Page 2 of Legend of Scorpio
“Can I ask why?”
“Because I said so.” A tart reply.
And that was that.
The mystic had spoken.
CHAPTER 1
The summons camewhile Scorpio sunbathed on a beach in Florida.
Your presence is requested immediately.
He uttered a groan, and the bikini-clad lady by his side murmured, “What’s wrong, handsome?”
“Work’s calling.”
“How do you know? Your phone didn’t ring.”
“The boss has his ways,” Scorpio’s cryptic reply as he rose from the sand and stretched.
“Will I see you again?” she asked.
“Not likely.” Scorpio wasn’t into the whole relationship thing. In his defense, the women he dated weren’t either. Fun, casual times. That was the way to live.
He padded to the hut he’d been renting and gathered his belongings, stuffing them into a bag before bowing his head and concentrating.
No place like home.
The tattoo on his back, a scorpion that spanned the entire width, heated.
In moments, he found himself on the first floor of the Tower of Babel. Not destroyed as historical texts claimed but hidden from human view after the attempt.
The massive structure used to house all the Zodiac Warriors. However, these days, some of them chose to maintain homes outside of it, wanting the freedom to enjoy what the modern world offered.
Not Aries. Given he’d married the prophetess, Sage, he remained, and the two embraced a life devoid of the chaos and constant surveillance now happening pretty much everywhere in the world. Other Zodiac Warriors stayed because they had a preference for solitude. Neither was why Scorpio maintained a suite of rooms in the tower. He liked people, liked partying. However, there were numerous reasons he had for continuing to call the Tower home: one being, he couldn’t decide on a new permanent place. Besides, it wasn’t as if he spent much time there. On his days off he tended to travel the world: the warmer the climate, the better.
As Scorpio climbed the stairs to Aries’ office—a thigh-burning two hundred steps out of the almost twelve thousand that it took to reach the peak of Babel Tower—he wondered what the de facto leader wanted. Scorpio had just returned from a mission, a rescue of migrant children who’d been smuggled over the border for foul reasons. The tykes he’d freed had been handed over to adults who didn’t have nefarious designs. As for those responsible… Currently feeding coyotes in the wild. Scorpio recycled whenever he could.
He arrived on the seventh floor breathing a little heavily. It had been a while since he’d trained by running up and down those steps. Might be time to recondition.
The windows that wound around the tower, along with the staircase, let in the bright sun and illuminated the circling corridor lined with potted plants. When he’d first beenrecruited, he tried to find out who kept them watered. No matter how much caffeine he pumped into his body, he always fell asleep. The plants weren’t the only thing that seemed to be magically cared for. The tower never stayed dirty. No matter how many muddy boots he tromped through his quarters, or how much pizza he dropped, when he either woke or returned after a trip, everything was once more pristine. It proved jarring at times because, in the real world, when he roamed among the humans, his messes didn’t vanish. Part of the reason why he kept his home in the tower. He liked having an invisible maid.
His boots barely made a sound as he strode to the wooden panel carved with the wheel of the Zodiac. Within that circle, the inscribed symbols for each of the warriors. Twelve marks, for twelve constellations, for twelve flesh-based avatars. Scorpio’s emblem glowed as he placed his hand on the portal.
Click. The door opened, and Scorpio entered to find Aries standing behind his desk, looking out the window.
“Hey bossman, what’s up? Thought I was supposed to be on a two-week break before the next mission.” He flopped into a chair across from the desk.
Aries glanced at him over his shoulder. “Change of plans. Sage had a vision.”
Scorpio stiffened. All the Zodiac Warriors listened when Sage spoke. “What did she see?”
“Something wicked is coming, and to stop it, we have to locate some artifacts.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to fight it?” Scorpio usually had one simple solution to most things: Kill it. That tended to end most problems.
“Apparently, we can’t. Sage insists we find these relics, and lucky you, you’re first up.”