He gathered Cass to him, held her close and pressed a kiss to her messy black hair, a thousand feelings crashing over him as his battle instincts waned. Fear was at the helm, had him clinging to Cass as his mind filled with all the ways things could have gone differently.
Gone wrong.
He had come close to losing her too many times tonight.
When she pulled back and looked up into his eyes, pain shimmering in hers together with tears, he knew that feeling echoed inside her too.
Mister Milos landed as his brothers strode towards him, Keras helping Marek as he pressed a hand to his thigh, and Valen and Ares arguing about who had let the other furie escaped.
Cass slowly turned towards the winged lion, tense at first. Fear ran through her and a glow lit her palm, chasing back the night. He smiled as he realised she didn’t know who had been the one to save her.
As the beast limped towards her, blood tracking down his left front leg, and the light of her spell washed over him to reveal scars on his face and the notch in his ear, recognition dawned in her eyes.
“Milos,” she breathed, her face crumpling as she broke free of Daimon’s grip and hurried to him.
The guardian deity shrank back to his other form as she rushed to meet him, his wings disappearing into his back and white splotches growing on his fur.
By the time Cass had reached him, he was a cat again, purring loudly as Cass swept him up into her arms and fussed over him, using a healing spell on his injuries.
She looked at Daimon. Frowned.
“You don’t look surprised.” She glanced at his brothers. “None of you do.”
Ares and Valen shrugged. Marek grimaced as he applied pressure to his thigh. Keras didn’t react at all. He was too busy scouring the darkness, where shadows lashed at the bodies of the daemons, devouring them and leaving nothing more than withered husks behind that broke down in the gentle breeze that swept through the park.
“How long have you known?” Her gaze drifted back to Daimon.
“From the moment I met him.” Daimon went to her and rubbed Milos between his ears. The mangey thing hissed at him, baring three yellowing fangs. Daimon let that one slide. “Thanks for taking care of her. You couldn’t have hauled arse here a little quicker though?”
Milos meowed, the sound indignant.
He supposed it was a long way between Tokyo and New York when you couldn’t teleport great distances. Milos must have teleported close to a hundred times to reach Cass as quickly as he had. He could only imagine how tiring that had been for him.
Daimon made a mental note to treat the beast to some sushi-grade fish later.
Cass turned her frown on the cat. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Daimon knew she was talking to the cat, but the way she glanced at him made him feel she was talking to him instead.
She was right. He did have a lot of explaining to do.
Or at least a lot of apologising.
“What happened after you slipped my grasp?” Marek finally lifted his head and Cass went to him, crouched before him and tucked Milos against her with one arm.
She held her free hand over Marek’s thigh and warm light glowed from her palm.
Beneath the rip in Marek’s dark trousers, the long gash in his thigh healed.
Cass stood and gave him a black look. “I landed in the Underworld.”
“Shit,” Ares muttered.
Marek looked at Daimon.
Daimon shrugged it off. “Not your fault, man. She has a will of her own and apparently a knack for getting into trouble.”
“Did you meet Father?” Concern lit Ares’s dark eyes.
She nodded and petted the cat. “He was not charming. Has a personality as black as yours.”
She flicked Keras a look.
Keras narrowed green eyes on her. “I hope you did not upset him.”
Daimon wanted to flash fangs at his brother for being more concerned about their father than her, but he knew where Keras was coming from. Hades in a bad mood was trouble for them all. His father had a short leash on his temper and it snapped more often than not.
“I was delightful. He was not.” Cass cuddled the cat and Daimon went to her. Just the thought of her facing his father left his blood cold and filled him with a need to hold her and know she was here now, safe with him again. “I told him what had happened since he thought Daimon had died, and presumed I was responsible because someone dropped me in the Underworld with his blood on me.”
“I didn’t drop you,” Marek grumbled.
“Semantics,” she countered, sighed and continued, “I told him everything, and he was… displeased… upon hearing Nemesis is a traitorous bitch.”
Ares looked at Keras. “I’m guessing Esher didn’t get a chance to send that Messenger.”
“For all we know, all Messengers are now working against us.” Keras twisted the silver band on his thumb, spinning it around, his gaze locked on it. “What if others are too?”
Those words were spoken so quietly she almost didn’t hear them.
Ares ghosted a hand over Keras’s shoulder. “You know she wouldn’t.”
Keras’s green gaze snapped to his, rapidly darkening. “Do I? I thought I knew her once. It turned out I was wrong.”
He disappeared, leaving black wisps of smoke behind that swirled in the air.
Ares heaved a sigh. “I’ll track him down later. Give him five minutes to cool off.”
Daimon nodded in agreement. He couldn’t remember the last time Keras had actually spoken of Enyo. While he didn’t know what had happened between them, he knew it had hurt his brother.
Still hurt him.
Marek scrubbed a hand around the back of his neck. “At least she’ll have to come to Tokyo if she wants to pass information to us now. That’s me off the hook.”
Which sounded a lot like a catastrophe waiting to happen to Daimon.
Valen nudged the dead furie with his boot and jerked backwards when she slid further down
