“You fight like a girl,” he said, laughing coldly. “So weak. So helpless. There’s almost no sport in this.” He let go of my hair and shoved his hand against my chest. “As I can see you know, there is one painful way to feed off of aether. The other is less painful. Less,” he stressed.
“You’re going to scream,” he said. “And you’re going to lure your father out.” He let go of my hair as he lined up his mouth with mine, and I swung on him as my fear squeezed my chest in an iron vise. He caught my hand before it connected and turned, slamming me into the side of the truck with enough force to rattle my bones. Moving his hand from my throat, he pressed his palm between my breasts. For a horrifying second I thought he was about to seriously grope me, but he inhaled and his palm—it seared straight through to my breastbone.
Something inside me woke up like a slumbering giant, uncoiling in the pit of my stomach. Warmth swirled like a mini tornado, whirling to where his palm was. Thin slivers of silver in his eyes crackled as the Titan smiled. My body jerked and the warmth turned to scalding hot water. Something was happening inside me—leaving me—and it hurt, like when the daimon had bitten me, but more intense. I cried out.
“Hey, Hyperion.”
The Titan drew back, lifting his head. The tugging sensation eased off as I slumped back as far as I could go, dragging in deep breaths. Wet warmth ran down the front of my throat. He’d scratched me.
“Yeah, you. Asshole.” Seth stood there, one hand curled around the handle of the dagger. A trickle of blood ran from the corner of his lips. “So you’re Hyperion? Disappointing. I’d expected someone bigger.”
“Seriously?” he asked, releasing me. “You have a death wish, something I am more than happy to fulfill.”
I fell forward, hitting the ground on my knees. Rocking back, I pressed my hand against my stomach. The burn receded to a pulsing ache as I lifted my head.
Seth and Hyperion were going toe to toe.
It was insane—a death match. Punches were thrown. Powerful, brutal kicks delivered. Seth was landing more, but the Titan was virtually unaffected. Pushing to my feet, I staggered out from between the vehicles, spying the shotgun. I wasn’t sure if it would help, but it was better than nothing.
Seth dipped down and kicked his leg out, but Hyperion reared back, avoiding the kick, and as he turned, he swung out, catching me in the back and knocking me forward. I hit the ground, coughing as my ears rang.
For a moment I couldn’t move. I was frozen. My palms pushed into the dirt, my back aching from the blow and my entire body burning. I could hear them grunting, could hear the sound of flesh hitting flesh. The sky lit up a bright amber color, like tawny lightning.
Hyperion laughed.
We were going to die. The panic dug in deep. I lifted my chin, saw the shotgun, and saw my grandfather’s body. Tears blurred my vision. I didn’t want to die. Not like this. I didn’t want Seth to die.
Calling on every bit of strength I had, I rolled and grabbed the shotgun. Hands shaking, I shifted onto my back, rolled up, and leveled the weapon at the Titan. He had Seth by the throat. I threw up a prayer and pulled the trigger. The kickback flattened me back down, but I saw the buckshot hit Hyperion in the back. He dropped Seth and stumbled to the side. Smoke wafted out from the decent-sized hole in his back. Turning around, he smiled as he spit out a mouthful of blood that coagulated the moment it hit the dirt.
Holy crap.
“That wasn’t very nice of you.” He took a step toward me, and he actually smiled. I shot him in the back and he smiled!
My fingers trembled as I tried to squeeze off another round, but in that same moment, Seth shot up behind him, spinning with lethal grace.
Something whizzed over me, making a high-pitched whistle. Hyperion staggered back and then went down on one knee. I hadn’t pulled the trigger. Seth hadn’t delivered a blow.
An arrow was sticking out of the Titan’s shoulder—a wooden arrow that caught fire then disappeared into a poof of ashes. Another slammed into his chest.
A hand curled around my shoulder, pulling a startled shriek out of me. I twisted, ready to unload the weapon, but I came face to face with what could only be described as an ethereal, beautiful woman.
She looked like an elf.
A Lord of the Rings kind of elf.
Pointy ears and chin. High cheekbones. Long brown hair. And her skin had a faint sheen, a dewy glow. She wore a skintight, forest-green jumpsuit, and her eyes were all-white as they focused on me. I inhaled sharply, and all I could smell was rich soil and sun.
“Your father sent us,” she said, her voice as light as spring showers as she propped a crossbow on her shoulder.
Us?
Then I saw them—dozens of them coming out from the woods. All the females were just like the one kneeling next to me. There were men, too. They wore some kind of animal-skin pants. Their skin shimmered in the sunlight. All of them carried bows.
She helped me onto my feet. “You must go. The poison will only hold him for a few minutes.”
Breath catching in my throat, I looked down at Hyperion. He was frozen on one knee, staring straight ahead. “Poison?”
“Blood of Pegasus,” she answered, smiling slightly. “It freezes anyone and anything for a limited period of time.”
Seth was on my other side, staring at the woman with a mixture of awe and trepidation. “You’re a nymph, but…” He trailed off as he glanced at the male striding up behind Hyperion, pointing an arrow at the back of Hyperion’s head.
“We’re all nymphs,” she answered. “Contrary to the stories they tell, there are both males and females. Now you two must go. His body will adapt quickly.”
“Thanks. Have fun with this douche.” Seth sheathed his dagger and then started to pull me toward the Porsche.
I dug my heels in. “Wait. My grandmother—”
“Gone.” The nymph was suddenly in my face, at eye level. Seth stiffened next to me as sympathy crossed her face. “She is gone. There is nothing alive in that house.”
Her words thundered through me, and I cracked open. My heart hurt in a way that felt so very real, that shattered me straight through. My grandparents had raised me. They had loved me, and I had loved them with everything I had in me, and now they were gone. There just a few minutes ago and now gone, and for what? I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t process as Seth gently pulled me away from the nymph, leading me to the passenger side of the car. My eyes were dry, but I could barely see. I was quiet, but it felt like I was screaming myself raw.
When he opened the door, a male nymph was suddenly there. Up close, I realized, numbly, that he was as unearthly pretty as the female. “Your mother is safe,” he said. “Your father made sure of that.”
I stared at the elfin creature, unable to speak. Seth loaded me up and I sat in that front seat, staring straight ahead but not seeing anything, not hearing a single word Seth spoke to me as he got behind the wheel and spun the Porsche around.
It wasn’t until we hit the rural road that I realized I still clutched the shotgun to my chest.
CHAPTER
16
GODS, THAT couldn’t have gone any worse.
Fucking Hyperion. Apollo had been right. The Titan had gone straight for Josie, and he’d tried to tag her—maybe he had. He’d had his hands on her, positioned in the way to feed. I knew how it was done that way.
My hand tightened on the steering wheel and a flare of pain danced over my aching knuckles. The fucker had a hard head. My knuckles weren’t the only things hurting, but I wasn’t concerned about the ass-kicking I’d just gotten handed or even the fact that the Titan had been the only thing in a very long time that could kick my ass.
For the hundredth time since we got into the SUV, I glanced over at Josie. She was still, her eyes on the road ahead. At some point, she had let go of the shotgun and it now rested across her knees. The only words she’d spoken to me since we’d left the house were when I asked if she was okay, which was a lame-ass question. Her lip was bleeding again. Blood had dried along the front of her throat, but the bruise around her neck was painfully visible, forming a handprint, and wasn’t that a punch in the gut to know that Hyperion could have choked the life out of her or snapped her neck, while I’d been right there.
Fuck.
Before, when Apollo had told me about the Titans and I’d thought he’d wanted me to go after them, I hadn’t cared if I fell in a fight against them. Hell, there’d even been a little part of me looking forward to it, but now it was different. If I went down in a fight against Hyperion, so would Josie.
But I shouldn’t care about that. I couldn’t. Caring about anything or anyone was futile at this point in my life.
I had to get her to South Dakota and then she would be safe. Sort of. And I would be…I needed to get away, but right now I was focused on her.
“I think we can stop for a few,” I said, breaking the silence as I glanced at her again. We’d been on the road for about five hours, with about four more to go. “Enough time to get a look at you and—”
“I’m fine,” she cut in, still staring straight forward. “I don’t want to stop. I just want to get to where we’re going.”
A wisp of unease curled in my gut. “Josie, you were tagged this morning—twice—and you faced off with a Titan. Your throat was bleeding and I…” I also wanted to make sure she was okay, and not just in the physical sense. What she had seen happen to her family, on top of everything else, it was a lot. Too much for anyone to really handle.
“I’m…I’m okay. Like I said, I…I don’t want to stop. I want to go. I want to keep going and get as far away from there as I can.”
The muscle in my jaw spasmed in response to her words. Aw, damn, this…this wasn’t good. “Josie, I’m…I’m sorry about your grandparents. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“You were right. You said it was dangerous, but I didn’t listen. I shouldn’t have gone back home.” She drew in a sharp breath that hitched. “It’s my fault.”
“It is not your fault. You didn’t hurt your grandparents, Josie. Hyperion did. Don’t put that kind of shit on yourself.”
She didn’t respond, and when I looked over at her, I could tell that those words hadn’t changed a damn thing. My gaze focused back on the road. Traffic was getting congested the closer we got to Sioux Falls. There’d be tons of hotels, but there was also a rather large pure community nearby, which meant there’d be more daimons.
After a few minutes, she spoke again. “The guy…the nymph, he said my mom was safe. That Apollo took her. Would he do that?”
If so, he failed to mention that fact, but then again, Apollo rarely told anyone what he was doing. I decided to be Positive Paul with this. “He probably knew that Hyperion would eventually learn where your family was and knew he could use your mom to lure you out.”
“So, she’s safe?”
I didn’t say anything, because I hoped for her sake that she was.
Josie drew in another ragged breath. “I couldn’t fight him. I couldn’t do anything to stop him or to help you.”
Wasn’t what I expected her to talk about right now, but at least she was talking. Shifting into the next lane, I passed a slow-ass sedan. “You’re not trained, Josie. You’re not—”
“Can you train me?” she said, and I could finally feel her gaze on me, and I was sure she saw my mouth hanging open. “Can you train me to fight like you?”
I had no idea how to respond to that. Slowly shaking my head, I pushed away the rising memories of training another person— another girl. Then again, training Alex had been completely different. Alex had already known how to fight, and I hadn’t been the only one working with her. “I am the best fighter that is breathing, and I’m not even trying to be arrogant about that. But I barely held my own against Hyperion. Besides that, training you won’t change what happened to your grandparents.”
“I know that, but at least I’d be able to do something other than stand there and scream. Or watch other people get their asses kicked, or watch them die!” Her lips trembled when I glanced at her. “If he comes after me again, I won’t be able to defend myself or anything.”
“You’ll be safe at the University,” I told her, and acid churned in my stomach, because I wasn’t sure how safe she would be. It wouldn’t take Hyperion long to find out where she was stashed away, and I had no idea how they planned to keep the Titan out. There were probably wards—protective spells—but no ward was a hundred percent foolproof.
“I can’t stay there forever,” she replied, raising a hand to her neck. She started to touch the spot where the daimon had tagged her earlier, but jerked her hand away. There was a tense pause. “Will you do it? Train me?”
Muscles in my shoulders tensed. Training Josie, like I’d trained Alex? I almost laughed at the fucked-up irony of it all, but nothing about any of this was funny. “Josie, I’m…I’m not sure what I’m doing after I get you to the University. Your father might have other plans for me and…”
And I couldn’t stay there.
“That’s right. You’re leaving,” she said quietly, and looked away, casting her bleak gaze out the passenger window. “Do you think someone there would train me?”
It was possible. Sentinels were still trained at the University, and there’d be plenty around. All she needed was for the Dean of the Covenant to agree, and I was assuming that was still Marcus Andros, the former Dean of the North Carolina Covenant and Alex’s uncle. He’d go for it, especially once he learned what she was and who she was to him. Someone would help her.
But it couldn’t be me.
I wasn’t going down that road again.