Chapter 10
Alexion stared in complete stupefaction of the Charonte demon as it flew at them. Where the hell had it come from? Simi was supposed to be the last of her kind, and yet there was no denying that this demon was a Charonte. Nothing else on this earth or beyond looked like that.
"What is it?"
He didn't respond to Danger's question as he moved away from her to keep the demon's attention on him. "Qui' esta rahpah?" he asked the demon, wanting to know where it had come from.
Pausing momentarily, the demon showed its own surprise that Alexion spoke its native language. But that didn't stop him from attacking.
Before Alexion could move, it dove down, seized him by his throat, and slung him to the floor. He hit the ground so hard that had he been human, every bone in his body would have shattered.
The demon tore at him with its claws. Alexion brought his leg up to kick the demon off.
It didn't work.
He flashed away from it, but somehow the demon anticipated the action, and when he reappeared, it grabbed him again. This time it slammed him facedown on the floor. His teeth rattled as the demon seized him by the hair.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Danger grab a sword that she had hidden beneath her sofa.
"Stay back!" he shouted an instant too late. The demon caught her with his tail and knocked her off her feet. There was no way to win a fight with a Charonte. Not unless you were a god; and though Alexion could call upon Acheron's powers, they weren't really his.
That left him with one serious disadvantage.
The demon rolled with him. Alexion flashed out again only to have the demon seize him while he was invisible.
Give it up, Lex. The damned thing can obviously see you transmutate. Damn.
He punched at the demon, who didn't feel his blows at all. But Alexion did. His hand throbbed as if it were broken. The demon laughed at him as it grabbed him up, dropped him to the ground, and slammed his head painfully against the floor. It felt as if his brains really did rattle in his skull. He could taste the blood in his mouth, feel it running from his nose.
If he didn't get the demon off him soon, it would kill him. And this time, Acheron wouldn't be able to bring him back.
Alexion tried to call up the force field to block his blows. It was less effective than a flyswatter against a rhino. No wonder the Greek gods lived in fear of this species. They were horrifyingly powerful. The only real question was, how did the Atlantean gods ever subjugate them?
"Get off me, you lard-ass, halitosis, flea-infested horror-movie reject," he snarled in Charonte.
That succeeded in another head slam to the floor. The Charonte pulled back and wrapped itself around him like a boa constrictor. And much like the snake, he knew this was its final move before it tore him apart and ended his existence.
Alexion tried to pull its arms away.
Yeah, that's going to work. Why not spit at him while you're at it?
What he needed was Simi.
But in lieu of that...
He was pretty much screwed.
Danger was terrified as she watched the demon maul Alexion while Alexion was helpless against it. Until this moment, she hadn't even known he could bleed. It was frightening to see something do that much damage to someone she'd foolishly assumed was invincible.
She reached for her sword.
The demon let go of Alexion to lunge at her. She grabbed the sword and plunged it deep into the demon at the same time Alexion shouted, "No!"
She quickly figured out why he would say that when the demon snatched the sword out of her hands, removed it from his body, then went after her with it.
She braced herself to fight and die, but just as the demon reached her, Alexion rushed it and knocked it back. The two of them spun away from her.
"Protula akri gonatizum, vlaza!"
She had no idea what those words meant, but the demon immediately released him. To her utter shock, it actually dropped down to one knee, crossed its arms over its chest, and bowed its head reverently.
"Whoa," she breathed, in awe of what had just quelled the unstoppable. "What did you say?"
He didn't answer as he gently took her arm and led her toward the door. He wiped his hand against his split lip and bloodied nose, and hurried her through the house.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"Getting the hell out of here while we're able," he whispered.
"But it stopped."
"Yeah, I stunned him with a command I'm sure he doesn't hear much. The thing is, I'm not the one who actually has the power to make him obey me, and I'm not sure how long it will take him to realize that. Therefore I vote we blow Dodge before that demon breaks us into pieces."
Fleeing sounded good to her. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure it wasn't following them through her house. "What was that thing?"
"It's a Charonte demon."
"A what?"
He led her to the garage and opened the door to her merlot-red BMW Z4. "Get in."
She stiffened at his commanding tone. No one told her what to do.
No one.
"Don't order me around."
He gave her a bland stare. "Fine. Then stay and fight him on your own. I'm out of here."
She glared her irritation at Alexion before she complied with his order. Yeah, if the demon could do that to him... Well, if she wanted her face rearranged, she'd call a surgeon.
At least then she'd be unconscious for the worst of it.
It wasn't until he joined her in the car that a thought occurred to her. "Do you know how to drive?"
He answered her by starting her car without keys and backing it out. Her garage door opened in record time. Alexion did an impeccable J-turn in her driveway, then raced them down the street.
"I guess you do," she said quietly. He handled the car like a pro. "So, Magellan, where are we going?"
"Away. I'm open to any location, so long as it doesn't involve returning to your house while Wart-Head is there."
She couldn't agree more. "How long do you think the demon will wait before it comes after us?"
"I have no idea. It could depend on who's pulling his chain or what his orders were. Let us hope that time has no meaning to him and he stays there a few centuries."
"I don't know about that. It is my house, you know? I'd like to return to it in a day or two. You don't really think he'll still be there for days, or God forbid, longer, do you?"
Alexion expelled a tired breath. "I don't know. I really don't."
Great. She now had an image of her house looking like Mrs. Haversham's from Dickens's Great Expectations-complete with cobwebs and running mice-once she returned to it. She shivered. "Will you at least tell me what you said to him to make him stop attacking you?"
He gave her a wry grin that was strangely becoming on him. "Basically, I said, 'Bow down before your lord and master, slime-ball.'"
She laughed. Only Alexion would try that one. "What language did you use? I've never heard anything like that before."
"Atlantean."
That didn't make sense. He'd admitted to being an ancient Greek, not an Atlantean. "How do you speak the language of a country that was long gone before you were born?"
He gave a low laugh. "I live with Acheron. It's about all he speaks when he's at home."
"Really?"
He nodded.