Guardian (Daughters Of The Gods, Book 2) (9 page)

He met her gaze and willed her to understand what he was saying.
If his fate was imprisonment in Tartarus then so be it. But if he thought she was being hurt, tortured and used by the other immortal beings who were held there as well, he would never survive mentally. It would drive him mad.

“Cat
.” She still refused to leave him. “Go.”

The two
hunters Zeus had dispatched across the mountain reappeared and flanked the father of the gods. With a bone rattling thud, three more hunters landed beside them.

Lelantos took a calming breath and stepped back. He could not win this
fight. For too long he’d lived a normal way of life – he was no longer battle hardened. To fight against fighters highly trained and skilled would not end in his favor.

He’d lost.

A feathered touch ran down his back and he turned to find Cat beside him. Tears streamed down her beautiful face, her hair, golden locks that would forever remind him of warmth and sunlight sat nestled over her armor. Lelantos transformed into the man he’d been for a millennium, and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

Her arms encircled his neck and her grip was fierce. She kissed him
with a fervor that matched his own. Lelantos pulled back and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the first time I kissed you on this very battle field all those years ago.”

She grinned and his chest ached. “That kiss threw me as well.” Her expression turned serious. “
It’s not working.”

“What isn’t?” he asked, watching as panic assailed her features.

“I’m trying to take you with me. To get us out of here. It’s not working, Lelantos.”

“Try it on your own, Cat and see if you can escape.” A tear ran down her cheek and he swiped it away.
“I want you to go.”

“If it works, and I escape,
I will find you again, Lelantos. I promise.”

“I do not doubt it,” he said, kissing her once more, before pain sliced through his side and he dropped to his knees. Cat disappeared
and he sighed with relief as he stemmed the bleeding from the blow they had inflicted on his hand.

“She will never find you, Lelantos
, for Tartarus is not where I will hold you. You will be imprisoned on Mount Olympus and when my daughter comes looking for you, I will ensure she can never leave. You will be enslaved. Your endless days will be spent watching and loving her from afar, while she is married to another. After I forgive her, of course, which may take many years,” Zeus said, as an afterthought. “Caitlin will be unreachable and untouchable to you.” He laughed and the other gods followed his lead, too scared to do otherwise. Zeus held out his arm and twisted his hand into a fist. A severing pain tore through Lelantos and he doubled over, knowing his divine gift as the God of the Unseen was torn from him. “I always win, Lelantos. One way or another.”

Lelantos stood and faced the god. “Your biggest downfall is
that you underestimate your daughters, Zeus. First Chloe and now Caitlin. And I look forward to the day you realize the error of your ways.”

Hermes
walked toward him with a snarl. “With what we have planned for you, Titan, you may just live long enough to see it.”

Lelantos glared as
Cat’s brother. “Bastard,” he said.

Before
everything went black.

CHAPTER

Eleven

Cat looked up at the imposing
Castle Cree in the Scottish town of Durness and wondered if Chloe would help her. It irked the hunter in her to be in need of aid, but the thought of where Lelantos had been taken soon pushed that feeling aside. Images of him being tortured, beaten and starved haunted her dreams when she succumbed to sleep, which was not often.

For two weeks she’d wrest
led with ideas of how to free him. It wouldn’t be an easy task. The guards were as big as the Titans - some bigger. And Zeus would be watching, waiting for her to strike so he could claim her as well. And she couldn’t let that happen. She was Lelantos’ only hope of freedom.

Taking a fortifying breath Cat
rang the bell beside the imposing castle door. People milled about the bailey, taking pictures, touching the old stone and marveling at its grandeur. She absently watched the tourists take in the old building and the surrounding view of Durness and wondered what they’d think of her home, should they ever see it.

M
ount Olympus would certainly have the cameras going on overdrive.

The door opened and she turned to find a man as imposing as the castle
itself. She felt her mouth open and she shut it quickly. Holy shit, any wonder Chloe had defied the gods to live with this man. He was a god and a friggin’ hot one as well!

“I understand
that Chloe lives here.” She watched as the Highlander raised a brow and studied her like a wolf studied its prey.

“Who are y
e?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Cat felt her mouth dry.

“Cat? Is that you?”

She looked past the Highlander’s broad shoulders and smiled as Chloe hurried down the last of the foyer stairs. Cat pushed past her sister’s husband and pulled her into a hug. “It’s been so long. Too long.”

Chloe hugged her back. “I’ve missed you.” She pulled back and laughed. “
I see you’ve met my husband, Cian.”

Cat looked to where the imposing
man stood quietly watching them and eyed him with wariness. She doubted he’d want to know her when he found out who she was.

“Cian, this is my sister, Caitlin. She’s
a hunter for the gods. But–” Chloe paused, frowning. “I’m assuming by the fact you can see us that you’re no longer in alliance with Zeus.”

“You
are one of the famous Hunters or Guardians of the gods?”

Cat inwardly smiled when he pulled Chloe protectively beside him. “Yes. I have been for thousands of years.” The disgust that spread across Cian’s face irritated her and she glared. “In the hallowed halls of M
ount Olympus, one does anything one is ordered and without question.”

“Did you have anything to do with Chloe being banished?”

She met her sister’s gaze before looking back at the Highlander and his less than welcoming visage. “I was in the throne room the day she was banished. There was nothing I could have done to save her and looking back, I’m glad I did not. The woman you know now wouldn’t be here had she remained a goddess. We’re fickle, Cian. Chloe’s humanity has enabled her to care for you far more than she ever would have had she remained a god.”

“Don’t
say that, Cat. We’re blood, I grant you, but I haven’t seen nor heard from you since the day I was turned mortal. And immortal or not, I would never tire of Cian. He’s everything to me.”

Cat shrugged. “I’m not here to rehash what
happened in the past. I couldn’t help Chloe then and I refused to hunt her for Father when he asked. Instead I offered to kill the one who had helped her to hide.” Cat paused. “Father agreed.”

“
No,” Chloe said, her face paling.

“
I’m afraid so.” Cat took a steadying breath, the thought of killing Lelantos making her stomach turn. “I fought him once, too many years ago to count and Father, knowing of our previous encounter, thought I would be perfect for the assignment. You know only too well how he likes to play with us.”

“
When did you fight, Lelantos?” Cian asked, raising his brows.

“During the
Battle of the Gods. As you’re well aware, Lelantos is the God of the Unseen. He’s the only one of his kind who can disappear at will. We fought before he fled, but not before he’d kissed me. I could’ve killed him during the embrace and Zeus knew it. I suppose he wished to make killing Lelantos that little bit more challenging by hoping I harbored some feelings for the Titan.”

“And do you?” Chloe asked, her eyes bright with expectation.

“The kiss threw me, granted. But it wasn’t until I met him in New York that I started to know the Titan hidden in human form. I like him.”
Far too much to lose him now
. Pain threatened to cripple her that he could be killed, tortured by her own kind. She swallowed the nausea that rose in her throat and strove for calm.

“Liar.” Chloe stepped away from Cian and clasped her hands. “You’re in love with him. Were you not
, you wouldn’t be here asking for help. Because that is why you’re here isn’t it, Cat? You need my help.”

Cat nodded and swallowed the hard lump which had formed in her throat. There was something seriously wrong with her. She was a
goddess, not some blubbering, female mess who cried over a male. Not that Lelantos was just a male, he was a Titan. Her enemy. “I do,” she said at length.

“Love him?” Chloe asked, smiling.

“That too.” Cat couldn’t stop the grin that formed on her lips at her sister’s obvious enjoyment at her declaration. “Will you help me get him back? It’ll be impossible for me to do it alone.”

Chloe nodded and started to walk toward a room that ran off the entrance hall. Cat followed and he
ard Cian behind her. The room they entered was a library with books from floor to ceiling. Leather, dust and the smell of burning wood greeted them, giving the room an air of warmth and homeliness.

Cat sat
beside Chloe before the hearth and wondered how to ask a sibling she hadn’t seen in years to take part in a dangerous task that could leave them both imprisoned at Mount Olympus or worse, Tartarus.

“What is it you need, Cat? You know I’ll do anything I can to help.”

Chloe’s words, as much as she had longed to hear her agreement, spiked a tremor of fear through Cat’s stomach. Looking at Cian watching them silently, Cat was certain should anything happen to his precious wife she’d pay dearly for it.

“I’ve
discovered Lelantos has been imprisoned, but not in Tartarus as I’d first thought. Father has been cunning enough to hold him in Mount Olympus instead. He knows I’ll come for him and it’s his way of capturing me as well. Lelantos is being used as bait, I’m sure.”

“I understand only too well what father is capable of.” Her sister’s gaze flicked to Cian and softened. “I owe everything I have to Lelantos and I promised him I would do anything for him should he need it in the future. I’ll help you, Cat
, no matter the risk.”

Cian growled his displeasure and Chloe winked at him.

Tears welled in Cat’s eyes and she blinked to clear her vision. “The prison cells of Mount Olympus are protected with powerful magic. Should you enter them, the spell Lelantos placed on you to be unseen by the deity will cease to exist. Are you sure you wish to come?”

“I am,” her sister said, nodding.

“Thank you so much, Chloe. I’ll owe you after this.”

“No you won’t. No one will be under anyone else’s debt after we free Lelantos. But that leads me to my next question. How do you intend to free him? Zeus will be watching, waiting for you to strike. What is your plan?”

Cat smiled. “Well, as to that, let me explain exactly what I wish to do...”

CHAPTER

Twelve

Cat shimmered into the form of Zeus and thought of the prisons hidden deep beneath the beautiful landscape of Mt Olympus. Moments later Chloe appeared behind her in the guise of their brother
Hermes. Not for many years had Cat altered her appearance into that of another, and changing into her father, the most powerful deity of all wasn’t something she’d ever do again.

Zeus would kill her. There would be no more immortality when he discovered her treachery.

“Up ahead and to the left.” Cat started at her own voice, deep and layered with eons of history and knowledge. She walked toward the cells where the gods kept their most influential and prized prisoners.

When the
y strolled past a guard standing before an ornate door, he stood to attention and bowed his head as Cat passed. Neither of them spoke, and Cat hoped she was heading in the right direction. Surely they would not house Lelantos in what she called the ‘pits’. The cells in that area of the prison were damp, cold and often the prisoners were left to starve to death, only to be given life once more just for the gods’ amusement.

A shiver stole down her spine that she
’d once captured enemies for Zeus and left them here. When her duty of hunter was complete, she’d never given a second thought to the poor souls left to fend for themselves here. Worse off were those imprisoned when Zeus took offence over a trivial matter, one not serious enough for such a severe punishment.

And she’d helped him for years. Shame swamped her but she pushed it aside. She was here to help free Lelantos. A
Titan who had admittedly run from the battle of the gods, but had gone on with his life and never made strife for anyone. Had in fact, merged well with humankind for thousands of years. Not until Chloe asked for his help had he showed his hand to Zeus, not even once. It seemed that Lelantos was soft at heart. A Titan that believed enough in love to help Chloe and Cian.