God of Mayhem: Fate's Warriors, #2

By J.C. Diem

The Shifter Squad is called back into action as Lexi, Natalie and Violet travel to the next dimension in search of their target. Lexi's world comes under threat from the very being who created shapeshifters so long ago. Again, Loki has allied himself with the Grimgorg, but this time he has new monsters at his beck and call.

Loki on the Alpha World continues to strive to keep Bianca Caldwell safe as Fate had instructed him. The girl is an unwanted burden that he wishes he could foist off onto someone else. Instead, he is stuck with her and his very future could depend on keeping her alive.

Lexi and her team must once again step up to save their world, but their version of Loki has tricks at his disposal that will make things very difficult for them. They must rely on the two warriors from other realities to help them defeat their enemies. Fate chose them for a reason and they have to trust that neither of them will buckle under the pressure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seize The Night Agency
• Release date: May 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386082811

Book preview

Chapter One

~~~ Lexi’s World ~~~

LEAPING THROUGH THE portal, Lexi fought against instinctual panic as she plummeted towards the ground far below. She squinted her eyes half shut as her hair whipped wildly around her face. The horrible sensation of falling only lasted for a few moments. Then she landed safely on her feet without quite knowing how her fall had been halted. It seemed almost ironic that she’d had to rely on Loki’s spell to take her to her next location. She and her fellow warriors would soon be hunting him down again. Or this world’s version of him anyway.

Violet and Natalie landed beside her a moment later and looked around warily. Violet’s dagger was glowing a soft gold color. While her friends didn’t mean her any harm, they were supernatural beings and the weapon responded to their nearness.

Nat held both of her swords ready as she searched the area for enemies. I wonder which dimension we’re in? she said as she scanned the park. They were still in Denver, but the park was empty of life and the bodies of the fallen.

We’re on my world, Lexi replied. She hadn’t bothered to pull her Beretta from the holster beneath her left arm. There were no signs of Loki, Grimgorg, Fire Giants, or any other threats.

How do you know that? Violet asked.

I can feel Reece through our bond. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed their bond until it had been restored to her. A piece of her soul had been missing, but she now felt whole again. Reece wasn’t the only one she could sense. Her link to her furry guardian was also back in place. She felt Zeus’ joy that she’d returned and knew he was rushing to greet her.

Nat cursed beneath her breath when the air shimmered and a huge animal appeared right in front of them. She went into action before the beast could attack them and her swords flashed out. Instead of slicing it apart, they passed straight through the thing.

What the hell is it? Violet asked as she transformed her dagger into a double-bladed axe. She’d never heard of ghost dogs before, but this thing seemed to be something like a spirit. It wasn’t a hellhound, that much she knew.

He’s Zeus, my Rottweiler, Lexi said dryly before either of her allies could attempt to kill her guardian again. Sending the two strangers reproachful looks, Zeus trotted soundlessly over to his mistress. She didn’t have to bend down to pat him, his head was as high as her waist. Dropping to her knees, Lexi ruffled his ears and his tongue lolled out in a grin. He won’t attack you unless he thinks you’re a threat, she added when neither of the warriors put their weapons away.

Realizing there was a lot they didn’t know about Lexi, Violet willed her axe to disappear. She warily stepped closer to the animal as Lexi rose to her feet. She offered the Rottweiler her hand and he reached out to sniff her fingers. After a few seconds, he swiped his tongue across her palm, smearing her with saliva.

Congratulations, Lexi said and clapped her on the shoulder. You’re now an honorary member of our pack. She turned to Nat and her expression became almost pitying. You’re not exactly a fan of dogs, are you?

Not really, Nat admitted. She’d almost eaten one when she’d first been turned into a vampire, but she’d taken pity on it and had let it go. I’ve never had much to do with them. Eyeing the beast, she held back a shudder when he bared his teeth at her. Something tells me he isn’t a normal dog. For one, normal dogs didn’t materialize out of thin air like that.

It’s a long story, Lexi said with a sigh. Why don’t I take you to our base so you can meet the rest of my team?

Do we have to travel by the zombie highway? Violet asked. Sensing her unease, Zeus leaned against his new friend to offer her some comfort. He closed his eyes in bliss when she stroked his ears. Although he couldn’t smell dogs on her right now, it was obvious she had pets of her own. His nose wrinkled at the faint hint of sulfur that permeated her skin. It was almost as if it was embedded in her very soul.

It’s the fastest way, Lexi said with a shrug. She’d only been gone from her friends and family for a few days, but she’d missed them terribly. She reached out to Reece and spoke to him mind-to-mind. You’d better warn everyone that we’re about to get a couple of visitors.

Trying to contain his relief and joy that his mate was back, Reece responded immediately. Natalie and Violet both came with you? He’d met Nat once before and Lexi had told him about Violet after she’d visited her in hell in a dream.

Yep. They’re both a bit freaked out, so tell everyone to act normal.

‘Normal’ isn’t really something any of us can relate to, he replied dryly.

I’m not freaked out, Nat said defensively and put her swords back in their sheaths. I just didn’t expect to see a huge dog appear from out of nowhere like that.

Lexi looked at the vampire in amazement. You could hear what we were saying to each other?

Violet’s brows rose at the near accusation in Lexi’s tone. She had no idea what they were talking about.

I can read minds on your world as well as on mine, Nat reminded her with a smug smirk. I can also teleport us to your base. She’d been there before, if only for a short time.

Lexi had forgotten that Nat could use both of those talents in her dimension. She barely had time to brace herself before they shifted location.

Clutching Zeus for balance, Violet tried not to grimace at being manhandled without her permission. Once again, her talents were being largely suppressed. It was unfair that the vampire could teleport, but she couldn’t. Maybe some of her other talents would work in this reality. She wouldn’t know until she experimented with them. But now definitely wasn’t the time for that.

Looking around the compound, Natalie couldn’t hide her unease. She’d teleported them just outside the large building rather than taking them inside. There were pine trees everywhere and the area was very familiar. She was pretty sure this was close to the secret underground lab where her friends had been experimented on in her dimension. Instead of two gigantic hangars, a plain two-story concrete building sprawled in front of them. A wide garage door was to the right and a much smaller door was to the left. A scanner was attached to the wall next to the door. It looked like a handprint was needed to gain access to the building.

I have to warn you, my friends and family aren’t human, Lexi told them. Their partners are also different.

Different how? Violet asked. Considering most of her friends and allies were angels or demons, she couldn’t really judge. She just wanted to know what to expect.

Nat grinned when she scanned the minds of the beings who waited for them inside. I thought my group was full of monsters. Your team is even weirder than mine.

Lexi gave her a disapproving look. You really have to stop reading our minds. It isn’t polite.

That’s probably not going to happen, Nat said without a hint of remorse. I’m on a strange world with a bunch of non-humans I don’t know and we’re about to be invaded by aliens.

She has a point, Violet said in reluctant agreement. If I could read minds, I’d use it to my advantage, too.

I just advised everyone about Natalie’s ability, Reece said to Lexi. He’d forgotten the vampire could rummage around inside his head at will. He didn’t resent what Nat had done to Lexi and him the last time she’d been here, but he didn’t want it to happen again. He’d created walls inside his mind as a small child to protect himself from painful memories. It hadn’t been pleasant to have them torn down, even if it had been necessary.

Nat frowned when she caught that thought, then Lexi and her mate shut her out so she couldn’t snoop anymore. Fine, she said and forced out a sigh. I promise I won’t deliberately read your minds. She wasn’t on her world anymore. This was Lexi’s show and she was just an extra this time.

Thanks, Lexi responded, but she was secretly skeptical that Nat would be able to resist the urge to pry. She was the most powerful being in her dimension and now her abilities were restricted. Meanwhile, Lexi was glad to find that hers were back in full force. Let’s head inside. It’s time for you to meet the Shifter Squad.

Chapter Two

~~~ Alpha World ~~~

ULDAR WAITED IMPATIENTLY for the sun to retreat from the sky. This world that Loki Laufeyson had brought them to was very different from Viltar. Earth had vast oceans and seas that his planet sorely lacked. It was also rich in minerals and ores that could be stripped bare and possibly used for an alternative source of fuel. Loki intended to rule this planet himself, but Uldar had other plans. It wasn’t in his nature to colonize. He and his brethren sought only to destroy. Nothing gave them more of a thrill than utterly wiping out other civilizations.

For the past couple of eons, his species had been on the verge of a global war. This was due to sheer boredom from conquering all inhabited worlds within their reach. Thanks to Loki’s greed, they would soon have the means to branch out to the far reaches of space. With Viltaran technology and Asgardian and Grimgorg magic, no one would be able to stand in his way. His army of clones would become vast and insatiable. He just needed to round up several hundred million humans and he would have enough food to feed his troops indefinitely. The captives would be bred to supply a never-ending stream of fresh meat. He would duplicate the process on the other worlds that he and his kind would soon be invading.

Impatient sounds came from behind him. His kin were just as eager to leave the mothership and go hunting as he was. He’d managed to gather all of the surviving Viltarans together after Loki and King Rho had proposed their joint venture. Most of his species had expired during their battles. They were pitifully few in number, but that would change beneath his rule. They had all pledged themselves to him and they were now bound to follow his orders. Some of the females were already pregnant now that they’d stopped their infighting and had formed a unit. If they managed to maintain their uneasy truce, their race would once again become a force to be reckoned with.

Not all of his kind in the other dimensions had survived their world wars. In some realities, there were only a bare handful of Viltarans left. His counterparts couldn’t afford to endanger themselves when it was time to betray their allies. They would have to rely on their robots and clones to overwhelm Loki and the Grimgorg army. Uldar intended to annihilate the Asgardian exile and King Rho himself when he no longer needed them. It would give him immense pleasure to tear them both apart.

Movement in his peripheral vision drew his attention. He turned to see his personal droid waiting to address him. Speak, Uldar commanded.

The sun will set shortly, master, the droid said.

With a curt nod, Uldar left the bridge. His entourage of twenty lackeys followed in his wake. The rest of his small force would be gathered in the hangar. They were waiting to take the small transport ships down to the surface. He would need to take charge of the clones when they woke. If he didn’t, they would descend into a feeding frenzy and many human lives would be lost.

By the time he reached the hangar, the killing rays of the sun had almost left the sky. Dressed in identical black clothing, his kin were armed with nanobot guns. Their weapons were loaded with hundreds of darts. Droids would be carrying more to hand out when their supplies ran low.

Uldar had made sure his blood was mixed with the nanobots that had been loaded into their weapons. Every clone would belong to him, rather than to his lackeys. He had won the position as their leader through battle and he intended it to stay that way. Seeing a few glares and speculative looks sent his way, he knew that none of his minions were brave enough to challenge him. He’d torn his rivals apart with his bare hands, as was their way. He was simply too strong and vicious for anyone to be able to defeat him.

He waved a hand and his small army split into groups of twenty. Each group began to board the transport ships. Droids would pilot most of the small vessels. Uldar chose to fly his himself. He led the way to the closest ship and his lackeys scurried onboard after him.

Twenty seats faced each other in a square in the center of the craft. Uldar strode past them and entered the cockpit. He sat down in the pilot’s chair and strapped himself in. For a human, the console would have been almost impossible to control. He used the computer embedded in the device on his wrist to link himself to the vessel. Using voice commands, he instructed it to land in the heart of the city below. In moments, the ship was ready.

Set to automatically avoid other crafts and obstructions, he watched through the window as they left the mothership. Superficially, New York was similar to the city he’d lived in on Viltar. The buildings were just as tall and numerous. The main difference was the materials they were made from and the fact that every single building had windows to let in the light. He and his kind wouldn’t last for more than a minute once the sun came up. They would have to be back on the mothership before then. Seeking refuge in any of these dwellings would be far too dangerous. He had no desire to burst into flames and melt into a puddle, leaving only his skeleton behind.

Deftly avoiding the buildings and other ships, his craft landed in a large grassy area of a park. The trees that were dotted throughout the park were far smaller than the ones on his world. On his version of Viltar, some cities had been completely devastated by war, but others were still intact. In the areas that they’d used their toxins to wipe out their rivals, everything was dead. The trees had become petrified and were useless for anything. When he finished depleting this planet of its inhabitants, it would become a wasteland that was devoid of life.

All around the park, transport ships touched down and Viltarans disembarked. Thousands of silver portals with glowing blue edges had been set up on a flat piece of land. Uldar saw King Rho and his Grimgorg shamans pushing collared humans through the magical doorways to Asgard. Rho was using Loki’s former planet as a base of operations, since it was far more habitable than his own swampy world. Thanks to Loki’s magic, the Grimgorg could now use their portals to cross to other planets. They just needed to be shown where they were, if they hadn’t already discovered them by spying from afar.

Uldar’s upper lip lifted in a sneer. Asgard, and every other world King Rho was coveting, would share the same fate as Earth. For now, he would bide his time. He couldn’t proceed with his plan until the Asgardian sorcerer had converted the mothership to run on magic. Until then, Uldar would have to keep up the pretense that they were his allies rather than his enemies.

Screams sounded from beyond the boundary of the park, indicating that his clones had woken and were venturing out from their hiding places. Their first instinct would be to feed and they were doing exactly that. Using his wrist unit, he linked himself to the nanobots that infested his clones. All over the city, the former humans stopped what they were doing and waited for orders. Round up the humans and bring them to this location, he commanded.

His message went directly to the nanobots that had permeated the clones’ brains. Snarling in disappointment at being denied their chance to eat, the hulking gray-skinned, red-eyed monsters left the corpses they’d been feeding on and went on the hunt again. This time, instead of eating their prisoners, they herded them into groups and forced them to march to Central Park.

Rho had agreed for his shamans to fit the captives with his silver collars, which would render them malleable. The necklaces would make it far easier to keep a large number of humans in the cells in the belly of his ship. They wouldn’t be able to form a rebellion and attempt to escape when they were turned into mindless puppets.

Trusting his minions to perform the task he’d issued them with, Uldar motioned for his kin to spread out. Nighttime was their domain and they went with eager grins. Bloodlust would overwhelm most of them and they would no doubt give in to the urge to slaughter. There were so many slaves waiting to be captured that it wouldn’t matter if a few thousand of them died.

Thanks to their advanced technology, they could find humans anywhere on the surface of this planet. Their scanners had trouble picking up on lifeforms that were hidden beneath the ground, but that wouldn’t be a problem on this island city. There were no natural caves here. Loki had informed him of the subways the civilians used to travel to different areas. It would be easy enough to flush out anyone who might be hiding down there.

With his entourage at his heels, Uldar loped away from the park and the disgusting hunchbacked Grimgorg. He intended to capture as many humans as he could before daylight forced him back to the ship that hovered over the city. King Rho and his magicians had already made hundreds of thousands of the silver collars. Now that they had access to so much more metal, they could quickly manufacture hundreds of millions more. No human would be left un-cloned, or without a collar once they were done.

Chapter Three

~~~ Lexi’s World ~~~

OPENING THE DOOR THAT led to the kitchen, Lexi stepped directly into Reece’s arms. He hugged her so tightly that he almost squeezed the air out of her lungs. He’d already gleaned everything that had happened on Natalie’s world from her mind, but he stepped back to examine her anyway. A head to toe scan reassured him that she hadn’t sustained any lasting injuries.

Watching Lexi and her mate embrace, Violet couldn’t help but stare at Reece. Lexi’s boyfriend was just under six feet tall and it was obvious he worked out hard. His shoulders were wide and his white t-shirt barely contained his muscles. He wore his brown hair cut close to his head with a short Mohawk spiked on top. His cheekbones were chiseled and his brown eyes were assessing as he examined them.

When Lexi stepped back, Reece offered his hand to the vampire. Hi, Natalie. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Lexi sent him a wry look when she heard that thought. She knew he wasn’t attracted to Nat, but it irked her that her ally was far more gorgeous than she would ever be.

Hey, Reece, Nat said casually and shook his hand. She was far stronger than a human, but his grip was almost too tight. It was probably an alpha thing and he was subconsciously trying to dominate her. It was a reminder that most of the people in this compound were shapeshifters. It’s good to see you again, she added. She hadn’t officially met any of the others, but she recognized a few faces. The rest were new to her.

Reece switched his attention to the blond girl and offered her his hand. She shook it warily and he made sure not to squeeze her too hard. I’m Reece Garrett, he said. She was a bit younger than Lexi and just as gorgeous as the other two girls. He picked up on a hint of vulnerability that made him want to be gentle with her. He sensed she’d been through a lot and that she was still getting used to being a warrior of Fate.

I’m Violet Harper. Violet didn’t lie and say it was nice to meet him. She wasn’t comfortable being the center of attention. Having so many strangers watching her was