Clenching my jaw, I climbed to my feet, now behind the creature. There was nothing standing between him and the doorway now. He could be on Selene within seconds.
“Hey!” I shouted at the beast. “You forgot to kill me first!”
“Ares, no. Don’t fight this thing. You need to run!” Selene shouted back.
“I’m not leaving you here to face it alone,” I said, taking slow and steady steps toward the creature. It looked at Selene, then whipped its head toward me, clearly trying to decide which of us to attack first.
Selene pulled up her skirts and withdrew a silver blade. She waved it at the creature. “Go. Get out of here and leave us be.”
I lowered my hands to my side as the beast crept back. This goddamn woman. She’d hidden weapons beneath her skirt. I should have known. I should have fucking known. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, she was a force to be reckoned with. And now here she was, facing a creature three times the size of her with courageous abandon.
As she stood there, bending her knees in a stance only known by trained warriors and showing not even a hint of fear on her face, I thought back to how well she’d faced Hera in the amphitheatre, too. Selene was clearly no stranger to fighting. And god, she looked bloody glorious doing it.
Suddenly, Selene lunged toward the beast, slashing the tip of the blade at his face. The beast whined, whipping his tail from side to side. He ducked his head and backed away, clearly terrified of her little blade. Then, without warning, he turned and threw himself toward the open balcony doors, forcing me to stumble out of his way.
In a whorling mass of gray fur, he vanished into the night.
INTERLUDE
To creep closer to the sound of screaming went against every one of the woman’s instincts. In a place like Hellas, ruled by vicious vampires, mortals quickly learned to hide at any sign of suffering. If you heard shouting? You clambered behind a rock. If you walked down the street and smelled blood? You promptly turned around and took another street.
If a threat loomed?Run.
And yet the woman pushed through the brush, branches scraping her bare arms and smacking her in the face.
The screams were punctuated by whines and the occasional shout. Some of them were still fighting. That much was clear. The woman had hoped everyone was dead, save one, but it seemed some had survived.
She scowled, trying to listen for the voices. For once, she longed for them, and the silence felt suffocating. How could she know what to do if they did not tell her what would happen?
The woman was not a fighter, but she had vengeance in her heart. The Olympians had taken everything from her, murdering her family and twisting her greatest gift into a curse. No one believed her warnings, no matter how desperately she conveyed them, all because they’d decided they didn’t want a mortal woman like her to have so much power.
“Cassandra, there you are,” came a voice from nearby.
The woman turned. She knew that voice. It had brought her here. Quickly, she knelt and pressed her forehead to the muddy ground.
“My liege,” she said to the vampire. “I have come as you asked.”
38
SELENE
Istood in the doorway, my hand trembling from how it clutched the dagger’s hilt so tightly. Even my palm ached. Blood painted everything inside the room, and the horrible stench of rot clogged my nostrils. Nausea churned in my throat, and I turned away with my free hand pressed against my mouth.
My lungs heaved. I could hardly wrap my mind around what I’d just seen.
“Selene.” Ares was by my side within an instant, wrapping a strong and comforting arm around my shoulder. Despite the reason I’d come here looking for him, I leaned into his embrace. He felt steady and solid and warm. Just having him there softened my jagged edges.
Which was dangerous. I shouldn’t feel like this around him.
Slowly, I pulled away from him. He took my shoulders in his hands and searched my eyes, clearly concerned. “Are you all right?”
I huffed a laugh. “You’re askingmethat? If I recall, you’re the one who actually fought him.” My eyes slid toward the mangled body on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. “Him, too.”
I couldn’t say I felt any sadness about Poseidon’s death. In fact, I was glad. One less monstrous king to deal with myself. He was just as bad as Zeus, if not worse. The wolf had done me a great favor. But…the whole thing still left me reeling.
“He seems dead,” Ares said uncertainly.
Ares wouldn’t know about the wolves and what they could do to vampires. And I’d have to be careful how much I revealed. If any of the Olympians evensuspectedwhere this creature had come from…
