Guardian Angel

Chapter Twenty-Six

I didn't want to say anything to ruin the moment, though, so I sat back on my knees and got to work helping with the garden.

I lost track of how long we'd been out there.

"Hey," Niko said after a while, making me glance at him to see him still digging in the dirt, but his brow furrowed into a tight frown, "Didn't you say that you and Lucy talked to the Source before?" Hades blinked, then looked up as he blew a loose lock of hair out of his face before scowling at Niko.

"Yeah."

"In colors, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's, like, a well-known Source thing, right?"

"Yeah— is this going somewhere or is this one of those things where you just ask me questions and circle back around to something fucking—"

"No, I'm just thinking about something weird," Niko said slowly, sitting back on his legs now and Hades and I looked at him as he reached up to wipe sweat off his face, smearing dirt across his nose before he looked at us, "Like, I suddenly remembered something weird when Ryk was on me and Kitten, he was talking to me, but not in words, in colors..."

"Beasts speak in colors?" Hades asked with a scowl, looking at me. I thought back to all my sensations with my Beast, but it had never been colorful... Not exactly anyway. Feelings did tend to get associated with colors, and I frowned slowly as a thought occurred to me.

"I've never seen colors myself," I admitted slowly, glancing at Niko, who raised an eyebrow, but still was just staring off into space, "But Niko saw colors. I only... felt them."

"Felt colors? What is this," Hades asked dryly, "Are we tripping on psychedelics now?"

"Beasts have a connection to the Source," Niko muttered, making Hades blink and look at him curiously, "I mean, we always knew there was some kind of connection, yeah, but I don't think it's just the Beasts. Cuz, and I know this is gonna sound weird, but Kitten was all over me earlier. He wasn't threatened in the least, and when he did get on me, it wasn't to hurt me. He just started kissing me."

"Not you two too," Hades muttered, but Niko whacked his thigh and Hades scowled at him, slapping his hand away.

"No, I don't think that was it," he said, making Hades sigh in frustration, "No, there's more to it, but we're missing something important here. It has to do with the Beasts, the colors, the Mother's plan to get rid of Hades, Heaven—"

"Heaven?" I asked. Niko nodded.

"Yeah, those fucking frou-frou geese don't show up unless it directly involves them, which means Mother is fucking around with something that involves them. Something that she gains through Bethany, through using D'Angelo. It's connected to the Beasts, to the Source."

"You don't think she's trying to destroy the Source, do you? That would be ridiculous," I added, but Niko shook his head.

"No, I don't think that's it... I dunno, I just got a really weird feeling that we're missing something," he muttered, looking down at the ground, "But every time I get close, it's like I hit some kind of mind fog. Like my brain pumps the brakes and I can't go any further." I glanced at Hades in concern and he quickly wiped his hands on his pants.

"Let me check your pulse—"

"It's not a fucking seizure, Lord Molester—"

"Hey," Wren's voice from the back door had us look up at the same time Niko's eyes flashed bright blue before rolling up in his head, foam sputtering from his mouth. Hades cursed and I rose up on my knees as we quickly turned Niko on his side, guarding him as his form violently convulsed on the floor, only the whites of his eyes visible and his fangs elongated as he twitched and bucked.