“A little touchy today?” he asked, leaning against the wall.
Crap, when am I not touchy? Sometimes I thought I gave new meaning to the word moody. I’m sure Adonis would agree if he was here.
“Seriously, what do you want? I don’t even know you.”
“It’s about your father.” He shrugged as if he wasn’t going to be killed in five seconds if he didn’t give out more information.
I groaned. Where are my knives? I wanted to cause some serious damage to dimple man. “Be quick about what you know,” I said, stepping closer. I put the most menacing look on my face I could conjure up. I tried to be careful and not get too close, considering I was unarmed.
He lifted his chin smugly. “He has a message for you.”
“A message you all too willingly offered to die delivering?” I asked sweetly.
His nostrils flared as he slowly stalked closer to me. “Do you want to know or not, Thena?” Okay, now I was really ticked.
“What!” I spat.
“He’s coming for you.”
Fan-flipping-tastic.
“Is that all?”
As quick as lightning he was breathing down my neck, behind me, circling me, entrancing me with his nearness. Phantoms have a way of sensing your desires and feeding off your emotions, basically feeding off you. It’s what they did; they were Feeders. They killed and possessed to survive. They manipulated, and worst of all, they deceived.
“So beautiful, Thena. This shall be my pleasure. Have you ever wondered what it would be like…?”
I couldn’t answer. Claiming both muteness and temporary insanity, I tried to summon up the strength of Adonis and keep my body still. Keep myself from giving into the deceiver’s words.
“You. Will. Lose.” His whisper was barely audible. His fingers lightly touched the side of my neck as he leaned in to kiss it. I was frozen, unable to move, and still waiting for Adonis to possessively burst through the door and save me from all this torture. But I heard nothing except my own labored breathing and the hum of the Phantom’s nearness.
“We have found a way to finish it, to make many more of ourselves. I’m here to offer you a position with your father. Before you answer, remember, certain death awaits you. The tables have been turned, dear Thena. You are now on the losing side.”
“Stop it!” I yelled. Pulling myself away from him, I turned.
“We have Michael, we have Apollo, Adonis, Aresˉ”
His laughter interrupted my outburst.
“And we, dear girl… have all of the Watchers.”
Chapter Five
Michael burst through the door, sword in the air. The granite split as he pushed the Phantom against the nearest wall. “You lie!” I wouldn’t be surprised if the entirety of Seattle had just experienced an earthquake. His voice had just broken the sound barrier.
The Phantom screeched and screamed, twisting underneath the full weight of an Angel of the Light.
“He has freed them,” the Phantom spat. “We have the original twelve.”
“Impossible,” Michael said, pushing harder as black ooze dripped from where the tip of the blade met the Phantom’s neck.
“We shall see…” With a swift movement Michael chopped his head off and crushed it beneath his foot.
Sheesh, and they said I had aggression problems.
Adonis was at my side in an instant. Waves of anger washed over him as he took in the scene.
A very angry-looking Ares was standing at the door with his golden bow and arrow in hand, apparently ready to kill the Phantom on Michael’s behalf.
Michael turned to us, fury lacing the white of his eyes. He wiped the golden sword with this gloved hand.
Angels do not fear, but I could see apprehension and irritation at the words spoken by the Phantom.
“I must talk with my brothers. We must see if what he says is true. I will send Gabriel to the Abyss. Let us see if the Phantom spoke out of knowledge or fear.”
****
Waiting was pure torture. Adonis wanted me to bathe and eat. I wanted to join with the angels and see if we could figure out what that crazed demon was talking about.
“I could have killed him,” Adonis said once we sat in our rooms in Halcyon. We had rooms there and also rented an apartment in Ballard. Both of us liked the normalcy it brought to live in the city with the rest of the humans.
Adonis poured himself a glass of wine and sat across from me. “I tried to come for you, to protect you when that — that creature — put his dirty hands on you, but Michael held me back. Did he hurt you?”
The concern in his voice nearly broke my heart.
“No, he didn’t hurt me.” Quite the opposite, he made me feel, made me lust, and not the good kind. I put lust into two categories: one being the kind that is evil and bad, the other being a nice appreciation for things that are pretty.