XLIX
NICO
I want to go there.
Nico narrowed his eyes to the corner of his bedroom. He could feel the shadows engulfing him. He took a deep breath. He vanished. But when the shadows had vomited him out, he crashed on the wall and hit his head on it.
"Damn it," Nico cursed. He slid down the floor and clutched the side of his head. Though, he didn't stop there. He stared hard at his bed. Darkness. Then shadows formed at the ceiling like a cloud over the bed. Nico emerged from the shadows flailing his hands in the air and fell to the bed. He was grateful that he had chosen his bed as his destination.
Then again, he made a mistake of looking at his dresser on the other side of his room.
"No, no, no. . ." Shadow like smoke started to engulf him again.
When he materialized, his butt hit the edge of the dresser. His hands that were trying to find anything to hold unto, unintentionally swept off the things on the dresser making them fall to the ground. There was a loud crash.
Nico cursed out loud. Since he was still learning the shadow travel, there were times that he couldn't control it. He ended up sitting on the floor with his back against the chest of drawers attached to the dresser. He gazed down at the things that fell on the floor. Thankfully, they were just an assortment of plastic bottles. A wood box toppled over, its contents spilling on the floor. A magazine also fell on the floor.
Nico sighed. He needed to work hard so he could already learn completely the works of shadow travel. Especially now that a rouge ghost with a vengeance on him was on the move. Will had told him about it the other day just before he had gotten discharged in the hospital. He couldn't remember killing this Python dude but hell, Python had seemed to remember clearly to get back to him. Nico was grateful for the death angel who had told Will. At least, some of his questions were starting to have an answer. He had wanted to thank this death angel but Will never mentioned the name. He only reasoned that the death angel was hard to find. Nico was a little bit suspicious at that, Will was a terrible liar after all. But he had chosen not to pry more to it.
He sighed again as he reached for the magazine that fell on the floor. It was the magazine that Will had been featured. It was like a habit for him now to look at the picture of Will in that magazine every now and then. Hazel would catch him looking at it and she would tease him mercilessly about it.
He opened the magazine and turned to the page of Will's picture and interview. Nico had almost memorized all the contents of the interview from frequently reading it. He stared at the picture of Will.
Nico couldn't help but snort and smile. "Gods, aren't you lucky at that guy, Nico di Angelo? Huh?"
He continued to smile as he absentmindedly turned to the next page. Nico froze. He stared at the picture on the next page.
It was a picture of three feet long ivory staff with a purple globe sized of a baseball attached to the top of it. The picture was labeled as the Scepter of Diocletian. Nico read the short article about it. It was a joint excavation project of Triumvirate Laboratories and Valdez Biotech Corp to retrieve the Scepter of Diocletian in the ruins of Croatia, Italy that had started in spring last year. The project had been completed in summer the same year. There had been debate on whether the relic should be turned over to the national government or to the private company that retrieved it. The article said that for the temporary time until the issue was resolved, Valdez Biotech Corp would be given the rights over the relic.
Nico had never turned the page of the magazine after Will's interview because he didn't care whatsoever in the next pages. So this was his first time seeing the scepter.
Except that it was not.
Suddenly, Nico gasped for air as he clutched his chest dropping the magazine. His eyes shut closed as flashbacks after flashbacks came flooding to him as if the water broke from a dam.
Death angel Nico stood in front of a throne. It was the throne of Hades in the Underworld. The God of the Underworld sentenced him to a punishment of forgetting someone he loved the most. His old self looked at Bianca who was crying and shouting. He smiled bravely at her because loving someone so sincerely and faithfully was one of the biggest accomplishments a man could ever do in his life. The sacrifice he would do for it was worth it.
The scene shifted as Nico vanished and he materialized on a darkened street. It was the 113th street in Manhattan, New York. Nico looked around, confused. His eyes widened when he had realized that he was back in the mortal world.
"This is . . . what I. . ?" Nico faltered. His heart drummed on his rib cage. "What am I doing here?"
His gaze stopped at the corner. Three people were standing there. They were Henry Stevens, Luke Castellan, and Nero Johansen. Nero Johansen raised the Scepter of Diocletian to the sky. Shadows curled around him. There were no other people around but he could hear voices, like human voices screaming, as another wave of white smoke sucked into the scepter. The temperature around dropped, colder than the usual temperature of fall. It felt like winter without snow.
The screaming voices continued and somehow, Nico recognized the waves of white smoke being sucked. He felt it, the throbbing essence of the white smoke.
"Hey!" Nico couldn't help but shout. All three turned to his direction. For a moment they were frozen in shock to see another presence there.
"What are you doing to those souls?" Nico asked. Those waves of white smoke were souls of human beings. He was horrified at the thought that those people were corrupting those souls. It was evil and unfair. If a human died, all souls needed to go to the afterlife for a fair judgment.
He didn't notice that Luke Castellan climbed into the car. The engine turned on and so were the headlights. It blinded Nico for a moment before he knew it, the car roared and zoomed towards him.
Nico screamed.
The flashback ended. Nico's eyes snapped open. He was back in the present, in his own room, beads of sweat covering his forehead. He doubled over to the floor and dry retched, his heart thundering in his rib cage. He heaved as he clenched his hands. He tried to close his eyes again to calm himself. He counted ten backward like Mr. D had told him before.
His heartbeat and breathing started to get even. Nico opened his eyes. He found himself lying on the cold floor, his cheek pressed against it. He sat up shakily. He wiped his forehead that glistened with sweat with the back of his hand. He slowly stood up. He saw his reflection on the mirror of his dresser. His eyes were obsidian black. Black smoke started to curl around him. He could feel a roar of great energy in his veins. His body felt like nuclear, powerful and destructive.
This was Nico di Angelo, shadow and death were his friends. It was nice to reunite with them.
Nico turned to the wall across his room. He started to walk towards that wall. Then he started to jog and he jumped to the wall. He should have crashed on it but he didn't. The wall melted into a puddle of shadows. Nico stepped into the shadows without hesitation. There was a certain destination in his mind. Queens, New York.
Nico stepped out from another wall that melted into shadows. Nico looked at both sides. He was in an alley. He made his way through the alley. Nico paused when he saw his reflection again on a broken window. His eyes turned back to the color of dark brown. The shadows around him were gone. He resumed his way and went at the end of the alley.
He emerged on a street where people were busy doing their own business and people hurrying to get on their destinations on time. He turned to a corner and headed to Valdez Biotech Corp building.
He reached the entrance of the said building. Several people were coming in and out of it in dress shirts and coats. Nico looked down at himself. He wore a gray t-shirt over a black sleeveless hoodie, black skinny jeans, and black flip-flops. He sighed. He was in haste to get there that he hadn't thought of dressing smart and appropriate for the place. He contemplated going back to his apartment to change. He was sure that the securities would have second thoughts on letting him in. Before he could turn around, a woman approached him. She had golden-brown hair tied in a complicated low bun and strands of hair falling on the side of her face. She wore a white collared wrap dress, with sleeves reaching her elbow. There was a bow tied on the left side of her waist. She had dark almond-shaped eyes and pouty lips. Her skin was milky pale. She walked with grace and her face held confidence and beauty.
"Nico di Angelo, is it?" The woman said stopping in front of him.
"Uhm, do I know you?" Nico asked.
The woman laughed softly. "No, but I am Calypso Hale. I know your sister Hazel because she was a good friend of my fiancé, Leo. I'm glad we met at last. I heard a lot of good things about you from your sister."
Nico's attention perked up when Calypso had mentioned the name Leo. "Yeah, nice to meet you too. But, uh, you mentioned Leo, is that Leo Valdez, CEO of Valdez Biotech Corp? Because if it was him, I have to talk to him, maybe like right now, if that's possible."
Calypso raised an eyebrow at the urgency in Nico's voice. "Yeah, that's my fiancé. It seems important that you went all the way here. I heard that you're in Manhattan. I can help you with that. He's in his office. Come with me."
Nico thanked Calypso profusely. He nearly wept in joy when Calypso had come to his aid because he wasn't sure if he could ask an appointment to a freaking CEO. He could ask Hazel but that would take time and Nico couldn't afford to waste any time.
"Hazel endorsed you to us but we heard that you were already working at Triumvirate Laboratories," Calypso said when they were inside the VIP elevator going straight up to Leo's office.
"Yeah," Nico answered. "I was also surprised that my application got accepted there immediately."
Nico narrowed his eyes as he stared at the steel door of the elevator. Now, he was sure that there was an underlying motive on why he had gotten accepted there.
"Well, you are always welcome here, if you feel like working here –not that we're stealing you away from our competitor company." Calypso laughed. "Hazel isn't a stranger to us. Besides, Hazel's jewelry is fantastic, she's always giving me large discounts on it."
By the time that they reached the floor, Nico decided that he liked Calypso. She was an out-going person and seemed pretty easy to talk to. They walked on a long carpeted hallway and stopped in front of a big black opaque glass door at the end of the hallway. Calypso pressed her thumb on the small scanner attached to the wall next to the door. It beeped and the glass door slid open. They went inside, to a sophisticated and large receiving area. They turned to the corner and entered a doorless room. Shelves lined the wall. There were mini figurines on the shelves, like mini-robots. To their right, another glass door was already opened and Nico could hear a voice speaking in fluent Spanish. Calypso urged him to come with her in that room.
Finally, they reached Leo Valdez's office. For a second, Nico thought that they emerged in a museum. It was similar to the other room they had passed by but bigger. Still, there were shelves on the wall with more complicated small machines, which Nico didn't know if they were finished or not. Blueprints scrolls were neatly stacked on a big table on the far end. On the other far end side, a man stood behind his desk talking animatedly to the Bluetooth earpiece attached to his ear. His hands gestured wildly in the air. He talked in rapid Spanish. His face gleamed with a mischievous smile. He seemed to be the type who had chugged down a galloon of coffee every morning with how he radiated with so much enthusiasm and energy. He had an elfish look, with curly black hair, pointy ears, and brown eyes glittering in the light. He had a slim build and average in height. He wore a white dress shirt with black suspenders. His dress shirt was tucked in his brown pants. He was young for a CEO.
Leo glanced at Calypso and to Nico while listening on the earpiece. Calypso mouthed Nico di Angelo on him and he nodded briefly. He gave Calypso a wink before speaking again on the earpiece.
Calypso snorted and muttered. "What an idiot." Yet, she seemed flustered.
She turned to Nico and gestured to the couch. "Take a seat first Nico, while waiting for Leo to finish his phone call."
"I'm so sorry for the inconvenience," Nico said in a low voice. He sat down. "I should have given a notice first but it was kind of urgent. ."
Calypso smiled. "Figured it would be. Besides, it's fine. Leo has nothing to do today except to assemble and dismantle things. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Coffee would be fine. Thank you." Nico smiled at her.
Calypso nodded and left. After a short moment, she came back with a tray of two cups of coffee. She set it down on the coffee table in front of Nico.
"Si, si. Gracias. Senior," Leo said and tapped his earpiece.
"Buenos Dias, mi amor." Leo walked towards Calypso and kissed her on the cheek. He stepped back to look at her face properly. "Is it just me or you're getting more gorgeous every single day?"
"Shut up with your nonsense Valdez." Calypso rolled her eyes. She pointed at Nico. "Instead of flirting stupidly entertain your guest."
"Ah, of course." Leo faced Nico who had stood up from his seat. "Do you want me to dance or sing?"
Calypso looked like she wanted to smack Leo in the head with the tray she was holding, while Nico didn't know what to make of it.
"I swear, sometimes I don't know how did you become a CEO," Calypso muttered.
"I'm also wondering the same thing," Leo answered without missing a beat. He grinned at Nico. "Anyhow, it's nice to finally meet you, Nico"
"The pleasure is all mine" Nico reached for Leo"s hand for a handshake. Leo accepted it with a smile.
"So what brought you here early in the morning?" Leo asked.
"He said that he has something urgent to talk with you," Calypso said to Leo. "So, I'll leave you two to talk." Calypso smiled at Nico then she left.
"So let's hear this urgent topic you want to talk about." Leo sat down opposite to Nico and sipped his coffee.
"Where is the scepter of Diocletian?" Nico asked straight to the point.
"Oh that. . ." Leo put down the cup on the table. "The Triumvirate Laboratories got a hold of its rights after I lost the bidding at the end of summer last year. Honestly, Nero Johansen seemed so interested in having that scepter that he can afford to lose billions of dollars for it. Me not so much, I'll probably invest more in technological welfare that would improve human life."
Nico internally cursed when his suspicion had been confirmed. There was a part of him hoping that Nero hadn't had the full ownership of it, yet. Now it would be hard to retrieve the scepter from him.
"May I know why you are seemingly interested in that scepter?" Leo asked. Somehow, he had magically produced copper wires and now he was braiding them together.
"Say, what do you know about that scepter?" Nico asked again ignoring Leo's question.
Leo shrugged, his fingers busy with copper wires. "Nothing much. I was interested in it at first because it was a rare artifact and I like rare things. Besides, the myth surrounding it was interesting too. Do you know that it was said that the Scepter of Diocletian could command the souls?"
Another internal cursed from Nico about this newfound information. He muttered. "Well, it wasn't a myth anymore."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. I thought the government was also interested in having the rights of it. What happened?"
Another shrugged from Leo. His eyes trained to Nico but his hands were now twisting the copper wires here and there. To Nico's astonishment, the copper wires started to form a shape. "Dunno what exactly happened. But from what I heard, Nero spent another billion dollars so the government would take their hands off of it. Seriously, I don't know what's with that dude. He seemed so obsessed with it."
"So there's nothing could be done legally to retrieve that scepter from him?"
"Yes, why are you interested in it too?"
"Like you, I got fascinated about it after reading its article on the magazine," Nico said sipping on his coffee. The coffee was surprisingly good.
By that time, Leo had finished twisting his copper wires. He put down his finished product on the table.
Nico was beyond impressed and speechless. "Is that -is that. ."
"A mini dragon?" Leo finished for him. "But yes, it is indeed a dragon. I'm going to name him, Festus."
After meeting Leo, Nico went back to his apartment. When the shadows had vomited him out of his wall, he paced back and forth in his room. He was deep in thought. Somehow, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit in together in his head. There was one thing that started to make sense to him. Why Hades had brought him back to the mortal world that fateful night.
For whatever reason, Hades had chosen him to save those souls that Nero had stolen. Nico was sure that the voices he had heard in the basement of Triumvirate Laboratories were the souls Nero had imprisoned there. The problem was, he was still not quite sure how to release all those souls from being locked up. The souls wouldn't listen to him because Nero had the scepter to command the souls.
In addition to his problems, it was the fact that Python was still out there hungry for his blood. However, right now, Nero Johansen was the more pressing problem at hand. He couldn't afford to lose any more time. Soon all of them would turn into monsters that would do Nero's bidding.
Think, di Angelo, use your old death angel knowledge. He thought frustratingly as he continued to pace back and forth. What could he do to save them? He needed something that would match the power of Nero's scepter.
Nico halted in his steps.
Wait.
Maybe, he didn't need something but someone.
Will Solace.
Come to think of it, there was a patient in JHH whose soul was missing. Will had mentioned that there were other patients like that one. Nico cursed. This was bad. If his assumption was right, those missing souls were all related to the scepter of Diocletian. Souls couldn't just disappear all of a sudden.
And if Nero couldn't be stopped anytime soon, even the souls of a living person could be in danger. Nero would have no qualms whether where the soul had come from as long as he would get them. Another reason he needed to act fast. Nico walked to his nightstand and picked up his phone. He called Will.
On the first ring, Will answered in his ever-cheerful voice. "Hey, sunshine what's up?"
"Will we needed to talk, where are you?"
There was a pause before the blond spoke. "Nico, you are making me nervous with the serious tone of your voice, are you going to break up with me?"
"Wha-No! It's not like that jeez. Not gonna do that. Not ever-"
"Good."
"-Yeah, anyway, I wanted to talk about the missing souls of the patients in your hospital."
"Oh,"
"Yeah,"
"So listen, Will-"
"Hold that thought!"
Nico frowned. "Why are you always doing that to me?"
"Actually, there's also something I want to say about the same topic. I'm still in the hospital. Meet me here."
"Okay," Nico said slowly. "Let's meet there."
"All right. Love you."
"Love you. bye." Nico hung up. Nico pocketed his phone in his jeans. He was about to summon the shadows when his phone vibrated. Initially, he thought that Will had called him back but when he looked up at his phone. It was an unknown number.
Nico answered it nonetheless. "Hello?"
"How are you, Nico di Angelo?"
Nico was rooted in his spot. He somehow recognized the voice.
"Mr. Luke Castellan?"
"I'm glad you recognized my voice."
After recovering from the initial shock, Nico was boiling in anger. Luke Castellan was the culprit behind his hit and run case. How could Luke act as if nothing had happened? If anything, Luke hadn't seemed to feel any remorse or guilt, as if he hadn't almost killed Nico. What kind of human was he? Maybe it was time to settle things with this bastard.
Nico clenched his hand. "You are the one who hit me with your car last fall."
There was a long pause
"So you already remember what happened last year huh?"
"You are not going to get away with this, you asshole."
Luke had the nerve to laugh. "And what are you going to do? Report me to the cops? Go on try it. Let's see what happens. Di Angelo, if there's one thing you need to know about, the justice in this world is already dead."
"Maybe, but not in the Underworld."
"What?"
"What do you want from me, Castellan?"
"Good thing you ask, do you want to finish what we've started last year fall? Meet me at the 113th street right now. Go there alone. I mean business di Angelo. Don't underestimate what I can do." Luke hung up.
This was all wrong. Nico thought as he started to take steps. He should be asking for help, calling for Reyna. Instead, he pocketed his phone again and the shadows started to engulf him. Nico vanished once again.
Nico materialized at 113th street. Yet, when he looked around, there was no one around. It was an empty street. Was Luke bluffing about all of this? He should just have called Reyna instead of settling this on his own. Nico crossed the street when the sound of an engine roared out of nowhere.
In a split second, Nico felt a déjà vu.
Nico whipped his head to the side. A car zoomed towards him. Luke was inside, driving the car.
That bastard, until the end. Nico thought. He was about to shadow travel away when he felt someone pushed him out of the way.
Several things happened at once.
Nico lost his balance and fell rolling to the ground, away from the approaching car. He found himself on the ground but immediately pushed himself up with his elbow. That was when he saw, Kayla Knowles, a friend of Will Solace was going to be hit by the car instead.
"No!" Nico roared, his arm outstretched towards Kayla.
Kayla received the impact of the car. She rolled on the hood and hit the windshield. The momentum made Kayla almost sailed through the air. She was about to hit the ground when shadows wrapped around her.
Then Nico saw it, Kayla glimmered for a second, thin wisp of white smoke came out from her. It faded out in the air immediately.
Nico manipulated the shadows to settle Kayla down to the ground. He stood up and turned his attention in the direction of Luke's retreating car. Nico outstretched his arm again, shadows started to engulf the car. The car halted. He strode towards the car and yanked open the car's door on the driver's side. He held Luke at the back of his collar and pulled him out of the car. Nico threw him on the ground. Luke seemed frozen on his spot and he seemed terrified at the shadows that still engulfing the car.
Nico crouched next to Luke and looked squarely at Luke's wide eyes. He fisted Luke's collar. "Here's the deal, bastard. You are going to the cops and you are going to confess whatever you did on this street. You hear me? And if you didn't do that, I swear to all the gods out there, I am going to personally open the gates of Hell and escort you there and watch you be damned for eternity. You don't underestimate me because I can do much more than summoning shadows. Got that? Now get outta here."
Luke was not moving.
"Go," Nico growled at him.
Luke scrambled to stand and run. Nico didn't even watch where Luke was going. He knew that he had already made a point on that bastard. Instead, he ran towards Kayla who was lying unconscious on the ground.
"Kayla!" Nico knelt beside Kayla.
There was blood gushing down the side of Kayla's temple. Her left arm seemed dislocated. At one look, Nico knew that Kayla's soul had gone somewhere away. If Nico's assumption was right, Kayla's soul was at Nero's basement.
Nico dialed 911 and of course, Will Solace.
oo00oo
"I am so sorry Kayla, that you had to do my volunteering check-ups in the foster home. I need to meet Nico asap, 'cos we might already solve at last the whole mystery about these coma patients. . ."
Kayla was inside her car as she maneuvered along the street. She sighed as she talked at her Bluetooth earpiece. "Be thankful, Solace I was just around the area. You so owe me big time. And go, wake those patients up!"
"We will do our best and yeah, I owe you one, thanks so much!"
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Kayla removed her earpiece and put it on the center console box. She hummed at the music on her stereo, her eyes on the road. Suddenly, her peripheral vision noticed someone familiar when she had passed by a certain street.
"Huh?" Kayla stepped on the brakes. "Is that the person I thought it would be?"
Kayla looked at the rear mirror and reversed her car. It moved backward, going back to that street. She stopped at the corner of 113th street and rolled down her window. She saw Nico di Angelo standing at the sidewalk looking around.
"I thought Will's going to meet him at the hospital, what is he doing here?" Kayla muttered rolling her window up and turned off the engine of her car. She climbed down her car. She walked towards Nico.
She was about to call him when Nico crossed the street and stopped in the middle. Kayla halted at the sound of another car. The car sped towards Nico. The car had no plan on stopping and Nico wasn't moving.
"Oh no, this is not going to be another hit and run version 2.0. Blondie will go insane when that happens." Kayla muttered as she ran towards Nico. She pushed him out of the way.
Kayla wasn't sure what exactly had happened but she felt like dreaming. She felt like Supergirl, flying and overseeing the skyscrapers of New York. She had one destination in mind as she flew. A certain place was drawing her in.