Two for Tamara (20 page)

Cronus’s red eyes flashed. “Are you going to pretend this is for me?” He stepped in front of Akra, his seven-plus-foot frame blocking Akra from Tamara.

She couldn’t see what he was doing to the demon woman with his larger body blocking her view now, but Tamara watched the other demon women stand a little taller.

“Rafe? Vin? Cronus is here. Can you hear me? He’s taken us into the Sprint Center with over a dozen huge demon things.”
Tamara looked for the light that Akra had told her to search for, knowing the other woman was buying her time. She only hoped it didn’t cost more than they were willing to pay.

“
We are coming,
agape mou
. Do not anger him.”

She wanted to snort at the absurd notion that she would anger the big bastard on purpose. Her knees threatened to shake. She hated Cronus for making her scared. He was huge with his red, leather-like skin, his five-inch black claws, and the rows of sharp fangs. Tamara wasn’t sure if that was how he truly looked, or if he was doing it to make himself appear that way to scare her.

If that was his goal, it was working.

Tamara took a deep breath. Her mama’s words rang in her ears.
Child, ain’t nothin’ to be scared of, except fear itself. Death is a guarantee. It’s how you let it claim you.

She wasn’t going to lie down and let anything kick her ass without doing some kicking of her own.

Rafe saw red. The brief connection with Tamara was enough to make his blood boil. He’d call upon his connection with the Forsaken, the people he hoped to never bring into his life with Tamara. He’d make a deal with them if it meant saving his Fated’s life, even if it meant he’d never see her or Vin again.

A bright flash knocked him on his ass.

“No need to make deals with the likes of who will ask for more than you are willing to give, pup.” Zeus held his hand out.

Shaking his head, Rafe took the offered help. Another flash was followed by several more, and before he knew it, the penthouse was filled by gods and goddesses. “How the hell?”

Zeus shook his head. “My daughter has been watching your woman. As soon as she was taken, Selena yelled the roof down demanding we get our asses down here and save her, or else.”

A smile played about his lips for a moment. He could imagine the small woman ordering the king of gods to do what she said.

“I, of course, could handle this on my own, but they”—he waved a hand toward the half a dozen men and women who’d flashed in with him—“wanted to tag along.”

There were a few suspicious-sounding snorts, and then a woman who resembled Selena stepped forward. “I am Asteria. My sister made me promise to protect Tamara, and since I have decided she was a sister of my heart, I will do this.”

Vin walked over, anger and fear etched on his face. “Don’t ever think to use anything that could cause more harm than good.”

“You don’t understand.” Rafe swallowed. “I’d give up everything for her.”

His best friend shoved him. “So would I, but she’d be half a woman without either of us. Now quit this whining and let’s go get her.”

* * * *

The scene that met them was straight out of a horror movie that Rafe would never have wanted to see, let alone take part in. In the middle of the large arena were Tamara and all eight of the demon women, surrounded by dozens of beings the likes of which Rafe had never seen.

Each woman was strapped to a metal cross with chains anchoring them from neck to toes. But that wasn’t what made his heart stop and then speed up. Oh no, it was the pit of snakes that slithered too close to the women’s feet. They would hiss each time one of the beasts struck one of the women and made them bleed, making the snakes rise up.

Rafe realized they weren’t normal venomous snakes, but some gruesome thing that inhabited the Hell realm, which Cronus had obviously brought to Earth with him. Their forked tongues ate up the blood, searching for more from the source.

Tamara screamed when the first snake touched her bare calf. Even from across the stadium, he could see the vicious wound the snake inflicted.

Zeus’s steadying hand on his shoulder was the only thing preventing him from flashing to her side. “It’s an illusion. Look.” He pointed at Tamara’s face.

Vin growled from beside him. “Those snakes are real.”

“Yes, but they aren’t doing what he’s making you think. I’ve shielded us from them. He’s hoping to upset you so much you do something stupid. You’re not my Ravens for nothing.”

Taking a deep breath, Rafe settled himself. He knew this was going to be the biggest war of his life.

“Our life, brother,”
Vin said.

Max and Malcolm had laid out the plan before they’d flashed to the Sprint Center. Zeus and the other gods and goddesses would come in after the Ravens. In the past, it was always just Max and the other men fighting for the gods against Cronus and his beings. But Zeus had declared this their war.

The way it was on Olympus made it impossible for either god to hurt the other, by their own powers, which was why Cronus had created his beasts, while Zeus had created the Ravens. Even if Zeus couldn’t strike his own father with a bolt of lightning or vice versa, he planned to send the other god back to Hell, and Rafe agreed wholeheartedly.

“Why don’t you stop hiding and come on out, you sniveling little coward,” Cronus sneered.

“Time’s up, boys.”
Zeus flashed them a smile.

“Fall back, Zeus. Let us go first like we planned.”
Max put out a restraining hand.

“
Let’s see if Gramps can give as good as he takes, hmm?”

“Oh fuck. He’s been listening to Lena,”
Malcolm groaned.

Before anybody could stop him, Zeus dematerialized only to reappear behind his father. “Hello, Dad. How have you been? You look a little…burned.”

Malcolm laughed like a loon, but not even Max hit him this time. The fact that Cronus had once been as handsome as Zeus was undeniable, but now the effects of living in Hell had obviously changed him. His once golden skin was now a deep red, his blond hair now a charcoal black, and his eyes were obsidian instead of the silver they used to be.

“Well, is that anyway to greet your father?” Cronus reared back, his head now sporting two horns. He tried to ram them into Zeus’s shoulder, but the god twisted his body. His right hand came up and Rafe stared in awe as the king of gods tore one of the offending things off his father’s head.

The faithful beasts of Cronus cried out at the clear offense of their leader, while Cronus yelled out in agony.

Rafe jerked his focus off the father-and-son battle in time to see the beings circling the demon women and Tamara, and took that as their cue to attack.

He roared as one slashed Tamara’s midsection, her precious blood dripping down her stomach onto her shorts. Chains crisscrossed her chest then wrapped around her hips to then circle each leg. With Vin beside him they leaped over the slithering snakes. While he faced off against the demon who’d dare to hurt Tamara, Vin focused on getting their Fated free.

His hand shot out, freezing the snakes as they reared back to strike at them. The large creature charged him, using his greater body to force him into the now frozen ground. Rafe grunted and rolled, using his feet to kick the demon off him.

When the beast opened his mouth, Rafe saw yellow teeth and a forked tongue. What the fuck did Cronus do to create all his cronies, snakes, and all things shit? From the smell wafting off the beast, he’d swear it was a mix of everything that was foul. They circled each other. While he knew the other Ravens were busy fighting the other demons, he couldn’t take the time to see if they were okay.

The claws on his hands grew before Rafe’s eyes, so Rafe matched him with claws of his own, only his were made of titanium. He waved at the beasts, taunting them away from the structure holding Tamara. When they were far enough away, Rafe’s hand shot out, wanting to end the fight quickly. The thick hide didn’t split under Rafe’s knife-like claws, but his own skin did bleed from the beast’s swipe.

Rafe didn’t let the pain stop him. He sent a burst of power out followed by another. Again, everything seemed to bounce off the thick leather-like skin. He narrowed his eyes, realizing the being was very similar to the snakes, and hoped like the snakes the beast didn’t fare well to being frozen.

The arctic blast he shot out turned everything around them into an icicle. He ran at the block of ice using as much force as he could, shattering what was left of the being.

Battle raged around them. Gods and goddesses faced off against the things Cronus had created to destroy them. Rafe knew he should help them, but first he needed to see to Tamara.

Vin had gotten the chains off from around both her legs and was working to get them unwound from around her body. What he’d thought weren’t bad wounds were much worse once he got closer.

The chains had been embedded into her skin.

“Oh, goddess, Tamara,” he whispered, hurrying over to inspect the damage.

“It looks worse than it is.” She tried to smile.

Rafe didn’t argue. He left his physical body to heal hers, knowing she was lying. God, the pain was immense even for him as he took on her wounds. He started on the deeper wound made by the demon, healing it completely before moving on to the next.

The reason Vin was unable to remove the chains closer to her body became obvious. From Rafe’s vantage inside Tamara the actual damage was visible. Not only had Cronus embedded the damn things, he’d used a poisoned-tipped end that splintered into the bone. Had Tamara not been immortal, she’d have been dead.

Meticulously, Rafe had to dissolve each splinter and heal every infection before he could move on to the next. He floated back to his body, ready to fight, only his legs didn’t want to hold him up.

“Whoa, hold steady.” Vin grabbed his arm.

Vin helped him sit next to Tamara, who held him in her arms. All around them the fighting continued, but he could barely lift his arm to wrap around her.

“I’ve got him, you go.” Tamara nodded toward the fighting.

* * * *

Vin wanted to help Rafe heal Tamara when they’d seen the real internal damage, but instead he was left to guard both their bodies. As Rafe had come back to his body, his exhaustion was visible in his gray pallor and unsteady legs. He’d given too much of himself to heal their Fated, but Vin would’ve done the same.

He entered Tamara’s mind to show her how to set up a secure field around the two of them, hoping it would keep them safe, even though he didn’t plan to go far.

The loud roar of what sounded like a lion had Vin spinning on his feet just in time to deflect an attack from one of Cronus’s abominations with a side kick. The large beast jumped up, shaking his shaggy head. Torn denim covered his lower half, which had obviously morphed partially into a lion. Vin followed the spiral that led to the thing’s mind, hoping to end him with any advantage. What he found stopped him in his tracks. The beast wasn’t from Hell but was being used as a puppet.

A quick look around and Vin spotted half a dozen other half-shifted men fighting for Cronus. If his hunch was right, then they had no clue they were being used. He used the path that connected all the Ravens, sharing what he’d learned. They were able to quickly enter the minds of the shifted human and undo the damage Cronus had done.

Vin felt a light touch very similar to Max and Malcolm’s, and opened to it, knowing it was Selena. “
My mother would like to help send them back to where they were taken. If you allow her to link with all of you, she will take over and make sure they are returned without harm.”

He knew the other Ravens were listening, and although the twins were the leaders, she was asking him. Vin sent a mental nod, giving up his hold on the beast still trying to break free from the invisible bonds that Vin had surrounded him with.

Tamara shouted, alerting him to get his head back in the game. Several demons stalked toward him, each one clearly out for blood.

There was no doubt they were from Hell.

He scanned their bodies, looking for the most vulnerable spots. Knowing they wouldn’t stand back and fight him one-on-one, Vin aimed a bolt of lightning at the one creeping closest, hitting him in the chest. A hole the size of a baseball appeared all the way through, making the ugly thing stumble and finally fall.

The other two looked eerily similar, and as they stepped closer to each other Vin shook out his hands, preparing to blast them. They did something that Vin had never seen in all his thousands of years. The two literally became one, going from seven foot, yellow-skinned individuals to over ten feet of yellow monster.

Most of the beings they came across had some similarities to things on Earth, whether it be animal or reptile, but Vin saw nothing he could pinpoint as Earthlike on this thing.

Vin decided he wouldn’t wait for it to get close enough to damage him, and possibly then be able to hurt Rafe or Tamara. He ran the twenty feet separating them, falling to his knees to slide between the legs, slicing at the ankles on each side. Vin jumped up before the thing finished roaring, kicking behind the right knee of it. Blood spurted from the deep cuts just above the hoof-like feet. As the ten-foot giant dropped down, Vin climbed up his back and grabbed the head. He was unable to wrap his arms around it completely to twist it off, so instead he conjured up two knives and jabbed them into the sockets that held two eyeballs each. He lost his grip when the being began morphing back into two.

“Oh, give me a break.” Vin breathed.

Right before his eyes, he watched two beings fall from the one. Each had a dagger sticking out of its eye socket, and one leg bleeding like a stuck pig. He didn’t wait for them to completely disengage from each other before attacking them, throwing another knife into the eye of one, before spinning to slash across the throat of the other. Vin knew he’d killed the last one, the light immediately going out of his eyes. He spun to end the other, only to come to a stop at what met his eyes. A large gash, exactly like the one on the other being was on this one too. Vin shrugged. He didn’t have time to worry about Cronus’s messed-up creations.