared war on your own people—”

“After they declared war on us centuries ago.” The
Mal
didn’t raise his voice but Rom heard his tone change. This guy was lethal. “We will take Lady Kari with us—”

Rom threw himself forward, the element of surprise allowing him to get the jump on the men.

He sensed their momentary shock and hoped it would be enough to give him the upper hand. He hit the shorter guy hard, a no-holds-barred roundhouse that landed with the distinct crush of bone. He stumbled back into Kari and the three of them went down like dominoes.

Behind him, he heard Amity cry out but he couldn’t stop now. He followed the guy down and started to pummel him. The big guy lost his hold on Kari, who scrambled away, kicking at him with her spike-heeled boots as he tried to grab her back.

The
Mal
beneath him began to fight back and it was clear he knew how to defend himself. Rom couldn’t afford to split his concentration between the men but he knew he couldn’t hold both men off on his own for long.

Rom took an uppercut that caught him in the temple and pain exploded through his head. The guy went to throw another but Rom intercepted it before it connected. Using his greater weight, he tackled the
Mal
, hoping to get him pinned against the bigger guy and tie them both up so Amity and Kari could get away.

It worked, but not as well as he would’ve liked. They got tangled together, fists and feet, arms and legs, until Rom wasn’t sure what was attached to whom.

All he knew was that he needed to keep the men away from the women long enough for them to get the hell out of there.

Rom took another shot to the gut that had him gasping for air, and someone’s foot came too close to making him a soprano, but he fought to hold his own against the two men.

Getting back to his feet, he aimed a kick at the smaller guy’s head, hoping to knock him out. He moved at the last second, and Rom’s foot grazed his shoulder instead. The big guy also got to his feet, and Rom prepared for an attack. Instead, the guy turned and ran back toward the kitchen.

What the—

He turned for a brief second. “Amity! Run!”

She obeyed him without hesitation, grabbing Kari by the arm and pulling her toward the front door.

“No, up—”

Rom caught a roundhouse in the face that nearly spun him around just as the door opened. He didn’t know whether Amity or Kari had opened it. Didn’t matter.

Kari screamed in fury as the goon grabbed her and dragged her out of the house.

Amity would have followed if Rom hadn’t grabbed for her arm, just before he felt the muzzle of a gun stuck in his side.

“I can’t kill you. You’re too valuable.” The
Mal
’s voice was calm as he spoke in Rom’s ear. “Don’t worry. We won’t hurt her. She’s too important. Consider her leverage.”