Chapter Eleven
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Daemon
It wasn’t that long of a drive to Arick’s place. Though, there was a fucukva lot to see along the way.
Considering I’d just been secluded in my torture prison for a few days, it seemed like the world was literally starting to go to Hell.
Whole streets had burned down. People were camped out in tents, hollow-eyed, not sure how this had happened. And where the hell the government was to help.
Once Nox was peacefully knocked out, I switched the radio to news, wanting to know what—if anything—was being reported on.
It was… not good.
Tsunamis, torrential rains that caused mudslides, earthquakes, lightning storms that took out the power to millions of people.
No wonder there was no one to help the people who lost everything to the fires.
What were the old gods trying to do? Was it simply that they were too self-involved to see the repercussions of their actions? Did they just not care? Were they trying to terrify the masses so they would start to worship them again?
Suddenly, I wanted to get back to the clubhouse, back to the demons. Maybe my brother was back with the professor, the expert in all things old gods. Maybe she could tell us what the hell was going on.
But to go back, I needed to get Nemesis free from her prison.
And, well, I wasn’t going anywhere if Nox wasn’t going with me.
Mine.
No.
Fuck.
What the fuck was up with that?
It wasn’t because she was mine. She wasn’t. It was because I’d been on the receiving end of the brutal shit those gods liked to do to others. I wasn’t going to take any chance that she was going to fall victim to them.
And with her powers making her so damn weak, the chances of that were getting higher with each passing day.
It felt strange driving up to Arick’s house to find it abandoned. Every single time I’d been there, the driveway had been packed. People would be parked down the streets. You could hear the music pulsing from a block away.
But now? Now, it looked like no one even lived there anymore.
There wasn’t a single light on. No people lingered. No music played.
Had he fled?
Did he think he was in some sort of danger because he had power?
Well, whether he was home or not, I was going in. I needed to get the blood, sweat, and dirt off of me.
Reaching over, I rubbed my hand up and down Nox’s leg over her thick blanket, slowly waking her up, all the while regretting cutting the rest she needed so badly short.
Her pretty face scrunched up a bit, annoyed with the interruption. But, eventually, those stormy blue eyes fluttered open.
She stared at me for a minute, all soft and sweet. And, fuck, if I didn’t want to pull her into the back and slip inside of her right then.
“Oh,” she said, blinking. “We’re here?”
“Yeah,” I said, hearing a bit of regret slipping into my voice.
She yawned as she sat up.
“Oh, wow,” she said, eyes going round as she looked at Arick’s place.
Which, yeah, would be considered a mansion to just about anyone.
“Yeah, the magic hustle pays well,” I told her, cutting the engine and climbing out. By the time she got out from under her blanket, I was opening her door for her.
“Are you sure he’s home?”
“Never known him not to be,” I said, suddenly realizing that was true. I’d only ever seen him at his place. And didn’t remember him actually talking about going anywhere else, either.
That being said, when you had the kind of house Arick did, why the fuck would you want to leave?
It was a large, two-story modern build made of dark gray metal and mirrored glass, so no one could see what was going on inside. Personally, I believed that was equal parts so no one saw him working his Craft or witnessed the wild shit that went down at his parties.
“It’s a bit stark,” Nox observed as we made our way to the front door.
“Only on the outside,” I told her. “Arick is a maximalist by nature.”
I rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
“Maybe he’s running errands? Wait… what…” she said, brows pinching. “Is there a thunderstorm coming?”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“My hair is starting to stand up,” she said, making me look over to see she was right. Like she’d rubbed a balloon on her head. Or, yes, like lightning was about to strike right near her.
“Fuck this,” I said, feeling the hairs on my arms starting to stand on end. I grabbed the handle of the door so hard it cracked, then shoved it inward.
I grabbed Nox, pulling her with me just past the threshold.
Not a second too late.
A bolt of lightning struck the ground exactly where Nox and I had been standing.
“The fuck?” I hissed, seeing the scorch mark on the ground.
“You’re taking big chances coming here,” a disembodied voice reached out to me.
“Jesus,” Nox gasped, eyes round.
I couldn’t blame her; Arick had one of those voices that made women wet just in casual conversation. All deep and smooth. He could literally bring women to orgasm just from speaking to them. Likely, I imagined, with a small bit of magic involved.
“That’s Arick,” I said, though he didn’t sound like himself.
I’d always known Arick to be fun and light, always down for fun, for party drugs, for lots of good times with women.
He sounded… tired. Weighted.
“You weren’t wrong about this,” Nox said, turning in a circle to look around the house.
While the bones of the house were all clean lines and cold, Arick’s decor was rich and in abundance.
Canvases of art leaned several deep along the walls, rich fabrics hung from windows and were under our feet.
As we moved deeper into the house, couches and cozy chairs were in abundance. As were the houseplants Arick had in abundance. Though they were looking sadder than I’d ever seen them—maybe reacting to their caretaker’s strange mood.
“He’s probably in the den,” I told Nox, pressing a hand to her lower back.
Arick’s den was the coziest place in his home. The walls were draped in green velvet, and the floors were made from foam mattresses that were covered in an abundance of pillows and blankets. Nothing matched, but the chaos created a strange sort of cozy comfort.
I’d never seen his den empty before. Anytime I’d ever been to his house, the den was always full of beautiful women, half of them draped over Arick himself.
“Wow,” I said, seeing all the pillows lined up and the blankets folded neatly. “That looks like the coziest bed known to mankind.”
“Feel free to enjoy it, lovely,” Arick’s voice reached out to us, sounding a bit more like his usual self.
“Arick, man, where the hell are you?”
Then, out of a cloud of swirling gray smoke, he appeared, making Nox gasp and move backward.
Whether that was from the magic itself or the man who’d created it was a toss-up.
Arick definitely was a surprising man. He was almost freakishly tall at about six foot seven, with a long, fit, thin body. While he was typically shirtless with his nipple piercings on display, he stood there just outside of his den in black jeans and a rumpled black tee.
His long black hair hung around his chiseled face; his strange, bright, grass-green eyes were on me at first but quickly moved toward Nox.
“A demigod,” he said, making my spine straighten. “How did you get in here?”
“What?” I asked. “I brought her in. She nearly got killed by a bolt of lightning on the doorstep.”
Arick’s chest expanded as he took a deep breath. On his arms, his tattoos started to pulse—a sure sign of temper. They moved ever so slightly at all times, so subtly that most people wouldn’t even notice. Depending on his mood, they might pulse, twirl, twist, undulate, or shimmer.
“That’s rude, old man,” Arick said, staring up at his ceiling, but clearly speaking beyond it. “Killing guests is uncalled for.”
“Arick…” I said, watching him closely. “You on something?” I asked. “Get your hands on some bad hallucinogenics?”
That was the main reason Arick was happy to have the demons at his parties. We brought the party drugs. That was the work Ace had settled on years back, bringing in a shit ton of money for the club, allowing the demons to live in relative luxury.
And while Arick did love the ‘shrooms and Molly—or whatever else we could get our hands on to bring to him—he never seemed to get truly fucked up off of them, no matter how much he took.
That said, we brought him the good shit. With the club busy with the whole ‘old gods’ thing, maybe he’d needed to branch out to less reputable dealers who gave him some bad stuff.
“I wish,” Arick said, sighing.
“Who are you talking to, then?” I asked.
“Zeus,” Nox said, making both of our gazes slide to her.
“Very good,” he said, nodding. “If you could put in a word with your mother to get him off my ass, you are invited to all my parties.”
“I, um, I don’t know, you know, my mother.”
“Pity. Word is Zeus actually listens to her. Imagine that, the one beautiful woman you can’t fuck,” he raged at the ceiling.
Lightning crashed around the house.
“Nice try,” he called.
“Arick, the fuck is going on?”
“The… gods,” he said, waving a hand out.
“They’re trying to kill you?”
“They’re trying to capture me,” Arick corrected. “They’ve always enjoyed their playthings.”
“You must be very powerful,” Nox said, watching Arick in an almost clinical way. “For Zeus to expel so much energy to taunt you.”
“Well, one must account for their egos,” Arick said with a shrug. “They do hate to lose.”
“He is powerful,” I told Nox. “Word is, the most powerful warlock around.”
“But magic has its price,” Arick said, watching Nox a bit too intensely. “Something it seems you’ve learned. Please, rest,” he said, waving toward the den. “We could use to catch up.”
She’d napped the whole ride, but she looked longingly at the den.
“Go ahead,” I encouraged.
Nox didn’t even hesitate. She moved onto the floor of beds, pulled the blankets over her, and closed her eyes.
She missed it, but as her eyes slid closed, Arick’s finger waved in the air, and then she was out cold.
“What’d you do to her?”
“Let her rest more deeply,” Arick said. “She’s going to collapse if she doesn’t get enough rest.”
“Do you know how to fix… whatever is wrong with her?”
“Is that why you’ve come to see me?” he asked, walking out of the kitchen and into his living room, finding the liquor, and pouring two glasses.
“No, but now that I’m here, I’m curious if you have answers.”
“I know about magic in general, but not how it applies to immortals,” he admitted, throwing back his whole glass, then pouring another. “Why are you here then?”
“Nox’s siblings.”
Arick’s green eyes flicked to my torn, bloody clothing.
“They’re delightful, I’ve heard.”
“Yeah, real pleasant company. Nox came across them torturing and killing humans. And she concluded that they weren’t being kept… in balance.”
“In balance, how?”
“By their sister.”
“Ah, Nemesis and her scales.”
“Yeah. Anyway, she suspected that their other siblings had… done something to Nemesis.”
“Ah, and have they?”
“Yes. We found her in a cave.”
“Locked up with magic somehow.”
“Yes. She was in this glass tank full of blue gel. And the glass itself sent me flying across the room. Would’ve killed anyone else.”
“Hm,” Arick said, thinking. “Where’s the witch? Or warlock?”
“What?”
“Gods have their own powers. But they don’t typically work the Craft. They have a witch or warlock working for them. A reasonably powerful one, to be able to trap a god. Find the witch or warlock, you find out how they did it. And how to undo it.”
“But what if they are loyal to the gods?”
“They won’t be.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because our powers, our education, it is what keeps us independent. Free. None of us want to be used as puppets. None,” he added, sensing my uncertainty.
“What if the witch or warlock is being held… magically?”
“They won’t be. The closest thing to magic you will find is, for example, if Poseidon was keeping a warlock under the ocean in an air bubble. Or Hades keeping someone surrounded in flames in the Underworld. But if this is just Nyx’s siblings, my best guess would be this person is only being kept through mental torture.”
“How the hell can I get them free then?”
“You take them. Grab them and take them as far and fast as possible. The connection will break. Then, once they recover a bit, they can tell you how to free Nemesis.”
“They have to be keeping them inside the estate. They almost never leave.”
“Well, they are gods. One would assume they are lazing about, drinking, fucking, all the usual self-indulgent shit.”
“Okay…”
“Drug them.”
“With what? I can’t imagine some Special K in their drinks is gonna cut it.”
“No,” Arick agreed. “How is the veil between this plane and the Underworld right now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when you were sucked through, it was from a witch’s spell, correct?”
“Yeah, that’s my understanding.”
“Is it still working that way, or can you just… go there? Seems like the veils are very thin right now.”
“Okay. If they are thin, if we could go down, why would we?”
“The River Lethe. The waters from it cause people and gods to forget who they are. Or there are Underworld Poppies that would cause severe hallucinations. Either would work slipped into their drinks.”
“You want us to go down into hell, get some water or flowers, drug the gods, steal their warlock, and then free Nemesis? What the fuck will these gods do to us once they know what we’ve done?”
“The answer to that is easy enough. Don’t get caught.”