We Will Bleed

by Nicole Thorn

  It growled and readied for a pounce. Jasper and I moved out of the way in time, and the thing leapt right between us. When it landed, I used the horn in my hand to try and beat it in the head. I got one good hit in before it turned to me, letting out a snarl.

  I backed up as it advanced in my direction, and I didn’t know what to do. If I tried to stab it, then I would have gotten close enough to let those claws have at my throat. Verin survived a throat slitting, but I didn’t know if I would have been as lucky. Especially if the sphinx was there to finish the job as quickly as I knew it would have.

  Jasper grabbed its tail, and yanked so hard that the creature let out a loud scream, almost piercing my ears. When it whipped around to attack the one who did it, I used that moment to my advantage. I lifted the horn in the air, and brought it down on the spine of this sphinx. Another pained sound left him, and the guilt wouldn’t go away this time. They were animals, possibly being controlled by someone else. I had to let it go.

  Jasper put it out of its misery, breaking his neck in one fast movement. The beast fell, the bleeding in his wound starting to slow when his heart didn’t beat anymore.

  “You good?” Jasper asked me.

  I waved my hand at him. “Sure. I’m totally used to things like this coming at me. Can’t wait until we have babies and get to train them for this.”

  And in the middle of this fight, my brain took a left turn. I wanted children eventually, and this was the life we led. They would be stronger than me, but was that strong enough? The gods wanted to start a war, and that would make this world a dangerous place for my family. Erebus already said that we had become recent targets, thanks to all the stuff happening around us. That put the kids in danger too. I wanted to make the world safer for me, and for everyone else that wanted a family. I guess that meant we had to stop a war.

  “Erebus!” I shouted out into the world. We were still covered in darkness, and I could hear my family struggling with their own monsters. This needed to end, for a million reasons. I intended on making sure that happened. “I know you can hear me, so come down now. We need to talk.”

  The fighting went on, and I saw my brother and Jasmine trying to take on another chimera and a sphinx. I called out to him, and Zander turned in time to catch the horn I threw him. He used it to end the chimera, and I shouted for the ancient being again.

  In between blinks, I saw my backyard again. Monster corpses had been scattered around everywhere, and I didn’t know how we got outside. My garden had been ruined, but I could fix that later. Same as Juniper would want to fix the blood showered on the house walls . . . and the blood in the pool.

  I saw Nemo with a pool of dead creatures, and he had a head gnawing on one, while he batted at another, letting it bob in the water.

  “Oh, baby,” Jasmine groaned.

  Erebus appeared in the middle of us, looking no worse for the wear. The rest of us . . . we had torn and stained clothes, and could hardly catch our breath. In a few seconds it would have been fine. For now, I felt too human.

  “Yes?” the spoiled prick said.

  My hand went to my hip. “You wanna call off your dogs?”

  “Dogs? I sent no dogs. I can get some hellhounds here if you want me to. Do you have a thing for killing animals?”

  I wasn’t in the mood for fun banter. “What do you think killing us is going to do for you? Really? Having us dead does nothing for your cause.”

  “No, but it makes me feel better. You would rather fight for the wrong people than fight with me.”

  I huffed. “We don’t want to fight at all. We want to spend our days at home, hanging out and being together. You people all keep bringing us into things.”

  “God, you’re boring.”

  “Rude,” Jasmine mumbled.

  I took a few steps closer to Erebus, gesturing for Jasper not to come with me. I thought it would be better if I tried to do this, because I knew just what this man wanted, and I knew what to say.

  “Erebus,” I said. “If there’s a war coming, you know what that would do to the world.”

  “Yes, it would be chaos.”

  “It would be hell on earth. Humans would die, and there would be no recovering from that. They would all know the truth, and madness would take over until there was nothing left. Then what will you do? What will you do when you have no one to play with? The gods push humans to points where they can’t take it. They get them killed. You, you’re more careful. You know how to do it.”

  He smiled at me. “Flattery won’t get me to change my mind.”

  “I’m not trying to flatter you. I’m being honest. Would you like humans to know about us?”

  He shrugged. “Madness sounds like fun.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not if everyone dies. Wouldn’t it be better if there wasn’t a war at all? If everything got settled, and you had your world to play with?”

  The man considered me for a few seconds. “Either way could be a good time.”

  “Sure, but how many people would die if the gods did this? You would lose a lot of play things. Better yet, what do you think would happen if you let us live?”

  He said nothing.

  “My seers,” I started again. “Freshly made gods. That doesn’t happen very often. And to people who weren’t ordinary to start with. Look at all they did when they were human. Now, they’re nearly unkillable. Jasmine, I love her to death, but you think she has control? Think about all the chaos she would cause if she got let loose.”

  My sister glared at me, and then softened. “Okay, I can’t argue with that. It’s fun to be a god, and I would like to find out all the cool stuff I can do.”

  I drew Erebus’ attention back to me. “Verin, that man loves more than I think I’ve ever seen. He took on an army by himself and lived to tell about it. If anything threatens his family, think about what he would do.”

  The man eyed me, saying nothing as I poked at his character. He was smarter than he got credit for, so I didn’t doubt he understood what I was doing.

  “Zander,” I said next. “Loves with his whole heart too. He feels everything around him, and we both know what he’s done in the past. I think you know what he might do in the future if any of us are threatened, which you already said we would be. None of us are stable, and we’re all willing to do what it takes, when the time comes. Our loyalties lie with each other. Not the gods, not the humans, and not the monsters.

  “This family,” I said. “We would do anything to protect what we have. Weaker, and less bonded, we’ve done some crazy shit. It’s only going to intensify now. And what happens when we have kids? More people to protect, and farther lengths we would go to do it. If you think for a moment that I wouldn’t tear the world apart for them, then you’re wrong. If nothing else, we’re fucking amazing entertainment for you. And for a man as old and bored as you are, you can’t pretend you aren’t interested in seeing what we can do, and all the things to come.”

  Erebus leaned down to my ear, speaking low. “You’re asking me to let you live, because you’re entertaining?”

  I smiled up at him. “Yes. I have no shame when it comes to protecting my people. I’ll use whatever I need to. But we both know I’m not lying. Six months of this, and look at what we’ve done. We’ve made friends and enemies of gods, and we got them to bring the dead back to life. As you pointed out before, my anger towards my mother is only just starting. Do you not want to see how far I take it?”

  He looked to my brother as he spoke. “Not as much as I’d like to see what he’ll do with it. So much darkness in his soul, and he doesn’t even realize how much he likes it.”

  I clenched my jaw. “You don’t have to decide forever, just for right now. Obviously, you can change your mind at any time. Until then, you can watch us progress. See what we do. Also, if anyone is going to stop this war, would it not be us?”

  He laughed at me. “You think the six of you can stop a war with the gods?”

  “If not, then who else?
As far as I know, we’re the only group trying to put a stop to all the shit happening. We have Medusa on our side, the oracle, my sister, Hades. Six months,” I repeated. “We’ve knit together more than one miracle, and you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  I waited for his answer, and to find out if he would just kill me now. Then he could take all the others down and be done with it. This was the definition to being at the mercy of someone, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

  “You make a compelling argument,” Erebus said. “I enjoy you all greatly, I hope you know that.”

  “The attempted murder helps show the love,” Zander said with a smile.

  Erebus sneered back. “Liking you doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have you killed. Remember that. Remember that any time, I can change my mind. I have hope that you all will pick the right side when the time comes. You’ll soon realize that things are not as black and white as you want them to be.”

  “Is that it?” I asked. “We get to live?”

  He grinned down at me. “For the time being, yes. Don’t waste the chance I’ve given you, because I will not always be so kind.”

  The man vanished from the air, as if he had never been there in the first place. It left me panting and rushing back to Jasper so that I could accept that we’d won.

  For now.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

  A Little God Muscle

  Jasper

  “I THINK THAT it’s really uncool that we find out about primordial beings right before I get to be a god, so that I don’t even get the illusion of being all powerful,” Jasmine said, narrowing her eyes at the now empty yard. “Like, what kind of bullshit is that?”

  “The kind that will hopefully keep you alive,” Zander said.

  Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Zander, I’m a god. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  He didn’t look convinced, and I couldn’t blame him. My sister couldn’t easily be killed anymore, but I also believed wholeheartedly that she’d find a way to piss the Olympians off, and that they’d come after her. If my sister got turned into a flower, I couldn’t imagine Zander ever getting over it.

  And what a turn my life had taken, that I thought things like that, and believed they could happen.

  “What do we do now?” Verin asked.

  Nemo popped his head out of his bloodied and messy water. He rested his chin on the edge of the pool and trilled at us. I walked over to pat him on the head for doing such a good job in defending us. I decided not to think about how weird that was, along with everything else that happened.

  “Erebus has backed off,” Jasmine said. “That’s a good thing, right?”

  Juniper sighed, crossing her arms. “Yeah, it’s a very good thing, but that doesn’t mean that our problems are solved. How long do you think it’ll take Argus to figure out that his ace in the hole abandoned him? And who do you think he’s going to blame for that one?”

  “We’re goddesses now, Juni,” Jasmine said, smiling. “Argus can come at us all he wants, and it won’t matter one lick.”

  “Callie isn’t a goddess,” I said. “And neither is her demigod boyfriend or Medusa. Or our neighbors, or the dozens of people that we deal with on a day to day basis. Kezia and I usually get the same waitress when we go out to eat. Does she deserve to die, because we didn’t handle Argus when we should have?”

  Jasmine frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Callie’s parents, too,” Kezia said. “They’re the most vulnerable. I mean, it would take some serious balls to attack the mouthpiece of the gods, but her parents are free game. They don’t even know what’s up with her. They just think their daughter is a little eccentric, and that she’s been flirting with this boy a whole bunch lately. They have no idea what’s going on.”

  “And if Argus caught Medusa unaware . . . ” Jasmine said, her eyes getting worried. “It would take Medusa two seconds to turn him into stone, but if he came up behind her, or surprised her, then he could hit Medusa over the head. Or behead her. Or do any number of horrible things to her. What happens to a gorgon when their eyes are ripped out?” she asked.

  “Let’s not find out,” I said, thinking of Medusa, and everything that she had done for us in the recent months. She had worked with us, even if the gods didn’t want her to. She had become our friend, and I didn’t want to be the reason that she died a horrible death.

  “We know that Argus would go after someone we care about,” Verin said, his voice a deep grumble. I thought about everything that I had seen and felt in that vision of him. The pain that had opened up the center of his chest and swallowed him whole. It hadn’t been like a black void, sucking him down. It had been this monster inside of him, waiting to come out and devour him. He wouldn’t do that for Medusa, and the only reason he hadn’t gone on a killing spree for Juniper had been because he refused to face that pain. He decided to defy death, instead.

  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t get revenge for Medusa if someone killed her.

  Kezia glanced around at all of us. “We need to find Argus, and see how many people he’s got on his side. I don’t care about this war, except for what that means for all of us.”

  “Agreed,” Zander said. “If the gods want to get into an epic pissing contest with the rest of the creatures, that’s not my problem. However, Argus has come after us twice now, and gotten very close to wiping us all out.” He glanced at Jasmine, and I didn’t need to ask what that look meant.

  If she had stayed dead, Zander probably would’ve followed her eventually. Somehow, someway, he would have killed himself. His mother wouldn’t have been able to save him, if she even tried. Verin and Kezia wouldn’t have been able to save him, even knowing that Kezia would’ve been devastated to lose him.

  Argus had done a lot of damage to our family, and it would never be repaired. I knew that Kezia still woke up from nightmares where I died, and she hadn’t been able to save me. Even I had dreams where my sisters and I had somehow found coins, and we had climbed onto the ferry, only to turn around and see our demigods waiting for us on shore. I hated those the most, even more than the ones where we somehow ended up in the river, being tortured.

  Shaking all of those thoughts aside, I looked around our backyard, at all the dead things. “First things first, we need to hide this,” I said. “If our neighbors see any of this, then we’ll have a lot of explaining to do, and I’m not sure I want to have that conversation with them.”

  Jasmine laughed. “We might be able to give the old lady next door a heart attack. She’ll stop telling me that I dress like a hussy then.”

  Zander frowned. “You aren’t a hussy.”

  “I know that.”

  “No killing old ladies,” Kezia said. “We’re trying to draw less attention to this whole mess, not more.”

  Jasmine sighed, rolling her eyes. “One of these days, I’m going to get to use my god powers for real, and when that glorious day comes, nothing will stop me.”

  “You scare me,” I told my sister.

  She put her hand on my shoulder and looked serious. “Good. I should scare everybody except for Zander. You should never scare the person you go down on a bunch.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why do you do this to me?”

  We started to move around the yard, and while we did, I thought of ways to find Argus. Erebus had backed off, but he hadn’t given us any helpful information. Quite frankly, I didn’t know how long I could trust him to stay away from us. If we did something interesting enough, I believed that he would come back. When that happened, we had no guarantee that he wouldn’t try to force us to join a side again.

  We gathered all the dead animal parts and put them in the shed, with our lawn equipment. We’d deal with it all later, and hopefully they wouldn’t start to rot before that happened. As we closed the door, Nemo offered another trilling sound. I glanced at my sisters, and said, “If he keeps doing that, the neighbors will stop believing he’s an inflatable pool toy.”

  �
��A problem for later,” Kezia said, rubbing her hands down her face.

  “Right, Argus,” I said. “I actually have an idea on that, but someone is going to be very pissed about it.”

  “What’s the idea?” Zander said, his voice low, like a warning.

  I looked at Juniper, and said, “You teleported.”

  “So?” she asked, shuffling her feet.

  “Maybe you could do it again,” I said. “And take us to wherever Argus is.”

  Verin smiled. “A grand idea.”

  “No!” Juniper shouted. “Not a grand idea! Not one at all. First of all, I didn’t teleport on purpose. Second of all, I didn’t even find Argus when I did it. Third of all, I have no idea how to take people with me. Fourth, I don’t want to do this. There are too many things that can go wrong. What if I teleported us into the middle of shark infested waters, or something like that.”

  “I’ll punch the sharks until they go away, and then you’ll try again,” Verin said. “Though, I have very little doubt that you can make it work the first go, luv.”

  “You wouldn’t punch a shark,” Juniper said. “And okay, what if it’s not sharks. What if we end up with another hydra that isn’t as friendly as Nemo, and it tries to kill us, and it has six heads, so that it can just eat us all up at once?”

  “Then I’ll kill it,” Verin said. “And I’ll come back here, and make sure that Nemo knows that I would never lift a hand to harm him because his opinion matters to me a great deal.”

  The hydra trilled when he heard his name again, sticking his head up from the water.

  “Juniper,” I said. “I know that it’s a lot of pressure, but I don’t know how else we’re going to find Argus. He probably has all kinds of magic in place, to make sure that no one notices him. In the time that it would take us to find him, he could do any number of unspeakable things to innocent people.”

  “He’ll probably come here,” Juniper said. “To attack us. All we really have to do is wait for him to realize that Erebus didn’t do his job, and that we’re still alive and kicking. Then he’ll come to take care of us himself.”