Fates' Folly (31 page)

The problem was that even though Sebastian
was a psychotic, soul stealing, arrogant, asshole, who had no
qualms about murdering innocent people, or taking their will and
manipulating their lives and deaths to suit his own needs, he was
himself a victim. He was following Hades' orders, and as he had
pointed out, as one of Hades' Assassins he had a duty to convert
souls to Greek theology. Who's to say after thousands of years of
serving Hades, I wouldn't feel the same way about mortal souls?

I stopped in front of Sebastian and realized
that, though I felt no need to give him a hug or even touch him, I
no longer felt like kicking the crap out of him either. He probably
really loved Amelia and, in his own demented way, was doing the
best he could for Joshua Collins.

I needed to get Sebastian to shift me home.
If in doing so I ended up helping the little creep, so be it- I've
done worse.

"Explain to me why you're so sure your
dying?" I asked.

Sebastian wiped his sleeve across his face.
"I don't know, but I do know death well enough to know I am at its
door."

"And the fact that you're immortal makes no
difference?"

"Immortality does not truly exist. Death
eventually finds us all. If you live long enough you will welcome
it."

"You've got to cut the drama club stuff, it's
starting to cancel out my sympathy. When did you decide you were
dying?"

Sebastian frowned. "I'm not sure, I think
after your soul was taken from me. It left me so weak..."

"You know, you didn't look so hot before you
stole my soul either. You looked like you had missed several meals.
I remember because I was going to donate my Lucky Charms to
you."

Sebastian smiled. "Very thoughtful of you,"
he said with a leer, a weak and pitiful leer, but I got the point
anyway.

"I meant the cereal."

Sebastian shrugged.

I ignored him and began to pace again.
"Listen, I know this may be a crazy thought, but what I'm trying to
get at is, what if holding onto Joshua's soul is what's killing
you? You said yourself that you can't possess it."

"So…"

"It's like when you get a splinter. You
hardly notice at first, but eventually, it starts to fester, and
before you know it, your whole hand is aching, and then, if you
still don't take care of it, it becomes infected."

His eyes became distant, and I got the
feeling my analogy was lost on him. "Basically, I'm saying Joshua
Collins' soul is a foreign object, and you're dying trying to hold
on to him."

I waited patiently, tapping my foot while he
puzzled out what I had just said. I will admit, I didn’t have two
doctorates to my name, but I think I was right in my thinking- in
fact, I'd even say it was obvious.

Finally, with a hint of disdain and a raised
eyebrow, Sebastian said, "Why I am dying has no bearing on our
present situation. I will not give Joshua up to suffer Christian
damnation."

"Then let me go home. I will tell everyone
who will listen about what Hades has done."

He didn't even hesitate. "No. I don't want to
be alone, and you can tell everyone after I die."

"How? I don't know how to shift, and I
haven't a clue where we are."

Sebastian sniffed. "We're in a basement
storage space in an abandoned parking garage near Lakewood."

"Grand. That solves all my problems. Are you
going to help me un-barricade the door before you take your last
breath, so I can walk I don't know how far and find a way to
contact Riley?"

"No. I chose my safe house with care. There's
a cement pylon in front of the door that cannot be moved, even by
an immortal. This room can only be accessed by shifting, and
considering no one else has been here to know our location," he
smiled proudly, "we our quite safe from intrusion.

I kicked the wall in frustration. "I don't
know why you're so smug. I can't tell anyone anything if I'm stuck
here. That's not exactly going to help your plan of becoming
infamous, or your revenge against Hades."

I nudged a liquor bottle with my toe,
watching it roll in an arc. "Well, unless you wanted to be
remembered for being an idiot. In that case, this was a stellar
plan."

"How do you not know how to shift?"

"I've only been immortal for six days, give
me a break."

"I was shifting on my own by the end of day
one."

"Good for you. You learned how to shift, and
I got assigned as Hades' Champion for the Olympian Trials."

Sebastian laughed, coughed, choked a little
and then laughed some more. "You're Hades' Champion? That's why
Bartholomew was hanging around. I forgot, you said Barty was
teaching you how to take a punch. Riley got him to train you,
didn't he?"

I rolled my eyes.

Sebastian continued laughing. "The thought of
seeing you as Hades' Champion, competing in the Trials," he laughed
again, "it's almost enough to make me want to live."

"Great, shift me home, and you can have a
front row seat," I half growled.

His only answer was more coughing and
laughter.

Fantastic, he was going to die laughing at
me, and I'd be stuck here for eternity. "Hey, what happens to your
soul when you die? Will Hades send someone to collect it?"

"I don't know. I guess so, it is his to
claim."

"Well, what about Joshua? If you just let
yourself die, what will happen to Joshua's soul? Are you just going
to let Hades decide what to do with it? Though, I guess it could be
worse. What if, when you die, Joshua's soul is released and he just
floats away, or an avenging angel from Joshua's belief comes and
claims him? Everything you've done to protect him would be
wasted."

"Poor Joshua, there is nothing else I can do
for him," Sebastian whined.

Now I was really getting pissed. Sebastian
was just going to sit on the nasty, moldy mattress feeling sorry
for himself until he died, leaving Joshua's soul, and me along with
it, to who the hell knows what. I glared at Sebastian and very
clearly said, "Coward."

Sebastian’s lip curled as he menacingly
snarled, "I have never been and never will be a coward. I should
break you for the insult."

I ignored the fear that was clenching my
stomach. "What would you call it? You're afraid to face Hades, you
practically agreed with me that Joshua's soul was killing you and,
though you say you're trying to protect him, you've done nothing to
help his soul find peace. You can't be a martyr by dying in an
abandoned storage room amidst garbage- you will only die a
coward."

He leapt to his feet, and before I could even
think to move, his hand clutched my throat, his nails digging into
my skin. He slammed me against the cinder block wall, my skull
meeting violently with the coarse concrete wall, making my vision
darken while my other senses were stunned by the pain. Sebastian
squeezed my throat while I frantically tried to pull his hand away,
gasping for air.

I could see tiny purple spider web veins
through the filth on his face.

He screamed, flecks of spit hitting my
cheeks, "I am not a coward! Do you hear me?"

I had squeezed my eyes shut but still tried
to nod. He leaned against me, practically laying on me, his mouth
against my ear. Breathing heavily, he whispered, "I will face
Hades, and you will find a way for Joshua's soul to be safe or I
will take you down with me."

You'd think I would have noticed right away
when he let go of my throat, though I guess I was just so frozen in
shock or fear, that by the time I realized he had released me, he
was back across the room, leaning casually on the opposite wall,
most of his face in shadows, his arms folded across his chest.

"I hope you will not hold my temper against
me. Though I meant every word that I said, I feel I might have
been… overly enthusiastic in expressing myself."

"I would never accuse you of being reserved
or subtle," I croaked on a cough, as my throat struggled to start
working again.

Sebastian moved off the wall, walking toward
me. I will not lie and say I did not stiffen and try to back away
from him, even though I could still feel the wall at my back and
knew there was nowhere to go. When he took my hands in his, I
briefly wondered if he would now start breaking each of my bones,
beginning with my fingers. Then I silently thanked The Fates as I
felt the familiar, and for once welcomed, pain of shifting.

I fell into my favorite orange chair. I
felt like I was on fire, my entire body burning intensely. "Please,
for the love of Ned, do not swivel," I whispered to the chair.

"Myra!" I heard Riley shout my name, and
suddenly he was there, kneeling in front of me, touching my face,
my hair, my hands. It should have made me hurt worse, hell, it
probably did, but the overwhelming feeling of relief at seeing him
again overrode any pain.

"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon,
whole and unharmed. I was afraid of what Sebastian would do," he
said, wiping tears from my face.

I would not describe myself as an overly
emotional person. I've been described as cold- hearted more than
once, but as the shock of the past few hours and the pain of
shifting three times abated, I found myself sliding from my chair
into Riley's arms where I proceeded to soak his shirt with the warm
tears and snot, of a lengthy, ugly cry.

I'm not sure how long Riley held me in his
arms rubbing circles of comfort on my back while I blubbered, but
when I finally dried out and looked up into Riley's gray eyes, I
felt knowledge burst within me as the feeling formed words in my
brain, I love you. It wasn't lust, or hormones or desire- hell, if
I was being honest, it was probably one of the least desirable
things to occur. I have never loved anyone, aside from my mama, and
I'm not sure if my feelings for her were love or obligation. I
certainly have never loved any man.

Riley pushed a clump of hair out of my face.
"Better?" he asked.

"I'm going to be kicked out of the man-haters
club," I said on a shudder.

He laughed, pulling me into a warm hug.

"If you're finished coddling her, Riley, I do
believe we have other things of importance to see to," Barty
sneered.

Riley stood up, somehow bringing me with him,
so I was standing too, facing a disapproving Barty, who was holding
Sebastian up by his shirt collar.

Riley stepped forward. "I will take Sebastian
to Hades. Bartholomew can stay-"

"No," I said, as I wobbled over to my French
doors, pulled the curtain back and un-taped three packages of cake
rolls. Before I made it back to my chair I had consumed one cake
roll and was in the process of devouring the other.

Riley said, "Savoring?"

"Savor, smavor, I'm in need, "I said.

"Oh my goodness, TT, could you at least
swallow before you try to speak?" Barty asked, acting
disgusted.

"That's what you say to all the guys," I
said, feeling better already.

"And once again, you live up to your
nickname," Barty said, with a bit of a smile.

I snickered, "It may have been raunchy, but
it was funny- admit it Barty, you thought it was funny."

Barty held up his thumb and index fingers,
separating them about an inch. "Maybe a little bit," he
admitted.

Riley turned to me. "Myra, I know you've had
a tough few hours, but I have to present Sebastian to Hades. I'm
almost out of time, and the Christian God only knows where Peter
got off to. I don't want to have to fight the Gate Keeper tonight.
Barty can stay here with you."

"I'm not saying you can't leave, or hell,
take Sebastian with you. I won't lie and say I don't have an urge
to punch him myself, but you need to hear him out. You need to know
what Hades has been up to, and you've got to help me figure out
what to do with Joshua Collins’ soul."

Riley pushed his glasses further up his nose.
"Joshua Collins, the boy whose parents we harassed? The boy that
committed suicide?"

"Yes. Sebastian took his soul, and still has
it. I think that’s why he's dying."

Barty pushed Sebastian down on the love seat.
Sebastian groaned in pain while Barty, unconcerned, leaned against
the arm of the couch.

Riley pulled one of the two ladder back
chairs from the dining room table, put it down beside me, turned it
so the back was facing Sebastian and Barty, straddled it, sitting
backwards with his arms folded over the top slat and said, "You've
got ten minutes."

Ten minutes later Barty was pacing and
shouting. “Maybe we could get Sebastian a job teaching
preschoolers. He could warp their little minds until someone spills
his Jell-O and he goes over the edge and begins stealing souls
again because, as we all know, there just isn't enough Jell-O to go
around!"

Riley ignored Barty's ranting and, shaking
his head said, "The only solution for Joshua Collins’ soul is to
give him to Peter."

"What about Hades- we can't let him get away
with this," I said. "He wants Sebastian destroyed because he
doesn't want anyone to get wind of what he was up to. He broke the
one law thingy!"

"I've already told you I would destroy the
tainted yogurt and subliminal recordings," Barty said, leaning
against the arm of the couch, again.

"Okay, but shouldn't we tell Zeus or
something? He shouldn't be allowed to get away with it."

Riley sighed, "Myra. We have no recourse
against Hades’ actions, we only exist to do his bidding."

"Even if we tried to inform Zeus, after he
had a tantrum at being left out of the scheme, he would only
reinstate the plan himself," Barty added.

"I hate being one of Hades' lackeys, and I
hate being immortal. There's a reason humans have a sell by date-
we aren't meant to live forever," I yelled, kicking over the stack
of newspapers and uncovering my stash of moon pies.