From where I stood, I could still hear his heartbeat.
Vengeance had not been satisfied.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It took Nik, Josh, and Mikhail to drag me back to the waiting SUVs.
“Ashley, I’m so sorry,” Nik said once the doors were shut and the driver was pulling out of the empty car lot.
“Shut up, Nik.”
“Ash…”
“I said shut up! This is your fault, and I don’t want to hear any half-hearted apologies, so can it!”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Josh open his mouth as if to say something. Evidently, he thought better of it and closed his mouth.
The minute the SUV stopped outside the side entrance, to the seethe I was out of the vehicle and charging down the steps.
“Ashley, wait!” called Josh, but I ignored him.
I didn’t want to talk to either of them. Both of them had ignored Jordan when he said something was wrong. If it wasn’t for everyone at this bloody place, Chloe would still be alive.
I barged into my room and began jamming things into the grocery bags strewn about my room.
“Problem?” asked Tereus from my bed.
“We’re leaving!”
I grabbed the two bags full of my essentials and scoop up Tereus. He began to purr at my touch and rubbed his head against my chin. I opened my door to find Periphetes standing on the other side, his fist raised to knock.
“What?” I demanded.
“I promise you, I will do everything in my power to help you avenge Chloe.”
His words were just right to get me to stop. If he had apologized like the others I probably would have dropped my burdens and punched him.
“You can’t help me. It’s your dad and your queen…”
“I don’t care. I WILL help you.” He cupped my face in his cold hands. “They cannot be left to this hollow victory.”
“Fine.”
Periphetes looked down at Tereus and my bags. “Where are you going?”
“Jordan’s.”
“May I drive you?”
I nodded. It would be easier than running all the way there, especially with a cat in my arms.
We rushed up to the main level, bumping into a few angry individuals.
“Ashley? Where are you going?” asked Nik as we passed in front of Mikhail’s office.
“Someone has to tell Jordan.”
And with that Periphetes and I were out in the sleeting rain.
It only took us about fifteen minutes to get to Jordan’s apartment, and I did my best to not think about what I would have to tell him. Instead I worried about him being at Nik’s mansion instead of at his apartment.
Thankfully, when we got there I saw his living room window aglow with welcoming light. Outside his door I stopped, panic suddenly taking hold. I glanced up at Periphetes.
“Maybe I should wait outside.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
It took all the courage I had left to lift my hand and knock on Jordan’s door.
He opened the door and smiled as he ushered me in, not even noticing Periphetes waiting a few feet away from the door.
I set Tereus and my damp plastic bags down before turning to look at Jordan. It must have been the first time he really took in my expression, because his face drained of color and his features puckered into a frown.
“Chloe?”
I nodded. “She died tonight.”
Jordan froze, his eyes on some insignificant piece of trash that had fallen from the kitchen garbage can. I kept silent, totally at a loss for what to say. Eventually, he went to the kitchen and picked up the trash. From there he moved to the pile of dirty dishes awaiting his attention.
I went to him, taking his shoulders and forcing him to look at me. It was then that I saw the silent tears streaking down his face. That was my breaking point. My dam burst and my own tears poured out of my eyes as I grabbed him in a fierce hug.
And we cried together.
I’m not sure how long we stood in the kitchen, each supporting the other, but it wasn’t until I heard voices beyond the front door that I released him.
“Where is she?” asked a recognizable voice.
“Inside, Nik. But I think we need to leave them be,” responded Periphetes.
“Maybe we should just give them a second,” said Josh.
“Shut up.”
A second later the door opened and all three men poured in, Periphetes apologizing with a quick glance at my face. I nodded to him as I stepped between Jordan and the others.
“What do you want?”
“It’s not safe for you here, Ash. You need to come back to the seethe. Jordan, please help me persuade her.”
I glanced at Jordan, knowing his blood bond with Nik would choose a side for him. I did a double take when I saw the look on Jordan’s face. He either looked like he was doing hard math or was very constipated.
“I would like to become Ashley’s donor now,” he said, grounding out each word as though they hurt him. “Ashley, please feed from me.”
“Jordan?” Nik asked, his expression of antagonism breaking for the first time since Chloe had died.
“You got Chloe killed. You refused to go after her when she was in trouble. Ashley risked her life trying to save Chloe. I would rather belong to her than you.”
I wanted to cheer him on, but forced myself not to. “You sure?” I asked instead.
In response, he pulled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt and held out his wrist for me. I hesitated only briefly before sinking my teeth into him. I drank deeply, cementing our new relationship.
When I heard his heartbeat begin to speed up in panic, I stopped. It took all the willpower I still had, but I managed it. Josh came forward to help bandage Jordan’s wrist. I went to the fridge and grabbed the carton of orange juice. Jordan drank directly from the carton, finishing it in one enormous gulp.
Nik still stood in the living room, looking lost and hurt. I didn’t care.
“Now, you two need to leave. Periphetes will stay and keep us safe for the night,” I added when I saw Nik preparing to argue.
He didn’t get the chance.
We heard a gut-wrenching crash from the entryway and ran around the corner to see what had happened, only to find the entire front wall of Jordan’s second story apartment was being torn down by enormous claws.
Within mere seconds, the entire wall was a pile of two-by-fours, insulation, and drywall. Standing with their claws on the pile were two bizarre creatures. The first I recognized as an Egyptian Sphinx, the upper body of a woman, the body of a lion, and enormous wings. The other creature I wasn’t so sure about.
It looked as though someone had put a lion, a snake, and the goat from hell into a blender. It had three individual heads, but after that I couldn’t quite tell when one animal ended and the next began. As if this wasn’t enough, it also had scaly wings tipped with sharp claws.
Of course, I noticed all this in the split second before Periphetes was building up a wall of ice to protect us.
“Do you have a back exit?” he grunted as he leaned into his effort.
“No. Just the one entrance,” said Jordan.
“Ashley, get back.”
“Screw you,” I responded to Nik’s patronizing order.
Instead, I ran to Jordan’s fireplace and grabbed one of the fireplace tools. I tossed the poker to Josh, the tongs to Nik, and the shovel to Jordan before glancing down at the last item.
A little broom waited for me. Typical.
I grabbed it up, holding it by the business end, prepared to use the cast-iron handle as a cudgel. Each of us took up a spot just behind Periphetes, who had started to sweat under the effort of building his ice wall. The weirdest part was, the sweat immediately froze to his white face.
He finally dropped his arms and fell to his knees, completely spent. Nik and Josh grabbed him by the arms and dragged him back toward the living room furniture where Tereus sat on the coff
ee table.
“Stay back,” I ordered the cat.
He bared his little teeth and growled.
I turned back to the ice wall when the scratching on the other side sounded as though it was starting to have an effect. It wasn’t long before the creepy animals broke through our defense.
In an epically stupid move, I rushed forward, brandishing my fireplace broom, and clocked the snake head square in the jaw. The other two heads turned on me, their eyes glowing with hatred, while the snake head shook off my attack.
Woops!
At the same time, Nik, who was nearest to me, joined the fight, while Josh and Jordan attacked the Sphinx. I saw Josh jam his poker into the leg of the Sphinx, which sizzled and smelled of burned flesh, while Jordan tried to clobber the beast’s head. He missed, giving the animal the chance to charge forward, further into the apartment.
Within the confines of Jordan’s entryway, large as it was, the monsters couldn’t make great use of their wings, but their claws weren’t restricted by the lack of space.
I got a claw to the shoulder as I tried to jam the blunted end of my broom into the beast’s shoulder. It hit bone and did little more than bruise that bit of flesh. It chose to ignore me for the greater threat of Nik and his tongs, which were currently sticking out of the eyes of the lion head. All three heads let out a mighty roar as it clambered toward Nik, who was backing in the direction of the battle taking place in the living room.
I let it pass, acting more hurt than I was. Once Blender Demon was in the living room I ran at its back, dodging its thrashing tail. I jumped onto its back, which was covered in pointy spikes. I felt one dig into my flesh before I realized just what a bad idea this was.
Thankfully, the three-headed beast had no intention of letting me stay on its back. It beat its wings enough to bring it just off the ground before giving a mighty shake. The momentum flung me off the animal and into corner where the wall met the ceiling. I slid down the wall and landed on the floor in a heap, desperately wishing Jordan’s apartment had a nice, soft carpet.
Instead, he had all natural hardwood floors, which hurt when you fell off the ceiling.
I hit my head and blacked out. I thought it had only been a second or two, but when I came to again, I realized it must have been a lot longer.
The three headed beast had one head, the goat one, up the chimney while the other heads battled Nik. Periphetes was standing on the kitchen counter, flinging ice bolts at the Sphinx, but each bolt was looking smaller and smaller. Josh was dodging the Sphinx’s claws while trying to find an opening to jab his poker into her soft underbelly.
I spotted Tereus under the coffee table swatting at anything that came within reach, but couldn’t see Jordan anywhere. I prayed he was safely up the chimney.
I scrambled to my feet, scooped up my broom, and charged the three-headed beast. Its lion head, which was bleeding from its eyes where Nik had stabbed it, turned its head toward me and sniffed. It growled and I returned the favor before banging it across the skull with the blunt end of the broom.
“Where’s Jordan?” I called out to Nik.
“Chimney,” he grunted, as he lunged forward to thrust his tongs at the snake head.
I clobbered the lion head again before ducking around it to get at the neck of the goat head. It was still up the chimney, and I jabbed the neck with the broom, trying to distract it. I did so, just a bit too well. In a split second, the goat head was out of the chimney and attached to my abdomen.
While the goat-from-hell’s teeth were extremely sharp—for a goat—they weren’t very long. Still, the goat head was able to lift me off the ground and give me a good, angry shake.
I let out a scream of pain and tried to brandish my broom. Or maybe I was trying to drop it. I’m not really sure. Whatever I was trying to do, it wasn’t graceful.
I spotted the blind lion head sniffing around, trying to discern where to chomp. Now, the lion’s teeth, those were big. The lion head was getting uncomfortably close to where I hung from the goat head when I felt a sudden gust of cold, wet wind blow in from the missing wall.
I craned my neck to see what other nightmarish fiend had joined the fray and got quite the surprise.
The blond Summer Fae from the peace talks sat astride a gallant white horse with wings, her little hand grasping a short, narrow sword that looked more decorative than deadly. I knew better than to believe its appearance.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Stop!” commanded the woman astride the winged horse.
I can’t imagine what she must have thought, looking at us, frozen at her command. I hung from the goat’s mouth. Jordan was just sliding out of the chimney to rejoin the fight. Periphetes, still standing on the counter, frozen mid-throw. Nik and Josh looked as though they were statues of very peculiar Greek heroes, with fireplace tools as weapons.
“Put her down,” she ordered.
The goat head obeyed, dropping me on the ground and spitting on me, as though I had tasted bad. I don’t know what his issues were, because I had often been told I tasted excellent.
“You are Ashley Hawn?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” I gasped, holding my hands against the shallow holes the goat’s teeth had gouged into my stomach, while trying to climb to my feet without running into one of the beast’s heads. “You were at the peace talks.”
“My name is Mnemosyne.”
“We have an agreement with Hemera. She is no longer working for Sedgrave. You can’t take Ashley,” said Nik from where he stood, still holding a defensive pose.
Mnemosyne burst into laughter, and I found myself smiling despite the situation. She reminded me of Sedgrave, how he charmed people without even trying.
The woman slid off the horse and ducked under its wing as she walked toward us, one hand absently patting the horse on the neck. She stopped by the animal’s head.
“You really think I care Hemera expects?”
“All these attacks from Summer… they’ve all been from you?” I asked, putting the pieces together. All the Summer Fae to attack me had been bizarre creatures like those present.
She glowered down at me, her expression a mix of pure hatred and loathing. “Yes, and you! You have killed my muses. My Gryphon, my Cyclops, my Minotaur, my harpies… all dead because of you! All that’s left are these three. I will not have you kill anymore. Do as I say and I’ll allow you to live.”
“I’m not going to Sedgrave,” I said.
“Oh yes you are, but not just yet. Sedgrave will get what he wants, but not until I do. I’m here for my own vendetta.”
“What?”
“Where is Tereus?”
Everyone, including the monsters, froze. Was she serious?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Your cat! Where is your cat?”
“I don’t have a cat,” I said, hoping she couldn’t sense my lie.
Evidently, she could because she rushed at me, grabbed me by the hair and drove her knee into my face in a very modern and dirty move. I felt my nose break—again—and blood gush down my chin.
This was the release the men needed from her magical command to stop. Periphetes flung a bolt of ice at her, which she easily dodged, while Nik and Josh stabbed their beasts with their weapons.
I took the opportunity, despite the blood flowing from my nose, to grab the hand holding the sword before she could thrust it into my gut. I used my great strength and forced her to drive it into the nearby neck of the three-headed beast.
She let out a cry of anguish as she saw the green ichor begin to ooze out of her beast’s wound. Mnemosyne used her grip on my hair to jerk me off balance and away from the battle. She slammed me into one of the few walls still standing. I left a bloodstain as she pressed my face into the painted drywall. I let her think she was overpowering me while I carefully pulled a foot up and planted it against the wall, then I used all my might to propel us backwards. We slammed into the opposite wall of the entrywa
y, narrowly missing the horse’s head.
It sputtered in protest as it took a few steps away from us. Mnemosyne grunted with the impact, but didn’t let it slow her down. She placed her sharp sword against my throat and adjusted her grip on me until her arm was wrapped around my chest.
“Stop!” she commanded.
I could tell the men were going to fight the power of her order until they saw she had me with her sword pressed against my neck. Normally, I wouldn’t have been worried about having my throat cut. As a vampire I would heal before I could bleed out, but the fae weapon had me wondering. The look of worry on Periphetes’ face confirmed my suspicions.
“Now give me the cat!”
“I don’t…”
“Stop, Ashley,” ordered a voice from underneath the coffee table. Tereus crawled out and stood before the crazy woman. “It was nice of you to try to save me. Now, Mnemosyne, who are you and what is it you want from me?”
Mnemosyne jerked me around until she had turned to look at Tereus. “Of course, you wouldn’t know me,” she chuckled. “You remember Corrina?”
I couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement.
“Of course I do. I loved her.”
“Ha! Loved indeed. And Phonoi?”
“Yes. Her brother. He is the one who turned me into this cat.”
“And the child?”
The room was silent except for the occasional splatter of blood from either my nose or the lion’s eyes.
Tereus tilted his head to the side as he looked at her. “You have your mother’s eyes. I see it now.”
“You don’t get to talk about my mother,” snapped Mnemosyne as she pressed the sword to my throat. I winced.
“What is it you want?” asked Tereus.
“I want to see your real face,” she said with dark glee. She stretched out the hand that had been holding me to her chest. I felt the magic flow through her and out her fingertips.
My cat whined quietly for a second before his permanent glamor faded away.
I don’t think I’d ever thought much about what Tereus might look like in his true form, but I would have never come up with this.
A man stood before me. It wasn’t a glamor. It was his true form, and every bit as human-looking as Jordan.
The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy Page 48