by Kelly Keaton
It wasn’t like I needed babysitting. She’d never acted this way with me before, but then Apollo and Artemis had been in attendance. Perhaps she felt it was her duty to protect Olympus while they were gone or indisposed.
Still, it was odd.
Unfortunately, Hestia was my only source of information for now. As we started up the steps to Apollo’s temple, I decided to lay it all out there. “There was a man here before, dressed in black. I saw him in the plaza. Do you know him?”
“There are several humans here,” she said with a shrug, waving a nonchalant hand to the servants going about their business, “some servants to the few gods and minor deities who remain here.”
“I don’t think he was human. Tall, dark, a little scary...” I said by way of explanation. I glanced at her profile. A slight frown appeared on her face as she seemed to mentally search the list of beings known to be in Olympus.
“That doesn’t ring a bell. Saw him in the plaza, you say?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
“No,” I lied. “Just walked on by.”
The guy had waltzed right out of Zeus’ temple as though he’d owned the place. Hestia had come out of the temple as well. How could she not have known? Not have seen him? He hadn’t appeared like someone whose presence wouldn’t be noticed. Granted, Zeus’ temple was massive. He and Hestia might have never crossed paths. But then, Hestia knew almost everything that went down in Olympus. She had the eyes and ears of every servant here.
I’d bet anything she was lying through her perfect white teeth.
“Why do you ask?” she asked as we paused at the top of the steps.
“No reason, really. He just seemed out of place... Never seen him here before.” I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. “You sure you’re not hiding a boy-toy here we don’t know about?” I smiled on the outside, but inside I was betting her reaction wasn’t going to be laughter.
Indignation flared through her eyes like two blue flames. Her mouth gaped and two pinks dots appeared on her cheeks. “I’d never let that vile creature touch me.”
Gotcha.
Oh yeah. She knew exactly who he was.
A murderous glare came into her blue eyes when she realized her mistake, a look that completely changed her.
Shit.
Apparently Hestia had a vicious side, and her look said she was about to show me just how vicious that side could be. Before she had a chance to bring the hurt my way, in one smooth move, I pulled my knee into my torso, placed my boot on her chest, and shoved with all my might. Hestia went flying off the steps, her face contorted into disbelief, her arms flailing.
I didn’t wait to see what happened; I turned tail and bolted through the side door of Apollo’s temple, heart pounding, arms pumping, eyes fixed on the gateway home.
A scream echoed through the marble hall, high pitched and laced with such malice that the hairs on my neck rose.
Don’t look back. Don’t stop. I clutched the disk, hurrying through the words and thinking of--no, not Michel’s, I couldn’t lead her there...
Too late, I was already leaping through the gate.
TEN
The Maritime Alps
Sanctuary of the Dark Mother
“OUR SOURCE CLAIMS the child is lost, taken from the arms of Apollo.”
The rapid pulse of the messenger’s heart was like hummingbird wings to her ears. Fear. Such a gorgeous smell. It leaked out of his pores with his sweat, tangy with a slight musk and, always, the sweet scent of iron in the blood running through his veins.
For a long moment, she regarded the messenger from her granite throne, the arms of which were smooth from thousands of years of rubbing her hands along the stone. She was old like the throne, and hard, and some days she felt she, too, was carved straight out of the granite.
The child, her precious Deliverer, was lost.
There were plenty who'd want him dead. Plenty. Humans to start with, as they stood to lose greatly when the Blood Wars came. The gods, for certain. They would not stand idly by while the child brought about their servitude and destruction.
The Greek brother and sister had been protecting the child, and it hadn’t taken much to figure out they hoped to change the future, to sway the child to their side, their cause. She laughed inside and then sighed on the outside.
Fate.
Everyone had a choice, didn't they? And the child was no different. He might be their Deliverer. He might be many things. He’d have to make a choice one day.
Lamia was in no hurry. In the end, the call would be too strong for the child. She’d seen it. She’d seen so many things in the darkness, in the place where her eyes never went. Once Archer sampled the blood of a god, ambrosia would taste like dirt in comparison. He'd come home to his roots, to his family, to her.
The Dark Mother, they called her.
To all vampires everywhere, she was their Eve.
They worshipped her like a god, spoke of her in reverent whispers, loved her and feared her.
Without her the race would not exist.
Without her, they would've gone extinct numerous times in the past.
They owed her their very existence. They owed her everything.
She was their Mother, their Queen, their reason for being.
And with the child at her side... The sudden chill of anticipation made her pause.
Oh, she liked this feeling. It had been a while, hadn’t it?
She’d waited so long for the future she’d seen without eyes. The visions within those black, empty sockets had given her hope, had sustained her, had made all the pain and horror bearable. Because the future she’d seen had spelled the end of the gods.
And that is what Lamia lived for.
She smiled. It had been so long since she felt anything so . . . alive. “It’s time to find him then,” she announced. There was a powerful player out there, one who could waylay Apollo, someone else who wanted her Deliverer for themselves.
Before, the child had been safe enough in the care of the gods. She’d planned to leave him alone, to wait to meet her Deliverer when he was ready for manhood and ripe for her persuasion. In the meantime, she orchestrated and knit together the strands that would make the future she'd seen possible.
But she hadn’t foreseen this.
Annoyed, she rose and moved off the granite dais. The bells from the monastery above rang, muted and beautiful to her ears. Her beaded gown spilled down the steps like rain as she went toward the messenger.
“My lady?”
She halted in front of the bowed head, reached out and toyed with the soft brown hair on his head. “It's been a while since I've taken a holiday. New Orleans,” she tested the name on her lips, “sounds nice...” A feral smile spread across her face and she continued down the steps, the sound of her beads dragging across the stone floor echoing loud in the silence. Her grin widened. Her announcement had hushed the entire court.
It had been at least six hundred years since she’d left her home.
She'd find Apollo and discover who took the child. A simple matter. She could make the Bright God sing even in his unconscious state. There were perks to being the original vampire. There was none more powerful, none lovelier...
None as lonely.
“Bu- bu- but my Queen,” the messenger stuttered behind her. “The child... Here?”
Infants and children were not permitted in the Dark Mother’s sanctuary. She could hear the thoughts and whispers of her underground court. If the child came here, it'd be in danger. She was strong. The strongest. But he might prove a lure so powerful not even she could control herself. She never could... A wistful sigh escaped her, hunger stirring in her gut, her mouth watering a little. Oh, yes, she'd likely kill the thing the very first time she saw it.
How ironic would it be to devour the very thing that could set them free? The gods would just love that, she thought darkly.
But her messenger was mistaken. She
had no intention of bringing the child here.
“The child is safe from me. Now, come,” she said, further annoyed at this little hindrance. Why hadn’t they learned? Over the centuries surely some of them had. No one questioned her. No. One. He stood on unsteady legs, his fear a love song to her ears. Eyes on the floor as he stopped in front of her, he drew in a deep final breath, readying himself for his punishment, and then he looked at her.
She smiled. She did love her children, and she wanted him to know it, to see the love she bore for him before grabbing his face and twisting his head from his body, tossing it aside and then leaving to resume her task.
ELEVEN
MIDTOWN. I WAS IN MIDTOWN.
Damn it. Why the hell had I thought about the ruins?
The smell was the first thing I noticed as my weight returned to my body and I stumbled to regain my balance, nearly colliding with a rusted out car on the sidewalk.
Darkness blanketed the place. Shadows lurked in every burned out car, every ruined building, every derelict parking lot. Eyes watched. I could feel them as I got my bearings and began to walk down the street.
The overturned bus blocking the road, the desk thrown from a busted out office window, the refrigerator... All these things littering the street could be providing cover for the worst creatures in New 2.
As I passed a building with a parking deck beneath it, I heard a low growl that set my teeth on edge. I was careful to keep my pace steady. Running now would be an invitation, a sign of weakness. For several feet, I was watched and tracked. Had to be a pack of loups getting together, and as soon as they did they’d attack.
Scurrying along the roofline of the building to my left was a revenant, a soulless, feral vampire, its pale sunken skin stark against the dark, ragged clothes it wore.
I had no idea if Hestia had followed me through the gate, if she could even do such a thing. I could only hope she had no taste for battle, despite the I’m-going-to-bitch-slap-you-into-another-century look she had given me earlier.
Either way, I’d pay for assaulting her.
I didn’t regret it. I’d just pulled the trigger before she’d had the chance to hurt me and possibly prevent me from continuing the search for Archer. Ergo, it had to be done.
The screech of metal against metal rang out, deafening, a dinner bell to any creature within hearing distance.
I was pretty sure what I heard was the bus being drug across the asphalt.
Something powerful was behind me.
No doubt a pissed off Type A housekeeping god with an axe to grind.
I glanced from left to right. The revenant was still there, but he’d climbed his creepy body down a few stories and was trailing me on the side of the building, Spiderman style.
Eyes glowed from the dark recess of the parking deck on my other side. And something big was coming up from behind, tossing debris out of the street like it was nothing.
In serious trouble, I knew I had to do something, so I did the one thing no one would be expecting.
I did a one-eighty and ran. Toward the thing behind me.
Should confuse the creatures tracking me on both sides, and it would lead them to whatever was in the street. The creatures of Midtown didn’t care whether a thing was good or evil, they just wanted to eat. And maybe, just maybe bringing everyone together would give me a chance to escape.
Claws scrapped asphalt behind me as the loups and revenants gave chase. In front of me, the refrigerator went flying, swinging end over end, coming right for me. Heart in my throat, I pushed myself faster, sliding low as it flew over me inches from my head.
Holy crap.
As the fridge landed, cries rang out behind me. One loup down, maybe more.
But where there was one, there was a pack...
And then I saw what was coming. A vengeful Hestia in her pencil skirt. Surprisingly she was accompanied by three harpies, which meant she hadn’t cleaned house completely when Apollo and Artemis took over Olympus--she’d kept some of Athena’s minions for herself.
Hestia was proving to be full of surprises.
Harpies were incredibly deadly. Standing six feet tall, they had scarred, leathery skin stretched over thin bodies and over the long bones and sinews of their wings. The wings were tipped with razor-sharp claws. If they didn’t get you with their wing claws, they’d get you with their talons and beaks, and those were just as sharp.
Shit was about to hit the fan in a major way. My gaze dialed in. I was in over my head, but I knew if I just took things one small strike at a time, I could possibly, maybe, almost get through this.
Okay, Selkirk. Time to rain down rock on Midtown.
I focused on calling my power. The pulse hammering in my ears went distant, giving way to the hum of my power as it roused from its slumber. An electric current snaked under my skin, coiling around my arms and legs to encompass all of me before condensing back into my core to build and gather and eventually strike at my command.
The harpies locked onto me, their yellow eyes growing frenzied and deadly as they realized I was bringing the fight to them. They rushed forward.
The middle harpy met me first with wings wide and claws extended. I grabbed her clawed foot, letting my hand become stone as I slammed my other hand against her leathery chest. My power surged from me like a tsunami.
I never stopped. Her momentum sent her toppling over me as she turned to stone and then shattered on the street.
The other two harpies cried out and circled back as I kept running. Straight toward Hestia. Her look of surprise made me smile. She didn’t think I’d have the nerve to come at her twice, and I got a nice dose of satisfaction in proving her wrong.
Her expression shifted into a smirk, however, a split second before I was hit from the side. Hit hard. My head snapped to the side, whiplash making me see stars as I went airborne and slammed into the hood of a burned out limo.
Claws dug into my arms. Spit splashed my cheek as the revenant snapped at my face, its jagged teeth coming dangerously close to tearing skin. The thing wasn’t heavy, but it had me pinned, one of my arms stuck under me. In the distance, I could hear the harpies fighting with a pack of loups.
And Hestia’s laughter.
Foul-smelling breath made my stomach clench. I had to shift my grip to get my hand free, managing to get my palm on the lower part of his bare chest. It was cold and bony, like a slab of raw, refrigerated meat.
As soon as I touched him, my power lashed out, striking hot and fast, surprising even me.
I tried to hold some of it in, knowing I only needed a small amount to stop him, but it was difficult to control, a living thing inside me, my adrenaline pushing for a total burn out.
I screamed as he continued to bite at my face and neck, pushing at him with my hand, though he only grew heavier as my power did its work. Finally, he slowed his attack. I shifted to one side and shoved him off. He dropped with a thud beside the limo, his entire lower half stone as the rest of him clawed at me from the ground.
I rolled off the limo and crouched, needing a moment to regroup. I pulled the 9mm from its holster. The street was filled with loups and revs. The harpies were just barely holding their own and Hestia was slowly backing away, using her god power to blast any creature that came near. A few loups had begun hunting her, making their way stealthily around her back.
A huge loup jumped onto the limo’s hood. I scrambled into the street, the only opening left to me, and straightened, my grip flexing on the hilt of my weapon. The thing was monstrous. Feral. Long fangs, hackles up. Had to be the alpha.
I shot a loup that was inching close to my right. Missed its head, but the bullet sank into its shoulder. And still the big loup watched me, unimpressed. With a flick of my eyes, I plugged the half-stone rev on the ground, putting him out of his misery.
The big loup growled low in its throat. Its haunches dipped low, the muscles gathering in preparation to jump. I knew if it succeeded in getting me on the ground, the others wo
uld pile on, and I’d be finished.
The alpha sprang.
I planted my feet, grabbed the blade from my boot, ready for the impact. I fired twice and then it was over me. And then it . . . wasn’t.
It was jerked upward, plucked by an invisible force and taken high into the sky before being let go.
What the hell?
A loup bit into my arm, shaking viciously and knocking me off balance, making me drop the gun. I stabbed it under the jaw. Then, it too was suddenly picked up. A sickening sound came right before its head lolled to the side, neck broken.
The body was then thrown into two other loups behind me. They recovered and attacked the dead loup, lost in a feeding frenzy.
Wind whipped my face as Mapsaura appeared before me, tucking Hades’ Helm of Invisibility under her wing as she landed softly on the ground. The harpy was huge, bigger than the two that were fighting in the street. She cocked her head, those strange yellow eyes of hers cryptic and intelligent. “Beauty,” she said in acknowledgement.
Beauty had been a term used in Athena’s prison to denote the inmates. Beauties, Mades, and Monsters. Beauties were those taken for their looks because they had somehow offended the goddess. Mades were usually once Beauties turned into something hideous as punishment, like Medusa, my ancestor. Like Mapsaura.
“Saura,” I breathed, barely able to catch my breath. “Thank you.”
As she dipped her head, a small group made up of vampires, shifters, and another harpy appeared and began to battle the remaining loups and revenants.
“They with you?”
She inclined her head. “Outcasts, like me. Turned, exiled... This is our hunting ground now. The loups, the revenants, they are our food.” She glanced over her wing at Hestia. “See your taste in enemies is the same.”
I gave her an innocent shrug. “What can I say?”
She thrust her wing straight out and her razor claws sliced through a revenant trying to creep up on us. Lethal and efficient. A queen among the harpies. She eyed the harpies working with Hestia and said more to herself than to me. “I make them an offer.”
