One Bite Stand

by Nina Bangs

  “I’ve spared your life and that of the dog-that-is-no-dog so you can spread the word of my power. No one can hope to defeat me, so it would be best if you all cowered behind your gargoyle protectors until I’ve gone.”

  Daria sensed that what Fenrir said and what he meant were two different things. His true message was in his gleaming wolf eyes. He wanted them to follow and attack him. Fenrir lusted for blood, anyone’s blood. And his overweening belief in his own power wouldn’t allow for any thought that he might get his ass kicked.

  She could move enough now to roll her eyes and grit her teeth. All her harpy rage—and true harpy rage was a terrible thing—centered on Fenrir. If he hurt Declan, he’d better hope the universe ended quickly, because she’d hunt him down and tear him apart. For once she gloried in her harpy nature.

  Fenrir left the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Daria rolled her eyes so she could see the clock. The next half hour seemed like years. Outside the drapes, she knew the sun would be dipping below the horizon. Declan would wake to find himself a prisoner.

  Finally she could move and talk. She rolled off the bed, scrambled to her feet, pulled her clothes on, and raced for the door.

  “I’m coming, Declan.”

  ———

  They weren’t exactly an army of seasoned warriors creeping silently through the forest. Hannibal coming across the Alps with all his elephants would’ve made less noise.

  Ocypete, Kal, and she hadn’t taken to the skies yet, but they were ready. Kal wasn’t wearing a shirt so he’d have less to shed.

  “Your brother’s a fine, fine specimen of a man, gal.” Katie the cook nudged Daria. She was cooking up more than magic in her imagination. “Might even give up my broom for him.”

  “Are you still channeling the wizard’s power through your broom, Katie?” Daria hoped so. Katie had lots of skills as a witch, but this operation needed some major mojo to make it work. They not only had to rescue Declan, but she also had to snatch Fenrir.

  Katie nodded. “The wizard’s kind of power is scary. I’ll be glad to get back to doing what I do.” She hesitated. “No word from your mom, huh?”

  “Not yet. But she said she’d be here, and Mom does what she says she’ll do.” Daria knew she sounded pretty fierce about that, but she had to believe Mom was okay.

  Daria glanced around. Ocypete was walking with Walt, and the debunker looked a little wild-eyed. Made sense. He might be clutching his pad and pencil, ready to record the historical event, but he had to be worrying about Ocypete making him Hades’s newest toy. Daria could’ve told him not to worry. Her aunt had a frost giant already picked out.

  Sparkle was nowhere to be seen. But then she was supposed to be a covert force of one. She’d be sneaking up on Fenrir so she could pass her info back to Ganymede. Which would be tough since she wasn’t talking to the cat.

  Their general and supreme leader was at the front of his forces, still in cat form. Impressive. Really impressive. An army of mismatched entities led by a cat.

  It didn’t matter what they looked like, though, because nothing was going to keep her from taking back the man she loved. The man she loved. She said it so easily in her mind, but she hadn’t said it to the only one that mattered. Daria regretted that.

  Suddenly Sparkle slipped from the forest to walk beside her. She’d evidently decided Ganymede wasn’t worth abandoning her pride as the queen of sex and sin. She was going into battle wearing black leather—a tight little leather top that showed cleavage, leather pants, and thigh-high leather boots. Whip optional.

  “Pass this on to the big freaking cheese up front. Fenrir’s men are surrounding the church. He took the old altar from the church, set it up outside, and bound your man to it. Declan is one pissed vampire. Fenrir knows we’re coming. Sheesh, could you people be any louder? It looks like Fenrir is waiting for us to get there before he does the ritual you told us about.” Then she faded back into the woods.

  Relief made Daria weak. Even though Fenrir hadn’t said anything about killing Declan now, the possibility still sniped at her from a corner of her brain.

  Daria picked up her pace until she was beside Ganymede. “Sparkle wanted me to pass on some info. Fenrir and his men are waiting for us at the church. He’s bound Declan to an altar, but hasn’t done anything else to him yet.”

  Ganymede nodded and looked up at her. His eyes were way too sad for a cosmic troublemaker who loved a good— or bad—fight.

  “Did she say anything about me?” He looked hopeful.

  “Um, no.” She probably shouldn’t mention Sparkle’s big freaking cheese comment.

  “I love being a cosmic troublemaker. It’s the only thing I know how to do. Choices are hard.” Ganymede, always so sure of himself, was having a crisis of confidence.

  “Look, I’m kind of an expert on this. I always wanted to be a harpy like my mom. No doubts. Until I met Declan.” She shrugged. “Now he’s the only thing I want.” And I’ll tell him that as soon as I’m within shouting distance.

  “But how did you know?”

  “I guess you have to ask yourself one question and give yourself an honest answer. Which would be easier to replace in your life, your career or Sparkle?” Daria wouldn’t go all emotional on Ganymede and talk about love, because he wasn’t that kind of cat. Only he knew what his feelings were for Sparkle.

  He nodded. “Yeah. Got it.”

  Daria had only taken a few steps away from Ganymede when he stopped. Turning toward his army, he did some silent communicating.

  “Harpies, take to the air. Come at them from three directions. I’ll work with Katie to bring down any shield Fenrir tries to throw up. Werewolves and Trouble, circle the frost giants. You’re not strong enough to beat them, so just do enough to keep them distracted. Sparkle will work on Hel Next to Fenrir, she has the most power. Once someone frees Declan, he can help with Fenrir. Anyone who has time on his or her hands can try to keep the snake from doing too much damage” He stopped to think. “Walt, stay out of the way and take notes.”

  Ganymede must be a glass-half-full cat, because Daria noticed he didn’t mention Mom. Well, Daria was a realist. She didn’t have a chance of controlling Fenrir long enough for a trip to Tartarus without that ribbon. Please be okay, Mom.

  Confidence. Time to bury the old bones of her childhood insecurities—her doubts that she’d ever be good enough—in a big hole with RIP marking the spot. She would rescue Declan, they would save the universe, and Mom would be okay.

  Showtime. She became harpy and then launched herself skyward. Below Daria, her fellow fighters shouted as they closed with Fenrir’s minions. Then she forgot everything as she searched for Declan.

  There. She almost sobbed with relief as she spotted him. Declan was stretched out on the altar naked, just as he’d slept beside her last night. No ropes or chains in sight. Fenrir must be using his power to hold Declan on the altar. Daria narrowed her eyes to determined slits. She’d just see if she could destroy Fenrir’s concentration a little.

  She dove, the action around her registering as fragmented images. Trouble and the werewolves trying to evade the lumbering frost giants. Sparkle and Hel bitch-slapping each other. Kal and Ocypete tormenting Midgard in his snake form.

  Ganymede and Katie’s broom blasting power at Fenrir’s shield. He’d evidently created protection for both Declan and himself, because she could see the sparks flying each time a blast hit it.

  Daria zoomed around the shield, looking for an opening. Then Declan spotted her. He stopped fighting the binding spell and stared at her.

  Love. She saw it in his gaze, felt it in her heart, and recognized she was lost forever. She dropped her mental shield. “I love you, Declan Mackenzie.” There were lots of other things she needed to say, but that was the most important.

  Whatever he might have replied was lost, because suddenly the battle moved into fast forward. The noise level rose a few hundred decibels.

  She turned her head
to look. Omigod! Ocypete had abandoned the battle plan in favor of trying to carry off her fave frost giant. He wasn’t cooperating. Daria tried to be heard above the shouting. “Aunt Ocypete, stop! We need you up here.”

  But Aunt Ocypete wasn’t one of the top three harpies for nothing. She was selfish and single-minded, all traits the great ones had. So Aunt Ocypete ignored her niece in favor of wrestling with the frost giant.

  What to do? Daria wouldn’t abandon Declan to chase down her aunt. But intervention came from an unexpected source.

  Sparkle left Hel to Kal for a few minutes as she turned her attention to the frost giants. Her expression froze

  Daria. Sparkle had been annoying, spiteful, and sex-obsessed, but rarely scary. She was scary right now.

  With eyes glowing an eerie amber, she spoke to the giants. “You are in lust with the harpy, Ocypete. She’s the only one you want. Nothing else matters. Go to her now. Leave this place and go somewhere far away where you can be alone with her.”

  As one, all the Frost Giants stopped fighting and lumbered toward Aunt Ocypete. Daria’s aunt looked like she’d won the keys to Hades’s liquor cabinet. After ordering all of them to hold hands, she grabbed the last one’s hand and rose into the sky, trailing giants like the tail of some monstrous kite.

  Daria spared one last glance at Sparkle. Lots of respect coming your way. The troublemaker might not be as powerful as Ganymede, but in her area of expertise she was tops.

  Okay, one section of Fenrir’s fighters out of the mix. Daria turned back to Fenrir. Then everything happened at once.

  Ganymede and Katie were still peppering Fenrir’s shield with blasts, and he was starting to look a little concerned. He grabbed a knife resting beside the altar and before Daria could even shout, “No!” made a cut across Declan’s bare chest. Blood welled from the wound.

  Frantic with her need to reach Declan, Daria looked over at Ganymede. Something of her urgency must have reached him, because he closed his eyes and concentrated. His cat body trembled with the effort he was about to make.

  She looked back at Fenrir in time to see him dip a small brush into Declan’s blood. Then he began to chant as he slowly and carefully painted a “D” on Declan’s stomach.

  She strained to hear what he was saying.

  “With his blood I write my son’s name. This is my key. When his name is complete, you will open the gate to Asgard, home to all gods and goddesses, so that I may pass through with all who follow me.” A sound rumbled from the sky. It sounded a lot like a giant gate starting to open.

  Oh, shit. She cast one more desperate glance at Ganymede. He opened his eyes and released his power in one final blast. At the same moment, Daria began the famous harpy death dive. Not much could stop a harpy diving at the speed of a bullet. A nanosecond before she hit the shield, Ganymede’s blast shattered it.

  Pulling out of her dive, she used the element of surprise to grab Fenrir’s knife and drag it across the palm of her hand. As her blood welled up and dripped off her fingertips, she leaned over Declan.

  Before Fenrir could stop her, she used her finger as a pen and her blood as ink—A. R. I. A.

  Daria. Triumphant, she heard the gate clang shut. Then she turned in time to see Fenrir take wolf form and leap at her. She barely had a moment to admire his really great dental work and his eardrum-popping roar before the force of his charge knocked her flat. Only her harpy strength allowed her to fend off his first attempt to rip out her throat.

  Declan’s shout cut through the battle noise, and for a second silence fell. “Not my woman, you bastard!”

  Then Declan was there, tearing his father off her and rolling across the ground with him. Declan was vampire, using his fangs along with the power he’d inherited from the wolf.

  But he wouldn’t be able to hold Fenrir for long. Daria dragged herself to her feet and then launched herself shakily into the air. As she scanned the battlefield for help, she saw something that made her want to cry with relief.

  Her mother flew out of the night sky. Celaeno raced for Daria, her mighty wings beating the air, a long pink ribbon floating behind her.

  Mom circled above her. “Apollo gave me the ribbon, but he made it pink just to tick me off. Sadistic jerk. That’s what I loved about him. Help me. Let’s get the big bad wolf wrapped up.” As Daria joined her mother in descending on Fenrir, she heard the faint strains of “All Shook Up.” She didn’t have time to puzzle over why Chill was coming here.

  Ganymede watched the harpies trying to wrap the stupid pink ribbon around the werewolf. Ribbon, harpies, and wolf were a tangle of hands, talons, claws, and teeth. So far it was Fenrir one and everyone else zero.

  He switched his attention to Sparkle. Even though she wouldn’t care what he thought, he’d been proud of her when she’d gotten rid of the frost giants. How many times had he taken her for granted? Too many. And now she was holding her own with Hel. But for how much longer?

  Ganymede couldn’t help her because he was looking for an opening to blast Fenrir into oblivion—to hell with the Big Boss’s rule about not killing anything. And if the Big Boss was listening, he could take all Ganymede’s candy bars for the next thousand years. He didn’t give a damn anymore. Fine, so he owed someone for that last damn and hell.

  He added another damn to his IOU tab as the ice cream truck pulled in behind him. “All Shook Up.”

  Yeah. Fit his mood. How’d Chill get his truck down that overgrown road anyway? Never mind. He knew. The music ended and a few seconds later his personal pain joined him.

  Chill gazed over the scene of the battle, calm as a vanilla-dipped cone. “Looks a little desperate for the forces of good.” He glanced down at Ganymede and smiled.

  “Counting me as part of the forces of good? Forgetting a few things, aren’t you?” Like tens of thousands of years doing evil.

  Chill shrugged. “We all make our mistakes. Some just last longer than others.”

  “So why are you here now?” Ganymede’s frustration built as he watched the harpies and Declan fail once again to tie up Fenrir.

  Why didn’t they just make a loop, drop it over his head, and then run around him like a maypole? At least Midgard was one whipped snake, slithering away with Trouble and the werewolves in hot pursuit.

  Ganymede looked back at Chill. “If you’re here for more damn candy bars, forget it. It’ll be a bitch to collect them, because I’ve run the hell out of treats.” God, that felt good. He was just breaking into a great big cat smile when Hel screeched right behind him.

  “Ow!” Ganymede yelped as she hefted him high in the air, her clawed fingers digging deep into his body.

  “This is one cat who won’t have nine lives. I’m collecting on all of them right now.”

  Sparkle came out of nowhere. She jerked him from the Queen of Death’s hands. “He’s mine, bitch. Don’t touch him again. Go home and count dead people.” She glowed with her anger.

  And fear. Ganymede had known Sparkle too long, had… loved her too long, not to recognize when she was scared shitless. For him? Something tore inside him, and he knew what he had to do.

  At least Hel seemed to have had enough. The battle was lost. With a last furious glare at Sparkle, she disappeared.

  Sparkle set Ganymede down and then raked her fingers through her tangled red hair. Her face was dirty and her nails were broken. Sparkle didn’t seem to care.

  Ganymede met Chill’s serene gaze. “You can take your cosmic troublemaker job and shove it. I stay with Sparkle. There’re other jobs. Talk radio always needs someone to stir the pot.”

  And for only the second time in thousands of years, Sparkle Stardust cried, great gasping sobs that made her makeup run and her cheeks blotchy. Swiping at her face, she smiled at him.

  For a moment Ganymede stared at her in stunned amazement. Then he got a little teary-eyed himself. Not crying. The former baddest of the bad didn’t cry. “You’re one gorgeous woman. Pick me up, babe. After this is over, we’ll go somewh
ere and get to know each other again, spend some quality time together.”

  Chill coughed. “Looks like you saved yourself again, Ganymede. Sacrificing all for love is a biggie. Maybe we’ll give the cosmic troublemaker job another try. Remember, no killing.”

  Ganymede couldn’t believe it, but even in the midst of shocked disbelief he tried to bargain. “Cursing?”

  Chill shrugged. “They’re your candy bars.” He glanced past Ganymede. “Looks like your friends need some help.”

  Ganymede had forgotten about them. Sparkle lifted him and buried her face in his fur. Then they both stared at where the harpies, Declan, and Fenrir were still fighting. The werewolf was running out of power blasts and the harpies were running out of energy.

  Chill shook his head. “Let’s get this over with.” There was a blinding light, and when everyone could see again, Fenrir was securely wrapped in the pink ribbon.

  Ganymede stared, and then he looked over to where Walt was sitting on the ground with his back against a tree. An exhausted Katie sat beside him, her broom across her knees. Walt was frantically taking notes.

  “Make sure you get all this.” Too bad Ganymede hadn’t allowed the debunker to bring his camera.

  Chill laughed. “I love playing the deus ex machina card. It’s so contrived, and I usually let people decide their own fates.” He shrugged. “But I think we need to move on to more important things this time.” He turned toward his truck. “Wait here while I get something.”

  That gave Ganymede a moment to think. So when Chill came back with two cones, he was ready. “You know, I bet this was all a setup, a way to get me to admit my feelings. Besides scaring the crap outta me. Yeah, now it makes sense.”

  Sparkle was unwrapping Ganymede’s cone for him as Chill smiled and started walking back to his truck.

  Ganymede shouted after him. “You tell the Big Boss I’m on to him.”

  Chill climbed into his truck and started the motor. Then he leaned out his window. “He already knows, Ganymede. He already knows.” Then the truck rolled away into the forest and was gone.