"You'll be compensated for expenses," the commander replied. "And docked ten percent for not contacting me before bringing her here. We had a plan, Niko, and you bulldozed it as usual."

"Come on," Niko complained.

"I also won't tell your boss you brought her to me instead of him."

"Total d.i.c.k move."

"Take it or leave it."

Niko started to bristle. Just then, three guards filed out of one of the hallways into the courtyard. Not that the man he faced needed help. Niko didn't know how dangerous he was.

I didn't know how dangerous Niko was. Betrayal hurt more than leaving my home. It made me more desperate to find the only person I'd ever trusted, the man who could right the world tumbling rapidly out of control.

"I'll take it," Niko said reluctantly, eyes on the newcomers.

You b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He had tried to warn me against men like him, and I a.s.sumed he was talking about everyone else. I didn't think he'd be the one to turn on me. If not for Dosy's insistence about what he'd done, I'd suspect him of murder rather than mercy-killing the priests.

The commander motioned someone forward. "Take him to John and escort him out," he instructed.

"What happens to her?" Niko asked.

"Not your concern anymore, now is it?" came the cool response. "Oh, and Niko?"

"What, Adonis."

"I know you aren't here as a merc. Whatever your boss is planning, a.s.sume I'm going to bill him."

Who was Niko's boss? How were Adonis and Niko connected? The questions were tumbling around my brain, and the only answer I cared about was how I was going to find Herakles and escape.

After several lewd curses, Niko lingered for a fraction of a second then left.

A heavy feeling sank into my stomach. This had been his plan all along. Dosy was right, and I'd been too worried about Herakles to care what Niko's motivations were for helping me. I was a fool of the worst kind, one Herakles would be disappointed in for letting my emotions lead me into danger instead of rationally thinking my suicide operation through.

"Instructions, sir," one of the guards approached the man in the center.

"Secure the exits. I'll take it from here." The commander's gaze went towards me.

I eased back, hoping he hadn't realized I was there. I was alone and no closer to finding Herakles. Slinking back down the hallway, I was careful to tune in at every intersection, both to my senses and to the intuition that might be the only sign the commander had found me. I had never felt anything but confident in myself, yet here, I was a trapped rat in a blind maze. I felt like I did the night I spotted the grotesque; I was waiting for something to swoop out of nowhere and grab me.

The buildings were, for the most part, abandoned. Every once in a while, I thought I sensed something and eased away from the direction I had been headed. I went deeper into the compound, farther from the east wing, and into the center of a building that seemed to consist of old barracks. I peeked into several and identified only about four rooms among the several dozen that appeared to be in use.

It was as I entered the only decorated area in the center of the compound it hit me I'd been herded in this direction discreetly by my opponent. The apartment was the sole part of the compound that appeared to have been used continually. It wasn't possible for me to end up here if I hadn't been manipulated. The airy flat featured high ceilings, its own bubbling fountain, and marble features everywhere. It had to be his, because it smelled like him, a faint scent I barely registered when I had met him but which was stronger here. I wasn't able to place it except that it was his.

One wall was jammed with awards, citations, degrees, certifications and other proof of recognition. The largest: the plaque naming him the chief of SISA.

My heart took off again when I realized who I'd been unknowingly messing with. "Only the Big Bad Wolf," I muttered to myself. I mentally kicked my own a.s.s at the thought of teasing the man charged with oppressing opposition and policing everyday people. Adonis Wade wasn't a cop or a security guard but the man charged by the G.o.ds with the security of the entire human race.

And he knew who I was because I'd been stupid enough to challenge him. Niko had allegedly mercy-killed four priests to keep this man from torturing them to discover me, and I walked through the front door and challenged him to a duel.

I had never felt real fear until I stood before his wall of accolades and began to understand why Niko and Dosy said rescuing Herakles was tantamount to suicide. I was dying to ask Niko if he'd made a deal to bring me in before he met the priests or if he was looking out for his own interests after I told him what I was.

I'm an idiot. Dosy was right. I never should've said anything about being an Oracle, never should've trusted a situation that appeared too perfect to be true. It wasn't a coincidence Niko helped me break into SISA. It was part of a plan by strangers who knew what and who I was.

"Now that you understand."

I whirled. Adonis Wade didn't look old enough to be the boogeyman his brag-wall claimed he was. He wasn't much older than twenty five. He was dressed in the dark uniform, hands at his sides and mesmerizing gaze on me.

"Understand what?" I managed.

"Who you're dealing with," he replied.

"As long as you know who you're dealing with." I lifted my wrist to display the red cord. It was self preservation that made me need to put something between us. The intensity of his presence and look was too much for me to handle without help. I slid behind a table with an expensive vase on it.

"Better than you do." His gaze went from me to his wall and back to me. "Stay here for now."

"Um, no. The minute you leave, I'm gone."

"The fate of Herakles is in your hands."

Just like that, my anger and defiance melted.

"I repeat. Stay here for now." He strode towards the door.

"You're not going to tie me up or anything?" I asked. Too late I heard the words. As if he needed me telling him to tie me up.

"I don't need to. If you care about Herakles, you'll do as I say. If you want to know who your parents were, who you are, you'll worry about not p.i.s.sing me off."

His words slammed into me. The one man in the world I shouldn't want anything to do with was dangling everything I wanted in front of me. "My parents." I didn't think of them often, probably because I didn't remember them. I wasn't a complete idiot. I knew they had existed at one point. "You're serious."

"What do you recall of your life before Herakles?"

"Nothing."

"At all?"

"Sometimes I dream of falling." I shrugged. "That's all."

"I'm about to know everything, Alessandra. If you leave, you'll never learn any of it."

He walked out.

I stared at the closed door, not at all certain what just happened. I was trapped in the apartment of the chief of the SISA. I think I'm in trouble, I thought, gazing around warily.

But I wasn't about to leave. Not when the answers I needed were right in front of me.

Chapter Eight.

I was falling again. It was nighttime and the sky above overcast. Down, down, down ... and Herakles was there to catch me, like always. My hero, my friend, my Herakles.

I missed him even in my sleep. As I awoke, I silently swore it was my turn to rescue him.

"Alessandra."

My eyes snapped open. Three people hovered too close to me. I sat up quickly from my spot sleeping on the couch and stared first at the man with the face that made my heart race unnaturally and then at the doctor and John. It took me a moment to orient to this place and recall I had fallen asleep on the couch of the man who was probably supposed to be a super villain to my super-Oracle self.

Herakles would not approve.

"We have your DNA results," the doctor said and held up a file folder. "The reports are going to the Triumvirate. They'll decide whether or not to release them to you. I imagine the press will figure out your ident.i.ty before we can alert the G.o.ds."

"What made you voluntarily and quite publicly walk into this place?" John Spectacles asked. "Controlling the media's response has become a nightmare."

Everyone was searching for me, but no one actually wanted to find me? I couldn't catch a break. It was too early for nonsense and questions. I needed coffee and a toothbrush.

Swinging my legs over the side of the couch, I was at a loss as to how to respond. For having found the Oracle they sought, none of them appeared remotely pleased.

"I have no idea what's going on," I said finally and stood. "I know you're G.o.d around here, Adonis, but do you have a spare toothbrush?"

Silence.

"I can use yours. People act like I have rabies, so I figured you wouldn't want that."

"Second drawer in the bathroom," he replied at last.

"Thank you." I walked towards the bathroom, unusually aware that he was watching me. It was weird how my instincts picked up on him and only him like that.

After I had freshened up, I returned to the living area to find all of them gone. Truth be told, I was kind of relieved. Adonis made me nervous. I wanted to think it was because he was a bada.s.s in his own right but ...

I recalled that tiny moment of something in his arms yesterday. My fingers remembered what it was like to touch his chest, and his scent drifted in the air around me. It was more than a memory, though. I felt him. As if we were connected somehow and I was being drawn towards him when every part of me knew that was completely wrong. It was stronger today. Twisting around, I sought some sign of him being present and spotted him on a balcony overlooking a courtyard that hadn't been tended in years.

What made him live on an abandoned compound?

I wanted to know what was going on, if Herakles was safe, yet feared dealing I with him, the man four people I knew had committed suicide to avoid.

There's something here. Something unnatural I didn't yet understand. I wasn't afraid. I had a list of reasons I should have been, but I wasn't. Neither was I comfortable around him.

The fact he could outrun and outfox me left me unsettled. Herakles had taught me to take care of myself but never bothered to mention what happened when someone bested me and I was subjected to being trapped by mind games. We never talked much about emotion or mental strife, and he scoffed at the priests' attempt to teach me diplomacy. I rarely found fault in my guardian, but I was starting to suspect I'd missed a few things.

Like how to deal with a man resembling Adonis Wade. He was too young to be in such a powerful position and not to be a super genius, ambitious, and strong enough for anything I could throw at him. I had to figure this situation out him out get my answers and help Herakles escape.

As if feeling my gaze, he spoke. "You haven't asked about him," the head of SISA said without turning. One hand rested against his temple as if he had a headache.

It bothered me that he could sense me better than I did him. I was really hoping he wasn't able to read minds, too. "How is he?"

"In one piece for now."

I shifted feet, not liking the response at all. "Can I see him?"

"No."

"Why should I just take your word?"

"What choice do you have?"

"Yesterday, I might have been compelled to agree," I replied. "Then Niko sold me out and you decided to threaten Herakles with bodily harm if I didn't cooperate ... you can see why I'm not really interested in trusting anyone right now."

"Nonetheless you have no choice but to behave in the hopes I don't do to Herakles what I'm known to do to people like him."

It was probably the scariest thing I'd ever heard. The priests always told us straight out what the consequences were for acting out or disobeying, and rarely was their discipline discouraging to me.

I knew only tiny hints about what this man was capable of and that four priests had committed suicide via Niko so they didn't have to fall into his hands. Add to that a High Priestess that feared SISA and even Niko a mercenary who stood to make money off me who was at first unwilling to deal with this man, and my imagination knew no bounds as to what someone had to have done to scare so many people.

"You were testing me yesterday," I said quietly. "Why?"

"Curiosity."

"Hmmm. That's it?"

"What else is there?" He faced me, his intent gaze rattling me.

My cheeks grew warm for reasons I wasn't able to figure out, and I crossed my arms, feeling exposed. "I don't know. It seems beneath you." At his silence, I continued. "You have a billion awards and citations and run this mega huge security force that terrorizes the entire world. How does one person rate your curiosity?"

"How does the Oracle not know who she is?" he countered.

"I know exactly who I am. It's everyone else who seems surprised I'm not someone else," I said, perplexed. "I can defend myself, survive under any conditions for any length of time, and am generally what I consider to be a good person. Who cares if my Greek is basic, I hate chic flicks and have never kissed a guy?" Too late I heard the part about kissing and flushed. Not that I cared what he thought, but ... was this all going in some sort of official record? Was I going to go down in history as the Oracle who never kissed a boy? Because I couldn't think of anything more embarra.s.sing.

"You don't know everything, or you wouldn't have stayed here voluntarily."

"You call me being here voluntary?"

"You want to know what you really are," Adonis stated. "You want to know where you came from. You want to know why. You may think you know what you're capable of, but you don't have any idea and that's why you stayed."

I drew a deep breath. He was like Leandra the wrong person delivering the right message. And I hated that. "Okay, yes. I want to know those things. But I stayed for Herakles. I will always stay for him."

"At the risk of everything you are and could be?"

"I really don't care what you think I am or could be, and I definitely don't have a problem with who I think I am. I care about him."

Adonis was hard to read. He didn't seem to know exactly how to take my honesty. Or perhaps he was offended by it. I wasn't able to tell except I had the impression he was constantly evaluating me. I had no answers for him. He already knew more about me than I did.

"Can you tell me who my parents are?" I asked.