“Because of the sausage fest. I must have really fucked up to be punished with living my afterlife with dudes.”
A huge laugh erupted from Pisces. “Not hell, my new friend. Don’t worry. Once you recover, you’ll be able to bang as many women as you like.”
“Wait, does that mean I made it to heaven?” He sounded so surprised.
“Nope. You’re still on Earth, just in a secret location because you’re now part of the Zodiac Warrior brotherhood.”
“Fuck me, I’m on some good drugs,” Grayson murmured before closing his eyes and losing consciousness once more as the healing took its toll.
Aries scrubbed his face. “What are the chances he remembers any of this next time he wakes?”
“As I recall, my own recruitment took three explanations.” Pisces shook his head. “And even then, it took me even longer before I believed.”
“Where’s Sage?” Aries asked, not seeing his wife. When had she slipped out?
“Right here, giving Zora a hand.” Sage entered with Zora leaning heavily against her.
Leo appeared not long after, wearing his usual glower. Within the next few hours, all the warriors returned injured in some fashion, each telling the same tale.
The Earth was under attack.
CHAPTER 3
Grayson shivered one minute,sweated the next. Whatever plagued him affected his entire body; every nerve ending and cell boiled with agitation. In the midst of all that turmoil, he also dreamed.
He imagined his final hockey game interrupted by monsters that exploded from the ice. Insane creatures that he fought and lost to as they overwhelmed and tore at his flesh. On the cusp of death, he heard a voice asking if he’d like to be a hero. Saying yes had him transported to a room straight out ofThe Mummymovie. Stone block walls with intricate carved patterns. A recessed niche displaying clear jars filled with sparkly dust, a powder liberally sprinkled all over his body. Oddest of all, the strangers in his dream claiming he’d become some kind of warrior.
Ha.
While he might not remember how he actually got injured or sick—Monsters my ass!—Grayson recognized he must be on some epic kind of drugs. How else to explain the vivid hallucinations? Had he even skated onto the ice before his illness took him down? Didn’t matter. He obviously never made it to the end of the game, a bummer way to end his career.
As the war within his body eased, he fell into a deep sleep, the kind that turned off even the brain. When he woke, he lay still for a moment, assessing how he felt. Great. Nothing hurt. Whatever ailed him must have passed.
He opened his eyes, expecting to find himself either in his hotel room or a hospital. Wrong on both counts. He stared at a stone block ceiling. The same as in his dream. Kind of fucked. Had he not truly woken?
“New guy’s regained consciousness,” someone stated, which led to him being surrounded by several men, big, hardened, and filthy, as if they’d been dipped in mud. Kind of daunting, to be honest.
“Welcome back,” stated the fellow he recognized as being the one who’d been shooting monsters in his dream. “And before you ask again, you’re not in Hell or Heaven. You haven’t died but have instead been granted a second chance at life.”
“Geezus Christ. I’m obviously either still sleeping or hallucinating.”
One of the dudes flicked his earlobe, causing Grayson to yelp. “Ow, what the fuck?”
“Proving you’re awake,” said the fellow with a brutish mien.
Grayson sat up and glanced around, utterly confused. “If that’s true, then where am I, and who the fuck are you?”
“We are the Zodiac Warriors, and you’re currently in our base of operation, the Tower of Babel.”
The claim had Grayson snorting. “Yeah, right I am.”
The fellow from the arena pursed his lips. “Let me ask you a question. When those creatures grievously injured you, did you happen to hear a voice in your head asking if you wanted to serve humanity or something along those lines?”
The reminder knitted his brow. “How did you know?”
“Because that’s what happens to everyone who is chosen to be a Zodiac Warrior. We do something usually quite heroic, butinstead of dying for our good deed, an Astraeus, who is a type of celestial deity, offers us a chance to live, so long as we promise to defend Earth from threats.”
The guy spewed that bullshit so seriously Grayson almost believed him. Then the ridiculousness hit him, and he laughed. “Holy fuck, buddy, you almost had me. But come on, a celestial deity? Why not just claim God saved me?”
