The Amazon and the Beast (Mythos Book 1)

by Hati Bell

  The stranger didn’t even seem to notice her. His hate-filled eyes were directed at Leroy.

  “This isn’t the place, Spartan,” Leroy said, while pushing Vicky behind his back.

  “What’s going on, Leroy?” Vicky asked.

  “Don’t worry, you’re gonna be okay,” he said, one eye on the man in the living room. “The Spartan doesn’t kill women.”

  Well, what a relief. Kellsey snuck out of the kitchen and walked around the Spartan. Who would’ve thought that her helmet of invisibility would come in handy so soon.

  Liam stood hesitantly at the kitchen island. He had a determined look on his face. One that said he wouldn’t remain standing in a corner.

  “He is the last of your bloodline, lion. I am going to kill him,” the Spartan said. The coldness in his voice made a shiver work down Kellsey’s spine.

  “My nephew is innocent,” Leroy emphasized as he stepped into the living room.

  “So was my unborn child,” the Spartan spat.

  The shadows lurking in Leroy’s eyes didn’t surprise Kellsey anymore. In them lay a question for forgiveness which he would never receive.

  What happened next was something none of them could have seen coming. The Spartan opened the flaps of his trench coat where two massive semi-automatic guns were hidden underneath.

  Kellsey had no time to shout a warning before bullets started flying around. Leroy jumped on top of Vicky, and they rolled behind a couch. From the corner of her eye, she saw Liam dive behind the kitchen island.

  Never before had she encountered a mythos using modern weaponry. They considered human weapons beneath them. Also, bullets wouldn’t kill a mythos. They would, however, injure people and make them easy prey. You couldn’t flee if your legs were shot from beneath you.

  She surprised the Spartan by jumping on his back. Her weight made the guns rise upwards, making the debris fly in all directions from the ceiling. He dropped the guns and the thunderous sound ricocheting off the stone walls in deafening waves ceased. Kellsey had no time to catch her breath, for his arms went to his back and pulled her off of him.

  Iron-like fingers bored into her shoulders. She gave him an uppercut to the jaw and stabbed a knife in his neck. Blood spewed everywhere. He let go of her and put a hand on the knife.

  Kellsey rolled away from him and shoved the weapons out of his reach. She ran to the wall with the fireplace while she stepped over bullet shells and pieces of destroyed furniture. On the wall hung Riz’s spear. It was one of his favorite weapons. “If anyone is going to kill that lion, it will be me,” she muttered.

  The Spartan pulled knives from under his trench coat and swung them around in a wide arc. His eyes scoured around, searching for an invisible enemy.

  Kellsey remained standing by the spear, contemplating her next move. The second she picked up the weapon, he would know where she was. Her dilemma was short-lived, because a growl later a beautiful golden lion pounced on top of the Spartan.

  She grabbed the spear from the wall and ran to them. Leroy was clearly the stronger of the two, but the Spartan managed to worm himself from under the massive lion. He had his knees slightly bent and held his arms in front of him, studying Leroy, looking for an opening. A beat later he jumped on top of him. But before he could clamp his arms around Leroy’s neck, he was already thrown off of him.

  The Spartan looked awful with blood dripping from his neck and his coat cut to shreds. A crazy fire burned in his eyes. This man wouldn’t stop before he had had his vengeance.

  When he jumped a second time on top of Leroy, Kellsey was ready. She pushed the spear in the Spartan’s neck. He made a gurgling sound. She pulled the spear towards herself and he fell from Leroy’s back.

  Kellsey put her foot behind his neck and yanked. The spear point shot loose with a sickening sound and took his head with it. It was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen.

  She dropped the weapon and pulled her helmet from her head.

  Leroy changed into his human form and ran to the kitchen, undoubtedly to check on Liam.

  Kellsey looked down at the Spartan. He had left behind a huge stain on the carpet. The living room was in ruins, the ceiling half-destroyed. And this time it wasn’t even her fault.

  Vicky crawled out from behind the destroyed bench and came to stand next to her.

  Kellsey’s jaw dropped when the Spartan moved his fingers. His head, which was rolled aside, was being pulled back to his body as if by invisible strings.

  “What is he?” Vicky whispered.

  Perhaps he was an alchemist? She’d heard of an alchemist who had found the hieroglyph of a second life. Only she’d thought that it was just a myth.

  Leroy came out of the kitchen with Liam in his wake and a chopping knife in his hand. His face was grim as he kneeled beside the Spartan and began to chop him into pieces.

  Liam stood behind Leroy, his eyes sad. “We’re leaving,” he said.

  Her heart started pounding. “What do you mean, you’re leaving?”

  Leroy ignored her while he separated the Spartan’s limbs from his body.

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” Vicky said just before she stepped back and vomited into a bowl.

  “We have to,” Liam said with a sigh. “Could you tell Zlatan that I will give him a call? And ask Kartal to take good care of my nymph?” His chin set at a stubborn tilt. “I don’t care what my uncle says. One day I’m coming back.”

  Leroy had finally stopped chopping. He dropped the knife and wiped blood spatters from his face. “You know why we have to leave,” he said, while he got back up.

  “You can’t leave,” Kellsey protested. “This is Liam’s home now.”

  “Aye, listen to her,” Liam said.

  “Not gonna happen.” Leroy looked down at the Spartan. “This will keep him here for less than a day. We need that time to run and disappear. Hera always finds a way to put him back together or to have him escape and put him back on our track. There’s no place on Earth he can’t reach.”

  She opened her mouth, ready to plead about how they could beat the Spartan together when she saw that he started moving again.

  It felt as if a gust of wind blew through the room. Right above the Spartan, a ray of light appeared that was getting bigger. “Maybe not on Earth,” Vicky’s voice suddenly sounded.

  They all stepped back. Their eyes slid questioningly to the witch. “What are ya doing?” Kellsey asked.

  Vicky’s gray eyes flashed from black to silver. “What I’m good at. I’m opening a portal to another dimension.”

  “Which dimension?” Kellsey asked with an eye on the Spartan’s broken body. The portal had now taken the size of a full-length mirror.

  “I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Vicky said, sounding tense. Her arms started to shake as she rotated them in intricate gestures. “Dimensions are constantly moving and are invisible to the naked eye. This is the dimension that’s currently the closest by.”

  The portal shone brighter and became more clear. Kellsey could even see figures in it now. It was as if she were looking through a mirror to another place. Only it didn’t exactly look like Narnia, but more like the kingdom of the Antichrist.

  In the distance, she saw a dark tower surrounded by a volcano landscape. There was a silent lightning flash and suddenly crimson red eyes bore into her. She felt a sharp pain in her head.

  Mine….

  Promised… to… me….

  Where did that sinister hiss come from? She grabbed her head and opened her mouth, but she couldn’t utter a sound.

  It was as though someone took over her body because her feet were taking her to the portal on their own account. Then she was suddenly slammed into the ground.

  Leroy had jumped on top of her and pulled her away from the portal. From the corner of her eye she saw Vicky and Liam standing next to the Spartan’s body. They were frantically picking up his limbs and tossing them in the portal. Vicky’s face had turned a sickly green and Liam looke
d stark white by the time they were done. The witch made complicated gestures with her hands and muttered something in a foreign language. When she closed the portal, Leroy let go of Kellsey and pulled her up.

  She gave him a punch on his shoulder. “How dare you kiss Lea so that I would let you go!” she fumed. “I came here to kick your ass and demand an explanation.”

  He stepped away from her. “Go away, Kellsey.”

  “Oh, so now I’m suddenly Kellsey again?”

  Something flashed in his eyes. Regret and something that looked like despair and desire. He turned his back to her.

  “Don’t you dare turn your Nemean ass to me. You promised me an eternity!”

  He spun back around. In two steps he grabbed her by her arms. “I promised you an eternity as a man and three days a year as a beast. Not an eternity with the beast. I’d rather have your heart torn out once than every day for the rest of your life.”

  23

  KELLSEY

  Kellsey felt like an environmentalist who held a barbecue in the middle of the forest. With lead in the shoes and a poor peacock tucked in her arms she descended to Krik’s Bay. She walked past her clinic and stopped at the rock formation against which the waves were breaking and foaming. Gently she put the peacock near a tree. She’d been lucky that Levi hadn’t sold Hera’s peacock yet.

  As expected, Leroy had once again put up a wall between them after their confrontation with the Spartan. Although moving out–much to Liam’s delight–was put on hold, he refused to talk to her. He was determined to have her lead a free and easy life. She was just as determined to break his curse. So, an hour after their confrontation with the Spartan, she was staring into the dark night.

  “Sorry, little fella,” she apologized for the nth time. The peacock chatted about some tale, but Kellsey was too nervous to listen to it.

  She braced herself. “Hi, eh, Hera?” she called to the dark sky. She had no idea what the proper etiquette was to call a goddess.

  Not a single reaction.

  She looked at the poor peacock who threatened to end up as Krik’s dinner and shouted: “Release the Kraken!”

  Complete silence and no Kraken in sight.

  Fantastic. Krik didn’t seem to give a furry rat’s arse about her call, either. She had asked Krik about Macan. All Krik could tell her was that the alchemist had tasted foul so he had spit him out. She had no idea what that meant.

  She combed her fingers through her curls in frustration. What would a goddess respond to? Flattery?

  “Oh, mighty Hera, goddess of goddesses, queen of the sky….” Shit, she sucked at this. What did she know about a hymn to the gods? Zilch. Her eureka moment came when she suddenly thought of an epic poem. She spread her hands, palms facing up.

  “I sing to you, golden-throned Hera, daughter of Rhea. Queen of the immortals. She, who surpasses all in beauty. Hera, the glorious one whom all the immortals throughout Olympus honor.” Or something along those lines. It was years ago that she’d read the classics.

  The peacock suddenly fanned out his beautiful feathers and screamed excitedly.

  “Oh, it’s you,” a bored voice sounded from behind her.

  Kellsey spun around.

  Between her and the clinic stood the most majestic woman she had ever seen. The queen of the Olympian gods possessed an unearthly beauty and elegance that she hadn’t encountered before. Her royal blue dress fit tightly around her hips and showed a modest cleavage. However, it was her violet eyes that caught Kellsey’s attention. That, and the fact that her highly annoyed gaze went back and forth from her to the peacock. The goddess didn’t give a crap about the rest of the world, but as soon as you touched her peacock, apparently it was game over.

  “Hi,” Kellsey greeted the goddess.

  Hera looked around. “I had hoped to hear that hymn from the poet himself.” Judging by her pinched face she didn’t appreciate the butchering of the epic hymn. She apparently also didn’t like the fact that she had appeared in the twenty-first century instead of in Greek antiquity.

  “I’m Kellsey Callahan and I–”

  “The amazon with the Kraken,” Hera said sharply.

  “That’s right.” And you’re the spiteful goddess who cursed my guy. She plastered a smile on her face. Pissing off the goddess wasn’t part of her plan.

  Hera studied her from head to toe. “There is something odd about you. Normally I don’t even hear your kind. Not because I can’t but because I don’t want to,” she deemed necessary to emphasize.

  Kellsey went straight to business. “I want you to lift Leroy’s curse and heal him from the hydra blood that flows through his veins. He’s the Nemean lion you’ve cursed because his father couldn’t kill Herakles.”

  The peacock walked to the goddess and proudly showed his feathers. Hera stroked him absently. “Ixion will forever spin on a wheel. Paris will forever regret that he chose Aphrodite over me. Herakles–” she curled up her lip ”–will forever regret that he was born. The lion of Nemea will forever bring me tributes. These are just a few highlights of my work, but I think I’ve made my point. Ixion will never stop spinning, Troy will never rise out of its ashes, Herakles will always be a child-killer, and the lion of Nemea will never be free.”

  Kellsey cleared her throat while she thought about how to bring the conversation back on track. “That’s an impressive resume,” she acknowledged. “But you’re forgetting something. First of all, the failed assassination attempt on Herk wasn’t Leroy’s fault and secondly, it’s been millennia. Let it go.”

  “Let it go?” Hera uttered. She let the peacock go. Violet-colored eyes looked surprised for a moment and then narrowed.

  “Aye. Let it go,” Kellsey repeated. “You’ve already had Leroy’s past. His future is mine.”

  “Let. It. Go?” Hera repeated.

  Kellsey gave a deep sigh. The goddess clearly couldn’t grasp the concept of letting something go. She was starting to see a pattern here. “That’s right. Like the song from that animated movie. Let it go. It was ages ago that your man cheated on you with Alkmene. She has long since turned to dust.”

  “It feels like yesterday,” Hera said, surly, while inspecting her nails.

  “Fine, then think about this,” Kellsey suggested. “I have the helmet of Hades.” There was a flash in Hera’s eyes and Kellsey knew she had her attention. “Now, since you’re a wee bit in the middle of a war, I can imagine that a helmet of invisibility might come in handy. Not even Zeus himself could see you when you would wear the helmet. I think you get what I’m trying to tell you.”

  The goddess folded her arms over her chest. Even that simple gesture was the epitome of elegance. Kellsey didn’t understand why Riz compared the goddess to a cow. A beautiful vulture, perhaps, but certainly not a cow.

  “Go on,” Hera said icily.

  “Just the mere thought of another lass having a say over his life drives me crazy,” Kellsey admitted. “The last woman who touched him I almost fed to my Kraken.”

  This actually made Hera crack a smile. “I know what you mean,” she said. “Are you sure you want me to lift his curse? The next time someone strangles him, he will actually die.”

  Suddenly, Kellsey realized this wasn’t about Leroy or his father who had failed to kill Herakles. It was about a woman who couldn’t handle the fact that her husband was a notorious cheating bastard. Instead of making his life miserable, she lashed out at Zeus’ conquests and the creatures who had disappointed her.

  She opened her mouth to tell Hera to just grab her man by his balls, but changed her mind. After all, that was easier said than done when your husband might actually have steel balls. It felt strange to see Hera in this light, with everyday problems. She actually empathized with the goddess. Even though she knew what Leroy’s motive had been to kiss Lea, the memory still hurt. However, she didn’t intend to remain bitter over it for millennia. She had other plans for her lion.

  “I’m positive,” Kellsey said. “I can’t s
hare him with another woman. Something I’ve made clear to him by ripping out his heart.”

  Hera actually looked impressed. “You ripped out his heart?”

  “Damn straight I did. Why should he be allowed to keep his heart when he has broken mine? You should try it some time,” she advised the goddess.

  “Intriguing idea,” Hera said.

  “So, the helmet in exchange for Leroy, sans the curse and poison. Do we have a deal?”

  “The helmet and… the Kraken. He’s the only one of its kind left in this dimension. Give him to me.”

  Kellsey swallowed, hard. “You want Krik?” she asked as she frantically tried to come up with a way to avoid the way their talk was heading.

  Hera looked surprised. “You gave him a name?”

  “Of course. Kraken have feelings too.”

  “No, they don’t,” Hera said dryly. “They are monsters created to protect my pantheon. Hand him over to me.”

  “But don’t you already have a peacock?” Kellsey weakly remarked and she gestured to the bird.

  The goddess lifted an eyebrow. “Oddly a peacock provides me no protection during a war.”

  Kellsey turned to Krik’s bay. The Kraken floated close to the coast. Her heart warmed at his familiar presence. He was always nearby when he sensed danger.

  A giant red tentacle wrapped around her waist to comfort her. It felt as if something inside her broke. “I can’t give you Krik. He isn’t my possession. He’s a free creature. Krik is smart, strong, and has a beauty your peacocks don’t possess.”

  “He would go with me if you asked him,” Hera said cunningly.

  Kellsey feared the goddess was right but wasn’t going to put that to the test. Krik was her baby. She’d raised him and even brushed his fangs. That was, when she could still reach them.

  A roar filled the night. Kellsey gasped when she saw a massive golden lion heading her way. Cracks appeared on the icy ground. The walls of the clinic were shaking.

  “Oops,” Hera said with a mock innocent look. “It seems like someone let the lion out of his cage. How do you simple souls indicate time again? Ah, yes. Tic Tac.”