The Lightning Bearer Read online

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  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 April Zyon

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-599-9

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To everyone at Evernight Publishing, thank you for all that you do for your authors day in and day out!

  THE LIGHTNING BEARER

  Heroes of Olympus, 6

  April Zyon

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Pepper wished that Kasper could have been there at her graduation, but alas, she hadn’t been able to make the trip. Pepper was alone again. She took another breath and sighed. Turning, she walked off stage after getting her diploma, and back to her seat in the sea of students. She wouldn’t give in to self-pity. She knew she was stronger than that.

  She shifted slightly, listened to the last of the announcements of names, and finally the group stood up like a rogue wave on the ocean and let their graduation caps fly through the air. Giddy laughter fell from many of the students’ lips.

  Pepper quickly moved away from the crowds and the well-wishers, walking to her vehicle. She pulled off the graduation gown and tossed it and her hat into the trunk. She was free. She had a job waiting for her at St. John Industries, but more than that, she was finally free. Thank God.

  Turning on the music, Pepper began to hum and then sing with a grin as she drove toward her apartment so she could load the car for the move back across the country to where St. John Industries Corporate Offices were located. She had packed everything she needed from her small apartment so that she could leave right after graduation. She didn’t really have a great number of friends because she couldn’t let just anyone into her life. It was far too hard to trust someone, not when she had been so hurt all her life before Kasper saved her.

  And then she began to think of them. Two men that had come to keep her cousin safe against an enemy that Pepper couldn’t understand to this day. She knew that Kasper had run up against a number of people in the past who’d thought to destroy her, but she didn’t know how bad it was until she had seen the people brought in to protect her. Pepper had been pretty shaken up by two of the men that were part of the protection detail. Not because they had hurt her, but because they made her feel things she shouldn’t feel. But that had been four years ago. Today was obviously different.

  Pepper thought back to the time she’d spent with the two men in question and found herself once more wishing for things she shouldn’t. She was now legal, at twenty-two, but the truth was, she knew they weren’t interested in her. They had made that very clear to her when she had tried to kiss Lincoln.

  Yep, people like her were doomed to walk the world alone. That was fine with her, however, because she had gotten free of the monster that had raised her and was able to receive the education that she knew she wouldn’t have if she’d stayed with her father and brothers. No, she was better off where she was.

  Once at her apartment she kicked off her shoes and changed into a pair of shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt. After putting her clothes in the suitcase waiting by the door, she looked around and sighed. “Goodbye, apartment.” She had lived alone for the last four years. She didn’t have visitors or do the whole group study thing. Her past, or some stroke of fate, ensured that no matter how many times she made dates, or tried to make friends, it was derailed quickly, and she remained alone.

  She walked out of her apartment and stopped by the manager’s office to turn in the key. “Thank you for having me here, Hera.”

  The woman looked up from the magazine she was reading and gave Pepper a look that could kill. She rolled her eyes and turned the page of her magazine and with a bored monotone voice said, “Good riddance. I was trying to think of how to have you evicted. Saved me the time.”

  Pepper would have been hurt, but honestly, Hera went out of her way to make Pepper’s life miserable. She walked away from the building with her head held high and a hope for a better tomorrow. She had a job to get to, and if all went well she would be able to work her way up in the company and maybe, just maybe, she would make a friend.

  ****

  Hera let out a frustrated scream that she contained in the shitty office at the apartment complex. “That little bitch.” She tossed a pen, and it embedded itself deeply into the wall. “Gods be fucking damned. She should be dead by now. Why the fuck couldn’t any of the little bastards pull it off?” She knew she was speaking to herself, but the fact was, she had needed Pepper to die before she graduated and went back to those fucking men. She was very well aware of just who was meant for that little bitch, and Hera had to stop it. She needed to free Hades so that Zeus would finally fucking pay for sleeping with Pepper’s grandmother. Little cunt looked too fucking much like Zeus now for there to be any doubt as to who she was.

  She once again checked her shielding on the little bitch and sighed. “At least the other gods still can’t see her. That’s good.” If they could see her they would know that Hera had been her watcher, and they would also see that the last one wasn’t descended from one of the lower Gods, but from the King of them all. “That fucking bastard!”

  She was pissed. Pissed because her husband sought comfort in another woman’s arms and pissed that the Fates had walked up to her the day that Pepper was born and put the child into her care—after—they told her that the child was of Zeus’s blood. Those fucking whores needed to pay next, and once she had Hades free they would ensure that they all paid.

  Rising to her full height of six feet even, Hera vanished from the apartment manager’s office and landed in her private quarters on Olympus. Seeing two of her many men there, eunuchs thanks to fucking Zeus, she smiled, and a plan formed.

  “Oh boys.” She purred the words, which had them turning to look at her. “I have a job for you both. It will require that you go to Earth. If you make me happy on this I will ensure that you get your manhood back.”

  Both men suddenly were very interested in what she had to say. She knew she had them by the balls, so to speak. “I need you to find this bitch.” Hera produced a photo of Pepper. “And kill her. Any way that you want to. Just ensure that she dies.” She smiled, giving them powerful weapons. The little whore didn’t even understand what power she walked around with. Idiot.

  When the men disappeared, she walked to her personal mirror and whispered the words, “Hades, come to me now, lover.” She smiled when the mirror swirled in angry black tones.

  “What have I said about calling me your lover?” the angry god stated finally. “Tell me that you have killed the last key?”

  “Not yet. You know that I could only do so much in order to ensure her life was miserable. Most people would have slit their own fucking throats by now, but not her. Damn her fucking eyes.”

  “So why are you calling to me then?”

  “Because she’s on a road trip on her own. I’ve sent two of my men after her, but this would be the perfect time for your men to get to her as well. The shielding I have over her is keeping the others from seeing the final piece in the puzzle. The idiots have gone years without knowing she was a key.” She shook her head and laughed. “Kill her. She’s your ticket out,” she stated. “Now, my love, now is the time
. Kill her and be free to rule at my side over all of Olympus so that we can have the humans bowing at our feet once more.”

  “Oh, you have done very, very well, darling,” Hades said with a smile. “I will send my best assassins for her now. They are former team members of those twits that Ares chose to have as the protectors. Thank you, my dear, for telling me.” He bowed his head and nodded. “Until we are able to be together we shouldn’t communicate. You will know when she’s dead, I assume?” When Hera nodded he smiled. “Good. Until then.” The mirror went dark for a moment before Hera’s visage was once more there.

  Life is good, Hera said to herself. Now it’s time for a full spa treatment, she thought before calling her handmaidens to come and service her, in all ways. Just because Zeus took the balls and dicks from her men didn’t mean that the women couldn’t pleasure her.

  Chapter Two

  “What do you mean you failed?” Hera demanded of the man who knelt before her.

  “We ensured that her vehicle would have issues down the road so that we could pick her up in a car, but the woman fixed it on her own and we lost that chance. She’s at a motel right now. We are going to go with the local gang and ensure that she pays with her life for being born, but only after they’ve had all the fun with her that they want.”

  This had Hera smiling, and she nodded. “All right. Make it happen this time or my husband’s removal of your manhood will be the least of your worries. I will make you pay if you fail again.”

  “Yes, mistress,” the man said and walked away.

  ****

  It had been a hellacious drive, Pepper thought to herself. “Thank you,” she said to the motel clerk and took the last key in her shaking hands. The rainstorm was getting worse and worse, which caused her to pull off the roadways and hunker down for the night. She ran away from the office and toward the room that was hers. Yes, it was a pretty seedy motel on the side of the highway, but it was the only place left in the city thanks to five different events happening there now. Just her luck.

  Pepper let herself into the room and turned on a light. Thank goodness it was clean. She closed the door and locked it and then put the safety chain on as well. “Pizza for dinner.” She all but dove for the phone book at the bedside table and called up the local shop for some food. She was starving, and fortunately they would deliver drinks as well. It was the small things that made Pepper so thankful.

  With food on the way, she peeled out of her wet clothes and hung them to dry in the bathroom on the shower curtain pole. She pulled on a pair of pajamas that she had in the small backpack that she always had with her. With that all done, she lay upon the bed and turned on the television, hoping to drown out some of the sudden noise of people screwing in the room on the other side of hers. Great.

  When the pizza came she opened the door and paid for the slice of heaven. She looked over his shoulder and frowned at seeing all the cops that were there. “What in the world happened?”

  The kid shrugged. “From what I heard, it’s some gang hit gone wrong. Evidently the cops had someone give them a tip that a murder was about to happen. Wouldn’t want to be them right now.” The kid laughed and shrugged.

  When he was gone Pepper shook her head and locked the doors again. “Good grief. I don’t understand why people want to hurt each other.” She still carried the scars of the abuse she’d suffered most of her life. That abuse made her the woman she was today, shy and reserved but thankful as heck to be alive.

  Settling back on the bed, she watched some show on HBO and devoured her pizza.

  Chapter Three

  Athena winced as the halls of Olympus were suddenly inundated by the screams of their Queen. Hera was having a royal shit fit, but her temper was her downfall. “That fucking bitch! How does she keep getting out of the best-laid traps!”

  Athena frowned. “What woman?” She wondered to herself as she walked to the well once more. They had to find the final missing descendant. They needed to find her before Hades’s acolytes found her.

  That was when it dawned on her. “Oh, hell.” Without hesitation she popped out of Olympus and appeared at the doorstep of the Farm. She could feel Ares inside, along with all of the men and their mates. Lifting her fist, she knocked. She had to talk to them and prayed she was wrong.

  Athena wasn’t surprised when Mikhail answered the door with a frown on his face. “I need to talk to all of you. I know who the watcher is for the final woman, but I can’t divine who the woman is without serious help on a power scale. May I enter?”

  Nodding, Mik stood aside to wave her in. “Ares!” he bellowed. “Athena’s here, and she’s got something big. Through there,” he said pointing the way to the kitchen. A good thing since inside the farmhouse her abilities didn’t do shit.

  Athena felt the drain on her abilities, but she didn’t care. Seeing Ares standing there she walked to him quickly. “Have you been able to see the sixth, at all? Even a glimpse of her?” When he didn’t answer she continued. “All of the keys we knew about. We could glimpse them in the well. We could feel them even if we couldn’t view them. All but this one. Why?” She whispered and began to pace. “I think that Hera has done something. I don’t know what, but we can’t feel or see the sixth because of Hera. We should have known when she said she would protect a line, though she would never admit it or who it really was. She was one to always look out for herself. How could we have been so blind?”

  Ares let out a string of curses, and shoved a hand through his hair. “I told you letting her protect one of the lines was a dumb fucking idea. That bitch only has one agenda.” His whole body froze, his expression going blank. “She only has one agenda.”

  “You said that already,” Victor said.

  “No, I mean that bitch has only one agenda. Getting back at Zeus for fucking around on her with human women, and flaunting them in her face. She will do anything to fuck him up. What would do the most damage right now?” He posed the question to Athena.

  “Exactly,” Athena said and paced even more. “But we can’t see her. Somehow Hera has hidden her. What the hell is that woman doing to the poor girl? She can’t hurt her, right? Directly she can’t cause her harm. The Fates would be ready to tear down the Halls if so. Right?” Athena frowned again. “Wait. When was the last time you saw those three bitches?”

  “Fucking hell, Athena, give a guy a chance to answer a few questions before you bury him,” Ares protested. “No, Hera can’t directly hurt her, but if she asks someone to do it for her it doesn’t come back on her. As long as it’s not another god of course, or demi-god. As to the Fates, who the fuck knows with those three? The last I saw them they were over at Dionysus’s place raiding his bar while he was on Earth. They took off with an armload of bottles the second they saw me coming. That was, shit, two weeks ago Earth time.”

  “It’s been longer than that since I saw them last. And yes, those women are slippery as eels. At least we know who the watcher is. Now we have to find the girl, because before I came down here Hera was screaming bloody murder asking why she keeps getting out of the best-laid traps. Her words, not mine, by the way.”

  “Okay, okay,” Ares said, beginning to pace. All the men cleared out a path for him, and watched as he went back and forth. “Hera can’t do anything to directly harm the woman. This is a fact. She’s a vicious bitch, and has it out for Zeus, well known fact even on Earth. The last key has to be of his line. It makes the most sense of why she was insistent of being the watcher for the child. Which means, depending on how far back the connection is, the descendent is going to give off clues as to where she is based on her stress levels. Going on the big assumption that it’s one of Zeus’s offspring, that means rain, thunder, and lightning during high stress situations or extreme mood swings. Get back to the well and see if there have been any storms that weren’t supposed to happen, huge ones, lots of rain and so forth. Might be able to give us a clue. Focus on America only. They’ve all been here so far, so we’ll clear it
first before going elsewhere.”

  Athena nodded and took a deep breath. “I will see what I can find. With the way that humanity has hurt the environment it’s going to be hard to find something that isn’t natural.” She looked to the others and bowed. “I’m sorry that I disturbed you. I will go back and try to find her. If I do, I will call for you immediately.” With the power dampeners in the house other than for those who lived there, Athena had to actually walk to the door and out of it so that she could flash back to Olympus.

  ****

  “Is she going to actually be able to find anything?” Mikhail asked Ares once the goddess was gone. “She’s right about us fucking the world up. It’s not going to make it any easier, will it?”

  “No, it’s not, but she will find her. She’s relentless as you know,” Ares replied. “If the girl is truly descended from Zeus, there would be rain showers when she’s sad because she can’t control her power. She will also create thunder and lightning. Not much, of course, because the old man still has the thunderbolts, but there will still be some. Now, if it’s his daughter or granddaughter, that’s something else altogether. You see, the first two generations have the full power of the god that they descended from. I know how crazy that sounds, but that’s the truth of it.”

  “Good,” Gareth nodded. He was looking at Lincoln and Thomas. Shifting closer to the god, he lowered his voice. “The sooner we find her, the better. How sure are you that it’s Zeus’s line the woman is from? I mean, you sounded damn sure, and your line of reasoning made sense to me, but are you really sure? I don’t know if they can hold out hope for one wild goose chase after another.”