Chapter 2 - Timothy #2
Miranda frowned. “Tell me that guy isn’t going to do what I think he’s going to do.”
The helicopter adjusted its angle, lowering the platform just above the peak of the pyramid.
It took several long moments to steady above the lit apex. The stuntman didn’t move even as the entire city seemed to hold its breath.
I stared at the helmeted figure, breath shallow. Sweat broke out along my spine. That man was going to die. No human could do this stunt.
“Seth,” I practically barked. “Call it off. I don’t know how you compelled this man to do something so suicidal. People are going to get hurt.”
My brain raced, calculating all the calamities about to happen. The glass of the hotel breaking under the impact of the motorcycle. The screams of people watching him slide and crash to his death before steel and glass debris rained on the crowd of vulnerable humans. My hands fisted into balls.
“Seth. Stop this now.” I demanded when he didn’t move.
“Pfft, lighten up, Thoth,” Seth said, downing the last of his martini in a final swallow.
The spotlight followed the rider as the platform dipped slightly. The rider revved the engine and leaned forward. The sound was pure thunder rolling down the Strip.
“Oh, sweet baby Jesus,” Miranda muttered with the same fear and trepidation.
The next instant, he drove straight off the edge. The platform fell away and the bike launched into nothing, a dark shape arcing against the lights as panic ripped through the crowd. Screams filled the air.
My breath caught in my chest as my mind raced for a way to reach him with my power to save him or those below, but I was too far away.
The bike dropped several stories before its tires hit the pyramid’s face. The building didn’t give way. Instead, sparks showered from the contact as he raced down the slanted glass.
“He’s insane,” Miranda said under her breath.
Seth smiled without looking away. “He’s fearless. Vegas deserves nothing less.”
Halfway down, the rider launched off one of the lower ridges and the crowd inhaled as a collective, breath snagging as man and machine free-fell before slamming down near the base and tearing onward across the marble forecourt, tires screaming and smoke boiling in his wake.
He spun in a perfect arc and came to a stop in the center of the Sinopolis emblem.
The lights cut out, plunging the plaza into sudden darkness. Only the rumble of the engine filled the silence.
For a breathless beat, no one moved. Then the spotlights snapped back on, and the rider sat motionless, head bowed, and the penned-in masses lost control. Shouts burst free, hands slammed against steel rails, bodies pressed forward in a heaving crush.
One wave broke toward the fallen rider, voices rising in frantic awe, while the closer press peeled back toward the dais, crashing in around us. Heat, sound, and motion rolled through me at once as they screamed their enthusiasm to the conductor of the entire event. Seth.
The god next to me waved to the cheering masses with a smug grin.
Something sharp lanced through my chest. Seth took the hotel I was in charge of and made it his personal playground. It wasn’t about the stunt. It was about firmly putting two feet into my territory and pissing in the sand.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Miranda took a step closer to Seth, her grip tightening around her sword.
“Miranda,” I said in warning. Her gaze locked on mine, and words passed between us without either of us uttering a single one.
Back down.
I don’t like it, Timothy. Something’s off about this.
I agree, but there’s nothing we can do right now.
Miranda stepped away, lowering Bob with great reluctance.
My attention locked on the stuntman in the spotlight. Something in the tilt of his head, the wave of his arm, crawled under my skin. But the glow around him confirmed something I suspected as he rode down Sinopolis.
He wasn’t human.
“I think you two deserve to meet the daredevil of the hour,” Seth said. “I’ll be just a moment.” With that, he disappeared down the stairs, flanked by his guards.
“This feels an awful lot like he’s getting people to worship him,” Miranda said, glaring after him. “Drawing power he’s not supposed to.”
“I agree, but I don’t sense any swell of power. This isn’t worship, and they seem more likely to fall at the feet of that stuntman. But he is trying to undermine my authority by performing this stunt on my turf.”
“So kick his ass, put him back in his place,” Miranda pitched.
I shook my head. “I can’t. Technically, he’s broken no rules.”
“Timothy,” she said with open exasperation, “sometimes the rules aren’t as important as the effect. Don’t let that dick pickle by on a technicality. You have to rule the other gods here, and he just made a clear move against you.”
Boots thudded on the platform as the rider joined us, though Seth was nowhere in sight. My next words died on my tongue.
The rider tugged his helmet off, and blood roared in my ears. My heart did a sick, skipping hiccup that left an ache in my sternum while my mouth instantly dried.
Aaron ran a gloved hand through his hair. It tumbled out in golden waves, sweat-dark and longer than I remembered. The precise cut of his jaw, the crook in his nose, and the glint of mischief in his smile were so beautiful it physically hurt to look at.
“Miss me?” he asked.
Shock hit first, sharp and breath-stealing, and then the want followed, heavy and disorienting. My chest locked, my pulse tripped over itself, and a cold awareness slid through me as my body reacted faster than thought.
Not only because the man I woke up and fell asleep thinking about was in front of me. This close, the crystallized glow surrounding him was painfully obvious.
Aaron’s soul was no longer a fluid, transient energy. It had hardened like a diamond. Frozen and preserved for all eternity in a body nearly just as indestructible.
The truth detonated within me like a bomb. The shock and horror of his transformation rippled through my frame, threatening to bend my bones.
Aaron was a vampire.