Cordo found himself sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house they were presently in. A bottle of beer hung from his fingers and he was watching the back of a man sitting not too far away from him. A friend. This man was his friend, and he was in trouble. Not immediate danger, but emotional pain, and he was wondering how he could help his friend.

Leo. His name was Leo and they had been friends since they’d been boys together. Leo was a simple human male, and he had been through a lot lately.

“Leo,” he said, making the other man turn to look at him.

They exchanged words. Angry words. Leo was in so much pain he lashed out because of it. Cordo tried to be patient, but his friend tested him.

Someone joined them on the porch, a male he knew as Ram. His presence seemed to only worsen Leo’s mood, but there was nothing he could do about that.

As they spoke he found himself looking across the yard to where Marissa was sitting in the garden, playing with a mound of soil and smiling absently to herself. She was beautiful. Breathtaking. He had known Hatshepsut, her Bodywalker, since the beginning of time it seemed, but he had only known the woman Marissa Anderson for a short while. And yet together they formed a creature of perfection he knew met his souls’ needs in every way possible. He felt replete just looking at her. He remembered their lovemaking that evening just before they had risen to begin their day. It had been long and slow and tender. She had been everything a woman should be. And yet now she played in the dirt like a child.

He loved her beyond reason.

“I’m out of here,” Leo snapped angrily before getting up and walking into the house. There was nothing he could do about it. His friend would have to come to terms with his anger in his own time.

He exchanged more words with Ram. They spoke of Kamenwati and their differing opinions on the man. Cordo held out more hope for the redeeming qualities of the man’s character than Ram did. Even so, it would be some time before he could fully trust him.

Docia came out of the house next. His sister. He loved her. Her adorable face never failed to make him smile. This time was no exception. His dog, Sargent, came over and he scratched the canine behind the ears. He was surrounded by love and loyalty, and it felt good. As dangerous a time as they were living in, it felt good. He had never been happier.

And then, just like that, the feeling was gone, replaced with a sense of dread and foreboding unlike anything he’d ever felt before. The beer bottle dropped to the floor and he was on his feet. He was shouting for Marissa. He had to get to her, to get her to safety.

“Marissa!”

He broke into a dead run, his long legs eating up ground. Not fast enough. Not fast enough! He ran up the drive for her and suddenly a crackling beam of energy came screaming out of the sky, cutting across his path, spewing up dirt and rock, and driving him to a halt. He looked up to the sky, searching for a target, but there was nothing there. Nothing yet something. Something deadly and dangerous beyond the pale. Another powerful bolt of energy, this one at his back. The message was clear. Move forward and die, move backward and die.

Ram had come down off the porch and was running for him. He knew this because another bolt of energy came out of the sky and struck his friend square in the chest, sending him flying.

Leo came running from the house and he shouted for him to stay back. Or at least he thought he did. Then Leo was firing something, a gun, in the direction the bolts came from.

And just like that a woman appeared in the sky. A woman in white with long auburn hair. Blood began to stain the white of her clothing…bullet wounds. Leo had hit her. Hurt her.

It was Odjit, the leader of the Templar Bodywalkers and the bane of his existences for reincarnation after reincarnation. Only, it wasn’t Odjit anymore. Odjit had been replaced by a god—the god of mischief and mayhem. Apep.

“Very well,” she said to Leo. “If you wish to die first, I can oblige you.”

“No!” Cordo cried, and then he felt power punching out of himself. His telekinetic power. He sent it ramming into Leo, shoving his friend out of the way as best he could.

His actions drew the attention of the creature in the sky.

“You are dangerous,” she said, her voice echoing all around him, battering down at him from all sides.

He instinctively lashed out against her, calling on every bit of power he had. He shoved at her hard, a power that had ripped trees from the ground and moved them at will. And yet all it did was force her into a little mid-air tumble. That was when he knew just how powerless he was. It was when he knew there was nothing he could do to protect his best friend and the woman he loved. It was when he knew he was going to fail.

“You,” she said again, “might be troublesome, given enough time. That thought makes us most unhappy.”

“We know what you are,” Cordo said with virulent anger. “A two-bit monster calling itself a god. If you think we’re going to let you run amok in this world you have another—”

“Silence!” Cordo’s adversary hissed. She flicked her hand, a discus of energy suddenly appearing in her fingers; she flung it at him. It all happened so quickly, the move lightning fast, the distance between her hand and his throat far too short. He threw up his hands in defense, but the disc whipped right through them and then straight through his neck.

The pain was blinding; it felt as though something was ripping his souls right from his body. The agony was too much. He lost consciousness.

Ceara saw her beloved husband get hit, watched him crumple to the ground as if his clothes were suddenly empty of their wearer. She screamed, the pain of loss suffocating, clawing through her.

No! They had only just found each other again! This wasn’t possible! How could the world be so cruel to them? What had they done to deserve this?

Leo was shooting at the woman. Good! Kill her! She deserves to die!

Ceara went running forward, heedless of the danger it put her in. She needed Jackson! Needed to know he was still alive! It couldn’t end like this. It just couldn’t!

All the while she ran, inhuman screams could be heard. They were her screams, she realized. They were coming from her. The screams of a woman losing her soul mate.

She reached Jackson and fell to her knees, her hands clawing at his clothing as she dragged his head into her lap. Cradled him to her breast. She looked up for help. She saw a black-skinned woman throw up a barrier of some kind just in time to protect Leo from another one of those bolts of energy. The energy bounced off the shield and deflected back onto the god in the air, making the god scream in agony and fury.