“My energy. It was drained,” I said completely confused.
Ares put my hand against his face. “Yes, but Achilles and I have been loaning you ours.”
The woozy feeling in my head disappeared, and I could feel my body. Everything hurt. Gwen, the healer, knelt beside me. “Artemis, where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere,” I groaned.
She ran her hands along my body and then cursed softly. “Ares, how much of your energy are you willing to give up?”
Ares continued to stare at my face as he spoke. “I’ll give everything.”
She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. “I won’t kill you to save her, but that won’t be necessary anyways because I’m sure the Sidhe Prince will loan me some of his energy as well, since he’s already doing it.”
Achilles nodded. “You can use as much as you need.”
She looked quizzically at Achilles as he stared at me. It unnerved me to see the same look on Achilles’ face that Ares’ had on his. She studied the two men a minute longer and then shrugged. “Alright. Let’s get started.”
In ten minutes, she’d healed all of my wounds, including the internal bleeding and broken ribs. Her body slumped forward and her face looked gray as she finished. “She won’t have enough energy to do more than rest in bed for the next few days. Keep her lying down as much as you can.”
Ares picked me up and cradled me against his chest. “Thank you.”
Ares turned around and I saw Koda unconscious on the ground. “Ares, what happened to Koda?” I asked with wide eyes.
Ares sighed. “You stopped breathing for a minute and he went ballistic, flinging the men around him away and trying to rush to you. I’d already gotten to you though, and he was so upset that he had started to change. Darius knocked him out. He’ll be fine.”
Matt walked over and smiled at me. “Hey, Love. Glad to see you’re doing better.” He picked Koda up and started walking back towards the house.
Ares followed him, nuzzling my cheek with his nose every few steps. Even though my body was healed, Gwen had been right, I felt exhausted.
I closed my eyes as I relaxed in Ares’ hold. I felt safe and protected with his arms around me. Just as I started to doze off, I realized that I’d won. I’d beat Natasha and kept Ares as my mate. I’d actually won. Ares hummed softly and despite my attempts not to, I fell into a deep sleep.
Three days of bed rest was causing me to go insane. Ares wouldn’t even let me walk down the stairs. If I started towards the stairs, he would pick me up and carry me down them, despite my protests.
My strength was finally back to normal as I sat in front of Ares and Koda, trying to convince them to go on a hunt. “Ares, come on. I need to get out of the house and I really want to do something as a pack.”
Ares folded his arms across his chest and answered without hesitation. “No.”
Koda frowned at me. “You died three days ago.”
“I didn’t die three days ago. I almost died.”
Koda folded his arms across his chest. “You died. Achilles’ and Ares’ energies and magic were the only ones present in your body.”
I sprang to my feet and stormed toward the front door. Achilles suddenly blocked my path. “Artemis, be reasonable.” Ever since he’d donated his energy to save me, I’d felt a strange connection to him.
“You be reasonable. I need to go outside!” I yelled up at Achilles, not caring that he was a prince or that I shouldn’t be yelling.
Koda walked out the front door, his shoulders stiff with anger.
Ares pulled me backwards and wrapped his arms around me. “We need to leave.”
I pulled back from him to see his face. He looked tired and sad. “What? Why would we leave? Where would we go?” I asked.
Achilles cleared his throat. “Perhaps we could take her to my father’s kingdom.”
Ares growled softly. “No.”
Achilles folded his arms over his chest. “She needs training anyways.”
Koda ran inside panting. “Ares, we need to leave.”
Ares looked at me with an I-told-you-so face and then turned to Koda. “Why?”
Koda exhaled. “Dhampirs, vampires, and ogres have surrounded the castle and are demanding Artemis.”
Ares growled loudly and lifted his lip in a snarl. Achilles turned to Ares. “Let me fly her out of here while you deal with the intruders. You know I can keep her safe.”
Ares shook his head still snarling. “No.”
Achilles and Ares began arguing loudly with each other. Slowly, I backed away from them. Ares stopped talking and turned towards me. “Where are you going?”
“The bathroom.”
His eyes narrowed, but Achilles said, “She would be perfectly safe in the Sidhe realm,” and Ares attention was once again off of me.
I hurried to the bathroom and stared at my reflection. Every time I looked at myself, I could barely recognize the person staring back at me. I no longer looked like a teenage girl, but now looked like a woman. It hadn’t been that long, but my features were noticeably different. Could it be from gaining my Sidhe powers? Or was it from the connection with Ares and all of the drama I’d been dealing with? Whatever it was, I was no longer a child. I’d killed people, and I was stronger than a human. I was strong enough to fight my own battles. “That’s it,” I whispered. My skin began glowing softly, and I knew what I had to do.
Quickly and quietly I moved from the bathroom, down the hallway and through the kitchen to the back door. Ares, Achilles and Koda were all arguing and yelling, so none of them heard me leave. I shut the door as quietly as I could and headed through town. Everyone stared at me as I walked by, but no one tried to stop me. Energy flowed through me and for the first time I felt the energy of the plants around me. Every living thing was filled with energy. Could I use that energy somehow?
A group of twenty people stood on the edge of the village at the beginning of the forest, while another group of twenty werewolves stood at the edge of the village facing them. Half of the werewolves present were in wolf form, so I knew I had to hurry because they would communicate to Ares telepathically that I was here without him.
I stepped just past the line of werewolves to stand alone between the two groups. The werewolves began murmuring, and the dhampirs and vampires in front of me simply smiled. My skin was still glowing softly, and it gave me hope that this would work. I squared my shoulders and spoke as loudly and as strongly as I could, “You are trespassing. Please leave the premises.”
The dhampirs and vampires looked at each other for a moment before one of them walked forward. He was a short man, thin and unimposing, yet I could feel the evil radiating off of him in waves. How can you tell the difference between a vampire and a dhampir? Two ways. One, dhampirs are more muscular, not bulky like the werewolves, but not thin-built like the vampires either, an in-between of the two. And two, vampires ooze evil mojo whereas dhampirs only emit a creepy level of evil. He stopped several yards away from me and bowed elegantly. “Greetings, Artemis. I am Roger. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He spoke with a slight English accent that would have made me smile if I hadn’t been able to feel how evil he was.
“Who sent you here?” I asked.
He smiled. “If you would please come with us, we will take you to the one requesting your presence.”
He was trying to be sweet, but nothing as evil as he was could be truly sweet. My skin began glowing brighter and my powers formed a shield around me as my fear of him grew. Any vampire who was so calm when faced with a group of werewolves had to be powerful. “I am not going anywhere with you. Leave this place or die.”
The werewolves behind me began murmuring excitedly.
Roger’s smile widened. “You think you can take us all on?”
I clenched and unclenched my hands and visualized fire covering them. Instantly, my visualization came true. Purple flames flickered around my hands as I smiled at Roger. “I can try.”
The werewolves behind me finally regained their composure and rushed forward to join the fight. I dropped my shield to conserve energy while I continued firing at my enemies. Roger dodged three of my fireballs and punched me in the face, making the flames around my hands disappear, and I stumbled backwards. His fists flew too fast for me to track and soon I was bleeding, in pain, and on my back on the ground. He jumped at me, and I flipped him over my body using my legs. I was up and fighting with another vampire before his body had even hit the dirt. More dhampirs and vampires poured into the area, easily outnumbering us.
I had been wrong. I couldn’t take on this many. I could barely handle twenty. “ARES!” I yelled as loudly as I could. The connection between us would have notified him immediately when I was in pain so I knew he had to feel the fear I felt. “ARES!” I yelled one more time before Roger tackled me from behind while I was exchanging blows with a dhampir.
I grunted from the impact and tried to roll over, but Roger’s fingers turned to claws, and he stabbed me in the side, holding me in place. “The boss didn’t say you couldn’t be hurt, just that you couldn’t be dead. I have a lot of leeway between living and dead.”
His arrogant attitude angered me more than the fact that he wanted to torture me. I grabbed his hand at the wrist and pulled his claws from my side. My skin began glowing and I smiled up at him. “It’s going to make your boss really unhappy when he learns that you failed.”
Roger tried to pry his wrist free from my hand, but I held tight and then faster than I’d ever been able to summon it before, flame covered my hand and instantly ate through his wrist, bone and all. I tossed his severed hand aside and plunged my hand into his chest like I’d done with the female vampire who’d tried to kill me. He began screaming and I quickly pulled his heart from his chest and turned it to ash. I pushed him off of me and stood up, the flames leaving my hand. Everyone was staring at me and the screaming vampire with a hole in his chest.
I felt Ares nearby, but didn’t look at him as I walked around to Roger’s head and picked him up by the back of his neck with his screaming head facing towards the other vampires and dhampirs.
“I asked you to leave. I even said ‘please’, but you still stayed to try to capture me. I am not as easy a prey as you were told.” I had to shout to be heard over Rogers’ screams. “You will find that my compassion only goes so far.” The flames covered my hands again, and I placed them around Roger’s neck. His screams intensified as the flames began covering his body. Apparently, vampires do burn easily by fire. Score one for Hollywood on that truth.
I dropped Roger’s body to the ground as he burned and screamed, though his screams only lasted twenty more seconds because Achilles stepped forward and decapitated him with a sword.
The other vampires and dhampirs stood still in shock for a moment, staring at Roger’s body before their eyes raised and they looked at me. As one, they screamed their rage and rushed towards me. Achilles sword flashed several times, decapitating those nearest me. Ares came to stand next to me in half-shift. I extinguished the flames covering my hands and set my hand against Ares’ forearm, letting our bond heal the wounds on my body. He looked down at me, and his lips pulled up in what I guessed to be a smile. The smile only lasted a minute though because I’d angered the vampires and dhampirs more than I’d scared them, and they were coming towards me fast. Ares moved with deadly precision, killing one after another after another. I watched him in awe.
Achilles sword slashed down just to the right of me and I blinked at the severed arm that fell beside my body. Achilles decapitated the owner of the arm and then held his hand out to me. “Come, we must get you far away from here.”
I looked towards Ares who was fighting with two vampires at once. “I can’t.”
Achilles groaned in frustration and picked me up in his arms. “He will get over me touching you as long as you’re safe.”
I looked around us and realized that we were vastly outnumbered as more dhampirs and vampires and even a group of ogres joined the fight from the depths of the forest. Achilles’ body glowed and the blue vines on his upper chest and arms throbbed in time with his heart and then wings spread from his back. His wings matched the color of the vines on his skin. They were one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
“Where did your sword go?” I asked curiously.
Achilles smiled down at me, making my breath catch in my throat. “Perhaps now is not the time to discuss that?”
I looked at the fighting going on and blushed in embarrassment. “Right.” It wasn’t my fault that I was easily distracted.
Achilles wings moved and we were suddenly above the fight. “Ares!” Achilles called. Ares looked up and growled loudly. “I’m taking her to safety. Meet us in your meadow.”
Ares roared in anger and began attacking more fiercely, killing four vampires and two dhampirs in a matter of seconds.
Achilles moved his wings, and we were up above the trees and the people below looked like small ants. I wrapped my arms around Achilles’ neck and trembled.
“What’s wrong?” Achilles asked softly.
I closed my eyes and put my face against his neck. “I hate heights.”
Achilles laughed, shaking his chest and me against it. “A fairy afraid of heights? Now that is original.”
I pulled back to glare at him, but instead, found myself staring at the trees zooming past us like green blurs. We were flying incredibly fast and yet I felt no wind pressing against me. I looked up and noticed the slight blue tinge of a shield around us. “Why do you have a shield around us?”
“I thought it might frighten you more if you felt the wind while we flew.”
“Oh.” He was right. I probably would have been more scared. I took a deep breath and inhaled his scent. Instantly I relaxed and felt safe.
My grip loosened from his neck and Achilles smiled at me. “See, it’s not so bad.”
I refused to look down again. “It’s not the fact that we’re high up, it’s the fear of falling down.”
His smile disappeared as he grew serious. “Do you think I would drop you?”
I pulled my gaze from his lips up to his eyes. “I don’t know. I hardly know you.”
“Whose fault is that?” he asked sadly.
I looked over his face as I tried to gauge what mood he was in. He was mad, sad and yet seemed happy all at the same time. “Why didn’t you come to me before?” I asked.
Achilles frowned a moment before sighing. “Your father forbade me from visiting you. I didn’t understand why before, but now that I know he hadn’t told you what you really are, it makes perfect sense. If you had seen me, then you would know that you aren’t human and he wanted you to think you were human for as long as he could.”
My heart was beating faster than normal as we flew farther and farther away from Ares. My skin started itching and my breath came in short pants. Achilles’ wings stilled and we began falling down towards the ground. I grabbed on to his neck and closed my eyes as we fell. I knew that he wouldn’t hurt himself and that I shouldn’t be worried, but I couldn’t control my emotions very well with Ares so far away.
Achilles was suddenly walking, and I realized we’d landed. I opened my eyes and looked at the beautiful meadow we were in. Wild flowers filled most of the meadow and added amazingly bright purples, pinks, reds and blues to the area.
Achilles walked towards an area with tree trunks set around a circle of rocks where a camp fire could be started. Achilles laid me down in the grass and wild flowers and looked up at the moon. My breathing had leveled out, but my heart was still beating fast and my skin still tingled. Could that mean Ares was
closer? I sat up and looked at Achilles who was sitting on a log and starting a fire using his Sidhe powers. “Did you call this Ares’ meadow?”
Achilles moved the pieces of wood in the fire around before turning to me. “Yes. We’re actually halfway between the werewolves and the Sidhe and this is Ares’ land. This spot was his favorite to go to for meditations as I recall.”
I approached Achilles with a purple wild flower in my hand. “You know Ares very well, don’t you?”
Achilles poked at the fire with a stick. “Yes.”
I sat on the log beside him. “What is he hiding from me? He hasn’t told me anything about his past. I can only get bits and pieces from him.”
Achilles tossed the stick into the fire and shook his head. “I cannot tell you. If he’s withholding the information from you, then he must have a reason. I have no idea what the reason could be, but nevertheless he must have one.”
I looked at the vines on his arms and watched as they throbbed. I lifted my finger and ran the tip of it down one of his vines. The vine sparkled brighter and then every vine on his body glowed brightly, and his skin exploded in white light. Achilles gasped and then groaned.
I yanked my hand back and moved away from him. I hadn’t meant to hurt him. I’d just been mesmerized by the vines.
Achilles looked up at me, his eyes completely white, like two glowing pearls. “Don’t be afraid,” he said softly. I relaxed and he smiled. “Do you know what you just did?” Before I could answer, he shook his head and laughed. “Of course, you don’t. You don’t know anything of our kind.” He shook his head sadly for a moment and then looked up at me again, a look of pure joy on his face. “You just released my powers with a single touch. It’s rare because the one that can do that, is your destined mate.”
I shook my head and backed up until the backs of my legs hit another log. “No. I can’t be your destined mate if I’m Ares’.”
Achilles gestured at his glowing body. “The results do not lie. You are my destined mate.” He sighed, sounding exhausted, and his body stopped glowing. His eyes returned to normal and he shook his head sadly. “It’s going to take years to come to an agreement with Ares.”
Artemis Lupine- The Complete Series Page 37