CHAPTER FIVE
"I can't believe you cheated!"
"I can't believe you didn't know it. Man, what kind of god are you? I never knew stupidity had a divine representative. Guess I was wrong, huh?"
"You're such an asshole."
Aidan frowned as Leta took him into a white marble room where two men were playing a game of chess. Everything in the room was sterile white, except for the two men dressed in black and the odd chess pieces who had been dancing and fighting around the board on their arrival-chess pieces that were living, breathing creatures who now watched the arguing gods with great interest.
At a quick glance, the two gods appeared to be twins except that the one cheating had short brown hair with black streaks laced through it. He also had what appeared to be black tattoos running down his face at sharp lightning-bolt-style angles from his tear ducts to his chin. The man across from him had black hair with tribal tattoos covering his arms from wrists to shoulders. They were both dressed in jeans and sleeveless T-shirts. An odd style for two gods.
Then again, what did he know of such creatures?
"Deimos?" Leta called as she led Aidan toward the players.
The one with the facial tats looked up. "Leta, my lovely. What brings you here?" he asked in a jovial tone-as if he hadn't been in the middle of a verbal smackdown with his brother three seconds ago.
The other man stood up as if to leave.
"Sit down, Phobos," Deimos snapped. "We're not through."
"Yeah, we are. I don't play with cheaters and I don't care if you are three seconds older than me, you don't tell me what to do. I'm not your bitch, boy."
Deimos grimaced. "Then stop acting like one. Whoever heard of Fear being a crybaby?"
Phobos crossed his arms over his chest. "The same people who made Dread a cheater."
Deimos scoffed at him. "Oh, go cry to mama, you nancy-boy." Then Deimos looked at Aidan. "You play chess?"
"Extremely not well."
He indicated the chair across from him. "Take a seat while we talk."
"Don't," Phobos warned. "It's like playing against a two-year-old who can blast your soul right out of your body. Last time Demon played a human who beat him, he sliced him open from asshole to appetite."
Aidan arched a brow at the vivid description. "Interesting turn of phrase."
"Consider it a warning."
Leta leaned against Aidan and smiled. "Pay Phobos no attention. His job is stir fear in others. He's good at it, too."
Aidan shrugged her warning away. "Not really. I have no fear of anything."
Phobos grinned as if he enjoyed the thought of a challenge. "I assure you, I can rectify that."
"I'd rather you didn't," Leta said quickly before she waved the god away. "Now go scare an old woman or two."
Phobos saluted her with two fingers before he vanished into a circle of flames.
She turned to Deimos who was in the process of directing the chess pieces back into their starting places. "You got a minute, Demon?"
Deimos laughed. "An eternity of them. Why?"
"I need to know how to stop Dolor."
That got him to finally look up at her with a quizzical expression. "Dolor? When did he wake up?"
"A couple of days ago. Now he's after Aidan here to kill him."
Deimos tsked. "Poor you. It really sucks to be human."
Leta narrowed her gaze at him. "Demon..."
He was unfazed by her chiding tone. "Don't nag me, little cousin. I don't want to hear it."
"You're a Dolophonos, a god of justice. Are you really going to sit there while an innocent man is put to death because someone has PMS?"
Deimos gave her a droll stare. "I'm an executioner, Leta, hence my Demon nickname. They send me in to take the heads off people and gods who've stepped over the line, usually only because someone has PMS. You want justice, Themis's office is down the hall on the left." He flashed an evil grin at her. "You want death and dismemberment, I'm your man... or rather god."
She let out a long-suffering sigh. "So you're not going to answer my question?"
"I don't have the answer for you. Just because I've been drinking buddies with Dolor in the past doesn't mean I know how to stop him, especially since no one has ever sent me in to kill him. I only know he prefers double-shot lime-flavored tequilas with bourbon chasers. Sick, I know, but far be it from me to mock his tastebuds. I'm just glad they're not mine."
Aidan stepped forward with a question of his own. "What about you? Could you stop him?"
Deimos gave him a smug look. "No one stands before me for very long. Dread always trumps pain. Besides, I fight dirty. Chess isn't the only thing I cheat at." He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head before he returned his gaze to Leta. "If you really want the inside weakness on Dolor, I'd suggest you try his sister, Lyssa."
Aidan could tell by the look on Leta's face that she'd rather not. "Who's Lyssa?"
"Personification of Insanity," they answered simultaneously.
Leta gave Deimos a chiding stare before she elaborated. "She often works as a demon in conjunction with other gods, to incite madness in their victims so that the Erinyes or Furies can do their work. Because of that, she's a little hard to handle and the madness she used to give to others has nicely taken root inside her own mind."
It figured. "Ooo, perfect. I do believe that in the last twenty-four hours she and I have become really good friends."
Deimos laughed. "I can tell you haven't met her."
"Maybe not personally, but I've definitely been skating around her block a lot today."
"Around the block's okay. Just don't stop and knock on her door."
"Why?"
Deimos gave him a sinister smirk. "She's special. We used to unleash her on ancient battlefields just to see soldiers chop their best friends into pieces before falling on their own swords."
Leta screwed her face up at his brutal imagery. "You're so sick, Demon."
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Trust me, they deserved it or I wouldn't have been so mean. Besides, my mother is a Fury and my father War. What more would you expect of me?"
"Compassion," she said softly. "The Erinyes aren't always cruel."
"True, but not for the wicked. Our job is to punish and that, my cousin, I'm more than capable of doing. Grisly though you may think it." He indicated the door with a jerk of his chin. "See Lyssa. If Pain has a weakness, she alone would know it."
"But will she share?"
He shrugged. "You know her as well as I do. Depends on her mood and degree of clarity when you speak to her."
Aidan frowned. "Degree of what?"
Instead of answering, Leta took his arm before she flashed them into an Escheresque garden. It was so complicatedly intricate, with twisting staircases that defied logic, misaligned arches, and backward-growing shrubs, that Aidan couldn't even grasp it. He literally felt as if he'd just stepped into Escher's Other World engraving. It made him dizzy to try and make sense of the nonsense around him.
No wonder Lyssa was nuts. Trying to walk through her garden would drive anyone crazy.
Leta led him up a small set of stairs that twisted into a dragon's scales before dissolving into a river of blood that lapped against the small rock they both stood on.
"What is this place?" he asked.
"Lyssa's home. Like Deimos warned, she's not exactly right in the head and hers is a very unique view of reality. The garden reflects her quirky nature."