Demetrius’s jaw clenched harder and he turned his attention back to the Sirens below. “You’re the train wreck, Orpheus. Case in point, the mess you left back there in the mountains.”
Yeah, he might be a fuckup, but he was smart enough to know he wasn’t marriage material. Wasn’t even relationship material. What he had going with the Siren was nothing more than straight-up sexual attraction. Which, as he’d told Demetrius, would burn out soon enough. Tonight, if he had anything to say about it.
His mind drifted to Skyla, and before he could stop himself he wondered what she was doing right this minute. A burst of desire rippled through him when he pictured her kiss-me lips and that made-for-sin body. Which both lit him up and pissed him off at the same time.
The brush to the left of the Sirens rustled, and Orpheus’s adrenaline shot up when he saw Nick stumble into the clearing. The Sirens both pulled their bows, just as he’d seen Skyla do a dozen times. As they’d planned, Nick was covered in blood, crimson streaks all across his chest and thighs, and both Sirens caught the scent immediately, went on high alert as he dropped to the ground at their feet.
A shout echoed from the trees. One Siren shifted her bow in that direction. The other kept her arrow trained on Nick. Seconds later, Theron drew up short at the clearing’s edge, his parazonium—the ancient Greek dagger all Argonauts carried—in hand. He lifted both arms when he caught sight of Zeus’s assassins. “Don’t shoot. I’m an Argonaut.”
The first Siren stepped back near the second. Their wary gazes darted between Nick, facedown in the grass, and Theron. “What are you doing out here?”
“The same thing you are. Hunting. Two from your order came to Argolea in request of our help.”
“Who?” the one on the right asked.
“Khloe and…” He seemed to think for a minute. “Reanna, Remea—”
“Rhebekkah?” the second Siren asked.
“That was it,” Theron said. “Rhebekkah. Said you two were hunting Orpheus.” He nodded toward the ground, slid his parazonium back into its sheath at his back. “Here he is.”
The Sirens exchanged glances, then looked toward Nick. “How do you know it’s him?”
Theron chuckled. “O’s not hard to miss. Shitty attitude, fuck-off mentality. I could sense him a mile away. The fact he shifted into one of those shit-for-brains daemons was also a dead giveaway.”
So Isa had told Theron and the others that he was a hybrid. Wonderful. One more thing for them to hold against him.
“Where did you find him?” the multicolor-haired Siren asked.
“In the mountains. Hiding. The other two got away. Two females. But this is the one you want, right?”
The Sirens looked unsure. The second—the dark-haired one—stepped closer to Nick, nudged his shoulder with her kick-ass boot. The same boots Skyla wore. The first lowered her weapon, moved closer to Nick too.
The second looked up at the first. “I think he might be dead.”
They both refocused on Theron as they depressed the end of their bows, shrinking them down to nothing. “He was to be brought in alive, Argonaut,” the first said.
“Whoa. Wait. No one told me that. You wanted him alive?’ He scratched his head, perched one hand on his hip. “Well, damn. That creates a problem, doesn’t it?”
“A big problem,” the second said. She cut a look at her partner. “Athena will not be happy.”
“Especially not when she finds out Skyla got away,” the first replied.
So these two Sirens were hunting Skyla too. Orpheus’s suspicions as to Skyla’s real intentions bloomed all over again, stringing his chest tight as a drum.
“We’ll take it from here, Argonaut,” the first said. “You’re free to go.”
“Are you sure?” Theron asked. “I mean, I wouldn’t want you…ladies…to get into any trouble over this.”
The second sent a hard glare his way. “Leave now, Argonaut. Before we change our minds and decide you’re better off dead too.”
A shocked expression rushed across Theron’s face. He held his hands up again and stepped back toward the dark forest. “Okay, okay. Hint taken. Good luck, ladies.”
He disappeared from view. And beside Orpheus, Demetrius tensed. That was their cue.
“Wait,” Orpheus whispered.
The multicolor-haired Siren leaned down toward Nick and muscled him over onto his back. When she caught sight of his face she swore loud and clear.
Nick’s eyes popped open. “Now that didn’t sound all sweet and seductive to me.”
He kicked the legs out from under the brunette. She landed on her ass with a thud. The first reached for her bow, but Nick was already on his feet.
“Now,” Orpheus said. He and Demetrius cast the illusion spell before she could pull her arrow, multiplying Nick by a hundred times all across the clearing.
“Fuck,” the first Siren muttered as she shifted her bow right and left, not sure where now to aim.