by Meg Xuemei X
The onslaught of the mages’ collective ice, hail, and storm had once awoken the dark monster in me. It now arose again, wanting to devour, to destroy, and to tear apart everything in my path.
A mass of darkness poured out of me, swirling around me like a liquid black mirror to shield me. Even with its shade, I could still feel the intense heat from Apollo’s sunbeam, but it couldn’t burn me to ashes as I’d feared.
My darkness roared and dove to meet Apollo’s white light. It wrestled with my opponent’s star power, growling like a beast locked away in the abyss for too long.
It pushed back the wall of light that tried to trap me, eating into it, and clawing it apart. But the light replenished again, faster than my dark mass could devour it.
The God of Sun had endless solar energy, but my reservoir was running out. I was the youngest goddess. I was like a fetus compared to these ancient gods. It’d be a while before I reached my prime, and I had yet to learn how to harness my dark beast.
My enemy and I had come to an impasse.
With Apollo’s light encaging me, I could be trapped here forever. I now regretted I hadn’t pushed myself harder on learning my deeper powers when I’d had the chance.
“She can hold your light from the sun with her darkness,” Ares said, nearly awed.
An annoyed expression bled over Apollo’s face. “The little brat has a lot of powers. We have yet to discover what other nastiness she’s stored. You shouldn’t have taken the torque off her. Now how are we going to contain her?”
“Where does her dark power come from?” Ares wondered. “It’s not from the Underworld. She’s developed something else we aren’t familiar with. Can she mutate powers? Fuck me!” His golden eyes went wide, flaring with fiery color. “Have you seen the trickle of red fire within the web of her dark mass?”
“She can’t have the dragon fire,” Apollo said dismissively. “I fought a dragon and slew it. I’d recognize true dragon fire.”
I’d heard the story he was referring to. Queen Hera sent a giant dragon to hunt Leto, whom Zeus had fucked and impregnated with Apollo and his twin sister. In revenge, the sun god slew the dragon assassin with super silver arrows made by Hephaestus.
“You killed Python, a minor dragon,” Ares countered. “But Cass’s red fire has the heat signature of the Dragon God.”
“I was once nursing the concept that she was from the bloodline of the Dragon God,” Apollo said. “But you know and I know it’s impossible. He left an eon ago, after the great dragon war on Earth. We must investigate and get to the bottom of this. When it comes to the little goddess, a lot of things don’t add up.”
While they discussed my bloodline and powers, I was feeling more and more toasted by the sunbeam’s heat. My darkness was getting weaker under the constant bombardment of intense light. Beads of sweat streamed from my temples. I couldn’t hold my power forever, and I didn’t seem to have anything else in my arsenal that could teach the ancients gods a hard lesson at the moment.
Anxiety roiled in me like acidic waves. Sweat dripped into my eyes. I fought the need to blink away the sting for fear that the two assholes might pull another stinky stunt if I even blinked.
A trace of my red fire, the one they thought might be dragon fire, returned to me, bringing a string of Apollo’s sunbeam to my lips.
I blinked. My power was communicating with me. It wanted me to have a taste of the enemy’s sunbeam.
The beam of light didn’t burn my lips but tasted like an exotic energy drink. Apollo’s light didn’t come from our sun but from an alien star, since he wasn’t a native.
Behind my shield of darkness, my face broke into a wicked grin as I came to a realization. I drank from Phobos and siphoned his alien god energy. I could drink from Apollo as well. And while he sent his alien sunlight to chasten me, he had no shield anymore.
Cautiously, I let my darkness open a crack to allow a stream of Apollo’s sunbeam to flow into me. I sucked it in and gasped at its pureness.
Fuck! It was like the most potent drug, delicious and addictive.
I commanded my darkness to retreat. Apollo’s sunbeam, now unhindered, floored me.
“No!” Ares shouted. “Stop, Apollo! Kill her and the game is over!”
But the God of War was too late to reach me and shield me.
Apollo cursed. “I didn’t know she was stupid enough to commit suicide—”
He drew back his sun power in a panic, but I’d leeched onto it. The sunbeam poured over me, bathing me in energy, flowing within me, and merging with the trickle of red fire.
My whole body radiated glorious light. I became a little sun.
The two gods stared at me in a stupor.
“It’s payback time, bitches,” I said with a predatory smirk.
I didn’t even throw up my hands. With mere a thought, I flung all the fires I had at the gods, including the sunbeam power I’d just collected.
I’d learned to channel powers that weren’t mine when Apollo, disguised as Noah, ordered the mages to toss their collective magic at me in the training field of the Academy.
And now I assaulted the two gods with Apollo’s power mixed with mine, pushing my way beyond my own limits.
Boiling over with radiant energy, I had no mercy. I had no moral compass. I only sought to destroy.
A wave of fire and light surged toward my enemies at lightning speed. Ares’s shield erected instantly, and Apollo dove behind the war god. The tool of the God of Blacksmiths could detect my intention the very moment it formed, but the smith’s shield wasn’t strong enough to fend off my new mutant power, which began to melt it away, eroding its protective power.
One more blast from me, and I’d end these two clowns and go home.
I bounced on my heels, grinning and cheering. Just as I was about to hurl another fire and light wave at them to finish the job, a flash of shadow reached me.
I was fast, but it was faster. Before I could shove it away with all the power and violence in me, the torque click closed around my neck.
Casting away his half-melted shield, Ares alighted before me, wicked delight glinting in his golden eyes. “Now, little kitty, you’ve passed the test. You’ll be mine, and I haven’t wanted anyone like this for a long time.”
Now I knew that Ares’s best talent was his speed. No one could compete with him when it came to velocity. He’d lost only part of his left hand, burned away by my power when he reached me. It was already growing back—the bones snapped into place, the flesh extended, and two of his fingers emerged and finished with nails.
He also regenerated faster than I thought possible.
I clutched the torque and pulled with the rest of my strength but, like before, no power of mine could break it apart.
I fought back my tears and pulled the torque again.
“Now you know what she is, Ares. She can even drink a major god’s energy. She can take my sun power and turn it against us. No god among us can do that. It’s the first time in our history that a new brand of species, which was born of us, can turn us to food. She makes us into her prey. If we can’t harness and control her, we’ll have to kill her, and kill her thoroughly, before it’s too late.”
My mother had taught the vampires how to thoroughly kill me—cutting me to pieces and separating every piece of me to the farthest corners of the Earth.
Fear pumped into my veins, turning my hot blood to chunks of ice.
“Have you ever watched Jurassic World, a century-old movie made by mortals, Apollo?” Ares asked.
“Seriously?” Apollo responded back with disgust. “You watched mortal trash? It’s poisonous to good minds!”
Ares ignored his comments. “A character in the movie said, and I quote, ‘You made a genetic hybrid. Raised it in captivity. She is seeing all of this for the first time. She does not even know what she is. She will kill everything that moves. She is learning where she fits on the food chain and I'm not sure you want her to figure that out.’ End of the qu
ote. Cass Saélihn is one of a kind, a unique hybrid, and in a league of her own. No matter how much of a threat she poses to our race, she’s ours. She’ll be ours.”
I snapped back from the stupefied surprise of being caged again.
“Fuck you, assholes! Fuck you all! I’ll never be yours,” I screamed and jumped up to deliver a devil’s kick to the war god’s fucking face.
Ares snatched my feet and twirled me in the air as if I was but a ragdoll. He didn’t fling me away like what Apollo had done, but put me down and pulled my back against his hard chest.
His strength and power overcame me, binding me, no matter how I kicked and screamed.
“Will you calm down, little doll?” he asked. “The fiercer you struggle, the more aroused I grow. I’m losing my grip on my control, and you don’t want that.”
As he mentioned it, I became aware of his enormous erection pressing against my back. A chill of revulsion ran through me. I froze and stood deathly still.
“Ares.” Apollo reached up to cup my face. “We agreed to share. She’s mine, too.”
“Indeed,” Ares said. “She’ll bear us the strongest offspring.” He pulled me harder against him with backbreaking strength, wanting every inch of me clinging to his. “Congratulate yourself, Goddess Saélihn. You’ll be the queen to two of the most powerful gods and mother of our endless line of children.”
“Only in your nightmares!” I shouted, ready to fight again.
“Hello. Hello?” A female’s high-pitched, musical voice sounded darkly amused. “Am I too late for the party? And what have I missed, dear brother?”
6
Prince Pyrder
The God of Sun and Plague took our mate right from under our noses, and we had been hunting for her ever since.
We didn’t eat. We didn’t sleep. We’d been in a state of half-madness from the moment our mating bond to her had gone mute. Yet our brotherhood fortified, driven by one common need—to find our mate and bring her home at all costs.
We’d destroy the world to get to her, but our Cass baby was no longer on Earth.
We still sent teams to search across the dark seas, unknown forests, and forgotten mountains—any place Apollo had once left an imprint.
The four of us focused on Mount Olympus until it became clear that our mate hadn’t been taken there.
We called in every favor and demanded every debt to be paid to gain information on our mate’s whereabouts and the sun god’s many lairs.
We had nothing to show for it.
We hadn’t found any trace of Cass.
When Alaric had gone to see his father, Zeus, which he hated to do more than anything, we received the confirmation that our mate was not in Mount Olympus. He demanded Zeus hand over Apollo, but the fucking sun god was hiding.
The King of Gods had sent his own hunting team, so it became a race to find Apollo and Cass before they could.
Both the mortal and immortal realms were a total mess as well.
Apollo had dealt a great blow to us and our world. When Noah was exposed as a god, the Academy nearly collapsed. All the other races had withdrawn from the school and returned to their own kind, leaving behind only the mages and humans.
Our brothers had the majority of the Council seats, but not absolute control. One of the Councils members, who might have been under Apollo’s influence, had disappeared. Alaric’s half-demon captain was tracking her.
Anyone who had close ties to ‘Noah’ had been locked in the dungeon cells, but it was impossible to get all the traitors. Our teams were still investigating how deep Apollo’s infiltration had gone and they endeavored to purge the corrupted mages.
We expected the gods to strike at any time. It didn’t matter where we moved the armies. The gods had all the pieces. They had the locations of most of our rebellion armies as their spies were everywhere. But for some reason they hadn’t struck.
The forthcoming war didn’t concern me much. All I could think of was getting my mate back. Reys managed to pull all our shit together, because Lorcan, the steely one among us, urged us to ready an army for Cass’s return. Lorcan hadn’t lost sight of the goal, even though he should be more affected than the rest of us. He needed her blood more than anything, and he wouldn’t take from any other.
Alaric was crazed by Cass’s abduction. Sometimes we wouldn’t see him for days, but we knew he had gone to search for her, to find any news about her. And each time he returned without our mate, he was completely disheveled and disheartened. He was a ruthless and careless bastard, but he had warmed up the moment he’d met Cass. It was like someone had eviscerated his soul when the god took her.
We all felt the same as Alaric, but the three of us put on a stronger front. As Lorcan had stated, we couldn’t lose our shit for Cass’s sake.
We turned to the seer. Amber had once seen our mate’s abduction and warned her to stay away from water, which turned out to be the waterfall where Cass had been taken. The seer’s predictions often came as riddles. Under our pressure, Amber tried to dream or have a new vision about Cass, but her sight couldn’t be forced.
We had Ambrosia, Luke, and Rainer safeguard the seer twenty-four seven while we hunted for our mate.
We couldn’t lose Cass baby. She was our center, our everything, our universe.
Days passed, then weeks.
And despite Lorcan’s warning, we were gradually losing it.
And then, the seer spoke.
7
A girl who looked about thirteen in a short knee-length chiton strode toward us, an intricate bow in her hand and a red quiver of arrows swinging from her slender shoulder.
Her power rolled along with her like a pet at her feet.
My genetic memory flashed, and I recognized Artemis, the virgin Goddess of the Hunt and Moon, twin sister of Apollo.
She was stunningly beautiful. I’d thought Apollo’s eyes were the greenest in the universe until I saw Artemis. Her porcelain skin made the green almost a living color, and her vivid beauty paled the entire hall.
It was good that she was a little girl, or I wouldn’t allow my mates to be near her, even though I knew my mates could resist any temptation. They were mine and always would be.
Artemis approached, circling the three of us. Mostly her curious eyes stayed on me.
I didn’t like how she looked at me, as if I were a wild animal she’d hunted and wanted to keep, but at least her appearance stopped Apollo from pressing himself against my front to show that he had the other half of the claim on me.
If he tried, he would get a knee to his nuts from me for sure.
“Artemis, you can’t just pop up in my palace like this!” Apollo scolded.
“Why not?” Artemis asked with a smirk. “And palace? When did it get an upgrade? You know you can’t block me since we carry the same DNA as twins. Did Ares plant the idea of fighting our father into your thick skull this time, little brother?”
“Hey, Artemis, I love you, too,” Ares said. “But you’re too young for me.”
“I think you should let the girl go, Ares,” Artemis said, her teenage face turning stern, her power boiling inside her, and her hand moving to pick an arrow from the quiver. “She doesn’t look willing to me.”
A hope, no matter how dim, sparked in me like an ember from ash.
“I’m so not willing!” I called out. “It’s awesome you’re here, Artemis, the great defender of virgins!”
Artemis looked at me with amusement.
“But you’re no longer a virgin, little Cass,” Apollo said, glancing at his sister in warning. “Your former lovers deflowered you, and they’ll pay for that.”
“Will you let her go, Ares?” Artemis asked again. “She looks uncomfortable, which makes me uncomfortable.”
Ares sighed and released me with reluctance. It was either that or get into a fight with the Goddess of the Hunt.
I jumped away from the two would-be-rapists and moved closer to the virgin goddess.
Ares’s
hard erection still distorted his tight armor around his groin.
Artemis rolled her eyes. “Aren’t you going to cover that, Ares? I don’t want my virgin eyes to be polluted!”
“Will you ever get over this, Artemis?” Ares grunted. “Sex is natural.” But he waved a hand, and a golden cape appeared on his shoulders, which he wrapped around himself to cover his unholy bulge.
Artemis turned away from the God of War, intentionally ignoring him.
“How rude, little brother,” she chided with a slanted look at Apollo. “You haven’t introduced little Cass to me.”
She was shorter than me, and she called me little? I glared at her, but then dropped my headlights as I remembered I needed her support. She might be the only chance for me to get out of here. Well, she was actually ancient. It was just odd to hear her call me little and call Apollo little brother while she took the form of a thirteen-year-old girl.
“Uh, sis, I think you should leave and come back later.” Apollo rubbed his chin. “We’re in the middle of something, and we need to solve a problem. It’s not a good time—”
I couldn’t allow him to drive away the only straw I had.
“I can introduce myself to you, great Goddess, defender of maidens and their honor,” I shouted. “It’s awesome to meet you. I’m Cass Saélihn, mate to the two Princes of Sihde, the High Lord of Night, and the King of the Hybrids.”
Artemis frowned. “You have four mates?”
I blinked. Well, I didn’t know she would object to that. If I had known she was really a stickler for traditional value and virtual, I would have just mentioned Alaric’s name. She should have known him, and they might even be friends.
The demigod was known to be menacing and formidable, but I bet he might have been sweet to her if they’d ever met. Alaric had a soft heart toward children.
Then again, my demigod mate hated the entire god race. And Artemis wasn’t truly a little girl.
If she asked more about any of my mates, I would just name Reysalor. He was always the safest bet.