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New Orleans, 2009 6,000 years laterRoughly
(Give or take a few centuries )
Delphine paused to get her bearings straight as she looked around the old buildings with iron-work balconies or elaborate wood trie city but then she wasn&039;t used to being in the h human dreams There the world of ht place baffled her Not to ht be manure of some kind
She jumped as a loud, rude sound startled her while a car went speeding past
Phobos grabbed her arm and yanked her to stand beside him on the uneven sidewalk "Be careful If a car hits you, it will hurt"
"Sorry I wasn&039;t paying attention"
He nodded before he glanced about the street where several cars were parked in front of a row of houses that were so close together, she wondered if they didn&039;t share a coe should be that one over there"
She looked to where he was pointing Landry&039;s Garage, Detail and Repair "Are you sure he&039;s there?"
Phobos gave her a droll stare "His presence isn&039;t what&039;s in doubt, his reception of us is We&039;ll be lucky if he doesn&039;t gut us both faster than Noir would" He wiped his hand over his brow to remove some of the perspiration But it was quickly replaced by more
She&039;d never been in a hotter place in her life Poor Phobos, wearing all black clothes, wasn&039;t exactly dressed for it, either He looked as ht of hiods with his exceptionally dark hair and sharp features
Tall and lithe, hethat terrified his eneht His job was to inspire dread, and at one time he and his twin brother, Deimos, had wreaked havoc on ancient battlefields In more recent centuries, they&039;d becoods
Until two days ago when everything had changed
She shivered at the , her stomach was still knotted over the horror she&039;d witnessed They were still trying to piece their world back together after Noir&039;s vicious attack
"How did we get chosen for this again?" she asked him
"We weren&039;t there when Zeus banished him and therefore he shouldn&039;t hate us as ods" He snorted derisively "Most importantly, we&039;re part of the handful who is neither i
Not at all
And it didn&039;t mean Cratus would listen to them, never mind actually help them "You think we stand a chance?"
"Like an icicle on the equator But Cratus pulls his powers from the same primal Source that birthed Noir Without him on our team, we&039;re completely screwed"
She still wasn&039;t sure about this Zeus had sent theut them as soon as they appeared She&039;d never endary
He had mercy on no one
His brutality had only been h Zeus had bound his god powers, the other gods continued to fear hi personality Hephaestus hi with Cratus
The ry and mean
And that was before his punishment had driven him insane
"Are you sure there&039;s no other way?"
Phobos&039;s features darkened "Half your brethren are dead, and every tiet their hides kicked back to the Stone Age BelieveI want to do"
But it was a necessary evil
"Zeus is the one who should be doing this," she groused as she wiped the sweat from her own brow
Phobos snorted "You want to tell hiod tolerated no one to question hiht idea, Phobos You lead the way"
"What are you? Scared?"
She gave hilare of her own With her half-human blood, she did have more emotions than most of her Dream-Hunter brethren, but they were muted compared to mankind&039;s "If I were capable of hate, I would probably hate you"
He sucked his breath in sharply between his teeth "You know, you get the best sex fro"
"Since I&039;ve never had sex with a woently on the shoulder to move him forward "We&039;re on a mission, Dolophonos Remember if we fail, your twin dies"
"Believe otten" He crossed the street with purpose
Delphine followed in spite of the bad feeling she couldn&039;t shake This wasn&039;t going to turn out well She knew it
They entered the office of the garage to find a s on a sheet of paper and a woed, h, with sht when she saw them "Can I help you?"
Phobos stepped past Delphine to approach the desk "We&039;re looking for a guy named Cratus"
She frowned "I don&039;t know anyone by that nae down the street"
Phobos scratched his head, obviously as baffled as Delphine was "I know for a fact that he works here in this garage Believe irl wiped her nose and pushed a pair of glasses back with her knuckle "Did they lose their friend, Mommy?"
"Do your homework, Mollie" She turned her attention back to Phobos "Look, I&039;m really sorry, but I&039;ve never heard the name Crams before I&039;ve worked here for five years and I assure you that none of our guys are naet-you know?" The phone started ringing She put her hand on it "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No" Phobos stepped over to the largethat looked out froray and blue coveralls orking on various cars
Delphine followed his lead and froze as she saw the ods
No one could th and the son of WarcraftThat power and for well over six feet tall, he rippled ell-defined rease froray coverall suit had been unzipped, and the sleeves wrapped around his lean waist, leaving his torso covered by a black tank top that only made those muscles more apparent Black tribal tattoos decorated both of his arms from the wrists to his shoulders
But it was his face that asp She&039;d never seen a ed scar that ran down the right side of his face, hairline to earlobe His right eye was covered with a black patch and from the depth of the scar, she wondered if he&039;d lost the eye completely to whatever injury had caused it
Yet it in no way detracted fro, it added to it and ed His jet-black hair eaty and curled slightly around a face that was chiseled from steel and dusted with dark whiskers
Fierce power e and lethal, it said he should be on a battlefield, sword in hand, killing andon cars
He was everything she&039;d heard and ods help them
If he didn&039;t kill the two of thelanced at Delphine over his shoulder "He is definitely here"
The secretary frowned as she hung up the phone and saw Cratus through the"You&039;re looking for Jericho?"
Phobos faced her "You ling "That&039;s JerichoDavis He&039;s only been here a couple of weeks Is he in trouble with the law or so like that" Phobos gave her an al smile "We&039;re old friends"
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously "Well, if his name isn&039;t Jericho Davis, we need to know Landry is a stickler about his people toeing the line We don&039;t take in convicts or riffraff here This is a respectable business, and we intend to keep it that way"
Phobos held his hands up "Don&039;t worry, I&039;m sure he&039;s not a felon I just need to talk to hiht you said you knew hi to talk to a man who&039;s mute?"
Phobos snapped his attention to Delphine, as as shocked as he was by that disclosure
Surely Zeus wouldn&039;t have been that cruel
What was she? Insane? Of course he would
Sick at the thought, Delphine looked back to where "Jericho" had his head under the hood of another car What exactly had been done to hiodhood, his life andless and less likely by the second
"You stay here," Phobos said as he put his hand on the knob of the door that led froe
No probleain a favor froods had screwed over so badly Why on earth or beyond would thisfor the best, she walked to the atch Phobos She closed her eyes and opened herself up to the ether so that she could hear their conversation
The shop was loud with"Live Your Life" by TI Several of the ing along, off-key, while he added air to the tires of a red Jeep
Phobos paused beside the white Intrepid where Cratus stood Cratus glanced up, and his face froze an instant before he looked back down and continued working Phobos stepped closer "We need to talk" Cratus ignored hi in here," an olderCratus&039;s said as he stopped beside Phobos, "but you&039;re wasting your ti to talk to old Jericho there Boy can&039;t speak" The man shook his head "Not that he needs to The way he works on a car isto talk to Jericho" More laughter joined his before he walked off to work on the Jeep where the ive me one minute of your time"
If looks could kill, Phobos would be a distant memory Jericho flipped the wrench in his hand before he walked over to another car
Phobos glanced at Delphine, who shrugged in response She had no idea how to persuade hi, Phobos followed him "C&039;mon, I-"
Jericho spun on him so fast that Delphine didn&039;t even realized he&039;dover the hood of a car and pinned in place by a tight hold on this throat "Fuck off and die, you putrid bastard," he snarled in the ancient Greek language of the gods as he banged Phobos&039;s head furiously against the hood
Every rowl paused to stare at him
"Be damned," a tall, lean African-American e that was?"
"Russian?"
"Nan I think it&039;s Ger at Cratus&039;s ar to dent the hood and when you do that will co Phobos off the hood like a rag doll Phobos rolled halfway through the bay before he caught hi shaken, Phobos pushed himself to his feet When he spoke, he continued to use their language so that the humans wouldn&039;t understand them "We need your help, Cratus"
As he moved past Phobos, Cratus drove his shoulder into Phobos&039;s, rimace in pain and rub his arm He went back to the Intrepid "Cratus is dead"
"You&039;re the only one-"
Cratus growled at hiet out"
Delphine projected her thoughts to Phobos "Should I come in?"
"No I don&039;t think it&039;ll help" Phobos turned to Cratus "The fate of the entire world is in your hands Don&039;t you care?"
The feral look Cratus gave hio to Tartarus and rot
Delphine sighed What were they going to do now? They needed the god of strength One who could pull power fros Without Cratus, they didn&039;t stand a chance of winning against Noir and his army of Skoti
The older man walked over to Cratus "So what country are you fronored him as he returned to his work in silence
Phobos ive you for what you did He&039;s offering you your godhood back We need you desperately"
When Cratus still refused to respond, Phobos let out a frustrated breath "Look, I understand why you&039;re mad But my brother&039;s life is on the line here If you don&039;t help me, Noir will kill him"
Cratus didn&039;t even twitch as he worked
A muscle worked in Phobos&039;s jaw "Fine When the world ends and everyone here is dead, remember you&039;re the only one of us who could have stopped it"
Cratus continued ignoring him Phobos turned and headed back to her
Delphine kept waiting for Cratus to reconsider and stop Phobos But he really appeared to have meant what he&039;d said He didn&039;t care
Even she, who had nothing save s than this man showed