The Amazon and the Beast (Mythos Book 1)

by Hati Bell

  “I got him drunk and beat him at arm wrestling before I was finally allowed to add three Swift songs to the playlist,” Kellsey admitted. “You have any idea how difficult it is to beat a djinn at arm wrestling? His arm kept going up in smoke. Bloody annoying.” She waved at Kartal for another round of drinks.

  Kartal nodded that he’d seen her. Then he cursed under his breath. “Griselda,” he said, with a deep sigh.

  Kellsey and her crew turned to the bar to shamelessly eavesdrop on the conversation between Kartal and the witch.

  “You said you’d call,” Griselda said.

  Judging by her colors she belonged to the Defender caste. Kartal was lucky that she wasn’t a hot-headed Attacker or a rare Destroyer. Kellsey estimated that this would save Kartal’s hide if Griselda turned out be one of his “I’m gonna change you into a toad” kind of ex-girlfriends.

  “I did,” Kartal said, and gave no further explanation.

  Griselda remained waiting, and Kellsey internally shook her head. Once Kartal had made a decision, there was no changing his mind. It was the same reason why he hadn’t taken his ex-fiancee back when she regretted that she’d ended their relationship.

  “Kartal might look tough but he’s a wimp when it comes to turning down a woman,” Kellsey whispered to Jo.

  Shay walked over to Kartal and grabbed him by the back of his neck. She licked his face from his chin to his earlobe. “I want you back under my boot tonight, sexy djinn. I’m gonna hurt you just the way you like it.” She looked at the witch who was staring at her, wide-eyed. “Did you find me a toy?”

  “Yes, mistress,” Kartal immediately said and he looked at Griselda. “You wanna get tied to the bed or the wall? I prefer the St. Andrew’s cross, but am willing to trade.”

  A blush appeared on Griselda’s cheeks. She cast her eyes down and promptly dropped to her knees. “The bed, mistress.”

  Kartal’s jaw fell open.

  For a second there, Shay seemed speechless as well. However, she quickly regained her composure and grabbed Kartal’s chin. “How dare you grow stubble when you know I don’t like my men hairy?” An icicle appeared in her hand and she transformed it into a knife. “Off, I say. It all has to be shaved off.”

  “Sorry,” Kartal mumbled meekly and ran a hand over his blue Mohawk.

  Shay smacked his cheek, hard. “Sorry, what?”

  Kartal’s eyes spat fire, but he quickly cast them down. “Sorry, mistress,” he bit out.

  “That’s much better,” Shay said sweetly. She bent over to Griselda and pulled her head up by her hair. “I love smoothly shaved toys. Completely shaved,” she emphasized.

  That seemed to finally rattle the witch. “My hair? You want to shave off my hair?” she asked, sounding appalled.

  “For starters, yeah,” Shay said, while her icy knife slid over Griselda’s body.

  The witch hastily got back on her feet. “You… you,” she stammered.

  Shay exaggeratedly fluttered her eyelashes. “I? Me? Moi?”

  After an indignant huff and puff, the witch split.

  Kartal stroked his cheek. “Maybe I should start dating humans again.”

  “Given your dating history, that’s not a bad idea,” Kellsey said.

  “Remember that time when you dumped this alchemist and she tried to suck the life out of you?” Shay said.

  Jolene nodded empathetically. “Some relationships do that to you.”

  “She meant literally,” Kellsey said dryly.

  “They can do that?” Jo looked flabbergasted and Kellsey realized she had much to learn about life as a mythos.

  “They can if you’re the king of steel, like Kartal,” Shay explained.

  “And let’s not forget that time when a fairy confused Qasim with Kartal.” Kellsey fake-shuddered. “Poor Q was plagued by fairy powder in the most unpleasant places for a month, if you get what I’m saying.”

  “Yeah,” Kartal said with a huge grin. “That was hilarious.”

  “Fairy powder itches like crazy,” Kellsey explained to Jo.

  Kartal looked at Shay. “Thanks, mistress,” he said with a wink.

  Shay shrugged. “That’s what family’s for.” She turned around and almost tripped over a young warlock.

  “Mistress,” the boy said, his eyes shining with worship.

  “Oh, shit, not you again,” Shay groaned and she pushed him aside with the tip of her boot.

  Suddenly Kartal was standing next to her. “Let me return the favor,” he said, sounding amused, after which he grabbed the warlock and hurled him out of the window.

  20

  LEROY

  Leroy walked to Kellsey’s clinic, where she’d gone before dawn to take care of a harpy. Today was the day he was gonna ask her the question that had been on his lips for weeks.

  His conversation with Liam this morning had taken shorter than he’d expected. He knew that he couldn’t hide the Spartan’s existence from his nephew any longer. Not if he wanted to explain to Liam that he might end up in a cage soon.

  Liam had heard him out and, with the resilience of the youth, had asked whether this meant they could stay in the Asylum. The boy didn’t seem keen to return to their soulless apartment and Leroy couldn’t blame him. Liam’s “guest room” had posters plastered to the walls. Yesterday he’d installed a new sound system with Zlatan. At breakfast he’d been talking about a parking space in the garage for his “nymph.” The boy was digging their new living situation.

  All he had to do now was to convince Kellsey of his plans.

  Half an hour later, he was still standing in front of the clinic’s door, with his hand raised. Never before had he been this nervous. Not when he’d changed from one day to the next into a human with two legs and neither when he had to stop a horde of Persians. Everything before and after those periods was child’s play compared to what he was about to do. His leather jacket suddenly felt too tight and his shirt too hot.

  He was still thinking when the door opened and Kellsey stepped outside.

  “Hey, Lee, what a nice surprise!” She beamed and threw her arms around his neck.

  He closed his eyes a moment when her familiar scent washed over him. Over her shoulders, he saw Vicky sitting at a table taking care of a selkie.

  “We need to talk, babe,” he said.

  “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” she teased him.

  He realized he was going about this the wrong way. “What I meant to say is that I need to show you something. Don’t forget your helmet.”

  She sighed as she walked back inside to grab the helmet of Hades. “Why are you all so obsessed about that helmet? Riz won’t let go about it either. Are we at war with a clan?” Suddenly she perked up. “Is it the amazons? Are we finally going to free that centaur?”

  He shook his head and stroked her cheek when she looked disappointed. “Your brothers have a dispute with a clan and with the war of the gods, they don’t want to take any chances,” he said. Which was true, but not the entire truth. Riz still hadn’t told Kellsey the truth and Leroy had given him until Sunday, the day before her birthday.

  They fell into a comfortable silence, walking inward along the coast.

  When they had passed the Asylum he came to a halt. Next to the garden shed lay a pile of wood blocks. Beside it, there was a barren plain that looked out onto the back entrance of the Asylum. He motioned for her to sit down on a fallen log.

  “I had a whole story prepared about how I was gonna go about this,” he admitted.

  “You can tell me anything, Lee,” she said softly. “But if you mean to tell me that you’re going to take off to protect me from myself, I won’t accept that. Unless you tell me that you don’t love me as much as I love you.”

  His heart skipped a beat. “That’s the first time you said you love me.”

  She shrugged as if it were nothing. “It can’t surprise you how I feel about you.”

  He sat down next to her and took her hands in his. “You’re t
he bravest person I know,” he said. Her surprised look hurt ’cause she shouldn’t have doubted his feelings for her for even a second. “You’re my world.”

  “But?”

  His mouth pulled into a thin line. “According to Qasim I have about a month left before the hydra poison will kill me. I told Liam everything today. However, the Spartan and the curse aren’t the only problems in my life.” He paused and took a deep breath. “We can never have kids. I can’t expose my own flesh and blood to my curse. It already tears me up inside that Liam is in danger. I know this makes me a selfish bastard, but I can’t let you go. So, I decided to stop running. You are just as much a part of the Callahan ground as the Asylum, the haunted cemetery, and the Kraken at the coast.” He stretched out his hand to the land before them. “This, here, is the place where I want to build our house. That is, if you want that too.” He cleared his throat, suddenly feeling nervous again. “Kellsey Callahan, will you share an eternity with me?”

  She straddled his legs and sat down on his lap. “Aye, Leroy, I will share an eternity with you.”

  “Forever, Kellsey. Say it. Forever.”

  “Forever, Lee,” she whispered, her eyes soft like when she talked about her Kraken. It was in that moment that he realized she really loved him. It wasn’t a childhood love with an expiration date. No, it was deep and as big as her heart.

  His lion wanted to roar his conquest from the highest peak of Oban. The town would shake on its foundations and know that the Nemean lion had finally found his lioness.

  He looked at the piece of land where he would have their house built. “Are you sure? Absolutely sure? We can’t have kids. At least not until someone takes down that cow goddess and given the current state of the god wars, that isn’t likely.”

  “I’m positive,” she said.

  After another scorching kiss Kellsey returned to the clinic. He stared after her as she walked back inside. He grinned at the happy bounce in her step.

  “Oh, there you are.” Qasim suddenly appeared next to him in a cloud of blue smoke.

  Leroy felt a prickle on the back of his neck when the eyes of the djinn bore into him. “My blood test,” he said.

  “You have to know that this isn’t the end,” Qasim said. “You still have a few days. I’ll keep searching for a cure till….”

  “What are you trying to tell me, Q?”

  “The hydra poison has mutated.”

  “Mutated? How the fuck is that even possible?” It wasn’t like he had some human disease that developed.

  “I can’t find a scientific explanation. The poison is spreading faster than I had expected.”

  Leroy’s mouth tightened. Maybe such explanation didn’t exist. “So, you could say, it’s as if the gods themselves were involved,” he scoffed. Or in his case, a certain goddess.

  “Eh….”

  Leroy thought about what this meant. “So it’s a given, then. I’m gonna die soon. My curse will spread out to Liam.” He’d done everything in his power to prevent this moment from happening, but that skank Hera had gotten her way again. She always did.

  Qasim fidgeted and then cleared his throat. “The poison won’t kill you, Leroy. It’s changing you into a beast permanently.”

  The world ceased to exist for a moment. A chill like he’d never known before seeped into his heart. A sense of pain washed through him as he finally realized the implications of what Q was saying. He felt his future slip away through his fingers. This time the curse would spread to the woman he loved because Kellsey would never let him go. She would spend an eternity by his side looking for a way to break his curse. She would waste away every minute of her life for a beast who didn’t deserve such loyalty and devotion.

  Just minutes ago, he had asked her for an eternity. She had promised it to him and Kellsey Callahan never went back on her word.

  There was only one way to keep her from that fate and that needed to happen in public.

  ***

  It took no effort to get Lea to come to the Asylum that evening. She was clearly dressed to seduce and conquer. Her red dress had a neckline down to her navel and clung on exactly the right places, but all he wanted was Kellsey in her jeans and tee. Still, he gestured to the fairy until she stood next to him. He had deliberately chosen to do this during dinner. Kartal, Vicky, Jolene, and Qasim already sat at the kitchen table.

  Leroy was talking to Lea at the entrance to the open kitchen. He waited until he heard Kellsey walk in and she saw them standing.

  He pulled Lea towards him and gave her a long kiss. The conversations at the table stopped. He felt the temperature in the room drop.

  Lea leaned against him, the rise and fall of her breasts caressing his arm, but it left him cold. He knew that there existed a certain rivalry between the fairy and Kellsey. It was the reason he had chosen her. So he would not only stab Kellsey in the back, but give the knife an extra twist.

  “Leroy?” Kellsey sounded hurt, but surprised even more so, as if she couldn’t believe what she saw with her own eyes.

  He let go of Lea, who had clung to him like a vine. “Kells,” he said. It felt strange to shorten her name, as if she was less than what she deserved. “Don’t say you didn’t see this coming. Lions like the chase. Once the gazelle has been caught… well, it’s annoying if she continues chasing after him like a lovesick puppy.”

  Even Lea pulled a face after those words. One of pity, something a proud amazon could never bear.

  Finally Kellsey’s eyes changed into the stormy gold he loved so much. “Go to Hel, Leroy. I hope she shoves her icy finger up your ass.” She gave him a right hook and he slammed against the wall.

  Pain exploded throughout his body. A crack sounded and for a second there he thought his back was broken. He breathed in sharply when he felt a burning pain in his chest.

  His eyes followed Kellsey’s hand being pulled out of his chest. She held his still-throbbing heart in the palm of her hand and threw it at his feet.

  “Now you don’t have a heart anymore either,” she hissed.

  He felt a pain like never before when his heart was broken, both literally and figuratively. His body doubled over in agony. There was a pool of blood at his feet. He had to hide his wound before Liam saw him. Strangely enough, he had never been so proud of Kellsey as right at this moment.

  His amazon wasn’t finished yet, though. Her golden eyes shot to the fairy.

  Lea stumbled backward and clung to the fridge.

  “I dare you to touch him again,” Kellsey said coolly. “No one in the history of torture’s been tortured with torture like the torture you’ll be tortured with. And then I will feed your remains to my Kraken.” After that ice-cold warning, she stormed away.

  Lea swallowed and nervously bit her lip. “She didn’t mean that. Right?”

  Kartal uttered an exasperated sigh from the dining table. Like the other Callahans, he hadn’t moved. “Kellsey has loved Leroy since the first time she saw him. She has just literally ripped out his heart and you still doubt what she’s capable of?”

  Jolene sent Lea a dirty look but remained silent. Vicky cleared her throat. “She quoted Supernatural. It doesn’t get more serious than that.”

  “Kellsey Callahan doesn’t bluff,” Leroy added. “Not that it matters. You can leave now. I’m not interested.”

  Lea gave him a puzzled look. Then he saw that it began to dawn on her. “Shit. You love her,” she said.

  He didn’t bother to deny it. Kellsey Callahan owned his heart, body, and soul.

  Leroy waited for the Callahans to pounce on him like the wrath of the gods but they didn’t move.

  Then he realized they already knew what he hoped Kellsey would never find out.

  21

  KELLSEY

  The image of Leroy kissing Lea had felt like a slap in the face. No, not a slap; more like a fist. By a troll. It had taken a while before his coldhearted words had registered to her brain. What had thrown her off was the use of her shortened nam
e. He had never called her Kells before. She found she didn’t like her name on his lips like that. As if he was just saying an ordinary name. Like she meant nothing special to him.

  She wanted to scream out in anger. She wanted to rant and rage, and destroy his beloved Jeep. Suddenly she felt a bond with Kartal’s string of crazed ex-girlfriends.

  Her phone chimed and she fished it out of her pocket. It was a message from Shay.

  Wanna join me for a drink of djinn while I taste the local cuisine? That is, if you can pull yourself off of your lion for long enough….

  Despite her pain Kellsey felt a smile coming on. She rubbed away the traitorous tears that slipped down her cheeks and took the back exit. She couldn’t be held responsible for her actions if she ran into Leroy or Lea again.

  She rushed past the ghostly cemetery and along the coast where fierce waves rose up and battered against the rocks. Krik’s trusted cry thawed her crushed heart and she shouted back a greeting. After a small piece of forest, she stood in front of Seven’s door. Judging by the amount of lined-up bikes and cars, it was a busy night.

  Shay already sat at the bar with a drink in her hand and a slice of whiskey cake in front of her. Zlatan stood behind the bar, polishing glasses.

  Kellsey hopped on the seat next to her friend. Her eyes slid over a group of warlocks shooting some pool. One of them was trying to get eye contact with Shay. “So, is the local cuisine any good?”

  “You know my motto,” Shay said and she took a bite of her cake.

  “Yep, variety is the spice of life.” She swallowed and tried not to think about how Leroy had spiced up his life.

  “I’m surprised your lion let you go.”

  “It turned out that Leroy shares your motto,” she said and she downed Shay’s drink in one gulp.

  “Oh? Which one? A day not kissed by an alpha with a whip is a day not lived?”

  “Nope. The one with variety being the spice of life.”