Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (29 page)

Twenty-five years ago…
Damon’s gaze dropped to the markings on his arms, growing darker by the second, and his stomach rolled because he knew who the Argonauts were, but he had no memory of them. No memory of anything but Olympus. He let go of Elysia’s hands and took a shaky step back. “I don’t understand.”

“I should have realized it sooner.” Elysia brushed the hair back from her face, but her dark gaze stayed locked on Damon’s, so intense and unwavering, his pulse sped up. “I was a baby when you were killed, so I had no memory of you myself. But the moment we met, I knew there was something familiar about you. I just didn’t put the pieces together until right now. Your picture hangs on the wall in the castle, next to pictures of all the Argonauts who have ever served. I’ve walked by it hundreds of times.”

He swallowed hard. “That can’t be.”

“It is.” She stepped close once more. “Your name is Cerek. Your forefather is Theseus. You were one-hundred twenty-five years old when you died, one of the younger Argonauts in the Order at the time. Your father is Aristokles. You took his place with the Argonauts when he went missing. He was gone for fifty years and reappeared the day you died. He’s been serving in your stead ever since. I remember my father talking about it. About how heartbreaking it was for Ari to finally reconnect with you only to lose you. He was there that day. My father watched you die along with the other Argonauts.”

Damon’s heart beat hard and fast as he stared at Elysia. She was talking about people and things he didn’t remember. Could it be true? Could he really be an Argonaut? He glanced down at the markings once more. They still held no familiarity, no recognition. “I don’t—”

“Look at me.” She placed her fingers at his temples and stared into his eyes, and, in a rush, pictures flashed inside his mind.

A group of males, all massive and muscular and each sporting the Argonaut markings on their arms and dressed in the same heavy dark clothes as they stood in some kind of grand office with soaring ceilings and massive arched windows. A great Alpha seal was embedded in the middle of the marble floor, and a female who looked a lot like Elysia but with blonde hair leaned against a decorative desk, frustration lines evident on her forehead while a dark-haired toddler—a girl—played with blocks on the floor at her feet. But one male stood off to the side, staring out the window toward the ocean, barely paying attention to whatever discussion was happening. And when he turned, sad, lost, heartbroken mismatched eyes came into view…one green, one blue.

The image shifted, and this time it was of a young girl, no more than seven, wearing a pink dress, her dark brown hair flying behind her as she laughed and ran down a long hall flanked by columns. Framed photos covered the walls. All of males dressed in the same dark clothing Damon had seen in the previous image. But one stood out from the others as the girl ran by. One who looked exactly like Damon.

Damon gasped and stumbled back, away from Elysia’s touch. “W-what was that?”

“My gift. I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else to make you believe me.”

His eyes widened, and he stared down at her hands. “Gift?”

“All Argoleans have some kind of gift. Mine deals with memories. I can transfer memories. The girl was me. The first memory was the Argonauts, how distraught they were after you were killed. The second was the great hall where photos of the Argonauts all hang. Your pictu—”

“How do you know all this? You said your memories were still scattered.”

“They are. But when I saw the markings on your arms and realized who you were, that all came back to me.”

It still sounded crazy, but Damon couldn’t deny what he’d seen in those memories Elysia had shared with him. Urgency pushed Damon toward her. “Tell me everything. About who I used to be and what happened.”

Elysia glanced warily around the forest. “We should leave this place first. Hades’s daemons still roam these forests. I can tell you when we get to—”

“No.” Damon grasped her hand, holding her in place. “Tell me now.”

She held his gaze and sighed. “Okay, but the short version. Zeus sent a Siren to kill your father, Aristokles. He was living in the human realm. I don’t know the whole story, just that Aristokles lost his soul mate years ago, and the grief drove him out of Argolea and away from the Argonauts. He’d been hiding in the human realm for fifty years, but he was still protecting the humans and half-breeds in the area, fighting Hades’s daemons who prey on the innocent and messing with Zeus’s Sirenum Scorpoli. Zeus grew tired of Ari’s meddling and sent Daphne, a recruit in the last stages of Siren training, to kill him. But she didn’t. They fell in love. And she brought him back to the Argonauts. But Zeus found out and sent his Sirens to kill them both. The Argonauts arrived just after the attack happened. You were there. You helped the Argonauts defeat Zeus’s Sirens, and in the process you reunited with your father. Zeus became enraged. And just before it was all over, one of his Sirens hit you in the chest with an arrow and killed you.”

Damon glanced down at his bare chest. There was just enough moonlight filtering through the trees to highlight his skin. He saw no marks. Had no scars. “How is that possible? I’m clearly not dead.”

“The arrow was dipped in Medusa’s poison. It turned you to stone. Zeus then took your body. I don’t know how he did it, but somehow he brought you back. You said you have no memory before waking up on Olympus twenty-five years ago. What if Zeus wiped your memories? They do it to the Siren recruits. What if he used magic or witchcraft or something to bring you back? It makes sense. He imprisoned you on Olympus. He’s been using you all this time, and because you couldn’t remember your old life, you had no idea what he was doing.”

Using you…
His mind skipped back over the years. To his first memories, blinking up at a gorgeous female with emerald-green eyes and fire-red hair. To hearing her chanting words he didn’t understand and feeling something warm swirl in his veins. To his time with Aphrodite, to all the things the goddess of lust made him do in her sickening pleasure palace, the females she’d ordered him to fuck for her entertainment, the orgies she’d made him participate in, the hours she’d kept him isolated in her bed. The times she’d loaned him out like property to the Sirens to use for warfare training and seduction. To the hundreds of females he’d pleasured because he had no other choice, and finally the nights he’d lain awake staring at the ceiling thinking there had to be more to life.

His vision turned red, and a roar grew in his ears. “Zeus did this to me? He stole my life. Why?”

“Because he hates the Argonauts. Because they’ve bested him too many times and interfered with his plans. Because he doesn’t care how they suffer, just that they do. Taking you like that… It cut them all deeply. They’re your brothers.”

Damon wasn’t sure of that. He felt no brotherly connection to anyone. All he knew was a boiling rage and the need for retribution.

Every muscle in his body contracted. “Open the portal again. I’m going back to Olympus.”

“No.” Elysia grasped his hands tightly. “Look at me. You can’t go back. Not now. Not when you know what you are. He’ll kill you for good this time.”

“Not before I do some serious damage. I’ll slaughter all his Sirens if I have to. Open the damn portal.”

“I can’t. I don’t know how I did it before.”

She was lying. He saw it in her fear-filled eyes. His jaw clenched. “Fine.” He pulled his hands from hers and stepped past her. “I’ll find someone who can.”

She rushed into his path and pressed her hands against his chest. “You can’t.”

“Watch me.”

“No.” Her voice shook as she pushed harder, stopping him. “You can’t leave me here. I need you. I need you more now than I ever did. Can’t you see what’s right in front of you? Can’t you tell that I love you?”

Something in his chest cinched down hard, a sharp bite of pain that squeezed so tight it stole his breath. “You…what?”

“I love you.” Her eyes grew damp. “I think I fell in love with you on Pandora, only I was so confused and hurt when you disappeared for that month that I didn’t know what to do. But this feeling I have for you has only grown since. Every moment we’re together, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and I don’t want to lose that. I
won’t
lose you. Not to Zeus or anyone. Not when we’ve finally found each other. You can’t leave me now. I love you too much to let you go.”

His heart raced again as he stared down at her, but this time it wasn’t fury fueling his blood, it was fear. So much fear, he was afraid to move. “How?”

“How what?”

“How can you love me knowing the things I’ve done with Aphrodite, with those other recruits, with—”

“How can I not love you when you’ve protected me, when you’ve supported me?” She stepped closer, brushing her body against his in the cool night air until heat was all he felt. “I couldn’t have gotten through any of what I did with the Sirens if you hadn’t been there. And I don’t care about what you did in the past because we both know it wasn’t your choice. This, though—you and me—this is a choice. And the way you just swept me out of Olympus told me loud and clear that I’m your choice.”

All the rage slid right out of him, and as his heart swelled, a love he’d always been too afraid to hope for filled the space left behind.

“
Emmoní…
” He lifted his hand and gently cupped her cheek as he looked over her beautiful face. She was his obsession. Had been from the beginning. And now he knew why. “All these years, I thought I was alone. I thought no one cared. I thought…” His throat grew thick, and the hot sting of tears burned his eyes. He lifted his other hand to her face. “You awakened me. You brought me back to life. You are the reason my heart beats. I won’t leave you. I can’t. I’m yours. Always yours.”

“Oh…” Tears spilled over her lashes and slid down her cheeks as he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into the heat and life of her body. That fire only she could ignite flared hot inside again, sparking through every nerve ending, every cell, even into the depths of his soul, telling him he was finally home.

Releasing her mouth, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, lowering his face to her neck and drawing in her sweet honeysuckle scent. She clung to him just as tightly, showing no signs of letting go, and he was glad for that. Glad because the reality of everything she’d shared hit him hard in the silence. Made him realize nothing would ever be the same. Changed every one of his thoughts and plans and ideas for the future.

“Damon,” she whispered against him. “Damianos. Who gave you that name?”

“I don’t know,” he said into her hair. “It’s always been my name.”

She drew back. “It’s an old name. Ancient Greek. Translated, it means to tame, to subdue.” Her eyes held his. “Indirectly, it means to kill.”

Zeus had done all those things. The king of the gods had tamed him, subdued him, and in the process, he’d killed the person Damon used to be. “I can’t use that name anymore.”

“You’re not that person anymore. Your name is Cerek.”

“Cerek.” The name still held no familiarity. Sounded foreign on his tongue.

“My Cerek,” she whispered. Rising to her toes, she brushed her lips against his and, added, “All mine.”

He opened to her kiss, dazed, confused, but steady because she was with him. She was right, he couldn’t leave her. He never wanted to leave her. They were free now. And all he wanted to do was lose himself in her love and never look back.

She shivered against him, and as he broke the kiss, he finally cued in to the fact it was night and they were standing in a damp forest, him wearing only pants and boots, her dressed in nothing but his thin T-shirt.

He ran his hands up and down her arms, hoping to warm her. “We need to find some kind of shelter.”

“The half-breed colony isn’t far. It’s in ruins now and abandoned, but we can safely stay there as long as we’d like. I brought us here because there are therillium stores in the tunnels beneath the colony.”

“The invisibility ore?”

She nodded. “Once we light the ore, no one will be able to find us. Not even Zeus.”

Being totally alone with her with no outside distractions sounded absolutely heavenly. “Lead the way.”

She stepped back, gripped his hand, and smiled. A shiver racked her body once more as she drew him into the trees. “That’s weird. It feels like it’s getting colder.”

It was getting colder. He felt the temperature drop, and a tingle rushed down his spine.

Daemons…
Hades’s daemons were somewhere close.

The realization hit like a wave, consuming every thought. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did. He pulled Elysia to a stop. “We have to leave.”

“But we haven’t even—”

A roar sounded through the trees. His head jerked in that direction and spotted the vile, seven-foot beast with the body of a man, the head of a lion, and the horns of a goat rushing straight toward them.

Protect her. Take her home. Keep her safe…

Instinct brought his hands together.

“Damon—Cerek”—panic filled her voice—“what are you doing?”

His pinky fingers connected, and a portal opened with a pop and sizzle of light that illuminated the forest. He jerked back in surprise, his eyes growing wide, but he didn’t care where it took them. With one look, he realized two more daemons had joined the first.