Grigori Returned (The Atlas Series Book 2) Read online

  “The Elders are Titans, Kala, as in Elder gods. It’s in your human history books.” Penny went back to searching the papers. “Your daddy and grandparents waged war against the entire supernatural existence and won. They rule from the 5th to protect themselves from rebellion. If they find out the Grigori are back after all the energy they spent banishing them, they’re going to be furious. And you don’t want to see Cronus furious.”

  Kala remembered Atlas’s memory. “Yeah, he seemed like a dick.”

  Penny briefly glanced up at Kala and a hint of a smile showed on her face, then she shook her head. “He is. A dangerous one.” Penny grabbed a piece of paper with triumph. “Here it is.”

  Kala fought the urge to grab it out of Penny’s hand. It was about her after all, but she let Penny scan through it first.

  “So the Titans banished the Grigori? How’d they manage that?” Kala wondered.

  Penny focused on the paper and it took a moment for her to respond. “The Olympians had a weapon that drained the Grigori of their powers, but the Titans secretly spelled the weapon to drain the Olympians too. The Olympians didn’t even know what hit them. But even then, it wasn’t enough. You asked how powerful the Grigori are? It took the combined strength of the Olympians and the Titans to banish them. Now that the Titans have the Demons on their side, they may be able to fight back the Grigori, but I’m just not sure.” Penny gave Kala an exasperated groan. “Can’t you access Atlas’s memories so I don’t have to be your walking encyclopedia?”

  Kala tried to take as much sarcasm out of her voice as she could. “Well, I’d love to, but it’s not exactly something I can control…”

  Great.

  Kala had no idea where she was, but it wasn’t like any place she’d ever been to on earth. She could be anywhere really, considering this was Atlas’s past she was visiting. It looked like she was in the center of a nebula with purple and blue gasses swirling around her. It was a strange sensation being inside someone else’s body, and frankly, Kala hated it. Being knocked unconscious just to have a flashback was extremely dangerous in Kala’s position. The soldier in her despised that. She was trained to always have an exit, but Kala had no control over her own brain. That left her vulnerable. The only plus side: now Kala was an actual Titan. She couldn’t be killed that easily or even at all (she still wasn’t convinced of that one). It was a mental adjustment she hadn’t quite accepted yet. She still thought of herself as human. And as a human, her body could easily be killed. But as a Titan, she was… less killable.

  The first thing Kala noticed in this blast from the past was that she was not alone. She was standing next to…

  Asmodeus.

  Could she ever get away from this guy?

  At least he wasn’t lusting after her Atlas form. Kala was spared that. Not that she minded necessarily, the Demon was definitely a hottie, but he was such a jerk about it. In this memory, Asmodeus wore all black and his sandy brown hair wasn’t in the modern day swoop cut that Kala was used to. It was longer and pulled back, which only made his chiseled face all the more chiseled. With his straight nose, slightly full lips, and completely ripped physique, the guy looked like he had just walked off a romance novel cover.

  Currently, Asmodeus looked at Atlas as if he were a leper. “Are you sure about this Atlas? If you’re lying, you know what I’ll do to you.”

  Kala felt herself speak. “I’m a Titan. I can squash you, Demon King.”

  Asmodeus yawned. “Please. You’re a second generation Titan. And I’m more than willing to see who would win the fight. How about you?”

  Kala experienced a thrill of fear run through Atlas. He may be threatening Asmodeus, but even he didn’t believe he could best the Demon King. Kala inwardly moaned. Atlas was such a wuss! “I’m telling the truth. The Olympians will take down the Titans once and for all.”

  “I’d like to hear that from someone besides the weasel that switches sides like he’s a hot potato.” Asmodeus crossed his arms. He looked like he was about to leave if Atlas didn’t say something convincing enough for him to stay.

  “Listen, Zeus is gathering his army against Cronus. It’s only the Grigori that stand in their way. I made the mistake of siding with my father in the last war and look where it got me. With the Demons on our side, we’ll crush Cronus and the Titans once and for all.” Kala could sense the determination in Atlas. He really thought the Olympians would win.

  Asmodeus spat. “The Grigori? They can’t be defeated. Not even the Olympians can hurt them.”

  “They can, I swear on my life.” Atlas tried to convince Asmodeus.

  “What’s in this for you?” Asmodeus eyed Atlas carefully.

  It took a few moments before Atlas finally responded, “Zeus promises to relieve me of my curse if I help him.”

  But Kala knew Asmodeus better than Atlas because she could read that snarky look on his face. Asmodeus was simply gathering information. He had no intention of helping Atlas or Zeus, and Atlas was clueless. He was spilling state secrets like a fool.

  “You and that curse.” Asmodeus chuckled. “Zeus’s biggest mistake. Tearing out the balance of the universe as if it were made of fabric and turning it into a neat little curse. Now that’s abusing power. He’s my kind of god.”

  Kala felt the hope rise in Atlas at Asmodeus’s words. Kala waited for the inevitable letdown that was about to come.

  Asmodeus shook his head as if he felt sorry for Atlas. “Thanks for being an idiot. You never disappoint, Atlas. While we stand here, the battle has already begun. It’s too late for you to warn them. It’s too late for anything. You gods love your double-crosses. I’ll be sure to tell your daddy you said hello.”

  Kala woke up in Penny’s dingy apartment. She lay on the twin mattress while Penny sat on the edge of the bed, completely engrossed in reading the prophecy and ignoring Kala entirely.

  “I’m back,” Kala announced. Not that Penny cared.

  Penny turned to Kala with a frustrated expression on her face. “Good. Read this. See if it makes any sense to you.”

  Kala took the proffered paper from Penny. Though the actual paper itself came from the nearest office supply store, the copy of the text on the page was obviously from a really old document. It was handwritten in calligraphy, making it very difficult for Kala to decipher. Kala grew up with computer keyboards, not handwriting, let alone the fancy kind. The text took up half the page, making Kala’s heart sink. If this was all they had to go on, it wasn’t much.

  After a few moments of squinting and rotating the paper every which way, Kala finally sighed, “You might have to help me with this.”

  Penny snatched the document back with a roll of her eyes and pointed to a specific sentence. “This top part you already know, but this is the rest of it.” Penny read out loud, “The cost will be great, and the immortals will reign. The one that knows death will release the curse of balance.”

  WTF? “What does that mean?” Kala asked aloud more gracefully than what she had thought in her head.

  “I don’t know,” Penny answered honestly. “Does anything resonate with you? I think we’ve established that you’re the Fated One at this point. I thought you’d be able to translate.”

  “Not a clue. Sorry.” Kala tried to read the prophecy herself. Now that she knew what it said, it was a little easier to navigate through the calligraphy. “The one that knows death will release the curse of balance. In my memory flashback, Asmodeus said that Zeus created Atlas’s curse by ripping out the balance of the universe. Is this talking about that same curse or are there other crazy-ass curses you haven’t told me about? Do you think the one that knows death will break my curse? Cronus seemed to think Zeus was the only one who could undo it, maybe Zeus is the one that knows death?” Kala brainstormed more to herself than expecting any real answers from Penny.

  Penny had a kind of helpless expression on her face that said it all to Kala. Penny was as confused as she was, but more apparent was the fact that Penny look
ed defeated. “I’m never going to find him.”

  The tone in Penny’s voice made Kala’s heart squeeze. “Your dad?”

  Penny nodded and turned away just as her eyes welled up, not wanting Kala to see.

  And even though she mostly hated Penny, Kala found herself saying, “Look, I’ll help you find your dad. Maybe he’s being held with Zeus or something.” It took a few seconds to register in Kala’s brain what she had just said aloud. Granted, everything that had happened to her in the last four days left little room for doubt of the supernatural, but it still wasn’t normal for her to have a conversation about Greek gods in a serious way.

  “We can’t go to the 5th Level of Hell!” Penny exclaimed in fear and shock. “We’d be killed or tortured for eternity!”

  “I can take you there.”

  Kala and Penny whirled around to see who spoke.

  Standing in the doorway was Talan.

  Chapter Three

  Kala didn’t know if she wanted to run into his arms or kick him in the groin. Both options seemed satisfying at the moment. Instead, she chose to stay where she was on the mattress. Kala wasn’t mad at Talan; in fact, he had been the perfect gentlemen in the most difficult moment of her life. It was the fact that he thought they were destined to be together and wasn’t shy about telling her. Talan’s admission made her angry, like he was belittling how she felt about Jack. And now, by looking at her with nothing but love, it felt like he was disrespecting the dead. Kala had killed her one true love and Talan stared at her as if he were her one true love. She wanted to punch him in the throat, and now that she had Atlas’s strength, she was seriously considering it.

  Penny stood up, terror in her eyes. “Talan.”

  Talan nodded kindly. “Hello, Pandora.”

  It wasn’t hard for Kala to figure out that the two of them had a history. “You two know each other?”

  Penny gave Kala a look of annoyed disgust. “Mind your own business.”

  Kala took that as a yes. She stood up and walked over to Talan. “How can you get us to the 5th Level of Hell?”

  Talan’s eyes bored into Kala with so much concern she had to turn away. He started to reach out to touch her arm, but stopped himself. “Are you okay?”

  The way he asked made Kala’s heart squeeze, but she didn’t want to cry, not in front of him and definitely not in front of Penny. “I’m fine. Can you get us there or not?”

  Penny apparently had felt like she needed more answers. “Talan. How are you back? And how long has it been?”

  Talan kept his eyes on Kala as if waiting to make sure she was all right before he talked to Penny. Kala didn’t like his intensity, she wasn’t ready for it, but she nodded nevertheless. “Go ahead. I’ll back your play,” Kala said to Talan, letting him know that if he chose to lie about how many Grigori had escaped their prison, she’d go along with it. As far as Kala knew only a handful of the Grigori made it through, but she wasn’t sure if Talan wanted Penny to know that. If her dad was the Olympian god Hepha-something, that may put Penny on the ally-at-a-distance list. Penny had tried to make Jack kill her for the last four days, and Kala was a grudge-holder.

  And friends? Seriously? Talan and Penny? She couldn’t imagine it. Did they hang out? It was hard for Kala to picture the two of them doing anything casual. What the heck was Penny anyway? A god? Demi-god? Thinking of them together annoyed Kala even though every fiber of her body didn’t want to care either way.

  Talan spoke to Penny. “You should have known that the prison wouldn’t be strong enough to hold the Grigori. Haven’t you wondered why technology has grown exponentially in the last century? The Elders imprisoned the Grigori for involving ourselves with humans, but they were just scared that the humans would surpass them. And trust me, Pandora, they will,” he said passionately. Kala could tell Talan was angry and he took it all out on Penny.

  Penny yelled back just as vehemently. “Don’t kid yourself. The Titans banished you because they were afraid of the Grigori. You’re stronger than they are. Stronger than the Olympians. And, Talan, you were making humans too powerful. You had to be stopped! If you hadn’t…”

  Kala answered for her, “Then humans would be able to kick the gods’ collective asses.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Penny crossed her arms defensively. “The prophecy says very clearly that the immortals will reign. So teach away. The humans will always be weak no matter how many weapons you show them how to create.”

  “We’ll see.” Talan eyed Penny as if he would smite her where she stood.

  It gave Kala a perverse satisfaction, and she understood his sentiment. Kala had, after all, done her fair share of smiting Penny. From shooting her to snapping her neck to lighting her on fire, Penny’s immortality had protected her from any real harm, but Kala hated to admit that it had helped get out all her aggression toward the girl.

  Instead of attacking Penny, Talan focused all his attention on Kala. “How are you integrating?”

  Penny felt the need to chime in snootily, “If you mean she keeps passing out every five minutes from memory flashbacks, then the girl is doing fantastic.”

  Talan’s eyes never left Kala’s. “Is that true?”

  Kala nodded, a little embarrassed at her obvious lack of control over her own consciousness. “I can handle it,” Kala lied. The truth was, the blackouts were becoming more than she could manage. What if she blacked out in the 5th? It was a level of Hell after all. Kala took another second to re-live that sentence, then turned to Talan. “How long do you think it will keep happening?”

  Talan finally moved from the doorway and led Kala back to the mattress. He acted as if Penny wasn’t even in the room with them. Penny didn’t seem to want to force the issue of her presence either, so she stayed planted where she was with her arms still crossed.

  “Lie down,” Talan instructed Kala. “I’m going to need to touch your forehead.” He awaited her approval.

  Kala nodded. She had made Talan promise not to touch her, and he had held true to his word. When his hand pressed down on her forehead, Kala felt her whole body shiver. It was the reason why she didn’t want him to touch her. Chemistry. They had it. Kala didn’t like it. It made her feel guilty about Jack. End of story.

  The shiver turned into something more physical, as in actual heat. Talan was doing something to Kala, something Grigori.

  Kala suddenly cried out in pain as a flood of images rushed before her eyes. They were moving so fast she couldn’t focus on any single one. It was the same as when Talan had shown her memories of his past. And also when he had shown Kala her possible future if she didn’t kill Jack. But unlike both those instances, there were too many images flying past her to slow it down.

  Talan’s voice calmed her as he spoke. “Don’t try to focus on any of the images. I’m releasing them from where they are stored in your brain. There are too many memories for you to integrate all at once. Atlas is thousands of years old and your mind locked the memories away so you wouldn’t go insane.”

  “My mind locked them away or Roberta did?” Kala grunted through clenched teeth. When Kala had consumed Atlas, her human body tried to reject the god’s essence. If it hadn’t been for her commanding general, Geoffrey Turner and his wife Roberta, Kala would have died soon after. But Roberta had used her own magic–or what she had called astral projection–to help Kala take Atlas in and assimilate him into her body.

  “Either way, that’s why you lose consciousness when recalling Atlas’s memories. They’re stored in a spot that takes too much effort to access,” Talan explained.

  “Aren’t you going to kill me by releasing them all?” Kala asked, trying to rein in the throbbing.

  “No,” Talan replied gently. “I’m putting the memories in your frontal cortex so you can retrieve them at will, but not remember them all at once.”

  The images stopped and her head no longer hurt. Kala didn’t feel any different. She didn’t remember anything new. Sitting up, she looked at T
alan, confused. “I don’t remember any of Atlas’s past.”

  Talan smiled warmly. “You will. It’ll be like any of your old memories, you’ll see something familiar, and a single recollection will be triggered. No more blackouts.”

  Kala didn’t argue. One thing she knew for certain: she trusted Talan. And if he said she wasn’t going to black out anymore, then she believed him. Kala felt an enormous sense of relief. This whole “integration” process was annoying. So far being a god sucked.

  Talan rose to his feet, holding his hand out to help Kala stand. She ignored it and stood up herself.

  “So are we going to the 5th or what?” Kala said, ready for a fight.

  Chapter Four

  “What about your mission? Have you seen what you have to do yet?” Talan asked.

  “Oh that,” Kala complained. “No. I haven’t had time. It’s been what? An hour since I killed Jack? Relax!” Kala spat in anger. She hoped she could avoid her Atlas duties entirely. Talking about breaking into what equated to a high-security dimension of Hell and possibly fighting Titans sounded like fun to Kala. Being a soldier was everything she had ever known and now that she was a god, she wanted to try out some of her new abilities. So far, Kala only knew she had super strength because of the way she’d tossed Penny across the room the night before, but Kala was eager to see if her Atlas powers could do anything else.

  Penny chimed in with an attitude, “Well, you’d better figure out what it is. You saw a glimpse of what will happen if you don’t go through with it.”

  Kala wanted to elbow Penny in the mouth for even speaking. The girl grated on Kala’s every nerve. “I have four days,” Kala said as if this were a defense.

  “It doesn’t mean you have to take the full four days,” Penny sniped back.

  “Listen.” Kala stood up and pointed her finger at Penny’s chest. “If I have to commit acts of atrocity every freaking day I’ll go insane. I’m going to take the four days, so get over it.” Kala figured that there was a reason four days were given to complete the mission. Even Zeus knew that gods had their limits. Four days wasn’t a lot of time to recover from doing the horrible things the Atlas job required, but it was something. And Kala intended on taking full advantage.