Everyone cheered and those with weapons raised them in the air. “When you go out on that battlefield I don’t want you to fight for your king or your alpha. I want you to fight for the rights of every race! I want you to fight for the return of humanity! I want you to fight for the return of the light!”
The warriors all cheered and then started filing through the portal to the human world. Ares smiled at me. “Nice speech.”
I smiled at him and said, “Let’s go kill some vampires.”
Ares sighed dramatically, his hand against his forehead like a woman swooning over a man. “Isn’t she dreamy?”
Zeus laughed. “Yes, son, she is definitely a perfect match for you.”
I turned and headed into the portal, folding my wings close around my body as I walked up the staircase, which was really a portal between dimensions. We stepped out into the human world and I noticed that we had split into two groups, but they were mixed groups of halfbreeds and Sidhe as opposed to a halfbreed group and a Sidhe group. Finally, we were making headway. Hera stood in the center of the first group so I walked to the next group and waited until the last person had walked out of the portal and the ground had closed up behind him.
“Ready?” I asked those gathered around me. Everyone nodded their heads, placing a hand on each other so that we were all connected by touch. Hera nodded at me to express her readiness. “Try not to throw up on each other,” I whispered just before I closed my eyes and we spun through a spinning vortex. I opened my eyes and smiled at the sight of the Eiffel Tower lit up by lights in the distance. Several people groaned as they tried to settle their stomachs from the trip.
It was eerily quiet now that the humans didn’t inhabit France and as we followed Victor through the empty streets towards the battleground, I shivered. Straightening my back, I focused on my anger and ignored the chill of fear trying to creep up my spine.
Achilles slipped his fingers through mine and moaned when just the touch brought his powers. His wings popped out of his back, almost hitting Ares.
“Watch it,” Ares growled.
Achilles whispered, “I didn’t mean to do that.”
I rubbed his hand with my thumb and said, “Sorry.”
He shook his head and kissed my cheek. “You have nothing to be sorry for. That has never happened before so I wasn’t prepared.”
Victor gave us a scalding look so we stopped talking.
We walked for what felt like hours before finally coming to a field of burned wood and ash that used to be a lush forest. Several of the halfbreeds, including Ares and I, growled at the ruined forest. Thousands of trees had been destroyed in the obviously man-made fire. Whatever their reason had been for destroying the forest, it just added to the anger and the need to tear something apart in all of us, the Sidhe who value nature included.
The presence of evil pressed down upon me as we walked farther into the opening and then we saw the vampire army. A familiar figure stood at the front with hybrid vampires beside him. I swallowed nervously as I thought about the possibility of having to fight my brother. I pulled my bow over my head and knocked an arrow.
Apollo stepped forward and spoke in a commanding voice, “You are acting in treason against the King of the world, Maurice. Drop your weapons or we shall be forced to attack you.”
Zeus turned to Ares, Achilles, and I and waved us forward. “You’re the leaders.”
Ares and Achilles shrugged and Ares asked, “You want to respond?”
I smiled. “Sure.” I walked out past our group and let my wings fully extend and my body glow brighter. “There is no king of the world, only an old vampire overstepping his place and committing extreme crimes including murder, treason and torture. We are all equals. Unless you drop your weapons and allow us to pass so that we can kill Maurice for his crimes, we will be forced to fight you.”
Apollo’s shocked face was priceless. He took a moment to compose himself and then he said, “You will not see reason. I have no other choice but to punish you.”
The vampires and dhampirs all hissed angrily at us and licked their lips in excitement. I aimed down my bow and released the arrow. Apollo jumped to the left, narrowly escaping the arrow, and it passed through the four vampires behind him, making them burst into ash at the touch of the sunlight on the tip of the arrow.
“Then let us fight!” I yelled.
Our army surged forward and the vampires and dhampirs ran to meet us. The screams of rage and pain covered everything else. Achilles, Ares, Koda and Theseus took protective positions around me, preventing any from coming too close to me. I shot three more arrows, which killed an additional twelve vampires and two dhampirs. Vampires and dhampirs died all around me, while very few of our group fell, a good sign so far.
Ares and Koda fought side by side in half-shifts, cutting down our enemies with a speed that I only hoped to attain with practice. Achilles’ sword flashed quick as lightning as he attacked, his focus never wavering from the battle.
Despite all of the vampires and dhampirs the men around me killed the enemy continued to crowd closer, pushing the men even closer to me and preventing me from fighting. The battle finally grew too close so I hung my bow over my shoulder, placed my fists together and then separated them, forming my sword of light.
I held the sword in readiness, but Ares and the others were still keeping the vampires and dhampirs a safe distance away from me. In this moment I watched the skill of Achilles’ blade and the swiftness of Ares’ movements with awe. The vampires pressed closer and forced the men to move even closer to me. “Stop protecting me and let me fight!” I yelled over the sounds of the battle.
Ares growled, but after killing two more vampires he stepped forward to break the circle around me. A vampire charged in and I brought my sword up, slicing him cleanly in half. My blood pumped harder and my body quivered in excitement as I started fighting. The men moved out a little farther, opening their circle and killing faster as they plowed deeper into the advancing enemy. My wings retracted due to the now limited space, but my body stayed glowing as I fought with everything that I had. Bodies piled up around us and I realized that the vampires weren’t just fighting, but fighting their way towards me. That realization didn’t frighten me like it would have years before. Instead, it made me smile and renewed the vigor with which I fought.
We had to move deeper into the swarming masses due to the immense amount of dead bodies around us, which were making it impossible to walk. Achilles stayed beside me while Ares, Koda and Theseus were separated from us by the crowding enemy. I reigned in my power to keep my reserves up and laughed joyously as I killed again and again. When I thought I was human I never would have enjoyed killing. Now I knew what I was made for. I was made to end the evil in the world and right the balance. Dhampirs backed away from me when they got too close and I followed after them, cutting off whatever was closest to me and finishing off the being as it screamed in pain.
I turned to find Achilles and Apollo battling each other, but surprisingly Apollo was holding his own against Achilles.
I turned around in time to decapitate a dhapmir running at me. I battled with vampires while trying to watch the fight between Achilles and Apollo at the same time. A vampire grabbed my sword hand and twisted, trying to break my wrist, which only pissed me off. Sunlight began seeping out of my pores and the vampire burst into flames and then turned to ash, drifting along the wind.
Achilles gasped in pain. I spun around and stared in shock as a blade was shoved through his chest and its bloody end dripped out the back. I moved towards him, but it was too late. I was always too late. Too slow.
“NO!” I screamed as Achilles’ light faded and then my own body dropped to the ground. Darkness surrounded me and cold spread through my limbs. The last thing I heard was Ares scream my name as I died beside Achilles.
~~~
ARES
Chapter Twenty Two
My soul split in two, sapping half of my strength and making
me stumble forward. Koda’s heartrending howl confirmed what I knew had happened before I turned. I spun around and screamed Artemis’ name, but it was too late. I watched in terror and dismay as my beautiful mate dropped to the ground beside Achilles and both of their lights faded. My body rippled as I took a half-shift and ripped through everyone and everything blocking my path to her. Vampires and dhampirs fled in terror and Sidhe and halfbreeds dove out of my way as I ran to her.
Koda made it to her body first and kept the vampires at bay, snarling and slashing at them in his half-shift. I dropped to the ground and picked her limp body up into my arms. Her head lolled to the left and her arms hung limply by her sides instead of wrapping around me as they should have. I howled in pain and cradled her against my chest as tears streamed down my face. My body reverted back to man and my throat changed with it.
“NO!” I screamed as the loss of her presence began to resonate within my body. “Please, Artemis, wake up,” I whispered as I stroked her hair.
Not a single sound came from her. Her beautiful voice was gone. She was gone. I screamed and heard the keening sound I was making, which I knew sounded pathetic, but I didn’t care. My mate was gone. I had nothing now.
The sounds of fighting ceased and Hera and Zeus dropped to their knees on the ground beside Achilles’ body. Hera placed her hand against Achilles’ face and screamed her despair.
Zeus looked from Artemis to Achilles with tears in his eyes, but made no sounds of loss. He stood up and said, “This battle is over for today.”
Artemis’ body was beginning to lose its warmth. I rubbed her arms to try to warm her and cradled her head against my shoulder, but she remained cold. Koda shifted to his wolf form and howled in grief. She was the love of my life, magical influence or not, I loved her more than anything else in the world. She was the greatest gift I’d ever been given and now she was gone.
I couldn’t lose her! She had just come back into my life. I’d waited one hundred years to find her again and we’d only just been reunited. This couldn’t be happening. I wouldn’t let this happen!
“Hades!” I yelled as loud as I could. “HADES!”
A Sidhe as dark as night itself walked through the crowd and dropped to his knees in front of me. “I am here, Ares,” he said in a voice as deep as the night was dark.
“Send me,” I whispered.
The crowd which had been murmuring quietly a moment before instantly went silent.
“Ares, I don’t think…” Hades began softly.
I growled at him and stared into his eyes. “SEND ME!” I yelled.
“We can’t do it here. We need to wait until we’re somewhere safe so that we can protect your body as well as Artemis’ and Achilles’,” said Zeus from beside me.
Koda wrapped his furred body around me in an attempt to comfort me and I pushed him away. Comfort meant there was something to be sad about. I couldn’t be sad about this because that meant that she was dead and I couldn’t get her back. I would get her back. “I won’t let her die. I promised her that I wouldn’t let anything separate us, not even death. I have to go!”
“I understand. Hades will send you once her body is protected,” Zeus said. I nodded my head in understanding and then he started to reach down towards Artemis.
I growled at him and spun up and around to protect her body from his touch. “Mine!” I yelled angrily. I held her body against mine, wishing my warmth would bring her back. Wishing this was just a dream.
Zeus raised his hands in the air. “I’m sorry,” he said sadly, “Come, let’s leave this place.”
Hera picked Achilles up in her arms and let her wings out. She flew up above everyone’s heads and wailed as she cradled her dead heir against her bosom, just as she’d done over one thousand years ago when he had been born.
Zeus waited until Victor was beside me and then took to the skies after his wife.
“Let’s go, Ares,” Victor said quietly. “We need to hurry before the vampires change their minds and come back.”
“Let them come. I will tear their hearts from their chests and feed it to them,” I said as I started walking.
The sound of someone softly sobbing a few feet away made me turn. Apollo sat on the ground staring at nothing. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” he repeated over and over again.
“Didn’t know what?” Victor asked angrily.
“I didn’t know she was bound to him. If I had known…I wouldn’t have told them to…I never wanted her to die. I just wanted to scare her and make her stay off the battlefield. I didn’t know who he was to her,” Apollo whispered as tears flowed down his face.
Koda snarled and lunged at Apollo who made no move to protect himself. I stepped into Koda’s path and said, “Bring him with us. Alive.”
Victor grabbed the halfbreed by the back of the neck and forced him to walk in front of us. The crowds parted as we walked and I growled at anyone who came too close. She wasn’t going to be dead for long. I had to save her. I had to save her or give my life in forfeit.
We’d known about this prophecy and yet it had been forgotten in the hectic life that we led. I might have been able to save her had I remembered it and consulted the other Sidhe. I might have kept her from dying if I’d only forced her to stay at Hera’s Court. How could I have forgotten the prophecy?!
Anger stirred within me and I wanted to break something or someone. She had been taken from me again! I was supposed to be one of the most powerful beings on Earth! Only two generations from the original beings and yet I could not protect her! When the wolves had kidnapped her for the Vampire Queen I’d wanted to tear down every building in search of her. Then Hera had stolen her and blocked her memories. Of all the times I’d wanted to kill that woman then had been the only time I might have actually done it. And now Artemis was actually dead. Her cold, lifeless body lay in my arms as evidence.
Every part of me ached and I shook in misery as her loss and distance became more evident. If I couldn’t get her back, I would never see her smile again. I would never hear her laugh. Never see her blush. I’d never run with her in the forest.
She was my world. Nothing else mattered, but having her beside me. Not the fate of the world, not even the fate of my pack. How could I possibly continue to live without her hand in mine?
Dmitri led the way, claiming to know a place that was safe for us as well as him and not visited by other vampires. We walked for two hours before finally stopping at a lone building in the middle of a flower field. It was an old cathedral that had somehow survived the uprising of the preternatural world. Surprisingly even the stained glass windows were still intact. I looked up to see the gargoyles staring out across the field as though to ignore our presence. The saints carved around the entrance glared accusingly, but I ignored their prejudice. Zeus pushed open the doors, which groaned angrily at him for disturbing their peace.
“Koda check inside,” I said as I adjusted my hold on Artemis’ body.
Koda walked into the cathedral and came out a moment later, sneezing. Only rats and dust in there.
We walked into the cathedral and I stopped a moment to admire the building. The stained glass windows cast multicolored shadows upon the wooden pews. A wide red carpet led to the front of the cathedral where a skeleton sat in a chair. Judging by his robes he must have been the priest.
Victor leaned over a basin of water which stood at the entrance and whispered, “I’ve always wondered if this worked on us or not. Father told us that it didn’t, but none have been willing to test the theory in front of me before.” He put his hand into the water and splashed some onto his face. He frowned a moment and then smiled. “Guess not.”
Dmitri led us through a side door which opened to a hallway where saints carved into the stone watched our passing with great sadness. I wanted to yell at them and tell them her death was not permanent, but remembered they were only stone carvings and did not understand our situation.
We rounded a corner and started do
wn a narrow set of stairs which led underground to the catacombs I’d heard about long ago, but never visited.
Zeus’ body glowed as we descended into the darkness, giving us enough light to see. Koda snapped up a rat which squeaked its disapproval of our presence.
I looked at Koda and asked, “What are you doing?”
I’m hungry. He said just as his stomach growled.
“That’s disgusting, Koda. You don’t know where that things been,” Victor said as he kicked another rat out of his way.
The ground was dirt, but it was packed down so tightly that it resembled stone. Despite the exquisite cathedral above us, there was no architecture in the catacombs to speak of save the wooden skeletal structure that kept the earth from caving in on itself.
We weaved our way through the catacombs, following behind Dmitri, who stopped at a tomb with an x marked over it.
Dmitri broke the door open and walked inside. “X marks the spot,” Apollo said softly.
Despite the circumstances a soft chuckle slipped past my lips, as well as Victor’s. Victor nudged Apollo forward into the tomb and we filed inside.
Dmitri sat beside a stone sarcophagus with an image of a young woman carved into its lid. He rested his hand on top of one of her carved ones and whispered softly in French.
Healed by Fire Artemis Lupine 3 Page 18