Until We Break Read online

A Divine Protector Novel

  Until We Break

  Chapter I

  Within a few hours, Ev returned to Mt. Orleia, home of Divine Protector Academy. The secret school for gods was located inside the mountain that rose out of the Burno Sea like an angry behemoth. As always, he entered through the hangar—the only entrance—while making sure to avoid being seen by the crew. At this time of night, though, hardly anyone was working in there, and the dim lighting thankfully enabled him to hide from any eyes that might be prying.

  Beyond the hanger was a narrow hallway. As soon as he stepped into it, he heard, “Did you have fun?”

  Startled, he jumped back. “Come on, Maya! We talked about you not ambushing me.”

  Maya Brünhart gave him a wolfish grin. “Talked and rejected. I feel it is well within my right to ambush you whenever you do something stupid like sneak out to cause trouble, which you have been doing almost nightly the past few months. While wearing that ridiculous outfit, I might add.” He wore a trench coat with black shirt and pants, along with a slim headband he had poked holes in to wear as a mask.

  “This is what dark heroes of justice wear,” he insisted.

  She laughed. “You are many things, Ev Bannen, but ‘dark’ is not one of them. Believe me—I know dark.”

  She most certainly did. When she was just a child, a car crash claimed the lives of her parents. Forced to survive on the streets of Stiftung in the Murnau Islands, she was eventually “saved” by the evil god Belial who wanted her to infiltrate the Academy and help him collect blood from potential gods so he would open a portal to the dark realm of Gehenna and release both the giant Nephilim and the Tower of Babel (looking back, it sounded insane). Maya betrayed her friends and went with Belial to the Tower, but Ev, realizing she wanted to be saved, risked his very life inside it and managed to convince her to turn against Belial. She had been by Ev’s side ever since, even when he left the Academy to help Arcturus Reich activate the Ark of the Covenant to re-write reality. Of course, Arcturus had failed to mention everyone but he and Ev would be left to die when that happened. Ev ended up having to kill him to save the whole human race, but for selfish reasons. It was true he didn’t want to be guilty of genocide, but mostly he wanted to save Maya.

  And she had certainly changed over the last year and a half since they’d first met. She had gotten proficient enough at healing to get rid of the scars on her arm from when she used to cut herself while agonizing over the things Belial demanded of her. Now she wore a plain gray T-shirt and jeans instead of the bulky sweater that used to adorn her.

  “I am the god of justice,” he said.

  “You look like a rupt-store vigilante. And you keep coming back with more and more bullet holes in your clothes.”

  He scratched his head, embarrassed. “Yeah…I keep forgetting to avoid the bullets. Oh, well; I’m still learning.”

  Still smiling, she replied, “Just make sure the faculty doesn’t find out what you’re doing. It’s against the rules to interfere with mortals while unaccompanied by a full god.”

  “Don’t worry; they won’t,” he said, crossing his arms confidently. He removed the shabby mask and the trench coat, setting them on the floor. “But now I’d like to attend to more serious matters.” She looked shocked as he got down on one knee. “We’ve never actually clarified what’s been going on between us, so I have to ask you: Maya Brünhart, will you be my girlfriend?”

  She embraced him. “Oh, Ev! Of course I will. You had to have known I was in it for the long haul. I’m actually relieved, though; I thought you were going to propose to me.”

  That instilled a sickening feeling in his gut. “You…wouldn’t want to flow with me?”

  She frantically waved her hands. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That’s not what I meant. It’s just… it’s a little too soon for that.”

  Relief washed over him. “I’m so glad to hear that. I thought... well, never mind. It’s good. Everything’s good. We are officially a couple now, and I couldn’t be happier.”

  “Me, neither, though we should probably get out of here before someone asks us why we’re loitering around the hangar at this hour.”

  Now it was his turn to give a sly grin. “One moment, please. Now that we’re officially a thing, there’s one more piece of business to attend to.”

  “Oh? What’s that?” She was obviously dying to find out.

  He leaned in cautiously; just because she had agreed to be his girlfriend didn’t mean she was ready for this. Nevertheless, she saw what he was doing and leaned forward as well. Their lips met in the middle. It was quick and wet; Ev had never actually kissed anyone before, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t, either. Or if she had, he doubted it was consensual on her part. Still, it was the most wonderful thing he had ever experienced, one that gave him a strong tingling in his loins. Who knew a simple kiss could be so amazing? Note to self: I’ve got to have carnals some day.

  “Wow,” she said.

  “Sorry,” he replied. “I’m probably not a good kisser yet.”

  “It’s OK. I don’t know a good kiss from a bad one, but what we just did felt good to me. How could such an amazing thing ever be considered bad?”

  “Don’t know, but apparently there’s good kissing and bad kissing.”

  “Trust me—that was good.”

  * * *

  Ev returned to his dorm room with a smile. “Someone’s having a good night,” Jaysin Marx said. Ev’s roommate was the future god of money who had no problem showing off with his expensive haircut and fancy gold vest which he wore all the time. Actually, he had an entire set of them in the closet, one for each day of the week.

  Ev sat down on the couch next to him. Jaysin had muted the TV. “Maya and I are now official.”

  “Thought you already were,” he said in his Chrichton accent. “For cryin’ out loud, Ev—you got a smoking hole in your chest saving her from Belial. Not only that, but you saved her again after Arcturus Reich forced us all into Gehenna. We woulda’ died there if you hadn’t brought the world back. How could Maya not be your girlfriend after all that?”

  “Well,” Ev waved his hand in a so-so motion. “I don’t really count our last adventure because…technically…I was, you know, working with Arcturus and I helped put you all in danger in the first place. Really, she saved me that time.”

  “Look, mate. Point is, you saved Maya at least once legitimately, and she’s stuck by your side ever since. We’ve all known how she feels about you. It was inevitable.”

  Ev rolled his eyes. “For once, can’t you just say, ‘Congratulations’?”

  Jaysin held up his half-empty bottle of beer which had been sitting on the coffee table in front of them. “I’ll do you one better. To Ev Bannen and Maya Brünhart. May they live happily ever after.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jaysin decided to change the subject. “So, did you stop any crimes tonight?”

  “Hell yeah, I did. I saved a woman and her daughter from being turned into sex slaves. Actually, I’m not really sure what was going to happen, but it would have been bad.”

  “Way to go. So far, you’re doing a bang-up job as the new god of justice. Better hope the profs don’t find out about it, though.”

  “You sound just like Maya. How could they possibly find out?”

  Something on the TV caught their attention. Jaysin hit the volume. A news anchor was onscreen. “Breaking news tonight in Seraphim City.” Judging by her accent, she was clearly Morovian. The Academy TVs could pick up broadcasts from anywhere on Narska. “A mysterious super-powered vigilante has been swooping around the city stopping crimes.”

  Uh-oh.

  The broadcast cut to a scene with a woman talking into a mic in front of an apartment complex. Although he hadn’t gotten a good look at her before, and although her face was now blurred, he recognized the place as Marli Drezowicz’s. “These men were threatening me, and in comes this man—I think he was pretty young based on his voice—and they
shot him, but the bullets didn’t do a thing! He took them out without any effort. Those men were threatening to do horrible things to us. He’s an honest-to-Bethos superhero!”

  From off-screen, someone asked her, “Did he tell you his name?”

  “Yes. He called himself Ev Banner, the god of justice.”

  Jaysin shook his head. “What?” Ev said. “There are probably a hundred people in Seraphim City named Ev Banner. Be glad she didn’t get my name right.”

  “And you think one letter’s difference is gonna keep people from finding out about you, mate?”

  There was awkward silence for a second. “Possibly.”

  The anchorwoman continued, “But the mysterious super-powered vigilante didn’t stop there. He later made a dramatic entrance at a popular restaurant which was hosting a late-night eating contest.” They cut to a middle-class establishment where two morbidly obese men stuffed their faces with bacon cheeseburgers while a crowd of onlookers cheered. Suddenly, a figure came crashing through the ceiling, breaking parts of the floor as he landed between their tables before pointing an accusing finger at each. “How dare you! People are starving in this city, but you insist on wasting precious food while turning a blind eye to their plight!”

  “Love the commitment to the role,” Jaysin said.

  “Shut up.”

  Meanwhile, the onscreen Ev took things to the next level by swiping the large trays of burgers and flying off through the hole he had just made. The anchorwoman’s voice again narrated, “The vigilante then made his way to the poorest neighborhoods in the city and distributed the pilfered food.” The new scene showed Ev handing out burgers to shocked homeless people stationed around burning drums.

  “‘Pilfered’,” Ev scoffed. “They make it sound like a crime.”

  Jaysin had to point out, “Technically, it was.”

  “What those fat-asses were doing was the real crime. I did what nobody had the balls to do. Besides, it was hard flying while holding onto all those burgers.”

  The anchorwoman was somewhat less sympathetic. “The owner of the restaurant is demanding city authorities crack down on super-powered vigilantes and reimburse him for the damages inflicted tonight. The governor has yet to comment on the situation. For News 8 in Seraphim City, I’m Ali Sandols.”

  Jaysin turned off the TV. “You’ve really done it now.”

  “Relax. I wore a mask. No one’s going to know it was me.”

  “Mate, as your friend, I feel I must warn you. You’ve broken a lot of rules since coming to this school. One day you’re going to push your luck farther than it can go. I’m just telling you to have a little caution. Big higglers aren’t always a good thing.”

  “All right, all right,” Ev conceded. “I’ll be more careful about it. And Jaysin…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks.”

  “You know I’m always here for you.”

  * * *

  He was darkness, and darkness was him. For Hades, there was no distinction between his body and the shadows all around him. His domain inside Olympus was his own personal sensory depravation chamber. All the noises of the outside world grated on his nerves, so he enjoyed this dark void he had modeled after Gehenna.

  Hades. It was Athena.

  What is it?

  I’m sending you a psychic teleplay of a Seraphim City newscast that just aired.

  He quickly processed it. He dares…?

  Ev Bannen is calling himself the new god of justice. He mocks us. We had hoped the bounty we placed on his head earlier this year would have taken care of the problem, but it seems it has only emboldened him.

  Yes. He needs to be punished. Leave it to me.

  What will you do?

  Ev Bannen must be taught what it means to make an enemy of Zero Grade. Simply killing him will not be enough.

  Ah. I see. Very good, then. Will you see to it personally? It is distasteful for us to sully our hands on upstarts like Ev Bannen, but he has proven himself…resilient.

  Of course. I will show him agony beyond his imagination.

  The telepathic call ended, and Hades was once again left to bathe in darkness. He drank up its silence.

  Ev Bannen needed to be made an example of, but—embarrassingly—no one in Zero Grade knew where Divine Protector Academy was. Belial might have known, but that ungrateful wretch hoarded secrets and now he was dead. That meant Hades could not simply go and kill the kid; he needed to lure him out by threatening someone Bannen cared about. That ruled out the kid’s friends, who also enjoyed the Academy’s protection. Thus there was really only one option.

  Time to go and say hello.

  * * *

  The next day was Advanced Conjuring, an elective Ev was taking in order to further hone his skills. Earlier that year, he had been in danger of completely bombing Conjuration and would have been elated just to squeak by. However, Incident 29 had changed all that. In order to defeat Arcturus Reich and change the world back to the way it was, he had been forced to tap into his latent conjuring skill to come up with a powerful weapon. Ev sucked at conjuring weapons, so he ended up creating a pair of gauntles that could also be used offensively. They sufficed to win the battle, but it broke at the end, and Ev knew if he was ever to be a full god, he would have to master the skill.

  Brandon Strong was once again the professor. “I’m looking forward to seeing great things today. As usual, I’ll be calling you up alphabetically.”

  First up was Daryn Anders, the tall ginger with Ashbury’s Syndrome who was known to occasionally explode in anger at minor provocations. Without a word, he made his way to the front of the class and conjured his trademark war hammer, only this time, the head was even larger. Ev estimated it was the size of those giant speakers you see at rock concerts. He had to admire Daryn’s strength; the guy hefted that thing like it was a baton. Of all the students at the Academy, Daryn was the one person Ev definitely did not want as an enemy. They had come to blows shortly after Ev had joined the school, a situation he wanted to avoid repeating if possible.

  “Not bad, Daryn,” Brandon said. “You succeeded in evolving your weapon. Normally, simply making it larger wouldn’t get you a good grade, but it’s obvious you’ve increased your strength to match.”

  Daryn silently returned to his seat. Being a Bannen, it was soon Ev’s turn. But he was no longer dreading it. Just the opposite. “All right, Ev; dazzle me.”

  Grinning ear to ear, he said, “You got it.” He flexed his arms, and his signature pair of full-length silver gauntlets enveloped them. They felt so smooth and fit so well, and why not? They were custom-made for him by him.

  “I’ve seen that before, Ev,” Brandon reminded him. “Merely creating tools was enough to pass the prerequisite class, but evolving them is the key to passing this one.”

  “Just a sec.” For this next part, he had to close his eyes and concentrate. Suddenly, a dozen blades—six on each side—shot out from each of the gauntlets. He had personally tested them in Seraphim City, so he knew how sharp they were.

  Brandon wrote in his grade book. “Very good, Ev. Instead of being embarrassed of your weakness, you’ve actually turned it into an advantage.”

  Ev took his seat next to a proud Maya who patted him on the shoulder. It was her turn next. However, she announced, “My demonstration can’t be done in an enclosed space like this. Could we take this to the hangar?”

  “Sure. Color me intrigued,” Brandon said.

  Once in the hangar, they gathered along the main door which looked down below at the waves crashing against the rocks of Mt. Orleia. Maya conjured her trusty bow. “It may look the same, but it’s got a few new tricks. Take a look at this.” She launched an arrow into the sky where it soon exploded. That much was nothing new, but the group was quickly taken aback by green rain which showered down from the smoke and fire. “That’s acid. It’ll cut through almost anything. It took me a while to figure out how to safely duplicate its chemical makeup.”

&
nbsp; “Excellent, Maya,” Brandon said.

  “Oh, but I’m not finished yet.” She fired off another arrow which also exploded, but this time the fragments promptly froze solid, leaving a cloud of white vapor in their wake. “As you can see, that’s an ice arrow. Pretty self-explanatory.”

  Brandon was so pleased, he turned to Ev and said, “You’re still lagging behind this young lady here.”

  “It’s not a competition,” he shot back.

  “Well, if it was, she’d be winning.”

  “I’m still not done yet,” Maya said. “Watch—my final trick.” She fired off a third arrow, but instead of exploding, it went left to right, up and down, and even did a loop. “This is my manual arrow. One released, I can control its trajectory by moving my left arm.”