Olympic Cove 2-Breaker Zone (24 page)

“What game?” Nick said, almost yelping
the words. “Fighting a crazy goddess who’s pissed off at humans and wants to
destroy the Earth? That game? Jesus, I don’t even know where to start!”

“I believe I can help with that,” an
urbane voice said.

Ian and Chiron turned, revealing a tall,
sleekly muscled man with curly auburn hair and a neatly trimmed beard standing
behind them. The man wore a plain cream Oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up
and linen slacks over topsiders, but the sheer amount of power that radiated from
him was overwhelming, crawling over Nick’s skin and clamping down on his lungs.
He grabbed at his chest as he started panting shallowly, growing dizzy from the
lack of oxygen.

Ian glanced at the newcomer. “Could you
turn down the god thing? He can’t breathe.”

The tall man blinked. “Ah.
My apologies.”

The pressure in the room disappeared.
Nick whooped in a deep lungful of air. “What—what was that?” he gasped.

“Godhood,
apparently.”
Ian frowned. “I didn’t have that reaction to you when we first met.”

The tall man lifted his chin. “You were
already a god by that time, even though you didn’t know it. And even if you’d
still been mortal, your role as
agapetos
to my sons would have given you, how shall I put it, a natural tolerance.” His
attention turned to Nick.
“My apologies, Bearer.
I
didn’t mean to distress you. It’s been some time since I appeared to a mortal.”

Nick struggled against the urge to start
screaming. “Who
are
you?” he said
raggedly.

“I am Poseidon, Lord of the Seas.” The man—god—gave
him a regal nod. “You may have heard of me?”

Nick mouth worked soundlessly for a
moment. “…yes?”

Poseidon’s eyes held a faint gleam of
amusement now. “Your coming has resonated around the world, Bearer. I’m hoping
that with Chiron and Pythia’s guidance, you can help us with our current
situation.”

Once again, that pressure behind the
title of Bearer. “But I don’t know what to
do
,”
Nick said. “I keep saying that, and nobody is listening to me.”

The god thought for a moment, then
nodded. “Stand and give me your hands, Bearer.”

Part of him wanted to refuse, terrified
of touching a being who could obviously blast him out of existence. But there
was a bone-deep tone of authority in Poseidon’s voice that would have commanded
automatic obedience from any human on earth, not just the submissive ones.

Shaking, he stood and put his hands into
the god’s. They felt warm and strong as they closed
around
his own in a protective grip
.

Nick twitched. It was as if a switch had
been thrown. All of his anxieties were gone, smoothed out into
a calm
, even plain. “That’s better,” Poseidon said
conversationally. “You’ve been through a great deal of turmoil in the last few
days, Nicholas.”

His new mellowness was holding, but the
name still pricked at him. “Call me Nick,” he said absentmindedly. “Barnard
calls me Nicholas. I hate it.”

“Nick, then. I thought it might be
easier to explain things if I brought you here.”

He blinked. Ian’s living room had
disappeared, and the two of them stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the
ocean. Overhead, the sun had already passed its meridian and was headed for the
west, and the sky behind them was edged with twilight. “Where are we?”

“Between worlds.
A sort of viewing place.”
The god nodded at the rippling
waves below. “Watch the waters.”

Nick did. The waves settled, and images
began to surface like slides projected on a blank wall. A beautiful dark-haired
woman with huge blue eyes and a wide smile stepped into the ocean, her thin
tunic quickly becoming transparent as she sank into the water. The woman dove
under the surface, swimming down with an efficient full-body stroke that
reminded Nick of dolphins.

He realized she was a goddess, a sea
goddess. With no apparent need for air, she glided along the sandy, rock-strewn
bottom until she came to a collection of boulders. Working her way between two
of them, she came to a natural chamber and curled up, shutting her eyes like a
waterborne Princess Aurora falling into her magical slumber.

The image changed. The clear water
darkened as thick, sticky-looking tendrils drifted through it, glazing the
boulders and the goddess’s chamber.
As time passed the oily
coating thickened, layer by layer.
It sparkled once, as if reflecting
tiny pinpoints of light from overhead.

And then a hand emerged from the
chamber. The thick liquid coated it as well, and what flesh he could see was
pale, almost grey. Long fingers that now ended in ragged talons clawed
frantically at the rock, dispersing the oily coating into the water.

What emerged from the chamber could only
be called monstrous. The flesh of the goddess’s body sagged like a candle left
in hot sunlight for too long. Gaping holes had been eaten into her skin,
revealing muscle and yellow bone. The patches of her remaining hair was
nicotine-white and ragged, and her face—

Nick tried to understand what had
happened to that beautiful face. It was as if someone had unhinged the jaw and
broken it, leaving it to swell and heal crookedly. Inside her mouth he could
see blackened, jagged teeth that gashed against the thin lips, splitting them
and releasing an ichor into the water. Her nose was now a gaping hole bisected
by a sliver of cartilage, bordered on either side by swollen, distorted
cheekbones, and her eyes were now a solid greyish white with no sign of blue.

Bony hands felt at her body, then her
face. Those terrible eyes widened even further, and she threw her head back and
screamed into the water. Nick could feel the vibration prickling painfully
against his skin, and his heart clenched in horrified pity.

“Thetis,” Poseidon said quietly. “Once
the First Nereid, goddess of the sea and protector of sailors. And now, she has
been turned into this.”

“How?”

“We don’t know. It was an oil spill that
fouled her chamber, but it shouldn’t have caused something this … drastic.”
Poseidon’s tone was subtly angry, but Nick couldn’t tell if it was due to the
Nereid’s injuries or his own confusion at what had caused them. “Something
changed her, turned her into the walking nightmare you now see. It drove her
mad, Nick.”

The misshapen creature surged upwards
from her fouled bower, jaw gaping as she continued to shriek. The image
changed, pulling back to show an old fishing boat floating on a still expanse
of water. Waves suddenly churned under the craft, tossing it back and forth
like a toy in a child’s tub. From his vantage point he thought he saw a man
fall overboard.

“The protector of
sailors,
turned their hunter.” Poseidon sighed, and the watery image disappeared as
waves covered it. “She was clever in her madness, however, evading my notice
until she’d grown strong in her new form. It was only then that she started
stealing mermaids, poisoning them with her new venom and turning them into
ravening beasts from mer legend.”

Nick remembered Aidan’s comments about
protecting pods from distorted monsters. “Ilko—”

“Ilkothelloi—sea
wolves.
I set my son Aphros to hunting them, and he has done a fine job of thinning
their numbers. But I suspect Thetis won’t stop with ilkothelloi.” His lips
thinned. “She always did like to tinker.”

Nick imagined mutant sea creatures crawling
through the depths, and shuddered. “Do you know if she’s done anything else
yet?”

“No, but I wouldn’t put it past her. She
came very close to bringing Bythos over to her side. If it hadn’t been for Gaia
and Ian, we would have lost him.”

This was the first he’d heard of an
attack on the twins. “What did Ian do?”

Posiedon looked grim.
“Purified
him, under Gaia’s instruction.
But it took a long time and was a drain
on Ian’s strength. We can’t rely on him being able to stop the spread of
Thetis’s madness to other creatures.”

A thought slammed into him, making his
knees wobble.
“Oh, my God.
That’s why you need the
Bearer, isn’t it?” he said. “You need someone to figure out what’s wrong with
Thetis.”

“And determine a way to cure her, if
possible. If not, to stop her.” The god inclined his head at Nick. “I suspect
that is why Gaia has allowed Asclepius’s Rod to come back into the world at
this time. As to why you’ve been chosen to bear it, you would have to take that
up with the Fates.”

The thought of what he was being asked
to do was mind-numbing. “Why don’t you ask Asclepius to do it? I mean, he’s
actually a god,” Nick said. “He’d have a much better chance of getting close to
her than I would.”

Poseidon squinted at the setting sun.
“If I knew where he was, I would do just that. But the modern world has not
been kind to the gods. Some of us have managed to retain our power, of course, but
others have faded, grown weak and listless over the millennia.”

“Like Chiron?”

A sea-blue eye focused on him. “Chiron
is a special case. In too much pain to live, his unique half-existence was the
best my brothers Zeus and Hades could do for him. No, gods who fade become much
like humans, but ones who drift along without purpose or identity, condemned to
an immortal life that is utterly empty.”

Nick thought of some of the homeless
people he’d seen in Chicago, huddled on stoops or over heating grates as they
stared dully at the people walking by. How many of them had been displaced gods?
“That sounds horrible.”

“It is.
Which is why a
desperate few have even chosen to give up existence entirely, returning their
spirits to Gaia rather than struggling along in a life that no longer has
meaning.
” Poseidon sighed. “I’ve neither seen nor heard from Asclepius
in over three thousand years, and I fear he may be among those who have
returned to Gaia.”

The news settled on Nick like a concrete
coat. “I’ll do what I can, sir, but you have to remember I’m not a god,” he
pointed out. “I’m mortal, and I’m pretty sure Thetis isn’t going to let me
stroll up to her and scan her with the Rod. If she doesn’t have one of her sea
wolves kill me, she can always drown me.”

The tall god turned to face him. “I
believe I can help with that,” he said slowly. “You haven’t mated with your
agapetos
yet, have you?”

Yet another reminder of Aidan and Liam’s
supposed status in his life. “No, and I’m not saying that I’m going to,” Nick said,
his calm fluctuating. “At least not until I get to know both of them better.
And I still don’t know if I buy this fated mate thing.”

The corner of
Poseidon’s mouth quirked.
“I can’t blame you for your doubts,
Nick.
Most individuals, mortal as well as divine, struggle
against their fate.
But since you haven’t joined with them yet, there’s still
time for me to give you a boon.”

“What kind of boon?”

“I can make it impossible for Thetis to
drown you. My kiss can give mortals the ability to live in water as if it was
air.”

Nick gaped. “You mean I’ll be able to
breathe underwater?”

“And speak to your mers while under
water, yes.” Poseidon gave him a shrewd look. “You don’t seem upset about the
prospect of kissing me. I find that surprising, especially in this day and age.
It seems many males of your culture would rather die than suffer a kiss from
another male.”

“Yeah, gay.
Kissing another
guy is totally fine.” With some effort Nick shoved thoughts of his mers to the
side, considering the man—male—god—whatever, in front of him. Beards weren’t
normally his thing, but he was willing to admit it looked extremely good on
Poseidon. And the god had the sleek body of an Olympic swimmer, with sinewy
arms and broad shoulders tapering down in a delicious V to a narrow waist and
long, long legs. His gaze bounced back up to Poseidon’s hips, noting a very nice
bulge behind the trouser fly.

Dammit, no
cruising a god.
He quickly looked up, hoping he wasn’t about to be turned into a smoking grease
spot.
Or a fish.
Because that would really
suck
.
“Uh,
sorry.”

To his relief, Poseidon smiled. “I’m not
offended. Quite frankly, it’s flattering to be admired by a handsome mortal,
especially at my age.”

“Yeah, not even
touching that one.”
Nick licked his lips, wiping suddenly sweaty palms
on his jeans. “So, how do we do this?”

The god’s blue eyes glowed with the
setting sun. “Come here and I’ll show you.”

Chapter Nine

Trying to make
himself
relax, Nick stepped closer to the God of the Sea. “What do I do?”

“Nothing.
As mortals say,
let me do the driving.” Poseidon reached down and cupped his face in two broad,
warm palms. A buzzing sensation flared across his cheeks, the same one he’d
felt when the god had taken his hands back in Ian’s living room.