Nexus, p.15
Nexus, page 15
According to her dream, one of her distant descendants would be born beneath the omens she’d drawn. The child would grow up to be a highly skilled hunter, with unusually strong talents. She would be chosen by a strange entity to save our world from an epic disaster that would result in the loss of all life.
“Could she have been vaguer?” I said in annoyance. “What if the disaster is a gigantic meteor? Am I supposed to reach up and smack it out of the sky with my bare hands?”
As far as prophecies went, it was pretty lame. I had to concede that my birth was eerily similar to the drawing, minus being born in the woods surrounded by trees. Mom had said the bird that had flown past the window had been an owl. There were always werewolves howling at the moon when it was full. A pack lived just a couple of blocks from her house.
“I guess I could be the one she dreamed about,” I mused. “I am an awesome hunter with unusually strong skills.” I’d also dreamed I’d been chosen to be Fate’s champion for our world.
Even if the prophecy was true and I was the heroine that had been predicted, it wasn’t like I could just stroll up to a gate to the underworld and pass through it. They were heavily guarded by magic and Lord Gilden’s lackeys. Hardly anyone ever passed from our world to the underworld. The few who did rarely made it back. Special envoys from the overlords were the only ones who came and went without dying horribly. I’d heard they had dozens of guards with them, although they had to pass through the gates alone.
“I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” I said and got up to put the journals back on the coffee table. “Maybe I’ll see a sign that will tell me what I have to do.” Chuckling at that unlikelihood, I switched my console and TV on and got stuck into annihilating zombies.
Chapter Thirty-Three
RUEN WAS GOING TO PICK me up to take me to our boss to get my payment tonight. I made sure to be ready when the sun went down. Sensing a vampire outside shortly after nightfall, I crossed to my bedroom window that overlooked the parking lot. Ruen flashed his headlights at me and I waved to indicate I’d seen him.
“That dinosaur really needs to start using his cell phone more often,” I said with an eyeroll at my assistant’s method of communication.
Grabbing my kill-bag, I trotted over to the door. I was dressed in a short black skirt and a sexy see-through red top. It was sleeveless and low-cut to show off my tatts. My bra was purple to match my hair, but looked black beneath the shirt.
Ruen was waiting with the patience of the dead when I climbed into his car. “You smell like reheated pizza,” he said without turning his head.
“A girl’s gotta eat,” I said with a shrug, slamming the door shut and buckling myself in. “Sorry I don’t have any blood splatters on me for you to lick off this time,” I added with a smirk.
“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?” he asked with a grimace as he drove out of the lot.
“Nope. I’m going to bring it up as often as possible,” I said smugly. “You clung to my back like a tick, licking the shifters’ blood off me like I was a tasty popsicle.”
Ruen shuddered, either from the enticing mention of blood, or from the horror of his tongue becoming more familiar with my body than most of the men I’d slept with had. “How much will it take to bribe you into never mentioning this again?” he asked.
“Hmm,” I pondered, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. “A thousand bucks should do it.”
“Open the glovebox,” he ordered. “You’ll find the money in an envelope.”
“You’re kidding,” I said incredulously. He stared ahead without responding, which meant he was serious. I opened the glovebox, spied a white envelope and took it out. “How much money is in here?” I asked, thumbing through the bills.
“That’s irrelevant,” he said stiffly. “You’re entitled to one thousand dollars and not a penny more.”
“How high would you have gone?” I asked, kicking myself for not asking for more.
He slid a look at me before returning his attention to the road.
I counted out a thousand bucks, then put the envelope back in the glovebox. Shoving the cash into my wallet, I now wouldn’t need to visit my fence in a hurry. “It was nice doing business with you, Ruen,” I said.
“Just stick to your end of the deal,” he said sourly.
“I will,” I vowed, already feeling nostalgic that I couldn’t remind him about licking me clean. It would be a very bad idea to break deals with supernatural creatures. It usually ended in death for the one who’d broken their end of the bargain. They took their vows seriously, especially the ancient creatures who’d been around back when honor had meant something. “Your car smells nice,” I said to change the topic. “I can’t smell crap at all now. Did the cleaners use lemon scented disinfectant?”
“How can you tell?” he said sarcastically. “Could it be the overwhelming smell of lemons that gave it away?”
“Sheesh, I guess you got out of the wrong side of your coffin tonight,” I joked. He was usually in a crappy mood, but he was even worse this time.
Ruen hunched his shoulders and tried to ignore me. We reached Drake’s building a couple of minutes later. Parking in his usual spot, we took the elevator up to Lord Gilden’s office.
The dragon was standing at a window next to the French doors, staring out at the city he probably thought belonged to him. He’d been in charge of the supernatural community ever since the city had been a tiny village. It had grown into a thriving metropolis and his wealth had grown along with it.
Drake turned to face us and I saw he was wearing a red tie with his charcoal gray suit. “Twinsies!” I declared, pointing at his tie, then at my shirt. “Great minds think alike.”
He smiled slightly, then gestured for us to take a seat. “Ruen informed me you delivered justice to the wererat who beheaded the human,” the dragon lord said.
“Yep. Blood sprayed all over me when I slit his throat,” I said and slid a sly look at my assistant. Ruen shrank down into his seat and refused to look at me.
“I see,” Lord Gilden said gravely, eyeing his minion in slight disapproval, as if he somehow knew Ruen had momentarily lost his ability to think. “He also told me you ran into a pack of weregators and killed one of them. It was wise to run from them. You could both have been killed if they’d swarmed over you.”
That reminded me of what had happened after I’d killed the target. “It was pretty gross to see the rats turning into cannibals. I know rats will eat anything, but I didn’t expect them to chow down on one of their own like that.”
“Hunger will drive even the most rational beings to sink to unthinkable depths,” he said, staring at the vampire rather than me.
Ruen slid further down his chair, trying to make himself invisible and failing miserably.
“Neither of us were hurt, apart from our dignity,” I said to break the tension. “We had to blast through a wall of crap that was three feet high. It wasn’t pretty, but we made it out alive.”
A grimace passed over Drake’s gorgeous face at the image I’d just described. “I believe the gators might have been responsible for the deaths of your predecessors.”
“Yeah, I figured they’d eaten the werewolves,” I agreed. “They seem to think they own Sector G and attack anyone who encroaches on their territory. The rats tried to hide behind piles of excrement, but they were discovered in the end.”
“I’ll send Hugh, Theo, Zahir and Yareli to eradicate them,” he decided. We all knew Felicity and Otis would be too slow and fragile to take on the gigantic monsters.
“Ruen and I will be glad to help them out, if they need us,” I offered, knowing full well my partner wouldn’t be able to lift a finger to assist us.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lord Gilden said. “Ruen mentioned a rumor you asked him about,” he said in a tone that was slightly too casual.
“What rumor might that be?” I knew exactly what he was talking about and instantly became nervous. Just the fact that he was bringing it up made me uneasy. He never chatted with me about inconsequential things. I reported in, he reluctantly paid me, then I left. That had been our ritual for the past four months.
“You said you overheard someone talking about an axis-gate and a conspiracy in the nine realms to attack Nexus,” Drake said, now watching me intently.
“What about it?” I kept my tone as casual as his and my expression bland.
“I want to know who you heard that rumor from.”
“I can’t remember,” I said with a shrug.
“Was it a shifter, a vampire, or something else? Did you see who they were talking to?”
“I didn’t see who it was,” I lied. “I just heard them in passing and thought I’d ask Ruen if he’d heard about it.”
“I don’t believe you,” Lord Gilden said flatly. “I think you know exactly who told you about the gate and you’re protecting them. You will tell me the truth immediately.”
He leaned forward and we became locked in a staring match. I felt like I was falling into his eyes, but it was because of their beauty rather than from compulsion. “If you’re trying to use your dragon mind power on me, it won’t work,” I said after the silence had dragged on for over a minute.
“Not even my kind can ensnare Ms. Sterling’s mind,” Ruen muttered in annoyance.
I was wise enough not to smirk at their failure to control me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
DRAKE SAT BACK IN HIS chair with a disgruntled expression. “I’d very much like to know exactly what sort of creature you are, Saige.”
“Why is it so important for you to know who I overheard that rumor from?” I queried, unable to tell him about my true heritage, since I didn’t know it myself.
“Only a handful of people in this world are aware that the axis-gate exists,” he replied. “The possibility that someone was gossiping about it in a nightclub is ludicrous.”
“What’s so secret about the gate?” I asked. “Is it because it needs a spell to open it?”
His gaze sharpened even more and I felt like I’d been pinned to my chair. I wished I’d kept my mouth shut, but it was too late now. “I might not be able to bend your mind to my will, but you will not leave this room until you’ve told me everything you know about the axis-gate,” he said ominously.
“Is this something Ruen has the clearance to know about?” I asked, hiking my thumb at my assistant.
“Ruen is forbidden from divulging confidential information to anyone without my permission,” he confirmed.
“I don’t know much,” I said, resigning myself to spilling my guts. “I’ve heard the overlords of the nine realms are searching for a spell that will unlock the axis-gate. They’ll supposedly be able to retain their natural forms if they use that particular gate. They apparently plan to invade Nexus and wipe us all out, then move on to conquer the rest of the world.”
Drake tented his hands beneath his chin and stared past me rather than at me. He was deeply lost in thought. “Will you divulge your source to me?” he asked eventually.
“I saw it in a dream,” I admitted.
Ruen huffed out an irritated sigh. “I might have known,” he snapped. “You fabricated this idiotic story to gain attention.”
“I did not!” I denied hotly. “If I wanted to gain attention, I’d wear a short skirt and a see-through top.”
“Like the clothes you’re wearing right now?” he said pointedly and lowered his eyes to my boobs that were barely contained by my bra.
“Hush, Ruen,” Lord Gilden said mildly and the vampire’s mouth snapped shut. “What else did you see in this dream?” he asked.
“You’re going to laugh at me,” I said nervously.
“I promise I won’t,” he vowed. “Tell me everything you can remember.”
I cut a look at the bloodsucker to see he was glaring at the floor. Now that he’d been ordered to be silent, he wouldn’t be able to speak until he’d been given permission to. “Keep in mind that I play a lot of videogames and I have an overactive imagination,” I warned the dragon, then I told him most of what had happened in my vision. The only bits I left out was my sense of loss at seeing his and Ruen’s remains and the gaming console at the end. “My mom’s body was the last corpse I saw,” I finished up, voice cracking slightly in remembered pain.
Ruen was now looking at me and his expression was disturbed rather than mocking. He glanced at his boss and did a doubletake. Drake’s face had paled a bit and he looked almost haunted. “No one knows about the spell that will open the axis-gate,” Drake said in a low voice. “Even I barely remembered its existence before you mentioned it just now.”
Shock at that revelation rendered me speechless for a moment. “Are you saying you’re over five thousand years old?” I asked when I managed to shake off my astonishment. I knew he was ancient, but not that freaking ancient.
He shook his head, which was a relief. “My grandmother told me stories about the last time our world faced ruination,” he said. “Her own grandmother lived through it and barely survived. The overlords back then formed an alliance. They swarmed through the gates on several continents. Although they changed to human guises during their invasion, they were still highly dangerous. They slaughtered everyone they encountered, but their numbers were too small to wipe out humanity utterly. The humans formed hunting parties and managed to drive their foes back through the portals. Strong magic users were able to seal the gates.
“A couple of thousand years passed before the overlords’ sorcerers were able to weaken the spells. Now the magic will allow only one or two beings at a time to pass through the gates. By then, the population of this world had grown. So had the supernatural community. Leaders have been chosen to set soldiers to guard each gate ever since then. We’ve successfully managed to thwart further attempts to invade this world.”
“I take it you’re one of the leaders who was chosen to guard the gates?” I asked.
He inclined his head in confirmation. “I’ve been guarding the gates for several centuries, ever since my predecessor died. There are ten gates clustered in or near Nexus, hence where its name comes from. They’re usually far more spread out than that.”
I’d looked up the definition of what a nexus was and discovered it was a link or a connection. The name made far more sense the information he’d just given me.
“I thought we only had nine gates, one that leads to each realm,” I said in surprise. He lifted an eyebrow meaningfully and it took me a second to figure it out. “Are you saying the axis-gate is here, in this city?” I’d looked up what an axis was as well. It meant an alliance or partnership. I wasn’t sure why the gate had been given that name.
“Indeed,” he confirmed. “Only a handful of beings are aware of that fact.”
“Why tell me about it?” I asked, more nervous than ever now. I was just a low-level lackey on the hierarchy. He wouldn’t normally entrust this sort of information to someone like me.
“From what you’ve told me, you’ve been chosen to save our world from the next invasion,” he said.
I waited for both Drake and Ruen to burst into laughter, but their expressions remained grave. “You’re joking, right?” Neither of them reacted. “It was just a dream!” I exclaimed. “Sure, one of my distant relatives prophesized that a champion from her line would be born sometime in the future. Then my mom saw an omen that matched the prophecy when I was born, but let’s get real here!”
Ruen opened his mouth, then glanced at our boss. Drake nodded in permission, releasing his minion from his command to be silent. “What happened in the prophecy and the omen?” he queried.
“One of my ancestors could apparently see glimpses of the future. She had a dream about one of her kin giving birth on the full moon, with an owl and a wolf as witnesses. Mom said I was born under those conditions, more or less.”
“Can you describe your birth in more detail?” the dragon asked.
“Mom said she looked out the window just after I was born to see it was a full moon. An owl flew past the window, then she heard a werewolf howl. She seems to think I’m the one who the prophecy was about.”
The two men exchanged troubled looks. “I haven’t heard anything about any recent conspiracies in any of the realms,” Ruen said.
“Their plans are secret,” I reminded him. “So far, the overlords are still searching for the spell that was hidden somewhere in the nine realms.”
“I believe it might be hidden in all of them,” Drake said.
“Why?”
“Due to the vision you were shown. Each overlord held a short scroll and read from them in turns. It seems the spell was deliberately broken into fragments before being hidden, since they’re apparently searching for them.”
“Why would the agent of Chaos create the gate and the spell, then break the spell up and hide it so no one can use it to unlock the portal?”
“From what Fate told you, battles between Chaos and Order only happen after long intervals. The gate was intended to be used by the forces of evil during the next battle. In your vision, reading the scroll fragments in the correct order will trigger the axis-gate to open on all nine realms simultaneously. The whereabouts of the spell must have been lost over the millennia.”
“The overlords will be working in partnership to activate the portal,” Ruen surmised just as I realized why the gate had been given that name. “The time for the next battle appears to be drawing near,” he added. “Someone has to find the fragments of the spell before the overlords can get their hands on them.”
“I pity that poor idiot,” I said, shaking my head at their bad fortune. Both of their heads swung towards me. “What?” I asked suspiciously.
“The champion has already been chosen,” Lord Gilden reminded me and pointed directly at my face. “You must enter the nine realms, find the fragments and bring them to me.”
“Sure. Okay. I’ll get right on that.” I rolled my eyes, just in case he hadn’t picked up on my heavy sarcasm. “No one who passes through the gates ever comes back,” I pointed out when they just stared at me.
