Page 95 of Vengeful Mates
The mafia princess spun around, a pistol drawn from somewhere on her body. Her bodyguards pulled their guns, forcing her behind them, but the little War goddess moved sideways.
“Come back to pay your debt, Mr. Vincent?” She enunciated every syllable of his last name.
Slade kept going, his steps arduous, teeth grinding. “Zethan, do something,” he gritted out, and I knew something serious was wrong.
Golden handprints branded the exposed skin on his arm. The dead urging him forward. Dragging him, coercing his legs to move. Taking him to their master. Colton waited for him behind a blockade of dead men, dagger ready to plunge into Slade’s stomach.
My heart launched into my throat, pounding so hard my neck pulsed like a fucking frog’s. I had to save Slade and drive Colton to the grave.
Faline’s gaze followed mine, zoning in on her mate.
“Come here, kitten,” Colton coaxed. “It’s time to punish you for stealing my casino.”
Faline shot a few rounds at him, but the bullets vaporized into thin air. “What in the name of Ra?”
Her bodyguards bundled her in their arms and carried her inside the casino and locked the six-inch steel behind them. No way for Colton to get through there unless he could walk through walls.
Maybe she didn’t work with her mate. Fuck. Was this Colton’s trick all along?
I swayed forward, reaching Slade in a matter of steps, flinging the souls off his arms and transporting them back to the Underworld. Once I dealt with the crowd, I turned to address Colton. No more playing. No more ambushes. The afterlife called this prick.
Palm open, I called to his soul, ready to finish what I stopped Hades from doing eighteen months ago. Except Colton’s essence didn’t respond to my summons. Dark, bitter power blocked my repeated attempts, and my enemy laughed, resentful and cold. Mocking me.
Why the fuck wasn’t it working? I tried again with no luck.
“Fuck.” I flicked my hand and charged my magick for one last attempt. Veins in my arms turned blue and my skin a deathly grey.
“Zethan,” Slade growled.
Colton laughed, a derisive and taunting sound that made my bones freeze. “Don’t even try, King of Bandages. My power is more ancient and darker than anything you’ve got.”
Another twenty souls emerged from the Underworld, their minds focused on a single thought: taking me down. They, like Slade, were consumed by a force that besieged and conquered them. The strength of the original King of the Underworld. Anubis.
When Set murdered Osiris, and Isis and Thoth resurrected him, Ra replaced Anubis with Osiris as the Underworld’s new king. Anubis didn’t take the news too well. Cursed Osiris and Isis to be apart for an eternity. For my god’s wife to belong to three other gods.
The flood of souls rushed at my president and me, knocking us off our feet. Breath stolen from me, I stumbled, crawling to my knees. Hands clamped down on my arms, holding me in place. The fucking dead pinning their master down!
“Get off me!” I bellowed with the might of their king.
Several hands snapped back.
“Hold him!” came Colton’s order.
Ghostly hands took form with the aid of Colton’s dark magick, curled around my limbs and pinned me down.
Death god to Death god. Fuck, the poor souls didn’t stand a chance. Neither did I against the lethal power swarming my body, killing my cells, weakening me, discharging my power.
“Release me,” I ordered the souls, fighting Anubis’ hold over them before he sent me to the Underworld.
“Let him go and I will crush your souls and your chance of another life,” Colton snarled.
Godammit. Anubis was the Keeper of the Dead. Protector of the Dead. He didn’t fucking command the dead anymore. I was their lord king and commander. The judger of souls. Punisher of souls. Appointed by Ra, king of gods.
Colton pulled a similar trick over me in the Valley of Kings, resisting the command of his lord and superior, and I didn’t have much time to figure out how to fight him off and beat him.
Slade managed to shake three souls off with a kick. They hit the garbage bin and disappeared through the brick, inside the casino where more victims awaited.
Colton moved through the crowd of souls with the prowl of a wolf on the hunt. “You stalked and threatened my mate and property. An act of aggression against me that I will not tolerate.”
