Omega (24 page)

The whip like tail smashed into my calves
and knocked me onto the ground. I rolled, the world a blur of dirt
and monster, and leapt to my feet, ducked a second swipe and
slashed a scratch in its side.

“
Tail!” Adonis
called.

I jumped up. The tail swept beneath my legs,
and I was starting to feel somewhat smarter than the beast when the
manticore donkey kicked me with one leg. I sprawled onto my back,
the air knocked from my lungs.

Its tail sailed over my body as Adonis kept
it occupied.

“
You alive?” he
called.

It took a moment for air to reach my lungs
once more. “Yeah.” I climbed to my feet.

He was moving and fighting with the agility
I envied. The crowd roared when the manticore knocked him off his
feet. Adonis rolled away.

“
Hey!” I shouted to the
ugly creature. With some timing and a whole lot of luck, I plunged
a sword into its writhing tail. It snapped the tail another
direction, taking one sword with it.

The manticore rounded on me, and I glimpsed
its fanged mouth up close. With a roar, it began swiping and
snapping.

Pure adrenaline drove my reflexes. It was
all I could do not to get smashed by the creature, and I focused on
movement rather than striking.

“
On your left.” Adonis’
words were quiet, half a second before I smacked into
him.

He steadied me with one arm, lashing out
with the other, and nudged me back to my feet. He bore a red streak
down one arm.

“
New plan. Move with me!”
he ordered.

We maneuvered and faced the beast. It
withdrew to study us, paced and then launched again. I stayed with
Adonis, finding it easier than I thought to fight at his side. I
didn’t have to look at him or worry about whether I was about to
crash into him again. His enhanced instincts kept us in tandem, and
my sense of connectedness gave me a sixth sense about where he
was.

I finally began to see where I had a shot to
attack rather than deflect and duck and made my first effort to
slash at the beast. I cut it across the cheek. Rather than retreat
like I had hoped, it roared and flung itself at me instead. This
time, its speed was more like Adonis’ than mine, and all I could do
was watch it leap in slow motion, immobilized.

The beast was fast; Adonis was faster. He
smashed into me milliseconds before the enraged beast. One of its
talons tore down my back, and fire spread throughout me.

We hit the ground and rolled, landing side
by side, Adonis on his belly and me on my blazing back. I cursed,
unaccustomed to this level of pain.

“
You overextended,” he
said and hopped to his feet. He hauled me up.

The beast was pacing once more, blood
seeping from several wounds into the dirt. The crowd was at a roar,
and both of us were now hurt.

Adonis spun me to check my back.
“Superficial. Will bleed a lot,” he said after a quick assessment.
He stepped in closer, until his body met mine, and gripped my
wrist. “Quick lesson in sword fighting. The blade is an extension
of you.” He moved my arm through several motions. “You’re not used
to having a six foot reach but you need to use it. Here” he stabbed
“not here.” He did it again, this time pulling me off balance. “You
need to feel the space between you and the tip of the blade. Got
it?”

I nodded.

His warmth left my back but not my body
entirely, and I faced him and the beast, not understanding the draw
or why his touch stirred up something inside me. Grimacing, I
stretched back. The wound was hurting bad, and blood trickled down
my pants.

“
You remember how
Bellepheron defeated the cerebus?” he asked.

“
Yes! He flew away! Are
you going to turn into Mismatch soon?” I asked, excited.

“
No. I was thinking you
could be the one who flies.” The gleam in his eye was new, and I
didn’t know him well enough to know if it was humor or …
opportunity that caused it. Or maybe he was having
fun
fighting a monster
because his boss was mad.

“
Explain.”

“
I’ll launch you onto his
back. You ram a sword through the back of his skull.”

The beast was starting towards us again.
“That’s your plan.”

“
You got a better
one?”

Sadly, I didn’t. Reading my expression, he
whipped off his belt and looped it around my hand and the sword
hilt.

“
Not that I don’t trust
you to hang onto it,” he said. “Ready?”

“
Sure.” My heart was
flying, my back burning, and I had the urge to push reset on
everything that had happened the past few days.

We both looked towards the creature
barreling towards us. Adonis bent, and I placed one foot firmly in
his clasped hands. He twisted us to where my back was to the
creature.

“
We’re a good pair,” I
said, needing some affirmation when my heart was ready to leap out
of my chest. I wanted to trust that he wasn’t going to feed me to
the charging beast I couldn’t see.

I could hear it, though, even above the roar
of the crowd. It sounded like it was on us.

Adonis gave me an odd look, neither agreeing
nor disagreeing. Heat warmed my cheeks. We really weren’t on the
same page, despite being trapped here fighting monsters and our
shared experiences in the past.

“
Or whatever. Just throw
me.”

“
Land on your feet.” It
was the only warning he gave. One moment I was holding my breath,
afraid of having my head snapped off and the next, I was soaring
through the air. He hefted me high enough that I did a flip and
watched as he slashed at the beast and ducked below it as it
leapt.

I didn’t land on my feet. I pancaked onto
its back and grabbed the mane with both hands, grateful Adonis had
thought to tie the sword to my wrist. I straddled the beast just as
it reared and clung to it with thighs and hands. It bucked the
moment its front legs hit the ground, and I was flung forward.

The jarring ride left me thinking I’d never
have the ability to steady myself.

“
Ready in
three.”

Startled, I sat up the best I could at his
countdown and managed to grab the flopping sword.

“
Two!”

Holy Hades! There’s no way I –

“
One!”

I gripped the hilt with two hands, pushed my
torso as far back as I could, and planted the sword at the base of
its skull. It reared, impaling itself, and suddenly went limp.

Tumbling off the back, I hit the ground hard
and heard it hit the ground beside me harder. The crowd was going
nuts, screaming and air horns blaring. I stared at the pipes
running across the ceiling.

Adonis crouched near me. “We’ll make a good
team after you learn a few things.”

I twisted my head. “What in the name of
Olympus does that mean?” I groaned and pushed myself up.

He didn’t answer. The man lived to be
enigmatic. Standing, he held out his hand. I glanced up at him and
took it. He pulled me up easily, and we both turned to gaze at the
dead beast.

“
So do we win? Is your
boss no longer angry?” I asked hopefully.

“
Too easy to appease him.”
His gaze went around the crowd and settled on the gate on the
opposite side of the arena from the one the manticore entered.
“Yeah. Too easy.”

“
Just tell whoever runs
this place who you are.”

“
This was ordered by the
Supreme Priest. Who I was to him stopped mattering when I refused
to fight you.”

Of everything he’d said, this hit the
hardest. “You potentially walked away from your job and him for
me?”

“
Come on. We need what
rest the crowd will give us.” He started towards the gate yawning
open. “You need a few lessons in sword fighting, too.”

I watched him, unable to shake my
astonishment. I thought him undecided about assisting me when the
opposite was true. He was all in.

Maybe some part of the man
I knew twelve years ago remains.
I hurried
after him, grimacing at the pain in my back.

We stepped out of the bright arena into the
low lit area behind the scenes where a line of fifteen guards with
guns stood waiting for us. These were mercenaries if I’d ever seen
them. Dressed differently than one another, some unkempt, in
different levels of quality of dress.

“
This way.” One motioned
for us to head down a hallway wide enough for a car.

I walked with Adonis, and we trailed the man
who spoke down a long hall. It emptied out into an area of crude
cells, some with handcuffed men and others with men lying on cots
or eating.

We got our own cell, this one with four
concrete walls, as if his boss had a clue what Adonis became at
night. The man we followed opened the door, and we stepped into
it.

“
You fight again first
thing in the morning,” he said as he closed the door behind
us.

A small first aid kit and two trays of mushy
cafeteria food and rolls sat on one cot. A five gallon container of
water was at the foot of the second, and the corner contained a
metal toilet and sink. At least a curtain shielded the bathroom
area from the rest of the cell.

“
Home, sweet, home,” I
murmured and looked around.

Adonis went to the first aid kit and picked
it up, opening it to check its contents. “Shirt off. We’ll get
bandaged up and work on some moves.”

I hesitated. I’d never taken off my clothes
in front of anyone. He glanced at me.

Turning my back to him, I peeled my shirt
over my head without removing it completely. I used the material to
cover my breasts. “Ow!”

He said nothing. The moment his fingers
touched my bare back, I jumped. Embarrassed, I cursed myself
silently and was still when he tried again. He cleaned the wound
quickly.

“
You take a beating well,”
he stated.

“
Thanks.”

“
It’s more important than
people realize.”

I sighed. His version of small talk sucked.
“Do you have a plan?”

“
Survive until my boss
forgives me or makes enough money on the odds that he’s
appeased.”

“
Or they leave you out at
night.”

“
He knows what I am. That
won’t happen.”

Will he let you die?
I didn’t want to know the answer to the question
and kept it to myself. The silence was awkward, and I sought a new
topic. “So you kept Mrs. Nettles all this time without remembering
why.”

“
I assumed she came from
my childhood.”

“
Why couldn’t you remember
anything?”

“
Why couldn’t
you?”

I had no idea. Was this a secret Herakles
would know? “You know it’s not normal for a toy to walk and talk,
right?”

“
It’s not normal for a man
to turn into a grotesque every night. I knew she was special. Just
not why.”

“
Did you feel a connection
to her?” I asked, mind on the gem at my chest.

His hand paused. “Of sorts.”

I tugged the gem free and turned. “This is
yours. Do you remember it?”

He wiped his hand on his pants and lifted
the gem, studying it. “It’s familiar. But I can’t remember.”

“
You gave it to me after I
awoke you.”

“
From the Temple.” He met
my gaze. “I see glimpses of the past. I was someone else before I
was stone.”

Feeling a little claustrophobic with him so
close, I pulled the gem free and turned once more. “I didn’t know
you then.” I focused on the ribbons in the room around me as he
finished. “I need to learn to use them.”

“
Swords?”

“
No.” I waved at the cell.
“I can … see strands of … life. Around everything. I smoothed out
one of yours and you remembered me. I used them to bring Mrs.
Nettles to life when I was little and to …” I paused, not sure I
was ever going to be ready to figure out what I had done to
Herakles.

“
To what?”

“
I’m not sure. I changed
Herakles. Somehow.”

“
Herakles.” His voice was
a pitch lower. “You remembered something that makes you doubt you
should’ve saved him?”

“
No, never. I’ll always
save him.”

“
Something
changed.”

“
Nothing.”

“
You were a terrible liar
before you fixed me. It’s easier for me to tell now. You’re curling
your toes.”

“
How in Hades do you know
that?” I looked down, not realizing I was doing as he said until I
focused on my toes.

“
I can feel what you
do.”

“
What?” Pulling my shirt
back over my head, I faced him and stepped back. “That’s kind of
creepy.”

“
Your ribs on the left
side are stiff, probably bruised, and your wrist is burned from the
belt.”

I rubbed my wrist. “I take it back. That’s
freakish.”

“
When you felt the
connection, it was normal. When I do, it’s freakish?” He tossed the
rag he’d been using on my back.

“
This,” I swept my hands
down my body, “is mine to know what’s going on. Don’t mess with me!
None of your damn mind tricks, Adonis!”

He gave one of his almost smiles. “I wasn’t
this time.”

“
Oh, but you do admit to
doing it before?”