Read No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story) Online

Authors: Angel Martinez

Tags: #Gay, #Romance, #SciFi, #Fantasy, #Angels, #Demons

No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story) (4 page)

BOOK: No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story)
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The moment of peace shattered into a thousand cut-glass shards when Michael threw his head back and howled in pain. He shoved away from Zack, ripping off the remnants of his ruined T-shirt. The black wing stems shivered and unfurled in an explosion of growth. Red dendrites ran through the blue of Michael's eyes. He shrieked and spun, trying to tear at the horrible black wings growing from his back, whirling in mad, jerking circles.

"Michael, stop! I know it hurts, but they're just wings! It'll be okay! Sit the hell down before you hurt yourself!"

The only response he received was more agonized shrieking and a wing slapped in his face. The pain had obviously invaded all of Michael's brain since he snarled and snapped bone-white teeth when Zack reached for him. He struck out at Zack, knocking him to the ground, then with a final earsplitting howl, he leapt into the air, beating his wings in desperate, uneven downstrokes.

Zack tried to grab his ankle, to pull him back down, but it was too late. The last he saw of Michael was as a black blot winging away against the bright blue spring sky.

Chapter Three

"I'll let the front gate know you're coming." The impossibly deep voice was flat and emotionless, but Zack didn't read into that. For his dad, that was normal.

"Thanks. Dad?"

"Zagreus?"

"I'm not sure any of this really happened. I might just have gone nuts."

A snort indicated his father's impatience with that line of thinking. "Point me to a completely sane god. You saw what you saw."

Zack appreciated his father's calm since he still had the shakes from the soul-wrenching interlude on the marsh bank. If he thought too much about Michael flying away from him, his heart would break into a thousand messy, screaming pieces. There wasn't time for that. He needed answers. He needed to solve this. Then he could track Michael down and fix this.

The ridiculously expensive condo Hades shared with his faithful companion, Charon, and, now, this human boy—man, overlooked the Brandywine River in the middle of Wilmington. Zack had tried to tease his father when he purchased it, asking if he thought he was a hobbit now. He knew better, of course. Hades didn't often understand jokes, and pop culture references were like a foreign language.

For the last century, his relationship with his father had been difficult, and Zack knew that was his fault, mostly. But his father's solid presence and his deductive skills were what he needed now. Thank all the holies that they were on good terms again. He was almost looking forward to the visit.

Then Dad has to ruin it by letting his boyfriend answer the door.

"Oh, hi! You must be Zagreus." The human in the doorway smiled at him, hand extended.

This? This was what he ran to when Mom tossed him out? The young man in front of Zack was gangly and scrawny, all knees and elbows, with a mop of rust-brown hair and mud-brown eyes.

"Zack. Everyone calls me Zack." The growl in his voice could be excused by a shitty couple of days, right? And the hesitation in taking that hand to shake didn't make him a dick. Too much of a dick.

"Your dad doesn't." The guy's voice was soft and apologetic. Damn it, he had a name. Something Roman and weird. Whatever his name was, he'd flushed bright red.

Great. I really am being a dick.
"Um, yeah. Is he here?"

They were saved from social awkwardness by a huge dog with dinner-plate paws and a broad mastiff build, bounding down the entry hall. Most people would have been terrified. Zack went down on one knee to greet her, ruffling her floppy ears. "Hey, Nike. Who's a pretty girl?"

The young man—
Tiberius, that's the guy's name!
—let out a bark of laugher. "Well, if I didn't know you were his son before, I sure as hell do now. The dog thing."

He managed half a smile, despite his heart cracking in his chest. "Yeah, the dog thing. She's a beauty."

"Our princess. She knows it, too. Even has Charon wrapped around her little toe. Come on in. Your dad's on the phone with Osiris." Tiberius might have muttered
I can't believe I just said that,
but Zack couldn't be sure. "You okay? He wouldn't give me details, but his muttering sounded kinda bad."

"It's… hard to explain."

"Man of few, uncomfortable words." Tiberius shook his head as he led the way into the condo. "Also like your dad."

Zack had been in his father's residence before—this new one in the human world—but both times, his human lover had been away on business. It was more than strange to finally meet him, this person who had stolen the Lord of the Underworld's affections. Not that Zack could accuse him of trying to replace his mom. Persephone had initiated the divorce. Tiberius had come along later to pick up the pieces.

"Tiberius—"

"Ti, please. I'm not a Roman emperor. Or a Star Trek character. You want anything? Water? Cranberry juice? Iced tea?"

Damn it. Smart. Funny. Hospitable. Apparently, he wasn't going to get a chance to hate the boyfriend. "Thanks, no. I'm good." Zack sank into the leather of his father's enormous sofa, absently petting the dog head that came to rest on his knee. Hades's voice came from the study at the front of the condo, his deep rumble rising and falling in conversation.

Ti moved a sketchpad from one of the overstuffed recliners and sat with his feet tucked under him. "So. God of the hunt? Is that right?"

"Sort of. Not like my cousin, Artemis. I don't kill what I catch, but yeah. I'm more of a resurrection god, though, you know, like Mithras and shit like that."

Twirling a pencil in his fingers, Ti gave him a half smile. "Mithras and shit. Right. So you had… a bunch of lives?"

Zack stared out the window, trying to see anything besides black wings and Michael's agony.

"I'm sorry. I'm prying. Just thought you might want to talk about, you know, something else."

"Not really a happy subject either." Zack cleared his throat, trying to modify the growl. He held up a hand when it looked like Ti would apologize again. Why does he have to be so nice? "It's fine. Something else to talk about."

Zack rolled his shoulders, keeping his eyes glued to the dog at his feet. "It's really hard for Mom and Dad. You need to remember that. Don't bring up the subject with him." He glanced up quickly and got a bobble-head nod from Ti. "The first time was centuries ago. Grandma Rhea was babysitting. Grandma went out to her garden for a bit. Some of the great aunts and uncles were visiting. They were still pissed at Dad for the whole war thing."

"The war with the Titans?"

"Yeah. They, ah, ripped me into little pieces."

"What? Holy shit! That's awful!"

Zack shook his head. "I don't remember it. But Dad went a little nuts. He found my heart still in one piece and, don't ask me how, I don't know how half this stuff works, he planted it in a human woman's womb where I grew into a whole god again. He and Grandma Rhea don't talk much anymore. He thought she didn't try hard enough to stop it. She still blames him for the whole Titanomachy thing."

"And the second time?"

"Jealous lover thing. At least I was grown up this time. Tied down and ripped apart by crazy, carnivorous horses."
Still not good with restraints… Don't think about that.

"But you didn't really, um, die? I thought gods didn't really…" Ti trailed off, probably unable or unwilling to voice the thought that most gods faded eventually and simply vanished.

"I did. Die. You know, resurrection god? I get to come back."

"Do you remember being dead? How many times do you… how many chances do you get?"

"I don't." Zack fought his clenched teeth against that sore point. No, damn it, he didn't remember being dead and it bugged the hell out of him. "And I don't know how many times. This shit doesn't come with a manual."

"Sorry. I get curious. Just tell me to shut up if I ask the wrong questions. Charon does."

Zack cracked his neck and managed a dry chuckle. "Yeah, Char would. I just don't know how to answer. I mean, Osiris only came back once, right? And even that carpenter guy only did the resurrection thing once. But the Summer King does it all the time. Don't know if there's a limit per customer or not."

Ti cocked his head to the side like a finch checking out a berry. "You're not what I expected."

Zack raised an eyebrow, wondering whether he was about to be offended.

"His son. I was picturing someone both hard and refined. Someone more Underworld-y."

"That's so not a word. Sorry to disappoint. I haven't spent as much time down in Dad's realm as you might think. I like the human world and my own realm better."

"Forests of Arcadia." Ti shot him a shy, wistful smile.
Fine, that's a gorgeous smile. Maybe he is sort of good-looking.
"It must be beautiful."

"I like it. We share, Artemis and I do, but we're both cool with that. She doesn't usually like guys in her territory, but she's fine with me."

"'Cause you're gay?"

"'Cause I'm quiet and I know how to handle a bow."

Ti burst out laughing, then clapped his hand over his mouth and blushed at the noise.

"You're not what I expected, either," Zack admitted, back to staring at the floor. "So long as you make him happy. All I ask."

The "him" in question chose that moment to appear on silent feet and kiss Ti on top of his head. "He does," Hades declared with a stone-serious expression.

Damn him for being the quietest being ever to walk the planet.
When Zack stood, he was just a hair shorter than his father, but the volume, both physical and psychic, that he displaced in any room always made him seem so much larger. "Dad, I—"

Hades shocked the breath out of his only son by yanking him into a hard embrace and murmuring in his ear, "I'm sorry, Zagreus. So sorry this has happened to you."

"Thanks," Zack whispered, taking advantage of the unexpected refuge of his father's broad shoulder to swallow back tears. "I don't know what to do."

Hades pulled back, blue eyes the shade of a clear winter evening regarding him steadily. "I know. Sit down. Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Everything." Even during the simple act of crossing the room to sit in the largest black leather armchair, Hades exuded power and grace. He settled, regal, unhurried, reminding Zack that his father had weighed the relative merits of thousands of lives with patient, evenhanded justice. This was what he did, in his old life as a ruler of the dead and in his new life as a private investigator. He assembled bits of truth and decided how they fit together.

Zack sank back down on the sofa, and Nike put her head back on his knee as if realizing he needed the moral support. After a few slow breaths, he began, starting with his odd feelings of impending doom and ending with Michael's agonizing metamorphosis. When he finished, his father prodded him through the telling again, and then a third time, Zack's anguish and frustration mounting with each recounting.

"Hey." Ti nudged Hades's shoulder and set a bottle of water in front of Zack. "He's your son, not a suspect, right? Ease up."

"I merely—"

"Oh, I know what you merely, Mr. Dig Right Through No Matter What. Just turn off the interrogation spotlight and go gentle, okay? Zack's trying, but making him more upset won't help him remember."

Zack thought he might have to pick his jaw up from the first floor lobby on the way out. No one talked to his dad like that. Maybe Dionysus, but Dio was crazy. This skinny human said a few words and Lord Hades sat back and shut up? Any other day, it would've been hilarious.

"Thanks, Ti." Zack held up a hand. "But it's fine. Dad, it's fine. Whatever you need to do if it helps."

Hades's silver eyebrows stayed elevated a moment longer, then he nodded to Ti, some obvious understanding passing between them. Ti tucked back into his chair with his sketchpad as the questions focused on specifics, Hades pulling out things Zack didn't even realize he remembered. The quiet, methodical interrogation left him shaking.

"Here, your lordship." Ti handed over his sketchpad, doodles and odd diagrams from what Zack could see.

Hades looked it over with a heavy frown before he got up to pace. The dog left Zack to follow him with anxious glances up at his face. When Hades stopped to stare out at his personal view of the Brandywine, Nike sat beside him. The frown had only deepened.

"If Ti's timeline portrays events accurately—"

Ah, that's what the scribbling was.

"—and I believe it does, then there are other hands in this. Zagreus, I have things to tell you that you will not wish to hear."

"Dad, please. Just spit it out." Zack unclenched his fists, willing his hands to relax. The knot in his chest, he couldn't do much about. "Anything you can tell me. I have to help Michael."

Hades locked his hands behind his back, a granite statue glaring out the window. "I've known several of the fallen. They don't all descend into evil. Some retain the larger part of their compassion. But they all change. Soon, late. All of them change."

"Almost twenty-five years since his fall, Dad. That's a hell of a delay of symptom onset."

"True." Hades nodded without turning around. "Michael's nature, his relationship with you, I believe impeded the process. This is why I suspect interference. On his own, Michael may have changed soon, but most likely gradually, in increments he could have tolerated."

"What are you saying? That someone sped it up?"

"Someone wasn't willing to wait. In order to accelerate Michael's metamorphosis, this interfering hand rewove the fabric of time itself."

Zack dropped his aching head into his hands. "Could you stop the mysterious pronouncements and just say what you're thinking?"

"What he's trying to say—" Ti reached over and put a hand on his knee. "— is someone's been shoving Michael back and forth through time. Think about it, right? The thing you saw in the garden was Michael, but future Michael. Not the one that was in the house at the time. The one who came into your study, same thing, different bit of the timeline. Someone messed with his timeline enough, yanked him back and forth enough, they made this happen before Michael was ready, before he could process it and deal with it."

BOOK: No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story)
10.9Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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