The Guardian (7 page)

“Yeah, but you’re not exactly a speed healer, either. I had to do something. You were bleeding al over the

floor and the smel of blood was nauseating me.”

Seth ignored that as he pushed himself up so that he could stand on unsteady feet. Dizzy from the blood

loss and pain, he felt so weak …

Suddenly, Lydia was beside him. She pul ed his arm around her shoulders and wrapped one slender arm

around his waist to steady him. The warm scent of her fil ed his head, making his heartbeat race. Better stil

was the soft curves of her body against his. Curves that made his mouth water and his cock so hard, he

could probably use it as a hammer.

“C’mon, let’s get you to bed before you fal down again.”

Those words brought images to his mind of him deep inside her while she arched against him. Of her lips

teasing every inch of his body until he was made drunk by it.

Oh yeah, he could already feel her there.

Warm. Wet.

Supple …

Don’t be stupid.
It wasn’t an invitation, and she most certainly didn’t give a shit about him.

But it was nice to have someone who pretended to care. If only for a minute.

How pathetic am I that something so fake and trivial means so much?

And he was pathetic. Craving a woman who’d rather gut him than bed him.

Don’t let this soften you
. There would be hel to pay if he al owed anyone to weaken him.

And that would be different from normal, how?

Disgusted with himself, he moved away from her. “I don’t need your help.”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Fine. Bleed wherever you want to.”

Seth crept to the bed and sat down before he passed out again. He brushed a hand through his hair, then

froze as he felt those detested curls he never wore in front of anyone.

Shit.

That was fol owed by a fear so foul, it nauseated him more than his wounds. He brushed his hand against

the whiskers on his cheek. “Did you wash—”

“Yes.”

He winced as he realized she was looking at the real him. The part he never wanted anyone to see.

“Why?” He had to struggle to keep the venom out of his voice.

“You had a nasty head injury and a bad bruise on your left cheek. I wanted to make sure no bones were

broken.”

So what if they had been? “Would it have mattered?”

She let out a tired breath before she answered. “No, Captain Bad-Ass, it wouldn’t. Sorry I tried to help.”

He didn’t respond as he ran his hand underneath his chin where that repulsive bolt scar marred his

skin … he could stil feel it piercing his mouth and tongue.

It bothered him that she knew what he looked like. No good had ever come from anyone seeing his real

features, especial y not here. In Azmodea, it was always better to be feared than desired. A very harsh

lesson he’d learned the moment Noir had brought him here and drained his powers, leaving him an

unguarded victim for al the others until he’d regained enough strength to fight back. It was another reason

there was no way into his room except by teleportation.

No one would ever victimize him again.

Except for the two who owned him. There was no way to protect himself from Noir or Azura’s particular

brand of brutality.

His stomach churned with the thought of that and the fact that he felt like he was naked in front of her. That

made his anger rise even higher.

“Don’t do it again. Ever.”

Lydia rol ed her eyes at that overstated growl as his armor and makeup reappeared to cover him.

Whatever makes you feel better, babe …

An instant later, the remains of her food were gone and replaced by more.

She gave him an arch stare. “I take it you’re hungry.”

He shook his head. “You probably are. How long was I out?”

“I don’t know. You don’t have a clock”—She gestured to the wal —“or window so that I can check time.

Offhand, I’d say a day, maybe.”

Stil , he didn’t move. He merely sat there like an angry gargoyle, plotting revenge on some poor pigeon.

Ignoring his foul mood, she went to the food, hating the fact that she was starving. She’d been living on the

fruit, but that hadn’t been enough to real y satisfy her. She was craving protein in the worst sort of way. “You

want some?”

“No.”

“Maggot!”

Lydia jumped at the fierce shout that reverberated off the wal s around them.

Seth’s features tightened into a mask of murder. The hatred in his gaze seared her. Without a word, he

flashed out of the room and left her again.

* * *

my lord?”

“Wel ?”

He never wanted to hear the damn cursed word again.
And he was confused as to why Noir was using it.

“I don’t understand.”

Noir backhanded him so hard his head snapped back and his neck made a loud popping sound. For a

ful minute he saw stars as Noir wrapped his hand in Seth’s hair and yanked him closer, so that he could

snarl in his bleeding ear. “Then I shal speak slowly and use smal words so that even a pathetic idiot like

you can fol ow.” Noir jerked his head with every syl able to punctuate it even more. “What. Is. Your.

Progress? Do you have my key?”

Seth ground his teeth. There was no way to win this. If he told Noir the truth, he’d beat him again.

Please give me my powers for one second, you sorry bastard
. That was al he would need to make Noir

feel his wrath.

Damn you, Father. Damn you straight to hell! I hope Sesmu is squeezing the blood out of you right now

and making you drown in it.
More than that, he hoped his father was roasting in the ovens of the

Underworld.

But none of that changed his slavery. None of it changed this moment.

Or what was about to be done to him.

And he hated most what he was forced to do. Subjugate himself. “I’m doing my best for you, my lord.”

Noir caught him by his throat and squeezed so hard that he wheezed. “You better tel me why you have no

more news than that.”

Seth coughed as Noir’s grip tightened even more. “I—I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

Even though he knew what it would get him, Seth met Noir’s gaze and let him see the ful weight of his

hatred. “I was left unconscious from your punishment.”

“That’s what you get for being weak, you pathetic dog. If you were a man you’d have been able to take it.”

Only weak because you steal my powers …

He grabbed Noir’s wrist and tried to drag it from his throat.

“Do you dare chal enge me, slave?”

Seth didn’t answer with the truth. He knew better. But he wanted to. Desperately. “I live only to serve you.”

Noir backhanded him again. “You’d best remember that.”

How could he ever forget? It burned inside him like a bitter furnace.

“Yes, my lord.” He focused his gaze on the far wal to make sure he didn’t look the bastard in the eye and

incur a worse wrath.

Noir slapped him. “Are you paying attention?”

It took every ounce of wil he possessed not to strike out at his overlord.
Don’t do it. Don’t
. It wouldn’t be

worth the cost.

Stil , he wanted to fight back so badly, he could taste it.

“Yes, my lord.”

Noir shoved Seth away from him. “Your time is growing finite, dog. As is my patience. You either give me

what I need, or I’l return you to your pit and let the demons there have you for eternity.”

Then why are you wasting my time by making me appear here when I could be pursuing it?
That

question burned in his throat.
Effing idiot
.

“I understand, my lord.”

“I don’t think you do, slave. But you’re about to.”

Solin shook in uncontrol able fear and rage. Yes, he was in excruciating pain, but that didn’t matter to him as

he entered the home of his enemies.

Olympus.

The hal of the Oneroi, to be precise. He hadn’t been here in so long, he’d al but forgotten what it looked

like. Nothing shy of major desperation had him here now.

Only for Lydia would he do this. And for her, he would do absolutely anything. No questions asked. Al she

had to do was cal and he would come to her, no matter the consequences.

His heart pounding, he entered the chambers that he was banned from.

Madoc, the eldest leader of the Oneroi, looked up with a fierce frown that quickly melted into a mask of

total disbelief. Like every ful -blooded Dream-Hunter in existence, Madoc held an exceptional beauty that

made it hard for humans to look at him in the flesh. His short hair was jet-black and his blue eyes practical y

glowed.

He rose to his feet. Resting his fists on the conference table, he leaned forward in an obvious sign of

aggression. As if that would ever intimate him. “Solin?” His tone was low and hushed, as if Madoc thought

he might be hal ucinating.

Solin kept his face stoic. There was no need to alienate Madoc quite yet. “Yes, hel froze over.” It would

have had to for him to be here asking Madoc for any kind of favor.

Madoc arched a condescending brow. “Why are you here?”

Because the gods knew that while they’d formed a truce years ago in Greece, they had never been

friends. Neither of them trusted the other.

They’d fought each other too many centuries for that.

Solin stood on the opposite side of the table and duplicated Madoc’s stance. “We have a problem.”

That only amused him. Madoc snorted a rude denial. “We?”

Solin was about to knock the smug look right off Madoc’s features. But he didn’t need his fists to do it. His

words would be much more effective for once. “Remember the key to Olympus?” Al of them had come after

Solin for it.

For centuries.

They had tried everything to find and destroy it while Solin had protected it with every ounce of his

strength.

That key held the only thing that could kil the Olympian gods and destroy their entire existence. The blood

of the three races that Zeus, Apol o, and the Fates had wrongful y condemned and punished.

Blood that was mixed with that of an Atlantean goddess who had cursed them when they kil ed her only

son and then trapped her in the Atlantean hel realm. The goddess of absolute destruction, Apol ymi, had

promised them the day of retribution when the beast of the past would come and confront them al for their

numerous transgressions.

“Unless you send Apollo to me, and that bitch Artemis, it will bring forth my justice and avenge my

innocent son whom Apollo butchered like an animal …

“A combination of all you have sought so desperately to destroy, it will survive against all odds. And its

blood mixture will be your poison.

“And on that day when it comes for you, my laughter will ring in the Hall of Zeus, and every Greek god

will feel my wrath as they die in utter agony.

“He sah te, akram justia!”

Al hail the queen’s justice.

For over eleven thousand years, it had been the horror story used to frighten al of them. And it was the

real reason why the Fates refused to al ow the Were-Hunters to choose their own mates. Why they wouldn’t

al ow a Were-Hunter to mate with any but their chosen one …

But destiny refused to be denied forever.

And even the best-laid plans eventual y led the architect straight to hel .

He sah te, akram justia …

Madoc’s entire face turned as white as his shirt the minute he realized what was coming next. “You mean

the key you swore to us you’d destroyed? What of it?”

“I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to you now to learn that I lied. The key wasn’t destroyed.”

Madoc cursed. “What happened to it?”

A new pain tore through Solin as his fear overwhelmed his fury. If he told the truth, they would kil Lydia.

If he didn’t, Seth would kil her.

The sword of Damocles hung directly over him now. But the one truth he knew for a fact was that he

couldn’t negotiate or bargain with Seth. He’d been trying for that and the bastard was steadfast on

destroying them.

Don’t betray me again, Madoc
. Above al , the Greeks were his family. Madoc could be rational at times,

and like Solin, he’d been captured and tortured by Noir himself.

In the end, no argument trumped the one bitter truth that Solin kept coming back to.

The gods he’d fought against for centuries were his only hope for saving Lydia’s life.

His only hope.

Solin took a deep breath and braced himself for Madoc’s answer. “I want you to swear by the River Styx

that you won’t destroy the key when I tel you how to find it. That you wil stand with me, brother, to protect it.”

Madoc laughed bitterly. “You know I can’t do that.”

“You have no choice in this.”

Madoc scoffed at him. “I—”

“If you don’t swear,” he snarled, cutting him off, “al of you wil die. And I do mean
all
of you. There won’t be

a single Greek god left.”

A tic started in Madoc’s jaw. “I won’t be held hostage by you, and you know how Zeus is when

confronted.”

Solin shrugged with a nonchalance he definitely didn’t feel. “Then you wil die painful y … just like

D’Alerian and M’Ordant.” They, along with Madoc, had been the ruling council for the Oneroi for centuries.