Forgotten Gods Boxed Set 2 Read online

  Forgotten Gods Boxed Set Two

  Books 5 - 8

  ST Branton

  CM Raymond

  LE Barbant

  Forgotten Gods Boxed Set Two (this book) is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2019 CM Raymond and LE Barbant

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

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  First US edition, April 2019

  Contents

  Gods Of New York

  God Country

  Haunted By The Gods

  Gods Remembered

  Gods Of New York

  The Forgotten Gods Series Book 5

  Prologue

  The figure sat alone, the wind whipping her hair as she gazed down upon the burgeoning chaos in the streets. Her yellow eyes narrowed with equal parts malice and amusement. The scene was messy—it almost had to be—but what a beautiful mess it was. The chorus of screams and sirens drifted up, and up, and up.

  It would only get worse from there.

  “Tahn.”

  A smile had begun to curl its way across the woman’s elegant, serpentine features, but it fell at the sound of her name. She unfolded her long, slender limbs, turning to face the newcomer. Though the arrival felt like an intrusion, Tahn had been waiting on her guest. And for once, her guest was right on time.

  “Rocca.” Tahn forced the smile back onto her face. “Thank you for coming.”

  Rocca scowled. She towered over her slender associate, her shadow stretching on the roof behind her. At her waist, a heavy chain weighed down her belt. Its links were struck through with veins of scarlet. A pair of horns began just behind her temples, curving out to twin vicious points. She leveled them at the other woman now. “What do you want, snake? Make it quick. I’m here to kill Lorcan.”

  Tahn laughed. Slow as always, the poor, stupid devil. “You’re too late. Lorcan is dead.”

  Insult gleamed in Rocca’s eyes. She blew out a seething breath. “I thought we agreed he was mine!” The chain rattled in her clenched fist.

  “You misunderstand me, dear Rocca… again. I’m not the one who killed him.” Tahn glanced down into the teeming streets. “It is as I warned you. The threats here are numerous, even to those who would call themselves gods. That little plan of which you were so proud was a fool’s errand, doomed to fail.” Tahn’s lip curled again. A forked tongue lashed at the edges of her teeth. She could feel Rocca’s rage building behind her like the heat of a well-stoked fire.

  “You know nothing of my plans,” growled the giant, shaking her heavy horns. Her fists clenched at her side. Anyone else would have been quaking before her might, but this slippery lowlife simply sat there, reveling in a quiet sense of superiority. Infuriating.

  This time, as Tahn gazed at Rocca, the grin was real, and it was mocking. “Oh, please,” she hissed. “Your darling pets won’t be enough to secure a location like this. They’ll be crushed beneath the heels of others. We’re hardly the only ones with eyes on such a splendid city.” The tongue flashed. “I hear that Beleza is planning to make an entrance. You know how he is.”

  It was Rocca’s turn to laugh heartily. She settled into a wide sneer. “If Beleza dares to show that pretty face, I’ll rip it off his skull. It’s almost too bad you won’t be here to see it!” On the last word, she released the force of all the pent-up fury that had been building since she heard that Lorcan’s death had been stolen from her. The chain threw up a fountain of sparks as she dragged it over the concrete roof, winding up for what she intended to be a killing blow. She’d had enough of Tahn’s smugness.

  She’d had enough of all of them.

  The great chain cracked through the air, descending in a clean, brutal line toward Tahn’s upturned face. For a moment, the yellow eyes watched without a trace of emotion. Then they were gone with the rest of her. Rocca’s killing blow struck nothing but air and the edge of a roof above New York City. When she realized she’d been had, she let out a bellow of indignation and spun around, searching for the source of the trickery. The end of the chain trailed out over a hundred-story drop.

  All she heard was an echoing cackle being swept away by the wind. Nothing more.

  Rocca threw her head back and clenched her teeth. “Is that the way you want it, Tahn?” she rumbled to herself. “So be it.” One massive fist raised her chain toward the churning sky, and a crack appeared among the clouds. Rocca watched the dark void widen.

  Her minions, crowded on the other side, spilled forth in a red and burning torrent. No matter what Tahn wanted anyone to believe, everything was still happening according to careful design.

  A cruel smirk touched Rocca’s mouth. “You may have taken Lorcan,” she whispered, “but soon, I’ll take the rest.”

  Chapter One

  I craned my neck back, blinking, the glare of the sun only intensified by the towering shadow of the FBI precinct behind us. We had just left the frying pan, and now the crisp air smelled like fire. After almost thirty years spent roaming the streets of New York City, I thought I’d seen some shit. But this? This was something else.

  “You’re seeing this, right?” Deacon pulled up beside me, catching his breath. “It’s not just me?”

  “When was it ever ‘just you?’” I asked, giving him some side-eye I knew he could feel. “Last I checked, it was always just me.”

  He chuckled wryly and shook his head. “Yeah, well, I guess I owe you a drink or ten after this is all over.” Squinting up at the widening vortex in the sky, he grimaced. “If there are any bars left.”

  “Are you kidding me, man?” Now I was the one shaking my head. My hand dropped to the familiar heavy hilt in my bag. “The end of the freaking world is a bar in New York City.” And with that, I drew my weapon. The blade burst to life, its heat radiating down into my palm. I took a deep breath.

  Now or never, Vic. Now or never.

  As streams of fleeing pedestrians buffeted me on every side, I pressed against the living current toward the center of the fray. My heart pounded in my chest. Hell surrounded me, but I willed my feet to keep moving. I’m the one with the Gladius Solis. I have to do this.

  “Hey!” Deacon’s voice, harsh and slightly panicked, snapped me out of it. “What are you doing, woman?!” He grabbed my shoulder and yanked backward until I almost stumbled into him. “Damn, Vic, I knew you were crazy but not this crazy!” He made a wide, sweeping gesture encompassing a panorama of pandemonium. “This is what we at the Bureau like to call a suicide mission. And I am not about to let you take it on.”

  I frowned deeply because he was right, and that conflicted with my convictions that I was the one making the correct choice. Maybe it wasn’t pretty, but reality rarely was. “All these people need me, Deacon. They need this.” I brandished the burning sword with a practiced little flourish. “If I don’t go in there, who knows how many people are going to die? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?” I tried to take a step away from him. He held fast. I’d forgotten how damn strong he was.

  “And what happens after you get o
utnumbered and killed?” he retorted. “Look, V, you got skills. No use denying that. And you got… something else, too. Whatever it is that landed you neck-deep in this mess. But you’re still just one person, all right? You can’t take on an army of these bastards by yourself. Look at them!” He pointed at the shapes pouring out from the gap in the sky.

  “Oh, trust me,” I said. “I see them.” I recognized a lot of them, too—or at least, I knew what they were. The horns, the charred skin, the fiery chain brands—they had to be Marked. On a reflex, I felt my neck for the reassuring weight of Marcus’s pendant. It wasn’t there. Just for a second, panic made my chest seize up. Then I remembered—I’d left him with Maya. A gigantic sigh of relief slackened my shoulders.

  “What?” Deacon glanced at me keenly. “What’s wrong?”

  I shook my head to clear it. “Nothing. I don’t feel good about this, Deacon. I feel like I’m failing all these people. Millions of people. ” I wanted to help, and in the moment, turning tail felt like the exact opposite of what I should do. The longer we stood there, however, the worse our odds became.

  “You know what you’re doing?” he said. “Look at me, Vic. You’re surviving. Failure would be to die right here, right now. We can’t help anyone like this. Besides, I think you’ll feel pretty good about staying alive in the long run.” He gestured for me to get moving. “Come on. We stay here any longer, it’s not going to matter.”

  “You’re right.” I sighed and repeated the words, hoping to convince myself. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

  He whipped around, heading straight for the subterranean maw of the nearest subway station. “I know I shouldn’t be taking this for granted, but it feels real weird to have you agreeing with me.”

  “Don’t get used to it!” I shouted over our footsteps. “Consider these extenuating circumstances!” All of a sudden, my voice was smothered by echoes, and I shut my mouth. A chill ran up my spine. The next thing I said was in a whisper. “Why is it so quiet down here?” I would’ve thought the trains would be working overtime, screaming down the tracks as half the city scrambled to evacuate.

  But there was only a thick, nearly palpable silence. Once more, I felt for Marcus’s pendant and found nothing. The whole atmosphere was strange and wrong.

  “I hope this doesn’t mean they’ve gotten further than we thought,” Deacon muttered. He dropped back a little to walk beside me. “We can’t have lost the trains. We’ve already lost the cops.”

  I looked at him, remembering our harried escape from the FBI building. “It’s like that everywhere?”

  He ran his hand over the top of his head. “It pains me to say so, but if the feds have been infiltrated, there’s no other possible reality. I only wish I knew the numbers, the ranks. Right now, there’s no telling how deep this rabbit hole goes. The only thing I can say for sure is that we can’t trust anyone in a uniform. Not agents. Not police. Hell, not even military.” His brow furrowed down into a grimace. “This is bad, Vic. It’s real bad. But I guess you don’t need me to tell you that.”

  I laughed. “No, I certainly don’t. And the shittiest part of it all is I don’t know much more than you do. Obviously, these assholes are done playing their cards close to their vests, but I’ve got no idea which gods are here, or what they’re planning to do except wreck shop. Which blows because we need a strategy.”

  “We’ve been needing a strategy, apparently,” Deacon said. A sour note rang in his voice. “But how were we supposed to prepare for this?” He heaved a sigh. “Part of me just wants to say fuck it, you know? Like, who cares if they have names? Who cares what their plan is? You got that big-ass sword; can’t you just use it to carve them to pieces?”

  “Says the guy who stopped me from doing exactly that five minutes ago.” I elbowed him in the ribs. “But honestly, it’s better that you did. Fighting gods isn’t as easy as it sounds.” He snorted. “Even before you get to the point where they can crush you or vaporize you or turn you into a vamp, you need to find them first. And that’s easier said than done.”

  “It can’t ever be simple or easy, huh?” Deacon grinned, placing his hands behind his head and gazing straight forward into the pitch-black tunnel. In a weird way, it was kind of nice to be walking with him, just the two of us. It felt like we’d reached an unspoken turning point, like we were finally on even ground. What’s more, we were there together. No more constantly butting heads. No more yelling.

  Okay, maybe some yelling.

  “It’d be stupid to go into battle without knowing the enemy, right?” I wiped the slowly forming smile off my face and forced myself to get back to business. “We’ve just established that we don’t know shit, so we can’t really fight without a massive handicap.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “That is, assuming fighting is even the answer.”

  Deacon stopped walking for an instant so he could process what he’d heard. “I’m sorry, did you say it could be a bad idea to fight? You? Who am I talking to?” He turned and inspected me, playing up his incredulity to a fault. “I’m too late. You’ve already been corrupted.”

  “Oh my God.” I swatted him away, smiling in spite of myself. “Shut up and hear me out. Do you remember when we were up in Washington with the werewolves?”

  “I remember someone tying me to a motel bed and leaving me for dead,” he answered. His face was stone straight.

  I rolled my eyes. “I did not leave you for dead, jackass. You’re here now, aren’t you?” Without giving him an opportunity to respond, I forged ahead. “Anyway, listen. We killed the hell out of Lupres, and this is still happening. We killed Lorcan, and this is still happening. If they’re smart about it, it won’t matter who we kill. I’m afraid their grand plan, whatever it is, is already in motion.”

  Deacon threw up his hands. “Then what are we still doing here? I don’t understand enough about this situation to disagree with you, and everything you’re saying makes it seem like total insanity to stay in the city. Because if it turns out you’re right, and you’ve got a decent track record so far, then nothing we do right now is going to matter in the long run.”

  “You think it’s hopeless.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice. It wasn’t fair of me to expect total trust and cooperation from Deacon, even considering everything he’d witnessed on the surface. I was lucky the reality of it all hadn’t broken his mind outright. But we had already weathered so much of this journey together. He knew a lot. He was a valuable ally.

  And he was growing on me.

  “That’s not what I said.” Deacon spoke quietly now, deep in thought. “It’s just, not every storm has an eye, Vic. I think the best thing to do is to get out while we can. Try to regroup somewhere else. Maybe gain a new perspective. Gather our troops.”

  On the surface, the idea didn’t appeal to me. It was hard to reconcile abandoning the battle when it was only getting started. Still, the limits of my power were more evident than they’d ever been. What did I have—a sword and a faster, stronger body? Even I was prepared to admit I needed more than that.

  “Let’s say we get out,” I told him reluctantly. “Then what? We rally and come back when we know we can kill them? What happens if we’re too late? What if New York is gone by then?”

  Deacon glanced away. “All things are possible,” he admitted. “I mean, look at us. But where would we be if we didn’t have faith in something, anything right now? I’m choosing to believe in you. I’m holding on to that.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, stealing a few seconds in the deep quiet to mull things over. Our options were staggeringly few, and the more I considered things, the more I found myself agreeing with Deacon’s line of reasoning. As we were, we would be steamrolled by the battalions literally falling from the sky.

  “Okay,” I said, inhaling a deep breath. “We’ll hit the road for now. But not without Maya and Jules.” I paused. “And Marcus, obviously.” My eyes snapped wide, and I wheeled around to stare at Deacon. “Wait. Jules! Was she in the bui
lding we escaped from?!” A surge of adrenaline pumped through my veins. I was ready to run all the way back there, no matter who or what stood in my way.

  Deacon put his hands on my shoulders. “Settle down, Vic. I know where she is. I got her out of custody before I showed up to spring you. She’s with Maya. And yes, Maya’s still got your necklace.”

  “Where?” I demanded, staring him down. “Where are they?”

  “It’s a place I know. A safehouse. They’re fine. Trust me on this.”

  I breathed in again, held it for a bit until I felt myself begin to cool down. “Sorry,” I said, somewhat sheepish. “I got scared for a sec. I thought I left Jules behind.”

  “Don’t worry.” Deacon gave me a smile. “I’ve got your back. Don’t you forget that.”

  “Thanks.” I made myself smile back. It was easier than I expected. “I won’t.”

  Deacon looked down the tunnel. “That being said, it’s probably time for a reunion. Something tells me we don’t have time to waste.” He palmed his cell phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it into the inky darkness. A broken ladder spidered up the wall on our right. “First door we see, we’re going through it. We need to get back to the street.”

  I began scanning the shadows, looking for anything that might let us crawl back to the surface. The next proper station was still pretty far, and I was getting sick of the silence. Any moment now, I expected to be blinded by the glare of a light, deafened by the clatter of wheels on rickety tracks. It was only a matter of time before that hot stinking wind swept down the platform, heralding the arrival of a train, any train. I was so sure, but it never happened. The underground was deserted except for me and Deacon.