Daimon (Guardians of Hades #6) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,115
dreary.” The first Erinyes smoothed her blonde hair, tracing each ribbon of the braid with both hands. “She will not be pleased about the delay.”
“A delay is necessary,” the second responded as she moved around the room, giving the Messenger who had remained at a distance a slow once-over. She pressed close to him and tiptoed, whispering into his ear, “Can you really not feel things?”
She feathered her fingers down the buttons of his tunic and the way the male reacted when she palmed the front of his trousers said that he definitely could feel things. His mismatched eyes widened and darkened, and edged towards her.
“Such a shame you don’t serve me.” She gently patted the male’s groin.
His pupils devoured the green and blue of his irises.
“Melody,” the first furie snapped. “Focus.”
“Just trying to find a way to pass the time, Meadow.”
Marinda. Melody. Meadow. Three Erinyes. Goddesses of the Underworld that formed a power circle that could be devastating if they put their mind to it and worked together.
Thankfully, Marinda was on his side, weakening the other two Erinyes.
Melody sighed and dragged herself away from the male, coming to stand beside the woman who could have passed as her twin. They were even dressed the same, clad in black corsets and leathers that reminded him of Cass.
But unlike Cass, both of them looked wary of getting too close to him.
Because of his power?
He focused it, keeping his gaze on their faces so they kept looking at him and not at the floor. Ice spread outwards from beneath him.
Meadow was swift to notice and back away, catching Melody’s arm and pulling her with her.
The ice formed more rapidly to keep pace with them.
And then it stopped.
He frowned at the wooden floor and cursed. A crudely drawn chalk circle surrounded him, glyphs flowing around the outside of it.
A ward.
Both Erinyes’ eyes changed, turning violet edged with black as they glared at him.
“Nemesis wants him kept alive.” The Messenger who Melody had groped stepped forwards, his eyes fixed on the female, hunger still shining in them.
Melody’s right eyebrow slowly arched as she looked him over and pursed her lips, a sultry pout in his direction that had his eyes darkening further.
Meadow huffed and glared at Daimon. “We won’t kill him. Just need to take a little blood.”
Blood.
The Erinyes could siphon powers from blood, and had proven in Tokyo that it didn’t need to be inside the host for that to happen. If they got their hands on his blood, they would be able to command the gate. One of the gates was bound to him in blood too, and would easily do their bidding.
He bit out a ripe curse, aiming this one at Keras.
His oldest brother should have let him seal the New York gate when he had offered to do it.
Now the enemy planned to use his blood to open it and when it was fully formed and linked this world to the Underworld, they would lock it open with the wards they knew. It could take hours, days to discover which wards they had used through a process of elimination so he could close it again. In that time, the Underworld and this realm would begin to merge. If he couldn’t get it closed again, the merging of the worlds could damage the gate to the point where it would remain open no matter what he and his brothers tried to do, and the two worlds would slowly collide, causing catastrophic damage to both sides of the gate.
Forming a new realm.
The mission he had been sent here to fulfil would end in failure.
His home and his family would be destroyed. The enemy wouldn’t settle for degrading his father by taking his throne from him. They would kill him and his mother. His brothers would most likely be hunted and slaughtered too.
And all their women.
And Cass.
He wouldn’t let that happen.
He narrowed his eyes on the two furies, a battle sparking to life inside him as he thought about what he needed to do.
He couldn’t let them get their hands on his blood.
Ice numbed his fingers as he considered what he was on the verge of doing.
It would hurt his family, hitting his parents and Esher the hardest, might even be too much for his brother in his current condition.
And Cass would be furious with him.
But he couldn’t let them get their hands on her, and he couldn’t let the gate fall. Hurting everyone he loved was better than sentencing them to death.