Authors: Gena Showalter
"Your man came to me, you know," Mnemosyne said with relish, drawing Scarlet from her sanguine thoughts. "He wanted to know why I hate you so much, but I refused to tell him." Smugness joined the relish.
Scarlet shrugged. "I honestly don't care why you did what you did to me, only that you did it at all."
Mnemosyne blinked, composure slipping before she shook her head and schooled her features. "You care. I know you do."
"Once, I might have. But you know what? You aren't important. Besides, what you did drew me to Gideon, as you said." With that, Scarlet turned, ready to go back up and be with her man. To comfort him. To give him everything he needed.
"Where are you going? Get back here, Scarlet."
One step, two, she climbed.
"Scarlet! You can't leave. Your mother couldn't kill you while we were prisoners, you know that. To even try meant she would begin to age. But to succeed meant she would become aged for all eternity, no hope for the return of her once-great beauty. Therefore, she tasked me with your torment, and I accepted because...because..."
Scarlet paused. Her aunt's cell was blocked from view by the wall, but her voice, oh, her voice...shrill, but truthful. "Go on."
"If you wish to know, you'll come back here and face me."
A moment passed. Another. Could be a waste of time, but... Curiosity got the better of her, and she backtracked until she once again stood in front of the cell.
Mnemosyne nodded, troubled expression smoothing out. "One day a seer was thrown into the cell with us. That seer took one look at you and laughed, claiming you would kill your mother and assume the heavenly throne. I removed the memory from everyone except Rhea and Cronus. They deserved to know the truth about you."
"So? What does that have to do with anything?"
"They are linked in a way you cannot possibly understand, though I will tell you that when one dies, the other will automatically follow. The fact that you would kill Rhea meant that you would also kill Cronus."
All the moisture left her mouth.
"The seer," her aunt continued, "we killed. You, we kept busy with romance and tragedy, hoping you would end your life yourself. You never even tried, though, did you?"
But how many times had she been tempted to do so? Countless.
"So now do you comprehend the real reason Cronus gave me to Gideon?"
"No."
Mnemosyne was the one to grin now. "It was so that I could prove my loyalty to the crown...and eliminate you once and for all."
Before Scarlet had time to move, Mnemosyne had withdrawn and thrown three small silver stars. Sharp, they cut through Scarlet's throat, each of them slicing veins and arteries, even her voice box. Of their own accord, the shadows and the screams shot from her head, enveloping her, crying for her.
And then, like Gideon, she knew nothing more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"GIDEON. GIDEON!"
Torin's frantic voice tugged Gideon from his slumber and straight into a river of pain. Burning, clawing, bones breaking apart and shooting jagged shards through his bloodstream, cutting everything they encountered, pain.
"Gideon, man. Can you hear me? You have to wake up."
Why was he--oh, yeah. He'd told Scarlet the truth. Worth it, he thought next, almost grinning. Scarlet was here, his beautiful Scarlet, and she now knew he loved her. Finally.
She knew he hadn't slept with her mother. She'd called herself Scarlet. Not Scarlet Pattinson. Not Scarlet Reynolds. Just Scarlet. His Scarlet.
She had to want him, too.
When his strength returned, he was going to romance the hell out of her, as planned. He was going to prove they were meant to be together.
Even Lies purred with the rightness of that plan.
Don't want to find her.
"Gideon!"
Though his mind and body yearned to sink back into unconsciousness, Gideon forced his eyelids to open. Moonlight was waning, sunlight fighting for its place in the sky. His woman would be falling asleep soon. He could hold her. He could simply breathe her in.
"Scarlet was injured. Kane's carrying her to your room now. Should be there in less than a minute. He's tripped a few times and twisted his ankle. That bitch goddess did something to his mind and he let her out of her cell. She's working her way out of the fortress, and there's no one here to stop her."
Gideon's thoughts locked on the first sentence, every protective instinct he possessed falling into a tailspin. Scarlet was injured. Fuck no. He bolted upright, panting, sweating, gaze savagely scanning. How bad were the wounds? Where was she?
His door flew open and Kane hobbled inside, a motionless Scarlet cradled in his arms. Blood soaked her neck, shoulders and T-shirt and matted her hair. Gideon moaned. No. No!
He scrambled from the bed, knees collapsing on impact. As he hit the ground, Kane gently laid Scarlet atop the mattress. Not a sound did she make. Gideon fought his way into a crouch, vision swimming as he peered down at his woman to survey the damage.
There were three deep grooves in her neck. One rode the length of her carotid, one her trachea and one the curve of her shoulder. Two were kill shots, even for immortals, and one was simply meant to prolong her agony. Inside, he wailed. "What--"
"Don't know," Kane said, silencing him. "She--"
"The goddess screwed with his memory," Torin said, silencing Kane. "While he was busy gathering Scarlet in his arms, Mnemosyne reached between the bars and latched onto his ankle. She told him Scarlet was inside the cell and he needed to open it to get to her. So he did. She also told him there was no one else in the cell, so he paid no attention to the goddess as she darted out of the dungeon. I recorded everything. Oh, and good going, everyone." He clapped, and somehow the action itself exuded sarcasm. "You did a great job of searching the bitch for weapons."
Gideon should have killed her while he'd had the chance. He hadn't, and now Scarlet...his Scarlet... Tears ruined what remained of his vision. He flattened a shaking palm over her heart. The beat was shallow, erratic and dangerously slow.
The cuts were still seeping, and if they weren't closed soon, she would bleed out. Torin was a no-go as far as doctoring went. No way would Gideon allow his woman to be infected with the warrior's disease, even though he'd once thought keeping her to himself would be nice. Yes, Torin could wear gloves to prevent skin-to-skin contact, but that was risky. And Gideon was unwilling to take the slightest chance. Weak as Scarlet was, the disease might actually kill her. If the slices didn't.
Kane was a no-go, as well. The man could barely keep himself alive. Plaster loved to fall on him, and floors loved to collapse while he stood upon them. No way would Gideon allow the man to operate on Scarlet.
That left Gideon, weak and shaky as he was. There just wasn't time to get her to a hospital.
"I don't need a field kit," he said. He'd stitched himself and his friends up a thousand times.
"You can't--" Kane began.
"Not now!" he growled, every ounce of his impatience and worry ringing out.
Kane nodded and limped into action.
Gideon could hear Lies whimpering inside his head, chanting, Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, sweet dreams.
Gideon translated: Nightmares, Nightmares, Nightmares. He had to bite back a roar.
"You're going to be okay, Scarlet," he said. There wasn't a renewed shock of pain, nor an increase in his lethargy. His mind and his demon viewed his words as a lie. "You're going to be okay," he repeated, tears falling freely now.
His hands trembled as he smoothed the hair and blood from her face. The action caused the muscles in his shoulders to knot, but he didn't care. Pain was nothing in the face of this.
"You're not in any shape to do this," Torin said, grave.
Like there was another choice. To do nothing was to watch her die. And he would not watch her die. She was going to pull through, no matter what any of them believed.
Kane raced back inside the room, white streaked over his cheeks. Plaster must have fallen on him along the way, as Gideon had known it would.
"All yours." Kane dropped the black leather pouch on the bed. "I just hope you know what you're doing."
Shaking more intently, Gideon unrolled the material. He lifted the thread and the needle and the tiny scissors, then got to work. Took him forever to stitch a single slice, his eyes constantly fogging over, his grip weak, but he did it. Then he moved to the next one, and then the next one, until Scarlet was no longer bleeding.
But the fact was, she'd lost a lot of blood already and he didn't have the equipment to do a transfusion. Which she needed. Desperately. And would have. So he'd just have to do it the old-fashioned way, he supposed.
Immortals had the same blood type, and didn't have to worry about a negative reaction the way humans did. Scarlet was half-human, however, and he'd never transfused a half-human before. Only himself and the other Lords. Still, that wasn't going to stop him. He grabbed the syringe from the pouch, jabbed himself in the crease of his elbow and withdrew as much life-giving fluid as the vial would hold. Then he stuck the needle into Scarlet's arm, slowly pushing that fluid inside her.
If she later complained about sharing a needle, he'd spank her. After he hugged her. And made love to her. And hugged her again. They were immortal, as well as lovers. It'd be okay.
He repeated the process so many times he lost count. Repeated it until Kane grabbed hold of his wrist and said, "That's enough. You're draining yourself."
True. He was weak. Weaker than he'd ever been. But if Scarlet needed more, he would give her more. Would give her every drop.
"There's nothing else you can do, man," Kane said, as grave as Torin. "Except wait. And pray."
Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, sweet dreams.
Like hell there was nothing else he could do, Gideon thought darkly. There was something. He could summon Cronus.
SHADOWS and screams enveloped Scarlet, dragging her into a sea of darkness and screeching noise, and holding her captive. They were stronger than she was and trapped inside her, so they had no other outlet, no other way to feed. And they needed fear to feed. Lots and lots of fear.
Fear they would get from her.
Horrific image after horrific image played through her mind and nearly all of them involved Gideon. Gideon with another woman and loving every moment of it. Gideon being beheaded by Galen. Gideon going after Mnemosyne to avenge Scarlet's death and dying himself.
Scarlet attempted to insert herself into every scene and change the outcome, but that only made things worse. Gideon would laugh at her or go for her throat. And gods, did her throat hurt. She was having trouble breathing, and her limbs were heavy and cold. And she knew what she was imagining was wrong, things Gideon would never do, which added guilt into her riotous mix of emotions. She--
Blinked in surprise. A warm fire had ignited in her blood, and was traveling through her, leaving tiny pockets of energy. That energy grew and interlocked, until she was consumed by it. The darkness and the screams at last settled, and she slipped into a peaceful sleep.
How much time passed until she next became aware, she didn't know.
"Devil! Can't you hear me?" A rumbling male voice called to her from a long, dark tunnel. "Can't you see me?"
Gideon. Gideon was near. She blinked open her stinging eyes, excitement pounding through her as his face came into blurry focus. Blurry, because screaming shadows were seeping from her and dancing around him.
A surge of disappointment and rage destroyed her excitement. This was another trick, she thought. Gideon was nothing more than a mirage, a way to torment her.
"Devil. Don't talk to me. Please."
Can't be real. "Go away," she rasped, and gods, her throat still hurt. She tried to roll away. "Leave me alone."
"Always." Strong fingers cupped her jaw, a blanket of warmth in the middle of a winter storm, and angled her head, forcing her to maintain eye contact. Slowly, he grinned. "You're not going to be okay. I wasn't so afraid... Didn't pray to Cronus, didn't beg him to help you. Didn't inform him he owed me for ignoring me about Aeron. He didn't tell me he'd brought you here. Didn't give you a vial of his blood."
He was babbling, and even knowing this was another nightmare, she drank him in, her gaze cutting through the darkness. Shaggy blue hair, electric eyes. Pierced eyebrow, muscled body. Her heartbeat sped up, was suddenly stronger, steadier.
"I'm not sorry you were injured. I'm not sorry I didn't take care of your aunt while I had the chance."
She frowned. Why would this dream Gideon apologize to her? That was a pleasure, not a frightening terror. Not that he had any reason to apologize; he'd done nothing wrong. But still, this wasn't something her demon would do. Joy wasn't his favorite thing.
That could only mean...Gideon really was here. He was close to her, talking to her. Touching her.
She could only stare up at him in wonder. "I'm awake. I'm alive. I don't understand."
"Didn't give you my blood, Cronus's blood." Those callused hands slid up and he traced his fingers along her temples. "You're not going to survive, right? Right?"
He'd given her his blood? That must have been the shot of strength she'd experienced, of peace. And that he'd approached Cronus on her behalf, the very being who'd asked her aunt to strike at her... Why Cronus had agreed, she didn't know. She only knew there was no better man than Gideon.
This warrior really did love her, she thought, awed. He'd been hurting from telling the truth, yet he'd somehow found the strength to give her what she needed.
You're melting again. He'll get hurt if you stay with him.
I was already melting. In fact, there was no ice left around her swelling heart.
"Yes. Yes, I'll survive," she told him. And would kill Mnemosyne at last. "Because of you, I feel stronger already." Especially now that he was here with her.
"Bad, so bad. My demon wanted--" His words halted as the shadows and the screams swirled around him more intently.
They now had another target. And for once Nightmares didn't seem to notice or care that the new target was Gideon. The hunger was simply too great, she supposed.
In the next instant, thousands of tiny spiders appeared on his body, crawling all over him.
"Not a lie, not a lie, not a lie," he chanted, unable to hide his alarm. He was trying to remind himself that the images were an illusion, she knew.
"What about your demon?" she asked to distract him. She wound her arms around him, elbows catching under his arms, and cupped the back of his neck. He was so hard, so hot. "Tell me. Please."
"Didn't want...a go...at yours." He was tense, clearly fighting the urge to slap at the little creatures. But to slap at them would have been to believe they were there. He would have lost the battle against his mind.
"Then let him have a go at mine," she said. Hopefully, a tangle with Lies would distract Nightmares.
"Sure. It's not dangerous at all."
"Do it and I'll let you kiss me." If he still wanted to do so, that is. After everything she'd--
"How?"
He still wanted to kiss her; her relief was palpable. "How will I kiss you? By pressing my lips to yours, thrusting my tongue into your mouth and savoring your delicious flavor."
His mouth twitched at the corners. "You don't know what I mean."
Good. He was properly distracted. And he wanted to know how he could let his demon have a go at hers. "I honestly don't know. I thought you did. My best suggestion is maybe...give up control? When I lose control of myself, Nightmares leaves me, like now, even though he remains tied to me."
Gideon ran his tongue over his teeth. "Lies didn't take over earlier today or yesterday, or whenever. He wasn't overcome with anger and didn't force himself out of me. So maybe you're wrong. Maybe I can't make it easier for him. But if he caresses you..."
If he hurt her. "He won't." Maybe. "It's worth a shot." Please work, please work, please work. "Please."
A nod. Gideon closed his eyes, expression tightening with concentration. Several moments passed, but nothing happened. He was a warrior, and relinquishing control would be difficult, so Scarlet planted little kisses along his jaw, reminding him of what awaited him should he succeed.