Hades’ Daughter (The War of Fate)

by Charlotte Carol

  I smile at him reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay. The demon blood in you took over your body,” I tell him.

  Reid begins to grab his hair in fists. I move my hands from his face to his hands, bringing them down. I stroke the back of his hands comfortingly, discreetly smelling him. His blood is mixed with four other scents from the people he attacked, as well as my own.

  “They’re all dead, which makes things easier.”

  “Okay,” he says, putting his gang leader face on. “What do we do next? Am I going to turn into a demon like you?”

  I shake my head as I step back from him, happy that he’s back in control.

  “No. You’ll be fine. Like I said after I gave the blood to you, you need to drink the blood of six people. I’ll deal with the bodies,” I tell him, lifting the closest of the men onto my shoulder with ease.

  “Scar, I am so sorry,” he says.

  “Don’t worry, Reid. We’ll talk about it later. I’ll be back in a minute,” I say, picking up the other three bodies.

  I close my eyes and teleport out of the training room, making sure that I end up in a different country, in a wooded area. If they were to find them, they should have a hard time trying to identify what happened to the bodies or who they were, but if they were to, it wouldn’t be traced back to Florida. I look around, seeing if anyone is near, and when I see that I am alone, I drop the bodies. I set them alight before I teleport back to the training room in Florida and Reid. I notice that my clothes are ruined with everything that happened today, making me glad that I just threw some random clothes on and didn’t wear anything nice.

  “It’s dealt with,” I tell him.

  He looks upset and has started to pace the room. “Why am I like this? I can usually deal with something like this,” he groans.

  “It’s the demon blood again. Your emotions will be heightened for the remainder of the five days,” I explain.

  An alarm begins to blare throughout the room and the house. I throw my hands over my ears, not expecting the onslaught of sound on my sensitive hearing. Reid automatically runs to the door, unlocking it. A sea of people enters the room and runs to the weapons. They ignore the blood splattered around the room, only focused on getting to their destination.

  “What’s happening?” I shout over the noise of the alarm and people shouting to each other.

  “We’re getting attacked!” Reid responds without stopping his movements to the weapons, equipping himself with some.

  “You’re not going,” I call to him as I run up beside him.

  “Yes, I am. It’s my gang under attack, and you can’t stop me from defending it,” he replies.

  I watch him for a moment. There is nothing I can do to stop him. He’s going to do it anyway. I groan, grabbing a knife from the collection. I don’t need it, but it could be handy. I run after Reid, following him up the stairs. I’m not going to let him leave my sight. A fight equals blood, and he can’t control himself yet.

  Chapter 34

  Disappearing Act

  The entrance hall is almost silent when we come out into it. The alarm stopped pretty quickly after it started. It’s hard to believe that there are people on their way to the house, wanting to harm and kill everyone inside.

  “What are we fighting? Ghosts?” I ask, trying to lighten the tense mood somewhat.

  “Well, have you angered them lately?” he shoots back.

  I purse my lips as I look at him. Touché.

  “Ha ha. Very funny,” I tell him dryly. “So, who are we fighting, Mr. I-know-it-all?”

  “I don’t know,” he admits before calling a passing tall, thin girl over. “Diniya!”

  She stops and turns, walking toward us, her big, golden eyes flicking toward me. She shows me her teeth in a smile, and I wink at her. Pushing her reddish hair behind her shoulder, she answers Reid. “What?”

  “What do you know about what’s happening?” Reid asks her.

  “I wasn’t the one to pull it this time if you’re insinuating that,” she replies, her hand going to her hip. I hold back a laugh.

  “Good—well, bad, but…” he stumbles over his words.

  I shake my head. I’ve never seen him be affected like this, not even with Meredith. My blood must be a part of it, or is it that he can’t handle everyone like he makes out?

  “I think what Reid is trying to ask is if you know who is attacking?” I intervene, curious to the answer as well. Is it Kyle? I’m going to be on edge every time there is something wrong, imagining it’s going to be Kyle behind it.

  “When the alarm was raised, I heard rumors of a sighting of Fallen Angels outside the gates before the gates started to get rammed. Everyone outside is trying to keep them back, but they’re slowly making their way closer,” she tells us.

  I sigh in relief as Reid nods as if he expected this.

  “How many?” he asks, his eyes on the closed doors. Now that I’m focusing on it, I can hear shouts and banging outside. The doors open, and everyone immediately gets into a stance of them being ready to attack, but they relax when they see it’s not a hostile person.

  “Fifty tops,” Diniya tells Reid.

  He nods, thinking it over. When I see that Reid isn’t going to say anything, I thank her for him. She smiles again before running off into the house, going to secure it ready for if Meredith succeeds in entering the house.

  “So, what’s your call?” I ask, turning to Reid.

  He ponders it a moment, looking around. I can see the thoughts going across his face. He’s worried for his members, about their safety, but he’s also worried about how he’s going to stop the enemy from entering. There is one last loud bang from outside before gunshots start to sound. It looks like Meredith and her gang has decided for him. Reid takes his eyes off the door and turns to me, his hands reaching for mine. He squeezes them, looking intently at my face.

  “Be careful, please,” he implores.

  “You forget. It takes a lot more than a bullet to kill me,” I tell him quietly.

  “Still, be careful,” he says, stroking my hair back from my face.

  “You too.”

  He leans down and brushes his lips gently over mine. “I missed being able to do that,” he murmurs before stepping back and looking back to the floor.

  “Then why take so long to get over who I am?” I mutter, not intending for him to hear, but he does, as I feel him stiffen beside me.

  He is saved from responding by the door flying open. As soon as the person is visible, the knife I picked up is sinking into the person’s chest. There is a stunned silence for a moment, as everyone in the hall looks to me where my hand is outstretched having just thrown it. Then gunshots quickly follow. The room becomes a hive of activity as people face off against each other, guns raised, and more people struggle with each other over their weapons. Reid steps forward as the smell of the blood starts to fill the room. I hold his arm tightly, stopping him from attacking the closest person.

  “Breathe through your mouth. It’ll help,” I offer, as I get him to do it with me. He follows my instructions, visibly relaxing.

  “You lost your only weapon,” he tells me, facing me full on. “Here take this.” He tries to push a gun into my hand, but I don’t take it.

  “I haven’t.” He looks confused, but I wink at him. “Perks of being a goddess,” I tell him, raising my fingers and waggling them, fire dancing on the end.

  He lets out a breathy chuckle before nodding as if to say good luck. He turns and walks off to help his members. I quickly lose him in the scuffle happening around me. I try and follow, wanting to keep the promise to myself that I wouldn’t let him out of my sight. As I walk, I look at the surrounding fight. This is not going to end well; Styx Lake is going to be inundated with people. Some of the scuffles I see happening draw my attention. Has Kyle added people into the gang, or are they all working for Kyle disguised as Fallen Angels? I hear someone running up behind me, and without stopping my thinking, I turn, rais
ing my leg, kicking the man in the side. He goes flying through the air, crashing into the wall.

  I need to find a way of determining how I can sense these new demons. Grant said that they appeal to demons more, but I can’t rely on that. I have no feeling from them; usually, I can sense anything that is not of this world.

  Another man runs up to me, knife raised, and I focus my attention on the fight happening around me. I forgot about watching Reid; he could be attacking people right now for all I know. Before the man can strike, I grab him by the neck, snapping it easily. With his head at an odd angle, I drop him to the floor. I hear a shot fire, and I dodge out of the way. I watch as the bullet moves slowly past me, as I use my adapted sight. I see Reid fighting a man who quickly goes down. I can tell Reid is struggling because as soon as the man goes down with a slash to his neck, Reid bends down, ready to drink the blood pouring out of him. I rush forward, weaving through the people, grabbing his arm and pulling him with me to the closest wall, pushing him against it.

  “You need to calm down. Anger is not going to help your bloodlust,” I tell him forcefully when I see that he is furious.

  “I am calm,” he insists, going to pull out of my grip. I pull him back, so he’s looking at me.

  “Reid, I’m serious. Calm yourself down,” I order, putting the tone I use with demons at home into my voice. Yet another person creeps up on me from behind, and I spin to deal with them.

  “Did you never get told it’s rude to interrupt people when they are having a conversation?” I ask as I let my fingernails grow. I clutch his throat, my hand going around his windpipe. His eyes widen as they look at me. I pull my hand out, cutting his air supply. The blood sprays like a fountain out of his neck, and luckily, we are at such an angle that the blood misses Reid completely. The man, now with a hole in his neck, slumps to the floor, and I kick him further away so Reid can’t get to him.

  I wipe my hand on my pants as I look back to Reid. His eyes are wide and full of hunger. I bring my non-bloody hand up and across his cheek, bringing his attention to the pain rather than the hunger.

  “Think of anything else. I don’t care but just calm down.” He pulls me closer and gives me a deep kiss. Pulling back, he looks much better.

  “I’m calmer now,” he smirks with a wink. I smile and watch as he walks back into the fight. I turn and start to follow him again when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Without thinking, I flip her over my shoulder, following her to the floor. I straddle her and lift my hand, only to pause when I see a surprised Bianca under me. I sit back, stopping completely the descent of my hand down to her chest.

  “Whoa, it’s only me. I should have known not to creep up on you though,” she says as I get off her and pull her up.

  “Have you seen where that bitch that interrupted my sunbathing is?” she asks.

  I look around and shake my head.

  “Sorry, not seen her.”

  Bianca harrumphs in disappointment, pursing her lips.

  “I’ll let you know if I find her,” she promises as she starts to walk away.

  “Have you got a spare gun?” I call after her.

  She laughs as she turns back to me. “Of course,” she says, reaching for the back of her shorts with the hand which is not holding a gun. She passes me the one she retrieved before waving at me. I notice someone making their way closer to us, so I lift the gun and shoot a bullet right between his eyes over Bianca’s shoulder.

  “Well, I’m going to find the bitch. Have fun,” she jovially says as if we were just playing a game of paintball. I guess you get used to gun fights if you’re in a gang. I take out the magazine of the gun and see that it’s full apart from the one that had just been shot.

  The next time I look up, Bianca is skipping into the dwindling fight, shooting people around her.

  A sharp pain in my shoulder has me wincing and looking around for the perpetrator. The bullet tears through my shoulder before it continues out of my body. At least I don’t have to worry about removing it later. I notice that one of the last men standing has his gun pointed at me.

  Before he can pull the trigger again, I am running toward him, knocking the gun from his loose hands. It skids toward the entrance, and I follow it with my eyes, watching it as it moves past bodies lying on the floor. The fight is winding down with the remaining Fallen Angels retreating. The bodies surrounding us are mostly members of the attacking party. However, I am sad for Reid to see that some are his own members. The man in front of me sees that I am distracted and uses it to kick me in the side. Stumbling, I stay on my feet as I lift the gun and shoot the man in the forehead. He falls to the floor with the rest of the wounded and dead. The fight seemed like it was over before it really begun.

  The chaos and confusion slowly die down, and I begin to search for Reid, finding him tending to a knife wound on his arm. I start toward him, only to get intercepted by Bianca who is pouting.

  “I watched everyone leave, and I couldn’t find Meredith. To be honest, it was too easy for it be Fallen Angels,” she lets me know as she walks with me. I bite my lip to stop myself from mentioning Kyle’s name. I don’t want to drag her into it, as Reid will have a way of finding out from her, and it could only end up with us all being worse off.

  “Maybe she wanted to use it to scare you all and knew to keep away,” I suggest.

  She shrugs, looking outside. “I’m going to continue my sunbathing while I can,” she tells me. “I’ve had enough stress for today.” She winks at me before she walks out of the house.

  I chuckle at her laid-back attitude. You would never think that she was just in a bloody fight to the death.

  I tap Reid on the shoulder as I step up behind him.

  “How are you doing?” I ask him, hoping he’ll catch that I mean his thirst.

  “I feel like I’m dehydrated,” he replies, swallowing after.

  “It’s the quantity. To your body, you are dehydrated, as it can smell all the blood that it wants, but you’re stopping it from having it.”

  “Is it this hard and painful for you all the time?” he asks, sounding strained.

  “No. I’ve grown up learning to control it. The only time that I can say that I feel like you are now is when I feel strong emotions. My control over the bloodlust usually slips then. It usually doesn’t help when there are large quantities, such as now, and my throat does feel a little dry, but I’ve had enough blood today to keep me in check,” I clarify, looking away from him when I remember who gave me the blood and what happened after. A remorseful expression takes over his face as he continues to look at me.

  “I’m sorry about calling you a monster. You’re far from it.”

  “You already said that,” I point out, clearing my throat as I feel the atmosphere change.

  “I know, but I just wanted you to know I mean it,” he tells me sincerely. Wanting to make sure I won’t fall for him to only break my heart, I listen to his and the steady rhythm of it.

  “I believe you. How’s the arm?” I ask, looking at it, thankful for the distraction.

  “It’s just a scratch, nothing major.” His eyes cloud over when they fall onto my shoulder and to where the guy shot me.

  “What about you?” he asks concerned, as he pushes my hair back and away from it.

  I look down and see that there is a bloody hole which I know will heal by the end of the day. He turns me, looking down at the shoulder again from the back, pulling the hair up. I hear a hiss as Reid sucks a breath through his teeth.

  “Who did this to you?” he asks angrily.

  I turn back to him and shrug it off, wincing slightly at the movement.

  “It’s fine. It’ll heal in a couple of hours, like the knife wound did,” I tell him as I pull out of his grip which is getting tighter, unintentionally, as his anger grows. He scans the room. “And I don’t think I would be able to pick him out, anyway,” I lie.

  His eyes zoom back to me. The crystal blue color has darkened considerably. He clenches his
jaw as he grits his words out. “Tell me which one.”

  “It’s not going to help anything. He’s dead. I shot him in the head,” I tell him. Surveying the room again, now looking for people with bullet wounds to the head, Reid zeroes in on the man.

  “Was it him?” he demands.

  Surprised at Reid finding the man, I press my lips together, giving him the answer. Satisfied, he grunts as storms past me, looking ready to murder someone. The man is lucky that he’s already dead. He stops over the dead man, pulling his gun out and emptying the rounds into his body.

  I see when the smell hits him, as he looks like he was physically hit by it. He leans down, his finger poking at one of the wounds which has blood pooling there. As quick as a bolt of lightning, I am beside Reid, pulling his hand away from where it was going up to his lips, holding it in a grip which makes him unable to move it. I back up, watching as his eyes flick to all of the blood as we move. I grab the back of his neck, so he is looking at me as I wipe the blood away from his hand.

  “Calm. Down,” I grit out yet again.

  His face is stone, letting me know that his anger is still bubbling under the surface.

  “He hurt you.”

  “I’ll live, but you won’t if you keep going like this. You’ll be a demon before you know it.” What I told him is not technically true; he would have to die for it to affect him. He could have six people’s blood in his body, and when the six days are up, he would be fine, but I don’t want to risk it with Kyle’s threat hanging in the air.

  “Don’t you want me to be like you?” he asks, backing away from me, slightly hurt.

  “Only twenty-four hours ago, you thought I was a monster.” I raise my eyebrows at him. “So, no. You would change for all of the wrong reasons. It’s not like you would only do it for a week, and if you didn’t like it, change back. This is for eternity, Reid,” I stress to him.

  He grumbles something under his breath, leaving me to assist his gang with moving the injured and dead. I groan at Reid before I go to help as well. I see Diniya dragging a body toward the entrance, and I go to help her with it. I lift up the legs as Diniya studies my face before looking at Reid.