Blackhearted Betrayal (33 page)

“You have been a plague upon me since ever I first saw your despicable face!” The words spat out in Scott’s voice, but I knew they were not his own. A mere arcane had been no match for a true immortal. “I am going to choke the life out of you if it is the last thing that I do!”

I braced myself but had been unable to prepare for just how much she would enhance Scott’s strength with her own. Apparently an immortal’s magical abilities were split between their physical and spiritual forms, which made sense because Sean clearly possessed many of Imseti’s abilities at the same time Imseti’s spirit had been able to act, if in a more limited fashion. Scott’s body slammed against mine, and Anubis reached
his
hands out to make good her threat. I used the impact to skitter backward, just barely managing to elude his—her—grasping hands. She and I played cat and mouse for several moments—me trying very hard to evade her pointed attempts to kill me. Of course, it wouldn’t be a permanent death since ambrosia still flowed through my veins, but
she
was not hampered by the urge to take me unharmed, as I was. I
had
to find a way to incapacitate her that didn’t involve killing Scott, and not simply out of my selfish need to see him survive—she would just find a new body to possess and continue wreaking havoc.

My eyes flew wildly around the dais, as if seeking out divine inspiration. All the others were too busy fighting their own battles to offer much hope. Ala was assisting
Mac and Elle in chasing the remaining foresworn immortals away while Adesina maintained grim-faced vigil over Anubis’s body.
Her body!
I reacted without conscious intent, reaching forward to snap her unmoving neck as ruthlessly as Kamanu had acted earlier. To my complete and utter shock, Anubis’s body fell lifeless before us.

Scott’s mouth suddenly let out the most god-awful shriek, one that sounded way too feminine for his vocal cords to manage. Silver-and-black energy roiled around him, letting off freaky little lightning bolts of magic that sizzled in the air. His eyes shifted from silver-rimmed yellow to normal amber and back again as he fought the devastated spirit with a vengeance, neither one quite managing to win the upper hand. Apparently Anubis had been greatly weakened when I killed her corporeal form—a seeming impossibility my brain wanted to shy away from—but evidently not enough for Scott to emerge victor over his own body. This stalemate could go on long enough for Scott to physically tire—and Anubis to take advantage of that fact.

Over my dead body!
Which Anubis had already tried and failed to arrange.

I could really only see one chance for Scott, slim though it might have been. I sprinted toward the protective knot surrounding Trinity and Serise, and sure enough, Mijai and his fellow priests had won through to help. Serise lay upon the cold marble floor, deep in the throes of labor, with Mijai and—wonder of wonders—several Furies urging her on. Sahana had her energy and limited healing skills focused upon Trinity—who had freaking
lied
about the severity of her injury, so I would leave her. And, I could tell with certainty, she lay dying.

Sahana met my gaze miserably and shook her head, causing Charlie to let out a low, vicious curse.

“Gods damn it, Trin!” I choked out, tears blinding me. “How could you
do
this to me?”

As if she’d had a choice. She managed the ghost of a smile but couldn’t spare the energy to speak. It seemed horribly unfair that she was
there
, bleeding to death, when Scott stood just feet away battling a deity for control of his body, a deity who could have healed Trinity’s body in seconds were their roles reversed …Although if Scott couldn’t stand up to the deity’s metaphysical onslaught, what chance would a
mortal
have? My fists clenched as inspiration struck. I zeroed in on Mijai helping Serise and wondered if it would be possible—then decided it didn’t matter either way. I damned well had to
try
.

“Mijai! I need your help now, or Anubis wins!” A slight exaggeration, but one I was willing to make. Serise and the Furies shooed him away, and he ran to my side. “How can I help?” I quickly summarized my desperate plan, and to my relief, he agreed to make the attempt. Silver-and-black energy flared, at first terrifying me, until I realized he was being assisted by his patron, Imseti. With him helping Mijai, we might actually have a snowball’s chance in hell …

I approached Scott moments later with a too-quiet Trinity in my arms and saw with relief that he was still waging that inner war with Anubis. Mijai nodded soberly when I gestured for him to proceed. He stopped midway between Scott and me and, boosted by the assistance of his god, began chanting. That by-then-familiar mix of Death and immortal magic seethed in the air, spreading out from Mijai in two directions: to Scott in one and Trinity in the other.

Scott’s body froze, and panicked yellow eyes met my gaze.
She
caught sight of Trinity in my arms, bleeding profusely all over my black leather uniform, and frowned. At first she seemed insulted that we might try and forcibly transmute her spirit into a mere mortal, but then resignation flashed as she realized she’d have more luck overpowering a mortal than she was currently having with Scott—just as I’d hoped. She stopped fighting Scott and surrendered, allowing Mijai’s spell to wash over them, not noticing her mistake until it was too late. Mijai didn’t transmute
all
of her spirit from Scott to Trinity; he transferred only a
quarter
.

Silver-and-black light sprayed over both Scott and Trinity. Trinity’s eyes popped open, no longer unbroken chocolate brown but now rimmed with unnatural silver. She gasped as her fatal injury began knitting itself closed, seemingly of its own volition. I lowered her to the ground carefully, body remaining primed for response should she make any threatening moves, but she didn’t. My reckless gamble had paid off. Not only had the quarter of Anubis’s soul transmuted into Trinity’s body automatically healed its new vessel as I’d hoped; my partner had also proven strong-willed enough to retain control over her body.

I glanced immediately to Scott and let out an explosive huff when silver-rimmed amber—rather than neon yellow—eyes met my gaze. He still bore three-quarters of Anubis’s essence inside, but that reduction had proven just enough for him to reassert dominance. Thank
all
the gods and goddesses.

Well,
almost
all of them …

IRONICALLY, I ENDED UP HAVING TO TAKE A
leave of absence from my leave of absence, finding myself helping Scott and Trinity adjust to their newfound statuses as partially immortal. Kale and Mahina took over administrating the MCU while Trinity took up residence inside an unoccupied apartment next door to Scott’s so I could help them both learn how to use their new powers. Mom and I put Cori’s official swearing-in on hold while I handled that, and Mom worked with Adesina and the Alecto Prime to set things back to rights among the Sisterhood, a much easier task now that Anubis was no longer able to spread dissension among the three classes.

One particular long-standing tradition had apparently gone down in flames without anyone’s intending it so. Over the course of the chaos in the Sisterhood the past few
days, the identities of the Alecto and Megaera Primes were no longer secret from the other classes. Mom and Ekaterina had found proof that Medea had murdered poor Maylin, then masqueraded as her when necessary over the past few weeks. That explained why the Tisiphone Prime had refused to appear before the Lesser Consensus when summoned: Those fifteen Elders would have sniffed out her deception in short order. Our class would soon have to choose a new Prime so the ceremony to instill the previous Prime’s knowledge into the new one could be performed before Maylin’s soul moved from the Palladium on to the Underworld. If Mom weren’t so set on taking her place on the Conclave, I knew who would have gotten
my
vote.

Speaking of Medea …my
darling
great-aunt had managed to slip away in all the confusion—along with Sean,
still
piloting Imseti’s body. Stacia, it seemed, we had blown into oblivion by botching the transmutation spell, but I’d feel a heck of a lot better once we confirmed that by tracking down her shade ass wherever it rematerialized.

“You look so pensive, baby; what’s up?”

I stretched like a cat when Scott’s magic fingers skimmed along my bare shoulders before snuggling me back against his chest. Trinity had gone to bed early, exhausted from learning how to channel magic through her mostly mortal body. Scott and I, on the other hand, had just enjoyed some excellent Chinese takeout and some fine wine in honor of the fact we’d made it out of another mess alive and—mostly—intact. We had spent most of the night re-creating the hot and heavy portion of the night Serise had interrupted us, minus the whole pregnant Harpy busting in unannounced, of course. Much
to
her
dismay, Serise remained pregnant. Ala and Epona had worked some of their mojo to make sure Baby Harpy wouldn’t put in an untimely appearance because of all the stress Mama Harpy had been put under. They then carted Anubis and Kamanu off to await their trial, letting me know that they would be summoning Scott, Trinity, and me once the trial had been arranged.

“Mmm, that feels
so
good.”

“One of the perks to this whole godhead thing, I guess.”

Something in his voice had me turning and drawing him into my arms. “You guess? Say the word if you’re unhappy, Scott, and we’ll find a way to take this away.”

He tried for a teasing tone but couldn’t quite pull it off. “I thought you said your orgasm tonight was the—and I quote—single-most amazingly spectacular moment of your life.”

I tightened my arms around him. “Seriously, Scott, you know we’re in this together. If you don’t think you can handle this—”

Scott’s silver-flecked amber eyes glinted with fierce pride. “Of course
I
can handle it, Riss; I’m just not so sure
you
can.”

My mouth dropped open, and I could only sputter wordlessly for several moments.

His lips twisted in amusement, and he continued on as if I hadn’t tried and failed to manage a coherent sentence. “
You’ve
always been the more powerful in our relationship, darling; something I’ve never minded because I am plenty secure in my own skin. But you’re used to that dynamic, and now …now it’s been flipped around on us both.”

I started to vehemently decry his statement as being
absurd, but honesty made me pause. “I—well, I guess the dynamic of our relationship
has
changed, but the way I feel about you hasn’t.”

Belying his claim to be
plenty secure
, Scott indulged in a moment of sheer vulnerability. “Because I’m mostly immortal now?”

My fingers caressed his cheek tenderly. “No, you big dummy, because you helped me realize that I love you enough to trust you more than anyone or anything, even if that means potentially giving you up or, even better, accepting you just as you are when we’ve both changed. Now I know we can change together.”

All signs of vulnerability leached away, and his lips descended upon mine with crushing—and divine—force, and soon we were weaving our wordless magic once more.

THE NEXT MORNING, ALA AND EPONA SUM
moned us to a Triad session in the Divine Realm to deal with the traitorous god and goddess.
That
particular part of the session was closed to those who were not full-blown immortals, but we three Nemeses, along with Scott and Trinity, were summoned before the Triad, something made possible because each of us was partially divine. Apparently the Triad either fudged the truth about how long the ambrosia would last, or they’d done something to extend its effects, since we Nemeses had slugged it down well over three days earlier.

My first glimpse of the Divine Realm—where all immortals held at least a small portion as their celestial home when not tending to duties in the other realms—was pretty damned impressive. Not surprisingly decorated
mostly in the ancient Greek and Roman styles so beloved by immortalkind, touches of colorful accessories and fabrics paid homage to every other culture represented in the
Gens Immortalis
. Everything there was oversized and expensive-looking, even the stark white marble floors and walls that could be seen just about everywhere. Scott and Trinity hovered close to me as full-blown gods and goddesses swarmed the building where official Triad business was conducted. They’d started arriving in numerous waves the moment word went out that the first trial of a Triad member in its very long history was being hastily convened.

Scott leaned in close—those silver-rimmed amber eyes still catching me off guard each time I saw them—to murmur, “Do you think they’re going to remove Anubis’s soul from us?” He gestured to Trinity, who glanced at me anxiously. Poor Trin. She’d always demanded I involve her more heavily in our arcane investigations and stop sheltering her from the most dangerous aspects, but I could safely say she’d
never
thought she’d find herself the possessor of one-fourth of an immortal’s soul, especially considering she’d once refused to believe that either of those two things existed. While she had thanked me for the brilliant if insane gambit that had saved her life, she was completely out of her element, suddenly saddled with abilities she’d never dreamt of having and had no clue how to control.