Chapter Nine

Simeon leaned his elbow across the doorway, his body seeming to fill all the space, and his smirk seeming to fill her head. “Hi, Emily.”

Ugh. That wasn’t good. The way he said her name, all hopeful and breathy... She instantly remembered their last “practice.”

She tripped on her weak ankle. He caught her. Their lips were inches apart—

He’d breathed out her name, his hands tightening on her back—

And she’d stumbled away, pushing him off and cursing.

Never been kissed—until that one wonderful disastrous night in September.

Still a virgin.

Simeon Crow had probably bedded thousands of women. She wouldn’t be one of them, even if the hopeful note whenever he said her name lifted her heart out of the permanent pit it seemed to live in these days.

She should tell him to go away. Now. Scram.

“Come in, Simeon.” Her brain veered sharply out of alignment.

This was why her life was so messed up. Too many contradictory things living in her head at all times.

“Emily, you’re not going to believe this.”

“I already don’t believe this. Why are we still doing this? Why are you here? I can walk. I can fight. I don’t currently have anything to fight against, but I’m not taking my eyes off of you!” If I did, if I decided he was harmless, I’d have to leave town.

This is the only place that’s ever felt like home...

Or I’d have to believe he loves me.

I don’t know how anyone could love me.

“It’s not about training. Well, a little bit—” Simeon pushed his way in, and his body pressed against hers in passing.

She ducked as he came near her. “No kissing!”

Simeon gave her a look as if she was completely mental. “I wasn’t going to kiss you. Unless you kiss me first.”

“I wasn’t going to!”

“Your loss.”

“Smug much?” Emily sidestepped the vampire and retreated as far from him as possible, leaning against the window overlooking the street. She froze at the sight of a moonlight-silver sports car halfway on the sidewalk, halfway on the street. “Simeon! Did you steal that car? Does being undead mean you suck at parking?”

“Oi! Do you want to talk about the last time you were behind the wheel? I— Sorry.” He stopped and shook his head. “The car’s a loaner for a week. I have a mission, and I need help.”

“A mission? What are you, the V-Team?”

“For vampire? Ha, you’re a laugh riot. Hades should have met you. Well, I suppose he might have. Or does an underling handle that sort of stuff?” Simeon mumbled to himself, hand scratching his dark locks into a tumble of little spikes.

“I don’t get the joke, but I’m being serious. What kind of mission? Who in their right mind would give you a mission?”

His cold blue glare cut through her and made her feel small and guilty.

That’s no way to talk to the guy who made it his own mission to hunt down evil for decades. The man—I mean monster, who saved your life.

Some part of me believes he’s trying to be good.

That part of me gets bigger every day, no matter how much I try to silence it.

“Sorry. Who gave you a mission?” she repeated without the venom this time.

“No worries. Look, I agree. I don’t seem to be the mission type—unless it’s for you . For you, Emmy, I’d do anything.”

Her stomach curled up into a ball of nerves. This wasn’t the first time he’d said something similar. It was always, “Do you need anything?” “I’m here if you need me.” Anyone could say those things. It was neighborly.

No one, not even her father, had ever said he’d do anything for her. In fact, he’d trained her to remember that between her and the task of ridding the world of evil, his duty as a demon hunter came first.

Simeon continued when she didn’t say anything to his sweet sentiment. “Right,” he cleared his throat. “Well, this time, I’m the one with a big life-or-death ‘duty calls,’ and I want your help. Before you say no, let me tell you what you get out of it.”

“This oughta be good,” she muttered, sitting on the edge of the sofa.

“Luxurious travel,” Simeon gestured to the car on the front lawn, “all expenses paid, and I’m talking swanky accommodations and fancy frocks for undercover work, whatever you need, we’ll get. You get a week off from work, and all of New York will be demon-death free. I arranged it—wait, I’ll tell you how in a minute. But here’s the real kicker. If you don’t do it, all vampires and their spawn will be sucked into Tartarus for eternity. Hell, Emily. Mr. Minegold. Jesse and Sophie. Sweet little J.J. And me, but—”

“Simeon? Have you been eating addicts?” Great. The closest thing she had to a friend (how weird was that ), the guy she could tell anything to, anything good, bad, or guilt-inducing, had gone nutty.

“Nope, strictly shop-bought, me.”

“Well, maybe you got a bad batch at the butcher’s because it sounded like you said Mr. Minegold and his family were going to be hanging out in tarter sauce for eternal damnation.”

“ Tartarus . The old Greek mythological Hell. Apparently, Hades sublets.”

Hades. Tartarus. Words from her virtual high school English assignments poked Emily’s brain until meanings were connected. “Is this some kind of pre-Halloween joke?”

“Nope. Want me to convince you?”

“Can you do it in five minutes or less?”

Simeon grinned. “As a matter of fact, I can.”

I love the girl. But I’m still just a touch evil.

Simeon was looking forward to watching Emily’s reaction to H-Drive. “Tell me a place.”

“A place? Like a noun—place?”

“Yes, tell me a place. Name any location .”

“Um. My apartment.”

He stifled an impatient groan. “Not that place. Another place. A place where we aren’t , Huntress, we’re in the bloody car! We wouldn’t be in the car if I wanted to take you to the place we’re already—argh. Why would you— never mind. Tell me a place— wait, buckle up first.”

“Simeon,” Emily groaned and reached for the door handle. “I’m in no mood for cryptic or condescending.”

“Sorry. Please. Trust me. If I’m wrong, you can stake me.”

“I’m not going to do that. But you’re still going to be wrong.” Emily buckled up as she taunted him in a singsong voice.

Simeon gingerly tapped the silver button and tightened his hands on the wheel, teeth locked. “A place, not here, on dry land. Preferably somewhere safe.”

“Uhhh. Okay. Um. Oh, what about—”

“Wait! Wait, wait.” Simeon reached out and seized her hand. “It should also be outside of a building. Don’t say someone’s room. Just don’t.”

“You’re freaking me out.”

“If you weren’t so damned stubborn...”

“If you weren’t so damned sneaky!”

“Name a place!”

“Hawaii!”

“Oh, God. Hawaii.” Simeon hoped there was no limit on time zones or water crossings. He felt his body lift a few inches out of the seat despite the seat belt, and the night sky seemed to blur and sizzle.

Just for a second.

Then, everything was peaceful. Shady trees. Lapping water. Beautiful view of Mauna Loa, if he wasn’t mistaken. Nice place to vacation.

If not for the company.

Emily’s scream echoed in the car and wouldn’t stop. Then the rain of blows on his arm joined the screaming. “What did you do? What the fuck did you do, why did you—”

Vacation over. “Pinecrest Avenue, Pine Ridge, New York, the front of Emily Van Helsing’s apartment building!” Simeon hissed, dodging her hammer-like love taps.

The car left the sparkling white beach and reappeared in front of Emily’s apartment almost instantly. “There! See?”

Emily scrambled out of the car, hands out in front of herself, ribs heaving. “What? What the hell was that? Why? How?”

“It’s Hades’ car. We get it for the week. We have to go find his wife.”

Emily’s hands were suddenly on him, gripping the collar of his jacket. “We’re what ?”

He sighed. “Let’s get you to a nice, solid seat, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

Well. He’d told her everything—or as much as Simeon ever divulged at once. She had been talking to him for months, and there were still things he was close-mouthed about.

Emily knew if she agreed to help, she’d be getting surprise after surprise, little “Oh, didn’t I mention that?” bits of news until the assignment was over.

She told Simeon she needed to think about it.

“We’ve got a week, Van Helsing. A week!”

“Yeah, well... You can get started without me.”

The look he gave her for that little remark.

At least Van Helsing got all flustered and looked away.

“I prefer to wait with you. Still, I might go have a talk with Jakob. See if he’s got any bright ideas. I’ll be back in two hours. Gimme your answer when I get back, for or against, because honest to God—ha—I don’t think I can wait much longer. A week to save all of vampire kind—”

“Yeah, that’s one of the cons, for me. We can’t save a few to spare the many.”

Simeon crossed his arms and glared. “The rest we can bloody well hunt down, you an’ me, Van Helsing. You’ve never loved anyone properly, have you? Never had one person you would risk burning down the world for?”

“No! That’s not how love is. The greater good always matters more than the individual,” she countered. “A life of sacrifice and—”

Simeon turned suddenly, eyes the telltale vampiric red that made her fingers itch to grab her stakes.

“You tell me how I’m supposed to look Minegold in the eye and tell him I’m going to ‘sacrifice’ his little grandson, how I’m supposed to send that baby boy to Tartarus along with the murdering scum just because Lilith waited almost nine hundred years to start searching.” With that, Simeon slammed out of the front door, and in seconds, Emily heard the silver Mustang screech away.

Hades is going to kill him for treating his car like that, she thought.

Hades. Hades, the god of the dead, showed up and gave Simeon a sports car, a rescue mission, and a death threat. Ha.

It’s probably some kind of trick. He wants to get me out of town for some reason.

I can’t believe he’d use J.J. like that, though. That’s really low, even for him.

Emily shook her head and paced. No. Can’t believe that.

“Ahem.”

Emily turned and smothered a scream during a battle. She had been taught never to scream, but her heart hammered against her ribs.

There was an incredibly beautiful woman standing in her doorway, head cocked to the side in the picture of tentative intrusion.

“I’m sorry to interrupt. Your front door was open, and Dad was afraid the vampire wasn’t going to do a good job explaining the situation. I’m Milly.”

“Milly? Dad?”

“Melino?. Milly for short.” The girl walked over, chestnut curls bouncing in soft ripples across her shoulders, pale skin highlighted by sunny blue-green eyes and rosy cheeks. “My dad is Hades. My mother is Persephone.”

“Oh, man. What did Simeon do? Go on the demon version of Candid Camera ? How many other people has he roped into convincing me this is—”

“Your worst nightmare used to be that you’d turn into a vampire. Before that, it was that your father would die, just like your mother had. For months, you had a dream that your father left you in a ‘training session,’ either tied to a chair, locked in a cell, or even shut in a coffin—and he didn't come back. You’d wake up before you died, but only just.” Milly held her forefinger and thumb apart with a sad smile. “Now... you have a nightmare fairly often that you’re dying and you’re all alone. You’ve never felt happiness or love, and when you get to heaven, they tell you that you can’t come in because you didn’t do enough. You don’t know if you’ll ever be happy, and you fear that even death won’t end the misery.”

Emily felt all the air in the room turn to sandpaper. It hurt to take a deep breath, and her eyes stung. The blow was too raw and too deep, too real and too private. “H-how?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t like to do that. I’m Melino?, the Goddess of Nightmares. I usually let my assistants handle things while I’m at school, but if I ever need to convince a mortal that I’m the real deal, that little stunt works. Can we talk? I brought tea.”

“I have to make a call first.”

“I’m having tea with a goddess. You can come over. Killing you is up in the air.”

“Making a U-Turn,” Simeon said, voice devoid of emotion.

Emily put down the phone and walked into the kitchen/dining room. In the small apartment, they sort of bled together. She paused.

The table had been set with two cups and a little white teapot with a faint blue pattern encircling its fat round bottom. A plate of cookies that looked like the buttery, sandy, melt-in-your-mouth kind that she couldn’t afford to splurge on sat by the cups.

“I have peanut butter and chocolate ones, too, but I thought you might like these. You and your mother used to eat them every morning before your father woke up around lunchtime. It was your special treat, but he didn’t like you having sweets. He said it would make you lose focus and bad carbs would make you weak in a fight.”

“Stop doing that. Stop telling me things about my life.”

“I will... if you’ll listen to some things about mine.”

Well. That seemed fair. Emily sat, keeping her feet flat on the floor and butt on the edge of her seat, ready to run if need be.

“My dad is Hades. My mom is Persephone. Forget everything you think you know about them. They were the world’s most nauseatingly happy couple.”

Milly reached into a taupe purse that matched her chic linen dress. A glittering cloud suddenly appeared over the table as Emily gasped, mesmerized.

Hades was handsome in a worrying way... He had piercing eyes, a serious face, and a long, tall frame that dwarfed the woman beside him. His lips curved up in a smile that could read as sinister or teasing. Emily couldn’t tell. The black ensemble and the crown of bones on his head didn’t help.

Milly swirled her finger, and the image revolved and zoomed in.

“Ohhh.” Emily felt compelled to let out a knowing noise. Up close, sinister was actually... seductive. If she had to guess, Persephone had a thing for complicated bad boys, or at least boys who hung out on the dark side. (Sadly, she could now relate.) The woman in the picture returned Hades’ smirk with an adoring look of her own.

“Watch.” Milly pulled out handful after handful of glittering dust from her bag, and the images began to move.

“This is their anniversary party. I was ten. In god years, that is. I don’t know how long that is in mortal time right now, but... But that doesn’t matter. Watch them.”

Emily couldn’t watch anything else. The couple danced, laughing, kissing, occasionally sweeping a younger Milly or a teen boy into their arms and letting them go quickly.

“That’s my family, but a big chunk is missing. I know what people say. That if she’s been gone for a thousand years—”

“ How many?”

“—that she wants to stay gone. But I don’t think so. No one who knows them would think that. Someone has my mother. My father, as powerful as he is, can’t find her. Something is cloaking her, sabotaging him, or both. Before you ask, why can’t he find her himself... imagine what would happen to the world if no one died for days, but people kept being born. In just five days, a million people more than Earth could sustain would exist. Starvation and war would break out. Gravely wounded people would fill hospitals and nursing homes, but they wouldn’t die. My father can’t stop his job for more than a minute, especially not without Mom. She made things run smoothly. She had... she had natural timing. Life, death, and seasons move through her.” Milly beamed, eyes bright and wet. “If you knew your mother was out there and could still be saved—what would you do?”

Emily slowly nibbled a cookie. “You came to convince me?”

“I hope to. If I don’t, my brother’s going to try and... well, frankly, he’s just annoying. No finesse, but really determined. Oh, and I don’t know if you need someone to cover your job at the grocery store, but Zag and I would be happy to help pitch in. And of course, the vampire has one of Dad’s phones, so you can call us to check in. Just dial 2 for him and 3 for me. 9 will get you to Dad, but he’s a bear to talk to on the phone. Only call if you need info—or you want a really corny joke about people dying to talk to him.”

“Wow. Even gods tell dad jokes?”

“It must happen from lack of sleep. It kills their humor brain cells.”

“Ah. Right. Well, I don’t know about covering shifts—I haven’t taken any time off since I started working there, and I’ve covered a few weekends, too, so I can probably have some time off. I could use another favor, though. No more nightmares. Please.” Emily tried to keep the tremble out of her voice. “Especially not—especially not that last one. The one where I never, ever understand what it’s like to... just end. Or to be happy.”

Milly nodded and pulled out a slender black flip phone from her purse. “Zag? It looks like she’ll do it.” Milly looked at Emily with a question in her eyes.

Emily nodded, knowing that there would be some kind of fallout and feeling pretty helpless to stop it.

“That’s affirmative. What? No, I haven’t been watching Mission Impossible. Stop being negative! I said we’d help her at work as needed. But I need you to make a note. Put Van Helsing, Emily, on the Perma-Sweet list.”

Emily heard a deep, exasperated voice fill the room. “Oh, Styx and Lethe! First, Dad promised a full demon hibernation for New York, and now you put one more on the No-Nightmares list?”

“ Zagreus .”

“Geez, okay. Anything for Mom. What job am I supposed to do?”

“Stock shelves and run the register if one of the cashiers calls out sick,” Emily supplied automatically.

“I can do that.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to,” Emily said nervously. Turning a Goddess of Nightmares and her brother loose in Pine Ridge probably wouldn’t endear her to the locals. “I don’t need a temp.” I need a family. I need... someone to love me. Mom? Would they give me my mother back if I found theirs?

Milly mumbled something into the phone and hung up. She reached out and laid a surprisingly solid, soft palm on top of Emily’s hand. “I’m sorry. I can’t send her back. She’s in the Heavenly Realm. She loves you, and she would come back for you... but you wouldn’t want to do that to her. She wouldn’t be human anymore, and you’re already struggling with the good non-humans around you.”

Emily nodded, trying to stuff the selfishness down. “My Dad—”

Milly’s face changed, ever so subtly hardening. “He’s more like Zeus than Hades. Trust me. You don’t need him here.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means your father had his obsessions and his own desires. Everyone and everything else was of little interest to him. He didn’t love you as a daughter. He trained you as his replacement. He was proud of your skills. He was proud of your kills. He loved you—not as a child, but as a machine. And you’ve realized that ever since you were little. You just had no one to tell.”

Emily’s fists tightened at her sides. “So you’re the Goddess of Nightmares. What does your brother do?”

“Zag is the god of rebirth, as well as the Prince of the Underworld. I’m the Goddess of Nightmares and Madness. If we manipulate things just right, we can create an idea that will drive someone crazy—or we can clear their mind and help them see what they’ve been missing.”

“Stay out of my head!” Emily hissed, pushing her chair away.

“I’m sorry. It’s just something that happens when I’m near mortals.”

“If you’re so powerful, why can’t you two find your mom?” Emily groused. She immediately wished she hadn't.

Milly’s face took on a lost, bewildered, helpless look.

I must’ve looked that way when Mom left—and when Dad said she couldn’t come back because—

Maybe if Mom’s car had crashed in Pine Ridge instead of on the A-1, she would have been saved.

It was this numb, “nothing is ever going to be right again” look. “I-I don’t know. I look for her. I scan mortal dreams. I thought someone might have seen her and dreamed about her. Zagreus shows her image to every soul he can. It’s like... not one mortal has seen her. Or if they have, they can’t remember her. Maybe she’s trapped somewhere all alone. She can’t die—she’s already tasted the fruit of the dead. Even if... I don’t know, even if she was turned into a mortal by some miracle, she’s not dead, or she’d be home by now. Seriously, we’d be thrilled if Mom showed up as a soul. That wouldn’t even freak us out. She and Dad could rule side by side, living or dead. And I know what people say— If she’s not dead, she must want to stay gone. Well,” Milly swallowed audibly, pushing back from the table with a scrape of chair legs. “I’ve seen a lot of people in my life. I’ve never seen anyone as crazy about each other as my mom and dad. I’ve seen lots of moms, and mine—mine is objectively one of the best. You know how parents say ‘I have all the time in the world for you’? She really did. She really meant it. And someone,” Milly’s voice cracked and broke, sobs taking over the confident words, “someone took her from us.”

Instinctively, hurt calling to hurt, Emily went and put her arms around the sobbing woman. “Well...I’ll help you get her back.”