Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO
Nox
I wrapped the darkness more fully around me, cloaking me entirely. Shivering at the chill it brought with it, I forced myself out of my hiding space and moved slowly toward some heavy tree cover.
I had to remind myself not to rush, to be mindful of my steps.
One foot falling on a twig and the gig would be up.
They would hear. They would come to investigate. And they would find me.
The powers of a demigod were nothing compared to them.
And I wasn’t even a particularly good demigod, at that. No incredible strength like Heracles and Achilles. No cool wings or scales like Typhon.
I was just a normal girl who could fade into the night and make people really sleepy. And it all came at great personal cost.
So, yeah, I couldn’t be screwing up.
This was too important.
I took slow, careful breaths before stepping behind the tree trunk as wide as a giant’s torso, feeling a little of the panic slip away.
I was safe.
For the moment.
I watched the stretch SUV meandering up the winding driveway, the blue-white headlights cutting through the night with piercing blindness.
Squeezing my eyes shut so as not to blind myself with my strong night vision, I listened as the car crunched up the driveway.
It wasn’t until I heard the engine cut off that I let my eyelids flutter open again, watching as the doors slid open, revealing the flashy luxury interior. That they, true to their natures, had trashed already.
But I couldn’t bring myself to be annoyed about their constant mess. There were bigger fish to fry here.
I was about to shrink back into the shadows, slide away, disappear again.
When I saw two men drag something out of the back of the limo.
No.
Not something.
Some one .
I wish I could say I was shocked. But a few weeks at this compound had erased my ability to be appalled by the depravity of these beings.
But something was different about this man.
I couldn’t put my finger on it for a long moment as I saw his body sway between the two men like a human jump rope.
But then, as they shifted to carry him toward, I assumed, the basement, I saw it.
Horns curling out from the top of his skull.
This wasn’t another human, after all.
My first thought was Thank goodness.
But if he wasn’t a human, and he wasn’t a god, what the hell was he?
The man was motionless for a few seconds before, suddenly, he was writhing, flailing, cursing, fighting.
Definitely not a human. Or even part-human. He was too strong. The guards were struggling to hold onto him as he raged.
Silently, Oizys moved around the limo. She was all flowing green-gray gowns, inky hair, and alabaster skin. But down her cheeks, as if leaking perpetually from her eyes, were black mascara ribbons.
She approached the flailing… creature, twisting her delicate hand in a slow circle, screwing in an invisible lightbulb.
Then the man was going lax again. But he was wailing then.
In pain.
But not the physical kind.
It was deep emotional torment that Oizys specialized in: anxiety, depression, strife. Those were her talents.
The man was being tortured from the inside out.
But just as quickly as his cries started, they muffled as the men carried him down the steps at the side of the mansion.
Everyone emerged a few moments later, laughing, clearly enjoying their little score.
My stomach twisted, still having a hard time accepting their enjoyment of the misery and pain of others.
But I was trying to put my partially human sentimentality onto godly beings—ones who weren’t burdened by pesky things like a conscience.
The group made their way to the sprawling stone steps of the mansion. Within moments, the music and laughter spilled out of the building.
What were they celebrating, exactly? The capture of that creature?
What was he?
What did they want him for?
Was he simply a being strong enough to withstand more torment than a human, so they could ‘play’ with him more? It wasn’t like they struggled to find more humans to torture when their minds and bodies eventually broke.
Could they want him for something else?
If so, what?
And if he was that valuable to the gods, could he possibly be even more valuable to me?
I drifted back into the shadows, then started to move once again, slipping around the side of the building.
No one would be looking out, not with all the frivolity going on inside the manse. But this was too important to slip up, to get too cocky.
I always, always had to be on guard, to be watching out for myself.
Because if something happened to me, everything was going to go straight to hell.
It was already partially there.
Things were getting worse by the day.
Not just the ‘natural’ disasters that weren’t natural at all. But the little wars that were breaking out. The bigger ones that would be to come.
Bloodshed, screaming.
I was already hearing too much of it. My heart ached at the idea of more.
But maybe, just maybe, I could find an ally in this strange creature in the basement.
He was clearly strong.
If he wasn’t directly under the control of one of the gods, he might be just what I needed to assist me.
Sure, there was just enough of a chance that he would turn on me. But, well, I had to assume that he was going to be furious when he realized he was being held captive, that he’d been subjected to so much internal torment at their hands. Maybe his resentment would be enough to make him want to help me.
I had to try, at least.
I couldn’t keep going on my own. I mean, I would if I had to. But I’d been doing so for weeks with no signs of an end. I needed help.
Before this whole damn world gets destroyed. And all of the people in it.
The door groaned as I slid it open, making me wince as I looked around, sure someone was about to come running, finally catch me, and torture me for what I’d been trying to do.
But no one came, and I carefully slipped down the steps, making sure not to let the door close completely.
The air grew colder as I descended. Down here, the air was thick with dust, mold, and earth as my feet moved across the dirt floor.
I pulled my coat tighter around my body to fight the chill down there as my gaze scanned the room.
There wasn’t much to write home about. Stone walls, barred windows that were too high and too small for anyone to escape from anyway.
And, of course, the chains on the walls.
Wrists and ankles.
A few even had these horrific bands to go around their necks.
My belly flipped as my mind was helpless but to imagine the kind of terror one would feel to be so bound, to be so helpless as awful things happened to you.
No.
Dammit.
I needed to stay focused.
If I couldn’t accomplish my mission, all there would be for humankind—and many different, less powerful creatures—would be misery.
I found the horned creature chained in the darkest corner of the cellar, his arms out like on a cross, but his body lax, his head slumped. I moved across the floor, kicking something that looked suspiciously like a part of a human mandible as I went.
His horns were just slightly sticking out of his skull right at that moment, and I couldn’t seem to resist the urge to reach out and run my finger along one of them.
A snarl had me snatching my hand back, my heart punching against my ribcage.
But he was snarling in his sleep, the sound weak and distant.
He was insanely handsome, all classically good-looking bone structure that was a bit softer in sleep.
Blood was dripping lazily down the side of his head from what I assumed was a wound to his skull.
As if feeling the wound at the same time I thought of it, a pained whimper escaped him.
“Sleep,” I said softly, reaching out to touch his strangely heated skin, feeling the warmth slice across my frigid fingers and work its way up my arm.
At the command, his whole body went lax.
It wouldn’t last long; I wasn’t that powerful. But it was a small mercy I could give him.
Sleep would allow him to rest through the worst of his head pain. And let his body reabsorb the adrenaline from Oizys’s powers.
I could show him some kindness.
Then, as soon as he woke up, I would do whatever it took to get him to agree to help me.