Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (11 page)

“Don’t worry, recruit,” Khloe called. “You’re not the first to fall for his slick charm and wicked animal magnetism.” The Siren chuckled. “I guarantee you’ll not be the last.”

“Y
ou know the rules, Damianos.” The goddess Athena and head of the Siren order paced around behind Damon in her palatial office at Siren Headquarters. “Rules keep this compound running like a well-oiled machine. Without rules, we have no order. And without order, we have no
Order
.”

Damon clenched his jaw. Personally, he had no use for the Sirens. Most thought of the deadly females as an otherworldly police force, crossing in and out of the human realm to maintain law and order among the mythic races. But Damon had been on Olympus long enough to know the truth. More often than not, the Sirens carried out Zeus’s dirty work when Zeus didn’t want to do it himself. And though usually Damon could overlook that for an excuse to escape Aphrodite’s pleasure palace, today it was all he could do to keep from telling Athena just what he thought of her
Order
.

“Remaining on Pandora after you fulfilled your duty was a violation of the rules, Damianos,” Athena went on, circling to his right. “If you cannot follow the rules, then you won’t be allowed inside the compound again.”

Whoa. Back up. Damon shifted in his seat. She was kicking him out of the compound? For good? If that happened, it’d be years before he’d be able to see Elysia again. Assuming, that is, that she made it through the second phase of Siren training. And no way in Hades did he want to think of her
making it through that training
without him.

“I realize I violated a rule.”
Careful. Be humble here.
“But I was injured. By a manticore. I wasn’t able to return to Olympus on schedule.”

Athena’s gaze narrowed. She was the epitome of a Siren. Flawless face, curly locks that hung to the small of her back, a compact, curvaceous body, big tits, small waist, and legs that seemed to stretch for miles. But she was also a lethal warrior, and Damon knew her looks were meant to deceive. The same way all Sirens were trained to deceive.

“I should have returned as soon as I was able,” he said when Athena only continued to stare at him with knowing, speculative eyes. “That’s on me. I know that. It won’t happen again.”

She held his gaze so long, sweat formed on Damon’s brow. She was going to ask him why he’d stayed, and when she did, what would he tell her? That he’d become obsessed with one of her recruits? She’d never allow that. She’d kick him out right now if she knew that. She’d undoubtedly seen what had happened between him and Elysia on Pandora. The Sirens monitored the whole island. He had to make her think he’d just been using the female, the way he was used by Aphrodite every damn day.

“Look.” He shifted in his seat and frowned as if this conversation were beneath him. “Call it a moment of weakness due to an injury. I’m male and mortal and flawed. And I spend most of my days with Aphrodite. What can I say? The recruit was attractive, so I stayed. But I didn’t get lucky as I wanted, so no harm, no foul. Right?”

Athena’s gaze sharpened. “It is not your job to seduce recruits in the survival phase of training.”

Be humble…
“I know that.”

“You will not attempt so again.”

He breathed easier. The goddess was falling for it. “I won’t.”

“The recruit has developed feelings for you.”

Something in Damon’s chest tightened, but he forced himself not to react.

“I’ve no doubt the damage you caused will be undone by her seduction trainer, but it is still unacceptable.”

It wouldn’t be undone if Damon had a say in it. “So we’re good here?”

“Not quite.” Athena stood in front of her desk and looked down at Damon as if he were a bug she wanted to squash with the heel of her boot. “There is still the matter of your insubordination.”

“But I thought—”

She leaned back against the shiny steel surface and crossed her arms under her ample chest. “I’m fully aware that your time in Aphrodite’s palace is…how shall I put this? Lackluster? Just as I’m aware you enjoy your time away. You’ve proven yourself a useful instructor not just in seduction but in warfare, combat, and strategy. The Sirens would hate to lose your expertise. If you are going to remain part of this compound, however, you must be reprimanded for your failure to follow rules.”

“What kind of reprimand?” he asked warily.

Athena considered for a moment, then said. “A month. In the pit.”

Holy shit
. A month in the isolation pit. Insanity by boredom. “And at the end of the month?”

“You will be reinstated to your current position as trainer.”

Which meant he would still be assigned to a recruit for seduction.

“Of course, it’s your choice,” Athena said dryly. “If you’d rather return to Aphrodite’s palace and leave the Sirens behind for good, you may do so now.”

That wasn’t even an option. “I’ll take the punishment.”

“Good.” Athena rounded her desk. “Your month begins at sunset. Report here in an hour. In the meantime, go tell Aphrodite you won’t be at her beck and call for quite some time.”

Damon rose. He didn’t want to see Aphrodite. He wanted to find Elysia and tell her why he’d be absent the next few weeks. But he had something more important to do first. “Don’t you think the news would be better coming from you?”

Athena glanced up from the file she’d already started reading. “No. You’re Aphrodite’s property. You made this mess. You’re the one who must deal with the consequences.”

“W
hat in Hades do you think you’re doing?”

Athena turned at the sound of Zeus’s aggravated voice and frowned. She knew she was his favorite daughter, hence he’d given her the task of managing his Sirens, but sometimes she wished he’d just take a hike and leave her alone to do her job. The king of the gods was always second-guessing every one of her decisions.

“What you asked me to do.” She looked back at the Siren report on conflicts currently happening in the human realm. “What does it look like?”

Zeus stepped out from behind the bookshelf where he’d been lurking during her discussion with Damon and glared down at her. She was tall for a goddess—just over seven feet—but the king of the gods towered over everyone. “It looks to me like you’re delaying our progress. A month? A month is forever.”

Athena rolled her eyes and closed the folder. “A month is nothing, and you know it.”

“But—”

“Our plan is working.” She met her father’s dark gaze. “Their attachment has already been solidified. Trust me. Absence will only make their hearts grow fonder.”

Zeus frowned. “I’ve never found that to be true.”

No, of course not, because you don’t have a heart.

There was a reason Athena chose combat over pleasures of the flesh. A reason she was still known as the virgin goddess of warfare. Because she’d watched her father confuse lust for love one too many times. And because she’d witnessed the fallout of that lust and how his licentious appetites had altered the course of mortal and immortal history. If the god could think with his head instead of his dick, he would have had every ounce of power long ago.

“Look,” she said, working for patience as she always did when dealing with the king of the gods. “A month will ensure we are able to begin training the Argolean princess in all manner of combat before he returns. When his time in the pit is finished, she’ll be moving into her first phase of seduction training.”

Zeus’s dark eyes narrowed. “And won’t that look convenient? When he is assigned as her trainer?”

“He’s not been assigned as her trainer.”

“Then how—”

Holy Hades, the god had no faith. She lifted the mirror from her desk and held it out for him to see. “We didn’t have to assign him as her trainer. He’s doing that himself.”

Fog swirled in the mirror and slowly cleared, revealing an image of the Hall of Sirens, deep in the lower levels of Siren Headquarters. Tall columns rose to the ceiling, and rows and rows of wooden file folders filled the massive space. Damon appeared in the entrance and quickly rushed down the stone steps. He searched the rows until he found Elysia’s drawer, pulled it open, and located her assignment sheet. The image in the mirror zoomed in on the page listing her assigned trainers in each phase. Zeus watched with wide eyes as Damon erased another’s name and wrote his own under Seduction Trainer.

Zeus met Athena’s gaze. “How did you know he would do that?”

“I had faith in the information you provided me when your witch messed with his brain.”

Understanding filled his eyes. “That she is his soul mate.”

Athena nodded. “Now that he’s encountered her, he will always find a way to be with her. He can’t help it. It’s biological at this point.”

Zeus laid the mirror on Athena’s desk, and a slow smile curled one side of his mouth. Athena knew her father didn’t enjoy his wife’s meddling in his affairs, but Hera’s soul mate curse was turning out to be a boon for all of them. “To his detriment.”

“Yes,” Athena said, relaxing because the god was finally getting it. “Have faith, dear father. Time is nothing in the grand scheme. You’ve waited twenty-five years for revenge against the Argonauts and their queen.”

Hunger filled Zeus’s dark eyes, and Athena knew he was imagining a future where he controlled more than just Olympus. He was picturing one where he controlled everything.

 
“Soon, Father.” Athena stepped close. “Soon the world will know what it means to quake with true fear, and when it does, no one will be able to stop us.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

T
here was hell, and then there was
heeeeeeelllllllll
.

Zagreus was stuck in the latter.

“No,” Clotho, the youngest of the three old biddies he was currently stuck serving said as Zagreus moved around the kitchen table refilling coffee cups. “Lachesis is the measurer of the thread, and she says when it’s time.”

Atropos harrumphed. “He’s cheated death one too many times. If you ask me, it would solve all kinds of problems if we cut the boy loose here and now. I could do it easily. Smother him with his blanket in the night. He’s already down in that pit. No one would know for days. It could look like an accident.”

Clotho leaned forward with wide blue eyes, her diaphanous robe shimmering with the movement. “Oh, for crying out loud. Can’t you even come up with something more original? You’ve always been smother-happy. For someone whose only responsibility is to cut the thread of life, the least you could do is put a little thought into his death.”