Immortally Yours, An Urban Fantasy Romance (Monster MASH, Book 1) (32 page)

She pulled away, holding me at an arm's length. "What happened out there? You were attacked?"
 

Leave it to Shirley to screw with my mood. "Something like that," I said, smoothing Galen's oversized shirt. Buttoned-down military, that was me. "I have to give my report to the colonel."
 

Kosta was in his office—yelling. His words might have been muffled by the thick wooden door, but the message was clear:
Somebody is going down.
 

"Been like this all day?" I asked.
 

"Since he got out of surgery this morning," she answered, sharing a glance with Horace. "Kosta's in rare form."
 

"They shot at me for no reason," Thaïs's voice screeched from Kosta's office.
 

Oh goody. I'd get to be the one who enlightened the colonel. I rubbed a hand over my eyes. Most of these demi-gods liked to stick together, which meant I'd have Thaïs and his buddies trying to smite me for the rest of my life.
 

I glanced at Shirley, who looked like she could use some sleep, too.
 

"Godsdamn it, Doctor. Get in here," Kosta bellowed.
 

"How'd he even know I was here?" I asked her.
 

"Gird your loins," she answered.
 

I yanked up my droopy pants, squared my shoulders, and headed in to meet the firing squad.
 

Kosta paced behind his desk, cigar in hand, ashes scatting as he waved it around. He zeroed in on me, flushed red all the way up to his bald head. "Close the door."
 

Thaïs turned and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing his expression go from shocked to horrified.
 

Take that, asshole.
 

Thaïs was visibly pale. He had a gauze bandage wrapped around his neck and he was standing kind of hunched, but he was among the living.
 

It was more than we could say for Colonel Spiros.
 

I glared daggers as I stood at attention next to him.
 

He was visibly quivering now. "You're—"
 

"Alive. I know. Sorry to fuck up your night."
 

Thaïs straightened, trying to recover. "You're also out of uniform."
 

"Yeah, well my other clothes were a little bloody, thanks to you."
 

Kosta wasn't amused. "At ease. Robichaud, what happened?"
 

I eyed my colleague. "We arrived at the checkpoint as we were ordered." My jaw clenched as I spoke. "The patients were there, waiting for transfer." Everything should have gone off without a hitch. "Spiros was in charge. The assignment was going exactly as planned until Thaïs pulled out a knife."
 

"That's ridiculous," he shouted. "We were ordered not to bring weapons."
 

"Which is why I was shocked when you tried to detonate a bomb," I snapped. "No wonder you assumed I was dead." It was like he'd been trying to get us killed. "If you want to go on a suicide mission, that's fine and dandy with me. But next time, leave me out of it."
 

Thaïs towered over me, injuries forgotten, every overgrown immortal inch of him quivering. "You don't want to die in glory. Sniveling cowards like you can die on the ground. I saw you with your face in the dirt pleading with the enemy for your miserable, insignificant little life!"
 

"
You
want to be on the ground?" I demanded, shoving him backward. I could at least kick him in the balls before he tore me in half.
 

"Stop." Kosta ordered. His voice hit me like cold water.
 

My heart raced and my brain boiled over. How dare Thaïs accuse me of being the coward? "How brave is it to fuck up a chance to save four soldiers?" Two of them might be alive right now if it hadn't been for him.
 

"Enough!" Kosta slammed his fist into the wall. The office shook with the impact.
 

Damn Thaïs.
 

"What is this about a bomb?" the colonel demanded.
 

I trained my eyes on Thaïs as I answered. "The guards shot Thaïs." With good reason. "I tried to smooth things over with Spiros, but one of the soldiers shouted about a bomb." My pulse hammered as I relived the moment. "I turned and Thaïs was reaching for something. All hell broke loose. I didn't see what happened after that. But I know they somehow got it away from him and detonated it."
 

Thaïs stared me down as he answered. "There was no bomb." He bit off every word. "She's lying about all of it." He sneered. "Ask Marius if he saw a bomb."
 

Oh yeah, right. "It was a crater in the desert by the time Marius got there."
 

But then it hit me. What would I do without proof? I had nothing that said Thaïs was anything but the immortal Boy Scout he was making himself out to be.
 

"I've heard plenty," Kosta said in a low, even voice that shut us up. He chewed at his cigar, staring past us both.
 

I needed Kosta to take me at my word, but when push came to shove the colonel was one of Thaïs's people, not mine.
 

Mortals couldn't even testify in demi-god courts, much less bear witness in a crime against an immortal. And here I was, asking him to condemn Thaïs with no evidence, no witnesses. Nobody on our side, at least.
 

A hollow feeling took root inside me. Kosta was more open than most. But Thaïs had served under him for three centuries. The colonel had boots older than me.
 

Kosta eyed us, his lip curled in disgust. "Thaïs, you're under arrest."
 

His eyes widened. "But I'm a demi-god."
 

"So am I," the colonel ground out. "MPs!"
 

A burly cyclops banged into the office.
 

The eye in the center of his forehead trained on me before moving to Thaïs. The officer was followed by two more military police. The lumbering, one-eyed giants set up behind Thaïs.
 

He believed me. Thank God he believed me.
 

The colonel appeared sad, but resolute. "I'll need you to testify before the tribunal," he said to me.
 

"I can do that?" I had no idea.
 

"You believe her?" Thaïs protested at the same time. The MPs secured him on either side. "You're going to take the word of a mortal?"
 

I hated to agree with him on that one.
 

"It's unusual," Kosta conceded. "But a tribunal is not a court. And I do believe her."
 

"Unheard of," my colleague sputtered.
 

Yes, it was. Just when I was starting to hate everything about this war, Kosta had to go and do something like that.
 

"You blew it, Thaïs." Kosta walked around the desk to stand in front of him. "You turned a peaceful mission into an act of war for your own asinine pride. You put soldiers at risk. One of the kids we almost lost is the son of Dellingr."
 

"Who?" I asked, before I could hit the edit button.
 

Kosta scowled at me. "He's an old Norse god. You probably know him as Svipdagr."
 

Oh, sure.
 

"Fertility god and a real asshole," Thaïs said, by way of defense.
 

Kosta wasn't amused. "His son Dagr, god of hope and light and fertility and all that bullshit, almost died to night because you had to play solider."
 

Holy hell. "He was one of our patients?" The pure gods almost never put themselves in harm's way. If the god of hope and light had gone down under our watch, they would have held me and Thaïs personally responsible. Mostly me.
 

"Nobody told me that," Thaïs protested, looking to the MPs for support. They merely blinked at him. "You can't blame me."
 

"It's not my job to explain why I send you on a special mission. It's your job to take orders and make sure nobody gets killed!" Kosta thundered. "Get him out of here."
 

The MPs led Thaïs out while I stood there, hands on my hips, contemplating the bullet I'd just dodged.
 

Mortals didn't get the justice or the respect that the gods seemed to have for one another. I might have spent the rest of my life in prison. And eternal lockup didn't have luxuries like Fruit Stripe gum, beds, and three meals a day. In fact, sometimes the gods forgot that mortals needed to eat and entire prison populations would starve.
 

Shake it off.
It didn't happen.
 

"We'll assemble a solid tribunal, but he may not even make it through the first interrogation," Kosta said, matter-of-fact. "Watch yourself."
 

I nodded, reading between the lines. Thaïs had friends. And I'd just stepped way above my station. At least that's how a lot of immortals would see it.
 

Kosta consulted the paperwork on his desk. "I need you to file a report and pick up his shift."
 

"Of course."
 

"I'll have Shirley put out a new schedule."
 

One that would be worse than before. That wasn't what worried me, though.
 

I cleared my throat. "Did the old army know what they had?" I asked Kosta.
 

Kosta took a seat behind his desk. "Not in the higher ranks. They would have tortured him, tried to dig out information. The kid didn't know anything." He opened a drawer and pulled out a fresh cigar. "Spiros sent me word. We worked out a plan to get that boy the hell out of there."
 

"I'm sorry," I said, pulling up a chair.
 

Kosta nodded, turning his cigar over in his fingers. "What happened to him?" he asked quietly.
 

I tried to think of a nice way to say it, and finally just settled on the truth. "It was an accident. One of his own men stabbed him. I did everything I could to save him, but the knife came apart on us."
 

The colonel sighed, accepting it like the enduring soldier he was.
 

"Did he...?" He ticked his chin toward the heavens, and I could see the fear behind the question.
 

"He died quickly and well," I said, glad I could offer my commander some comfort.
 

The colonel dug a fist against his desk and stared at it for a long moment.
 

He cleared his throat. "Thanks, Petra."
 

He expelled a long breath. "You know he had a wife and kids topside."
 

"On Earth?" I hadn't realized. It wasn't overly common. Most of these warriors had been down here too long.
 

He shook his head, a wry smile tickling his lips. "Met her on leave. Could hardly do without her."
 

I wasn't sure what to say, so I waited. He deserved to be able to talk about his friend.
 

Kosta's gaze wandered. "Damn shame" was all he said.
 

He lit his cigar and blew out a few puffs. "Before you go, I've got to give you the heads-up." He planted his elbows on the desk. "The armies are unmatched. Nobody can deny it. Not anymore." He let out a low whistle. "Something big is going down. We've come close to losing the last several battles. Now the armies are massing to the north."
 

"I'll be sure to rest up." We'd have a tougher time of it now that we were down a doctor.
 

"I don't think that will be enough," he said, regret coloring his words. "I just got word they're going to be pulling our soldiers out of recovery."
 

That didn't make any sense. "They can't take wounded men." It was completely absurd, not to mention counterproductive. "Without proper medical care, some of those soldiers could die."
 

The lines on Kosta's face had deepened, and he looked older than his immortal forever-mid-forties physique. "The new army needs every warrior it can get. Even if they take all the wounded from every MASH unit, I hear we're still outnumbered."
 

Which meant disaster on Earth.
 

"Galen said there was something in motion." He'd said it was a military secret.
 

"Commander Delphi," Kosta corrected, almost as a re-flex.
 

Yes, yes. Whatever. "His information might be outdated now," I feared. He'd been away from his troops for too long.
 

"He couldn't tell us anyway," Kosta said. "Intelligence issues. But don't be surprised if they take him, too."
 

"They can't." I couldn't afford to lose him. Not now.
 

"You're not his doctor."
 

Kosta was right. And even if I had been Galen's physician, that didn't seem to matter anymore—not if they were pulling the injured out of recovery.
 

The prophecy was supposed to bring peace. It was supposed to stop this.
 

I'd done everything they wanted. I'd gone to the edge of hell and back.
 

And for what?
 

"What are you thinking, Doc?"
 

"That this is wrong. It's not supposed to turn out this way. The prophecy—"
 

"Prophecies are pigeon crap," Kosta thundered. "We need a savior in the next two days, three tops, or the world is going to hell."
 

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dismissed, I left Kosta's office more miserable than when I'd gone in. Shirley sat in the outer office with her phone to her ear.
 

"Wait," she said, placing a hand over the mouthpiece. "Did you hear? There's a new prophecy coming up."
 

Hope surged. "You mean now?" I could use a break.