“I don’t think Achilles will try anything either, but…what if she starts remembering and I’m not there? What if she only remembers him and not me?”
Victor rolled his eyes. “You two dreamed again, right?”
“Don’t patronize me, Victor. I know that we are still connected, but I have no way of knowing what Hera did to Artemis. If the dragons aren’t as powerful as we think, she could end up dying.” I wouldn’t let that happen. I refused to let her die now that I’d found her.
“Let’s just focus on getting to Rhea’s Temple,” he said softly.
We increased our speed and made it to the City of Rhea, which was the gatekeeper to the Temple, faster than I’d thought we would. Even during the human reign this had been left untouched. Of course since it was in the Himalayas and freezing cold, I wasn’t surprised that even after the uprising Maurice had left it alone as well. Rhea was the strongest being on the planet and I for one would not want to be on her bad side.
“It’s more deserted than I thought it would be,” Victor said angrily.
I looked over and saw his fangs fully extended, which was something he only did when scaring someone or when he couldn’t retract them due to his overwhelming thirst.
“I told you to eat on the way here. You’ll just have to settle for a rabbit to quench the fire for now.”
Victor grumbled and we started through the empty town. The buildings looked freshly made, but they had to have been at least a thousand years old judging by the architecture. The wolf side of me felt uneasy about walking into someone else’s den, but this was for Artemis so I would just have to deal with the feeling.
Victor disappeared a moment and then reappeared with two rabbits. He drained the blood from them and then tossed them to me. “You need to eat too, in case Mother asks a price from you.”
I ate the meat from the skinny rabbits and snapped off one of the rabbit’s feet. I held it out to Victor. “Want a good luck charm?”
He swatted the foot away when I waved it at him and he shook his head in disgust. “I never understood why the humans used to believe that. And it was rather disgusting that they kept the piece of animal on their key chains of all places.” I smiled and then Victor sighed. “I do miss the human world though. I miss the restaurants, the movies and most of all the women who threw themselves at me because they wanted to please me and were attracted to me and thought it was exotic to be with a vampire.”
“You mean women don’t throw themselves at your feet now?”
Victor groaned. “Yes they do, but only because I’m the big bad vampire prince. I’m not my father, Ares, you know that. I don’t like to be feared.” I arched my eyebrow and Victor smiled. “Okay, I like to be feared a little, but not all the time and definitely not from the women I want to bed.”
A loud growling brought my attention to the skies above us. The moon was gone and I couldn’t see, but I definitely felt like I was being watched. “What is it, Victor? I’m blind here.” I caught the dim shape of something flying through the air above us, but I couldn’t make out the form.
“It looks like a griffin,” he said a bit in shock.
I started running and yelled, “Race you to the door!”
Victor caught up to me easily as the griffins began diving at me and pulling at my hair. Their claws raked my chest and back, drawing blood.
“I get the wolf. You can have the leech,” said a deep and growly voice.
“No, he’s a halfbreed and we agreed that I’d get the next halfbreed that came through,” argued a second voice.
I was beginning to worry when a commanding voice so beautiful and melodic that it made me stop running and stand still, yelled, “None shall touch him! He has a golden aura!”
Ahead of us was the temple steps and standing in the doorway was a woman more beautiful than any other I had seen. She had hair the color of wheat and eyes of emeralds. She was so powerful that I dropped to my knees instantly and bowed my head. “Mother,” I whimpered.
She floated down the steps of the temple and knelt in front of me. She touched my face and frowned in concern. “You are in pain. What do you need from me, halfbreed son?”
She was right, I was in pain. Pain at having been separated from the woman I loved. Pain at not knowing for sure if she was alive or dead. Pain at not knowing if she’d been with another man in the past one hundred years. Pain at my love not knowing me.
“I need your consent to continue being with my mate. It is the price the dragons asked in order to assist me in recovering the memories which were stolen from her.” I could barely whisper with her so close to me. She was the true Mother of us all, the Mother of even Asena.
“You love her more than anyone else. You have not touched another woman even though you have been separated for over one hundred years. I have not met a man so devoted as you and with a perfect golden aura in many years.”
“Golden aura?” I asked.
She smiled. “When a man is pure of heart, void of evil and knows the love of a perfect match, his aura will glow golden. I will give you my consent…”
I looked up at her and smiled happily.
“But, you must defeat my champion,” she finished.
“Your champion?” Victor asked.
Rhea turned to Victor and laid her hand against his cheek. “Oh, son of the Darkness. You are powerful, but not powerful enough. I think I shall grant you a gift as well if this task is completed. Yes, yes, I will give you more power if you and the halfbreed can defeat my champion.”
“Who is your champion?” I finally managed to ask.
She wagged her finger at me. “You must agree or decline first.”
“I agree. I will do anything to have my mate back,” I answered without any more hesitation. I really hoped her champion wasn’t that great of a fighter.
She threw her head back and laughed maniacally.
I looked at Victor, but he only shrugged. Women were weird, apparently from the beginning of time.
Rhea looked back at me. “I do not expect you to be able to kill my champion since I would not have picked a weak being for such an honor, but I do expect you or your vampire friend to be able to draw blood. If one drop of blood is drawn from him, then you will have what you ask for and your vampire friend will have more power than any other in the world. You agree?”
Victor and I nodded our heads. I stood up and brushed myself off. This was my chance. The one thing I had to do to get Artemis back. I would not fail.
The temple doors flew open and I watched in awe as a tall man with thick cords of muscle and a perfect physique walked down the steps. His eyes were the purest blue I’d seen, even purer than my own. He stopped beside Rhea and asked, “You summoned me?”
Rhea hugged the man and whispered, “They need only draw a drop of blood from you. Fight well, Hyperion. Do not disappoint me.”
Hyperion? Oh gods.
He stood up and I knew it had to be true. The father of the moon, stars and the sun. The father of all preternaturals.
“Oh, crap,” Victor said softly.
I ripped my pants off, took a half-shift and then launched myself at Hyperion just as Victor charged at him too. Hyperion smiled, rolled his shoulders in a circle and said, “It’s been so long since I’ve had a challenge.”
~~~
CHANDRA
Chapter Nine
I jumped in the air as I dodged Blu’s tail and then shot him in the back with fire. I blocked an attack from Theseus behind me, smiling at my quick reflexes. I grabbed onto Theseus’ arm, tossed him over my shoulder and dropped onto his fallen body, delivering blow after blow to his face and body.
“Enough!” Blu roared behind me. I stood up off of Theseus and prepared to attack Blu, but he pinned me to the ground with his foot and growled at me. “I understand that you are worried about the princes, but you are taking it out on Theseus’ body.”
I hated being pinned. As a wolf I hated being trapped. I could see my body beginning to
glow in the reflection of Blu’s eye. He grabbed me and then tossed me into the air. I pulled my wings from my back and flapped them furiously to keep from flying any farther away. I started to fly back towards Blu, but something slammed into my side and sent me careening sideways with my wings pinned against my body. I struggled against what held me until I looked up and realized it was Theseus holding me.
He let us fall to the ground and then pinned me on my back to the ground. “I command you to stop.”
I growled at him and bared my teeth. “Get off of me. You do not command me.”
“Are you going to behave?” he asked in a reasonable and irritating tone.
I struggled against his hold, but then he used his power to make a shield and slammed it against me. I gasped in pain and then anger overrode my other senses. I used my wings to push us up off of the ground and changed my hand into a paw to stab him in the stomach, but suddenly I was paralyzed.
“You are going to hurt someone you do not wish to harm if you don’t control yourself, Hatchling,” said the Council.
“I can’t just sit here while he’s out on such a dangerous mission! I can hardly sleep and I need to do something!” I yelled. I had never before yelled at a dragon, much less the Council and I expected a punishment, but at that moment I didn’t care. The shirt the werewolf prince had given me had lost his scent quickly and I knew it was my own fault for smelling it and touching it so much.
“Very well, we will teach you a technique which will consume you, body and mind, until you have learned it. We warn you it will not be easy to master and may destroy you if you are not powerful enough.”
“Please. I need to do something,” I said in a much quieter voice. I knew it was an honor for the dragons to teach anyone and that I should feel humbled, but the churning in my stomach at the thought of losing the prince was too much.
“Go wash, eat and then return to us with an open mind and quiet heart,” said the Council.
I bowed to them and hurried to do as they asked. I washed my hair and body, ate some meat and bread and then sat in the center of my tent with my legs crossed as I meditated. Normally a request that I have a quiet heart was easy, but since meeting the man who claimed to be my mate and who I had an undeniable bond with, I couldn’t. I closed my eyes and relaxed my body in sections. Once my body was relaxed I focused on the inner turmoil consuming me and slowly released it.
The truth about who I was would be revealed once the prince comes back. The prince will return safely because he swore he would and because he is one of the most powerful beings on the earth.
Continuing in this fashion I released all of my worries and quieted my heart. Feeling better than I had in weeks I walked out of my tent and to the waiting Council.
I bowed down before them and whispered, “I apologize for my discourteous behavior earlier. Please forgive my insolent actions and words.”
“You are forgiven, Hatchling. Are you ready to learn what we are offering to teach you?”
I stood up and nodded my head. “Yes. I am.”
Blu stood off to the right, watching and waiting. I knew he wasn’t just curious about what they were going to teach me, but he was also there to protect me if something happened.
The Council began humming and singing and then disappeared. I stared at the empty spot where five large dragons had just occupied. The humming returned behind me. I whipped around and found the Council now behind me. Translocation.
I moaned in pain as a memory of a beautiful woman transporting me from a fight to a strange town flashed across my eyes. I opened my eyes and found that I’d dropped to my knees and Blu was humming with his nose against my head as he tried to heal the pain.
“What did you see?” asked the Council.
“A woman I believe Sidhe, though at the time I didn’t know that. She teleported me from a fight with vampires to a town in the woods. There are periods of pain in between and I don’t seem to have memories for those brief lapses, but…” I screamed in pain again as I understood that she was the woman who had stolen my memories.
“Good, Hatchling. Now we know who the woman is that stole your memories. She is a very powerful Sidhe and it will not be easy to break the barrier she placed.”
“Barrier? You mean I still have my memories? She didn’t steal them away?”
The Council looked at me in confusion. “Why do you believe they were stolen?”
I groaned as the pain in my head returned as I recalled specifics of the memory. “I remember that the images slipped out of my head, like mud slipping through my fingers. It was as though she plucked them from my head.”
The Council went completely silent as they communicated to each other. It was rare that the Council was silent for such a long period of time and it made me very nervous. Finally they said, “We will not discuss this further until the wolf prince has returned. Now, let us teach you how to teleport yourself and others.”
I stood up and patted Blu’s nose reassuringly. “Okay.”
~~~
ARES
Chapter Ten
My body hadn’t ached so badly and in so many places at once in hundreds of years. Covered in sweat and panting like a child, I felt pathetic and weak. I looked over and found Victor in the same state, except his fangs were bared to their longest, reaching down past his lower lip. It was a situation neither of us had been in for a very long time. How could one individual be so powerful?
“We need to change our tactics,” said Victor from beside me.
Hyperion was sweating slightly, but our two minute breaks completely revived him whereas we were still winded and still in pain.
“Obviously, but what do you suggest?” I asked angrily. We’d been fighting for an hour and forty minutes and even with our combined attacks, Victor and I couldn’t even scratch him.
“I don’t know yet. I was hoping you might have an idea. You are the God of War.”
I glared at him. “I’m the God of War against humans and other races, not the Father of Preternaturals!”
Hyperion charged at us and I ducked just in time. I turned and slashed at his exposed back, but his fist smashed into my face as he spun around in a whirlwind. I crashed to the stone floor and snarled angrily. This was not working.
Victor punched at Hyperion from the front, so I ran and jumped, trying to hop onto his back, but his foot rose without his head even turning and he kicked me backwards while he punched Victor in the chest.
“Do you have eyes in the back of your head?!” I asked angrily.
Hyperion laughed. “You know as well as I that your other senses can help you know when someone is approaching from the back. Your breathing is as loud as a baby rhinoceros.”
I growled at him and attacked from the front, punching and slashing at his arms. No matter how fast I moved, my claws never reached his skin.
Rhea watched with glowing eyes from a throne the griffins had brought out of the temple for her to sit.
Victor rolled his neck and shoulders and said, “We need to use a cheap tactic.”
I turned and stared at him in shock. “You’re serious?”
He smiled. “Do you really care if we win legitimately or not?”
Hyperion growled. “Are you two weaklings going to stand there and whine all day or are we going to fight? If you want to surrender, I’m fine with that too.”
“I will never surrender!” I yelled angrily. I had to win. I have to do this for Artemis. I counted down from five and then charged Hyperion. His dagger pierced the side of my stomach just as Victor stabbed at Hyperion’s other side. Without even turning Hyperion swatted Victor, catching him in the side and sending him flying. Victor landed on his feet and skidded at least fifteen feet back. I pulled away from Hyperion and growled angrily as I put a hand over my wound.
Victor hissed furiously and I saw his power release around him in a thick black cloud. “Ready?!” he yelled at me as he disappeared.
I called upon the power of the moon, which
hangs above us in her ever present beauty, and charged forward. I exchanged blows with Hyperion and as my strength was waning shouted, “Now!”
Victor’s body materialized from my shadow and he slid underneath my legs, between Hyperion’s, and grabbed Hyperion around the arms.
I squatted down and slashed his leg, opening a small cut.
Hyperion yelled angrily, broke free from Victor’s grasp and picked me up by the throat. “No! I refuse to be defeated by a halfbreed!”
“You have been defeated, Hyperion. Release your grandson,” said Rhea softly.
Hyperion looked as though he wanted to object, but after one look at Rhea’s serious face, he dropped me to the ground and stepped back. “I admit defeat.”
If only they would assist us in righting the balance of the world and killing Maurice we could win the battle quickly and easily. I understood their desire to remain neutral, but it would make things so much easier.
Victor limped over to me and said, “That was easier than I thought it would be.”
I forced back the smile which tried to surface and turned towards Rhea as I still clutched my bleeding side. “We have completed your task. Will you give me your blessing as you agreed?”
Rhea placed her hand on my forehead and said, “I, Mother Rhea, give you, Ares Lupine of the Werewolves and Sidhe, my blessing to continue as a mated pair with Artemis Lupine. May the dragons restore her memories and bring back the woman you love.”
It felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, yet I sagged to the ground and felt tears on my face. I’d done it. I’d completed the task and now Artemis was finally going to get her memories back!
“You, Victor of the Vampires, have shown great loyalty to your friend despite the differences in your races. Therefore I pronounce you as Ruler of the Children of the Night and give you the power to hold that title. May your reign be brighter than your father’s.” Rhea’s hands began to glow and she placed them on either side of Victor’s head. He moaned in pleasure and then his body glowed with an eerie black light. It was like seeing a Sidhe glowing white, but his light was like the night instead of the stars.
Healed by Fire Artemis Lupine 3 Page 7
