The Power

  Smoke plumed from burnt patches in the soil. I could see Alex and Aiden, fighting side by side, a dynamic duo—an extremely attractive and agile dynamic duo—and further up, there was a half-naked Seth, standing beside Solos. I twisted to the right, my heart stuttering in my chest. Something stared at me.

  Something as white as a sheet of paper, with all-black eyes and teeth that looked like they belonged on a demonic dog.

  Holy crap, what in the hell was that? I stumbled back out of surprise and then understanding struck me. A daimon—holy crap, that’s what a pure-blooded daimon looked like! I could see a daimon for what it was now, and oh my gods, they were not pretty.

  It sniffed the air like a dog, legs tensing. Then the thing launched off the ground like it had rockets under its feet, coming right at me.

  Darting to the side, I spun around as its bare feet kicked up loose soil and dirt. The thing twisted and shot toward me.

  This isn’t training. This isn’t training.

  Air froze in my lungs as I planted my left leg behind me. I’m not weak. The daimon landed right in front of me. I can hold my own. I sprang forward, using my back leg to propel me. Pulse pounding, I held tight onto the dagger as I whipped around the daimon. Our arms brushed, and I dipped down, swiping out with my legs.

  The daimon went down, sprawling onto its back as I popped up. Instinct took over, and I raised the dagger. I didn’t think as I brought it down, slamming it into the chest. The dagger went through the torn shirt and into the chest cavity as if the daimon’s skin was made of water. There was little or no effort behind it. I couldn’t believe it. The dagger went clean through, nearly to the ground.

  It jerked, back bowing, and then imploded in a shower of glittering dust. It happened so fast I nearly fell forward, catching my balance before I stumbled through whatever was left of the daimon.

  “Holy crap,” I whispered, and then coughed out a startled laugh. I did it. I totally did it, and Seth—he thought I couldn’t do this, take out a daimon. But I did it!

  Empowered by my proven badassery, I headed toward the group, where they were still fighting the remaining daimons. Seth took out a daimon, and like the one I got, it exploded into a strange shimmer. My gaze connected with Solos’s.

  “Oh shit,” Solos said.

  Seth spun around, and I swear he almost fell over. Shock splashed across his face, and then his eyes went luminous, a deep burning tawny.

  Uh-oh.

  Bare-chested and speckled with blood and God knows what else, Seth prowled toward me. “Please tell me I was knocked over the head and I’m seeing shit, because—”

  A blood-curdling scream raised the hairs all over my body. I spun around, and inhaled sharply. A female Sentinel rushed me. Blood covered her face like a gruesome smear of red lipstick. Her blue eyes were unfocused, glazed over. There were no daggers in her hands. She shrieked again, and a part of me knew she wasn’t friendly, but she didn’t look like the—

  “Josie!” Seth shouted, springing forward, and it all happened so fast.

  Stepping into her attack, like I’d done before, I started to dip down to take her legs out, but she spun on me, forcing me back a step. Her arm cocked and she screamed again, swinging like a pro—like she knew exactly how to deliver a debilitating blow. I dodged the blow and thrust my arm back, about to shove the dagger forward, but I . . .

  I hesitated.

  Oh my gods, I froze for a second. Wrong, totally bad move, but she looked like any other Sentinel. She looked mortal. Human. Not some deranged Greek creature hell-bent on gnawing on me like a chew toy.

  A dagger exploded out of the center of her chest, cutting off her chilling scream. Blood sprayed the front of my shirt. I didn’t move, couldn’t, as she fell forward, and all I heard was the sickening suctioning sound of the dagger being yanked out.

  Alex stood there, her wavy hair a wild halo around her. “Were you going to hug her or something?”

  “I’m done,” Seth growled.

  I had no idea what Seth meant, but he sheathed his daggers and then stepped forward, raising his right arm. An amber glow surrounded his bicep as the glyphs rushed to the surface of his skin. The light, the color of his eyes, wrapped down his arm like a shining cord. Energy filled the air as he summoned akasha.

  Seth was deadly and quick with dispatching the remaining daimons. Spinning as fluidly as any trained dancer, he moved his arm like he was tossing a baseball, hitting each remaining daimon wicked fast. The moment the amber light hit them, they ceased to exist. There a second, gone the next. Nothing, not even a shimmery dust. Same for the half daimons.

  “Well, that works too,” Alex said dryly, “but less fun.”

  Seth’s expression was locked down as he faced us, walking back to Aiden and Solos. He said nothing as he curled his hand around mine, the grip tight but not painful. Our eyes met.

  No words were necessary to convey the message.

  I was in so much trouble.

  Chapter 17

  Seth

  Never in my life had I wanted to lock a woman up in a titanium-encased room with an army of Hades’s Guards. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. I’d wanted to do that a time or two with Alex, something Aiden would’ve been a hundred percent behind.

  But it was different this time, because it was . . .

  It was Josie.

  “You guys got this handled from here?” I asked.

  Aiden glanced down at where my hand was wrapped firmly around Josie’s. “There isn’t much left to do except . . .” He glanced around, frowning. “Clean up.”

  “We got this,” Alex confirmed, her gaze darting to Josie. She shifted her weight from one foot to the next. “You okay with this?”

  I cocked my head to the side. Did she legit just ask Josie if she was okay with this?

  “Yeah.” Josie started to turn away but stopped. She extended her arm, offering the dagger. “I, um, took this from a Guard who . . . didn’t need it anymore. It’s not mine.”

  Solos looked up from where he was checking out a fallen Sentinel. “You take out a daimon with it?”

  She glanced down at the dagger and then nodded, surprising me. “Yeah, I . . . I took out a daimon with it.”

  “Then it’s yours,” he said, sighing as he rose, brushing his hands off on his pants.

  “Oh,” she whispered, and for a moment I was sort of struck stupid by the fact that she had managed to kill a daimon. And as I stared at Josie, her expression said she was also a bit surprised by it too.

  The dread that had formed in my gut earlier now churned viciously. Completely stupid, but there was a huge part of me that didn’t like that she had killed a daimon, that she was even in the situation where it had to go down. Damn stupid. Because Josie had been created to be a weapon. There’d be a lot of killing in her future.

  “Well, there you go.” I steered Josie around. “Check you guys later.”

  Josie grumbled something under her breath when I started walking, tugging her along with me.

  “Seth, this isn’t—”

  “Not yet.” My voice was a low warning. “I don’t really trust myself to speak to you right now.”

  Her gasp of outrage was audible as I led her around a dead daimon. “I think you’re completely overreacting!”

  “And I think you don’t understand the words I just spoke to you.”

  She tried to pull her hand free. She didn’t get anywhere. “You do realize that I’ve been training to fight? And that I’m a demigod? Oh, yeah, that’s right! You haven’t been around to know—”

  “Gods,” I stopped suddenly, causing Josie to stumble. I caught her other arm, steadying her. “Do you have any idea what I felt when I turned around and saw you standing there with a damn dagger in your hand?”

  Her gaze searched mine intently. “But that’s my duty.”

  “I don’t care.” And the moment the words were out, they were the damn truth. “You’re not ready for this.” I dropped her arm and gestured to t
he mess around us. “And you could’ve been hurt. Or worse yet, this could’ve been a trap and one of the damn Titans could have been blowing through the Covenant right now, and if that had happened again, I would’ve—” I cut myself off, unable to go there. My heart felt like it had stopped when I saw her, and it still felt like it was trying to recuperate.

  “You what?” She sucked in a soft breath. “Why do you even care? You—”

  “You don’t get it.” Twisting around, I started walking again, pulling her along behind me. We made it past the main Covenant building before she spoke again.

  “You don’t need to hold my hand.”

  I shot her a look. “Apparently I need to. If not, who knows where you might end up?”

  “I’m not a child,” she spat. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I beg to differ on that account.”

  Josie tried to pull her hand free again. The end result was the same as before. “You lost your hand-holding privileges, Seth.”

  “Holding hands is a privilege?”

  “Damn straight it is.” Her hand squeezed mine until the bones in my hand started to grind together. “Especially with me, and if I remember correctly, you said you were done with me.”

  I sighed. “Josie—”

  “And you told me not to embarrass myself,” she continued, her voice rising as we passed a group of Guards. “You’ve said that you didn’t want to do any of this with me anymore. So, you don’t—”

  Stopping suddenly, I faced her as I pulled her to me, chest to chest. I wasn’t thinking as I cupped her cheek with my free hand and tilted her head back. Not a single thought occurred when I lowered my mouth to hers.

  I kissed Josie.

  She stiffened against me, and I marveled at the softness of her lips, the sweet taste of her mouth. Fuck. It had been weeks since I’d held her like this. Kissed her. Tasted her. Her chest rose sharply against mine, and in the back of my head, I knew this wasn’t right. My chest was covered with blood. So was hers. People moved around us, and I’d hurt her once before, in ways she didn’t even realize.

  None of that stopped me.

  The tip of her tongue touched mine and the punch of arousal nearly took my knees out from under me. I groaned into her mouth as I slid my hand back into her hair. The kiss deepened, and it was a nearby shout that brought me to my senses. I lifted my mouth from hers, leaving a hairsbreadth between us.

  “What . . . ?” she murmured.

  My lips brushed hers as I spoke. “It was the only thing I could think of to get you to stop talking.”

  Tension locked up her muscles. “That . . . that is really wrong.”

  Yeah, she was right.

  Drawing back, I realized how lucky I was that she hadn’t stabbed me with the dagger she now clenched in her right hand.

  Lips tingling, walking was a bit harder now, but I kept hold of her left hand, and she was quiet. Kissing worked. But at what cost? I shouldn’t have done that. I’d hurt her again.

  And I was as hard as a titanium dagger.

  Gods.

  The dorm came into view, thank the gods, and the Guard I’d threatened on the way out looked relieved when I passed him by without introducing his head to his own asshole. Lifting my free hand, I tapped into the wind element and opened the doors for us. The act didn’t draw attention from the halfs and pures congregating in the lobby, separated by a—oh shit.

  I stopped short. So did Josie, and she stared at the same thing I did. A very new addition to the lobby, in the form of three statues. Each of them was about seven feet tall, made of pure marble. They looked like three angels praying, hands folded demurely under their chins and wings tucked close to their backs. Expressions serene for now, but I knew if that stone started to crack, the looks on their faces would be far from that.

  “What . . . what are those?” Josie breathed.

  “Furies,” I said. “A problem we really don’t need right now.”

  Josie blinked. “Furies? Is Erin in there?”

  “I don’t think so. Probably three of her million sisters.” I led her around the statues, giving them a wide berth. “They appear whenever the gods are displeased with something. They serve as a warning even though they are entombed for right now.”

  “A warning?”

  “That if whatever is going down that has them pissed off doesn’t stop, they’ll release the furies, and these kind aren’t going to be like Erin. They’re going to rip through everything and everyone in their paths.” As we walked through the lobby, she was craning her neck to stare at them. “My guess is the gods are pissed about what’s going on between the halfs and pures, but that may be giving them too much credit. Not like they ever cared before.”

  Josie was quiet as I led her down the hall, and when we came up on our rooms I made a split-second decision and brought her into my room. I let go of her hand the moment the door closed. She halted just inside the sitting area of the room. “What am I doing in here?”

  Good question. “Just stay put for a few moments, then I’ll take you to your room.”

  She stared at me balefully as I stalked past her. Damn. A pissed-off Josie was still an incredibly hot one. The hardness wasn’t going down anytime soon, which was whatever, because I was a walking hard-on anyway. Once inside the bathroom, I grabbed the towel and ran it under the tap. Wiping the blood off my chest, I walked back into the main room, finding her where I’d left her.

  “I’m surprised you actually listened.”

  “I . . .” She faded off as her gaze tracked my hand and the towel before looking away, focusing on what appeared to be my shoulder. “I didn’t stay because you told me to.”

  “Of course not,” I murmured.

  Her nose wrinkled. “I stayed because I think we need to clear the air between us.”

  “Is that so?” I tossed the towel onto the back of the chair.

  Josie stepped away from the door and placed the dagger on the coffee table, then stepped back, wiping her right hand on the side of her jeans. Then, slowly, her gaze lifted to mine. “I know what happened between us.”

  My stomach clenched. “Josie—”

  “No,” she stated the word so strongly, so firmly that it caught my attention. Silenced me. “You’re going to listen to me, because I deserve that. Do you understand me?”

  I totally understood that my dick was pressing against the zipper of my pants at a very inappropriate time. Jaw working, I nodded.

  “At first, I didn’t understand. I was shocked, because I thought . . .” She swallowed hard before continuing. “It doesn’t matter what I thought, and I want to get one thing straight. I’m not telling you any of this because I expect pity or any real explanation. I’m telling you this because we’re going to have to work together. We’re going to be seeing each other around, and I don’t want to worry about things being weird and awkward.”

  “Okay.”

  Her eyes flashed. “And we need to establish some boundaries—rules about what you can and cannot do with me and how you will speak to me.”

  My brows inched up my forehead, but I kept my mouth shut, because the hard glint to her eyes told me she sort of wanted to cut me.

  “All right?” When I nodded, she exhaled roughly. “I know you’re still . . . um, hung up on Alex.”

  I stared at her a moment, unsure if I’d really heard her correctly. Okay. I did hear her right. Maybe she was joking. Based on the seriousness with which she delivered it, I was going to go with the fact she was being serious.

  She lowered her gaze as she twisted her hands together. “I mean, obviously you’re still attracted to other people. Duh, but I get that what runs deeper is reserved for her.”

  “Wait. What?” I said, snapping out of it.

  She moved back and sat on the edge of the chair. “I mean, it totally makes sense now, and I feel like an idiot for not seeing it before. I get that you’re in . . . in love with her and—”

  I laughed. I couldn??
?t help it. Holy shit.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t think this is funny.”

  “It kind of is, trust me.”

  “No, it’s not.” She popped to her feet, and at her sides her