Page 5 of The Shadows of the Dawn

He padded to the bathroom, cringing away from the glare of the oval mirror’s ring light. He splashed his face with cold water, letting the shock soothe his tattered nerves.

He toweled his eyes dry. When he raised his head, he gave a cry at the semi-transparent reflection staring back at him with hellish red eyes, a bronze bald head sporting black bullhorns.

The Blood God.

“Oh, Nikola,” the patron rumbled, his voice originating not from behind the glass but instead inside Nikola’s skull. “Do not think you have escaped the holy city.”

The holy what? Did the deity mean Grander, the most unholy place on the planet? Before Nikola could respond, he heard the Goddess’s voice. She took the form of mist filling the bathroom, as if Nikola had just emerged from a steaming shower.

“She who rules will need the guidance of those who know both Blood and Moon.”

The God grinned, feral and unhinged. “You are still ours, shared pets. And the world is about to turn its attention unto vampiric kind yet again.”

“We call upon you, my sons, to help your brethren prepare for the storm,” the Goddess went on, her maternal softness in contrast to her twin’s mockery.

No. No. Asher and Nikola had escaped Grander and its political urban war by nearly a thousand miles. There was no way he would ever take Asher back there. Not after dragging him out of the land of the dead with his bare hands.

The God and the Goddess could smite Nikola all they liked. They could haunt him. They could strip him of his vampiric gifts and immortality. But what could they even do to him? According to Asher, the twins behaved like otherworldly spirits, not all-powerful deities.

Nikola Kingston was done with heavenly games.

He whirled away from the false reflection and marched through the fog. He slammed the door shut behind him, but if that were enough to stop the likes of such beings, the world would be a vastly different place. The voices followed him out into the bedroom.

“We are not here to curse you, Kingston. But to warn you.”

“You cannot simply flee.”

An ongoing buzz vibrated from the nightstand. Nikola’s cellphone. Anyone who had any reason to be calling him were all in the same building. He instantly regretted not leaving the damn thing behind and replacing it with a burner phone.

Morrigan’s name flashed across the screen.

Nikola struck the “ignore” prompt. He anticipated godly wrath but instead received frosty silence. Deafening silence. Nikola felt them depart his presence, leaving behind a yawning abyss. He reflected on the irony of the great relief he had felt the night the Goddess had spoken to him for the first time in decades. He could almost laugh as he compared it to his relief now that she’d gone.

If Asher and Nikola could live in peace, even if the cost was the voices of the patrons, so be it.

All the same, Nikola could feel the curiosity niggling at the back of his mind.

Why would Morrigan be calling me?

Asher stirred, squinting with bleary eyes up at Nikola. He was so enamored by the sight of sleep-tussled Asher, so grumpy and vulnerable and his. It didn’t matter what Morrigan or the gods wanted. Nikola’s sole purpose in life was keeping Asher safe.

A wisp of a thought floated through his head, his blood turning to ice. What if by ignoring these new callings, he was putting Asher into worse danger on a greater scale? Steering them all toward extinction?

Nikola breathed in. Then out. Perhaps he’d leave this one to fate.

“What’s up with you?” Asher spoke through the gravel of sleep. “You stink of anxiety.”

Nikola forced said anxiety to the corner of his mind. With a grin, he sat on the edge of the bed and leaned down to kiss Asher’s brow. “You say I smell bad?”

Asher snorted, blinking away the last of his fatigue. His fingertips teased the edge of Nikola’s scruffy jawline. He hadn’t had the chance to properly shave. Given the lustful spark in Asher’s eyes as he examined it, perhaps he would keep the shadow. “If I say yes, would that convince you to jump in the shower with me?”

The agreeable growl clawing from Nikola was overlapped by a knock at the door. He prayed it was housekeeping so he could guiltlessly tell them to bugger off, but they heard Veronica’s voice instead. “Hey, sorry, but do you two have a second?”

Asher and Nikola shared a frown. That doesn’t sound good. Nikola was across the room in a second, greeting Veronica at the door. “What’s wrong?” Nikola said, Asher springing out of bed behind him.

Veronica rubbed her shoulders, worrying the inside of her bottom lip with her teeth. “You probably want to check this out for yourselves.”

She led them back to Katsuki’s suite, finding everyone huddled around the TV playing local news. Moss, Trish, and Liam lingered in the background, their vastly varying eyes fixed on the report. After the godly confrontation this morning, Nikola had all but forgotten about the unwelcome trio.

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