He answered by becoming a shadow that swept through and around Xev to rematerialize behind him. He moved toward the couch where Nick’s mom slept.

Xev became a multicolored wisp of smoke that wrapped around the newcomer’s face and neck. The newcomer dissolved to re-form into the warrior so that he could fight Xev. They faced off to battle like the ancient gods they were. Nick put himself between Kody and his mother while Simi and Menyara formed a wall in front of him.

Nick had a bad feeling they weren’t a lot of protection, but it was better than nothing.

Xev spun with his sword. The other god ducked and caught him a hard blow to his jaw. Unfazed, Xev knocked him to the side. Instead of moving, he dissolved to stab Xev, who vanished only to reappear behind him. It was a crazy, impressive fight as they fought as clouds of smoke, men and beasts that gave Nick a whole new appreciation for the kind of warfare they must have used in battle during the Primus Bellum.

The kind of tactics he’d one day use as the Malachai against Kody and her army.

“Who is that?” Nick asked Mennie.

“Dagon.” Menyara sighed wearily.

He mouthed the name to Kody, who shrugged to let him know she had no idea, either. “Could you expand a few details?” he tried again.

“Son of Noir and Hekate.”

Kody scowled. “My Hekate?”

“Yes.”

Nick wasn’t sure why that name rang his bell, but something about Dagon’s mother was familiar to him. “Why do I know her name?”

Instead of Menyara, it was Kody who answered while Simi cheered Xev on and even offered him her bottle of barbecue sauce should he need it. “Tabitha Devereaux and her sisters talk about her, and Kyrian has a couple of her statues in his house. Hekate’s a good friend of my cousin Katra, and Persephone. She’s the Greek goddess of necromancy, magic, spirits, and the night.”

Ah … now he remembered seeing those statues littered around Kyrian’s mansion. She was one of the goddesses Kyrian would occasionally swear upon whenever Nick really ticked him off about something.

But one thing struck him as odd about a Greek goddess.… “And she hooked up with the lord of all darkness whose name I can’t say without empowering him and sending out a homing signal for him to come kill me? The same malevolent creature who happens to be your”—he glared at Menyara—“brother?”

Menyara nodded. “Believe it or not, he can be quite charming when he’s not psychotic. And Hekate has always had a thing for bad boys.”

Yeah, but getting it on with the original source of all evil and then spawning with him? That took it to a whole new I-need-some-serious-therapy level. He really didn’t want to know about her daddy issues.