Ares took my hand again and walked with me out to the center of the square where my opponent was waiting, bouncing on the balls of her feet and swinging her arms around. She smiled at Ares and then glared at me.
Ares raised his hand and the crowd silenced. “Today we witness a challenge between Artemis and Natasha, to the death. Winner earns the right to be mated to Ares, Prince of the Werewolves.” The crowd gasped and began murmuring loudly. The Queen stood up out of her chair, but the King put a hand on her arm and she sat back down. Ares raised his hand again, silencing the crowd. “No full changing will be allowed. Begin.”
My skin itched and my heartbeat tripled in pace as I watched Ares walk to the sidelines, never looking back at me. Natasha cracked her knuckles, bringing my attention to her. “Let’s get this over with. I want to have your crap moved out of the room by sunset.”
Her calm demeanor and cockiness made me seethe. “The only thing you’ll be doing at sunset is paying the ferryman.”
Her eyes widened in shock for a moment before she recovered and charged at me. All thoughts shut off and I went into battle mode. My wolf side took over, allowing me to use instinct to avoid most of her attacks. Unfortunately, she was faster than I’d thought and I was soon bleeding from my lip and a cut above my eye.
I changed tactics and instead of being defensive, I became offensive, jabbing, upper cutting and attacking as fast as I could. I knew the crowd was cheering and booing, but all I could hear was Natasha, my breathing, and the dull thud of our fists hitting each other. My thoughts flickered to Ares and Koda as I turned to dodge her fist and noticed them in the back of the crowd, encircled by men restraining them. If I lost to Natasha, I couldn’t stand to see her with Ares. I couldn’t bare to see Ares with any other woman.
Natasha growled in frustration and changed her hands into paws. She swung her right hand at my face and I barely managed to dodge backwards, her claws slicing off a piece of hair that had come out of my ponytail. She screamed with rage and charged forward slicing first into my forearms and then into my stomach. The wounds stung worse than I could have imagined. Natasha punched me in the face, making me stumble backwards. She took advantage of my imbalance and jumped on me, pinning my arms with her knees and began pounding my face repeatedly. She snapped my right wrist making me scream in pain and fight to stay in my human form.
I was wrong, I couldn’t beat her. I should have listened to Ares, but I hadn’t and now I’d lose everything. I’d lose Ares and Koda. I’d lose my pack, my family. I’d lose my life.
She growled loudly. “You’re nothing, but a worthless half-breed! Your father should have killed you when you were born as he’d promised to do. You don’t deserve Ares and I’ll make sure to erase every memory of you he might possess. One night with me and he won’t even remember your name.” She punctuated every sentence with a blow to my head, but her words hurt me more than any physical attack could.
Anger boiled inside of me and before thoughts could form in my mind, I had exploded out from under her and grabbed Natasha, holding her up in the air by her throat. “Ares is mine,” I said with conviction.
Natasha kicked and scratched at me. “Put. Me. Down.”
I squeezed her throat harder. “ARES IS MY MATE!”
I didn’t want to kill her. I didn’t want to kill anybody. I knew I had to end the fight, but I wanted to make her submit. As I debated what to do, she jammed her claws into my shoulder, making me drop her to the ground. I backed away from her, but she ran forward, slamming into me, sending us head over heels together. She ended up on top of me and pinned me to the ground. “Your not meant to be the Beta’s mate. You’re too weak to be his.”
She picked me up and threw me across the square. I landed on my face and felt a rib crack. She was on me again before I could roll over. She grabbed me by the hair and stood me up before kicking me in the side. The force of her kick knocked the wind out of me and broke another rib. She squatted down next to me as I gasped for air and writhed in pain. “It’s time to end this. It’s time to finish you and take you out of Ares’ life once and for all.”
She turned my head and I found Ares at the edge of the square being held back by four men. His eyes glowed golden as he looked at me. Koda and Achilles were near Ares, but both of them were also being held back by people. I reached out to them and brushed their wolves’ energies with mine. My energy was depleted and it was only a matter of minutes before I died, whether by Natasha or the internal bleeding I could sense.
“I love you,” I whispered. Tears leaked out of my eyes as I looked at the man I loved and my packmate.
Ares growled angrily and struggled against the men holding him. “Artemis. No!” More men surrounded Ares and Koda.
Natasha turned my face back and smiled. “What a sweet goodbye.” Her claws pierced my stomach as she drove them deep into my body.
I screamed in pain and thrashed against her, pulling her hand out of me and smashing her nose with my fist. She stumbled backwards in shock and I pounced on her. I couldn’t lose Ares. I couldn’t die. Dammit, I couldn’t lose.
In a matter of seconds I had my arm around her throat and my legs around her waist with my left hand pushing her neck deeper into my arm. “Ask for mercy,” I whispered.
She nodded her head once and I released her, collapsing on the ground myself. I rolled onto my back and exhaled.
I’d won, but I could feel my life ending. At least I’d won. Natasha roared and jumped at me. I lifted my hand up, summoning what little energy I had left and my sidhe powers. A small fireball sped from my hand to her and disappeared through her chest. She staggered for a minute, looking down at the hole in her chest, before collapsing to the ground. Her lifeless body lay next to me and I knew it was right that I’d won.
I took one more breath, whispered, “I love you, Ares,” and then darkness consumed me.
* * *
The afterlife wasn’t what I’d expected. First, I hadn’t expected to be woken in the afterlife by a slap in the face. And second, I didn’t expect to find Ares and Achilles sitting next to me.
“Artemis! Artemis, wake up!” Ares yelled at me.
“You’re not dead. How can you be here?” I asked.
“Artemis, you’re not dead,” Achilles said through clenched teeth.
“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 in shock 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 his head. “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 face. 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 in bed 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 in shock.
Ares sighed. “You stopped breathing for a minute and he went ballistic, flinging the men around him aw
ay 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’ arms. 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 present in your body.”
I sprung to my feet and stormed toward the front door. Achilles was suddenly blocking 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 I 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 loudly 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 walked forward and 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 must 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.”
One of the dhampirs yelled and began running towards me. I held up my hand, palm facing the dhampir and a fireball flew from my hand and through the dhampir’s chest. The body fell to the ground and the rest of the vampires and dhampirs began rushing towards me. I backed up as I continued to send fireball after fireball into the group.
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 me stumble backwards. His fists flew at me 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 easy 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 walked 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.
Kiss of a Star Artemis Lupine Page 8